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****************North Facade of Arcade of the Shrine of the BTh, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Page 2103, 104, 105 AND 106 OF THE BAHÁ'Í ERA 19461950 A.D.
Page 4Prepared under the supervision of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of thc United States and Canada with the approval of Shoghi Eflendi
VOLUME XI103, 104, 105 AND 106 OF THE BAHÁ'Í ERA APRIL 19461950 A.D.
~ BAHACopyright, 1928, by National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Reprinted 1981N 0 TB: The spelling of the Oriental words and proper names used in this issue of THE BAm.k'f WORLD is according to the system of transliteration established at one of the
International Oriental Congresses.Guardian of the Baha Faith this work is dedicated in the hope that it will assist his efforts to promote that spiritual unity underlying and anticipating the
"Most Great Peace"I. Aims and Purposes of the Bahá'í Faith 1
II. International Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West 15
Ill.Bahá'í Sacred Writings 55
1.Words of Bahá'u'lláh 55IV. The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Guardianship 113
1. Twenty-Five Years of the Guardianship 1132. The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Guardianship 127
PART TWOI. The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh 137
1. PresentDay Administration of the Bahá'í Faith 137
The Formation of an Organic Religious Community, by
Horace Holley 137A Procedure for the Conduct of a Local Spiritual Assembly 152
The Annual Bahá'í Convention 158The NonPolitical Character of the Baha Faith 161
Concerning Membership in NonBahá'í Religious Organizations
ns 163The Bahá'í Position on Military Enlistment and Service 170
Interpretation of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá 170
Bahá'í Relations With Civil Authority 172Excerpts from the Writings of Shoghi Effendi 174 Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the American Believers 19461950 181
2. The Spirit and Form of the Baha Administrative Order 209
Certificate of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States 210 Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States 211 Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia 222 Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany and Austria 228 Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Tr&q 238 Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sudan 245
ByLaws of a Local Spiritual Assembly 247Certificate of Registration, Delhi, National Spiritual Assembly ly of the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma 252 Certificate of Registration, Rangoon, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma 253
Page 10rAGE Certificate of Articles of Incorporation and Affidavit of Officers of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Aiham bra, California 254 Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Beverly, Massachusetts 255Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Anchorage, Alaska 259Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Boise, Idaho 263Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 269Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Jamestown, New York 270
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of West Chester, Pennsylvania 272
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Cedar Rapids, Iowa 273Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Albuquerque, New Mexico 274
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Muskegon, Michigan 278Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Asunci6n, Paraguay 280Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Caracas, Venezuela 281Certificate of Registration of the $piritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of BogotA, Colombia 282Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of La Paz, Bolivia 283Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Lima, Peru 284Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 286
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Santiago, Chile 287Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Panama City, Panama 288
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of San Salvador, El Salvador 289
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Guatemala City, Guatemala 290
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Havana, Cuba 291Certificate of Registration of the Bahá'í Assembly, Hyder abad, (Deccan) India 292 Certificate of Registration of the Bahá'í Assembly, Secunder abad, (Deccan) India 293 Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Srinagar, Kashmir 294Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Lahore, India 295Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Solano, Philippines 296Authorization issued by the Court of First Instance, Kark4k,
'Ir&q, recognizing Bahá'í Marriage CertificateAttorney General's Opinion on Legality of Bahá'í Marriage
Ceremony in Arizona, U.S.A 298 Marriage Certificate issued by the State of Wisconsin, U.S.A. 299 Marriage Certificate issued by the State of New Jersey .... 300
Authorization for Conduct of Legal Bahá'í Marriage Ceremonies
s in Minnesota, U.S.A 301 Copy of a letter from the Treasury Department, Washington, D.C., directed to the Spiritual As~emb1y of the Bahá'ís of Baltimore, Maryland recognizing them as a Religious Body, exempt from Federal Taxation 302 Certificate of Title of a Block of Land at Yerrinbool, Aus tralia transferred by Albert Styles to the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand, September, 1948 303 Documents related to the Bahá'í Burial Ground granted to the Bahá'ís of Port Sa'id, Egypt 304 Certificate of Bahá'í Marriage issued by Spiritual Assemblies in India, Pakistan and Burma 308 Text of Bill passed by Canadian Parliament incorporating the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, 1949 309 The Bahá'í Publishing Trust Investment Scheme issued by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of the
British Isles, 1949 316Bahá'í Marriage Certificate recognized by the Israel Government t 317
Loan Acknowledgment Form Issued by the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles 318 3. The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar 321
Foreword 321The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar 322
Passages Regarding the Temple in America, taken from "God Passes By," by Shoghi Effendi, and Introduction by Archdeacon Townshend, M.A 326
To Know and Worship God ty Horace Holley331Architecture of the Temple Interior by Robert W. MeLaugh-un n 335
The Bahá'í House of Worship by William Kenneth Christian 338
This Temple 3384.Bahá'í Calendar, Festivals and Dates of Historic Significance 345
ForewordBahá'í Feasts, Anniversaries and Days of Fasting 345
Bahá'í Holy Days on Which Work Should Be Suspended 346
Additional Material Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Vol.
II) Regarding the Bahá'í Calendar 346Historical Data Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Vol. II)
Regarding Bahá'u'lláh 349Dates of Historic Significance During the First Bahá'í Century
y5.Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá'í World 354
Around the World With Bahá'í Youth, 19461948 354Youth Week at the Laurentian Bahá'í SchQol by Norma
Sala and David Tate 407Bahá'í Children and the Peace by Amy Brady Dwelly .... 419
II. References to the Bahá'í Faith 425
1. Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania 4262. Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University 428 3. Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, D.Litt., Manchester College, Oxford 431 4. Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University 431 5. Prof. Arminius Vamb6ry, Hungarian Academy of Pesth 432
6. Sir Valentine Chirol 4328. Prof. Jowett, Oxford University 433 9. Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New York 434 10. Prof. James Darmesteter, tcole des Hautes etudes, Paris 435
11. Charles Baudouin 43512. Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D.D 437 13. Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston 438 14. Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E 439 15. The Christian Commonwealth, Anonymous 440 16. Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A 441 17. Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D.C 441
18. Leo Tolstoy 44219. Dr. Edmund Privat, University of Geneva 443 20. Dr. Auguste Forel, University of Zurich 443
21. General Renato Piola Caselli 44422. Rev. Frederick W. Oakes 444 23. Renwick J. ci Millar, Editor of John O'Groat Journal, Scotland 444 24. Charles H. Prisk 445 25. Prof. Han Prasad Shastri, DLitt 445
26. Shri Purohit Swami 44627. Prof. Herbert A. Miller, Bryn Mawr College446 28. Viscount Herbert Samuel, G.C.B., M.P 446 29. Rev. K. T. Chung 448 30. Prof. Dimitry Kazarov, University of Sofia, Bulgaria 448 31. Rev. Griffith J. Sparham 449
32. Ernest Renan 45033. The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, J.P., D.H.L 451 34. Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 451 35. Emile Schreiber, Publicist 451
36. Miss Helen Keller 45437. Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan 454 38. Sir Flinders Petrie, Archaeologist 455
39. Former President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia45541. Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons 455 42. H.R.H. Princess Olga of Yugoslavia 455
43. Eugen Relgis 45546. Princess Marie Antoinette de Brogue Aussenac 456
47. David Starr Jordan, Late President, Leland Stanford University rsity 457 48. Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia 457
49. Ex-Governor William Suizer 45751. Prof. Yone Noguchi 457 52. Prof. Raymond Frank Piper 457
53. Angela Morgan 45755. Prof. Dr. Jan Rypka, Charles University, Praha, Czechoslovakia vakia 458 56. A. L. M. Nicolas 458
57. President Eduard Bene~ of Czechoslovakia45958. Sir Ronald Storrs, N.y.C., MG., C.B.E 459 59. Col. Raja Jai Prithvi Bahadur Singh, Raja of Bajang (Nepal) 460 60. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland land 462 61. Rt. Hon. M. it Jayakar, Privy Councillor, London 462 62. Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, M.A., Ph.D 463 63. Mrs. Sarojinu Naidu 463
64. Jules Bois 46365. The late Sir John Martin Harvey, D.Litt 464 66. Dr. Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury 465 67. lIon. Arnold J. Toynbee, D.Litt., Oxon 465 68. Sir A. Ramaswami Mudaliar, K.C.S.I 465 69. Dr. Bhagavan Das 466 70. S. Eitrem, University of Oslo, Norway 466
III. In Memoriam 469
Fannie Lesch 469I. Bahá'í Directory 19491950 519
1. Bahá'í National Spiritual Assemblies 5193. Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States 19491950 525 4. Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Localities where Isolated Baha Reside in the United States 19491950 526 5. Directory of Assemblies, Groups and Isolated Bahá'ís in Administrative tive Divisions in Persia 19491950 542 6. Directory of Localities where Baha Reside in India, Pakistan and Burma 19491950 564 7. Directory of Localities in Central and South America where
Bahá'ís Reside 19491950 5668. Directory of Localities in Australia and New Zealand where
Bahá'ís Reside 19491950 5689. Directory of Localities in the Dominion of Canada where
Bahá'ís Reside 19491950 56810. Directory of Localities in the British Isles where Baha Reside e 19491950 570 11. Directory of Localities in Germany and Austria where Bahá'ís
Reside 19491950 573H. Bahá'í Bibliography 575
1. Bahá'u'lláh's BestKnown Writings 575
2. The B&b's BestKnown Works 577
3. Bahá'í Publications of North America in Print 577
a. Writings of Bahá'u'lláh 577 b. Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá 578 c. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá 578 d. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the BTh, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá 579 e. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá
Bah~ and Shoghi Effencli 579f. Writings of Shoghi Effendi 579 g. Writings on the Bahá'í Faith 580 h. Bahá'í Reprints 582 i. Pamphlets 582 j.Outlines and Guides for Baha Study Classes 584 k. Children's Courses 586
1. Baha Literature in Foreign Languages586m. Periodicals 587 3A. Bahá'í Publications of North America that are out of print 587 4. Bahá'í Publications of Great Britain in print 597 a. Writings of Bahá'u'lláh 597 b. Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá 597 c.Works Compiled from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá 597 d. Writings of Shoghi Effendi 597 e. Writings on the Bahá'í Faith 598 f. Bahá'í Literature in Pamphlet Form 598 g. General Publications 598 4A. Publications of Great Britain that are out of print 599 5. Baha Publications of Burma, India, Pakistan and Princely States in English (Publications in other Languages
Spoken in India, Burma and Ceylon Listed Elsewhere
under Name of Language) 6016. Bahá'í Publications in Albanian 601
7. Baha Publications in Bulgarian 601
8. Bahá'í Publications in Croatian 602
9. Bahá'í Publications in Czech 602
10. Bahá'í Publications in Danish 602
11. Bahá'í Publications in Dutch 603
12. Bahá'í Publications in Esperanto 603
13. Bahá'í Publications in Finnish 604
14. Baha Publications in French 604
15. Bahá'í Publications in German 605
16. Bahá'í Publications in Greek 610
17. Bahá'í Publications in Hungarian 610
Page 1718. Bahá'í Publications in Icelandic 610
19. Bahá'í Publications in Italian 610
20. Bahá'í Publications in Maori 611
21. Bahá'í Publications in Norwegian 611
22. Bahá'í Publications in Polish 611
23. Bahá'í Publications in Portuguese 012
24. Bahá'í Publications in Rumanian 612
25. Bahá'í Publications in Russian 612
26. Bahá'í Publications in Serbian 614
27. Bahá'í Publications in Spanish 614
28. Bahá'í Publications in Swedish 615
29. Bahá'í Publications in Oriental Languages 615
Abyssinian (Amliaric) 61580. Languages into which Bahá'í Literature is being Translated 623 31. Bahá'í Literature for the Blind 623 a. Published in Australia 623 b. Published in Czechoslovakia 623 c. Published in France 623 d. Published in Japan 623 e. Published in New Zealand 623 f. Published in United States of America 623
32. Bahá'í Periodicals 626
33. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books and Pamphlets published hed under Non-Bah&i Auspices 627 34. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by Non-Bahá'í authors 638
Page 1835. References to the Bahá'í Faith by Baha in Non-Bahá'í publications ations 641 36. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Encyclopedias and Reference ence Books 642 III. Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature 644 Guide to the Transliteration and Pronunciation of the Persian
Alphabet 646Notes on the Pronunciation of Persian Words 646
IV.Definitions of Oriental Terms used in Bahá'í Literature 648
PART FOURI. Articles and Reviews 653
1. Religious Education for a Peaceful Society, by Horace Holley 653 2. The Old Churches and the New World-Faith, by George Town-shend, shend, M.A 667
Bahá'ís Look to the Future, by William Kenneth Christian 674
4.The Next Hundred Years, by Stanwood Cobb 677 5.The Bahá'í Faith and World Peace, by Dr. H. Bradley Roe 685 6.New Hope for Minority Peoples, by Emeric Sala 688 7.The Prophet and the Scientist, by Ross Woodman, 1VI.A 691 8.World Unity as a Way of Life, by Elsie Austin 694 9.Building the Peace, by Shirin Fozdar 698 10.Assurances of Immortality, by Joyce Lyon Dahi 704 11.An Experiment in Race Relations, by Bob Powers 707 12.The Alternative to Labor War, by Harold Gail 712 13.Science and Revelation, by G. A. Shook 719 14.Search for Faith, by Edris Rice-Wray 725 15.Urn Die Lebensfrage Der Menschheit, by Dr. Eugen Schmidt 730 16.Bah~'u'11Th's Message and the Germans, by Karl Schueck .... 734 17.The Country of Light, by Robert Lee Gulick, Jr 740 18.Bahá'í Encounter in Japan, by Michael Jan-Ar 747 19.Ilusiones, by Hascie M. Cornbleth 753 20.Acquaint the People, by Eve B. Nicklin 761 21.The United States of America Fulfills Its Destiny, by Artemus
Lamb 766
22.In the High Sierras, by Marzieh Gail 771 23.To Gather Jewels, by Honor Kempton 773 24.La Civilisation, Fruit de la R6v6lation, by Lucienne Migette 778 25.Die Kleine Welt und Der Grosse Friede, by Dr. Hermann
Grossmann 785
26.The Small World and the Great Peace, Translation of article above by Karl Schueck 787
II. Verse 793
III. Music 803
IV. Contents of Volume I � Bahá'í Year Book, and Volumes II, III, IV. V, VI,VII, VIII, IX and X � The Bahá'í World 833 V.Mapsof Bahá'í Communities Around the World, 1950 887
Australia and New Zealand 887
The British Isles 888
Canada 889
Central America 890
Germany and Austria 891
India, Pakistan and Burma 892
South America 893
The United States of AmericaInside Back CoverFrontispiece � Arcade of the Shrine of the Bit, Mt. Carmel, Haifa Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, Baha'i, 'Akka, Israel 2
Early Photograph of Tomb Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, Baha 5
Night View of the Arcade of the Shrine of the Báb Views of the Arcade and Parapet of the Shrine of the B&b 13
Shrine of the Báb Before Arcade Was Built 17
Cypress Trees Marking Spot Where Bahá'u'lláh Chose Site for Shrine of the Báb 26
Spot Where Bahá'u'lláh Chose Site for Shrine of the Báb � Forty Years
Later 27Gardens Around Tomb of the Báb � Two Views 37
Gates and Paths Around the Tomb of the BTh � Two Views 41 A Corner of the Gardens Surrounding the Shrine of the Bit � Two Views 48 Summer and Winter Views of Cactus Garden Near the Shrine of the Báb Excavations for Southern Side of Arcade of the Shrine of the Báb Retaining Wall for Terrace Facing the Shrine of the B&b Stone Foundations for Columns at the Shrine of the Báb 61 Concrete Trench for Foundation Stones of Columns at the Shrine of the Báb 62 Crane Lifting Pilaster for Arcade of the Shrine of the Báb 66
Stone Capital Placed on Pilaster, Shrine of the BTh 67
Six Columns and Two Pilasters in Place, Shrine of the Báb 69 Columns and Capitals of the Arcade of the Shrine of the Báb 71 One of the Curved Corners of the Shrine of the Báb 72 An Arch for the Arcade, Shrine of the Báb 73 Progress View of the Erection of Arcade, Shrine of the Báb 75 Construction of Arches of Arcade, Shrine of the Báb 76 The Original Tomb Receives the Adornment of the Arcade, Shrine of the Detail of Central Panel of Balustrade Atop the Arcade, Shrine of the Báb 80 Panel of Roof Balustrade of Arcade, Shrine of the W~b 81 Clay Models of Panels and Capitals of Arcade, Shrine of the Báb 82
Arcade Column of Baveno Granite, Shrine of the Báb 90
Winter Snow of 194950 over the Shrine of the B4b91 Snow over the Holy Land 91 Snow Around Main Entrance to the Shrine of the Báb 92 The Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A 93 Photograph of Bahá'í House of Worship Featured in a Pictorial Series on
"Beautiful Chicago" 97Aerial View, Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette 102
National Merchandising Women Tour the Temple, Wilmette 103
Samples of Publicity Given Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette 107
Model of Main Floor Arch Treatment, Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette 108 First Stages of Interior Construction, Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette 115 Interior Progress, Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette 119 Plaster Model of Section of Ornamental Panel, Bahá'í Temple, Wilmette 121 Progress of Interior Decoration, Baha House of Worship, Wilmette 123 Application of Cast Units, Interior Ornamentation, Baha House of Worship, hip, Wilmette 125 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada, 1946 130National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia, 19461947 133 xix
Page 20National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany, 19491950 141 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles, 19491950 146 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IrAq, 19471948 151 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma, 19471948 157
First National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, 1948 160
Bahá'í Conference at Franklin Camp, Ontario, Canada 162 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand, 19491950 165 National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Egypt and Sudan, 19491950 175 National Baha Convention, Tihr~n, Persia, 1947178 Delegates to Annual Convention of the Bahá'ís of Egypt, 1949 178
Site of Laurentian Bahá'í Summer School, Canada184
First Annual Convention of Bahá'ís of Canada, 1948 184
Bahá'ís Attending the National Convention in Germany 186
National Convention of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand 192
National Convention of Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma 192
Bahá'í Summer Conference, Banif, Alberta, Canada194 Tomb of Lua Getsinger and Mirza 'Abu'1-FaQ1, Cairo, Egypt 196 Bahá'í Grave Desecrated by Muslims, Ismailia, Egypt 196 First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Khartoum, Sudan, 1946 198 Bahá'í Summer School, Sukkur, Pakistan 198 Bahá'í Summer School, Panchgani, India 201 Bahá'í Winter School, Kohiapur, India 205 Baha Summer School, Karachi, India 206 First European Session, International Bahá'í School, Colorado Springs,
Colorado, 1947 213Bahá'í Summer School, Loncoche, Chile � Party for Mothers and Children South American Bahá'í Summer School, Santiago, Chile 218 Delegates to Buenos Aires Conference meeting at Ezeiza, near Buenos
Aires, Argentina 219Bahá'í Summer School, Esslingen, Germany 229
First Swiss Bahá'í Summer School, 1947 233
Australian Bahá'í Summer School 250
British Bahá'í Summer School 250
Pylon of Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A 320 Architect's Drawing, Temple Interior, Wilmette 327 Architect's Drawing, Temple Interior, Wilmette 332 Architect's Drawing, Temple Interior, Wilmette 837
Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette 841
Closeup of Tracery, Exterior Ornamentation of Temple, Wilmette 344 Bahá'í Youth, 1947 National Convention, Wilmette, Illinois 355
Group Bahá'í Youth, Burma 358Delegates to National Youth Conference, Tihr&i, Persia 359 Bahá'í Young Women, Alexandria, Egypt 361 Baha Young Men, Alexandria, Egypt 362 Bahá'í Youth Committees of 'IrAq 364
Bahá'í Youth, British Bahá'í Summer School 367
Baha Youth, Yazd, Persia 371 World Youth Day, Tihr4n, Persia 371 Bahá'í Young Women, Cairo, Egypt 373 Bahá'í Young Men, Cairo, Egypt 373 Regional Bahá'í Youth Conference, Nottingham, England 379 Bahá'í Youth Group, Suez, Egypt 382 Bahá'í Youth Committee, Ismailia, Egypt 383
World Youth Day, Australia 384
Page 21Bahá'í Youth, Daidanaw, Burma 386 Teachers of Child Education Classes, Tihr&n, Persia 386 Baha Youth and Friends, Lima, Peru 887 World Youth Day, Esslingen, Germany 388 Bahá'í Youth Class, Havana, Cuba 389 Bahá'í Youth Contacts, Punta Arenas, Chile 391 Bahá'í Youth Conference, Anchorage, Alaska 395 Bahá'í Youth, Tanta, Egypt 397 Baha Youth Group, Port Said, Egypt 398 Gathering Sponsored by Bahá'í Youth, Cairo, Egypt398 Bahá'í World Youth Day, earingbah, Australia 402
Baha Youth of Japan Choral Group 404Bahá'í Discussion Group of Japanese Students, Tokyo, Japan 405 Bahá'í Youth and Friends at Youth Symposium, Bern, Switzerland 411 Youth Meeting at Haziratu'1-Quds, Tihr~n, Persia411 Bahá'í Youth Symposium, Cairo, Egypt 412 Baha Young Women, Port Said, Egypt 413 Children's School Class at the Bahá'í Cultural Center, Port-au-Prince,
Haiti 415Children Attending Baha Class, Tegucigalpa, Honduras 415 Junior Youth Session, Louhelen Bahá'í School, Davison, Michigan 417
Fanny Lesch 469
Walter Olitzki 471
Fanny A. Knobloch 474
Marta Brauns-Forel 481
Fred Mortensen 485
Haj Taha E1-Hamamsi 487
Friedrich Schweizer 488
John David Bosch 491
'Au Saboor 494
Orcella llexford 497
Abul-Fetouh Battah 499
'AU Said-Eddin 500
Muijammad Taqi Igah4nf 501
HAil Malinuid Qassabehi 503
Beulah Storrs Lewis 504
Hasan Mar'i Tant~wi 505
Nari'd-Din 'Abbas 506
Julia Culver 507
Mountfort Mills 509
George Orr Latimer 511
Mani Mehta 514
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Anchorage, Alaska 521
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Albuquerque, New Mexico 524
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Cedar Rapids, Iowa 527
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Beverly, Massachusetts 533 All-Indian Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly, Macy, Nebraska 536 Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Caracas, Venezuela 540 Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 541 Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Santiago, Chile 547 Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Bogota, Colombia 551 Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Lima, Peru551
Bahá'í Children's Class, Shir&z Persia 557
First Progressive Women's Convention, Tihrhn, Persia 563 Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Havana, Cuba567
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of La Paz, Bolivia 571
Page 22Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Asuncion, Paraguay 572
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Guatemala City, Guatemala 573
Interior Dome, Ija~iratu'1-Quds, TihMn, Persia576 Friendship Feast, Winter Institute, Phoenix, Arizona 583
Ceylon Bahá'í Group 583tIa~iratu'1-Quds, Tihr4n, Persia 588 Bahá'í Cemetery, Beirut, Lebanon 589 Convention, 1946, Tihr~n, Persia 591 Memorial to King and Beloved of Martyrs, 144h&n, Persia 594 Literature Display, Frankfurt, Germany 595
Baha Wedding at International Bahá'í School 599Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Guardianship, New York 606
Speakers' Platform, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Guardianship 607
Bahá'í Delegates, United Nations Conference, 1948 613 Bahá'í Delegates, United Nations Conference, 1949 613 Bahá'í Community, Daidanaw, Burma 618 Bahá'í Community, Twante, Burma 618 Bahá'í Center, Twante, Burma 621 Bahá'í Young Women, Daidanaw, Burma 621
Baha Literature Display for the Blind, Arkansas624
Bahá'í Exhibit, Kahului, Maui, Hawaii 624 Bahá'í Exhibit, World Religion Day, Alaska 628 Bahá'í Group, Anchorage, Alaska 629 Baha C6nter, Los Angeles, California 632 Dome of Uazfratu'1-Quds, Tihr&n, Persia 647
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Amsterdam, Holland 654
Site of Bahá'í International Bureau and Offices of Bahá'í European Teaching
ing Committee, Geneva, Switzerland 655 First Bahá'í European Conference, Geneva, Switzerland 664 Second European Conference, Brussels, Belgium 665
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Geneva, Switzerland 666
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Bern, Switzerland 666
Bahá'í Community of Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia 678First All-Swiss Bahá'í Conference, Bern, Switzerland 683 The National Bahá'í Center, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany 683 Literature Display, Bern, Switzerland 687 Baha Gathering, Zurich, Switzerland 687 Group of Baha, Bern, Switzerland 687 Baha Gathering, Berneck, Switzerland 687
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Stockholm, Sweden 689
Dinner at Third South American Baha Congress 695Bahá'í National Headquarters, New Delhi, India699 Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly, Quetta, Pakistan 702 Baha Center, Hobart, Tasmania 703
Work on a Bahá'í Book in Braille 708First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia 714
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Hobart, Tasmania 715
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Brussels, Belgium 727
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Oslo, Norway 727
Bahá'í Exhibit, World Federalist Congress 732First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Copenhagen, Denmark 736
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Rome, Italy 737
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Barcelona, Spain 743
Page 23First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the Philippines 746
Japanese Bahá'ís of Tokyo, Japan 749
Fireside Meeting, Bahá'ís of Japan 752
Bahá'í Conference, Mexico City, Mexico 755
Delegates to First South American Bahá'í Congress, Buenos Aires 756
Delegates to Second South American Baha Congress, Santiago, Chile 758 Banquet, Second Bahá'í Latin American Conference, Panama 758
Bahá'í Community of Sao Paulo, Brazil 760
Bahá'í Picnic, Old Panama 763
Bahá'ís and friends, Punta Arenas, Chile 764
Picnic Qf Bahá'ís and friends, Mexico City 768
Window Display during Second South American Bahá'í Congress, Santiago,
Chile 770Cuban Baha at time of First Regional Conference of Bahá'ís of the
Antilles 772Birth of B~b celebrated in Anchorage, Alaska 774
Delegates to Bahá'í Congress, Guatemala 77~
Delegates and Visitors, Second Central American Bahá'í Congress, Mexico
City 776Press Conference, First South American Bahá'í Congress, Buenos Aires 777
Land for first Bahá'í Summer School of New Zealand 779
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Madrid, Spain 779
Third South American Bahá'í Congress, Sao Paulo, Brazil 781 Bahá'ís visiting ruins, Panama 781
Bahá'ís attending First Regional Teaching Conference for Brazil 788
Page 24ID HUNG the past twenty-four years the Bahá'í community of East and West has learned to anticipate each successive volume of THE BAHÁ'Í WORLD (ifie first number was entitled "Bahá'í Year Book") as the best means by which the individual believer may keep abreast of the steady development of the Faith throughout the world. This work, in its illustrations as well as in its texts has recorded as completely as possible the progress of current Bahá'í events and activities over an area now embracing more than a hundred countries. In addition, each volume has presented those "historical facts and fundamental principles that constitute the distinguishing features of the Message of Bahá'u'lláh to this age."
The existence of so many evidences of a newly revealed Faith and Gospel for a humanity arrived at a turning point in its spiritual and social evolution has likewise a profound significance for the non-Bab&i student and scholar who desires to investigate e the world religion founded by the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. For in these pages the reader encounters both the revealed Word in its spiritual power, and the response which that utterance has evoked during the first 106 years of the Bábfi'i era. He will find what is unparalleled in religious history � the unbroken continuity of a divine Faith from the Manifestation onward through three generations of human experience, and will be able to apprehend what impregnable foundations the Bahá'í World Order rests upon in the life and teachings of the Bib and Bahá'u'lláh, the life and interpretation n of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and (since the year 1921) in the development of an administrative e order under the direction of the Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Eflendi.
It is the avowed faith of Baha that this Revelation has established upon earth the spiritual impulse and the definite principles necessary for social regeneration and the attainment of one true religion and social order throughout the world. In THE BAHÁ'Í WORUI, therefore, those who seek a higher will and wisdom than man possesses may learn how, amid the trials and tribulations of a decadent society, a new age has begun to emerge from the world of the spirit to the realm of human action and belief.
Page 26MRS. MARIAM HANEY Washington, D. C. Miss PART ZIA-WALRATII Chicago,
IllinoisUPON the spiritual foundation established by Bahá'u'lláh during the forty year period of His Mission (18531892), there stands today an independent religion represented by over two thousand local communities of believers. These communities geographically are spread throughout all five continents. In point of race, class, nationality and religious origin, the followers of Bahá'u'lláh exemplify well-nigh the whole diversity of the modern world.
They may be characterized as a true cross section of humanity, a microcosm which, for all its relative littleness, carries within it individual men and women typifying the macrocosm of mankind.
None of the historic causes of association served to create this worldwide spiritual community. Neither a common language, a common blood, a common civil government, a common tradition nor a mutual grievance acted upon Bahá'ís to supply a fixed center of interest or a goal of material advantage. On the contrary, membership in the Bahá'í community in the land of its birth even to this day has been a severe disability, and outside of Persia the motive animating believers has been in direct opposition to the most inveterate prejudices of their environment.
The Cause of Bahá'u'lláhhas moved forward without the reanforce-rnent of wealth, social prestige or other means of public influence.
Every local Baha community exists by the voluntary association of mdi viduals who consciously overcome the fundamental sanctions evolved throughout the centuries to justify the separations and antagonisms of human society. In America, this association means that white believers accept the spiritual equality of their Negro fellows.
In Europe, it means the reconciliation of Protestant and Catholic upon the basis of a new and larger faith. In the Orient, Christian, Jewish and Muhammadan believers must stand apart from the rigid exclusiveness into which each was born.
The central fact to be noted concerning the nature of the Bahá'í Faith is that it contains a power, fulfilled in the realm of conscience, which can reverse the principle momentum of modern civilization � the drive toward division and strife � and initiate its own momen-turn moving steadily in the direction of unity and accord. It is in this power, and not in any criterion upheld by the world, that the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh has special significance.
The forms of traditional opposition vested in nationality, race, class and creed are not the only social chasms which the Faith has bridged. There are even more implacable, if less visible differences between types and temperaments, such as flow inevitably from the contact of rational and emotional individuals, of active and passive dispositions, undermining capacity for codperation in every organized society, which attain mutual understanding and harmony in the Bahá'í community. For 1
Page 2personal congeniality, the selective principle elsewhere continually operative within the field of voluntary action, is an instinct which Bahá'ís must sacrifice to serve the principle of the oneness of mankind. A Bahá'í community, therefore, is a constant and active spiritual victory, an overcoming of tensions which elsewhere come to the point of strife.
No mere passive creed nor philosophic gospel which need never be put to the test in daily life has produced this world fellowship devoted to the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
The basis of self-sacrifice on which the Bahá'í community stands has created a religious society in which all human relations are transformed from social to spiritual problems.
This fact is the door through which one must pass to arrive at insight of what the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh means to this age.
The social problems of the age are predominantly political and economic. They are problems because human society is divided into nations each of which claims to be an end and a law unto itself and into classes each of which has raised an economic theory to the level of a sovereign and exclusive principle.
Nationality has become a condition which overrides the fundamental humanity of all the peoples concerned, asserting the superiority of political considerations over ethical and moral needs. Similarly, economic groups uphold and promote social systems without regard to the quality of human relationships experienced in terms of religion.
Tensions and oppositions between the different groups are organized for dominance and not for reconciliation.
Each step toward more complete partisan organization increases the original tension and augments the separation of human beings; as the separation widens, the element of sympathy and fellowship an the human level is eventually denied.
In the Baha community the same tensions and instinctive antagonisms exist, but the human separation has been made impossible.
The same capacity for exclusive doctrines is present, but no doctrine representing one personality or one group can secure a hearing. All believers alike are subject to one spiritually supreme sovereignty in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. Disaffected individuals may withdraw.
The community remains.For the Bahá'í teachings are in themselves principles of life and they assert the supreme value of humanity without doctrines which correspond to any particular environment or condition. Thus members of the Baha community realize their tensions and oppositions as ethical or spiritual problems, to be faced and overcome in mutual consultation.
Their faith has convinced them that the "truth" or "right" of any possible situation is not derived from partisan victory but from the needs of the community as an organic whole.
A Bahá'í community endures without disruption because only spiritual problems can be solved. When human relations are held to be political or social problems they are removed from the realm in which rational will has responsibility and influence. The ultimate result of this degradation of human relationships is the frenzy of desperate strife � the outbreak of inhuman war.
Tns RENEWAL OF FMm"Therefore the Lord of Mankind has caused His holy, divine Manifestations to came into the wcrld.
He has revealed His heavenLy books in order to establish spiritual brotherhood, and through the power of the Holy Spirit has made it possible for perfect fraternity to be realized among mankind."
'ABDU'L-BAHÁ In stating that the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh is an independent religion, two essential facts are implied.
The first fact is that the Bahá'í Cause historically was not an offshoot of any prior social principle or community. The teachings of Bahá'u'lláh are no artificial synthesis assembled from the modern library of international truth, which might be duplicated from the same sources.
Bahá'u'lláh created a reality in the world of the soul which never before existed and could not exist apart from Him.
Page 4The second fact is that the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is a religion, standing in the line of true religions: Christianity, Muhammadanism, Judaism, and other prophetic Faiths. Its existence, like that of early Christianity, marks the return of faith as a direct and personal experience of the will of God. Because the divine will itself has been revealed in terms of human reality, the followers of Bahá'u'lláh are confident that their personal limitations can be transformed by an inflow of spiritual re~n-forcement from the higher world. It is for the privilege of access to the source of reality that they forego reliance upon the darkened self within and the unbelieving society without.
The religious education of Baha is revolutionizes their inherited attitude toward their own as well as other traditional religions.
To Baha is, religion is the life and teachings of the prophet. By identifying religion with its founder, they exclude from its spiritual reality all those accretions of human definition, ceremony and rituEdistic practice emanating from followers required from time to time to make compromise with an unbelieving world.
Furthermore, in limiting religion to the prophet they are able to perceive the oneness of God in the spiritual oneness of all the prophets. The Bahá'í born into Christianity can wholeheartedly enter into fellowship with the Bahá'í born into IViuhainmadanism because both have come to understand that Christ and Mu1~ammad reflected the light of the one God into the darkness of the world. If certain teachings of Christ differ from certain teachings of Moses or Muhammad, the Baha know that all prophetic teachings are divided into two parts: one, consisting of the essential and unalterable principles of love, peace, unity and cooperation, renewed as divine commands in every cycle; the other, consisting of external practices (such as diet, marriage and similar ordinances) conforming to the requirements of one time and place.
This Bahá'í teaching leads to a profounder analysis of the process of history.
The followers of Bahá'u'lláh derive mental integrity from the realiza tion made so clear and vivid by 'Abdu'l-Bahá that true insight into history discloses the uninterrupted and irresistible working of a Providence not denied nor made vain by any measure of human ignorance and unfaith.
According to this insight, a cycle begins with the appearance of a prophet or manifestation of God, through whom the spirits of men are revivified and reborn. The rise of faith in God produces a religious community, whose power of enthusiasm and devotion releases the creative elements of a new and higher civilization.
This civilization comes to its fruitful autumn in culture and mental achievement, to give way eventually to a barren winter of atheism, when strife and discord bring the civilization to an end. Under the burden of immorality, dishonor and cruelty marking this phase of the cycle, humanity lies helpless until the spiritual leader, the prophet, once more returns in the power of the Holy
Spirit.Its reading of the present interprets these world troub]es, this general chaos and confusion, as the hour when the renewal of religion is no longer a racial experience, a rebirth of one limited area of human society, but the destined unification of humanity itself in one faith and one order. It is by the parable of the vineyard that Bahá'ís of the Christian West behold their tradition and their present spiritual reality at last inseparably joined, their faith and their social outlook identified, their reverence for the power of God merged with intelligible grasp of their material environment. A human society which has substituted creeds for religion and armies for truth, even as all ancient prophets foretold, must needs come to abandon its instruments of violence and undergo purification until conscious, humble faith can be reborn.
THW BASIS OF UNrCY"The best beloved of aU things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou clesirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee."
Page 5AIMS AND PURPOSES OF TEE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 5
One of the earliest photographs of the Tomb Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh Baha, 'Akka, Israel.
Faith alone, no matter how wholehearted and sincere, affords no basis on which the organic unity of a religious fellowship can endure. The faith of the early Christians was complete, but its degree of inner conviction when projected outward upon the field of action soon disclosed a fatal lack of social principle. Whether the outer expression of love implied a democratic or an aristocratic order, a communal or individualistic society, raised fundamental questions after the crucifixion of the prophet which none had authority to solve.
The Bahá'í teaching has this vital distinction, that it extends from the realm of conscience and faith to the realm of social action. It confirms the substance of faith not merely as a source of individual development but as a definitely ordered relationship to the corn-rnunity.
Those who inspect the Bahá'í Cause superficially may deny its claim to be a religion for the reason that it lacks mast of the visible marks by which religions are recognized. But in place of ritual or other formal worship it contains a social principle linking people to a community, the loyal observance of which makes spiritual faith coterminous with life itself. The Baha'is, having no professional clergy, forbidden ever to have a clergy, understand that religion, in this age, consists in an "attitude toward God reflected in life." They are therefore conscious of no division between religious and secular actions.
The inherent nature of the community created by Bahá'u'lláh has great significance at this time, when the reLative values of democracy, of constitutional monarchy, of aristocracy and of communism are everywhere in dispute.
Of the Bahá'í community it may be declared definitely that its character does not reflect the communist theory. The rights of the individual are fully safeguarded and the fundamental distinctions of personal endowment natural among all people are fully preserved.
Individual rights, however, are interpreted in the light of the supreme law of brotherhood and not made a sanction far sellishness, oppression and indifference.
On the other hand, the Bahá'í order is not a democracy in the sense that it proceeds from the complete sovereignty of the people, whose represen
Page 6tatives are limited to carrying out the popular will. Sovereignty, in the Bahá'í community, is attributed to the Divine prophet, and the elected representatives of the believers in their administrative function look to the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh for their guidance, having faith that the application of His urn-versal principles is the source of order throughout the community. Every Baha administrative body feels itself a trustee, and in this capacity stands above the plane of dissension and is free of that pressure exerted by factional groups.
The local community on April 21 of each year elects by universal adult suffrage an administrative body of nine members called the Spiritual Assembly.
This body, with reference to all Bahá'í matters, has sole power of decision.
It represents the collective conscience of the community with respect to Bahá'í activities. Its capacity and power are supreme within certain definite limitations.
The various states and provinces unite, through delegates elected annually according to the principle of proportionate representation, in the formation of a National Spiritual Assembly for their country or natural geographical area. This National Spiritual Assembly, likewise composed of nine members, administers all national Bahá'í affairs and may assume jurisdiction of any local matter felt to be of more than local importance. Spiritual Assemblies, local and national, combine an executive, a legislative and a judicial function, all within the limits set by the Bahá'í teachings.
They have no resemblance to religious bodies which can adopt articles of faith and regulate the processes of belief and worship.
They are primarily responsible for the maintenance of unity within the Bahá'í community and for the release of its collective power in service to the Cause.
Membership in the Baha community is granted, on personal declaration of faith, to adults.
Nine National SpiritualAssemblies have come into existence since the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. in 1921.
Each National SpiritualAssembly will, in future, constitute an electoral body in the formation of an International Spiritual Assembly, a consummation which will perfect the administrative order of the Faith and create, for the first time in history, an international tribunal representing a worldwide community united in a single Faith.
Bahá'ís maintain their contact with the source of inspiration and knowledge in the sacred writings of the Faith by continuous prayer, study and discussion.
No believer can ever have a finished, static faith any more than he can arrive at the end of his capacity for being.
The community has but one meeting ordained in the teachings � the general meeting held every nineteen days given in the new calendar established by the Báb.
This Nineteen Day Feastis conducted simply and informally under a program divided into three parts. The first part consists in reading of passages from writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the B~b and 'Abdu'l-Bahá � a devotional meeting. Next follows general discussion of Bahá'í activities � the business meeting of the local community. After the consultation, the community breaks bread together and enjoys fellowship.
The experience which Bahá'ís receive through participation in their spiritual world order is unique and cannot be paralleled in any other society. Their status of perfect equality as voting members of a constitutional body called upon to deal with matters which reflect, even though in miniature, the whale gamut of human problems and activities; their intense realization of kinship with believers representing so wide a diversity of races, classes and creeds; their assurance that this unity is based upon the highest spiritual sanction and contributes a necessary ethical quality to the world in this age � all these opportunities for deeper and broader experience confer a privilege that is felt to be the fulfillment of life.
THE S~mn OF THE NEW DAY"If man is left in his natural state, he will become lower than the animal and continue to grow more ignorant and imperfect. The savage tribes of
Page 7AIMS AND PURPOSES OF THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 7
Central Africa aTe evidence of this. Left in their natural condition, they have sunk to the lowest depths and degrees of barbarism, dimly groping in a world of mental and moral obscurity.
God has purposed that the darkness of the world of nature shall be dispelled and the irn perfect attributes of the natal self be effaced in the effulgent reflection of the Sun of Truth.' ' � 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ.
The complete text of the Bahá'í sacred writings has not yet been translated into English, but the present generation of believers have the supreme privilege of possessing the fundamental teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, together with the interpretation and lucid commentary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and more recently the exposition made by Shoghi Effendi of the teachings concerning the world order which Bahá'u'lláh came to establish.
Of special significance to Bahá'ís of Europe and America is the fact that, unlike Christianity, the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh rests upon the Prophet's own words and not upon a necessarily incomplete rendering of oral tradition. Furthermore, the commentary and explanation of the Bahá'í gospel made by 'Abdu'l-Bahá preserves the spiritual integrity and essential aim of the revealed text, without the inevitable alloy of human personality which historically served to corrupt the gospel of
Jesus and Mul2arnn1ad.The Baha'i, moreover, has this distinctive advantage, that his approach to the teachings is personal and direct, without the veils interposed by any human intermediary.
The works which supply the Bahá'í teachings to English-reading believers are
The Kitáb-i-Iqdn (Bookof Certitude), in which Bahá'u'lláh revealed the oneness of the Prophets and the identical foundation of all true religions, the law of cycles according to which the Prophet returns at intervals of approximately one thousand years, and the nature of faith; Hidden Words, the essence of truths revealed by Prophets in the past; prayers to quicken the soul's life and draw individuals and groups nearer to God;
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh(Tar6zM, Tablet of the World, KalimM, Taj ailfyAt, Biabhr&t, I~jj-rhqAt), which establish social and spiritual principles for the new era; Three Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh (Tablet of the Branch, Kitáb-i-'Ahd, Law1~-i-Aqd as), the appointment of 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the Interpreter of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings, the Testament of Bahá'u'lláh, and His message to the Christians; Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, addressed to the son of a prominent Persian who had been a most ruthless oppressor of the believers, a Tablet which recapitulates many teachings Bahá'u'lláh had revealed in earlier works. The significant Tablets addressed to rulers of Europe and the Orient, as well as to the heads of American Republics, about the year 1870, summoning them to undertake measures for the establishment of Universal Peace have been, in selected excerpts, incorporated by Shoghi Effendi in his book,
The Promised Day Is Come.The largest and most authentic body of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings in the English language consists of the excerpts chosen and translated by Shoghi Effendi, and published under the title of Gleanings from the
Writings of Bahá'u'lláh.by Bahá'u'lláh, Shoghi Effendi has similarly given to the Bahá'í Community in recent years a wider selection and a superb rendering of devotional passages revealed by Bahá'u'lláh.
The published writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá are: Some Answered Questions, dealing with the lives of the Prophets, the interpretation of Bible prophecies, the nature of man, the true principle of evolution and other philosophic subjects; Mysterious Forces of Civilization, a work addressed to the people of Persia about fifty years ago to show them the way to sound progress and true civilization; Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, three volumes of excerpts from letters written to individual believers and Bahá'í communities, which illumine a vast range of subjects; Promulgation of Universal Peace, from stenographic records of the public addresses delivered by the Master to audiences in Canada and the United States during the year 1912; The Wisdom of 'Abdu'I
Page 8Night view of the Arcade of the Shrine of the 13Th on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Page 9AIMS AND PURPOSES OF THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 9
8aM, a similar record of His addresses in Paris; 'Abdu'l-Bahá in. London; and reprints of a number of individual Tablets, especially that sent to the Committee for a Durable Peace, The Hague, Holland, in 1919, and the Tablet addressed to the late Dr. Forel of Switzerland.
The Will and Testament left by 'Abdu'l-Bahá has special significance, in that it provided for the future development of Bahá'í administrative institutions and the Guardianship. The most comprehensive selection of the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá now available in the English language is Bahá'í World Faith.
To these writings is now to be added the book entitled Baftd'i Administration, consisting of the general letters written by Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Faith since the Master's death in 1921, which explain the details of the administrative order of the Faith, and his letters on World Order, which make clear the social principles imbedded in Bahá'u'lláh's
Revelation.These latter letters were in 1938 published in a volume entitled The
World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.Here the Guardian defines the relation of the Faith to the current social crisis, and sums up the fundamental tenets of the Baha Faith. It is a work which gives to each believer access to a clear insight on the significance of the present era, and the outcome of its international perturbations, incomparably more revealing and at the same time more assuring than the works of students and statesmen in our times.
After laying the basis of the administrative order, and explaining the relations between the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and the current movement and events which transform the world, the Guardian has written books of more general Baha import.
In The Advent of Divine Justice, Shoghi Effendi expounded the significance of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í teaching plan for North America against a background of ethical and social regeneration required for Bahá'í service today. The
Promised Day Is Comeexamines the history of the Faith in its early days when the world repudiated the flAb and Bahá'u'lláh and inflicted supreme suffering upon them and their followers, and develops the thesis that war and revolution come as penalty for rejection of the Manifestation of God.
In 1944, the centenary year of the Faith, the Guardian produced in God Passes By the authentic historical survey of the evolution of the Faith from its origin.
The literature has also been enriched by Shoghi Effendli's translation of The Dawn-Breakers, Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation, a vivid eyewitness account of the episodes which resulted from the announcement of the B&t on May 23, 1844.
When it is borne in mind that the term "religious literature" has come to represent a wide diversity of subject matter, ranging from cosmic philosophy to the psychology of personal experience, from efforts to understand the universe plumbed by telescope and microscope to efforts to discipline the passions and desires of disordered human hearts, it is clear that any attempt to summarize the Bahá'í teachings would indicate the limitations of the person making the summary rather than offer possession of a body of sacred literature touching the needs of man and society at every point. The study of Bahá'í writing does not lead to any simplified program either for the solution of social problems or for the development of human personality. Rather should it be likened to a clear light which illumines whatever is brought under its rays, or to spiritual nourishment which gives life to the spirit.
The believer at first chiefly notes the passages which seem to confirm his own personal beliefs or treat of subjects close to his own previous training.
This natural but nevertheless unjustifiable oversimplification of the nature of the Faith must gradually subside and give way to a deeper realization that the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh are as an ocean, and all personal capacity is but the vessel that must be refilled again and again. The sum and substance of the Faith of Bahá'ís is not a doctrine, not an organization, but their acceptance of Bahá'u'lláh as Manifestation of God.
In this acceptance lies the mystery of a unity that is general, not particular, inclusive, not
Page 10exclusive, and limited in its gradual extension by no boundaries drawn in the social world nor arbitrary limitations accepted by habits formed during generations lacking a true spiritual cub ture.
What the believer learns reverently to be grateful for is a source of wisdom to which he may turn for continuous mental and moral development � a source of truth revealing a universe in which man's life has valid purpose and assured realization.
Human history begins to reflect the working of a beneficent Providence; the sharp outlines of material sciences gradually fade out in the light of one fundamental science of life; a profounder sociology, connected with the inner life, little by little displaces the superficial economic and political beliefs which like waves dash high an instant only to subside into the moveless volume of the sea.
"The divine reality," 'Abdu'l-Bahá has said, "is unthinkable, limitless, eternal, immortal and invisible.
The world of creation is bound by natural law, finite and mortal. The infinite reality cannot be said to ascend or descend. It is beyond the understanding of men, and cannot be described in terms which apply to the phenomenal sphere of the created world.
Man, then, is in extreme need of the only power by which he is able to receive help from the divine reality, that power alone bringing him into contact with the source of all life.
"An intermediary is needed to bring two extremes into relation with each other.
Riches and poverty, plenty and need: without an intermediary there could be no relation between these pairs of opposites. So we can say that there must be a Mediator between God and man, and this is none other than the Holy Spirit, which brings the created earth into relation with the 'Unthinkable One,' the
Divine reality. The Divinereality may be likened to the sun and the Holy Spirit to the rays of the sun. As the rays of the sun bring the light and warmth of the sun to the earth, giving life to all created things, so do the Manifestations bring the power of the Holy Spirit from the
Divine Sun of RealityIn expounding the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh to public audiences in the West, 'Abdu'l-Bahá frequently encountered the attitude that, while the liberal religionist might well welcome and endorse such tenets, the Bahá'í teachings after all bring nothing new, since the principles of Christianity contain all the essentials of spiritual truth. The believer whose heart has been touched by the Faith so perfectly exemplified by 'Abdu'l-Bahá feels no desire for controversy, but must needs point out the vital difference between a living faith and a passive formula or doctrine. What religion in its renewal brings is first of all an energy to translate belief into life. This impulse, received into the profoundest depths of consciousness, requires no startling "newness" of concept or theory to be appreciated as a gift from the divine world. It carries its own assurance as a renewal of life itself; it is as a candle that has been lighted, and in comparison with the miracle of light the discussion of religion as a form of belief becomes secondary in importance.
Were the Bahá'í Faithno more than a true revitalization of the revealed truths of former religions, it would by that quickening quality of inner life, that returning to God, still assert itself as the supreme fact of human experience in this age.
For religion retvrns to earth in order to re~stab1ish a standard of spiritual reality.
It restores the quality of human existence, its active powers, when that reality has become overlaid with sterile rites and dogmas xvhich substitute empty shadow for substance.
In the person of the Manifestation it destroys all those imitations of religion gradually developed through the centuries and summons humanity to the path of sacrifice and devotion.
Revelation, moreover, is progressive as well as periodic. Christianity in its original essence not only relighted the candle of faith which, in the years since Moses, had become extinguished � it amplified the teachings of Moses with a new dimension which history has seen exemplified in spread of faith from tribe to nations and peoples. Bahá'u'lláh has given religion its world
Page 11dimension, fulfilling the fundamental purpose of every previous Revelation. His Faith stands at the reality within Christianity, within Mul~ammadanism within the religion of Moses, the spirit of each, but expressed in teachings which relate to all mankind.
The Bahá'í Faith, viewed from within, is religion extended from the individual to embrace humanity.
It is religion universalized; its teaching for the individual, spiritually identical with the teaching of Christ, supplies the individual with an ethics, a sociology, an ideal of social order, for which humanity in its earlier stages of development was not prepared.
Individual fulfillment has been given an objective social standard of reality, balancing the subjective ideal derived from religion in the past. Bahá'u'lláh has removed the false distinctions between the "spiritual" and "material" aspects of life, due to which religion has become separate from science, and morality has been divorced from all social activities.
The whole arena of human affairs has been brought within the realm of spiritual truth, in the light of the teaching that materialism is not a thing but a motive within the human heart.
The Bahá'í learns to perceive the universe as a divine creation in which man has his destiny to fulfill under a beneficent Providence whose aims for humanity are made known through Prophets who stand between man and the Creator. He learns his true relation to the degrees and orders of the visible universe; his true relation to God, to himself, to his fellow man, to mankind. The more he studies the Baha teachings, the more he becomes imbued with the spirit of unity, the more vividly he perceives the law of unity working in the world today, indirectly manifest in the failure which has overtaken all efforts to organize the principle of separation and competition, directly manifest in the power which has brought together the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in East and West. He has the assurance that the world's turmoil conceals from worldly minds the blessings long foretold, now forgotten, in the sayings which prophesied the coming of the
Kingdom of God.of the Bahá'í Faith conveys enlightenment. It inspires life. It frees the mind.
It disciplines the heart.For believers, the Word is not a philosophy to be learned, but the sustenance of being throughout the span of mortal existence.
"The Bahá'í Faith," ShaghiEffendi stated in a recent letter addressed to a public official, "recognizes the unity of God and of 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.
It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory education, abolishes extremes of proverty and wealth, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.~~ Those who, even courteously, would dismiss a Faith so firmly based, will have to admit that, whether or not by their test the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh are ''new,'' the world's present plight is unprecedented, came without warning save in the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and day by day discloses dangers which strike terror to the responsible student of current affairs.
Humanity itself now seems to share the prison and exile which an unbelieving generation inflicted upon the Glory of God seventy years ago.
A BACKGROUND OF ErsoicYou are the bearers of the name of God in. this Day. You have been chosen as the repositories of His mystery. It behooves each one of you to manifest the attributes of God, and to exemplify by your deeds and words the signs of His righteousness, His power and glory.
Ponder the words of Jesus addressed to Hisdisciples, as He sent them forth to propagate the Cause of God." � THE
Bab.The words of Bahá'u'lláh differ in the minds of believers from the words of philosophers because they have been given substance in the experience of life itself. The history of the Faith stands ever as a guide and commentary upon the meaning and influence of the written text.
This history, unfolded contemporaneously with the rise of science and technology in the West, reasserts the providential element of human existence as it was reasserted by the spiritual consecration and personal suffering of the prophets and disciples of former times.
The world of IslAm one hundred years ago lay in a darkness corresponding to the most degraded epoch of Europe's feudal age. Between the upper and nether millstones of an absolutist state and a materialistic church, the people of Persia were ground to a condition of extreme poverty and ignorance. The pomp of the civil and religious courts glittered above the general ruin like firedamp on a rotten log.
In that world, however, a few devoted souls stood firm in their conviction that the religion of Muhammad was to be purified by the rise of a spiritual hero whose coming was assured in their interpretation of His gospel.
This remnant of the faithful one by one became conscious that in 'Au-Mu-Iiammad, since known to history as the Báb (the "Gate"), their hopes had been realized, and under the B&b's inspiration scattered themselves as His apostles to arouse the people and prepare them for the restoration of Isl&m to its original integrity. Against the B&b and His followers the whole force of church and state combined to extinguish a fiery zeal which soon threatened to bring their structure of power to the ground.
The ministry of the B~b covered only the six years between 1844 and His martyrdom by a military firing squad in the public square at Tabriz on July 9, 1850.
In the Báb's own written message He interpreted His mission to be the fulfillment of past religions and the her-aiding of a world educator and unifier, one who was to come to establish a new cycle.
Most of the Báb's chosen disciples, and many thousands of followers, were publicly martyred in towns and villages throughout the country in those years.
The seed, however, had been buried too deep in hearts to be extirpated by any physical instrument of oppression.
After the Báb's martyrdom, the weight of official wrath fell upon 1{u-sayn-'A1I, around whom the B&bis centered their hopes.
Husayn-'A1I was imprisoned in Tihr~n, exiled tosent to Constantinople under the jurisdiction of the Su1t~n, exiled by the Turkish government to Adrianople, and at length imprisoned in the desolate barracks at 'Akka.
In 1863, while delayed outside of BaghdAd for the preparation of the caravan to be dispatched to Constantino-pie, Husayn-'Ali established His Cause among the BThis who insisted upon sharing His exile.
His declaration was the origin of the Bahá'í Faith in which the Báb's Cause was fulfilled.
The BThis who accepted(the Glory of God) were fully conscious that His mission was not a development of the Báb movement but a new Cause for which the B~b had sacrificed His life as the first of those who recognized the Manifestation or Prophet of the new age.
During forty years of exile and imprisonment, Bahá'u'lláh expounded a gospel which interpreted the spiritual meaning of ancient scriptures, renewed the reality of faith in God and established as the foundation of human society the principle of the oneness of mankind.
This gospel came into being in the form of letters addressed to individual believers and to groups in response to questions, in books of religious laws and principles, and in communications transmitted to the kings and rulers calling upon them to establish universal peace.
This sacred literature has an authoritative commentary and interpretation in the text of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í writings
Page 13Views of the Arcade and Parapet of the Shrine of the BTh on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Page 14during the years between Bahá'u'lláh's ascension in 1892 and 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í departure in 1921, Bahá'u'lláh having left a testament naming 'Abdu'l-Bahá (His eldest son) as the Interpreter of His Book and Center of His Covenant.
The imprisonment of the Bahá'í community at 'Akka ended at last in 1908, when the Young Turks party overthrew the existing political r6gime.
For three years prior to the first World War, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, then neady seventy years of age, journeyed throughout Europe and America, and broadcast in public addresses and innumerable intimate gatherings the new spirit of brotherhood and world unity penetrating His very being as the consecrated
Servant of Bah&. Thesignificance of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í commentary and explanation is that it makes mental and moral connection with the thoughts and social conditions of both East and West. Dealing with matters of religious, philosophical, ethical and sociological nature, 'Abdu'l-Bahá ah& expounded all questions in the light of His conviction of the oneness of God and the providential character of human life in this age.
The international Bahá'ícommunity, grief-stricken and appalled by its loss of the wise and loving "Master" in 1921, learned with profound gratitude that 'Abdu'l-Bahá in a will and testament had provided for the continuance and future development of the Faith. This testament made clear the nature of the Spiritual Assemblies established in the text of Bahá'u'lláh and inaugurated a new center for the widespread community of believers in the appointment of His grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.
During the years of general confusion since 1921, the Bahá'í community has carried forward the work of internal consolidation and administrative order and has become conscious of its collective responsibility for the promotion of the blessed gospel of Bahá'u'lláh. In addition to the task of establishing the structure of local and national Spiritual Assemblies, the believers have translated Baha literature into many languages, have sent teachers to all parts of the world, and have completed the exterior ornamentation of the Baha House of Worship on Lake Michigan,
Wilmette.In the general letters issued to the Bahá'í community by Shoghi Effendi in order to execute the provisions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í testament, believers have been given what they are confident is the most profound and accurate analysis of the prevailing social disorder and its true remedy in the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.
Page 15ALL human affairs are subject to continuous change. Only when change results from the operation of a higher will can the beholder find in it the directive movement and dynamic momentum containing assurance of fuffilment. Here lies the difference between an organic society and an artificial society formed from a temporary and incomplete grouping of human interests which dissolves when a more promising combination is offered.
Organic societies evolve, unfolding what is latent within them from their origin. An organic society has a spiritual origin.
It is a birth, a vital expression of what creates life itself, and meaning, and the rewards and punishments fixed for a responsible human will.
The Baha Faith, as Revelation, possesses eternality in the realm of truth as it is possessed by the Revelations of the Prophets of former times. Revelation is the first knowable expression of the will of God. The Bahá'í community, men's response to Revelation, expresses not merely a high degree of fidelity and sacrifice corresponding to the heroic response of Jew, Christian and Muslim in their dispensations, but likewise applies to human affairs the working of principles, authorities and institutions which in themselves are revealed realities and not human inventions. That is, the Baha community is more than a community of Baha'is. It is an organic society instituted by the Prophet to be the chan nel of His spirit and the Kingdom of His grace.
The power and the purpose, the aim and the end, the principle and the method, all harmonize and coexist because now prophetic Revelation has become complete. The day for an organic world society has dawned.
To follow this evolution, the description of Bahá'í history in terms of successive stages made by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian, is illuminating. Thus we have the Heroic Age, the Formative Age, and a Golden Age still to come. Though these stages are separate and distinct, they signify one reality in successive states of evolution.
The Heroic Age of the Faith ended with the Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1921.
The Formative Age proceeded from His Testament through the creation of the Guardianship and the definition of Bahá'í institutions which together produce a society capable of living under divine law for divine ends. The first epoch within the Formative Age embraced the twenty-five years from 1921 to 1946, when the local and national elements of the new pattern for society had been outlined.
The second epoch which began in 1946 is characterized by the initiation of national Baha plans or projects by the several national Bahá'í communities then and since existing in
East and West.Two great streams of influence met to make these unified undertakings significant and effective. The Bahá'í turns 15
Page 16back to ponder again the mighty vision of a world-embracing and world-redeeming crusade bequeathed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His Tablets known as the Divine Plan. The Bahá'í also meditates on passages in the Master's Testament assuring the ultimate triumph of justice and order throughout the world.
While the execution of large undertakings demonstrates an increasing power on the part of the national communities, it also reveals the existence of an international authority and influence acting throughout the entire Bahá'í body. The strength and staHl-ity of the Bahá'í World Center in Haifa has been the ultimate cause of the ability of local and national Baha communities to concentrate their energies and develop their latent gifts.
Tapi SHRINn OF THE BAHThe spiritual symbols identifying Haifa as the religious as well as the administrative center of the Faith are the Shrines of Bahá'u'lláh and of the B&b, His Predecessor and Herald.
The remains of the Báb, saved at night by followers when thrown outside the walls of Tabriz after His execution, concealed and reverently preserved from despoilment by priest-inflamed mobs, were transported to Haifa under direction of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and given their destined resting-place on the slopes of Mount Carrnel in 1909.
The precious remains were interred in a mausoleum preserved by a Shrine constructed under 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í loving care. He foresaw and foretold the later construction of a more suitable Shrine. This mission became a spiritual legacy bequeathed to the Guardian as an element of his world aims.
The structure built by 'Abdu'l-Bahá had six rooms, to which three more were added by Shoghi Effencli in accordance with 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í desire. The remains of 'Abdu'l-Bahá are interred within the Shrine of the B&b. In the spring of 1948, despite (or perhaps because of) the difficult conditions prevailing in Palestine, Shoghi Effencli decided that the moment had arrived for the construction of the superstruc ture to serve as the beautiful shell preserving the kernel of the Shrine which 'Abdu'l-Bahá had left. The design for the superstructure had been completed by William Sutherland Maxwell (as illustrated in The Bahá'í World, Vol. IX) and the working drawings produced.
Mr. Maxwell, as Shoghi Effendi's architect, went to Italy to execute contracts for the cutting and carving of the stone needed for the arcade. At Carrara the architect made arrangements for twenty-four columns and eight pilasters, with bases, cut from Baveno granite, and for their capitals, twenty-eight graceful arches, star panels and corner panels to be carved from Chiarnpo granite. In Italy Mr. Maxwell was assisted by Mr. Ugo Giachery who became the Guardian's representative in Italy for the execution of the contracts and shipment of the completed units to Haifa.
The original intention of employing native Palestinian stone for thresholds, corners, walls and cornices could not be carried out. Mr. Giachery made arrangements with the Italian contractor, Guido M. Fabbricotti, Successori, for the remainder of the stone required to build the arcade.
While awaiting delivery of the stone, Shoghi Effendi prepared the ground around the Shrine for the superstructure.
On November 28, 1948, the first shipment of completed units arrived at the port of Haifa.
On March 14, 1949, a week before the anniversary of the date when 'Abdu'l-Bahá placed the sacred remains of the ETh in the sarcophagus presented by the Bahá'ís of Burma, the first threshold stone, weighing 1,000 pounds, was set in place upon its foundation.
The work proceeded rapidly during 1949 and the spring of 1950, revealing the exquisite beauty of the ornamental and symbolic designs prepared by the architect, the quality of the Rose Baveno and Chiampo granite employed, and the impressive character of the architectural concept.
There could be no more suitable and dramatic site for the Shrine of the B~b
Page 17than the heights of Mount Carmel, in the Holy Land of four faiths, looking out over the bay to the historic Mediterranean Sea washing the shores of three continents and associated with the meetings of great cultures throughout thousands of years. The Shrine itself stands among peerless gardens which have become a notable feature of Haifa and a mecca for residents of the country and visitors from many lands.
Mr. Benjamin Weeden has described the work: "The three magnificent carved corners took on more height and grandeur. Twelve of the huge Rose Baveno granite columns were set upon their bases, each with its beautifully carved Chiampo granite capital. A momentous occasion truly!
Then followed the placing of the finely cut graceful arches, seven on the east side and seven on the north. This led to the building up of the walls to the height of the architrave, including the star panels and half star panels, those gems which relieve the austerity of the walls and balance the fine, ornate curved corners.~~ A fourth contract was signed in Italy
Page 18on September 7, 1949, for fabrication of the intricate stone work, "calling for nearly two hundred tons of fine carving and delicate mosaic. Mr. W. S. Maxwell has created a masterpiece of beauty and design."
The Shrine of the BTh testifies to the dawning Light of Revelation, the fierce and fanatic resistance of men, the Martyrdom of the Prophet, and the destined victory of a new world Faith over its most determined oppressors, which means the victory of the spiritual nature of man. It signalizes the religious bond uniting Bahá'ís of East and West, and creates a new place of pilgrimage for those who revere a living Revelation and recognize in it the consummation of the hopes of all true religions.
The Shrine of the B&b exemplifies a heavenly peace established in a society struggling to save itself from self-destruction.
COMPLETING rim HousE orMonths in advance of the date set for the Centenary of the Birth of the Bahá'í Revelation observed in May, 1944, the exterior ornamentation of the House of Worship in Wilmette had been brought to completion. The monumental structure, rising from its circular platform approached by eighteen circular steps, exhibited its full majesty of architectural form and all its impressive beauty of ornamental design to the host of Bahá'ís who gathered to celebrate the B~b's announcement of His prophetic Mission.
Here for others to witness was not only the spirit of faith but a great product of unity.
Two further stages of construction remained to be undertaken before this Temple, blessed by
'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Presenceon the grounds in 1912, could be dedicated and used for public worship.
The first stage was the completion of the interior ornamentation in accordance with the scheme prepared by Louis J. Bourgeois, Temple architect, and the installation of equipment for lighting, heating and ventilation� the second and final stage in the progress of the building itself was the land-soaping soaping of the Temple grounds.
Concerning this a general description had been given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Between 1944 and 1946 the North American Bahá'í community, having carried out the great objectives established by the Guardian in the seven year Plan initiated in 1937, undertook projects aimed at further proclamation and consolidation of the Faith at home. In 1946 a second seven year Plan formulated by the Guardian for the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada called for the completion of the Temple by 1953, Centenary of Bah4'u'-lThh's assumption of His prophetic Mission.
Preliminary studies of the Bourgeois drawings were made for the Temple trustees by Allen B. McDaniel in response to Shoghi Effendi's request for an estimate of cost based upon a modification of the elaborate interior design Mr. Bourgeois had conceived.
A letter from the Guardian written in April, 1946, advised the elimination of the eight rooms surrounding the main auditorium (a staircase occupying the space of the ninth room), to make of the entire main floor an auditorium providing the largest possible number of seats.
After two independent studies of a modified design had been made and the nature of the interior needed for the purpose of Bahá'í worship had been more clearly visualized, technical studies were undertaken, and a final report submitted to the Guardian for approval in March, 1947.
Among the illuminating statements made by Shoghi Effendi concerning the nature of Bahá'í worship, the following are cited: that no forms, no rituals, no set customs be introduced over and above the minimum outlined in the Bahá'í teachings; the nature of these gatherings is for prayer, meditation and the reading of writings from the Sacred Scriptures of the Baha Faith and other Faiths; that there can be one or a number of readers, including non-Bahá'ís invited for this purpose; the use of pulpits is forbidden by Bahá'u'lláh; and only vocal music can be used.
Page 19In arriving at a concept of the interior before preparation of final drawings and specifications, the trustees received valuable help from Allen B. McDaniel and his associates Messrs. Kennedy and Pompilio, and from Earl H. Reed.
Their designs were submitted to the Guardian, whose views were set forth in a letter dated April 11, 1947.
Alfred P. Shaw, of Shaw, Metz and Dollo, Chicago, was selected as architect for the interior ornamentation, and his design has been developed in the spirit of the original concept left by Mr. Bourgeois.
Under a contract awarded to the John 3. Earley Studio for the fabrication of the units composing the interior ornamentation, and an agreement entered into with the George A. Fuller Company as general contractors, the work at the Temple began on July II, 1949. The scheme has been carried out by the same technical process employed for the exterior ornamentation: units are cast from molds made from hand-carved models, and the completed units when set in place convey the effect of a sculptured pattern.
The cost of $650,000 estimated in January, 1947 increased to $780,000 by November, 1948. Payment of these costs by the American Bahá'ís has created an impressive record of sustained devotion. Here stood their Temple, object of their care, sacrifice and hope since the early days of the Faith in the West, monumental to behold but for its function of worship still only an empty shell. No appeal, at that period, could be more intimate and compelling.
By November, 1949, about 800 square feet of ornamentation had been set in place.
Meanwhile the ventilation ducts, piping for heat, electrical conduits, wiring and equipment for the utilities had been installed.
The magnitude of the project can be seen from the figures covering the number of tracery units or sections needed: 137 for the narrow panels of the auditorium, 196 for the wide panels, and 387 for the dome above the springing line.
The castings have been made of a mixture of clear white quartz and of crystalline quartz. The interior tracery below the dome, all of which is perforated, was fabricated with a background composed of rose quartz, to provide a warm rose tint to the interior scheme.
The technical expert will appreciate the amount of study made by the architect of the lighting of the Temple auditorium and alcoves. From Allen B. McDaniel's historical narrative of the Temple project we learn that the lighting of the domed hail was achieved by the use of nine metal fixtures, specially designed, placed nineteen feet above the main floor. Indirect lighting by a series of lamps located in troughs around the bases of the arched ceilings has been devised for the alcoves. The two galleries are illumined by ceiling lights.
The floor of the auditorium, including the alcoves, has been laid of terrazzo composed of 85% Alpine red and 15% Georgia white marble chips set in a deep red matrix. The floor is patterned by white metal strips conforming to the arrangement of the permanent seats.
The entrances to the Temple (eleven feet wide and twenty-two feet high) contain bronze panels and doors of polished plate glass.
When the chairs are installed, the auditorium and alcoves will provide 1191 seats.
Orientation has been provided in this circular structure by making the focal point the direction of 'Akka, where Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned and where He asc~nded in 1892. The seats in the central hail all face 'Akl6-ward, while the seats in the surrounding alcoves face the center of the auditorium.
Since the contracts are not completed at the time of this writing, final evaluation of the Temple interior must be deferred.
What now goes forward represents the creation of a House of Prayer and Meditation consecrated to the God of humanity and recognizing one eternal Faith, the Faith revealed and progressively unfolded by His Prophets and Messengers Whose Promised One is
Bahá'u'lláh.1947, more than 51,000 yisitors were conducted through the building.
They came from fifty-one different countries to witness for themselves this sign of the gathering of His people in one fold.
The zeal of the American Baha'is, associating this structure with their loftiest concept of a universal Faith, and identifying its beginning and encouragement with 'Abdu'l-Bahá, was further stirred by the high importance attributed by Shoghi Effendi to its completion.
"The completion of the Mother Tern-pie of the West, the sacredness of which neither the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the Bahá'í World (i.e., in Ishqabad), nor any future House of Worship to be erected by the followers of Bahá'u'lláh, in any country, at any future date, can rival � in time for the celebration cif its Jubilee, is the one remaining objective that now hangs precariously in the balance.
Owing to a combination of circumstances wholly beyond the control of its builders, this task has assumed a critical importance, and is of such vital urgency, that no prosecutor of the Plan, eager to witness its consummation, can afford to ignore it for a moment.
"The sacrifice demanded is such as to have no parallel whatsoever in the history of that community. The manifold issues inextricably interwoven with the campaign laboriously launched for the achievement of this high objective, are of such weighty character as to overshadow every enterprise embarked upon through the organized efforts of its members, in either the concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith or the first Epoch of the Age which succeeded it. The two years during which this emergency will be most keenly felt coincide on the one hand with a period of increasing distraction occasioned by the uncertainties, the perils and fears of a steadily worsening international situation, and on the other with the centenary of one of the most turbulent, afflictive and glorious stages of Bahá'í history � a stage immortalized by an effusion of blood, a self-abnegation, a heroism, unsurpassed not only in the annals of the Faith but in the world's spiritual history. No sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure the completion of such an Edi-flee � the most holy House of Worship ever to be associated with the Faith of the Most Great
Name."'A most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of existence,' are 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í own words, predicting the release of spiritual forces that must accompany the completion of this most hallowed House of Worship. 'From that point of light,' He, further glorifying that edifice, has written, 'the spirit of teaching will permeate to all parts of the world.'
'It marks the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth.'"
CANADIAN BAHÁ'Í S INAUGURATEFrom the early days of the Faith in the West, the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada formed one administrative community, elected one national body, united in support of the successive Temple construction and teaching plans, mingled at conventions, conferences and summer schools, and recognized one constitutional code. Their history made one record, their experience was mutual, their destines interdependent.
When, during the years of the first world war, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. revealed the Tablets of His World Plan, He addressed them to the Bahá'ís of the United
States and Canada. Thethoughtful student, however, even then might have discerned a future administrative separation in order that each people could better realize its own particular endowment.
By 1946 the time for this separation had come. The Guardian sent the direction that before 1953 the Bahá'ís of Canada were to farm their own National Spiritual Assembly and constitute a pillar of the future
Baha House of Justice.This was brought about in 1948. Canada, therefore, as of the period covered by this survey, became an independent community two years after the commencement of the period, and is the youngest of the nine National
Page 21Spiritual Assemblies now existing, though in spiritual and administrative experience the Canadian Bahá'ís have been active since 1902.
The devotion, energy and resources of a new national Bahá'í community, one spread across a wider expanse of land from Atlantic to Pacific than is embraced by the United States, responded unitedly to the challenge of the program set for them to achieve.
This program has been termed a five year plan since it calls for the attainment of certain goals within five years after 1948, culminating in the Bahá'í Jubilee Year, 1953.
The plan enumerated seven different objectives: legal incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly; establishment of national endowments; increasing to thirty the number of local Spiritual Assemblies; increasing to one hundred the number of localities where Bahá'ís reside; formation of a group in Newfoundland; formation of a group in Greenland; enrollment of Eskimos and native Indians as members of the community and qualified to exercise their administrative rights.
These seven aims involve community effort and executive direction in very contrasted areas of human action.
In essence they call for official recognition of the Faith as an independent religion possessing corporate rights, the development of properties for the effective fulfillment of Bahá'í functions, the powerful proclamation of the Baha teachings, the bridging of the racial chasms existing in the population of the country, and the acceptance of responsibility for establishing the Faith in a foreign land.
Like every Bahá'í program, it was not scaled to the size and strength of the community adopting it, but to the size and strength that community would attain by carrying the program into effect.
Intensive work by a legal committee headed by Siegfried Schapflocher and including the services of an experienced and accomplished attorney, succeeded within one year in obtaining a Dominion charter for the Bahá'í Assembly. This achievement was made known to the delegates and Bahá'í visitors assembled at the Second Annual Convention in session in the city of Winnipeg. Passed without amendment in both Senate and House of Commons on April 28, 1949, the Bill was entitled "An Act to Incorporate the
National Spiritual Assemblyof the Bahá'ís of Canada" as a body politic and corporate under that name.
This charter possesses the strongest legal authority of any constitution adopted by an existing National Baha Assembly. It sets forth, in eleven clauses, the fundamental objects of the National Assembly and defines its various functions and powers, including the general provision, to "fulfill all and whatsoever the several purposes and objects set forth in the written utterances of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi." In 1950 the Act was published accompanied by the national and local ByLaws adopted by the National Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada.
The favorable result of the petition addressed to Parliament was termed by the Guardian in a cablegram a "magnificent victory unique (in the) annals (of) East and West."
The first Bahá'í property in Canada to be endowed was acquired in October, 1946, at Beaulac, Quebec, a tract of 187 acres which before 1950 was developed as a summer school. In 1948, sessions held in summer and winter enrolled more than one hundred students.
Tn 1949 the school was opened to the CanadianIn a summary prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly, emphasis is laid on trans-Canada lecture and teaching schedules carried out by David Hofman, of the British National Assembly, by Marion Hofman, a member of the same body, and on circuit or conference teaching contributed by Bahá'ís from the United
States including MildredHofman, Harlan and Elizabeth Ober, Dr. Genevieve L. Coy,
Margaret Sears, MarjorieDue to interruption of communication between Haifa and Canada at that time, the Guardian's response to the Convention was not received until November 4.
"I hail with joyous heart and confident spirit the truly compelling and almost simultaneous evidences of the irresistible power of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh as witnessed by the formation of the first Canadian
National Bahá'í Assemblyand the inauguration of the Five Year Plan, designed to orient its members toward and canalize the energies of the entire Canadian Baha community in support of the immediate tasks lying before them. So auspicious a beginning in the processes set in motion as a result of the progressive unfoldment of the Divine Plan, in a territory of such vast dimensions blessed through both the mighty utterances and the personal visit of the One (i.e., 'Abdu'l-Bahá) who fostered it from the hour of its birth, and whose elan enabled it to reach maturity, may well be regarded as one of the most momentous happenings immortalizing the opening years of the second Baha Century.
~ "Obstacles, however formidable, will have to be determinedly surmounted. Any reverses that sooner or later may be suffered should be met with stoic fortitude and speedily offset by victories in other fields.
The glorious vision now unveiled to your eyes must never be dimmed.
The illuminating promises enshrined in 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Tablets should not be forgotten for a :noment. The quality of the success already achieved by so small a number, over so extensive a field, in so brief a period, at so precarious an hour in the destinies of mankind, should spur on the elected representatives of this now fully fledged community to achieve in as short a peyiod, over still more extensive an area, and despite a severer crisis than any as yet encountered, victories more abiding in their merit and more conspicuous in their brilliance than any as yet won in the service and for the glory of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh."
The birth of the administrative body charged with the responsibility and authority needed to serve the interests of a national Bahá'í community, and to represent the Faith in the eyes of the public, is an event of high dramatic character.
This quality of intense interest terest and impressive occasion afforded an unforgettable experience to those present at the first national Convention of the Bahá'ís of Canada held at Montreal in April, 1948.
The setting was the large drawing-room of the Maxwell home � a home visited by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1912, and a home devoted to Bahá'í activities over a long period of years.
This had been the home of May Maxwell, Bahá'í teacher of surpassing brilliance and charm and crowned with the glory of martyrdom at the sudden close of her life while serving the Faith in South America.
This had been the home of William Sutherland Maxwell, architect, whose creative gift was being fulfilled in making the design for the Shrine of the BTh on Mt. Carmel.
This had been the home of Mary Maxwell, their daughter, who left its shelter to become the wife of
Shoghi Effendi, GuardianThe Convention sessions took place on April 24 and 25.
Before the delegates and visitors could gather together to take their part in the drama, long preparation had been made by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, and by committees of Canadian
Baha'is.Nineteen delegates were assigned to the Bahá'í community, proportioned among the provinces, and these had been elected by provincial conventions. The Convention call and the agenda had been prepared by the parent body. Its officers opened the Convention, called the roll of delegates and conducted the election of the Convention officers, thereby transferring responsibility to representatives of the Canadian community.
The members elected to the first National Assembly of Canada were Rowland Estall, John Robarts, Emeric Sala, Laura Davis, Lloyd Gardner, Siegfried Schopflocher, Ross Woodman, Doris Richardson, and Rosemary Sala.
After the Convention adjourned, officers of the parent body met with these members of the new Assembly, turned over documents of particular historic
Page 23or administrative interest in Canada, and summarized the functions, responsibilities and yearly agenda of a national Baha body.
Formal action was taken to record the recognition of the status of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States as the continuing body carrying forward the records and properties acquired in the past.
That body, in turn, divested itself of any authority or title within the area of jurisdiction of the new
Assembly.Meeting separately a day or two later, the delegates of the Bahá'ís of the United States elected their National Assembly with change of title.
19441950 � Bahá'u'lláh's BAnA'fsAt their annual ConVention in the year 1944, during the week devoted to the celebration of the Centenary of the Birth of the Bahá'í
Revelation, the Bahá'ísof the British Isles pledged themselves to undertake a special mission to be fulfilled by July, 1950, the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the BTh.
This intention was cabled to the Guardian of the Faith who welcomed the decision and advised adoption of a plan to form nineteen local Spiritual Assemblies in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and
Eire.This six year Plan called for an undertaking of great magnitude. In successive communications from Haifa, Shoghi Effendi declared that the Plan "constitutes a landmark in the history of the Faith in the British Isles the first collective enterprise undertaken by them for the spread of the Faith and the consolidation of its divinely appointed institutions." "The Plan constitutes a direct and grave challenge to the English Bahá'í Community in its entirety. It is, thus far, one of the most significant undertakings embarked upon by the members of the Bah~ 'i National Assemblies during the opening years of the second Bahá'í Century.
� To it the immediate destinies of the community of the English believers are linked, and on it must de pend the future orientation and evolution of the institutions which the members of that community are laboring to erect for the diffusion of the principles, and the establishment of the Faith, of Bahá'u'lláh in their country."
Bahá'ís who meditate upon these collective enterprises recall the statement made by 'Abdu'l-Bahá that the spirit latent within the Faith would gradually become apparent. The Master Himself had carried out the first and supreme Mission expressing the power and the purpose of the Revelation after the
Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh. ThroughHim the concentration of faith, understanding, will and energy had been perfect and complete.
Now the time had come, as the events prove, for this dynamic spirit to enter into and inspire the institutions of the Bahá'í community and galvanize within every national community of believers the capacity for impressive achievement.
The British undertaking could not be accomplished by a mere arrangement for moving a certain number of Bahá'í families from one city to another.
The task called for the raising up of a large number of new Bahá'ís in the nineteen cities selected under the Plan. The goal involved nothing less than doubling the size of the community as it existed in 1944.
Spiritual drama affects the beholder on a deeper level than the dramas written into the public record of events.
In the motherland of empire, where for generations authority and power held sway over a large part of the earth, a handful of resolute souls determined to found a new order of spiritual and administrative institution in nineteen cities.
Reduced to a mathematical formula, the project could be achieved by one hundred and seventy-one human beings. What a slight figure in relation to empire! But spiritually the drama is momentous and poignant. For success was not a little gesture of a titanic body � it could only be weakness itself allied to a power unseen. What must take place was the birth of a new creation, no part of the old order but a descent from a higher realm. A Spirit
Page 24ual Assembly of Bahá'ís represents the outreaching finger of a hand, which in turn has movement from an arm, the arm itself the limb of a body, and the body penetrated by a spirit more potent than all the powers of earth.
"This Plan is unifying and consolidating our community as nothing else has in our history," a report from England states.
"There is a great desire among the friends to answer its challenge, and to return the Guardian's words fulfilled."
The modern world is accustomed to collective Plans, and looks to the size and force of the organization committed to it as a measure Qf its importance. Plan has come to denote social organism and the mechanisms of mutiple public influence.
The experience of the British Bahá'ís in setting their Plan into operation proves once more that men and women, not mechanism, hold the keys of destiny.
Every individual Bahá'íbecame identified with the enterprise, and its momentum flowed from qualities of devotion, self-sacrifice and heroism, where the individual being is supreme.
Here was the ultimate spiritual agent � the morally responsible and believing man and woman, whether old or young, rich or poor, learned or ignorant. Not from government, not from industry, not from traditional education, not from clergy but from the soul itself came this power to serve a new spirit, advance in a new direction, recognize a new goal. Here, indeed, is the turning-point in all the great crises of human history: the capacity of individuals to throw off the fetters of outworn formulas and conventional pronouncements, and return to the realm of moral responsibility and wholehearted decision. Casting aside the formal doctrines which veil a divine purpose, they restore the life of truth and love.
By 1947, Assemblies had been formed in five towns, two existing communities strengthened, and nucleji formed in Scotland,
Ireland and Wales. Aswas reported to the Convention held that year, the "community is now slowly building up the primary institutions 'which are destined to act as the chief and most powerful instruments' for the 'twofold task of proclaiming the verities of their Faith to their fellowmen at home,' and for 'implanting its banner abroad amidst the peoples and races of a far-flung Empire.'" The most important project carried out, not directly connected with the Plan, was the publication and distribution of an open statement written by the scholarly George Townshend wherein he gave his reasons as a Baha why he had resigned his office in the church. His statement, published under the title ''The Old Churches and the New Faith,~~ asserts the Bahá'í principle of the oneness of religion, manifested through progressive Revelation, and cites Bahá'u'lláh's ringing call to priest and prelate to hear the Voice of their Lord. Copies were sent to some 10,000 leaders of public opinion.
At intervals during this six year period, the National Assembly examined and reexamined an evolving situation, adapting its directives to the imminent needs.
By the believers the goal was pursued with unrelenting determination. Symbolic of the spirit aroused during this crusade we have the episode of the English Bahá'í who, in his eighty-fourth year, responded to the call and moved from a nursing home to settle as a pioneer in one of the goal towns.
"Five years of stupendous effort, of magnificent self-sacrifice, of marvelous dedication and of splendid cooperation have marked the progressive evolution of the Plan to its present stage," Shoghi Effendi wrote at the beginning of the final year. "The Bahá'í World, in its entirety, is struck with amazement at the quality of the work performed, at the extent and number of the victories achieved by this community."
In a later letter the Guardian wrote: "Great and overpowering as these sacrifices now appear, they will, when viewed in their proper perspective, be adjudged as inconsiderable, and pale into insignificance when balanced against the inestimable advantages which must accrue to a community that
Page 25has achieved total and complete victory for a Plan so epochmaking in character, and so charged with un-dreamt-of potentialities."
Within the period covered by this survey the final outcome can not be presented.
It suffices to record that fact that by April 21, 1950, the means to fulfilment had been secured.
BAnk'f GoALS TN 'IRAQ'IrAq is hallowed in the eyes of all Bahá'ís because Bahá'u'lláh was exiled to that country after His imprisonment in Tihr~n.
The House of Bahá'u'lláh (referred to in previous surveys in connection with the case referred to the League of Nations) is to be a Shrine for pilgrimage in future when free travel and communication are established throughout the world. Before leaving 'IrAq for Constantinople, the next stage in the exile of Bahá'u'lláh, He made
His Declaration of PropheticMission to the assembled companions, thereby fulfilling their devotion to the 13Th in allegiance to the One the Báb had heralded.
In 1947 the National SpiritualAssem-My of the Bahá'ís of 'Ifftq adopted a plan for the next three years aimed at increasing the number of Bahá'í centers in the provincial areas, including the district of Shatt-el-Arab.
Extraordinary difficulties were faced. "The financial crisis seemed to be so acute and unprecedented that many Bahá'í projects..
hung in the balance. Even correspondence between the National Spiritual Assembly and the different national and local assemblies and isolated Bahá'ís was suspended."
The three year Plan provided for realization of these objectives : � Completion of the construction of the National Baha Hall; raising funds to finance part of the national debt; establishment of ten new local Assemblies and encouragement of Bahá'í communities in the southern part of the country which had been isolated and deprived of contact with the main body of Baha'is.
Recognition of the legality of Bahá'í marriage certificates has been a gratifying evidence of the progress of the Faith in that land.
By completing the Hall which joins the administrative offices of the National Bahá'í Headquarters to the Guest House, the last item in the development of the headquarters has been finished. An audience of five hundred can be seated in this spacious Hall.
The Bahá'ís of 'IrAq have given public exhibition of moving picture films illustrating the Bahá'í Shrines in Haifa and scenes of the Centenary program conducted in 1944 by the American Bahá'ís at the House of Worship in Wil-mette, Illinois.
Other activities included translation of Bahá'í literature into Arabic, and publication of several pamphlets.
A THREE YEAR PLAN IN EGYPTAssembly of Egypt defined the aims to be attained by 1953. Their Plan called for action in a number of fields: � increasing to nine the number of local Assemblies, and to thirty-three the number of towns and villages where Bahá'ís reside; establishing the Faith in Tunisia, Algeria and Libya; extending their holdings of land adjacent to he
National AdministrativeHeadquarters in Cairo and securing land for the development of a permanent School; establishment of a Bahá'í magazine; and strengthening the Baha community in Abyssinia.
In adopting this five year Plan, the Bahá'ís at the same time were obliged to exert constant effort to overcome disabilities rooted in a hostile religious tradition.
These disabilities have been mentioned in previous surveys.
Between 1946 and 1950, the period of this survey, encouraging advances were made in securing for the Faith the status of an independent religion entitled by law to freedom of worship and protection of property and civil rights.
Egypt, it is noted, occupies a leading position in IslAm and also in the Arabian world, throughout which the Qur'an and the Isl&mic code has the force of law. Under the assumption that Mul2am-mad brought the final Revelation of God, any religious claim contravening this assumption represents heresy. The Baha'is, nevertheless, feel that their
Page 26Cypress trees marking the spot where Bahá'u'lláh sat and chose site for the Shrine of the Báb.
Faith during this period became more deeply rooted, won many friends and admirers, consolidated its independence, promoted its teachings and extended the activities of its followers beyond the Egyptian frontier.
The believers were convinced that the spiritual power of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh has created in many perSons a new outlook, weakened traditional prejudice and afforded glimpses of a united and peaceful human society.
Among the incidents reported one notes that a throng of people attempted to prevent the interment of a Bahá'í in a local Bahá'í cemetery, but under police protection the Bahá'ís proceeded with the burial. Later this cemetery was attacked by rioters and two graves seriously damaged. Again police intervention enabled the Assembly to restore the graves and maintain the cemetery without molestation.
A Bahá'í youth meeting in Port Said was attacked, two believers wounded and literature and furnishings stolen. The courts took cognizance of the complaint but the guilty persons were not found. In another town the Sharia Court dissolved a marriage between a Muslim and a Baha'i, on the grounds that such a marriage is heretical and therefore illegal.
These incidents were local.Of national import was the ban laid on import of Bahá'í books and the confiscation of copies of the news bulletin prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly for the information of members of the Bahá'í community.
The Bahá'ís regarded all these incidents as opportunities to explain their teachings and defend their religious rights.
Successive appeals made to local and national authorities were accepted and handled without bias.
After a series of articles appeared in the press which presented the Faith in an unfavorable light, the Publishing Committee refuted their statements in
Page 27About forty years separates the dates of the photo at left and the photo above.
a number of published articles. These were so favorably regarded that in one city the clergy of IsThm sought to obtain from the head of the Azhar, largest college in IslAm, a personal statement condemning the Baha'is. The outcome of this effort was that the official stated he had examined many Bahá'í books and found nothing in them which might be considered injurious to Islhm.
A pamphlet was published and distributed by an official body of Muslim clergy of Azhar College warning Mus-urns that the Baha Faith is heretical. To this attack the Bahá'í Teaching Committee prepared and published a detailed refutation. Their document convinced some members of the clerical body that their own attack revealed ignorance of the subject under discussion.
A Bahá'í lecture delivered before a large audience at the YMCA of Cairo carried weight in the estimation of
Page 28The leading illustrated weekly about that time published an article about the Faith ii-lustrated with photographs of Bahá'ís celebrating their Feast of Ridvan at the national Bahá'í headquarters, accompanied by a brief summary of the teachings. Such an article would have been inconceivable even a few years before.
A national issue arose from action of the Postal Savings Bank in refusing to permit a local Spiritual Assembly to withdraw funds unless it were registered as an institution at the Ministry of Social Affairs. This case, together with the question of the legal validity of a Bahá'í marriage certificate, eventually came before the Council of State, where eventually the whole question of Bahá'í status under civil law must be determined.
In energetic pursuance of its five year Plan the Bahá'ís between 1945 and 1947 formed local Assemblies in Tanta,
Suez, Khartum (Sudan)The conflict which broke out in Palestine during this period produced a temporary crisis in the life of the Bahá'í community of Egypt. Enemies hailed the situation as a unique opportunity to exterminate the Faith and destroy the body of its believers.
In the press many articles appeared in effort to inflame the masses to violence.
The result, however, was to demonstrate the integrity of the Bahá'í corn-muniity.
The accusations were proven false when brought before civil authorities.
The nonpolitical character of the Faith and its teaching on obedience to civil government were clearly determined after investigation by a government agency.
Though not formally recognized, the Baha community in Egypt is exercising the rights of a religious body.
A summary of the definite results of the Plan will be reported in the next volume of
The Bahá'í World.In April, 1947, the National Spiritual Assembly summoned the Bahá'í community to assume responsibility for establishing seven additional local Spiritual Assemblies and thirty-one new groups by 1953 under a six year Plan "destined to coincide with the completion of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West."
This Plan was characterized by the Guardian of the Faith a "landmark of unusual significance in the history of the Faith in that far-off continent," a "pre-lude to still more glorious chapters in the annals of the Faith in the Antipodes."
The ultimate destiny of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand is clearly to establish a strong center of teaching capable of carrying the Bahá'í Message to the Islands of the South
Seas. The present Planaimed to prepare the Bahá'í community for an ever-enlarging futuTe mission. For the present, as Shoghi Effendi pointed out, they "must concentrate every ounce of their energy, and focus their entire attention, on the tasks immediately ahead.
By March, 1949, five of the seven new Assemblies had been formed, and one new group. The members of the National Assembly in their annual report were thoroughly aware of the need for greater effort and sacrifice if the Plan was to come to fruition "in the realization of our expanding responsibility in the Baha world and to humanity at large."
During the developments of this period, a statement was received from the Guardian of basic import, emphasizing the "vital need of insuring by every means possible the deepening of the faith, the understanding and the spiritual life of the individuals who, as the privileged members of this community, are called upon to participate in this glorious unfoldment and are lending their assistance to this historic
Page 29evolution, a profound study of the Faith which they have espoused, its history, its spiritual as well as administrative principles; a thorough understanding of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh and of the Will of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a deeper realization of the implication of the claim advanced by the Founder of the Faith; strict adherence to the laws and principles which They have established; a greater dedication to the fundamentals and verities enshrined in Their teachings � these constitute the urgent need of the members of this rapidly advancing community."
In this brief statement we have the requisites of that preparation required before a body of people can become an instrument for the establishment of a new divine order in the world. Let it be compared with the elaborate philosophies and codes devised in order to reduce humanity to a servitude to force miscalled "peace" and a uniformity vaunted as the "new order".
The Bahá'í resident in another country finds much to admire in the activities conducted by the believers of Australia and New Zealand. They have published a quarterly magazine uninterruptedly for many years. The Educational Department of the State of Victoria has recognized the right of a Bahá'í employee to apply for leave of absence on Bahá'í Holy Days. A number of books have been translated into Braille. The National Spiritual Assembly has developed a substantial national headquarters.
The Bahá'í School at Yerrinboolhas conducted summer and winter sessions with numerous enrollments.
A national news bulletin keeps the community informed of Bahá'í developments at home and abroad. The Legal Committee has studied the body of civil statutes providing for incorporation of religious bodies and concluded that a new statute is needed before a local Bahá'í Assembly can win a legal status conforming to its particular functions, for example, the conduct of a legal marriage ceremony of Bahá'í type without a professional clergy. Above all, the attentive Bahá'í realizes that this wide range of activities is maintained by a small community scattered throughout a tremendous area.
By the end of March, 1950, the National Assembly was able to report very favorable progress in the projects of the six year Plan.
On the one hand, the Assembly noted an increased outward expansion in teaching and pioneer settlement, and on the other hand the Assembly was gratified by the degree of inward expansion of institutional and administrative activity.
Traveling teachers had covered every State in the Commonwealth except the Northern Territory.
Three more new Assemblies could be repoted, and seven groups had been formed in municipal areas of large cities where conditions favored the formation of permanent communities.
In its report the Assembly also stressed the importance of taking action at a later date to petition the government for the enactment of special legislation to "incorporate all the legal aspects of the Faith." The initiation of a public relations program during the year was felt to be successful in creating a wider public awareness of the Faith.
Local and national endowments had been increased by the acquisition of the Bolton School property at Yerrinbool, the Thelma Qark property as an addition to the School, the Clarge Terrace property in Woodville, and the Hyde Dunn Memorial in Henderson Valley,
New Zealand.The six year Plan arrived at midpoint in March, 1950. Summing up the results accomplished in the first three years the National Assembly declared: "Gradually, in both the teaching sphere and the administrative sphere, a new impetus developed.
Settlers not only moved into goal towns and started their teaching activities, but itinerant teachers and lecturers gradually began to move around the country in a highly coordinated program of national teaching.
As we cast a momentary glance back from this midway mark, we see the number of believers doubled, and the five Assemblies and nine groups existing prior to the inception of the Plan, increasing to its present ten Assemblies and nineteen groups."
Bythat time an Assembly existed in every capital city of the Commonwealth and some in other towns.
Even more important was the increased awareness among the Bahá'ís themselves of the majesty of the Faith they served.
BAnA'is OF GERMANY ANDAt the beginning of the period embraced by this survey, the German Baha is were in process of recovering from the losses suffered as result of the persecutions enacted by the former regime.
In 1937, for example, their entire stock of publications was confiscated.
Their administrative institutions could not function. Nevertheless, from 1946 to 1947 the Faith grew rapidly in Germany.
The number of adult believers was more than doubled, and the local Spiritual Assemblies were increased from four to ten.
The National SpiritualAssembly, moreover, succeeded in rearranging its affairs, meeting a total of twenty-one days during the year. The
Bahá'í School near Esslingenresumed its sessions after suspension for ten years, and a youth summer session was conducted in Heppenheim in July, 1946. Under license by the Military Government its monthly news letter again appeared.
In its brief annual report the National Spiritual Assembly expressed gratitude for the courage and guidance inspired by Shoghi Effendi in numeroug letters and cablegrams, and appreciation of the help received from RaM is from Persia and the United States, particularly the Persian Bahá'ís Manucher Z~bih and Aziz Samizni, and the American Bahá'ís John Eichenauer, HI.
and Bruce Davison.held April 26 and 27, 1947, brought together many delegates and visitors from all parts of Germany.
Austrian Baha'is, however, were unable to participate.
This gathering was infused by a moving sense of the glory of the Faith quickened in the hearts of the believers.
New publications being translated were "Hiddenrepresentative appointed to study and report on a site for the establishment of the National Bahá'í Headquarters had up to that time found nothing suitable for the purpose. The Convention received reports on youth activities, health measures undertaken for undernourished children, teachir~g, and public contacts.
During the meeting of the National Assembly held in October, 1948, the goals of a five year Plan were formulated at the request of the Guardian and announced to the Bahá'í community.
The aims defined were: Consolidation and expansion of the understanding and operation of the Bahá'í administration; expansion of Bahá'í activities throughout Germany and Austria and the addition of new centers; deeper study of the teachings; construction of a National
Headquarters in FrankfurtA/M. In connection with this Plan, a schedule of publications was adopted calling for two published works by March, 1949, fifteen by March, 1950, six by March, 1951, and nine by March, 1952. The Plan called for doubling the number of communities, from fourteen to twenty-eight, and increasing the membership in each community. Reflecting the spirit of the Plan, the
National Youth Committeeannounced its own goals: deepening in understanding of the teachings, and attracting other youth to the Faith. The Committee announced five themes for special study and discussion by youth during the period of the Plan.
The annual report prepared by the National Assembly for 19491950 constitutes the source of information concerning the status of the Plan at the end of the period covered by this survey.
The most difficult task confronting the Assembly was the construction of the administrative building, the site having been chosen in Frankfurt A/M. Bauer was appointed architect. This project will be treated in a later volume.
German Bahá'ís resumed their international contacts within the Faith as
Page 31opportunities arose. They participated in World Religion Day, World Youth Day, and a representative attended the European Teaching Conference held in Brussels.
By revision and republication of the national Bahá'í constitution and the bylaws of local Assemblies, the National Assembly established an administrative foundation for the German Bahá'í community conforming to those in operation in other Bahá'í communities. That an organic unity could be achieved so soon after so long a continuance of abnormal social conditions is a characteristic of the Baha Faith. Its spirit and teaching prevailed when the believers could gather together in fellowship and open their hearts to its light and warmth.
A letter written by Shoghi Effendi to the Germanexplained the reasons for the condition of the community, outlined directions for future work, and inspired deeper understanding of the meaning of unity.
Gratitude for this message was recorded, and to its influence the National Assembly attributed the cause of Baha progress in Germany. The Guardian's contributions to their building fund were of great benefit.
In a real historic crisis the German Bahá'ís felt themselves raised up to a level where political controversy, social unrest and personal dispute became unreal and lost their force. Their Guardian served them through his statesmanship as well as by his compassion and tenderness. Momentarily plunged into a wilderness of international disturbances, they received guidance informing them how to emerge. "Strict and unchanging adherence to the spiritual laws and administrative principles, which are the foundation of the Faith, steadfast and thorough knowledge of the nature, sanctity, and importance of the successive Covenants of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá; immediate cessation of all quarrels that shake the life of this community in the present critica!
situation; close cooperation, total harmony and continuous consultation between the various jurisdictions, whether Spiritual Assembly or community, that participate in its development; concentration upon the next tasks that will insure the success of the recently drawn up Five Year Plan; steady watchfulness on the part of each adherent of the Faith to avoid any deed, any word, any association that would violate its purity, undermine its
Administrative Orderor retard its progress or steadfastness. All of these stand out as the most urgent, holy and unavoidable duty and responsibility that confront each champion of the Faith in this fateful hour of its history."
Through shaking experience a strong and valiant community attains invincible might and pure integrity. Germany, to all Baha'is, has before it a tremend-Gus spiritual mission in the conquest of the world by the powers of righteousness and peace.
BAHÁ'Í PlAN IN INDIA,The Bahá'í Faith took root in the great subcontinent of India during the early years of the Ministry of Bahá'u'lláh. In the chronological list of countries opened to the Faith from 1844 to 1950, Burma ranks third among the one hundred reported, India ranks sixth and Pakistan ninth. It was not until after the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh in 1892 that His teachings penetrated any western land. Thus, Australia is the fourteenth country, Canada the seventeenth,
France, Germany and GreatBritain the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first, while the United States of America was the thirty-third country opened to the light of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation.
In each culture the new spirit has expressed its power in accordance with the existing degree of development. In one area it might evoke a new and direly needed sense of moral obligation to changing repressive and stagnant customs and farms; in another it might balance a too radical concern for
Page 32progress with a deeper realization of what is eternal and not subject to the manipulation of partisan forces.
For generations the West looked upon India as philosophical, pious, and unchanging.
Its religion had crystallized into a social structure inherently conservative as regards tools and equipment, and therefore static in the repetition of ages of village life.
The westerner could see little relationship between spiritual ideal and social responsibility. Now, in these last decades, momentous changes have acted upon the ancient civilization, producing more alteration than had been witnessed in centuries. The Baha activities to be summarized here must be understood in relation to the whole trend of events � the end of empire, the rise of nationalism, the division of political sovereignty along religious and racial lines, and the war operations affecting Burma.
The Bahá'í teachings were carried to India by Persian Bahá'ís but representatives of other cultural groups have since entered the
Bahá'í community. By 1944the community had become widespread and capable of sustaining a large schedule of activities.
This spiritual development rose to a brilliant climax during the worldwide celebration of the Bahá'í Centenary in that year.
Less than two years later the National Spiritual Assembly, realizing the need for a definite national plan, adopted a set of goals to be undertaken for four and onehalf years beginning January 9, 1946 and ending July 9, 1950, the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Bit.
Its focal point was the increase in the number of local Assemblies from twenty-one to sixty-three � a tripling of the number of administrative bodies within a multi-language area marked by sharp cultural and political divisions.
During the progess of this Plan the Assembly added more projects: publishing "Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era" in eighteen languages, the establishment of a national Bahá'í headquarters quarters in the capital city, New Delhi, and carrying the Bahá'í message to Ceylon,
Indonesia and Siam.In presenting its Four and OneHalf Year Plan to the Baha'is, the National Spiritual Assembly addressed a letter to the local Assemblies and groups which explained the methods by which the Plan could best be carried out.
The entire area of operations was divided into nine zones, giving due consideration to the predominant language spoken in each zone. Four steps were suggested as the most effective process for the formation of Baha 'i communities: two pioneer families, one Indian and one Persian, to go forth together and form the nucleus; developing interest through distribution of literature, personal contacts, and publicity; reenforcement of the local group by experienced traveling teachers; and lastly the consolidation of the community by a believer trained in the principles of Bahá'í administration.
The period of the Plan was divided into nine intervals of six months each as convenient stages for checking prog-res S. On the opening day of the Plan the National Spiritual Assembly received a most encouraging message from the Guardian: "Admire initiative, overjoyed (at) magnificent, spontaneous deeP sion (by) national representatives (of) Indian believers (to) inaugurate Plan designed (to) consolidate (and) extend range (of) splendid achievements associated (with) termination (of) first Bahá'í Century.
Fervently supplicating outpourings (of) Bahá'u'lláh's blessings (on) mighty undertaking."
"Apart from the glorious mission of creating new Bahá'í centers," the National Assembly wrote to the local communities after the Plan had been launched, "apart from carrying the message of light and life to our corner of a dark and despairing world, the Plan offers us a challenge to put into actual practice the Bahá'í principle of oneness and solidarity.
"The individual, the backbone of the whole scheme, will, in taking up pio
Page 33neering work, develop the qualities of faith in God, in himself and in his fel-lownien, the attributes of renunciation, of courage and audacity, of initiative and enterprise.
"The community that enters into this world with zest will act as the power house which will supply the energy needed to keep the wheels moving. They should evince for the welfare and establishment of the pioneer the same interest that they would in a member of their own household."
In these simple words the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma defined for themselves the spiritual meaning of a great crusade � a crusade which found fulfilment for all the virtues cultivated under centuries of Hinduism and Islftm, united at last in the community of Bahá'u'lláh, the Promised
One.By April 21, 1947, eight new local Assemblies had been formed.
In the same month a cablegram arrived from the Guardian of the Faith advising the
National Spiritual Assemblyto set about purchasing in New Delhi a building suitable for use as a National
Administrative Headquarters. Afew weeks later Shoghi Effendi wrote: "They now stand on the threshold of a new epoch in the history of the evolution of the Administrative Order in their land. The transfer of the central institution of that Order to the capital of India; the wide measure of centralization which this historic step must involve; the purchase of a befitting seat for the ever-expanding activities and the multiplying agencies of that institution in the same capital all these must synchronize with a remarkable and indeed unprecedented intensification of effort in the pioneer field of flah4'i activity, as well as in the sphere of public teaching designed to arouse the masses and proclaim the verities of the Faith throughout the length and breadth of that subcontinent and its adjoining territory of Burma.~~ On June 3, 1947 a building was purchased. Since the property was situated on leasehold land and in an area reserved for the Princes, the government's nt's sanction was required.
This was finally obtained, but at the same time the authorities requisitioned the property for public use. Up to the end of the period covered by this survey the Bahá'ís had not received custody of their building.
By April, 1948, five local Bahá'í communities were arranging for their own local administrative headquarters.
In its annual report of that year the National Assembly credited sixteen traveling teachers with public programs and fireside teaching work in eighty-one cities.
Meanwhile energetic effort was carried on to place Bahá'í articles in the press and to distribute literature to a selected list of five thousand prominent persons, many of whom signified their warm interest in the words of Bahá'u'lláh.
Two hundred fifty-nine items were carried in the newspapers. About four hundred and fifty books were presented to public libraries.
The language problem in connection with translation and publication of Bahá'í literature was stupendous.
In the case of some languages no script had been developed.
By 1948 the printed publications included translation in fifteen different tongues. Over 40,000 books and pamphlets were sold and distributed.
In Burma grievous conditions were encountered. In the village of Daida-flaw eleven Bahá'ís were slain during 1942, and the headquarters maintained there, in Manclalay and Rangoon were damaged or destroyed. Records, books and documents transferred for safety from Rangoon to Daidanaw were entirely lost when the headquarters was destroyed by fire.
As soon as communication was resumed, two Bahá'ís were appointed by the
National Spiritual Assemblyto visit Bahá'í centers in Burma and report on the conditions encountered.
The result of this was to provide measures for the relief of distressed Baha'is, give them work, restore the administrative headquarters, and resume an active teaching schedule.
Page 34By April, 1950, the termination of this survey, the Plan had reached this stage of attainment. Twenty-six Assemblies had been formed, Bahá'í centers established in Ceylon, Indonesia and Siam, the publishing schedule practically completed, and the National Administrative Headquarters purchased even though legal obstacles prevented its use by the
Bahá'í owners. Duringthis final year, 19491950, a Bahá'í of Kam-shatti, near Calcutta, was martyred by a religious fanatic.
Forty-seven of the sixty-three local goals contemplated in the Plan were assured.
The story of Bahá'í activity in India, Pakistan and Burma from 1946 to 1950 is enriched by the deep devotion of the many pioneer families who left their homes to establish the Faith in some other town, and by the indefatiguable work of the volunteer teachers who carried the message of Bahá'u'lláh far and wide.
The Plan, moreover, matured the Bahá'í community, steeled its will and opened its insight into the many social, humanitarian, cultural and spiritual teachings of the Faith.
Six OBJECTIVES ATTAINEDA Bahá'í of the West could only undertake a survey of activities among the Bahá'ís of Persia with extreme modesty. With its majestic spiritual background of more than a century of continuous persecution, the Persian Bahá'í community stands apart crowned with a distinction which other Bahá'í communities admire, and hope, if called upon, to deserve in their turn. Persia, too, as a land and a culture, preserves a mystery of isolation which in almost all other parts of the world has been penetrated and destroyed. Therefore, while the meeting of East and West has become not only possible but inevitable within the universal gospel of Bah4'u' -114h, and there is complete understanding between western and Persian believers in matters of faith and doctrine, the Bahá'í of the West has no sense of real intimacy with the particular type of culture in which Persian Bahá'ís live their lives and serve their Faith.
This survey is not the occasion to catalog the long list of outrages, cruelties, slaughters, repressions and lootings to which Persian Bahá'ís are still subjected despite the representations and appeals directed by Bahá'í administrative bodies to the responsible local, provincial and national authorities. The reason for this extension of primitive, priest-instigated feeling into modern times has been thus defined by a competent observer: ". Long standing political rivalries combined with a steady decline in the authority and influence exercised by the central government are contributing to the re-emerg-ence of reactionary forces represented by an as-yet influential and fanatical priesthood, to a recrudescence of the persecution and a multiplication of the disabilities to which a still unemancipated Faith has been so cruelly subjected for more than a century."
From the records and reports made available for this survey, a factual summary can be pieced together, but the factual record is incomplete without that sense of fatality which endows each incident with the quality of spiritual drama. Old Testament days, New Testament days, the days of Muhtim-mad in savage Arabia, are lived again in Persia today. The time will come when, through some keen-witted western journalist, or through some humane professional man visiting the country on some routine mission, the story of the Persian Bahá'ís will be spread in headlines of newspapers throughout the world; and the people will learn by what sacrifice and suffering is Revelation returned in our time.
A national Bahá'í Planfor the Persian community came into effect on October 11, 1946, to be fulfilled on July 9, 1950, the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Báb. Its objectives included four aims to be achieved within Persia, and three in adjoining lands.
1. Consolidation of all local Bahá'í communities.
2. Reestablishment of sixty-two dissolved Assemblies.
3. Formation of twenty-two new groups.from groups located in Kabul, Afghanistan, Mecca, Arabia, and Bahá'í Island,
Persian Gulf.6. Formation of groups in four localities on the Arabian Peninsula.
7. Sending pioneers to India and 'Irttq to assist in the formation of new groups.
To each of the twenty Provinces a proportionate number of the four goals was assigned. The Baha of Tihr&n were called upon to send out fifty families into the pioneer field.
Every individual Bahá'íwas included in the operation of the Plan � as a volunteer, by deputizing a pioneer, by contributing funds, by circuit teaching, or by providing hospitality to students whose parents had become pioneers.
The National Spiritualafter the Plan was published we received the beloved Guardian's soul-stirring message. It revealed the momentous character of this campaign and disclosed to our eyes the profoundly significant effect its fulfilment will have upon the immediate destiny of the Faith in Persia.
This dynamic call was brought to the friends in Tihr~n in the course of five special meetings which were held in the
National Bahá'í HeadquartersSimilar organized measures are being taken by Spiritual Assemblies in provincial centers and by Regional Emigration Committees to bring the � Guardian's appeal to the attention of all the friends in Persia, stressing the immensity of the task that lies before us." The cabled message from Shoghi Effendi which was communicated in this manner throughout the land was received on February 21, 1947.
"(I) rejoice (at the) magnificent Plan conceived (by the) National representatives (of the) dearly beloved community (of) Bahá'u'lláh's native land. This far-reaching project well befits (a) community which in age, numbers, richness (of) history leads (the) entire
Bahá'í world. Friends(and) foes, within and without, and fellow-believers (in) North, South, East (and) West (are) intently watching (the) manner (in which they) discharge (the) greatest task ever undertaken by (the) Persian followers (of the) Faith (of) Bahá'u'lláh.
(The) glorious company (of the) holy Founders (of the) Faith, the Letters (of the) Living,* Hands (of the) Cause, ** saints, heroes, martyrs, all (are) gazing expectantly from (the) AbM Kingdom upon (the) privileged custodians (of the) priceless legacy bequeathed to (the) present generation laboring (in the) cradle (of the)
Faith.Upon its success (at the) appointed time chiefly depends (the) release (of the) spiritual forces designed (to) emancipate (and) hasten (the) recognition (of the) Faith (in) IrAn."
Bahá'í pioneering in Persia, as the National Assembly pointed out, has passed through three stages since 1943: a great exodus of pioneers, their retreat under insuperable difficulties, and a resurgence of the expansive movement. In 1943 an immediate and widespread response was inspired by letters from the Guardian of the Faith.
"No sooner � had his call been echoed than volunteers came forth in scores and hundreds.
They came forth from every walk of life, men and women, rich and poor, learned and untutored, young and old, to share in the glorious task of promoting the interests of their beloved Faith.
"In those dark days of 19431944 living conditions in Persia were at their worst.
Insecurity, bitterness, economic chaos were widespread many pea-pie were in the throes of starvation."
Soon the National SpiritualAssembly became aware of outbursts of fanaticism and hostility, hatred and overt acts. A wave of bitter persecution arose against the Bahá'í pioneers in practically every locality where they had settled.
On August 8, 1944, in Sh&rttd, a revolting crime took place *The Dab's chosen disciples.
See "God Passes By."**Disciples chosen by Bahá'u'lláh. Hands of the Cause have also been appointed by the Guardian in accordance with a provision of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Testament.
Page 36resulting in the slaughter of three Bahá'ís and the mutilation of their bodies.
Bahá'í women were beaten, seventeen Bahá'í homes plundered and consigned to the flames.
Despite this recent experience, the new Plan adopted in 1946 evoked a great response.
While fifty families bad been requested from TihrAn, one hundred sixty Bahá'í families arose between 1946 and 1950 to pioneer. By 1950 ninety-three Assemblies had been formed, thirty-seven groups established and twenty-four locallities with at least one Baha'i.
Outside Persia, four Assemblies were formed, and six localities settled with groups or individual Baha'is.
The Plan came to more than hoped-for realization in advance of the final date.
In this vast process the observer studying the records finds several features which possess distinctive interest.
He notes, for example, the powerful effort and extensive arrangements made to remove from Bahá'í women the traditional shackles of lack of education and inability to participate in public affairs. The
National Spiritual Assemblydetermined to create educational opportunities available to Bahá'í women.
Women's conferences were called for discussion of these problems. It became a fixed aim to attain for Bahá'í women that station of equality with men � equality of opportunity, right and privilege � which the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh declare to be an essential to a spiritual society and a condition of true civilization. Since in the Bahá'í community every local and national elective or appointive office is open to men and women on the same terms, the effort put forth by the Persian Bahá'ís represented a complete repudiation of the past tradition and a bold assertion of new principles and truths.
Noteworthy also as a collective action of the Persian Bahá'ís during the period under survey was their warm and generous response to the needs of their religious brothers and sisters in war-stricken lands of Europe and the East. Thousands of relief packages were shipped, and large sums sent to America to be devoted to this purpose. Such an assertion of the humanitarian spirit among an Oriental people is one more sign and evidence that a new spirit has been released by the Revelation by Bahá'u'lláh of the oneness of mankind.
A touching glimpse into the hearts of the Persian Bahá'ís is unconsciously given in an account of the arrival in Tihr&ri of the news that United Nations, accepting its status as an international nongovernmental organization, accredited delegates and observers appointed by the Baha International Community to cultural conferences.
The Bahá'í InternationalCommunity is an association of the existing National Spiritual Assemblies, including that of Persia. The sudden realization that this contact with a responsible international body had been conferred upon them produced extraordinary joy. It was as though the sun itself had suddenly appeared through a rift in the darkest of clouds.
Visits of western Bahá'ís to Persia have been relatively few, though Americans sustained the cost of Tarbiyat School for girls during a certain period, and American teachers served in the School. Dr. Robert L. Gulick, visiting Persia while on a mission for the Carnegie Foundation, was received with enthuxsiasm and conducted to many of the holy places and Bahá'í shrines in Persia.
The account of his visit to Persia also affords a tender glimpse into the heart of the Bahá'í community.
Page 37Lead vases, gilded peacocks, crushed red tile paths, lights, marble stairs and cypress trees all play a part in beautifying the gardens around the Tomb ol the Báb on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Page 38During the years of the first World War, 1916 and 1917, while conimunica-tion was interrupted between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Bahá'ís of the West, He revealed a series of Tablets addressed to the Bahá'ís in four areas of the United States and to the Bahá'ís in Canada, including three addressed to the entire Bahá'í community in both countries. These Tablets became known as Tablets of the Divine Plan. In them 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid down the broad principles of a teaching mission the American Bahá'ís were to undertake in all parts of the world, beginning with the establishment of Bahá'í communities throughout North America. The Plan also formulated the spiritual conditions under which alone it could be successfully prosecuted. The effect of this series of Tablets was to constitute the Bahá'ís of North America the Master's trustees in carrying out the provisions of these Tablets.
The physical life of 'Abdu'l-Bahá was drawing to a close.
His own unique teaching mission publicly executed during His journey in Europe and North America, could not be resumed after the war. From His creative spirit the Master considered the spiritual needs and capacities of the peoples of the world.
In His Plan He bound the peoples of East and West together in one spirit, one brotherhood, one social order, finding in North America the necessary elements of freedom, initiative and unified executive capacity to sustain the greater responsibilities of a world mission.
From 1922, the beginning of the administrative development of the Bahá'í community by the Guardian in conformity with the provisions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Will, until 1946, response to the Divine Plan was made by heroic individual Bahá'ís who carried the Message to other lands, and collectively in efforts to strengthen the Faith within North America itself.
In 1937 a Seven Year Planwas formulated by Shoghi Effendi under which North American Baha 'is were given their first international goals.
The Plan called for the formation of a Spiritual Assembly in each State of the United States and each Province of Canada, the completion of the exterior onamentation of the House of Worship, and the establishment of Bahá'í groups in each country of Central and South America, by 1944, the Centenary of the Declaration of the B&b. This Plan was successfully carried out. It represented one stage in the execution of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Divine Plan.
In 1946, after a respite of two years, a Second Seven Year Plan was given by the Guardian to North America, the focal point being 1953, the Centenary of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh's Mission. This stage in the consummation of the Divine Plan set up four separate goals: consolidation and bolder proclamation of the Faith in the United States and Canada; completion of the interior ornamentation of the House of Worship; the establishment of National Spiritual Assemblies in Canada, Central America, and South America; and a new teaching mission in Western Europe involving the formation of at least one Spiritual Assembly in each of ten countries � Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Supplementary to this Plan was the resolve to bring to one hundred seventy-five the number of local Assemblies in North America by April 21, 1948. This was accomplished.
The Plan was outlined in a cablegram which the Guardian addressed to the Thirty-Eighth Annual Convention, April 25, 1946. "The prosecutors of the Plan who in the course of six war-ridden years achieved such prodigies of service in the Western
Hemisphere from Alaskato Magallanes are now collectively summoned to assume in the course of the peaceful years ahead still weightier responsibilities for the opening decade of the Second (Baha'i) Century.
The time is ripe, events are pressing."tween 1937 and 1944, Shoghi Effendi in this same cable summarized them as follows: "The campaign culminating the Centenary of the inauguration of the Bahá'í Era completed sixteen months ere the appointed time the exterior ornamentation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, laid the basis of the administrative order in every virgin State and Province of the North American continent, almost doubled the Assemblies established since the inception of the Faith, established Assemblies in fourteen Republics of Latin America, constituted active groups in remaining Republics, swelled to sixty the Sovereign States within the pale of the Faith."
A few weeks after theBahá'ís received a letter from the Guardian presenting the second Seven Year Plan against a background emphasizing its historic and spiritual import.
This communication, dated June 15, 1946, was published under the title "A God-Given
Mandate.""The opening years of the second century of the Bahá'í Era are witnessing the launching of yet another stage of an enterprise the range of whose unfolding processes we can, at the present time, but dimly visualize. However familiar we may be with its origin, however conscious of its magnitude and bold character, however cognizant of the signal success that has attended its initial operation, in the Western Hemisphere, we find ourselves nevertheless incapable of either grasping the import of its tremendous potentialities, or of correctly appraising the significance of the present phase of its development. Nor can we assess its reaction, as the momentum of the mysterious forces driving it onward augments, on the fortunes of the divers communities whose members are consciously laboring for the achievement of purposes akin to the high aims that animate its promoters, or estimate its impact, as its scope is further enlarged and its fruition is accelerated, on the immediate destinies of mankind in general.
"The impulse from which this historic world-embracing crusade, which, alike in the character of its Founder and the nature of the tasks committed to its participants, is unprecedented in religious history, derives its creative power may be said to have in a sense originated with the mandate issued by the Báb in His Qayyfim'1-Asm&', one of His earliest and greatest works, as far back as the opening years of the first Bahá'í century, and directed specifically to the 'peoples of the West,' to 'issue forth' from their 'cities' and aid His Cause.
"To this initial impulse given by the Herald of our Faith, whilst confined in the heart of faraway Asia, a still greater force was communicated, and a more specific direction given, when the Author of our Faith Himself, having already set foot on the fringes of the continent of Europe, addressed, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, from behind the walls of the prison-city of 'Akka, some of the most celebrated passages of that Book to the Chief Magistrates of the entire American continent, bidding them 'bind with the hands of justice the broken,' and 'crush the oppressor' with the 'rod of the commandments' of their Lord. Unlike the kings of the earth whom He had so boldly condemned in that same Book, unlike the European Sovereigns whom He had either rebuked, warned or denounced, such as the French Emperor, the most powerful monarch of His time, the Conqueror of that monarch, the Heir of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Caliph of IsThm, the Rulers of America were not only spared the ominous and emphatic warnings which He uttered against the crowned heads of the world, but were called upon to bring their corrective and healing influence to bear upon the injustices perpetrated by the tyrannical and the tin-godly. To this remarkable pronouncement, conferring such distinction upon the sovereign rulers of the Western Hemisphere, must be added not only the passages in which the Author of our Faith clearly foreshadows the revelation of the 'signs of His dominion' in the West, but also the no less significant verbal affirmations which, according to reliable eyewitnesses, He more
Page 40than once made in regard to the glorious destiny which America was to attain in the days to come."
The mission in Europe was presented in these words: "In conjunction with these aforementioned objectives, and in a sense, more far-reaching in its repercussions and of greater urgency, is the task of extending the ramifications of the Divine Plan to a continent which not only stands in dire need of the ennobling, the reinvigorating, and spiritualizing influence of a world-redeeming Faith, but must serve as a steppingstone to the spiritual conquest of the vast and numerous territories, lying as yet beyond the scope of the plan, in both the Asiatic and African continents, and which must, in the course of successive epochs, be warmed and illuminate by the rays of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation as prescribed in the Tablets revealed by the Center of His Covenant and the Authorized Interpreter of His teachings.
"In the western extremity of that continent, in the Iberian Peninsula, the parent land and fountainhead of the culture of those Republics which have already been quickened by the first stirrings of the Plan conceived by 'Abdu'l-Bahá; in the extreme North, among the Scandinavian peoples, and further south, amidst their Flemish and French neighbors, whose conversion will considerably enrich the diversity of the races to be included within the orbit of its operation; in the extreme South, in the Italian Peninsula, the cradle of a far-famed civilization and the seat and stronghold of the most powerful Church in Christendom; in the very heart of that continent, amidst a freedom-loving, peace-pursuing, high-minded people, the prosecutors of the Second Seven Year Plan must, preferably in the capitals of these countries, arise to establish, on an unassailable foundation, the structural basis of the nascent institutions of their Faith, which future promoters of the Divine Plan must, in the course of succeeding epochs, enlarge, and theron erect the mightiest edifices of that Faith."
The spiritual blessing conveyed through participation in this Plan was also described: "To be privileged to render, in His stead, on so colossal a scale, at such a challenging hour, and in the service of so sublime a Plan, so great and enduring a service is a bounty which we can never adequately appraise.
We stand too close to the noble edifice our hands are rearing, the din and tumult into which a war-devastated world is now plunged are too distracting, our own share in the furtherance of those global aims, tasks and problems that are increasingly absorbing the attention of mankind and its leaders is as yet too circumscribed, for us to be in a position to evaluate the contribution which we, as the executors of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Mandate, as the champion-builders of Bahá'u'lláh' s Order, as the torchbearers of a civilization of which that Order is the mainspring and precursor, are now being led, through the inscrutable dispensations of an almighty Providence to make to the world triumph of our Faith, as well as to the ultimate redemption of all mankind."
It was with such challenging assurance, appeal and guidance that the Bahá'í community, in 1946, bent its energy to prosecution of the task.
For the consolidation of the American Bahá'í community and a more determined proclamation of the Faith to the leaders and masses, far-reaching teaching plans were adopted and put in motion. Qn the one hand a series of nationwide public meetings were initiated through the local communities in which a number of challenging themes were successively presented. In connection with these public gatherings the work of providing study classes for interested inquirers was intensified. In homes, in local Bahá'í meeting places, using every possible facility for teaching, a powerful movement penetrated the entire Baha community.
Paralleling these public meetings and study groups the National Spiritual Assembly inaugurated a public relations program which publicized the
Page 41Gilded, wrought iron gates, and stately paths, surround the Shrine of the BTh on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Page 42Faith through press and radio, through advertisements in magazines, and through mailings of literature to large selected lists of influential and key persons. Bahá'í releases were distributed to more than five hundred newspapers, and in the case of announcements accompanied by photographs of the completed exterior ornamentation of the Temple, or views of the interior design when contracts were placed, the results were most gratifying. In one instance a Temple illustration was reproduced in more than five hundred weekly papers published in smaller towns. The metropolitan press provided more space for Bahá'í articles than had been given since the memorable days of 1912, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed large audiences in universities, synagogues, churches and cultural gatherings throughout North
America.Space is not available to record in detail the activities reported by the National Assembly and its committees year by year from 1946 to 1950.
In addition to the activities directly related to the prosecution of the Seven Year Plan, some of the major events included the transfer of the Louhelen School property in Davison, Michigan by its owners, Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Eggleston, to Bahá'í trustees as a permanent endowment of the American Bahá'í community. The Eggleston residence, located on the school property, was purchased in order to complete the holding.
Bahá'í endowments were also augmented through gifts of properties in Geyserville, California, by Mrs. Louise Bosch and Mrs. Amelia E. Collins, and in Eliot, Maine, by Mrs. Villa Vaughn, and by Mrs. Amelia E. Collins in Wilmette, Illinois.
During this period was developed a relationship of the Bahá'í body to the United Nations.
On April 16, 1948, Shoghi Effendi cabled the American
National Convention aextended to the Faith by United Nations as an international non-govern-mental body enabling appointment of accredited representatives to United Nations conferences is heralding world recognition for a universal proclamation of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh."
A few days later, in his cablegram beginning "Joy-fully acclaim brilliant achievements," dated
April 26, the Guardianincluded recognition by United Nations as one of the achievements of the American community: .....
whose spokesmen are securing recognition of the institutions of Bahá'u'lláh's rising world order in the United
Nations.~~On May 18, 1948, writing through his secretary, Shoghi Effendi advised the National Spiritual Assembly as follows: "The recognition given your Assembly (as representative of the other National Spiritual Assemblies) by UN as a nongovernmental body entitled to send representatives to various UN conferences marks an important step forward, in the struggle of our beloved Faith to receive in the eyes of the world its just due, and be recognized as an independent World Religion. Indeed, this step should have a favorable reaction on the program of the Cause everywhere, especially in those parts of the world where it is still persecuted, belittled, or scorned, particularly in the East."
These passages give us a good background for a review of the development of Bahá'í relations with the United Nations.
The first stage was application for recognition of the
National Spiritual Assemblyof the United States and Canada as a national nongovernmental organization.
This was obtained in the spring of 1947, bringing with it the status of an accredited observer.
Under this status the NSA submitted two formal statements: A Bahá'í
Declaration of Human Obligationsand Rights, and A Bahá'í Statement on the Rights of Women. A Bahá'í United Nations Committee was appointed; a Bahá'í observer attended UN sessions, and effective contacts made.
The second stage was application for recognition of the Faith as an international nongovernmental body � a much more important status. A form was suggested for each National As
Page 43sembly to fill out, authorizing the American Assembly to act for them in relation to UN matters. This form was executed by the seven other National Assemblies then existing (winter 19471948) and in the name of "The Bahá'í International Community" the eight Assemblies were given recognition as an international organization.
When the Canadian Bahá'ísformed their own National Assembly, it executed the same form, and this has been filed with UN.
The Bahá'í InternationalCommunity is thus a union of nine National Spiritual Assemblies for the purpose of maintaining a relationship to UN. "The Bahá'í International Community" has no other function or authority.
The first Bahá'í representation at an international UN conference took place in May, 1948, at Geneva, when Mrs. Mildred Mottahedeh, Mr. Ugo Giachery and Mr. C. Mason Remey, under appointment as representatives of the "Baha International Community," took part in a gathering of many representatives of international non-govern-mental organizations under UN auspices to confer on Human Rights.
Five delegates were appointed, but Mr. Leroy loas and
Mrs. Marion Holley HofmanA request was received prior to the conference for a brief statement on what Bahá'ís are doing to promote human rights, and this statement has been published in World Order Magazine and also issued by the Public Relations
Committee.The Bahá'í delegates introduced two resolutions which were approved and accepted by the Geneva conference.
"RESOLVED: That the Non-Govern-mentalOrganizations endeavor through their local branches and with the permission of the governing authorities to educate and prepare the peoples of nonmember nations for their eventual entry into the United
Nations."Organizations who here represent a good portion of the world's population can go far in the implementation of Article No. 1 of the
Declaration of Human Rights by themselves setting the example within their own organization by eliminating within these organizations all sorts of prejudice whether it be that of race, creed or color.
They would thus present a living example of the implementation of Article No. 1."
Other United Nations Conferencesin which Bahá'í representatives participated were held in San Francisco, 1948, Paris, 1948, University of Kansas, 1949 and 1950, Geneva, June, 1949, Lake Success, 1949 and Santiago, Chile, 1950.
The foundation for this relationship had been established at the Bahá'í World Center by the Guardian in 1947. On July 9 of that year he received a letter from the chairman of United Nations Special Committee on Palestine requesting a statement on the relationship which the Bahá'í Faith has to Palestine and the Bahá'í attitude towards any future changes in the status of the country.
From Shoghi Effendi'sreply, dated July 14, 1947, the following paragraphs are quoted: "The position of the Bahá'ís in this country is in a certain measure unique: Whereas Jerusalem is the spiritual center of Christendom it is not the administrative center of either the Church of Rome or any other Christian denomination.
Likewise although it is regarded as the second most sacred shrine of IsThm, the most Holy site of the MuJ?ammadan Faith, and the center of its pilgrimages, are to be found in Arabia, not in Palestine. The Jews alone offer somewhat of a parallel to the attachment which the Bahá'ís have for this country, inasmuch as Jerusalem holds the remains of their Holy Temple and was the seat of both the religious and political institutions associated with their past history.
But even their case differs in one respect from that of the Bahá'ís for it is in the soil of Palestine that the three central Figures of our Religion are buried and it is not only the center of Bahá'í pilgrimages from all over the world but also the permanent seat of our Administrative Order, of which I have the honor to be the Head.
Page 44"The Bahá'í Faith is entirely nonpolitical and we neither take sides in the present tragic dispute going on over the future of the Holy Land and its people nor have we any statement to make or advice to give as to what the nature of the political future of this country should be. Our aim is the establishment of universal peace in this world and our desire to see justice prevail in every domain of human society, including the domain of politics. As many of the adherents of our Faith are of both Jewish and Moslem extraction, we have no prejudice towards either of these groups and are most anxious to reconcile them for their mutual good and for the good of the country.
"What does concern us, however, in any decisions made affecting the future of Palestine, is that the fact be recognized by whoever exercises sovereignty over Haifa and Acre, that within this area exists the spiritual and administrative world center of a world Faith, and that the independence of that Faith, its right to manage its affairs from this source, the right of Bahá'ís from any and every country of the globe to visit it as pilgrims (enjoying the same privilege in this respect as Jews,
Moslems and Christiansdo in regard to visiting Jerusalem), be acknowledged and permanently safeguarded."
With this communication, moreover, Shoghi Effencli enclosed a brief sketch of the history, aims and significance of the Bahá'í Faith which the National Spiritual Assembly has printed and widely distributed in pamphlet form.
Since 1947 a United NationsCommittee has been annually appointed to maintain Bahá'í relations through participation in the successive conferences. Five documents have been submitted to the United Nations: the Guardian's letter and enclosure, referred to above, A Bahá'í Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights, A Bahá'í Statement on the Rights of Women, Work of Ba-hd'is lit Relation to Hnman Rights, and an explanation of the nature of Bahá'í public worship, offered in connection with the development by the
UnitedNations of a prayer building or center. During this period the first all-Indian Bahá'í community in America was formed through the work of Mrs. Mary Stevison and Mrs. Amelia Collins.
In 19461947, as the result of a special appeal for pioneers to settle in towns where local Assemblies were needed, one hundred thirtyfive American Ba-M'is responded and made their homes in new cities and towns.
A tally made by the National Radio Committee for a period of nine months in 1946 showed that a total of 587 Bahá'í broadcasts were made. About fourteen local Assemblies sustained a weekly program for thirteen weeks or more. The National Radio Committee produced a series of ten dramatic transcriptions which were extensively used.
Temple visitors listed in 1946 and 1947 numbered about 60,000. The reception of Temple visitors was made more effective by the production of an audiovisual presentation of Temple pictures, other Bahá'í scenes, and the basic teachings of the
Faith.On January 6, 1947 the American Bahá'í community in local gatherings celebrated the twenty-fifth anniverasry of the Guardianship. The occasion was deeply felt and memorable, as the Ba-h&'is, and particularly the older members, realized the miraculous manner in which a worldwide and diversified community had been guided and inspired to develop organic institutions and maintain a unity unassailable by any force operating from without or within.
It was the privilege of the National Spiritual Assembly to publish a noble statement on the Guardianship and the achievements since the ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá prepared by RQfiyyih KTh~num.
A new method of community education, combining spiritual devotion, discussion and study, was developed in the form of a "Bahá'í Institute." This method consisted in holding of special community and inter-community study conferences for reading and discussion of a text prepared for this purpose. The first text, devoted to the Baha'i
Page 45Covenant and Administration, compiled Bahá'í passages of basic importance and the Institute sessions conduct&1 throughout the United States were acclaimed.
The Institute method has for its aim the self-education of a Bahá'í community by mutual participation, since the era of the proficient teacher able to travel from community to community appears to have closed.
This new educational system was the more opportune in that for two successive years, as a measure of austerity during Temple construction, the four Bahá'í Schools were suspended.
LAnN AMERIc~ MISSIONTo assure the formation of a National Spiritual Assembly by the IBahá'ís in both Central and South America before 1953, the Inter-America Committee appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of North America formulated an energetic schedule of activities.
Since the delegates to be chosen for the Conventions qualified to elect these National
Spiritual Assemblieswould be representative of the local Bahá'í communities in existence at that future time, the essential aim of the Committee plan was to establish the broadest possible basis of representation.
Any country of these two areas not possessing a properly constituted local Assembly at the time the delegates were chosen would not be represented at the Convention. The minimum requisite, then, was the development of at least one Assembly in each country.
By 1946 some countries already had more than one Assembly. The Committee also proposed to assist the local Assemblies to obtain corporate status as religious bodies in accordance with the regulations prevailing in each country.
The next requisite was the development of an active sense of community among all the Bahá'ís of each international area, and afford them practice in the conduct of projects common to all, involving a steady transfer of responsibility from the representatives of the North American Baha to representatives of the Bahá'ís of Latin America.
This was accomplished by the appointment of regional committees and committees acting for the Bahá'í communities of Central and South America as a whole, and by the conduct of annual conferences with school sessions attended by one or more believers from each country. Thus the social and spiritual equivalent of annual conventions was created, and a spirit of fellowship and mutual Bahá'í aim developed throughout both these international areas.
Other aims set up at the very beginning of theincluded the carrying of the Faith to the masses and also to leaders, provision of literature for study in Spanish, Portuguese and French, and securing the service of additional pioneer teachers, both Latin American and North Amer-jean, to maintain intensive work with Assemblies and groups in all parts of the two areas.
Gratifying progress could be reported at the end of the first year, 1947.
Eight original teaching committees had become active. Teaching by correspondence, a method which proved unexpectedly effective, increased from an initial distribution of four hundred copies of each successive lesson to nineteen hundred.
Forty new groups were formed that year, six attaining Assembly status by April, 1947. A total of eleven new local Assemblies was formed that year. The number of enrolled Bahá'ís nearly doubled.
The core of the entire intercontinental campaign was the pioneer teachers who had volunteered to serve for an indefinite period in a foreign land, learn a new language, adjust to a new culture and civilization, and steadfastly uphold the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
Tribute was paid to the work of twenty pioneers from North America and of three North American Bahá'ís permanently resident in Latin America.
Bahá'í schools established in Latin America in 19461947 were located in Ezeiza, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and
Page 46School at Pine Valley, Colorado, conducted a workshop course in Latin American pioneering.
A final contribution to the work was that of North American Bahá'ís who traveled in Latin America and visited Bahá'í communities en route.
By April, 1947, the Committee could report five Assemblies in Colombia, four in Chile, three in Mexico and three in Brazil. By that time the goal cities needed for complete representation could be selected and arrangements ,!nade for concentrated teaching work.
A conference held in Buenos Aires was attended by twenty-five representatives from ten South American countries, and a conference held in Panama City was attended by representatives from nine countries of Central America. The agendas provided at these conferences called for discussion and action on Baha matters of direct concern to the participants.
Bahá'í radio broadcasts were delivered during 19461947 in Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and the Dominican
Republic.By April, 1950, the final date of this survey, the process of consolidating two national (in reality, international) Bahá'í Communities, had been carried to a point where success was assured.
By 1950, the transfer of responsibility for planning and direction was nearly complete. Two national committees were functioning in the preparation of translation, publication and distribution of Bahá'í literature, the preparation of study courses, radio scripts and publicity, the editing and distribution of Bahá'í news bulletins, and the organization and conduct of an International Bahá'í Congress in Central and
South America. RegionalConferences during 19491950 were conducted in Bogot&, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Valparaiso, La Paz, Havana, Mexico, D. F., Tegucigalpa, and San Jos6, with wide representation, including a member of the National Teaching Committees of the area.
Surveys were prepared pointing to the critical needs still to be met by 1951.
The Inter-America Committeereported that the initiative and energy shown by the Latin American Bah& is on the eve of their administrative independence from North American authority was most gratifying.
A landmark in the evolution of the Latin American Bahá'í communities was the statement written by the Guardian in 1947, in his second epochal letter on the Seven Year Plan (pub-lished as The Challenging Requirements of the Present Hour) describing them as the "co-workers and associates" of the North American Baha'is, in carrying out the provisions of
'Abdu'l-Bahá'í DivinePlan. That same letter presented a detailed schedule of activities and accomplishments for Latin America as well as for North America during the remaining years of the Seven Year Plan.
The first Latin Americanlocal Assembly to incorporate was San Jos6, followed by Bogot&, Asuncion, La Paz, Panama City and Caracas. Later incorporations before 1950 included Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, and Lima. The remaining Assemblies were in process of preparing their applications.
Twenty-three Latin AmericanrBahwis by 1948 had qualified as teachers enrolled for pioneer enterprises or special missions.
In reporting on the events between 1946 and 1948, the Inter-America Committee emphasized the importance of the transfer of responsibility to the Latin American
Baha'is."The most dramatic development in the evolution of the Cause during these twenty-one months has been the gradual setting up and final complete functioning of Latin America's own teaching administration.
The first National TeachingCommittees were appointed in June, 1947, one for South America and one for the
Caribbean countries. Allof the members were native believers with the exception of one secretary on each committee. To Artemus
Page 47Lamb in the south and to Mrs. Marcia Steward in Central America, was assigned the delicate and exacting task of helping these new committees to begin to truly function through complete consultation, and to take over one by one, as the committees became able to do so, the responsibilities and the direction of comprehensive, continental teaching programs.
"The historic names of the first Latin AmericanEsteban Canales Leyton, chairman; Artemus Lamb, secretary; Srta. Rosy Vodano-vic, treasurer; Srta. Betty Rowe, assistant secretary, and Walter
Hammond."For the Caribbean countries � Sr. Jose Antonio Bonilla, chairman; Marcia Steward, executive secretary; Sra. Natalia de Chavez, general secretary and treasurer; Oscar Casto,
Antonio Mora and Carlos"At first each committee, one centered in Santiago, Chile, and the other in San Jos6, Costa Rica, influenced only the single country in which each was established, working through the Regional Teaching Committee of that country.
Through a slow and often unreliable mail service, covering many thousands of miles and passing through the delays of many border censorships, it was necessary for each national committee to reach out and try to make contact with its spiritual arms, the Regional Committees, to consult with them regarding the conditions and needs prevailing in their individual countries, to try to plan the type of activities adapted to these conditions.
Practically all members of the Regional Committees were native believers.
Such teaching committees in each country constituted new projects, and it required a little time for them to learn how to plan campaigns in cooperation with the existing Assemblies, groups and teachers.
"It was a turning point in the history of thewhen the North American pioneers ceased, in cooperation with the Inter-America Committee, to direct and do everything, when the reins of administration were placed with confidence in the hands of Latin Americans, and the Inter-America Committee together with the pioneers began to cooperate with them in their efforts. In the north the influence of Latin American administration spread gradually from Costa Rica down to Panama, then up through the Central Americas, until finally it flowered in the great Congress just closed in Mexico City, all of which was planned and directed by the National
Teaching Committee. InSouth America the influence spread first through the countries of the south and then gradually northward until, with the coming of the historic Congress in Santiago, firm bonds and unity of action were established with the great countries of the north � Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and
Ecuador." The Committeealso stressed the beginnings of large public meetings: "Impressive public meetings with full cooperation of press and radio are being held in the great hail of the University of Santiago in connection with the South American
Congress and InternationalSchool sessions at this time. Public meetings in nine of the cities of Venezuela, attended by governors of states, artists, writers, educators, prominent business men, Lions, Masons and Rotarians, as well as members of other organizations, accompanied by magnificent newspaper and radio publicity, marked the recent trip of Gayle Wool-son through that country. Similar meetings were held in six cities of Colombia and a large public meeting is being planned by the Regional Teaching Committee of Colombia in connection with the Regional Conference to be celebrated in Bogot&, March 25 to 28. This will immediately precede the meeting of the Pan-American Union in that city. The Committee has planned a complimentary pamphlet for delegates and visitors to the Pan-American Conference, including a map of Bogot& and the words of Bahá'u'lláh.
A special information service will be conducted by the Baha'is, which it is hoped will help to orient the visitors from many countries both practically and spirit
Page 48A corner of the gardens surrounding the Shrine of the Bib, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Page 49"A splendid public meeting has just been held in Rio de Janeiro, sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of that city. Other public meetings have been held in Callao, Peru, under the auspices of the Assembly of Lima. Much fine publicity has been received in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and favorable publicity has been granted in practically all of the twenty-two countries."
In May, 1949, anticipating the probable location of the National Administrative Headquarters to be established after the Convention sessions of 1951, the National
Teaching Committee for Southfor Central America was moved to Panama City. The National records and correspondence were thus organized in relation to the future administrative development.
A letter written by the Guardian on August 18, 1950, released final inspiration for the unfinished tasks.
"No less attention, while this emergency period taxes, to an unprecedented degree, the combined resources of the envied trustees of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Divine Plan, should be directed to the vast network of Bahá'í enterprises initiated throughout Latin America, where the work so nobly conceived, so diligently prosecuted, so conspicuously blessed, is rapidly nearing the first stage of its fruition.
The flow of pioneers, so vital in all its aspects, and which has yielded such inestimable benefits at the early stages of this widely ramified enterprise, must, however urgent the other tasks already shouldered by an overburdened yet unfailingly protected community, be neither arrested nor slackened.
The outposts of the newly-born communities, established in the Strait of Ma-gallanes in the South, must be held with undiminished vigor and determination.
The major task of insuring the breadth and solidity of the foundations laid for the establishment of two National tional Baha Assemblies, through the preservation of the present Assemblies, groups and isolated centers, must be scrupulously watched and constantly encouraged.
The process of the dissemination of Bahá'í literature, of Bahá'í publication and translation, must continue unabated, however much the sacrifice involved.
The newly-fledged institutions of Teaching and Regional committees, of summer schools and of Congresses~ must be continually encouraged and increasingly supported by teachers as well as administrators, by pioneers from abroad, as well as by by the native believers themselves. The highly salutary and spiritually beneficent experiment of encouraging a more active participation by these newly won supporters of the Paith in Latin America, and a greater assumption of administrative responsibility on their part, in the ever expanding activities to be entrusted wholly to their care in the years to come, should be, in particular, developed, systematized and placed on a sure and unassailable foundation.
Above all, the paramount duty of deepening the spiritual life of these newly fledged, these precious and highly esteemed coworkers, and of enlightening their minds regarding the essential verities enshrined in their Faith, its fundamental institutions, its history and genesis � the twin Covenants of Bahá'u'lláh and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the present Administrative Order, the future World Order, the Laws of the Most Holy Book, the inseparable institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice, the salient events of the Heroic and Formative Ages of the Faith, and its relationship with the Dispensations that have preceded it, its attitude toward the social and political organizations by which it is surrounded � must continue to constitute the most vital aspect of the great spiritual Crusade launched by the Champions of the Faith from among the peoples of their sister Republics of the South."
MISSION IN EUROPEa part of the Seven Year Plan, Shoghi Effendi aroused the American Bahá'ís for the first time to an actual realization of the formidable scope of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Tablets. They had as it were grown up with the Temple project, and the settlement of Latin America could be visualized as a natural extension of teaching in and by North America. Though basically different in culture and language, Latin America represented a project which still permitted a spirit of Americanism to 'coexist with the spirit of zeal for the Faith.
Western Europe, however, represented a different continent. The project could not be visualized as an exten-Sian of any existing unified aim.
It came as a challenge and an ordeal until, by enlargement of consciousness, its blessing could be known and felt.
Special emphasis was given to the European mission by the Guardian of the Faith. One June 10, 1946 he cabled to advise the National Assembly to devote its next meeting to the "urgent, vital requirements" of the Plan.
"Opening phase spiritual conquest old world under divinely conceived Plan must be speedily, befittingly inaugurated." He urged the prompt despatch of nine competent pioneers to as many of the ten countries as possible to "initiate systematic teaching work, commence settlement, promote dissemination (of) literature." The same cable called for the establishment of an auxiliary office in Geneva, Switzerland, with facilities to foster Assembly development within the ten countries embraced within the scope of the
Plan.the necessary factor of concentrated attention and continuous effort was supplied. The committee realized that as far as possible the pioneers established in Western Europe should be natives of the coin-try in which they were to serve.
The first pioneer, Mrs. Solveig Corbit, departed on September 3, 1946, for her mission in Norway.
In order to survey the Bahá'í activities, and the supply of literature in the several na tive languages, Mrs. Etty Graeffe was dispatched on the same boat. During 19461947, two pioneers departed for Holland, Miss Rita
Van Sombeek and Mrs. JettyStraub, two pioneers for Denmark, Mr. and Mrs. Anders Nielsen, Miss Honor Keinpton went to Luxembourg, Miss Virginia Orbison proceeded to Spain,
Mrs. Madeline Hum-bertsettled in Belgium, Mr. and Mrs. Ugo Giachery in Italy, Mrs. Alice Dudley in Sweden, Mr. and Mrs. John Shurcijif in Belgium,
Miss Sally Sanor and MissAnita loas in Luxembourg, John Carre in Netherlands, Mrs. Jennie Anderson in
Sweden, Miss Elsa Stein-metzand Miss Fritzi Shaver in Switzerland, Miss Charlotte Stirratt in Netherlands, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Marangella in
Italy, Miss Dagmar DoleBahá'í pioneers were in active service throughout Western Europe before the end of the first year.
The Committee chairman, Miss Edna True, with Mrs. Graeffe made surveys in Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, and arranged for a suitable European office in Geneva. Miss True also consulted with the Bahá'ís of Paris and the Brit � ish
Publishing Trust in London.As was pointed out in its first annual report, the Committee had to provide Bahá'í literature in nine different languages. Ten additional pioneers were felt to be necessary before the end of 1947.
The organic plan developed for the successful prosecution of this vast project rested upon the pioneers who gradually developed the nucleus of a Bahá'í community, visits from traveling teachers, the distribution of teaching and news bulletins, the publication of literature in the language of the country, contact and correspondence maintained through the Geneva office, and an annual Conference and School bringing together representatives from every local group. For this organism of spiritual influence an efficient and devoted committee supplied energy, plans and materials, the American Bah& 'i community supplied funds exceeding those provided for teaching in America
Page 51itself, and over all the Guardian of the Faith maintained vigilant watch and released inspiration and guidance for each stage of the momentous task.
An important landmark in the history of the work in Western Europe was the first Bahá'í European Teaching Conference, held in Geneva, Switzerland, May 2226, 1948. Ninety-two Bahá'ís attended from nineteen countries. Besides the ten countries of Western Europe, Ba-h~i'is came from Australia, Germany, Austria, France, North America, lr&n, 'Iraq, England and
Scotland.One of those attending the Conference wrote: "The Conference was opened at two o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, May twenty-second. The large room on the ground floor of the International Center where the European Teaching Committee Bureau has its offices, was an ideal setting for the Conference. It is a very long and a very beautiful room running straight through the building with separate consulting rooms at either end, the front consulting room overlooking Lake Geneva. The room was set up in accepted conference fashion. There was a platform with a long table where the four members of the Committee sat. On the table was a picture of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to whom the Conference was dedicated and we arranged flowers and plants both on and around the table very effectively.
The groups that needed French translation were seated at the right headed by Madame Dreyfus-Barney, who added greatly by her capacity as translator. On the left were the tables that needed German translation and this was bandied by Doris Lobse and Hubert Mat-thias. At the center table, facing the committee, were the English speaking groups and at a table below the committee table the two secretaries sat. "The Conference was opened with the Prayer for all Nations, which was read by Solveig Corbitt, who was the first pioneer to land in Europe under the
European project. ThenMrs. Mary Sprague said the Prayer for the Guardian.
"Miss True gave the opening talk on the Divine Plan and explained the relationship of the
European Teaching Projectto it. She noted that May Maxwell had been responsible for the first Assembly in Paris, that Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney had been the first French believer and that Thomas Breakwell had been the first English believer.
And then she gave a broad picture of the First Seven Year Plan and how the Faith had spread in the Western
Hemisphere from Anchorage, AlaskaAnd then the Second Seven Year Plan with its four objectives and the brief vista of the Third Seven Year Plan. And then she brought it down to the present requirements and ended with the B~b's address to the Letters of the Living. It was a beautiful talk and a perfect opening for the Conference. Then the programs which the committee had had made for the Conference were distributed. The program contained a picture of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the dates and hours of the sessions and public meetings, copy of the Guardian's cable to the Conference,
The Divine Plan, the FirstIt was the message cabled to the Conference by Shoghi Effendi which created the spiritual reality of this historic occasion.
"Share the joy and elation of the attendants at the first historic Bahá'í Teaching Conference on the European Continent, regarded as the fairest fruit of the momentous enterprise signalizing the second stage in the evolution of the Divine Plan. Overjoyed at the manifold signs of the rapid progress evidenced by the formation of eight Assemblies in seven goal countries, in the notable increase in the number of new believers, in the remarkable activity displayed by itinerant teachers and the meritorious endeavor systematically exerted by the organizers and participators of the newly launched European campaign in the opening years of the Second Seven Year Plan. Appeal to the newly constituted Assemblies to preserve, at whatever cost, the integ
Page 52rity of the prizes gloriously won, to consolidate the institutions recently established, to simultaneously initiate extension work designed to form nuclei destined to reinforce the administrative structure of the Faith in the respective countries.
Urge the groups in the three remaining goal countries to insure Assembly status ere the termination of the current year. Entreat every individual and all agencies associated in the conduct of the divinely sustained, majestically unfolding, tremendously challenging crusade, whether administrators at home or abroad, visitors or settlers, itinerant teachers, newly 'enrolled believers to intensify their concerted efforts to win wider flelAs, to give added momentum to still more conspicuous victories. Undaunted by the aggravation of the crisis in the tragically disturbed continent, undeterred by the obstacles and pitfalls encountered in a thorny path, sensible to the growing hunger of disillusioned, fear-stricken, spiritually famished multitudes, constantly aware of the sublimity of the mission entrusted, in this critical propitious hour, to their care, inspired by the example of the Author of the Divine Plan, Who in no less a critical hour in the fortunes of the European Continent, notwithstanding His age and illness, twice visited its shores and labored tirelessly for the illumination of its peoples. Let them hold aloft, amidst the tumult of the disorders of a tottering civilization, the torch of divine guidance, tramp resolutely ahead to the appointed goals until the initial stage of so colossal an enterprise has been gloriously consummated."
During the first two of the four years covered by this survey, eight Spiritual Assemblies were established in seven of the ten goal countries.
As a member of the European Teaching Committee reported: "What was accomplished in these two years can be stated in the brief factual report given here, but how it was accomplished would furnish material for an entire volume.
Unchartered seas for the Committee, strange and unknown lands for many of our pioneers, new languages to learn, new customs to become adjusted to, alone and often lonely, armed at first with perhaps one book and one pamphlet; these were the outward circumstances of their lives. But within the pioneers burned that deep conviction, inspired by the Guardian's assurance that Europe was ready to receive the redeeming Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and that they, the pioneers, must be the pure channels through which these suffering and disillusioned peoples must receive God's Message.
Their abiding help came from the certain knowledge that they were accompanied by the Hosts of the Su-premetoncourse and were sustained by the Author of the Divine Plan Himself. Future generations will remember these souTh who have arisen and have, through their abundance of loving sacrifice, conquered these countries through the love of God, and have brought ever closer to fruition that Bahá'í World Community which it is our destiny to establish.
The North American Bahá'íCommunity is grateful to them and they are grateful to God to have had such an historic opportunity."
With augmenting power, as testified by the successive annual European Conferences, the small spiritual army made its conquest of the cities of men's hearts.
The second European TeachingConference was held in Brussels on August 5, 6 and 7, 1949, attended by one hundred thirty representatives from nineteen countries. The Bahá'ís met in a large Convention hail of the
University of Brussels.The number of Baha'is, it was reported, had doubled in the ten countries within the year. A public meeting, conducted in the principal hail in the city, attracted a considerable audience and added much to the prestige of the Faith.
The Committee's report for the year 19491950 listed twelve local spiritual Assemblies as the fruit of this campaign begun in 1946.
The aim had been restricted to the formation of groups, but three years before the consummation of the Seven Year Plan this aim
Page 53Summer view of the cactus garden near the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Heaviest snow in many years falls on the cactus garden near the Shrine of the Báb.
Page 54By 1950 it was possible to see in perspective the steady and irresistible rise of a new Faith in the old, war-tarn and discouraged civilization which for centuries had ruled the world. The new hope, the steadfast conviction, the spiritual order created by the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh had proved their regenerative power throughout the area west of the closed door separating Europe and the world into two irreconcilable systems.
The deeper implications of the national Bahá'í undertakings described in this survey were uncovered by the Guardian of the Faith in this passage of his letter dated June 15, 1946 already cited: "The first century of the Bahá'í Era witnessed in darkest Persia the birth of the Faith, as well as the establishment of the Administrative Order � the Child of that Faith � an Order which, cradled in the heart of the North American continent, has already succeeded, in less than a decade and in direct consequence of the initial operation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Plan, and through the concerted, the sustained, and richly blessed efforts of the champion builders of that Order, in spreading out its roots and in rearing its institutions in no less than twenty republics throughout the length and breadth of the Western Hemisphere.
The second century is destined to witness a tremendous deployment and a notable consolidation of the forces working towards the worldwide development of that Order, as well as the first stirrings of that World Order, of which the present Administrative System is at once the precursor, the nucleus and pattern � an Order which, as it slowly crystallizes and radiates its benign influence over the entire planet, will proclaim at once the coming of age of the whole human race, as well as the maturity of the Faith itself, the progenitor of that Order. As the Plan bequeathed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá unfolds, through successive decades of the present century, its measureless potentialities, and gathers within the field of its operations nation after nation in successive continents of the globe, it will be increasingly recognized not only as the most potent agency for the development of the world Administrative System, but also as a primary factor in the birth and efflorescence of the World Order itself in both the East and the West."
Page 55IT beseemeth all men, in this Day, 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. Should any man be led to utter such words as will turn away the people from the shores of God's limitless ocean, and cause them to fix their hearts on anything except this glorious and manifest Being, that bath assumed a form subject to human limitations � such a man, however lofty the station he may occupy, shall be denounced by the entire creation as one that hath deprived himself of the sweet savors of the All-Merciful.
Say: Observe equity in your judgment, ye men of understanding heart! He that is unjust in his judgment is destitute of the characteristics that distinguish man's station. He Who is the Eternal Truth knoweth well what the breasts of men conceal.
His long forbearance hath emboldened His creatures, for not until the appointed time is come will He rend any veil asunder. His surpassing mercy hath restrained the fury of His wrath, and caused most people to imagine that the one true God is unaware of the things they have privily committed.
By Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Informed! The mirror of His knowledge reflecteth, with complete distinctness, precision and fidelity, the doings of all men.
Say:Praise be to Thee, 0 Concealer of the sins of the weak and helpless! Magnified be Thy name, 0 Thou that for-givest givest the heedless ones that trespass against
Thee!We have forbidden men to walk after the imaginations of their hearts, that they may be enabled to recognize Him Who is the sovereign Source and Object of all knowledge, and may acknowledge whatsoever He may be pleased to reveal. Witness how they have entangled themselves with their idle fancies and vain imaginations.
By My life! They are themselves the victims of what their own hearts have devised, and yet they perceive it not. Vain and profitless is the talk of their lips, and yet they understand not.
We beseech God that He may graciously vouchsafe His grace unto all men, and enable them to attain the knowledge of Him and of themselves. By My life!
Whoso hath known Him shall soar in the immensity of His love, and shall be detached from the world and all that is therein. Nothing on earth shall deflect him from his course, how much less they who, prompted by their vain imaginations, speak those things which God hath forbidden.
Say: This is the Day when every ear must needs be attentive to His voice. Hearken ye to the Call of this wronged One, and magnify ye the name of the one true God, and adorn yourselves with the ornament of His remembrance, and illumine your hearts with the light of His love. This is the key that unlocketh the hearts of men, the burnish that shall cleanse the souls of all beings. He that is careless of what hath poured out from the finger of the 55
Page 56Will of God liveth in manifest error. Amity and rectitude of conduct, rather than dissension and mischief, are the marks of true faith.
Proclaim unto men what He, Who speaketh the truth and is the Bearer of the Trust of God, hath bidden thee observe. My glory be with thee, 0 thou that callest upon My name, whose eyes are directed towards My court, and whose tongue uttereth the praise of the Lord, the Beneficent.
ThE MORN OF DIVINE GUIDANCE0 my brother! When a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy. He must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding love of the Beloved, of every defilement, and sanctify his soul from all that pertaineth to water and clay, from all shadowy and ephemeral attachments. He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth.
Even as thou dost witness in this Day how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error.
That seeker must, at all times, put his trust in God, must renounce the peoples of the earth, must detach himself from the world of dust, and cleave unto Him Who is the Lord of Lords. He must never seek to exalt himself above any one, must wash away from the tablet of his heart every trace of pride and vainglory, must cling unto patience and resignation, observe silence and refrain from idle talk. For the tongue is a smoldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas as the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endureth a century.
That seeker should also, regard backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion, inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, .and extinguisheth the life of the soul.
He should be content with little, and be freed from all inordinate desire.
He should treasure the companionship of them that have renounced the world, and regard avoidance of boastful and worldly people a precious benefit.
At the dawn of every day he should commune with God, and, with all his soul, persevere in the quest of his Beloved.
He should consume every wayward thought with the flame of His loving mention, and, with the swiftness of lightning, pass by all else save Him. He should succor the dispossessed, and never withhold his favor from the destitute.
He should show kindness to animals, how much more unto his fellowman, to him who is endowed with the power of utterance.
He should not hesitate to offer up his life for his Beloved, nor allow the censure of the people to turn him away from the Truth. He should not wish for others that which he doth not wish for himself, nor promise that which he doth not fulfil. With all his heart he should avoid fellowship with evildoers, and pray for the remission of their sins. He should forgive the sinful, and never despise his low estate, for none knoweth what his own end shall be. How often hath a sinner attained, at the hour of death, to the essence of faith, and, quaffing the immortal draught, hath taken his flight unto the Concourse on high!
And how often hath a devout believer, at the hour of his soul's ascension, been so changed as to fall into the nethermost fire!
Our purpose in revealing these convincing and weighty utterances is to impress upon the seeker that he should regard all else beside God as transient, and count all things save Him, Who is the Object of all adoration, as utter nothingness.
These are among the attributes of the exalted, and constitute the hail
Page 57They have already been mentioned in connection with the requirements of the wayfarers that tread the path of Positive Knowledge. When the detached wayfarer and sincere seeker hath fulfilled these essential conditions, then and only then can he be called a true seeker. Whensoever he hath fulfilled the conditions implied in the verse: "Whoso maketh efforts for Us," he shall enjoy the blessings conferred by the words: "In Our Ways shall We assuredly guide him~" Only when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and ecstasy, is kindled within the seeker's heart, and the breeze of His lovingkindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being.
At that hour will the Mystic Her-aid, bearing the joyful tidings of the Spirit, shine forth from the City of God resplendent as the morn, and, through the trumpet-blast of knowledge, will awaken the heart, the soul, and the spirit from the slumber of heedlessness.
Then will the manifold favors and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. He will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe, and will penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul.
Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of Divine Revelation, and the evidences of an everlasting Manifestation.
I swear by God! Were he that tread-eth the path of guidance and seeketh to scale the heights of righteousness to attain unto this glorious and exalted station, he would inhale, at a distance of a thousand leagues, the fragrance of God, and would perceive the resplendent morn of a Divine guidance rising above the Day Spring of all things. Each and every thing, however, small, would be to him a revelation, leading him to his Beloved, the Object of his quest. So great shall be the discernment of this seeker that he will discriminate between truth and falsehood, even as he doth distinguish the sun from shadow. If in the uttermost corners of the East the sweet savors of God be wafted, he will assuredly recognize and inhale their fragrance, even though he be dwelling in the uttermost ends of the West. He will, likewise, clearly distinguish all the signs of God � His wondrous utterances, His great works, and mighty deeds � from the doings, the words and ways of men, even as the jeweler who knoweth the gem from the stone, or the man who dis-tinguisheth the spring from autumn, and heat from cold. When the channel of the human soul is cleansed of all worldly and impeding attachments, it will unfailingly perceive the breath of the Beloved across immeasurable distances, and will, led by its perfume, attain and enter the City of Certitude.
Therein he will discern the wonders of His ancient Wisdom, and will perceive all the hidden teachings from the rustling leaves of the Tree that flour-isheth in that City. With both his inner and outer ear, he will hear from its dust the hymns of glory and praise ascending unto the Lord of Lords, and with his inner eye will he discover the mysteries of "return" and "revival."
How unspeakably glorious are the signs, the tokens, the revelations, and splendors which He, Who is the King of Names and Attributes, hath destined for that City! The attainment unto this City quencheth thirst without water, and kindleth the love of God without fire. Within every blade of grass are enshrined the mysteries of an inscrutable Wisdom, and upon every rosebush a myriad nightingales pour out, in blissful rapture, their melody.
Its wondrous tulips unfold the mystery of the undying Fire in the Burning Bush, and its sweet savors of holiness breathe the perfume of the Messianic Spirit.
It bestoweth wealth without gold, and conferreth immortality without death. In each one of its leaves ineffable delights are treasured, and within every chamber unnumbered mysteries lie hidden.
Page 58They that valiantly labor in quest of God, will, when once they have renounced all else but Him, be so attached and wedded unto that City, that a moment's separation from it would to them be unthinkable.
They will hearken unto infallible proofs from the Hyacinth of that assembly, and will receive the surest testimonies from the beauty of its Rose, and the melody of its Nightingale. Once in about a thousand years shall this City be renewed and re-adorned.
That City is none other than the Word of God revealed in every age and dispensation.
In the days of Moses it was the Pentateuch; in the days of Jesus, the Gospel; in the days of
Muhammad. the Messengerof God, the Qur'an; in this day, the Bay~in; and in the Dispensation of Him Whom God will make manifest, His own Book � the Book unto which all the Books of former Dispensations must needs be referred, the Book that standeth amongst them all transcendent and supreme.
THE ADVANCEMENT OF nmEvery man of insight will, in this day, readily admit that the counsels which the Pen of this wronged One hath revealed constitute the supreme animating power for the advancement of the world and the exaltation of its peoples. Arise, 0 people, and by the power of God's might, resolve to gain the victory over your own selves, that haply the whole earth may be freed and sanctified from its servitude to the gods of its idle fancies � gods that have inflicted such loss upon, and are responsible for the misery of, their wretched worshipers. These idols farm the obstacle that impeded man in his efforts to advance in the path of perfection. We cherish the hope that the Hand of Divine power may lend its assistance to mankind, and deliver it from its state of grievous abasement.
In one of the Tablets these words have been revealed: 0 people of God! Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men. This can best be achieved through a virtuous life and a goodly behavior. Valiant acts will insure the triumph of this Cause, and a saintly character will reinforce its power.
Cleave unto righteousness, 0 people of Baha! This, verily, is the commandment which this wronged One hath given unto you, and the first choice of His unrestrained Will for every one of you.
Tiir FLOOD OF' GRACEThis is the Day whereon the Ocean of God's mercy hath been manifested unto men, the Day in which the Day Star of His lovingkindness hath shed its radiance upon them, the Day in which the clouds of His bountiful favor have overshadowed the whole of mankind.
Now is the time to cheer and refresh the downcast through the invigorating breeze of love and fellowship, and the living waters of friendliness and charity.
They who are the beloved of God, in whatever place they gather and whomsoever they may meet, must evince, in their attitude towards God, and in the manner of their celebration of His praise and glory, such humility and submissiveness that every atom of the dust beneath their feet may attest the depth of their devotion. The conversation carried on by these holy souls should be informed with such power that these same atoms of dust will be thrilled by its influence.
They should conduct themselves in such manner that the earth upon which they tread may never be allowed to address them such words as these: "I am to be preferred above you.
For witness, how patient I am in bearing the burden which the husbandman layeth upon me. I am the instrument that continually impart-eth unto all beings the blessings with which He Who is the Source of all grace hath entrusted me. Notwithstanding the honor conferred upon me, and the unnumbered evidences of my wealth � a wealth that supplieth the needs of all creation � behold the measure of my humility, witness with what absolute submissiveness I allow myself to be trodden beneath the feet of men.
Show forebearance and benevolence and love to one another. Should
Page 59Deep excavations into the rock of the mountain were necessary on the southern side of the Shrine of the B&b to make place for the new Arcade added to original building.
any one amongst you be incapable of grasping a certain truth, or be striving to comprehend it, show forth, when conversing with him, a spirit of extreme kindliness and goodwill. Help him to see and recognize the truth, without esteeming yourself to be, in the least, superior to him, or to be possessed of greater endowments.
The whole duty of man in this Day is to attain that share of the flood of grace which God poureth forth for him. Let none, therefore, consider the largeness or smallness of the receptacle.
The portion of some might lie in the palm of a man's hand, the portion of others might fill a cup, and of others even a gallon-measure.
Every eye, in this Day, should seek what will best promote the Cause of God. He, Who is the Eternal Truth, beareth Me witness! Nothing whatever can, in this Day, inflict a greater harm upon this Cause than dissension and strife, contention, estrangement and apathy, among the loved ones of God. Flee them, through the power of God and His sovereign aid, and strive to
Page 60Retaining wall being erected to hold fill in an extension of the terrace facing the Shrine of the Báb, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
knit together the hearts of men, in His Name, the Unifier, the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise.Beseech ye the one true God to grant that ye may taste the savor of such deeds as are performed in His path, and partake of the sweetness of such humility and submissiveness as are shown for His sake.
Forget your own selves, and turn your eyes towards your neighbor. Bend your energies to whatever may foster the education of men. Nothing is, or can ever be, hidden from God. If ye follow in His way, His incalculable and imperishable blessings will be showered upon you. This is the luminous Tablet, whose verses have streamed from the moving Pen of Him Who is the Lord of all worlds. Ponder it in your hearts, and be of them that observe its precepts.
Page 61Chiampo stone foundations awaiting erection of columns.
THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDINGKnow thou that, according to what thy Lord, the Lord of all men, hath decreed in His Book, the favors vouchsafed by Him unto mankind have been, and will ever remain, limitless in their range. First and foremost among these favors, which the Almighty bath conferred upon man, is the gift of understanding.
His purpose in conferring such a gift is none other except to enable His creature to know and recognize the one true God � exalted be His glory.
This gift giveth man the power to discern the truth in all things, leadeth him to that which is right, and helpeth him to discover the secrets of creation.
Next in rank, is the power of vision, the chief instrument whereby his understanding can function.
The senses of hearing, of the heart, and the like, are similarly to be reckoned among the gifts with which the human body is endowed.
Immeasurably exalted is the Almighty Who hath created these powers, and revealed them in the body of man.
Every one of these gifts is an undoubted evidence of the majesty, the power, the ascendancy, the all-embrac-ing knowledge of the one true God � exalted be His glory. Consider the sense of touch. Witness-how its power
Page 62Trench of reinforced, concrete upon which foundation stones supporting columns will be laid in constructing the Arcade of the Shrine of the B&b. hath spread itself over the entire human body.
Whereas the faculties of sight and of hearing are each localized in a particular center, the sense of touch embraceth the whole human frame.
Glorified be His power, magnified be His sovereignty!
These gifts are inherent in man himself. That which is preeminent above all other gifts, is incorruptible in nature, and pertaineth to God Himself, is the gift of Divine Revelation.
Every bounty conferred by the Creator upon man, be it material or spiritual, is subservient servient unto this. It is, in its essence, and will ever so remain, the Bread which cometh down from Heaven. It is God's supreme testimony, the clearest evidence of His truth, the sign of His consummate bounty, the token of His all-encompassing mercy, the proof of His most loving providence, the symbol of His most perfect grace. He hath, indeed, partaken of this highest gift of God who hath recognized His Manifestation in this Day.
Render thanks unto thy Lord for having vouchsafed unto thee so great a
Page 63bounty. Lift up thy voice and say: All praise be to Thee, 0 Thou, the Desire of every understanding heart!
POTENTIALITIES INHERENTThe All-Merciful hath conferred upon man the faculty of vision, and endowed him with the power of hearing. Some have described him as the "lesser world," when, in reality, he should be regarded as the "greater world." The potentialities inherent in the station of man, the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality, must all be manifested in this promised
Day of God.The vitality of men's belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of
His potent Revelationcan cleanse and revive it? Is it within human power, 0 lakim, to effect in the constituent elements of any of the minute and indivisible particles of matter so complete a transformation as to transmute it into purest gold? Perplexing and difficult as this may appear, the still greater task of converting satanic strength into heavenly power is one that We have been empowered to accomplish.
The Force capable of such a transformation transcendeth the potency of the Elixir itself.
The Word of God, alone, can claim the distinction of being endowed with the capacity required for so great and far-reaching a change.
AN EVER-ADVANCING CIVILIZATION0 Kamhl! The heights which, through the most gracious favor of God, mortal man can attain, in this Day, are as yet unrevealed to his sight. The world of being hath never had, nor doth it yet possess the capacity for such a revelation. The day, however, is approaching when the potentialities of so great a favor will, by virtue of His behest, be manifested unto men.
Though the forces of the nations be arrayed against Him, though the kings of the earth be leagued to undermine His Cause, the power of His might shall stand unshaken. He, verily, speaketh the truth, and summoneth all mankind to the way of Him Who is the Incomparable, the All-Knowing.
All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kind-ness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth.
Say: 0 friends! Drinkyour fill from this crystal stream that floweth through the heavenly grace of Him Who is the Lord of Names.
Let others partake of its waters in My name, that the leaders of men in every land may fully recognize the purpose for which the Eternal Truth hath been revealed, and the reason for which they themselves have been created.
B~ WHICH im TRUTH Is DISTINGIJThHEDThe ordinances of God have been sent down from the heaven of His most august Revelation. All must diligently observe them.
Man's supreme distinction, his real advancement, his final victory, have always depended, and will continue to depend, upon them. Whoso keepeth the commandments of God shall attain everlasting felicity.
A twofold obligation resteth upon him who hath recognized the Day Spring of the Unity of God, and acknowledged the truth of Him Who is the Manifestation of His oneness. The first is steadfastness in His love, such steadfastness that neither the clamor of the enemy nor the claims of the idle pretender can deter him from cleaving unto Him Who is the Eternal Truth, a steadfastness that taketh no account of them whatever. The second is strict observance of the laws He hath prescribed � laws which He hath always ordained, and will continue to ordain, unto men, and through which the truth may be distinguished and separated from falsehood.
Page 64Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing.
The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing.
If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation. Meditate on this, 0 people, and be not of them that wander distraught in the wilderness of error. The day is approaching when its flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur will proclaim: "The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the All-Praised!"
All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation. Render thanks unto thy Lord Who hat remembered thee in this wondrous Tablet. All Praise be to God, the Lord of the glorious throne.
Were any man to ponder in his heart that which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed and to taste of its sweetness, he would, of a certainty, find himself emptied and delivered from his own desires, and utterly subservient to the Will of the Almighty. Happy is the man that bath attained so high a station, and hath not deprived himself of so bountiful a grace.
THE GLAD TmINCSThis is the voice of E1-Abhtt, which is being raised from the supreme horizon, in the prison 'Akka!
He is the declarer, the knower, the omniscient!God testifies and the appearance of His names and attributes bears witness that, by the raising of the voice and by the exalted Word, it has been our aim that the ears of the people of the world should be purified through the Kawtbar of divine utterance from false narrations and be prepared to hearken unto the blessed, pure, exalted Word which hath appeared from the treasury of the knowledge of the maker of heaven and creator of names. Blessed are those who are just!
0, people of the earth!which is conferred in this most great Manifestation on all the people of the world, from the "Mother-Book," is the abolishing of the decree of religious warfare from the Book. Exalted is the beneficent One, the possessor of great bounty � the One through whom the door of grace is opened before all in the Heaven and earth!
THE SECOND GLAD-TIDINGS:It is sanctioned that all the nations of the world consort with each other with joy and fragrance.
Consort ye, 0 people, with all religions with joy and fragrance! Thus bath the orb of permission and desire shone forth from the horizon of the heaven of the command of God, the Lord of the creatures!
THE THIRD GLAD-TIDINGS:is the study of various languages. This command bath formerly flowed from the Supreme Pen.
Their majesties, the kings � may God assist them � or the counsellors of the earth must consult together, and appoint one of the existing languages, or a new language, and instruct the children therein, in all the schools of the world; and the same must be done in respect to writing also. In such case the earth will be considered as one. Blessed is he who heareth the Voice and fulfilleth that which is commanded on the part of God, the Lord of the great throne!
THE FOURTH GLAD-TIDINGS:Let every one of the kings � May God strengthen them � arise to protect and assist this oppressed community.
Each must precede the other in serving and showing love unto them. This matter is obligatory upon all. Blessed are those who practice!
THE FIFTH GLAD-TIDINGS:In every country or government where any of this community reside, they must behave toward that government
Page 65with faithfulness, trustfulness and truthfulness. This is that which is revealed from the presence of the Ancient Commander!
It is obligatory and incumbent on the people of the world in general to assist this most great cause � which has descended from the heaven of the will of the king of pre-exist-ence � that perchance the fire of animosity which is ablaze in the hearts of some of the nations, may be quenched through the water of divine wisdom and ~ord1y commands and exhortations, and that the light of union and accord may irradiate and illuminate the regions.
It is hoped that through the favor of the appearances of the power of God the armaments of the world will be changed into peace and corruption and conflict will vanish from among men.
THE SIXTH GLAD-TIDINGS:is the Most Great Peace, the account of which has been formerly revealed from the Supreme Pen.
Joy unto whosoever adhereth thereto and practices that whereunto he is commanded on the part of God, the knower, the wise!
THE SEVENTH GLAD-TUMNCS:Men are permitted to have their choice in the manner of habiliment, and in the cut of the beard and its dressing. But, beware, 0 people, not to make yourselves as playthings to the ignorant!
Ta~ EIGHTH Gr~-TnxNcs:The pious practices of the monks and priests among the people of His Holiness the Spirit � upon Him is the peace of God and His glory! � are remembered before God; but, in this day, they must abandon solitude for open places, and engage in that which may profit both themselves and other men. We have conferred permission on them all to engage in matrimony, so that there may appear from them those who may celebrate the praise of God, the Lord of the seen and unseen and the Lord of the lofty throne!
THE' NINTH GLAD-TIDINGS:The sinner, when in a state wherein he finds himself free and severed from all else save God, must beg for forgiveness and pardon.
It is not allowable to declare one~ s sins and transgressions before any man, inasmuch as this has not been, nor is, conducive to securing God's forgiveness and pardon.
At the same time such confession before the creatures leads to one's humiliation and abasement, and God � exalted in His glory! � does not wish for the humiliation of His servants. Verily He is compassionate and beneficent!
A sinner must, between himself and God, beg for mercy from the Sea of Mercy and ask forgiveness from the Heaven of Beneficence, and then say:
Oh my God! Oh my God!I beg of Thee � by the blood of Thy lovers, who were so attracted by Thy sweet utterance that they betook themselves unto the lofty summit, the place of great martyrdom, and by the mysteries concealed in Thy knowledge, and by the pearls deposited in the Sea of Thy bestowal � to forgive me, and my father and my mother. Verily Thou are the most merciful of the merciful! There is no God but Thee, the forgiving, the beneficent!
Oh, my Lord! Thou beholdest the essence of error advancing toward the sea of Thy gift, and the weak one toward the kingdom of Thy power, and the poor one toward the sun of Thy wealth. Oh, my Lord! Disappoint him not of Thy generosity and bounty; deprive him not of the graces of Thy days, and turn him not away from Thy door which Thou hast opened before all in Thy heaven and earth.
Alas! Alas! My transgressions have prevented me from drawing nigh unto the court of Thy sanctity, and my trespasses have kept me afar from turning unto the tents of Thy glory.
I have indeed wrought that which Thou has forbidden me; I have neglected that which Thou has commanded me! I beg of Thee by the King of Names to decree for me from the Pen of grace and bestowal that which will draw me near unto Thee and will purify me from my sins which have intervened between me and Thy forgiveness and pardon. Verily, Thou are the powerful, the bounteous! There is no God but Thee, the mighty, the gracious!
Page 66The homemade crane lifts up one of the monolith Baveno granite pflasters for a corner of the Arcade.
THE TENTH GLAD-TIDINGS:We have removed from the Epistles and Tablets the decree of effacing the books as a favor from the presence of God, the sender of this great message!
Tint ELEVENTH GLAD-TTDINCS:To study sciences and arts of all descriptions is allowable; but such sciences as are profitable, which lead and conduce to the elevation of mankind.
kind. Thus has the matter been decreed on the part of God, the commander, the wise!
Tim TWELFTH GLAD-Tlnnqcs:It is made incumbent on every one of you to engage in some one occupation, such as arts, trades, and the like. We have made this � your occupation � identical with the worship of God, the True One. Reflect, 0 people, upon the mercy
Page 67A carved Chiampo stone capital is lowered onto a pilaster.
of God and upon His favors, then thank Him in mornings and evenings.
Waste not your time in idleness and indolence, and occupy yourselves with that which will profit yourselves and others beside yourself. Thus hath the matter been decreed in this Tablet from the horizon of which the sun of wisdom and divine utterance is gleaming!
The most despised of men before God is he who sits and begs. Cling unto the rope of means, relying upon God, the causer of causes. Every soul who occupies himself in an art or trade � this will be accounted an act of worship before God.
Verily this is from no other than His great and abundant favor!
THE THIRTEENTH GILAD-TInINGS:The affairs of the people are placed in charge of the men of the House of Justice of God. They are the trustees of God among His servants and the day springs of command in His countries.
0 people of God! The trainer of the world is justice, for it consists of two pillars: Reward and retribution.
Thesetwo pillars are two fountains for the life of the people of the world. Inasmuch as for each time and day a particular decree and order is expedient, affairs are therefore entrusted to the ministers of the House of Justice, so that they may execute that which they deem advisable at the time. Those souls who arise to serve the Cause sincerely to please God will be inspired by the divine, invisible inspirations. It is incumbent upon all to obey.
Administrative affairs are all in charge of the House of Justice; but acts of worship must be observed according as they are revealed in the Book.
0, people of Baha! Ye are day springs of the love, and dawning places of the providence of God.
Defile not the tongue with cursing or execrating any one and guard your eyes against that which is not worthy. Show forth that which ye possess.
If it is accepted, the aim is attained, and, if not, interference with those who reject it is not allowable, but leave them to themselves and advance toward God, the protector, the self-sub-sistent.
Be not the cause of sorrow, how much less of sedition and strife. It is hoped that ye may be trained under the shadow of the Tree of divine providence, and act in that which is desired by God. Ye are all leaves of one tree and drops of one sea.
Tnr FOURTEENTH GLAD-TIDINGS:To undertake journeys for the sake of visiting the tombs of the dead is not necessary. If those who have means and wealth should give to the House of Justice the amount which would otherwise be expended on such journeys, this would be acceptable and agreeable before God.
Happy are those who practice!Although a republican form of government profits all the people of the world, yet the majesty of kingship is one of the signs of God. We do not wish that the countries of the world should be deprived thereof. If statesmen combine the two into one form, their reward will be great before God.
Agreeable to the requirements of former times, the former religions confirmed and commanded religious warfare, prohibited association and intercourse with other peoples, and forbade the reading of certain books, but in this most great Manifestation and mighty message, favors and gifts of God have pervaded all and the irrefutable command is revealed in that which already has been mentioned from the horizon of the will of the Lord of preexistence. We praise God � Exalted and Glorified is He ! � for that which He hath revealed in this day, the blessed, the mighty, the wonderful!
Were all the people of the world each to possess a hundred thousand tongues and speak in God's praise and glorification until the day which bath no end, verily all their thanks will not equal what is due even a single one of the favors mentioned in this Epistle! � whereunto testifies every man of knowledge and discernment and every man of wisdom and understanding. I beg of God � exalted in His glory!
� and entreat Him to enable the kings and sovereigns, who are dawning-places of power and daysprings of might, to execute His precepts and commands.
Verily, He is the powerful, the mighty and worthy to grant!
TABLET OF IshRAQATThe men of the House of Justice of God must, night and day, gaze toward that which hath been revealed from the horizon of the heaven of the Supreme Pen for the training of the servants, for the upbuilding of countries, for the protection of men and for the preservation of human honor.
Ti* FIRST IshRiQ:When the sun of wisdom dawned from the horizon of administration, it spoke in these exalted words: The people of wealth and men of honor and power must have the best possible regard for the respect of religion. Religion is a manifest light and a strong fortress for the protection and tranquillity of the people of the world. For the fear of God commands people to do that which is just and forbids them that which is evil. If the lamp of Religion remain concealed agitation and anarchy
Page 69Six columns and two pilasters, with their graceful caps in place, await the building of the connecting arches.
would prevail, and the orb of justice and equity and the sun of peace and tranquillity would be withheld from giving light. Every man of discernment testifies to that which is mentioned.
THE SECOND ishRAq: We have commanded the Most Great Peace, which is the greatest means for the protection of mankind. The rulers of the world must, in one accord, adhere to this command which is the main cause for the security and tranquillity of the world.
They are daysprings of the power and dawning-places of the authority of God.
We beg of God to assist them in that which is conducive to the peace of the servants.
The account of this subject has been previously revealed from the Supreme Pen.
Blessed are those who act accordingly!commands the executing of the penal laws, for this is the primary means for the maintenance of the world. The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined
Page 70and shining with two orbs, consultation and kindness.
And the tent of the order of the world is hoisted and established on two pillars: reward and retribution.
THE Wounin IshnAQ:In this manifestation, victorious hosts are worthy deeds and mora1s and the leader and commander of these hosts is godlike piety.
This comprehends all and rules over all!is that governments must be acquainted with the conditions of the officials and must confer upon them dignity and positions in accord with due measure and merit. To have regard for this matter is obligatory and incumbent on every chief and ruler. Thus, perchance, traitors shall not usurp the place of trustworthy men, or spoilers occupy the seat of guardians.
In this Most Great Prison, among the officials formerly and recently appointed, some have been � Praise be to God!
� adorned with the ornament of Justice; but some others of them � . We take refuge in God! We beg of God that He may guide them all, perchance they may not be deprived of the fruits of the tree of trustworthiness and integrity, nor withheld from the lights of the sun of equity and justice.
TBE SIXTH IshrtAQ:Through union the regions of the world have ever been illuminated with the light of the Cause. The greatest means is that the peoples should be familiar with each other's writing and language.
We have formerly commanded, in the Tablets, that the trustees of the House of Justice must select one tongue out of the present languages, or a new language, and likewise select one among the various writings and teach them to children in the schools of the world, so that the whole world may thereby be considered as one native land and one part.
The most splendid fruit of the tree of Knowledge is this exalted Word: Ye are all fruits of one tree and leaves of one branch. Glory is not his who loves his own country, but glory is his who loves his kind.
In this connection We have formerly revealed that which is the means for the prosperity of the world and the unification of nations. Blessed are those who attain! Blessed are those who practice!
THE, SEVENTH IShRAQThe Supreme Pen enjoins upon all to instruct and educate the children. Upon Our arrival in the Prison, the following verses have in this connection been revealed in the Book of Aqdas, from the heaven of the divine will: It is decreed that every father must educate his sans and daughters in learning and in writing and also in that which bath been ordained in the Tablet. He who neglects that which bath been commanded, if he is rich, it is incumbent on the trustees to recover from him the amount required for the education of the children; otherwise the matter shall devolve on the House of Justice. Verily We have made it an asylum for the poor and needy.
He who educates his son, or any other's children, it is as though he hath educated one of My children. Upon such an one be My BaiTh, My providence and My mercy, which hath embraced all in the world!
THE EIGHTH IShHAQThis passage is written, at this time, by the Supreme Pen and is accounted of the Book of Aqdas. The affairs of the people are in charge of the men of the House of Justice of God.
They are the trustees of God among His servants and the sources of command in His countries.
0 people of God! The trainer of the world is justice for it consists of two pillars, reward and retribution.
These two pillars are two fountains for the life of the people of the world.
Inasmuch as for each day and time a particular decree or order is expedient, affairs are therefore entrusted to the House of Justice, so that it may execute that which it deems advisable at the time. Those souls who arise to
Page 71Columns and capitals of the Arcade of the Shrine of the Bit.
serve the Cause sincerely, to please God, shall be inspired by the invisible inspiration of God. It is incumbent upon all to obey them.
Administrative affairs are all in charge of the House of Justice, and devotional acts must be observed according as they are reyealed in the Book.
0 people of Bah&! Ye are dawning-places of the love and daysprings of the favor of God. Defile not the tongues with cursing and execrating anyone and guard your eyes from that which is not worthy. Show forth that which ye possess.
If it is accepted, the aim is attained; if not, interference with those who reject it is not allowable.
Leave him to himself, and advance toward God, the protector, the self-subsistent. Be not the cause of sorrow, how much less of sedition and strife! It is hoped ye may be trained under the shadow of the tree of divine favor and act in that
Page 72which God desireth. Ye are all leaves of one tree and drops of one sea.
Trw NINTh IShAQ:The religion of God and the creed of God hath been revealed and made manifest from the heaven of the will of the king of preexistence for the sake of union and harmony among the people of the world; make it not a means for disagreement and discord!
The religion of God and His law is the greatest cause and mightiest means for the appearance and effulgence of the orb of unity. The development of the world, the training of nations, the tranquillity of the servants and the security of the people of all lands have been due to the divine precepts and ordinances. Religion is the greatest cause for the appearance of this great gift. It bestows the cup of vitality, confers immortal life and imparts eternal benefit to the people. The rulers of the earth, especially the trustees of the House of Justice, must make abundant effort to preserve this station and guard and promote it. Likewise it is necessary
Page 73A graceful arch is first carefully tried out on the ground before being built into Arcade of the Shrine of the Báb.
that they should inquire with the deeds and affairs into the conditions of of every one in the communities.
the subjects and be acquaintedThis is that which hath descended from the reaLm of glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed wnto the Prophets oJ ~ We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment o~f brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand fa~th:ful unto the Covenant of God, may ~uifilL ~n. their lives His trust and in the reaim of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue.
0 SON OF SPIE~rr!My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.
o SON OF Spn~rr!The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behoveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of
My lovingkindness. Seto SON OF Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.
o SoN OF MAN!Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.
o SON OF BE~iNG!Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, 0 servant.
o SoN OF Brn~rc!Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.
o SoN OF MAN!If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself; and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest die in Me and I may eternally live in thee.
o SON OF Spu~rr!There is no peace for thee save by renouncing thyself and turning unto Me; for it behoveth thee to glory in My name, not in thine own; to put thy trust in Me and not in thyself, since I desire to be loved alone and above all that is. o SoN OF Brn~G!
My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.
o SON OF UTTERANCE!Thou art My stronghold; enter therein that thou mayest abide in safety. My love is in thee, know it, that thou mayest find Me near unto thee.
o SON OF BEING!Thou art My lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou from it thy radiance and seek none other than Me. Far I have created thee rich arid have bountifully shed My favor upon thee.
Page 75Progress view showing erection of Arcade of the Shrine of the B&b, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
o SoN OP BEING!With the hands of power I made thee and with the fingers of strength I created thee; and within thee have I placed the essence of My light.
Be thou content with it and seek naught else, for My work is perfect and My command is binding.
Question it not, nor have a doubt thereof.I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself?
Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I moulded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.
o SON OF MAN!Thou art My dominion and My dominion perisheth not, wherefore fear-est thou thy perishing? Thou art My light and My light shall never be extinguished, why dost thou dread extinction?
Thou art My glory and My glory fadeth not; thou art My robe and My robe shall never be outworn.
Abide then in thy love for Me, that thou mayest find Me in the realm of glory.
o SoN OF UTTERANCE'!Turn thy face unto Mine and renounce all save Me; for My sovereignty endureth and My dominion perisheth not. If thou seekest another than Me, yea, if thou searchest the universe for evermore, thy quest will be in vain.
o SoN OF LIGHT!with My spirit. This is of the essence of My command, therefore turn unto it.
0 SON OF MAN!Ask not of Me that which We desire not for thee, then be content with what We have ordained for thy sake, for this is that which profiteth thee, if therewith thou dost content thyself.
o SON OF THE WONDROUS VISION!I have breathed within thee a breath of My own Spirit, that thou mayest be My lover. Why hast thou forsaken Me and sought a beloved other than Me?
o SON OF SPIRIT!My claim on thee is great, it cannot be forgotten.
My grace to thee is plenteous, it cannot be veiled. My love has made in thee its home, it cannot be concealed. My light is manifest to thee, it cannot be obscured.
0 SON OF MAN!Upon the tree of effulgent glory I have hung for thee the choicest fruits, wherefore hast thou turned away and contented thyself with that which is less good? Return then unto that which is better for thee in the realm on high.
o SoN or SPIRIT!Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself.
Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.To the eternal I call thee, yet thou dost seek that which perisheth.
What hath made thee turn away from Our desire and seek thine own?
Page 77Trangress not thy limits, nor claim that which beseenieth thee not. Prostrate thyself before the countenance of thy God, the Lord of might and power.
0 SON OF SPIRIT!I have made death a messenger ot joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?
0 SON or Spmrr!Vaunt not thyself over the poor, for I lead him on his way and behold thee in thy evil plight and confound thee for evermore.
o SON OF BEING!How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me.
o SON OF MAN!Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst thou be, and to this I bear witness.
o SON or Spnur!Know thou of a truth: He that biddeth men be just and himself committeth iniquity is not of Me, even though he bear My name.
o SON OF BEING!Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it. o SON OF MAN!
Deny not My servant should he ask anything from thee, for his face is My face; be then abashed before
Me.o SON OF' Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning; for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds.
With the joyful tidings of light I hail thee: rejoice!
To the court of holiness I summon thee; abide therein that thou mayest live in peace for evermore.
o SON OF SL'mIT!The spirit of holiness beareth unto thee the joyful tidings of reunion; wherefore dost thou grieve? The spirit of power confirmeth thee in His cause; why dost thou veil thyself? The light of His countenance cloth lead thee; how canst thou go astray?
o SON OF MAN!Sorrow not save from Us. Rejoice art drawing near Us. that thou are far not save that thou and returning unto o SON OF MAN!
Rejoice in the gladness of thine heart, that thou mayest be worthy to meet Me and to mirror forth My beauty.
o SON OF MAN!Divest not thyself of My beauteous robe, and forfeit not thy portion from My wondrous fountain, lest thou shouldst thirst for evermore.
o SON OF BEING!Walk in My statutes for love of Me and deny thyself that which thou de-sirest if thou seekest My pleasure.
o SON OF Neglect not My commandments if thou lovest My beauty, and forget not My counsels if thou wouldst attain My good pleasure.
Page 7878 THE BAHÁ'Í WO o SON OF MAN!
Wert thou to speed through the immensity of space and traverse the expanse of heaven, yet thou wouldst find no rest save in submission to Our command and humbleness before Our Face.
o SON OF iVIAN!Magnify My cause that I may reveal unto thee the mysteries of My greatness and shine upon thee with the light of eternity.
o SON OF MAN!Humble thyself before Me, that I may graciously visit thee. Arise for the triumph of My cause, that while yet an earth thou mayest obtain the victory.
o SON OF I3mNc!Make mention of Me on My earth, that in My heaven I may remember thee, thus shall Mine eyes and thine be solaced.
o SON OF THE THRONE!Thy hearing is My hearing, hear thou therewith. Thy sight is My sight, do thou see therewith, that in thine inmost soul thou mayest testify unto My exalted sanctity, and I within Myself may bear witness unto an exalted station for thee.
o SON OF BEING!Seek a martyr's death in My path, content with My pleasure and thankful for that which I ordain, that thou mayest repose with Me beneath the canopy of majesty behind the tabernacle of glory.
o Son OF MAN!Ponder and reflect. Is it thy wish to die upon thy bed, or to shed thy lifeblood on the dust, a martyr in My path, and so become the manifestation of My command and the revealer of My light in the highest paradise?
Judge thou aright, 0 servant!By My beauty! To tinge thy hair with thy blood is greater in My sight than the creation of the universe and the light of both worlds. Strive then to attain this, 0 servant!
o SON OF MAN!For everthing there is a sign. The sign of love is fortitude under My decree and patience under My trials.
o SON OF MAT'T!The true lover yearneth for tribulation even as cloth the rebel for for-glveness and the sinful for mercy.
o SON or MAN!If adversity befall thee not in My path, how canst thou walk in the ways of them that are content with My pleasure? If trials afT'ict thee not in thy longing to meet Me how wilt thou attain the light in thy love for My beauty?
o SON OF Man!My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy.
Hasten thereunto that thou mayest become an eternal light and an immortal spirit. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it. o SON OF M~!
Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.
o SoN OF Bm~c!If poverty overtake thee, be not sad; for in time the Lord of wealth shall visit thee. Fear not abasement, for glory shall one day rest on thee.
o SoN OF Bmw!If thine heart be set upon this eternal, imperishable dominion, and this ancient, everlasting life, forsake this mofial and fleeing sovereignty.
Page 79The original building erected by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the first decade of the 20th century, receives the adornment and protection of a beautiful Arcade.
0 SON OF MAN!Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.
0 SON OF MAN!Thou dost wish for gold and I desire thy freedom from it. Thou thinkest thyself rich in its possession, and I recognize thy wealth in thy sanctity therefrom.
By My life! This is My knowledge, and that is thy fancy; how can My way accord with thine?
o SON OF MAN!Bestow My wealth upon My poor, that in heaven thou mayest draw from stores of unfading splendor and treasures of imperishable glory. But by My life!
To offer up thy soul is a more glorious thing couldst thou but see with Mine eye.
The temple of being is My Throne; cleanse it of all things, that there I may be established and there I may abide.
0 So~ OF BEING!Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation.
o SON OF MAN!Put thy hand into My bosom, that I may rise above thee, radiant and resplendent.
o SON OF MAN!Ascend unto My heaven, that thou mayest obtain the joy of reunion, and from the chalice of imperishable glory quaff the peerless wine.
Page 80crc � ti� � Detail of balustrade which will surmount the Arcade of the Shrine of the B&b on Mt. Carmel. This represents the central panel facing the sea and Baha.
The Greatest Name, in bronze gilt, will be on a star of green marble. Green Mosaic is contemplated for the background of the "B" and leafage.
PRAYERSAll praise, 0 my God, be to Thee Who art the Source of all glory and majesty, of greatness and honor, of sovereignty and dominion, of loftiness and grace, of awe and power. Whomsoever Thou wiliest Thou causest to draw nigh unto the Most Great Ocean, and on whomsoever Thou desirest Thou conferrest the honor of recognizing
Thy Most Ancient Name.Of all who are in heaven and on earth, none can withstand the operation of Thy sovereign Will. From all eternity Thou didst rule the entire creation, and Thou wilt continue forevermore to exercise Thy dominion over all created things. There is none other God but Thee, the Almighty, the Most Exalted, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise.
Illumine, 0 Lord, the faces of Thy servants, that they may behold Thee; and cleanse their hearts that they may turn unto the court of Thy heavenly favors, and recognize Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy Self and the Day Spring of Thine Essence. Verily, Thou art the Lord of all worlds. There is no God but Thee, the Unconstrained, the All-Subduing.
Create in me a pure heart, 0 my God, and renew a tranquil conscience within me, 0 my Hope! Through the spirit of power confirm Thou me in Thy Cause o my Best-Beloved, and by the light of Thy glory reveal unto me Thy path, 0 Thou the Goal of my desire! Through the power of Thy transcendent might lift me up unto the heaven of Thy holiness, 0 Source of my being, and by the breezes of Thine ekrnity gladden me, O Thou Who art my God! Let Thine everlasting melodies breathe tranquillity on me, 0 my Companion, and let the riches of Thine ancient countenance deliver me from all except Thee, 0 my Master, and let the tidings of the revelation of Thine incorruptible Essence bring me joy, 0 Thou Who art the most manifest of the manifest and the most hidden of the hidden!
Praised be Thou, 0 LordThou didst stir up thy servants and build up Thy cities, and by Thy most excellent titles, and Thy most august attributes, to assist Thy people to turn in the direction of Thy manifold bounties, and set their faces towards the Tabernacle of Thy wisdom. Heal Thou the sicknesses that have assailed the souls on every side, and have deterred them from directing their gaze towards the Paradise that lieth in the shelter of Thy shadowing Name, which Thou didst ordain to be the King of all names unto all who are in heaven and all who are on earth.
Potent art Thou to do as pleaseth Thee. In Thy hands is the empire of all names. There is none other God but Thee, the Mighty, the Wise.
I am but a poor creature, 0 my Lord; I have clung to the hem of Thy riches. I am sore sick; I have held fast the cord of
Thy healing. Deliverme from the ills that have encircled me, and wash me thoroughly with the waters of Thy graciousness and mercy, and attire me with the raiment of wholesomeness, through Thy forgiveness and bounty. Fix, then, mine eyes upon Thee, and rid me of all attachment to aught else except Thyself. Aid me to do what Thou desirest, and to fulfill what Thou pleas-est.
Thou art truly the Lord of this life and of the next. Thou art, in truth, the Ever-Forgiving, the
Most Merciful.To every discerning and illuminated heart it is evident that Gqd, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men.
"No vision taketh in~ Him, but He taketh in all vision; He is the Subtile, the All-Perceiving."
The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace, according to His saying, "His grace hath transcended all things; My grace hath encompassed them all," hath caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence.
These sanctified Mirrors, these Day Springs of ancient glory, are, one and
Page 82Details of the ornamentation on the Arcade of the Shrine of the Báb.
Clay model of a star panel.There are twenty-four of these panels, in three different designs, and eight half star panels. They are placed above each of the granite columns, and inset in the masonry of the walls.
Clay model of one of the thirty-two capitals. All these capitals have been completed in Chiampo granite, and a number have already arrived in Haifa.
Pilaster capitals. There are sixteen of these capitals, occurring in pairs, four at each corner of the Arcade. They are of cream colored Chiampo granite, carved in Italy.
Page 83all, the Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty.
The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless glory. They are the Treasuries of Divine knowledge, and the Repositories of celestial wisdom. Through them is transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them is revealed the Light that can never fade.
These Tabernacles of Holiness, these Primal Mirrors which reflect the light of unfading glory, are but expressions of Him Who is the Invisible of the Invisibles. By the revelation of these Gems of Divine virtue all the names and attributes of God, such as knowledge and power, sovereignty and dominion, mercy and wisdom, glory, bounty, and grace, are made manifest.
These attributes of God are not, and have never been, vouchsafed specially unto certain Prophets, and withheld from others.
Nay, all the Prophets of God, His well-favored, His holy and chosen Messengers are, without exception, the bearers of His names, and the embodiments of His attributes. They only differ in the intensity of their revelation, and the comparative potency of their light. Even as He hath revealed: "Some of the Apostles We have caused to excel the others."
It hath, therefore, become manifest and evident that within the tabernacles of these Prophets and chosen Ones of God the light of His infinite names and exalted attributes hath been reflected, even though the light of some of these attributes may or may not be outwardly revealed from these luminous Tern-pies to the eyes of men. That a certain attribute of God bath not been outwardly manifested by these Essences of Detachment cloth in no wise imply that they who are the Day Springs of God's attributes and the Treasuries of His holy names did not actually possess it. Therefore, these illuminated Souls, these beauteous Countenances have, each and every one of them, been endowed with all the attributes of God, such as sovereignty, dominion, and the like, even though to outward seeming they be shorn of all earthly maj esty.
Know thou of a certainty that the Unseen can in no wise incarnate His Essence and reveal it unto men.
He is, and hath ever been, immensely exalted beyond all that can either be recounted or perceived.
From His retreat of glory His voice is ever proclaiming: "Verily, I am God; there is none other God besides Me, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. I have manifested Myself unto men, and have sent down Him Who is the Day Spring of the signs of My Revelation. Through Him I have caused all creation to testify that there is none other God except Him, the Incomparable, the All-Informed, the All-Wise." He Who is everlastingly hidden from the eyes of men can never be known except through His Manifestation, and His Manifestation can adduce no greater proof of the truth of His Mission than the proof of His
Own Person.0 Sa1m~tn! The door of the knowledge of the Ancient Being bath ever been, and will continue for ever to be, closed in the face of men. No man's understanding shall ever gain access unto His holy court. As a token of His Mercy, however, and as a proof of His lovingkindness, He hath manifested unto men the Day Stars of His divine guidance, the Symbols of His divine unity, and hath ordained the knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge of His own Self. Whoso recognizeth them hath recognized God. Whoso hearkeneth to their call, hath hearkened to the Voice of God, and whoso testifieth to the truth of their Revelation, hath testified to the truth of God Himself.
Whoso turn-eth away from them, bath turned away from God, and whoso disbelieveth in them, bath disbelieved in God. Every one of them is the Way of God that connecteth this world with the realms above, and the Standard of His Truth unto every one in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. They are the Manifestations of God amidst men, the evi
Page 84Know of a certainty that in every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation hath been vouchsafed unto men in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity.
Consider the sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light.
How steadily it declineth until it reacheth its setting point. Were it, all of a sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no doubt, cause injury to all created things. In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty bath bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of its light.
Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist.
Lay not aside the fear of God, 0 kings of the earth, and beware that ye transgress not the bounds which the Almighty hath fixed. Observe the injunctions laid upon you in His Book, and take good heed not to overstep their limits. Be vigilant, that ye may not do injustice to anyone, be it to the extent of a grain of mustard seed. Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path.
Compose your differences, and reduce your armaments, that the burden of your expenditures may be lightened, and that your minds and hearts may be tranquillized.
Heal the dissensions that divide you, and ye will no longer be in need of any armaments except what the protection of your cities and territories demandeth. Fear ye God, and take heed not to outstrip the bounds of moderation, and be numbered among the extravagant.
We have learned that you are increasing your outlay every year, and are laying the burden thereof on your subjects. This, verily, is more than they can bear, and is a grievous injustice. Decide justly between men, and be ye the emblems of justice amongst them. This, if ye judge fairly, is the thing that behoveth you, and beseemeth your station.
Beware not to deal unjustly with any one that appealeth to you, and entereth beneath your shadow. Walk ye in the fear of God, and be ye of them that lead a godly life. Rest not on your power, your armies, and treasures. Put your whole trust and confidence in God, Who bath created you, and seek ye His help in all your affairs.
Succor cometh from Him alone. He succoreth whom He will with the hosts of the heavens and of the earth.
Know ye that the poor are the trust of God in your midst. Watch that ye betray not His trust, that ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk not in the ways of the treacherous. Ye will most certainly be called upon to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of Justice shall be set, the day when unto every one shall be rendered his due, when the doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed.
0 ye the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye cairn-sel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully.
Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires, and have erred grievously.
And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before.
Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.We behold it, in this day, at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they cannot discern clearly their own best advantage, much less recognize a Revelation so bewildering and challenging as this.
And whenever any one of them bath striven to improve its condition, his motive hath been his own gain, whether confessedly so or not; and the unworthiness of this motive hath limited his power to heal or cure.
That which the Lord bath ordained as the sovereign remedy and 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.
Man is the supreme Talisman.Lack of a proper education bath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess.
Through a word proceeding out of the mouth of God he was called into being; by one word more he was guided to recognize the Source of his education; by yet another word his station and destiny were safeguarded.
The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.
If any man were to meditate on that which the Scriptures, sent down from the heaven of God's holy Will, have revealed, he will readily recognize that their purpose is that all men shall be regarded as one soul, so that the seal bearing the words "The Kingdom shall be God's" may be stamped on every heart, and the light of Divine bounty, of grace, and mercy may envelop all mankind.
The one true God, exalted be His glory, hath wished nothing for Himself. The allegiance of mankind profiteth Him not, neither doth its perversity harm Him.
The Bird of the Realm of Utterance voiceth continually this call: "All things have I willed for thee, and thee, too, for thine own sake." If the learned and worldly-wise ise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.
Were the earth to attain this station and be illumined with its light it could then be truly said of it: "Thou shall see in it no hollows or rising hills."
All praise be to God Who hath adorned the world with an ornament, and arrayed it with a vesture, of which it can be despoiled by no earthly power, however mighty its battalions, however vast its wealth, however profound its influence.
Say: the essence of all power is God's, the highest and the last End of all creation. The source of all majesty is God's the Object of the adoration of all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Such forces as have their origin in this world of dust are, by their very nature, unworthy of consideration.
Say: The springs that sustain the life of these birds are not of this world. Their source is far above the reach and ken of human apprehension.
Who is there that can put out the light which the snow-white Hand of God hath lit? Where is he to be found that hath the power to quench the fire which hath been kindled through the might of thy Lord, the All-Powerful, the Mi-Compel-ling, the Almighty? It is the Hand of Divine might that hath extinguished the flames of dissension. Powerful is He to do that which He pleaseth. He saith: Be; and it is. Say: The fierce gales and whirlwinds of the world and its peoples can never shake the foundation upon which the rocklike stability of My chosen ones is based.
Gracious God! What could have prompted these people to enslave and imprison the loved ones of Him Who is the Eternal Truth?
The day, however, is approaching when the faithful will behold the Day Star of justice shining in its full splendor from the Day Spring of glory.
Thus instructeth thee the Lord of all being in this, His grievous
Prison.This will, indeed, profit you all the days of your life, for its strength is of God, the Lord of all worlds. Cleave ye to justice and fairness, and turn away from the whisperings of the foolish, them that are estranged from God, that have decked their heads with the ornament of the learned, and have condemned to death Him Who is the Fain-tam of wisdom. My name hath uplifted them to lofty grades, and yet, no sooner did I reveal Myself to their eyes than they, with manifest injustice, pronounced the sentence of My death.
Thus hath Our Pen revealed the truth, and yet the people are sunk in heedlessness.
Whoso oleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing.
The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation. Meditate on this, 0 people, and be not of them that wander distraught in the wilderness of error. The day is approaching when its flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur will proclaim: "The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the All-Praised!"
The All-Knowing Physicianhath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its pres-ent-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.
We can well perceive how the whole human race is encompassed with great, with incalculable afflictions.
We see it languishing on its bed of sickness, sore-tried and disillusioned.
They that are intoxicated by self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician.
Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy. They have conceived the straight to be crooked, and have imagined their friend an enemy.
He Who is your Lord, the All-Merci-ful, cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body. Haste ye to win your share of God's good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth all other created Days. How great the felicity that awaiteth the man that for-saketh all he hath in a desire to obtain the things of God! Such a man, We testify, is among Gad's blessed ones.
FROMAll glory be to Thee, 0 Lord my God! I bear witness for Thee to that whereto Thou Thyself didst bear witness for Thine own Self, ere the day Thou hadst created the creation or made mention thereof, that Thou art God, and that there is none other God beside Thee. From eternity Thou hast, in Thy transcendent oneness, been immeasurably exalted above Thy servants' conception of Thy unity, and wilt to eternity remain, in Thine unapproachable singleness, far above the praise of Thy creatures.
No words that any one beside Thee may utter can ever beseem Thee, and no man's description except Thine own description can befit Thy nature. All who adore Thy unity have been sore perplexed to fathom the mystery of Thy oneness, and all have confessed their powerlessness to attain unto the comprehension of Thine essence and to scale the
Page 87The mighty have all acknowledged their weakness, and the learned recognized their ignorance. They that are possessed of influence are as nothing when compared with the revelations of Thy stupendous sovereignty, and they who are exalted sink into oblivion when brought before the manifestations of Thy great glory. The radiance of the brightest luminaries is eclipsed by the effulgent splendors of Thy face, and the tongues of the most eloquent of speakers falter under the unrestrained effusions of Thy holy utterance, and the foundations of the mightiest structures tremble before the onrushing force of Thy compelling power.
Who is there, 0 my God, that can be deemed worthy to be remembered when Thou art remembered, and where is he to be fotmd who can be regarded as capable of hinting at Thy nature or worthy of mention in the court of Thy transcendent oneness?
From everlasting Thouhast been alone with no one else beside Thee, and to everlasting Thou wilt continue to be one and the same. No God is there beside Thee, the God of power, of glory and wisdom.
Glorified be Thy name, 0 Lord my God! I beseechexalted and supreme Remembrance, Whom Thou hast sent down unto all Thy creatures and invested with Thy name, the All-Glorious, Whose will Thou hast ordained to be Thine own will, Whose self Thou hast decreed to be the revealer of Thine own Self, and His essence the DaySpring of Thy wisdom, and His heart the treasury of Thine inspiration, and His breast the dawning-place of Thy most excellent attributes and most exalted titles, and His tongue the fountainhead of the waters of Thy praise and the wellspring of the soft-flowing streams of Thy wisdom, to send down upon us that which will enable us to dispense with all else except Thee, and will cause us to direct our steps towards the sanctuary of Thy pleasure and to aspire after the things Thou didst ordain for us according to Thine irrevocable decree. Empower us, then, 0 my God, to forsake ourselves and cleave steadfastly to Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy Self, the Most Exalted, the Most High. Supply us also with that which is best for us, and write us down with such of Thy servants as have repudiated the Idol (Mirza Yahy&), and firmly believed in Thee, and been so established on the throne of certitude that the whisperings of the Evil One have been powerless to hinder them from turning their faces towards Thy name, the All-Merciful.
Powerful art Thou to do what Thou pleasest and to ordain what Thou wiliest.
No God is there but Thee, the All-Possessing, the All-Highest, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful, the All-Know-ing, the All-Wise.
0 Thou Whose remembrance is the delight of the souls of all them that yearn after Thee, Whose name is the exultation of the hearts of all who are wholly devoted to Thy will, Whose praise is cherished by such as have drawn nigh unto Thy court, Whose face is the ardent desire of all them that have recognized Thy truth, Whose trial is the healer of the sicknesses of them who have embraced Thy Cause, Whose calamity is the highest aspiration of such as are rid of all attachment to any one but Thyself!
Glorified, immeasurably glorified art Thou, in Whose hands is the empire of whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on earth, Thou, Who through but one word of Thy mouth, caused all things to expire and dissolve asunder, and Who, by yet another word, caused whatever had been separated to be combined and reunited!
Magnified be Thy name, 0 Thou Who hast power over all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth, Whose dominion em-braceth whatsoever is in the heaven of Thy Revelation and the kingdom of 'Thy creation.
None can equal Thee in Thy created realms; none can compare with Thee in the universe Thou hast fashioned. The mind of no one hath comprehended Thee, and the aspiration of no soul hath reached Thee. I swear by Thy might!
Were any one to soar, on whatever wings, as long as mine own
Page 88Being endureth, throughout the immensity of Thy knowledge, he would still be powerless to transgress the bounds which the contingent world hath set for him. How can, then, such a man aspire to wing his flight into the atmosphere of Thy most exalted presence?
He, indeed, is endued with understanding who acknowledgeth his powerlessness and confesseth his sinfulness, for should any created thing lay claim to any existence, when confronted with the infinite wonders of Thy Revelation, so blasphemous a pretension would be more heinous than any other crime in all the domains of Thine invention and creation.
Who is there, 0 my Lord, that when Thou revealest the first glimmerings of the signs of Thy transcendent sovereignty and might, hath the power to claim for himself any existence whatever? Existence itself is as nothing when brought face to face with the mighty and manifold wonders of
Thine incomparable Self.Far, immeasurably far, art Thou exalted above all things, 0 Thou Who art the King of Kings!
I entreat Thee by Thy Self and by them Who are the Manifestations of Thy Gause and the DaySprings of Thine authority to write down for us that which Thou haM written down for Thy chosen ones.
Withhold not from us that which Thou didst ordain for Thy loved ones, who, as soon as Thy call reached them, hastened unto Thee, and when the splendors of the light of Thy countenance were shed upon them, instantly prostrated themselves in adoration before Thy face.
We are Thy servants, 0 my Lord, and in the grasp of Thy power. If Thou chastisest us with the chastisement inflicted upon the former and the latter generations, Thy verdict would be assuredly just and Thine act praiseworthy.
Powerful art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. None other God is there beside Thee, the Almighty, the
All-Glorious, the HelpLauded be Thy name, 0 my God! I testify that no thought of Thee, howsoever soever wondrous, can ever ascend into the heaven of Thy knowledge, and no praise of Thee, no matter how transcendent, can soar up to the atmosphere of Thy wisdom. From eternity Thou hast been removed far above the reach and the ken of the comprehension of Thy servants, and immeasurably exalted above the strivings of Thy bond-slaves to express Thy mystery. What power can the shadowy creature claim to possess when face to face with Him Who is the Uncreateci?
I bear witness that the highest thoughts of all such as adore Thy unity, and the profoundest contemplations of all them that have recognized Thee, are but the product of what hath been generated through the movement of the Pen of Thy behest, and hath been begotten by Thy will.
I swear by Thy glory, 0 Thou Who art the Beloved of my soul and the Fountain of my life! I am persuaded of my powerlessness to describe and extol Thee in a manner that becometh the greatness of Thy glory and the excellence of Thy majesty. Aware as I am of this, I beseech Thee, by Thy mercy that hath surpassed all created things, and Thy grace that hath embraced the entire creation, to accept from Thy servants what they are capable of showing forth in Thy path. Aid them, then, by Thy strengthening grace, to exalt Thy word and to blazon Thy praise.
Powerful art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. Thou, truly, art the All-Glorious, the All-Wise.
I know not, 0 my God, what the Fire is with which Thou didst light the Lamp of Thy Cause, or what the Glass wherewith Thou didst preserve it from Thine enemies.
By Thy might! I marvel at the wonders of Thy Revelation, and at the tokens of Thy glory. I recognize, o Thou Who art my heart's Desire, that were fire to be touched by water it would instantly be extinguished, whereas the Fire which Thou didst kindle can never go out, though all the seas of the earth be poured upon it.
Page 89Should water at any time touch it, the hands of Thy power would, as decreed in Thy Tablets, transmute that water into a fuel that would feed its flame.
I, likewise, recognize, 0 my God, that every lamp, when exposed to the fury of the winds, must cease from burning. As to Thy Lamp, however, 0 Beloved of the worlds, I cannot think what power except Thy power could have kept it safe for so many years from the tempests that have continually been directed upon it by the rebellious among Thy creatures.
I swear by Thy glory, 0 my God! Thy Lamp which Thou didst light within the tabernacle of man crieth out to Thee and saith: "0 Thou the one alone Beloved! How long wilt Thou forsake me? Lift me up to Thee, I pray Thee.
Though this wish of mine be the wish of a human creature, yet Thou knowest that my true wish is to sacri-flee myself in Thy path. Thou art He Who hath made my desire to be the same as Thy desire, and my will the same as Thy will.
Do Thou preserve Thy loved ones, I beseech Thee, in the shelter of Thy shadowing mercy which transcendeth all things, that haply the sufferings they bear may not deter them from turning in the direction of Thy name, the All-Glorious, the Most Bountiful."
Glorified art thou, 0 my God! Thou knowest that in my love for Thee I have not sought any rest, that in proclaiming Thy Cause I have denied myself every manner of tranquillity, and that in the observance of whatever Thou hast prescribed in Thy Tablets I have not delayed to do Thy bidding. I have, for this reason, suffered what no man among all the inhabitants of Thy realm hath suffered.
Thy glory beareth me witness!Nothing whatsoever can withhold me from remembering Thee, though all the tribulations of the earth were to assault me from every direction.
All the limbs and members of my body proclaim their readiness to be torn asunder in Thy path and for the sake of Thy pleasure, and they yearn to be scattered in the dust before Thee. 0 would that they who serve Thee could taste what I have tasted of the sweetness of Thy love!
I implore Thee to supply whosoever bath sought Thee with the living waters of Thy bounty, that they may rid him of all attachment to any one but Thee. Thou art, verily, the Omniscient, the All-Glorious, the Almighty.
Lauded be Thy name, 0 Lord my God! How great is Thy might and Thy sovereignty; how vast Thy strength and Thy dominion! Thou hast called into being Him Who speaketh in Thy name before all who are in Thy heaven and on Thy earth, and hast bidden Him cry out amongst Thy creatures.
No sooner had a word gone forth from His lips, however, than the divines among Thy people turned back from Him, and the learned among Thy servants caviled at His signs. Thereby the fire of oppression was kindled in Thy land, until the kings themselves rose up to put out Thy light, 0 Thou Who art the King of kings!
Hostility waxed so intense that my kindred and my loved ones were made captives in Thy land, and they that are dear to Thee were hindered from gazing on Thy beauty and from turning in the direction of Thy mercy.
This hostility failed to cause the fire that burned within them to subside.
The enemy finally carried away as captive Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy beauty and the Revealer of Thy signs, and confined Him in the fortress-town of 'Akka and sought to hinder Him from remembering Thee and from magnifying Thy name. Thy servant, however, could not be restrained from carrying out what Thou hadst bidden Him fulfill.
Above the horizon of tribulation He hath lifted up His voice and He crieth out, summoning all the inmates of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth to the immensity of Thy mercy and the court of Thy grace.
Day and night He sendeth down the signs of Thine omnipotent power and reveal-eth the clear tokens of Thy majesty, so that the souls of Thy creatures may be drawn towards Thee, that they may
Page 90One of the twenty-four rose Baveno granite columns. This photograph was taken in the workshop at Palanza, Italy, and represents a single column in its finished state. All twenty-four have since been received in Haifa, together with eight pilasters of the same granite, and are awaiting erection.
forsake themselves and turn unto Thee, and may flee from their misery and seek the tabernacle of Thy riches, and may haste away from their wretchedness into the court of Thy majesty and glory.
This is the Lamp which the light of Thine own Essence hath lit, and whose radiance the winds of discord can never extinguish.
This is the Ocean that moveth by the power of Thy sovereign might, and whose waves the influence of the infidels that have disbelieved in the Judgment Day can never still.
This is the Sun that shineth in the heaven of Thy will and the splendor of which the veils of the workers of iniquity and the doubts of the evil doers can never cloud.
I yield Thee thanks, 0 my God, for that Thou hast offered me up as a sacrifice in Thy path, and made me a target for the arrows of afflictions as a token of Thy love for Thy servants, and singled me out for all manner of trib ulation for the regeneration of Thy people.
How sweet to my taste is the savor of woes sent by Thee, and how dear to my heart the dispositions of Thy providence! Perish the soul that fleeth from the threats of kings in its attempt to save itself in Thy days! I swear by Thy glory! Whoso hat quaffed the living waters of Thy favors can fear no trouble in Thy path, neither can he be deterred by any tribulation from remembering Thee or from celebrating Thy praise.
I beseech Thee, 0 ThouWho art my Governor and the Possessor of all names, to protect them that have branched out from me (Afnttn), whom Thou hast caused to be related to Thyself, and to whom Thou haM, in this Revelation, shown Thy special favor, and whom Thou hast summoned to draw nigh unto Thee and to turn towards the horizon of Thy Revelation. Withhold not from them, 0 my Lord,
Page 91Heavy snow of the winter of 194950 cloaks the Shrine of the Báb and its cypressed terraces in white.
A rare sight � snow deep over the Holy Land.Main entrance to the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel, looks like a Canadian scene.
the outpourings of Thy mercy or the effulgence of the DayStar of Thy grace.
Enable them to distinguish themselves amongst Thy people, that they may exalt Thy word and promote Thy Cause. Aid them, 0 my God, to do Thy will and pleasure.
No God is there but Thee, the All-Powerful, the Most Exalted, the Most High.
Glory to Thee, 0 my God!But for the tribulations which are sustained in Thy path, how could Thy true lovers be recognized; and were it not for the trials which are borne for love of Thee, how could the station of such as yearn for Thee be revealed? Thy might bear-eth me witness!
The companions of all who adore Thee are the tears they shed, and the comforters of such as seek Thee are the groans they utter, and the food of them who haste to meet Thee is the fragments of their broken hearts.
How sweet to my taste is the bitterness of death suffered in Thy path, and how precious in my estimation are the shafts of Thine enemies when encountered for the sake of the exaltation of Thy word! Let me quaff in Thy Cause, 0 my God, whatsoever Thou didst desire, and send down upon me in Thy love all Thou didst ordain. By Thy glory! I wish only what Thou wishest, and cherish what Thou cherishest.
In Thee have I, at all times, placed my whole trust and confidence.
Raise up, I implore Thee, 0 my God, as helpers to this Revelation such as shall be counted worthy of Thy name and of Thy sovereignty, that they may remember me among Thy creatures, and hoist the ensigns of Thy victory in Thy land.
Page 93The Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A. Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. No God is there but Thee, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting.My God, my Adored One, my King, my Desire! What tongue can voice my thanks to Thee? I was heedless, Thou didst awaken me.
I had turned back from Thee, Thou didst graciously aid me to turn towards Thee. I was as one dead, Thou didst quicken me with the water of life.
I was withered, Thou didst revive me with the heavenly stream of Thine utterance which hath flowed forth from the Pen of the All-Merciful.
0 Divine Providence! Allexistence is begotten by Thy bounty; deprive it not of the waters of Thy generosity, neither do Thou withhold it from the ocean of Thy mercy.
I beseech Thee to aid and assist me at all times and under all conditions, and seek from the heaven of Thy grace Thine ancient favor. Thou art, in truth, the Lord of bounty, and the Sovereign of the kingdom of eternity.
Page 94ALL created things have their degree or stage of maturity. The period of maturity in the life of a tree is the time of its fruit-bearing.
The maturity of a plant is the time of its blossoming and flower. The animal attains a stage of full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom man reaches his maturity when the lights of intelligence have their greatest power and development.
From the beginning to the end of his life man passes through certain periods or stages each of which is marked by certain conditions peculiar to itself. For instance during the period of childhood his conditions and requirements are characteristic of that degree of intelligence and capacity. After a time he enters the period of youth in which his former conditions and needs are superseded by new requirements applicable to the advance in his degree.
His faculties of observation are broadened and deepened, his intelligent capacities are trained and awakened, the limitations and environment of childhood no longer restrict his energies and accomplishments.
At last he passes out of the period of youth and enters the stage or station of maturity which necessitates another transformation and corresponding advance in his sphere of life-ac-tivity. New powers and perceptions clothe him, teaching and training commensurate with his progression occupy his mind, special bounties and bestowals descend in proportion to his increased capacities and his former period of youth and its conditions will no longer satisfy his matured view and vision.
Similarly there are periods and stages in the life of the aggregate world of humanity which at one time was passing through its degree of childhood, at another its time of youth but naw has entered its long presaged period of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere visible and apparent. Therefore the requirements and conditions of former periods have changed and merged into exigencies which distinctly characterize the present age of the world of mankind.
SCIENCE AND SPIRnUAL DEVELOPMENTIf we look with a perceiving eye upon the world of creation, we find that all existing things may be classified as follows: First � Mineral � that is to say matter or substance appearing in var-jous forms of composition.
Second � Vegetable � possessing the virtues of the mineral plus the power of augmentation or growth, indicating a degree higher and more specialized than the mineral. Third � Animal � possessing the attributes of the mineral and vegetable plus the power of sense perception. Fourth � Human � the highest specialized organism of visible creation, embodying the qualities of the mineral, vegetable and animal plus an ideal endowment absolutely minus and absent in the lower kingdoms� the power of intellectual investigation into the mysteries of outer phenomena. The outcome of this intellectual endowment is science which is especially characteristic of man. This scientific power investigates and apprehends created objects and the laws surrounding them. It is the discoverer of the hidden and mysterious secrets of the material universe and is peculiar to man alone. The most noble and praiseworthy accomplishment of man therefore is scientific knowledge and attainment.
Science may be likened to a mirror wherein the images of the mysteries of outer phenomena are reflected.
It brings forth and exhibits to us in the arena of knowledge all the product of the past. It links together past and present.
The philosophical conclusions 95of bygone centuries, the teachings of the prophets and wisdom of former sages are crystallized and reproduced in the scientific advancement of today. Science is the discoverer of the past. From its premises of past and present we deduce conclusions as to the future. Science is the governor of nature and its mysteries, the one agency by which man explores the institutions of material creation, All created things are captives of nature and subject to its laws, They cannot transgress the control of these laws in one detail or particular, The infinite starry worlds and heavenly bodies are nature's obedient subjects.
The earth and its myriad organisms, all minerals, plants and animals are thralls of its dominion.
But man through the exercise of his scientific, intellectual power can rise out of this condition, can modify, change and control nature according to his own wishes and uses. Science, so to speak, is the "breaker" of the laws of nature.
Consider, for example, that man according to natural law should dwell upon the surface of the earth.
By overcoming this law and restriction however he sails in ships over the ocean, mounts to the zenith in aeroplanes and sinks to the depths of the sea in submarines.
This is against the fiat of nature and a violation of her sovereignty and dominion. Nature's laws and methods, the hidden secrets and mysteries of the universe, human inventions and discoveries, all our scientific acquisitions should naturally remain concealed and unknown, but man through his intellectual acumen searches them out of the plane of the invisible, draws them into the plane of the visible, exposes and explains them. For instance, one of the mysteries of nature is electricity, According to nature this force, this energy should remain latent and hidden, but man scientifically breaks through the very laws of nature, arrests it and even imprisons it for his use.
In brief, man through the possession of this ideal endowment of scientific investigation is the most noble product of creation, the governor of nature. He takes the sword from nature's hand and uses it upon nature's head. According cording to natural law, night is a pert-ad of darkness and obscurity, but man by utilizing the power of electricity, by wielding this electric sword overcomes the darkness and dispels the gloom. Man is superior to nature and makes nature do his bidding. Man is a sensitive being; nature is minus sensation. Man has memory and reason; nature lacks them. Man is nobler than nature. There are powers within him of which nature is devoid, It may be claimed that these powers are from nature itself and that man is a part of nature. In answer to this statement we will say that if nature is the whole and man is a part of that whole, how could it be possible for a part to possess qualities and virtues which are absent in the whole? Undoubtedly the part must be endowed with the same qualities and properties as the whole. For example, the hair is a part of the human anatomy, It cannot contain elements which are not found in other parts of the body, for in all cases the component elements of the body are the same.
Therefore it is manifest and evident that man, although in body a part of nature, nevertheless in spirit possesses a power transcending nature; for if he were simply a part of nature and limited to material laws he could possess only the things which nature embodies.
God has conferred upon and added to man a distinctive power, the faculty of intellectual investigation into the secrets of creation, the acquisition of higher knowledge, the greatest virtue of which is scientific enlightenment.
This endowment is the most praiseworthy power of man, for through its employment and exercise, the betterment of the human race is accomplished, the development of the virtues of mankind is made possible and the spirit and mysteries of God become manifest.
Therefore I am greatly pleased with my visit to this university, Praise be to God! that this country abounds in such institutions of learning where the knowledge of sciences and arts may readily be acquired.
As material and physical sciences are taught here and are constantly unfolding in wider vistas of attainment,
Page 97Nearly two million persons saw this outstanding publicity picture of the Baha House of Worship. Featured in the leading position in a recent photographic c exhibit in Chicago's great public library, the picture, taken by Russell Hamm of the Chicago Tribune, appeared in that paper as No. 1 in a pictorial series on "Beautiful Chicago."
I am hopeful that spiritual development may also follow and keep pace with these outer advantages. As material knowledge is illuminating those within the walls of this great temple of learning, so also may the light of the spirit, the inner and divine light of the real philosophy glorify this institution.
The most important principle of divine philosophy is the oneness of the world of humanity, the unity of mankind, the bond conjoining east and west, the tie of love which blends human hearts.
Therefore it is our duty to put forth our greatest efforts and summon all our energies in order that the bonds of unity and accord may be established among mankind. For thousands of years we have had bloodshed and strife. It is enough; it is sufficient. Now is the time to associate together in love and harmony. For thousands of years we have tried the sword and warfare; let mankind for a time at least live in peace.
Review history and consider how much savagery, how much bloodshed and battle the world has witnessed.
It has been either religious warfare, political warfare or some other clash of human interests. The world of humanity has never enjoyed the blessing of Universal Peace. Year by year the implements of warfare have been increased and perfected. Consider the wars of past centuries; only ten, fifteen or twenty thousand at the most were killed but now it is possible to kill one hundred thousand in a single day. In ancient times warfare was carried on with the sword; today it is the smoke
Page 98less gun. Formerly battleships were sailing vessels; today they are dreadnoughts.
Consider the increase and improvement in the weapons of war. God has created us all human and all countries of the world are parts of the same globe. We are all his servants. He is kind and just to all.
Why should we be unkind and unjust to each other?He provides for all. Why should we deprive one another? He protects and preserves all. Why should we kill our fellow-crea-tures?
If this warfare and strife be for the sake of religion, it is evident that it violates the spirit and basis of all religion.
All the divine Manifestations have proclaimed the oneness of God and the unity of mankind. They have taught that men should love and mutually help each other in order that they might progress. Now if this conception of religion be true, its essential principle is the oneness of humanity. The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice.
The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement and should love one another. Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness of humanity is the primary foundation of them all. Read the Gospel and the other holy books. You will find their fundamentals are one and the same. Therefore unity is the essential truth of religion and when so understood embraces all the virtues of the human world. Praise be to God!
this knowledge has been spread, eyes have been opened and ears have become attentive. Therefore we must endeavor to promulgate and practice the religion of God which has been founded by all the prophets. And the religion of God is absolute love and unity.
MAN AND NATURFFrom the time of the creation of Adam to this day there have been two pathways in the world of humanity; one the natural or materialistic, the other the religious or spiritual. The pathway of nature is the pathway of the animal realm. The animal acts in accordance with the requirements of nature, follows its own instincts and desires.
Whatever its impulses and proclivities clivities may be it has the liberty to gratify them; yet it is a captive of nature. It cannot deviate in the least degree from the road nature has established.
It is utterly minus spiritual susceptibilities, ignorant of divine religion and without knowledge of the kingdom of God.
The animal possesses no power of ideation or conscious intelligence; it is a captive of the senses and deprived of that which lies beyond them.
It is subject to what the eye sees, the ear hears, the nostrils sense, the taste detects and touch reveals. These sensations are acceptable and sufficient for the animal. But that which is beyond the range of the senses, that realm of phenomena through which the conscious pathway to the kingdom of God leads, the world of spiritual susceptibilities and divine religion, � of these the animal is completely unaware, for in its highest station it is a captive of nature.
One of the strangest things witnessed is that the inaterialists of today are proud of their natural instincts and bondage.
They state that nothing is entitled to belief and acceptance except that which is sensible or tangible. By their own statements they are captives of nature, unconscious of the spiritual world, uninformed of the divine Kingdom and unaware of heavenly bestowals. If this be a virtue the animal has attained it to a superlative degree, for the animal is absolutely ignorant of the realm of spirit and out of touch with the inner world of conscious realization.
The animal would agree with the materialist in denying the existence of that which transcends the senses. If we admit that being limited to the plane of the senses is a virtue the animal is indeed more virtuous than man, for it is entirely bereft of that which lies beyond, absolutely oblivious of the kingdom of God and its traces whereas God has deposited within the human creature an illimitable power by which he can rule the world of nature.
Consider how all other phenomenal existence and beings are captives of nature.
The sun, that colossal center of our solar system, the giant stars and planets the towering mountains, the earth itself and its kingdoms of life
Page 99lower than the human, � all are captives of nature except man. Na other created thing can deviate in the slightest degree from obedience to natural law.
The sun in its glory and greatness millions of miles away is held prisoner in its orbit and universal revolution, captive of universal natural control. Man is the ruler of nature. According to natural law and limitation he should remain upon the earth, but behold how he violates this command and soars above the mountains in aeroplanes. He sails in ships upon the surface of the ocean and dives into its depths in submarines.
Man makes nature his servant; harnesses the mighty energy of electricity for instance and imprisons it in a small lamp for his uses and convenience.
He speaks from the east to the west through a wire. He is able to store and preserve his voice in a phonograph. Though he is a dweller upon earth he penetrates the mysteries of starry worlds inconceivably distant. He discovers latent realities within the bosom of the earth, uncovers treasures, penetrates secrets and mysteries of the phenomenal world and brings to light that which according to nature's jealous laws should remain hidden, unknown and unfathomable.
Through an ideal inner power man brings these realities forth from the invisible plane to the visible.
This is contrary to nature's law.It is evident therefore that man is ruler over nature's sphere and province.
Nature is inert, man is progressive. Nature has no consciousness, man is endowed with it. Nature is without volition and acts perforce whereas man possesses a mighty will.
Nature is incapable of discovering mysteries or realities whereas man is especially fitted to do so. Nature is not in touch with the realm of God, man is attuned to its evidences. Nature is uninformed of God, man is conscious of Him.
Man acquires divine virtues, nature is denied them.
Man can voluntarily discontinue vices, nature has no power to modify the influence of its instincts. Altogether it is evident that man is more noble and superior; that in him there is an ideal power surpassing nature.
lie has consciousness, volition, memory, intelligent power, divine attributes and virtues of which nature is completely deprived, bereft and minus; therefore man is higher and nobler by reason of the ideal and heavenly force latent and manifest in him.
How strange then it seems that man, notwithstanding his endowment with this ideal power, will descend to a level beneath him and declare himself no greater than that which is manifestly inferior to his real station.
God has created such a conscious spirit within him that he is the most wonderful of all contingent beings. In ignoring these virtues he descends to the material plane, considers matter the ruler of existence and denies that which lies beyond. Is this virtue? In its fullest sense this is animalistic, for the animal realizes nothing more. In fact from this standpoint the animal is the greater philosopher because it is completely ignorant of the kingdom of God, possesses no spiritual susceptibilities and is uninformed of the heavenly world. In brief, this is a view of the pathway of nature.
The second pathway is that of religion, the road of the divine Kingdom. It involves the acquisition of praiseworthy attributes, heavenly illumination and righteous actions in the world of humanity.
This pathway is conducive to the progress and uplift of the world. It is the source of human enlightenment, training and ethical improvement; the magnet which attracts the love of God because of the knowledge of God it bestows.
This is the road of the holy Manifestations of God for they are in reality the foundation of the divine religion of oneness.
There is no change or transformation in this pathway.
It is the cause of human betterment, the acquisition of heavenly virtues and the illumination of mankind.
Alas! that humanity is completely submerged in imitations and unrealities notwithstanding the truth of divine religion has ever remained the same.
Superstitions have obscured the fundamental reality, the world is darkened and the light of religion is
Page 100not apparent. This darkness is conducive to differences and dissensions; rites and dogmas are many and various; therefore discord has arisen among the religious systems whereas religion is for the unification of mankind. True religion is the source of love and agreement amongst men, the cause of the development of praiseworthy qualities; but the people are holding to the counterfeit and imitation, negligent of the reality which unifies; so they are bereft and deprived of the radiance of religion. They follow superstitions inherited from their fathers and ancestors. To such an extent has this prevailed that they have taken away the heavenly light of divine truth and sit in the darkness of imitations and imaginations. That which was meant to be conducive to life has become the cause of death; that which should have been an evidence of knowledge is now a proof of ignorance; that which was a factor in the sublimity of human nature has proved to be its degradation.
Therefore the realm of the religionist has gradually narrowed and darkened and the sphere of the materialist has widened and advanced; for the religionist has held to imitation and counterfeit, neglecting and discarding holiness and the sacred reality of religion. When the sun sets it is the time for bats to fly. They come forth because they are creatures of the night. When the lights of religion become darkened the materialists appear. They are the bats of night. The decline of religion is their time of activity; they seek the shadows when the world is darkened and clouds have spread over it.
His Holiness Bahá'u'lláhhas risen from the eastern horizon. Like the glory of the sun He has come into the world. He has reflected the reality of divine religion, dispelled the darkness of imitations, laid the foundation of new teachings and resuscitated the world.
The first teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is the investigation of reality. Man must seek the reality himself, forsaking imitations and adherence to mere hereditary forms. As the nations of the world are following imitations in lieu of truth and as imitations are many and various, differences of belief have been productive of strife and warfare.
So long as these imitations remain the oneness of the world of humanity is impossible.
Therefore we must investigate the reality in order that by its light the clouds and darkness may be dispelled.
Reality is one reality; it does not admit multiplicity or division. If the nations of the world investigate reality they will agree and become united. Many people and sects in Persia have sought reality through the guidance and teaching of Bahá'u'lláh. They have become united and now live in a state of agreement and love; among them there is no longer the least trace of enmity and strife.
The second teaching of Bahá'u'lláh concerns the unity of mankind. All are the servants of God and members of one human family. God has created all and all are His children.
He rears, nourishes, provides for and is kind to all.
Why should we be unjust and unkind? This is the policy of God, the lights of which have shone throughout the world. His sun bestows its effulgence unsparingly upon all, His clouds send down rain without distinction or favor, His breezes refresh the whole earth.
It is evident that humankind without exception is sheltered beneath His mercy and protection.
Some are imperfect; they must be perfected. The ignorant must be taught, the sick healed, the sleepers awakened. The child must not be oppressed or censured because it is undeveloped; it must be patiently trained.
The sick must not be neglected because they are ailing; nay, rather, we must have compassion upon them and bring them healing.
Briefly; the old conditions of animosity, bigotry and hatred between the religious systems must be dispelled and the new conditions of love, agreement and spiritual brotherhood be established among them.
The third teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is that religion must be the source of fellowship, the cause of unity and the nearness of God to man. If it rouses hatred and strife it is evident that absence of religion is preferable and
Page 101an irreligious man better than one who professes it. According to the divine will and intention religion should be the cause of love and agreement, a bond to unify all mankind for it is a message of peace and goodwill to man from God.
The fourth teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is the agreement of religion and science. God has endowed man with intdlli-gence and reason whereby he is required to determine the verity of questions and propositions.
If religious beliefs and opinions are found contrary to the standards of science they are mere superstitions and imaginations; for the antithesis of knowledge is ignorance, and the child of ignorance is superstition. Unquestionably there must be agreement between true religion and science. If a question be found contrary to reason, faith and belief in it are impossible and there is no outcome but wavering and vacillation.
Bahá'u'lláh has also taught that prejudices, whether religious, racial, patriotic or political are destructive to the foundations of human development. Prejudices of any kind are the destroyers of human happiness and welfare. Until they are dispelled the advancement of the world of humanity is not possible, yet racial, religious and national bias are observed everywhere.
For thousands of years the world of humanity has been agitated and disturbed by prejudices.
As long as it prevails, warfare, animosity and hatred will continue. Therefore if we seek to establish peace we must cast aside this obstacle, for otherwise agreement and composure are not to be attained.
Fifth: Bahá'u'lláh set forth principles of guidance and teaching for economic readjustment.
Regulations were revealed by Him which insure the welfare of the commonwealth.
As the rich man enjoys his life surrounded by ease and luxuries so the poor man must likewise have a home and be provided with sustenance and comforts commensurate with his needs. This readjustment of the social economic is of the greatest importance inasmuch as it insures the stability of the world of humanity; and until it is effected, happiness and prosperity are impossible.
Sixth: Bahá'u'lláh teaches that an equal standard of human rights must be recognized and adopted.
In the estimation of God all men are equal; there is no distinction or preferment for any soul in the dominion of His justice and equity.
Seventh: Education is essential and all standards of training and teaching throughout the world of mankind should be brought into conformity and agreement; a universal curriculum should be established and the basis of ethics be the same.
Eighth: A universal language shall be adopted and be taught by all the schools and institutions of the world. A committee appointed by national bodies of learning shall select a suitable language to be used as a medium of international communication.
All must acquire it. This is one of the great factors in the unification of man.
Ninth: Bahá'u'lláh emphasized and established the equality of man and woman. Sex is not particularized to humanity; it exists throughout the animate kingdoms but without distinction or preference.
In the vegetable kingdom there is complete equality between male and female of species. Likewise in the animal plane equality exists; all are under the protection of God. Is it becoming to man that he, the noblest of creatures, should observe and insist upon such distinction? Woman's lack of progress and proficiency has been due to her need of equal education and opportunity.
Had she been allowed this equality there is no doubt she would be the counterpart of man in ability and capacity.
The happiness of mankind will be realized when women and men coordinate and advance equally, for each is the complement and helpmeet of the other.
The world of humanity cannot advance through mere physical powers and intellectual attainments; nay, rather, the Holy Spirit is essential.
The divine Father must assist the human world to attain maturity. The body of
Page 102Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A. man is in need of physical and mental energy but his spirit requires the life and fortification of the Holy Spirit. Without its protection and quickening the human world would be extinguished. His Holiness Jesus Christ declared, "Let the dead bury their dead."
He also said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." It is evident therefore according to His Holiness that the human spirit which is not fortified by the presence of the Holy Spirit is dead and in need of resurrection by that divine power; otherwise though materially advanced to high degrees man cannot attain full and complete progress.
Timi QuIclcrn~xNa S~ianThe greatest power in the realm and range of human existence is spirit, � the divine breath which animates and pervades all things. It is manifested throughout creation in different degrees or kingdoms.
In the vegetable kingdom it is the spirit augmentative or power of growth, the animus of life and development in plants, trees and organisms of the floral world.
In this degree of its manifestation, spirit is unconscious of the powers which qualify the kingdom of the animal.
The distinctive virtue or plus of the animal is sense perception; it sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels but is incapable in turn, of conscious ideation or reflection which characterize and differentiate the human kingdom. The animal neither exercises nor apprehends this distinctive human power and gift. From the visible it cannot draw conclusions regarding the invisible whereas the human mind from visible and known premises attains knowledge of the unknown and invisible.
For inNational Merchandising Women tour the Temple. One of the many special groups which have, along with business, fraternal, religious, educational, journalistic, medical, and diplomatic personages comprised the 400,000 visitors to the Temple since it was opened to the public. One distinguished visitor was the Abbot Kocho Otani from Japan, who heads some 6 million Buddhists.
"Open ye the gates of the Temple to all mankind," said 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and we can see how this is being done.
stance, Christopher Columbus from information based upon known and provable facts drew conclusions which led him unerringly across the vast ocean to the unknown continent of America. Such power of accomplishment is beyond the range of animal intelligence. Therefore this power is a distinctive attribute of the human spirit and kingdom. The animal spirit cannot penetrate and discover the mysteries of things. It is a captive of the senses. No amount of teaching, for instance, would enable it to grasp the fact that the sun is stationary and the earth moves around it. Likewise the human spirit has its limitations.
It cannot comprehend the phenomena of the kingdom transcending the human station, for it is a captive of powers and life forces which have their operation upon its own plane of existence and it cannot go beyond that boundary.
There is however another spirit which may be termed the divine, to which Jesus Christ refers when He declares that man must be born of its quickening and baptized with its living fire. Souls deprived of that spirit are accounted as dead, though they are possessed of the human spirit. His Holiness Jesus Christ has pronounced them dead inasmuch as they have no portion of the divine spirit. He says: "Let the dead bury their dead." In another instance stance He declares: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." By this He means that souls though alive in the human kingdom are nevertheless dead if devoid of this particular spirit of divine quickening.
They have not partaken of the divine life of the higher kingdom; for the soul which partakes of the power of the divine spirit is verily living.
This quickening spirit has spontaneous emanation from the Sun of Truth, from the reality of divinity and is not a revelation or a manifestation. It is like the rays of the sun. The rays are emanations from the sun. This does not mean that the sun has become divisible; that a part of the sun has come out into space. This plant beside me has risen from the seed; therefore it is a manifestation and unfoldment of the seed. The seed, as you can see, has unfolded in manifestation and the result is this plant.
Every leaf of the plant is a part of the seed.But the reality of divinity is indivisible and each individual of human kind cannot be a part of it as is often claimed. Nay, rather, the individual realities of mankind when spiritually born are emanations from the reality of divinity, just as the flame, heat and light of the sun are the effulgence of the sun and not a part of the sun itself. There
Page 104fore a spirit has emanated from the reality of divinity, and its effulgences have become visible in human entities or realities.
This ray and this heat are permanent. There is no cessation in the effulgence.
As long as the sun exists the heat and light will exist, and inasmuch as eternality is a property of divinity, this emanation is everlasting. There is no cessation in its outpouring. The more the world of humanity develops, the more the effulgences or emanations of divinity will become revealed, just as the stone when it becomes polished and pure as a mirror will reflect in fuller degree the glory and splendor of the sun. The mission of the prophets, the revelation of the holy books, the manifestation of the heavenly teachers and the purpose of divine philosophy all center in the training of the human realities so that they may become clear and pure as mirrors and reflect the light and love of the
Sun of Reality. ThereforeI hope that whether you be in the east or the west you will strive with heart and soul in order that day by day the world of humanity may become glorified, more spiritual, more sanctified; and that the splendor of the Sun of Reality may be revealed fully in human hearts as in a mirror.
This is worthy of the world of mankind. This is the true evolution and progress of humanity. This is the supreme bestowal. Otherwise, by simple development along material lines man is not perfected. At most, the physical aspect of man, his natural or material conditions may become stabilized and improved but he will remain deprived of the spiritual or divine bestowal. He is then like a body without a spirit, a lamp without the light, an eye without the power of vision, an ear that hears no sound, a mind incapable of perceiving, an intellect minus the power of reason.
Man has two powers, and his development two aspects.
One power is connected with the material world and by it he is capable of material advancement.
The other power is spiritual and through its development his inner, potential nature is awakened. These powers are like two wings. Both must be developed, for flight is impossible with one wing.
Praise be to God! material advancement has been evident in the world but there is need of spiritual advancement in like proportion.
We must strive unceasingly and without rest to accomplish the development of the spiritual nature in man and endeavor with tireless energy to advance humanity toward the nobility of its true and intended station. For the body of man is accidental; it is of no importance. The time of its disintegration will inevitably come.
But the spirit of man is essential and therefore eternal. It is a divine bounty. It is the effulgence of the Sun of Reality and therefore of greater importance than the physical body.
GOD AND THE UNIVERSEBy materialists, whose belief with regard to Divinity hath been explained, is not meant philosophers in general, but rather that group of materialists of narrow vision that worship that which is sensed, that depend upon the five senses only and whose criterion of knowledge is limited to that which can be perceived by the senses. All that can be sensed is to them real, whilst whatever falleth not under the power of the senses is either unreal or doubtful.
The existence of the Deity they regard as wholly doubtful.
It is as thou has written, not philosophers in general but narrow-minded materialists that are meant. As to deistic philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, they are indeed worthy of esteem and of the highest praise, for they have rendered distinguished services to mankind. In like manner we regard the materialistic, accomplished, moderate philosophers, that have been of service (to mankind).
We regard knowledge and wisdom as the foundation of the progress of mankind, and extol philosophers that are endowed with broad vision. Peruse carefully the San Francisco University Journal that the truth may be revealed to thee.
Now concerning mental faculties, they are in truth of the inherent
Page 105properties of the soul, even as the radiation of light is the essential property of the sun. The rays of the sun are renewed but the sun itself is ever the same and unchanged.
Consider how the human intellect develops and weakens, and may at times come to naught, whereas the soul changeth not.
For the mind to manifest itself, the human body must be whole; and a sound mind cannot be but in a sound body, whereas the soul dependeth not upon the body. It is through the power of the soul that the mind comprehend-eth, imagineth and exerteth its influence, whilst the soul is a power that is free. The mind comprehendeth the abstract by the aid of the concrete, but the soul hath limitless manifestations of its own. The mind is circumscribed, the soul limitless. It is by the aid of such senses as those of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, that the mind comprehendeth, whereas, the soul is free from all agencies. The soul as thou observest, whether it be in sleep or waking, is in motion and ever active.
Possibly it may, whilst in a dream, unravel an intricate problem, incapable of solution in the waking state.
The mind, moreover, under-standeth not whilst the senses have ceased to function, and in the embryonic stage and in early infancy the reasoning power is totally absent, whereas the soul is ever endowed with full strength. In short, the proofs are many that go to show that despite the loss of reason, the power of the soul would still continue to exist. The spirit however possesseth various grades and stations.
As to the existence of spirit in the mineral: it is indubitable that minerals are endowed with a spirit and life according to the requirements of that stage. This unknown secret, too, bath become known unto the materialists who now maintain that all beings are endowed with life, even as He saith in the Qur'an, "All things are living."
In the vegetable world, too, there is the power of growth, and that power of growth is the spirit.
In the animal world there is the sense of feeling, but in the human world there is an all-embracing power. In all the preceding stages the power of reason is absent, but the soul existeth and revealeth itself. The sense of feeling understandeth not the soul, whereas the reasoning power of the mind proveth the existence thereof.
In like manner the mind proveth the existence of an unseen Reality that embraceth all beings, and that existeth and revealeth itself in all stages, the essence whereof is beyond the grasp of the mind. Thus the mineral world understandeth neither the nature nor the perfections of the vegetable world; the vegetable world understandeth not the nature of the animal world, neither the animal world the nature of the reality of man that discovereth and embraceth all things.
The animal is the captive of nature and cannot transgress the rules and laws thereof.
In man, however, there is a discovering power that transcendeth the world of nature and controlleth and interfereth with the laws thereof. For instance, all minerals, plants and animals are captives of nature.
The sun itself with all its majesty is so subservient to nature that it hath no will of its own and cannot deviate a hair'sbreadth from the laws thereof. In like manner all other beings, whether of the mineral, the vegetable or the animal world, cannot deviate from the laws of nature, nay, all are the slaves thereof. Man, however, though in body the captive of nature is yet free in his mind and soul, and hath the mastery over nature.
Consider: according to the law of nature man liveth, rnoveth and hath his being on earth, yet his soul and mind interfere with the laws thereof, and, even as the bird he flieth in the air, saileth speedily upon the seas and as the fish soundeth the deep and dis-covereth the things therein. Verily this is a grievous defeat inflicted upon the laws of nature.
So is the power of electrical energy: this unruly violent force that cleaveth mountains is yet imprisoned by man within a globe! This is manifestly interfering with the laws of nature. Likewise man discovereth those hidden secrets of nature that in conformity with the laws thereof must remain con
Page 106cealed, and transfereth them from the invisible plane to the visible.
This, too, is interfering with the law of nature. In the same manner he discovereth the inherent properties of things that are the secrets of nature. Also he bringeth to light the past events that have been lost to memory, and foreseeth by his power of induction future happenings that are as yet unknown. Furthermore, communication and discovery are limited by the laws of nature to short distances, whereas man, through that inner power of his that discovereth the reality of all things, connecteth the East with the West. This, too, is interfering with the laws of nature. Similarly, according to the law of nature all shadows are fleeting, whereas man fixeth them upon the plate, and this, too, is interference with a law of nature. Ponder and reflect: all sciences, arts, crafts, inventions and discoveries, have been once the secrets of nature and in conformity with the laws thereof must remain hidden; yet man through his discovering power interfer-eth with the laws of nature and trans.. fereth these hidden secrets from the invisible to the visible plane. This again is interfering with the laws of nature.
In fine, that inner faculty in man, unseen of the eye, wresteth the sword from the hands of nature, and giveth it a grievous blow. All other beings, however great, are bereft of such perfections. Man hath the powers of will and understanding, but nature hath them not. Nature is constrained, man is free. Nature is bereft of understanding, man understandeth. Nature is unaware of past events, but man is aware of them.
Nature forecasteth not the future; man by his discerning power seeth that which is to come.
Nature hath no consciousness of itself, man knoweth about all things.
Should any one suppose that man is but a part of the world of nature, and he being endowed with these perfections, these being but manifestations of the world of nature, and thus nature is the originator of these perfections and is not deprived therefrom, to him we make reply and say: � the part de-pendeth upon the whole; the part cannot possess perfections whereof the whole is deprived.
By nature is meant those inherent properties and necessary relations derived from the realities of things. And these realities of things, though in the utmost diversity, are yet intimately connected one with the other. For these diverse realities an all-unifying agency is needed that shall link them all one to the other.
For instance, the various organs and members, the parts and elements, that constitute the body of man, though at variance, are yet all connected one with the other by that all-unifying agency known as the human soul, that causeth them to function in perfect harmony and with absolute regularity, thus making the continuation of life possible. The human body, however, is utterly unconscious of that all-unifying agency, and yet act-eth with regularity and disehargeth its functions according to its will.
Now concerning philosophers, they are of two schools.
Thus Socrates the wise believed in the unity of God and the existence of the soul after death; as his opinion was contrary to that of the narrow-minded people of his time, that divine sage was poisoned by them. All divine philosophers and men of wisdom and understanding, when observing these endless beings, have considered that in this great and infinite universe all things end in the mineral kingdom, that the outcome of the mineral kingdom is the vegetable kingdom, the outcome of the vegetable kingdom is the animal kingdom and the outcome of the animal kingdom the world of man. The consummation of this limitless universe with all its grandeur and glory hath been man himself, who in this world of being toileth and suffereth for a time, with diverse ills and pains, and ultimately disintegrates, leaving no trace and no fruit after him. Were it so, there is no doubt that this infinite universe with all its perfections has ended in shame and delusion with no result, no fruit, no permanence and no effect.
It would be utterly without meaning.They were thus convinced that such is not the case, that this Great Workshop with all its power, its bewildering magnificence and endless perfections, cannot eventually come to
Page 107Widespread publicity has been accorded the Bahá'í House of Worship with each successive announcement of construction contracts.
naught. That still another life should exist is thus certain, and, just as the vegetable kingdom is unaware of the world of man, so we, too, know not of the Great Life hereafter that followeth the life of man here below.
Our non-comprehension of that life, however, is no proof of its nonexistence.
The mineral world, for instance, is utterly unaware of the world of man and cannot comprehend it, but the ignorance of a thing is no proof of its nonexistence. Numerous and conclusive proofs exist that go to show that this infinite world cannot end with this human life.
Now concerning the essence of Divinity: in truth it is on no account determined by anything apart from its own nature, and can in no wise be comprehended.
For whatsoever can be conceived by man is a reality that hath limitations and is not unlimited; it is circumscribed, not all-embracing. It can be comprehended by man, and is controlled by him. Similarly it is certain that all human conceptions are contingent, not absolute; that they have a mental existence, not a material one. Moreover, differentiation of stages in the contingent world is an obstacle to understanding.
How then can the contingent conceive the Reality of the absolute? As previously mentioned, differentiation of stages in the contingent plane is an obstacle to understanding. Minerals, plants and animals are bereft of the mental faculties of man that discover the realities of all things, but man himself comprehendeth all the stages beneath him. Every superior stage comprehendeth that which is inferior and discovereth the reality thereof, but the inferior one is unaware of that which is superior and cannot comprehend it. Thus man cannot grasp the Essence of Divinity, but can, by his reasoning power, by observation, by his intuitive faculties and the revealing power of his faith, believe in God, discover the bounties of His Grace. He
Page 108Temple Interior: Segment of main floor arch treatment. Nine-pointed star will have The Greatest Name superimposed on metal grille. (Photograph of Model).
becometh certain that though the Divine Essence is unseen of the eye, and the existence of the Deity is intangible, yet conclusive (spiritual) proofs assert the existence of that unseen Reality.
The Divine Essence as it is in itself is however beyond all description.
For instance, the nature of ether is unknown, but that it existeth is certain by the effects it produceth, heat, light and electricity being the waves hereof.
By these waves the existence of ether is thus proven.
And as we consider the outpourings of Divine Grace we are assured of the existence of God.
For instance, we observe that the existence of beings is conditioned upon the coming together of various elements and their nonexistence upon the decomposition of their constituent elements.
For decomposition causes the dissociation of the various elements. Thus, as we observe the coming together of elements giveth rise to the existence of beings, and knowing that beings are infinite, they being the effect, how can the Cause be finite?
Now, formation is of three kinds and of three kinds only: accidental, necessary, and voluntary. The coming together of the various constituent elements of beings cannot be accidental, for unto every effect there must be a cause. It cannot be compulsory, for then the formation must be an inherent property of the constituent parts and the inherent property of a thing can in no wise be dissociated from it, such as light that is the revealer of things, heat that causeth the expansion of elements and the (solar) rays which are the essential property of the sun. Thus under such circumstances the decomposition of any formation is impossible, for the inherent properties of a thing cannot be separated from it. The third formation remaineth and that is the voluntary one, that is, an unseen force described as the Ancient Power, causeth these elements to come together, every formation giving rise to a distinct being.
As to the attributes and perfections such as will, knowledge, power and other ancient attributes that we ascribe to that Divine Reality, these are the signs that reflect the existence of beings in the visible plane and not the absolute perfections of the Divine Essence that cannot be comprehended. For instance, as we consider created things we observe infinite perfections, and the created things being in the utmost regularity and perfection we infer that the Ancient Power on whom dependeth the existence of these beings, cannot be ignorant; thus we say He is All-Knowing.
It is certain that it is not impotent, it must be the
Page 109All-Powerful; it is not poor, it must be All-Possessing; it is not nonexistent, it must be Ever-Living.
The purpose is to show that these attributes and perfections that we recount for that Universal Reality are only in order to deny imperfections, rather than to as-seft the perfections that the human mind can conceive.
Thus we say His attributes are unknowable.In fine, that universal Reality with all its qualities and attributes that we recount is holy and exalted above all minds and understandings.
As we, however, reflect with broad minds upon this infinite universe, we observe that motion without a motive force, and an effect without a cause are both impossible; that every being hath come to exist under numerous influences and continually undergoeth reaction. These influences, too, are formed under the action of still other influences. For instance, plants grow and flourish through the outpourings of vernal showers, whilst the cloud itself is formed under various other agencies and these agencies in their turn are reacted upon by still other agencies. For example, plants and animals grow and develop under the influence of what the philosophers of our day designate as hydrogen and oxygen and are reacted upon by the effects of these two elements; and these in turn are formed under still other influences.
The same can be said of other beings whether they affect other things or be affected. Such process of causation goes on, and to maintain that this process goes on indefinitely is manifestly absurd.
Thus such a chain of causation must of necessity lead eventually to Him who is the Ever-Living, the All-Powerful, who is Self-Dependent and the
Ultimate Cause. ThisUniversal Reality cannot be sensed, it cannot be seen. It must be so of necessity, for it is All-Embracing, not circumscribed, and such attributes qualify the effect and not the cause.
And as we reflect, we observe that man is like unto a tiny organism contained within a fruit; this fruit hath developed out of the blossom, the blossom hath grown out of the tree, the tree is sustained by the sap1 aM the sap formed out of earth and water. How then can this tiny organism comprehend the nature of the garden, conceive of the gardener and comprehend his being? That is manifestly impossible. Should that organism understand and reflect, it would observe that this garden, this tree, this blossom, this fruit would in nowise have come to exist by themselves in such order and perfection. Similarly the wise and reflecting soul will know of a certainty that this infinite universe with all its grandeur and order could not have come to exist by itself.
Similarly in the world of being there exist forces unseen of the eye, such as the force of ether previously mentioned, that cannot be sensed, that cannot be seen.
However from the effects it produceth, that is from its waves and vibrations, light, heat, electricity appear and are made evident.
In like manner is the power of growth, of feeling, of understanding, of thought, of memory, of imagination and of discernment; all these inner faculties are unseen of the eye and cannot be sensed, yet all are evident by the effects they produce.
Now as to the Power that knoweth no limitations; limitation itself proveth the existence of the unlimited, for the limited is known through the unlimited, just as weakness itself proveth the existence of wealth.
Without wealth there would be no poverty, without knowledge no ignorance, without light no darkness. Darkness itself is a proof of the existence of light for darkness is the absence of light.
Now concerning nature, it is but the essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things. And though these infinite realities are diverse in their character yet they are in the utmost harmony and closely connected together.
As one's vision is broadened and the matter observed carefully, it will be made certain that every reality is but an essential requisite of other realities. Thus to connect and harmonize these diverse and infinite realities an all-unifying Power is necessary, that every part of existent being may in perfect order discharge its own function.
Consider the body of man, and let the part be an indication of the whole.
Consider how these diverse parts and members of the human body are closely connected and harmoniously united one with the other.
Every part is the essential requisite' of all other parts and has a function by itself. It is the mind that is the all-unifying agency that so uniteth all the component parts one with the other that each dischargeth its specific function in perfect order, and thereby cooperation and reaction are made possible.
All parts function under certain laws that are essential to existence.
Should that all-unifying agency that directeth all these parts be harmed in any way there is no doubt that the constituent parts and members will cease functioning properly; and though that all-unifying agency in the temple of man be not sensed or seen and the reality thereof be unknown, yet by its effects it manifesteth itself with the greatest power.
Thus it bath been proven and made evident that these infinite beings in this wondrous universe will discharge their functions properly only when directed and controlled by the Universal Reality, so that order may be established in the world. For example, interaction and cooperation between the constitutent parts of the human body are evident and indisputable, yet this does not suffice; an all-unifying agency is necessary that shall direct and control the component parts, so that these through interaction and cooperation may discharge in perfect order their necessary and respective functions.
You are well aware, praised be the Lord, that both interaction and cooperation are evident and proven amongst all beings, whether large or small. In the case of large bodies interaction is as manifest as the sun, whilst in the case of small bodies, though interaction be unknown, yet the part is an indication of the whole. All these interactions therefore are connected with that all-embracing power which is their pivot, their center, their source and their motive power.
For instance, as we have observed, cooperation among the constituent parts of the human body is clearly established, and these parts and members render services unto all the component parts of the body. For instance the hand, the foot, the eye, the ear, the mind, the imagination all help the various parts and members of the human body, but all these interactions are linked by an unseen, all-embracing power, that causeth these interactions to be produced with perfect regularity. This is the inner faculty of man, that is his spirit and his mind, both of which are invisible.
In like manner consider machinery and workshops and the interaction existing among the various component parts and sections, and how connected they are one with the other. All these relations and interactions, however, are connected with a central power which is their motive force, their pivot and their source. This central power is either the power of steam or the skill of the mastermind.
It hath therefore been made evident and proved that interaction, cooperation and interrelation amongst beings are under the direction and will of a motive Power which is the origin, the motive force and the pivot of all interactions in the universe.
Likewise every arrangement and formation that is not perfect in its order we designate as accidental, and that which is orderly, regular, perfect in its relations and every part of which is in its proper place and is the essential requisite of the other constituent parts, this we call a composition formed through will and knowledge. There is no doubt that these infinite beings and the association of these diverse elements arranged in countless forms must have proceeded from a Reality that could in no wise be bereft of will or understanding.
This is clear and proven to the mind and no one can deny it. It is not meant, however, that that Universal Reality or the attributes thereof have been comprehended.
Neither its Essence nor its true attributes hath any one comprehended.
We maintain, however, that these infinite beings, these necessary relations, this perfect arrangement must of necessity have proceeded from a source that is not bereft of will and understanding,
Page 111and this infinite composition cast into infinite forms must have been caused by an all-embracing Wisdom.
This none can dispute save he that is obstinate and stubborn, and denieth the clear and unmistakable evidence, and becometh the object of the blessed Verse: "They are deaf, they are dumb, they are blind and shall return no more.~~ Now regarding the question whether the faculties of the mind and the human soul are one and the same. These faculties are but the inherent properties of the soul, such as the power of imagination, of thought, of understanding; powers that are the essential requisites of the reality of man, even as the solar ray is the inherent property of the sun. The temple of man is like unto a mirror, his soul is as the sun, and his mental faculties even as the rays that emanate from that source of light. The ray may cease to fall upon the mirror, but it can in no wise be dissociated from the sun. In short, the point is this, that the world of man is supernatural in its relation to the vegetable kingdom, though in reality it is not so. Relatively to the plant, the reality of man, his power of hearing and sight, are all supernatural, and for the plant to comprehend that reality and the nature of the powers of man's mind is impossible. In like manner for man to comprehend the Divine Essence and the nature of the great Hereafter is in no wise possible. The merciful outpourings of that Divine Essence, however, are vouchsafed unto all beings and it is incumbent upon man to ponder in his heart upon the effusions of the Divine Grace, the soul being counted as one, rather than upon the Divine Essence itself.
This is the utmost limit for human understanding. As it hath previously been mentioned, these attributes and perfections that we recount of the Divine Essence, these we have derived from the existence and observation of beings, and it is not that we have comprehended the essence and perfection of God. When we say that the Divine Essence under-standeth and is free, we do not mean that we have discovered the Divine Will and Purpose, but rather that we have acquired knowledge of them through the Divine Grace revealed and manifested in the realities of things.
Now concerning our social principles, namely the teachings of His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh spread far and wide fifty years ago, they verily comprehend all other teachings. It is clear and evident that without these teachings progress and advancement for mankind are in no wise possible. Every community in the world findeth in these Divine Teachings the realization of its highest aspirations.
These teachings are even as the tree that beareth the best fruits of all trees. Philosophers, for instance, find in these heavenly teachings the most perfect solution of their social problems, and similarly a true and noble exposition of matters that pertain to philosophical questions.
In like manner men of faith behold the reality of religion manifestly revealed in these heavenly teachings, and clearly and conclusively prove them to be the real and true remedy for the ills and infirmities of all mankind. Should these sublime teachings be diffused, mankind shall be freed from all perils, from all chronic ills and sicknesses. In like manner are the Bahá'í economic principles the embodiment of the highest aspirations of all wage-earning classes and of economists of various schools.
In short, all sections and parties have their aspirations realized in the teach~ ings of Bahá'u'lláh. As these teachings are declared in churches, in mosques and in other places of worship, whether those of the followers of Buddha or of Confucius, in political circles or amongst materialists, all shall bear witness that these teachings bestow a fresh life upon mankind and constitute the immediate remedy for all the ills of social life. None can find fault with any of these teachings, nay rather, once declared they will all be acclaimed, and all will confess their vital necessity, exclaiming, "Verily this is the truth and naught is there beside the truth but manifest error.1~ In conclusion, these few words are written, and unto everyone they will be clear and conclusive evidence of the truth.
Ponder them in thine heart. The will of every sovereign prevaileth during his reign, the will of every philos
Page 112opher findeth expression generate the human soul in a handful of disciples and revive mankind. Consider during his lifetime, how great is this power!
but the Power of the Holy It is an extraordinary Spirit shineth radiantly Power, an all-sufficient in the realities of the proof of the truth of the Messengers of God, and mission of the Prophets strengtheneth their will of God, and a conclusive in such wise as to influenceevidence of the power of a great nation for thousandsa Divine Inspiration.
of years and to reTWENTY-FIVE years ago the world was shaken by a great earthquake, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant, the greatest Mystery of God, had suddenly passed away, with no premonitory illness to prepare his friends and followers for this tragic shock. Stunned, the Bahá'ís of East and West tried to rally their faculties. We knew great tasks lay ahead of us; we believed in this new Faith and in its Manifestation and in the World Order that He had come to establish, but we felt terribly alone and the responsibility for the future lay heavily upon our already grief-filled hearts. Where was the shepherd? The familiar voice, that had spoken with an authority vested in it by the Prophet of God Himself, was stilled.
We had the teachings; like a wonderful laboratory, equipped for every purpose, they were there � our priceless treasure. But where was the alchemist who transmuted base metals into gold?
Where was the listener who answered our questions and guided us in the use of all that great laboratory possessed?
Then came the reading of the Master's Will, and with an infinite sense of relief we realized that, though the seas of tribulation and separation had risen about us, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had not left us alone. He had given us the mighty Ark of His own Covenant which we could enter into in peace secure.
With what grateful hearts we turned to the youthful figure that had suddenly been revealed to us in that Will as our priceless legacy, described by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the fruit of the Twin Lote Trees, the pearl of the Twin Surging Seas, this new creation, vested with a unique function, the hereditary office of Interpreter and Protector of the Faith and life-head of the International House of Justice. In many ways the Will of the Master completes and supplements the Aqdas; in it 'Abdu'l-Bahá lays down in considerable detail the manner of election and function of the International House of Justice, its powers and jurisdiction; He also fills in a remarkable gap in that mighty book of laws and one which any intelligent commentator on that document must be immediately struck by.
Bahá'u'lláh established in His Most Holy Book a very unique vat. untary form of tax, a source of revenue, the great importance of which He adequately defines by giving it the exalted title of "The Right of God" (Huququ-'ll4h) but He never states to whom this revenue is payable, and in view of the fact that the revenues of the International House of Justice are clearly stipulated and this Huququ'lThih is not included among them, the question naturally occurs � what person or institution is to receive it? 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í
Willelucidates this riddle and fills in the conspicuous blank left by Bahá'u'lláh.
It is also interesting to realize that the provisions of the Will and Testament were not only contemplated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá long prior to His ascension, but also carried out. The Will is comprised of three separate documents, written at different times and all sealed and signed by the Master. In perhaps the most dangerous and difficult years of His ministry in 'Akka, when Shoghi Effendi was only a young boy, he was already appointed as the Successor of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the first Will. This decision was later reaffirmed in the third Will, or part of the Will, whichever we choose to call it, and in even stronger terms if possible than before.
It was also during practically the babyhood of our first Guardian that the Master revealed that highly significant Tablet about a child having been born who would do great things in the future. When asked by his secretary, Dr. Yunis Khan, whether by this was meant a living child or if it was a symbolical expression, the Master explained a real child was meant and that it would raise the Cause of God to great heights. So we see, that when 'Abdu'l-Bahá left us a quarter of a century ago we were not unprovided for. His plans for the Guardianship � the fruition of Bahá'u'lláh's own scheme � had been made at a very early date, but from the depths of His bitter experience over a period of sixty years, He kept His precious secret carefully guarded, even from His intended successor, and it was not until after His ascension that we began to appreciate the perfection of the system God has, in this most great cycle, given to mankind; a system which has the hand of God constantly laid on it from above in the form of a divinely-guarded Guardianship directly descended from and related to the two Founders of the Faith and, at the same time, exalts the role of Man to a new height in that the freely-elected members of the International House of Justice are, when functioning as a body, promised the inspiration and protection of God upon their deliberations and decisions.
Let us go back for a moment and recall what we were and what Shoghi Effendi was when he first assumed his function as Guardian.
Those who remember the passing of the Master and the terrible blow it was to them, the intense unbearable grief it caused them, can best grasp what his feelings were. At that time he was twenty-four years of age, studying at Oxford
University in Englandin order to better prepare himself to serve 'Abdu'l-Bahá as an interpreter, and to translate some of the Bahá'í literature into English, when news of the ascension reached him.
Brokenhearted, so weak from suffering he had to be practically lifted from the train, he returned to Haifa. Then the second blow, as unexpected and in many ways more cruel than the first, fell upon him. The Will and Testament of His Grandfather was read to him and for the first time in his life he became apprized of the Master's great and well-guarded secret: That he, Shoghi Effendi, the beloved eldest grandson, was His successor and First Guardian of the Cause of God. Saddled with this great weight, crushed by this great blow, he turned his eyes to the Bahá'í world. He beheld a widely diversified, loosely organized community, scattered in various parts of the globe, and with members in about twenty countries.
These people, loyal, devoted and sincere though they were, were still, to a great extent, living in their parent religion's house, so to speak; there were
Christian Baha'is, JewishBahá'ís and so on. They believed in the Bahá'í Faith but were intimately connected with their former churches.
Like fruit on a tree, they were a new crop but still stuck to the old branch. This was true East and West alike.
That was the point to which the Faith had evolved at the time of the Master's ascension.
We, on our part, beheld a young man of only twenty-four standing at the helm of the Cause and some of the friends felt impelled to advise him about what it would be wise for him to do next. It was then that we began to know not only the nature of our first Guardian but the nature of the entire Institution of Guardianship, for
Page 115Progress Report: This picture gives a clear idea of the first stages of interior construction. If you will look particularly at the columns at the right, you will see how it has been necessary to cut away part of the concrete in order to apply the cast stone mosaics. More than '75 percent of the isolated round columns were finished by the middle of October. The recirculating ventilation ducts have been installed in the dome, and ducts are being installed on the ceiling below the first gallery. Conduit, wiring, etc., is being installed as the work progresses.
we quickly discovered that Shoghi Effendi was "unreachable." Neither relatives, old Bahá'ís or new Baha'is, well-wishers or ill-wishers could sway his judgment or influence his decisions. We quickly came to realize that he was not only divinely guided but had been endowed by God with just those characteristics needed to build up the Administrative Order, unite the believers in common endeavor, and coordinate their worldwide activities. Shoghi Effendi immediately began to display a genius for organization, for the analysis of problems, for reducing a situation to its component parts and then giving a just and wise solution. He acted vigorously, with unflinching determination and unbounded zeal. Those who were privileged to meet him were immediately captivated by his eager, frank and cordial attitude, by his consideration, his innate modesty, his spontaneous kindness and charm. The wheels of the Cause which had momentarily stood still at the Master's passing, began to revolve again and at a higher tempo than ever before. Our Father, so patient, so constantly forgiving, whom we had tired and perhaps worried far more than we dreamed of, was gone, and in His stead stood our "true brother," young, determined to see we at last got down to accomplishing the tasks set us by Bahá'u'lláh and the Master, and not willing to lase any time at all.
With the reading of the Will and theestablishment of the Guardianship, came quite naturally and organically a new phase in the development of the Faith. This was typified by one of the first acts of the Guardian: Shoghi Effendi never set foot in the Mosque, whereas 'Abdu'l-Bahá had attended it until the last Friday of His life. What local people had suspected � that the Bahá'í Cause was really something quite different � became blatantly clear; that which it would have been almost impossible for the Master to do, namely, to sever the intimate bonds which had bound him for so long to the Arab community, particularly the Muijammadan community, of Palestine during many years when it was forbidden to even mention the name Baha'i, the Guardian now did overnight and began to encourage the Bahá'ís to likewise do in different parts of the world.
There were two major tasks that the Guardian set himself to accomplish immediately after the Master's passing: One was to steer the believers all over the world into working through properly organized administrative channels, as indicated by Bahá'u'lláh and defined by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and the other was to see that year by year they became more emancipated from the bonds of the past, whether those bonds were close identification with their former religious doctrines and organizations, or the following of the outworn and corrupt patterns of conduct current in the society of their various nations and alien to the new standards of conduct laid down by the Manifestation of God for the world in this new age.
Between 1923 and 1934, the Guard-land, aided by the devoted response of the various Bahá'í communities, succeeded in establishing six new National Spiritual Assemblies with all their attendant funds, committees and institutions. Whereas, in the lifetime of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, only Persia and America had possessed such bodies and these had, for the most part, functioned more as central Committees, coordinating somewhat the national affairs of the Cause and, in the United States, convening vening the annual Convention and taking preliminary steps for the erection of the Ma~riqu'1-AcThk~ these new National Assemblies, one for the British Isles, one for Germany and 'Tr6q respectively, one for Egypt and the Sudan, and one for Australia and New Zealand, now emerged on a sound footing and began, under the constant and direct tutelage of the Guardian, to vigorously administer the affairs of their ever-growing communities.
What the Guardian possesses to an outstanding degree (and no doubt is divinely endowed with) is the vision of the Cause. That which might seem essential to us he would see as a purely secondary issue and what might appear in our eyes as a trivial matter might to him be the pivot of far greater decisions.
He is the balance of the Cause; he weighs and classifies the problems, the requirements, the tasks of the hour, and keeps the entire Faith in every part of the world functioning as efficiently and as satisfactorily as our individual frailties and deficiencies will permit.
From the very beginning of his Ministry the Guardian began to correspond at length with the American
National Spiritual Assemblyas regards the handling of the affairs of the Cause of God in that country.
These highly instructive letters were later published under the title of "Bahá'í Administration" and formed the directive for all bodies administering the work of the Cause, whether in the East or in the West.
He, in conjunction with this process of training us in how to function as a group and as individuals in a coordinated Bahá'í Society, also educated us in a concept of the Faith which was the logical conclusion to be drawn from not only statements made by the BTh and Bahá'u'lláh, but from the Tablets of the Divine Plan revealed for the American Bahá'ís by the Master; namely, that whereas Persia cradled this new world religion in the 19th Century, North America was to cradle the Administrative Order which in turn would be the precursor of the new World Commonw5alth.
Patiently, untiringly, year after year, Shoghihas labored on the rearing of the Administrative Order, using the American Baha Community as the arch-pat-tern to be followed by all other Bahá'í Communities.
While the American be-1iever~ struggled to learn what it really means to function as a member of an Order that has rules to be lived up to and not merely read about; while they tried to really submit their wills and conduct to the guidance of bodies conducting their affairs according to the will of the majority, the Guardian never for a moment lost sight of the purpose of his endless insistence on our following the Administrative Princi-pies of our Faith; namely, to produce an instrument strong enough to enable us to fulfill one of the primary obligations of every believer � to teach the cause of God.
For sixteen years Shoghi Effendi never ceased to broaden our horizons and train us in Bahá'í Administration, whether local or National. After that, he suddenly opened a new door. He told us, so to speak, that we were now trained enough to use our laboriously erected
Administrative Systemfor a great joint effort, an effort to carry into effect the first stages of the Divine Plan. Prior to 1937 he had already been trying our metal to some extent, and disciplining us as good soldiers, through his repeated insistent appeals for the work of constructing our first Bahá'í Temple. This great enterprise we had ourselves inaugurated, encouraged by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who by His own hand, laid its dedication stone in 1912. But in spite of our good intentions, we had by 1921, only succeeded in producing something that resembled a subdued black oil tank, one story high, on the Temple grounds, and which looked so unprepossessing that the town authorities protested against it. Through the repeated appeals, the stimulation and encouragement of the Guardian and the sacrifice of the Baha'is, and after ten years during which we had been soundly berated for its appearance, we at last completed its superstructure and succeeded in silencing our critics. When the first Seven-Year Plan was given us in 1937 by the Guardian, in it was included, as one of our major tasks, the completing of the exterior ornamentation of the building which comprised the main story and steps, the rest having been laboriously carried out from 1931 to 1935.
In 1919, at the Annual Bahá'í Convention inrevealed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá at a time when He was in great danger during the First World War and which have come to be known as the "Vehicles of the Divine Plan" and the "Spiritual Mandate," conferred by Him on the North American Commuffity of Believers, were unveiled. We American Bah& is are all familiar with their remarkable and stirring contents.
We were all immensely proud to receive them. No one, however, except Martha Root and a few other venturesome souls, felt moved to do anything drastic about carrying out the instructions contained in them prior to 193637. It was then that Shoghi Effendi's teaching inspiration and advice began to pour into the minds and hearts of the American Bahá'ís like an incoming tide.
He called us to action. For eighteen years, we had basked happily and complacently in the praises and promises 'Abdu'l-Bahá had showered upon us in those Tablets, and in many other writings and statements. The Guardian, however, his fingers on our pulse, knew that we were now able to arise for pioneer work, and, through the instruments of the Administration he had so carefully assisted us in evolving, carry forward the frontiers of our achievements. He was, thank God, not mistaken in the confidence and trust he reposed in us. He called and America responded.
People from every walk of life, business men, stenographers, old ladies, young ladies, people with families, people often frail in health but iron in spirit, began to arise, and what may in future well be viewed as one of the greatest spiritual sagas of the American nation, began to take place. They were called pioneers, and into new cities, into the virgin States of the United States and the virgin Provinces of Canada � virgin as yet to Bahá'u'lláh's light � these people began to move, at the cost of great personal sacrifice and inconvenience, inspired by nothing but faith and devotion and
Page 118love for their fellowmen, they started to lay the foundations for new Bahá'í communities by establishing new Spiritual Assemblies as a result of their teaching activities.
Perhaps one of the most wonderful aspects of this first Seven-Year Plan was the way the Bahá'ís responded to the Guardian's hope that centers would be established, 'ere its termination, in every single Latin-American Republic. The Guardian, always walking on before a few steps and then calling us over his shoulder to hurry up and fob low, led us Seven Years down that mighty pioneer trail which wound over North America, into Alaska, down to Panama, all over Central and South America, across the Andes, and into the West Indies.
And wherever his voice called, the Bahá'ís followed.
This first Seven-YearIt was the first joint activity on a large scale, nationally organized and flowing into an international field, that the followers of Bahá'u'lláh had ever undertaken anywhere in the world. Truly formidable obstacles were overcome � obstacles of relatively small numbers of believers to draw upon; a community of very restricted financial means to back such activities (more especially so as the expensive work of completing the Tern-pie ornamentation was steadily going on at the same time); a terrible, unprecedented World War, suddenly engulfing humanity with all its dangers, obligations and restrictions after oniy two and a half years of the Seven-Year Plan had run their course. But all these barriers were hurdled or thrown down, for we had a prize dear to our hearts just in view, and we were determined to win it. The prize was to succeed in accomplishing all that the Guardian asked of us by May 23, 1944, at which time we were to celebrate our first Baha
Centennial.the Bahá'ís met, radiant with such victories as these: having completed the contracts for the exterior ornamentation of the Temple eighteen months ahead of time; having established Spiritual Assemblies in every single state and province of North America � thus doubling the number in seven years and bringing it up to 136; having not only brought into being a nucleus of the Faith in every Latin American Republic but of having established already in most of them flourishing Spiritual Assemblies and of having the joy of seeing many delegates from these Central and South American countries present at this first great All-America Convention.
Beneath the dome of their great Mother Temple of the West, now complete except for its interior ornamentation, they tasted the sweetness of the good pleasure of God, far priceless gifts were given them on that occasion by the Guardian: a beautifully framed copy of the portrait of the B&b and a lock of His hair. So precious and well guarded is this likeness of Him that even the House in Shir~z, one of the two centers of pilgrimage established by Bahá'u'lláh, does not possess a copy.
Nor should we forget for a moment, in counting our achievements and our blessings, the recent inauguration of the second Seven-Year Plan which has already been enthusiastically embarked upon by the American Bahá'ís and which, in addition to increasing the number of National
Spiritual Assembliesby three � one to be formed in Canada in 1948, and one for Central and one for South America in 1950 � is aimed at carrying the Faith to the European Continent, as part of an organized activity, for the first time. The vision of the future which Shoghi Effendi has revealed to us in his recent communications, is simply stupendous. Beyond each goal stretches another goal, tapering off into an era when we know the Faith will be emancipated and con-re into its own in the eyes of the whole world. Not only do our teaching activities during the next seven years carry us all over Northern,
Western and SouthernEurope, but we are given the challenging task of completing, at long last, the interior of our Temple, and of thus setting it before the eyes of men as the first and greatest Bahá'í House of Worhsip in the West.
While the American Bahá'íslearning to understand the purpose of the Bahá'í administration, the way it functions and the uses to which it could be put, and in embarking on the first stages of the Divine Plan, their coworkers in other parts of the world were not idle. The progress achieved in the United States was outstanding, but not unique. The work of the Cause went ahead at a rapid pace in other countries in which the Bahá'ís labored, but under far greater handicaps; in Persia, where the government is the traditional enemy of the Faith; in Egypt, where the Sunni religious doe-tars have consistently opposed us, cast us out of their ranks and incited the populace against us; in 'Ir4q where the Bahá'í Community was small and the native people fanatical and reactionary; in Germany, where the Nazi regime consistently frowned upon us from the hour of its rise to power until it finally officially banned the Faith in 1937, confiscated its literature and archives and in a number of cases tried or persecuted its followers; in England, where the believers were few and scattered in an intensely conservative Land of strong traditions; in India, where the relatively large Baha community struggled against the multiplicity of prejudices and creeds � in all these lands where National Assemblies, firmly founded and buttressed by active committees and national funds, watched over the interests of the believers and worked under the constant guidance of the Guardian, the affairs of the Cause, far from declining, prospered as never before. This was also true of Australasia, which in its freedom from traditional forms and its tolerance, most closely resembles conditions found in North America.
It is hard to know what achievements to cite, so many spring to mind as one casts one's eye over the scene: the emancipation of the Cause from Islam in Egypt, formally and forcibly pronounced a non-Mu~ammadan independent faith by the ecclesiastical authorities there, which in its turn greatly strengthened the Bahá'í claim to official
Page 120recognition as a new and independent world religion in other lands, including the United States; the tremendous increase of Baha properties the world over, including not only six National Headquarters but innumerable local headquarters, meeting halls, guest houses and even burial grounds, stretching from Persia through India, 'Iraq, the Holy Land, Egypt, across the seas to North and South America, and back across the Pacific to Australia, but also including the purchase, in the land of Bahá'u'lláh's birth, of most of the sacred and historic sites associated with the rise of the Faith there, as well as an extensive and beautiful property destined to be the site of the future flah&'f Temple in that country; the increase in the number of Bahá'í summer schools, well organized and operating in Germany, India, Persia, England, Egypt, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and four states of North America � namely, Maine, Michigan, Colorado and California; the rise of Bahá'í young people the world over to positions of importance in the Cause, as teachers, writers, administrators and pioneers with well organized activities which include the training of chit. dren and adolescents; the truly remarkable output of Bahá'í literature with titles published in the United States alone running well over fifty, with a Publishing Trust established in England which gets out many volumes not only for use in the British Isles but also for export to other Bahá'í communities; the prewar publishing activities of the German believers who were very active in translating literature from the English, and also in issuing works written by Bahá'í authors in their own language; the role which India � mother land of so many hundreds of tongues and dialects � has played in this field and which has obliged her to already print editions in about fourteen native languages; the issuance of Bahá'í literature in many other countries such as Switzerland, Argentina, Egypt, and so on; and the important fact that our Baha text book "Bahá'u'lláh and The New Era" has now been printed in about forty-five languages; the legal incorporation of over sixty-five national and local Bahá'í Assemblies in cairn-tries all over the world; and, first and foremost, the most impressive and significant accomplishment of all, that whereas in the days of 'Abdu'l-Bahá the Faith had only spread to about 20 countries, its message has now been taken to over 70, and in the majority of these an administrative foundation of the Cause has already been firmly laid.
No appraisal of the wonderful work achieved by the Bahá'ís the world over during this period would be complete without mention of what the Guardian himself, singlehanded, has done at the world center of the Faith in Palestine. Aside from his constant and very heavy correspondence, with not only national and local Assemblies but with groups and individuals as well, aside from his cables and directives addressed to the Bahá'ís in different parts of the world, aside from the books he writes and the Bahá'í literature he translates so painstakingly and beautifully, he has aided the believers financially in all of their major undertakings, in the East or the West. Whether it was to assist the Bahá'í refugees from Russia, or those who had suffered local persecution in Persia, or to help build the various national Administrative Headquarters, or to finance the publication of many editions of the Esslemont book in foreign languages, or to contribute generously to the Temple construction work in America and to the support of pioneers active in the seven-year plans, or whether it was to build the graves of notable servants of the Cause, his hand has usually been the first one outstretched to give valuable aid.
In Haifa and 'Akka, he has not only succeeded in having all the Bahá'í
Shrines, Pilgrim Housesand lands pertaining to them exempted from both government and municipal taxes, but has also vastly increased the area of these endowments which now are valued at more than two and a half million dollars, and include properties in the Jordan Valley.
He has added, year by year, to the beautiful gardens surrounding the tomb of the on Mount Carmel, and also succeeded in burying
The Greatest Holy Leafdential areas of Haifa, and later in transferring the remains of her mother and brother to the same spot � where 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í wife is now also entombed � and making of it a unique and exquisite garden surrounding the four white marble temples that mark the resting places of these members of the Master's family. These two gardens, on opposite sides of one of Haifa's main roads, and open to the public, are now mentioned in all up-to-date Palestine guides as sights not to be missed by visitors to the Holy Land. The purchase of Bahá'u'lláh's mansion at Baha, the defeat of the constant machinations of the Covenant � breakers, the establishment of two archives filled with material of great sacred and historic jim-portance, collected, verified and labelled by him, the building up of the great reservoir of Bahá'í literature of well over 5,000 volumes in libraries in Haifa and 'Akka are but the highlights of his accomplishments at this world center of our Faith, to which flow pilgrims and guests from every land.
When we consider such facts as these, we begin to appreciate the nature and magnitude of the work which has been accomplished since 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away, under the direct aegis of Shoghi Effendi.
To his inspiration and perseverance we owe it that our Faith � once so obscure, so unknown except to a few students of modern Persia � has already boasted a Queen as ardent convert, and moreover a Queen of the ability and fame possessed by Marie of Roumania; that the appreciations, by non-Bahá'ís of outstanding position and ability, of the founders of our Faith, their teachings and the work accomplished by their followers, has already run into a small volume; that the Faith has exhibited its persistent vitality during these twenty-five years by producing Saints, Martyrs, great administrators and even Hands of the Cause; that it has become sufficiently strong and well known in the Western world for the government of a great nation like prewar Germany, to ban it, and persecute its followers for their beliefs; that the case the Bahá'ís had against the Shi'ih clergy of BaghdAd for the possession of The
Most GreatPlaster Model of section of ornamental panel between main interior columns.
House, went before the permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, and was not only decided in favor of the Bahá'ís but was the subject of much discussion and unfulfilled assurances on the part of King Faisal of 'IrAq and his Ministers.
All these things, and many other points far too numerous to be mentioned here, indicate that the Cause, far from sustaining a paralyzing blow through the death of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, went ahead in channels prepared for its development by Him in His Will, and
Page 122prospered and grew as it never had before. How immature and naive was our conception of the World Order at the time of the
Master's passing! Withwhat paternal complacency some of the old and devoted Bahá'ís informed the Guardian that his next and wisest step would be to establish the International House of Justice! On what? He knew so well the long and thorough measures that must first be taken: Here was this great edifice, this world order, reared in the laws of Bahá'u'lláh, and its dome, the apogee, the crown, the uniting element, was the International
House of Justice. Couldit be hung on air? First must come the foundation, and that must be composed of not only the smallest units, the local Assemblies, but these units themselves must be made of educated material; the little cells, the individual Bahá'ís had first to understand their task and build themselves into a strong cohesive mass, capable of forming, as local Assemblies, the broad national foundation upon which the mighty pillars in turn could be reared, becoming the bones of the structure holding up the dome.
A stranger might be tempted to ask: granted these organized activities of the Bahá'ís had expanded and multiplied, covered new territory, and entered new fields, what had happened to the Cause's inner life? Had outward progress and accomplishment weakened the internal spiritual solidarity of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh We can, after a quarter of a century's experience, answer that question with a sincere and hearty No!
The institution of Guardianship � tied into the fabric of the Faith by 'Abdu'l-Bahá through his Will in a knot no amount of perseverance and ingenuity can undo � has, as it was destined to do, effectively prevented any division or schism in the Bahá'í ranks. We can now state this, not only with the assurance born of faith, but with experience, for it has been tried and failed. Envy, jealousy, hatred, ambition � all the demoniacal forces which the ego of man can give rise to and which have so unrelentingly been ranged throughout history, against every reformer, every Prophet, and enlightened leader � have raised, in the hearts of more than one person, their ugly heads.
Both Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian, and the Faith as such, have been violently attacked.
As was to be expected, the very first charge came from the Covenant-break-ers: Mulammad-'A1I, who had tried i~n vain to discredit 'Abdu'l-Bahá, disaf-feet the believers, corrupt certain writings of Bahá'u'lláh, and even had on more than one occasion sought to have the Master's life taken, revived his faded hopes when he beheld such a (as he thought) defenseless youth placed at the helm.
His attack was disturbing, if somewhat ludicrous, for he chose to have one of his henchmen seize the sacred shrine of his father, Bahá'u'lláh, and rob the Bahá'í Keeper of the keys. Distressing though the incident was, the case of the successor of 'Abdu'l-Bahá was so clear in the eyes of the British authorities, that in a short time he was obliged to return the keys to Shoghi Effendi's representative. This was the first, so to speak, crossing of swords with our appointed Guardian, and both the Bahá'ís and local observers, friend and foe alike, learned through it that we had an active and skilled Defender of the Faith!
In Egypt, a proud Armenian, blinded by vanity and ambition, waved his own little flag of rebellion and succeeded in drawing away from the Bahá'í community (at that time in the early stages of its own development) a number of his compatriots and other misguided souls.
But the hand that waved the flag soon got tired as it became aware of the futility of trying to coax people out of such a watertight ark as 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Covenant has proven itself to be. Gradually, over the years, those who after such a disillusioning and spiritually unhealthy experience, still possessed any vital spark of faith, returned to knock on the door they had left and were, whenever the sincerity of their intentions was proven, web corned back into the now actively working and expanding Egyptian Baha community.
An American woman, Mrs. Ruth White, suffering from a truly remarkable form of delusion � namely, that the Will and Testament of the Master is a
Page 123Progress photograph showing construction of interior decoration of the Baha Temple, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A. forgery � expended a great deal of time, money and energy on expounding her views. The document in question, its handwriting, text and style, seals and history is so obviously protected from this accusation that her violent agitation had no effect on the body of the Baha'is, with the exception of a few simple souls in Germany. Most of these (who remained devoted to the Faith but confused on this point) have now expressed their deep remorse over these deluded and wasted years they spent outside the Bahá'í community, and have reentered it in Germany and are among its most active workers.
In Persia Avarih, at one time a very active Bahá'í teacher, developed what must seem to any sane person, a sort of spiritual hydrophobia.
He not only attacked the Guardian exhaustively and fantastically in about ten volumes, but turned against both Bahá'u'lláh and the Master as well.
His statements, unbal anced, compounded of such a high percentage of lies that even an intelligent and sincere enemy of the Faith would recognize them as such, have poured forth in the cheap press of Persia for practically decades. But the results have been very disheartening from his standpoint, for he neither gathered unto himself a following, nor has he been able to disrupt the affairs of the large, devoted and loyal community of believers in Bahá'u'lláh's native land.
Ahmad Sohrab, a former secretary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.largely thanks to the generous support given him by a deluded woman, has been able to expend all his gifts of perversion on his favorite theme � a prolonged and windy attack on the Administrative Order of the Faith as it exists at present, with Shoghi Effendi at its head, and soundly organized Assemblies cooperating with him throughout the world in spreading Bahá'u'lláh's message and building
Page 124up His divinely ordained institutions. He holds the honor of being undoubtedly the most mischievous of the trouble makers that the Cause has raised up during this quarter of a century. Yes, the Cause of God has raised him up! For what beauty does not produce envy, and what purity does not produce slander, and what goodness does not challenge the evil hidden in an envious heart? This man, who received as charity � as we all do � some drops of God's overflowing bounty, could have done much to assist the Bahá'ís in carrying out the wishes of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and the plans of Bahá'u'lláh.
But ambition proved too strong. In our Faith we must submit to having our personal desires and plans integrated into the plans for the whole, for unity is our watchword and we are not only propagating a new Faith with its new principles, but are building a divinely laid down system into society, and this requires the discipline of the personal ego to some extent, and the integration of all members of the community into a coherent pattern. To this Ahmacl Sohrab would not submit, for it did not allow him the personal prominence he craved.
The hot wind of his slander has blown upon us for some time now, and though it troubled and disaffected a few hearts, to the vast majority of believers it proved an irritating stimulant, which not only made them cherish more dearly the Master's Will and its provisions, but spurred them on to greater endeavor.
We Bahá'ís are neither afraid to, nor ashamed of, mentioning the names of these prominent backsliders.
On the contrary, they represent to us what a soldier's ribbons do to him: they are the campaigns we have successfully fought and every one of them is dear to our hearts.
The storms they have loosed upon us have not only driven the roots of our Faith in Bahá'u'lláh's system deeper, but have demonstrated to us that, for the first time in history, a religion has been given to men which cannot be split up into sects, for the two Wills � those of Bahá'u'lláh and the Master � are so strongly constructed and so authentic beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is impossible to divorce the body of the teachings from their provisions.
The principle of successor-ship, endowed with the right of Divine interpretation, is the very hub of the Cause into which its Doctrines and Laws fit like the spokes of a wheel � tear out the hub and you have to throw away the whole thing. This is why our enemies have, for a hundred years, failed to establish anything outside the Faith which could thrive or prosper.
As we look back over these twenty-five years, it is with feelings of profound contentment. We Bahá'ís have matured greatly.
The little tragedies, the hot discussions, the rocking of the boat by various enemies, seem all far behind us now.
We have grown up in the Will. We have stood close to that tree which overshadowed all mankind and come to realize how live and great it is, how dense its foliage, how heavy its yield of fruits � the tree of our first Guardian, our Shoghi Effendi. Where first we looked to him with affection and much pity for his youthfulness and the greatness of the task laid upon him, now we look to him eagerly, waiting each fresh counsel of his wise, and so well proven, leadership. With deep love and pride the Bahá'ís labor under his guidance, thanking God not only for this wonderful Divinely inspired institution of Guardianship, but also for this particular Guardian, who has steered the ship of the Cause through so many shoals and whose sure and patient hand is guiding it on to the great victories promised by Bahá'u'lláh for his Faith in this Century.
Shoghi Effendi's services to the Cause of God are not yet known. How can they be? There is not yet the required perspective.
Only gradually have we been grasping just Who and What the B~JJ and Bahá'u'lláh were; out of the mists of contemporary events they are now rising like giants on the horizon of Their Own Revelation.
"God Passes By" has been the greatest single factor in our beginning to truly appreciate Their significance and station. But it is too early, and he is too close, for us to begin to properly evaluate our first Guardian.
We can, however, � always remembering as he in his great modesty would wish us to �
Page 125Bahá'í Temple, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A. Interior cast decoration is applied, to complete this unique building.
that he is guided by God, weigh up a little of what he has done. Let us begin with his presents to us, the dearest gifts he could make us, the translations: The tqtin, the Epistle to The Son of The Wolf, The Prayers and Meditations, The Gleanings, The Hidden Words, The Dawn-Breakers, and innumerable gems quoted in his own writings.
What would our understanding of and love for the Cause be today without these glorious books? Then let us take his own works: The Bahá'í Administration,
The wonderful World Orderof Bahá'u'lláh, The Advent of Divine Justice, The Promised Day Is Come, the ten volumes of The Bahá'í World � child of his vision of the Cause and untiring perseverance and most valuable of all, God Passes By, that unique, exhaustive and marvelous review of the highlights of 100 years of Bahá'í history. in which every factor receives its due im
Page 126portance in relation to every other, a labor no one but the Guardian could ever be qualified to do. To the above must of course be added many important communications addressed to the Persian Bahá'ís in their own tongue.
Not one of our achievements during this quarter of a Century and briefly touched upon here, could have been made were it not for the untiring labor and patience of Shoghi Effendi.
He has encouraged us when we were downhearted, spurred us on when we decided to take a little inopportune rest, foreseen our needs and supplied us with the plans, the counsel, the passages from the writings, the answers to the questions, which we needed. How well we realize today what a sad state our Cause would have been in without him!
So often we have seen his healing touch laid on dissensions, on hurt feelings or wounded pride, always fertile sources of trouble in any community. So often his explanation and interpretation has made the way clear and once again gathered us in deep unity to serve our beloved Faith.
But we can be sure of one thing � all these services rendered us by the first Guardian have not been without cost. A loving and sensitive nature, openhearted and filled with a wonderfUl eagerness in his desire to serve the Master, and carry out his wishes, he has been assailed most viciously, most unjustly, most pitilessly by enemies both within and without. From the world, any righteous man expects little understanding and acclaim during his lifetime, but from those near in ties of friendship or of blood, he hopes for and expects to receive more.
We might have thought that the great tidal waves of distress and calumny, the violent attacks, had subsided with the end of the Heroic Age of our Faith. But this evidently has not been the plan of God. Now we see our Guardian strong, wise, mature, stretching about us his iron arms to protect us in the sanctuary of the Divine Cause, but he himself is much scarred by the blows he has received these twenty-five years, more scarred than the Master surely ever dreamed he could be when he wrote "that no dust of despondency may stain his radiant nature," indeed, snowed under sometimes with the problems this ever-expanding world Faith engenders in its forward march, and with the many cares and blows that have been his portion.
That which sustains the Guardian, now left so alone amidst his great re-sponsibilites, is the work of the Cause. Good news is like the breath of life to him, and whenever some new goal is achieved, some problem solved, some new enterprise undertaken, his spirit is lightened, his mind freed for some new creative effort, his heart gladdened. So we see that just as we Bahá'ís the world over are his responsibility, given him by Almighty God, so is he our responsibility, likewise given us by Almighty God. Let us not take it lightly! In gratitude for both this mighty institution of Guardianship in which mankind has found a sure refuge in this new age, and in gratitude for this particular first Guardian, this Shoghi Effendi, let us resolve to rise to a truly higher plane of endeavor, and above all a higher plane of spiritual awareness, during these coming years.
We must always remember that the only real limitations we suffer, are those within ourselves. Rained closely about the center of the Cause, loving him and, in him, each other, we can, during the next quarter of a century double our record of achievement.
Every truth, every fact, has so many meanings and aspects. It may take a thousand years to correctly appraise the implications of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Will and Testament, but we � the first recipients of it � can, if we will, leave behind us the record of being the generation who made the greatest advances in understanding it and first helped release its wonderful powers upon the world, in history's darkest years.
Haifa, Palestine November, 1946the Master wrote: "After the passing of this wronged one, it is incumbent to turn unto Shoghi Effendi � the youthful branch branched from the two hallowed and sacred Lote-trees as he is the sign of God, the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God, he unto whom all must turn. He is the expounder of the words of God. ." And so 'Abdu'l-Bahá projected into the future the care and protection which He had always shown to the believers. The loving command had been spoken; the way of unity was plain; the Faith of God was protected and its progress assured.
that of a true brother, united with them in our common servitude.
"Now that my long hours of rest and meditation are happily at an end, I turn my face with renewed hope and vigor to that vast continent the soil of which is pregnant with those seeds that our beloved Master has so tenderly and so profusely scattered in the past. Prolonged though this period has been, yet I have strongly felt ever since the New Day has dawned upon me that such a needed retirement, despite the temporary dislocations it might entail, would far outweigh in its results any immediate service I could have humbly tendered at the
Threshold of Bahá'u'lláh."* * * * * * 1922 In the early letters from Shoghi Effendi we sense the struggle and sacrifice he faced in assuming the unprecedented responsibilities of the Guardianship.
"At this early hour when the morning light is just breaking over the holy Land, whilst the gloom of the dear Master's bereavement is still hanging thick upon our hearts, I feel as if my soul turns in yearning love and full of hope to that great company of His loved ones across the seas, who now share with us all the agonies of
His Separation.""May I also express my heartfelt desire that the friends of God in every land regard me in no other light but 1923 "And, now, that this all-important Work may suffer no neglect, but rather function vigorously and continuously, in every part of the Bahá'í world; that the unity of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh may remain secure and inviolate, it is of the utmost importance that in accordance with the explicit text of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book, in every locality, be it city or hamlet, where the number of adult (21 years and above) declared believers exceeds nine, a local
'Spiritual Assembly'To it ail local matters pertaining to the Cause must be directly and immediately referred for full consultation and decision."
* * *1924 "Let us also bear in mind that the keynote of the Cause of God is not dictatorial authority but humble fellowship, not arbitrary power, but the spirit of frank and loving consultation.
Nothing short of the spirit of a true Bahá'í can hope to reconcile the principles of mercy and justice, of freedom and submission, of the sanctity of the right of the individual and of self-surrender, of vigilance, discretion and prudence on the one hand, and fellowship, candor, and courage on the other."
"Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching � no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character � not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and sceptical age the supreme claim of the AbhA Revelation. One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh."
* * * 1926 "I feel that in view of the expansion and the growing importance of the administrative sphere of the Cause, the general sentiments and tendencies prevailing among the friends, and the signs of increasing interdependence among the National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world, the assembled accredited representatives of the American believers should exercise not only the vital and responsible right of electing the National Assembly, but should also fulfill the functions of an enlightened, consultative and cooperative body that will enrich the experience, enhance the prestige, and assist the deliberations of the
National Spiritual Assembly.""The administrative machinery of the Cause having now sufficiently evolved, its aim and object fairly well grasped and understood, and its method and working made more familiar to every believer, I feel the time is ripe when it should be fully and consciously utilized to further the purpose for which it has been created.
It should be made to serve a twofold purpose. On one hand, it should aim at a steady and gradual expansion of the Movement along lines that are at once broad, sound and universal; and on the other it should insure the internal cons olida-tion of the work already achieved. It should both provide the impulse whereby the dynamic forces latent in the Faith can unfold, crystalize, and shape the lives and conduct of men, and serve as a medium for the interchange of thought and the coordination of activities among the divers elements that constitute the Bahá'í community."
* * * 1929 "The Declaration of Trust, the provisions of which you have so splendidly conceived, and formulated with such assiduous care, marks yet another milestone on the road of progress along which you are patiently and determinedly advancing.
Clear and concise in its wording, sound in principle, and complete in its affirmations of the fundamentals of Bahá'í administration, it stands in its final form as a worthy and faithful exposition of the constitutional basis of Bahá'í communities in every land, foreshadowing the final emergence of the world Baha Commonwealth of the future."
In Shoghi Effendi's first letters to us as Guardian he enclosed translations of prayers, and through these years he has continually widened our spiritual horizons by translations of superlative beauty.
A mere listing gives some indication of the loving labor involved:
1925 � Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh.of Bahá'u'lláh 1941 � Epistle to the Son of the Wolf * * * 1931 "For Bahá'u'lláh... has not only imbued mankind with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however potent, sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He as well as 'Abdu'l-Bahá after Him, have, unlike the Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice upon the earth."
* * * 1932 "That the Cause associated with the name of Bahá'u'lláh feeds itself upon those hidden springs of celestial strength which no force of human personality, whatever its glamour, can replace; that its reliance is solely upon that mystic Source with which no worldly advantage, be it wealth, fame, or learning can compare; that it propagates itself by ways mysterious and utterly at variance with the standards accepted by the generality of mankind, will, if not already apparent, become increasingly manifest as it forges ahead towards fresh conquests in its struggle for the spiritual regeneration of mankind."
"Let them refrain from associating themselves, whether by word or by deed, with the political pursuits of their respective nations, with the policies of their governments and the schemes and programs of parties and factions."
* * * 1934 And then came that tremendous message published under the title
The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.In its four major parts we have a summary of the "fundamental verities," the "root principles" of the Faith.
"To obtain a more adequate understanding of the significance of Baha 'Ikib's stupendous Revelation must remain the first obligation and the object of the constant endeavor of each one of its loyal adherents."
"The Faith of Bahá'u'lláhshould indeed be regaided, if we wish to be faithful to the tremendous implications of its message, as the culmination of a cycle, the final stage in a series of successive or preliminary and progressive revelations."
it emphatically repudiates the claim to be regarded as the final revelation of God's will and purpose for mankind the fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of Baha belief, the principle that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is orderly, continuous and progressive and not spasmodic or final."
the twin pillars that support this mighty Administrative Structure � the institutions of the Guardianship and of the Universal House of
Justiceshould be regarded as divine in origin, essential in their functions and complementary in their aim and purpose. Their common, their fundamental object is to insure the continuity of that divinely-appointed authority which flows from the Source of our Faith, to safeguard the unity of its followers and to maintain the integrity and flexibility of its teachings. Acting in conjunction with each other these two inseparable institutions administer its affairs, coordinate its activities, promote its interests, execute its laws and defend its subsidiary institutions. Severally, each operates within a clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction; each is equipped with its own attendant institutions � institutions designed for the effective discharge of its particular responsibilities and duties.
Each exercises, within theNational Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the U.S. and Canada at the 1946 Annual Bahá'í Convention, Wilmette, Illinois.
limitations imposed upon it, its powers, its authority, its rights and prerogatives.
These are neither contradictory, nor detract in the slightest degree from the position which each of these institutions occupies. Far from being incompatible or mutually destructive, they supplement each other's authority and functions, and are permanently and fundamentally united in their aims.~~ "No Guardian of the Faith can ever claim to be the perfect exemplar of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh or the stainless mirror that reflects His light. Though overshadowed by the unfailing, the unerring protection of Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb, and however much he may share with 'Abdu'l-Bahá the right and obligation to interpret the Bahá'í teachings, he remains essentially human and cannot, it he wishes to remain faithful to his trust, arrogate to himself, under any pretence whatsoever, the privileges and prerogatives which Bahá'u'lláh has chosen to confer upon His
Son."* * * 1936 "Into such a period (of intense turmoil) we are now steadily and irresistibly moving. Amidst the shadows which are increasingly gathering about us we can faintly discern the glimmerings of Bahá'u'lláh's unearthly sovereignty appearing fitfully on the horizon of history. To us, the 'generation of the half-light,' living at a time which may be designated as the period of the incubation of the World Commonwealth envisaged by Bahá'u'lláh, has been assigned a task whose high privilege we can never sufficiently appreciate, and the arduousness of which we can as yet but dimly recognize. We stand on the threshold of an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of the old order and the birthpangs of the new."
"Ceasing to call itself a movement, a fellowship and the like � designations that did grave injustice to its ever-un-folding system� dissociating itself from
Page 131such appelations as B~bi sect, Asiatic cult, and offshoot of Shfih IslAm, with which the ignorant and the malicious were wont to describe it, refusing to be labeled as a mere philosophy of life, or as an eclectic code of ethical conduct, or even as a new religion, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is now visibly succeeding in demonstrating its claim and title to be regarded as a World Religion
"Their Faith, Bahá'ísfirmly believe, is moreover undenominational, non-sec-tarian, and wholly divorced from every ecclesiastical system, whatever its form, origin, or activities. No ecclesiastical organization, with its creeds, its traditions, its limitations, and exclusive outlook, can be said (as is the case with all existing political factions, parties, systems and programs) to conform, in all its aspects, to the cardinal tenets of Bahá'í belief. To some of the principles and ideals animating political and ecclesiastical institutions every conscientious follower of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh can, no doubt, readily subscribe. With none of these institutions, however, can he identify himself, nor can he unreservedly endorse the creeds, the principles and programs on which they are based."
To the Convention in 1936 came the historic cable which started the First Seven
Year Plan � "Convey to Americanbelievers abiding gratitude efforts unitedly exerted in teaching field. Inaugurated campaign should be vigorously pursued, systematically extended. Appeal to assembled delegates ponder historic appeal voiced by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Tablets of the Divine Plan.
Urge earnest deliberation with incoming National Assembly to insure its complete fulfillment.
First century of Bahá'í era drawing to a close.Humanity entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence.
Opportunities of present hour unimaginably precious.
Would to God every State within American Republic and avery Republic in American continent might ere termination of this glorious century embrace the light of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and establish structural basis of His
World Order."* * i9~7 When in 1937 the Guardian married Rflijiysiih Kh~num
(Mary Maxwell) the NationalAssembly cabled the joy and loving greetings o~ the believers. Shoghi Effendi's response was expressed in the cable � "Deeply moved your mes= sage. Institution of Guardianship, head cornerstone of the Administrative Order of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, already ennobled through its organic connection with the Persons of Twin Founders of the Bahá'í Faith, is now further em forced through direct association with the West and particularly with the American believers, whose spiritual destiny is to usher in the World
Order of Bahá'u'lláh."* ~: * 1939 "The community of the organized promoters of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the American continent � the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers of an heroic Age who by their death proclaimed the birth of that Faith � must, in turn, usher in, not by their death but through living sacrifice that promised
World Order"What the American believers have, within the space of almost fifty years, achieved, is almost infinitesimal when compared to the magnitude of the tasks ahead of them. The rumblings of the catastrophic upheaval, which is to pro~ claim, at one and the same time, the death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new, indicate both the steady approach_ as well as the awe-inspiring character, of those tasks."
"Of these spiritual prerequisites of success the following stand out as preeminent and vital Upon the extent to which these basic require~ rnents are met, and the manner in which the American believers fulfill them in their individual lives, administrative activities, and social reiation~ ships, must depend the measure of the
Page 132manifold blessings which the All-Boun-tiful Possessor can vouchsafe to them all.
These requirements are none other than a high sense of moral rectitude in their social and administrative activities, absolute chastity in their individual lives, and complete freedom from prejudice in their dealings with peoples of a different race, class, creed, or color."
1941 In the midst of the recent War we received The Promised
Day Is Come."A tempest, unprecedented in its vio-lc-nce, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth "This judgment of God is boLli a retributory calamity and an act of holy and supreme discipline."
1943 The year before the Centenary our hearts were thrilled by the cable � "I desire to announce to the elected representatives of the valiant, blessed, triumphant
American Bahá'í Communitythe momentous decision to convene, in May, 1944, an All-American Centennial Convention comprising delegates to be separately elected by each State and Province in the North Amen-can Continent, and to which each IRe-public of Latin America may send one representative.
All groups, all isolated believers, as well as all local communities already possessing Assemblies, will henceforth share in the election of Convention delegates.
The multiplication of Bahá'í centers and the remarkable increase in the number of groups and isolated believers, prompt my decision. I hope to forward, in time for the solemn thanksgiving service to be held in the auditorium of the Temple on the evening of May twenty-second, at the hour of His epoch-mak-ing Declaration, a sacred portrait of the B&b, the only copy ever sent out from the Holy Land.
* * * 1944 Then to the Centenary Convention came his greeting: "Hail with glad, grateful heart the historic Assembly of the elected representatives of the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh throughout the Western Hemisphere participating in the first All-America Convention I recall with profound emotion on this solemn, auspicious occasion the milestones in the progress of the community whose rise constitutes one of the noblest episodes in the history of the
First Bahá'í Century Iam moved to pay a well deserved tribute to the gallant band of its apostolic founders to its in trepid pioneers to its indefatigable ble administrators to its heroic martyrs to its itinerant teachers � to its munificent supporters last but not least to the mass of its stouthearted, self-denying members whose strenuous, ceaseless, concerted efforts so decisively contributed to the consolidation and broadening of its foundations.
In this same year we received Shoghi Effendi's survey of the first hundred years of the Faith � God Passes
By.* * 1946 Then, as we met in our first peacetime Convention, we received the call to greater service in further unfoldment of the Divine
Plan."A twofold responsibility urgently calls the vanguard of the dawn-break-ers of the West, champion-builders of Bahá'u'lláh's Order, torchbearers of world civilization, executors of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í mandate, to arise and simultaneously bring to fruition the tasks already undertaken and launch fresh enterprises beyond the borders of the Western Hemisphere."
"The first objective of the new Plan is consolidation of victories already won throughout the Americas, involving multiplication of Bahá'í centers, bolder proclamation of the Faith to the masses."
"The second objective is completion of interior ornamentation of the holiest
Page 133National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia, 194647.
House of Worship in the Bahá'í world designed to coincide with the Fiftieth Anniversary of the inception of this historic enterprise."
"The third objective is the form a-tion of three National Assemblies, pll-lars of the Universal House of Justice, in the
Dominion of Canada, Central"The fourth objective is the initiation of systematic teaching activity in wartorn, spiritually famished European continent "Upon the success of the second Seven Year Plan depends the launching after a respite of three brief years, of a yet more momentous third Seven Year Plan which, when consummated through the establishment of the structure of the administrative order in the remaining Sovereign States and chief dependencies of the entire globe must culminate in and be befittingly commemorated through worldwide celebrations marking the Centennial of the formal Assumption by Bahá'u'lláh of the Prophetic Office associated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá with Daniel's prophecy and the World Triumph of the Bahá'í Revelation and signalizing the termination of the initial Epoch in the evolution of the Plan whose mysterious, resistless processes must continue to shed ever-increasing lustre on succeeding generations of both the Formative and Golden Ages of the Faith of
� NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLYIN ACCEPTING the message of Bahá'u'lláh, every Bahá'í has opened his mind and heart to the dominion of certain fundamental truths. These truths he recognizes as divine in origin, beyond human capacity to produce.
In the realm of spirit he attests that these truths are revealed evidences of a higher reality than man. They are to the soul what natural law is to physical body of animal or plant. Therefore the believer today, as in the Dispensation of Christ or Moses, enters into the condition of faith as a status of relationship to God and not of satisfaction to his own limited human and personal will or awareness.
His faith exists as his participation in a heavenly world. It is the essence of his responsibility and not a temporary compromise effected between his conscience or reason and the meaning of truth, society, virtue, or life.
The Bahá'í accepts a quality of existence, a level of being which has been created above the control of his own active power.
Because on that plane the truth exists that mankind is one, part of his acceptance of the message of Bahá'u'lláh is capacity to see that truth as existing, as a heavenly reality to be confirmed on earth.
Because likewise on that higher level the inmost being of Moses, Christ, Muhammad, the B&b, and Bahá'u'lláh is one being, part of the believer's acceptance of the Bahá'í message is capacity to realize the eternal continuance of that oneness, so that thereafter never will he again think of those holy and majestic Prophets according to the separateness of their bodies, their countries and their times.
The Baha'i, moreover, recognizes that the realm of truth is inexhaustible, the creator of truth God
Himself. Hence the Bahá'ícan identify truth as the eternal flow of life itself in a channel that deepens and broadens as man's capacity for truth enlarges from age to age. For him, that definition of truth which regards truth as tiny fragments of experience, to be taken up and laid down, as a shopper handling gems on a counter, to buy if one gem happens to please or seems becoming: � such a definition measures man's own knowledge, or interest, or loyalty, but truth is a living unity which no man can condition.
It is the sun in the heavens of spiritual reably, while self-will denies tts dominion because selSwill is the shadow of a cloud.
There are times for the revelation of a larger area of the indivisible truth to in md. The Manifestation of God signalizes tht tines and He is he reve~ latio:a. When He appears on earth He moves and speaks with the power of all truth, known and unknown~ revealed in the past, revealed in Him, or to be revealed in the future. That realm of heavenly reality is brought again in its power and universality to knock at the closed door of human experience, a divine guest whose entrance will bless the household ~terna11y, or a divine punishment when debarred and forbidden and condemned.
Bahá'u'lláh reveals that area of divine truth which underlies all human association.
He enlarges man's capacity to receive truth in the realm of experience where all men have condemned themselves to social chaos by ignorance of truth and readiness to substitute the implacable will of races, classes, nations and creeds for the pure spiritual radiance beneficently shining for all. Spiritual reality today has become the principle of human unity, the law for the nations, the devotion to mankind on which the future civilization can alone repose. As long as men cling to truth as definition, past experience, aspects of self-will, so long must this dire period of chaos continue when the separate fragments of humanity employ life not to unite but to struggle and destroy.
In the world of time, Bahá'u'lláh has created capacity for union and world civilization. His Dispensation is historically new and unique. In the spiritual world it is nothing else than the ancient and timeless reality of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad disclosed to the race in a stage of added growth and development so that men can take a larger measure of that which always existed.
Like the man of faith in former ages, the Bahá'í has been given sacred truths to cherish in his heart as lamps ftr darkness and medicines for heaIin~, convThtions of ~mmortaAt' and avi~ dences of divine lo e. But ~n ddition to these gifts, the Bahá'í has that bestowal which only the Promised One of al ages could bring: nearness to a process of creation which opens a door of entrance into a world of purified and regenerated human relations. The final element in his recognition of the ines-sage of Bahá'u'lláh is that Bahá'u'lláh came to found a e5rvilization of unity, progress and peace.
~CO Children of Men! KnowThat no one should exalt himself over the other, Ponder at all times how ye were created. Since We have created you all from the sane substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, 0 concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the sea of wondrous glory."
Thus He describes the law of survival revealed for the world today, mystical only in that He addressed these particular words to our deepest inner understanding.
Their import is not con-fisted to any subjective realm.
The motive and the realization He invokes has become the whole truth of sociology in this era.
Or, as we find its expression in another passage: "All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization." And the truth reappears in still another form: "How vast is the tabernacle of the Cause of God! It bath overshadowed all the peoples and kindreds of the earth, and will, erelong, gather together the whole of mankind beneath its shelter."
The encompassing reach of the Cause of God in each cycle means the particular aspect of experience for which men are held responsible.
Not until our day coukt there be the creation o~ the
Page 139THE WORLD ORDER OF BAI{A'U'LLA1-I 139
principle of moral cause and effect in terms of mankind itself, in terms of the unifiable world.
The mission of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, following Bahá'u'lláh's ascension in 1892, was to raise up a community of believers through whom collectively He might demonstrate the operation of the law of unity. 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í mission became fulfilled historic afly in the experience of the Bahá'ís of North America. In them He developed the administrative order, the organic society, which exemplifies the pattern of justice and order Bahá'u'lláh had creatively ordained. By His wisdom, His tenderness, His justice and His complete consecration to Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá conveyed to this body of Bahá'ís a sense of partnership in the process of divine creation: that it is for men to recreate, as civilization, a human and earthly replica of the heavenly order existing in the divine will.
The Bahá'í administrative order has been described by the Guardian of the Faith as the pattern of the world order to be gradually attained as the Faith spreads throughout all countries.
Its authority is Bahá'u'lláh, its sources the teachings He revealed in writing, with the interpretation and amplification made by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The first conveyance of authority by Bahá'u'lláh was to His eldest son.
By this conveyance the integrity of the teachings was safeguarded, and the power of action implicit in all true faith directed into channels of unity for the development of the Cause in its universal aspects. No prior Dispensation has ever raised up an instrument like 'Abdu'l-Bahá through whom the spirit and purpose of the Founder could continue to flow out in its wholeness and purity until His purpose had been achieved. The faith of the Baha thus remains untainted by those elements of self-will which in previous ages have translated revealed truth into creeds, rites and institutions of human origin and limited aim.
Those who enter the Bahá'í community subdue themselves and their personal interests to its soy-ereign ereign standard, for they are unable to alter the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláhand exploit its teachings or its community for their own advantage.
'Abdu' 1B ah~' s life exemplified the working of the one spirit and the one truth sustaining the body of believers throughout the world, He was the light connecting the sun of truth with the earth, the radiance enabling all Bahá'ís to realize that truth penetrates human affairs, illumines human proW lems, transcends conventional barriers, changes the climate of life from cold to warm. He infused Himself so completely into the hearts of the Bahá'ís that they associated the administrative institutions of the Faith with His trusted and cherished methods of service, so that the contact between their society and their religion has remained continuous and unimpaired.
The second conveyance of authority made by Bahá'u'lláh was to the institution
He termed "House of Justice": � "TheLord bath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein shall gather counsellors to the number of Bah6.
(i.e. ,nine). It be-hooveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for � z interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly. Those souls who arise to serve the Cause sincerely to please God will be inspired by the divine, invisible inspirations. It is incumbent upon all (i.e., all believers) to obey. Administrative affairs are all in charge of the House of JVA;tice; but acts of worship must be observed according as they are revealed in the book."
The House of Justice is limited in its legislative capacity to matters not crn& ered by the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh Himself: � "It is incumbent upon the Trustees of the House of Justice to take counsel together regarding such laws
Page 140A high aim is defined for this central administrative organ of the Faith : � "The men of the House of Justice must, night and day, gaze toward that which bath been revealed from the horizon of the Supreme Pen for the training of the servants, for the upbuilding of countries, for the preservation of human honor."
In creating this institution for His community, Bahá'u'lláh made it clear that His Dispensation rests upon continuity of divine purpose, and associates human beings directly with the operation of His law. The House of Justice, an elective body, transforms society into an organism reflecting spiritual life. By the just direction of affairs this Faith replaces the institution of the professional clergy developed in all previous
Dispensations.By 1921, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid down His earthly mission, the American Bahá'í community had been extended to scores of cities and acquired power to undertake tasks of considerable magnitude, but the administrative order remained incomplete.
His Will and Testamentinaugurated a new era in the Faith, a further conveyance of authority and a clear exposition of the nature of the elective institutions which the Baha were called upon to form.
In Shoghi Effendi, Hisgrandson, 'Abdu'l-Bahá established the function of Guardianship with sole power to interpret the teachings and with authority to carry out the provisions of the Will. The Guardianship connects the spiritual and social realms of the Faith in that, in addition to the office of interpreter, he is constituted the presiding officer of the international House of Justice when elected; and the Guardianship is made to descend from generation to generation through the male line.
From the Will these excerpts are cited: "After the passing of this wronged one, it is incumbent upon the loved ones of the Abh& Beauty (i.e., Bahá'u'lláh) to turn unto Shoghi Effendi � the youthful branch branched from the two hallowed Lote-Trees (i.e., descended from both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh) as he is the sign of God, the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God. unto whom.
His loved ones must turn.He is the expounder of the words of God and after him will succeed the firstborn of his lineal descendants.
"The sacred and youthful branch, the guardian of the Cause of God, as well as the Universal House of Justice, to be universally elected and established, are both under the care and protection of the Abh& Beauty.. Whatsoever soever they decide is of God. The mighty stronghold shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the guardian of the Cause of God. No doubt every vainglorious one that pur-poseth dissension and discord will not openly declare his evil purposes, nay rather, even as impure gold would he seize upon divers measures and various pretexts that he may separate the gathering of the people of Bah&."
"Wherefore, 0 my loving friends I Consort with all the peoples, kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, goodwill and friendliness; that all the world of being may be filled with the holy ecstasy of the grace of Baha.
"0 ye beloved of the Lord!Strive with all your heart to shield the Cause of God from the onslaught of the insincere, for souls such as these cause the straight to become crooked and all benevolent efforts to produce contrary results.
To none is given the right to put forth his own opinion or express his particular convictions.
All must seek guidance and turn unto the Center of the Cause and the House of Justice."
In each country where Bahá'ís exist, they participate in the world unity of their Faith through the office of the Guardian at this time, and they maintain local and national Bahá'í institutions for conducting their own activities.
Page 141THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 141
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany, 194950.
In each local civil community, whether city, township or county, the Bahá'ís annually elect nine members to their local Spiritual Assembly. In America the Bahá'ís of each State or Canadian Province, (a direction of the Guardian having effect for the first time in connection with the Convention of 1944, the one hundredth year of the Faith) join in the election of delegates by proportionate representation and these delegates, to the full number of one hundred and seventy-one, constitute the Annual Convention which elects the members of the National Spiritual Assembly. These national bodies, in turn, will join in the election of an international Assembly, or House of Justice, when the world Bahá'í community is sufficiently developed.
The interrelationship of all these administrative bodies provides the world spirit of the Faith with the agencies required for the maintenance of a constitutional society balancing the rights of the individual with the paramount principle of unity preserving the whole structure of the Cause.
The Bahá'í as an individual accepts guidance for his conduct and doctrinal beliefs, for not otherwise can he contribute his share to the general unity which is God's supreme blessing to the world today.
This general unity is the believer's moral environment, his social universe, his psychic health and his goal of effort transcending any personal aim. In the Bahá'í order, the individual is the musical note, but the teachings revealed by Bahá'u'lláh are the symphony in which the note finds its real fulfillment; the person attains value by recognizing that truth transcends his capacity and includes him in a relationship which 'Abdu'l-Bahá said endowed the part with the quality of the
Page 142In comparison to this divine creation, the traditional claims of individual conscience, of personal judgment, of private freedom, seem nothing more than empty assertions advanced in opposition to the divine will. It cannot be sufficiently emphasized that the Bahá'ís relationship to this new spiritual society is an expression of faith, and faith alone raises personality out of the pit of self-will and moral isolation into which so much of the world has fallen.
There can be no organic society, in fact, without social truth and social law embracing the individual members and evoking a loyalty both voluntary and complete.
The political' and economic groups which the individual enters with reservations are not true societies but temporary combinations of restless personalities, met in a truce which can not endure. Bahá'u'lláh has for ever solved the artificial dilemma which confuses and betrays the ardent upholder of individual freedom by His categorical statement that human freedom consists in obedience to God's law. The freedom revolving around self-will He declares "must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench.
� Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal.
� True liberty consists in man's submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it." The Guardian, applying the terms of the Will and TestarnenA to an evolving order, has given the present generation of Bahá'ís a thorough understanding of Bahá'í institutions and administrative principles.
Rising to its vastly increased responsibility resulting from the loss of the beloved Master, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Bahá'í community itself has intensified its effort until in America alone the number of believers has been more than doubled since 1921. It has been their destiny to perfect the local and national Bahá'í institutions as models for the believers in other lands. Within the scope of a single lifetime, the American Bahá'í community has developed from a small local group to a national unit of a world society, passing through the successive stages by which a civilization achieves its pristine pattern and severs itself from the anarchy and confusion of the past.
In Shoghi Effendi's letters addressed to this Bahá'í community, we have the statement of the form of the administrative order, its function and purpose, its scope and activity, as well as its significance, which unites the thoughts and inspires the actions of all believers today.
From these letters are selected a number of passages presenting fundamental aspects of the world order initiated by Bahá'u'lláh.
1. On its nature and scope: � "I cannot refrain from appealing to them who stand identified with the Faith to disregard the prevailing notions and the fleeting fashions of the day, and to realize as never before that the exploded theories and the tottering institutions of presentday civilization must needs appear in sharp contrast with those God-given institutions which are destined to arise upon their ruin.
"For Bahá'u'lláh has not only imbued mankind with a new and re~ generating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain universal irinciples, or propounded a particular philosophy, however potent, sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He, as well as 'Abdu'l-Bahá after Him, have, unlike the Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite in~ stitutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice upon the earth.
"Unlike the Dispensationof Christ, unlike the Dispensation of Mubammad, unlike all the Dispensations of the past, the apostles of Bahá'u'lláh in every land, wherever they labor and toil, have before them in clear, in unequivo
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cal and emphatic language, all the laws, the regulations, the principles, the institutions, the guidance, they require for the prosecution of their task.
Therein lies the distinguishing fea-ure of the Baha Revelation.
Therein lies the strength of the unity of the Faith, of the validity of a Revelation that c1aim~ not to destroy or belittle previous Revelations, but to connect, unify, and fulfil them.
"Feeb .e though our Faith may now appear in the eyes of men, who either denounce it as an offshoot of is16~m, or contemptuously ignore it as one more of those obscure sects that abound in the West, this priceless gem of Divine Revelation, now still in its embryonic state, shall evolve within the shell of His law, and shall forge ahead, tin-divided and unimpaired, till it embraces the whole of mankind. Only those who have already recognized the supreme station of Bahá'u'lláh. only those whose hearts have been touched by His love, and have become familiar with the potency of His spirit, can adequately appreciate the value of this Divine Economy � His inestimable gift to mankind.
"This Administrative Orderwill, as its component parts, its organic institutions, begin to function with efficiency and vigor, assert its claim and demonstrate its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fulness of time the whole of mankind....
"Alone of all the Revelations gone before it this Faith has succeeded in raising a structure which the bewildered followers of bankrupt and broken creeds mIght well approach and critically examine, and seek, ere it is too late, the invulnerable security of its world-embracing shelter.
"To what else if not to the power and majesty which this Administrative Order � the rudiments of the future all-enfolding
Bahá'í Commonwealth� is destined to manifest, can these utterances of Bahá'u'lláh allude: 'The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hal been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System � the Like of which mortal eyes have never wit~ nessed 2. On its local ~tnd national instih tions "A perusal ci some of the words of Bahá'u'lláh and Abdu'l-Bahá on the duties and functions of the Spiritual Assemblies in eve:y land (later to be designated as the local Houses of Justice), emnhatically reveals the sacredness of their nature, the wide scope of their activity, and the grave respons:~-bility which rests upon them.
"Addressing the members of the Spiritual Assembly in Chicago, the Master reveals the fdHowing: � 'When~ ever ye enter the councibehamber, recite this prayer with a heart throbbing with the love of God and a tongue purL fled from all but His remembrance, that the All-powerful may graciously aid you to achieve supreme victory: � "0 God, my God! We are servants of Thine that have turned with devotion to Thy Holy Face, that have detached ourselves from all beside Thee in this glorious Day.
We have gathered in this spiritual assembly, united in our views and thoughts, with our purposes harmonized to exalt Thy Word amidst mankind.
0 Lord, our God! Makeof Thy exalted Faith amongst men, servants to Thy mighty Covenant. 0 Thou our Lord Most High! Manifestations of Thy Divine Unity in Thine Abhh Kingdom, and resplendent stars shining upon all regions.
Lord! Aid us to become seas surging with the billows of Thy wondrous Grace, streams flowing from Thy all-glorious Heights, goodly fruits upon the Tree of Thy heavenly Cause, trees waving through the breezes of Thy Bounty in Thy celestial Vineyard.
0 God! Make our souls dependent upon the Verses of Thy Divine Unity, our hearts cheered with the outpourings of Thy Grace, that we may unite even as the waves of one
Page 144that our thoughts, our views, our feelings may become as one reality, manifesting the spirit of union throughout the world. Thou art the Gracious, the Bountiful, the Bestower, the Almighty, the Merciful, the Compassionate.'
"In the Most Holy Bookis revealed: � 'The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein shall gather counsellors to the number of Baha, and should it exceed this number it does not matter.
It be-hooveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly. Thus hath the Lord your God commanded you. Beware lest ye put away that which is clearly revealed in His Tablet.
Fear God, 0 ye that perceive.'reveals the following: � 'It is incumbent upon every one not to take any step without consulting the Spiritual Assembly, and they must assuredly obey with heart and soul its bidding and be submissive unto it, that things may be properly ordered and well arranged. Otherwise every person will act independently and after his own judgment, will follow his own desire, and do harm to the Cause.'
"'The prime requisites for them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrances, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and longsuffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted Threshold. Should they be graciously aided to acquire these attributes, victory from the unseen Kingdom of Baha shall be vouchsafed to them.
In this day, assemblies of consultation are of the greatest importance and a vital necessity.
Obedience unto them is essential and obliga-.tory. The members thereof must take counsel together in such wise that no occasion for ill-feeling or discord may arise. This can be attained when every member expresseth with absolute freedom his own opinion and setteth forth his argument. Should any one oppose, he must on no account feel hurt for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed.
The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions.
If after discussion, a decision be carried unanimously, well and good; but if, the Lord forbid, differences of opinion should arise, a majority of voices must prevail.'
"Enumerating the obligations incumbent upon the members of consulting councils the Beloved reveals the following : � 'The first condition is absolute love and harmony amongst the members of the assembly.
They must be wholly free from estrangement and must manifest in themselves the Unity of God for they are the waves of one sea the drops of one river, the stars of one heaven the rays of one sun, the trees of one orchard the flowers of one garden.
Should harmony of thought and absolute unity be nonexistent that gaffiering shall be dispersed and that assembly be brought to naught. The second condition : � They must when coming together turn their faces to the Kingdom on high and ask aid from the Realm of Glory. They must then proceed with the utmost devotion, courtesy, dignity care and moderation to express their views. They must in every matter search out the truth and not insist upon their own opinion, for stubbornness and persistence in one~ s views will lead uP timately to discord and wrangling and the truth will remain hidden.
The honored members must with all freedom express their own thoughts and it is in no wise permissible for one to belittle the thought of another, nay, he must with moderation set forth the truth, and should differences of opinion arise a majority of voices must prevail, and all must obey and submit to the majority. It is again not permitted that any one of the honored members object to or censure whether in or out of the meet
Page 145THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 145
ing any decision arrived at previously, though that decision be not right, for such criticism would prevent any decision from being enforced.
In short, whatsoever thing is arranged in harmony and with love and purity of motive its result is light and should the least trace of estrangement prevail the result shall be darkness upon darkness.
If this be so regarded that assembly shall be of God, but otherwise it shall lead to coolness and alienation that proceed from the Evil One. Discussions must all be confined to spiritual matters that pertain to the training of souls the instruction of chil-riren, the relief of the poor, the help of the feeble throughout all classes in the world, kindness to all peoples, the diffusion of the fragrances of God and the exaltation of His Holy Word. Should they endeavor to fulfill these conditions the Grace of the Holy Spirit shall be vouchsafed unto them and that assembly shall become the center of the Divine bJ.essings, the hosts of Divine confirmation shall come to their aid, and they shall day by day receive a new effusion of Spirit.'
"So great is the importance and so supreme is the authority of these assemblies that once 'Abdu'l-Bahá after having Himself and in His own handwriting corrected the translation made into Arabic of the
Ishr4citit the Effulgences)by Sheikh Faraj a Kurdish friend from Cairo, directed him in a Tablet to submit the above-named translation to the Spiritual Assembly of Cairo, that he may seek from them before publication their approval and consent.
These are His very words in that Tablet : � 'His honor, Sheikh Fara-ju'llah has here rendered into Arabic with greatest care the Ishrhq&t and yet I have told him that he must submit his version to the Spiritual Assembly of Egypt and I have conditioned its publication upon the approval of the above-named Assembly. This is so that things may be arranged in an orderly manner, for should it not be so any one may translate a certain Tablet and print and circulate it on his own account. Even a nonbeliever might undertake such work and thus cause confusion and disorder.
If it be conditioned, however upon the approval of the
Spiritual Assembly, atranslation prepared, printed and circulated by a nonbeliever will have no recognition whatever.'
"This is indeed a clear indication of the Master's express desire that nothing whatever should be given to the public by any individual among the friends, unless fully considered and approved by the Spiritual Assembly in his locality; and if this (as is undoubtedly the case) is a matter that pertains to the general interest of the Cause in that land, then it is incumbent upon the Spiritual Assembly to submit it to the consideration and approval of the national body representing all the various local assemblies.
Not only with regard to publication but all matters without any exception whatsoever, regarding the interests of the Cause in that locaL ity, individually or collectively, should be referred exclusively to the Spiritual Assembly in that locality, which shall decide upon it, unless it be a matter of national interest, in which case it shall be referred to the national body. With this national body also will rest the decision whether a given question is of local or national interest. (By national affairs is not meant matters that are political in their character, for the friends 6f God the world over are strictly forbidden to meddle with political affairs in any way whatever but rather things that affect the spiritual activities of the body of the friends in that land.)
"Full harmony, however as well as cooperation among the various local assemblies and the members themselves and particularly between each assembly and the national body is of the utmost importance for upon it depends the unity of the Cause of God, the solidarity of the friends, the full, speedy and efficient working of the spiritual activities of His loved ones.
"Large issues in such spiritual activities that affect the Cause in general in that land, such as the management of the Star of the West and any periodical which the National Body may decide to be a Bahá'í organ, the matter of publication, of reprinting Bahá'í literature and its distribution among the various assemblies, the means
Page 146i46 THE BAEA'f WOT LD National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles, 194950.
whereby the teaching campaign may be stimulated and maintained, the work of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar the racial question in relation to the Cause, the matter of receiving Orientals and association with them, the care and maintenance of the precious film exhibiting a phase of the Master's sojourn in the United States of America as well as the original matrix and the records of His voice and various other national spiritual activities, far from being under the exclusive jurisdiction of any local assembly or group of friends must each be minutely and fully directed by a special board, elected by the National Body, constituted as a committee thereof, responsible to it and upon which the National Body shall exercise constant and general supervision.
"Regarding the establishment of 'National Assemblies,' it is of vital importance that in every country, where the conditions are favorable and the number of the friends has grown and reached a considerable size, such as
America, Great Britainand Germany, that a 'National Spiritual Assembly9 be immediately established, representative of the friends throughout that country.
"Its immediate purpose is to stimulate, unify and coordinate by flequent personal consultations, the manifold activities of the friends as well as the local Assemblies; and by keeping in close and constant touch with the Holy Land initiate measures, and direct in general the affairs of the Cause in that country.
"It serves also another purpose, no less essential than the first, as in the course of time it shall evolve into the National House of Justice (referred to in 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Will as the 'secondary House of Justice'), which according to the explicit text of the Testament will have, in conjunction with the other National Assemblies throughout the Baha world, to elect directly the members of the International House of
Justice, that SupremeCouncil that will guide, organize and unify the af
Page 147THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 147
fairs of the Movement throughout the world."It is expressly recorded in 'Abdu'L.-]3ah&'s Writings that these National Assemblies must be indirectly elected by the friends; that is, the friends in every country must elect a certain number of delegates, who in their turn will elect from among all the friends in that country the members of the National Spiritual Assembly. In such countries therefore, as America, Great Britain and Germany, a fixed number of secondary electors must first be decided upon. The friends then in every locality where the number of a nit declared believers exceeds nine must directly elect its quota of secondary electors assigned to it in direct proportion to its numerical strength.
These secondary electors xviii then, either through correspondence, or preferably by gathering together, and first deliberating upon the affairs of the Cause throughout their country (as the delegates to the Convention), elect from among all the friends in that country nine who will be the members of the National Spiritual
Assembly.Assembly which, pendffig the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, will have to be reelected once a year obviously assumes grave responsibilities, for it has to exercise full authority over aH the local Assemblies in its province, and will have to direct the activities of the friends, guard vigilantly the Cause of God, and control and supervise the affairs of the Movement in general.
"Vital issues affecting the interests of the Cause in that country such as the matter of translation and publication, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar the teaching work, and other similar matters that stand distinct from strictly local affairs must be under the full jurisdiction of the National
Assembly."It will have to refer each of these questions, even as the local Assemblies, to a special Committee, to be elected by the members of the National Spiritual Assembly from among all the friends in that country, which will bear to it the same relation as the local committees bear to their respective local Assemblies.
"With it too, rests the decision whether a certain point at issue is strictly local in its nature, and should be reserved for the consideration and decision of the local Assembly, or whether it should fall under i� own province and be regarded as a matter which ought to receive its special atten � tion. The National Spifrtual Assembly will also decide upon such matters which in its opinion should be referred to the Holy Land for consultation and decision.
"With these Assemblies, local as well as national, harmoniously, vigorously, and efficiently functioning throughout the Bahá'í world the only means mr the establishment of the Supreme House of Justice will have been secured.
And when this Supreme Body will have been properly established, it will have to consider afresh the whole situation, and lay down the principle Which shall direct, so long as it deems advisable, the affairs of the Cause.
"The need for the centralization of authority in the National Spiritual Assembly, and the concentration of power in the various local Assemblies is made manifest when we' reflect that the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh is still in its age of tender growth and in a stage of tran~ sition; when we remember that the full implications and the exact significance of the Master's worldwide instructions, as laid down in His Will, are as yet not fully grasped, and the whole Movement has not sufficienti-crystallized in the eyes of the world.
"It is our primary task to keep the most vigilant eye on The manner and character of its growth, to combat effectively the forces of separation ad of sectarian tenden&es, lest the Sp�it of the Cause be obscured its unity be threatened, its Teachings suffer corruption; lest extreme orthodoxy on one hand and irresponsible freedom on the other, cause it to deviate fran-i that Straight Path which alone can lead it to success.
"Hitherto the NationalConvention has been primarily called together for the consideration of the various circumstances attending the election of the National
Spiritual Assembly. Iand the growing importance of the administrative sphere of the Cause, the general sentiments and tendencies prevailing among the friends, and the signs of increasing interdependence among the
National Spiritual Assembliesthroughout the world, the assembled accredited representatives of the American believers should exercise not only the vital and responsible right of electing the National Assembly, but should also fulfill the functions of an enlightened, consultative and cooperative body that will enrich the experience, enhance the prestige, support the authority, and assist the deliberations of the National Spiritual Assembly. It is my firm conviction that it is the bounden duty, in the interest of the Cause we all love and serve, of the members of the incoming National Assembly, once elected by the delegates at Convention time, to seek and have the utmost regard, individually as well as collectively, for the advice, the considered opinion and the true sentiments of the assembled delegates.
Banishing every vestige of secrecy, of undue reticence, of dictatorial aloofness, from their midst, they shou].d radiantly and abundantly unfold to the eyes of the delegates, by whom they are elected, their plans, their hopes, and their cares. They should familiarize the delegates with the various matters that will have to be considered in the cur~ rent year, and calmly and conscientiously study and weigh the opinions and judgments of the delegates.
The newly elected National Assembly, during the few days when the Convention is in sesson and after the dispersal of the delegates, should seek ways and means to cultivate understanding facilitate and maintain the exchange of views, deepen confidence and vindicate by every tangible evidence their one desire to serve and advance the common weal. Not infrequently, nay oftentimes, the most lowly, untutored and inexperienced among the friends will, by the sheer inspiring force of selfless and ardent devotion, contribute a distinct and memorable share to a highly involved discussion in any given Assembly. treat must be the regard paid by those whom the delegates call upon to serve in high position to this all-important though inconspicuous manifestation of the revealing power of sincere and earnest devotion.
"The National SpiritualAssembly, however, in view of the unavoidable limitations imposed upon the convening of frequent and longstanding sessions of the Convention, will have to retain in its hands the final decision on all matters that affect the interests of the Cause in America, such as the right to decide whether any local Assembly is functioning in accordance with the principles laid down for the conduct and advancement of the Cause.
It is my earnest prayer that they will utilize their highly responsible position, not only for the wise and efficient conduct of the affairs of the Cause but also for the extension and deepening of the spirit of cordiality and wholehearted and mutual support in their cooperation with the body of their coworkers throughout the land. The seating of delegates to the Convention i.e., the right to decide upon the validity of the credentials of the delegates at a given Convention, is vested in the outgoing National Assembly, and the right to decide who has the voting privilege is also ultimately placed in the hands of the National Spiritual Assembly, either when a local Spiritual Assembly is being for the first time formed in a given locality, or when differences arise between a new applicant and an already established local Assembly. While the Convention is in session and the accredited delegates have already elected from among the believers throughout the country the members of the National Spiritual Assembly for the current year, it is of infinite value and a supreme necessity that as far as possible all matters requiring immediate decision should be fully and publicly considered, and an endeavor be made to obtaIn after mature deliberation, unanimity in vital decisions. Indeed, it has ever been the cherished desire of our Master, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, that the friends in their councils, local as well as national, should by their candor, their honesty of purpose, their singleness of mind, and the thoroughness of their discussions, achieve unanimity in
Page 149THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 149
all things. Should this in certain cases prove impracticable the verdict of the majority should prevail, to which decision the minority must under all circumstances, gladly, spontaneously and continually, submit.
"Nothing short of the all-encompass-ing, all-pervading power of
His Guidance and Lovecan enable this newly-enfolded order to gather strength and flourish amid the storm and stress of a turbulent age, and in the fulness of time vindicate its high claim to be universally recognized as the one Haven of abiding felicity and peace."
3. On its international institutions "It should be stated, at the very outset, in clear and unambiguous language, that these twin institutions of the Administrative Order of Bahá'u'lláh should be regarded as divine in origin, essential in their functions and complementary in their aim and purpose. Their conimon, their fundamental object is to insure the continuity of that divinely-appointed authority which flows from the Source of our Faith, to safeguard the unity of its followers and to maintain the integrity and flexibility of its teachings. Acting in conjunction with each other these two inseparable institutions administer its affairs, coordinate its activities, promote its interests, execute its laws and defend its subsidiary institutions.
Severally, each operates within a clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction; each is equipped with its own attendant institutions � instruments designed for the effective discharge of its particular responsibilities and duties. Each exercises, with the limitations imposed upon it, its powers, its authority, its rights and prerogatives. These are neither contradictory, nor detract in the slightest degree from the position which each of these institutions occupies. Far from being incompatible or mutually destructive, they supplement each other's authority and functions, and are permanently and fundamentally united in their aims.
"Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the
World Order of Bahá'u'lláhwould be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá has written, has been invariably upheld by the Law of God.
'In all the Divine Dispensations,' He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, 'the eldest son bath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright.'
Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be imperiled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives would be totally withdrawn.
"Severed from the no less essential institution of the Universal House of Justice this same System of the Will of 'Abdu'l-Bahá would be paralyzed in its action and would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His legislative and administrative ordinances.
'He is the Interpreter of the Word of God,' 'Abdu'l-Bahá, referring to the functions of the Guardian of the Faith, asserts, using in His Will the very term which he Himself had chosen when refuting the argument of the Covenant-breakers who had challenged His right to interpret the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh. 'After him,' He adds, 'will succeed the firstborn of his lineal de-scenclants.'
'The mighty stronghold,' He further explains, 'shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the Guardian of the Cause of God.' 'It is incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice, upon all the AghsAn, the Afnhn, the Hands of the Cause of God, to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the Guardian of the Cause of God.'
"'It is incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice,' Bahá'u'lláh, on the other hand, declares in the Eighth Leaf of the Exalted Paradise, 'to take counsel together regarding those things which hdve not outwardly been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to them.
Page 150God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He verily is the Provider, the Omniscient.'
'Unto the Most Holy Book'(the Kitáb-i-Aqdas), 'Abdu'l-Bahá states in His Will, 'every one must turn, and all that ~s not expressly recorded therein must be referred to the Universal Hou~e of Jus-flee. .~hat which this body, whether unanimously or by a m&ority doth carry, that is verily the truth and the purpose of God Himself. Whoso doth deviate therefrom is verily of them that love discord, bath shown forth malice, and turned away from the Lord of the Covenant.'
"Not only does cAbdu~hBah~ confirm in His Will Bahá'u'lláh's above-quoted statement, but invests this body with the additional right and power to abrogate, according to the exigencies of time, its own enactments, as well as these of a preceding House of Justice,' 'Inasmuch as the House of Justice', is His explicit statement in His Will, 'bath power to enact laws that are not expressly recorded in the Book and bear upon daily transactions, so also it hath power to repeal the same This it can do because these laws form no part of the divine explicit text.'
"Referring to both the Guardian and the Universal House of Justice we read these emphatic words: 'The sacred and youthful Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, as well as the Universal House of Justice to be universally elected and established, are both under the care and protection of the Abh& Beauty, under the shelter and unerring guidance of the Exalted One (the ETh) (may my life be offered up for them both). Whatsoever they decide i of God.'
"From these statements it is made indubitably clear and evident that the Guardian of the Faith has been made the Xnterpreter of the Word and that the
Universal House of Justicehas been invested with the function of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in the teachings.
The interpretation of the Guardian, functioning within his own sphere, is as authoritative and binding as the enactments of the International House of Justice, whose ex elusive right and prerogative is to pronounce upon and deliver the final judgment on such laws and ordi~ ances as Bahá'u'lláh has not expressly revealed. Neither can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other. Neither will seek to curtail the specific and undoubted authority with which both have been divinely invested, "Let no ~ne while this System is still in its infancy, misconceive its character, elitt .e it Si nificance or misrepresent its purpose.
The bedrock on which thisis founded is God's immutable Purpose for mankind in this day. The Source from which it derives its inspiration is no less than Bahá'u'lláh Himself.
Its shield and defender are the embattled hosts of the Abh4 Kingdom.
Its seed is the blood of no less than twenty thousand martyrs who have offered up their lives that it may be born and flourish. The axis round which its institutions revolve are the authentic provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. its guiding principles are the truths which He Who is the unerring Interpreter of the teachings of our Faith has so clearly enunciated in His public addresses throughout the West. The laws that govern its operation and limit its functions are those which have been expressly ordained in the Kitáb-t~ Aqdas. The seat round which its spiritual, its humanitarian and administrative activities will cluster are the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and its Dependencies.
The pillars that sustain its authority and buttress its structure are the twin institutions of the Guardianship and of the U iiversal House of Justice. The central, the underlying aim which animates it is the establishment of the New World Order as adumbrated by Bahá'u'lláh.
The methods it employs, the standard it inculcates, in~ dine it to neTher East nor West neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor poor, neither white nor colored. Its watchword is the unification of the hu~ man race; its standard the cMost Great Peace5; 51s consummation the advent of that golden millennium � the Day when the kingdoms of this world shall
Page 151THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 151
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IrAq, 194748.
have become the Kingdom of God Himself, the Kingdom of Bahá'u'lláh."
Fifty years have passed since the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh was first brought to North America. Three generations of believers have worked and sacrificed and prayed in order to produce a body of Bahá'ís large enough to demonstrate the principles here summarized in a few pages for the presentday student of these teachings.
What 'Abdu'l-Bahá employed as unifying element for the American community during a period before more than rudimentary local administrative bodies could be established was the construction of the I-louse of Worship, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, in Wilniette. He in fact referred to the House of Worship as the "inception of the Kingdom." Around its construction devotedly gathered the American friends. cAbdu~1~BahA approved their action in setting up a re � ligious corporation to hold title to the property and provide a basis for cal-lective lective action. In surveying those days from 1904 to 1921, one realizes how, in every stage of progress, the believers rushed forward in devotion before they could perceive the full results of action or comprehend the full unfoldment of their beloved Master's intention. In their hearts they knew that unity is the keynote of their Faith, and they were assured that the new power of unity would augment until it encompassed the whole of mankind. But as to the nature of world order, the foundation of universal peace, the principles of the future economy, while the clear picture eluded them, they went forward with enthusiasm to the Light.
In a continent consecrated to the pioneer, the early American Bahá'ís pioneered in the world of spirit, striving to participate in a work of supreme importance whose final result was the laying of a foundation on which human society might raise a house of justice and a znansicn.
of peace.Adopted by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada
INTRODUCTIONA PERUSAL of some of the words of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá on the duties and functions of the Spiritual Assemblies in every land (later to be designated as the local Houses of Justice), emphatically reveals the sacredness of their nature, the wide scope of their activity, and the grave responsibility which rests upon them."
� SHown EFFENDI, March 5, 1922."The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein shall gather counselors to the number of Bah4. .It behooveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly. Thus hath the Lord your God commanded you. Beware lest ye put away that which is clearly revealed in His Tablet. Fear God, 0 ye that perceive." � BAHÁ'U'LLÁH "It is incumbent upon every one not to take any step without consulting the Spiritual Assembly, and they must assuredly obey with heart and soul its bidding and be submissive unto it, that things may be properly ordered and well arranged. Otherwise every person will act independently and after his own judgment, will follow his own desire, and do harm to the Cause.
"The prime requi&tes for them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrance, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and longsuffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted Threshold. Should they be graciously aided to acquire these attributes, victory from the unseen Kingdom of Bah& shall be vouchsafed to them.
In this day, Assemblies of consultation are of the greatest importance and a vital necessity.
Obedience unto them is essential and obligatory.The members thereof must take counsel together in such wise that no occasion for ill-feeling or discard may arise. This can be attained when every member expresseth with absolute freedom his own opinion and setteth forth his argument. Should any one oppose, he must on no account feel hurt for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed. The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions. If, after discussion, a decision be carried unanimously, well and good; but if, the Lord forbid, differences of opinion should arise a majority of voices must prevail.
"The first condition is absolute love and harmony amongst the members of the Assembly. They must be wholly free from estrangement and must manifest in themselves the unity of God, for they are the waves of one sea, the drops of one river, the stars of one heaven, the rays of one sun, the trees of one orchard, the flowers of one garden. Should harmony of thought and absolute unity be nonexistent, that gathering shall be dispersed and that Assembly be brought b naught. The second condition: They must when coming together turn their faces to the Kingdom on High and ask aid from the Realm of Glory. They must then proceed with the utmost de~ votion, courtesy, dignity, care and i-nod-eration to express their views.
They must in every matter search out the truth and not insist upon their own opinion, for stubbornness and persistence in one's views will lead ultimately
Page 153THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 153
to discord and wrangling and the truth will remain hidden. The honored members must with all freedom express their own thoughts, and it is in no wise permissible for one to belittle the thought of another, nay, he must with moderation set forth the truth, and should differences of opinion arise a majority of voices must prevail, and all must obey and submit to the majority. It is again not permitted that any one of the honored members object to or censure, whether in or out of the meeting, any decision arrived at previously, though th~t decision be not right, for such criticism would prevent any decision from being enforced.
In short, whatsoever thing is arranged in harmony and with love and purity of motive, its result is light, and should the least trace of estrangement prevail the result shall be darkness upon darkness.
If this be so regarded, that Assembly shall be of God, but otherwise it shall lead to coolness and alienation that proceed from the Evil One. Discussions must all be confined to spiritual matters that pertain to the training of souls, the instruction of cifil-dren, the relief of the poor, the help of the feeble throughout all classes in the world, kindness to all peoples, the diffusion of the fragrances of God and the exaltation of His Holy Word. Should they endeavor to fulfill these conditions the grace of the Holy Spirit shall be vouchsafed unto them, and that Assem-My shall become the center of the Divine blessings, the hosts of Divine confirmation shall come to their aid and they shall day by day receive a new effusion of Spirit." 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ "The importance, nay the absolute necessity, of these local Assemblies is manifest when we realize that in the days to come they will evolve into the local House of Justice, and at present provide the firm foundation on which the structure of the Master's Will is to be reared in the future.
"In order to avoid division and disruption, that the Cause may not fall a prey to conflicting interpretations, and lose thereby its purity and pristine vigor, that its affairs may be conducted with efficiency and promptness, it is necessary that every one (that is, every member of the Bahá'í community) should conscientiously take an active part in the election of these Assemblies, abide by their decision, enforce their decree, and cooperate with them whole-heartedily in their task of stimulating the growth of the Movement throughout all regions.
The members of these Assemblies, on their part, must disregard utterly their own likes and dislikes, their personal interests and inclinations, and concentrate their minds upon those measures that will conduce to the welfare and happiness of the Bahá'í community and promote the common weal."� � SHocm EFFENDI, March 12, 1928.
"Let us recall His explicit and often-repeated assurance that every Assembly elected in that rarefied atmosphere of selflessness and detachment is, in truth, appointed of God, that its verdict is truly inspired, that one and all should submit to its decision unreservedly and with cheerfulness.'
' � Si-wont EFFENDI, FebruaryThe various functions of the local Spiritual Assembly, and its nature as a constitutional body, are duly set forth in Article VII of the ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly, and are more definitely defined in the ByLaws of a local Spiritual Assembly approved by the National Spiritual Assembly and recommended by the Guardian. Each local Spiritual Assembly, and all members of the local Bahá'í community, shall be guided and controlled by the provisions of those
ByLaws.In addition to its observance of the general functions vested in the institution of a Spiritual Assembly, each Spir
Page 154~tua1 Assembly has need of a procedure frr the conduct of its meetings.
The folowing items represent the outline of the parliamentary rules of procedure which the National Spiritual Assembly has adopted and recommends to each and every local Spiritual Assembly throughout the United States and Cafr ada~
Calling of MeetingsA meeting of the Spirituai Assembly �s valid only when it has been duly cahed, that is, when each and every member has been informed of the time and place. The general practice is for the Assembly to decide upon some reg~ ular time and place for its meetings throughout the Baha year, and this ~1ecision when recorded in the minutes i~ sufficient notice to the members. When the regular schedule cannot be followed, or the need arises for a special meeting, the secretary, on request by the chairman or any three members of the Spiritual Assembly, should send due notice to all the members.
Order of BusinessRoll call by the Secretary (or Recording Secretary).
Prayer.Reading and approval of minutes of previous meetings.
Report of Secretary (or Corresponding Secretary), including presentation of letters received by the Assembly since its last meeting, and of any and all recommendations duly adopted by the community at the last Nineteen Day
Feast.New business, including conferences with members of the community and with applicants for enrollment as members of the community.
Closing Prayer.A Spiritual Assembly, in maintaining its threefold function of a body given (within the limits of its jurisdiction) an executive, a legislative and a judicial capacity, is charged with responsibility for initiating action and making decisions.
Its meetings, there~ ore~ revolve around various definite matters whic require deiiberaton a ~ collecKvs decisio~, ad it is incumbent upon the members, one and all, to a& dress th~rnse~ves to he suVect und discussion an~ not ~ngage ~n genes t~ speeches of an ~rre1evant character.
Every ~UT~ ~e t a problem before a~ Ass enib y t~ t ost efl A ntly handled when ti M owing pro es ~s obser red: ~1rst, ascertainment and agreement upon the facts second, agreement upon h sp~ fual or administrative Teachin~s whi h th.~ question involves; thirds til and frank. discussion of the matter, leading up to the offering of a resolution; and fourth, voting upon the resolution.
A resolution, or motion, is not subject to discussion or vote until duly made and seconded. It is preferable to have each resolution clear and complete in itself, but when an amendment is duly made and seconded, the chairman shall call for a vote on the amendment first and then on the original motion. An amendment must be relevant to, and not contravene, the subject matter of the motion.
The chairman, or other presiding off i-cer, has the same power and responsibility for discussion and voting upon motions as other members of the Assembly.
Discussion of any matter before the Assembly may be terminated by a motion duly made, seconded and voted calling upon the chairman to put the matter to a vote or to proceed to the next matter on the agenda. The purpose of this procedure is to prevent any member or members from prolonging the discussion beyond the point at which full opportunity has been given all members to express their views.
When the Assembly has taken action upon any matter, the action is binding upon all members, whether present or absent from the meeting at which the action was taken.
Individual views andTHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 155
opinions must be subordinated to the will of the Assembly when a decision has been made. A Spiritual Assembly is an administrative unit, as it is a spiritual unit ,and therefore no distinction between "majority" and "minor-ity" groups or factions can be recognized.
Each member must give undivided loyalty to the institution to which he or she has been elected.
Any action taken by the Assembly can be reconsidered at a later meeting, on motion duly made, seconded and carried. This reconsideration, according to the result of the consultation, may Thad to a revision or the annulment of the prior action. If a majority is unwilling to reconsider the prior action, further discussion of the matter by any member is improper.
The Assembly has a responsibility in filling a vacancy caused by the inability of any member to attend the meetings. "It is only too obvious that unless a member can attend regularly the meetings of his local Assembly, it would be impossible for him to discharge the duties incumbent upon him, and to fulfill his responsibilities as a representative of the community. Membership in a local Spiritual Assembly carries with it, indeed, the obligation and capacity to remain in close touch with local Bahá'í activities, and ability to attend regularly the sessions of the Assembly."
� SHOGm EFFENDI, JANUARYThe Spiritual Assembly, as a permanent body, is responsible for maintaining all its records, including minutes of meetings, correspondence and financial records, throughout its existence as a Bahá'í institution.
Each officer, therefore, on completing his or her term of office, shall turn over to the Assembly all records pertaining to the business of the
Assembly.nn~ COMMUNrrY A. The institution of the Nineteen Day Feast provides the recognized and regular occasion for general consultation on the part of the community, and for consultation between the Spiritual Assembly and the members of the corn-munity.
munity. The conduct of the period a! consultation at Nineteen Day Feasts is a vital function of each Spiritual Assembly.
From Words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá,was inaugurated by the B~b and ratified by J3ahh'u'11&h, in
His Holy Book, the Aqdasso that people may gather together and outwardly show fellowship and love, that the Divine mysteries may be disclosed. The object is concord, that through this fellowship hearts may become perfectly united, and reciprocity and mutual helpfulness be established. Because the members of the world of humanity are unable to exist without being banded together, cooperation and helpfulness is the basis of human society.
Without the realization of these two great principles no great move~ inent is pressed forwartL" London, England, December 29, 1912. (Quoted in Bahá'í News Na. 33.)
The Nineteen Day Feasthas been de~ scribed by the Guardian as the :founda~ tion of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. It is to be conducted according to the following program: the first part, en~ tirely spiritual in character, is devoted to readings from Bahá'í Sacred Writ~ ings; the second part consists of general consultation on the affairs of the Cause. The third part is the material feast an& social meeting of all the believers, and should maintain the spiritual nature of the Feast.
Bahá'ís should regard this Feast as the very heart of their spiritual activity, their participation in the mystery of the Holy Utterance, their steadfast unity one with another in a universality raised high above the limitations of race, class, nationality, sect, and personality, and their privilege of con= tributing to the power of the Cause in the realm of collective action.
Calendarcalendar for some adequate reason cannot be observed, the Assembly may arrange to hold a Feast at the nearest possible date.
Only members of the Bahá'í community, and visiting Bahá'ís from other communities, may attend these meetings, but young people of less than twenty-one years of age, who have studied the Teachings and declared their intention of joining the community on reaching the age of twenty-one, may also attend.
Regular attendance at the Nineteen Day Feast is incumbent upon every Baha'i, illness or absence from the city being the only justification for absence. Believers are expected to arrange their personal affairs so as to enable them to observe the Bahá'í calendar.
Order of Business for the Consultation Period The chairman or other appointed representative of the Spiritual Assembly presides during the period of consultation.
The Spiritual Assemblyreports to the community whatever communications have been received from the Guardian and the National Spiritual Assembly, and provides opportunity for general discussion.
The Assembly likewise reports its own activities and plans, including committee appointments that may have been made since the last Feast, the financial report, arrangements made for public meetings, and in general share with the community all matters that concern the Faith.
These reports are to be followed by general consultation.
A matter of vital importance at this meeting is consideration of national and international Baha affairs, to strengthen the capacity of the community to cooperate in promotion of the larger Bahá'í interests and to deepen the understanding of all believers concerning the relation of the 1oca~ community to the Bahá'í World Community.
Individual Baha are to find in the Nineteen Day Feast the channel through which to make suggestions and recommendations to the National Spiritual Assembly. These recommendations are offered first to the local community, and when adopted by the community come before the local Assembly, which then may in its discretion forward the recommendation to the National Spiritual Assembly accompanied by its own considered view.
Provision is to be made for reports from committees, with discussion of each report. Finally, the meeting is to be open for suggestions and recommendations from individual believers on any matter affecting the Cause.
The local Bahá'í community may adopt by majority vote any resolution which it wishes collectively to record as its advice and recommendation to the
Spiritual Assembly.Upon each member of the community lies the obligation to make his or her utmost contribution to the consultation, the ideal being a gathering of Baha is inspired with one spirit and concentrating upon the one aim to further the interests of the
Faith.The Secretary of the Assembly records each resolution adopted by the community, as well as the various suggestions advanced during the meeting, in order to report these to the Spiritual Assembly for its consideration.
Whatever action the Assembly takes is to be reported at a later Nineteen Day Feast.
Matters of a personal nature should be brought before the Spiritual Assem-Ny and not to the community at the Nineteen
Day Feast. Concerningthe attitude with which believers should come to these Feasts, the Master has said, "You must free yourselves from everything that is in your hearts, before you enter." (Bahá'í News Letters of the National
Spiritual Assembly of Germanyon April 21, called for the election of the Spiritual Assembly, provides the occasion for the presentation of annual reports by the Assembly and by all its committees.
Page 157THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 157
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma, 194748.
The chairman of the outgoing Asseni-bly presides at this meeting.
The order of business includes: Reading of the call of the meeting, reading of appropriate Bahá'í passages bearing upon the subject of the election, appointment of tellers, distribution of ballots, prayers for the spiritual guidance of the voters, the election, presentation of annual reports, tellers' report of the election, approval of the tellers' report.
C. In addition to these occasions for general consultation, the Spiritual Assembly is to give consultation to individual believers whenever requested. During such consultation with individual believers, the Assembly should observe the following principles; the impartiality of each of its members with respect to all matters under discussion; the freedom of the individual Bahá'í to express his views, feelings and recommendations on any matter affecting the interests of the Cause, the confidential character of this consultation, and the principle that the Spiritual Assembly does not adopt any resolution or make any final decision, until the party or parties have withdrawn from the meeting.
Appeals from decisions of a local Spiritual Assembly are provided for in the ByLaws and the procedure fully described in a statement published in Bahá'í News, February, 1933.
When confronted with evidences of unhappiness, whether directed against the Assembly or against members of the community, the Spiritual Assembly should realize that its relationship to the believers is not merely that of a formal constitutional body but also that of a spiritual institution called upon to manifest the attributes of courtesy, patience and loving insight. Many conditions are not to be remedied by the exercise of power and authority but rather by a sympathetic understand
Page 158ing of the sources of the difficulty in the hearts of the friends.
As 'Abdu'l-Bahá has explained, some of the peo-~p1e are children and must be trained, some are ignorant and must be educated, some are sick and must be healed. Where, however, the problem is not of this order but represents flagrant disobedience and disloyalty to the Cause itself, in that case the Assembly should consult with the
National Spiritual AssemblyMembers of the Bahá'í community, for their part, should do their utmost by prayer and meditation to remain always in a positive and joyous spiritual condition, bearing in mind the Tablets which call upon Bahá'ís to serve the world of humanity and not waste their precious energies in negative complaints.
IV. B~ni'f ANNIVERSArnES,The Spiritual Assembly, among its various duties and responsibilities, will provide for the general observance by the local community of the following Holy
Days:Declaration of the BATh, May 23, 1844. Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, May 29, 1892.
Martyrdom of the Bib, July 9, 1850.Day of the Covenant, November 26. Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, November 28, 1921.
Period of the Fast, nineteen days beginning March 2.
Feast of Nawruz (Bahá'í(Approved by the Guardian) DESPITE the repeated explanations given by the Guardian an this subject, there seems to exist each year, prior to and also during the Convention period, some misunderstanding as to the nature of the Annual
Meeting.In order to establish a definite standard of Convention procedure, the following statement has been approved and adopted, and in accordance with the vote taken by the National Assembly, a copy of 'the statement is placed in the hands of the presiding officer of the Convention to control the Convention procedure, after being read to the delegates by the officer of the National Spiritual Assembly by whom the Convention is convened. "The delegates present at this Annual Bahá'í Convention are called upon to render a unique, a vital service to the Faith of BahWu�&h. Their co11ec~ tive functions and responsibilities are not a matter of arbitrary opinion, but have been clearly described by the Guardian of the Cause.
If civil governments have found it necessary to adopt the doctrine that 'ignorance of the law is no excuse,' how much more essential it is for Baha'is, individually and cob imis reference to "being read to the delegates" was in connection with the
1934 Convention only. Thestatement is here published for the general information of the believers.
Page 159THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 159
lectively, to base their responsible actions upon thorough comprehension of the fundamental prfficiples which underlie that Administrative Order which in its maturity is destined to become the
World Order of Bahá'u'lláh."Considerable confusion would have been avoided at Conventions held during the past three years had the delegates, and all members of the National Spiritual Assembly itself, given sufficient consideration to the fact that Bahá'í News of February, 1930, contained an explanation of the Annual Convention which had been prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly, submitted to Shoghi Effendi, and definitely approved by him. It is because this statement of four years ago has gone unnoticed that successive Conventions, acting upon some matters as a law unto themselves, have inadvertently contravened the Guardian's clear instructions.
"The National SpiritualAssembly now calls attention to two specific portions of the 1930 statement approved by the Guardian which have been neglected in subsequent Conventions: first, the ruling that non-delegates do not possess the right to participate in Convention proceedings; and, second, that the time of the election of members of the National Spiritual Assembly shall be fixed in the Agenda at such a time as to allow the outgoing Assembly ftffl time to report to the delegates, and allow the incoming Assembly to have full consultation with the assembled delegates.
It is surely evident that a procedure or principle of action once authorized by the Guardian is not subject to alteration by any Baha body or individual believer to whom the p5-cedure directly applies.
"In order to remove other sources of misunderstanding, the National Spiritual Assembly now feels it advisable to point out that the Guardian's letters on the subject of the Convention, received and published in Bahá'í News this year,2 do not, as some believers seem to feel, organically change the character and function of the A;inual Meeting, but reaffirm and strengthen 2tebruary, 1964 instructions and expknations previous~ ly given. In the light of all the Guardian's references to this subject, compiled and published by the
National Spiritual Assemblyin Bahá'í News of November, 1933 and February, 1934, the following brief summary has been prepared and is now issued with the sole purpose of contributing to the spiritual unity of the chosen delegates here present: � "1. The Annual
Bahá'í Conventioifhas two unique functions to fulfill, discussion of current Bahá'í matters and the election of the
National Spiritual Assembly.The discussion should be free and untrammeled, the election carried on in that spirit of prayer and meditation in which alone every delegate can render obedience to the Guardian's expressed wish. After the Convention is convened by the Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, and after the roll call is read by the Secretary of the Assembly, the Convention proceeds to the election of its chairman and secre-Lary by secret ballot and without advance nomination, according to the standard set for all Bahá'í elections.
"2. Non-delegates may not participate in Convention discussion. All members of the National Spiritual Assembly may participate in the discussion, but only those members who have been elected delegates may vote on any matter brought up for vote during the proceedings.
"3. The outgoing NationalSpiritual Assembly is responsible for rendering reports of its own activities and of those carried on by its committees during the past year. The annual election is to be held at a point midway during the Convention sessions, so that the incoming Assembly may consult with the delegates.
"4 The Convention is free to discuss any Bahá'í matter, in addition to those treated in the annual reports. The Convention is responsible for making its own rules of procedure controlling discussion; for example, concerning any limitations the delegates may find it necessary to impose upon the time allotted to or claimed by any one delegate.
The National AssemblyFirst National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, 1948.
confer freely and fully, free from any restricted pressure, in the exercise of their function.
"5. The Convention as an organic body is limited to the actual Convention period. It has no function to dlis-charge after the close of the sessions except that of electing a member or members to fill any vacancy that might arise in the membership of the National Spiritual Assembly during the year.
"6. The Convention while in session has no independent legislative, executive or judicial function.
Aside from its action in electing the National Spiritual Assembly, its discussions do not represent actions but recommendations which shall, according to the GuardIan's instructions, be given conscientious consideration by the
National Assembly.Assembly is the supreme Bahá'í administrative body within the American Bahá'í corn-raunity, raunity, and its jurisdiction continues without interruption during the Convention period as during the remainder of the year, and independently of the individuals composing its membership. Any matter requiring action of legislative, executive or judicial nature, whether arising during the Convention period or at any other time, is to be referred to the
National Spiritual Assembly.is responsible for upholding the administrative principles applying to the holding of the Annual Convention as it is for upholding all other administrative principles. If, therefore, a Convention departs from the principles laid down for Conventions by the Guardian, and exceeds the limitations of function conferred upon it, in that case, and in that case done, the N tonal Spiritual Assembly can and must intervene. It is the National Spiritual Assembly, and not the Convention, which is an-thorized to decide when and why such intervention is recjuired.
Page 161THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 161
"8. The National SpiritualAssembly feels that it owes a real duty to the delegates, and to the entire body of believers, in presenting any and all facts that may be required in order to clarify matters discussed at the Convention. There can be no true Baha consultation at this important meeting if any incomplete or erroneous view should prevail.
"9. The National Assemblyin adopting and issuing this statement does so in the sincere effort to assure the constitutional freedom of the Convention to fulfill its high mission.
The path of true freedom lies in knowing and obeying the general principles given to all Bahá'ís for the proper conduct of their collective affairs.
While the entire world plunges forward to destruction it is the responsibility of the National Spiritual Assembly to uphold that Order on which peace and security solely depends."
THE NONPOLITICAL CHARACTER OFA Statement Prepared by the National Spiritual Assembiy in Response to the Request for Clarification of the Subject Voiced by the 1933 Annual Convention J T IS the view of the
National Spiritual Assemblythat the Guardian's references to the nonpolitical character of the Bahá'í Faith, when studied as a whole, are so clear that they can be fully grasped by all believers and rightly applied by all Local Spiritual Assemblies to any problems they may encounter. Should special circumstances arise, however, the National Assembly will make every effort to assist any Local Assembly to arrive at fuller understanding of This important subject.
The first reference to consider is taken from the letter written by
Shoghi Effendi on March21, 1932, published under the title of "The Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh."
"I feel it, therefore, incumbent upon me to stress, now that the time is ripe, the importance of an instfuction which, at the present stage of the evolution of our Faith, should be increasingly ein~ phasized, irrespective of its application to the East or to the West.
And this principle is no other than that which involves the nonparticipation by the adherents of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, whether in their individual capacities or collectively as local or national Assemblies, in any form of activity that might be interpreted, either directly or indirectly, as an interference in the political affairs of any particular government.
"Let them refrain from associating themselves, whether by word or by deed, with the political pursuits of their respective nations, with the policies of their governments and the schemes and programs of parties and factions. In such controversies they should assign no blame, take no side, further no design, and identify themselves with no system prejudicial to the best interests of that worldwide Fellowship which it is their aim to guard and foster. Let them beware lest they allow themselves to become the tools of unscrupulous politicians, or to be entrapped by the treacherous devices of the plotters and the perfidious among their countrymen. Let them so shape their lives and regulate their conduct that no charge of secrecy, of frauc1~ of bribery or of inti Tidatien may however ill-founded, be brought against
Page 162Canadians gather at Franklin Camp, Georgian Bay, Ontario f~r the first Baha conference held here, August 744, 1948.
them It is their duty to strive to distinguish, as clearly as they possibly can, and if needed with the aid of their elected representatives, such posts and functions as are either diplomatic or political, from those that are purely administrative in character, and which under no circumstances are affected by the changes and chances that political activities and party government, in every land, must necessarily involve. Let them affirm their unyielding determination to stand, firmly and unreservedly, for the way of Bahá'u'lláh, to avoid the entanglements and bickerings inseparable from the pursuits of the politician, and to become worthy agencies of that Divine Polity which incarnates
God's immutable Purpose"Let them proclaim that in whatever country they reside, and however advanced their institutions, or profound their desire to enforce the laws and apply the principles enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh, they will, unhesitatingly, subordinate the operation of such laws and the application of such principles to the requirements and legal enactments of their respective governments. Theirs is not the purpose, while endeavoring to conduct and perfect the administrative affairs of their Faith, to violate, under any circumstances, the provisions of their country's constitu-lion, much less to allow the machinery of their administration to supersede the government of their respective countries" This instruction raised the cuestion whether believers should vote in any public election. A Tablet revealed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Mr. Thornton Chase was sent to the Guardian, and the fob lowing reply was received, dated January 26, 1933: "The Guardian fully recognizes the authenticity and controlling influence of this instruction from 'Abdu'l-Bahá upon the question. He, however, feels under the responsibility of stating that the attitude taken by the Master (that is, that American citizens are in duty bound to vote in public elections) implies certain reservations.
He, therefore, lays it upon the individual conscience to see that in following the Master's instructions no Bahá'í vote for an officer nor Bahá'í participation in the affairs of the Republic shall involve acceptance by that individual of a program or policy that contravenes any vital principle, spiritual or social, of the Faith."
The Guardian added to this letter the following postscript: "I feel it incumbent upon me to clarify the above statement, written in my behalf, by stating that nG vote cast, or office undertaken, by a Baha should necessarily constitute acceptance, by the voter or office holder, of the entire program of any political party.
No Bahá'í can be regarded as either a Republican or Democrat, as such.
He is, above all else, the supporter of theTHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 163
principles enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh, x it which, I am firmly convinced, the program of no political party is completely harmonious."
n a letter dated lVarch 16, 1933, the Guardian sent these further details: C~AS regards the nonpolitical character of the Bahá'í
Faith, Shoghi Effendifeels that there is no contradiction whatsoever between the Tablet (to Thornton Chase, referred to above) and the reservations to which he has referred.
The Master surely never desired the friends to use their influence towards the realization and pro-n-totion of policies contrary to any of the principles of the Faith. The friends may vote, if they can do it, without identifying themselves with one party or another. To enter the arena of party politics is surely detrimental to the best interests of th& Faith and. will harm the Cause. It remains for the individuals to so use their fight to vote as to keep aloof from party politics, and always bear in mind that they are voting on the merits of the individual, rather than because he belongs to one party or another.
The matter must be made perfectly clear to the individuals, who will be left free to exercise their discretion and judg-rnent. But if a certain person does enter into party politics and labors for the ascendancy of one party over another, and continues to Jo it against the expressed appeals, and warningJ of the Assembly, then the Assembly has the right to refuse him the right to vote in Bahá'í eiections~"
CONCERNING MEMBERSHIP IN NON-BAHA'1THE instruction written by Shoghi Effendi concerning membership in nonBahá'í religious organizations, pub-fished in the July, 1935, number of Bahá'í News, has brought forth some interesting and important communications from local Spiritual Assemblies and also from individual believers, to all of which the National Spiritual Assembly has given careful and sympathetic attention.
The National Assemblyitself, on receiving tat instruction, made it the subject of extensive consultation, feeling exceedingly responsible for its own understanding of the Guardian's words and anxious to contribute to the understanding of the friends.
In October, 1935, the Assembly sent in reply to some of these communications a general letter embodying its thoughts on the subject, and a copy of that letter was forwarded to Shoghi Effendi for his approval and comment. His references to its contents, made in letters addressed to the National Spiritual ual Assembly on November 29 and December 11, 1935, are appended to this statement.
Now that Shoghi Effendi'sapproval has been received, the National Assembly feels it desirable to publish, for the information of all the American believers, the substance of the October letter.
While so fundamental an instruction is bound to raise different questions corresponding to the different coMb tions existing throughout the Bahá'í community, the most important consideration is our collective need to grasp the essential principle underlying the new instruction, and our capacity to perceive that the position which the Guardian wishes us to take in regard to church membership is a necessary and inevitable result of the steady development of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.
This essential principle is made clear when we turn to Shoghi Effendi's further reference to the subject as published in Bahá'í News for October,
Page 164In the light of these words, it seems fully evident that the way to approach this instruction is in realizing the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh as an ever-growing organism destined to become something new and greater than any of the revealed religions of the past. Whereas former Faiths inspired hearts and ii-lumined souls, they eventuated in formal religions with an eccieciastical organization, creeds, rituals and churches, while the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, likewise renewing man's spiritual life, will gradually produce the institutions of an ordered society, fulfilling not merely the function of the churches of the past but also the function of the civil state. By this manifestation of the Divine Will in a higher degree than in former ages, humanity will emerge from that immature civilization in which church and state are separate and competitive institutions, and partake of a true civilization in which spiritual and social principles are at last reconciled as two aspects of one and the same Truth.
No Bahá'í can read the successive World Order letters sent us by Shoghi Effendi without perceiving that the Guardian, for many years, has been preparing us to understand and appreciate this fundamental purpose and mission of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. Even when the Master ascended, we were for the most part still considering the Bahá'í Faith as though it were only the "return of Christ" and failing to perceive the entirely new and larger elements latent in the Teachings of
Bahá'u'lláh.Thus, in the very first of the World Order letters, written February 27th, 1929, Shoghi Effendi said: "Who, I may ask, when viewing the international character of the Cause, its far-flung ramifications, the increasing complexity of its affairs, the diversity of its adherents, and the state of confusion that assails on every side the infant Faith of God, can for a moment question the necessity of some sort of administrative machinery that will insure, amid the storm and stress of a struggling civilization, the unity of the Faith, the preservation of its identity, and the protection of its interests?"
Although for five years the Guardian had been setting forth the principles of
Bahá'í Administrationin frequent letters, in 1927 he apparently felt it necessary to overcome some doubts here and there as to the validity of the institutions the Master bequeathed to the Bahá'ís in His Will and Testament. The series of Woi4d Order letters, however, goes far beyond the point of defending and explaining their validity as an essential element in the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh � the Guardian vastly extended the horizon of our understanding by making it clear that the Administrative Order, in its full development, is to be the social structure of the future civilization.
Thus, in that same letter quoted above, he wrote: "Not offly will the presentday
Spiritual Assembliesbe styled differently in future, but will be enabled also to add to their present functions those powers, duties, and prerogatives necessitated by the recognition of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, not merely as one of the recognized religious systems of the world, but as the State Religion of an independent and Sovereign
Power. And as the Bahá'í Faithpermeates the masses of the peo-pies of East and West, and its truth is embraced by the majority of the peoples of a number of the Sovereign States of the world, will the
Universal House of Justiceattain the plenitude of its power, and exercise, as the supreme organ of the Baha Commonwealth, all the rights, the duties, and responsibilities incumbent upon the world's future super-state."
This passage stands as the keystone in the noble structure which Shoghi Effendi has raised in his ftrnc-tion as interpreter of the
Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.The Master developed the Cause to the point where this social Teaching, always existent in the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, could be explained to the believers and given its due significance as the fulfillment of Bahá'í evolution. As the Guardian expressed it: "That Divine Civilization, the establishment of which is the primary mis
Page 165THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 165
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand, 194950.
sion of the Bahá'í Faith.'~ (World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, pp. 84.)
For us these words mean that a Bahá'í is not merely a member of a revealed Religion, he is also a citizen in a World Order even though that Order today is still in its infancy and still obscured by the shadows thrown by the institutions, habits and attitudes derived from the past. But since the aim and end has been made known, our devotion and loyalty must surely express itself, not in clinging to views and thoughts emanating from the past, but in pressing forward in response to the needs of the new creation.
That true devotion, which consists in conscious knowledge of the "primary mission," and unified action to assist in bringing about its complete triumph, recognizes that a Bahá'í today must have singleness of mind as of aim without the division arising when we stand with one foot in the Cause and one foot in the world, attempting to reconcile diverse elements which the
Manifestation of God HimselfThe principle underlying the Guardian's instruction about membership in non-BahVi religious bodies has already been emphasized by Shoghi Eftendi in another connection � the instruction about the nonpolitical character of the Faith which he incorporated in his letter entitled "The Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh."
For example: "I feel it, therefore, incumbent upon me to stress, now that the time is ripe, the importance of an instruction which, at the present stage of the evolution of our Faith, should be increasingly emphasized, irrespective of its application to the East or to the West.
And this principle is no other than that which involves the nonparticipation by the adherents of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, whether in their individual capacities or collectively as local or national Assemblies, in any form of activity that might be interpreted, either directly or indirectly, as an interference in the
Page 166Again, when the question was raised as to membership in certain nonBahá'í organizations not directly religious or political in character, the Guardian replied: "Regarding association with the World Fellowship of Faiths and kindred Societies, Shoghi Effendi wishes to reaffirm and elucidate the general princi-pie that Bahá'í elected representatives as well as individuals should refrain from any act or word that would imply a departure from the principles, whether spiritual, social or administrative, established by Bahá'u'lláh. Formal affiliation with and acceptance of membership in organizations whose programs or policies are not wholly reconcilable with the Teachings is of course out of the question."
(Bahá'í News, August, 1933.)Thus, not once but repeatedly the Guardian has upheld the vital principle underlying every type of relationship between Bahá'ís and other organiza~ ions, namely, that the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh is an ever-growing organism, and as we begin to realize its universality our responsibility is definitely established to cherish and defend that universality from all compromise, Al admixture with worldly elements, whether emanating from our own habits rooted in the past or from the deliberate attacks imposed by enemies from without.
It will be noted that in the instruction published in July, 1935, Bahá'í News, the Guardian made it clear that the principle involved is not new and unexpected, but rather an application of an established principle to a new condition.
"Concerning membership in non-Bahá'í religious associations, the Guardian wishes to reemphasize the general principle already laid down in his communications to your Assembly and also to the individual believers that no Bahá'í who wishes to be a wholehearted and sincere upholder of the distinguishing principles of the Cause can accept full membership in any non-Bahá'í ecclesiastical organization.
�For it is only too obvious that in most of its fundamental assumptions the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh is completely at variance with outworn creeds, ceremonies and institutions. During the days of the Master the Cause was still in a stage that made such an open and sharp dissociation between it and other religious organizations, and particularly the Muslim Faith, not only inadvisable but practically impossible to establish. But since His passing events throughout the Bahá'í world, and particularly in Egypt where the Muslim religious courts have formally testified to the independent character of the Faith, have developed to a point that has made such an assertion of the independence of the Cause not only highly desirable but absolutely essential."
To turn now to the Guardian's words published in October
Bahá'í News:"The separation that has set in between the institutions of the Bahá'í Faith and the Isl6nriic ecclesiastical organizations that oppose it imposes upon every loyal upholder of the Cause the obligation of refraining from any word or action which might prejudice the position which our enemies have. of their own accord proclaimed and established. This historic development, the beginnings of which could neither be recog~ nized nor even anticipated in the years immediately preceding 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í passing, may be said to have signalized the Formative Period of our Faith and to have paved the way ~or the consolidation of its administrative order, Though our Cause unreservedly recognizes the Divine origin of all the religions that preceded it and upholds the spiritual truths which lie at their very core and are common to them all, its institutions, whether administrative, religious or humanitarian, must, if their distinctive character is to be maintained and recognized, be increasingly divorced from the outworn creeds, the meaningless ceremonials and manmade institutions with which these religions are at present identified. Our adversaries in the East have initiated the struggle.
Our future opponents in the West will, in their turn, arise and carry it a stage further. Ours is the duty, in anticipation of this inevitable contest, to uphold unequivocally and with undivided loyalty the integrity of our Faith and demonstrate the distin
Page 167THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 167
guishing feaft ~es o: ts divinely ap-painted institutions?
Nothing could be clearer or more emphatic. These words, asserting again di~ essential univ~rsa1i; of The Cause, likewise repeat and senew the warning Lat the orga i1ze2~ religions, even in An erica, will ?eecozne WcteriT hostile to the Faifi a Bahá'u'lláh, denounce and oppose it, and seek its destruction ~n vain eIT~ rt F r &ntain their own 'outworn reed&' and i ate ia~ ~ower. nmrmed o~ LU inevitable deve1op~ nient can ~ Baha % any nnger desire ~ :etain a connection whleL, however liberal and pleasing it now seeing, is a connection with a potential foe of The Cause of God? The Guardian's instruction signifies that the time has come when all. American believers must become fully conscious of the implications of such connections, and carry out their loyalty to its logical conclusion.
Shoghi Effendi's latest words are not merely an approval of the foregoing statement, but a most helpful elucidation of some of the problems which arise when the friends turn to their local Assemblies for specific advice under various special circumstances.
"The explanatory statement in connection with membership in non-Bahá'í religious organizations is admirably conceived, convincing and in full conformity with the principles underlying and implied in the unfolding world order of Bahá'u'lláh."
(November 29, 1933.)"The Guardian has carefully read the copy of the statement you had recently prepared concerning non-membership in non-B ah6'i religious organizations, and is pleased to realize that your comments and explanations are in fufl conformity with his views on the subject. He hopes that your letter will serve to clarify this issue in the minds of all the believers, and to further convince them of its vital character and importance in the present stage of the evolution of the Cause.
En this case,1 as also in that of 1A special ease involving an aged believer, at-filoted with illness, for whom severance of church relations might have been too great a shock.
suffering believers, the Assemblies, whether local o nationa, should act tactfully, patiently and in a friendly and kindly splAt. Knowing how pain~ liii and dangerous it k for such be!iev-ers to repudiate their former allegi~ ances and friendships, they should try to graduai2y persuade tl'iem of the wis~ dom and necessit o: sich an acdo 2 and instea o thrusfng upon than a new principle, to :znake them accept it inwardly, and o t of pure onviction and desire, Tho severe and immediate action in such eases is not on -frfrt- less but actually harmful. Ft alienates people instead of winning them to the Cause.
"The othe' ~ oint concerns the advi~ ability ow ~ontrJ uting to a church. I ~ this case also the friends must realize that contributions to a church, especially when noL ~eguiar, do not necessarily entail affiliation, The believers can make such offerings, occasionally, and provided they are certain that while doing so they are not connected as members of any church. There should be no confusion between the terms affiliation and association. While affiliation with ecclesiastical organizations is not permissible, association with them should not only be tolerated but even encouraged. There is no better way to demonstrate the universality of the Cause than this. Bahá'u'lláh, indeed, urges His followers to consort with all religions and nations with utmost friendliness and love.
This constitutes the very spirit of His message to mankind." (December 11, 1935.)
The National SpiritualAssembly trusts that the subject will receive the attention of local Assemblies and communities, and that in the light of the foregoing explanations the friends will find unity and agreement in applying the instruction to whatever situations may arise. In teaching new believers let us lay a proper foundation so that their obedience will be voluntary and assured from the beginning of their enrollment as Baha.
In our attitude toward the older believers who are affected by the instruction let us act with the patience and kindliness the Guardian has urged.
Page 168ONE of the chief responsibilities of Bahá'ís in this transitional era is to grasp the principle upon which rests their loyalty to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in relation to their duty toward their civil government.
This problem arises in its most difficult form in connection with our individual and collective attitude toward war.
Nothing could be more powerful than the Bahá'í teachings on the subject of peace. Not only does Bahá'u'lláh confirm the teachings of all former Manifestations which uphold amity and fellowship between individual human beings, and the supremacy of love as the end and aim of mutual intercourse and association, but He likewise extends the divine law of peace to governments and rulers, declaring to them that they are called upon to establish peace and justice upon earth, and uproot forever the dire calamity of international war.
Despite His Revelation, a most agonizing and excruciating conflict raged in Europe for four years, and since that war many other wars and revolutions have dyed the earth, while at present the heaven of human hope is black with the approach of a final world-shaking catastrophe.
What wonder that faithful Bahá'ís abhorring and detesting war as insane repudiation of divine law, as destroyer of life and ruin of civilization, should now, in these fateful days, ponder how they may save their loved ones from the calamity of the battlefield, and how they may contribute their utmost to any and every effort aimed at the attainment of universal peace?
Conscious of these heart-stirrings, and mindful of its responsibility toward all American believers, and particularly that radiant youth which would first of all be sacrificed in the event of a declaration of war by the government, the National Spiritual Assembly wishes to express its view upon the matter, in the hope that the result of its study of the Teachings and of the Guardian's explanations will assist in bringing a unity of opinion and a clarification of thought among the friends.
Concerning the duty of Bahá'ís to their government, we have these words, written by Shoghi Effendi on January 1, 1929 (see Bahá'í A ci ministration, page 152): "To all these (that is, restrictive measures of the Soviet r6gime) the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have with feelings of burning agony and heroic fortitude unanimously and unreservedly submitted, ever mindful of the guiding principle of Bahá'í conduct that in connection with their administrative activities, no matter how grievously interference with them might affect the course of the extension of the Movement, and the suspension of which does not constitute in itself a departure from the principle of loyalty to their Faith, the considered judgment and authoritative decrees issued by their responsible rulers must, if they be faithful to Bahá'u'lláh's and 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í express injunctions, be Thoroughly respected and loyally obeyed.
In matters, however, that vitally affect the integrity and honor of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and are tantamount to a recantation of their faith and repudiation of their innermost be-lid, they are convinced, and are unhesitatingly prepared to vindicate by their lifeblood the sincerity of their conviction, that no power on earth, neither the arts of the most insidious adversary nor the bloody weapons of the most tyrannical oppressor, can l"The Guardian has carefully read the N. S. A/s statement on the Bahá'í attitude toward war, and approves of its circulation among the believers."
� Shoghi Effendi, through his secretary, Tfaifa, January 10, 1936.
Page 169THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 169
ever succeed in extorting from them a word or deed that might tend to stifle the voice of their conscience or tarnish the purity of their faith."
In view of the fact that early Christians were persecuted because they refused to render military service, the question might be raised whether the above statement means that the Guardian includes refusal to bear arms as one of those matters which "vitally affect the integrity and honor of the Faith and are tantamount to a recantation of their faith and repudiation of their innermost belief" � a question the more important in that the early Christians preferred persecution to military service.
The answer to this question is that the Guardian instructs us that the obligation to render military duty placed by governments upon their citizens is a form of loyalty to one's government which the Bahá'í must accept, but that the believers can, through their National Assembly, seek exemption from active army duty provided their government recognizes the right of members of religious bodies making peace a matter of conscience to serve in some noncombatant service rather than as part of the armed force.
The National SpiritualAssembly has investigated carefully this aspect of the situation, and has found that, whereas the government of the United States did, in the last war, provide exemption from military duty on religious grounds, nevertheless this exemption was part of the Statutes bearing directly upon that war, and with the cessation of hostilities the exemption lapsed.
In other words, there is today* no basis on which any Bahá'í may be exempted from military duty in a possible future conflict.
The National Assembly, consequently, cannot at present make any petition for exemption of Bahá'ís from war service, for such petitions must be filed with reference to some specific Act or Statute under which exemption can be granted. The Assembly understands that, in the event of war, there will be some kind of provision for exemption enacted, but *1936 as far as Bahá'ís are concerned, no steps can be taken until this government declares itself in a state of war.
This explanation, it is hoped, will sat. isfy those who for some years have been urging that protection be secured for American Bahá'í youth.
On the other hand it must be pointed out that it is no part of our teaching program to attract young people to the Cause merely in order to take advantage of any exemption that may later on be officially obtained for duly enrolled Baha'is. The only justifiable reason for joining this Faith is becaues one realizes that it is a divine Cause and is ready and willing to accept whatever may befall a believer on the path of devotion. The persecutions which have been inflicted upon Bahá'ís so frequently make it clear that the path of devotion is one of sacrifice and not of ease or special privilege.
Another question encountered here and there among believers is what can Bahá'ís do to work for peace? Outside the Cause we see many organizations with peace programs, and believers occasionally feel that it is their duty to join such movements and thereby work for a vital Bahá'í principle.
It is the view of the National Spiritual Assembly that activity in and for the Cause itself is the supreme service to world peace.
The Baha community of the world is the true example of peace. The Bahá'í principles are the only ones upon which peace can be established. Therefore, by striving to enlarge the number of declared believers, and broadcasting the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, we are doing the utmost to rid humanity of the scourge of war. Of what use to spend time and money upon incomplete human programs when we have the universal program of the Manifestation of God? The firm union of the Bahá'ís in active devotion to the advancement of their own Faith � this is our service to peace, as it is our service to all other human needs � economic justice, race amity, religious unity, etc. Let nonbelievers agitate for disarmament and circulate petitions for this and that pacifist aim � a Bahá'í truly alive in his Faith will surely prefer to base his activities upon the foun
Page 170dation laid by Bahá'u'lláh, walk the path which the Master trod all His days, and heed the appeals which the Guardian has given us to initiate a new era in the public teaching of the Message.
THE BAHÁ'Í POSITION ON MILITARYSince many young believers will be affected by the new Selective Service law providing for compulsory military training, the National Spiritual Assembly wishes to state the Bahá'í position and request all believers without exception to uphold it. 1. Baha are obedient to their civil government. Their faith offligates them to be good citizens.
2. The Bahá'í teachings do not sanction pacifism, which is refusal to accept any military duty on grounds of personal conscience. The Guardian has said that pacifism is a form of anarchism, and is antisocial in nature.
3. On the other hand, the Bahá'í teachings have been revealed for the establishment of world order and peace.
The Bahá'í is directed by the Guardian to apply for exemption from combatant duty because of his religious faith, if the statutes provide for such exemption. In that case the Bahá'í serves in some other capacity, for example in the Medical Corps, which is noncombatant.
4. When called for military service, the Bahá'í should apply for a non-com-batant status under Section 6 (j) of the
SE R V ]~ CESelective Service Act of 1948. If Bahá'í credentials are needed, he can obtain them from his local Assembly, or if he does not live in a Bahá'í community, from the National Spiritual Assembly. While training by itself is not combatant service, it is important for the Baha to know what future military duty or obligation is involved.
It is the first registration which counts.5. The latest instructions of Shoghi Effendi on the obligation of Baha 'is in connection with military duty are con-tahed in a statement published on pages 9 and 10 of Bahá'í News for October, 1946, and that statement should be read by all believers who are in the armed forces, or who may be called for training under the new draft law.
What the Guardian wrote at that time was: "As there is neither an International Police Force nor any prospect of one coming into being, the Bahá'ís should continue to apply, under all circumstances, for exemption from any military duties that necessitate the taking of life. There is no justification for any change of attitude on our part at the present time."
� NATIoNIXL Spmnimi~ ASSEJXPIBLY OFWELL is it with him who rendereth thanks unto fixeth his gaze upon the his Lord! For He assuredly Order of Bahá'u'lláh will be made manifest.
andTHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 171
God hath indeed ordained it in theThe world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System � the like of which mortal eyes have never wik nessed. � BAHÁ'U'LLÁH, (The Dispensa-t'&on of Bahá'u'lláh, page 54.)
It is incumbent upon the Aghs&n, the AfnAn and My kindred to turn, one and all, their faces towards the Most Mighty Branch, Consider that which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book: "When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is ended, turn your faces toward Dim, Whom God hath purposed Who hath branched from this Ancient Root." The object of this sacred verse is none except the
Most Mighty Branch ('Abdu'l-Bahá).Thus have We graciously revealed unto you Our potent Will, and I am verily the Gracious, the A11-Powerful. � BAHÁ'U'LLÁH (The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh, page 42.)
There hath branched from the Sad-ratu'1-Muntah~ this sacred and glor-ions Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow.
Verily the Limb of the Law of God hath sprung forth from this Root which God hath firmly implanted in the Ground of I-us Will, and Whose Branch hath been so uplifted as to encompass the whole of creatiom � BAHÁ'U'LLÁH. (The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh, page 43.)
In accordan ~e vith the explici te of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh hath made the Center of the Covenant the Interpreter of His Ward � a Covenant so firm and nil ~t; that from the beginning of time until the present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its bke. � ~'Annn'n-BAiA.
(The Dis~ pensation of Bahá'u'lláh, page 44.)'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who incarnates an institution for which we can find no parallel whatsoever in any of the world's recognized religious systems, may be said to have closed the Age to which He Himself belonged and opened the one in which we are now laboring. His Will and Testament should thus be regarded as the perpetual, the indissoluble link which the mind of Him Who is the Mystery of God has conceived in order to insure the continul y o the three ages that constitute the component parts of the Baha Dispensation.
The creative energies released by the Law of Bahá'u'lláh, permeating and evolving within the mind of 'Abdu'h HaM, have by their very impact and close interaction, given birth to an In~ strurnent which may be viewed as the Charter of the New World Order which is at once the glory and the promLe of this most great
Dispensation. The Willmay thus be acclaimed as the inevitable offspring remi ing from that mystic intercourse between Him Who communicated the generating influence of His divine Purpose and the One Who was its veWcle and chosen recipient. Being the Child of the Covenant- � the Heir a ho h the Originator and the Interpreter of the
Law of God� the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'b Bah& can no more be divorced from Him Who supplied the original and motivating impulse than from the One Who ultimately conceived it. Bahá'u'lláh's inscrutable purpose, we must ever bear in mind, has been so thoroughly infused into the conduct of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and their motives have been so closely welded together, that the mere attempt to dissociate the teachings of the former from any system which the ideal Exemplar of those same teachings has established WOuld amount to a repudiaf on of one of the most sacred and basic truths of the Faith.
The Administrative Order, which ever since 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í ascension has evolved and is taking shape under our very eyes in no :~ewer than forty coun~ tries of the world, may be considered as the franiewor o the ill teE, e inviolable stronghold wherein this new~ born child is being nurtured and developed. This Administrative Order, as it expands and consolidates itself, will no doubt manifest the potentialities and reveal the full implications of this mo
Page 172meritous Document � this most remarkable expression of the Will of One of the most remarkable Figures of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh. It will, as its component parts, its organic institutions, begin to function with efficiency and vigor, assert its claim and demonstrate its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of time the whole of mankind. � Snoan
EFFENDI. (The Dis-pensThe Document establishing that Order, the Charter of a future world civilization, which may be regarded in some of its features as supplementary to no less weighty a Book than the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; signed and sealed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá; entirely written with His own hand; its first section composed during one of the darkest periods of His incarceration in the prison-fortress of 'Akka, proclaims, categorically and unequivocally, the fundamental beliefs of the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh; reveals, in unmistakable language, the twofold character of the Mission of the Báb; discloses the full station of the Author of the Baha Revelation; asserts that "all others are servants unto Him and do His bidding"; stresses the importance of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; establishes the institution of the Guardianship as a hereditary office and outlines its essential functions; provides the measures for the election of the International House of Justice, defines its scope and sets forth its relationship to that Institution; prescribes the obligations, and emphasizes the responsi bilities, of the Hands of the Cause of God; and extolls the virtues of the indestructible Covenant established by Bahá'u'lláh.
That Document, furthermore, lauds the courage and constancy of the supporters of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant; expatiates on the sufferings endured by its appointed Center; recalls the infamous conduct of Mirza Yal~y& and his failure to heed the warnings of the Báb; exposes, in a series of indictments, the perfidy and rebellion of Mirza Mt4iammad-'AH, and the complicity of his son Shu'A"u'fl.ih and of his brother Mirza Bahá'u'lláh; reaffirms their excommunication, and predicts the frustration of all their hopes; summons the Afn&n (the Báb's kindred), the Hands of the Cause and the entire company of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh to arise unitedly to propagate His Faith, to disperse far and wide, to labor tirelessly and to follow the heroic example of the Apostles of Jesus Christ; warns them against the dangers of association with the Covenant-breakers, and bids them shield the Cause from the assaults of the insincere and the hypocrite; and counsels them to demonstrate by their conduct the universality of the Faith they have espoused, and vindicate its high principles. In that same Document its Author reveals the significance and purpose of the ~uqaqu'11Ah (Right of God), already instituted in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; enjoins submission and fidelity towards all monarchs who are just; expresses His longing for martyrdom, and voices His prayer for the repentance as well as the forgiveness of
His enemies. (God PassesIN view of recent inquirieslie our relations with on the subject, the Nationaldifferent departments Spiritual Assembly feels of the civil government.
it most desirable at In dealing with this this time for members matter, the Assembly of the American Bahá'í has no intention of adding community to maintain to procedure or laying a common understanding down its own regulations of the principles which but rather of examining under-the the teachings
Page 173THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 173
themselves and bringing forth the principles expressed in the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the advices and directions of the Guardian.
We find that from the very beginnings of the American Bahá'í community the wise and loving Master counseled the believers to entertain no discussion of political matters in their gatherings "During the conference no hint must be entertained regarding political affairs. All conferences (i.e., all consultation and discussion) must be regarding the matters of benefit, both as a whole and individually, such as the guarding of all in all cases, their protection and preservation, the improvement of character, the training of children, etc. "If any person wishes to speak of government affairs, or to interfere with the order of government, the others must not combine with him because the Cause of God is withdrawn entirely from political affairs; the political realm pertains only to the Rulers of those matters; it has nothing to do with the souls who are exerting their utmost energy to harmonizing affairs, helping character and inciting (the people) to strive for perfections.
Therefore no soul is allowed to interfere with (political) matters, but only in that which is commanded." (BWF, p. 407) "Let them not introduce any topic in the meeting except the mentioning of the True One, neither must they confuse that merciful assembly with perplexed outside questions.
Make ye an effort that the Lord's Supper may become realized and the heavenly food descend. This heavenly food is knowledge, understanding, faith, assurance, love, affinity, kindness, purity of purpose, attraction of hearts and the union of souls." (BWF, pp. 407408) The penetrating power of these words continues through the years. They guide and inspire Bahá'í gatherings today as they did when revealed thirtyfive or forty years ago. What the Master tells us is a twofold truth: first the positive definition of the purpose of Bahá'í meetings and consultation which confines it to spiritual matters; and second, the inherent limitation implied in the accomplishments of the political realm.
The aim of the Faith is to produce the reality of virtue and quality in souls and evolve institutions capable of dealing with social matters just1y, in the light of the revealed truths.
This is entirely distinct from the province filled by civil institutions.
Many years later, in 1932, Shoghi Effendi gave us the message now entitled "The Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh," at a time when our ranks were being swelled with new believers who had'not been trained by the Master's Tablets, when the local and National Assemblies were developing power, and the conditions of the Bahá'í community had become less simple and primitive, less hidden from the prevailing influences of civilization. In that message he reminded us of an instruction deemed very important. "And this principle is no other than that which involves the nonparticipation by the adherents of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, whether in their individual capacities or collectively as local or national Assemb1ies~ in any form of activity that might be interpreted, either directly or indirectly, as an interference in the political affairs of any particular government.
Whether it be in the publications which they initiate and supervise; or in their official and pub-lie deliberations; or in the posts they occupy and the services they render; or in the communications they address to their fellow-disciples or in their dealings with men of eminence and authority; or in their affiliations with kindred societies and organizations, it is, I am firmly convinced, their first and sacred obligation to abstain from any word or deed that might be construed as a via-lation of this sacred principle.
Theirs is the duty to demonstrate, on one hand, their unqualified loyalty and obedience to whatever is the considered judgment of their respective governments.
Page 174L HAVE been acquainted by the perusal of your latest communications with the nature of the doubts that have been publicly expressed, by one who is wholly misinformed as to the true precepts of the Cause, regarding the validity of institutions that stand hex-tricably interwoven with the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
Not that I for a moment view such faint misgivings in the light of an open challenge to the structure that embodies the Faith, nor is it because I question in the least the tin-yielding tenacity of the faith of the American believers, if I venture to dwell upon what seems to me appro~ priate observations at the present stage of the evolution of our beloved Cause. I am indeed inclined to welcome these expressed apprehensions inasmuch as they afford me an opportunity to familiarize the elected representatives of the believers with the origin and character of the institutions which stand at the very basis of the wofld order ushered in by Baha'i.
We should feel truly thankful fo such futile attempts to undermine our beloved Faith � attempts that protrude their ugly face from time to time, seem for a while able to create a breach in the ranks of the faithful, recede finally into the obscurity of oblivion, and are thought of no more.
Such incidents we should regard as the interpositions of Providence, designed to fortify our faith, to clarify our vision, and to deepen our understanding of the essentials of His Divine
Revelation.It would, however, be helpful and instructive to bear in mind certain basic principles with reference to the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, which together with the Kitáb � i-Aqdas, constitutes the chief depository wherein are enshrined those priceless elements of that Divine Civilization, the establish-inent of which is the primary mission of the Bahá'í Faith.
A study of the pro-THEvisions of these sacred documents will reveal the close relationship that exists between them, as well as the identity of purpose and method which they in~ culcate. Far from regarding their spe~ cific provisions as incompatible and contradictory in spirit, every fair-mind~ ed inquirer will readily admit that they are not only complementary, but that they mutually confirm one another~ and are inseparable parts of one complete unit.
A comparison of their contents with the rest of Bahá'í Sacred Writings will similarly establish the conformity of whatever they contain with the spirit as well as the letter of the authenticated writings and sayings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá i Ln :fact he who reads the Aqdas witn care and diligence will not find it hard to dis= cover that the Most Holy Book [Aqdas] itself anticipates in a number of pas~ sages the institutions which ~Abdu'1~ BaU ordains n His Will. By 1e ~ng certain matters unspecified and unreg~ ulated in His Book of Laws [Aqdas], Bahá'u'lláh seems to have deliberately left a gap in the general scheme of Bahá'í Dispensation, which the unequl-vocal provisions of the Master's WiU has filled. To attempt to divorce the one from the other, to insinuate that the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh have not been upheld, in their entirety and with absolute integrity, by what 'Abdu'1= Baha has revealed in his Will, is an vnr pardonable affront to the unswerving fidelity that has characterized the life and labors of our beloved Master.
I will not attempt in the least to assert or demonstrate the authenticity of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, for that in itself would betray an apprehension on my part as to the unarib mous confidence of the believers in the genuineness of the last written wishes of our departed Master. I will only confine my observations to those issues which may assist them to appreciate
Page 175THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 175
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sudan, 194950.
the essential unity that underlies the spiritual, the humanitarian, and the ad-nainistrative principles enunciated by the Author and the Interpreter of the Bahá'í Faith.
I am at a loss to explain that strange mentality that inclines to uphold as the sole criterion on the truth of the Bahá'í Teachings what is admittedly only an obscure and imauthenticated translation of an oral statement made by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in defiance and total disregard of the available text of all of His universally recognized writings. I truly deplore the unfortunate distortions that have resulted in days past from the incapacity of the interpreter to grasp the meaning of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and from his incompetence to render adequately such truths as have been revealed to him by the Master's statements. Much of the confusion that has obscured the understanding of the believers should be attributed to this double error involved in the inexact rendering of an only partially understood statement.
Not infrequently has the interpreter even failed to convey the ex act purport of the inquirer's specific questions and, by his deficiency of understanding and expression in conveying the answer of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, has been responsible for reports wholly at variance with the true spirit and purpose of the Cause. It was chiefly in view of this misleading nature of the reports of the informal conversations of 'Abdu'l-Bahá with visiting pilgrims, that I have insistently urged the be~ lievers of the West to regard such statements as merely personal impressions of the sayings of their Master, and to quote and consider as authentic only such translations as are based upon the authenticated text of His recorded utterances in the original tongue.
It should be remembered by every follower of the Cause that the system of Bahá'í administration is not an innovation imposed arbitrarily upon the Bahá'ís of the world since the Master's passing, but derives its authority from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, is specifically prescribed in unnumbered Tablets, and rests in some of its
Page 176essential features upon the explicit provisions of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.
It thus unifies and correlates the principles separately laid down by Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and is indissolubly bound with the essential verities of the Faith. To dissociate the administrative principles of the Cause from the purely spiritual and humanitarian teachings would be tantamount to a mutilation of the body of the Cause, a separation that can only result in the disintegration of its component parts, and the extinction of the Faith itself.
LOCAL AND NATIONAL HOUSESIt should be carefully borne in mind that the local as well as the International Houses of Justice have been expressly enjoined by the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; that the institution of the National Spiritual Assembly, as an intermediary body, and referred to in the Master's Will as the "Secondary House of justice," has the express sanction of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: and that the method to be pursued for the election of the International and
National Houses of Justicehas been set forth by Him in His Will, as well as in a number of His Tablets. Moreover, the institutions of the local and national Funds, that are now the necessary adjuncts to all Local and National Spiritual Assemblies, have not only been established by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Tablets He revealed to the Bahá'ís of the Orient, but their importance and necessity have been repeatedly emphasized by Him in His utterances and writings.
The concentration of authority in the hands of the elected representatives of the believers; the necessity of the submission of every adherent of the Faith to the considered judgment of Bahá'í Assemblies; His preference for unanimity in decision; the decisive character of the majority vote; and even the desirability for the exercise of close supervision over a]i Bahá'í publications, have been sedulously instilled by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, as evidenced by His authenticated and wide-ly-scattered Tablets.
To accept His broad and humanitarian Teachings on one hand, and to reject and dismiss with neglectful indifference His mare challenging and distinguishing precepts, would be an act of manifest disloyalty to that which He has cherished most in His life.
That the Spiritual Assembliesof today will be replaced in time by the Houses of Justice, and are to all intents and purposes identical and not separate bodies, is abundantly confirmed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself.
He has in fact in a Tablet addressed to the members of the first Chicago Spiritual Assembly, the first elected Baha body instituted in the United States, referred to them as the members of the "House of Justice" for that city, and has thus with His own pen established beyond any doubt the identity of the present Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies with the Houses of Justice referred to by Bahá'u'lláh. For reasons which are not difficult to discover, it has been found advisable to bestow upon the elected representatives of Bahá'í communities throughout the world the temporary appellation of Spiritual Assemblies, a term which, as the position and aims of the Bahá'í Faith are better understood and more fully recognized, will gradually be superseded by the permanent and more appropriate designation of House of Justice. Not only will the pres-ent-day Spiritual Assemblies be styled differently in the future, but will be enabled also to add to their present functions those powers, duties, and prerogatives necessitated by the recognition of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, not merely as one of the recognized religious systems of the world, but as the State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power. And as the Bahá'í Faith permeates the masses of the peoples of East and West, and its truth is embraced by the majority of the peoples of a number of the Sovereign States of the world, will the Universal House of Justice attain the plenitude of its power, and exercise, as the supreme organ of the Bahá'í Commonwealth, all the rights, the duties, and responsibilities incumbent upon the world's future superstate.
It must be pointed out, however, in this connection that, contrary to what has been confidently asserted, the establishment of the
Supreme House of JusticeTHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 177
adoption of the Baha Faith by the mass of the peoples of the world, nor does it presuppose its acceptance by the majority of the inhabitants of any one country. In fact, 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself, in one of His earliest Tablets, contemplated the possibility of the formation of the
Universal House of Justicein His own lifetime, and but for the unfavorable circumstances prevailing under the Turkish r4ginie, would have, in all probability, taken the preliminary steps for its establishment.
It will be evident, therefore, that given favorable circumstances, under which the Bahá'ís of Persia and of the adjoining countries under Soviet Rule may be enabled to elect their national representatives, in accordance with the guiding principles laid down in 'Abdu'1 � Bahá'ís writings, the only remaining obstacle in the way of the definite formation of the International House of Justice will have been removed. For upon the National Houses of Justice of the East and West devolves the task, in conformity with the explicit provisions of the Will, of electing directly the menThers of the International
House of Justice. Notuntil they are themselves fully representative of the rank and file of the believers in their respective countries, not until they have acquired the weight and the experience that will en able them to function vigorously in the organic life of the Cause, can they approach their sacred task, and provide the spiritual basis for the constitution of so august a body in the Bahá'í world.
THE INSTITUTION OF GTJARDTANSHLPIt must be also clearly understood by every believer that the institution of Guardianship does not under any circumstances abrogate, or even in the slightest degree detract from, the powers granted to the Universal House of Justice by Bahá'u'lláh and the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and repeatedly and solemnly confirmed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will. It does not constitute in any manner a contradiction to the WIll and Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, nor does it nullify any of His revealed instructions.
It enhances the prestige of that exalted assembly, stabilizes its supreme position, safeguards its unity, assures the continuity of its labors, without presuming in the slightest to infringe upon the inviolability of its clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction.
We stand indeed too close to so monumental a document to claim for ourselves a complete understanding of all its implications, or to presume to have grasped the manifold mysteries it undoubtedly contains. Only future generations can comprehend the value and the significance attached to this Divine Masterpiece, which the hand of the Master-builder of the world has designed for the unification and the triumph of the worldwide
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.Only those who come after us will be in a position to realize the value of the surprisingly strong emphasis that has been placed on the institution of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship.
rThey only will appreciate the significance of the vigorous language employed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá with reference to the band of Covenant-breakers that has opposed Him in His days. To them alone will be revealed the suitability of the institutions initiated by 'Abdu'bBaUa to the character of the future society which is to emerge out of the chaos and confusion of the present age.
Tim ANTMATINCT Pim~oszAnd now it behooves us to reflect on the animating purpose and the primary functions of these divinely-established institutions, the sacred character and the universal efficacy of which can be demonstrated only by the spirit they diffuse and the work they actually achieve.
I need not dwell upon what I have already reiterated and emphasized that the administration of the Cause is to be conceived as an instrument and not a substitute for the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, that it should be regarded as a channel through which His promised blessings may flow, that it should guard against such rigidity as would clog and fetter the liberating forces released by His Revelation.
Who, I may ask, when viewing the inDelegates at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention of the Baha of Egypt, 1949.
Page 179THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 179
ternational character of the Cause, its far-flung ramifications, the increasing complexity of its affairs, the diversity of its adherents, and the state of confusion that assails on every side the infant Faith of God, can for a moment question the necessity of some sort of administrative machinery that will insure, amid the storm and stress of a struggling civilization, the unity of the Faith, the preservation of its identity, and the protection of its interests? To repudiate the validity of the assemblies of the elected ministers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh would be to reject these countless
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláhand 'Abdu'l-Bahá wherein they have extolled their privileges and duties, emphasized the glory of their mission, revealed the immensity of their task, and warned them of the attacks they must needs expect from the unwisdoni of friends, as well as from the malice of their enemies. It is surely for those to whose hands so priceless a heritage has been committed to prayerfully watch lest the tool shoul supersede the Faith itself, lest undue concern for the minute details arising from the administration of the Cause obscure the vision of its promoters, lest partiality, ambition, and worldliness tend in the course of time to becloud the radiance, stain the purity, and impair the effectiveness of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
February 27, 1929.With the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá the first century of the Bahá'í era, whose inception had synchronized with His birth, had run more than three quarters of its course. Seventy-seven years previously the light of the Faith proclaimed by the flAb had arisen above the horizon of Shir4z and flashed across the firma-inent of Persia, dispelling the agelong gloom which had enveloped its people. A blood bath of unusual ferocity, in which government, clergy and people, heedless of the significance of that light and blind to its splendor, had jointly participated, had all but extinguished the radiance of its glory in the land of its birth.
Bahá'u'lláh had at the darkest hour in the fortunes of that Faith been summoned, while Himself a prisoner in Tihr&n, to reinvigorate its life, and been commissioned to fulfill its ultimate purpose. In Bag~d&d, upon the termination of the ten-year delay interposed between the first intimation of that Mission and its Declaration, He had revealed the Mystery enshrined in the Rtb's embryonic Faith, and disclosed the fruit which it had yielded.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh'sMessage, the promise of the Báb as well as of all previous Dispensations, had been proclaimed to mankind, and its chaflenge voiced to the rulers of the earth in both the East and the West. Behind the walls of the prison-fortress of 'Akka the Bearer of God's newborn Revelation had ordained the laws and formulated the principles that were to constitute the warp and woof of His World Order. He had, moreover, prior to His ascension, instituted the Covenant that was to guide and assist in the laying of the foundations and to safeguard the unity of its builders. Armed with tat peerless and potent Instrument CABJuT Baha, His eldest Son and Center of His Covenant, had erected the standard of His Father's Faith in the North American continent and established an :m-pregnable basis for its institutions in Western Europe, in the Far East and in Australia.
He had, in His works, TaW lets and addresses, elucidated its prim ciples, interpreted its laws, amplified its doctrine, and erected the rudimentary institutions of its future
Adminis~ trative Order.In Russia He had raised its first House of Worship, whilst on the slopes of ML Carmel He had reared a befitting mausoleum for its Herald, and deposited His remains therein with
His Own hands. ThroughHis visits to several cities in Europe and the North American continent He had broadcast Bahá'u'lláh's Message to the peoples of the West, and heightened the prestige of the Cause of God to a degree it had never previously experienced.
And 1ast~ ly, in the evening of His life, He had through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan issued His mandate to the community which He Himself had raised ap, trained and nurtured, a Plan that must in the years to come enable its members to diffuse the light, and
Page 180erect the administrative fabric, of the Faith throughout the five continents of the globe.
The moment had now arrived for that undying, that world-vitalizing Spfrit that was born in Shir&z that had been rekindled in Tihr6n, that had been fanned into flame in BaghdAd and Adrianople, that had been carried to the West, and was now illuminating the fringes of five continents, to incarnate itself in institutions designed to canalize its outspreading energies and stimulate its gTowth.
The Administrative Orderwhich this historic Document has established, it should be noted, is, by virtue of its origin and character, unique in the annals of the world's religious systems. No Prophet before Bahá'u'lláh, it can be confidently asserted, not even Mu1~am-mad Whose Book clearly lays down the laws and ordinances of the Islamic Dispensation, has established, authoritatively and in writing, anything comparable to the Administrative Order which the authorized
Interpreter of Bahá'u'lláh'steachings has instituted, an Order which, by virtue of the administrative principles which its Author has formuhted, the institutions He has established, and the right of interpretation with which He has invested its Guardian, must and will, in a manner unparalleled in any previous religion, safeguard torn schism the Faith from which it has sprung.
Nor is the principle governing its operation similar to that which underlies any system, whether theocratic or otherwise, which the minds of men have devised for the government of human institutions. Neither in theory nor in practice can the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh be said to conform to any type of democratic government, to any system of autocracy, to any purely aristocratic order, or to any of the various theocracies, whether
Jewish, Christian or Islamicwhich mankind has witnessed in the past. It incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government, is devoid of the defects which each of them inherently pas sesses, and blends the salutary truths which each undoubtedly contains without vitiating in any way the integrity of the Divine verities on which it is essentially founded. The hereditary authority which the Guardian of the Administrative Order is called upon to exercise, and the right of the interpretation of the Holy Writ solely conferred upon him; the powers and prerogatives of the Universal House of Justice, possessing the exclusive right to legislate on matters not explicitly revealed in the Most Holy Book; the ordinance exempting its members from any responsibility to those whom they represent, and from the obligation to conform to their views, convictions or sentiments; the specific provisions requiring the free and democratic election by the mass of the faithful of the Body that constitutes the sole legislative organ in the worldwide Baha 'I community � these are among the features which combine to set apart the Order identified with the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh from any of the existing systems of human government.
Nor have the enemies who, at the hour of the inception of this Administrative Order, and in the course of its twenty-three year existence, both in the East and in the West, from within and from without, misrepresented its character, or derided and vilified it, or striven to arrest its march, or contrived to create a breach in the ranks of its supporters, succeeded in achieving their malevolent purpose.
The strenuous exertions of an ambitious Armenian, who, in the course of the first years of its establishment in Egypt, endeavored to supplant it by the
"Sci-entific Society"which in his shortsightedness he had conceived and was sponsoring, failed utterly in its purpose.
The agitation provoked by a deluded woman who strove diligently both in the United States and in England to demonstrate the unauthenticity of the Charter responsible for its creation, and even to induce the civil authorities of Palestine to take legal action in the matter � a request which to her great chagrin was curtly refused � as well as the defection of one of the earliest pioneers and founders of the
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Faith in Germany, whom that same woman had so tragically misled, produced no effect whatsoever.
The volumes which a shameless apostate composed and disseminated, during that same period in Persia, in his brazen efforts not only to disrupt that Order but to undermine the very Faith which had conceived it, proved similarly abortive. The schemes devised by the remnants of the Covenant-breakers, who immediately the aims and purposes of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Will became known arose, headed by Mirza Bahá'u'lláh, to wrest the custodianship of the holiest shrine in the Bahá'í world from its appointed Guardian, likewise came to naught and brought further discredit upon them. The subsequent attacks launched by certain exponents of Christian orthodoxy, in both Christian and non-Christian lands, with the object of subverting the foundations, and distorting the features, of this same Order were powerless to sap the loyalty of its upholders or to deflect them from their high purposes. Not even the infamous and insidious machinations of a former secretary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who, untaught by the retribution that befell Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, as well as by the fate that overtook several other secretaries and interpreters of His Master, in both the East and the West, has arisen, and is still exerting himself, to pervert the purpose and nullify the essential provisions of the immortal Document from which that Order derives its authority, have been able to stay even momentarily the march of its institutions along the course set for it by its Author, or to create anything that might, however, remotely, resemble a breach in the ranks of its assured, its wide-awake and stalwart supporters.
MESSAGES FROM SHOGHI EFFENDI TO THEHail with joyous heart the delegates of the American Bahá'í Community assembled beneath the dome of the Mother Temple of the West in momentous Convention of the first year of peace.
The souls are uplifted in thanksgiving for the protection vouchsafed by Providence to the preeminent community of the Baha world enabling its members to consummate, despite the tribulations of a world-convulsing conflict, the first stage of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Plan.
The Campaign culminating the Centenary of the inauguration of the Bahá'í Era completed sixteen months ere appointed time the exterior ornamentation of the Mashriqu'1-Ad~kir, laid the basis of the administrative order in every virgin state and province of the North American Continent, almost doubled the Assemblies established since the inception of the Faith, established Assemblies in fourteen re publics of Latin America, constituted active groups in remaining republics. swelled to sixty the sovereign states within the pale of the Faith.
The two-year respite, well-earned after the expenditure of such a colossal effort, covering such a tremendous range, during so dark a period, is now ended. The prosecutors of the Plan who in the course of six ~var-ridden years achieved such prodigies of service in the Western Hemisphere from Alaska to Magallanes are now collectively summoned to assume in the course of the peaceful years ahead still weightier responsibilities for the opening decade of the Second Century. The time is ripe, events are pressing, Hosts on high are sounding the signal for inauguration of second Seven Year Plan designed to culminate first Centennial of the year Nine marking the mystic birth of Bahá'u'lláh's prophetic mission in
Page 182A twofold responsibility urgently calls the vanguard of the dawn-breakers of Bahá'u'lláh's Order, torchbearers of world civilization, executors of Abdu'l-Bahá'í mandate to arise and simultaneously bring to fruition the tasks already undertaken and launch fresh enterprises beyond the borders of the
Western Hemisphere.The first objective of the new Plan is consolidation of victories already won throughout the Americas, involving multiplication of Bahá'í centers, bolder proclamation of the Faith to the masses.
The second objective is completion of the interior ornamentation of the holiest House of Worship in the Bahá'í world designed to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the inception of this historic enterprise.
The third objective is the formation of three national Assemblies, pillars of the Universal House of Justice, in the Dominion of Canada, Central and South America. The fourth objective is the initiation of systematic teaching activity in wartorn, spiritually famished European continent, cradle of world-famed civilizations, twice-blessed by cAbdu~1~ Bahá'ís visits, whose rulers Bahá'u'lláh specifically and collectively addressed, aiming at establishment of Assemblies in the Iberian Peninsula, the Low Countries, the Scandinavian states, and Italy. No effort is too great for community belonging to the continent whose rulers Bahá'u'lláh addressed in the Most Holy Book, whose members were invested with spiritual primacy by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and named by Him apostles of His Father, whose country was the first western nation to respond to the Divine Message and deemed worthy to be first to build the Tabernacle of the Most Great Peace, whose administrators evolved the pattern of the embryonic world order, consummated the first stage of the Divine Plan, and whose elevation to the throne of everlasting dominion the Center of the Convenant confidently anticipated. As the resistless impulse propelling the Plan accelerates, the American Community must rise to new levels of potency in response to the divine mandate, date, scale loftier heights pf heroism, insure fuller participation of the rank and file of members, and closer cob laboration with the agencies designed to insure attainment of the fourfold ob~ jectives, and evince greater audacity in tearing down the barriers in its path.
Upon the success of the second Seven Year Plan depends the launching, after a respite of tree brief years, of yet more momentous thfrd Seven Year Plan which, when consummated through the establishment of the structure of the administrative order in the remaining sovereign states and chief dependencies of the entire globe, must culminate in and be befittingly commemorated Through worldwide celebrations marking the Centennial of the formal assumption by Bahá'u'lláh of the Prophetic Office associated with Daniel's prophecy and the world triumph of the Bahá'í revelation and signalizing the termination of the initial epoch in the evolution of the Plan whose mysterious, res�stiess processes must continue to shed ever-increasing lustre on successive generations of both the Formative and Golden Ages of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
Pledging ten thousand dollars as my initial contribution for the furtherance of the manifold purposes & a glorious crusade surpassing every enterprise undertaken by the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the course at the first Baha century.
April 25, 1946Opening phase of spiritual conquest of the old world under divinely conceived Plan must be speedily and befittingly inaugurated.
Feel necessity prompt dispatch a! nine competent pioneers to as many countries as feasible charged to initiate systematic teaching work, commence settlement and promote dissemination of literature. Urge establishment of auxiliary office in Geneva as adjunct to
International Bureauequipped with facilities to foster development of assemblies in countries falling within the scope of Plan. Recommend European Teaching Committee undertake without delay measures aiming at close collaboration of
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lishing Committee of Germanin ude Duchy of Luxembourg in Low Countries and enlarge range of Plan through addition of Switzerland.
Owing to considerable sum already accumulated in Tihr~n, I prefer to divert sum for International Relief not yet forwarded to Persia, as well as Assembly's annual contribution to World Center, to funds earmarked for all-important far-flung European teaching and publication activities.
The challenge offered by virgin fields of Europe outweighs momentous character of task already confronting American Baha Community in the Americas.
Vast distances sundering the old and new world are visibly, providentially contracting, enabling the ambassadors of Bahá'u'lláh's new World Order swiftly to discharge their apostolic mission through the continent destined to be steppingstone to still vaster enterprises associated with future stages of divinely impelled, ever unfolding, world-encircling
Plan.The new Plan on which the Ameri� can Baha community has embarked, in the course of the opening years of the second Bahá'í century, is of such vastness and complexity as to require the utmost vigor, vigilance and consecration on the part of both the general body of its prosecutors and those who are called upon, as their national elected representatives, to conduct its operation, define its processes, watch over its execution, and ensure its ultimate success.
The obstacles confronting both its participants and organizers, particularly in the European field, are formidable, and call for the utmost courage, perseverance, fortitude and self-sacrifice.
The precarious international situation in both Hemispheres, the distress and preoccupation of the masses, in most of the countries to which pioneers will soon be proceeding, with the cares of every day life, the severe restrictions which are still imposed on visit~ ors and travelers in foreign lands, the religious conservatism and spiritual lethargy which characterize the popu~ lation in most of the lands where the new pioneers are to labor, add to the challenge of the task, and render all the more glorious the labors of the na~ tional community that has arisen ta achieve what posterity will regard a~ the greatest collective enterprise9 not only in the history of the community itself, but in the annals o FAth with which it stands identified.
The initial success of the enter~~ prise which has been so auspiciously launched, the enthusiasm which it has already engendered throughout Latin America, the hopes it has aroused amid the suffering and scattered believers in wartorn Europe, the feelings of admiration and envy it has excited throughout several communities in the Bahá'í world in both the East and the West, augur well for the future course of its operation, and foreshadow the splendors of the victories which its con~ summation must witness. The forces that have been released through the birth of the Plan must be directed into the most effective channels, the spirit that has been kindled must be continually nourished, the fa&lities at the disposal of its organizers must be fully utilized, each and every barrier that may obstruct its expansion must be de-terminedily removed, every assistance which Bahá'í communities in various lands may wish, or be able, to offer, should be wholeheartedly welcomed, every measure that will serve to reinforce the bonds uniting the newly fledged communities in the Latin world, and to stimulate the movement, and raise the spirits, of itinerant teachers and settlers laboring in the continent of Europe must be speedily undertaken, if the colossal task, which in the course of seven brief years must be carried out, is to be befittingly cansum-mated.
The sterner the task, the graver the responsibilities, the wider the field of exertion, the more persistently must the privileged members of this enviable community strive, and the loftier must be the height to which they should aspire, in the course of their God-given mission, and throughout every stage in the Yr :.sistible and divinely guided eva-lution of their community life.
Page 1844 t ~ Site of Laurentian Bahá'í Summer School near Montreal, Canada.
First Annual Convention of Bahá'ís of Canada, 1948.
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Setbacks may well surprise them; trials and disappointments may tax their patience and resourcefulness; the forces of darkness, either from within or from without, may seek to dampen their ardor, to disrupt their unity and break their spirit; pitfalls may surround the little band that must act as a vanguard to the host which must, in the years to come, spiritually raise up the sorely ravaged continent of Europe. None of these, however fierce, sinister or unyielding they may appear, must be allowed to deflect the protagonists of a God-impelled Plan, from the course which 'Abdu'l-Bahá has chosen for them, and which the agencies of a firmly established, laboriously erected, Administrative Order, are now enabling them to effectively pursue.
That they may press forward with undiminished fervor, with undimmed vision, with unfaltering steps, with indivisible unity, with unflinching determination until the shining goal is attained is my constant prayer, my ardent hope, and the dearest wish of my heart.
July 20, 1946.I recall with profound emotion, on the morrow of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í passing, the dramatic circumstances marking simultaneously the termination of the Heroic Age, and the commencement of the Formative Period, of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
I acclaim with thankfulness, joy and pride the American Bahá'í community's manifold, incomparable services rendered the Faith at home and across the seas in the course of this quarter century.
I hail with particular satisfaction the consummation of the twin major tasks spontaneously undertaken and brilliantly discharged by the same community in both the administrative and missionary fields, constituting the greatest contribution ever made to the progress of the Faith by any corporate body at any time, in any continent since the inception of the administrative order.
Nursed during its infancy by 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í special care and unfailing solicitude; tude; invested at a later stage with spiritual primacy through the symbolic acts associated with His historic visit to the North American continent; summoned subsequently to the challenge through the revelation of the epochmaking Tablets of the Divine Plan; launched on its career according to the directives of and through the propelling force generated by these same Tablets; utilizing with skill, resourcefulness and tenacity, for the purpose of executing its mission, the manifold agencies evolving within the administrative order, in the erection of whose fabric it has assumed so preponderating a share; emerging triumphantly from the arduous twofold campaign undertaken simultaneously in the homeland and in Latin America; this community now finds itself launched in both hemispheres on a second, incomparably more glorious stage, of the systematic crusade designed to culminate, in the course of successive epochs, in the spiritual conquest of the entire planet.
The task of this stern hour is challenging, its scale of operation continually widening, the races and nations to be contacted highly diversified, the forces of resistance more firmly entrenched, yet the prizes destined for the valiant conquerors are inestimably precious and the outstanding Grace of the Lord of Hosts promised to the executors of His mandate is indescribably potent.
The present European project heralding the spiritual regeneration of the entire continent is the pivot on which hinges the success of the second Seven Year Plan. I appeal to the national representatives of the community, in conjunction with the European Teaching Committee, to focus attention upon its immediate requirements.
The dispatch of nine additional pioneers to facilitate the immediate formation of stable groups in the goal towns of the ten selected countries is imperative.
The selection of suitable literature, its prompt translation into the languages required, its publication and wide dissemination, is essential.
The visit of an ever-swelling number of itinerant teachers designed to foster the development of the groups is urgently required.
Page 186A more liberal allocation of funds for the furtherance of the most vital objective is indispensable.
I entreat the entire community to arise, while time remains, contribute generously, volunteer its services and accelerate its momentum, to assure the total success of the first, most momentous collective enterprise launched by the American Baha community beyond the barriers of the Western
Hemisphere.My heart is filled with delight, wonder, pride and gratitude in conten-ipla-tion of the peacetime exp1oits~ in both hemispheres, of the world community of the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, triumphantly emerging from the crucible of global war and moving irresistibly into the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
The opening years of the second century of the Bahá'í Era, synchronizing with concluding stage of the memorable quarter-century elapsed since the termination of the Heroic Age of the Faith, have been distinguished by a compelling demonstration by the entire body of believers, headed by the valorous American Bahá'í community, of solidarity, resolve and self-sacrifice as well as by a magnificent record of systematic, worldwide achievements.
The three years since the edebration of he Centenaru hnv~ been haracter~ ized by a simultaneous process & ternal consolidation and steady en1arg~ nient of the orbit & a fasPevolvkg a& ministrative order, These years witnessed, first, the a&w~ tounding ~surgencs of v;ar~evasta ~cT Bahá'í connntu 24y of Cenkrai E ~ro the rehabilitation of the com~n nW Southeast AsL, the Pacific Islands an the Far East; second, the ~naugm ration of a new Seven ~ear Plan b r the ~rnert can B hA'i community des Lined to cuP inmate �th the Centenary of the
~ft of Bahá'u'lláh's PropheticMission, airn~ ing at the iformation of three National Assemblies in Latin America and the Dominion of Canada, at completion of the holiest House of Worship in the Bahá'í world, and at the erection of the structure of the administrative order in ten sovereign States of the European continent; and third, the formulation by the British, the Indian and the Persian National
Assemblies of Six Year, Fourrespectively, culminating with the Centenary of the B&b's Martyrdom and pledged to establish Bahá'ís attending the National Convention in Germany, among them, the newly elected National Spiritual Assembly and the American Bahá'í service men.
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nineteen Spiritual Assemblies in the British Isles, double the number of Assemblies in the Indian subcontinent, establish ninety-five new centers of the Faith in Persia, convert the groups in Bahrein, Mecca and Kabul into Assemblies and plant the banner of the Faith in the Arabian territories of Yemen, Oman,
Absa and Kuwait.Moreover, the number of countries opened to the onsweeping Faith, and the number of languages in which its literature has been translated and printed, is now raised to eighty-three and forty-seven, respectively.
Four additional countries are in process of enrollment.
Translations into Itfteenother languages are being undertaken. No less than seventeen thousand pounds have accumulated for the international relief of war-afflicted Bahá'í cominuni-ties of East and West. The Bahá'í endowments on the North American continent have now passed the two million dollar mark. The value of the endowments recently acquired at the World Center of the Faith, dedicated to the Shrines, are estimated at thirtyfive thousand pounds. Bahá'í literature has been disseminated as far north as TJper-nivik, Greenland, above the Arctic circle.
The Bahá'í message has been broadcast by radio as far South as Ma-gellanes.
The area of land dedicated to the Masbriqu'i Adhk4r of Persia has increased by almost a quarter-million square metres. The number of localities in the Antipodes where Bahá'ís reside has been raised to tkirty~five spread over Australia,
New Zealand and Tasmania.are functioning in Latin America. In over a hundred localities Bahá'ís are resident in Central and South America, almost double the localities at opening of the first
Seven Year Plan. Historic LatinAmerican conferences have been held in Buenos Aires and Panama. Summer Schools are established in Argentina and Chile. Land has been offered in Chile for site of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of Latin America. Additional Assemblies have been incorporated in Paraguay and Colombia.
Seven others are in process of incorporation. A notable impetus has been lent this world-redeeming Message through the concerted certed measures devised by the American National Assembly designed to proclaim the Faith to the masses through public conferences, press and radio.
Such remarkable multiplications ot dynamic institutions, such thrilling deployment of world regenerating forces, North, South, East and West, endow the preeminent goal of second Seven Year Plan in Europe with extraordinary urgency and peculiar significance.
I am impelled to appeal to all American believers possessing independent means to arise and supplement the course of the second year of the second Seven Year Plan through personal partic4pation or appointment of deputies, the superb exertions of the heroic vanguard of the hosts destined, through successive decades, to achieve the spiritual conquest of the continent unconquered by Isl6in, rightly regarded as the mother of Christendom, the fountainhead of American culture, the mainspring of western civilization, and the recipient of the unique honor of two successive visits to its shores by the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's
Covenant.The steadily deepening crisis which mankind is traversing, on the morrow of the severest ordeal it has yet suffered, and the attendant tribulations and commotions which a travailing age must necessarily experience, as a pr& hide to the birth of the new World Order, destined to rise upon the ruins of a tottering civilization, must, as they intensify, increasingly influence the course, and, in some cases, retard the progress, of the collective enterprises successively launched in the opening years of the second Bahá'í century, and in almost every continent of the globe, by the worldwide community of the organized followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. In the land of its birth longstanding political rivalries, combined with a steady decline in the authority and influence exercised by the central government, are contributing to the reemergence of reactionary forces, represented by an as yet 1n fluential and fanatical priesthood, to a recrudescence of the persecution, and a multiplication of the disabilities, to
Page 188which a still unemancipated Faith has been so cruelly subjected for more than a century. In the heart of the continent of Europe, still fiercer political rivalries, as well as the clash of conflicting ideologies, have prevented the unification, indefinitely retarded the national revival, multiplied the vicissitudes and rendered more desperate the plight, of a nation comprising within its frontiers the largest community of the adherents of the Faith on that continent � a community destined, as prophesied by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, to play a major role in the spiritual awakening and the ultimate conversion of the European peo-pies and races to His Father's Faith. In the subcontinent of India recent political developments of a momentous character have plunged its divers castes, races and denominations into grave turmoil, brought in their wake riots, bloodshed, misery and confusion, fanned into flame religious animosities and well-nigh disrupted its economic life.
In the Nile Valley the outbreak of a widespread and virulent epidemic, following closely upon the political unrest and the severe economic crisis already afflicting its inhabitants, threatens to disorganize the life of the nation and to bring in its wake afflictions of an even more serious character.
Tn the Holy Land itself, the heart and nerve-center of the far-flung and firmly knit community of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh, and the repository of its holiest shrines, already gravely disturbed by the chronic instability of its political life, the religious dissensions of its inhabitants, and the ten-year-long strain and danger to which its people have been subjected and exposed, fresh perils are looming on its horizon, menacing it, on the one hand with the ravages of an epidemic that has already taken so heavy a toll of the lives of the people beyond its southern frontier, and threatening it, on the other, with a civil war of extreme severity and unpredictable in its consequences.
Subject to the same fundamental causes which have deranged the equilibrium of presentday society and corroded its life are to be regarded the privations, the restrictions and crisis which, to a lesser degree, are oppressing the peoples of Cen tral and SouthEastern Europe. of the British Isles and of certain Republics of Central and
South America.In all these territories, whether in the Eastern or Western Hemisphere, the nascent institutions of a struggling Faith, though subjected in varying degrees to the stress and strain associated with the decline and dissolution of time-honored institutions, with fratricidal strife, economic upheavals, financial crises, outbreaks of epidemics and political revolutions, have thus far, through the interpositions of a merciful Providence, been graciously enabled to follow their chartered course, undefiect-ed by the crosscurrents and the tempestuous winds which must of necessity increasingly agitate human society ere the hour of its ultimate redemption approaches.
In contrast to these sorely tried countries on the
European, the Asiaticand the African continents, unlike her sister Republics in either Central or
South America, the GreatRepublic of the West � the homeland of that mother community which, fostered through the tender care of an ever-solicitous Master, has already proved itself capable of rearing in its turn such splendid progeny among the divers communities of Latin America, which bids fair to multiply its daughter communities in a continent of mightier potentialities � such a Republic has been, to a peculiar degree and over a long and uninterrupted period, relatively free from the chronic disorders, the political disturbances, the economic convulsions, the communal riots, the epidemics, the religious persecutions, the privations and loss of life which, during successive generations, have in one way or another afflicted so many peoples in almost every part of the globe.
Singled out by the Almighty for such a unique measure of favor, suffered to evolve, untrammelled and unperturbed, within the shell of its God-given Administrative Order, distinguished from its sister communities through the revelation of a Plan enianating directly from the mind and pen of its Founder, enriched already by so many trophies, each an eloquent testimony to its mis
Page 189THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 189
sionary zeal and valor in distant fields and amidst divers peoples, the Community of the
Most Great Name in the NorthAmerican continent, must, sensible of the abounding grace vouchsafed to it by Bahá'u'lláh, resolve, as it has never resolved before, to carry out, however much it may be buffeted by future circumstances and the unforeseen ordeals which a heedless and chaotic world may still further experience, the mission confidently entrusted to its hands by an all-wise and loving Master.
Already in the newly opened European field, where the first stage of its transatlantic missionary enterprise ib now unfolding, the success which the vanguard of its army of pioneers has already achieved in several leading capitals of that continent is truly heartwarming and evokes intense admiration.
The broad outlines of the primary institutions heralding the erection of the administrative framework of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in no less than ten sovereign states of Europe can already be discerned � a powerful and signal reinforcement of the organized and progressive efforts exerted by the British and German communities on the north western limits of that continent and in its very heart. In the Latin American field, where the structural basis of a rising Administrative Order has already been established, through the formation of firmly grounded Assemblies in each of the Republics of Central and South America, the stage is being set for the erection of those institutions which are to be regarded as the harbingers of the secondary Houses of Justice which, in each of these Republics must act as p11-lam, and assist in sustaining the weight, of the final unit designed to consummate the institutions of that order. On the northern portion of that same hemisphere the stage is already set for the impending emergence of an institution which, however circumscribed its basis, must ultimately, directly participate in the measures preliminary to the constitution of the Universal House of Justice.
A community now in the process of marshalling and directing, in such vast territories, in such outlying regions, amidst such a diversity of peoples, at so precarious a stage in the fortunes of mankind, forces of such incalculable potency, to serve purposes so meritorious and lofty, cannot afford to falter for a moment or retrace its steps on the path it now travels. Its commitments, so vast, so challenging, so rich in their potentialities, in the North American continent, must, whatever betide it, be carried out, in their entirety and without the slightest reservation or hesitation. The pledge to multiply the local Administrative institutions, throughout the length and breadth of this continent must be honored, and the placing of the contract for the interior ornamentation of the Holiest House of Worship ever to be erected to the glory of Bahá'u'lláh expedited.
Above all a prodigious effort, nationwide, sustained and wholly unprecedented in the annals of a richly endowed and spiritually blessed community, aiming at the immediate increase of the financial resources required for the effective prosecution of its manifold and pressing tasks, is required.
The triple campaign, conducted in two hemispheres, comprising within the scope of its operation the entire territory of the North American Republic, the Dominion of Canada, twenty Republics of Latin America, and no less than ten sovereign States of the European continent, is indeed of critical importance. Every phase of this threefold crusade, undertaken at the dawn of the second Bahá'í century by the executors of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Will and the custodians of His Plan, must be accorded its due measure of consideration and its needs simultaneously and vigorously fulfilled.
The allurements of the glorious adventure in the Latin American field, the glittering prizes already won and the new ones within reach, must, at no time obscure the issues, or retard the task confronting the prosecutors of the Plan in their homeland, or a]low the interests of its Assemblies, for the most part new and struggling, to be either neglected or forgotten. Nor must the glamor of the still more recent and glorious adventure embarked upon across the Atlantic, within a turbulent,
Page 190politically convulsed, economically disrupted and spiritually depleted continent, dim, in however small a measure, the radiance, or detract from the urgency, of the magnificent enterprises, whose first fruits in Latin America are only beginning to mature, in direct consequence of the initial operation of the Plan bequeathed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the American believers.
To the vital requirements of this Plan, at so critical a juncture, both in the fortunes of mankind in general, and of the Plan itself, to which detailed reference has been made in a previous communication, I need not again refer. All I desire to emphasize is my fervent plea, addressed to both the administrators who, as the elected representatives of the community must devise the plans, coordinate the activities, and direct the agencies of a continually expanding community, and to those whose privilege it is to labor, at home and abroad, to insure the effective prosecution of these sacred tasks, to realize the propitiousness of the present hour, recognize its urgency, meet its challenge and appreciate its unique potentialities. As the international situation worsens, as the fortunes of mankind sink to a still lower ebb, the momentum of the Plan must be further accelerated, and the concerted exertions of the community responsible for its execution, rise to still higher levels of consecration and heroism.
As the fabric of presentday society heaves and cracks under the strain and stress of portentous events and calamities, as the fissures, accentuating the cleavage separating nation frbm nation, class from class, race from race, and creed from creed, multiply, the prosecutors of the Plan must evince a still greater cohesion in their spiritual lives and administrative activities, and demonstrate a higher standard of concerted effort, of mutual assistance, and of harmonious development in their collective enterprises.
Then, and only then, will the reaction to the stupendous forces, released through the operation of a divinely conceived, divinely impelled Plan, be made apparent, and the fairest fruit of the weightiest spiritual enterprise launched in recorded history under the aegis of the Center of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh be garnered.
October 25, 1947.Highly gratified at unceasing, corn-pelling evidences of exalted spirit of Bahá'í stewardship animating Amen-can Bahá'í Community, as attested by the alacrity of its national representatives in executing the first Temple contract, their promptitude in extending effective assistance to their Persian brethren, their vigilance in safeguarding integrity of the Faith in the City of the Covenant, and their vigor in prosecuting the national campaign of publicity. In recognition of preeminent services continually enriching the record of achievements associated with preeminent community of the Bahá'í world, I am arranging transfer of extensive, valuable property acquired in precincts of Shrines on Mount Cannel to name of Palestine Branch of
American Assembly. Happyannounce completion of plans and specifications for erection of arcade surrounding the Nib's Sepulchre, constituting first step in process destined to culminate in construction of the Dome anticipated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and marking consummation of enterprise initiated by HIm fifty years ago according to instructions given Him by Bahá'u'lláh.
December 15, 1947.Plans and specifications have been prepared, and preliminary measures taken, to place contracts for the arcade of the B~h's
Sepulchre. Historic InternationalBahá'í congresses held in South and Central America and an in-ter-European Teaching Conference projected for Geneva paving the way for future World Bahá'í
Congress. Recognitionextended to the Faith by United Nations as international nongovernmental body, enabling appointment of accredited representatives to United Nations conferences, is heralding world recognition for a universal proclamation of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, April 16, 1948.
Page 191THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 193.
Joyfully acclaim brilliant achievements transcending fondest hopes and setting the seal of complete victory on the stupendous labors undertaken by the
American Bahá'í Communityof Canada, the heroic feat of raising to almost two hundred the number of Spiritual Assemblies in the North American continent, the marvelous expansion of the daughter communities in Latin America, the successful conclusion of the preliminary phase of the interior ornamentation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and the crowning exploit of the formation of no less than seven Assemblies in the newly opened transcontinental field, endow with everlasting fame the second epoch of the Formative Age, immeasurably enrich the annals of the opening decade of the second Baha Century, and constitute a landmark in the unfoldment of the second stage of the execution of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Plan. The primacy of the American Bahá'í community is reasserted, fully vindicated and completely safeguarded.
Recent successive victories proclaim the undiminished strength and exemplary valor of the rank and file of the community whether administrators, teachers or pioneers in three continents regarded as the latest links in the chain of uninterrupted achievements performed by its members in the council and teaching field for over a quarter of a century. I recall on this joyous occasion With pride, emotion, thankfulness, the resplendent record of stewardship of this dearly-loved, richly-endowed unflinchingly resolute community whose administrators have assumed the preponderating share in perfecting the machinery of the administrative order, whose elected representatives have raised the edifice and completed the exterior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West, whose trailblazers opened an overwhelming majority of the ninety-one countries now included within the pale of the Faith, whose pioneers established flourishing communities in twenty republics of Latin America, whose benefactors extended in am-pie measure assistance in various ways to their sorely pressed brethren in dis~ tant fields, whose members scattered themselves to thirteen hundred centers in every state of the American
Union, every Provinceof the Dominion of Can~ ada, whose firmest champion succeeded in winning Royalty's allegiance to the Message of Bahá'u'lláh, whose heroes and martyrs laid down their lives in its service in fields as remote as Honolulu, Buenos Aires, Sydney, hf4hhn, whose vanguard pushed its outposts to the antipodes on the farthest verge of the South American continent, to the vicin~ ity of the Arctic Circle, to the northern, southern, and western fringes of the European continent, whose ambassadors are now convening, on the soil of one of the newly won territories, its his~ toric first Conference designed to consolidate the newly won prizes, whose spokesmen are securing recognition of the institutions of Bahá'u'lláh's rising world order in the United Nations.
Appeal to members of the community so privileged, so loved, so valorous, endowed with such potentialities to unitedly press forward however afflictive the trials their countrymen may yet experience, however grievous the tribulations the land of their heart's desire may yet suffer, however oppressive an anxiety the temporary severance of external communications with the World Center of their Faith may engender, however onerous the tasks still to be accomplished until every single obligation under the present Plan is honorably fulfilled, enabling then-i to launch in its appointed time the third crusade destined to bring glorious consummation to the first epoch in the evolution of their divinely appointed World Mission, fulfill the prophecy uttered by Daniel over twenty centuries ago, contribute the inaj or share of the world triumph of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh envisaged by the Center of His Covenant, and has~ ten the opening of the Golden Age of the Baha
Dispensation.The response of the American Bahá'í Community to the urgent call to arise and remedy a critical situation has been such as to excite my highest admira
Page 192National Convention of Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand.
National Bahá'í Convention of India, Pakistan, and Burma, Panchgani, India, J1947.
Page 193THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 193
tion and exceed the hopes of all those who had waited with anxious hearts for this dangerous corner to be turned at such an important stage in the prosecution of the Second Seven Year
Plan.The rapidity with which the challenge has been met, the strenuous efforts which have been systematically exerk ed, the zeal and devotion which have been so abundantly demonstrated, the resolution and self-sacrifice which have been so strikingly displayed by the members of a community, burdened with such mighty responsibilities and intent on maintaining its lead among its sister communities in East and West, confer great lustre on this latest episode in the history of the prosecution of the Divine Plan. I am moved to offer its high-minded and valiant members my heartfelt congratulations on so conspicuous a victory, and on the preservation of an unblemished record of achievements in the service of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.The formation of the Canadian National Assembly, the conclusion of the preliminary steps for the completion of the interior ornamentation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, the rapid multiplication and consolidation of the institutions of the Faith throughout Latin America, the steady expansion of the activities aiming at the proclamation of the Faith to the masses, the recognition secured, on behalf of the national institutions of a world community, from the United Nations Organization, above all the phenomenal success achieved through the constitution of no less than eight spiritual Assemblies in seven of the goal countries selected as targets for the transatlantic operation of the Plan, now crowned by the holding of the first teaching conference on the Continent of Europe � all these have served to immortalize the second year of the Second Seven Year Plan and round out the mighty feat accomplished throughout the states and provinces of the North American Continent � the base from which the operation of a divinely impelled and constantly expanding Plan are being conducted.
Frnboldened by the enduring and no-men oi succs~ ~s won, on a man: tronts, in such distant fields, among such a diversity of peoples, and in the face of such formidable obstacles, by a community now launched, in bath Hemispheres, on its world-encircling mission, I direct my appeal to the en~~ tire membership of this God-chosen community, to its associates and daughter communities in the Dominion of Canada, in Central and South America, and in the Continent of Europe, to proclaim, in the course of this current year, to their sister communities in East and West and by deeds no less resplendent than those of the past, their inflexible resolve to prosecute unremittingly the Plan entrusted to their care, and em~ blazon on their shields the emblems of new victories in its service.
The placing, with care and promptitude, the successive contracts, designed to ensure the uninterrupted progress of the interior ornamentation of the Temple, at a time when the international situation is fraught with so many complications and perils; the acceleration of the twofold process designed to preserve the status of the present Assemblies throughout the States of the Union and multiply their number; the constant broadening of the bases on which the projected Latin American National Assemblies are to be securely founded; the steady expansion of the work initiated to give wider publicity to the Faith in the North American Continent and in circles associated with the United Nations; and, last but not least, the constitution of firmly established Assemblies in each of the remaining goal countries in Europe and the simultaneous initiation, in the countries al. ready provided with such Assemblies, of measures aiming at the formation of several nuclei calculated to reinforce the structural basis of an infant administrative Order � these stand out as the primary and inescapable duties which the members of your Assembly � the mainspring of the multitudinous activities carried on in your homeland, in the Latin American field, and on the European front� must in this third year of the Second Le r~n Y r P. an, Lilt-ting~ dLC ar~
Page 194That the launching of one of these fundamental activities to be conducted by your Assembly during the present year � the commencement of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Tern-pie of the West � should have so closely synchronized with the placing of the first two contracts for the completion of the Sepulchre of the Báb, as contern-Nated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, is indeed a phenomenon of singular significance. This conjunction of two events of historic importance, linking, in a peculiar degree, the most sacred House of Warship in the American continent with the most hallowed Shrine on the slopes at Mount Carmel, brings vividly to mind the no less remarkable coincidence marking the simultaneous holding, on a Naw-Rflz Day, of the first convention of the American Dah&'i Community and the entombment by the Center of Dah&'u'llhh's Covenant of the remains of the B~b in the newly constructed vault of His Shrine.4 The simultaneous arrival of those remains in the fortress city cit 'Akka and of the first pilgrims from the continent of America;2 the subsequent association of the founder of the American Bahá'í community with 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the laying of the cornerstone of the B6&'s Mausoleum on Mount Carmel; the holding of the Centenary of His Declaration beneath the dome of the recently constructed Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at Wilmette, on which solemn occasion His blessed portrait was urn 1See God Passes By, p. 276 2See God Passes By, p. 2578 Friends who attended the Bahá'í Summer Conference at Banff, Alberta, Canada, August, 1946.
Page 195THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 195
veiled, on western soil, to the eyes of His followers; and the unique distinction now conferred on a member3 of the North American Bahá'í community of designing the dome, envisaged by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, as the final and essential embellishment of the ]3&b's Sepulchre � all these have served to associate the Herald of our Faith and His resting-place with the fortunes of a community which has so nobly responded to His summons addressed to the "peoples of the West" in His Qayyiamu'1-AsniM.
"This Sublime Shrine has remained unbuilt .," 'Abdu'l-Bahá, looking at the Shrine from the steps of His House on an August day in 1915, remarked to some of His companions, at a time when the Báb's remains had already been placed by Him in the Vault of one of the six chambers He had already constructed for that purpose. "God willing, it will be accomplished.
We have carried its construction to this stage."The initiation in these days of extreme peril in the Holy Land of so great and holy an enterprise, founded by Bahá'u'lláh Himself whilst still a Prisoner in 'Akka and commenced by 'Abdu'l-Bahá during the darkest and most perilous days of His Ministry, recalls to our minds furthermore, the construction of the superstructure of the Temple in Wilmette during one of the severest financial crises that has afflicted the United States of America, and the completion of its exterior ornamentation during the dark days of the last World War. Indeed, the tragic and moving story of the transfer of the B&b's mutilated body from place to place ever since His Martyrdom in Tabriz, its fif-ty-year concealment in Persia; its pert-bus and secret journey by way of Tili-ran, IsfMThn, KirnThnshAh, Ba&hcThd, Damascus, Beirut and 'Akka to the Mountain of God, its ultimate resting-place; its concealment for a further period of ten years in the Holy Land itself; the vexatious and long-drawn out negotiations for the purchase of the
3Williarn Sutherland Maxwellof Montreal. A colored rendering of the design is reproduced as a frontispiece in The Bahá'í World Vol.
IX.site chosen by Bahá'u'lláh Himself far its entombment; the threats of 'Abdu'1-Hamid, the Turkish tyrant, the accusations levelled against its Trustee, the plots devised, and the inspection made, by the scheming members of the notorious Turkish Commission of Inquiry; the perils to which the bloodthirsty Jam~I P6shA exposed it; the machinations of the Arch-Breaker of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, of His brother and of His son, respectively, aiming at the' frustration of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í design, at the prevention of the sale of land within the precincts of the Shrine itself, and the multiplication of the measures taken for the preservation and consolidation of the properties purchased in its vicinity and dedicated to it, � all these are to be regarded as successive stages in the history of the almost hundred year long process destined to culminate in the consummation of Bahá'u'lláh's irresistible Purpose of erecting a lasting and befitting memorial to His Divine Herald and
CoFounder of His Faith.4As the Mission entrusted by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the followers of His Faith in the North American Continent gathers momentum, unfolds its potentialities, and raises to new heights of heroism and renown its valiant prosecutors, events of still greater significance, will, no doubt, transpire, which will serve to enhance the value of the work which the prosecutors of the Plan are carrying out, to widen their vision, to reinforce their exertions, to sustain their spirit, to ennoble their heritage, to noise abroad their fame, to facilitate their assumption of the unique functions distinguishing their stewardship to the Faith, and to hasten the advent of the day, which shall witness, in the Golden Age that is still unborn, their "elevation to the throne of an everlasting dominion," the day whereon "the whole earth", will "resound with the praises" of their "majesty and greatness."
May iS, 1948.4FJor the story of the removal of the body of the B~b from Tihr&n to
Mount Carmel, see God PassesBy, Chapt. XWIII. "Entomb-ment of the DAb's Remains on Mt. Carmel."
Page 196In one giant tomb are laid to rest, in the Baha Cemetery of Cairo, Egypt, two great teachers � Lua Getsinger, the American, Mirza 'Abu'1-Fajil, the Persian.
A Bahá'í grave desecrated by fanatical Moslems in the Bahá'í Cemetery, Ismailia, Egypt.
Page 197TIlE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 197
The deepening crisis ominously threatening further to derange the equilibrium of a politically convulsed, economically disrupted, socially subverted, morally decadent and spiritually moribund society is testing the tenacity, taxing the resources and challenging the spirit throughout three continents of the chosen trustees and valiant executors of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Divine Plan. This present hour, however critical, fraught with uncertainty, cannot and must not retard the unfoldment of the manifold tasks so brilliantly inaugurated, so diligently prosecuted, so dazzling in their prospects.
The record of the Bahá'í community since inception of the Formative Age conclusively demonstrates that accomplishment of signal acts accompanied, or followed upon, periods of acute distress in
European and AmericanThe machinery of the Administrative Order was established, and preliminary stage of construction of the House of Worship was undertaken, by a grief-stricken community in the anxious years following the sudden removal of its loving, watchful Founder.
The superstructure of the Temple was erected amid the strain and stress of an economic depression of an unprecedented severity gripping the North American continent. The first Seven Year Plan, opening stage in the execution of the historic mission entrusted to the American Bahá'í community was launched in the face of a gathering storm culminating in the direst conflict yet experienced by mankind. The Tablets of the Divine Plan were revealed amidst the turmoil of the first World War involving great danger to the life of their Author.
The remains of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Mother and Brother were transferred to site of monuments constituting focus of institutions of future World Administrative Center and erected on the morrow of the outbreak of hostilities while the Holy Land was increasingly exposed to the perils precipitated by the second conflict. The daughter communities of Latin Arner-ica were called into being and exterior ornamentation of the Temple was consummated while the American mother community was in the throes of the last, mast harassing stage of the devastating struggle. The worldwide Centenary celebrations crowning these enterprises were undertaken in such perilous circumstances and carried out despite the formidable obstacles engendered through prolongation of hostilities. National administrative headquarters were established in Tihr~n, Cairo, Bag~-dad, Delhi and Sydney, national and international endowments were enriched and Assemblies incorporated in countries confronted by growing threat of invasion and encirclement. The second Seven Year Plan inaugurating the transatlantic mission embracing Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Switzerland, the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, was launched on the morrow of the catastrophic upheaval despite the exhaustion, confusion, distress and restrictions afflicting a war-shattered continent. T~e first fruits of this newly-launched Plan were garnered through convocation of first European Teaching Conference and erection of the ninth pillar of the Universal House of Justice in the Dominion of Canada despite premonitory rumblings of a third ordeal threatening to engulf the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
The central structure of the Báb's Sepulchre was built while the precious life of its Builder was hanging perilously in the balance. Plans were drawn, contracts placed and founda~ tions laid for its arcade while the Holy Places were ravaged by flames of the civil strife burning fiercely in the Holy Land.
Precious years are inexorably s1ip~ ping by. The world outlook is steadily darkening.
The American community's most arduous feats still lie ahead, Dis~ asters overtaking Europe and America, more afflictive than any tribulations yet suffered in either continent may yet ak tend still more majestic revelations in the unfoldment of concluding stage of the second Seven Year Plan destined to witness successively the raising of the tenth and eleventh pillars of the Universal House of Justice, and the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Mother Temple of the West.
The champion builders of Bahá'u'lláh'sFirst Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Khartoum, S~d~n, 1946.
Bahá'í Summer School, Sukkur, Pakistan.THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 199
rising world order must scale nobler heights of heroism as humanity plunges into greater depths of despair, degradation, dissension and distress. Let them forge ahead into the future serenely confident that the hour of their mightiest exertions and the supreme opportunity for their greatest exploits must coincide with the apocalyptic upheaval marking the lowest ebb in mankind's fast-declin-ing fortunes.
November 3, 1948.As the threat of still more violent convulsions assailing a travailing age increases, and the wings of yet another conflict, destined to contribute a distinct, and perhaps a decisive, share of the birth of the new Order which must signalize the advent of the Lesser Peace, darken the international horizon, the eyes of the divers communities, comprising the body of the organized followers of Bahá'u'lláh throughout the Eastern Hemisphere, are being increasingly fixed upon the progressive unfoldment of the tasks which the executors oP 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í mandate have been summoned to undertake in the course of the second stage of their world-gird-ing mission.
Past experience, ranging over a period of many years, has taught them that no matter how formidable the external obstacles that have confronted them during the turbulent and eventful decades since the Master's passing, and despite the strain and stress which internal crises, precipitated by enemies from within and by adverse economic circumstances afflicting their country, have imposed, the stalwart occupants of the citadel of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, have with extraordinary steadfastness, enviable fidelity and magnificent courage, not only shielded the interests, preserved the integrity and demonstrated the worthiness, of the Cause they have embraced, but have sallied forth, with dynamic and irrepressible energy to implant its banner and establish its outposts in countries and continents far beyond the original scene of their operations.
Neither the irreparable loss sustained by the termination of the earthly life of a vigilant Master, nor the acute distress caused by the financial collapse which suddenly swept their country, nor the unprecedented tragedy of a world crisis that swept their land and its people into its vortex, nor the perils and uncertainties, the exhaustion and the disillusionment associated with its aftermath nor even the soul-shaking tests which periodically assailed them, through the defection and the attacks of Covenant-breakers, occupying, by virtue of their Kinship to or their long association with the Founder of their community, exalted positions at the world center of their Faith, or in the land from which it sprang, or in their own country, � none of these have succeeded in vitiating the hidden spring of their spiritual life, in deflecting them from their chosen course, or in even retarding the forward march and fruition of their enterprises.
In the toilsome task of fixing the pattern, of hying the foundations, of erecting the machinery, and of setting in operation the Administrative Order of their Faith, in the execution of the successive stages in the erection and exterior ornamentation of their Tem-pie, in the launching of the initial enterprise under 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Divine Plan, which enabled them to establish the structural basis of the Order recently laid in their homeland in every Republic of Central and South America; in the sustained, the systematic and prodigious effort exerted for the en. largement of the administrative foundations of the institutions of their Faith Jr every State and Province of the United States and the Dominion of Canada; in the parallel endeavors aimed at the widespread dissemination of its literature, and the proclamation of its verities and tenets to the masses; in the launching of the Second Seven Year Plan, which has extended the ramifications of the Divine Plan across the Atlantic to ten sovereign States of the European continent, which has already yielded a rich return through the formation of the first Canadian
Bahá'í National Assemblyand the convocation of the first European Teaching Conference; in the repeated, the timely, the spontaneous and generous contributions
Page 200they have made, on numerous occasions, for the relief of the persecuted among their brethren, for the defense of their institutions, for the vindication of their rights, for the consolidation of their activities and the progress of their enterprises in all these the champions of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have, with ever increasing emphasis borne witness to the sublimity of the faith which burns within their breasts, to the radiance of the vision that shines, clearly and steadily, before their eyes, the sureness and rapidity that marks their gigantic strides, and the vastness and glory of the unique mission entrusted to their hands.
Milestones of historic significance have been successively reached and rapidly left behind.
A still stonier stretch of road now lies before them. Rumblings of catastrophes yet mare dreadful agitate with increasing frequency a sorely-stressed and chaotic world, presenting a challenge to grap-pie with the unfinished tasks, a challenge graver and still more pressing than any hitherto experienced.
The present and remaining contracts, designed to consummate the magnificent enterprise, initiated almost fifty years ago, in the heart of the North American continent, and complete an Edifice consecrated for all time by the loving hands of the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, constituting the foremost symbol of the Faith, and incarnating the soul of the American Bahá'í community in the Western Hemisphere, must be speedily and systematically carried out, however onerous the task may become, in consequence of the inevitable fluctuations to which the present economic conditions are subjected, in preparation for the jubilee that must mark the completion of that holy Edifice. The recent broadening of the administrative basis of the Faith in a land that has served, and will long remain, the base of the spiritual operations now being conducted in both hemispheres, in response to the ringing call of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, sounded three decades ago in His historic Tablets, must, no matter how arduous and insistent the tasks to be performed in Latin America and Europe, be fully maintained, and the process continually enlarged and steadily consolidated.
The various agencies designed to carry the Message to the masses, and to present to them befittingly the teachings of its Author, must, likewise, be vigilantly preserved, supported and encouraged. The essential preliminaries, calculated to widen the basis of the forthcoming Latin
America's National Bahá'íAssemblies, to familiarize the Latin Amer-can believers with the administrative duties and functions they will be called upon to discharge, to enrich and deepen their knowledge of the essentials of their faith, its ideals, its history, its requirements and its problems, must be carried out with ever-increasing energy as the hour of emergence of these Latin American communities into independent existence steadily and inexorably approaches. The necessary guidance, which can alone be properly insured through the maintenance of an uninterrupted extension of administrative assistance, through the settlement of pioneers and the visits of itinerant teachers to the daughter communities, must under no circumstances be completely withdrawn, after their independence has been achieved. Above all, the momentous enterprise initiated in the transatlantic field of service, so vast in conception, so timely, so arduous, so far-reaching in its potentialities, so infinitely meritorious, must, in the face of obstacles, however insurmountable they may seem, be continually reinvigorated through undiminished financial support, through an ever-expanding supply of literature in each of the required languages, through frequent, and whenever possible prolonged, visits of itinerant teachers, through the continued settlement of pioneers, through the consolidation of the Assemblies already established, through the early constitution of properly functioning Assemblies in the few remaining goal countries as yet deprived of this inestimable blessing, and last but not least through the exertion of sustained and concentrated effort designed to supplement these foci of Bahá'í national administrative activity with subsidiary centers whose formation will herald the inauguration of
Page 201THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 201
Bahá'í Summer School held at Panchgani, India by the National Youth Committee of India, Pakistan and Burma.
teaching enterprises throughout the provinces of each of these ten countries. As the dynamic forces, sweeping forward the First Seven Year Plan, on the last stages of its execution, rose rapidly to a crescendo, culminating in the na-tion-wide celebrations marking the centenary of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, synchronized with a further and still more precipitous decline in the fortunes of a wartorn, bleeding society, so must every aggravation in the state of a world still harassed by the ravages of a devastating conflict, and now hovering on the brink of a yet more crucial struggle, be accompanied by a still more ennobling manifestation of the spirit of this second crusade, whose consummation might well coincide with a period of distress far more acute than the one through which humanity is now passing.
Not ours to speculate, or dwell upon the immediate workings of an inscrutable Providence presiding alike over the falling fortunes of a dying Order and the rising glory of a Plan holding within in it the seeds of the world's spiritual revival and ultimate redemption.
Nor can we attempt as yet, whilst the second stage in the operation of such a Plan has not yielded its destined fruit, visualize the nature of the tasks, or discern the character of the circumstances that will mark the progressive unfoldment of a third successive crusade, the successful termination of which must signalize the closing of the first historic epoch in the evolution of the Divine Plan. All we can be sure of, and confidently assert, is that upon the outcome of the assiduous efforts now being collectively exerted in three continents, by the North American, the Latin and European believers, acting under the Mandate of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, associated with the one and only Plan conceived by Himself, aided by the agencies deriving their inspiration from His Will and Testament, and assured of the support promised by the Pen of
I-us Father, in His MostHoly Book, must solely depend the timing as well as the nature ot the tasks which must be successfully
Page 202carried out ere the closing of an epoch of such transcendent brightness and glory in the evolution of the mightiest Plan ever generated through the creative power of the Most Great Name, as manifested by the Will of the Center of His Covenant and the interpreter of His teaching.
There can be no doubt whatever that with every turn of the wheel, as a result of the operation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Plan, and with every extension in the range of its evolution, a responsibility of still greater gravity and of wider import will have to be shouldered by its divinely chosen executors wherever its ratnifi-cations may extend and however oppressive the state of the countries and continents in which they may have to labor.
They must strive, ceaselessly strive, ready for any emergency, steeled to meet any degree of opposition, unsatisfied with any measure of progress as yet achieved, prepared to make sacrifices far exceeding any they have already wll1ingly made, and confident that such striving, such readiness, such resolution, such high-minded-ness, such sacrifice will earn them the palm of a victory still more soul-sails-fying and resounding in its magnificence than any as yet won since the inception of their mlssion.
May He Who called them into being and raised them up, Who fostered them in their infancy, Who extended to them the blessing of His personal support in their fears of childhood, Who bequeathed to them the distinguishing heritage of His Plan, Whose Will and Testament initiated them, during the period of their adolescence, in the processes of a divinely appointed Administrative Order, Who enabled them to obtain maturity through the inauguration of His Plan, Who conferred upon them the privilege of spiritual parenthood at the close of the initial Phase in the operation of that same Plan, continue through the further unfoldment of the second stage in its evolution to guide their steps along the path leading to the assumption of functions proclaiming the attainment of full spiritual xnan~ hood, and enable them eventually, through the long and slow processes of evolution and in conformity with the future requirements of a continually evolving Plan, to manifest before the eyes of the members of their sister communities, their countrymen and the whole world, and in all their plentitude, the potentialities inherent within them, and which in the fulness of time, must reflect, in its perfected form, the glories of the mission constituting their birthright.
November 8, 1948.Desire share with attendants at Forty-first American Bahá'í Convention feelings of joyous gratitude evoked by the steady acceleration of the dual process of expansion and consolidation of the Bahá'í World Community as well as the perspicuous evidences of divine protection vouchsafed the World Center of the Faith during the course of the third year of the second Seven Year Plan. The number of countries included within the pale of the Faith is ninety-four. Languages into which Bahá'í literature is translated, and Assemblies, local and national, incorporated, now total fifty-six and one hundred five, respectively.
Bahá'í literature now being translated into fourteen additional languages.
The number of centers in Latin America is one hundred and nine. The fourth objective of the present Plan has been achieved four years ahead of schedule through the forma-Ion of a Spiritual Assembly in each of the ten goal countries on the European continent.
Centers established in these countries total thirty-one, newly enrolled native believers, one hundred fifty-four. Nearly a million dollar drive to complete the Mother Temple of the West has been auspiciously launched and construction of interior sections of the ornamentation initiated.
Number of settlements in Greenland provided with Bahá'í scriptures raised to forty-eight, including Thule, beyond the Arctic Circle and Baha near eightieth latitude. Number of American States, Territories and
Federal Districts recognizing Baha'imarriage raised to eighteen. Restoration of the newly acquired German national Haziratu'1-Quds at Frankfurt has been commenced. For
Page 203THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 203
mulation of five year plans for German and Egyptian National Assemblies, culminating at the Centenary of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh's prophetic Mission, completes the number of National Assemblies pledged to achieve within appointed time specified goals in five Continents. The
European Teaching Conferenceconvened at Geneva inaugurating series of annual gatherings designed to consolidate the tremendously significant transatlantic project.
Bahá'í observers accredited by United Nations participated in Conference on Human Rights,
Geneva; United NationsBaha representative attended Luxembourg general conference world movement for world federation.
First all-red IndianAssem-lily consolidated at Macy, Nebraska. Building operations on Arcade of ETh's Sepulchre commenced forty years after official interment of His remains by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Prolonged hostilities ravaging Holy Land providentially terminated. Bahá'í Holy Places, unlike those belonging to other faiths, miraculously safeguarded.
Perils no less grave than those which threatened the World Center of the Faith under 'AbcIu'1-Hanild and Jamftl P4sh4 and through Hitler's intended capture of the Near East, averted.
Independent sovereign State within confines of Holy Land established and recognized, marking termination of twenty century-long provincial status. Formal assurance of the protection of Bahá'í holy sites and continuation of Baha pilgrimage given by Prime Minister of newly emerged State. Official invitation extended by its government on the historic occasion of the opening of the State's first parliament. Official record of Bahá'í marriage endorsed, Bahá'í endowments exempted by responsible authorities of the same State.
Best wishes for the future web fare of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh conveyed in writing by the newly-elected Head of the State in reply to congratulatory message addressed him upon assumption of his office. Appeal entire community, through assembled delegates, in thankful recognition of the manifold blessings vouchsafed the Faith and in response to the alert sounded for the present emergency, to arise and demonstrate more conspicuously than ever before, through greater austerity at home and increasing audacity in foreign fields, both in Latin America and Europe, their grim determination at whatever cost, no matter how crucial the test, however long the period, however herculean the labor, to carry forward unremittingly their task to its triumphant conclusion.
April 25, 1949.The efforts exerted, and the results achieved, by the members of the American Bahá'í community during the opening months of the two-year emergency period are such as to merit the highest commendation and praise. They will, if the effort be sustained, evoke the admiration of the entire Baha world, which is now watching, with feelings of wonder and expectancy, the outcome of the tremendous labor of this community now confronted with one of the most challenging, arduous and far-reaching tasks ever undertaken in its history.
The great forward stride that has already been undertaken, during so short a period, augurs well for the ultimate victory, now within sight � a victory which will pave the way for the successful execution of a seven-year enterprise, destined, in its turn, to enable its executors to launch, at the appointed time, the third and most glorious stage in the initial unfoldment of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í unique and grand design for that privileged and conspicuously blessed community.
No less striking has been the achievement of the representatives of this community in the vast and most recent field of their historic and highly meritorious endeavors, exerted beyond the confines of their homeland, where over so vast a territory, on a continent, so agitated, and amidst peoples so disillusioned, so varied in race, language and outlook, so impoverished spiritually so paralyzed with fear, so confused in thought, so abased in their moral standards, so rent by internal schisms, victories so rich in promise, so startling in their rapidity, so magnificent in their
Page 204range, have been won, and enobled, to such a marked degree, the deathless record of American Baha 'i service to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
Now that so prodigious and successful an effort has been exerted on behalf of the Historic and sacred Temple, whose completion constitutes so vital an objective of the Second Seven Year Plan, and so conspicuous a triumph won in the transatlantic sphere of its operation, its needs and other vital objectives, both at home and in the Latin American field, must receive, in the months immediately ahead, the particular ab tention of both the national elected rep~ resentatives of the community who supervise the working of the Plan and the mass of believers who participate in its execution.
While the financial requirements of the Mother Temple of the West are being met with unabated heroism by rich and poor alike in the critical months that lie ahead, and the measures to ensure the undiminished support, and the uninterrupted consolidation of the European enterprise are being assiduously carried out, a paral-lcd effort, no less strenuous and sustained should be simultaneously exerted in the North American continent and in Central and South America, for the purpose of preserving the prizes already won over the length and breadth of the western Hemisphere, where the initial impulse of this mighty and Divine Plan has been felt and its initial victories in foreign fields registered.
The Assemblies of the North American continent, constituting the base for the gigantic operations destined to warm and illuminate, under American Baha auspices, the five continents of the globe, must, at no time and under no circumstances, be allowed to diminish in number or decline in strength and in influence.
The movement of pioneers whether settlers or itinerant teachers, which in fields so distant from this Base, has exhibited so marvelous a vitality, must, within the limits of the homeland itself, be neither interrupted nor suffer a decline. The groups and isolated centers so painstakingly formed and established, must, conjointly jointly with this highly commendable and essential duty, be maintained, fostered and if possible multiplied.
No less attention, while this emergency period taxes, to an unprecedent= ed degree, the combined resources of the envied Trustees of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Divine Plan, should be directed to the vast network of Bahá'í enterprises initiated throughout Latin America, where the work so nobly conceived, so dlligenb ly prosecuted, so conspicuously blessed, is rapidly nearing the first stage of it~ fruition.
The flow of pioneers, so vital in all its aspects, and which as yielded such inestimable benefits at the early stages of this widely ramified enterprise, must, however urgent the other tasks already shouldered by an overburdened yet unfailli gly protected community, be neither arrested nor s1acke~ Th outpost of the newly born com~ inunities, established in the Straits of Magellaries in the South, must be held with undiminished vigor and determination.
The major task of ensuring the breadth and solidity of the foundations laid for the establishment of two National Bahá'í Assemblies, through the preservation of the present Assemblies, groups and isolated centers and the restoration of any of these vital centers, now dissolved, to their former status, must be scrupulously watched and constantly encouraged. The process of the dissemination of Bahá'í literature, of Bahá'í publication and translation, must continue unabated, however much the sacrifice involved.
The newly-fledged institutions of Teaching and Regional committees, of summer-schools and of Congresses, must be continually encouraged and increasingly supported by teachers as well as administrators, by pioneers from abroad, as well as by the native believers themselves.
The highly salutary and spiritually beneficent experiment of encouraging a more active participation by these newly won supporters of the Faith in Latin America, and a greater assumption of administrative responsibility on their part, in the ever expanding activities to be entrusted wholly to their care in the years to come, should be, in particular, develop
Page 205THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 205
ed, systematized and placed on a sure and unassailable foundation. Above all, the paramount duty of deepening the spiritual life of these newly-fledged, these precious and highly esteemed coworkers, and of enlightening their minds regarding the essential verities enshrined in their Faith, its fundamental institutions, its history and genesis � the twin Covenants of Bahá'u'lláh and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the present Administrative Order, the Future World Order, the Laws of the Most Hoiy Book, the inseparable institutions of the Guardianship and of the Universal House of Justice, the salient events of the Heroic and Formative Ages of the Faith, and its relationship with the Dispensations that have preceded it, its attitude toward the social and political organizations by which it is surrounded � must continue to constitute the most vital aspect of the great spiritual ual Crusade launched by the Champions of the Faith from among the peoples of their sister Republics in the South.
The magnitude of the tasks these heroes and champions of the Faith are summoned, at this hour, crowded with destiny, to discharge from the borders of Greenland to the southern extremity of Chile in the western hemisphere. and from Scandinavia in the North, to the Iberian peninsula in the south of the European continent, is, indeed, breathtaking in its implications and backbreaking in the strain it imposes. The sacrifices they are called upon to voluntarily make for the successful performance of such herculean, such holy, such epochmaking tasks, are comparable to none but those which their spiritual forbears have willingly accepted at the hour of the birth of their Faith more than a hundred years Baha Winter School, Kohiapur, India, January 2031, 1947.
Page 206ago. Theirs is the privilege, no less meritorius and perhaps as epoch-mak-ing to preside, in their own homeland and its neighboring continents over and direct the forces generated by, the birth of an order that posterity will acclaim as both the offspring of that Faith, and the Precursor of the Golden Age in which that same Faith must, in the fulness of time, find its fullest expression and most glorious consummation, How great the opportunity which the present hour, so dark in the fortunes of mankind and yet so bright in the ever-unfolding history of their Faith, offers them. How unspeakably precious the reward which they who serve it will reap! How pitiful and urgent the need of the waiting multitudes of these continents, summoned to sustain the initial impact of the operation of a divinely impelled Plan which no force can resist and no power can rival!
For what this superbly equipped community, this irresistably advancing army of the chosen warriors of Bahá'u'lláh, battling under His banner, operating in conformity with the explicit mandate voiced by His beloved Son, has already achieved over so extensive a field, in such a brief time, at such great sacrifice, for so precious a Cause, and in the course of such turbulent years, I cannot but feel the deepest sense of gratitude the like of which no achievement, single or collective, rendered in any other part of the globe, by any community associated with the Cause of the Most Great Name has evoked.
For what it will and must achieve in the future I entertain feelings of warm expectation and serene confidence. For it, I will continue, from the depths of a loving and grateful heart to supplicate blessings immeasurably richer than any it has yet expert-enced.
August 18, 1949.'And now as I Zook into the fitture, I hope to see the friends at all times, in every land, and of every shade of thought and character, voluntarily and joyously y rallying rOund thetT local and iii. particular their nationaL cen.tevs of activity, , uplwlding and promotiri~g their interests with complete unanimity and con~ tentment, with perfect uncleTstandrng, genuine enthusiasm, and sustained vigor.
This indeed is the one ioy and yearning of my life, for it is the J~ountain-head from which all future blessings will flow, the broad Jaundation upon~ which the security of the Divine Edifice must ultimately rest." � SHOCm EF1~NDr.
FOREWORDAssembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada completed a task which, while pertaining to the outer and more material aspects of the Cause, nevertheless has a special significance for its spirit and inward sacred purpose. This task consisted in creating a legal form which gives proper substance and substantial character to the administrative processes embodied in the
Bahá'í Teachings. Theform adopted was that known as a Voluntary Trust, a species of corporation recognized under the common law and possessing a long and interesting history. The famous Covenant adopted by the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower, the first legal document in American history, is of the same nature as the Dee-laration of Trust voted by the National Spiritual
Assembly. This Declarationof Trust, with its attendant fly-Laws, is published for the information of the Bahá'ís of the world.
Careful examination of the Declaration and its ByLaws will reveal the fact that this document contains no arbitrary elements nor features new to the BaUt'i Cause. On the Contrary, it represents a most conscientious effort to reflect those very administrative principles and elements already set forth in the letters of the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, and already determining the methods and relationships ps of Bahá'í collective association. The provision both in the Declaration and in the ByLaws for amendments in the future will permit the National Spir.-itual Assembly to adapt this document to such new administrative elements or principles as the Guardian may at any time give forth. The Declaration, in fact, is nothing more or less than a legal parallel of those moral and spiritual laws of unity inherent in the fullness of the Baha Revelation and making it the fulfillment of the ideal of Religion in the social as well as spiritual realm. Be~ cause, in the Bahá'í Faith this perfect correspondence exists between spiritual and social laws, the J3ahA'is believe that administrative success is identical with moral success; and that nothing less than the true Bahá'í spirit of devotion and sacrifice can inspire with effective power the worldwide body of unity, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh.
Therefore h has seemed fitting and proper to ac~ company the Declaration of Trust with excerpts from the letters of Shoghi Effendi which furnished the source whence the provisions of the Declaration were drawn, and which furthermore give due emphasis to that essential spirit without which any and every social or re~ ligious form is but a dead arid soulless body.
HORACE HOLLEY7c~w p2 7 � Certificate of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Page 211B~ THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ'ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES
We, Allen B. McDaniel of Washington, D. C., Horace Holley of New York City, N. Y., Carl Scheffler of Evanston, Ill., Roy C. Wilhelm of West Englewood, N. J., Florence Morton of Worcester, Mass., Amelia Collins of Princeton, Mass.,
Ali-Kuli Khan of NewYork City, N. Y., Mountfort Mills of New York City, N. Y., and Siegfried Schopflocher of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, duly chosen by the representatives of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada at the Annual Meeting held at San Francisco, Cahlif.,
on April 29, April 30, May 1, and May 2, 1926, to be the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, with full power to establish a Trust as hereinafter set forth, hereby declare that from this date the powers, responsibilities, rights, privileges and obligations reposed in said National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'í of the United States and
Canada by Bahá'u'lláh, Founderof the Bahá'í Faith, by 'Abdu'l-Bahá its Interpreter and Exemplar, and by Shoghi Effendi, its Guardian, shall be exercised, administered and carried on by the above-named National Spiritual Assembly and their duly qualified successors under this Declaration of Trust.
The National SpiritualAssembly in adopting this form of association, union and fellowship, and in selecting for itself the designation of Trustees of the Baha of the United States and Canada, does so as the administrative body of a religious community which has had continuous existence and responsibility for over eighteen years.
In consequence of these activities the National Spiritual Assembly is called upon to administer such ever-increasing diversity and volume of affairs and properties for the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, that we, its members, now feel it both desirable and necessary to give our cal-lective functions more definite legal form. This action is taken in complete unanimity and with full recognition of the sacred relationship thereby created. We acknowledge in behalf of ourselves and our successors in this Trust the exalted religious standard established by Bahá'u'lláh for Bahá'í administrative bodies in the utterance: "Be ye Trustees of the Merciful One among men"; and seek the help of God and His guidance in order to fulfill that exhortation. April 4, 1927
RESOLUTION BY THEWHEREAS the first Annual Convention of the Bahá'ís of Canada, on April 24, 1948 duly elected the
National Spiritual Assemblyof the Bahá'ís of Canada; and WHEREAS the fortieth Annual Convention of the Bahá'ís of the United States on April 30, 1948 duly elected the
National Spiritual Assemblywere duly authorized by the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and empowered by the Bahá'í administrative principles to elect their respective National Spiritual Assemblies; and WHEREAS in consequence of the foregoing it is now necessary to amend the
Declaration of Trustby the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States that from the date of its election, April 30, 1948, said Assembly shall henceforth exercise within the United States, its territories and dependencies, all the functions and powers formerly vested in the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, as successor body thereto, and hold title to and possession of all funds,
Page 212properties and trusts of national Bahá'í character existing within the United States, its territories and dependencies on and after April 30, 1948; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVEDthat the Declaration of Trust by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada as adopted at New York, N. Y., on April 4, 1927, other than the Preamble thereto, and its ByLaws as from time to time amended be and the same hereby are amended by substituting the name
"National Spiritual Assemblyof the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada" wherever the same appears therein, and by delet-lug the words "and Canada" wherever such words now appear in said
Declaration of Trustand ByLaws; that said ByLaws be further amended by deleting the word "Provinces" and the word "Province" wherever the same appear and by substituting for the word "Pro-vince" in Section 2 of Article VIII the words
"Territory or Federaland ByLaws shall henceforth be the Dee-laration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States.
DOROTHY K. Biucni, Chairman PAUL E. HANEY, Vice-Chairman
HORACE HOLLEr, SecretaryThe name of said Trust shall be the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United
States.Sharing the ideals and assisting the efforts of our fellow Bahá'ís to establish, uphold and promote the spiritual, educational and humanitarian teachings of human brotherhood, radiant faith, exalted character and selfless love revealed in the lives and utterances of all the Prophets and Messen gers of God, Founders of the world's revealed religions � and given renewed creative energy and universal application to the conditions of this age in the life and utterances of Bahá'u'lláh � we declare the purposes and objects of this Trust to be to administer the affairs of the Cause & Bahá'u'lláh for the benefit of the Bahá'ís of the United States according to the principles of Bahá'í affiliation and administration created and established by Bahá'u'lláh, defined and explained by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and ampli-fled and applied by Shoghi Effendi and his duly constituted successor and successors under the provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
These purposes are to be realized by means of devotional meetings; by public meetings and conferences of an educational, humanitarian and spiritual character; by the publication of books, magazines and newspapers; by the construction of temples of universal worship and of other institutions and edifices for humanitarian service; by supervising, unifying, promoting and generally administering the activities of the Bahá'ís of the United States in the fulfillment of their religious offices, duties and ideals; and by any other means appropriate to these ends, or any of them.
Other purposes and objects of this Trust are: a. The right to enter into, make, perform and carry out contracts of every sort and kind for the furtherance of the objects of this Trust with any person, firm, association, corporation, private, public or municipal or body politic, or any state, territory or colony thereof, or any foreign government: and in this connection, and in all transactions under the terms of this trust, to do any and all things which a copartnership or natural person could do or exercise, and which now or hereafter may be authorized by law.
b. Ta hold and be named as beneficiary under any trust established by law or otherwise or under any will or other testamentary instru
Page 213THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 213
First European Session, International Bahá'í School, Temerity Ranch, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1947.
First Session Bahá'í Summer School, Loncoche, Chile � ~ Party for Mothers and Children, 1947.
Page 214ment in connection with any gift, devise, or bequest in which a trust or trusts is or are established in any part of the world as well as in the United States; to receive gifts, devises or bequests of money or other property.
c. All and whatsoever the several purposes and objects set forth in the written utterances of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, under which certain jurisdiction, powers and rights are granted to National Spiritual
Assemblies.d. Generally to do all things and acts which in the judgment of said Trustees, i.e., the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís ot the United States, are necessary, pro � per and advantageous to promote the complete and successful administration of this
Trust.SECnoN 1. All persons, firms, corporations and associations extending credit to, contracting with or having any claim against the Trustees, i.e., the National Spiritual Assembly, and the members thereof, of any character whatsoever, whether legal or equitable and whether arising out of contract or tort, shall look solely to the funds of the Trust and to the property of the Trust estate for payment or indemnity, or for the payment of any debt, damage, judgment or decree or any money that may otherwise become due or payable from the Trustees, so that neither the Trustees nor any of them, nor any of their officers or agents appointed by them hereunder, nor any beneficiary or beneficiaries herein named shall be personally liable therefor.
SECnoN 2. Every note, bond, proposal, obligation or contract in writing or other agreement or instrument made or given under this Trust shall be explicitly executed by the National Spiritual Assembly, as Trustees by their duly authorized officers or agents.
ARTICLE IVThe Trustees, i.e., the National Spiritual Assembly, shall adopt for the conduct of the affairs entrusted to them under this Declaration of Trust, such bylaws, rules of procedure or regulations as are required to define and carry on its own administrative functions and those of the several local and other elements composing the body of the Bahá'ís of the United States, not inconsistent with the terms of this instrument and all in accordance with the explicit instructions given us to date by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, which instructions are already known to the Bahá'ís of the United States and accepted by them in the government and practice of their religious affairs.
ARTICLE VThe central office of this Trust shall be located in the Village of Wilmette, State of Illinois, United States of America, the site of the Bahá'í House of Worship.
ARTICLE VTThe seal of this Trust shall be circular in form, bearing the following description:
National Spiritual Assemblymay be amended by majority vote of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of the United States at any special meeting duly called for that purpose, provided that at least thirty (30) days prior to the date fixed for said meeting a copy of the proposed amendment or amendments is mailed to each member of the Assembly by the Secretary.
Page 215THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 215
BYLAWS OF THEAssembly, in the fulfillment of its sacred duties under this Trust, shall have exclusive jurisdiction and authority over all the activities and affairs of the Bahá'í Cause throughout the United States, including paramount authority in the administration of this Trust. It shall endeavor to stimulate, unify and coordinate the manifold activities of the local Spiritual Assemblies (hereinafter defined) and of individual Bahá'ís in the United States and by all possible means assist them to promote the oneness of mankind.
It shall be charged with the recog-nitiori of such local Assemblies, the scrutiny of all membership rolls, the calling of the Annual Meeting or special meetings and the seating of delegates to the Annual Meeting and their apportionment among the various electoral districts. It shall appoint all national Bahá'í committees and shall supervise the publication and distribution of Bahá'í literature, the reviewing of all writings pertaining to the Bahá'í Cause, the construction and administration of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and its accessory activities, and the collection and disbursement of all funds for the carrying on of this Trust. It shall decide whether any matter lies within its own jurisdiction or within the jurisdiction of any local Spiritual Assembly. It shall, in such cases as it considers suitable and necessary, entertain appeals from the decisions of local Spiritual Assemblies and shall have the right of final decision in all cases where the qualification of an individual or group for continued voting rights and membership in the Bahá'í body is in question. It shall furthermore represent the Bahá'ís of the United States in all their cooperative and spiritual activities with the Bahá'ís of other lands, and shall constitute the sole electoral body of the United States in the formation of the Universal House of Justice provided for in the Sacred Writings of the Bahá'í Cause. Above all, the National Spiritual Assembly shall ever seek to attain that station of unity in devotion to the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh which will attract the confirmations of the Holy Spirit and enable the Assembly to serve the founding of the Most Great Peace. In all its deliberation and action the National Assembly shall have constantly before it as Divine guide and standard the utterance of Bahá'u'lláh: � "It behooveth them (i.e., Spiritual Assemblies) to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to consider themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth.
It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly."
ARTICLE IIThe Bahá'ís of the United States, for whose benefit this Trust is maintained, shall consist of afl persons resident in the several States, Territories or Federal Districts of the United States who are accepted by the National Spiritual Assembly as fulfilling the requirements of membership in the Bahá'í Community under the following qualifications set forth by the Guardian of the
Faith:a. Full recognition of the station of the Báb as Forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh as Author and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá as True Exemplar of the Bahá'í religion; unreserved acceptance of, and submission to whatsoever has been revealed by
Page 216their Pen; loyal and steadfast adherence to every clause of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í sacred Will; and close association with the spirit as well as the form of
Bah~ 'i Administrationc. Dedaration of faith to, and enrollment by, the local Spir~tua1 Assembly if resident in the area of jurisdiction of any local Assembly recognized by the National Spiritual
Assembly.d. Declaration of faith to the National Spiritual Assembly on the membership form provided for those residing outside any such area of local Bahá'í jurisdiction.
ARTICLE IIIThe National Assembly shall consist of nine members chosen from among the Bahá'ís of the United States, who shall be elected by the said Bahá'ís in manner hereinafter provided, and who shall continue in office for the period of one year, or until their successors shall be elected.
ARTICLE IVThe officers of the National Spiritual Assembly shall consist of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, and such other officers as may be found necessary for the proper conduct of its affairs. The officers shall be elected by a majority vote of the Assembly taken by secret ballot.
ARTICLE VThe first meeting of a newly-elected National Assembly shall be called by the member elected to membership by the highest number of votes or, in case two or more members have received the same said highest number of votes, then by the member selected by lot from among those members; and this member shall preside until the permanent Chairman Thall be chosen. All subsequent meetings shall be called by the Secretary of the Assembly at the request of the Chairman or, in his absence or incapacity, of the Vice-Chairman, or of any three members of the Assembly; provided, however, that the Annual Meeting of the Assembly shall be h&d at time and place to be fixed by a majority vote of the Assembly, as hereinafter provided.
ARTICLE VIFive members of the National Assembly present at a meeting shall constitute a quorum, and a majority vote of those present and constituting a quorum shall be sufficient for the conduct of business, except as otherwise provided in these ByLaws, and with due regard to the principle of unity and cordial fellowship involved in the institution of a Spiritual Assembly. The transactions and decisions of the National Assembly shall be recorded at each meeting by the Secretary, who shall supply copies of the minutes to the Assembly members after each meeting, and preserve the minutes in the official records of the Assembly.
ARTICLE VIIWhenever in any locality of the United States, be it municipality, township or county, the number of Bahá'ís resident therein recognized by the National Spiritual Assembly exceeds nine, these may on April 21st of any year convene and elect by plurality vote a local administrative body of nine members, to be known as the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of that community. Every such Spiritual Assembly shall be elected annually thereafter upon each successive 21st day of April. The members shall hold office for the term of one year and until their successors are elected and qualified.
When, however, the number of Bahá'ís in any authorized civil area is exactly nine, these may on April 21st of any year, or in successive years, constitute themselves the local Spiritual Assembly by joint declaration.
Upon the recording of such declaration by the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, said body of nine shall be
Page 217THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 217
come established with the rights, privileges and duties of a local Spiritual Assembly as set forth in this instrument.
SF~C'rION 1. Each newly-elected local Spiritual Assembly shall at once proceed in the manner indicated in Articles IV and V of these ByLaws to the election of its officers, who shall consist of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, and such other officers as the Assembly finds necessary for the conduct of its business and the fulfillment of its spiritual duties.
Immediately thereafter the Secretary chosen shall transmit to the Secretary of the National Assembly the names of the members of the newly-elected Assembly and a list of its officers.
SEonoN 2. The general powers and duties of a local Spiritual Assembly shall be as set forth in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh,
'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.SECTION 3. Among its more specific duties, a local Spiritual Assembly shall have full jurisdiction of all Bahá'í activities and affairs within the local community, subject, however, to the exclusive and paramount authority of the National Spiritual Assembly as defined herein.
SEcTIoN 4. Vacancies in the membership of a local Spiritual Assembly shall be filled by election at a special meeting of the local Bahá'í community duly called for that purpose by the Assem-My. In the event that the number of Vacancies exceeds four, making a quorum of the local Assembly impossible, the election shall be held under the supervision of the National Spiritual Assembly.
SEcnoN 5. The business of the local Assembly shaH be conducted in like manner as provided for the deliberations of the National Assembly in Article VT above.
SECTION 6. The local Assemblyshall pass upon and approve the qualifications of each member of the Bahá'í community before such members shall be admitted to voting membership; but where an individual is dissatisfied with the ruling of the local Spiritual
Assembly upon his Bahá'í qualifications, such individual may appeal from the ruling to the National Assembly, which shall thereupon take jurisdiction of and finally decide the case.
SEcTION '7. On or before the 1st day of November of each year the Secretary of each local Assembly shall send to the Secretary of the National Assembly a duly certified list of the voting members of the local Bahá'í community for the information and approval of the National Assembly.
SECTION 8. All matters arising within a local Bahá'í community which are of purely local interest and do not affect the national interests of the Cause shall be under the primary jurisdiction of the Spiritual Assembly of that locality; but decision whether a particular matter involves the interest and welfare of the national Bahá'í body shall rest with the National Spiritual
Assembly.SECTION 9. Any member of a local Bahá'í community may appeal from a decision of his Spiritual Assembly to the National Assembly, which shall determine whether it shall take jurisdiction of the matter or leave it to the local Spiritual Assembly for reconsideration. Tn the event that the National Assembly assumes jurisdiction of the matter, its finding shall be final.
SECTION 10. Where any dissension exists within a local Bahá'í community of such character that it cannot be remedied by the efforts of the local Spiritual Assembly, this condition shall be referred by the Spiritual Assembly for consideration to the National Spiritual Assembly, whose action in the rnat~ ter shall be final.
SFCTION ii. All questions arising between two or more local Spiritual As~ semblies, or between members of different Bahá'í communities, shall be submitted in the first instance to the National Assembly, which shall have original and final jurisdiction in all such matters.
SECnoN 12. The sphere of jurisdiction of a local Spiritual Assembly, with respect to residential qualification of membership, and voting rights of a believer in any Baha community,
Page 218Students and teachers at the South American Bahá'í Summer School in Santiago, Chile, are shown in the garden of the school. Delegates and visitors from eight South American countries assisted at the second annual BaM 'i Congress of that continent and attended the summer school sessions afterward.
Artemus Lamb is shown seated at right of first row.
shall be the locality included within the civil limits of the municipality, township or county.
All differences of opinion concerning the sphere of jurisdiction of any local Spiritual Assembly or concerning the affiliation of any Bahá'í or group of Bahá'ís in the United States shall be referred to the National Spiritual Assembly, whose decision in the matter shall be final.
ARTICLE VIIIThe members of the National Spiritual Assembly shall be elected at an annual meeting to be known as the National Convention of the Bahá'ís of the
United States. This Conventionshall be held at a time and place to be fixed by the National Assembly.
The National Conventionshall be composed jointly of representatives chosen by the Bahá'ís of each
State, Territory or FederalDistrict under the principle of proportionate representation, and the members of the
National Spiritual Assembly.Notice of the annual meeting shall be given by the National Assembly sixty days in advance in the Convention Call which sets forth the number of delegates assigned to the various electoral units in proportion to the number of Bahá'ís resident in each such unit, to a total number of one hundred seventy-one delegates for the Bahá'ís of the United States.
SECIION 1. All delegates to the Convention shall be elected by plurality vote.
Bahá'ís who for illness or other unavoidable reasons are unable to be present at the election in person shall have the right to transmit their ballots to the meeting by mail.
The meeting held in eachfor the election of delegates shall be called by the National Spiritua] Assembly and conducted by the Baha 'is present under whatever procedure may be uniformly laid down by said body. Immediately after the meeting a certi fled report of the election containing the name and address of each delegate shall be transmitted to the
National Spiritual Assembly.THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 219
Wide lawns and beautiful gardens are a feature of the first Latin American Bahá'í Summer School opened at Ezeiza, near Buenos Aires, Argentina. The gardens have been lovingly planted and tended by Sr. Salvador Tormo and his wife, who have donated them to the Cause. The picture shows some of the delegates to the Buenos Aires Conference meeting at Ezeiza. The first formal summer school sessions were held there in January, 1947.
SEcroN 2. All delegates to be seated at the Convention must be recognized Bahá'ís and residents of the
State, Territory or FederalSECTION 3. The rights and privileges of a delegate may not be assigned nor may they be exercised by proxy.
SECTION 4. The recognition and seating of delegates to the National Convention shall be vested in the
National Spiritual Assembly.SEcTIoN 5. Delegates unable to be present in persoh at the Convention shall have the right to transmit their ballots for election of the members of the National Assembly under whatever procedure is adopted by the National body.
SEcTION 6. If in any year the National Spiritual Assembly shall consider that it is impracticable or unwise to assemble together the delegates to the National Convention, the said Assembly shall provide ways and means by which the annual election and the other essential business of the Convention may be conducted by mail.
SEcnoN '7. The presiding officer of the National Spiritual Assembly present at the Convention shall call together the delegates, who after roll call shall proceed to the permanent organization of the meeting, electing by ballot a chairman, a secretary and such other officers as are necessary for the proper conduct of the business of the
Convention.SmertoN 8. The principal business of the annual meeting shall be consultation on Bahá'í activities, plans and policies, and the election of the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly.
Members of the National Assembly, whether or not elected delegates, may take a full part in the consultation and discussion but only delegates may participate in the election of Convention officers or in the annual election of the members of the national
Page 220body. All action by the delegates, other than the organization of the Convention, the transmission of messages to the Guardian and the election of the National Assembly, shall constitute advice and recommendation for consideration by the said Assembly, final decision on all matters concerning the affairs of the Bahá'í Faith in the United States being vested solely in that body.
SECTIoN 9. The general order of business to be taken up at the Annual Convention shall be prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly in the form of an agenda, but any matter pertaining to the Bahá'í Faith introduced by any of the delegates may upon motion and vote be taken up as part of the Convention deliberations.
SECnoN 10. The election of the members of the National Spiritual Assembly shall be by plurality vote of the delegates recognized by the outgoing National Spiritual Assembly, i.e., the members elected shall be the nine persons receiving the greatest number of votes on the first ballot cast by delegates present at the Convention and delegates whose ballot has been trans-rnittecl to the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly by mail. In case, by reason of a tie vote or votes, the full membership is not determined on the first ballot, then one or more additional ballots shall be taken on the persons tied until all nine members are elected.
SECUoN 11. All official business transacted at the National Convention shall be recorded and preserved in the records of the
National Assembly.in the membership of the National Spiritual Assembly shall be filled by a plurality vote of the delegates composing the Convention which elected the Assembly, the ballot to be taken by correspondence or in any other manner de~ cided upon by the
National Spiritual Assembly.Assembly has been given in these ByLaws exclusive and final jurisdiction, and paramount executive authority, in all matters pertaining to the activities and affairs of the Bahá'í Cause in the United States, it is understood that any decision made or action taken upon such matters shall be subject in every instance to ultimate review and approval by the Guardian of the Cause or the Universal House of Justice.
ARTICLE XWhatever functions and powers are not specifically attributed to local Spiritual Assemblies in these ByLaws shall be considered vested in the National Spiritual Assembly, which body is authorized to delegate such discretionary functions and powers as it deems necessary and advisable to the local Spiritual Assemblies within its jurisdiction.
ARTICLE XIIn order to preserve the spiritual character and purpose of Baha elections, the practice of nominations or any other electoral method detrimental to a silent and prayerful election shall not prevail, so that each elector may vote for none but those whom prayer and reflection have inspired him to uphold.
Among the most outstanding and sacred duties incumbent upon those who have been called upon to initiate. direct and coordinate the affairs of the Cause as members of local or national Spiritual Assemblies are: � To win by every means in their power the confidence and affection of those whom it is their privilege to serve; to investigate and acquaint themselves with the considered views, the prevailing sentiments and the personal convictions of those whose welfare it is their solemn obligation to promote; to purge their deliberations and the general conduct of their affairs of selfcontained aloofness, the suspicion of secrecy, the stifling atmosphere of dictatorial assertiveness and of every word and deed that may savor of partiality, seif-centeredness and prejudice; and while retaining the sacred right of final decision in their hands, to invite discussion, ventilate grievances, wel
Page 221come advice, and foster the sense of interdependence and copartnership, of understanding and mutual confidence between themselves and all other Baha'is.
ART1CL~ XIIThese ByLaws may be amended by majority vote of the
National Spiritual Assemblyat any of its regu1a~r or spe cial meetings, provided that at least fourteen days prior to the date fixed for the said meeting a copy of the proposed amendment or amendments is mailed to each member of the Assembly by the
Secretary.include all amendments adopted by the National Spiritual Assembly to July 16, 194g.
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Page 228THE DECLARATION OF TRUST AND BYLAWS OF THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ'ÍS OF GERMANY AND AUSTRIAAm6lie (T&hirih) Sehwarz-Solivo, Stuttgart, em kiliren hiermit als der dureli die Abge-ordneten der
Bahá'í in Deutschlandund Osterreich anlasslich der Jabrestagung in Stuttgart ani 22. April 1934 ordnungs-m5ssig gewahite und mit alien
Voll-machten zur Errichtungder naclifolgen-den Treuhandschaft ausgestattete Na-tionale
Geistige Rat der Bahá'íin Deutschlamcl und bsterreich, dass voni heutigen Tage an die diesem Rate dureli Bahá'u'lláh, den Begriinder des Bahh'i-Glaubens, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, den Ausleger und das Vorbild, und Shoghi Effendi, den Htiter desselben, iibertragenen Be-fugnis se, Verantwortlichkeiten, 1{echte, Vorreclite und Pflichten von denii var-genannten
Nationalen GeistigenRat und semen ordnungsmtissig besteilten Nach-folgern gamass dieser Treuhandschaft-serkliirung ausgeiibt, verwalter und fortgeftihrt werden sollen.
Die Annalime dieser Formdes Zu. sammensehiusses, der Vereinigung und Gemeinsehaft, unci die Zulegung der Bezeichnung als TreuMnder der Bahá'í in Deutschland und bsterreich erfolgt durch den Nationalen Geistigen Rat als dem seit mehr als dreiundzwanzig Jahren bestehenden und verantwort-lichen Verwaltungsk6rper einer
Reli-gionsgemeinschaft.Rat die Pflicht zur Verwaltimg der sffindig mannigfacher und umfan-greicher wercienden
Angelegenheitenund bsterreich, weshaib wir als dessen Mitglieder es fUr wflnseb-enswert und notwendig erachten, unserer gemeins amen Thtigkeit elne fester umrissene, gesetzm5ssige Form zu geben. Wir tun dies in v6lliger Em-mfitigkeit und in voller Erkenntnis der damit geschaffen heiligen Bindung. Wir anerkennen fUr uns und unsere Nachfolger in dieser Treuhandschaft die erhabene religidse Richtschnur, die flir Baha'fVerwaltungskdrperschaften in dern Worte Bahá'u'lláh's zum Aus-druck kommt: ,,Seid
Treuhander des Barmherzigentufter den Mensohen", und suchen den Beistand Gottes und Seine Fiihrung, damit wir clieser Er-mahnung folgen kdnnen.
ARImEL IDie genannte Treuhandgerneinschaft ftihrt die Bezeichnung, , ,der
Nationale Geistige RatWir teilen die Ideale tmserer Mit-Bahá'í und arbeiten init ihnen an der Aufriebtung, Erhaltung und Fdrderung der geistigen, erziehlichen und mensch-enfreundlichen Lehren mensehijeher Brudersehaft, strahienden Glaubens, erhabenen Charakters und seibstioser Liebe, wie sie im Leben und in den Ausserungen aller Propheten und
Page 229THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 229
Bahá'í Summer School, Esslingen, Germany, August, 1949.
Botschafter Gottes, derin der Welt, geoffenbart und mit erneuter Kraft und allumfassender Geltung fUr die Gege-benheiten dieses Zeitalters durch das Leben und die Worte Bahá'u'lláh's ver-kiindet worden sind. Wir erkliiren
Ms Zweck und Gegenstanddieser Treu-handgemeinschaft die Verwaltung der Angelengenheiten der Sache Bahá'u'lláh's zum Besten der Bahá'í in Deutschland und t5sterreich gamass den von Bahá'u'lláh geschaffenen und eingefiihrten, von 'Abdu'l-Bahá naher bestimniten und erlijuterten und von Shoghi Effendi und dessen nach dem Willen rn-id Testament 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í ordnungsmassig eingesetzten Nachfol-ger und Nachfolgern erweiterten und angewandten Grundsatzen fUr die Bahh'i-Zugeh5rigkeit und -Verwaltung.
Der Erfihiung dieses Zweckessollen Andachtszusamniienkiinfte, 6ffentliche Vers ammiungen und Zusammenkiinfte erziehlichen, menschenfreundlichen und geistigen
Charakters, die VerdfTentlich-ungvon Bfichern, Zeitschriften und Zeitungen, die Errichtung von Tempein ailgemeiner Anbetung und anderer Em-richtungen und Bauten flir menschen freundliche Dienste, die tiberwachung, Vereinheitlichung, Fdrderung und all-gemeine
Verwaltung der Angelegenhei-tender Bahá'í in Deutschland und bs-terreich in Erftillung ilirer religidsen Dienste, Pflichten unci Ideale, sowie jedes sonstige diesen Zielen oder einem von ihnen f6rderliche Mittel dienen.
Weiterer Zweck unci Gegenstanddie-ser Treuhandgemeinschaft isP a. das Reeht, mit irgendwelchen Per-sonen, Unternehmungen, Vereinig-ungen, privaten, 5ffentlichen oder gemeindlichen
Kdrperschaften, dem Staatoder irgendwelchen seiner L~inder, Gebiete oder Ko-lonien oder mit irgeridweichen fremden Regierungen in jeder Art und Weise Vertr~ge abzuschlies-sen, zu voliziehen und zu erfijilen, die zur Fbrderurxg der Ziele dieser Treuhandschaft dienen, und im Zusammenhang damit und bei alien Verrichtungen, die im Rab-men dieser Treubandschaft erfol-gem, alles und jedes zu tun, was eine Gesellschaft oder nattirliche Person zu tun oder auszuiiben ver-mag und was gegenw~rtig oder
Page 230b. bei alien durch Gesetz oder anders-wie errichteten
Verbiinden oder NachThssenmit Schenkungen, Vermacht-nissen oder Auflassungen jeder Art, in weichen em oder mehrere Treuh~nder in irgend elnem Teil der Welt sowohi als auch in Deutschland und i5sterreich be-steilt werden, aufzutreten und als empfangsberechtigt zu gelten und Schenkungen,
Vermachtnisse oder Auflassungenin Geld oder sonsti-gen Vermbgenswerten anzuneh-men, c. alles und was immer in den schrift-lichen Ausserungen Bahá'u'lláh's, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's, Shoghi Effendi's und seiner ordnungsm~ssigen Nachfolger, durch die den Nation-alen Geistigen Riiten gewisse Spruchrechte,
Befugnisse und Ge-rechtsamegewThrt sind, an ver-schiedenen Zwecken und Zielen niedergelegt ist, d. gemeinhin alles zu tun und zu be-wirken, was nach Ansiclit der be-nannten Treuhander d. h. des Nationalen
Geistigen Rates der Bahá'íin Deutschland and ~ister-reich zur FtSrderung der vo11st~in-digen und erfoigreichen Verwalt-ung dieser Treuhanagemeinsehaft erforderlich, geeignet und von Vorteil ist.
Aaiixrn~ IIIchaften und Verein-igungen gegenfiber, die den TreulThnd-en-i d. h. dem Nationalen Geistigen Rat und den Mitgliedern desselben in ihrer Elgensehaft als soiche Kredit ge-wThren, Vertr~ge mit ihnen schijessen oder irgendwelche Ansprflche gegen Me, gleichviel weicher Art, ob rechtlich oder billig, zu Recht oder zu Unrecht, haben, gilt lediglich das Treuhandver-mbgen wad der Treuhandbesitz als Masse fUr Zahiung ader Sieherstellung bezw.
fUr die Begleichung irgendwelch er Schulden, Ersatzansprilche,
Auflagen und Bescheideoder irgendwelcher Betriige, die in sonstiger Weise seitens der Treuhiinder gesehuldet oder zahibar werden k5nnten, sodass waler die Treu-hander, noch irgendeiner von ihnen, noch irgendeiner ihrer kraft dieses ernannten Beaniten oder Beauftragten, noch irgendwelche hierin genannte Berechtigte, set es einzeln oder gemein-sam, persdnlich dafflr haften.
2. Abschnitt. Alle Bescheinigungen, Schuldanerkenntnisse, Antr~ge, schrift-lichen Verpflichtungen und Vertr~ge oder sonstigen Vereinbarungen und Urkunden, die im Rahmen dieser Treu-handsc,haft getroffen oder gegeben wer-den, werden ausdriicklich vom Nation-len Geistigen Rat als Treuhiinder dureli dessen ordnungsm~issig erm~cht-igte Beamte und Beaufragte volizogen.
AR'rIKEL TVDie Treuh~nder, d. h. cler Nationale Geistige Rat, nehrnen fUr die Durch-ffihrung Jet ihm in die ser Treuhand-schaftserkliirung anvertrauten Oblie-genheiten die zur Festlegung und Erie-digung der elgenen Verwaltungsaufga-ben wie auch derjenigen der versehie-denen brtllichen und sonstigen Glieder-ungen, die die Bahá'í in Deutschland und Osterreich verkdrpern, erforder-lichen Satzungen,
Bestimmungen und Dienstvorschriftengemtiss den Zwecken dieser Einrichtung unci in tTherein-stimmung mit den seitherigen aus-drllcklichen, den Bahá'í in Dentschland und bsterreich bereits bekannten und von ihnen in der Fflhrung und Handhab-ung ihrer religi5sen Angelegenheiten ilbernommen Weistmgen Shoghi Effendi's, des Hflters des Bah&'i-Glaubens, an.
ARTJICEL Vdieser Tieu-handgemeinschaft befindet sich an dern-jenigen Ort, tIer durch den Nationalen Geistigen Rat von Zeit zu Zeit be-stimmt wird.
Aimia VIschaft besitzt runde Form und zeigt folgende Inschrift:
Der Nationale Geistigekann durch absoluten Mehrheitsbeschluss des Nationalen Geistigen
Rats der Bahá'íin Deutschland und bsterreich in jeder besondern Versammiung, die zu cliesem Zwecke ordnungsm~ssig einberufen worden 1st, erg~nzt werden, voraus-gesetzt, dass mindestens dreissig Tage vor dern fUr die Versammiung festge-setzten Zeitpunkt eine Abs chrift der vorgesohia genen Erg~nziing oder Er-ganzungen an jedes Ratsmitglied durch den Sekretar mittels eingeschriebenen Briefes versandt wird.
SATZUNG DES NATIONALEN GEISTIGEN RATSRat besitzt in Erfflhlung seiner geheiligten Pflichten im II abmen dieses TreuhandverMit-nisses aussehilessliches Spruch-und und Hoheitsreich fiber alle Veranstaltungen und Angelegenheiten der Bahá'u'lláh in
Deutschland und Osterreichunter Einschluss der Oberhoheit in bezug auf die Verwaltung dieser Treuhandschaft. Er soil darnach streben, die (nachste-bend er1~uterte)
Arbeit der 6rtlichen Geistigenanzuspornen, zusammenzu-fassen und gleiehzurichten, und sie in jeder nur mbglichen Weise in der Fdr-derung der Einheit der Menschheit unterstiitzen.
Ihm obliegt die Aner-kennung derartiger brtlicher Rftte, die Prilfund der brtlichen Mitgliederrollen, die
Einberufung der Jahrestagungoder besonderer Versammiungen und die Einsetzung der
Abgeordneten zur Jah-restagungund ihre ziffernmassige Ver-teilung auf die versehiedenen BahA'i-Gemeinden. Er ernennt s~mt1iche na-tionalen Bah&'i-Aussehi5sse and iiber-wacht die Verdffentlichung rn-id Ver-teilung yam BahA'i-Schrifttum, die tYberprflfung aller die Bahá'u'lláh betreffenden Schriften, den Bau und die Verwaltung des ailgemeinen Mashriqu'l-Adhkar's und seiner Nebenein-richtungen und die Erhebung und
Ver-wendung aller Gelderzur Fortfiihrung dieser Treuhandschaft. Er entscheidet, ob irgendwelche Angelegenheiten dem Bereiche seines eigenen Spruchrechtes oder demjenigen eines drtlichen Geisti-gen Rates angehdren. Er nimmt in F5ilen, die ihm geeignet unci notwendig erseheinen,
Berufungen aus Entscheid-ungen5rtlicher Geistiger lThte an und besitzt das Recht zur endgiiltigen Ent-scheidung in alien FThillen, in denen die Befiihigung elnes Einzelnen oder eli-mr Gruppe, stUndig das Wahlrecht auszu-Then oder Mitglied der Bah&'i-Gemein-schaft zu sein, in Frage steht.
Er ver-tritt die 13ah4'i in Deutschland und Osterreich fiberall, wo es sich urn die Zusammenarbeit und geistige Best~itig-irng mit den Bahá'í anderer Hinder handelt, und bildet das alleinige Wahi-organ der Bahá'í in Deutschland und tisterreich bat Schaffung des in den heiligen Schriften der Sache vorge-sehenen Universalen Hauses der Ge-rechtigkeit. Var allem aber soil der Nationale Geistige Rat stets jene Stufe der Einheit in Ergebenheit, gegentYber der Offenbarung Bahá'u'lláh's erstre-ben, die die Best~itigung des Heiligen Geistes anzieht und den Rat zum Dienste an der Begrflndung des Gr6ss-ten Friedens ftihig machen wird. Bei alien semen Beratungen und Handlun-gen soil der Nationale Geistige Rat als gdttllchen Fflhrer und Masstab stiindig die
Ausserung Bahá'u'lláh'svor Augen haben: ,,Es geziemt ihnen. (d. h. den Geis-tigen R~iten), die Vertrauten des Barmherzigen unter den Menschen zu
Page 232gem mA slit fUr Gottes auserwahite Hfltter von allem, was auf Erden 1st, zu halten. Es obliegt ihnen, mitein-ander zu beraten und auf die l3elange der Diener Gottes acht zu haben, urn Seiner Selbst willen, wie sie auf die eigenen Belange achten, und das zu wLihlen, was geziemend ist und schicklich."
ARIIKEL ITerrichtet ist, umfassen alle in Deutschland und bsterreich wohn-haften Personen, die vom Nationalen Geistigen Rat als den Erforciernissen zurn stimmberechtigten Mitglied einer ]3ahA'i-Gemeinde genilgend anerkannt sind.
Wer stimmberechtigteswerclen will, muss a. in dem Ortsgebiet wohnen, das durch den Rechtsbereich des 6rt-lichen Geistigen Rates gemUss dem zweiten
Abschnitt des Artikels VIIdieser Satzung bestimmt ist, b. das einundzwanzigste Lebensjahr vollendet haben, c. zur Zufriedenheit des brtlichen Geistigen Rates, die zon der Zu-stimmung durch den Nationalen Geistigen Rat abhiingt, dargetan haben, dass er den folgenden BaM'i-Glaubensforderungen und -brauchen geniigt: voile Anerkenrnmg der Stufe des Vorlaufers (des
Bab), des Begrfind-ers(Bahá'u'lláh's) und 'Abdu'l-Bahá's, des Erkilirers und wahren Vorbildes des BaM'f-Glaubens, vorbehaitlos e Annahme von allem, was durch ihre Feder geofTenbart ist, und Unterwerfung darunter. treues und standhaftes Festhalten an alien Teilen des geheiligten Willens 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í und enge Verbunclenheit sowohi mit dem Geiste als auch mit der Form tier gegenw~rtigen BahA'i-Verwaltung in cler Welt.
ARTIKEL IIIRat bestelit aus neun aus deni Kreise der Bahá'í in Deutschland und Osterreich gew~h1ten Mitgliedern, die von den genannten Bahá'í in der welter unten beschrieb-enen Weise gewahit werden und fib die Dauer eines Jahres oder Ms zur WaN ihrer Naclifolger im Amte bleiben.
ARTIREL IVGeistigen Rates be. stehen aus einem \Torsitzer, steiNer-tretenden Vorsitzer,
Sekretiir und Rech-neran Ancitern flir nbtig eraclitet wfrd. Die gesclThfts-ftihrenden Mitglieder werden mit ab-soluter Stimmenmehrheit durch siimt-liche Ratsmitg~ieder in geheimer Ab-stimmung gew~ih1t.
Awrn~Er. Vdes neuge-w~h1ten Nationalen Geistigen Rates wird durch dasienige Mitglied em-berufen, das bel der Wahi die h5chste Stimmenzahl erhalten hat, oder, soweit zwei oder mehrere Mitgliecler die gleiche Stimmenzahl aufweisen, durch das unter diesen ausgeloste Mitglied. Theses Mitglied fiihrt den Vorsitz bis zur Wahi des sffindigen Vorsitzers. Alle folgenden Sitzungen werden durch den Sekretar des rates auf
Ersuehen des Vorsitzersoder, bel dessen Abwes-enheit ocler Verhinderung des steilver-tretenden Vorsitzers oder drejer be-liebiger Ratsmitglieder einberufen, wo-bet jedoch die Jahrestagung, wie web terhin festgelegt, in bezug auf Zeit-punkt und OrL von der Versammiung durch absoluten Mehrheitsbeschluss festgelegt wird.
Arn'ncEL VIRat 1st be-schlussThhig, sobald filuf Mitglieder desselben in einer Sitzung anwesenci sind, und die durch diese gefassten, absoluteri
Mehrheitsbeschiiissegelten, soweit nicht diese Satzung em Anderes bestimmt, in gebiihrendem llinblick auf den in der Einrichtung der geistigen R~ite enthalterien
Grundsatz der EmTHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 233
First Swiss Bahá'í Summer School, 1947.heit und aufrichtigen Gemeinsehaft als ausreichenci zur Fiihrung der Geschafte. Die
Verhandlungen und Entscheidun-gen des Nationalen Geistigen Rates sind bei jeder Sitzung durch den Sekre-tar zu protokollieren, der den Ratsmit-gliedern nach jecler Sitzung Abschriften der Protokolle zustelit und die Proto-kolle unter den offiziellen Urkunden des Rates aufbewahrt.
ARTIIKET. VIIWo immer in Deutschland und bster-reich, in einer Stadt oder einer kind-lichen Gemeinde, die Zahi der darin wohnenden, vom Nationalen Geistigen Rat anerkaunten Bahá'í neun Uber-steigt, k5nnen diese am 21. April eines Jahres zusammenkorumen und mit reV ativer Stimmenmehrheit eine iirtliche Verwaltungskdrperschaft von neup Per-sonen als Geistigen Rat der betreffen-den
Gemeinde whhlen. Jedersoiche Geistige Rat wfrd darauf allj5hrlich an jedem folgenden 21. Tag des Aprils gewahit. Die Mitglieder bleiben fUr die Dauer eines Jahres und bis zur Wahi und Benennung ibrer Nachfolger irn Arnte.
Soweit clagegen die Zahi der Baha in elner Gemeinde genau neun betr~gt, kdnnen sich diese am 21. April eines Jabres und in den nachfolgenclen Jabren durch gemeinsame Erkliirung zum brtlichen Geistigen Rat ernennen. Durch Beurkundung einer soichen Erk-liirung seitens des Sekret5rs des Na-tionalen Geistigen Rats gilt der besagte Neunerrat als mit alien Rechten,
Vor-rechten und Pflichteneines drtlichen Geistigen Rates, wie sie in dieser Sat-zung festgelegt sind, eingesetzt.
1. Abschnitt. Jecler neugewilhlte brt-liche Geistige Rat verfflhrt sofort ge-mass den in den Artikein IV und V die-ser Satzung enthaltenen Anweisungen fiber die Wahi seiner gesclThftsfiihren-den Mitgliecler, die aus einem Vorsitz-er, stellvertretenden Vorsitzer, Sekre-tar und Rechner und was der Rat sonst flit die Fiihrung seiner GeschThe und die
Erftiilung seiner GeistigenPffichten an Amtern fUr ndtig erachten mag, bestehen.
Unmittelbar darnach Uber-mittelider gewiihlte Sekreffir dem Sekretiir des Nationalen
Geistigen Rates die Namender Mitglieder des neugewahiten Rates und elne Liste seiner geschaftsfiihrenden Mitglieder.
Page 234elites 6rtlichen Geistigen Rates ergeben sich aus den Schriften Bahá'u'lláh's, 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í und Shoghi
Effendi's.3. Absehnitt. tinter die besonderen Pflichten eines 6rtlichen Geistigen Rates fijilt das voile Spruchrecht
Uber alle Baha 'i-Veranstaltungenunci -Angele-genheiten innerhaib der Gemeinde, un-beschadet der hierin erkliirten aus-schijesslichen
Oberhoheit des National-en4. Abschnitt. Ausscheidende Mitglie-der elnes 6rtlichen Geistigen Rates wer-den auf einer zu diesem Zwecke durch den Rat ordnungsmiissig einberufenen, be son d e r en Gemeindeversammiung durch Wahi erg~nzt. Falls die Zahi der ausscheidenden Mitglieder Wilier als vier ist, sodass die Besch1ussf~higkeit des brlichen Rates entfallt, wird die Wahi unter der
Oberaufsicht des Natia-nalen5. Abschnitt. Die Gesch~fte des tirt-lichen Rates werden in gleicher Weise gefiihrt, xvie oben in Artikel VI fur die Verhandlungen des Nationalen Geistig-en Rates festgelegt ist.
6. Abschnitt. Der brtliche Rat Uber-prfift und anerkennt die Eignung jedes Mitgliedes der Bah&'i-Gemeinde vor dessen Zulassung als wahlberechtigtes Mitglied, doch steht es jedem, der mit dem Befund des
6rtlichen Geistigen RatesUber seine Eignung als Bahá'í unzufrieden 1st, frei, gegen den Befund beim
Nationalen GeistigenRat Bern-fung einzulegen, der den Fall aufgreift und endgiiltig dartiber entscheidet.
7. Abschnitt. Am oder var dem er-sten Tag im Februar jedes Jahres sen-det der Sekretiir jedes 6rlichen Rates dem Sekret~ir des
Nationalen Geistigen Rateselne ordnungsmassig beglaubigte Liste der stimmberechtigten
Mitglieder der Bah&'i-Gemeinde8. Abschnitt. Alle sich innerhaib em-er Bahh'i-Gemeinde ergebenden An-gelegenheiten von rein brtlichen Inter-essen, die nicht die nationalen Belange der Sache beriihren, unterstehen in erster Tnstanz dem Spruchrecht des betreffenden drtlichen Geistigen Rates, doch liegt die Entscheidung darfiber, ob in einem Fall durch die Angelegenheit die Belange und die Wohifalirt der nationalen Bah&'i-Gemeinschaft bertihrt werden, beim
Nationalen Geistigen9. Abschnitt. Jedem Mitglied einer Bah~'i-Gemeinde steht es frel, gegen eine
Entscheidung seines Geistigen Ratesbeim Nationalen Geistigen Rat Berufung einzulegen, der dari.iber be-findet, ob er die Sache zur Entscheid-ung aufgreifen oder sie beim
5rtlichen Geistigen Ratzur nochmaligen Erw~.g-ung belassen will. Greift der Nationale Geistigen Rat die Sache zur Entscheid-ung auf, so ist seine Findung endgiiltig.
10. Abschnitt. Be s teh en innerhaib einer Bah&'i-Gemeinde Meinungsver-schiedenheiten, die nicht durch die Bemiihtmgen des brtlichen Geistigen Rates beigelegt werden k6nnen, so ist die Angelegenheit durch den Geistigen Rat dern Nationalen Geistigen Rate zur Erw~igung zu ilberweisen, dessen Vor-gehen in der Sache dann endgiiltig ist.
11. Abschnitt. Alle Streitfragen zwi-schen zwei oder mehreren brtlichen Geistigen R&ten oder zwischen Mit-gliedern verschiedener Bah&'i-Gemein-den sollen in erster Instanz dem Natio-nalen Geistigen Rate unterbreitet wer-den, dem bei allen derartigen Angele-genheiten das erste und letzte Spruch-recht eigen ist.
12. Absch,rtitt. Der Rechtsbereich der einze]nen 6rtlichen Geistigen Riite in bezug auf die 6rtliche Befindung zur Mitgliedschaft und Wahlberechtigung elnes Glijubigen in einer Bah&'i-Ge-meinde entspricht der durch die ver-waltungsrechtlichen Grenzen elner Stadt oder einer landlichen Geineinde bezeichneten Gemarkung, doch k6nnen Baha'i, die in angrenzenden, abseits liegenden oder vorstThtischen Bezirken wohnen und rege1m~ssig an den Ver-sammiungen der Bah&f-Gemeinden teilzunehmen vermbgen, bis zur Er-richtung eines brtlichen Geistigen Rates in ihrer Heimatgemeinde in die vom angrenzenden
Geistigen Rat gefiihrte Mitgli6derrolleeingeschrieben werden und volles Wahlrecht geniessen.
Page 235THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 235
Alle Auffassungsverschiedenheitenin bezug auf das Rechtsgebiet eines 6rt-lichen Geistigen Rates oder bezUglich der Angliederung irgend elnes Bahá'í oder einer Gruppe in Deutschlancl iand 'isterreich sind dem Nationalen Geisti-gen Rat zu unterbreiten, desen Ent-scheidung in der Sache endghltig ist.
ARTIKFL VIIIdes Natio-nalen Geistigen Rates, auf der die Wahi seiner Mitglieder erfolgt, filhrt die Be-zeichnung Nationaltagung der Bahá'í in Deutschlancl und Osterreich. Zeitpunkt und Ort [fir die Abhaltung bestimmt der Nationale Geistige Rat, der aBe BahA'i-Gemeinden durch ihre Geistigen Rilte sechzig Tage zuvor von der Versamm-lung in Kenntnis setzt. Der
Nationale Geistige Ratteilt jedem Geistigen Rat gleichzeitig die von ibm der Bah Wi-Ge-meinde gemliss dem Grundsatz der Ver-Mltnisvertretung zugeteilte Anzabl von Abgeordneten zur Nationaltagung mit, wobei die Gesamtzahl der Abgeordne-ten, die die Nationaltagung darstellen, neunzehn betragen soil. Nach Empfang dieser Benachrichtigung beruft jeder drtliche Geistige Rat innerhaib elnes angemessenen Zeitraumes und unter Beaclitung ordnungsmassiger und aiis-reichender Ankiindigung eine Ver-sammhing der in seiner Rolle ver-zeicimeten stimmberechtigten Mitglie-der zwecks Wahi ihres oder ihrer Ab-geordneten zur Nationaltagung em, worauf die Sekret~re der einzelnen brt-lichen Geistigen R~ite dem Sekret~r des Nationalen Geistigen Rates sp~testens dreissig Tage vor dern Zeitpunkt der Tagung die Namen und Anschriften der so gewahiten Abgeordneten beseheini-gen.
1. Abschnitt. Alle Tagungsabgeord-neten sind mit relativer Stimmenmehr-heit zu wiihlen. Mitglieder, die durch Krankheit oder andere unvermeidliche Grfinde verhindert sind, an der Wahi pers5nlich teilzunehmen, haben das Recht, ihre Stimme brieflich oder telegrafisch in einer Weise abzugeben, die dem 6rtlichen Geistigen Rat geniigt.
2. Abschnitt. Alle fUr die Tagung einzusetzenden Abgeordneten mtissen als stimmberechtigte Mitglieder der von ilinen vertretenen Bah&'f-Gemein-den eingetragen seTh.
3. Abschnitt. Die Rechte und Vor-rechte der Abgeordneten kdnnen weder iibertragen noch abgetreten werden.
4. Abschnitt. Die Anerkennung und Einsetzung der Abgeordneten zur Na-tionaltagung erfolgt im Nationalen Geistigen
Rate.5. Abschrtitt. Soweit Abgeordnete nicht pers5nlich an tier Tagung teilneli-men kdnnen, haben sie clas Reclit, Mit-glieder des Nationalen Geistigen Rates schriftlich oder telegrafisch vi den yam Nationalen Geistigen flat festzusetzen-den Bedingungen zu wtihlen.
6. Abschnitt. I{~i1t derfUr undurchfUhrbar oder nicht geraten, so setzt der Natio-nale Geistige Rat die Mittel und Wege fur die briefliche oder telegrafisehe DurchfiAhrung der Gesch~fte der Natio-naltagung fest.
7. Abschnitt. Das auf der National-tagung anwesende vorsitzende, ge-sch~ftsfiihrende
Mitglied des Nationalen GeistigenRates ruTh die Abgeordneten ant, die darauf zur endgiiltigen
Ordnung der Versammiungschreiten, elnen Vor-sitzenden, Schriftfflhrer und was welter an Amtern Ni die geeignete Ftihrung der
Geschafte der Tagungerforderlich 8. Abschnitt. Die Hauptaufgabe der Nationaltagung ist die Wahi cler neun Mitglieder zum kommenden Nationalen Geistigen
Rate, die Entgegennahmeder Berichte fiber die finanzielle und son-stige Thtigkeit des ausseheidenden
Na-tionalen GeistigenRates und seiner versehiedenen Ausschfisse und ]3erat-ung
Uber die Angelegenheitender Bahá'í i-Sache lin aligemeinen, selbstver-st~nd1ich in tibereinstimmung mit den von Shoghi Effendi ausgedrUckten Grunds~tzen der Bah&'i-Verwaltung, wonach alle Beratungen und Handlun-gen tier Abgeordneten zur Nationaltag-ung ausser der Wahi der Mitglieder zum
Page 236kommenden Nationalen Geistigen Rate nur RatschUige unci
Empfehlungen zur Beachtungclurch den genannten Rat darstellen, wThrend die Entscheidung in alien Fragen, die die Angelegen-heiten cler Bahá'u'lláh in
Deutschland und Osterreichbetreffen, aussehiless-lich bei dieser Kdrperschaft liegt.
9. Abschr4tt. Die auf der National-tagung anzunehmende GesclThttsord-nung wird durch den Nationalen Geist-igen Rat vorbereitet doch k6nnen aBe auf die
Sache beziiglichen Angelegen-heitendie von irgend einem Abgeord-neten vorgebracht wercien, auf Antrag, fiber den abzustimmen ist, als Punkt der Tagungsberatungen aufgenommen werden.
10. Abschnitt. Die Wahi der Mitglie-der des Nationalen Geistigen Rates erfolgt mit relativer Stimmenmelirheit durch die vorn ausscheklenden
Nation-alen GeistigenRat anerkannten Ab-geordneten, 6. h. als gew~h1t gelten diejenigen neun Personen, die lii ersten Wahigang der bei der Tagung anwesen-den Abgeordneten sowie clerjenigen
Ab-geordneten, deren Stimmedem Sekre-t~ir des Nationalen Geistigen Rates schriftlich oder telegrafisch Ubermittelt worderi ist, die grdsste Anzahl Stimmen erhalten haben.
Falls infolge Stimmen-gleichheitdie voile Mitgliedszahl nicht im ersten Wahigang erreicht wird, finden em oder mehrere weitere Wahi-g~nge statt, bis samtliche neun Mit-glieder gew&hlt sind.
11. Abschnitt. Alle bei der National-tagung otTiziell behandelten Angelegen-heiten sind unter die Protokolle des Na-tionalen Geistigen Rates aufzunehmen und mit diesen zu bewahren.
12. Abschnitt. Nach Schiuss tier Na-tionaltagung und his zur Einberufung der niichsten Jahrestagung wirken die Abgeordneten als zu besonderen-i Dien-ste in der Arbeit fUr die Sache be-f5higte beratende Kbrperschaft fort, in jecler Weise bemiiht, zurn einheitlichen Geiste und zu fruchtbringender
Tatig-keit des NationalenGeistigen Rates werden mit relativer Stirnmen-melirheit seitens der Abgeordneten der Nationaltagung, die den Rat seinerzeit gewiihlt haben, neu besetzt, wobel die Wahi in brieflicher ocler irgend sonsti-ger durch den Nationalen Geistigen Rat bestimmter Form erfolgt.
ARTIKEL TXGeistigen Rat dlurch diese Satzung in irgendwelchen, die Thtigkeit unci die Angelegenheiten der
Bahá'u'lláh in Deutschlandund bsterreich betreffenden Fragen aus-schijessliches und hdchstrichterliches Spruchrecht sowie voliziehende Ober-hoheit iibertragen ist, gilt dies mit der Weisung, dass alle beziiglich soicher Fragen getroffenen Entscheiclungen otter erfolgten Massnalimen in jedem Falle dent Kilter der Sache oder dem Universalen Hause der Gerechtigkeit zur endghltigen Prilfung und Billigung zu unterbreiten sind.
Aunrcrz~ XSoweit Aufgaben und Befugnisse clurch diese Satzung nicht auscirUcklich den drtlichen Geistigen Riiten iibertra-gen sind, gelten sie als dem Nationalen Geistigen Rate verliehen, wobel dieser K6rperschaft das Recht zur ttbertrag-wig soicher beliebiger Verrichtungen unci Befugnisse zusteht, die zie inner-haib ihres Spruchrechtes als fill drt-liche Geistige Rate erforderlich und rat-sam erachtet.
ARTIKEL XIder Bahft'i-Wahlen soil wetter der Brauch der Wahivor-schliige noch irgend em sonstiges, elne stifle und von Gebeten getragene WaN beeintr~ichtigendes Wahiverfaliren auf-kommen, sodass jeder Wilhler LiAr nie-manden stlinrnen soil, als wen ihm Gebet und tTherllegung eingegeben haben.
Zu den hervorragendsten und geheil-igtsten Pflichten derer, die berufen
Page 237werden, die Angelegenheiten der Sache als Mitglieder 5rtlicher oder nationaler Geistiger Rate aufzugreifen, zu ftihren und gleichzurichten, gehdrt: auf jede nur m5gliche Weise das Ver-trauen und die Zuneigung derer zu gewinnen, denen zu dienen sie das Vorrecht haben; die Meinungen, vor-herrschenden Empfindungen und die persdnliche iTherzeugung derjenigen, deren Wohiergehen zu fdrdern ibre fejerliche Pflicht ist, zu erforschen und sich mit ihnen vertraut zu mach-en; ihre Erw~gungen and die ailge-meine Fiihrung ihrer Angelegenheiten von versohiossener Tellnahmslosig-keit, dem Ansohein der Heimlichkeit, dem erstickenden Dunstkreis dikta � toriseher Bestimmungen und von alien Worten und Handlungen zu reinigen, die den Eindruck von
Par-teilichkeit, Seibstsuchtund Vorurteil-en erwecken kbnnen, und unter Vor-behalt des geheiligten Rechtes end-giltiger Entscheidung zur ]3esprech-ung einzuladen, Beschwerden nach-zugehen, Ratschlage zu begrflssen und das Geflihi der gegenseitigen
Abh5ngigkeit und Mitbeteiligung, des Verstiindnisses und weebselseitigen Vertrauens unter sich und alien fibri-gen Bahá'í zu pilegen.
Awmrn XIIin jeder rege1m~ssigen oder besonderen Sitzung mit absoluter Stimmenmehrheit erg~nzt werden, vor-ausgesetzt, dass mindestens vierzehn Tage vor dem fUr die betreffende Ver-sammiung festgesetzten
Zeitpunkt eine Absebriftder vorgesehiagenen Erganz-ung oder Erganzungen an jedes Rats-mitglied durch den Sekretiir mittels E ins chreibebriefes vers andt wird.
In alien Fijilen, in denen Uber den dureli den Wortlaut ausgedrtickten Sinn dieser
Treuhandschaftserklarungund Satzung Unklarheit besteht, ist dec en-glisehe
Wortlaut der DeclarationDeclaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Ir&q.
Page 239~y4j' ~JJ~&~A-~ 1~~L I )~ � " � ~ 1 ~z~L45~ ~-.
. -&~LY~-Y &~LY~-Y ~.~fA9~; 9i6~y ~~&; ~w~:
Page 241~ L%y~ . ~z~fL~ _ i~k ~ ('~2~U1).
L~5~ H&j~~%Y4~THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 245
ii' it &$&4tm cc~%j1j ay; 761' $&6A4t, SWUJ "~WY~7, 4"%4QVA ~ (bY ~,, LIP UA'4v t~ A4itV ua~o(yjy.
Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sftd&n.
Page 246JE# L4~ ~yd'~UYW, '~ .%j~5vu Is ni ___________ I �
A~.JSJ�hITHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 247
BYLAWS OF AThe Trustees, i.e., the Spiritual Assembly, recognize that this action has been taken in full unanimity and agreement. They acknowledge for themselves and on behalf of their successors the sacred meaning and universal purpose of the Bahá'í Faith, the teachings and principles of which fulfill the divine promise of all former revealed religions.
ARTICLE HIn administering the affairs of the Bahá'í Religion under this Corporation for the benefit of the Bahá'ís of in accordance with the religious teachings and administrative principles of this Faith, the Spiritual Assembly shall act in conformity with the functions of a local Spiritual Assembly as defined in the ByLaws adopted by the National Spiritual Assembly and published by that body for the information and guid-&nce of Bahá'ís throughout the United States.
ARTICLE IIIThe Spiritual Assembly, in the fulfillment of its obligations and responsibilities under this Corporation, shall have exclusive jurisdiction and authority over all the local activities and affairs of the Bahá'í community of... , including paramount authority in the administration of this Corporation. It shall be responsible for maintaining the integrity and accuracy of all Bah~ 'i teaching, whether written or oral, undertaken throughout the local community.
It shall make available the published literature of the Faith. It shall represent the community in its relations to the National Spiritual Assembly, in its relation to the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, to other local Baha 'I communities, and to the general public in It shall be charged with the recognition of all applicants requesting membership in the local Bahá'í community.
It shall pass upon the right of any and all members of the community whose membership is in question to retain their status as voting members of the community. It ~sha11 call the meetings of the community, including the Bahá'í Anniversaries and Feasts, the Meetings of consultation, and the annual meeting at which the members of the Assembly are elected.
It shall appoint and supervise all committees of the Bahá'í community.
It shall collect and disburse all funds intended for the maintenance of this Corporation. It shall have full and complete custody of the headquarters or meeting place of the
Bahá'í community. Itshall have exclusive authority to conduct Bah& I marriage ceremonies and issue Baha 'i marriage certificates within the area of its jurisdiction. It shall report to the National Spiritual Assembly annually, or when requested, the membership roll of the Bahá'í community, for the information and approval of the national Bahá'í body. The Spiritual Assembly, however, shall recognize the authority and right of the National Spiritual Assembly to declare at any time what activities and affairs of the Bahá'í com-niunity of. are national in scope and hence subject to the jurisdiction of the National Bahá'í body.
It shall likewise recognize the right of any member of the community to appeal to the National Spiritual Assembly for review and decision of any matter in which the previous decision of the local Spiritual Assembly is felt by the member to be contrary to the explicit teachings of the Bahá'í Faith or opposed to its best interests. It shall, on the other hand, have the authority and right to appeal from the decision of the National Assembly to the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith for review and final decision of any matter related to the Faith .......
Page 248The Spiritual Assembly, in administering this Corporation, shall ever bear in mind the ideals upheld in the Sacred Writings of the Bahá'í Faith respecting the relationships of a Spiritual Assembly to its Bahá'í community, respecting the relations of Bahá'ís to one another in the community, and the relationships of Bahá'ís to all norj-Bahft'is, without prejudice of race, creed, or nationality. The Assembly shall therefore above all recognize its sacred duty to maintain full and complete unity throughout the Baha community, to relieve and comfort the sick and distressed, to assist the poor and destitute, to protect the orphans, the crippled and the aged, to educate the children of Bahá'ís according to the highest religious and inteL lectual standards, to compose differences and disagreements among members of the community, to promulgate the principles of Divine Civilization re-valed by Bahá'u'lláh, and to promote in every way possible the Bahá'í aim of the oneness of mankind. It shall faithfully and devotedly uphold the general Bahá'í activities and affairs initiated and sustained by the National Spiritual Assembly. It shall cooperate wholeheartedly with other local Spiritual Assemblies throughout the United States in all matters declared by the National Spiritual Assembly to be of general Bahá'í importance and concern. It shall rigorously abstain from any action or influence direct or indirect, that savors of intervention on the part of a Baha body in matters of public politics and civil jurisdiction. It shall encourage intercourse between the Bahá'í community of and other recognized Bahá'í communities, issuing letters of introduction to Bahá'ís traveling from and passing upon letters of introduction issued by other Bahá'í Assemblies.
It shall regard its authority as a means of rendering service to Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís and not as a source of arbitrary power. While retaining the sacred right of final decision in all matters pertaining to the Bahá'í community, the Spiritual Assembly shall ever seek the advice and consultation of all members of the commu nhty, keep the community informed of all its affairs, and invite full and free discussion on the part of the community of all matters affecting the Faith.
ARTICLE VThe Bahá'ís of ., for whose benefit this Corporation has been established, shall consist of all persons resident in.. who are recognized by the Spiritual Assembly as having fulfilled the requirements of voting membership in this local Bahá'í community.
To become a voting member of this 13ah4 'I community a person shall a. Be a resident of.. as defined by the area of jurisdiction of the Spiritual Assembly, as provided hereinafter in this instrument.
b. Have attained the age of 21 years.c. Have established to the satisfaction of the Spiritual Assembly, subject to the approval of the National Spiritual Assembly, that he (or she) possesses the qualifications of Bahá'í Faith and practice required under the following standard: Full recognition of the Station of the Forerunner (the 13Th), the Author (Bahá'u'lláh), an 'Abdu'l-Bahá the Exemplar of the Baha religion; unreserved acceptance of, and submission to, whatsoever has been revealed by Them; loyal and steadfast adherence to every clause of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í sacred Will and Testament; and close association with the spirit as well as the form of Bahá'í administration throughout the world.
ARTICLE VIEshall consist of nine Trustees chosen from among the Bahá'ís of .,
who shall be elected by these Bahá'ís in a manner hereinafter provided and who shall continue in office for the period of one year, or until their successors shall be elected.
ARTICLE VIITHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 249
shall consist of a Chairman,and Treasurer, and such other officers as may be found necessary for the proper conduct of its affairs. The officers shall be elected by a majority vote of the entire membership of the Assembly taken by secret ballot.
ARTtCLE VIIIThe first meeting of a newly-elected Assembly shall be called by the member elected to membership by the highest number of votes or, in case two or more members have received the same said highest number of votes, then by the member selected by lot from among those members; and this member shall preside until the permanent Chairman shall be chosen. All subsequent meetings shall be called by the Secretary of the Assembly at the request of the Chairman or, in his absence or incapacity, of the Vice-Chairman, or of any three members of the Assembly; provided however, that the Annual Meeting of the Assembly shall be held on April 21, in accordance with the administrative principles recognized by all Bahá'í
Assemblies.SECnoN 1. Five members of the Assembly present at a meeting shall constitute a quorum, and a majority vote of those present and constituting a quorum shall be sufficient for the conduct of business, except as otherwise provided in these ByLaws, and with due regard to the principle of unity and cordial fellowship involved in the institution of a Spiritual Assembly. The transactions and decisions of the Assembly shall be recorded at each meek ing by the Secretary, who shall have the minutes adopted and approved by the Assembly, and preserve them in the official records of the
Assembly.SECTION 2. Vacancies in the membership of the Spiritual Assembly shall be filled by election at a special meeting of the local Bahá'í community duly called for that purpose by the Assembly. In the event that the number of vacancies exceeds four, making a quor-urn of the Spiritual Assembly impossible, the election shall be under the supervision of the National
Spiritual Assembly.The sphere of jurisdiction of the Spiritual Assembly, with respect to residential qualification of membership, and voting right of a believer in the Bahá'í community, shall be the locality included within the civil limits of
AnncLE XSEcnoN 1. In the event that any decision of the Assembly is unacceptable to any member or members of the community, the Assembly shall after endeavoring to compose the difference of opinion invite the said member or members to make appeal to the national Baha body and notify that body of the condition of the matter and the readiness of the Assembly to become party to the appeal.
SECnON 2. In the same manner, if any difference arises between the Assembly and another local Assembly, or Assemblies, in the
United States, the Assemblyshall report the matter to the national Bahá'í body and inform that body of its readiness to make joint appeal together with the other Assembly or
Assemblies.SECTION 3. If, however, the result of such appeal is unsatisfactory to the Spiritual Assembly, or the Assembly at any time has reason to believe that actions of the National Spiritual Assembly are affecting adversely the welfare and unity of the Bahá'í community of..
.,it shall, after seeking to compose its difference of opinion with the national body in direct consultation, have the right to make appeai to the Guardian of the Faith.
SEcnoN 4. The Assemblyshall likewise have the right to make complaint to the National Spiritual Assembly in the event that matters of local Bahá'í concern and influence are referred to the national body by a member or members of the local community without previous opportunity for action by the local
Assembly.Australian Bahá'í Summer School, Yerrinbool, 1947.
British Bahá'í Summer School, 1949.The Annual Meeting of the Corporation at which its Trustees shall be elected shall be held on April 21, at an hour and place to be fixed by the Assembly, which shall give not less than fifteen days' notice of the meeting to all members of the local Bahá'í community.
SrcrtoN 1. The Assemblyshall accept those votes transmitted to the Assembly before the election by members who by reason of sickness or bther unavoidable reason are unable to be present at the election in person.
SmcnoN 2. The election of members to the Spiritual Assembly shall be by plurality vote.
SF~crroN 3. All voting members of the local Bahá'í community are eligible for election as members of the Spiritual Assembly.
SECTION 4. The Assemblyshall prepare an agenda for the Annual Meeting in which shall be included reports of the activities of the Assembly since its election, a financial statement showing all income and expenditure of its fund, reports of its committees and presentation of any other matters pertaining to the affairs of the Bahá'í community.
The Assembly, both preceding and following the annual election, shall invite discussion and welcome suggestions from the community, in order that its plans may reflect the community mind and heart.
SECTIoN 5. The result of the election shall be reported by the Spiritual Assembly to the National
Assembly.shall arrange for regular meetings of the Bahá'í community throughout the year at intervals of nineteen days, in accordance with the calendar incorporated in the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith.
ARTICLE XIIIThe seal of the Corporation shall be circular in form, bearing the following description:
The Spiritual AssemblyThese ByLaws may be amended by majority vote of the Spiritual Assembly at any of its regular or special meetings, provided that at least fourteen days prior to the date fixed for the said meeting a copy of the proposed amendment or amendments is mailed to each member of the Assembly by the Secretary.
With amendments adopted by the National Spiritual Assembly to July 16, 1949.
Page 252National Spiritual Assembly of Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma
Page 253National Spiritual Assembly of Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and Burma
Page 254enwdpt i$M Abe ncan '2* saw h 4 � i it A.yotl~ I., iii Certification of Articles of Incorporation and Affidavit of Officers of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Aihambra, California.
Page 255THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 255
t � � ~ 4WRITh NOTKIN(~ flEkQW U 4UIVISiUN,4 ~,
)EY'SOFFICK ~w~nnxxn sam c#anrn urns rnnsm � r4~ ~ A nefloly ot t a t~ a!, ~he City. oT,
Pxt4t LES OP ORGANiZATION CtscuL L*w~, cnArTra isp, s~Aow 'r ~ k : 2 ~ '2 B ~ ~kAZtw? 4~-AS48~ ~. ~ 4) ~ her#ty vi* DNt~j~ IAXAT~Q,~4 ~ ttify thtt.ypon .~i �x~,minMIo~ vf lb.
wi~,j~v-wt,tkn ct3ek. of ~rg~t,iabon, th.~ .gn.ant th~ i~1e%~rporttor,. i~idu4Ing th& , MMA~ 'r ~tted to xn, ~t ~ QN~rS that th. pr*vtsii,n of th. Lats~rt1M~w In th~ ornnIzati~n ~d carpn-tFms s lrnn hen cornrjl.d with. aM I hetby 4gw.
ERTIFICATE4 ~ ~ { ~, � wj~2� @tt~ ~ '~m~sinfr..~. ~of LDflofltriu4ndfrnh%a F, 2 P '~ �7' 1/ � S ~ 9 � A ~ ~A~il~ilL ~ ~ ll5iluLs~ V Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Beverly, Mass
Page 256We~ Rarlan 7. Ober, Cha1ru~n ~ flizaboth Ki.dder Qb~rn~arer, Rloh)?d S.Qladttne Clerk or $e%sretary, Md A'aak.rjioe-OMlnfl Barbara E.AroWtg Helen A.MIIZoI Mary 0. MoOaial*aL Madeline R.Rogen
Beagle EGladdingbeing a maJoriW of the directors (or of a board 4 with the powers of directors under th~ authority ~f (Thiwral t4ws, Chapter 180, &a ~1 of The Spiritual Assembly ox the Bába'1s of tbo Otty of Beverly elected at its 1�rst meeting, In r~mp1innce xvith th~ rtqufrtments of (kn~raI Laws. ChApta Th4, Sntfrn ~, hereby certify that the Th]Thwing i~ a t~uc copy of tim agreement of association to Thrm said eorporatlQn, with The ~iam~i of the subscribrn~s tb~reto: The name by which the cw~Qcrafiot1 shah he known is Th# Sptrttu4 Atisably of tb~ Dfla'ie of the City of~3ever1y W~, whose uamt~s are ber~to nub~cribed, do~ by this agr~ment, assoelata oursdves witb Th~ intention of Thrming a wxpon\tion under the provbi&ns of Cenara~ Laws. Chaptn 18O~ ~t he ~ui~ti~n of tN. v~h. 1 f j g in hUA~ttqflyjtaPu. '55 @S~ant Unset
*4 &crtaryf Riobart 5,Gladdin%3qve1y~XaUi 94 toW Strut D r&t~rs (or officer. Mvinjtb. powe~ of dhntore) 'Yta&0he1r*n~Lorna ~.~aekerDenfly,Nss 45 free Stun Bahá'u'lláh 3.nrly.Na#a 85 41444sn6tr:fl 3031* M4ale4dln I.~$r1y,kase M6fly flint fun A,Mflflr Jenrly,kaes W ZV.# Street ~ Na4ellaa tRogeie Dnetly,MaWS 11 P�*tOS LV..
'4 % ~ I I A 2 ~ 4
IA4 1 4 4 4 4 & 4 ~ * t ~ Ac A ~ t *Y
~' / Atthis tweuty ~$rut siay Tn. � , ~ t ~ K 4 44' 7 }9ty~)1snrvn
Page 259THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHA U LLAH 259
WY&rriturg vf)ttutu ffin4tbe4~a$ts CSU?ZFICAfl OF Ig(flRPOMIIOR I, FRAN. A. BOYLE, Audithx of the ~?errttovr of Alaska, and custodian of acrooratton recer4s for said Territory1 00 HEREBY C~Rflfl that~ on the 24th day of February, 1943, TH~ SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY 0? ThE EMtAIS 0? AEHQRAO. ALASKA, tiled in vials office its Articles ot'Ineorpontton as. a ~nan � pro?tt oarooratton organtze& under the laws of ~the ~Ferritory of Alaska TESTIMONY #Wi4ZOF. I hair bereano set my h4u4 tied affixed my Qffici.Z n~4 at Jsnsts, d&Copiud, sh4 ______________ rebru~ � 4.0. 19A&.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of
The Bah~ 'is of Anchorage, AlaskaflOW AU WE BY TBE8S ~i~S3fl3: That we, the wa4ereig~ed, 11 bejn~ at full age nxd r*etdenta of the Thxr�tory a? Alaska, destriug'to torn a uon-prof it oorporation under Article V Qb.pter fl of the 1933 Csnpflo4 Lns of Alaska, as an4ed, do her4by associate oiarseltea togett.r and make, aipi uid aotnow e4ge these Articles of tnoorporati,on (in triplicate) as to11ows~ t ,rRwa*R
AnC~OAt M~$'4The paw of Vh, Corpoz~atiou shall be and bereby it dedara4 to be TheSpizitu.2LAaoezbly of the Bahá'ís at
MOt&onge1 Alaelca".2~bs obj.ots urPoues for whiGh this Oororitlon is ronaod art (a) To aGmintitor the atfatrs of the )ebu'i Religion to~ tte bnet�t of A~be 1~aba'�s ot tbo City of fliohorag. in .soordnoe w�th tM religious teachings vid administrative pr�utstploa dt flld ~ wad lix confa~raity with the time � t�O4# ~t g looti SpLj1t~1 Asnably as 4stined in the bylaws a4opte4 by the Watioufl apiritial Assembly of the M*ia' tact the Un1te4 States end CaMa nd publi.bod by that body tar the infQrsattou an4 gaidazit. pf 3*J~~tjg tkLrouglzQut the pritted ii stat.. n4 Cnte. Tbee� purpov.s are to be r.alize4 by means of 4.tot�onfl aest Ifl~ by puWSo m.ettu~s an4 oontarnoe, of an c&ne attoasi bnaitniuu and �pirittaal character.
(bI W~ ~pit*b;t*, Tr...itt bol4, possns, omr.y aux4 4$upom. of ;g~b rca). sad pc.oual property as usy be necessny *r4*w~atnt to #a*~ oat tiza obJ.ot ot ni4 oorporatlon.
~~1 n~ bttsw., nut tucoasietat with ny existing law, for th6 govon~ssnt at Its uttairs Rud the management of its prop*ity.
1 �Tb* Looat ion or sa�4 ~e1ig�o~is A c0rpa~atiork a~ tb p1.0.
in v~hi~h tkdo Qo~poration'~ bQsineao a~ &otivit�eR ax prln � ~p&1Ly to b~ o.~iduot4 ia Anoho~age~ A1~1cft.
Th. life o~ The oorporatiwL she,X1 4ate from tbe 0r0OQt1.O~1 Q~ ~heaO ti~e# ~nd the tiling o~ th8 ~anie with the prope2~ ofr~Ai~1~ a0 pr9!i4o~ by law, and uI~a11 oontinue fox tifty (501 yearS th~r�afto~.
The ~or~Qr&t1,on shall u~t have and 8h~U not i~ue any' ~i~aLutook axid the ~eab~z~.1dp Uieroin shell b~ 3Ami~ed to those oko~en i~n acooi,dai~oo With tbe admini5tratLve pz~inQip1*a eZ tile ~iaht'i R@1~ion as t~11Xy eet f~th in ~ byLaws.
The high.~t amount ot �ud~bte4ns~a or liability to whi@h ~li. ~orp~ati~n aball at any time be 8~bioct 1~ $25~OOQ.QO flKR*Lfl K fltk~fl
VIIThe Aft~��~B of t~be oor~o~a~iQn Bh~11 b~ ~w~asea by ~ E~ea'd o*~ fr~a~t4eB w~iiob ahall 1. rd~o (9) In nunjb~r ex~d they sba~.1 ~wKLd ot~ioe for one (1) yt~ c~ imtil tl~r s~a*~o~8sors a.~e 41X1.y t1oot~e4 aM qi~1i~ie4, &~ pro?1de~ by the by1aws~.
Tk~. usmas and plaoes ot ?e~�d0uee QZ ~h. persoils Who Shall a@t us 8Q0~1 tr~t~e�s until the fiz~t wnn~ia1 meet 1a~ ~ the QQrPQ*atiwl to be h014 oiz tile 219t day @~ AP?U~ 294S~ arm ej~4 s~iaZ~L b &a foflowE betty D~k~ ?lozou.b 3.
ek,,~ G~ ~iufl~.n Ike. M�~ia L*m4q~aistThese Artiolos of TheorporatiaD my be .ae~ded tram tl*B to time in thE manner profl4ed by law.
IN WflThUflSS V?1T~RXOT, we, the �uoo~paratOfl and trusts.,
above bAmGt k~av~ wades Si~n.d and *4knCIWld$04 the at, Art i&LeS ot tns~erpows&t�O3 in triDiteate at Anohorage. Alaska, this /3 day of ~ 194 if ~ ~2 ~t~tvr~d 17 / A U. tt 2. � ' S. ~
SUSS O# AMERICA)THIS IS tO OZF?IFY Tbat on this 4ay of 19A4~ )*flr# se~ thE n4.flis*zS ,.xiti~y Pablic IrXIrThYThO T.rfltOtiOt flnk&, 4u1y oonm�seload anti wern an suet app.ar.4 Betty Bflker~ FloPa*6 3.. GrnU~ G. Burma, Mrst Nina bmdqu�*t, Mrs. Relta 11. RobinsOn, Wilbur A. RobAflot, Z.M.* W, Stoat, Turn, t. $tOtzt ad Franfla i.. wells, flot to n S*1& jknon to bc the pncCn used in the TQX.50124 Artio in ct fl~porpOflt Ion, to bela; by ~e z*qnrally sworn 414 a@ka*#3A4g* that they had .zeout.4 tte wn%t.a ntioln at Th#orpor&tiQU tot the uses en4. vurpop*! tkerel stated.
s~ t~a$ av4 jo$nifl snl the 4t)' sad y.*r lat h.reThaI,ove wfl ~a.
77IZ'~Zx Ltttd4~~~~~jjjjj~ j5~t ocfllnion .xp1re*j~Z~~ a3..
Page 2631..! l~). (C1� pVW'5~. ~cutcry of StQte af the State 4 Idaho, ond 1e~~a! custodian of th~ t'~rpnratw) ,yrt,rd~ 'f the $tn~e of tdahn, d& hcrcby cutib; tk~t tt( origh~W of nw artides of iwUhJQEUfWfl 0/ 1I'rU4 filM in tAt ,;tficr of the St~retary of State on (he A.ThO~u ~ and dub, rct,,rdcd vi Pilrn Na, 13 of Record at Da2ncsflr ('arpor9~on$, of the StaU it Idaka. and that thc said articles eoittdn tw ~t~tetnent of facts requind by S#ctioit wd &ctions ~~-i oa~ to 2P 1OP.~, ~ Idaho codc, Anotated I PURTIIEJZ CERTIFY, Thot the persons executing 0w twffcks ~tnd Mdr as,~odgt~s o~ccessors arc Aucby consiittcted n corporat Urn, bts the nine hsreinb.tore stated, far yarn the dete ~tereoI with its regist~rcd flifice in this State SocateJ intheCounjyof 6t~,..
air ft to the rig/its. privikges cud lirnU~ttiqTh9 grunted to Nun-Profit Coapera~ ,tssonations, a~ prrn'ided in ChopMr 10, TitZe i9, Jdaia Code, Annotated.
'~ 76ONY WHER*X?P I w~ efl 'we tAn and of IJ tnd wnd affixed the ~ne iLt Boiae, the enth day ~v the dear of our Les'rd .~ig~t ~c United S4ztea of ~eed 7 Vt, etary of State~ Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Boise, Idaho
Page 264et xmasbnnou v~ RPIRnhJA&Z#*M%Z 41 iWI&tXW Of 4 wIn, tJc~ 1m0% 'an men ~ tJ*M pwxtin tint n~ the unAeflitfh, all b$.ug nat 9* 4a at twaW a ymru, citizen ot the VXItn & AUto of tAnwtn eM nsldat p1 the Stat. 4 Ztaho, tan ueo4 � at.4 ~.s ~ otra4nt tn the papon of tontsg a oar~pntt#. nw ~Ch!ptw 10 of fltt. t&, 14.1w Cot. Annt,t.4, ~an4 * do Mnt~ nrti4t 7'ttt the m~4 t$z .arpnttn Is ThE 0111T1L AB$WhLT ann ~at'~h oi p4vuo~
Vt ~ t y4 4 ?1 N P.~ata~~ nit t~ tim mabes t)innot, intAntfl or etlnr-.
WI... it w .bknt ~* tbl* .~tp.rst1o& thi FVPO t**~ WhiOb tit. ~ ts tie toUowinV flcix~ it. tAnit tM %*ti*tt*ag t)s .ttort* .t on? t41aw kR$M�* to .etaflh.b~ tpb4t promote th ~pttttsaX, .4a~cat�osa1 mM b&uasitr�a tnobi*g of baa brotMrbood, nulnt r&ith, t united cbanotfl 4t1*n Ian r.vn)s4 tu its lint eM ttt*r � sane at all tin flvpbtR M bseflg.fl of Get, Frnm&ws of tue ~rU'a ronalS nflgton � and jim namE crntin .ura n4 un1nre~3~ Qxiflt*tiG~ to tie o,4ttiou of th1~ &r V tb& Ut. tad ttt*rttcn at flMIatfltb � n aeoI.ru the prpoee# eiid objects et 414* oerpontloa to be t e4siz�etfl the .ftaXrw at tbeflttt ~f ~ft1ntntna tot the teu4tt t4 the Pbm'U of the C�tr at 3o�ue~ W Sordiag t@ th pflt*lplfl of E~txa'1 .tftliflLo. sat adM5aistratioS created ant .at*bIMh.6 1fr~ DsMtntU~b, oninic Pat by 'jbtt'3~-Bab&, n4 npltttt at applit b~ 8h~gb& Zflndi end bis
Page 265THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 265
~'~z n.t�tst.4 pwe.nor cM ~ec.ss,r, nn4.r VA prwriuton* of ~ the flU ad Th,ttinut~ of t~4p~~,4~4 Thepurpon are to be realised bjr m..~n I dettianti Mint � by putU# .ntinp sad oont.rnrn ~f an tducst1~aa1, hnun-itta a In and sptrttnal oMnet.r; by the public&t$on of booka~ n~-.tints s aS anspapors; by tt* oontructtoa of taples of unlnrs4 ~4 gf otlnr �ntttat�o** and .4jtten tr tiitnnitai tn~ service; by np.rflh1~, iaitfflng, ~irouotiug nd ge4.rbll.y adam � ist.rtng the cttfltln of tin BM't. of tin City ot 3~ta. in the fultilIa.nt of their religiout oft�sss, d~ztie# and itnlwj and by *37 etbtr anna appropriat, to that. m49, or tzq of tka.
That tb. principal oftS.n for tM tnnwat�os of the busisass of this corporation is to be WcatS in the City of Loin, 8t~tA
Of I4abo.TMt ttart shall. W nine (9} tlrsctor.j that tb. u.n. eat ad � dr*a ot the p.reoce who �hafl act ne dir.atcr� wxtfl th alntion of 14w�r ueetsQra .... t~fl.wSt E.Itr Izi tin h~in Jbtox Gofl.;.~ Boise, 14ab Theresa B. Schmidt � Ofl 2, Itate Stint, loin, 14.ho ZUnb.tb M.lsan � 906 3, flat. 8troet, Soist, Idaho teas Pace 106 Rca Eprixigs Anwie~ Loin, Idtbo UriS, Loosis 18O~ ruaback ~trnt~ WAn, Vain 3�rth $. Adelana � ZiG 14 $taSe $trnt, hots., Item
Qauvieve IAgMu -13oi~s Jtwlor ~ Loin, IdahoEthel Lo~ute -IBOC bruabsck 8trnt, lki~., Idaho 41.~ tixtuer � 408 Pinawy Building, Boime~ lOam T sent era by a rota or ,r�ttn asent of the majority ttsreof utafl adopt tw the conduct ~? th flTairu ~4 tbts eorpont�aa~, such btlan, ru1su g( proc.dur. or reguUtiont a~ 8$t r.quin4 to Awtitt. and eerry ~n its sdsiniatnt�ve flicottoRt, not ifltQflhlStMlt with th tarn ~t tbis ij~stn*snt wax! all. 4* acaorttnc. with the
Page 266I A explicit instructions t~ron1.tat.d to date by liboghi Vt.n41, (Mar � din of the Faith of 3.ba'n'fl.h, which batruotiou an flr.s4 flown to the Mha't# of the, City of 3dse eM a@di~pt.4 l~ Us 1* the gonnmnt and praot4co tif. Their z oligXoue atf4n. Btibj got to th. rig t I tkw 3flbr# to adQptt nad qt ~.pnl by � log, by-lRfl other t �R a by � Mw or ea,nds.ut, tti.r.of, cMcglng Us aatbortnd maWr of directors, ny 1* a*~ptS, nodS or rp*ul.4
17 a nj~rity rote c~t US Bort of Dir*oto~'0 at W of US or epe4fl unting.; providd, tint at u4t twsrten 4qw prior t# F th, 4.t. fixed for nit feett4 a ~W of Vw proposed m.udaat or nenasntu is sailed to etch saber by the kertary.
TI VTb. anx4 meeting of weld corporatiot shell b. lieU os April Slat of each y..r, at which tint tin directors of. tk* corporation abdi be ,1.et.4 for the year e~mnein ~* th~t 4ate,~ ~ 4 The ae4 tat tMa corporation shafl b in ctret4.r foza, bnriug th� fQflc)WiRg inhcdpt�QRI UFIEUVAL AMJMBLY OF Till E.&BA'I$ 0?
BOIlS, INC., CORPOI&TI SZAL.flu Uatsrthip in tb~Le cQrpQfltLQE shall be limited to than .ds�tt.d in acoordne� with the .4nj~n�strativ. principles of the B&ha'i itiTh as set forth iii VM lw � law'.
Th9e ktielus of Incorporatt3m fly be am.ndd frQm tins to time in the amnnr provided 1~ law, This corporation ;bafl ban ptrptiul ex�stno,.
Page 267V j USERS flU1W~~ Th. �pttltn4 .n~fl of 41* NM't# jfl~ 3.1*, hCP%G~~ ~igtiA% ~ ~1niRO@rrrstind oUt&9*, )~8 ~S*M ~ of In@T"'~"' to be sigma )~ lAS jtOW' tbSS ~ fly of i*4R~
Page 268Oa th�. ,~. dq in the ~'.a3~ 1048, b.f~r. ., � ~th*7 NI~li� La a4 for e&U �t~te, p.is~a3Jj apparM W4tr b1k~.s, Th*re.L U. ~oIxmidt, IU&&bth A4ela.aa, l.a. ?z.~ Xnr3. U~. ~ooinis, ~tt~M B. ME*.n~, ~ Iabm, Ztb2. f~mt, a~i4 1*33*7 5k�~i, b303U to to b. t~. per. 2S v)~ose ~m*s ar mbeodb.4 to tb f~r.goi~ag �fl~t?~-i~4 4 a~k*ow1.4.4 ~ � tbat U~q~ 8~z~t4 tJ* PaU.
U ETNUI WIUJi1~ I hay )~w.mt~ s.t q bind sad *IfiX.IG ~ Gt~@1A1 #..1. tho da? and y..~ &~i tblm t~t�ti~at fix~et ~bov w~1.tt.a. c1 ~ JOt.WT PubUt ~r U&bg~, r.~1diu~
Page 269THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 269
United StateR of AmericaI~ FR~ R. ~Th�!~E~ N, Socretar~ ot~ St t~ of the ~ of Wi~cen~in, do h r by c~rtiI~ t ~t or~, th~ iJ3tL ~ o~' l~r~h~ A. b. :t948, A~Vi~O1 ~ o~ Xnc~x'po~atiOfl were i~c~ ip ny 0~ i ~nd~r th~ praviaio~4 of ~ub~ction (1) off Section 18~.~5 oP t ~ Wisconsin ~tatute~,whi~ art~oi~ provide:
~me: SPIR~I't1AI~ A ~�T3LY 0 ~ ~ J3AHA' IS OF WA~'WAPOSA
tac&tiOfl~ ~ auwabo~** B~isi.n~~ afl~ P~irpose8 �~Qr the nini~t~at~.Ofl of t~ F~itho~ h~'t~'1aah for the benei'~.t of the Th~hnt~ os" the ctty ~ 3t8t~ o~ Wis~onsin~ ae~ord~n~ to the pr1nc~Ths o~ Bab~'i ~fllIat4~o~i and ~idmin tratt~ o~'~l te~i and e~t~b1i~hed h~r Bahá'u'lláh; etch Th~ret'or8, ~ 3tr~te oC W~~onsin doe~i h~ir~by n~nt by~ the X io~in St~tui~a~ ~o~' th~ piu'po~~ above ~tat~3~i arid in ao r~n~e with ~a~A '~rti~J-es.
In ~yttn~s~ ~of, I have her~mVo r~et ny h~rn&~ an3 ~vCrixed 4 my o~iM~cta1 se&t~ ~t the Gdto1,~ In th~ C~ti o~ 1t~d~n, tW~Thth Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Page 270teaafllng3 ~OND; The mime ? the Bahá'ís The terr ed �s The pri vi
UFTE; TheEleanor Hae&'rest Avenue, StArab Vullo ~re~t, ~&'~y tawson Street,
DeiTh ~mery nvenue, Jamt8iX]~ThT1i: The time ror holding its annual meeting &8 to be ii the tzenty-C5rst dt~y oP April in ;~ach yedr.
ion is toel' worship is to he loaate& In .autauflua, State of New York.
es 1~ to be nine.~s o~ residence of the persons to meetIng are as follows:
PLACE OF RZSDMICXI. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Jamestown, N. Y.
Page 271A. D. e ~o ne n pro er rorm~ witlu ~ha pro ~Ofl8 or t~e Act et ssembly approve ay 5, 2L93~5, e t't~ e~. ~Au A~t to P~rovide tor the Inoorpo~ra ion and Regul tion o onprofit Corpo~ration~,~ and that the urjpa~e or purposes a~ear I,aw~u2~ an lot in3u~iotis to the eommun~ty.
It i~, theret~ore~ O1~fl~R1~D AND D)~OR~D tflat tl~e ~it~tn A~1e~ of In~o~poration o~ff the ~1.o~a1 Zjpriritilal A~0fl1 � bly at' i~ah 'i~ ~ West C e~ er" be, an~ t~e same are~ 1i~reby.
a pro~. ~md ~ tb.e re~or1ing o~ a~id A ti~2Le~ o~ II~oorDor~ � tion a this Do~re the 8ubs~riber~ tk~eto and t eir ~~oei&t~ shall be a oorporati~n ror t1~e r~os~S and upon t1ie ~ernw therein stated.
TIP C~O i~T~ k~ROAI j~~(L~wU~)Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of West Chester, Penn.
Page 273MsJik4 articks of u~o in of~ .~&J is lwr y ~ ~ized p~itfromAr~t~th j~4 ~t~tA i~O , 1 Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha of Cedar Rapids, Iowa~ectd. No)., ~ 53 4; ~v~ 3 W ~r/q~C%2~1Q1 V A N ~ ~ )~ki~\R ~ 44 4 ~ V t~ t ;~f * * A ~ ~ ~(y~ 4~~ kk~
PKP 29 Th4V~1 ~5t)'N ~%.4 .00* S Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"ti y~, I V~tt~%.L ~~aZOO tin tinier. ,n.d~ at rnidetta a ~nn4iflo~ 'ounty, ~aw �zic61 aU cit iws of Lb. United A.tn, Ao$rbr ~tp or nnin a aon � ~ rofit nflrieqs o.awntics 4tbtu the foflovsw t ~the wa of ea4d @orpcritloc shill ~. S7*~ ~rI~XWAL ~Y~tOF NV. H ~ OP LI I 12, , Nb s4rltu.I? ebanct.rz Ct q.Imbnt. wr{~tatitin144th M rite "4 Nitti � to '.~rti4 itt.
N to ~nt&m b5-1O~~ N. A.~' I%1 Cap,, xt t~ a~t441t, twIt~ stIey, ~j~pnj of ~onv.y an proncAy r~i. ~r mel twt they n~ .t4r~ ~ dostica, otbth.n4., 4r4h~ jnrpm at g4,qS~ out the $atott lot at miSt tdth, knit MIt# ~ or twit tpcty for ~y otter purpon.
to ~1t ~pe%y r~ Xi~ib#s tNt p~sow to m.11 .xcMzw. transfer, Th~~' or ( w 43.4t tIn otherwise .n0%~t.r or ttspne of ~M 7 V ~ �
Page 276Th )*.At4us~ ef g4d rp~r6~4'~u *~1t be ~O9 ~.t k 4~ Th ..z~parat401 v~wfl be nos-.tok f~o~ the smt.u4 bwtlt at he ~~binv# ~ ~t *~cw peo ilUrpV@ftt p.UUUAU ~. The 5~w4 .~Pt4.wg o~ ~ o~rpOiwL~ A4A b. ~b.
t~Wt,OEt *h41 aaietK �f tbs t11i~ as � ~4 ~ ~� f~e~4 A V # L4.Z.1IUlt.
42 of ~s ~ba)X .14 t)~Ir otfl tat ~h. y..t aEk w~ti1 Vb.fr ~ ~ 4~iet44 4, trid *t Ita abj.otij ~ a 00w th.r.t .h.it b~ ~U.d iu~ th. oUt..
~t th. ~te ~r 04�Oii~ .m$ r.c@rd.r~ ~n t4w ~tfi. at TMt 41w ~ p~w~op.d, reM n4 ~wni~ms1y .dot,d, R.0t4,os 1~r g.*4ov~ w,~ Lb~ o~4.?.d t~ ~. tU~X b7 t~b ~$@WWtW7 4i~PO~*4~ ~1A.t0V@C~1~I~ .zd~c In &e.t4we \4t1U5 4~O9,?4.V4~~@& ~&.p1Ui4*e. ;: ;~;:~~� 2 ~
Page 2777,, 11 sold ~3oard of ~nmt.n mttfl b. weatod dther in tote or hi y4tt, sitkwr by 4.ath, rntnt*ti*Q or othtrv�te, � *~ ~xd at Tristan shali be rnWud emS st~icb wcutoy or vaertnctcs tflWd it Utc trvwr set o~tt fri t~et1cc 5&A3O1, ~n V ca ttfl rmot ttd, 1941 ~oc~ iX&ticc. fort)%.'arls4n or~vd V an of a d o&rd nd the 0ajority cC set flour! of �trtst * ts~afl a t~iorua for the trinnotton or in.0~ X271 the ~rtium 'wnto have hereunto afTix~d their W~nIa and s~flv this 4~J~ d5 at 4anuexy, 1%$4.
ft C. ~ � ______________ its_______________ yp :Atc '1 ~ 7 ~ P* A
%C&{Ct� & K tHVutL44 � �.
A t~' TCO Qn tti~ ~ t~y of .Thr~try, 19$, uerorc ~t ptruonafly. ~ype*re4 ~r. Lown tar$~, Louis ~4tAter, ~'rance$ ~. ~ J~zfl ?~.
'ntrrirt*,Is$, rr~m~n ~. Criebet, Lola ~. MtIEVGr, ~1.t1~td4rt* 0.
Xe, V � ~t na ~r nd Lan rrlfi ~ o~a � ott jQn t.cribdtn dwhoex t~M te~ .~ ate ~tefr ~' tr~on~1ut nt tt flea txt ~etc do * ~K.
'&r' ; ~yttb~stm t~xptrnt IuS norfl.1t~t~i$S Sb Is ep~ enltst � ~ t ~p ant ta ~' \ 14,t 2 U � �~t ~ A K r ~ ~t4 ~t,ij, � A~r~A~ $X*. Th ~ntt%~Z aeygn$.
#~i~ M~VI% ~atorI2t*e s~t tnnQt~W21iA 4 ~4 2 ~ d~ ~ C$4 P r~t4~Q~t~ & ~ ~ r 4ti 4~1 O6~Igo ~t~4 tm b~oci~ra iAJ~ ~zu
PX~ ~A ~4tA~'%tL ~i~AVH~ &~ Dom ~+ � U~Th YY / 7 / Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Asunci6n, Paraguay
Page 281~k~SAJM ~id Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Caracas, Venezuela
Page 282V ) Nv Is gnat iv rna pnten.$t Jurf4le a ma ~ jx~ sseot&eua.
Vtuta 1. e.ii4vwo #1Wa4aa flu N)4jt*fl� p* nSdtwt# * a %braaoIM ~61 ~itpartn.at. 44 0fl41tfln4 pci. nfIwlt a 4 *antLra ftW~rt rues, iu cwtctw � ?tnt4nt& do is ~~1*D 35~?3S dears 1k&4. en ~fl #1 ob,~nte 4 .ttn.tnnn.
olulvito ~t v#vt~ou.rt. $rtdIea An in att4e4~ v a rnfla 3.0 #tepom* n *1 .ttto.1* 4440 It Qeflktnth Natal, vtt~ae xxxv; a me baa 192r y eat an nlavepre S I 1 tflhe, quoda )aanrtt a fl Ubte qe at C..~ n flbv. ~ 4~ KLalat.rlo as Gotten.; a. npsi r,& r,& 0 s tO. Olaptusbe, oana � � � -
ARe �It ~rr "s to. auaw t&~ I d~e~ #oc,4.##r4nsarW*k&L (tas) ~pu fln t I. aIktQrtnt% .Aa .#~*bant. quo nAnhefla;n7w tee a4 ~Mb�1 nfl oontrathr U tn~44*~t ~qc 43. tdLon a.fl43a-�V V a t4o I .usstniA~ t~otw * It lay a. ~p~Artad~ � ntn ~ par. 4#vw WflsflWr* A I. * ~ 4~man nil ctmau..4 � n~ sipulent. ~* � � 4 Sti4F 0ti~#tt4x � flrY4. ust4 .xtendg ,a~t fta 1str~ 4. Roert tug S tbfl.t.~i 4. *.o~boIJtt vultun4, en Zo.
~ 1. ~*mt~ 4~i.a e � ~ w ~ � � � � � z V La nwa ~Jtut41a *pz. n ttv~sti~iir.ja ~ par .3 neWt 44 ~ MM 3ZS4 mnx(w4 . ~ � � � � ~ � ~ * � � a � t � fl Aago ho s*j44 rt tu4t a. un. cnw c.as~m r'a4a � , ~ � e~ � � � WZ ot@1!att% 0t1o4 saatrao�.t* A?~, Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of
The Bahá'ís of Lima, PeruTHE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 285
a ay t a ~vv, ~ � ~. � � t � � 4*~ � 444 #~4cW~
A A K286 Lust. Cart6rto, dale 09ff ass 7 0 r.$�nt re ES tO & nquerlm*nt* �0 na Otto
THE BAHÁ'Í WORLDCertificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Page 287RUPURUCA DE CHILE uwea4ist $tflMflr
MINISINRXO ft JUSTICIA'UptoN .atn .at.~fl~g 10 4ts~ets � a USflfl*A@440St't* r aifl ~u1 h tOn * 114 r 1* tCu'mMo par @1 0cn$ * Uma flanl, tt ocrt ~r~*4$a domn4azA4t Ta AiAti 4* 4X~aO 4� ~ , izOn ~1*~d%Z� ii �lula4 ~8
AagO.~-aptt4ba~ 2o �a ~atatog '~r lots n4n ba 4�c.4m~s tituS 432 OtUOltA 9* in t4u�nn 40 .~uo 4* qoStan4t it esofltur# pd111* otogjj~atA eaW el iAafls M 4 rnir ~.tnnto 4w Sn.
tiaso, ba *Atn A*a* 41.x4Z, oa t~M trejAta uR. (E~ ~at~ 4* mM $Mfl941�At4& eatrate 7 0*0 y *e44C1u4fl pot' U o.afltan gni.a *toraM.
.aflst at~~Koturt. wtflb6 ntatttrn 4. ~ gJ~nieAtQ .zanta y mm.
t$eae rs4~ .a4~nes~ y ~inb1f neat.Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of
The Bahá'ís of Santiago, ChileRESOLUCI6N PANAMA, ~' ~ ~A i CORk
CORk H. OLIVER, mujor, mayor do edait de nacionalidad norteamericana, con residencia en la Avenida T{voli, par mc dio cia apoderado, en representaci6n do la Aaamblea Espiri � tual de los baha's do Panam&, solicita 80a reconocida como persona juiddica dicha entidad, y quo so aprueben, en conse � cuencia sue eatatlitos.
Acompafia a mu peticl6n lOS documentoa aiguientess a) Certificado de ineorporaci6n, equivalente al ac � ta de �uncjaci6n; b) Gopia do lam estatutos que rigen a la misma; y, a) Copia do). acta do la aesi6n en que Lueron apro � bados diobos eatatutos.
Del estudio do la documentacidn aportada se concluye quo su objeto as el de Lormar un capitulo en Panam4 dedicado a lam especulaciones espiritua1e~, que deban aeguir las pr4cticas y cAnones religiosos predicados por 'Abdu'1 � Bah4 y propender a su desarrollo.
'1 coma del examen do los documentos en estudjo, no so ad � vierte nada quo pugne con la moral, ft con las buenas costum � bres; ni con la Constituoi6n y leyes vigentes;
SE RESUELVEReconocer corno p~rsona jur{dica a la asociaci6n do car4c ten religioso "ASAiUBLEA ESPThiTUAL lYE LOS BAHÁ'ÍS DE PANAMA, Inn dada ci cuatro de agosto de ml). novecientos cuarenta y eels en eBta ciadadi y so aprueban mis estatutos do acuerdo COfl lo QUO ordenan los articulos 18, 35, 40 de la Conatituoi6n Pofltioa de la Rep4blica, y el 64 dcl C6d�go Oiivfl.
Woda modificaoi6n do los eatatutos necosita tie La aproba � ci5n previa para su valides.
Esta Resoluci6n producir4 efectos civiles tan pronto como sea registrada.
coMuWTh?.UESE Y PUDLIQUESE.Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of
The Dr~dt'L of Panama City, PanamaCERTIFICA EL ACU~R4X) QUE DICE: _____ ________
~ No. 21O7~--hi~LACIO NACIONAL: ~an ~a1vadoz% 30 de agosto de 1~94~. � ~ Vistas los anterThres Estatutos de la ~'Asecia~i6n ~p~ritua ~. Baha ~ ~unda4a en es~ta capit~1, compue~tos de 31. cU2.0� y no eflCQfltr~ ,~~eneflos nada contrario al orden pi~ib1i~o. a las leyes e a las b ~ nas costumbres del ia~j~ conformida~ con U Art. 543 del O6di~o a OiviL~ e~L Peder Eiecutiv~ ACUI~R1iA~ atz~robar1o3 en t~ocias ~ part.O5.
confir~iendo a dicha entidad eJ. carActer de p*~r~ona juridi~Ca. 0014U-N~QU~E.
~E. (aubr'i~ado par el sei~r Presidente~ El Ministro d~J. Inte � nor, � AVENDA~O."_____ _____ _________
THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 289
1040 AIh\N? ~11274 ~ � ~ � \~N T ~ T. R. N? 212061
L8-i.. ___ ____________ _______ Es cniI~orme ~on su original con el que se confront4~ y a so ~, licitud dS jparta int�resada, ,x~Aende la presen~e er~ .2. Mini,t,rio ~ del Interior~ San $a1vador~~j~ nueve hor~s de1. d%a trein~a do is noviembx'e de mi). n~veci~os ~uarenta y ~ __ j-*r-.
37 411z ,9 a~s Certificate of Incoi~ooration of the Spiriual Asser ~b y o: the Bahá'ís & Baha Saivador, Eli SalvadoL
Page 2901DA ma: Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Guatemala City, Guatemala
Page 291THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 291
FRI~9', j Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of
The Baha of Havana, CubaCertificate of Registration of the Bahá'í Assembly, (in Urdu) Hyderabad, (Deccan) India
Page 293THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 293
,~ '~ 47~ ~ Certificate of Registration of The Bahá'í Assembly, (in Urdu) Secunderabad, (Deccan) India
Page 2941 ~~biy ~ Certification of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Srinagar, Kashmir
Page 295THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 295
Colnpalti4o.Certification of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Lahore, India
Page 296of A~t t~r~mi~ ~ h~md~A Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Solano, Philippines
Page 297297 4 ) aa4~A j tLJ~ 4~4~At A L ~aA" tk~ ~ I ~ ~ t~J~ Aa~ 4~44J*~I a~r a at4~ iCsMLr4* it~A p4~ 4 k *2 ~ ~ 4� � ~ & ~ ~ A jt
4 *4~'M4~4 ~9P~#4pr2~# 4rW# JdflM~ ~ ~* Authorization issued by the Court of First Instance, Kark~k, 'Iraq, recognizing Baha 'I Marriage Certificate
Page 298~f � m~a~� ~OV~ROfl7 A.w~.b1y of~th ~ba1e~f ?~oOxd.x.~ Ar1i.~n*.
Section 8~ � 1O~ 1'*d1 as f~U*w3: ~so*uwd �~ Re~uUr1j ii-CtflSO O O~ 0 ~�1~S73Sfl, '3u4g00 o~ th coj~rtu ot a~djiast a.. of tb. p*SOe~'5S7 .o1.m~iS*' t)~. rite. of uatrlmonl ua~ry. L1e~ria,4 6z' ord.imsd~ ~1.vg~fen, inc2~ad~u aU ai~vI.,tera.
~r oth? p.r.~n. w~io by ~ tht c~stams. ~~i1O' 4~d zegu~et1Onw of ny ~'.11tiouS .*c1.t~ ot~ .ect are �~t or~3~ 0? p.~~LttAd to ~t Is our ~pirdon tbA~ under thu stttiit*~ ar~ j,i,o~ autk~or�s.d by your org&t~it~t1on to perform u w~-rlag� rlag� ce~'.son7 m7 1sg*U~ do ac. Your ti1~ ~.a r*turmd ~.rew1~h~ Yours i9Z~Y t~1y~ At~rrna.n~~
?Th3 RALS~OJ4Marriage Certificate issued by the State of New Jersey, U.S.A.
Page 301TIlE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 301
of ~aMJNN~APOUS, ~M~NN.Con~.rng~ ~ �~ ~ ~ ~{e1en fink is ~ This ~ ~w ~L.&7 bLAR~ nra4 t~i 4uly .loot.d 0~iaimua~ai o~ th� Spiritu.21 Assembly of ~tk~e Xiunoapo1iihM~i Coumnzri~ty arid~as sQoh, is authorized and e~owe~ed~. to p~'form the MbA' 3.
marrI~age �~rv1ce, .000r45.ue to~ iite~. ~d r.gu-1~iona a of th. Babs~'i Faith,, N M2..uieapo1�~ Spiri~tua1 Assembly ~ 1f~4~4 � /4pal7
K~e~/c~44.L44A~ ~*Authorization for Conduct of Legal Bahá'í Marriage Ceremonies
in Minnesota~ U S Aa wAs4rnGrcn N (e.O0 ~ ~~~1~ ~ ~t K BaLtimore, ~4q t1'.r� L'Vorrt4a. t4m�ntflnt~ 4 5JUflm~.tv.a~m , mat1AQflY.~IMwMn4 7 IVbOM4, tbaS' 149 sr* '*tflp�. (ye Teterti tnem~ tat uSsr UW~ P?OWi#1M Of *n%$CP 101(81' ,t tM ID*#T�~.I Eennus 0M said oarrnponetua pr.vt~iwa @1 prtr ynam tow 4n It 1.
tflt s~ &yt.rPai..d �nro,.vtt.4 e~twtniy hr nUrw ritiarn siTe. i~ saps. iM #Jwr.ot~ of trpslntlt bit ~ K My we Mqn should b roponfl tie 4oflntpr of tnt#nsl mew for yor ClItrict In order Ust *h$t aUnt 'ape pour �nst Riut. uin~ be 4.tlwtnet.
Costfltuttm mite w ;ou an iSuctibi. W tb Gomrs In VftWt~#4 fl ih.tv table an Ins. tn IM mflst aS to tM n$4P1 rends tpr nests IS(s) S (q) of the tnt.nial kmttw Nit a sated, tS bonwpaUw proli.Umw of prior raven 'flu Nrtbmfl. ~m4.r ntetuttiafly idetInl fltbrttv Out.
satinS i* amlicog tin nt 107 ct Vt. Cods wi/or ootr..YOM-~ txw provision *1 IhO~ b.i.1 Unt&tt t~ Act. The nployanit tans lwo.M W uoh htatatew t fin *nUAbt. W n.unnttan tot styles performs In yes, .sploy so lcn as you ant ths~ 4011-dttLcn n pflnflb.4 .M* Thr rnsttton *~ n axapt status tar �MO tUB P~Qflq. K K K �ifl(hfla&hWAO471.
r w~fl � b~igg and S~1V,~fl(,fl, rn~I ~~jOifl~d ~ ~flXrn was ~vnt il~ ~ g~ ft~ l~y, 0 ~eopk. ~ ~ ,tc~'.nt~; r~,ii is ~e .4 My c~rnma~dn~rn~ ~,ata ~nt; olwy ft ~ ~ ~. ~ CXtF.flEt3 wv xri~
JkflWdtoo)~ ASV� ~ will ~Y. ~riJy, ~hida b~ th~ W~fl d b~fl [a M~r;iar s~~ediAg ~& the
Order or Service~ doW~ ~f ~ ~ ~ by th~ brid~gr~vo ~A1IJ~I Of AS1fl4W~ ~3,cArr,t
Q~ M$t'OLV W~fl{~S$Certificate of Bahá'í Marriage Issued by Spiritual Assemblies
in India, Pakistan and Burma.An Act to incorporate the National Spiritual Assembly of the Ba~ of (~P~�A4 , Preamble. IATIIEREAS a petition has been presented praying that TYit be enacted as hereinafter set forth, and it is expedient to grant the prayer of the petition: Therefore His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows: � 5 Incorpora-1. 1. John Aidham Robarts, of the city of Toronto, province bOO,of Ontario, manager; Emeric Sala, of the city of St. Lambert, province of Quebec, manufacturer; Dame Laura Romney Davis, wife of Victor Davis, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario; Siegfried Schopflocher, of the city of Montreal, 10 province of Quebec, manufacturer; Rowland Ardouin Estall, of the city of Montreal, province of Quebec, insurance e broker; Ross Greig Woodman, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario, lecturer; Lloyd George Gardner, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario, wholesaler; Dame 15 Doris Cecilia Richardson, wife of J. P. Richardson, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario; and Dame Rosemary Scott Sala, wife of the said Emeric Sala, of the city of St. Lambert, province of Quebec, and their successors are con-Corporate Corporate stituted a body politic and corporate under the name of 20 name. "National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada", hereinafter called the "National Assembly".
Officer,. 2. The persons named in section one of this Act shall be the first directors of the National Assembly and John Aidham Robarts, Emeric Sala, Dame Laura Romney 25 Davis and Siegfried Schopflocher, respectively, be president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer thereof and shall hold office until their successors are appointed.
Text of Bill Passed by Canadian Parliament, incorporating the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, 1949.
Page 3102 Head 3. (1) The head office of the National Assembly shall be office. at the city of Toronto, in the province of Ontario, or at such other place in Canada as may be decided by the National
Assembly.Notce of (2) Notice in writing shall be given to the Secretary of 5 change. State by the National Assembly concerning any change of the head office and a copy of such notice shall be published forthwith in The Canada Gazette.
Objects. 4. The objects of the National Assembly shall be to: (a) exercise jurisdiction and authority over all the acti-10 vities and affairs of the Bahá'í cause throughout Canada; (b) admit and release all individuals to membership in the Bahá'í community according to the bylaws of the National Assembly in that behalf; (c) recognize local spiritual assemblies of Bahá'ís in 15 Canada, scrutinize all membership rolls; (d) organize, maintain, carry on, and assume in all parts of Canada devotional meetings, public meetings and conferences of an educational, humanitarian and spiritual character; 20 (e) establish, construct, maintain and support tempIe~ of universal worship and other institutions and edifices for humanitarian service; (f) promote the spiritual welfare of and the unity of spirit among the Bahá'ís of Canada by mutual assist25 ance; to foster, diffuse, encourage, advance and strengthen "the interests of the servants of God for His sake, even as they regard their own interests and to choose that which is meet and seemly"; (g) c~itablish, maintain and support a publishing house 30 or otherwise provide for the publication of books, parnphIet~, magazines, and newspapers pertaining to the Bahá'í cause; (h) settle any dissension existing within a local Bahá'í community of such character that it cannot be remedied 35 by the efforts of the local spiritual assembly and settle questions arising between two or more spiritual assemblies and between members of different Bahá'í communities and to entertain all appeals from decisions of local spiritual assemblies; 40 (i) enter into, make, perform and carry out any contract of every sort and kind for the furtherance of the objects of the National Assembly with any person, firm, association, corporation, private, public or municipal l or body politic, of any province, territory or 45 ColoDy thereof, or any foreign government; and in
Page 311THI~ WORLD ORD~Th O~ RAHA~1J'LLAH 311
this connection, auid iii all transactions under the terms hereof, to do any and all things which a copartnership or person could do or exercise, and which now or hereafter may be authorized by law; (j) fulfill all and whatsoever the several purposes and 5 objects set forth in the written utterances of Bahá'u'lláh,
'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi;(Ic) administer the property, business and other temporal affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Canada. 10~ anagement. ~. The affairs of the National ABsembly shall be manage(I by the nine members of the National Assembly, who shall be assisted by such other officers and agents as tbe National Assembly may appoint.
Power 6. The National Assembly may from time to time make 15 to make by-1aws~ not contrary to law, for bylaws. (a) the prerequisites of admission and the qualifications respecting any member of the National Assembly and local spiritual assemblies of Bahá'ís in Canada and BakVis generally and their release; 20 (b) the administration, management and control of the property, business and other temporal affairs of the National Assembly and of the Bahá'ís of Canada; (c) the election or appointment and the functions, duties and remunerations of the members of the National 25 Assembly and local spiritual assemblies and of the officers, agents and servants of the National Assembly; (d) the creation of any special committee or board for the purpose of the National Assembly and the appointment t or election of the members thereof; 30 (e) the calling of regular or special meetings of the National Assembly and of the Bahá'ís of Canada, and of any committee or board thereof, and fixing the necessary quorum of, and the procedure to be followed at all meetings of the National Assembly, the local 35 spiritual assemblies, the Baha'is, and of any committee or board thereof; (f) the general performance of the objects and purposes of the National Assembly. 40 7� (1) The National Assembly may purchase, take, Power to have, hold, receive, possess, retain and enjoy property, acquire and hold real and personal, corporeal and incorporeal, and any and property. every estate and interest whatsoever given, granted, devised or bequeathed to it, or appropriated, purchased or acquired by it in any manner or way whatsoever, to, for, 45 or in favour of, the National Assembly.
Page 312(2) The National Assembly may also hold such real property or estate therein as is bona fide mortgaged to it by way of security, or conveyed to it in satisfaction of debts or judgments recovered.
.nvestment 8. Subject always to the terms of any trust relating 5 disposal thereto, the National Assembly may also sell, convey, of real exchange, alienate, mortgage, lease or demise any real property. property held by the National Assembly, whether by way of investment for the uses and purposes of the National Assembly or not, and may also, from time to time, invest 10 all or any of its funds or moneys and all or any funds or moneys vested in or acquired by it for the uses and purposes aforesaid, in and upon any security by way of mortgage, hypothec or charge upon real property; and for the purpose of such investment may take, receive and accept mortgages 15 or assignments thereof, whether made and executed directly to the National Assembly or to any corporation, body, company or person in trust for it; and may sell, grant, assign and transfer such mortgages or assignments either wholly or partly. 20 Obligation 9. (1) No parcel of land, or interest therein, at any time tO dispose by Assembly required of lands, acquired the National and not for its actual use and occupation, and not held by way of security, shall be held by the National Assembly, or by any trustee on its behalf, for a longer period than ten years 25 after the acquisition thereof, or for a longer period than ten years after it shall have ceased to be required for the actual use and occupation by the National Assembly, whichever shall be the longer period, but shall, at or before the expiration of such period, be absolutely sold or disposed 30 of, so that the National Assembly shall no longer retain any interest or estate therein, except by way of security.
Extension (2) The Secretary of State may direct that the time for of time, the sale or disposal of any such parcel of land, or any estate or interest therein, shall be extended for a further 35 period or periods not to exceed five years.
Fifteen (3) The whole period during which the National Assembly year limit. may hold any such parcel of land, or any estate or interest therein, under the foregoing provision of this section, shall not exceed fifteen years after the date of the acquisition 40 thereof, or after it shall have ceased to be required for the actual use or occupation by the National Assembly, whichever r shall be the later date.
Forfeiture (4) Any such parcel of land, or any estate or interest a! property exceptions nerelnuciore held beyond therein, not within the ~ mentioned 45 the time which has been held by the National Assembly for a longer limit.
period than authorized by the foregoing provisions of this section without being disposed of, shall be forfeited to His Majesty for the use of Canada.
Page 313THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH 313
Statement. (5) The National Assembly shall give the Secretary of State, when required, a full and correct statement of all lands, at the date of such statement, held by the National Assembly, or in trust for it, and subject to the provisions of this section. 5 Application (6) This section shall apply only to lands and estates, of section.
or interests therein, which, by re~on of the situation of such lands or otherwise, are subject to the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada.
Application 10. In regard to any real property which, by reason of 10 of rnortmain laws, its situation or otherwise, is subject to the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada, a licence in mortmain n shall not be necessary for the exercise of the powers granted by this Act, but otherwise, the exercise of the said powers shall in any province of Canada be subject to the 15 laws of such province as to the acquisition and holding of lands by religious corporations, in so far as such laws apply to the National As8embly.
Transfer of 11. In so far as authorization by the Parliament of property Canada is necessary, any person or corporation in whose 20 held in trust. name any property, real or per~ona1, is held in trust or otherwise, for the uses and purpoees aforesaid, or any such person or corporation to whom any such property devolves, may, subject always to the terms and conditions of any trust relating to such property, transfer such property, or 25 any part thereof to the National Assembly.
Ezecution 12. Any deed or other instrument relating to real ~�~' property, or any interest therein, shall be deemed to be duly executed if there is affixed thereto the seal of the National Assembly and the signature of the president and 30 secretary or treasurer of the National Assembly duly authorized for such purpose.
Dispoaition 13. The National Assen~bIy may make a gift of or loan of property whether to, or for the by gift any of its property, real or personal, or loan, assistance of, any local spiritual assembly of Bahá'ís in 35 Canada for the purchase, erection, leasing or maintenance of any building or buildings deemed necessary for any temple, college, school, hospital, orphanage or home for the aged, or for any other re ous, charitable, educational, or social purpoee, upon such terms and conditions as it 40 may deem expedient.
~onowing 14. (1) The National Aaaembly may, from time to time, ~'~'� for the purposes of the National Aaaembly, (a) borrow money upon the credit of the National
A8aembly;6 (b) limit or increa8e tbe amount to be borrowed; (c) make, draw, accept, endorse, or become ~psrtY to prom ~aory notes and bills of excbange; an it shall not be necessary to have the seal of the National Assembly affixed to any such note or bill; 5 (d) iBsue bonds, debentures or other securities of the
National Assembly;(e) pledge or sell such bonds, debenturee or other securities for such sums and at such prices as may be deemed expedient; 10 (f) mortgage, hypothecate, charge or pledge all or any of the real and personal property, undertaking and rights of the National Assembly to secure any such bonds, debentures or other securities or any money borrowed or any other liability of the National 15
Assembly.Liultatloii. (2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the National Assembly to i~sue any note or bill payable to bearer thereof, or any promissory note intended to be circulated M money or a~ the note or bill of a bank, or to 20 engage in the business of banking or insurance.
In~s~eut 15. The Natiohal Assembly may also invest and reinvest Of of its funds any in (a) bonds or debentures of any municipality, or public ~choo1 corporation, or district in Canada, in bonds, 25 stock and debentures or other securities of Canada, or of any province thereof, or in any security the payment of which is guaranteed by Canada, or any province thereof; (b) first mortgages on freehold property in Canada, and, 30 for the purpose of the 8ame, may take mortgages or assignments thereof, whether such mortgages or Msign-ments s be made directly to the National As8embIy in its own corporate name or to some company or pemon in trust for it, and may sell and assign the same; or 35 (c) any securities in which life insurance companiea ai~e authorized from time to time by the Parliament of Canada to invest funds.
?nuotloms 16. The National Assembly may exercise it~ functions ~ throughout Canada and its meetings may be held at any 40 place within CaDada.
Pissed by the Senate, Wednesday, 27th April, 1949.
Senate.~ RDERED: That the Clerk do carry this Bill to the Coumnons and acquaint theni that the Senate denim their concurrence thereto.
CT.rkofthe&isage.ORDERED: That the Clerk do carry back this Bill to the Senate and acquaint Their Honours that this House hath. passed the same without any an~ndment.
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I~yThe Bahá'í Publishing Trust Investment Scheme issued by the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles, 1949.
Page 317~ernncate oT]tsrr1ugs~ A LMt.. ~ at M ~ ~z3~Y~ I ~i A Ma. .r4 &naw ~4W~M~ ~*na~ � ~ (2n~u~ &tidcnt~ ,t FMh& t4~� ~ '~S. at Wisher r1b .'~1
Vt' F~1 '~~i~' ,~ ~W ~jt Bahá'í Marriage Certificate, recognized by the Israel Government.
# tTranslation of above from Hebrew: I certify that a copy of this Certificate of Marriage is found at my office in accordance with the Marriage and Divorce (Registration) Ordinances of 1919.
Given this 18th June, 1948The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles (Incorporate4 under the Companies Act, 1929) This Acknowledgment is issued pursuant to a Resolution of the Members of The National Spiritual Assembly; dated the i6th day of July, 1949.
No. �I. THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ'ÍS
OF THE BRITISH ISLES (hereinafter called " the Assembly ") hereby acknowledges receipt of f lent by (hereinafter called CC the lender") and will upon the day of 19 (or upon such earlier date as the said sum shall become payable in accordance with the conditions endorsed hereon) repay the said sum to the lender or his successor in title with interest in the meantime at the rate of per cent per annum payable half-yearly on thc twentieth day of March and twentieth day of September in every year the first payment to be calculated from the date hereof.
2. THE said loan is received and this acknowledgment is issued subject to the conditions endorsed hereon.
For and on behalf of THE NATIONAL SPIRITUALLoan Acknowledgment Form issued by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles.
Page 319i � Money lent shall be used by the Assembly to create the capital resources necessary for the publication of an increased range of Bahá'í books, or for increased production of the existing range, and for no other purpose.
2. � No lender shall at any time transfer his loan without the previous consent in writing of the Assembly. The Assembly may in its absolute discretion, and shall in the case of a transfer to any person who is not a Baha'i, refuse to grant its consent to any transfer, but such consent will not be unreasonably withheld in the case of a transfer to a Baha'i. No person to whom a loan shall have been transferred without such consent shdll be recognised by the Assembly.
3. � Not less than nine months before the date on which the repaynient of any loan is due the Assembly shall serve on the lender a notice stating (i) that his loan is due for repayment; (2) whether or not the Assembly is desirous that the loan be renewed; and (~) if so, the period, terms and conditions for and on which the Assembly is prepared to accept a renewal of the loan.
The lender shall within three months thereafter inform the Assembly in writing, as to whether or not he wishes to renew the loan for the period and on the terms stated, and in the event of his so wishing the loan shall not become repayable until the expiration of such period.
4. � Loans shall immediately become repayable in any of the events following (a) On the death of the lender; (5) If the Assembly makes default for one month in the payment of any interest owing on the loan and the lender by notice in writing to the Assembly calls in the loan before such interest is paid; (c) If an order is made or an effective resolution passed for winding up the Assembly; (4) If the Assembly fails at any time to observe or perform any of the conditions of the loan.
5. � (a) The Assembly will establish a Sinking Fund to assist in the repayment of the loans and will pj on the fourth anniversary of the date of each loan (if the loan is for io years) or pn the fourteenth anniversary of the date of each loan (if the loan is for 20 years) pay into an account in the Post Office Savings Bank to be opened in the name of the Assembly or apply in the purchase of trustee investments, a sum equal to not less than 5 per cent, of the amount of the loan and (2) so pay or apply a similar sum on the same day in each of the succeeding four years.
(b) The income arising from the assets for the time being constituting the Sinking Fund shall be paid into the Fund and be part of it.. (c) The Sinking Funds established in respect of all loans repayable in any one year may be appropriated to the repayment of any one or more loans becoming due for repayment in that year.
(d) If the total amount of the Sinking Funds established in respect of loans repayable in any one year shall (by reason of the renewal of loans under paragraph ~) exceed the amount required to repay such loans, then the balance of the Sinking Funds remaining after repayment shall be added to and form part of the Sinking Funds for repayment of loans in the next following years.
(e) If by reason of the operation of paragraph (d) the aggregate amount of the Sinking Funds established for loans repayable in any one year shall exceed 75 per cent.
of the aggregate amount of such loans, the Assembly shall not be obliged to make any further payment in respect of such Sinking Funds. The amount by which the aggregate amount of ~ucli Sinking Funds at any time exceeds 75 per cent, of the aggregate amount of such loans may be applied by the Assembly for the purposes mentioned inparagraph i of these conditions.
Page 320Closeup of a pylon of the First Masiriqu'1 Adhk& of the Western World in Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Page 321Visible Embodiment of the Universality of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
FOREWORDMANY discerning minds have testified to the profoundly significant change which has taken place during recent years in the character of popular religious thinking. Religion has developed an entirely new emphasis, more especially for the layman, quite independent of the older sectarian divisions.
In~tead of considering that religion is a matter of turning toward an abstract creed, the average religionist today is concerned with the practical applications of religion to the problems of human life. Religion, in brief, after having apparently lost its influence in terms of theology, has been restored more powerfully than ever as a spirit of brotherhood, an impulse toward unity, and an ideal, making for a more enlightened civilization throughout the world.
Against this background, the institution of the Mashriqu'1-Adbk~r stands revealed as the supreme expression of all those modern religious tendencies animated by social ideals which do not repudiate the reality of spiritual experience but seek to transform it into a dynamic striving for unity. The Mash-riqu'1 AdlikAr, when clearly understood, gives the world its most potent agency for applying mystical vision or idealistic aspiration to the service of humanity. It makes visible and concrete those deeper meanings and wider possibilities of religion which could not be realized until the dawn of this universal age.
The term "Mashriqu'l-Adhkar" means literally, "Dawning-place of the praise of God."
To appreciate the significance of this Baha institution, we must lay aside all customary ideas of the churches and cathedrals of the past. The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar fulfills the original intention of religion in each dispensation, before that intention, had become altered and veiled by human invention and belief.
The Mashriqu'l-Adhkaris a channel releasing spiritual powers for social regeneration because it fills a different function than that assumed by the sectarian church.
Its essential purpose is to provide a community meeting-place for all who are seeking to worship God, and achieves this purpose by interposing no manmade veils between the worshiper and the Supreme. Thus, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is freely open to people of all Faiths on equal terms, who now realize the unix~ersa1ity of Bahá'u'lláh in revealing the oneness of all the Prophets. Moreover, since the Baha Faith has no professional clergy, the worshiper entering the Temple hears no sermon and takes part in no ritual the emotional effect of which is to establish a separate group consciousness.
Integral with the Temple are its accessory buildings, without which the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar would not be a complete social institution. These buildings are to be devoted to such activities as a school for science, a hospice, a hospital, an asylum for orphans.
Here the circle of spiritual experience at last joins, as prayer and worship are allied directly to creative service, eliminating the static subjective elements from religion and laying a foundation for a new and higher type of human association.
� HORACE HOLLEyThe Beloved of the Lord and the Handmaids of the Merciful throughout the
United States and Canada.My well-beloved friends: Ever since that remarkable manifestation of Baha solidarity and self-sac-rifice which has signalized the proceedings of last year's memorable Convention, I have been expectantly awaiting the news of a steady and continuous support of the Plan which can alone ensure, ere the present year draws to its close, the resumption of building operations on our beloved Temple.
Moved by an impulse that I could not resist, I have felt impelled to forego what may be regarded as the most valuable and sacred possession in the Holy Land for the furthering of that noble enterprise which you have set your hearts to achieve. With the hearty concurrence of our dear Bahá'í brother, ZiaoullAh Asgarzadeh, who years ago donated it to the Most Holy Shrine, this precious ornament of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh has been already shipped to your shores, with our fondest hope that the proceeds from its sale may at once ennoble and reinforce the unnumbered offerings of the American believers already accumulated on the altar of Bahá'í sacrifice.
I have longed ever since to witness such evidences of spontaneous and generous response on your part as would tend to fortify within me a confidence that has never wavered in the inexhaustible vitality of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in that land.
I need not stress at this moment the high hopes which so startling a display of unsparing devotion to our sacred Temple has already aroused in the breasts of the multitude of our brethren throughout the East. Nor is it I feel necessary to impress upon those who are primarily concerned with its erection the gradual change of outlook which the early prospect of the construction of the far-famed Mashriqu'l-Adhkar AdhkAr in America has unmistakably occasioned in high places among the hitherto sceptical and indifferent towards the merits and the practicability of the Faith proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh. Neither do I need to expatiate upon the hopes and fears of the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the evening of her life, with deepening shadows caused by failing eyesight and declining strength swiftly gathering about her, yearning to hear as the one remaining solace in her swiftly ebbing life the news of the resumption of work on an Edifice, the glories of which she has, from the lips of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself, learned to admire.
I cannot surely overrate at the present juncture in the progress of our task the challenging character of these remaining months of the year as a swiftly passing opportunity which it is in our power to seize and utilize, ere it is too late, for the edification of our expectant brethren throughout the East, for the vindication in the eyes of the world at large of the realties of our Faith, and last but not least for the realization of what is the Greatest Holy Leaf's fondest desire.
As I have already intimated in the course of my conversations with visiting pilgrims, so vast and significant an enterprise as the construction of the first Mashriqu'1 � AdhkAr of the West should be supported, not by the munificence of a few but by the joint contributions of the entire mass of the convinced followers of the Faith. It cannot be denied that the emanations of spiritual power and inspiration destined to radiate from the central Edifice of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar will to a very large extent depend upon the range and variety of the contributing believers, as well as upon the nature and degree of self-abnegation which their unsolicited offerings will entail. Moreover, we should, I feel, regard it as an axiom and guiding principle of Bahá'í admin
Page 323istration that in the conduct of every specific Bahá'í activity, as different from undertakings of a humanitarian, philanthropic, or charitable character which may in future be conducted under Bahá'í auspices, only those who have already identified themselves with the Faith and are regarded as its avowed and unreserved supporters should be invited to join and collaborate. For apart from the consideration of embarrassing complications which the association of nonbelievers in the financing of institutions of a strictly Bahá'í character may conceivably engender in the administration of the Bahá'í community of the future, it should be remembered that these specific Bahá'í institutions, which should be viewed in the light of Bahá'u'lláh's gifts bestowed upon the world, can best function and most powerfully exert their influence in the world only if reared and maintained solely by the support of those who are fully conscious of, and are unreservedly submissive to, the claims inherent in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.
In cases, however, when a friend or sympathizer of the Faith eagerly insists on a monetary contribution for the promotion of the Faith, such gifts should be accepted and duly acknowledged by the elected representatives of the believers with the express understanding that they would be utilized by them only to reinforce that section of the Bahá'í Fund exclusively devoted to philanthropic or charitable purposes.
For, as the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh extends in scope and in influence, and the resources of Bahá'í communities correspondingly multiply, it will become increasingly desirable to differentiate between such departments of the Baha treasury as minister to the needs of the world at large, and those that are specifically designed to promote the direct interests of the Faith itself. From this apparent divorce between Bahá'í and humanitarian activities it must not, however, be inferred that the animating purpose of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláhstands at variance with the aims and objects of the humanitarian and philanthropic institutions of the day. Nay, it should be realized by every judicious promoter of the Faith that at such an early stage in the evolution and crystallization of the Cause such discriminating and precautionary measures are inevitable and even necessary if the nascent institutions of the Faith are to emerge triumphant and unimpaired from the present welter of confused and often conflicting interests with which they are surrounded.
This note of warning may not be thought inappropriate at a time when, inflamed by a consuming passion to witness the early completion of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar we may not only be apt to acquiesce in the desire of those who, as yet uninitiated into the Cause, are willing to lend financial assistance to its institutions, but may even feel inclined to solicit from them such aid as it is in their power to render. Ours surely is the paramount duty so to acquit ourselves in the discharge of our most sacred task that in the days to come neither the tongue of the slanderer nor the pen of the malevolent may dare to insinuate that so beauteous, so significant an Edifice has been reared by anything short of the unanimous, the exclusive, and the self-sacrificing strivings of the small yet determined body of the convinced supporters of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
How delicate our task, how pressing the responsibility that weighs upon us, who are called upon on one hand to preserve inviolate the integrity and the identity of the regenerating Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and to vindicate on the other its broad, its humanitarian, its all-embracing principles!
True, we cannot fail to realize at the present stage of our work the extremely limited number of contributors qualified to lend financial support to such a vast, such an elaborate and costly enterprise.
We are fully aware of the many issues and varied Bahá'í activities that are unavoidably held in abeyance pending the successful conclusion of the Plan of Unified Action.
We are only too conscious of the pressing need of some sort of befitting and concrete embodiment of the spirit animating the Cause that would stand in the heart of the American Continent both as a witness and as a rallying center to the manifold activities of a fast growing
Page 324Faith. But spurred by those reflections may we not bestir ourselves and resolve as we have never resolved before to hasten by every means in our power the consummation of this all-absorbing yet so meritorious task?
I beseech you, dear friends, not to allow considerations of number, or the consciousness of the limitation of our resources, or even the experience of inevitable setbacks which every mighty undertaking is bound to encounter, to blur your vision, to dim your hopes, or to paralyze your efforts in the prosecution of your divinely appointed task. Neither, do I entreat you, suffer the least deviation into the paths of expediency and compromise to obstruct those channels of vivifying grace that can alone provide the inspiration and strength vital not only to the successful conduct of its material construction, but to the fulfillment of its high destiny.
And while we bend our efforts and strain our nerves in a feverish pursuit to provide the necessary means for the speedy construction of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, may we not pause for a moment to examine those statements which set forth the purpose as well as the functions of this symbolical yet so spiritually potent Edifice? It will be readily admitted that at a time when the tenets of a Faith, not yet fully emerged from the fires of repression, are as yet improperly defined and imperfectly understood, the utmost caution should be exercised in revealing the true nature of those institutions which are indissolubly associated with its name.
Without attempting an exhaustive survey of the distinguishing features and purpose of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, I should feel content at the present time to draw your attention to what I regard as certain misleading statements that have found currency in various quarters, and which may lead gradually to a grave misapprehension of the true purpose and essential character of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
It should be borne in mind that the central Edifice of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, round which in the fullness of time shall cluster such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded apart from these
Dependencies, as a Housesolely designed and entirely dedicated to the worship of Gad in accordance with the few yet definitely prescribed principles established by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. It should not be inferred, however, from this general statement that the interior of the central Edifice itself will be converted into a conglomeration of religious services conducted along lines associated with the traditional procedure obtaining in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other tern-pies of worship.
Its various avenues of approach, all converging towards the central Hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those sectarian adherents of rigid formulae and manmade creeds, each bent, according to his way, to observe his rites, recite his prayers, perform his ablutions, and display the particular symbols of his faith within separately defined sections of Bahá'u'lláh's Universal
House of Worship. Farfrom the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar offering such a spectacle of incoherent and confused sectarian observances and rites, a condition wholly incompatible with the provisions of the Aqdas and irreconcilable with the spirit it inculcates, the central House of Baha worship, enshrined within the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, will gaffier within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the trappings of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshippers of the one true God, as manifested in this age in the Person of Bahá'u'lláh. To them will the Ma~briqu'1-AcThk~r symbolize the fundamental verity underlying the Bahá'í Faith, that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is not final but progressive. Theirs will be the conviction that an all-loving and ever-watchful Father Who, in the past, and at various stages in the eva-lution of mankind, has sent forth His Prophets as the Bearers of His Message and the Manifestations of His
Page 325Light to mankind, cannot at this critical period of their civilization withhold from His children the Guidance which they sorely need amid the darkness which has beset them, and which neither the light of science nor that of human intellect and wisdom can succeed in dissipating.
And thus having recognized in Bahá'u'lláh the source whence this celestial light proceeds, they will irresistibly feel attracted to seek the shelter of His House, and congregate therein, unhampered by ceremonials and unfettered by creed, to render homage to the one true God, the Essence and Orb of eternal Truth, and to exalt and magnify the name of His Messengers and Prophets Who, from time immemorial even unto our day, have, under divers circumstances and in varying measure, mirrored forth to a dark and wayward world the light of heavenly Guidance.
But however inspiring the conception of Baha worship, as witnessed in the central Edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be regarded as the sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, as designed by Bahá'u'lláh, is destined to play in the organic life of the
Baha community. Divorcedfrom the social, humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits centering around the Dependencies of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, Bahá'íworship, however exalted in its conception, however passionate in fervor, can never hope to achieve beyond the meager and often transitory results produced by the contemplations of the ascetic or the communion of the passive worshipper.
It cannot afford lasting satisfaction and benefit to the worshipper himself, much less to humanity in general, unless and until translated and transfused into that dynamic and disinterested service to the cause of humanity which it is the supreme privi
MASHRIQU'L-ADHKAR 325lege of the Dependencies of the Mashriqu'1-Adjikhr to facilitate and promote.
Nor will the exertions, no matter how distinterested and strenuous, of those who within the precincts of the Mashriqu'1-Aijbkhr will be engaged in administering the affairs of the future Bahá'í Commonwealth, fructify and prosper unless they are brought into close and daily communion with those spiritual agencies centering in and radiating from the central Shrine of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Nothing short of direct and constant interaction between the spiritual farces emanating from this House of Worship centering in the heart of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and the energies consciously displayed by those who administer its affairs in their service to humanity can possibly provide the necessary agency capable of removing the ills that have so long and so grievously afflicted humanity. For it is assuredly upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, reinforced on one hand by spiritual communion with His Spirit, and on the other by the intelligent application and the faithful execution of the principles and laws He revealed that the salvation of a world in travail must ultimately depend. And of all the institutions that stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar can most adequately provide the essentials of Bahá'í worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration of the world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the potency, of the unique position of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as one of the outstanding institutions conceived by Bahá'u'lláh.
Dearly-beloved friends!May we not as the trustees of so priceless a heritage, arise to fulfill our high destiny? Haifa, Palestine.
October 25, 1929.By ARCHDEACON TOWNSHEND, M.A. ON the lake shore at Wilmette stands the completed Temple of Praise, a sign of the Spirit of the Most Great Peace and of the Splendor of God that has come down to dwell among men. The walls of the Temple are transparent, made of an open tracery cut as in sculptured stone, and lined with glass.
All imaginable symbols of light are woven together into the pattern, the lights of the sun and the moon and the constellations, the lights of the spiritual heavens unfolded by the great Revealers of today and yesterday, the Cross in various forms, the
Crescentand the nine pointed Star (emblem of the Bahá'í Faith). No darkness invades the Temple at any time; by day it is lighted by the sun whose rays flood in from every side through the exquisitely perforated walls, and by night it is artificially illuminated and its ornamented shape is etched with light against the dark. From whatever side the visitor approaches, the aspiring form of the Temple appears as the spirit of adoration; and seen from the air above it has the likeness of a Nine-Pointed Star come down from heaven to find its resting place on the earth.
G. Towns hendsignificant has been the erection of the superstructure and the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the West, the noblest of the exploits which have immortalized the services of the Amer-lean Bahá'í community to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
Consummated through the agency of an efficiently functioning and newly established Administrative Order, this enterprise has itself immensely enhanced the prestige, consolidated the strength and expanded the subsidiary institutions of the community that made its building possible.
Conceived forty-one years ago; originating with the petition spontaneously addressed, in March 1903 to 'Abdu'l-Bahá by the "House of Spirituality" of the Bahá'ís of Chicago � the first Bahá'í center established in the Western world � the members of which, inspired by the example set by the builders of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of 'Ishq4b~k1, had appealed for permission to construct a similar Temple in America; blessed by His approval and high commendation in a Tablet revealed by Him in June of that same year; launched by the delegates of various
American AsArchitect's Drawing of interior of Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Page 328semblies, assembled in Chicago in November, 1907, for the purpose of choosing the site of the Temple; established on a national basis through a religious corporation known as the "Bahá'í Tern-pie Unity," which was incorporated shortly after the first American Bahá'í Convention held in that same city in March, 1909; honored through the dedication ceremony presided over by 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself when visiting that site in May, 1912, this enterprise � the crowning achievement of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the first Bahá'í century � had, ever since that memorable occasion, been progressing intermittently until the time when the foundations of that Order having been firmly laid in the North American continent the American Bahá'í community was in a position to utilize the instruments which it had forged for the efficient prosecution of its task.
At the 1914 American Baha'iConvention the purchase of the Temple property was completed. The 1920 Convention, held in New York, having been previously directed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to select the design of that Temple, chose from among a number of designs competitively submitted to it that of Louis J.
Bourgeois, a French-Canadianarchitect, a selection that was later confirmed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself.
The contracts for the sinking of the nine great caissons supporting the central portion of the building, extending to rock at a depth of 120 feet below the ground level, and for the construction of the basement structure, were successively awarded in December, 1920 and August, 1921. In August, 1930, in spite of the prevailing economic crisis, and during a period of unemployment unparalleled in American history, another contract, with twenty-four additional subcontracts, for the erection of the superstructure was placed, and the work completed by May 1, 1931, on which day the first devotional service in the new structure was celebrated, coinciding with the 19th anniversary of the dedication of the grounds by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The ornamentation of the dome was started in June, 1932 and finished in January, 1934. The ama mentation of the clerestory was completed in 1935, and that of the gallery unit below it in November, 1938. The mainstory ornamentation was, despite the outbreak of the present war, undertaken in April, 1940, and completed in July, 1942; whilst the eighteen circular steps were placed in position by December, 1942, seventeen months in advance of the centenary celebration of the Faith, by which time the exterior of the Temple was scheduled to be finished, and forty years after the petition of the Chicago believers had been submitted to and granted by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
This unique edifice, the first fruit of a slowly maturing Administrative Order, the noblest structure reared in the first Bahá'í century, and the symbol and precursor of a future world civilization, is situated in the heart of the North American continent, on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is surrounded by its own grounds comprising a little less than seven acres. It has been financed, at cost of over a million dollars, by the American Bahá'í community, assisted at times by voluntary contributions of recognized believers in East and West, of Christian, of Muslim, of Jewish, of
Zoroastrian, of HinduIt been financed, at cost of over a mu-with 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and in the concluding stages of its construction with the memory of the Greatest Holy Leaf, the Purest Branch and their mother. The structure itself is a pure white nonagonal building, of original and unique design, rising from a flight of white stairs encircling its base; and surmounted by a majestic and beautifully proportioned dome, bearing nine tapering symmetrically placed ribs of decorative as well as structural significance, which soar to its apex and finally merge into a common unit pointing skyward. Its framework is constructed of structural steel enclosed in concrete, the material of its ornamentation consisting of a combination of crystalline quartz, opaque quartz and white Portland cement, producing a composition clear in texture, hard and enduring as stone, impervious to the elements, and cast into a design as delicate as lace. It soars 191 feet from
Page 329the floor of its basement to the cub mination of the ribs, clasping the hemispherical dome which is forty-nine feet high, with an external diameter of ninety feet, and one-third of the surface of which is perforated to admit light during the day and emit light at night. It is buttressed by pylons forty-five feet in height, and bears above its nine entrances, one of which faces 'Akka, nine selected quotations from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, as well as the Greatest Name in the center of each of the arches over its doors. It is consecrated exclusively to worship, devoid of all ceremony and ritual, is provided with an auditorium which can seat 1600 people, and is to be supplemented by accessory institutions of social service to be established in its vicinity, such as an orphanage, a hospital, a dispensary for the poor, a home for the incapacitated, a hostel for travelers and a college for the study of arts and sciences.
It had already, long before itg construction, evoked, and is now increasingly evoking, though its interior ornamentation is as yet unbegun, such interest and comment, in the public press, in technical journals and in magazines, of both the United States and other countries as to justify the hopes and expectations entertained for it by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Its model exhibited at Art centers, gab leries, state fairs and national expositions � among which may be mentioned the Century of Progress Exhibition, held in Chicago in 1933, where no less than ten thousand people, passing through the Hall of Religions, must have viewed it every day � its replica forming a part of the permanent exhibit of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; its doors now thronged by visitoxs from far and near, whose number, during the period from June, 1932 to October, 1941 has exceeded 130,000 people, representing almost every country in the world, this great "Silent Teacher" of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, it may be confidently asserted, has contributed to the diffusion of the knowledge of His Faith and teachings in a measure which no other single agency, operating within the framework of its Administrative Order, has ever remote-iy approached.
"When the foundation of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is laid in America," 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself has predicted, "and that Divine Edifice is completed, a most wonderful and thrilling motion wifl appear in the world of existence � From that point of light the spirit of teaching, spreading the Cause of God and promoting the teachings of God, will permeate to all parts of the world."
"Out of this Mashriqu'1.-Aclhkdr," He has affirmed in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, "without doubt, thousands of Mashriqu'l-Adjkdrs u,ilt be born." "It marks," He, furthermore, has written, "the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth."
And again: "It is the manifest Standard waving in the center of that great continent." "Thousands of Mashriqu'l-Adhkar's He, when dedicating the grounds of the Temple, declared, " will be built in the East and in the West, but this, being the first erected in the Occident, has great importance." "This organization of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar" He, referring to that edifice, has moreover stated, "will be a model for the coming centuries, and will hold the station of the mother."
"Its inception," the Architect of the Temple has himself testified, "was not from man, for, as musicians, artists, poets receive their inspiration from another realm, so the Temple's architect, through all his years of labor, was ever conscious that Bahá'u'lláh was the creator of this building to be erected to His glory." "Into this new design," he, furthermore, has written, is woven, in symbolic form, the great Bahá'í teaching of unity � the unity of all religions of all mankind.
There are combinations of mathematical lines, symbolizing those of the universe, and in their intricate merging of circle into circle, and circle within circle, we visualize the merging of all the religions into one." And again: "A circle of steps, eighteen in all, will surround the structure on the outside, and lead to the auditorium floor. These eighteen steps represent the eighteen first disciples of the flAb, and the door to which
Page 330they lead stands for the Báb Himself." "As the essence of the pure original teachings of the historic religions was the same in the Bahá'í Temple is used a composite architecture, expressing the essence in the line of each of the great architectural styles, harmonizing them into one whole."
"It is the first new idea in architecture since the 13th century," declared a distinguished architect, H. Van Buren Magonigle, President of the Architectural League, after gazing upon a plaster model of the Temple on exhibition in the Engineering Societies Building in New York, in June 1920. "The Architect," he, moreover, has stated, "has conceived a Temple of Light in which structure, as usually understood, is to be concealed, visible support eliminated as far as possible, and the whole fabric to take on the airy substance of a dream.
It is a lacy envelope enshrining an idea, the idea of light, a shelter of cobweb interposed between earth and sky, struck through and through with light � light which shall partly consume the forms and make of it a thing of faery."
"In the geometric forms of the ornamentation," a writer in the wellknown publication
Architectural Recordhas written, "covering the columns and surrounding windows and doors of the Temple, one deciphers all the religious symbols of the world. Here are the swastika, the circle, the cross, the triangle, the double triangle or six pointed star (Solomon's seal) � but more than this � the noble symbol of the spiritual orb the five pointed star; the Greek Cross, the Roman cross, and supreme above all, the wonderful nine pointed star, figured in the structure of the Temple itself, and appearing again and again in its ornamentation as significant of the spiritual glory in the world today."
"The greatest creation since the Gothic period," is the testimony of George Grey Barnard, one of the most widely-known sculptors in the United States of America, "and the most beautiful I have ever seen."
"This is a new creation," Prof. Luigi Quaglino, ex-professor of Architecture from Turin declared, after viewing the model, "which will revolutionize architecture in the world, and it is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Without doubt it will have a lasting page in history. It is a revelation from another world."
"Americans," wrote SherwinCody, in the magazine section of the New York Times, of the model of the Temple, when exhibited in the Kevorkian Gallery in New York, "will have to pause long enough to find that an artist has wrought into this building the conception of a Religious League of Nations." And lastly, this tribute paid to the features of, and the ideals embodied in, this Temple � the most sacred House of Worship in the Bahá'í world, whether of the present or of the future � by Dr. Rexford Newcomb, Dean of the College of
Fine and Applied Artsof Light' opens upon the terrain of human experience nine great doorways which beckon men and women of every race and clime, of every faith and conviction, of every condition of freedom or servitude to enter here into a recognition of that kinship and brotherhood without which the modern world will be able to make little further progress �The dome, pointed in form, aiming as assuredly as did the aspiring lines of the medieval cathedrals toward higher and better things, achieves not only through its symbolism but also through its structural propriety and sheer loveliness of form, a beauty not matched by any domical structure since the construction of Michelangelo's dome on the Basilica of St.
Peter in Rome."The Bahá'í Temple As Embodiment of the Principle o~ World Faith
HORACE HOLLEYFOR more than forty years the Bahá'ís of North America, with the encouragement and financial support of fellow-religionists in many other lands, have been engaged in the construction of a House of Worship. The vision seized upon the first small Bahá'í community, and the sanction and blessing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá were besought and graciously bestowed before those early believers felt they had the power or right to assume a task so weighty and a mission so exalted.
The story of their ardent labors, and the gradual development of the structure, has been recounted many times. The adoption of a design for the interior ornamentation now provides occasion not for one more recapitulation of the history of the project, nor presentation of its unusual engineering and technical elements, but for a tentative exploration of some of the profound meanings which the Temple yields as we study its architectural form and ponder its aim and function.
The basic architectural form incorporated in the building is the perfect circle, the orb or horizon, and the division of its circumference into nine equal chords.
The circle appears in the foundation on which the structure stands, manifest in the series of ascending steps leading to the circular platform on the level of the main floor and again in the circular horizontal section produced by the intersection of the hemispherical dome with the vertical wall of the clerestory. Another circle is cut by the meeting of the clerestory and the horizontal plane of the top of the gallery unit.
The nine chords which intersect the perfect circle are traced in the nonagon form of the main storey. These chords are produced again by the horizontal plane of the gallery or second storey, but here the circle is swung one-eight-eenth of its orbit beyond the nine intersecting points of the first storey, so that the two nonagons mark circles in revolution and not circles forever at rest.
The nonagon formed by the nine dome-ribs matches the chords formed by the gallery.
The function of the surrounding steps is to provide equal facility for access from any external point. The monumental structure in its external architectural mass has no specialized direction. Its circular steps include all directions simultaneously. The function of the main storey is to supply nine formal entrances to the interior. The function of the gallery unit is to form the ornamental framework for nine immense window systems. The clerestory also provides illumination but its function is to provide the basis from which spring the spherical dome and its nine arching ribs.
The points of the first two nonagons are marked by pylons and turrets which, with the dome ribs, orient the structure upward.
The greatest visible horizontal dimension is that of the platform on which the building stands. The gallery storey is set back from the edge of the main storey; and the clerestory is also set back from the line of the gallery unit. The diameter of the platform at the top of the steps is one hundred fifty-two feet, while that of the foundation beneath the platform is two hundred two feet. From first floor level to the pinnacle of the dome the measure is one hundred sixty-one feet.
The building stands on nine caissons which go down to bedrock one hundred twenty-four feet below the earth.
Steps and platform, entrance level,Architect's drawing of interior, Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Page 333gallery level, clerestory and dome are combined as five elements in an architectural form which creates a new aesthetic mode. Whether viewed in terms of vertical section, horizontal section or silhouette, the building utters a call to spiritual devotion which employs a language of the heart not speaking in a dialect descended from the Gothic, nor the Byzantine, nor the Roman, Greek or Hindu tongues.
The language is new. and the heart must reenter the school of love to attain its meaning.
The builder's dimensions do not define the aesthetic masses and lines of the architectural form. The structure of the Bahá'í House of Worship is not large nor is it small. It is monumental, recreating itself anew in the mind of every beholder. The structure has the repose of a monument, but in this repose is fluidity of motion, and the energy of mass resisting as well as supporting mass.
A sense of unity and universality emanates from the completed circles. The nonagons which intersect other circles represent, in the Bahá'í conception, the meanings of perfection and fulfilment. It is as though an endless orbit of eternity contains a succession of points of ascent.
These cosmic meanings wrought into the Temple structure have connection through the unique scheme of orn amen-tation with the organic life-force of nature and with man's own sense of spiritual destiny. In the different units of decoration can be discerned the planetary orbits, the entwining of leaves and flowers, and the revered traditional and conventionalized symbols of revealed religions: the cross, the star of David the new nine-pointed star of this dispensation, the ancient swastika and others.
The Temple typifies man on his different but interrelated levels of experience and responsibility: man in the universe, man on earth, man in society, and man made conscious of the Kingdom of God. Its structure thus sets forth, among other Bahá'í principles, the harmony of science and religion, the basic unity of all divine revelation and the spiritual evolution of mankind
MASHRIQU'L-ADHKAR333 through clan, tribe, race and nation to the goal of knowledge and peace attained through the union and order of the world.
It is only in its external structure that the Bahá'í House of Worship flu-fills the nature of a great monument which, living in the outer world of the eye, can because of its spiritual characteristics penetrate to the world of mind and heart. The beholder's consciousness, having drunk the cup of aesthetic experience, feels a consummation on reading the words of Bahá'u'lláh carved over the entrance ways; as for exam-pie, "The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, ejalted be His glory."
The Temple becomes more than a monument when we realize that fne mystery of the structure, its essential aim, lies in the interior of this brilliant shell and is not held by its outer surfaces, superb architecture though they be. The function of this shell is to enclose a meeting-place for the souls of men, a place where men may meet and mingle as spiritual beings, a place where men may have association with the
Spirit of God.Between the structure as monument and the structure as a place for the mention of the Greatest Name of God it is essential to note a distinction, a distinction like that between architecture and music or between scientific understanding and the fire of faith.
To examine the design chosen for the interior, and appreciate its architectural and artistic qualities in relation to their spiritual function, it is helpful to give preliminary thought to a statement about the House of Worship made by the Guardian of the Faith as long ago as 1929. This statement was written in order to correct a misapprehension of the nature of the House of Worship which the architect had incorporated in his design. The interior as the architect conceived it, was to symbolize the universality of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh by including, around the central hail or auditorium, a series of nine chapels each of which would be used for worship by a different denomination. The recognition of these
Page 334diverse modes of worship, in this early conception of the Baha religion, would constitute a new and impressive example of toleration and support the principle of unity inherent in the new teachings.
The Guardian declared: "It should be borne in mind that the central edifice of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar round which in the fullness of time shall cluster such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded, apart from these Dependencies, as a House solemnly designed and entirely dedicated to the worship of God in accordance with the few yet definitely prescribed principles established by Bahá'u'lláh It should not be inferred, however, from this general statement that the interior of the central Edifice itself will be converted into a conglomeration of religious services conducted along lines associated with the traditional procedure obtaining in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples of worship. Its various avenues of approach, all converging towards the central Hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those sectarian adherents of rigid formulae and manmade creeds, each bent, according to his way to observe his rites, recite his prayers, perform his ablutions and display the particular symbols of his faith, within separately defined sections of Bahá'u'lláh's
Universal House of Worship.The central House of Bahá'í worship, enshrined within the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, will gather within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the trappings of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshipers of the one true God, as manifested in this age in the Person of Bahá'u'lláh." This decisive criterion makes it clear that the Temple represents a victory of faith and truth over the errors and imitations which have gradually overlaid the blessed reality revealed in the past. Spiritually it stands on a level infinitely higher than is attained by the mind and conscience of men today when shut out from the experience of a living faith.
The interior design as now modified therefore creates one unified space: the domed auditorium (the Central Hall) into which open nine arched alcoves or bays.
At present we have an artist's rendering of two Interior views, one of the domed auditorium, the other of one of the nine alcoves.
The architectural form of the Temple interior has for its principal elements the great circular auditorium overarched by the hemisphere of the dome at a height of more than one hundred fifty feet from the floor; nine groups of columns, some supporting the first gallery encircling the auditorium at a height of thirty-six feet, others continuing to support the base of the dome, one hundred feet from floor level. The nine arched alcoves occupy the area under the ceiling of the gallery. Systems of columns provide entrances between adjoining alcoves extending from the outside doors to the auditorium and to the alcoves on either side of the entrances.
A second and smaller gallery overlooks the auditorium eighty-one feet above the floor.
To this architectural form will be added the exquisite beauty of an ornamental scheme conceived in the same spirit as the ornamentation applied to the exterior of the building, but rendered with more grace, delicacy and charm. The interior ornamentation will furthermore be enhanced by the harmony of color. Each surface, whether of wall, column, arch, ceiling or perforated dome, will pay its tribute in line and color to this enclosed amphitheater of the drama of Divine Revelation. The upwardness given to the exterior of the structure is here in its interior intensified and made the supreme climax of the artist's conception, for the eye finds the focal point of attention as well as meaning in the illumined symbol of the Greatest Name of God which will appear at the top of the dome.
Page 335Though the circular steps outside are oriented to the whole encircling horizon of humankind, the interior has its direction indicated in that the seats in the central auditorium will all face that one of the nine alcoves or bays which stands on the side of the structure facing 'Akka, the new point of holiness conferred by Bahá'u'lláh. In the other eight alcoves the seats will face the center of the auditorium itself.
The ninth alcove will not be part of the auditorium.
There facilities for readers will be arranged. Thus in this House of Worship there will be no pulpit for sermons nor altar for ritual conducted by clergyman or priest. Bahá'í worship consists of readings, by several persons who may be differently chosen at each meeting, taken from the utterances revealed by the Manifestations of God: � from the words of Moses, of Jesus, of Muhammad, of the Báb, and of Bahá'u'lláh. For Bahá'ís join in adoration of the revealers of all faiths, revering them as those successive Spokesmen of the Infinite, Unknowable God who have, by their divinely conferred authority, appeared on earth age after age to revive the souls of men, restore the true Faith, and guide humanity onward through different stages in its spiritual and social evolution.
Since these unique Beings are one Person, one Spirit, and he who denies any one has denied all, the Bahá'í mode of worship is not human tolerance restored in a different form, but understanding of the oneness of God.
The Bahá'í House of Worshipis not one more religious edifice of denominational character. It has been built according to a new and higher pattern of worship, wherein persons of all races, nations and creeds may enter the unifying Spirit which emanates from the Word of God. Baha worship includes no sermon, no physical drama, no man-conceived prayer, invocation or conventionalized response. The Mani-festion of God, He alone, has utterance in this holy place. Because Bahá'u'lláh has revealed the mysterious Identity of that higher being who manifests God through the person of the prophet from age to age, the essence of divine worship today is adoration of God in His Glory which encompasses all mankind today, yesterday and forever. "I bear witness," is His assurance to the world in its hour of bitterest agony: "I bear witness that he who hath known Thee hath known God, and he who hath attained unto Thy presence bath attained unto the presence of God. Great, therefore, is the blessedness of him who hath believed in Thee, and in Thy signs, and hath humbled himself before Thy sovereignty, and bath been honored with meeting Thee, and bath attained the good pleasure of Thy will, and circled around Thee, and stood before Thy throne."
ARCHITECTURE OF THE TEMPLE INTERIORA BOUT thirtyfive years ceding, American architecture have passed since Louis was in the grip of rigid Bourgeois conceived and developedstylism, of painstaking archaeology.
the design for the Temple In 1950 American architecture in Wilmette. These thirty-fivehas abandoned eclecticism years have seen perhaps and is committed to a as rapid and violent wholehearted expression a change in prevailing of function and structure concepts of architecture as the supreme objective.
as the world has ever The Bahá'í Temple typifies known. In 1920 and the neither years immediately pre
Page 336point of view. Had Bourgeois been content to swim along in the main stream of 1920 American architecture he would have clad his design in a medley of architectural styles. Instead he put away his books of archaeology and brought forth a flowing, dynamic type of ornamentation that defies placing as to specific source. Were we to follow the prevailing fashion of 1950 as we complete the interior we would simply leave exposed the concrete framework of the interior and probably do a lot of talking about the honesty, integrity and beauty of naked, unabashed structures � perhaps a little whitewash and a few accents of color and form and we would consider it complete.
But all of us who are Bahá'ís during this thrilling period of completing the most holy House of Worship, know that our Temple is something quite apart from any architectural fashion of the moment.
When our Temple is completed it will be a unified, integrated entity, although designed and built in a period of swiftly moving change. The Guardian has directed that it be so, and of course that is the only way that a Bahá'í Temple can be.
When we enter one of the nine entrances to the Temple, sometime in the spring of 1951, we will find the old temporary wooden doors removed, and simple but fine aluminum and glass substituted. The wooden crossbars above are to be removed and two large pieces of clear glass installed in each opening � there would be only one piece, except for the pressures of high winds off Lake Michigan.
These large areas of glass will show, from the inside of the Temple the ornament on the back of some of the exterior columns and arches.
The concrete piers in the bays have already been finished as round columns. A picture of these appeared in the Bahá'í News for December, 1949. The design of these columns makes no attempt to copy heavy, masonry forms. They taper towards the bottom rather than towards the top as has been the case with masonry columns for mule-niums past. In so doing they register as surface treatment and not as massive masonry, for the load is carried by the concrete pier within. Vertical joints, instead of being staggered in usual masonry fashion, are lined one above the other, further recognizing the surface qualities of the material. The marble base of the column will be recessed rather than projecting in the usual manner. We can see already, at the Temple, the lightness and grace, as well as the great dignity of these columns.
The ceiling of each bay consists of a pair of ogee curves meeting in a straight line at the top. A lighting trough carries around each bay between columns, and silhouetted in front will be the nine inscriptions selected by the Guardian.
Color can be applied to the ceilings, and there is space for draperies against the outside wall, between windows.
In the main portion of the Temple there are, of course, the nine pairs of columns which rise to the springing of the dome. These columns are even now being finished with square sections of the surface material, and between each pair of columns rises a brilliant panel of ornament, clear to the springing of the dome. Our architect, Alfred Shaw, has felt from the very start of his work that he wanted to recapture the scale and quality of the exterior ornament of the dome.
That he has at last fully done so is clear to those who have watched his designs progress from sketches to detailed drawings, to clay models, plaster casts, and finally to the executed panels. These nine great vertical panels of vibrant, flowing ornament eventually find their way into the detail of the dome.
Between the nine panels and pairs of piers are first the main storey arches, then the gallery arches, and finally the smaller interlacing arches of the triforium gallery.
At each of the main storey arches is a nine pointed star on which will be inscribed the Greatest Name.
The Guardian has sent a detail of this inscription, which is to be followed exactly lest any Occidental liberties with epigraphy offend a practiced eye.
The dome has been brilliantly deArchitect's drawing of interior of Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Page 338signed with an interlacing of flowing ornament, culminating in the Greatest Name at the zenith. The interior dome, like the exterior treatment, will be pierced, to transmit light.
To have watched the development of the interior design has been a thrilling experience.
The complete willingness and desire of our distinguished architect, Alfred Shaw, to merge his great creative powers into the background of the overall concept of the Temple has been stirring and deeply and gratefully admired.
The problem has been difficult technically if only because of the absolute necessity of integrating what is being done in 1950 to form a harmonious entity with what was conceived before 1920.
But in only a little more than a year from now, given the necessary flow of funds, the Temple interior will have been completed.
And it is going to be very beautiful.ON THE first day of May, 1912, a group of men, women, and children stood in the open fields where this House of Worship now stands.
With them was 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He had come to perform the symbolic act of laying a cornerstone for the future Temple. A woman #ho wanted to aid the building of the Temple, found a rough stone. She lived many miles from here and started on foot to carry the stone.
A little boy with a cart helped her part way. Finally, a man offered to carry it on his back, and the stone was brought to the fields here. 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked to use it as the foundation stone.
This act of sacrifice is symbolic of the whole story behind this House of Worship.
In 1903 the Chicago Bahá'ís started the project to build in America a Temple to embody the new principles of faith in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. The American Baha'is, then a few hundred in number, united in this project. Their determination was an act of faith. They had no money collected. They had no architect's plan. But they made a beginning.
Bahá'u'lláh taught that in each community there should be a Temple where the voices of men and women are raised in praise to God.
Each Bahá'í Temple is to have nine sides. This is the only architectural requirement which Bahá'u'lláh made. But the symbolism is important. Nine is the largest single number.
Bahá'u'lláh used nine to symbolize the coming of age of the human race.
He taught that the purpose of religion in this age is to unite the conflicting races and nations in one faith and a common world civilization. He changed religion from personal salvation to a means for building world order.
The nine sides of the Temple also concern the great religions of the world. At present, most people belong to religions differing greatly in time of origin.
Judaism, for example, is over a thousand years older than Christianity.
Some religions were started by men who were reformers.
Some originated with individuals who claimed to reveal the Word of God. We have record of nine revealed religions including the Bahá'í Faith.
The nine sides of the Temple show that each revealed religion has encouraged men and women to turn to God. The spiritual truths of these religions are essentially the same. Every Bahá'í Temple, by its nine-sided form, symbolizes the unity of religion. The early American
Baha'isNo group of people in the west had ever undertaken such a project.
In 1920 a competition was held for Bahá'í architects to submit designs for a Temple. The designs were submitted at a convention in New York City. Among the competitors was Louis
Bourgeois, a French-Canadianarchitect. His design was enthusiastically selected by the Bahá'ís after a committee of architects and engineers endorsed it. One prominent architect declared that it was the first new idea in religious architecture since the Middle Ages.
Bourgeois tried to get the feeling of the unity of religion into the design. On the great outer columns you find religious symbols placed in rising, chronological order � to give the idea of the continuity of religious truth from God. The swastika, an ancient religious symbol, is at the bottom of the design on these columns.
Thence comes the six pointed star of Judaism, the cross of Christianity, the star and crescent of IslAm. Above these is a nine-pointed star to indicate the coming religious unity of the human race.
People find other ideas in the Temple design.The nine doors suggest varied ways by which men in the past have found a knowledge of God. Because the design is unusual, people try to find a single term for the architecture.
Some point out traces of different styles � Egyptian, Romanesque, Arabic, Renaissance and Byzantine. By suggestions of these various styles Bourgeois has indicated the repeated efforts of men to glorify God.
The materials for the outside of the Temple presented many problems.
The architect and engineers had no precedent to go by. Years were spent in research. Finally, John J. Early, an architectural sculptor, helped solve the main problem. Using a mixture of white cement and ground quartz, the outer ornamentation was cast in molds and then applied section by section.
With the war over, the Bahá'ís are planning to complete the interior by 1953, the fiftieth anniversary of the time when the idea of building a Bahá'í Temple in America was adopted. Then the Bahá'ís will eventually erect auxiliary buildings.
Bahá'u'lláh gave a urn-fied plan for a community center with a beautiful House of Worship at its heart.
Around this will be a hospital, a hospice, an orphanage, a college, and scientific laboratories.
Bahá'u'lláh urged that each Bahá'í Temple be surrounded by gardens and fountains.
Services in the Temple will not be elaborate.There will be no ritualism or set forms. Bahá'ís have no professional clergy to preside. Services are for prayer, meditation, and the reading of writings from. the Sacred Scriptures of the Bahá'í Faith and the other great Faiths of the world. Sermons of any type will be out of place. Vocal music alone will be heard. The Temple will be open to all people for prayer and meditation.
But Bahá'í worship means more than prayer and meditation.
Bahá'u'lláh said that any work done in a spirit of service is a form of prayer. The educational, humanitarian, and scientific institutions around the Temple will complete the dedication of the individual to God. To the Bahá'í there is no rigid division between the spiritual and practical parts of life.
Bahá'ís do not solicit funds from the public for any of their activities.
From all over the world the Bahá'ís have contributed to the erection of this building. Funds have come from Persia, India � in fact, from all the five continents. This Temple is both a gift from Bahá'ís and a demonstration of their Faith. Here is a building where men and women of all races and religions are welcome to come for prayer. Here no creed stigmatizes the follower of any great faith as infidel or pagan. Here all men may turn their hearts to God and know that they are brothers.
Page 340"The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens."
"The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me."
"My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure."
"Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
"Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent."
THE BAHÁ'Í HOUSE OF"I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?"
"Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee."
"0 rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My Trust."
"The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory."
WORSHIPTHE PEOPLE who built this Hotise of Worship are Baha'is. They bear this name as members of a World
Faith. The word "Baha"comes from the name of the Founder of the Faith � Bahá'u'lláh ("the Glory of God"). Bahá'í simply means "a follower of Bahá'u'lláh."
The Faith of Bahá'u'lláhis called the "Baha World Faith." There are three reasons for this.
First, Bahá'ís live in more than seventy countries of the world. Bahá'ís are people who formerly had different and conflicting religious backgrounds.
They had been Buddhists, Jews, Mus-urns, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Protestants, Catholics, or else they had no religion at all.
They have found in the Bahá'í Faith a basis of unity that makes the competition of sects and denominations seem unimportant to them.
Bahá'ís are people of different economic and social classes. Through a common devotion, rich and poor mingle as equals and work together to establish a world order for all men and women.
They are people of different national and racial backgrounds.
But the Bahá'í teachings have given them a higher loyalty � the loyalty to humanity. Bahá'ís have no "color line" or racial segregation. In this Faith, people of all races find equality with each other because they are equal before God.
Second, the Bahá'í Faith"Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own selves."
"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race."
Third, the Bahá'í Faithoffers a clear pattern of world order. It does not have any secret mystic doctrines; it does not have any priesthood or professional clergy.
People find this a practical, spiritual religion with the mission of
Page 341A view of the "Mother Temple of the West," Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Page 342uniting the world in one common faith and one order.
Bahá'u'lláh declared that in our time religion must unite people or else it has no social value. He cieciw ed that religion must show men how to build a just world. He emphasized that justice is the greatest good in the sight of God.
To show men how to achieve this, He outlined a pattern of world order.
Bah&'u'li6ih's vision of a united world begins with each man and woman.
Individuals must have high moral standards and a new basis of belief if they are to be become citizens of one world.
Bahá'ís believe in one God, even though men have called Him by different names. God has revealed His Word in eadh period of history through a chosen
Individual Whom Bahá'íscall "the Manifestation of God." He restates in every age God's purpose and will. His teachings are a revelation from God.
Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ, andof God. Each gave men divine teachings to live by.
Bahá'ís believe that true religion is the real basis of civilized life.
Since there is one God, these Manifestations of God have each taught the same religious faith.
They have developed and adapted it to meet the needs of the people in each period of history. This unfoldment of religion from age to age is called "progressive revelation."
Bahá'u'lláh, the Founderof the Bahá'í Faith, is the Manifestation of God for our time.
This is the basis of Bahá'í belief: one God has given men one Faith through progressive revelations of His Will in each age of history, and Bahá'u'lláh reveals the Will of God for men and women of the present age. This basic belief enables Bahá'ís to unite and work together in spite of different religious backgrounds.
The Oneness of Mankindis like a pivot around which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve.
This means that men and women of all races are equal in the sight of God and equal in the Bahá'í community. People of different races must have equal educational and economic opportunity, equal access to decent living conditions � and equal responsibilities.
In the Bahá'í view, there is no superior race or superior nation.
Bahá'u'lláh declared that a house of Justice must be established in each community.
This body, elected by the people, is to be composed of men and women so qualified that they may be ''trustees of the Merciful among men.~~ Each nation will have a Secondary or National House of Justice whose members will elect the International House of Justice. This international legislature will make the laws for a federalized world.
Bahá'u'lláh emphasized certain principles to help bind people together in a united world: Men must seek for truth in spite of custom, prejudice, and tradition.
Men and women must have equal opportunities, rights, and privileges.
The nations must choose an international language to be used along with the mother tongue.
All children must receive a basic education.Men must make a systematic effort to wipe out all those prejudices which divide people.
Men must recognize that religion should go hand-in-hand with science.
Men must work to abolish extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
This Faith and these challenging ideas originated in Persia (IrAn) in 1844. In that year a young Man Who called Himself the Báb (or "Gate") began to teach that God would soon "make manifest" a World Teacher to unite men and women and usher in an age of peace. That BTh attracted so many followers that the Persian government and the Islamic clergy united to kill Him. And they massacred more than twenty thousand of His followers.
Tn 1863 Bahá'u'lláh announced to the few remaining followers of the B&b that He was the chosen Manifestation of God for this age. He called upon people to unite; He said that only in one common faith and one order could the world find an enduring peace.
He declared that terrible wars would sweepthe face of the earth and destroy the institutions and ideas that keep men from their rightful unity.
The teachings of Bahá'u'lláh are a ringing call to action. They offer hope, courage, and vision. The books of Bahá'u'lláh in English are: The Hidden Words, The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, The Book of Certitude, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Prayers and Meditations, and Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. A selection of His writings is in the anthology called Bahá'í
World Faith.But Bahá'u'lláh was not greeted with enthusiasm by the religious leaders of Isl&m. As they saw His Faith spread, their hatred grew. They forced Him into exile � first to Baghdad, then to Constantinople, to Adrianople, and finally to 'Akka, Palestine.
There He died, still an exile and prisoner, in 1892.
Bahá'u'lláh appointed 'Abdu'l-Bahá, His eldest son, as the Interpreter of His teachings and the Exemplar of the Faith.
Under the leadership of 'Abdu'l-Bahá the Faith was introduced to Europe and America.
After He was freed from prison in 1908, 'Abdu'l-Bahá made several missionary journeys. In 1912 He was in America for eight months during which time He laid the cornerstone of this Temple.
In 1921 'Abdu'l-Bahá died and left a will naming His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian of the Faith and the interpreter of the teachings. Under Shoghi Effendi's direction the Bahá'ís throughout the world have adopted an administrative order that is an application of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings for a world order. Thus Bahá'ís have begun to practice in their own affairs the social teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
Local and National Bahá'íSpiritual Assemblies are the pattern for the Houses of Justice of tomorrow.
Bahá'ís know from increasing experience that differences of nation, race, class, and religion can be removed by the uniting power of
Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'ísknow from increasing experience that this Faith can save men and women from the hatreds, the pessimism, the corruption, and the materialism of our age. They know this because they have seen it and experienced it. They invite you to investigate this Faith and share in this spiritual adventure.
Following are the nine sentences chosen by Shoghi Effendi for use in the Temple interior: 1. "All the prophets of God proclaim the same faith."
2. "Religion is a radiant light and an impregnable stronghold."
3. "Ye are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch."
4. "So powerful is unity's light that it can illumine the whole earth."
5. "Consort with the followers of all religions with friendliness."
6. "0 Son of Being! Thou9. "The light of a good character sur-passeth the light of the sun."
Page 344A view of the symbolic tracery of the exterior ornamentation of the Baha House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Page 345AMONG different peoples and at different times many different methods have been adopted for the measurement of time and fixing of dates, and several different calendars are still in daily use, e.g., the Gregorian in Western Europe, the Julian in many countries of Eastern Europe, the Hebrew among the Jews, and the Muhammadan in Muslim countries.
The flAb signalized the importance of the dispensation which He came to her-aid, by inaugurating a new calendar. In this, as in the Gregorian Calendar, the lunar month is abandoned and the solar year is adopted.
The Bahá'í year consists of 19 months of 19 days each (i.e., 361 days), with the addition of certain "intercalary days" (four in ordinary and five in leap years) between the eighteenth and nineteenth months in order to adjust the calendar to the solar year. The B&b named the months after the attributes of God. The Baha New Year, like the ancient Persian New Year, is astronomically fixed, commencing at the
March equinox (March21), and the Bahá'í era commences with the year of the Báb's declaration (i.e., 1844 A.D., 1260 A.H3.
In the not far distant future it will be necessary that all peoples in the world agree on a common calendar.
It seems, therefore, fitting that the new age of unity should have a new calendar free from the objections and associations which make each of the older calendars unacceptable to large sections of the world's population, and it is difficult to see how any other arrangement could exceed in simplicity and convenience that proposed by the BTh.
BAHA'I( FEASTS, ANNIVERSARIESFeast of RiQvAn (Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh), April 21-May 2, 1863.
Feast of Naw-Rciz (New Year), March 21.Fasting season lasts 19 days beginning with the first day of the month of 'AlA', March 2 � the feast of Nawruz follows immediately after.
345The first day of Ridvan, The ninth day of RhtlvAn, The twelfth day of Rh~Iv&n,
ON WHICH WORK SUSPENDEDThe anniversary of the declaration of the Bib, 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-Rflz.
Non: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in one of His Tablets addressed to a believer of Nayriz, Persia, has written the following: "Nine days in the year have been appointed on which work is forbidden. Some of these days have been specifically mentioned in the Book. The rest follows as corollaries to the Text. Work on the Day of the Covenant (F6te Day of 'Abdu'l-Bahá), however, is not prohibited. Celebration of that day is left to the discretion retion of the friends. Its observation is not obligatory. The days pertaining to the Abh4 Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh) and the Primal Point (the ETh), that is to say these nine days, are the only ones on which work connected with trade, commerce, industry and agriculture is not allowed. In like manner, work connected with any form of employment, ment, whether governmental or otherwise, should be suspended."
As a corollary of this Tablet it follows that the anniversaries of the birth and ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá are not to be regarded as days on which work is prohibited. The celebration of these two days, however, ever, is obligatory.
Bahá'ís in East and West, holding administrative positions, whether public or private, should exert the utmost effort to obtain special leave from their superiors to enable them to observe these nine holy days.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL GLEANED FROMCalendar) has been taken by me from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas', one of the works written by the Bit. As I have observed in these days that certain believers are inclined to regard the year in which Bahá'u'lláh departed from Baghdad to Constantinople as marking the beginning of the Badi' Calendar, I have requested Mirza Aq~ JAn, the amanuensis of Bahá'u'lláh, to ascertain His will and desire concerning this matter. Bahá'u'lláh answered and said: 'The year sixty A.H. (1844 A.D.), the year of the Declaration of the B&b, must be regarded as the beginning of the Badi' Calendar.'
The Declaration of the B~b took place on the evening preceding the fifth day of Jarnttdiyu'1-Avval, of the year 1260 A.H. It has been ordained that the solar calendar be followed, and that the vernal Equinox, the day of Naw-Ri~iz, be regarded as the New Year's Day of the Badi' Calendar.
The year sixty, in which the fifth day of JamAdiyu'1-Avval coincided with the
Page 3471st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th
BAHÁ'Í CALENDAR AND FESTIVALS 347
sixty-fifth day after Naw-Rtiz, has accordingly been regarded as the first year of the Badi' Calendar. As in that year, the day of Nawruz, the vernal Equinox, preceded by sixty-six days the date of the Declaration of the B&b, I have therefore, throughout my history, regarded the Naw-Riiz of the year sixty-one All. (the Naw-Rfiz immediately following the Declaration of the B~b) as the first Naw-Rtiz of the Badi' Calendar. I have accordingly considered the Naw-Rfiz of this present year, the year 1306 AM., which is the 47th solar year after the Declaration of the B&b, as the 46th Naw-Thiz of the Badi'
Calendar.had left the fortress of 'Akka and was dwelling in the house of Malik, in that city, He commanded me to transcribe the text of the Badi' Calendar and to instruct ~he believers in its details. On the very day in which I received His command I composed, in verse and prose, an exposition of the main features of that Calendar and pfesented it to Him. The versified copy, being now unavailable I am herein transcribing the version in prose.
The days of the week are named as follows:The names are as follows: of the months, which are the same as the days of each month,
Arabic2 Ayy4m-i-HA (Intercalary Days) February 26 to March 1 inclusive � four in ordinary and five in leap years.
Page 348348 THE The first day of each month is thus the day of Baha, and the last day of each month the day of 'A1&'.
The Báb has regarded the solar year, of 365 days, 5 hours, and fifty odd minutes, as consisting of 19 months of 19 days each, with the addition of certain intercalary days. He has named the New Year's Day, which is the Day of Naw-Rflz, the day of Bah&, of the month of Baha. He has ordained the month of 'A1&' to be the month of fasting, and has decreed that the day of Naw-RCa should mark the termination of that period. As the BTh did not specifically define the place for the four days and the fraction of a day in the Bach' Calendar, the people of the Baydn were at a loss as to how they should regard them. The revelation of the TOtdb-i-Aqdas in the city of 'Akka resolved this problem and settled the issue. Bahá'u'lláh designated those days as the "Ayy~m-i-H~" and ordained that they should immediately precede the month of 'A14', which is the month of fasting. He enjoined upon His followers to devote these days to feasting, rejoicing, and charity. Immediately upon the termination of these intercalary days, Bahá'u'lláh ordained the month of fasting to begin. I have heard it stated that some of the people of the Baydn, the followers of Mirza YahyA, have regarded these intercalary days as coming immediately after the month of 'A1&', thus terminating their fast five days before the day of Naw-Riiz.
This, notwithstanding the explicit text of the Baydn which states that the day oI Nawruz must needs be the first day of the month of Bah~, and must follow immediately after the last day of the month of 'Alh'. Others, aware of this contradiction, have started their fasting on the fifth day of the month of 'AL&', and included the intercalary days within the period of fasting.
Every fourth year the number of the intercalary days is raised from four to five. The day of Naw-Riaz falls on the 21st of March only if the vernal Equinox precedes the setting of the sun on that day.
Should the vernal Equinox take place after sunset, Naw-Rttz will have to be celebrated on the following day.
The B~b has, moreover, in His writings, revealed in the Arabic tongue, divided the years following the date of His Revelation, into cycles of nineteen years each. The names of the years in each cycle
1. All!Nineteen cycles constitute a period called Kull-i-Shay'.
The numerical value of the word "V6hid" is nineteen, that of "Kull-i-Shay' " is 361. "V4hid" signifies unity, and is symbolic of the unity of God.
The Báb has, moreover, stated that this system of His is dependent upon the acceptance and good-pleasure of "Him Whom God shall make manifest." One word from Him would suffice either to establish it for all time, or to annul it forever.
For instance, the date of the 21st of April, 1930, which is the first day of Ridvan, and which according to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas must coincide with the "thirteenth day of the second Bahá'í month," and which fell this year (1930) on Monday, would, according to the system of the Badi' Calendar, be described as follows: "The day of Kamhl, the day of Qudrat, of the month of JaM, of the year Baha'i, of the fifth V~1ild, of the first Kull-i-Shay'."
Page 349BAHÁ'Í CALENDAR AND FESTIVALS 349
HISTORICAL DATA GLEANED NARRATIVEA.D. departure for SulaymAnfyyih on Wednesday, April 10, 1854 A.D.-Rajab 12, 1270
AM.During His absence from Bag~-dAd, His family transferred their residence from House of Hhji 'AlI-Madad to that of Sulaymtrn-i-Ghannttm.
Nabil arrived at Bagj~d4d 6 months after Bahá'u'lláh's departure for Sulaym&niyyih.
C. BAGHDADarrived from Sulaym4niyyih on Wednesday, March 19, 1856 A.D. � Rajab 12, 1272 All.
departure from Mazra'iy-i-Vash-sh&sh: Thursday, March 26, 1863 A.D. � Shav�l 5, 1279 A.H. Tablet of the Holy Mariner revealed while in the
Mazra'iy-i-VashshAsh.departure from Baghd4d for Constantinople, Wednesday afternoon (first day of Rbjv~n), April 22, 1863 A.D. � Diii'1-Qa'dih 3, 1279 A.H. Sfu-iy-i-Sabr revealed on first day of Ridvan.
arrival at Garden of Najibiyyih22, 1863 A.D. � Dhi'1-Qa'dih 2, 1279 A.H. arrival of Bahá'u'lláh's Family at Garden of Ridvan on eighth day after first of Ridvan.
departure from Garden of Ridvan for Constantinople last day of Riqvan, at noon on Sunday, May 3, 1863 A.D. � Dhi'1-Qa'dih 14, 1279 A.H. length of overland journey from Garden of Ridvan to SamsOn on Black Sea: 110 days.
Works Revealed During ThisFirayj ~t (arrival early afternoon � stayed seven days), arrived on Sunday, May 3, 1863 A.D.
� Dhi'1-Qa'dih 14, 1279Judaydih, Dili-'AbMs, Qarih-Tapih, SalAhfyyih (stayed two nights), Dftst-Khurm&t4, T&wuq, Karkik (stayed two days), irbil, Zhb River, Bahá'u'lláh, Mosul (stayed 3 days), Z&khii Jazirih, Nisibin, Hasan-Aq~, MArclin, Dfy&r-Bakr, Ma'dan-Mis, IThArpfit (stayed 2 or 3 days), Ma'dan-Nuqrih, Dilik-T&sh Sfv&s, Amasia (stayed 2 days), IlThiyyih (while approaching S&msctn, "Lawli-i-Hawdaj" was revealed), (last day of overland journey), S~mstrn (stayed 7 days),
Black Sea port. Sailedin a Turkish steamer about sunset for Constantinople, Sinope (arrived next day about noon), Black Sea port; stayed few hours, Any~bu1i (arrived next day).
Page 3511, 1280 A.H. Length of sea voyage from S&ms4n to Constantinople S days.
Length of journey fromhours from Constantinople � spent one night) 2. BuyOk-Qbakmachih (arrived about noon) 3. Salvari 4. Birk&s 5. B&b~-iski
E.ADRIANOPLEWorks RevealedHouses Duration
OccupiedDecember 12, 1863 (caravans erai, A.D. � Rajab 1, two-story, near 1280 A.H. Lawh-i-Hajj I house of 'Izzat
Aq~)3 nights Length of stay: 4 years, 8 months, 22 days. " " " II Length of overland Kitáb-i-Badi' 2. 1 week
House in Mur~t-journeyjourney from Con-S(Lriy-i-Multik diyyih quarter, stantinople to (Tablet of the near Tak-yiy-i
Adrianople: 12 Kings) MawlaviDeparture from Sfiriy-i-Amr 3. 6 months
House in MurA-Adrianoplediyyih quarter, Wednesday, Aug-A1v41~.-i-Lay1atu'1.- '1.-near near house 2 ust 12, 1868 A.D. � Qucis 4.
KhAniy-i-Amru'llAh (several 1 year 22, 1285 AM. ~iyam (Prayers stories, near Siil for Fasting) t~n-Sa1im Mos Lawli-i-Sayy&h que)
5. House of RidAE. ADRIANOPLE Works RevealedHouses Occupied Duration
� continued During This During ThisHI) of Sul{&n-. Salim Mosque) 11 months
7. Housewas revealed in this place) 3. Gallipoli (length of journey from Adrianople to Gallipoli about 4 days) (after a few days' stay sailed before noon in Austrian steamer for Alexandria,
Egypt)4. Maclelli (arrived about sunset � left at night) 5. Smyrna (stayed 2 days, left at night)
6. Alexandria(arrived in the morning, transshipped and left at night for Haifa) 7. Port Said (arrived morning, left same day at night) 8. Jaff a (left at midnight) 9. Haifa (arrived in the morning, landed and after a few hours left on a sailing vessel for 'Akka)
F. 'AKKA Works RevealedHouses Occupied Duration
During This During ThisKitáb-i-Aqdas Law1-i-N~pu1yiTh1. Barracks 2 years,
II (Second 2Tablet to Napoleon months, III) 5 days
Lawh-i-Malikih (Tablet 2. Houseof RAbi'ih (Tablet to 2 or 3 the Czar) 4. House Sfiriy-i.-Haykal Lawh-i-Burh~n Lawh-i-Ru'y&of Man�ftr months
Lawh-i-Ibn-i-Dhi'bto Son of the Wolf) 5. House of Law~-i-flp 'Ablitid (where (Tablet to Kitáb-i Aqdas the Pope) was re vealed)
6. Mazra'ihDeparture of the B&b on His pilgrimage to Mecca September, 1844 Arrival of the 13kbin M&h-K(i Adhir-bAyj bAyj ~n Summer, 1847 Incarceration of the Báb in Chibriq, AdhirbAyj &i April, 1848 Conference of BadashtJune, 1848 Interrogation of the Báb in Tabriz,
AdhirbAyj&n July, 1848Martyrdom of the B~b in Tabriz, A4bir-b4yj~n b4yj~n July 9, 1850 Attempt on the life of NAsiri'd-Din Sh~.h
August 15, 1852of the Mission of Bahá'u'lláh April 22, 1863
Arrival of Bahá'u'lláhin 'Akka August 31, 1868 Death of the Purest
Branch June.May 29, 1892 First public reference to the Faith in America September 23, 1893 Establishment of the first Bahá'í centre in the West February, 1894 Arrival of the first group of Western pilgrims in 'Akka, December 10, 1898 Arrival of the B~b's remains in the Holy
Land January 31, 1899Reincarceratian of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in August20, 1901
FIRST BAHÁ'Í CENTURYof 'Islbq&b&d 1902 Release of 'Abdu'l-Bahá from His incar ceration September, 1908 Interment of the B&b's remains on Mt.
Cannel March 21, 1909Convention March 21, 1909 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í departure for Egypt....
September, 1910 'Abdu'l-Bahá'sof the cornerstone of the Mashriqu'1-~bk~r in Wilmette, IlL by 'Abdu'l-Bahá
May 1, 1912'Abdu'l-Bahá'í return to the Holy Land December 5, 1913 Unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine
Plan April, 1919Commencement of the construction of the Ma~~riqu'1-~~khr in Wilmette,
Ill December, 192028, 1921 Verdict of the Muhammadan Court in Egypt denouncing the Faith to be an independent religion ... May 10, 1925 Martha Root's first interview with Queen Marie of Rumania, January 30, 1926 Resolution of the Council of the League of Nations upholding the claim of the Bahá'í community to the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Bag~jd&d
March 4, 1929Passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf July, 1932 Inception of the Seven-Year
Plan April, 1937Completion exterior of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette, Ill.
December, 194219461948 THE world in these past two years has continued to be "a world, the structure of whose political and social institutions is impaired, whose vision is befogged, whose conscience is bewildered, whose religious systems have become anemic and lost their virtue."1 In such a world Bahá'í youth possess an assurance born of hope and inner happiness and remain undismayed by the signs of decadence about them. Theirs is the confidence that there is a "healing Agency", a "leavening Power", and a "cementing force intensely alive and all pervasive (which) has been taking shape, is crystallizing into institutions, is mobilizing its forces and is preparing for the spiritual conquest and the complete redemption of mankind."1 The optimism of Bahá'í youth is particularly noteworthy in the young peo-pie who have returned from war service in the Armed Forces of their countries. These young men and women who in many instances have seen intense suffering in a wartorn disunited world have escaped the sense of futility or retreat into a materialism born of despair, which is so often a result of war. The words of a British Bahá'í youth typify this spirit: "The wars are over, but a greater adventure is awaiting.
A vast army with legions in many lands is organizing its resources and sending out its reconnaissance patrols, which are already engaged in preliminary skirmishes. The army is the Army of Youth, preparing for the fight for Happiness, Peace and
Goodwill.The attainment will not be easy and resistance will be stern.
"The 'patrols' have contacted the enemy Generals. Doubt,
Uncertainty, Misbeliefriors are leading the opposition. Bahá'í youth all over the world constitute the 'patrols'."2 The Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith wrote the following of the Bahá'í youth in America, a statement which may be considered generally applicable to Bahá'í youth: "Though lacking in ex. perieffce and faced with insufficient resources, yet the adventurous spirit which they possess and the vigor, the alertness, the optimism they have shown, qualify them to play an active part in arousing the interest and securing the allegiance of their fellow youth.
Bahá'í youth share the vision of a future society better than any that man has ever known; one where the abjilties of all men shall have the chance to develop fully, and, in complementing the abilities of others, shall contribute to a civilization where the brotherhood of man will be realized.
"The excellence of this Day is immensely exalted above the comprehension of men, however extensive their knowledge, however profound their understanding."3 Not only is the vision of this New Day their privilege, but the building of the New World Order in this Formative Period is, in cooperation with the adult Baha'is, their responsibility.
The First Guardian of the Faith, in letters to youth committees and to individual Bahá'í youth, stresses the importance of the part of youth in the Cause. "The youth work everywhere in the Bahá'í world is dear to his heart, and he attaches great importance to it. The young people, who will inevitably
2Bahá'í Yauth Bulletinof the National Youth Committee of the British Isles, September 1946, p. 2.
8Gleanings from the Writings at Bahá'u'lláh, p. 14.
354Bahá'í Youth at 1947 National Convention, Wilmette, Illinois.
grow up to shoulder all the work of the Cause, are really its hope and should be one of the most active factors in its propagation.
Through their courageous adherence to the high moral and ethical standards set forth by Bahá'u'lláh, and through gaining a mastery of His many, diversified, and profound teachings, they can shape to a great extent, the development and aid in the rapid expansion of their beloved Faith in the various countries in which they labor. They should be made to realize their responsibility is heavy and their privilege very precious."4 The high moral standards enjoined by Bahá'u'lláh to which the Guardian refers above, have been more fully described by him as follows: "Above all, they should set a high example chastity, politeness, friendliness, hospitality, joyous optimism about the ulti-4Letter from Riihiyyih KhAnum, wife of the Guardian, to the National Youth Committee of the
British Isles, Decembermate future happiness and wellbeing of mankind, should distinguish and win over to them the love and admiration of their fellow-youth. The thing which is most conspicuously lacking in modem life is a high standard of conduct and good character; the young Bahá'ís must demonstrate both, if they would win over to the Faith members of their own generation so sorely disillusioned and contaminated by the laxity war gives rise to."5 Bahá'í youth respond to such chal-jenging words with enduring enthusi-asin, and with developing power at each goal successfully met; they meet with fortitude the trials and difficulties which inevitably come.
Appreciation of their privilege is shown in these words of a Lima
(Peru) youth. "The Bahá'íFaith, we believe, has a special appeal to the youth of Peru in this day because we have not ~Ba1zd'i News, No. 183.
(Oct. 1946) p. 4.become entangled, as many older people have, in the bewilderment of outworn customs and dogmas of the past. Therefore, we can see more clearly the pristine beauty and purity of the beloved teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
And then, too, there is springtime in our own hearts, so we can more easily recognize the fact that a new Spiritual Springtime has appeared and the Sun of Truth has arisen again.
"We pray as we work, for a larger conception of truth, and for greater power, so that we can be used mightily throughout the vast areas of our country, to Andean heights, along the arid coast, in the heart of jungles, Indian villages, mining camps and towns, until all Peru is aware of this Heavenly Springtime."6 And from Australia comes this recognition of youth's responsibility: "In every country of the world the nucleus of the Bahá'í Faith has been established.
A new community is being established by groups of Baha'is.
They are setting a new example. They are trying to live the new life � a life based on spiritual values � the direct out-pour-ing of the Revelation of
Bahá'u'lláh, God's Prophetfor this day. 'A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth and yet none hath discovered its cause or perceived its motive.'
That new life is a challenge to youth to seek new paths, paths of righteousness, tolerance, justice, love, mercy; paths that alone can create. God has spoken for this day, He has reflected
His Will, His Law through Bahá'u'lláhand now He challenges us � youth, the adults of tomorrow, to new paths of living, to making a new world.
"He challenges us to build a New World Order � the New
World Order of Bahá'u'lláh� an Order where justice and mercy shall reign, where there shall no longer be destitution on one hand and gross accumulation of wealth on the other � a World Order where the Kingdom of God on earth will be established."7 The following pages are an attempt
6juventud, "The SeasonTFrom a talk given by a member of the Youth group of Sydney, Australia.
to show a general picture of Bahá'í youth activities throughout the world in the years 103 and 104 of the Baha era. This is not an exhaustive report; it is based on material gathered from many sources � the work of many individuals and groups, for whom the writer of this article served merely as a compiler. Words of the Bahá'í youth themselves are used as much as possible in describing what they have experienced and what they have accomplished in this twa-year period.
ADMINISTRATION OF BAHÁ'ÍNational and local Baha youth committees have been formed to help prepare young people for their responsibilities as adult Baha'is, to organize and coordinate youth activities and to work with national and local Baha administrative bodies and groups in integrating the youth work with that of the entire Bahá'í community.
National Bahá'í youth committees, appointed by the National Spiritual Assemblies, carry out their objectives in a number of ways; by working with local youth committees to coordinate youth activities in their own countries, by correspondence with national youth committees of other countries in planning for International
Youth Day and Bahá'íactivities in general, by planning national conferences and meetings, by publishing bulletins and reports, by furnishing study material for youth organizations, and in other ways which are limited to particular countries and which will be described in some detail in the following pages.
The years covered by this report have seen increasing organization of youth activities throughout the world. New national youth committees were formed in this period in Egypt, Sudan and Abyssinia; in
India, Pakistan and Burma;In addition to these committees, there are now active national youth committees in Australia and New Zealand, Germany, 'IrAq, Persia, and the
United States and Canada.Numerous local youth committees were also appointed during the past
Page 357two years. The work of these committees will be mentioned in connection with the local communities in which they function.
Variations in the work of the several national Bahá'í youth committees show a flexibility in meeting the problems which differ from country to country. In many places the size of the country and wide distribution of youth make contacts a challenge; in some there are language differences.
Whatever the difficulty or problem, it serves as an incentive to concerted action by the youth, rather than an insurmountable difficulty.
A good illustration of specialized activities is shown in the work of the National Youth
Committee of Persia. Thiscommittee, with headquarters in TihrAn, is supported by about two hundred local youth committees and groups throughout the country. The committee is responsible for all youth activities in Persia.
This is such a tremendous task that a number of subcommittees are appointed to assist in the work. These include subcommittees on Finance, Music, Education and
Foreign Language, PhysicalYouth meetings, and Services and Arts. The Services and Arts Committee is further subdivided into committees dealing with specific subjects.
The National Youth Committeeof Egypt, Sudan and Abyssinia was formed in November, 1946. Formation of this committee resulted very soon in greater activity of youth groups. In addition to work with youth, this
National Youth Committeehelps the secretary's office in various centers and has charge of accounting in the National Treasury office.
National youth committees have been very effective means of increasing youth activities in all countries.
The work of Bahá'í youth in the British Isles in the past two years since the formation of their first National Youth Committee is another striking example of this fact.
The importance of exchanging news of youth activities between countries has been stressed by the
Guardian."The official exchange of news and correspondence, maintained in several languages, with the Bahá'í youth of other organizations in other countries of East and West is very useful and is considered one of its most essential duties."8 National youth committees use both letters and bulletins for this purpose. As an example of the amount of correspondence carried on by these committees, the National Youth Committee of the United States and Canada, reported in 1947 that it carried on correspondence with Bahá'í youth in approximately fifteen different countries.
BULLETINS PUBLISHED BYSeveral national youth committees publish a bulletin or a "youth letter" regularly; among them are those of Persia, India and Burma, Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada, Germany, and the British Isles.
These publications contain articles on the Faith, special editorials or articles on current activities, letters from the Guardian, news of individuals, groups and other national committees and quotations from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The bulletins are a testimony to the resourcefulness and capability of Bahá'í youth. Several of them were started immediately after the end of the war, when supplies were still difficult to obtain and when there were many administrative difficulties to be overcome.
Persia. A National Youthor "New Melody", is published by this committee and serves as an important tool for keeping all the youth stimulated and active in Bahá'í work.
This bulletin has an interesting story; it was started by the Local
Youth Committee of Tihr4nwere many technical difficulties in getting this magazine published in the begin-SLetter SLetter frc4n the Guardian to the National Youth Committee of Persia.
Page 358fling. However, "the energetic services of a handful of believers, coupled with the blessings of our beloved Guardian, � overcame all hardships and the magazine was after all issued regularly and distributed among its Bahá'í readers.
"Fortunately, the publication of 'Ahang Badie' aroused countrywide interest and the National Spiritual Assembly, considering the matter and the nature of the response, decided that the magazine ought to become a 'National' feature, and sanctioned its distribution among the friends in this country and abroad.
"This board realizing the unlimited opportunities unfolding before it in being transformed into a national organ, has set itself the task of increasing the friends' knowledge of the Faith, its principles, teachings and the New World Order."9
9Letter from I3aM'i Youthand Burma publishes a bulletin packed with news of activity in those countries.
Australia and New Zealand.Zealand, plans for publishing a printed bulletin had to be put aside in 1944.
It was not until 1946 that the committee was finally able to pub-11Th a youth letter which they hoped eventually to build into a printed bulletin as they had originally planned. This letter was valuable in helping to bring a feeling of unity among the scattered groups of youth members in those countries.
United States. The Bulletinnow publishes a planographed Bahá'í Youth Bulletin, which carries news of local, national and international interest, and some articles about the Faith. This bulletin not only has a circulation among all Bahá'í youth in this country, but is also circulated to youth in other countries, to Regional Teaching
CommitDelegates to National Youth Conference at Bahá'í Youth Conference
at Bahá'í Youth Club, TihrAn, Persia.four issues were published. Every issue contained reports from the National Youth Committee, an international news section, reports and pictures of local activities and special features. One issue contained a letter from the Guardian, another carried a report of youth activities during the convention, another a study outline of world peace, and another the reports of summer schools.
During the last year the Youth Bulletin was revised to be more informal and to include new features such as articles on teaching suggestions, a question of the month with an answer (this was to be limited to particularly difficult questions which Bahá'ís are asked) and a "With our Readers" column.
Germany. The Esslingenyouth group, in the summer of 1946, were still publishing the monthly Bahá'í Youth Bulletin, which they had started in September, 1945. This youth bulletin was later incorporated with the
"BahA'i-I-Nachrichten"of Germany. However, by the end of 1947, the German Bahá'í youth had achieved regular publication of a monthly youth magazine.
British Isles. Among the first accomplishments of the British Youth Committee was the publication of a quarterly British
Bahá'í Youth Bulletinwhich began with the issue of September, 1946. This interesting and attractively designed publication is now in printed form. Its special articles, editorials and news set a high standard for such publications.
BAHÁ'Í Yornn IN SUMMERThe Bahá'í summer schools are one of the most important means of deepening the believers' knowledge of the Faith and of developing their teaching ability.
These schools have been set up in a three-part pattern of devotions study and recreation in a truly
Baha environment. ThereIn some places summer schools are entirely youth schools, in others there is a special youth week or youth day,
Page 360while in others youth are completely integrated with the adults in all summer school activities.
The following descriptions of youth in summer schools will highlight some of these variations.
Persia. A summer school was held near Tihr~tn in 1946. The session was made up of two parts of fifteen days each, with a total attendance of eighty Bahá'í youth.
Tn 1947 there was no summer school. As a substitute summer classes were held mornings and afternoons, fifteen hours every week in two periods of two months each. Eighty youth attended these sessions regularly. A number of subjects were studied under the guidance of an outstanding teacher.
These included: "Adminis-trationof Learning the Persian Language," "Arabic Hidden Words," and "Some Answered Questions."
Egypt. The first summer school was held in August, 1947. in a beautiful beach house donated for that period by the friends of Alexandria. Arrangements were made for the summer school by the National Youth Committee under the auspices of the Local Spiritual
Assembly of Alexandria. Thirty-sixmembers attended on the opening day, and an average of twenty attended throughout the session. Methods of teaching included both lectures and discussion.
Among the lectures were:and Religion," and "Divine Bounty." The chief purpose of the school was the study of Bahá'í Administration, laws, history and proofs.
The report of the National Youth Committee of Egypt stated that plans were being made for greater development of the summer school in 1948 and for extending this type of teaching to female youths and younger children.
India. The summer school in India is entirely a youth school. The ninth session of the school was held at Karachi from
October 9 to October23, 1946. There was a good attendance ranging from forty to one hundred and fifty youth throughout the session and repre senting fifteen centers: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi, Hasbanga-bad, Hyderabad (Sind), Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Panchgani, Poona, Quet-ta, Serampur,
Sholapur and Ujjain.A few non-Bahá'ís and two American Bahá'ís attended the school. Because of the multiplicity of languages in India, teaching at the summer school is done in several languages: English, Urdu and, if desired, Persian.
The subjects studied represented a wide variety of topics on the Faith, including both spiritual teachings and Bahá'í Administration.
The subjects and teachers were as follows: "Some Answered
Questions" and "Studyand "Letters of the Living," S. H. Koreshi; "Bahá'í
History," N. Akhtar-Khawari; "Kitáb-i-fqAn," H. M. Munje; "Station of the Prophets," I. Bakhtiari; "Bahá'í Administration," 3. Sabit.
This was a very successful summer school and no doubt put added enthusiasm into plans for a youth winter school, the first session of which was held at Kohiapur, January 20 to January 31, 1947.
Twenty-one students from about eight different centers attended this session.
Interesting outside activities during this school session were lectures given by
Mr. Munje at a Hinduhigh school and by Mr. FaQil at a law college in Kohiapur and visits to a Polish refugee camp on the outskirts of the city. Permission was given by the camp authorities for the friends to visit the camp on a Sunday afternoon during the session and to speak to the people of the Faith. A number of the refugees requested lectures to give them more information about the Faith. The following day Messrs. Faqil and Munje gave talks at the camp which were translated into Polish. These talks were so well received that the speakers returned a second time by request to speak on the Faith.
The National SpiritualAssembly later sent a Polish translation of Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era to the camp.
Page 361The Wer-riwa Bahá'í youth arranged a program for all day and evening of January H, 1947 for their special summer school session. Addresses given by four youth were: "Role of Bahá'í Youth in the
Future," "Bahá'í Outlookon Education," "Youth in the World Today," "Racial Prejudice and the Role of Youth in Establishing
Bahá'í Pinciples of Non � RacialCanada. Another variation in summer schools was Bahá'í Youth Week of the Laurentian School, the first Bahá'í School in Canada, held from August 1017, 1947, with both Bahá'ís and nonBahá'ís present. A study course of five periods was held in the morning, followed by farm work, swimming and horseback riding.
Mrs. Emeric Sala taught the classes and presided over the discussions.
Youth week at the Laurentian school is described in an article by Norma Sala and David Tate in this Volume.
United States. SummerSchools became a characteristic and much loved part of Baha youth activities early in the development of Baha communities in the United States. Their importance for youth was stressed in a special bulletin issued by the National Youth Committee in 1946: "In view of the tremendous tasks the Guardian has outlined for the American believers, this committee feels it is of greatest importance that all Bahá'í youth prepare themselves for their part in the realization of these goals. The Bah& 'i summer schools offer excellent opportunities for the individual to deepen his knowledge and understanding of the
Faith."Three Bahá'í summer schools in the United States � Green
Acre at Eliot, Maine;at Geyserville, California � offered special opportunities for youth in 1946. Although there was no special youth session in the International
School at Temerity Ranchthe sessions to prepare for pioneering. At Green Acre there were two special youth sessions of one week each, one of which is described as follows by Harrison Langrell, one of the young Bahá'ís who attended: "'Hurry, Hurry, all Bahá'í youth � meeting in the recreation hail right away!' That's how our vacation at Green Acre started last year.
When Hormoz and Rustyhad rounded us all up we were told that Youth Week this year was to be run entirely by the youth, and that in order to do this we must elect a 'Local Spiritual Assembly' which would act as our governing body. Those of us who had come up for a vacation were in for a rude awakening, for from that time on we operated as a youth community and, with the effort necessary for the operation of a community together with the heavy class program cut out for us, our time for vacationing was cut to a minimum. However, this does not mean that we didn't have our fun. We did, and plenty of it The 'Youth
Local SpiritualAssembly' appointed a committee to handle the recreation each night, and some of the programs planned were really wonderful.
The two stunt nights, to which the entire school was invited, were howling successes, as well as the dances, trips to the beach and the flower-picking expeditions in which some of the youth participated.
"However, as was mentioned before, it was not all play by far. The day started at seven when one of the youth had charge of devotions. Following this, breakfast Then classes started.
We had three classes each day, some of which were: "Administration,~~ "Proofs of the Bahá'í Faith," "Char-acter and Personality," "Interesting Angles of Baha History," "Questions and Answers," and then the nightly classes given by the youth on the various religions of the world.
"The entire program was intense, active, and full of fun, and, while those of us who came up for a vacation were surprised at first, we will all agree that there could be no finer vacation
Page 363than working for the Kingdom of God on earth. Each youth took back with him a clearer idea of the individual's part in the gigantic task before the world community today, as well as a little practical experience in the operation of the administrative order of Bahá'u'lláh.
I feel safe in saying that the words of Jessica Perry express the feelings of each youth who attended what was without a doubt the best youth session at Green Acre: 'The unity and joy surpassed any experience most of us had known. Green Acre was more than a summer school; it was an experience which affected each of our lives with a positive charge'."
A senior youth session was held at Louhelen both in 1946 and in 1947.
Over eighty youth attended the session in 1946. This session was unique in the size of the group, the range of ages represented, the presence of a number of returned service men and women and the number of non-Bahá'ís present. The
Guardian's ConventionMessage was felt in the curriculum of the 1946 session which scheduled six fifty-five minute classes each day. These classes were: "The Rise and Fall of Civilization," "A New Social Pattern," "The Louhelen Bahá'í Choir," "The Emerging World Order,"
"Radio Script Course"and "The Forum." A special feature of the Louhelen sessions is the choir. In 1946 a recording and a picture of the choir were made for the Guardian.
"Other special features of the 1946 session were a community picnic to which non-Bahá'í young people from the surrounding communities were invited, presentation of the Feast of Names by the youth, a talk by
Mr. Kenneth Christianas representative of the National Spiritual Assembly on some of the details for the Second Seven Year Plan, the showing of motion pictures of the other Bahá'í schools and of some of the past sessions at Louhelen by Mr. Tichener, a talk and discussion by Mrs. Etty Graeffe who is in charge of the Adjunct Office in Geneva, Switzerland, several music appreciation programs by Mr. Douglas Weeks of Bristol, England, sunrise devotions at the glen, the taking of colored motion pictures of this session by a member of the National Bahá'í Photography Committee, and the sending of contributions received from the youth to the National Bahá'í Fund earmarked for International
Relief."10on Saturday and Sunday, August 24 and 25 closed the session. A public youth meeting was the climax of the conference and the session. Miss Louise Baker spoke on "Victorious Living" at this meeting.
The Louhelen Senior YouthSession in 1947 was limited to youth between fifteen and twenty years of age.
Approximately thirty youth attended the entire session. Classes included
"Mod-ern Social Movementsand Trends," a comparison of various types of regimes with the Bahá'í Administration,
"Social Aspects and IndividualLife," and classes on teaching methods and on the principles of the Faith. The latter course on the principles of the Faith was designed primarily for non-Bah&'is.
In addition to these classes on various aspects of the teachings, there was a technical class conducted by a layout artist on displays and exhibits.
The twentieth annual session of the Bahá'í Summer School at Geyserville was the first four-week session of the school. Not only was the session longer than before, but it was marked by an intensification of effort due to the initiation of the new
Seven Year Plan."The fourth week, for the first time in the history of the school, was turned over to the youth, so they might plan and conduct their awn program of lectures, study classes, round tables, evening meetings, devotions and recreation.
Thus the youth not only had a program geared to their particular needs and background, but were also given an opportunity to gain breadth and experience through shouldering the responsibility for carrying out the program, an experience that was new to many of them. During this week about forty Bahá'í and non-Bahá'í youth as well as a number of adults were registered at the school.
loReport of the Senior"The young people were organized into eight committees, carrying out the following functions: program, music, library, bulletin board and publicity, devotions, evening meetings, and maintenance. Every one of the youth in attendance served on at least one of these committees. In addition there was a general school committee, consisting of Eleanor Gregory and Isobel Locke, as co-chairmen, and John Carre, Beatrice
Groger and Harvey WilksThe first, a lecture course, was designed to give the young Bahá'í a good basic knowledge of the most important facts of his Faith, of their application to the world in which he lives, and their significance to him as an individual.
The second was a workshop course, offering a choice of sections on Bahá'í Administration, writing and presenting Bahá'í talks, teaching the masses in accordance with the Guardian's recent cablegram to the American believers, and a course on the fundamentals of the Bahá'í Faith as presented to the inquirer or new Baha'i.
"Afternoon round-tables were planned to deal with problems which young Bahá'ís face in their personal and social lives, both as Bahá'ís and in the non-BahWi world. Evenings were divided between educational programs, dances, and other functions.
Devotions were held three times daily; in the morning, at noon, and after the evening program."11 Many young Bahá'ís attended the summer school session at Geyserville in 1947.
There was no special youth week but the youth activities were integrated in the general program. Young Bahá'ís served on committees, read at morning devotional services and took part in meetings to which the public was invited.
One of the youth, liReport of the GeyservilleFirfiz Kazemzadeh, conducted a course on the Bahá'í spiritual teachings.
There were the usual recreations of swimming in the Russian River, dancing and informal social gatherings in the evening.
Germany. The first Bahá'íyouth summer school in Germany after the war was held in Heppenheim from August 3 to 10, 1946. Fourteen different places in the United States zone and surrounding districts were represented. The program was prepared by the National Spiritual
Assembly with Dr. HermannFollowing this encouraging beginning the Baha youth summer school was held at Rainbach in 1947.
The following description of the school is from the report of Klaus Liedtke of the National Youth
Committee:"It was the second Bahá'í youth summer school held in this war-devastated and strife-torn country.
This time Rain-bach on the Neckar River, about ten miles from Heidelberg, was chosen as the meeting place where approximately seventy young friends from about twelve different places gathered together. This highly promising week constituted a great organizational task. Wise planning, hard spade work and a good deal of perseverance on the part of the National Spiritual Assembly, the National Youth Committee and many devoted friends were necessary in order to achieve it. "The program of this summer school was drawn up by the National Youth Committee and approved by the National
Spiritual Assembly. Itbrought quite a number of novelties in both subjects and study methods. This year the subjects dealt with the exigencies of present life, and the lectures depicted more clearly the path men must follow to come out of the present dilemma and to avert another, much greater disaster.
There was much more discussion of the subjects than at the first youth summer school a year ago.
The discussions proceeded in a clear-cut way which led to a general understanding of the necessities of life today.
"The daily schedule started at 8:00 A.M. with a lecture of about fifty minutes by an adult Baha'i. A general, well-organized discussion, which never lasted longer than one hour, was fob lowed by a lecture given by a youth. For the afternoons, features by the youth groups were provided The youth themselves erected the tents and prepared the campsite on the banks of the Neckar, so that there were no housing difficulties. The lectures were held in a small hotel within five minutes distance from the camp. This hotel also provided meals for the group.
The whole session was imbued with a sense of the privilege and of the responsibility for sharing with others the treasures of the Faith.
There was a spirit of harmony throughout the week, not only in study, but also in the moments of recreation and in the celebration of the Nineteen Day Feast which coincided with the last night of the session.
British Isles. The summer school for the British Isles was held at Crom-ford Court, Matlock Bath,
England in 1946. Abouteighty youth were present at the school out of a total attendance of 140 people.
This school was given a truly Bahá'í international aspect by the presence of youth from Eire, Persia, Egypt, Holland and France, as well as from the British Isles. One day was devoted entirely to youth. Three young Bahá'ís planned the daily devotional meeting held before breakfast.
At the morning meeting the chairman of the newly appointed National Youth Committee presented the members of the committee, after the Guardian's letter had been read, and gave an outline of the plans made by the committee.
'qiassan Sabri, a young Bahá'í from Egypt, gave the main talk of the morning session, speaking with an inspiring sincerity of the place the Baha youth are able to take in the community and the part they can play in the propagation of their
Faith."This is to be achieved by (a) the development of a fine character and a high mode of life and (b) by concentrated study of God Passes By, Some Answered
Questions, Gleanings"In the afternoon, while the National Youth Committee held its second meeting the youth gathered at the swimming pooi for aquatic sports, where a group photograph was taken.
"The evening session opened with a prayer and a second reading of the Guardian's letter, as many friends had arrived at the school during the afternoon.
Young speakers who had done active Bahá'í youth work in their own communities then gave short talks on the subject of their experiences in this work "The Chairman of the Youth Committee, Philip Hainsworth, summed up by speaking of the valuable work being done in Bradford, Leeds, London, Northampton, Nottingham, Altrincnam and other districts by the resident young people in the adult affairs of local administration and teaching. A further twenty-five minutes was devoted to the answering of questions about Haifa by Philip, who left there at the beginning of June."
12 The youth day program ended with music and a grand finak � an impromptu fancy dress ball.
In 1947, the British SummerSchool was held at Hornsea, Yorkshire. The youth at this session cabled the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith as follows: "All Bahá'í youth gathered summer school joyously greet beloved Guardian.
Largest most representative youth group British Bahá'í history humbly beseech prayers fullest response unparalleled opportunities, develop youth potentialities, ensure success immediate tasks, become worthy future destiny. Reaffirm loyalty dedicate ourselves service." The Guardian replied: "Greatly welcome message.
Marvel progress activities.Praying uninterrupted expansion scope meritorious achievements.
Deepest loving appreciation.The high point of youth activities in the 1947 summer school was again on Youth Day. The maximum attendance at any time during the session was on this day and the one following, when over 160 people were present.
About twelve countries were represented. Among the visitors were Bruce Davison, with his father and mother back from a tour on the continent, Mr. Rooz-vehyan from India, Manutchehr Zabih, with messages of love from the Bahá'í youth in Germany, Helen Coppock, on leave from Geneva where she was working with the friends, and the first pioneers to Eire, Scotland and Wales, all of them youth.
The program for Youth Day consisted of devotions and two morning sessions, one a symposium, the other reports and a meeting of the National Youth Committee.
The symposium was an interesting dramatic presentation of "Youth in the Modern Age."
The symposium was opened by Vajdieh Mottadi, one of the youth from Birmingham, who chanted a prayer in Persian. The Chairman of the National Youth Committee introduced the program. "The first section was called 'The Modern Age,' and under this heading, Betty Reed,
Brian Townshend, and FlorenceBladon gave a gloomy picture of the world today, with its disunity in the social, religious and political fields; "'The Plan' was introduced by Una Townshend, reading 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í talk, 'Do you know in what Day you are living?' Then Gerald Lee-Hill gave us briefly and clearly a summary of the basic principles of the Faith. The third speaker in this section was Isobel Locke, who showed how the principles are applied to the Administrative Order.
"The third section of the symposium was 'Bahá'í Youth.' Hugh McKinley dealt with moral values, Janet Howes with what the youth are doing today, and Philip Hainsworth summarized the whole theme. An interesting and unusual feature of this program was that the speakers began and ended their talks with a quotation from the Baha writings � this preserved the continuity
Page 367Bahá'í Youth at British Isles Summer School, 1946 � First week.
of the theme, which would otherwise have been rather difficult with so many speakers in so short a time."
13 The second morning session was divided into two parts: the first was started by reading a letter from the Guardian to the National Youth Committee; this was followed by reports of the National Youth Committee, local youth committees and youth correspondents. The last part of this session was a demonstration meeting of the National Youth
Committee.The afternoon and evening were social, with races, games, and swimming in the afternoon and a fancy dress dance in the evening.
NAnONAL AND REGIoNM, YoumNational youth meetings were held in several countries in this period. Regional meetings also became more numerous as Bahá'í youth became increasingly active and the need for con-IaEeport
IaEeport from BritishThis type of meeting seems to be most common in Persia where there are regular regional committees who meet at stated intervals.
In Persia3 the conferences of youth councils met for the second time on August 25, 1946, in TihrTh.
Eighteen youth from local youth committees and the members of the National Youth Committee were the participants. This conference lasted seven days, seven days of concentrated work, with full morning and afternoon sessions each day.
The subjects under discussion included; "Pioneering,"
"Teaching," "How to Increasethe Youth's Knowledge of Baha Teachings," and "fly-giene and Sports."
A great deal of emphasis was placed on pioneering during the conference and a procedure was worked out whereby the youth might participate in the Forty-Five Month Plan which had been outlined by the National Spiritual Assembly for all the
Bahá'ís in Persia.This procedure was developed so that each local youth committee was to be responsible for starting a local youth committee in a nearby community by the end of a stated time.
During this period, there were regional youth committees for a number of areas of Persia, including
Tabriz, Shfr4z Mashhadand S4ri. The members of each regional youth committee met every six months to discuss their problems and the progress of youth activities.
Reports of their activities were sent to the National Youth Committee so that integration of all youth activities might be achieved.
In Egypt a youth convention was held at Alexandria, August 19, 1947 during the summer school. This convention was called by the National Spiritual Assembly to study various youth affairs.
In India and Burma, the second National Youth Conference was held at Karachi in October, 1946. About fifteen centers were represented.
The following questions which were planned for discussion show the practical nature of this meeting: (1) "What can Bahá'í youth contribute toward teaching the Cause?"
(2) "How can youth contribute to the success of the Four-and-a-half half Year Plan?"
(3) "How can we make our next symposium more successful?" There were lively and inspiring discussions at these conferences. One immediate result was that four youths promised to pioneer and two others volunteered to go on short teaching tours.
Others who were unable to contribute direct services, pledged themselves to contribute to the pioneering fund.
National Convention notes of the Youth Committee of the United States and Canada for 1946 reported that the Convention started "gloriously" for Bahá'í youth with a youth symposium on
"Education for WorldHall. The program was as follows: (1) "Standards of Modern Man" by Ross Woodman of Winnipeg, Canada,
(2) "The Divine Educator"in Action" by Pan Zia-XValrath, Chicago. Illinois. Robert
Imagire of Chicago, Illinois"The Convention itself served as an excellent opportunity for the youth from all parts of the country to meet and greet one another and to exchange news and views. The youth booth maintained by the
National Youth Committeeserved as the focal point for all these gatherings.
It was also through the use of this booth that the National Youth Committee was able to make great advances in improving its records. Youth and adult visitors to the booth assisted in clarifying the youth status of many communities. The booth displayed bulletins, photographs and newspaper clippings of various youth activities during the year as well as maps showing the location of youth in the United States and throughout the world.
"Sunday morning a conference was held in the Ha4ratu'1-Quds for all youth attending the Convention. Over fifty young people attended this conference at which common problems were discussed and suggestions were made to the National
Youth Committee."Sunday afternoon a youth banquet was held at which there were over 100 youth in attendance. This was the first time that the older Bahá'ís were not called upon to help 'fill in'. The banquet maintained a completely informal atmosphere, and was agreed to be one of the most enjoyable annual youth banquets ever held. A Convention greeting was sent to the Guardian signed by all youth attending the banquet "Youth also played an important role on the Convention floor at this historic Convention. The halfhour report from the
National Youth Committeewas received with interest by all the delegates and served as a stimulus for consultation. Two recommendations were made from the floor that youth be placed on national committees.
"The following suggestions made during the Convention may serve to assist all of us in the furtherance of the mighty tasks outlined in the Guardian's compelling Convention message: (1) avoid association with cu1tism~ (2)
Page 369avoid the use or reference to superstition, (3) do not apply high pressure salesmanship, (4) impress youth with the depth and profundity of the Cause, (5) allow no compromise on any principle, (6) do not make generalizations, but stick to facts, (7) do not become emotional before youth, (8) maintain a realistic and firm attitude."l-I The 1947 Convention started for Bahá'í youth with a reception and informal party, Friday night, May 7. The most important youth activity of the Convention was a conference of all Bahá'í youth held Sunday morning, May 9. The program for this conference was planned around the theme "Spreading the Message" and the specific talks and speakers were as follows:
I. How to Prepare OurselvesA. The importance of studying the teachings, and ways in which we can further our understanding and knowledge
Mary Elizabeth MooreB. Why it is important that we, as individuals, practice the teachings in our daily lives
Hushang JavidA. Cooperation between the National Youth Committee and the Bahá'í youth.
Cooperation between Spiritualyouth Larry Kramer B. Cooperation between youth groups and isolated youth
Harlan SchefflerA. Ways in which we as individuals can help to further the teachings
Manucher JavidB. The value of fireside and public meetings, and how they can be organized
Narrine KiugeThe spirit of this inspiring meeting was carried on in the annual youth banquet which was held at the
Georgian Hotel in EvanstonThis banquet, presided over by Stanley Bolton of Australia, seemed like an international Bahá'í youth gathering. Youth from Brazil, Colombia, and Persia as well as from the United States and Canada were present.
Henry Jarvis, returning service man from Germany, and Louise Baker, returning pioneer from Mexico, brought greetings from those countries.
A number of regional conferences were held by representatives of youth groups of various areas in the United States and Canada.
Representatives of youth groups for Tennessee,The first task decided on at this conference was the compilation of a list of Bahá'í youth in the area. Plans were made for a winter youth session and a summer session for the next year.
Lima, with the largest youth group in Ohio, was requested by the National Youth Committee to act as host for a regional conference for the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West
Virginia and Tennessee.This conference was held May 1112, 1946 with a good representation of youth. Coordination of youth activities for Ohio and Indiana with the Regional Teaching Committee was an immediate result of this meeting.
This led to weekend conferences held at Dayton, South Bend and Fort Wayne, throughout the summer.
Each conference started Saturday at noon and ended Sunday afternoon with a public meeting for which youth were speakers.
Other regional youth conferences in 1946 were held in New York City, Wilmington, New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Winnipeg.
In October, 1947, regional confer. ences were held in Boston, Cleveland New York City, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Other regional conferences were also held during the year.
Page 370in 1947 in such numbers that they made up one-third of the total number of Bahá'ís assembled there. The delegates met in a spirit of enterprise and of determination to work on the next stage of the "Six-Year Plan of the British Isles." The words of the Guardian to the
National Youth Committeeagain lighted the way to new accomplishments: "May the Spirit of Bahá'u'lláh sustain, bless and guide you in your notable, meritorious and deeply appreciated activities, aid you to extend the range of your services and lend a great impetus to the progress of the Plan which the English believers are so devotedly and assiduously prosecuting."
BAHÁ'Í YOUTH ON HOME FRONTSThe deepening of that "conscious knowledge" that is faith, and experience in all aspects of the Teachings gained by Bahá'í youth in summer schools, in symposiums, in conventions and in conferences are translated into action in local communities.
This action means "living the life," it means teaching, pioneering, doing administrative work and cooperating in all possible ways with adult Baha'is.
In local activities the flexibility and diversity within the unity of the Cause are most clearly seen. Here, the cultural heritage of each national group fused in the world heritage of the Faith, finds expression in action peculiarly suited to the temperaments and ideas of the youth it serves.
Here, the quick imaginative perception of one group sees dozens of ways the Faith may be shown in action, the love of pageantry and drama of another develops new mediums of teaching, and the disciplined thoroughness of another builds new groups with painstaking care.
And always in every nation and in every group there is the underlying spirit of unity and loving brotherhood of the world community of Bahá'u'lláh.
Persia. The first Bahá'íYouth Club was started in 1946 in Ttr~n. This club meets at the Hazfratu'1-Quds of Tihr&n and provides a place where Bahá'í youth can spend their free time. The club meetings are largely social, though there are attractive weekly programs in scientific, educational, ethical and Bahá'í and non-Bahá'í subjects. This club was the first one of its kind in Persia � perhaps the first in the world. Since it was established, youth clubs have also been established in Shin~z, Isf&hAn and Mashhad. Other cities planned to establish similar clubs in 1948.
Local youth bulletins were published by youth committees of Shir4z Mash-had, Qazvin, Yazd and Kirm~n.
The youth in most local Bahá'í communities were in charge of the libraries.
In order to encourage youth in the fine arts and to introduce new talent, the National Youth Committee requested local youth committees to open exhibitions of art work by Bahá'í youth to the public, whenever possible.
The first such exhibition was held in Tihr6n during this period.
One of the most outstanding services of the youth in the past two years were the teaching trips they made to most of the cities in Persia. Youth in the communities visited were given help in starting local youth committees, opening libraries, starting Bahá'í classes and gathering at dawn for prayers.
As an example of this service, ten youth of TihrAn made teaching trips which resulted in classes similar to those held in TihrAn being started in Ham adAn, Mashhad Isf&hhn and Miandouah. Summer classes were held in 1947 in Yazd, KirmAn, Rafsinj fin K~.sh4n and Shfr&z. Holidays are used by many youth for teaching and helping the Bahá'í work in other communities.
Nearly forty youth spent their Naw-Riiz and summer holidays in this way in 1946 and 1947.
Young Bahá'ís of TihrAnhave worked out a good way of developing close comradeship in a large community through their system of having young people in groups of five visit meetings in rotation throughout different sections of the city.
This enables the youth to have a wide acquaintanceship with
Page 371other Bahá'ís and allows consultation between youth in all parts of the city.
Fireside meetings were found to be an excellent way for Bahá'í youth in the university to interest their classmates in the
Cause.The youth participated in sending food and clothing to Bahá'ís in France, Germany and other parts of Europe. Tn 1946, fifty thousand reals and several hundred packages of food and clothing were contributed by the youth. These contributions continued in 1947.
Egypt. Youth in Cairo frequently held "Translation Days" to translate subjects of Bahá'í interest into Arabic from Persian and
English. Translationswere made of: "How I Found my Faith" by Lydia Zamenhof; "Position of Women in the
Bahá'í Faith"; "The Greatest Era";On October 10, 1947, the Bahá'í youth held a symposium at Cairo in honor of the memories of Mirza 'Abu'1-FaQ1 and Mrs. Lua Moore Getsinger.
Young men and women attend symposiums and festivals together; other meetings are held separately.
India. "India is a land of contrast and disparities.
If language be the basis of demarcating the limits of a country India is not one but at least thirty-three.
The task of our institution whose sole object is to make people realize the fact of the unity of mankind is therefore not an easy one. The difference does not exist only in language; the climate of the different provinces of the country differs greatly and with the climate the disparities in ideas and thoughts Thorn out and keep these parts apart from each other."'5 The activity and success of Bahá'í youth in India is all the more notable in view of such difficulties.
Many young Bahá'ís in India are engaged in active teaching. Among them Janab-i Ruhulla Behram had great success in the past two years. He did much individual teaching and lectured in Peshawar, Abbotabad and Rawalpindi, sometimes to audiences of 300 or more people. The National Spiritual Assembly encouraged his work by sending many books and pamphlets and planned ned to help him rent a hail for a center where inquirers could call.
The youth of Karachi had the distinction of being the first Bahá'í youth in India to take active part in the Four-and-a-half
Year Plan.Soheili visited many cities of India to encourage youth activities, to visit adult believers and to visit newspaper editors to request them to write about the Cause. Among the cities visited were the northern and eastern cities, Nagpur, Calcutta, Serampur, Gorakkpur, Allahabad and Benares, and the western cities, Delhi, Alegorh, Lahore, Jam-mu, Kariafghanan, Quetta, Hyderabad (Sind), Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Ba-roda and Surat.
The Youth Committee of Poona catalogued the Bahá'í library there and ordered many new books.15 China. Bernice Wood, who worked in China with UNRRA, reported that she had interested several young Chinese in the Faith. Seven inquirers were meeting in Shanghai in August, 1946, and she had sent literature to interested people in Hangehow,
Nanking and Hankow.Youth groups in Australia and New Zealand have been reinforced and stimulated to new activity by the return of several young people from the Services. The bond between the young people in these countries and in the United States was strengthened by the contacts between young Americans stationed in Australia and New Zealand during the war and by the visits of members of the Werriwa youth group to the United States for study.
Of special interest was the coming of age of Margaret Whittaker, first Bahá'í child in Australia and daughter of Australia's first believer.
Margaret is an active youth worker, editor of the Youth Letter and a member of the National Youth Committee.
"The Werriwa Bahá'í YouthGroup held a youth weekend at "Bolton Place Annex" from October 2627, 1946.
A '5Bahá'í News, August, 1947.group of fourteen youths stayed at "Bolton Place" for the weekend, some from Sydney, Wollongong, and one youth travelled from Leeton, a distance of three hundred miles, especially for the occasion.
On Saturday evening, Octobergave a talk entitled "The Place of Youth in the World of Today and in the Bahá'í World of the Near Future" to an assembled group of twenty-three, after which games and community singing were enjoyed.
On Sunday afternoon, principles and beliefs were exchanged between Bah& 'i youth and an American Bible student from Brooklyn, New York, who traveled from Sydney to Yerrinbool for the day.
The youth weekend was a great success both from a spiritual and social viewpoint."'0
South America. Bahá'íyouth in Lima, Peru, have many informal, happy outings to mountains and to seashore, sometimes by train sometimes by chartered bus. On one such outing Rosemary and Emeric Sala were honored guests and made the occasion memorable by sharing with them glimpses of the Guardian.
The coming of traveling Baha teachers is an event in Peru. Fiestas with North and South American songs, are followed by informal discussions.
Bahá'í young people fromvisit Peru and meetings with them are a mutual inspiration for the Lima youth and the visitors.
Lima Bahá'í youth helped in the work of the goM city, Callao, by forming a fellowship club there.
This proved to be a wonderful way to make contacts. On New Year's eve, 1947, this group gave a party and invited the youth of Callao. Part of the evening was devoted to a short Bahá'í program with a talk by Miss Gwen Sholtis, Bahá'í teacher from Bolivia. Slides of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and of Bahá'í summer schools were shown.
l6Bahá'í Youth Letter (Australia and New Zealand), Vol. 1, No. 1. Knowledge 103.
Peru had a first Baha marriage. Mary Angulo and David Beckett, the young bride and groom, had met at the Universal Friendship Club, sponsored by the Baha youth group. At the wedding the vice-president of the club, a Bahá'í youth, explained to the guests the meaning of Bah& I marriage. Other Bahá'í youth read the prayers and the Marriage Tablet by 'Abdu'l-Bahá..
Bahá'í youth in Lima have spoken at the regular Saturday evening meetings in Lima and at small meetings at Callao.
Most of the young people know English and have translated articles from World Order magazine for use as a basis for talks.
Baha youth in Peru took part in pageants and short dramas on the Faith. One unique program was called "Television Fiesta." For this program the center was transformed into a radio broadcasting station and a program was produced with music, poetry, an original play ''Design for Living,~~ and a quiz game on Bahá'í history.
Another phase of the work done by the young Bahá'ís of Lima was publication of a bulletin for the believers which was sent out once each Bahá'í month.
United States and Canada.youth in the United States and Canada are varied and interesting. One phase of this work, activities among college groups, will be described in some detail, although such activities are not limited to these two countries.
The work of Bahá'í youth in colleges has been aided by the College Speaker's Bureau appointed by the
National Spiritual Assembly.In a number of colleges interest in the Faith has been greater than that shown in requests for lecturers. Regular study classes have been one evidence of this interest.
A Bahá'í study group was formed at Syracuse University as a result of a public meeting at the Y.M.C.A. in Syracuse, October 26, 1947, at which Harry Ford was the guest speaker. The group was made up of Baha and non-Bahtj is on the campus.
By January, 1948 fiveBAHÁ'Í YOUTH ACTIVITIES 3,75 meetings had been held in various sorority houses on the campus with an attendance ranging from about nine to fifteen each time.
There was publicity for the meetings in the college paper and on the campus radio. Aspects of the Faith which most interested the students were world government and the need for race unity, probably due to the fact that the World Federalists and the United Nations Association at Syracuse are active on the campus and because there are students from about thirty-two nations attending the university. The study group at Syracuse has planned for numerous guest speakers, firesides, and cooperation with other campus organizations such as the Syracuse-in-China group, United Nations Association, and the Cosmopolitan club.
Michigan State College, too, has had a growing interest in the Faith.
Over two years ago the first Bahá'ís arrived at Michigan State, but at first most of the activities were with the new and growing
Lansing Baha community. ByJanuary, 1948, there were four Bahá'ís at Michigan State College, two faculty members and two students. During the past year the group led a discussion on the Bahá'í Faith at the International Center, presented a subscription to World Order magazine to the International Center and placed Bahá'í books, including God Passes By, Bahá'í World Faith.
and a volume of The Bahá'í World, in the college library. These four Bahá'ís and a number of other students and faculty members attend public meetings and firesides in Lansing. A Bahá'í study class was started in the winter of 1947, at the request of several interested students.
A study class has been formed at Wayne University in Detroit. Six Bahá'ís there gained recognition from the administrative authorities of the university to form the Wayne University Bahá'í Study Group with
Mr. John Ashtan of DetroitFrom Chicago comes the report that the University of Chicago Bahá'í discussion group was organized not only to further Baha teachings, but to fill a definite need on campus for a discussion group open to students of all faiths.
Previous campus religious organizations were either primarily so- cial or were not open to students of faiths other than their own. The academic program supplied a constant stimulus for religious and philosophical thought, yet those who were inspired to attempt an investigation of religious truth were forced to seek their information away from the campus. "The
Bahá'í University Fellowshipoffers them a chance to air their views at informal discussion meetings, and at the same time provides an excellent medium for teaching the Faith since meetings always begin with a short statement of the Bahá'í concept of whatever subject is being discussed, or, if there are newcomers present, with an outline of the principles of the Faith.
"Topics for discussion are chosen from questions asked by members of the group, so that discussions will follow the interests of those who attend the meetings. Announcements of the subject are posted beforehand at various points on the campus and have attracted from one to four new contacts at each meeting.
"It is planned to continue the group at least through the spring of 1948, with a few special meetings including wellknown faculty members as speakers later on. Thus far it has shown itself to be an effective means of introducing the Faith to youth of college and university age and it is hoped that it can be expanded and utilized ever more fully in the future.17 Dr. Edris Rice-Wray spoke to about forty students of the University of Manitoba on the subject "Science and World Order," during the threeday program,
November 23 through November25, 1946, when the Bahá'í Faith was introduced to the people of Winnipeg.
Emeric Sala spoke during the same program to about forty Spanish students and members of the Spanish-American Club on the subject "Latin America Tomorrow." He was introduc~ ed as a Baha and made brief refer-i7Barbara i7Barbara 3. 3acobsen in 'Bahá'í Youth,' Jan-nary, 194(1.
Page 376ence to the Faith. His reference to the Baha Faith stimulated questions from the group with the result that about fifteen inquirers went to the home of one of the club members for conversation and discussion of the Faith after the lecture.
A study group of about twenty-five students was formed at the Universit3 of Manitoba. This group met regularly and was sponsored by a special
University Teaching Committeehad a Bahá'í youth group organization registered with the university authorities.
This group worked closely with the Local Spiritual Assembly of Urbana in making a success of the two big public meetings held at the university in 1946. Miss Hilda Yen spoke at the first of these meetings, held March 29, 1946, on "Peace Plans Compared." An audience of about 300 attended this lecture.
Miss Elsie Anderson was the speaker at the second large meeting, which was held in November, 1946.
This was an historic occasion since it was the first time a Bahá'í spoke from the platform of the University of Illinois auditorium.
There was excellent publicity for this meeting in the student paper "The Daily Illini," on university bulletin boards, in the town papers, and in the business houses of Champaign and Urbana. A reporter from The Daily Iflini attended the press luncheon which was held on the day of the meeting. At the meeting itself young people of various races and young students of the Bahá'í Faith were ushers. A re� ception was held after the meeting at the Bahá'í center where people were given an opportunity to meet the speaker and to get further information and literature about the
Faith.Western states too, have had their share of Bahá'í activities on college campuses.
The University of Nevada and Stanford University both reported study groups, and a variety of activities have been reported from the
University of CaliforniaMembers of the Spiritual Assembly of Berkeley served on the steering committee of the Institute of Human
Relations, held June38, 1946 at the University of California. This institute was designed to work toward unity among the wide diversity of racial and religious groups on the campus and offered exceptional opportunities for introducing the Faith to students.
Bahá'í books and pamphlets together with other literature on human relations were displayed. Temple pictures exhibited in the University Library and in the art gallery of Haviland Hall at the university were seen by thousands during the week.
The Bahá'í youth of Berkeley, spon. sored a meeting at International House University of California, November 28, 1946, attended by about fifty students. The guest speaker, Marzieh
Gail, spoke on "This Earth � OneFozdar, a Bahá'í youth from Bombay studying engineering at the university, spoke on "The Unifying Force."
Hal Rutledge, chairman of the Bahá'í youth group, presided. Refreshments were served at the end of the meeting, which gave guests and Bahá'í youth an opportunity to become better acquainted and to have further informal discussions of the Faith.
A highlight of 1947 was the talk given by Miss Elsie Austin at a special luncheon of the International Relations Group, held at the University of California Y.W.C.A. on
March 28. Miss Austinspoke on "Peace � An Adventure in Human Relations" to an audience of about seventy-five, composed of students, wives of faculty members, leading citizens~ of Berkeley, and sponsors of the Y.W.C.A. Miss Austin referred to the Bahá'í Faith just once, at the beginning of her talk, when she said her remarks would be based on the principles of the Bahá'í Faith.
Her talk was followed by prolonged applause. Students and other members of the audience took up the word 'Baha'i" and asked for more and more information.
At Stanford University, Ffrtiz Kazem-zadeh and Amin Banani, Persian Baha'is, who were stu�nts there, con
Page 377ducted firesides and study classes. FirOz also assisted in study classes and spoke in public meetings in San Francisco and other parts of the San Francisco Bay area and taught at
Gey-servile Bahá'í SummerDuring Christmas vacation, 1946, Firi~iz Kazemzadeh,
Arnin Banani and ShidhnFath-A'azam visited Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Fir4z spoke at three meetings and several informal youth gatherings. Interesting contacts were made with the Dean of the Phoenix Junior College and with news commentators and editors of the two leading
Phoenix newspapers. Atthe Times, these young Bahá'ís were interviewed by
Associate Editor, AnnaTimes in Arizona" was devoted to the Persian visitors and their intense interest in spreading the flahA'i Faith, which has as "its basic belief the proposition that the revelations of God are progressive and not final.
In the fall of 1947 Fir(iz Razemzadeh became a graduate student at Harvard University.
He lectured on the Faith in several places in the eastern United States during the fall and winter months.
On October 21, 1947 he spoke by request to theA number of other activities show the variety of Baha youth programs. Tea-neck, New Jersey, youth have produced dramatizations of the Faith written by Nancy Bowditch of Brookline,
Massachusetts.put on a pageant which they had written. This pageant was so successful in stimulating interest in the Faith that a study class was formed as a result.
In Washington, D. C.: Chicago, Illinois; Racine, Wisconsin; and in many other cities young Bahá'ís hold regular study classes and firesides. Chicago also has all-day study classes once a month for the declared youth of the area.
Three youths of Cleveland,Webster, carried out a unique plan which proved to be very successful in stimulating further activity. Each Saturday for a month these young people presented a program at the International
Institute in Clevelandusing youth from various communities as guest speakers.
These meetings were fob lowed by a social gathering on each Sunday. The series was climaxed by an interstate youth conference during which a large public meeting was held. The project introduced the Bahá'í
Faith widely among many organizations and groups in Cleveland and led to formation of study classes and much interest in the Faith.
The increased youth activity which resulted from regional meetings in Indiana and Ohio, led to a two-week teaching trip with the Regional Teaching Committee through Northeastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, giving talks, forums and panel discussions at public meetings in Toledo, Cleveland, Medina and Pittsburgh. Tangible results of this increased and widespread youth activity were the declaration of a number of youth in this area, inactive youth brought back to active status, creation of several new youth groups and study classes, considerable interest in youth activities in many local areas, maintenance of a spirit of cooperation and understanding between the youth and adult believers in the region, and invaluable experience to the participating youth in better serving the Cause.
Bahá'í youth of Wichita, Kansas held a successful meeting, November 23, 1947, in connection with National Youth Day, with Mrs. Mary
Anderson of St. Louisas guest speaker. There was a good attendance of non-BahWis including students from Friends
University. Lois Griffithof St. Louis and Bob Schulte of Topeka took part in the program. An informal discussion period, led by Ronald Preuss, an isolated believer, followed Mrs. Anderson's talk.
The Sioux Falls youth group has been active and successful in arousing much community interest in the past year. They planned to present a special radio broadcast on World Youth Day, February, 1948.
Page 378Berkeley youth have a record of continuous activity for several years. In addition to the campus activities already described, they have held study classes twice a month and a number of firesides and parties.
A successful fireside was held in Berkeley on August 22, 1946, for all the Bahá'í youth of the San Francisco Bay area and their guests.
San Diego youth have weekly study classes and once a month meet with the isolated youth of San Diego county. Some of the young people attend intercultural programs sponsored by the San Diego City Schools. There they meet people from many countries and have an opportunity to make contacts.
Germany. German Bahá'íyouth resumed their activities as soon as possible after the end of the war. The potency of the World Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is nowhere more clearly shown than in this renewal and growth of the youth groups in Germany, following an eight-year government-imposed suspension of all their activities.
By June 1946, there were four youth groups in Esslingen.
There were also youth groups in Neckargemund, near Heidelberg, Stuttgart and Darmstadt-Trautheim.
All of these groups held weeldy meetings to study the Spiritual Teachings and
Bahá'í Administration. Theyoung Bahá'ís of Stuttgart and Ess-lingen often met together on Sunday for singing and for trips to the neighboring country.
The Esslingen youth group, in the summer of 1946, were still publishing the monthly Bahá'í Youth Bulletin, which they had started in September, 1945.
This youth bulletin was later incorporated with the "BahA'f-I-Nach-ricliten" of Germany. However, by the end of 1947 the German Bahá'í youth had achieved regular publication of a monthly youth magazine.
The National Youth Committeeof Germany was appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly in August, 1946. Just faur months later, Susi Bahá'u'lláh Grossmann, secretary of the Youth Committee, reported the following activities: "The first meeting of the new committee was held in Esslingen immediately after the general Baha summer school classes in August, 1946, most valuably assisted by our dear Persian Bahá'í brother, Manuchihr Zabih from Tihr&n, who was a highly welcome source of inspiration to the youth.
At present we have regular youth activities in E sslingen, Frankfurt-am-Main, Hamburg, Neckargemurid,
Heidelberg, Stuttgartand Darmstadt. Trautheim, but there are isolated young Bahá'ís and many interested boys and girls in a number of other places in the four zones of Germany. This spreading (of the Faith) was due to some regional youth meetings in Ess-lingen,
Neckargemund, Darmstadtand Heppenhein-i and to the first official Bahá'í Youth Summer School of Germany held in Heppenheim in August, one week before the general summer school at Esslingen, so that most of the forty-five visitors of the Heppen-heim Summer School also took part at the Esslingen Summer School. This week we will have a threeday regional meeting in Neckargemund.
We are expecting about fifty girls and boys from twelve different places.
"You see the German Bahá'í youth are very active.There is much sincere seeking and they strive hard to study the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and to carry it out among other young people. We discuss the problems at our weekly meetings and like to have at these occasions the assistance of experienced Baha'is, so that we may progress more rapidly 2' British Isles. These past two years have been unparalleled in the history of Bahá'í youth in the British Isles. Young Bahá'ís have contributed in very great measure to making the Six Year Plan a success.
In the words of one of their own members, they have "sur-round [ed] the flame of enthusiasm with fortitude" and its light has shown through "protected from the effects of the contingent world."18
The National TeachingCommittee of the British Isles commented in a recent isHugh McKinley in the
� Bahá'í Youth Bulletin"of the British Isles: Vol. 1, No. 1.) Sept., 1946.
Page 379First Regional Baha Youth Conference, Nottingham, England, March, 1947.
report on the "remarkable contribution which Bahá'í youth are making to the Plan.
When Philip Hainsworthcame back from the Army, after being privileged to meet with the Guardian twelve times, we asked that he should be put on the committee, intending to benefit from his instruction in Haifa and to establish a close liaison with the National Youth Committee, of which he had been appointed chairman. Our relations with the Youth Committee have been of the closest, and we have the very finest cooperation from them.
Three members of this committee and three other youth are pioneers and all other members of the committee are in Goal Towns. In addition, three youth are on the panel of traveling teachers, and the Youth Bulletin commended by the Guardian, is one of our "teaching aids" for training new speakers, and we have an order up to 100 per issue for free literature. Margaret Shanks, a youth under age, has organized a public meeting in Liverpool under our direction.~~ Their story has been one of increased activity in home communities and outstanding pioneer work in goal towns. British youth were assisted in this work by a number of Baha young people from other countries; Hassan Sabri and M. Mohyi Said of Egypt,
Manuchihr Zabili and VajdiehAll but one of the members of the National Youth Committee were living in goal towns by March 1947.
This one member stayed in Torquay as requested until the local community was consolidated, then moved to the goal city of Cardiff to pioneer there.
In 1946 there were no local Bahá'í youth committees; by December, 1947, there were five. The first of these was formed in Manchester in May, 1947, at the suggestion of the
National Youth Committee.A young Persian girl, Vajdieh Mohtadi, a student at Birmingham University, made possible the achievement of an assembly in this goal city by her arrival in March, 1947. The youth group in Birmingham was active in meeting with other youth organizations in the city.
Bradford had the distinction of a large Bahá'í wedding on April 5, 1947, when
Marjorie Wood and RalphNaylor were married there in the presence of 170 guests. The wedding service consisted of prayers and readings from Bahá'í Scriptures.
By December, 1947, youth activities in Bradford had increased so greatly that a Local Youth Committee was formed � the fifth to be formed in the British Isles in about nine months.
This committee planned mid-weekly youth meetings and extensive teaching work.
Three of the four pioneers in Cardiff in 1947 were youth. These young Bahá'ís participated and furnished Bahá'í speakers for most of the youth organizations of the city.
Among the young Bahá'ís who helped in the work in Liverpool, one of the goal cities of 1948, were Joan
Smith and Margaret Shanks.Joan Smith worked very hard to help build up the community and to spread the Faith among the deaf and blind of the city. Margaret Shanks, not yet of age, was secretary of the group and had organized regular meetings for many months.
In London the Bahá'í youth did a large amount of the local and national administrative work.
Manchester youth have done an outstanding job among communities where excellence has become a standard.
In 1946, the youth held regular meetings for youth and also assisted at socials.
By spring the Bahá'í youth were working for a new club; their activity toward this end had already attracted young people to its cultural and social programs held at the Bahá'í center. The new declared youth were among its most active supporters.
Their Local Youth Committee, the first formed in the British Isles, made all the arrangements for the Regional Youth Committee, which included sending speakers to Liverpool.
Bahá'í youth in Northampton helped in building the group of believers there toward
Assembly status. Theycooperated with Nottingham youth in many activities.
In Torquay, Hugh McKinleywho was instrumental in starting the work there addressed meetings at the Unitarian Church, Adult School and the International League. The youth group helped with a book exhibition which brought much attention to the Faith. After Hugh
McKinley left Torquayto pioneer in Cardiff, the community carried on with classes held weekly for youth. Their Youth Correspondent gave a talk in the winter of 1947 to the local International
Friendship League.and Jean Court have an extensive program of youth firesides, study classes, music, art and poetry evenings, and contact all youth organizations in the city. At one of their youth discussion evenings, the nineteen present represented nine different nationalities. A noteworthy occasion was a meeting where a talk was given to sixty young people at a Church of Scotland Youth Fellowship. At another meeting late in 1947, twenty-five nonBahá'ís were present.
The first Bahá'í public meeting in Dublin was held on March 2, 1947, in the form of a fireside to which the public was invited.
Philip Hainsworth was the discussion leader. Una Towns-bend, the youth pioneer in Dublin, and Philip Hainswarth held the Feast of 'AlA' together � the first Bahá'í Feast to be held in that city.
No description of youth activities would be complete without a few words of special emphasis on youth's role as pioneers.
Young Bahá'ís have continued to distinguish themselves as pioneers in the past two years. Twenty youth of Persia went out as pioneers following World Youth Day in 1947. Two of the members of the Persian National Youth Committee became pioneers.
Bahá'í youth in India, too, have added their names to the honor roll of pioneers in that country who have risen to make their Four-and-a-half Year Plan a success.
Page 381Youth of the United States rose in prompt response to the res~onsibi1ities for European teaching laid on the American believers by the Guardian. A partial list of young pioneers and the posts they fill are as follows: Anita loas,
Sally Sanor and DavidBlackmer in Luxembourg, Mildred Elmer in Switzerland,
Henry Jarvis in Sweden, IsobelAnita loas and Sally Sanor went to Luxembourg in the spring of 1946 and by the end of that year were conducting many study classes and firesides.
Thobel Locke's work in Edinburgh has been described briefly with the work in the British Isles. The other pioneers have left only recently for their work in Europe. Robert Imagire left for Japan in 1947. His activities there are described in this section under "Tokyo
Report."In addition to pioneering, Bahá'í young people have gone out on the closely related service of special missions. Among these,
Louise Baker and Charlesloas have gone from the United States within this period to perform special missions in Latin America in cooperation with the
Inter-America Committee.The entire story of the glorious youth work in the British Isles in 1946 and 1947 is largely a story of pioneering jind has already been described in some detail in the foregoing pages. Surely youth is endeavoring to measure up to the great part it is privileged to play.
INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONALAt present there are no international meetings of Baha youth, but International Youth Day, held once a year all over the world, exemplifies the spirit of unity of Bahá'í youth and foreshadows future meetings on a worldwide scale.
The program for this world youth day is planned by the National Youth Committee of the United States and Canada through correspondence with the other national youth committees all over the world.
"The event is really tht� peak of Bahá'í youth activity for the entire year. In what other group of young people do we find such common unity?
On this day in every country where Bahá'í youth are residing, they arise to proclaim with one accord the world teachings of Bahá'u'lláh The twelfth annual International Youth Day was held in February, 1947 using the subject
"Security for a FallingWorld." Symposiums and talks around this theme were held in Persia, 'Irhq, Egypt, India and Burma, Australia, New Zealand,
South America, the UnitedStates, Canada, Germany and the British Isles � in communities large and small. Groups of young peo-pie varying in size from two to about two thousand planned and carried out successful programs.
Persia. From Persia, birthplace of the Faith, the National Youth Committee reported: "One of the most glorious of the youth meetings in which most of the youth took part was International Youth
Day. The National YouthCommittee, a few months before the event, prepared a complete program for the day, and distributed the plans to all the local youth committees. More than 250 such programs were sent out to the local youth committees and to groups.~~ About thirty-eight hundred youth attended the meetings in Persia; eighteen hundred in Tihr~n alone, where thirty-three meetings were held. A highlight of the celebration in Persia was that for the first time non-Bahá'ís who were sympathetic toward the Faith were formally invited.
'Irdg. 'IrAqi youth chose the topic, "The World Moved Toward Unity," as the general theme for their International Youth Day meetings on February 23. Meetings were held both by the young men and by the young women in Bagj~d&d. Mosul also reported youth meetings.
Egypt. Recognizing the importance of this day, the National Youth Committee of Egypt, upon its appointment late in 1946, made plans for
Interna-lofleport of NationalBahá'í Youth Group, Suez, Egypt; tional Youth Day one of its earliest concerns.
A symposium on "New World" was presented with the following subjects:
"World Order," "Solutionof Economic Problems," "World Spirituality," and "The Bahá'í Faith."
Australia and New Zealand.of Australia and New Zealand stated, "The largest and most successful meetings have been those held to celebrate International
Bahá'í Youth Day." In1947, gatherings were held on this day at Sydney, Adelaide and at the Bahá'í summer school also a junior youth group was officially formed on February 23, at Caringbah, under the guidance of the secretary of the local
Spiritual Assem-Ny. TheSydney meeting was satisfactory as several nonBahá'í youth attended. After the talks (each of three youths giving a paper prepared on the chosen subject) we had a general discussion on various aspects of the Faith. In Adelaide the attendance was good and the meeting ended with the usual social gathering where questions and general discussion on the Teachings found free expression.~~ The
Werriwa BahaYouth reported that they held a "Youth WeekEnd" at Bolton Place Annex,
Yerrinbool, February22 and 23, 1947. Their program for International Youth Day was held in Hyde
Dunn Hall on February23. Two addresses were given by youth. The program ended with an afternoon tea.
United States. Many youth groups in the United States held meetings on International Youth Day, 1947. Three of these have been selected to give a picture of the day in different parts of the country.
Philadelphia youth had a particularly interesting and well-rounded program in which there was a non-BahWi as well as Bahá'í participation.
The specific topic chosen was "Education for a World Commonwealth." The titles of the various talks and names of the speakers were as follows: (1) "A School in Switzerland," by Jules Rind (non-BaM'i), news commentator of WPEN radio station, (2) "Youth
Looks Ahead," by WilliamSears, Jr., president of the Sixth Grade of the Baha School, (3) "Universal Aspect," by Har-oun S'hamai, president of the Middle East
Club of InternationalViewpoint," by Edith Segen, chairman of the Philadelphia
Bahá'í Youth Committee.Henry Tellerman, youthful member of the local Spiritual Assembly was chairman. Many non-Bahá'í friends from the radio station and International House attended the meeting.
Bob Schultz and PaulineBrown, the only two Bahá'í youth in Topeka, Kansas, arranged a very successful youth meeting which was well attended by young people of the city and surrounding area. Paul Becker came from Chicago to speak on "Security for a Failing World."
There was publicity for the event in all Sunday papers. After the talk there was an interesting informal discussion in which many of the guests participated.
Plans for the meeting were made by the Topeka youth in cooperation with the local Spiritual Assembly and the National Youth Committee. The success of the meeting was a demonstration of what can be achieved even with very small numbers when work is done in a spirit of consultation and cooperation.
In San Francisco, an audience made up of a diversity of races, nationalities and religious backgrounds (among them Christian, iVIu1~iammadan and Zor-Qastrian) attended the world youth celebration. Music was furnished by Mrs. Erleta Jordan, a Bahá'í youth from Portland, Oregon, accompanied on the piano by Miss Marilyn Zahi of San Mateo. Three talks were given around the chosen theme by Vernon Skovgaard of San Francisco, Graham
Conroy of Stanford UniversitySally left soon after this meeting for her pioneer post in Luxembourg.
Germany. In spite of the extreme difficulties in Germany, Bahá'í youth, able to hold meetings again for the second year since the end of the war, observed International Youth Day with a great celebration in Rainbach near Heidelberg.
In addition to this meeting they arranged a seven-minute radio broadcast on the
Faith.Youth Day was obserVed in the British Isles by a number of youth groups in different parts of the country under the auspices of the National
Youth Committee.Celebration of this day "took the form of a symposium of youth speakers in each Assembly and goal town, the participants in some cases being drawn from another district, and the whole financed by the Teaching Committee as a valuable teaching occasion. The re. suits were highly satisfactory.
In common with Bahá'í youth throughout the world, the theme used was "Security for a Failing World."20 World Youth Day was held February 15, 1948. The international theme chosen was "Youth Challenging the Old World Order."
Large public meetings were planned with youth groups in local communities in charge of all arrangements.
National Youth Day was inaugurated by the National Youth Committee of
Zoflaport of Nationalthe United States and Canada in 1945. This day was planned as an annual event to unify the youth of this continent just as the International Youth Day is held to unify the youth of the world. The second National Youth Day was celebrated November 24, 1946. The main theme was ''The Unifying Force with the following subtopics: (1) "The Earth � One Country," (2) "World Citizens,"
(3) "The Unifying Force."In most communities young Bahá'ís held informal receptions following the talks which allowed further discussion of the phases of the subject which particularly interested the guests as well as the pleasure of getting better acquainted.
The theme for the third National Youth Day held19481950 Around the world, Bahá'í youth contributed actively to building the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in the two years, April 1948 to April 1950. There were special youth committees to promote youth activities, as well as participation by youth in the general affairs of the growing
Bahá'í community. Intwo areas, new regional committees were appointed to assist the national youth committees: in India, Pakistan and Burma; and in four regions oX the United States, southern, northeastern, central and western.
Numerous difficulties such as those faced by the National Youth Committee of the BRITISH ISLES in 1949, proved to be incentives to new accomplishments.
The British youth committee planned its own organization and a whole year's activity at the first meeting, the only time in the year when the three members could meet together. At this meeting, the Secretaryship was divided into two parts; General and National, and Overseas and International.
The subsequent work of the committee was done by correspondence, maintaining such a flow of letters that the nearest possible approach was made to direct consultation.
One of the principal tasks of the British youth committee was to encourage the formation of local youth committees wherever there was a local Spiritual Assembly, a task successfully carried out in each of the new local Assemblies formed in Ireland, Scotland and Wales in this period.
The National Youth Committeeof PERSIA has the big task of coordinating the work of more than two hundred local youth committees throughout the country. The third
National Youth Conferencewas held in Tihr~n in August, 1948, and was attended by eighteen representatives, each from a different region.
Decisions reached at the conference about pioneering, teaching, deepening in the Faith, youth activities, etc., were approved by the National Youth Committee and by the National Spiritual
Assembly of Persia. Theseplans were then presented to local youth committees and were in general successfully carried out.
Si-monthly reports from local committees were published in the "Youth Section" of the monthly journal published by the National
Spiritual Assembly.Each of these was attended by a member of the National
Youth Committee.of Persia was responsible for assisting youth pioneers.
Another helped to compile a biyearly publication which told of youth activities in Persia and in other parts of the Bahá'í world community.
The first National YouthCommittee of CANADA was appointed in 1948. Due to the vastness of the country the committee carried on intensive correspondence with youth groups to draw them
Page 386Teachers of the Child Education classes, Tihr&n, Persia, 1947.
Page 387Representative, a Pen Pals Representative, , a Compilation Bureau Representative e and a Youth Bulletin Reporter.
A Bahá'í College Student Bureau was organized in the year, to check on cob lege attendance of Bahá'í youth, to provide e information for students as to whereabouts of resident Bahá'í college students and information about organized d Bahá'í study, to encourage the organization n of study groups in colleges throughout the United States and to recommend to the National Spiritual Assembly the recognition of Bahá'í study groups in colleges.
A Compilation Bureau was also set up to function under the National
Youth Committee of the United States.Chief functions of this bureau were to compile letters from the Guardian regarding g youth in general, excerpts from Baha Writings for youth in particular and any direct material concerning youth.
Several national youth committees publish bulletins or youth magazines.
These include: British Isles, Australiaand New Zealand, Egypt and Sudan, Persia, Canada and the United States.
In Persia, a number of local committees tees also publish youth bulletins regularly.
larly. The TilirAn youth bulletin (Ahang-i--Badi) issued monthly since its inception in Bahá'í year 103 is distributed buted by the Persian National Assembly bly throughout the country.
YOUTH AT BAHÁ'Í SUMMER SCHOOLSIn the BRITISH ISLES, there were two Youth Days at summer school sessions sions in both 1948 and 1949.
In 1948, two full Saturdays were devoted voted to youth activities. Programs planned by the National Youth Committee mittee in consultation with all the youth, included provision for the devotional, votional, educational and recreational
Page 388Each morning began with a short devotional program before breakfast, consisting of recorded music and selected prayers and meditations from the Writings, read by the youth and followed by a prayer chanted by one of the young Persian believers.
The two morning educational programs were based on themes which present themselves to all Bahá'í youth as they enter mature life, and were arranged to afford those present the opportunity to consult together and to tap the sources of adult experience available at the school.
The first day, a panel composed of Meherangiz Munsiff, Susanne Soloman, and Mariana Hocken spoke briefly on "The Meeting of Self-Expression and Self-Submission," quoting Bahá'í Writings as source material. The session was then opened to discussion from the floor, chaired by Isobel Locke and assisted by adult advisor Bernard Leach.
The second day, a similar panel composed of Maliboubeli Shaykih, Hugh Johnson, Vida Johnson and Margaret Shanks, presented various aspects of
"Living a Bahá'í Lifein a Non-Bahá'í World," including the characteristics a Bahá'í must manifest in his social relationships; his choice of a profes-sian, career, or life work; and the Bahá'í in a nonBahá'í family, marriage, rearing children and so on. Has-san Sabri, assisted by adult advisors Hasan Bahá'í and Mrs. Bahá'u'lláh, chaired the discussion which followed. Afternoon hours were free for recreation, and for a meeting of the National Youth Committee with all the youth present to consult on youth activities in the British Isles.
On the first evening a set of colored slides of the Bahá'í Temple in Wil-mette were shown.
Marion and David Hofman, recently returned from a visit to the United States commented on the slides.
On the second evening, a dramatic script, "Son of Desire," written for the occasion by Mrs. Mary Hall was presented. Joan Giddings, Hugh McKinley, Brian Ferraby. Iraj Pootschi, Margaret Shanks, Meherangiz Munsiff and Nancy Cooper were the cast. Social programs followed the special event Bahá'í Youth gathering, Esslingen, Germany, World Youth Day, February 23, 1947.
Page 389each evening and a brief devotional program closed each day.
In 1949, youth again were responsible for the program on two days of the Summer School. A memorable feature of each day was the dawn devotional program held in a beautiful and impressive setting on the mountain behind Ashover.
On the first morning there was a panel discussion, "Qualities of the New Age."
On the second day a contest of oratory was held on the theme, "Bahá'u'lláh,
His Life and Teachings." Membersof the National Assembly acted as judges and awarded prizes. The Chairman of the National Assembly summed up the session pointing out essential features to be remembered when presenting the Cause.
A concert after tea and a fancy dress ball were features of the afternoon and evening of the first day; slides of the Temple at Wilmette and an impromptu dance were features of the second. As in the preceding session, each day closed with a brief devotional program.
In GERMANY, from Julywas held in a camp in the Black Forest. About sixty youth were present and all took part in running the camp as well as in lectures and discussion.
The German National YouthCommittee reported that "The second part of the week was devoted to the study of the political, sociological and economic developments during the past century. Besides serious studies there was plenty of fun, hiking and memorable camp fires, plus a most welcome chance to give the Message to non-Bah&'is. The mission was again made clear to all Bahá'ís present who are filled with the hope of new and greater life: study, teaching and bard work!"
To the participants at this school the Guardian wrote:
"Dear Coworkers:"Your joint message cheered my heart and served to heighten my admiration for the spirit that so powerfully animates the Bahá'í Youth in Germany, for whose future I cherish the brightest hopes. I will supplicate for you all, Bahá'í Youth attending a Bahá'í class, Havana, Cuba, W.L, 1949.
Page 390from the depths of my heart, the Master's richest blessings. Persevere in your high endeavors, and rest assured that the Beloved will guide your steps in the path of service to His Cause, and will, if you remain steadfast, enable you to win memorable victories for His Cause and its institutions.
Your true brother (signed) Shoghi."In EGYPT, the entire program and the organization of the summer school held in Alexandria in 1948 was the responsibility of the National Youth Committee under the direction of the National Spiritual
Assembly.In order to widen the range of youth activities in all three Dominions of INDIA, PAKISTAN AND
BURMA, the National SpiritualAssembly held regional summer schools in conjunction with regional youth conferences in India and Pakistan from mid-September to mid-November, 1948. Violent civil disturbances in Burma prevented the holding of either a summer school or a regional youth conference there.
In AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND, Baha'iyouth took part in the Bah~ '1 winter school at Yerrinbool, September 19, 1948. Youth gave talks on the lives of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá and presented a one act play, ''The Golden Age.
TEACHINGIn the BRITISH ISLES, youth steadfastly shared with adults responsibility for the work of the Six Year
Plan. Many young Bahá'íspioneered in various parts of England, in Wales and in Ireland.
Youngest pioneer, Margaret Sullivanof Manchester, volunteered to pioneer even before she made her declaration as a Baha'i. Very soon after becoming a Baha'i, and following consultation with her local Assembly and the National Teaching Committee, she pioneered in Dublin.
Typical of the spirit of unity and cooperation among Bahá'ís all over the world, was the constant aid of students from abroad in the British Six Year Plan.
These students contributed to the Bulletin, addressed meetings, pioneered and inspired their fellow workers with news from East and West.
One of the goal towns of the Plan was greatly assisted by a new British believer, who declared herself as a result of the teaching of the Bahá'ís of Oslo, while she was employed there.
Activities for youth were part of the unfolding Plan in the ten EUROPEAN COUNTRIES' under the direction of the European Teaching Committee of the United States. Regular weekly meetings for youth were held in Oslo during the winter and spring. A talk on the Baha Faith was given each week, fob loweci by a discussion period and also short talks by some of the non-Bahli'is. From these meetings came invitations to speak to various youth groups and student associations in Norway. By summer, these Bahá'í meetings had become so well-liked because of their warm friendly atmosphere that contacts protested if the meetings were not held. Picnics and small parties were also part of the youth activities and drew together people of different interests and backgrounds.
Among other youth activities in these countries were the thriving class for young people in Belgium and the youth committee formed at Berne to develop youth activities there.
A demonstration of the Baha spirit in action, was the work of the Bahá'í youth of GERMANY in the reconstruction of the building in Frankfurt which had been recently purchased by the National Spiritual Assembly for a National Center. In August 1948, a group of twenty young people from various parts of western Germany hitchhiked or cycled to Frankfurt.
After a brief devotional period, they promptly started the tremendous job of carrying away more than 4,000 cubic feet of rubble, which covered most of the garden in a layer ten feet high. All of the youth who took part in this work had given their vacation time to do so. By the end of three weeks, this work was completed.
In addition to the full days of work, the youth had Bahá'í classes and committee meetings in the evening.
Twenty-three HeidelbergBahá'í Youth contacts in Punta Arenas (Magellanes), Chile.
ing trip as one of their contributions to the Five
Year Plan of Germany. Theseyouth camped for ten days near Gross Heubach, a village of about one thousand inhabitants. Soon they attracted crowds from the nearby vii-lage including some clergymen and monks who talked with them.
Youth from the village joined the Bahá'ís at the camp and danced, sang and played football with them. Soon the BaYt 'i youth were invited to attend social events in the village.
During their stay at the camp, the youth took many trips into the surrounding area, teaching and becoming acquainted with the villagers.
About seventeen to nineteen youth met every four weeks in Neckarge-mund. In cooperation with the German Youth Association, the group held public discussion on the subject, "Is World Peace
Still Possible Today?"About sixty to seventy young people attended the meeting. Klaus Liedtke spoke on the Baha Faith, and there were talks by representatives of Catholic,
RedAfter the talks, Dr. Grossman led a discussion which the audience was reluctant to bring to a close.
In EGYPT, Bahá'í youth in the universities ofwere very active in indiVidual teaching, although they were not allowed to speak in public. Results of their activity were shown by the number of students who went to the Haziratu'1-Quds for further information about the Faith.
In PERSIA, Bahá'í youth carried an important share of the work of the Forty-Five Month Plan, continually stressing at youth clubs and gatherings the importance of youth in the Plan. Many youth have settled in goal towns, and progress reports have shown that five hundred youth made teaching trips and visits to encourage and strengthen the believers in goal localities. Those unable to pioneer themselves, contributed to the National
Fund.The Bahá'í youth of Persia carried on teaching projects, planned and exe
Page 392cuted entirely by themselves, and apart from their activities for the various adult committees. These projects included three types of meetings, teaching centers, firesides and public meetings. Teaching centers were established at various places throughout the city so that youth could bring their non-Bahá'í friends to inquire into the teachings. Firesides were held by teams of nine youth; each team met weekly to teach interested non-Bah&'is. Public meetings were purely introductory in character. In addition to the three types of teaching projects described, youth also held classes to prepare inquirers for their declaration of faith. Survey of a two-year period showed that 110 public meetings were held with a total attendance of about fifteen hundred.
In this survey period, sixty new believers were credited to the teaching efforts of the youth alone.
The Bahá'í youth of Persia were divided into groups which met once or twice a month according to their choice in gatherings, partly social in character, which were specially planned for them by the
National Youth Committee.Bahá'í university students also maintained educational and scientific meetings which were addressed by qualified scholars.
Wherever possible, Persianpurpose of these clubs is to increase fellowship, and to provide access to music and a good library.
A buffet and lecture are held weekly. At least fourteen such clubs have been founded.
Many local youth committees maintained literacy classes in the small towns and villages where a large proportion of the population is illiterate.
The Persian Bahá'í youth have extended special assistance to the friends in Central Europe, particularly to Germany and Austria, contributing both funds and food packages.
An active, though very isolated, youth committee functioned in LEBANON. The committee translated some of the Bahá'í books, corresponded with youth in other countries, held weekly meetings and published a youth bulletin.
Under the Teaching PlanAND BURMA, some Bahá'í youth enrolled as pioneers and settled hundreds of miles away from their homes and families.
In AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND, youth worked toward greater participation in the Six Year Teaching Plan and toward coordination and encouragement of local youth groups. Progress toward these goals was shown in the increased number of Bahá'í youth declarations, many new contacts; two youth pioneers who settled in one of the goal cities and in the activity of the youth groups.
The Adelaide youth group which had met regularly each month for a number of years began to meet once every two weeks in 1948. The Sydney youth group held regular monthly meetings at the Baha Center to which they brought their non-Bahá'í friends. A new Bahá'í youth group was formed in Melbourne and conducted weekly study meetings. Other youth groups were located in Werriwa and Carringbah, Australia and in Auckland, New Zealand.
Apart from the groups there were a number of isolated youth scattered throughout the country. The Australian Youth letter served an important function in informing and encouraging these young people.
The first National Bahá'íYouth conference for Australia and New Zealand was held in connection with the National Convention in 1949. The main theme of the meeting was "Teaching." There was discussion of youth letters, pen friends, Braille, the part of youth in the Summer and Wfflter Schools and ways and means to improve the general teaching effort. The thirteen young people present, represented Australia and New Zealand and the three Australian states of
Queensland, New South Walesand Victoria. This conference presented an opportunity for some of the youth to meet for the first time and to experience Bahá'í consultation and fellowship together.
There was much youth activity in JAPAN during this period.
Bahá'í activity with university students wasencouraging. About eight or nine students regularly attended a discussion group and participated very freely in it, frankly offering their own opinions and viewpoints. Baha Writings and pamphlets published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States were used as texts for classes. Shozo Kadota translated considerable Bahá'í material from English into Japanese. The youth held study classes on "Your Experience as a Baha'i" and studied a Japanese translation of Some Answered Questions recently translated into
Japanese by Mr. Saitoand Mr. Hirohashi, and The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh translated by Mr. Kadota. One class of enquirers was composed of junior and senior high school students. A children's hour was also held monthly.
Many young Bahá'ís were active in teaching and pioneering in SOUTH and CENTRAL AMERICA. One example of youth activity is that in Saa Paulo, Brazil.
Bahá'í youth held "tea dances" regularly, the first Saturday of each month, with about twenty attending, who represented as many as ten different nationalities.
Refreshments were served first, then there was a discussion period of about forty-five minutes followed by dancing. The youth held a regular weekly study class, also, using as the text, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era.
In San Juan, PUERTO RICOgreat progress was made in stimulating interest in the Bahá'í Faith.
Within a few months after Dr. Edris Rice-Wray, her daughter Lynn and Margaret Swengel had moved there from Chicago, nineteen youth had declared their intention to become Bahá'ís and another group had begun to study with Dr. Rice-Wray. These young Baha'is, most of them students at the University of San Juan, elected their own officers and made plans for activities.
Numerous and varied activities have been carried on by the Baha youth in the UNITED STATES, including teach-conferences and a variety of public meetings, study groups, individual teaching and radio.
Among these activities was the work carried on at a number of universities and colleges in the United
States. The Universityof Wisconsin Bahá'í Youth Group was given formal recognition as a religious group on the campus. As a recognized group, it was able to participate in all campus religious activities and privileges, including the University Religious Council, a group which plans and coordinates the activities of the various religious bodies in the Council.
The Bahá'í youth held bi-weckly meetings at the University Memorial Union, which usually began with a short talk by one of the members and was followed by discussion. A number of non-Bahá'í students attended these meetings. One feature of the Bahá'í work at the University of Wisconsin was a series of daily meetings in September 1949, conducted by Mrs. Ruth Moffett of Chicago. The general theme was "The New Way of Life and World Civilization," and the following topics were among those included: "New Amazing Keys to the Book of Revelation,"
"World History WrittenBahá'í study and discussion groups were very active at Syracuse University (New York). Part of the preparation for the meetings was excellent publicity and advertising in the
University paper. Therewas good attendance at the meetings. Two sororities invited Mr. Lowell Johnson to speak at meetings in their houses. In May 1949, a Bahá'í speaker addressed the Human Relations Committee of the University Chapel.
In October 1949, FarhangJavid spoke on the Bahá'í Faith at the Seabury Foundation, which unites four of the local churches in Champaign, Illinois. Mr. Javid's talk was the first in a series of talks on the great religions of the world. A short devotional program was conducted before the talk by three Bahá'ís from the University group.
Seventy-five students from the University of Illinois attended the meeting and participated in the discussion period after the lecture.
On the west coast, the Bahá'í youthstudy group of the University of Washington held some excellent and well attended meetings, which attracted the attention of other groups on campus. Religious Emphasis Week was held February 712, 1949 at this University. Mr.
Reginald King, a Bahá'ífrom Spokane was one of the speakers on a symposium with representatives of some of the churches, on "Why is Man?" "Man and his Religions," and "Is Man Free?" Many students came to hear the Bahá'í speaker from curiosity and stayed to join the study group.
The program of the Berkeley, California Bahá'í youth, includes many students from the University of California in its activities.
Beginning in February 1949, public meetings were started with a general discussion meeting on world affairs, led by Mr. Harry Andersen of Denmark, a premedical student at the University. Following this, a series of meetings on progressive religion was presented, emphasizing the fact that Bahá'ís recognize all the great Prophets and that each Manifestation announced the coming of His successor and foretold the Dispensation of 1Bahá'u'lláh.
In the fall of 1949, the annual theme selected was current social problems. On September 18, Mrs. Louise Groger, of San Francisco, spoke on "The Bahá'í Peace
Plan." For the OctoberPrejudice?" was presented by five students from the University of California:
Keshavial (Thandariaof India and Kenya, Africa, a graduate student in food technology; Quong Tom (Thee, of China, a premedical student; James Owens of Kentucky, an engineering student, member of the first United States Negro Marines, and a member of the executive board of the campus chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People; and RobertConroy, graduate student in philosophy, representing the Baha point of view.
Other topics included under the general theme of social problems, were "World Government," "Can Science and
Religion be Reconciled?"twenty to forty young people attended each of these meetings.
Among other youth activities in the United States were regional conferences and public meetings in many different localities.
The Bahá'í youth of Illinois,held a conference at Muskegon State Park, overlooking
Lake Michigan, on July10, and 11, 1948. This conference was for non-Bahá'ís as well as Baha'is, the first meeting of this type. The fifty young people who attended, slept in barracks formerly used in the Civilian Conservation Corps program. There were three elected delegates from each State who led the discussion and the presentation of the assigned topics. Paul Pettit, general chairman of the conference, gave the opening address outlining the purposes of the meeting.
The delegates were then introduced and the Illinois delegate presented the first topic, "teaching," which was brought out by a demonstration of a fireside meeting, followed by a question period. On Sunday, the Michigan delegation led the morning devotions.
The Wisconsin youth, gave a report of Bahá'í activities in colleges, which led to the suggestion that a Cal-lege Bureau be formed for organizing college groups throughout the country.
On the west coast, Bahá'í youth in California, under the auspices of the Western Regional Youth Committee, celebrated Naw-Rfiz with a spring festival at San Tails Obispo over the weekend of March 2526, 1950.
This included a public meeting Saturday, with a talk on the "Renewal of Civilization" by Mr. Graham Conroy, and a dance fob lowing the meeting.
On Sunday, there was a youth conference at Morro Bay on the theme, "Spiritual Springtime." Youth from all over California took part in the conference, and the meeting was open to non-Bahá'í friends.
Representatives from each community gave short reports on activities and there was a lively discussion on plans and teaching problems.
In January 1950, the youth group of Los Angeles went to the Jewish Temple
Page 395Bahá'í Youth Committee of Alaska holds conference, attended by 19, in Anchorage, August 14, 1949.
of Rabbi Maguin for an open discussion on prejudices, their causes and the means for their elimination.
The motion picture "Lost Boundaries," was shown as part of this program.
The San Francisco Bahá'íyouth presented a program in recognition of Brotherhood
Week on Sunday, February26, 1950. The speakers were Judge Alvin Weinberger of the Municipal Court,
Anti-Defamation LeagueMr. Adoiphus Thomas, Youth Council President of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored; and Mr. FiruzKazem-zadeh, representing the Bahá'í Faith. The speakers were united in the conviction that brotherhood was a problem of all men, not just of the Negro, Jew or Japanese.
On the same day a meeting on brotherhood was held in San Luis Obispo with the cooperation of Bahá'í youth, the Wesley Club and the International Club of California Polytechnic College. The speaker was Mr. Amin Banani, one of the Bahá'í delegates to the Conference of
NonGovernmental Organizationsof the United Nations held at Geneva, Switzerland in 1949. Mr. Shi-dan Fathe-Aazam, Bahá'í student at California Polytechnic College was the chairman.
Circuit teaching was used in the United States during the austerity period in 1949 and 1950. In these trips a group of three to five Bahá'í youth travelled together through an area giving Bahá'í talks and strengthening the work of local groups.
One youth, Donald Harveyof New York, operated amateur radio station WXBM, from which he broadcast selections from the Bahá'í Writings and those of the other great Prophets in conjunction with programs of music. Mr. Harvey also announced meetings to be held at the Bahá'í
Center.of the National Youth Committee of the United States as a clearing house, correspondence was carried on with Bahá'í youth in many countries, among them: Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Australia and
Page 396New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Burma, Egypt, Italy, Denmark,
Puerto Rico and Peru.who were students at the University of Toronto drew up a constitution setting forth the aims and purposes of the Bahá'í World Faith and submitted it to the
Administrative Boardof the University with a request to form a student group. This permission was granted and a special room was set aside for weekly meetings.
Following this formal recognition on the campus of the largest university in Canada, the group prepared a news release about the group, the purpose of the Faith and the present world status of the Cause which was printed on the front page of the Varsity below a two column cut of the Temple. The following Monday the first public meeting was held.
The group reported: "In the weeks that followed, the meetings were well attended, ranging from twenty-five to sixty, and each day something about the Bahá'í World Faith appeared in the Varsity. On Monday, the public meeting was advertised; on Tuesday, a complete writeup of the meeting appeared; on Wednesday and Thursday, a tribute to the Bahá'í World Faith by some outstanding person was published; and on Friday, a notice of the Monday meeting appeared. In addition, six posters advertising each meeting were placed in different buildings about the campus.,,
The National SpiritualAssembly of Canada, on receiving a report of this work, appointed the five students at the University of Toronto as members of a National University Committee. Bahá'í students at other Universities were contacted and asked to form groups along the lines established at the University of Toronto, and plans were made to advertise the Faith in the student newspapers across Canada.
The Committee reported: "The impact of the Cause is making itself felt not only in student activities on the University of Toronto campus, but also in the class room itself. At least three students, one in Oriental History, one in Sociology, and one in Religious Knowledge, are doing class papers on the Bahá'í Faith. The Library reports that there has never been such a demand for Bahá'í books.
Through the bounty of Bahá'u'lláh another door is opening to reach the people of Canada."
Canadian youth celebrated the first Canadian Bahá'í
Youth Day on DecemberWorld Youth Day, an expression of the unity of Bahá'í youth throughout the world, was celebrated in February 1949, using the theme, "Formula for Successful Living," and in February 1950, with the theme, "United
Nations Today and Tomorrow."These themes were selected by the National Youth Committee of the United States as the most universal and interesting of those suggested by youth committees all over the world.
There was wide observance of the day in the two years, including meetings in Germany, Persia, Japan, Australia, India, Pakistan,
Burma, the United StatesA few of the observances in far separated parts of the world are briefly described in the following paragraphs to give some idea of the diversity of the meetings within the unity of the general plans.
In Germany, before an audience of more than 250 persons, Dr. Hans
Peter, Professor of Economicsat Tubingen University gave a lecture on "World Peace through World Order" as part of the celebration of World Youth Day in 1949. On the day following this meeting, the Bahá'í youth held a devotional service and a youth conference to discuss plans for summer school and general teaching plans.
World Youth Day was celebrated in various places in all three Dominions of India,
Pakistan and Burma. Ayouth symposium was held in Rangoon, Burma, with ten Bahá'í youth speaking on the different aspects of the Faith, in Burmese, English and Urdu. In Karachi, Pakistan two meetings
Page 397were held in the Bahá'í Center, one for Bahá'í youth alone and one to which the public was invited.
In Hyderabad-Sind, PakistanIn preparation for the meeting, a large number of invitations were sent to non-Bahá'í friends and an article in Sindhi was published in a Pakistan newspaper. One of the professors from a local college presided at the celebration.
The program consisted of chanting Prayers and Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, lectures by Baha youth on various aspects of the Faith and a feast. In Quetta, Pakistan the day was observed privately by the Bahá'í youth.
In India, observances were reported from Calcutta, Bombay, Poona, Panch-gani and Sholapur. One of the most elaborate was that held in Calcutta where printed invitations were sent to friends of the local youth, and to other persons in the city. Greeting cards were sent to the Governors, Ministers, Members of the Legislative Assembly and other notables of the
Province of Bengal. Oneof the local papers published a picture of the Bahá'í Temple in its Sunday issue.
The gate of the club where the meeting was held was decorated with flowers and a sign, "Bahá'í Youth Symposium." In the morning a picnic was held for the Bahá'ís and in the afternoon a tea was given to which friends were invited. At the tea, seats were so arranged that there was a group of nine at each table. Each group consisted of six non-Bahá'ís and three Baha'is, and there were seven groups in all. Each group discussed a different principle of the Bahá'í Faith.
From Australia, youth reported varied World Youth Day Programs in 1949.
Adelaide had a youth panel discussion on the theme for the day, including the topics, "Individual,"
"Com-munity," "Religion"and "Bahá'u'lláh's Plan for This Day," followed by a social program.
Auckland youth began their program with dinner at 1:30 p.m. at a Chinese restaurant, followed by a tea in the afternoon and an evening meeting with talks on "Religion as the Basis for Bahá'í Youth of Tanta,
Egypt.Successful Living," and "Live and Help Live," with Mr. Anthony Voykovic and Mr. Percy Leadley as speakers. A supper was served at the end of the evening meeting, allowing an opportunity for more informal discussion.
Sydney had a symposium considering three aspects of the "Formula for Successful Living," � the personal aspect, presented by Mr. Stanley Bolton, Jr.; the social by Miss Degotardi and the international by Mr. James Love-lady.
In Denver, Colorado speakers from ten different organizations took part in the 1949 World Youth Day celebration before an audience of about one hundred people. Other observances in the United States were in Red Bank, New Jersey; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Baltimore,
Maryland; Logan, Utah;Flint, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago,
Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts;Seattle, Washington and several places in California.
Page 398Gathering sponsored by the Bahá'í Youth of Cairo, Egypt.
Page 399"To-day the world of humanity is walking in darkness because it is out of touch with the world of God.
That is why we do not see the signs of God in the hearts of men. When a divine spiritual illumination becomes manifest in the world of humanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment follows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends and a new life is given. When man acquires these virtues the oneness of the world of humanity will be revealed, the banner of international peace will be upraised, equality between all mankind will be realized and the Orient and Occident will become one. All humanity will appear as the members of one family and every member of that family will be consecrated to cooperation and mutual assistance."2 Universal peace is assured by Bahá'u'lláh as a fundamental accomplishment of the religion of God. Peace shall prevail among nations, governments, and peoples, among religions, races and all conditions of mankind. This is one of the special characteristics of the Word of God revealed for this day through His Manifestation, Bahá'u'lláh.
The Baha Faith provides not only for the spiritual requirements of man's life but also for the solution to his social and economic problems. The essence of the Bahá'í Faith is that in order to establish better social and economic conditions, there must be allegiance to the laws and principles of government based on justice and equity. Under the laws of Bahá'u'lláh, which He gives for governing the world, men may demand justice, but without resort to force and iTalic by a member of the
Sydney, Australia Baha2'Abdu'1-Bah~ violence. The governments will enact laws, establishing just legislation and sound economic practices, in order that all humanity may enjoy a full measure of welfare and opportunity; but this will always be according to legal protection and procedure. Today the method of demand is to strike and resort to force, which is manifestly wrong and destructive of human institutions.
Rightful privilege and demand must be set forth in laws and regulations based on the spiritual values of justice.
'Abdu'l-Bahá son of Bahá'u'lláh, stated: "The fundamentals of the whole economic conditions are divine in nature, and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit." This is fully explained in the Bahá'í teachings, and without knowledge of its principles no improvement in the economic state can be realized. The Bahá'ís desire to bring about this improvement and betterment but not through sedition and appeal to physical force; not through warfare, but welfare. If it is accomplished by welfare it will be most praiseworthy because then it will be for the sake of God and in the pathway of His Serv-we.
Difference of capacity in human individuals is fundamental. It is impossible far all to be alike, all to be equal, all to he wise. Bahá'u'lláh has revealed the principles which will accomplish the adjustment of varying human capacities.
Bahá'u'lláh stated that the fundamental basis of the community is agriculture, tillage of the soil. "All must be producers. Each person in the community whose income is only equal to his individual producing capacity shall be exempt from taxation. But if his income is greater than his needs he must pay
Page 400a tax until an adjustment is effected. If a man's production exceeds his needs he must pay a tax; if his necessities exceed his production he shall receive an amount from the government fund to equalize and adjust his budget. Therefore, taxation must be proportionate to capacity and production and there will be no poor in the community and none excessively rich."
"Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the worldwide Law of Bahá'u'lláh. Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an everchanging world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world."3 One of the principles of the religion of Bahá'u'lláh is international peace. There must be peace between nations; peace between religions. Peace is the way of life, war the cause of death. If an active, actual peace is brought about, the human world will attain to the utmost serenity and composure.
Another principle declares that there must be established the Parliament of Man.
A World Commonwealth � aworld super-state wherein all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war as well as certain rights to impose taxation.
All armaments must be reduced to purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. The members of the International Parliament shall be elected by the people in their respective countries, and their election shall be confirmed by their respective governments. They shall be
Shoghi EffendiBahá'u'lláh stated that a Supreme Tribunal must be formed whose judgment must have a binding effect even if the parties concerned do not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration.
In this World Commonwealthall economic barriers must be demolished and the economic resources of the world must be made available to all the peoples of the world. All children must be educated so that there will not remain one single individual without an education. The curriculum in the schools must be a universal one. In cases of inability on the part of the parents through sickness, death, etc., the State must educate the child. In addition to this widespread education each child must be taught a profession or trade so that each individual member of the body politic will be enabled to earn his own living and at the same time serve the community. Work done in the spirit of service will be as an act of worship, a form of prayer. Under such a universal system of education, misunderstandings between men will be minimized and one of the great causes of war removed.
Another principle is the establishment of a universal language. In the schools children will study their mother tongue and the international auxiliary language.
This will become a great means of dispelling the differences between nations. When people of different races can converse with one another, speak together easily in a common tongue, true understanding can be accomplished.
Also, Bahá'u'lláh tefls us that we must have a universal script, coinage, system of weights and measures.
Everything in this day must work toward realization of the fundamental oneness of the human race. When we understand that there is but one race, the human race, the path to peace will be laid.
The proclamation of the Oneness of Mankind, the pivot around which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve, can under no circumstances be compared with such expressions of pious hope as have been uttered in the past.
Page 401Bahá'u'lláh's call is not merely a call which He raised alone and unaided, in the face of the relentless and combined opposition.
His call implies at once a warning and a promise � a warning that in it lies the sole means for the salvation of a greatly suffering world, a promise that its realization is at hand. "The unification of the whole of mankind is the hallmark of the stage which human society is now approaching"4 � an age of peace, the brotherhood of man, the Fatherhood of
God."One of the greatest obstacles to be overcome by Bahá'í youth in the world today in order that God's glorious kingdom may be established upon earth, is prejudice.
As Bahá'í youth we realize, or rather we try to visualize, the difficulties which will arise in the not so distant future when we will ourselves enter wholeheartedly into the task of cleaning up this chaos.
First we must define the true meaning of prejudice.
Prejudice appears to me like a tight shackle which binds and darkens that part of the brain which has the power to reason and accept what is clear � what is truthful � and above all, to recognize what has been sent by God, through Bahá'u'lláh, the Manifestation for this day, for the rectification of the ills of the world.
Unfortunately for a long time now, the order of the day in all countries has been a fanatical adherence to patriotic thought and practice. This must cease.
Please God let this curse upon humanity be the first to be fought. How can we progress when we see not an inch further than the circle of friends in which we move from day to day.
Truly the abolishment of prejudice is to be the work of the Bahá'í youth, and we must begin with the education of the children, in the homes particularly, and in the schools. Why not teach them to pray for all the children 'Bahá'í youtb of the Australia and New Zealand Community.
in the world: black, brown, red, yellow and white, for God made them all as roses of one garden; they are all our brothers and sisters; therefore we should love them as such.
We must open our doors to all of God's children, whether they be Negroes, Chinese or Indians..
When spiritual enlightenment and universal education have been established, we will feel privileged to do so. Much can be overcome in this respect by the adoption of a universal language which will enable us to converse with men and women in any part of the world. What a handicap it is to be unable to understand our feb low human beings!
Religious prejudice is another great difficulty which must be overcome.
The time when we believed because our forefathers believed, has passed.
Today there is no need for emotional stimulation through the medium of ancient religious customs, for we have the glorious words of the great Prophet for this day, Who has put within our reach a plan which is perfect � which supplies our every need.
Bahá'u'lláh left 'Abdu'l-Bahá, His son, to show us how to administer these teachings � how to live a life of loving sacrifice and devotion to
God.The feelings among the various sects today simply cannot continue. Why must the worship of God be the cause of so much prejudice and inharmony amongst men? Did Jesus, the Christ, or any of the other Prophets desire that
Page 402Baha World Youth Day, Caringbah, N.S.W., Australia, February 2, 1949.
we cover the beauty of Their teachings, commandments and laws by clouds of superstition and vain imaginings? Certainly, They did not. Christ gave to the world His teachings and I feel sure that if He were on earth today He would be astounded to perceive the hundreds of inconsequent pathways which endeavor to lead to the beauty and truth of His teachings.
Young Bahá'ís should realize the importance of studying the teachings and administration of the Cause, for in a short time we must go forth and teach. Above all, let us follow the example of our beloved 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His beautiful tiful early pioneers who have shown us by their example � by their lives of loving sacrifice to God. For it is by our lives and our examples that the difficulties that now seem like the highest peaks, will diminish to the smallest molehills.
Bahá'u'lláh says: "OhThe virtue of this most great Manifestation is that we have effaced from the book whatever was the cause of differences, corruption and discord, and recorded therein that which leads to unity, harmony and concord.
Joy unto those who act in accordance therewith."thrill it was to meet Mr. and Mrs. Inouye who came to visit me at the Hotel. Mr. Inouye, who translated Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era into Japanese, left Hokkaido and notwithstanding his recent arrival in Tokyo, won the sympathy of Mrs. Urushi (founder of the Shinagawa Girls' School, and president of the Women's Society for Democracy and the "White Lily" society for the moral education and physical development of university students), and Mr. Horioka (a business man who is also director of these societies).
The Policy and Plans Sectionof the Allied Powers Headquarters states that a Department of the Army Civilians is legally not supposed to participate or affiliate with any Japanese religious group, although they may attend such meetings. However, with the Bahá'í method of no clergy, I'm not too restricted. The reason for the no evangelizing poiicy is that the Occupation Forces are trying to promote religious freedom, and if it or any of its representatives, whether officials or government employees, advocate a religion, they feel that it places that religion in the eyes of the Japanese as the preferred one. Missionaries are allowed here; however, there are certain requirements: the individual must have been established here before the war, the represented organization must have been recognized by the Japanese Government, and the individual must not be a burden to the Japanese. Such an individual is allowed to import one ton of food per year for personal consumption, and after a period of time is allowed to ask persons to assist in the work, but must have fluent use of the Japanese language and be self-support-ing.
(However, Christian churches and schools are being built right and left and people are flowing in and becoming believers because they have lost all faith and are seeking.)
Agnes Alexander had left her Bahá'í library with Dr. Masujima before returning to the States. Mr. Inouye dis-coveren that the Doctor's district was completely burned out except Jer his home! It was left standing there alone in the jungle of ruins, but the books could not be located. The other day Mr. Inouye finally found the books among which were about three hundred copies of Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era � Japanese copies!
Mr. Fujita is now in Yanali.He is well and extends Abh~ greetings to all the friends. We have not met as yet.
FEAST OF WILL There gathered at the present Tokyo Bahá'í
Center, the ShinagawaGirls' School, about sixteen persons: Christians, Buddhists, both men and women politicians, educators, and university students.
Naoki Yoshino, a ManchurianNisei, repatriated to Japan, is a student of Tokyo
University of Commerce.He has been doing translating work. He gave a Bahá'í talk for an English oratorial contest sponsored by his school, interested several of his classmates, and plans to mimeograph a pamphlet to attract the Japanese mind.
FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE Mr.Toni, first believer of Japan, whose name means "The Gateway," received 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í first Tablet to Japan.
He came all the way from Kyoto to visit us, though he is blind.
FEAST OF POWER. Mr. Charles Bishop, along with clothing and food, sent a money order to supply refreshments for the Feast commemorating the
Birth of Bahá'u'lláh.This caused the gathering of a handful of active Bahá'ís for a consultation meeting
Page 404which resulted in the first Bahá'í Feast since the war. (The record of believers is lost, even their existence, as well as their addresses are unknown.) Present active members of Tokyo: Mr. and Mrs. Inouye, Mrs. Urushi, Mr. Horioka, Mr. Yoshi, Mr. Sugimoto,
Mr. Matsuothere are others. On December 13 we are to have a meeting for Declaration of Faith membership will be determined more accurately then.
WHAT A WONDERFUL FEASTWAS! They had not had any cake since the war and here was this eight layer cake beautifully decorated with roses and the inscription: "In commemoration of the
Birth of Bahá'u'lláh"!And what a spiritual Feast it was, listening to the
Words of Bahá'u'lláhexpressed for the first time in Japanese. (Mr. Tnouye had translated excerpts from the new Bahá'í books which had arrived). All participated and read from either Japanese script on thin paper or English Braille. At the close of the meeting, tears of joy were shed.
Discussion meetings were started to be held every first and third Saturday �to read and study Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era. A wonderful discussion, created a new Japanese word meaning "Divine
Manifestation"! Whatis religion, superstition, standard of truth; science and religion, relationship of Christianity, Buddhism and the Baha 'f Faith were discussed. Refreshments sent by Mrs. Mikuriya were served.
An investigation was made by the FBI of Japan of Mr. Inouye's BaM 'I activities.
They left very well impressed.Mr. Horioka was interrogated by the Shinagawa district police about the Faith.
He, of course, gave them the Message has also done so to a few foreign ministers, and members of
UNESCO.English classes sponsored by the Bahá'ís are held every Monday and Thursday evening at the Shinagawa Police Station. About twenty businessmen, workers, policemen, university students, and even a Japanese professor of English, attend. Though we meet in a tiny hail with bomb-shattered windows and humble furniture, it is very gratifying work. From time to
Page 405Gathering of Japanese students in Tokyo, for discussion of the Bahá'í teachings, Robert Imagire, center.
time the Bahá'í teachings are mentioned, although we concentrate on teaching
English.Mr. Horioka and Mr. Ono, in connection with the "White Lily" society, have been housing university students so that they may be able to continue their education in crowded Tokyo. One of the boys, Shyozo Kadota, twenty-one years old, student of law at Tokyo University (founded by Rockefeller, by the way), has been attending the classes.
He submitted the following composition.Although the word order is odd, the thoughts are profound. This was written before he had studied the Faith.
"The things we have received as a reward of the defeat of the Pacific War were confusion of thoughts and fear of privation.
A great part of the nation suffered. Many lost their homes, fortunes, and were perforced to forget forever their families. Therefore, the Japanese people reflect profoundly about the cause of such a tragic result. Being thus, what was the cause?
It is but the aggressive policy, that is, the imperialistic war. Now we recognize deeply this fact and have sincerely decided to renounce the aggressive action forever, and desire to live as a peaceful nation.
"In order to build the new Japan, the important thing, I believe, is that we must become a more moral, educated and cultured nation. To attain this, the youth, above all, with intelligence, earnestness, and courage must work hard as the backbone of the state. I am also one of the youth who recognize this important responsibility. The thought that I cherish and is my conviction is that it is religion that is able to help the world out of the disgusting strife and warfare. When a man seeks only his selfish interest and does not consider others, there will assuredly result undesirable battle. We must, at first, drive away the selfishness from the mind and have generosity and forgiveness. The supreme God is not biased.
His capacity includes all truths. It is a blunder to
Page 406believe only in one's own God, driving away the belief of another.
Even though there are many different races and religions, the reality is that the whole of mankind is only one, and such a faith (conception) must consist of both metaphysical and physical elements.
For example: even excellent scientific instruments (atomic bomb), if it is used as an aggressive power, it will be a terrible monster and be a destroyer of our happiness. However, on the contrary, if it is used as a manner to promote our civilization, it will surely become a beneficent goddess who gives us great mercy. Now I wish to explore the principle of Baha'i.
"How fortunate I am to have an expert teacher like you. Please teach me not only English but also Baha.
"I wish to join you in your endeavor and serve your sacred task."
SIDELIGHTS I visited my grandmother, who lives in Kagoshima, the southernmost city in Kyushyu, the southernmost island of main Japan. Thinking that there was only my grandmother, and a couple of aunts and uncles, I was astounded, though pleasantly, when I met thirtyfive uncles, aunts, cousins, and their children. Uncle Sameshima in the village of Kago, former superintendent of pub. lie schools of Kagoshiina, and his children, who followed in his footsteps as science, literature, sewing and art teachers, were particularly interested in the Faith. In fact when they read my letter saying how I had come to Japan for the Baha'is, they wondered, "Baha, what is that?" and looked it up in the Japanese encyclopedia and were greatly impressed with the fundamental principles, and were thus full of questions when I arrived.
As the thirtyfive of us ate together under the same roof, and discussed the Faith I was mentally figuring out how many Spiritual Assemblies could be formed with my own relatives alone!
Many are not of age at any rate if all goes well, we should have at least one Spiritual Assembly in Kago. where my paternal relatives live, and one in Kagoshima, where my maternal relatives live.
With the family name of Imagire, which means "Now to supply, grant or deign the dawn," I guess we should be the ones to grant the dawn of the New Day.
On the way back, I stopped to visit Mr. Toni at the Blind School where he teaches.
He asked me to speak to a group of students.Since I cannot give an intelligent talk in good grammatical Japanese, I started by asking questions: "What do you think religion means?'' The responses were: ''The belief in that power beyond human power," "religion is superstition," "re-ligion is unscientific," "religion and science go hand in hand." In Tokyo the statement was made that up to now the feeling was that religion contained no reason � must be accepted blindly � if religion had reason it was not religion, but science. Then I asked why they thought so. There was much discussion, then I gave the Bahá'í definition, Progressive Revelation, SeP ence and Religion.
Mr. Toni had a copy of The New Era in Braille, a print of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í letter, pictures of Miss Finch, Miss Alexander, Martha Root, Mr. and Mrs. Ober, and Michael Jamir.
Page 407Week to be held in Canada took place at the Laurentian
Bahá'í Farm August 10to 17, 1947. One study course of five periods was held in the mornings, followed by other activities, including farm work, swimming and horseback riding.
Mrs. Emeric Sala gave the lessons and presided over our discussions.
Our first class was concerned with the subject, "This
Earth One Country." Thescientific discoveries of the IBahá'í Era were cited and their globe-shrink-ing results were discussed.
This nearness of the nations illustrated the need for closer harmony among mankind and its governments.
Lesson two, "The Onenessof Mankind and the Abolition of Race Prejudice," was our next study. This is truly a noble ideal, but at first, the idea of its application was very perplexing, and is still a rather murky proposition to some of the nonBahá'í youths. All, however, were struck by the quotations: "Glory is not his who loves his country but glory is his who loves his kind." "The lovers of mankind, these are the superior men of whatever nation, creed, or color they may be."
On the third day we studiedLooking back on that lesson it seemed that we had surmounted the barriers of religious differences and discovered the real oneness of religion.
Oneness of the Prophets followed in due course.It was shown that Prophets differ in person and name but all have the same power to speak the Word of God.
By the end of the week we all felt we had gained much in knowledge. Mrs. Sala found that the youth, Baha 'i and non-Bahá'í alike, were open-mind-ed ed and seemed ready for these ideas and all had gained much by it. One of the most popular events was the daily swim in the Oureau River.
As one approaches, the water is seen shimmering through the veil of pine needles.
The trail meets the river at the falls and from this point you may see the water cascading downstream to a large lake surrounded by pine-clad hills.
Horseback riding was also very popular. The young people enjoyed the trails through the woods and over the hills. One ride we especially liked was to the hilltop clearing in the forest christened
Shangri-La.The boys helped Bill Suter with the hay, while the girls presumably helped beautify the property. We would hitch up the hay wagon and rumble into the fields.
Until swim time we all pitched hay into the wagon and then returned to unload it in the barn.
The last night of the session was celebrated by a campfire picnic.
At this last gathering a short council was held. We commenced by thanking all those who had given so generously to make the session a success. We thanked Mrs. Attersol who did a splendid job of cooking far the sixteen persons in attendance.
We talked over the week's progress and suggested improvements for the future. The most important suggestion was that in the future the youth would elect a council to administer their activities and duties. This council would be composed of senior and junior youth. The administration would then solicit adult counsel if this was necessary. This suggestion, if carried out, would create a closer harmony between youth
Page 408Many of the youth expressed the hope that they might meet during the winter at the farm to go skiing.
They would like very much to invite non-Bahá'í friends.
In concluding, we should like to describe the spirit of that last gathering. Recalling that meeting and the session it seemed as if we had seen the dawn of a new ideal and the hope of a new way of life. This was not a sudden change.
At first there was only a greyish flicker on the horizon which seemed to battle the preceding night. For a while there was no visible change, then at last dawn came.
This dawn expressed itself in the golden-hued flames of the fire and its reflection was shown on the faces of the gathering.
5.When Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor asked him, "Art thou a king then?"
To this question came the famous reply: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of truth heareth my voice." Pilate's reply is even more famous � "What is truth?" This is our problem today even as it was Pilate's problem then.
The Greek hero, Ajax, in despair and humiliation implored, "Light, light, give me light if only to die in." As rationall and striving human beings we should be impelled onward towards the realm of truth.
As a first consideration it should be stated that truth is a value, as are good and beauty. Objects and situations in their brute existence are neither true nor false, but neutral until qualified by words.
A table is not true as such. "True" and "false" are words used to designate whether descriptions which we have made of things with words, actually and adequately characterize the situations and objects being considered. To say of a wooden table, "This table is wood", is to make a true statement since it adequately characterizes the existing state of affairs. "Wooden" and "table" are words which make up part of the general cub ture pattern in which we have grown up. Merely having words in our language, age, however, does not mean we necessarily have actual objects behind them.
We cannot define things into existence; they either are, or they are not.
To say, "All mermaids have tails like fish," certainly conveys meaning, but to think it characterizes an actual state of affairs is absurd, for, although we can picture a mermaid to ourselves, it could exist nowhere outside the imagination. To make statements about ''square � circles'' is not to speak falsely, but rather to speak without meaning, for such a logical impossibility cannot even be pictured in the imagination. Merely being able to talk easily with words does not mean that anything necessarily exists behind them. Is the case of God like that of a mermaid, or is God a form of a square-circle?
And, further, have we any right to say that anything answering to what we commonly mean by God really exists, or have we only typed up a label to paste over an empty vacuum. If we should assume that the statencient, "Gad exists", is not true, Whither then?
The goal of a search for Truth should be the enabling of man to attain good and to know evil in its varied costum-ery. The search for Truth leads to a search for good, for an ethical system that is consonant with the higher forms of the value, Truth, which has to do not with whether a table is wood or not, but rather a system which has to
Page 409do with the ultimate structure of the universe and of man's obligation deduced therefrom. When this final "Truth," truth with a capital "T" is ascertained, Goodness and Truth become as one. And they will not be alone, for they will be joined by the third member of the Great Trinity of Being, Beauty. Aspects of truth that seem ugly only seem so, for they threaten the vices and iniquities that are dearest to us, and work against many of our fondest inclinations stamped in us by our failing culture. When the highest ramparts of Truth have been scaled, the results will prove quite agreeable and tasteful to us. "Beauty is (not only) truth, (and) truth beauty", as Keats said, but the forms of Beauty found in art � in literature, in music, and in painting � serve as a bridge from our native inclinations to a love of Good and a yearning for Truth. Art does not always speak purely with the voice of reason, but may be looked upon as a manifestation of the pure driving spirit of life that flows through us, a force seeking out realities as if by intuition. Many basic truths have been brought out in literature, truths that have long lain in shadows hidden from those who generalize with only daily experience as a guide, and in music can be felt the titanic forces that play on man's inner being. This kind of art is spontaneous, comes from the heart, and teaches the broTherhood of mankind.
The potentiality of art is fully realized when it expresses the fundamental interest of whole man in relation to the whole world.
If a belief in God brings beauty and goodness into the lives of men are we justified in saying that God exists and is the Ultimate Truth, or is it indeed any truth at all? If we can establish God as a reality and as the Ultimate Truth, however, we can deduce from this other truths and standards of value which will have the highest practical significance in the realm of human action. Words proceeding from God can then be naught but true, for naught can come from truth but truth.
Inasmuch as we are products of our own times and culture in addition to having an independent spirit, we are in the midst of the stream of life and ideas and cannot rise above life to observe all the twistings and turnings of the stream behind us. Therefore it is to our purpose to ask what truth has meant in history.
In taking a genetic view of truth, the realities of the seventeenth century will serve as an example.
And what were these realities.To question this was considered impertinence; it became a real query in the twentieth century.
Secondly, the reality and validity of the Scriptures was upheld. Thirdly, heaven and hell were real places.
The Ptolemaic sys-tern (which held the earth to be the center of the universe) was an enchanted glass but only in retrospect, for it was contained in the seventeenth century frame. However, there is an eternal message for man as man although the system should seem invalid as regards our present framework. People tend only to see the framework and neglect these basic ideas that flow ian-disturbed through the centuries, mirrored in various frameworks.
The bases of old definitions are gone, but we still use the terms robbed of their qualitative content.
God no longer has the same meaning he had, for in the twentieth century we deal only with tangible forms.
Many men think that historically God may go the way of Zeus. It would seem that we have a case where the existence of God is falsity in our epoch and truth in another. But can God pass in and out of existence?
What we have is really an internal truth value, which should be more properly called validity than truth. A belief or judgment is valid if it adequately pictures the period frame. Definitions worked up within our boxed-off space-time framework are used as measuring sticks. Statements based on these definitions should be regarded as externaL validations, or truths with a small "t". Internal validations deal with those statements that operate in a purely logical medium, having nothing to do with real existence. However, those ideas which remain unchanged from period to period should be properly referred to as the great
Page 410Truths. Many ideas undergo an eva-lution from the relatively naive view of yesteryear to the sophisticated explanations of today.
Bahá'u'lláh says: "0 people! Words are revealed according to capacity so that the babe of the world may enter into the Realm of Grandeur and be established in the Court of Unity."
Truth is not merely relative from generation to generation or from century to century.
It is in the periods of transition, periods between the death of an old established religion and the advent of a new revelation of God's word that truth seems relative and in conflict with itself. This transition period is a space of time wherein religious sanctions have been displaced by purely socio-ethical standards.
It has been the great religious systems of the world which have given the impetus and original direction to society.
Some truths are relative then to each of these great systems and the cultures which they bore, whereas other correct beliefs have endured throughout.
The question might be asked as to whether truth is relative from people to people. In view of the language problem other cultures may not possess words which carry the same meanings as ours, because of a different direction in their social development.
Beliefs that seem true to the Zulu will be false according to the mean standard of the time, for truth becomes relative only in its temporal aspect, not in its spatial relationships.
The use of a universal language would give a common meaning to all descriptions of fact and would foster the brotherhood of many the unity of peoples through the unity of truth. This unity cannot be established, however, without the abandonment of prejudice, so that the search for Truth be not veiled in dark motives. 'Abdu'l-Bahá says: "In order to find the truth we must give up our prejudices, our small trivial notions; an open receptive mind is essential. If our chalice is full of self, there is no room in it for the water of life.
The fact that we imagine ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all obstacles in the path toward unity, and unity is essential if we would reach Truth, for Truth is one.~~ Much of the disapprobation concerning any idea of the real existence of God has come about through the growth of the natural sciences and the irrational phrasing of religious statements. Tertullian's Credo quia ab-surdum can hardly be led to go against his reason in the present day. Negative theology is another stumbling block in the way of ultimate truth. Trying to prove the impossibility of nonexistence of something is not an adequate method for attacking the problem.
Rather we must proceed from the wellknown to the relatively unknown in a positive manner. The first step of our inquiry must be an empirical one beginning with observable phenomena and undertaken in the light of our twentieth century sciences, which form part of our frame of reference.
Our conception of religion must be in fundamental accord with the postulates of science. "'All, the son-in-law of Mul2ammad, said: 'That which is in conformity with science is also in conformity with religion'.
Whatever the intelligence of man cannot understand, religion ought not to accept. Religion and science walk hand in hand, and any religion contrary to science is not truth." ('Abdu'l-Bahá in Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.)
Far from being completely atheistic in its bent, modern science is realizing the irreductibility of life, of mind, and of spirit to purely chemical or physical concepts. God begins to lead a life in the realm of pure reason as well as in the sphere of practical reason through the researches of Jeans, Millikin, Ed-dington and Du N5uy. Here the gulf between reason and revelation, between truth and validity becomes less and less as the tides of the Known press further and further inward upon the shores of the Unknown.
Although the Ptolemaicsystem wherein the earth was regarded as the physical center of the universe has been rendered invalid in our present frame of reference, we have nevertheless psychologically placed ourselves
Page 411Bahá'í Youth and friends at the First Youth Symposium, Sunday, February 27, 1949, Bern, Switzerland.
A youth meeting at the I~a;irat'ubQuds, Tihr~n, 1946.
Page 412Bahá'í Youth Symposium held at Cairo, Egypt, February 12, 1950.
as the center of an egocentric universe wherein man is made "the measure of all things". If man is the center and primal point of being, there is no need for any set of standards except those of man and his society. From here it is but a chopped step to the materialistic fallacy.
As if the quest for truth were not complicated enough we are further faced by the problem of having several world views which seem to have equal internal validity, for each conclusion can be unerringly derived from a previous statement and so on down to an initial axiom or postulate which has its life in observable phenomena. However, mere logical coherence is no test of truth, for the final conclusions of several systems may be opposed to one another as fire is to water, and yet the initial premises (or observations) on which they were founded can have been brought forth from experience. Witness the geometries of Euclid,
Riemann, and LaboshevskyAt the turn of the century it was suggested that utility should be the true criterion in such matters. It was said that the system closest to the people's interest be chosen. But do the people at any given time know what their real universal interests are? It was also suggested that the beauty and simplicity of a system commend its acceptance. In these views it seems that Beauty and Good become conjoined with Truth and are the chief avenues to it, yet we are not justified in subscribing to these criteria.
A description of Reality minus God, precisely and beautifully formulated, may be useful for a large group, and a similar description with God may satisfy others.
Yet what is true, is there or is there not a God? It seems that we must look to some other method of verification.
That verification is to be found not in the relative validations of an epoch but in the absolute verities that are extraspatial to the framework of a given civilization.
Such is a part of the messages voiced by the Prophets of God, each in his own time. That such a common thread of judgments and pronouncements could be brought forth by men of different languages and cultures at widely separated space-times, being but little, if at all, versed in the theology of the others, would
Page 413presuppose a common fountainhead of knowledge. And what single unitary source of such valuable and workable ethical standards could be in evidence throughout the span of several millen-jums other than that primal generating force which we call God!
If we feel God established as the Uk timate Truth, for we see that natural signs, the manifestations of His will and His logic in the universe through His Prophets, point to God just as the redness of an apple points to its ripeness, then the Prophet's words will furnish the proper frames of reference for the coming epoch. These writings will give us the only certain truths that we can possess; all other validations will depend upon the way in which by common agreement we use our language.
No matter what we decide, however, the redness will still mean the apple is ripe, and God will continue to exist. Each set of religious principles that He has proclaimed through one of his human mouths is true. Each is to live and then pass on as a new frame is fitted into place by a new revelation. Thus we pass from nascent truth to validity (conforming thinking to the new frame) and finally to non-validity as the frame is superseded by a new flood of nascent truth. Nevertheless, the old frame is often kept long after the new standards have been introduced, and what seems to be truth, is in truth, error.
Each manifestation of God's will is true and valid.
Religious prophecy is all unity within truth. Christ is equal to Buddha is equal to Mul2ammad is equal to Bahá'u'lláh.
"No one truth can contradict another truth", writes
'Abdu'l-Bahá. "Lightis good in whgtsoever lamp it is burning! A rose is beautiful in whatsoever garden it may bloom! A star has the same radiance if it shines from the East or from the West! Be free from prejudice; so will you love the Sun of Truth from whatsoever point in the horizon it may arise.
You will realize that the Divine Light of Truth shown in Jesus Christ, is also shown in Moses and Buddha. This is what is meant by the search after truth."
And he says further in the Star of the West: "It is not necessary to lower Jesus to proclaim Bahá'u'lláh. We must
Page 414welcome the truth of God wherever we behold it. The essence of the question is that all the great messengers came to raise the Divine
Standard of Perfections.All of them shine as orbs in the same heaven of the Divine Will. All of them give light to the world."
The words of the Prophet, then, give us our most practical and compelling truths and are the authoritative source of valid actions.
Our highest goal in the search for truth must be the recognition of the Prophet when He appears. This is more easily accomplished by universal education, which wipes away the prejudice veiling the highest Truths � the curtains of class and sell-interest, racial differences, and the bonds of outworn customs and traditions.
"Each individual", Bahá'u'lláhannounced, "is following the faith of his ancestors who themselves are lost in the maze of tradition.
Reality is steeped in dogmas and doctrines.If each investigate for himself, he will find that Reality (God's will) is one, does not admit of multiplicity; is not divisible.
All will find the same foundation and all will be at peace."
As a last consideration it should be pointed out that the three main philosophic theories of truth bear on the matter � pragmatism, correspondence and coherence.
Pragmatism functions not as a positive but as a negative measure of truth. A state of affairs not possessing workability is ruled false. Pragmatic testing is necessary but not alone sufficient for the establishment of truth.
The correspondence view is our starting point.Our ideas must correspond to the brute facts which exist. The method of this theory is empirical observation, or direct sense experience; yet this theory is narrow since it imposes tight limits upon our world.
We arrive, then, at a point where observation carries us no further.
We must get out and walk upon the land of pure reason, utilizing the coherence theory, whose method is rational and logical. Here it is that faith and reason must come together, here it is that emotion and thought must be in balance.
The realization of Truth, then, is to be found in the union of reason and experience and must display practical workability.
If God's existence is realized, Truth can be taken on authority whenever it springs from actual revelation. Truth is not to be gained through the satori of the Buddhist, the fusion of the Braliman's atman with the primal soul energy, or in the ecstatic visions of the saints; rather, truth is a rational pursuit.
When faith and freedom, and reason and revelation accord, the objective has been gained, and the vital Truths of life are in our grasp. By accepting the Words of Bahá'u'lláh, the distortions of the Mirror of Truth melt away, and true Reality again makes itself known in all its clarity as it did almost two-thousand years before in the day of the Nazarene. With nascent truth once again in our grasp, we can apply our new knowledge to heal the ailing body of society.
God, the Greatest Truth, is the Source of Truth, the Arbiter of Good through His Words, and the Dispenser of Beauty through the life of the spirit.
Page 415Children's school class at the Bahá'í Cultural Center run by the Bahá'ís of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Both children and adults who cannot afford regular school, come here and in addition to education, receive free medical, dental, and legal services, as well as the Bahá'í teachings.
Children attending the daily Bahá'í class given by Sra. Natalia Chavez of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Page 416Whatever a child learns during childhood, he will not forget.
A child is like a fresh branch. It is tender.In whatever way you wish you can train it. If you want to keep it straight it can be done. But when it grows up, if you want to straighten it out, it cannot be done except through fire."
'Abdu'l-Bahá advised starting a Children's Hour wherever there were two or more children in a community. These study hours are as much a part of Bahá'í activities as are study groups and firesides for older youths and adults. In several places, and in different countries, these classes are conducted by older Bahá'í youth.
In BaghdAd weekly classes for training children in Bahá'í teachings were started in 1947 by young men and young women.
A Junior Youth Group was startqd inYouth Day, in 1947, under the guidance of the secretary of the
Local SpiritualChildren's Hours have been successful in several places in the United States as shown by reports from Philadelphia; from Marysville,
Michigan; from BerkeleyThe class in Marysville was started at the request of the children of two Bahá'í families there. The Child Education Committee reported that the community in
Marysville, MichiganThe teacher of the class, Mrs. Oscar Ketels, wrote: "Our class started last summer (1945) when my child and the children of another Bahá'í in our community came running into the house saying 'We want our own Sunday School.' When our class started there were three children. It has grown to include eight and each child has asked to come.
Two of the children come from non-Bahá'í homes."As a result of only a few months' work, seven children, one not in attendance at Sunday School, attended the Junior Youth Session at
Louhelen Bahá'í SummerIn Berkeley, older children assist in planning the course of study and in teaching the younger children in a regular class. This group is interracial and so benefits from the contributions of various cultural heritages. Each year the children elect their own officers: chairman, secretary and treasurer.
Each meeting consists of a three-part program devoted to studying Bahá'í teachings, to a consultation period in which the chairman gives the highlights of coming Bahá'í activities, feasts and special events in the Faith, and to a social period. The children make scrapbooks as one of their projects. They contribute generously to the Fund through the local treasurer. Three Bahá'í mothers take turns in having the classes meet in their homes.
Sacramento Bahá'ís have found their children's class one way of interesting adults as well as children in the Faith. The Children's Hour in Sacramento is held
Saturday mornings. Threechildren from Bahá'í and twelve from non-Bahá'í homes attended the meetings in 1947. The non-Bahá'í parents heard of the Teachings from their children and through a demonstration class presented by the children as part of their activities.
Bahá'í summer schools are long-awaited joyful occasions for the children who attend. Classes for younger children have become well-established parts of the program in many summer schools.
At Green Acre, classes for children three to fourteen were held from 9:30 a.m. until noon every day except Sunday in the 1947 session. The children had a short period of devotion each morning followed by a lesson on the Bahá'í teachings.
This was followed by some handicrafts and recreation.
Two programs were given by the childrenJunior Youth session at Louhelen Bahá'í School, Davison, Michigan, 1948.
at the Arts and Crafts Studio � one at the end of July and the other at the end of August. These consisted of a little play, recitations of prayers and some of the Hidden Words. The work children had done in modeling, woodwork and painting was exhibited as part of the program.
Louhelen Bahá'í Schoolhad a Junior Youth Session in 1947 attended by about twenty children representing white, negro and Indian races from Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Ohio and Tennessee as well as Canada. Courses included one on Baha character, personality analyses taught by Mr. Harry Ford, and answers to questions about the Faith taught by Mrs. George True. Paul Pettit assisted the junior youth in preparing maps of the travels of the Ebb, Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá as outlined in the Bahá'í writings. In the afternoon a council hour was held for forming committees for recreation, cleaning up the grounds, writing a letter to the Guardian and morning devotions.
Mrs. Eleanor Hutchinstaught crafts such as the making of leather belts, woven cotton belts and lapel pins. One evening the junior youth invited children from the neighborhood of the school to a picnic, following which they described the activities of the school and played games.
One of the older boys at the school had come from England. Learning of the shortages of food there, the children made up a box of food for him to send his family. The unity of the children was shown in this and in their contribution of some money toward the National Fund. The children voted to have the Junior Youth Session expanded to two weeks, if possible, next year, with the same courses and teachers.
In 1947, thirty-eight children attended Geyserville Baha Summer School during the middle two weeks of the ses-sian. This was the first year in the history of Geyserville in which attendance of children had been confined to one period. This allowed for development of a concentrated program for
Page 418the children. Children who attended the school ranged in age from nursery school to junior youth age.
They were enrolled in five groups directed by Mrs. Helen Wilks and a staff of well-trained teachers.
Subjects were "Buildingfor the eight-to ten-year group; "The Four Kingdoms of Creation" for the six-to eight-year group.
The activities of the preschool group included stories, songs, games, finger and easel painting and playing house.
Leonard Herbert developed a program for the children to present which included integrated music, art, dramatics, and Bahá'í educational activities.
Subjects were chosen for dramatization by majority vote of the children and the details of the program were developed through consultation.
These consultations included discussions ot perspective, color balance, and the relationship of art to life. Even the making of masks, costumes and backdrops was done by committees under a student chairman.
Children in England too attended their Bahá'í summer school. There were stories on the history of religions and reading of simple prayers for the small children. Older children were taught the social principles of the oneness of religion and mankind. Recreation consisted of handicraft and games on the beach.
S'PTJDY MATERTAL FOR CHILDREN'SA considerable amount of special teaching material has been developed by the Child Education Committee of the United States and Canada. Because of requests of parents for advice on presenting Bahá'í teachings to their children, the
Child Education Committeein 1946 developed a Manual of Sug-gestioms for Organizing a Bahá'í Chill-drert's Hour. The material in this manual is divided into sections for children five through seven years, eight through eleven years, and twelve through fifteen years.
Brief descriptions and excerpts from various manuals are given below to show the type of material available for teaching different age groups and the manner of its presentation.
For the smallest children, the manual Creation contains pictures to color, each of which is used to illustrate a spiritual truth revealed by one of the Prophets.
For example, 6. "God Gave Us the Trees" � with a picture of a tree � illustrates "Ye are the leaves of one tree" (Bahá'u'lláh), and 12. "God gave us our Homes," consists of a picture of a house and below it the words "Thy heart is My home" (Bahá'u'lláh). elasses for these youngest children are opened and closed with a short prayer and have a brief period devoted to teaching character development in addition to coloring the pictures.
For younger children too there is a manual, To Live the Life, which contains temple-shaped lessons which the children may cut out and tie together with bright yarn or ribbon to form a booklet. The lessons are stories to ii-lustrate some phase of character with questions to bring out the point.
The Junior's Book of Religionby Marguerite True, for children of intermediate age, gives stories of the Prophets' lives, a description of the world of tomorrow and questions and answers. Clearly and simply the various princi-pies are described in words such as these on a "World Educational Sys-tern" in the section
"World of Tomorrow":"We have many false ideas about people in other countries, and they also have strange ideas about us. Some peo-pie, for instance, still think that this country is full of wild Indians who will shoot at them with bows and arrows. We may think this foolish, but we should not laugh because we have ideas about other people that seem just as foolish to them. Besides, each country likes to feel that it is just a little better than another and when history books are written, each country likes to write a bigger and better story about itself. But the day is not far off when we will have one educational system and if a person should move from America to India or China, he will find the same lessons taught in one country as another."
Page 419Bahá'í Principles was' published in 1946 and is an outline of suggestions for teaching the Principles to children of intermediate age. Each suggested lesson comprises a prayer, suggestions for discussion of the specific principle, stories of a paragraph or two in length and a sentence from the writings to be memorized. For Universal Education the suggested memory passage is "The Great Being saith: Regard men as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can alone cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom." (Bahá'u'lláh).
In addition to these, there are two other general study outlines. The Comprehensive Study Outline for Children published in 1940 is primarily for older children though it may be adapted to varying ages. This outline is divided into three parts:
"The Creation," "ProA valuable feature of this outline is the bibliography with starred references for adult use which ends each lesson. Lessons have a prayer, a statement of the subject of the lesson, a reading from a non-Bahá'í source, and lesson readings most of which are from Bahá'í writings, a story, questions for discussion and suggestions for projects.
The Study Course for Bahá'u'lláhand the New Era, printed in 1943, is a flexible course for twelve-to fifteen-year-old children.
The outline is for Essel-mont's book exclusive of the chapters on the lives of the BTh, Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and consists mainly of questions on Baha teachings with page references to the answers in Es-selmont.
BAHA'I( CHILDREN AND THELittle children live in the "Here and Now." They have forgotten yesterday. Tofflorrow, they cannot vision. Only today is real. Only today is alive. So today, we must teach those blessed principles that Bahá'u'lláh desires the children to be taught.
Living the life, is by far the most important way to teach children spiritual truths. They may not be able to name such attributes as loyalty, kindness, truth, justice, love but they sense them and know when they are absent. Each day becomes a new day with the setting of the sun, according to the Bahá'í calendar.
Each fresh day renews the chat-lenge to again live the IBahá'í life in the presence of the children. What a challenge it is! To live the life for one's own spiritual progress is a glorious thing but those associated with children have the additional blessing of knowing that such a life will influence the developing child, spiritually.
But what of peace? What special attributes must we attempt to develop in children to insure the peace of the world? What must our children know to live in a world destined for peace? What our children need to learn, we, too, must learn. The foundations for peace must first be established in our relationships with members of our families and our own neighbors, within our schools and among the peoples of our own country. Also we must recognize the fact that without the twin pillars of justice and love raised throughout the world there can never be a lasting peace, no matter how brilliant, how logical, how powerful world statesmen may be. "The elect of humanity are those who live together in love and unity. They are preferable before God because the Divine Attributes are already manifest in them."
Bahá'u'lláh says, "If thou regardest justice choose thou for others that
Page 420which thou choosest for thyself." Now can we teach justice? Children are endowed with a sense of justice. We need only to develop and encourage this natural desire. Also we must be certain that children are receiving fair treatment from both the adults and other children in their environment.
This then is the pattern; that all shall receive their fair share of affection, of material possessions, of discipline when necessary and of kindness. Under such treatment quarreling among children is cut to the minimum. No Bahá'í parent will ever take unfair advantage of a child because, as three-year-old Tania put it, "I am so little and you are so big."
There are other factors that enter into the pattern for peace. One is a sense of responsibility for those weaker than oneself.
Here again child nature is with us. We need only to recognize and delight in the child's spontaneous acts of kindness to those younger than himself and to animals. Our responsibility is to guide, direct and encourage this natural impulse.
Oh yes, he may pull the kitten's tail, not because of any unkind impulse.
He is living in a wonderful world in which he is experimenting with both live and inanimate objects. He needs to be taught, but not to be accused of cruelty. So often such acts are punished while acts of altruism are passed over unnoticed.
Bahá'í parents will not ignore these little budding bits of kindness that spring from the garden of the child's heart.
If we are to have peace there must be no fear.Therefore they must be made acquainted with habits, customs and appearances of a great variety of persons. They must be shown the beauty in diversity.
Similarities and differences should both be noted and pointed out as desirable.
Children delight in the thought of themselves as flowers in a garden.
If they can see gardens with great varieties of flowers, woods filled with birds of many kinds, streams where fishes of various sizes and colors glide by, they will thrill to the profusion of nature with her infinite species and varieties. They will accept diversity and differences as the pattern for the beautiful world of nature and will find no difficulty in accepting variety among the races of the human family.
Prejudice is such a foolish cruel thing to plant in the heart of a child. From The Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá we read "Concerning the prejudice of race: it is an illusion, a superstition pure and simple, for God created us all of one race. In the beginning also there were no limits and boundaries between the different lands: no part of the earth belonged more to one people than to another.
In the sight of God there is no difference between the various races. Why should man invent such prejudice? How can we uphold war caused by such an illusion? God has not created men that they should destroy one another.
All races, tribes, sects and classes share equally in the bounty of their
Heavenly Father."The only real difference lies in the degree of faithfulness, of obedience to the laws of God. There are some who are as lighted torches; there are others who shine as stars in the sky of humanity."
It is so easy to teach young children that all are leaves of one tree, waves of one ocean. In this thought children will find great security and hence less fear of the unknown. Oneness gives a feeling of unity and closeness. Diversity and differences give color and beauty. Both thoughts are compatible to children.
Children can soon learn that to serve I3ah&'u'11&h is to serve others. Bahá'u'lláh says, "0 son of man!
If thou regardest mercy, look not to that which benefits thyself; but hold to that which will benefit thy fellowmen." One soon loves the one he serves; and the world of peace will need the services of spiritual men and women if the peace is to continue.
Certainly in the world of the future a common language must be taught.
Thus many misunderstandings can be set-tied. Young children frequently get into difficulties because their own language is inaccurate and undeveloped.
Adults make allowances and try to understand what the child is saying.
Children do not make such allowances for eachother. Misunderstandings may easily arise and lead to quarreling. The same may be true even of nations at present. Children learn languages easily when they are young, so that it will not be difficult for them to learn a universal language as well as their mother tongue.
Appreciation of one another is a quality we must instill in our children. Mankind must learn to appreciate the music, the art, and literature and indeed the civilizations of all the peoples of the world as it grows smaller day by day. Appreciation delights the soul of all and spurs it on to greater creative activity. Those youngsters who are taught to appreciate the efforts of others without envy or smallness of spirit will develop habits of right thinking and of reacting which will be of immense help to them in their relationships with the entire human family. This too will help to consummate the peace.
Now we come to distinction!For several years little children in fantasy have been playing war games.
Behind rose bushes, I have seen them hide, making their realistic little noises of ack-ack and pretending with long sticks, sometimes branches with the leaves still green upon them, to shoot down their enemies. I have seen thin pretending that brightly cokrecl kindergarten beads were bullets with which to shoot and always "kill" some unfortunate child slated to play the part of the foe, and woe upon the "dead" child if he wearied of his part and arose to be a little boy again. Children reflect in their games the emotions and activities which surround them. Psychologists have thought it wise to let them release pent up emotions in this way.
Be this as it may, the killing in the adult world is over and so the children too of their own accord will cease this game and find another. But in som.e form or other there will be the game in which some children will play the major role while others will follow. Is it not possible that we might instill in our children the meaning of true distinction as 'Abdu'l-Bahá has taught us?
He says, "The lovers of mankind, these are the superior men, of whatever nation, creed or color they may be."
This thought is too big for a small child to grasp but just as a prism separates white light into the rainbow colors so a truly Baha parent can and will give this spiritual truth to his child in a way that he can understand it. Such a parent will see in his simple childish actions the beginnings Gf upward trends toward love of mankind or downward steps toward selfishness and greed.
The former traits in the child, parents will help to strengthen; the latter, they will discourage and eradicate.
If we are to preserve the peace won at so costly a price and are to hasten the coming of the Glorious Day of God, we must develop little children to carry this responsibility in the years ahead. It will be the major role that our Bahá'í children will have to carry and so upon us is placed the tremendous but joyous undertaking in preparing them for this truly spiritual assignment.
"0 friends! Consort with all the people of the world with love and fragrance.
Fellowship is the cause of unity, and unity is the source of order in the world. Blessed are they who are kind and serve with love."
Page 422de Brogue Aussenac Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., MB., Cambridge University
Luther BurbankRev. K. T. Chung Rt. Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston Prof. James Darmesteter, ~cole des Hautes ttudes,
ParisRev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A. S. Eitrem, Professor, University of Oslo, Norway Dr. Auguste Forel, University of Zurich
Dr. Herbert Adams GibbonsAlfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New
YorkRokuichiro Masujima, Do yen of Jurisprudence of Japan Mr. Renwick 1 0. Millar Prof.
Herbert A. Miller, ByrnRev. Frederick W. Qakes H.R.H. Princess Olga of
YugoslaviaProf. Dr. Jan Rypka Lord Samuel of Carmel, G.C.B., C.B.E. Viscount Herbert Samuel, G.C.B., MY.
Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, MA., Ph.D. tniile Sebreiber, PubLicist Prof.
Han Prasad Shastri, D. Litt. Col. Raja Jai Prithvi.
Bahadur Singh, Raja ofRev. Griffith J. Sparham Sir Ronald Storrs, N.y.C., MS., C.B.E
Ex-Governor William SuizerIndeed a great light came to me with the message of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
It came as all great messages come at an hour of dire grief and inner conflict and distress, so the seed sank deeply.
My youngest daughter finds also great strength and comfort in the teachings of the beloved masters.
We pass on the message from month to month and all those we give it to see a light suddenly lighting before them and much that was obscure and perplexing becomes simple, luminous and full of hope as never before.
That my open letter was balm to those suffering for the cause, is indeed a great happiness to me, and I take it as a sign that God accepted my humble tribute.
The occasion given me to be able to express myself publicly, was also His Work � for indeed it was a chain of circumstances of which each link led me unwittingly one step further, till suddenly all was clear before my eyes and I understood why it had been.
Thus does He lead us finally to our ultimate destiny.
Some of those of my caste wonder at and disapprove my courage to step forward pronouncing words not habitual for Crowned Heads to pronounce, but I advance by an inner urge I cannot resist.
With bowed head I recognize that I too am but an instrument in greater Hands and rejoice in the knowledge.
Little by little the veil is lifting, grief tore it in two. And grief was also a step leading me ever nearer truth, therefore do I not cry out against grief!
May you and those beneath your guidance be blessed and upheld by the sacred strength of those gone before you.
(Letter to Shoghi Eflendi,A womant brought me the other day IMiss Martha L. Root � Editor.
a Book. I spell it with a capital letter because it is a glorious Book of love and goodness, strength and beauty.
She gave it to me because she had learned I was in grief and sadness and wanted to help. She put it into my hands saying: "You seem to live up to His teachings." And when I opened the Book I saw it was the word of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, prophet of love and kindness, and of his father the great teacher of international goodwill and understanding � of a religion which links all creeds.
Their writings are a great cry toward peace, reaching beyond all limits of frontiers, above all dissension about rites and dogmas.
It is a religion based upon the inner spirit of God, upon the great, not-to-be-overcome verity that God is love, meaning just that. It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions, evil words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one essential law of God, and that special be-lids are but surface Things whereas the heart that beats with divine love knows no tribe nor race.
It is a wondrous Message that Bahá'u'lláh and his son 'Abdu'l-Bahá have given us. They have not set it up aggressively, knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at its core cannot but take root and spread.
There is only one great verity in it: Love, the mainspring of every energy, tolerance toward each other, desire ot understanding each other, knowing each other, helping each other, forgiv-lug each other.
It is Christ's Messagetaken up anew, in the same words almost, but adapted to the thousand years and more difference that lies between the year one and today. No man could fail to be better because of this
Book.If ever the name of Bahá'u'lláh or 'Abdu'l-Bahá comes to your attention, do not put their writings from you. Seach out their Books, and let their glorious, peace-bringing, love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have into mine.
One's busy day may seem too full for religion.Or one may have a religion that satisfies. But the teachings of
Page 427REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 427
these gentle, wise and kindly men are compatible with all religion, and with no religion.
Seek them, and be the happier.Of course, if you take the stand that creation has no aim, it is easy to dismiss life and death with a shrug and a "that ends it all; nothing comes after."
But how difficult it is so to dismiss the universe, our world, the animal and vegetable world, and man. How clearly one sees a plan in everything.
How unthinkable it is that the miraculous development that has brought man's body, brain and spirit to what it is, should cease. Why should it cease? Why is it not logical that it goes on? Not the body, which is only an instrument, but the invisible spark or fire within the body which makes man one with the wider plan of creation.
My words are lame, and why should I grope for meanings when I can quote from one who has said it so much more plainly, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, whom I know would sanction the use of his words: "The whole physical creation is perishable. Material bodies are composed of atoms. When these atoms begin to separate, decomposition sets in. Then comes what we call death.
"This composition of atoms which constitutes the body or mortal element of any created being, is temporary. When the power of attraction which holds these atoms together is withdrawn, the body as such ceases to exist.
"With the soul it is different.The soul is not a combination of elements, is not composed of many atoms, is of one indivisible substance and therefore eternal.
"It is entirely out of the order of physical creation; it is immortal!
The soul, being an invisible, indivisible substance, can suffer neither disintegration nor destruction. Therefore there is no reason for its coming to an end.
"Consider the aim of creation: Is it possible that all is created to evolve and develop through countless ages with merely this small goal in view � a few years of man's life on earth? Is it not unthinkable that this should be the final aim of existence?
Does a man cease to exist when he leaves his body?
If his life comes to an end, then all previous evolution is useless.
All has been for nothing.All those eons of evolution for nothing! Can we imagine that creation had no greater aim than this?
"The very existence of man's intelligence proves his immortality. His intelligence is the intermediary between his body and his spirit. When man allows his spirit, through his soul, to enlighten his understanding, then does he contain all creation; because man being the culmination of all that went before, and thus superior to all previous evolutions, contains all the lower already-evolved world within himself. Illumined by the spirit through the instrumentality of the soul, man's radiant intelligence makes him the crown-ing-point of creation!"
Thus does 'Abdu'l-Bahá explain to us the soul � the most convincing elucidation I know.
(From the Toronto DailyAt first we all conceive of God as something or somebody apart from ourselves.
We think He is something or somebody definite, outside of us, whose quality, meaning and so-to-say "per-sonality" we can grasp with our human, finite minds, and express in mere words.
This is not so. We cannot, with our earthly faculties entirely grasp His meaning � no more than we can really understand the meaning of Eternity.
God is certainly not the old Fatherly gentleman with the long beard that in our childhood we saw pictured sitting amongst clouds on the throne of judgment, holding the lightning of vengeance in His hand.
God is something simpler, happier, and yet infinitely more tremendous. God is All, Everything. He is the power behind all beginnings.
He is the inexhaustible source of supply, of love, of
Page 428His is the voice within us that shows us good and evil.
But mostly we ignore or misunderstand this voice.
Therefore did He choose his Elect to come down amongst us upon earth to make clear His word, His real meaning. Therefore the Prophets; therefore Christ, Muhammad, Bahá'u'lláh, for man needs from time to time a voice upon earth to bring God to him to sharpen the realization of the existence of the true God. Those voices sent to us had to become flesh, so that with our earthly ears we should be able to hear and understand.
Those who read their Bible with peeled eyes" will find in almost every line some revelation. But it takes long life, suffering or some sudden event to tear all at once the veil from our eyes, so that we can truly see.
Sorrow and suffering are the surest and also the most common instructors, the straightest channel to God � that is to say, to that inner something within each of us which is God.
Happiness beyond all understanding comes with this revelation that God is within us, if we will but listen to His voice.
We need not seek Him in the clouds. He is the All-Father whence we came and to whom we shall return when, having done with the earthly body, we pass onward.
If I have repeated myself, forgive me. There are so many ways of saying things, but what is important is the truth which lies in all the many ways of expressing it. (From the
Philadel-pliTh Evening"Lately a great hope has come to me from one, 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
I have found in His andMessage of Faith all my yearning for real religion satisfied.
If you ever hear of Bahá'ís or of the Bahá'í Movement which is known in America, you will know what that is. What I mean: these Books have strengthened me beyond belief and I am now ready to die any day full of hope. But I pray God not to take me away yet for I still have a lot of work to do."
"The Bahá'í teaching brings peace and understanding.
"It is like a wide embrace gathering together all those who have long searched for words of hope.
"It accepts all great prophets gone before, it destroys no other creeds and leaves all doors open.
"Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and wearied by their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in the Bahá'í teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and misunderstood: "Unity instead of strife, hope instead of condemnation, love instead of hate, and a great reassurance for all men."
"The Bahá'í teaching brings peace to the soul and hope to the heart.
"To those in search of assurance the words of the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.'' 1934.
"More than ever today when the world is facing such a crisis of bewilderment and unrest must we stand firm in Faith seeking that which binds together instead of tearing asunder.
"To those searching for light, the Bahá'í Teachings offer a star which will lead them to deeper understanding, to assurance, peace and good will with all men."
1936.'Abbas Effendi, pages xi-xx; 1903 rev. 1912 � I have often heard wonder expressed by Christian ministers at the extraor
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dinary success of Btibi missionaries, as contrasted with the almost complete failure of their own. "How is it," they say, "that the Christian doctrine, the highest and the noblest which the world has ever known, though supported by all the resources of Western civilization, can only count its converts in Muhammadan lands by twos and threes, while B&biism can reckon them by thousands?"
The answer, to my mind, is plain as the sun at midday.
Western Christianity, save in the rarest cases, is more Western than Christian, more racial than religious; and by dallying with doctrines plainly incompatible with the obvious meaning of its Founder's words, such as the theories of "racial supremacy," "imperial desk tiny,'~ "survival of the fittest," and the like, grows steadily more rather than less material. Did Christ belong to a "dominant race," or even to a European or "white race"? I ani not arguing that the Christian religion is true, but merely that it is in manifest conflict with several other theories of life which practically regulate the conduct of all States and most individuals in the Western world, a world which, on the whole, judges all things, including religions, mainly by material, or to use the more popular term, "practica~" standards.
There is, of course, another factor in the success of the B&bi propagandist, as compared with the Christian missionary, in the conversion of Mul2ammadans to his faith: namely, that the former admits, while the latter rejects, the Divine inspiration of the Qur'an and the prophetic function of Muhammad. The Christian missionary must begin by attacking, explicitly or by implication, both these beliefs; too often forgetting that if (as happens but rarely) he succeeds in destroying them, he destroys with them that recognition of former prophetic dispensations (including the Jewish and the Christian) which Muhammad and the Qur'an proclaim, and converts his Mus-urn antagonist not to Christianity, but to
Skepticism or Atheism.What, indeed, could be more illogical on the part of Christian missionaries to Mu-hamrnadan lands than to devote much time and labor to the composition of controversial works which endeavor to prove, in one and the same breath, first, that the Qur'ttn is a lying imposture, and, secondly, that it bears witness to the truth of Christ's mission, as though any value attached to the testimony of one proved a liar! The B&bi (or Baha) propagandist, on the other hand, admits that Muijammad was the prophet of God and that the Qur'an is the Word of God, denies nothing but their finality, and does not discredit his own witness when he draws from that source arguments to prove his faith. To the Western observer, however, it is the complete sincerity of the B&bis, their fearless disregard of death and torture undergone for the sake of their religion, their certain conviction as to the truth of their faith, their generally admirable conduct towards mankind and especially towards their fellow believers, which constitutes their strongest claim on his attention.
Introduction to Myron H.Phelps' 'Abbas EJ-Jencli, pages xii-xiv � It was under the influence of this enthusiasm that I penned the introduction to my translation of the Travefler's Narrative.
This enthusiasm condoned, if not shared, by many kindly critics and reviewers, exposed me to a somewhat savage attack in the Oxford Magazine, an attack concluding with the assertion that my Introduction displayed "a personal attitude almost inconceivable in a rational European, and a style unpardonable in a university teacher."
(The review in question appeared in the Oxford Magazine of May 25, 1892, page 394, "the prominence given to the B~b in this book is an absurd violation of historical perspective; and the translations of the
Traveller's Narrative awaste of the powers and opportunities of a Persian Scholar.") Increasing age and experience (more's the pity!) are apt enough, even without the assistance of the Oxford Magazine, to modify our enthusiasm; but in this case, at least, time has so far vindicated my judgment against that of my Oxford reviewer that he could scarcely
Page 430now maintain, as he formerly asserted, that the B&bf religion "had affected the least important part of the Muslim World and that not deeply." Every one who is in the slightest degree conversant with the actual state of Things (Sep-tember 27, 1903), in Persia now recognizes that the number and influence of the B&bis in that country is immensely greater than it was fifteen years ago.
A Traveller's Narrative, page 309 � The appearance of such a woman as Qurratu'1-'Ayn is in any country and any age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy � nay, almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her marvelous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts, her fervid eloquence, her fearless devotion and her glorious martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable and immortal amidst her coun-try-women. Had the B&bf religion no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient � that it produced a heroine like Qurratu'1-'Ayn.
Introduction to A Traveller'sNarrative, pages ix, x � Though I dimly suspected whither I was going and whom I was to behold (for no distinct intimation had been given to me), a second or two elapsed ere, with a throb of wonder and awe, I became definitely conscious that the room was not untenanted. In the corner where the divan met the wall sat a wondrous and venerable figure, crowned with a felt headdress of the kind called tAj by dervishes (but of unusual height and make), round the base of which was wound a small white turban. The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow; while the deep lines on the forehead and face implied an age which the jetblack hair and beard flowing down in indistinguishable luxuriance almost to the waist seemed to belie.
No need to ask in whose presence I stoOd, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain.
A mild, dignified voice bade me be seated, and then continued: Praise be to God, that thou hast attained!
Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile.We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer-up of strife anti sedition worthy of bondage and banishment. That alit nations shomld become one in faith and aU mem as brothers; that the bonds of affection and.
umity between the sans Of men. shouLd be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled � what harm is there in this? Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shafl pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come. Do not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that which Christ toreta74?
Yet do we see your kings and rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would. conduce to the happiness of mankind.
�These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and afl men be as one kindred and one family. Let not a man glory in this that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this: that he Loves his kind.
Such, so far as I can recall them, were the words which, besides many others, 1 heard from Baha. Let those who read them consider well with themselves whether such doctrines merit death and bonds, and whether the world is more likely to gain or lose by their diffusion.
Introduction to A Traveller'sNarrative, pages xxxv, xxxvi � Seldom have I seen one whose appearance impressed me more. A tall, strongly built man holding himself straight as an arrow, with white turban and raiment, long black locks reaching almost to the shoulder, broad powerful
Page 431REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 431
forehead, indicating a strong intellect, combined with an unswerving will, eyes keen as a hawk's and strongly marked but pleasing features � such was my first impression of 'Abbas Effendi, "The Master" ('Agj3L) as he par excellence is called by the B&bis. Subsequent conversation with him served only to heighten the respect with which his appearance had from the first inspired me.
One more eloquent of speech, more ready of argument, more apt of illustration, more intimately acquainted with the sacred books of the Jews, the Christians and the Muhammadans, could, I should think, be scarcely found even amongst the eloquent, ready and subtle race to which he belongs.
These qualities, combined with a bearing at once majestic and genial, made me cease to wonder at the influence and esteem which he enjoyed even beyond the circle of his father's followers. About the greatness of this man and his power no one who had seen him could entertain a doubt.
B~ DR. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER,Religions, pages 70, 71 � From that subtle race issues the most remarkable movement which modern Muhammadanism has produced. Disciples gathered round him, and the movement was not checked by his arrest, his imprisonment for nearly six years and his final execution in 1850.
� It, too, claims to be a universal teaching; it has already its noble army of martyrs and its holy books; has Persia, in the midst of her miseries, given birth to a religion which will go round the world?
B~ nn~ Rsv. T. K. CHEYNE, D. Lrrt, D.D.of Races and Religions, (1914) � There was living quite lately a human being1 of such consummate excellence that many think it is both permissible and inevitable even to identify him mystically with the invisible Godhead.
His2 combination of mildness and power is so rare that we have to place him in a line with supernormal men.
We learn that, at great points in his career after he had been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might and majesty streamed from his countenance that none could bear to look upon the effulgence of his glory and beauty. Nor was it an uncommon occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly obeisance on beholding His Holiness.
The gentle spirit of the Báb is surely high up in the cycles of eternity.
Who can fail, as Professor Browne says, to be attracted by him? "His sorrowful and persecuted life; his purity of conduct and youth; his courage and uncomplaining patience under misfortune; his complete self-negation; the dim ideal of a better state of things which can be discerned through the obscure mystic utterances of the Baycin; but most of all, his tragic death, all serve to enlist our sympathies on behalf of the young prophet of Shir&z." "Ii sentait le besoin d'une r6forme profond & introduire dans les moeurs publiques.
Ti s'est sacrifi6 pour 1'humanit6; pour elle ii a donn6 son corps et son &me, pour elle ii a subi les privations, les affronts, les injures, la torture et le martyre."
(Mons. Nico-las).If there has been any prophet in recent times, it is to Bahá'u'lláh that we must go. Character is the final judge. Bahá'u'lláh was a man of the highest class � that of prophets. But he was free from the last infirmity of noble minds, and would certainly not have separated himself from others. He would have understood the saying: "Would God all the Lord's people were prophets!"
What he does say, however, is just as fine: "I do not desire lordship over others; I desire all men to be even as I am." The day is not far off when the details of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í missionary journeys will be admitted to be of historical importance.
How gentle and wise he 1flahAu11~h 2BAbwas, hundreds could testify from personal knowledge, and I, too, could perhaps say something. I will only, however, give here the outward framework of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í life, and of his apostolic journeys, with the help of my friend
Lutfull&h.During his stay in London he visited Oxford (where he and his party � of Persians mainly � were the guests of Professor and Mrs. Cheyne), Edinburgh, Clifton and Waking. It is fitting to notice here that the audience at Oxford, though highly academic, seemed to be deeply interested, and that Dr. Carpenter made an admirable speech.
B~ PROFESSOR ARMTNTUSTestimonial to the Religion of 'Abdu'1 � Baha. (Published in Egyptian Gazette, Sept. 24, 1913, by Mrs. J. Stan-nard.) � I forward this humble petition to the sanctified and holy presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá 'Abbas, who is the center of knowledge, famous throughout the world, and loved by all mankind.
0 thou noble friend who art conferring guidance upon humanity � May my life be a ransom to thee!
The loving epistle which you have condescended to write to this servant, and the rug which you have forwarded, came safely to hand. The time of the meeting with your Excellency, and the memory of the benediction of your presence, recurred to the memory of this servant, and I am longing for the time when I shall meet you again. Although I have traveled through many countries and cities of IsThm, yet have I never met so lofty a character and so exalted a personage as your Excellency, and I can bear witness that it is not possible to find such another. On this account, I am hoping that the ideals and accomplishments of your Excellency may be crowned with success and yield results under all conditions; because behind these ideals and deeds I easily discern the eternal welfare and prosperity of the world of humanity.
This servant, in order to gain firsthand information and experience, entered tered into the ranks of various religions, that is, outwardly, I became a Jew, Christian, Muhammadan and Zoroastrian. I discovered that the devotees of these various religions do nothing else but hate and anathematize each other, that all their religions have become the instruments of tyranny and oppression in the hands of rulers and governors, and that they are the causes of destruction of the world of humanity.
Considering those evil results, every person is forced by necessity to enlist himself on the side of your Excellency, and accept with joy the prospect of a fundamental basis for a universal religion of God, being laid through your efforts.
I have seen the father of your Excellency from afar. I have realized the self-sacrifice and noble courage of his son, and I am lost in admiration.
For the principles and aims of your Excellency, I express the utmost respect and devotion, and if God, the Most High, confers long life, I will be able to serve you under all conditions. I pray and supplicate this from the depths of my heart.
Your servant,Political Problems of Indian Defense, chapter XI, page 116. (The Revival of BThiism.) � When one has been like Sa'fd, a great personage, and then a common soldier, and then a prisoner of a Christian feudal chief; when one has worked as a navvy on the fortifications of the Count of Antioch, and wandered back afoot to SbfrAz after infinite pain and labor, he may well be disposed to think that nothing that exists is real, or, at least, has any substantial reality worth clinging to. Today the public peace of Persia is no longer subject to such violent perturbations.
At least, as far as we are concerned, the appearances of peace
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prevail, and few of us care or have occasion to look beyond the appearances, But for the Persians themselves, have the conditions very much changed?
Do they not witness one day the sudden rise of this or that favorite of fortune and the next day his sudden fall? Have they not seen the AtAbak-i-A'zarn twice hold sway as the ShAh's all-powerful Vazir, and twice hurled down from that pinnacle by a bolt from the blue?
How many other ministers and governors have sat for a time on the seats of the mighty and been swept away by some intrigue as sordid as that to which they owed their own exaltation?
And how many in humbler stations have been in the meantime the recipients of their unworthy favors or the victims of their arbitrary oppression? A village which but yesterday was fairly prosperous is beggared today by some neighboring landlord higher up the valley, who, having duly propitiated those in authority, diverts for the benefit of his own estates the whole of its slender supply of water. The progress of a governor or royal prince, with all his customary retinue of ravenous hangers-on, eats out the countryside through which it passes more effectually than a flight of locusts, The visitation is as ruinous and as unaccountable.
Is it not the absence of all visible moral correlation of cause and effect in these phenomena of daily life that has gone far to produce the stolid fatalism of the masses, the scoffing skepticism of the more educated classes, and from time to time the revolt of some nobler minds? Of such the most recent and perhaps the noblest of all became the founder of B4biism.
Chapter XI, page 120 � TheHe was not the first, and still less the last, of a long line of martyrs who have testified that even in a country gangrened with corruption and atrophied with indifferentism like Persia, the soul of a nation survives, inarticulate, perhaps, and in a way helpless, but still capable of sudden spasms of vitality.
Chapter XI, page 124 � Sociallyone of the most interesting features of BAblism is the raising of woman to a much higher plane than she is usually admitted to in the East. The Báb himself had no more devoted a disciple than the beautiful and gifted lady, known as Qurratu'1-'Ayn, the "Consolation of the Eyes," who, having shared all the dangers of the first apostolic missions in the north, challenged and suffered death with virile fortitude, as one of the
Seven Martyrs of Tihr&n. Nomemory is more deeply venerated or kindles greater enthusiasm than hers, and the influence which she yielded in her lifetime still inures to her sex.
B~ HARRY CHARLES LUKACHof the East, (Macmillan Co., London, 1913.) � Bah& 'lism is now estimated to count more than two million adherents, most-iy composed of Persian and Indian Shf'ihs, but including also many Sunnis from the Turkish Empire and North Africa, and not a few Brahmans, Buddhists, Taoists, Shintoists and Jews. It possesses even European converts, and has made some headway in the United States.
Of all the religions which have been encountered in the course of this journey � the stagnant pools of Oriental Christianity, the strange survivals of sun-worship, and idolatry tinged with Mul2ammadanism, the immutable relic of the Sumerians � it is the only one which is alive, which is aggressive, which is extending its frontiers, instead of secluding itself within its ancient haunts.
It is a thing which may revivify IslAm, and make great changes on the face of the Asiatic world.
B~ PROFESSOR JOWETT ofof Balliol, the translator of Plato, studied the movement and was so impressed thereby that he said: "The BAbite (Baha'i) movement may not impossibly turn out to have the promise of the
Page 434Edward Caird, Prof. Jow-eft's successor as Master of Balliol, as saying, "He thought B4biism (as the Baha movement was then called) might prove the most important religious movement since the foundation of Christianity."
Prof. Carpenter himself gives a sketch of the Bahá'í movement in his recent book on Comparative Religions and asks, "Has Persia, in the midst of her miseries, given birth to a religion that will go around the world?" (Excerpt from an article by Louise Drake
Wright.)When spending the winters of 19067 in Alassia, Italy, I often met the late Professor Lewis Campbell, professor of Greek in the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, for many years, who was an eminent pupil of Dr. Benjamin Jowett, late master of
Balliol College and Prof-sorof Greek in the University of Oxford, also Doctor of Theology of the University of Leyden, Holland.
Because of Professor Campbell'sprofound spiritual and intellectual attainments he was highly honored as one who spoke with truthful authority and his noted translations of Greek poetry endeared him to all. From him I first heard of the Bahá'í Revelation, the significance of which had been indelibly impressed upon him by Dr. Jowett's deep convictions concerning it, and I wrote down some very telling sentences which Professor Campbell quoted from Dr. Jowett's words to him.
"This Bahá'í Movementis the greatest light that has come into the world since the time of Jesus Christ. You must watch it and never let it out of your sight.
It is too great and too near for this generation to comprehend. The future alone can reveal its import."
B~ ALFRED W. MARTINReligion and the Religion of the Future; pages 8191 � Inasmuch as a fellowship of faiths is at once the dearest hope and ultimate goal of the Bahá'í movement, it behooves us to take cognizance of it and its mission.
Today this religious movement has a million and more adherents, including people from all parts of the globe and representing a remarkable variety of race, color, class and creed. It has been given literary expression in a veritable library of Asiatic, European, and American works to which additions are annually made as the movement grows and grapples with the great problems that grow out of its cardinal teachings.
It has a long roll of martyrs for the cause for which it stands, twenty thousand in Persia alone, proving it to be a movement worth dying for as well as worth living by.
From its inception it has been identified with Bahá'u'lláh, who paid the price of prolonged exile, imprisonment, bodily suffering, and mental anguish for the faith He cherished � a man of imposing personality as revealed in His writings, characterized by intense moral earnestness and profound spirituality, gifted with the selfsame power so conspicuous in the character of Jesus, the power to appreciate people ideally, that is, to see them at the level of their best and to make even the lowest types think well of themselves because of potentialities within them to which He pointed, but of which they were wholly unaware; a prophet whose greatest contribution was not any specific doctrine He proclaimed, but an informing spiritual power breathed into the world through the example of His life and thereby quickening souls into new spiritual activity. Surely a movement of which all this can be said deserves � nay, conzpels � our respectful recognition and sincere appreciation.
Taking precedence over all else in its gospel is the message of unity in religion. It is the crowning glory of the Bahá'í movement that, while deprecating sectarianism in its preaching, it has faithfully practiced what it preached by refraining from becoming itself a sect. Its representatives do not attempt to impose any beliefs upon others, whether by argument or bribery; rather do they seek to put beliefs that have illumined their own lives within the reach of those who feel they need illumination. No, not a sect, not a part of humanity cut off from all the
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rest, living for itself and aiming to convert all the rest into material for its own growth; no, not that, but a leaven, causing spiritual fermentation in all religions, quickening them with the spirit of catholicity and fraternalism.
Who shall say but that just as the little company of the Mayflower, landing on Plymouth Rock, proved to be the small beginning of a mighty nation, the ideal germ of a democracy which, if true to its principles, shall yet overspread the habitable globe, so the little company of Bahá'ís exiled from their Persian home may yet prove to be the small beginning of the worldwide movement, the ideal germ of democracy in religion, the Universal Church of Mankind?
B~ PROr. JAMES DARMESTETERSketch" (trans-lated by G. K. Narirnan), and incorporated in Persia and Parsis, Part I, edited by G. K. Nariman. Published under patronage of the Persian League, Bombay, 1925. (The Marker Literary Series for Persia, No. 2.) � The political reprieve brought about by the Sflfis did not result in the regeneration of thought. But the last century which marks the end of Persia has had its revival and twofold revival, literary and religious.
The funeral ceremonies by which Persia celebrates every year for centuries � the fatal day of the 10th of Mu1~arram, when the son of 'All breathed his last at Karbil& � have developed a popular theater and produced a sincere poetry, dramatic and human, which is worth all the rhetoric of the poets. During the same times an attempt at religious renovation was made, the religion of B~biism. Demoralized for centuries by ten foreign conquests, by the yoke of a composite religion in which she believed just enough to persecute, by the enervating influence of a mystical philosophy which disabled men for action and divested life of all aim and objects, Persia has been making unexpected efforts for the last fifty-five years to remake for herself self a virile ideal. B&biism has little of originality in its dogmas and mythology.
Its mystic doctrine takes its rise from Scifism and the old sects of the 'Allides formed around the dogma of divine incarnation.
But the morality it inculcates is a revolution. It has the ethics of the West.
It suppresses lawful impurities which are a great barrier dividing
Islhm from Christendom.It denounces polygamy, the fruitful source of Oriental degeneration.
It seeks to reconstitute the family and it elevates man and in elevating him exalts woman up to his level. BAblism, which diffused itself in less than five years from one end of Persia to another, which was bathed in 1852 in the blood of its martyrs, has been silently progressing and propagating itself.
If Persia is to be at all regenerate it will be through this new faith.
B~ CHARLES BAUDOUINStudies, Part III, page 131. (Allen & Ijnwin, London, 1924.) � We Westerners are too apt to imagine that the huge continent of Asia is sleeping as soundly as a mummy. We smile at the vanity of the ancient Hebrews, who believed themselves to be the chosen people.
We are amazed at the intolerance of the Greeks and Romans, who looked upon the members of all races as barbarians.
Nevertheless, we ourselves are like the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans. As Europeans we believed Europe to be the only world that matters, though from time to time we may turn a paternal eye towards America, regarding our offspring in the New World with mingled feelings of condescension and pride.
Nevertheless, the great cataclysm of 1914 is leading some of us to undertake a critical examination of the inviolable dogma that the European nations are the elect. Has there not been of late years a demonstration of the nullity of modern civilization � the nub lity which had already been proclaimed by Rousseau, Carlyle, Ruskin, Tolstoy, and Nietzsche? We are now
Page 436inclined to listen more attentively to whispers from the East. Our self-com-placency has been disturbed by such utterances as that of Rabindranath Tagore, who, lecturing at the Imperial University of Tokio on June 18, 1916, foretold a great future for Asia.
The political civilization of Europe was ''carnivorous and cannibalistic in its tendencies." The East was patient, and could afford to wait till the West, "hurry after the expedient," had to halt for the want of breath.
"Europe, while busily speeding to her engagements, disdainfully casts her glance from her carriage window at the reaper reaping his harvest in the field, and in her intoxication of speed, cannot but think him as slow and ever receding backwards. But the speed comes to its end, the engagement loses its meaning, and the hungry heart clamors for food, till at last she comes to the lonely reaper reaping his harvest in the sun. For if the office cannot wait, or the buying and selling, or the craving for excitement � love waits, and beauty, and the wisdom of suffering and the fruits of patient devotion and reverent meekness of simple faith.
And thus shall wait the East till her time comes."
Being thus led to turn our eyes towards Asia, we are astonished to find how much we have misunderstood it; and we blush when we realize our previous ignorance of the fact that, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, Asia gave birth to a great religious movement � a movement signalized for its spiritual purity, one which has had thousands of martyrs, one which Tolstoy has described.
H. Dreyfus, the French historian of this movement, says that it is not "a new religion," but "religion renewed," and that it provides "the only possible basis for a mutual understanding between religion and free thought." Above all, we are impressed by the fact that, in our own time, such a manifestation can occur, and that the new faith should have undergone a development far more extensive than that undergone in the same space of time nearly two thousand years ago, by budding Christianity.
�At the present time, the majority of the inhabitants of Persia have, to a varying extent, accepted the B&biist faith. In the great towns of Europe, America, and Asia, there are active centers for the propaganda of the liberal ideas and the doctrine of human community, which form the foundations of BahWfist teaching.
We shall not grasp the full significance of this tendency until we pass from the description of Bahh'iism as a theory to that of Bah~'iism as a practice, for the core of religion is not metaphysics, but morality.
The BahA'fist ethical code is dominated by the law of love taught by Jesus and by all the prophets. In the thousand and one details of practical life, this law is subject to manifold interpretations.
That of Bahá'u'lláhis unquestionably one of the most coba-prehensive of these, one of the most exalted, one of the most satisfactory to the modern mind.
That is why Bahá'u'lláh is a severe critic of the patriotism which plays so large a part in the national life of our day. Love of our native land is legitimate, but this love must not be ex-elusive. A man should love his country more than he loves his house (this is the dogma held by every patriot); but Bahá'u'lláh adds that he should love the divine world more than he loves his country.
From this standpoint, patriotism is seen to be an intermediate stage on the road of renunciation, an incomplete and hybrid religion, something we have to get beyond. Throughout his life Bahá'u'lláh regarded the ideal of universal peace as one of the most important of his aims.
Bahá'u'lláh is in this respect enunciating a novel and fruitful idea. There is a better way of dealing with social evils than by trying to cure them after they have come to pass.
We should try to prevent them by removing their causes, which act on the individual, and especially on the child. Nothing can be more plastic than the nature of the child. The government's first duty must be to provide for the careful and efficient education of children, remembering that education is something more than instruction. This will be an
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enormous step towards the solution of the social problem, and to take such a step will be the first task of the Baytu'1-'Ad'1
(House of Justice). "Itis ordained upon every father to rear his son or his daughter by means of the sciences, the arts, and all the commandments, and if any one should neglect to do so, then the members of the council, should the offender be a wealthy man, must levy from him the sum necessary for the education of his child.
When the neglectful parent is poor, the cost of the necessary education must be borne by the council, which will provide a refuge for the unfortunate."
The Baytu'1-'AJ'1, likewise, must prepare the way for the establishment of universal peace, doing this by organizing courts of arbitration and by influencing the governments.
Long before the Esperantists had begun their campaign, and more than twenty years before Nicholas II had summoned the first
Hague congress, Bahá'u'lláhwas insisting on the need for a universal language and courts of arbitration.
He returns to these matters again and again: "Let all the nations become one in faith, and let all men be brothers, in order that the bonds of affection and unity between the song of men may be strengthened. What harm can there be in that? It is going to happen.
There will be an end to sterile conflicts, to ruinous wars; and the Great Peace will come!"
Such were the words of Bahá'u'lláh in 1890, two years before his death.
While adopting and developing the Christian law of love, Bahá'u'lláh rejected the Christian principle of asceticism. He discountenanced the macerations which were a nightmare of the Middle Ages, and, whose evil effects persist even in our own days.
BahViism, then, is an ethical system, a system of social morality. But it would be a mistake to regard Bahh'iist teaching as a collection of abstract rules imposed from without.
Bah&'iism is permeated with a sane and noble mysticism; nothing could be more firmly rooted in the inner life, more benignly spiritual; nothing could speak more intimately to the soul, in low tones, and as if from within.
Such is the new voice that sounds to us from Asia; such is the new dawn in the East. We should give them our close attention; we should abandon our customary mood of disdainful superiority.
Doubtless, Bahá'u'lláh'sThe Persian prophet does not offer it to us as such.
Nor can we Europeans assimilate all of it; for modern science leads us to make certain claims in matters of thought � claims we cannot relinquish, claims we should not try to forego.
But even though Bahá'u'lláh's precepts (like those of the Gospels) may not fully satisfy all these intellectual demands, they are rarely in conflict with our scientific outlooks. If they are to become our own spiritual food, they must be supplemented, they must be relived by the religious spirits of Europe, must be rethought by minds schooled in the Western mode of thought.
But in its existing form, Bah&'iist teaching may serve, amid our present chaos, to open for us a road leading to solace and to comfort; may restore our confidence in the spiritual destiny of man. It reveals to us how the human mind is in travail; it gives us an inkling of the fact that the greatest happenings of the day are not the ones we were inclined to regard as the most momentous, not the ones which are making the loudest noise.
B~ DR. HENRY H. JESSUP, D.D.of Re-luigiom; Volume II, 13th Day, under Criticism and Discussion of Missionary Methods, page 1122. At the Go-lumbian Exposition of 1893, at Chicago.
Edited by the Rev. John Henry Barrows, D.D. (TheCompany, Chicago, 1893.) � This, then, is our mission: that we who are made in the image of God should remember that all men are made in God's image. To this divine knowledge we owe all we are, all we hope for. We are rising gradually toward that image, and we owe to our fellownien to aid them in returning to it in the Glory of God and the Beauty of Holiness.
It is a celestial privilege andwith it comes a high responsibility, from which there is no escape.
In the Palace of Baha, or Delight, just outside the Fortress of 'Akka, on the Syrian coast, there died a few months since, a famous Persian sage, the
Báb Saint, named Bahá'u'lláh � the "Gloryof God" � the head of that vast reform party of Persian Muslims, who accept the New Testament as the Word of God and Christ as the Deliverer of men, who regard all nations as one, and all men as brothers. Three years ago he was visited by a Cambridge scholar and gave utterance to sentiments so noble, so Christlike, that we repeat them as our closing words: "That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religions should cease and differences of race be annulled. What harm is there in this?
Yet so it shall be. These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come. Do not you in Europe need this also? Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind."
B~ '~I�E RIGHT HON. Tm~Excerpts from Persia, Vol. 1, pages 496504. (Written in 1892.) � Beauty and the female sex also lent their consecration to the new creed and the heroism of the lovely but ill-fated poetess of Qazvin, Zarrin-TAj (Crown of Gold) or Qurratu'1-'Ayn (Solace of the Eyes), who, throwing off the veil, carried the missionary torch far and wide, is one of the most affecting episodes in modern history.
The lowest estimate places the present number of Báb's in Persia at half a million.
I am disposed to think, from conversations with persons well qualified to judge, that the total is nearer one million.
They are to be found in every walk of life, from the ministers and nobles of the Court to the scavenger or the groom, not the least arena in their activity being the Mussulman priesthood itself. It will have been noticed that the movement was initiated by Siyyids, U4jis and Muiks, i.e., persons who, either by descent, from pious inclination, or by profession, were intimately concerned with the Muhammadan creed; and it is among even the professed votaries of the faith that they continue to make their converts.
Quite recently the Báb's have had great success in the camp of another enemy, having secured many proselytes among the Jewish populations of the Persian towns. I hear that during the past year (1891) they are reported to have made 150 Jewish converts in Tihr4n, 10%) in Hamad&n, 50 in K~sh4n and 75 per cent of the Jews at Gu1p~.yigftn...
The two victims, whose names were H&ji Mirza Hasan and HAji Mirza. I~{usayn, have been renamed by the
Báb's: Sult6nu '-'sh-ShuhadWor King of Martyrs, and Mahb%u'sh-ShuhadA', or Beloved of Martyrs � and their naked graves in the cemetery have become places of p1k grimage where many a tear is shed over the fate of the "Martyrs of IsfAhAn."
It is these little incidents, protruding from time to time their ugly features, that prove Persia to be not as yet quite redeemed, and that somewhat staggers the tall-talkers about IrAnian civilization. If one conclusion more than another has been forced upon our notice by the retrospect in which I have indulged, it is that a sublime and murmuring [?] devotion has been inculcated by this new faith, whatever it be. There is, I believe, but one instance of a Bttbi having recanted under pressure of menace of suffering, and he reverted to the faith and was executed within two years. Tales of magnificent heroism illumine the bloodstained pages of B&bf history. Ignorant and unlettered as many of its votaries are, and have been, they are yet prepared to die for their religion, and fires of Smithfield did not kindle a nobler courage than has met and defied the more refined torture-mongers of TihrAn.
Of no small account, then, must be the tenets of a creed that can awaken in its followers so rare and beautiful a spirit of self-sacrifice. From the facts
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that BAbjism in its earliest years found itself in conflict with the civil powers and that an attempt was made by B&bis upon the life of the Sb&h, it has been wrongly inferred that the movement was political in origin and Nihilist in character.
It does not appear from a study of the writings either of the Báb or his successor, that there is any foundation for such a suspicion. The charge of immorality seems to have arisen partly from malignant inventions of opponents, partly from the much greater freedom claimed for women by the B&b, which in the oriental mind is scarcely dissociable from profligacy of conduct.
If B&biism continues to grow at its present rate of progression, a time may conceivably come when it will oust Muhammadanism from the field in Persia.
Since its recruits are won from the best soldiers of the garrison whom it is attacking, there is greater reason to believe that it may ultimately prevail.
The pure and suffering life of the B&b, his ignominious death, the heroism and martyrdom of his followers, will appeal to many others who can find no similar phenomena in the contemporaneous records of .........
By SIR FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBANDcalled himself, was the story of spiritual heroism unsurpassed in Svabhava's experience; and his own adventurous soul was fired by it. That a youth of no social influence and no education should, by the simple power of insight, be able to pierce into the heart of things and see the real truth, and then hold on to it with such firmness of conviction and present it with such suasion that he was able to convince men that he was the Messiah and get them to follow him to death itself, was one of those splendid facts in human history that Svabhava loved to meditate on. This was a true hero whom he would wish to emulate and whose experiences he would profit by. The ETh's passionate sincerity could not be doubted, for he had given his life for his faith.
And that there must be something in his message that appealed to men and satisfied their souls, was witnessed to by the fact that thousands gave their lives in his cause and millions now follow him.
If a young man could, in only six years of ministry, by the sincerity of his purpose and the attraction of his personality, so inspire rich and poor, cultured and illiterate, alike, with belief in himself and his doctrines that they would remain staunch, though hunted down and without trial sentenced to death, sawn asunder, strangled, shot, blown from guns; and if men of high position and culture in Persia, Turkey and Egypt in numbers to this day adhere to his doctrines, his life must be one of those events in the last hundred years which is really worth study. And that study fortunately has been made by the Frenchman Gobineau and by Professor E. G. Browne, so that we are able to have a faithful representation of its main features.
Thus, in only his thirtieth year, in the year 1850, ended the heroic career of a true God-man. Of the sincerity of his conviction that he was God-appoint-ed, the manner of his death is the amplest possible proof. In the belief that he would thereby save others from the error of their present beliefs he willingly sacrificed his life. And of his power of attaching men to him, the passionate devotion of hundreds and even thousands of men who gave their lives in his cause is convincing testimony.
He himself was but "a letter out of that most mighty book, a dewdrop from that limitless ocean." The One to come would reveal all mysteries and all rid-dies. This was the humility of true insight.
And it has had its effect.His movement has grown and expanded, and it has yet a great future before it. During his six years of ministry, four of which were spent in captivity, he had permeated all Persia with his ideas. And since his death the movement has spread to Turkey, Egypt, India, and
Page 440His adherents are now numbered by millions. "The Spirit which pervades them," says Professor Browne, "is such that it cannot fail to affect most powerfully all subject to its influence."
For many years I have been interested in the rise and progress of the Baha Movement.
Its roots go deep down into the past and yet it looks far forward into the future. It realizes and preaches the oneness of mankind. And I have noticed how ardently its followers work for the furtherance of peace and for the general welfare of mankind. God must be with them and their success therefore assured.
Excerpt from Modern Mystics.The martyrdom of the B&b took place on July 9, 1850, thirty-one years from the date of his birth.
His body was dead. His spirit lived on. Ijusayn had been slain in battle. Quddhs had been done to death in captivity.
But Bahá'u'lláh lived.The One who shall be made manifest was alive. And in him and in others had been engendered such love for the flAb and what he stood for as, in the words of the chronicler, no eye had ever beheld nor mortal heart conceived: if branches of every tree were turned into pens, and all the seas into ink, and Earth and Heaven rolled into one parchment, the immensity of that love would still remain untold. This love for the Cause still survived.
And it was sufficient. Bahá'u'lláh was, indeed, despoiled of his possessions, deserted by his friends, driven into exile from his native land and, even in exile, confined to his house.
But in him the Cause was still alive � and more than alive, purified and ennobled by the fiery trials through which it bad passed.
Under the wise control, and direction of Bahá'u'lláh from his prison-house, first at Bag~cktd and then at 'Akka in Syria, there grew what is now known as the Bahá'í Movement which, silently propagating itself, has now spread to Europa and America as well as to India and Egypt, while the bodily remains of the B&b, long secretly guarded, now find a resting place on Mount Carmel in a Tomb-shrine, which is a place of pilgrimage to visitors from all over the world.
Excerpt from The Christianat Oxford" � 'Abdu'l-Bahá addressed a large and deeply interested audience at Manchester College, Oxford, on December 31. The Persian leader spoke in his native tongue, Mirza A~mad Solirab interpreting.
Principal Estlin Carpenterpresided, and introduced the speaker by saying that they owed the honor and pleasure of meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá to their revered friend, Dr. Cheyne, who was deeply interested in the Bahá'í teaching. The movement sprung up during the middle of the last century in Persia, with the advent of a young Mul2am-madan who took to himself the title of the Báb (meaning door or gate, through which men could arrive at the knowledge or truth of God), and who commenced teaching in Persia in the year 1844. The purity of his character, the nobility of his words, aroused great enthusiasm. He was, however, subjected to great hostility by the authorities, who secured his arrest and imprisonment, and he was finally executed in 1850. But the movement went on, and the writings of the Bib, which had been copious, were widely read. The movement has been brought into India, Europe, and the United States. It does not seek to create a new sect, but to inspire all sects with a deep fundamental love.
The late Dr. Jowett once said to him that he had been so deeply impressed with the teachings and character of the flAb that he thought Bttbiism, as the present movement was then known, might become the greatest religious movement since the birth of Christ.
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B~ Rmv. J. TYSSTJL DAvIS,Lindsey Press, London, England.) � The Bahá'í religion has made its way � because it meets the needs of its day. It fits the larger outlook of our times better than the rigid exclusive older faiths.
A characteristic is its unexpected liberality and toleration. It accepts all the great religions as true, and their scriptures as inspired. The Bahh'iists bid the followers of these faiths disentangle from the windings of racial, particularist, local prejudice, the vital, immortal thread, the pure gospel of eternal worth, and to apply this essential element of life. Instances are quoted of people being recommended to work within the older faiths, to remain, vitalizing them upon the principles of the new faith. They cannot fear new facts, new truths as the Creed-defenders must. They believe in a progressive revelation.
They admit the cogency of modern criticism and allow that God is in His nature incomprehensible, but is to be known through His
Manifestations. Theirethical ideal is very high and is of the type we Westerners have learnt to designate "Christlike."
"What does he do to his enemies that he makes them his friends?"
was asked concerning the late leader. What astonishes the student is not anything in the ethics or philosophy of this movement, but the extraordinary response its ideal has awakened in such numbers of people, the powerful influence this standard actually exerts on conduct. It is due to four things: (1) It makes a calL on the Heroic Element in man. It offers no bribe.
It bids men endure, give up, carry the cross. It calls them to sacrifice, to bear torture, to suffer martyrdom, to brave death.
(2) It offers liberty of thought. Even upon such a vital question as immortality it will not bind opinion. Its atmosphere is one of trust and hope, not of dogmatic chill.
(3) It is a religion of love. "Notwith-standing the interminable catalogue of extreme and almost incredible sufferings and privations which this heroic band of men and women have endured � more terrible than many martyr-donis � there is not a trace of resentment or bitterness to be observed among them. One would suppose that they were the most fortunate of the people among whom they live, as indeed they do certainly consider themselves, in that they have been permitted to live near their beloved Lord, beside which they count their sufferings as nothing" (Phelps).
Love for the Master, love for the brethren, love for the neighbors, love for the alien, love for all humanity, love for all life, love for Gad � the odd, well-tried way trod once before in Syria, trodden again. (4) It is a religion in harmony with science. It has here the advantage of being thirteen centuries later than Isl4m. This new dispensation has been tried in the furnace, and has not been found wanting. It has been proved valid by the lives of those who have endured all things on its behalf.
Here is something more appealing than its logic and rational philosophy.
"To the Western observer" (writes Prof. Browne), "it is the complete sincerity of the B&bis, their fearless disregard of death and torture undergone for the sake of their religion, their certain conviction as to the truth of their faith, their generally admirable conduct toward mankind, especially toward their fellow-believers, which constitute their strongest claim on his attention."
"By their fruits shall ye know them!" We cannot but address to this youthful religion an All Hail! of welcome.
We cannot fail to see in its activity another proof of the living witness in our own day of the working of the sleepless spirit of God in the hearts of men, for He cannot rest, by the necessity of His nature, until He hath made in conscious reality, as in power, the whole world His own.
B~ Hnn*arr PUTNAMvives in my memory of 'Abdu'l-Bahá is that of an extraordir&ay nobility: Phy-sicially, in the head so massive yet so finely poised, and the modeling of the features; but spiritually, in the serenity of expression, and the suggestion of grave and responsible meditation in the deeper lines of the face. But there was also, in his complexion, carriage, and expression, an assurance of the complete health which is a requisite of a sane judgment. And when, as in a lighter mood, his features relaxed into the playful, the assurance was added of a sense of humor without which there is no true sense of proportion.
I have never met any one concerned with the philosophies of life whose judgment might seem so reliable in matters of practical conduct.
My regret is that my meetings with him were so few and that I could not benefit by a lengthier contact with a personality combining a dignity so impressive with human traits so engaging.
I wish that he could be multiplied!Translated from a letter to Mine. Isabel Grinevskaya, Oct. 22, 1903.
I am very glad that Mr. V. V. Stassov has told you of the good impression which your book has made on me, and I thank you for sending it. I have known about the Báb's for a long time, and have always been interested in their teachings.
It seems to me that these teachings, as well as all the rationalistic social religious teachings that have arisen lately out of the original teachings of Brahmanism, Buddhism,
Judaism, Christianityand Isl&m distorted by the priests, have a great future for this very reason that these teachings, discarding all these distorting incrustations that cause division, aspire to unite into one common religion of all mankind.
Therefore, the teachings of the Báb's, inasmuch as they have rejected the old Mutiammadan superstitions and have not established new superstitions which would divide them from other new superstitions (unfortunately something thing of the kind is noticed in the exposition of the Teachings of the Báb), and inasmuch as they keep to the principal fundamental ideas of brotherhood, equality and love, have a great future before them.
In the Muliammadan religion there has been lately going on an intensive spiritual movement. I know that one such movement is centered in the French colonies in Africa, and has its name (I do not remember it), and its prophet. Another movement exists in India, Lahore, and also has its prophet and publishes its paper Review of Re-Ugions.
Both these religious teachings contain nothing new, neither do they have for their principal object a changing of the outlook of the people and thus do not change the relationship between the people, as is the case with Bhbiism, though not so much in its theory (Teachings of the Báb) as in the practice of life as far as I know it. I therefore sympathize with BThiism with all my heart inasmuch as it teaches people brotherhood and equality and sacrifice of material life for service to God.
Translated from a letter to Frid ul Khan Wadelbekow.
(This communication is dated 1908 and is found among epistles written to Caucasian Muhammadans.)
In answer to your letter which questions how one should understand the term God. I send you a collection of writings from my literary and reading club, in which some thoughts upon the nature of God are included.
In my opinion if we were so free ourselves from all false conceptions of God we should, whether as Christians or Mu-bammadans, free ourselves entirely from picturing God as a personality. The conception which then seems to me to be the best for meeting the requirements of reason and heart is found in 4th chap. St. John, 71215 that means God is Love.
It therefore follows that God lives in us according to the measure or capacity of each soul to express His nature. This thought is implicit more or less clearly in all religions, and therefore in Muhammadanism.
Concerning your second question upon what awaits us after death I can
Page 443REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 443
only reply that on dying we return to God from whose Life we came. God, however, being Love we can on going over expect God only.
Concerning your third question, I answer that so far as I understand IsThm, like all other religions, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc., it contains great basic truths but that these have become corrupted by superstition, and coarse interpretations and filled with unnecessary legendic descriptions. I have had much help in my researches to get clear upon Muharumadanism by a splendid little book
"The Sayings of Muhammad."The teachings of the BThis which come to us out of Islttnii have through Bahá'u'lláh's teachings been gradually developed and now present us with the highest and purest form of religious teaching.
B~ DR. EDMUND PRIVATThe practical and spiritual understanding between nations, the realization of the unity of mankind above all barriers of language and religion, the feeling of responsibility towards all who suffer from grief or injustice are only different branches of the same central teaching which gives the Bahá'í Movement such a faithful and active family of workers in so many countries.
La superstition, 1'intol4rance et 1'al-liance des pr&res avec la tyrannie s~vit en IslAm comme ailleurs.
La grande 1umi~re s'assombrit dans la fum& t&-n6breuse des formes vides et des passions fanatiques.
Ii y eut plusieurs fois des r6veils et des retours ~ la puret6 du message.
Chez nous, en Perse, le Báb v6cut en saint et mourut en martyr ~i Tabriz, ii y a prAs d'un si~c1e.
Bahá'u'lláh lui sue-c6da, exil6 de Perse, emprisonn6 par le sultan ture. Ii proclamait que 1'unit6 divine exciut les rivalit6s.
La soumis-sian ?i DieuSi la religion des s6pare, c'est qu'elle a perdu son principal sens.
En plein milieu du dix-neuvi&me si&,le, au temps des Lamartine et des Victor Hugo, le grand saint musulman fixait aux Baha'i, ses disciples, un programme et des principes plus actuels que jamais.
L'Is1~m a toujours proclam6 ce dog-me avec majest6, mais les religions luttent en brandissant le norn d'un proph~te ou d'un autre, au lieu d'insist-er sur leur enseignement, qui pourrait les rappracher.
Bahá'u'lláh t&chait de faire tomber les parois, non pas Ma-hom6tisme avant tout, mais vraiment Isldm, c'est-?t-dire soumission commune Li la vo1ont~ supr~me.
On ne parlait alors ni d'un Wilson, ni d'un Zamenhof, mais 1'exil6 de Baha montrait aux g6n6rations futures le chemin qu'elles devajent prendre. Son fils 'Abdu'l-Bahá r6pandit plus tard son message en Europe et en Am6rique. M&me un libre penseur comme Auguste Forel s'y rallia de grand coeur. Le cercie amical des Bahá'í s'&end autour du monde.
En Perse, un million d'entre eux sou-tiennent des &oles, fameuses dans le pays.
(From La Sagesse de t'Orient, Chap.�J'avais 6crit les lignes qul pr6cA-dent en 1912.
Que dois-je ajouter aix-jourd'hui en aofit 1921, apr~s les hor-ribles guerres qui viennent de inettre 1'humanit6 ~t feu et A sang, tout en d6-voilant plus que jamais la terrible f& rocit6 de nos passions haineuses?
Rien, sinon que nous devons demeurer d'au-tant plus fermes, d'autant plus in6-branlables dans notre lutte pour le Then social.
Nos enfants ne doivent pas se d6courager; us doivent au contraire profiter du chaos mondial actuel pour aider & La ptThible organisation su-p6rieure et supranationale de
L'human-it6, & 1'aideEn 1920 seulement j'ai appris & con-naitre, & Karisruhe, la religion supra
Page 444confessionnelle et mondiale des Bahá'ís fond6e en Orient par le person Bahá'u'lláh ii y a 70 ans. C'est la vraie religion du Bien social humain, sans dogmes, ni pr6tres, reliant entre eux Thus les hommes sur notre petit globe terrestre.
Je suis devertu Baha'i.Que cette religion vive et prosp&e pour le bien de 1'hurnanit6; c'est 1~ mon voeu le plus ardent..
B~ GENERAL RENATO PIOLAHaving been engaged all of his life in the training of men, he does this (i.e., write on the subject of religion) more as a "shepherd of a flock" might do, in hope of persuading his friends and brothers to turn spontaneously to the Illumined Path of the Great Revelation.
the reflections from his beautiful personality, that one needed not spoken words to be interpreted. And this Fib grim came away renewed and refreshed to such a degree, that the hard bands of formalism were replaced by the freedom of love and light that will ever make that sojourn there the prize memory and the Door of revelation never to be closed again, and never becloud the glorious
Truth of Universal Brotherhood.A calm, and glorious influence that claims the heart and whispers to each of the pulsing leaves of the great family in all experiences of life, "Be not afraid.
It is I!" � And makes us long to help all the world to know the meaning of those words spoken by The Great Revealer, "Let us strive with heart and soul that unity may dwell in the world."
And to catch the greatness of the word "Strive," in quietness and reflection.
By REV. FREDERICK W. OAXES The Enlightener of human minds in respect to their religious foundations and privileges is of such vital importance that no one is safr who does not stop and listen for its quiet meaning, and is to the mind of men, as the cooling breeze that unseen passes its breath aver the varying leaves of a tree. Watch it! And see how uniformly, like an unseen hand passing caressingly over all its leaves: Full of tender care and even in its gifts of love and greater life: Caresses each leaf. Such it is to one who has seated himself amid the flowers and fruit trees in the Garden Beautiful at 'Akka, just within the circle of that Holy and Blessed shrine where rests the Mortal part of the Great Enlightener. His handiwork is there, you touch the fruit and flowers his hand gave new life's hopes to, and kneeling as I did beside Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Marvelous Manifestation, felt the spirit's immortal love of Him who rests there. While I could not speak the words of the Litany, my soul knew the wondrous meaning, for every word was a word of the soul's language that speaks cif the Eternal love and care of the Eternal Father. So softly and so living were B~ RENWICIC J. G. MmLAR
Editor of John O'GroatJournal, Wick, Scotland I was in Chicago for only some ten days, yet it would take a hundred chapters to describe all the splendid sights and institutions I was privileged to see. No doubt Chicago has more than its fair share of alien gangsters and gunmen, and the despicable doings of this obnoxious class has badly vitiated its civic life and reputation.
But for all that it is a magnificent city � in many respects probably the finest in America; a city of which its residents have innumerable reasons to be proud.
Every day indeed was filled up with sightseeing and the enjoyment of lavish hospitality. One day, for example, I was entertained to lunch at the Illinois Athletic Club as the guest of Mr. Robert Black, a prosperous Scot belonging to Wigtonshire, who is in the building trade.
He is an ex-president of the St. Andrew's Society.
Mr Falconer and other Scots' friends were present, and they were all exceedingly kind and complimentary. I could not, in short, have been treated with more distinction if I had been a prominent
Page 445REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 445
Minister of State instead of a humble Scottish journalist out on a mission of fraternity and good will.
On the same day I met by appointment Mr. Albert R. Winclust with whom I went out to see the Bahá'í Temple which is in course of being erected at Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan.
It is about an hour's ride out on the elevated railway.
Only the foundation and basement have so far been constructed, and the work was meanwhile stopped, but, we understand, is now shortly to be resumed.
I have no hesitation in saying that when completed this Temple will be one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the world. I had the privilege of an introduction to the architect, a Frenchman, M. Bourgeois, who speaks
English fluently. Wespent a considerable time with him in his beautiful studio overlooking the Lake, and he did me th6 honour of showing me the plans of the Temple, drawings which cost him years of toil, and they are far beyond anything I could have imagined in beauty and spiritual significance. M. Bourgeois, who is well advanced in years, is a genius and mystic � a gentleman of charming personality. In all that I had the pleasure of seeing in his studio I had a privilege that is given to few. My signature is in his personal book, which contains the names of some of the great ones of the earth! Mr. Windust, who is a leading Bahá'í in the city, is a quiet and humble man, but full of fine ideas and ideals. He treated me with the utmost brotherly courtesy. How is it, I kept asking myself, that it should be mine to have all this privilege and honour?
There was no reason save that they told me I had touched the chords of truth and sincerity in referring to and reviewing the Bahá'í writings and principles in a few short articles in this Journal. The Temple is designed to represent these principles � universal religion, universal brotherhood, universal education, and the union of sd-ence and religion. Meantime the Chicagoans are seemingly indifferent to all its spiritual significance; but some day they will wake up to a realization of the fact that its symbolism will mark the city as one of destiny in the world.
B~ CHARLES H. PuissHumanity is the better, the nobler, for the Bahá'í
Faith. It is a Faiththat enriches the soul; that takes from life its dross.
I am prompted thus to express myself because of what I have seen, what I have heard, what I have read of the results of the Movement founded by the Reverend Bahá'u'lláh.
Embodied within that Movement is the spirit of world brotherhood; that brotherhood that makes for unity of thought and actjon.
Though not a member of the Baha Faith, I sense its tremendous potency for good. Ever is it helping to usher in the dawn of the day of "Peace on
Earth Good Will to Men."By the spread of its teachings, the Bali Wi cause is slowly, yet steadily, making the Golden Rule a practical reality.
With the high idealism of Bahá'u'lláh as its guide, the Bahá'í Faith is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Countless are its good works. For example, to the pressing economic problems it gives a new interpretation, a new solution. But above all else it is causing peoples everywhere to realize they are as one, by heart and spirit divinely united.
And so I find joy in paying this little tribute to a cause that is adding to the sweetness, the happiness, the cleanness of life.
B~ PROF. HART PEASAD SHASTRE, D. Ln"r. My contact with the Bahá'í Movement and my acquaintance with its teachings, given by Hadrat-i-Bah&-'ullAh, have filled me with real joy, as I see that this Movement, so cosmopolitan in its appeal, and so spiritual in its advocacy of Truth, is sure to bring peace and joy to the hearts of millions.
Free from metaphysical subtleties, practical in its outlook, above all see
Page 446tarianism, and based on God, the substratum of the human soul and the phenomenal world, the Bahá'í Movement carries peace and illumination with it. As long as it is kept free from orthodoxy and church-spirit, and above personalities, it will continue to be a blessing to its followers.
B~ Smii PUHOHIT SWAMII am in entire sympathy with all of the principles that the Bahá'í Movement stands for; there is nothing which is contrary to what I am preaching. I think at this stage of the world such teachings are needed more than anything else. I find the keynote of the Teachings is the spiritual regeneration of the world. The world is getting more and more spiritually bankrupt every day, and if it requires anything it requires spiritual life. The Bahá'í Movement stands above all caste, creed and color and is based on pure spiritual unity.
B~ PROF. HERBERT A. MiLLERThe central drive of the Bahá'í Movement is for human unity. It would secure this through unprejudiced search for truth, making religion conform to scientific discovery and insisting that fundamentally all religions are alike. For the coming of universal peace, there is great foresight and wisdom as to details. Among other things there should be a universal language; so the Bahá'ís take a great interest in Esperanto though they do not insist on it as the ultimate language. No other religious movement has put so much emphasis on the emancipation and education of women.
Everyone should work whether rich or poor and poverty should be abolished. What will be the course of the Bahá'í Movement no one can prophesy, but I think it is no exaggeration to claim that the program is the finest fruit of the religious contri-bu�ion of Asia.
2.Shoghi Effendi's statement cannot be improved upon.
The Bahá'ís have had the soundest position on the race question of any religion. They not only accept the scientific conclusions but they also implement them with spiritual force. This latter is necessary because there is no other way to overcome the emotional element which is basic in the race problem.
"I have not said enough perhaps in the first paragraph.
Please add the following: The task of learning to live together, though different, is the most difficult and the most imperative that the world faces.
The economic problem will be relatively easy in comparison. There are differences in the qualities of cultures but there are no differences in qualities of races that correspond. This being recognized by minorities leads them to resist methods of force to keep them in subordination. There is no solution except cooperation and the granting of self-respect."
B~ VISCOUNT Hninnrr SAMUEL, G.C.B., MY.It is possible indeed to pick out points of fundamental agreement among all creeds. That is the essential purpose of the Baha Religion, the foundation and growth of which is one of the most striking movements that have proceeded from the East in recent generations.
If one were compelled to choose which of the many religious communities of the world was closest to the aim and purpose of this Congress, I think one would be obliged to say that it was the comparatively little known Bahá'í Community.
Other faiths and creeds have to consider, at a Congress like this, in what way they can contribute to the idea of world fellowship.
But the Bahá'í Faith exists almost for the soleREFERENCES TO THE BANAl FAITH 447
purpose of contributing to the fellowship and the unity of mankind.
Other communities may consider how far a particular element of their respective faith may be regarded as similar to those of other communities, but the Bahá'í Faith exists for the purpose of combining in one synthesis all those elements in the various faiths which are held in common. And that is why I suggest that this Bahá'í community is really more in agreement with the main idea which has led to the summoning of the Congress than any particular one of the great religious communities of the world.
Its origin was in Persia where a mystic prophet, who took the name of the BTh, the "Gate," began a mission among the Persians in the earlier part of the nineteenth century.
He collected a considerable number of adherents. His activities were regarded with apprehension by the Government of Persia of that day. Finally, he and his leading disciples were seized by the forces of the Persian Government and were shot in the year 1850. In spite of the persecution, the movement spread in Persia and in many countries of Isl&m. He was followed as the head of the Community by the one who has been its principal prophet and exponent, Bahá'u'lláh.
He was most active and despite persecution and imprisonment made it his life's mission to spread the creed which he claimed to have received by direct divine revelation. He died in 1892 and was succeeded as the head of the Community by his son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who was born in 1844. He was living in Haifa, in a simple house, when I went there as High Commissioner in 1920, and I had the privilege of one or two most interesting conversations with him on the principles and methods of the Bahá'í Faith. He died in 1921 and his obsequies were attended by a great concourse of people. I had the honour of representing His Majesty the King on that occasion.
Since that time, the Baha Faith has secured the support of a very large number of communities throughout the world. At the present time it is estimated that there are about eight hundred Bahá'í communities in various countries. In the United States, near Chicago, a great Temple, now approaching completion, has been erected by American adherents of the Faith, with assistance from elsewhere. Shoghi Effendi, the grandson of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, is now the head of the community.
He came to England and was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, but now lives in Haifa, and is the center of a community which has spread throughout the world.
(Introductory address delivered at the Bah~ 'ii session of the World Congress of Faiths, held in London, July, 1936.)
B~ LORD SAMUEl. OF CARIVIEL, GALE., C.B.E. In 1920 I was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine under the British Mandate, and took an early opportunity of paying a visit to
'Abdu'l-Bahá EffendiI had for some time been interested in the Bahá'í movement, and felt privileged by the opportunity of making the acquaintance of its Head. I had also an official reason as well as a personal one. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had been persecuted by the Turks.
A British r6gime had now been substituted in Palestine for the Turkish. Toleration and respect for all religions had long been a principle of British rule wherever it extended; and the visit of the High Commissioner was intended to be a sign to the population that the adherents of every creed would be able to feel henceforth that they enjoyed the respect and could count upon the goodwill of the new Government of the land.
I was impressed, as was every visitor, by 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í dignity, grace and charm.
Of moderate stature, His strong features and lofty expression lent to His personality an appearance of majesty.
In our conversation He readily explained and discussed the principal tenets of Baha'i, answered my inquiries and listened to my comments. I remember vividly that friendly interview of sixteen years ago, in the simple
Page 448room of the villa, surrounded by gardens, on the sunny hillside of Mount CameL I was glad I had paid my visit so soon, for in 1921 'Abdu'l-Bahá died.
I was only able to express my respect for His creed and my regard for His person by coming from the capital to attend His funeral.
A great throng had gathered together, sorrowing for His death, but rejoicing also for His life.
By REV. K. T. CHTING (From Rev. K. T. Chung's Preface to. the Chinese version of Dr. Essle-mont's
Book.)Last summer upon my return from a visit to Japan, I had the pleasure of meeting
Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehieron the boat. It was learnt that this lady is a teacher of the Bahá'í Cause, so we conversed upon various subjects of human life very thoroughly. It was soon found that what the lady imparted to me came from the source of Truth as I have felt inwardly all along, so I at once realized that the Bahá'í Faith can offer numerous and profound benefits to mankind.
My senior, Mr. Y. S. Tsao, is a well-read man. His mental capacity and deep experience are far above the average man. He often said that during this period of our country when old beliefs have lost their hold upon the people, it is absolutely necessary to seek a religion of all-embracing Truth which may exert its powerful influence in saving the situation. For the last ten years, he has investigated indefatigably into the teachings of the Bahá'í Cause.
Recently, he has completed his translations of the book on the New Era and showed me a copy of the proof. After carefully reading it, I came to the full realization that the Truth as imparted to me by Mrs. Ransorn-Keh-ler is veritable and unshakeable.
This Truth of great value to mankind has been eminently translated by Mr. Tsao and now the Chinese people have the opportunity of reading it, and I cannot but express my profound appreciation far the same. .Should the Truth of the Bahá'í Faith be widely disseminated among the ehinese people, it will naturally lead to the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Should everybody again exert his efforts towards the extension of this beneficent influence throughout the world, it will then bring about world peace and the general web fare of humanity.
B~ PROF. DIMImY KAzARovUne des causes principales de la situation actuelle du monde c'est que 1'humanit~ est trop en arri~re encore dans son d6veloppement spirituel.
\Toila pourqtloi tout enseignement qui a pour but k 6veiller et fortifier la conscience morale et religieuse des hommes est d'une importance capitale pour 1'avenir de notre race. La Bah&iisme est tin de ces enseignements.
Ii a ce xn&rite qu'en portant des principes qui sont communs de toutes los grandes religions (et sp6-cialement du christianisnie) cherche & les adapter aux conditions de Ia vie actuelle et ~i la psychologie de 1'homme moderne.
En outre ii travail pour 1'union des hommes de toute nationalit4 et race clans une conscience morale et religieuse commune.
Ii n'a pas la pr6-tention d'~tre autant une religion nou-velle qu'on trait d'union entre Los grandes religions existantes: ce sur quoi ii insiste surtout ce n'est pas d'abandoner la religion ~ laquelle nous appartenons d~j & pour en chercher une autre, mais & faire un effort pour trou-ver clans cette m~rne religion l'6l6ment qul nous unit aux autres et d'en faire la force d6terminante de notre conduite toute enti@'.re. Cet 6l6ment (commun & toutes les grandes religions) c'est la conscience que nous sommes avant tout des &res spirituels, unis dans une m~me entit6 spirituelle dont nous ne sommes que des parties-unies entre elles par 1'attribut fonclamental de cette entit6 spiritue11e � ~ savoir l'amour. Manifester, r6aliser, d6velop-per chez nous et chez les autres (sur-tout chez les enfants) cette conscience de notre nature spirituelle et 1' amour
Page 449REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 449
comme son attrihut fondamental c'est la chose principale que nous devons poursuivre avant tout et par toutes les manifestations de notre activit6. C'est en m~me temps le seul moyen par lequel nous pouvons esp6rer de r6aliser une union touj ours grandissant permi les hommes.
Le Bah&'iisme est un des enseigne-ments qui cherche ~ 6veiller chez nous � n'irnporte ~ queue religion nous ap-partenons � justen-ient cette conscience de notre nature spirituelle.
Ii y a plus de 20 ans un groupe d'hommes et femmes de diff6rentes na-tionalit6s at religions, anim~s par le d6sir de travailler pour 1'union des pen-pies, ont commenc6 & publier tin journal en esperanto sous le titre "Univer-sala Unigo."
Le premier article du premier numero de ce journal 6tait con-sacr6 au Bah&'iisme et ~ son fondateur. Ii me semble que ce fait est une preuve 6clatante de ce que je viens de dire sur le Bahh'iisme.
B~ REV. GRIFFITH J. SPARHAMIn his book A League of Religions, the Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, formerly minister of the Theistic Church in London, and at present minister of a Unitarian Church in Bristol, England, the writer sets out to demonstrate that each great religious movement in the world has contributed something of peculiar importance to the spiritual life of man. Thus, he says, the great contribution of Zoroastrianism has been the thought of Purity; of Brahmanisrn that of
Justice; of Muhammadanisnrithat of Submission; of Christianity that of Service; and so on. In each instance he lays his finger on the one thing par excellence far which the particular religious culture seemed to him to stand, and tries to catch its special contribution in an epigrammatic phrase. Corning, in this way, to Bah4'iism, he names it "the Religion of Reconciliation."
In his chapter on Bah4'iism he says: "The Bahá'í religion has made its way because it meets the need of the day. It fits the larger outlook of our time, better than the rigid older faiths. A characteristic is its unexpected liberality and toleration. It accepts all the great religions as true and their scriptures as inspired."
These, then, as he sees BahA'iism, are its essential features; liberality, toleration, the spirit of reconciliation; and that, not in the sense, as Mr. H. G. Wells has it in his Soul of a Bishop, of making a "collection" of approved portions of the world's varied and differing creeds, but in the sense, as he also puts it in the same book, of achieving a great "simplification."
"BaM'ists," says Dr. Davis, "bid the followers of these (that is, the world's) faiths disentangle from the windings of racial, particularist, local prejudices, the vital, immortal thread of the pure gospel of eternal worth, and to apply this essential element to life."
That is Dr. Davis's interpretation of the genius of BaWi'iisrn, and that it is a true one, no one who has studied Bah~'iism, even superficially, can question, least of all the outsider. Indeed one may go further and assert that no one who has studied Bah&fism, whether superficially or otherwise, would wish to question it; particularly if he approaches the subject from a liberal and unprejudiced point of view. In the last act of his Wandering Jew, Mr. Temple Thurston puts into the mouth of
Matteos, the WanderingJew himself, the splendid line, "All men are Christians � all are Jews." He might equally well have written, "All men are Christians � all are Baha'is." For, if the sense of the Unity of Truth is a predominant characteristic of liberally-minded people, whatever may be their religious tradition, it is predominantly a characteristic of Baha 'jism; since here is a religious system based, fundamentally, on the one, simple, profound, comprehensive doctrine of the unity of God, which carries with it, as its necessary corollary and consequence, the parallel doctrine of the unity of Man.
This, at all events, is the conviction of the present writer; and it is why, as a Unitarian, building his own faith on the same basic principles of divine and
Page 450human unity, he has long felt sympathy with and good will toward a religious culture which stands on a foundation identical with that of the faith he holds. And a religion that affirms the unity of things must of necessity be a religion of reconciliation; the truth of which in the case of BahA'iism is clear.
B~ ERNESq RENANPassage tir6 de Renan "Leg Ap6tres, P." Edition L6vy, Paris, 1866 Notre si~c1e a vu des mouvements religleux tout aussi extraordinaires que ceux d'autrefois, mouvements qui ont provoqu6 autant d'enthousiasme, qui ont eu d6j&, proportion gard~e, plus de martyrs, et dont 1'avenir est encore incertain.
Je ne pane pas des Mormons, secte A quelques 6gards si sotte et si abjecte que 1'on h6site ~t la prendre au s6rieux.
Ii est instructif, cependant, de voir en plein 19~me si~c1e des milliers Whom-mes de notre race vivant cLans le miracle, croyant avec une foi aveugle des merveilles qu'iis disent avoir vues et touch6es.
Ii y a d6j~t toute une litt6ra-ture pour montrer 1'accord du Mor-monisme et tie la science; ce qul vaut mieux, cette religion, fond6e sur de niaises incipostures, a su accomplir des prodiges de patience et d'abn6gation; dans cinq cents ans des docteurs prou-veront sa divinite6 par les merveilles de son 6tablissement.
Le B&bisme, en Perse, a un ph6-nom~ne autrernent consid&able. Un homme doux et sans aucune pr6tention, une sorte de Spinoza modeste et pieux, s 'est vu, presque malgr6 lui, 61ev6 au rang de thaumaturge cl'incarnation divine, et est devenu le chef d'une secte nombreuse, ardente et fanatique, qul a faiTh amener une r6volution comparable ~ celle de 1'Isl4m. Des nilhliers de martyrs sont accounts pour lul avec 1'all6gresse ati devant de Ia mort.
Un jour sans pared peut-6tre dans 1'histoire du monde fut celui de la grande boucherie qui se fit des Báb's, & h6ran. "On vit ce jour-1?i
dans les rues et les bazars de T6h6ran," dit un nar-rateur qui a tout su d'original, "un spectacle que la population semble devoir n'oublier jarnais. Quand la conver~ sation encore aujourd'hui se met sur cette mati~re, on peut juger 1'admira-tion m&l6e d'horreur que la foule eprouve et que les ann6es n'ont pas dirninu6e.
On vit s'avancer entre les bourreaux des enfants et des femrnes les chairs ouvertes sur tout le corps, avec des n~ches allurn6es, Ham-bantes, fich6es, dans les blessures. On trainait les victimes par des cordes et on les faisait marcher ~ coups de fouet. Enfants et femmes s'avan~aient en chantant un verse qui dit: En v6rit6 nous venons de Dieu et nous retournons & Lui. Leurs voix s'~1evaient, &latan-tes, au-dessus du silence profond de la foule. Quand un des supplici6s tombait et qu'on le faisait relever ~ coups de fouet ou de baTonnette, pour peu que la perte de son sang qui ruisselait sur tous ses rnernbres Lui laiss&t encore tin peu de force, ii se mettait & danser et erlait avec un surcroi d'enthousiasme: "En v4rit6 nous sommes ~ Dieu et nous re-tournons A Lui."
Quciques-uns des en-fants expir~rent pendant le trajet; les bourreaux jet~rent leurs corps sous les pieds de leurs pares et de leurs soeurs, qui march~rent �rement dessus et ne leur donn6rent pas deux regards. Quanci on arriva tm lieu d'ex6cution, on proposa encore aux victimes la vie pour leur abjuration. Unbourreau imagina de dire A tin pare que, s'il ne c6dait pas, II couperait la gorge A ses deux fils sur sa poitrine.
C'6taient deux petits gar~ons dont 1'ain6 avait 14 ans et qui, rouges de leur sang, les chairs calcin6es, 6coutaient froidement le dialogue; le pare r6pondit, en se couchant par terre, qu'il 6tait pr~t et 1'ain6 des enfants, r6-clamant avec emportement son droit d'ainesse, demanda & ~tre 6gorg6 le premier.'
Enfin tout fut achev6.La nuit tomba sur un amas de chairs informes; les t6tes 6taient attach6es en paquets au poteau justicier et les chiens des fau-bourgs se dirigeajent par troupes de ce c6t& Cela se passait en 1852.
La secte de Mozdak sous Chosro~� Nousch fiat 6touU
Page 451REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 451
f6e dans un pareil bain de sang. Le d6vouement absolu est pour les nations naYves la plus exquise des jouissances et une sorte de besoin.
Dans 1'aflaire des BThis, on vit des gens qui &aient A peine de la secte, venir se d6noncer eux-m~mes afin qu'on les adjoignit aux patients. Ii est si doux & 1'homme de soulfrir pour quelque chose, que dans bien des cas 1'app&t du martyre suffit pour faire croire.
Un disciple qui fut le campagnon de supplice du B&b, suspendu h c6t6 de lui aux remparts de Tabriz et attendant la mort, n'avait qu'un mot ~i la bouche: "Es-tu content de moi, maitre?"
B~ HON. LILIAN HELEN MONTAGUE, J. P., D.H.L. As a Jewess I am interested in the Bahá'í Community.
The teaching lays particular stress on the Unity of God and the Unity of Man, and incorporates the doctrine of the Hebrew Prophets that the Unity of God is revealed in the Unity of Men. Also, we seem to share the conception of God's messengers as being those people who in their deep reverence for the attributes of God, His beauty, His truth, His righteousness and His justice, seek to imitate Him in their imperfect human way. The light of God is reflected in the soul of him who seeks to be receptive. Like the members of the Bahá'í community, we Jews are scattered all over the world, but united in a spiritual brotherhood. The Peace ideal enumerated by the Hebrew Prophets is founded on faith in the ultimate triumph of God's justice and righteousness.
B~ PROF. NORMAN BENTWICH'Un autre d~tai1 que je tiens de source premi~re est celul-ci: Quelques sectaires, qu'on voulait arnener & r6tractation, furent attach6s ~ la gucule de canons amorc6s dune mache longue et brulant lentement.
On leur proposait de couper la mache, sils reniajent le BTh. Eux, les bras tendus vers le feu, le suppliaient de se hAter et de venir bien vite eonscmmer leur bonheur.
"Palestine may indeed be now regarded as the land not of three but of four faiths, because the Bahá'í creed, which has its center of faith and pilgrimage in Acre and Haifa, is attaining to the character of a world-religion.
So far as its influence goes in the land, it is a factor making for international and inter � religious understanding.~~
B~ EMILE SCHREIHERTrois pro phtes (From Les to/ins, Paris, France, September 27, 1933.)
Alors que le marxisme sovi6tique proclame le rnat6rialisme historique, alors que les jeunes g6n6rations sionis-tes sont 6galement de plus en plus in-diff6rentes aux croyances 6tablies, une nouvelle religion est n6e en Orient, et sa doctrine prend, dans les circon-stances actuelles, un int6r& d'autant plus grand que, s'6cartant du domaine purement phulosophique, elle pr6conise en &onomie politique des solutions qui coYncident curieusement avec les pr6-occupations de notre 6poque.
Cette religion, de plus, est par essence antiraciste. Elle est n6e en Perse, vets 1840, et les trois proph~tes successifs qui 1'ont pr6ch6e sont des Persans, c'est-&-dire des musulmans de nais-s ance.
Le premier, le cr6ateur, s'appelait le BTh. II pr&ha vers 1850, et pr6conisa, outre la r6conciliation des diff6rents cultes qui divisent 1'humanit6, la lib&a-tion de la femme, r~duite aujourd'hui encore un quasi esciavage clans tout 1'Tslam.
Une Persane d'une rare beaut6, et qui, chose rare chez les musulmanes, 6tait dou6e d'un grand talent oratoire, r~pondant au nom difficile & prononcer de
Qourratou-'1-'AYn, 1'accompagna dans ses r6unions, n'h6sitant pas, en donnant e11e-m~me 1'exemple, ~i pr6-coniser La suppression du voile pour les femmes.
Page 452Le B~b et elle r6ussirent Li convain-cre, ?i 1'6poque, des dizaines de milliers de Persans et le shah de Perse les em-prisonna Pun et 1'autre, ainsi que la plupart de leurs partisans.
Le B&b fut pendu. Sa belle collaboratrice fut 6tran-gl6e dans sa prison. Leurs disciples furent exli6s ~ Saint-Jean-d'Acre, deve-nue temple du "Bah&'iisme."
Vest ainsi que j'ai visit6 la maison du suc-cesseur du Bab, Bahá'u'lláh, trans-form6e ajourd'hui en temple du "Bah~-'isme."
Vest ainsi que s'intitule cette religion, qui est plut6t une doctrine phil-osophique, car die ne comporte ni culte d6fini, ni surtout de clerg6. Les pr&res, disent les Bah6'istes, sont tent6s de fausser, dans tin but de lucre, 1'id~a1is-me d6sint6ress6 des cr6ateurs de religions.
Bahá'u'lláh, le principal des trois pro-ph&es, r4pandit sa doctrine non seule-ment en Orient, mais dans beaucoup de pays d'Europe, et surtout aux ttats-Unis oP son influence fut telle que le nombre des BahA'iistes attient aujourd-'hui plusleurs millions. Ii fut perse-cut6 par les Perses et mourut en exile.
Son fils, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, lui succ6da et formula, d'apr~s les principes de son pare, la doctrine &onomique dii Bahui'i-is me; elk indique une prescience 6ton-nante des 6v6nements qui se sont d6-roul4s depuis: la guerre d'abord, la crise ensuite. Ii mourut peu aprAs La guerre, ayant vu la r6alisation de La premi~re partie de ses proph6ties.
L'originalit6 clu Bah&'iisrneest de chercher & faire passer dans le domaine pratique, et plus particu1i~rement dans le domaine social, les principes essen-tiels du judaNsme, du catholicisme et de 1'islamisrne, en les combinant et en les adaptant flux besoins de notre epoque.
La BahWiisme prQclame que les rapports soejaux deviennent fatalement impossibles dans une soci6t~ oh 1'idAal-isme indivkluel ne donne pas une base certaine aux engagements qui lient les hommes entre eux.
L'individu se sent de plus en plus isol6 au mileau d'une jungle sociale qui menace, & beaucoup d'6gards, son bien-&re et sa s6curit6.
La bonne volont6 et 1'honn&tet6, ne ptoduisant plus dans sa vie et dans son travail le r~su1tat qu'il attend, tendent & perdre pour lui toute valeur pratique.
De 1& naissent, scion les caractAres, 1'iridiff6rence et le d6-couragement, ou 1'audace, le manque de scrupules qui tendent A se procurer par tans les moyens, m&me les plus r6pr6-hensibles, les b6n6fices mat6riels n6ces-saires
Li 1'existence.La soci6t~, n'6tant plus soumise ~i aucun contr6le, ni politique ni moral, devient un vaisseau sans gouvernail oft personne ne peut plus rien pr6voir et qui est sujet & des crises de plus en plus fr6quentes et de plus en plus violentes. L'~poque actuelle, d6clarent les proph-~tes persans, marque la fin d'une civilisation qut ne sert plus les int6r&ts de 1'humanit6.
Elle aboutit ~i la faillite comp1~te des institutions morales et mat6rielles des-tin6es a assurer le bien4tre et la s6cu-rit6 des hommes, c'est-&-dire 1'~tat, 1'~g1ise, P Commerce et 1'Industrie. Le principe fondamental d'oti peut venir le salut de la civilisation engag~e dans des voles qui conduisent A sa destruction est la solidarit6 des nations et des races. Car 1'interp6n&ration des peu-pies est clevenue telle qu?il leur est impossible de trouver isol6ment La voje de la prosp6rit&.
Ces proph6ties, qui pouvaient par-aitre excessives et quelque peu pessi-mistes & 1'6poque oft elles ont 6t6 faites, vers 1890, ne sont pas, les 6v6nements 1'ont prouv6, de simples j6r6miades.
Ii restes & examiner comment, partant de ces donn6es, qul ne sont que trap exactes, le BahWiisme, convu dans La Perse lointaine et si arri6r6e & 1'6poque, aboutit aux m~mes conclusions que la plupart des &onomistes modernes qui, dans les diff6rents pays de civilisation occidentale, proclament qu'en dehors d'une collaboration internationale II n'y a pas d'issue possible A la crise actuelle entraInant tous les peuples ~t une mis~re toujours plus grande.
Une religion "economique" (From Las E~chos, Paris, France, September 28, 1933.)
Page 453REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 453
Les principes du BaM'iisme, formu-14s par son principal prophde, Bahá'u'lláh, peuvent paraitre s6rieuse-ment compromis en un temps OP Ia fr6n6sie nationaliste, r&emment aggra-v6e de racisme, semble en 6loigner de plus en plus 1'application.
Toute la question est de savoir si ceux qui sont en faveur aujourd'hui, dans tant de pays, sont susceptibles de r6sou-dre le prob1~me non pas de la prosp4-rit6, nixais simplement du logement et de la f aim, dans les difl6r6ntes nations qui nient par leurs th&ries et tous leurs actes a so1idarit~ des peuples et des races.
Une nouvelle guerre mondiale sera sans doute n6cessaire pour que 1'hu-manit6, qui n'a pas encore compris la 1e~on de 1914, se rende enfin compte que les solutions de violence et de con-quote ne peuvent engendrer que la ruine g6n6rale, sans profit pour aucun des bellig&ants.
Quoi qu'il en soit, les principales pen-s&s 6conomiques de Bahá'u'lláh, telles qu'elles ont ~t6 formul6es ii y a un demisi~c1e, prouvent que la sagesse et le simple bons sens ont cela de commun avec les 6crevisses, c'est qu'il leur arrive fr6quemment de marcher & recu-ions.
Voici les principaux pr6ceptes de ce moderne Marc-Aurele: "L'6volution humaine se divise en cycles organiques, correspondant & la dur6e d'une religion, laquelle est d'en-viron un millier d'ann&s. Un cycle social nouveau commence toutes les fois qu'apparait un proph~te dont i'm-fluence et les enseignements renou-vellent la vie int6rieure de 1'homme et font d6ferler & travers le monde une nouvelle vague de progr~s.
"Ohaque nouveau cycle d&ruit les croyances et les institutions us6es du cycle pr6c6dent et fonde sur d'autres croyances, en 6troite conformit6, celles-1~, avec les besoins actuels de 1'human-it6, tine civilisation nouvelle.
"L'influence de chaque prophAte s'est, dans le pass6, limit6e ~ une race on A une religion, en raison de 1'isolement g6ographique des r6gions et des races, mais le si&le dans lequel nous entrons n6cessite la cr~ation d'un ordre orga-nique s'6tendant au monde entier. Si le vieji esprit de tribu persiste, la science detruira le monde, ses forces destruc-trices ne pouvant &re contrOl6es que par une humanit6 unie travaillant pour la prosp6rit6 et le Men commun.
"La lol de la lutte pour la vie n'existe plus pour 1'hornme d~s qu'il devient conscient de ses pouvoirs spirituels et moraux. Elle est alors remplac6e par la loi plus haute de la coop6ration. Sous cette lol, 1'individu jouira d'un statut beaucoup plus large que celul qul est accord4 aux citoyens passifs du corps politique actuel. L'administra-tion publique passera des mains de partisans politiques qui trahissent la cause du peuple aux mains d'hommes capables de consid6rer une charge pub-lique comme une mission sacr6e.
"La stabilit6 6conomique ne d6pend pas de Papplication de tel plan social-iste ou communiste plus ou mains th6o-rique, mais du sentiment de la soli-darit6 morale qui unit tons les hommes et de cette conception que les richesses ne sont pas la fin de la vie, mais seule-ment un xnoyen de vivre.
"L'important n'est pas en une aveugle soumission g6n6rale ~ tel syst~me poli-tique, ~ tel r6glement, qul ont pour effet de supprimer chez 1'individu tout sentiment de responsabilit6 morale, mais en un esprit d'entr'aide et de co-op6ration.
Ni le principe d6mocratique, nile principe aristocratiqile ne peuvent fournir s6par6ment Li la soci6t6 une base solide. La democratie est impuis-sante contre les querelles intestines et 1'aristocratie ne subsiste que par la guerre. Une combinaison des deux principes est donc n6cessaire.
"En cette pftiode de transition entre le vieji Age de la concurrence et 1'&re nouvelle de la coop6ration, la vie m~me de 1'humanit6 est en p6ril. Les ambitions nationalistes, la lutte des classes, Ia peur et le convoitises &onomiqUes sont autant tie forces qui poussent ~i tine nouvelle guerre internationale. Tous les Gouvernements du monde doi-vent soutenir et organiser une assem-bl&e dont les membres sojent 4lus
Page 454Ceux-ci devront mettre au point, au-dessus des ~goYsrnes particuliers, le noveau statut 6cono-mique du monde en dehors duquel tous les pays, mais surtout 1'Europe, seront conduits aux pires catastrophes."
'Abdu'l-Bahá, son successeur, repre-nant la doctrine de son pare, concluait dans un discours prononc~ Li New-York en 1912: "La civilisation n-iat6rielle a atteint, en Occident, le plus haut degr~ de son d6veloppement. Mais c'est en Orient qu'a pris naissance et que s'est d6vel-opp6e la civilisation spirituelle. Un lien s'6tablira entre ces deux forces, et leur union est la condition de 1'immense progr~s qui doit ~tre accompli.
"Hors de 1~, la s6curit~ et ]a confi-ance feront de plus en plus d6faut, les luttes et les dissensions s'accroitront de jour en jour et les divergences entre nations s' a ecentueront d' avantage. Les pays augmenteront constamment leurs armements; le guerre, puts la certitude d'une autre guerre mondiale an-goisseront de plus en plus les esprits. L'unit6 du genre humain est le premier fondement de toutes les vertus."
Ainsi parla 'Abdu'l-Bahá en 1912, et tout se passa comme ii 1'avait pr&lit. Mais ces paroles n'ont pas viejili; elles pourraient, sans le moindre changement, gtre r6p6t&s en 1933. Aujourd'hui, comme ii y a vingt ans, la menace de la guerre est de nouveau suspendue au-dessus de nos t&es et les causes de haines et de conflits s'accum-ulent & tel point que, s'il existe vrairnent un flux et un reflux des id6es, on peut presque conclure, avec une certaine dose d'optimisme, que nous n' avons jamais ~t6 si pr~s de venir aux id~es de coop6ration qui, seules, peuvent nous sauver.
(Excerpt from a letter dated October 29, 1934.)Malgr6 les tristesses de notre 6poque et peut4tre m&me Li cause d'elles, je reste convaincue que les id6es ~ la fois divines et humaines quf sont 1'essence du Bah&'fisme finiront par triompher, pourvu que chacun de ceux qui en comprennent 1'immense int6r& continue quoi qu'll advienne & les d~fendre et ~ les propager.
By Miss HELEN KELLER(In a personal letter written to an American Bahá'í after having read something from the Braille edition of Bahá'u'lláh and the New
Era.)The philosophy of Bahá'u'lláh deserves the best thought we can give it. I am returning the book so that other blind people who have more leisure than myself may be "shown a ray of Divinity" and their hearts be "bathed in an inundation of eternal love."
I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind thought of me, and for the inspiration which even the most cursory reading of Bahá'u'lláh's life cannot fail to impart. What nobler theme than the "good of the world and the happiness of the nations" can occupy our lives? The message of universal peace will surely prevail. It is useless to combine or conspire against an idea which has in it potency to create a new earth and a new heaven and to quicken human beings with a holy passion of service.
B~ DR. RoIcuTcrnRo MASUJIMA"The Japanese race is of rational mind. No superstition can play with it. Japan is the only country in the world where religious tolerance has always existed.
The Japanese Emperor is the patron of all religious teachings. The Bahá'í publications now form part of His Majesty's Library as accepted by the Imperial House.
"The search for truth and universal education inculcated by the Bahá'í Teachings, if soundly conducted, cannot fail to interest the Japanese mind. Baha 'ism is bound to permeate the Japanese race in a short time"
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B~ SIR FLINDERS PETHIE(In a letter to the Daiiy Sketch, London, England, December 16, 1932.)
The Bahá'í Movement of Persia should be a welcome adjunct to true Christianity; we must always remember how artificial the growth of Latin Christian ideas has been as compared with the wide and less defined beliefs native to early Christian faith.
B~ FORMER PRESIDENT MASARYK(In an audience with an American Bahá'í journalist in Praha, in 1928.)
Continue to do what you are doing, spread these principles of humanity and do not wait for the diplomats.
Diplomats alone cannot bring the peace, but it is a great thing that official people begin to speak about these universal peace principles.
Take these principles to the diplomats, to the universities and colleges and other schools, and also write about them.
It is the people who will bring the universal peace.
B~ ARCHDUCHESS ANTON OFArchduchess Anton of Austria, who before her marriage was Her Royal Highness Princess Ileana of Rumania, in an audience with Martha L. Root, June 19, 1934, in Vienna, gave the fob lowing statement for The Bahá'í World, Vol. V: "I like the Bahá'í Movement, because it reconciles all Faiths, and teaches that science is from God as well as religion, and its ideal is peace."
B~ DR. HERBERT ADAM.S(Excerpt from personal letter dated May 18, 1934.)
I have had on my desk, and have read several times, the three extracts from
'Abdu'l-Bahá'í MessageTaken together, they form an unanswerable argument and plea for the only way that the world can be made over. If we could put into effect this program, we should indeed have a new world order.
"The morals of humanity must undergo change.New remedy and solution for human problems must be adopted. Human intellects themselves must change and be subject to the universal reformation." In these three sentences we really have it all.
B~ H. H. H. PRINCESS OLGA11.11.11. Princess Olga, wife of H.I1.H. Prince Regent Pam of Yugoslavia, daughter of I-J.R.H. Prince Nicholas of Greece and cousin of
His Majesty King GeorgeII of Greece, is deeply interested in religion and in education, and her wonderful kindnesses to every one have been commented upon beautifully in several English books and magazines as well as by the Balkan press.
"I like the Bahá'í Teachings for universal education and universal peace," said this gracious Princess in her charming villa on the Hill of Topeidor,
Belgrade, on January16, 1936; "I like the Baha Movement and the Young Men's Christian Association, for both are programs to unite religions. Without unity no man can live in happiness." Princess though she is, she stressed the important truth that every man must do his job!
"We are all sent into this world for a purpose and people are too apt to forget the Presence of God and true religion.
I wish the Bahá'í Movement every success in the accomplishment of its high ideals."
By EUGENE RELCISNous avons trac6 dans ces pages seulement la signification clu BahWiisme, sans examiner tous ses principes et son programme pratique dans lequel sont harrnonis&s avec 1'id6al religieux "les aspirations et les objectifs de la science sociale."
Mais on dolt attir6r 1'attention de tous les esprits libres sur ce mouve
Page 456ment, dont les promoteurs ont le m6rite d'avoir contribu6 & la clarification de 1'ancienne controverse entre la religion et la science � et d'avoir donn6 & maint hoinme un peu de leur tol6rance et de leur optimisme: "L'humanit6 &ait jusqu'ici rest6e dans le stade de 1'en-fance; elle approche maintenant de la maturit6" ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Washington, 1912).
Qui osera r6p6ter aujourd'hui, dans la m~16e des haines nationales et sociales, cette sentence de progrAs?
C'est un Oriental qui nous a dit cela, a nous, orguejileux ou sceptiques Occidentaux. Nous voudrions voir aujourd'hui, dans 1'Allemagne hitl6riste, dans les pays terroris6s par le fascisme, paralys6s par la dictature politique � un spectacle d&rit par le suisse Auguste Forel d'apr&s 1'anglais Sprague qui a vue en Birmanie et en Inde, des Bouddhistes, des
Maljom6tans, des Chr6tienset des Juifs, qul allajent bras-dessus bras-dessous, comme des fr~res, "au grand ~tonnement de la population qui n' a jamais vu une chose pareille!"
B~ ARHmR HENDERSONBahá'u'lláh. There are modern saviors and Bahá'u'lláh is a Savior of the twentieth century. Everything must be done on a democratic basis, there must be international brotherhood. We must learn to have confidence in ourselves and then in others. One way to learn this is through inner spiritual education, and a way to attain such an education may be through
Bah4'iism.I am still of the opinion that I had four years ago that the Bahá'í Movement can form the best basis for international goodwill, and that Bahá'u'lláh I-Iimself is the Creator of an eternal bond between the East and the West.
The Bahá'í Teaching is a living religion, a living philosophy. I I do not blame Christianity, it has done a good work for culture in Europe, but there are too many dogmas in Christianity at the present time.
Buddhism was very good for India from the sixth century B.C. and the Teachings of Christ have been good for the whole world; but as there is a progress of mind there must be no stopping and in the Bahá'í Faith one sees the continued progress of religion.
(Excerpt from a letter dated January 26, 1935.)I have read the pamphlet on the New World Order by Shoghi Effendi. It is an eloquent expression of the doctrines which I have always associated with the Bahá'í Movement and I would like to express my great sympathy with the aspirations towards world unity which underlie his teaching.
B~ PROF. DR. V. LESNY The conditions are so changed now, since the technique of the present time has destr6yed the barriers between nations, that the world needs a uniting force, a kind of super-religion. I think BahA'iism could develop to such a kind of religion. I am quite convinced of it, so far as I know the Teachings of fly PRINCESS MARIE ANTOINETTE
DE BROOLTE AUSSENACA cette ~poque oi~i 1'humanit6 semble sortie d'un long sommeil pour revivre & 1'Esprit, consciemment on incon-sciemment, 1'homme cherche et s'61-ance A la poursuite de 1'invisible et de sciences qui nous y conduisent.
L'angoisse religleuse aussi n'a jamais 4t6 plus intense.
Par sa grande 6volution 1'hornnrie actuel est pr& A recevoir le grand message de Bahá'u'lláh dans son mouvement synth6tique qui nous fait passer de 1'ancienne compr6hension des divisions 4 la compr6hens ion modern oft nous cherchons 4 suivre les ondes qui se propagent traversant toute limitation humaine et de la cr6ation.
Chaque combat que nous livrons & ins penchants nous d6gage des voiles qui s6parent le monde visible du monde
Page 457REFERENCES TO THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH 457
invisible et augmente en nous cette capacit6 de perception et tie s'accorder aux longueurs d'ondes les plus vari~es, de vibrer au contact des rythmes les plus divers de la cr6ation.
Tout ce qui nous vient directement de Ia nature est toujours harmonie absolue. Le tout est de capter 1'6quilibre de toute chose et lui donner la voix au moyen d'un instrument capable d'6mettre les m~mes harmonies que notre &me, ce qui nous fait vibrer et devenir le lien entre le pass6 et 1'avenir en attaignant une nouvelle 6tape correspondant ?t 1'6volution du monde.
En religion, la Cause de Bahá'u'lláh, qul est la grande r6v~1ation de notre 6poque, est la m~me que celle du Christ, son temple et son fondement les m~mes mis en harmonie avec le degr6 de maturit6 moderne.
B~ DAVID STARR JORDAN'Abdu'l-Bahá will surely unite the East and the West: for He treads the mystic way with practical feet.
B~ PROF. BOODAN ParovITcHThe Bahá'í Teaching carries in its Message a fine optimism � we must air ways in spite of everything be optimists; we must be optimists even when events seem to prove the contrary!
And Bahá'ís can be hopeful, for there is a power in these Teachings to bring to humanity tranquillity, peace and a higher spirituality.
Bx' EX-GOVERNOR WILLIAMbanished. The friends of the Bahá'í Cause believe they see the dawn of the new day � the better day � the day of Truth, of Justice, of Liberty, of Magnanimity, of Universal Peace, and of International Brotherhood, the day when one shall work for all, and all shall work for one.
B~ Ltrrrnrsi BUREANKI am heartily in accord with the Bahá'í Movement, in *hich I have been interested for several years. The religion of peace is the religion we need and always have needed, and in this Bahá'í is more truly the religion of peace than any other.
B~ PROF. YONE NoGUCI-nI have heard so much about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, whom people call an idealist, but I should like to call Him a realist, because no idealism, when it is strong and true, exists without the endorsement of realism. There is nothing more real than His words on truth. His words are as simple as the sunlight; again like the sunlight, they are universal.
No Teacher, I think, is more important today than 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
B~ PROFESSOR RAYMOND FRANKare a stirring fusion of poetic beauty and religious insight. I, like another, have been "struck by their comprehensiveness." I find they have extraordinary power to pull aside the veils that darken my mind and to open new visions of verity and life.
(Excerpt from the Roycroftover creeds, the Bahá'í Movement goes on apace. One reason I hail with It is growing by leaps thanksgiving the interpretation and bounds. It is hope of religion known as the and progress. It is a Bahá'í Faith and feel world movement � and it so deep a kinship with is destined to spread its followers is that its effulgent rays of I recognize in its Revelation enlightenment throughout an outreach of the Divine the earth until every to stumbling humanity; mind is free and every a fear is
Page 458veritable thrust from the radiant Center of Life.
Every follower of this faith that I have ever met impressed me as a living witness to the glory at the heart of this universe. Each one seemed filled with a splendor of spirit so great that it overflowed all boundaries and poured itself out upon the world here in this moment of time, by some concentrated act of love toward another human being.
By ARTHUR MOOREThe lovely peace of Carmel, which still attracts mystics of different faiths, dominates Haifa. On its summit are the Druses in their two villages; at its feet the German Ten-iplars, whose avenue leads up to the now large and beautiful terraced property of the Persian Bahá'ís on the mountainside. Here the tombs of the Báb and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, set in a fair garden, are a place of international pilgrimage.
On Sundays and holidays the citizens of Haifa of all faiths come for rest and recreation where lie the bones of that young prophet of ShirAz who nearly a hundred years ago preached that all men are one and all the great religions true, and foretold the coming equality of men and women and the birth of the first League of Nations.
B~ PROF. Ds. JAN RYPKA The Bahá'ís of Persia are resolutely firm in their religion. Their firmness does not have its roots in ignorance. The Persian inborn character causes them to see things somewhat too great, slightly exaggerated, and their dissensions with the ruling Isl4m make them a little bitter towards it. Everything else in their characters is accounted for as due to their Teachings; they are wonderfully ready to help and happy to sacrifice.
Faithfully they fulfill their office and professional duties. Long ago they already solved the problem of the Eastern woman; their children are carefully educated. They are sometimes reproached for their lack of patriotism.
triotism. Certainly, as specifically Persian as the Shi'ih Faith, the Bahá'í Faith can never become; but the Bahá'í Religion like Christianity does not preclude the love of one's fatherland.
Are the Europeans not sufficiently patriotic! According to my experiences, the Bahá'ís in that respect, are very unjustly criticized by their Muhammadan brothers. During the centuries the Shf'ih Religion, has developed a deep national tradition; with this the universal Bahá'í Faith will have a hard battle.
Nevertheless, the lack of so great numbers is richly recompensed by the fervor and the inner spirit of the Persian Baha Community.
The Bahá'í world community will educate characters which will appear well worthy of emulation by people of other Faiths, yes, even by the world of those now enemies of the Bahá'í Cause.
The experience acquired in the West, for me was fully verified also in the Persian Orient. The Bahá'í Faith is undoubtedly an immense cultural value. Could all those men whose high moraL ity I admired and still admire have reached the same heights only in another way, without it? No, never! Is it based only on the novelty of the Teachings, and in the freshness of its closest followers?
B~ A. L. M. NICOLAS Je ne sais comment vous remercier ni comment vous exprimer la joje qul inonde mon coeur. Ainsi done, ii faut non seulement admettre mais aimer et admirer le Bab. Pauvre grand Proph~te n6 au fin fond de la Perse sans aucun moyen d'instruction et qui seul au monde, entour6 d'enriemis, arrive par la force de son g6nie ~ cr&r une religion universelle et sage. Que Bahá'u'lláh lui ait, par la suite, suc-c~d6, soit, mais je veux qu'on admire la suhlimit6 du Bab, qui a d'ailleurs pay6 de sa vie, de son sang la r4forme qu'il a pr6ch6e.
Citez-moi un autre ex-emple.sembiable. Enfin, je puis mourir tranquille. Gloire A Shoghi Effendi qui a calm6 mon tourment et mes inqui6tudes, gloire & lui qui recon
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nais la valeur de Siyyid 'Ali-Muliam-mad dit leJe SUiS si content que je baise vos mains qui out trac6 mon adresse sur 1'enveloppe qui rn'aplJorte le message de Shoghi.
Merci, Mademoiselle.fly PRESIDENT EDUARD BENE~ I have followed it (the Bahá'í Cause) with deep interest ever since my trip to London to the First Races Congress in July, 1911, when II heard for the first time of the Bahá'í Movement and its summary of the principles for peace. I followed it during the war and after the war.
The Bahá'í Teaching is one of the spiritual forces now absolutely necessary to put the spirit first in this battle against material forces. The Bahá'í Teaching is one of the great instruments for the final victory of the spirit and of humanity.
The Baha Cause is one of the great moral and social forces in all the world today. I am more convinced than ever with the increasing moral and political crises in the world, we must have greater international coordination. Such a movement as the Baha Cause which paves the way for universal organization of peace is necessary.
B~ SIR RONALD STORRS, N.y.C., M.G., C.B.E. I met 'Abdu'l-Bahá first in 1900, on my way out from England and Constantinople through Syria to succeed Harry
Boyle as Oriental Secretaryto the British Agency in Cairo. (The episode is fully treated in my Orientations, published by Ivor Nicholson and Watson.)
I drove along the beach in a cab from Haifa to 'Akka and spent a very pleasant hour with the patient but unsubdued prisoner and exile.
When, a few years later, He was released and visited Egypt I had the honour of looking after Him and of presenting Him to Lord Kitchener who was deeply impressed by His personality, as who could fail to be? The war separated us again until Lord Allenby, after his triumphant drive through Syria, sent me to establish the Government at Haifa and throughout that district. I called upon 'Abbas Effendi on the day I arrived and was delighted to find Him unchanged.
I never failed to visit Him whenever I went to Haifa. His conversation was indeed a remarkable planning, like that of an ancient prophet, far above the perplexities and pettiness of Palestine politics, and elevating all problems into first principles.
He was kind enough to give me one or two beautiful specimens of His own handwriting, together with that of Mishkin-Qalam, all of which, together with His large signed photograph, were unfortunately burned in the Cyprus fire.
I rendered my last sad tribute of affectionate homage when in 1921 I accompanied Sir Herbert Samuel to the funeral of 'Abbas Effendi. We walked at the head of a train of all religions up the slope of Mount Carmel, and I have never known a more united expression of regret and respect than was called forth by the utter simplicity of the ceremony.
(From an address delivered at the opening of theMy first connection with the Baha Faith dates from the beginning of this century, when it was my fortune and honour to become the Arabic pupil of Edward Browne.
My first glimpse of 'Abbas Effendi was in the summer of 1909, when I drove round the Bay of Acre in an Arab cab, visited him in the barracks and marvelled at his serenity and cheerfulness after 42 years of exile and imprisonment. I kept touch with him through my confidential agent, Husayn Bey Ruhi, son of a Tabriz martyr, and the "Persian Mystic" of my book Orientations.
After the Young Turk Revolution, 'AbbasEgypt in 1913, when I had the honour of looking after him, and of presenting him to Lord Kitchener, who was deeply impressed by his personality � as who could fail to be? Then war cut him off from us and it might have gone hard with him in Haifa but for the indirect interposition of His Majesty's Government.
When, in his famous victory drive to the North, Allenby captured Haifa, he detached me from Jerusalem to organize the British Administration there.
On the evening of my arrival I visited my revered friend. "I found him sitting in spotless white. He placed at my disposal the training and talents of his community, and I appointed one or two to positions of trust, which they still cqntinue to deserve." Later, he visited me in Jerusalem, and was held in great esteem and respect by the High Commissioner, Lord Samuel. In Egypt he presented me with a beautiful specimen of writing by the celebrated Bahá'í calligraphist, Mishkin Qalam, and with his own Persian pen box; in Palestine with an exquisite little Bokkara rug from the tomb of the ETh: all three, alas, destroyed by fire in Cyprus. When, on November 29, 1921, he was buried, 10,000 men, women and children, of many varying races and creeds, walked in the funeral procession up Mount Carmel, to lay his body in the exquisite cypress-avenued shrine.
Telegrams reached HaifaMr. Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, desired the High Commissioner for Palestine to convey to the Bahá'í Community on behalf of His Majesty's Government their sympathy and condolence on the death of Sir 'Abdu'l-Bahá 'Abbas, K.B.E., and Field
Marshal Lord AllenbyI have not lost contact with the Baha world, and I hope I never shall.
Recently I had the honour of receiving at the British Legation in Tihr&n, a deputation of the Baha Community, headed by Samimi, the respected Chief Munshi of the Legation, and Varga, President of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Persia. LaterI was received by the Council at a tea, so sumptuous that the remembrance adds a sting to my British Ration Card. My diary of April 5, 1943, at ShiNtz tells me: "After luncheon, off to visit the House of the Bib, leaving the car for the narrow winding streets, and shown over by Fazlullah Benana and the curator. A small but perfect courtyard, with a little blue tiled, eight feet square tank, six large red goldfish, a tiny orange tree and runner carpets round the sides, and a narow deep well. Above, His bed and His sitting rooms (for which our hosts took off their shoes), and on the second floor the room in which in 1844 He declared His mission, to a solitary disciple."
What can I say more? Half a century ago the great Dr. Jowett, of Bat-hal, wrote: "This is the greatest light the world has seen since Christ, but it is too great and too close for the world to appreciate its full import." Already over many parts of the globe there are Bahá'ís actively, honourably, peaceably employed.
May this auspicious centenary prove propitious also for the early restoration of world peace.
B~ Cor.. RAJA JAZ Piwrnvt BAHADUR SXNGH, RAJA or
BAHÁ'Í (NEPAL)Even as early as 1929 or perhaps even a little earlier, I used to hear the names of Bahá'u'lláh and Bah&'iism; and in 1929 when I undertook a lecturing tour in Europe on the humanistic methods of promoting peace and unity among races, nations and individuals, my attention was once again drawn to Bahá'u'lláh and his teachings by my friend Lady Blomfield, who gave me some books, too, on the subject. But my eyes were then too weak to permit any reading, and the need and urgency of some expert treatment for my eyes was in fact an additional reason for my leaving for Europe.
Besides, I was then too full of my own philosophy of "Hu-manism," and was too busy with my
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own programme of lectures for Europe, and did not acquaint myself with any full details about the Bahá'ís and their tenets and principles. Perhaps, I imagined that the Bahá'ís were some sort of religious or philosophical mystics, and I was not particularly interested in any mere mysticism or in any merely theoretical creed, however much its conclusions might be logical and satisfying to the intellect.
When afterwards, in 1933, the Second Parliament of Religions or the World Fellowship of Faiths was held in Chicago � a conference inspired by the high ideals of mutual understanding, goodwill, cooperation and peace and progress, and I went there to attend and participate in the conference, my attention was again drawn to the Bahá'í Faith by some of its followers there, who took me to their temple at Wilmette, Illinois, which was then under construction, but was nearly finished, and showed me the nine gates and chambers of worship for the nine principal religions of the world.
Naturally enough, I took it that Bah4'iism was something like theosophy, which is interested in studying and comparing the respective merits of religions and in recognising their respective greatness, and which can therefore appeal only to the intellectual section of mankind and hardly appeal to the masses.
Later, in 1936, however, while I was in Rangoon, I had an opportunity, rather, the opportunity was thrust upon me � to acquaint myself more fully with the tenets and teachings of Bah&'iism. Mr. S. Schopflocher, a Baha from Canada, who was on a lecturing tour, was then in Rangoon, and I was asked to in-traduce him to the public and to preside over a lecture of his. Therefore I secured a few books on the subject, and on reading them, I was struck with the remarkable fact that Bah&'iism is a faith, which not merely recognises the respective merits of the world religions, but goes a step further and teaches that all religions are One, all the religious seers, saints and prophets are the religious seers, saints and prophets of One religion only, that all mankind is One, and that we must think and feel and act in terms of brotherhood.
"Wemust realise," as a Bahá'í very beautifully puts it, "that, as the aeroplane, radio and other instruments have crossed the frontiers drawn upon the map, so our sympathy and spirit of oneness should rise above the influences that have separated race from race, class from class, nation from nation and creed from creed. One destiny now controls all human affairs. The fact of world-unity stands out above all other interests and considerations."
Sometime back, in this year, Mr. N. R. Vakil, a Bahá'í gentleman of Su-rat, gave me a copy of the book, The Bahá'í
World: 19361938. ThoughI have not been able to read the whole book through, I find it is a mine of information, a regular cyclopaedia on the subject.
It is interesting to read that the origin of the faith was in Persia, where a mystic prophet who took the name of "B~b" (which means "gate") began the mission among the Persians in the early part of the nineteenth century, that he and his disciples were persecuted by the Persian Government and were finally shot in 1850, that, notwithstanding the persecution, the movement spread under the able and inspiring leadership of Bahá'u'lláh, its principal prophet and exponent, that on his death in 1892 he was succeeded by his son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who continued the work till 1921, when, on his death, his grandson, Shoghi Effendi, became the head of the community � a community now numbering nearly a million and spread in all the five continents of the world.
Though the traditionally orthodox Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc., may not agree to call themselves Bahá'ís or even to subscribe to its main tenet, viz., that all religions are One, I think that the really enlightened among them can have no conscientious objection and will indeed wholeheartedly subscribe to it. Another important aspect of the Bahá'í Faith is its absolutely non-po-litical nature. In the Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh Shoghi Effendi categorically rules out any participation by adherents of the Faith, either individually or collectively, in any form of activity which might be interpreted as an interference in the political affairs of any particular government.
So thatno government need apprehend any sort of danger or trouble from Bah~i'iism.
On the whole, the perusal of the Book The Bahá'í World: 19361938 has deeply impressed me with the belief that the principles of Bah4'iism, laying stress as they do on the Oneness of mankind, and being directed as they are towards the maintenance of peace, unity and cooperation among the different classes, creeds and races of people, will go a long way in producing a healthy atmosphere in the world for the growth of
Fellowship and Brotherhoodof Man. Further, I see no harm in the followers of other faiths accepting these main principles of BahWfism, wherein, I think, they can find nothing against the teachings of their own prophets, saints and seers. I rather think that by accepting these main principles of Bah4'iism they will help in hastening the establishment of a New World Order, an idea perhaps first clearly conceived by Bahá'u'lláh and which every thinking man will now endorse as a ''consummation to be devoutly wished for."
AN ARTICLE IN THE JANUARYAND IRELAND � The death of 'Abbas Effendi, better known since he succeeded his father Bahá'u'lláh, thirty years ago as 'Abdu'l-Bahá, deprives Persia of one of the most notable of her children and the East of a remarkable personality, who has probably exercised a greater influence not only in the Orient but in the Occident, than any Asiatic thinker and teacher of recent times. The best account of him in English is that published in 1903 by G. P. Putnam's Sons under the title of the Life and Teachings of 'Abbas Effendi compiled by Myron H. Phelps chiefly from information supplied by Bahá'í KhAnum. She states that her brother's birth almost coincided with the "mani-festation" of Mirza 'All Muhammad the flAb (24th May, 1844), and that she was his junior by three years. Both dates are put three years earlier by another reputable authority, but in any case both brother and sister were mere chit. dren when, after the great persecution of the BThis in 1852 their father Bahá'u'lláh and his family were exiled from Persia, first to Baghdad (185263) then to Adrianople (18638), and lastly to 'Akka (St. Jean d'Acre) in Syria, where Bahá'u'lláh died on 28th May, 1892, and which his son 'Abdu'l-Bahá was only permitted to leave at will after the Turkish
Revolution in 1908. Subsequentlyto that date he undertook several extensive journeys in Europe and America, visiting London and Paris in 1911, America in 1912, Budapest in 1913, and Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Budapest in the early summer of 1914. In all these countries he had followers, but chiefly in America, where an active propaganda had been carried on since 1893 with very considerable success, resulting in the formation of important Bahá'í Centers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities.
One of the most notable practical results of the Bahá'í ethical teaching in the United States has been, according to the recent testimony of an impartial and qualified observer, the establishment in Baha circles in New York of a real fraternity between black and white, and an unprecedented lifting of the "color bar," described by the said observer as "almost miraculous."
Ample materials exist even in English for the study of the remarkable personality who has now passed from our midst and of the doctrines he taught; and especially authoritative are the works of M. Hippolyte Dreyfus and his wife (formerly Miss Laura Clifford Barney), who combine intimacy and sympathy with their hero with sound knowledge and wide experience. In their works and in that of Mr. Myron H. Phelps must be sought those particulars which it is impossible to in-elude in this brief obituary notice.
B~ RT. HON M. JR. JAYAKAH,Bah4'iism insists on points which constitute the essentials of the several creeds and faiths which have divided
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and still divide the human family. It seeks thereby to establish human unity.
It inculcates pursuit of truth through the miasma of superstitions old and new.
These features ought to secure for Bah&'fism an enduring place in the religions of the world.
It is one of the noblest contributions which Asia ha~s made to human civilization.
The history of its martyrdom in Tihrhn is a glorious chapter, indicating how much suffering the awakened human spirit can endure for the sake of its convictions. In the world as one sees it today, divided and torn asunder by warring ambitions, BahWiism has undoubtedly a great part to play.
B~ PROF. BENOY KTIMAR SARKAR, M.A., Ph.D. For aver a quarter of a century, � since my American days, � I have been under the conviction that the Bahá'í movement serves to expand the intellectual and moral personality of every individual that comes into contact with it. The movement has set in motion some of those currents of thought and work which lead to the silent but effective conversion of men and women to humaner and world-embracing principles of daily conduct. Because of these creative forces in the social domain the Bahá'í movement is to be appreciated as one of the profoundest emancipators of mankind from the tradition of race-chauvinism and ethno-religious bigotry.
With best wishes and greetings, I remain, Cordially Yours,
Benoy Sarkar.(Hyderabad, Deccan, February 1, 1941.) The founder of the Bahá'í Faith is undoubtedly one of the Great Seers of the Modern Age. The Gospel that he enunciated and the programme that he enjoined upon his followers are singularly like a prophecy of the ideal and dream that inspire the heart of youth with (the) quest for a brave new world built upon equity, fellowship and peace.
In the midst of all the tragic horror of hate and bloodshed that surround us today, his message to humanity does indeed fulfill the meaning of his name, and carries the "glory of God" into the darkness.
B~ Jur.rs BarsMirza 'All-Muhammad, the ETh, or the portal of a new wisdom, � a young man, brave, handsome, and tempered like a steel blade, the finest product of his country.
This new Alexander, "the beloved of the worlds," subjugator of souls, died in 1850 at the age of thirty-one, having shed no blood but his own, a martyr of spotless love, of universal charity.
The BThis, his partisans, were "be-headed, hanged, blown from the mouth of cannons, burnt, or chopped to pieces." Their homes were burned, their womenfolk carried off or executed.
Still the movement progressed. Scarcely had the BTh's mission begun, � he was allowed a bare two years of preaching, � when he was cast into prison, questioned, bastinadoed, disfigured, then tried for heresy before a clerical court, and finally put to death.
The Báb was led to the scaffold at Tabriz with a young devotee who had implored to share his fate. About two hours before noon the two were suspended by ropes, under their armpits, in such a manner that the head of the disciple rested against the breast of his beloved master. Armenian soldiers received the order to fire; but when the smoke cleared, the Bit and his companion were found to be unscathed.
The bullets had merely severed the ropes by which they were suspended. Amazed by what they considered a miracle, the soldiers were unwilling to fire again. They were replaced by a more docile squad, and this time the volley took effect. The bodies of both victims were riddled by bullets and horribly mutilated, but their
Page 464faces, spared by a strange caprice of destiny, bore an expression of radiant transfiguration.
All Europe was stirred to pity and indignation.The event occurred on the ninth of July, 1850; among the "litter-ateurs" of my generation, in the Paris of 1890, the martrydom of the BTh was still as fresh a topic as had been the first news of his death. We wrote poems about him.
Sarah Bernhardt entreated CatulleMend~s for a play on the theme of this historic tragedy. When he failed to supply a manuscript, I was asked to write a drama entitled "Her Highness the Pure," dealing with the story of another illustrious martyr of the same cause, � a woman, Qurratu'1-'Ayn, the Persian Joan of Arc and the leader of emancipation for women of the Orient.
Her case was unique. Had it been admissible for a woman to be a Mahdi, or a "Point," Qurratu'1-'Ayn, � who bore resemblance to the mediaeval H6loYse and the neoplatonic Hypatia, � would have been recognized as the equal of the Bit. Such virile courage and power did she inherit that all who saw and heard her were uplifted to a new understanding of the mission of her sex. A poetess, philosopher, linguist, and theologian, an early convert of the Báb, she threw aside her veil, despite the immemorial custom of Asia, carried on controversies with the most learned scholars of her country, discomfited them, and won recognition as their master. Imprisoned, anathematized, driven from town to town, stoned in the streets, she defied, singlehanded, a ShAh who "through his decree could slaughter a thousand men each day," � and often did so. To her executioners she said, "You may kill me as soon as you please, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women." Then, having donned her choicest robes, as if to join a bridal party, she was dragged into a garden and strangled by a negro.
The Báb had exhorted the people to purify themselves that they night welcome the Divine Sun, of whom he was the Radiant Morn.
When the Báb declared his mission in 1844,young man of twenty-sew en, the son of a vizier, and of royal descent, boldly espoused the perilous cause.
Prison and exile soon became his portion. Scenes were enacted during this period which recall the Terror in France, with its horrors and its hero-Is m. Baha'is, previously members of antagonistic sects, have manifested toward everyone, even their enemies, a spirit of help and amity. We can only be glad that persecutions have diminished and that a gentle and ennobling influence has regenerated the Orient, from Syria to Burma. It is quite possible that BahA'iism has a mission to pacify and spiritually quicken races and tribes which we have so far been unable to evangelize.
By the late Sm JOHN MARTIN HARVEY, D. Litt.You honour me with a request that I should add my small brick to the exalted edifice of the Bahá'í teaching. Its happy creed so passionately urged and so convincingly stated is an inspiration to all who work and who, in the words of Kipling, have realised the significance of "No one shall work for money and no one shall work for fame, but all for the joy of the working."
I would like to add my conviction to your teaching that "absolute equality is a chimera" which, socially, is entirely impracticable.
It has become a slogan to many workers, reliance upon which will only lead to a cruel disillusionment. The only "equality" is that which any man may attain by being prominent in his work. It has been truly said that "every man can do some one thing better than any other man." So let our ambition be, no matter how humble our work may appear, to be of the aristocracy of work. And it to "work is to pray" may not this noble ambition to be among the elect of the workers of the world, bring us by steps to the dream of your great Teacher of a Great Universal Peace, against which if any government among you take up arms to destroy that peace, "the whole
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human race," he tells, "shall resolve with every power at its disposal to destroy."
B~ Dn. HEWLETT JOHNSON,I read with interest the social programme of your movement demonstrating the best education for everyone, equal status for men and women and the like and also your encouragement of scientific research and emphasis on the need for a World Commonwealth, together with the oneness of mankind.
I am in complete agreement with those aims and wish you well in the pursuit of them.
From A Study of History"The Bahá'u'lláh sect has been excommunicated by the Im&mi Muj-tahids and been evicted from its Iranian homeland; but it is already apparent that these bitter experiences of persecution and expatriation have served this infant religion in good stead; for it has thereby been driven into looking beyond the Mediterranean and the Atlantic for new worlds to conquer in the strength of a principle (Non-Violence) which is apt to work as an 'open sesame' for any missionary religion that has the faith to embrace it." Statement by Sm RAMAS WAMI MUDALIAR, K. C .S. I.
President, Economic Social"It was in San Francisco in 1945 that I first had the privilege of meeting the followers of the Bahá'í Faith and learning something of the teachings of their great Prophet. I had spoken at the Plenary Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, and had pointed out that it was not the mdc pendence of the nations, but their interdependence that had to be emphasized and constantly kept in view.
The distinctions of Race and Religion, of coLour and creed, are but superficial; the welfare of one part of the world cannot be sustained if other areas are depressed. The War had illustrated most forcibly the indivisibility of human happiness and human misery. It had, in fact, taught us that there was only one undivided world and that we are the children of one God.
A little group of Bahá'ís who were at the conference and met me after wards, congratulated me on having given expression on that world platform to some of the beliefs that they held dear. That is how I became acquainted with and soon deeply interested in the lBahá'í Faith. I have since had the privilege of meeting Bahá'ís in various centres in India, Europe and America. I have a very happy and lively recollection of my visit to Wil-mette, Illinois, where I was taken round the "Temple of Light" � the Bahá'í Temple � a beautiful and inspiring structure, which in its very architecture, with its nine sides dedicated to the nine great religions of the world, emphasizes the universality of all religions.
'You are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch', says the Prophet. Again and again I have come across such sayings which have forcibly reminded me of the teachings of the Vedas. 'Whenever virtue subsides and vice triumphs, then am I reborn to redeem mankind', says the Divine in the Gita. The Bahá'í Faith remarkably speaks not of one Prophet for all time, but of a succession of prophets as Divine dispensation sees the need for them.
In fact, the Bahá'í Faith gives us the great and previous message of unity in religion. The Bahá'ís do not form a sect by themselves. Rather, through the teachings of their Prophet, they try to illumine the eternal verities of every religion and to quicken the noble impulses of the true followers of every religion with the spirit of catholicity and fraternalism. How much the world needs such a spirit today
Page 466How far we are from that one far off divine event to which the whole creation is destined to move the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.
Perhaps the Bahá'í Faithis destined to be, and may prove, the greatest single force in achieving that Godly consecrated consummation
B~ BHAGAVAN DASI understand that a public meeting will be held in Benares for the celebration of the 105th Anniversary of the Declaration of the B&b, i. e. Gateway, the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, father of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Bahá'u'lláh is the prophet of the IViovement now known in all the countries of the world as the Bahá'í Faith. From such literature of the Movement as I have come across and read, and from conversations I have had with members of the Movement who have kindly come to see me, I have acquired a great admiration for it. One of its twelve principal items of belief is that the essentials of all religions are one. This belief is very dear to my heart and I have en-deavoured to propound it at length in my book "The Essential
Unity of All Religions"supporting it with some 1400 (fourteen hundred) texts of the Sacred Scriptures of eleven living great religions, quoted in original with English translation.
I wish with all my heart every success for this philanthropic and spiritual Movement.
� Bhagavan DasMany thanks for your kind gift of Bahá'í Literature.
Today I got the package, and I have been sitting almost the whole day absorbed in the perusal of this new "Gos-pel," which contains so much of eternal truth, of wonderful beauty and comfort.
Truly I have never heard anything about this new form for a World Religion, which really permits the human thought and scientific discoveries to have their rights, and at the same time speak a simple language of the heart.
It is truly noteworthy how all the great Religions meet in agreement on all essential points. How very near all this seem to be the last great movement, the New-Platonism, you might discover, if you could get hold of some of those writings.
My old kolleg, professor Gunnar Rudberg, now in Uppsala, has translated some choice selections in Swedish, "Plotinus, the Mystic and the Reformer"
(Stockholmyou may be able to get the loan of it. From this we learn how every living thing, all worlds are bound together in sympathy, that the "reality of goodness" is the birthright of all. The old stoics had seen far, when they claimed that all mankind formed a unity, that we all were brothers, that we all aimed towards the same goal. The great wonder of it is, that the plain and great truths have been proclaimed by the very best of men at different times, perhaps with growing clearness, as humanity grows into age on this planet. It is a sign of that it must be "truths," since the best of men time and again discover them.
Bahá'u'lláh is undoubtedly one of these "good" Prophets.
With renewed thanks, and the best wishes for theof the Bahá'ís of Chicago Mrs. Fannie Lesch came into the Bahá'í Faith in 1896. When quite young she married a very promising young lawyer, Mr. Frank Collier. The couple had one son, Mr. John Collier.
Later, being widowed, she met through her Bahá'í associations, Mr. George Lesch, whom she married in 1898. Mr. Lesch was the brother of Miss Mary Lesch, deceased, and Mrs. Rose C. Robinson of Chicago.
As her husband, Mr. George Lesch, was secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of Chicago from its inception � it was known first as the Council Board, then the House of Justice, and later the
House of Spirituality � FannyLesch made typewritten reports of the minutes of the meetings, which were sent to 'Abdu'l-Bahá at 'Akka, and copies were preserved in what became the nucleus of the Bahá'í Archives. These are priceless historic documents of the Faith, not only in Chicago, but in the Western World. She was the first to make typewritten copies of the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, from the original Persian and Arabic, and shared them with the friends.
She also made copies of the talks of Mirza Abu'1-Fadl, the great oriental scholar and disciple of Bahá'u'lláh, sent by 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í to America to enlighten and strengthen the earlier believers. Through the compilation of these records of the Tablets and talks, was established the Publishing Society, now known as the Publishing Committee, through which Bahá'í literature is being published and distributed to all points of Bahá'í activity throughout the world.
Fanny Lesch'Abdu'l-Bahá gave His Unity Feast for the friends of Chicago at the home of Fannie Lesch. She started the first of those meetings, now called firesides, in her home. 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave her instructions to have them on a regular day each week, at the same hour. Her beginning was with one soul, and in due time grew to great proportions. She continued these meetings for forty years.
Mrs. Fannie Lesch served the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh into her eighty-eighth year, passing into the Abh& Kingdom, February 22,
1948. The Spiritual AssemblyService for their departed sister, at the request of her son, Mr. 469
Page 470John Collier, April 23, 1948 at the Jordan Chapel in Chicago. Mr. Albert Win-dust, a member of the Chicago Spiritual Assembly, was requested to conduct the service.
Selections from the Words of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, appropriate to the occasion, were read. No note of sadness was sounded, and the spirit manifested by the assembled guests was one of rejoicing that our beloved sister had ascended to the mansions of the Most Glorious.
A Cablegram from our beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, was received, which read: "Deeply symphathize loss loyal distinguished maidservant Bahá'u'lláh, Fannie Lesch.
Present with you in spirit memorial services. Praying ardently progress her soul Abhh Kingdom . � Shoghi"
WALTER OLITZKItake pleasure in presenting a recital by Walter Olitzki,
Metropolitan Opera BaritoneOpera Company. At the piano: Ludwig Altman, official
Organist of the San Francisco SymphonyOrchestra ." "Under the auspices of the Public Meetings Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís ." "The Bahá'ís of Allentown request the honor of your presence
." "The Bahá'ís of Losinvites ." "The Bahá'ís of Syracuse present 2' "Un-der the auspices of the Bahá'ís of Washington, D.C. ." "Under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
These quotations are taken from a handful of programs, typical of many more, souvenirs of many audiences and thousands of inquirers that Walter Olitzki's name drew to the Bahá'í Faith.
Walter Olitzki did not only sing for people, he awakened their minds and hearts. He was among those rare creative personalities who dedicate their art to something that transcends it: his voice was his contribution to world peace.
Walter Olitzki was born March 17, 1899, in Hamburg, Germany, and grew up in Berlin. Both his parents were Jewish, his father of Russian, his mother of Polish descent. Both his grandfathers were wellknown cantors of orthodox congregations.
An aunt, Madame Rosa Olitzki, was a famous contralto and one time Metropolitan Opera star.
In 1936 Walter Olitzkiwas the leading baritone at the Jewish Kulturbund in
Berlin. On December 14of that year, he married Liii Maria Olitzki, whom he had met when the two were scheduled for a joint recital, and with whom he had sung at the opera in Monte Carlo and at the Jewish Kulturbund.
In June, 1939, after seemingly endless racial and religious persecutions, the couple left for the United States.
The Olitzkis reached NewLiii supported herself and her husband by sewing, working some eighty hours a week. In September, at the rooming house where they lived, they met Madelaine Humbert, who told them of Bahá'u'lláh. Walter knew no English and Liii only a little, but they understood that a great, new Prophet had come Who promised peace, and that Hitler would not invade America as was then generally feared.
On December 2, 1939, Walter made his debut at theas Beekmesser in "Die Meistersinger." His success was immediate, the critics being unanimous in their acclaim, and Olin Downes, music edi
Page 471tor of the New York Times, stating: "in details of business, diction, song, Mr. Olitzki proved himself an artist."
The couple, their way of life now changed, soon left for California where they spent the summer months studying English. When they returned for the new Opera season in October, their first concern was to look up Madelaine Humbert to learn more about the new Prophet. Through Madelaine they attended classes at the home of Mildred and
Rafi Mottahedeb, Liiitranslating for Walter, whose English was still undeveloped. What attracted him most to the Faith was, as Liii has since written, "the friendliness and the absence of discrimination to which we had been subjected for such a long time and which had been the cause of so much suffering." In March 1941, although not yet a declared Baha'i, Walter gave a recital at the
New York Bahá'í Center.That April the couple returned to California with a letter of introduction to Virginia Orbison, through whom they met many believers and attended the annual picnic held in Santa Paula. The hospitality of the friends made this one of the happiest summers of their life, and the book Portals to Freedom now laid the foundation of Walter's love for 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian. As Liii has written, "More intuitively than through studying, he felt the security for which Bahá'u'lláh has provided, the indivisibility of the Cause. ." In September 1941, at the Feast of Mashiyyat in Los Angeles, the Olitzkis became declared
Baha'is.Walter always carried with him, in his prayer book, the following letter of welcome, sent them by the Guardian: Haifa, May 4th, 1942 "Dear Bahá'í friends: Your most welcome letter of April 1st was received by the Guardian, and he has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.
He welcomes you into the worldwide Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and assures you that he will pray for you both that you may render His Cause many valuable services
Walter Olitzkiin the days to come. You have found now your true home � the Faith of God � and this is why you are so much happier than before.
The Guardian hopes you will be able to guide other souls to it, who, like yourselves, have suffered and are seeking the Light. He advised you to both study the Teachings and teach others.
The need is so great, the suffering so acute in the world today, that the Bahá'ís cannot be still, but must, in every way they can, seek to open the eyes of their fellowmen.
He sends you his loving greetings, and will remember you in the Holy Shrines.
The Guardian added, in his own hand, "May the Spirit that guides and animates this Faith be your shield and guide, and enable you to deepen your understanding of its essential verities and to proclaim far and wide its life-giving principles.
Your true brother, Shoghi."Walter Olitzki remained with the Metropolitan Opera Company for eight sea-sans, also singing with the San Francis
Page 472co Opera Company and that of San Antonio, and appearing with the Charles Wagner
Opera Production of "LaBoheme." He was best known in the United States for his portrayal of Beckmesser in "Die Meistersinger," Alberich in "Der Ring des Nibelungen," and
Klingsor in "ParsifaL"In addition he had mastered about one hundred and fifty operatic roles of the Italian, French and Russian repertory, and had appeared in these at the Municipal Opera House in Koenigsberg, East Prussia, and the Berlin State Opera. He also scored successes for his original Interpretations of such Modernists as Richard Strauss, Alban Berg,
Hindemith and Kreneck."Wozzeck" in performances conducted by the composers themselves.
He sang in five languages.Besides his operatic work, Walter Olitzki sang in numerous recitals, oratorios and radio performances in the United States and Europe. A critic wrote, "The quality of voice is never hard, always melodious, with a rare richness.
From the day he accepted the Faith, Walter gave the Message wherever he went. Whether he was singing to the hundreds of persons he attracted to Green Acre, Maine, Bahá'í School; or in Harlem, at a Bah&'i-sponsored benefit for the United Negro College Fund; or at the New York Times
Hall for a Bahá'í Peaceor in Chicago at the great Bahá'í Centenary Banquet, or to a large public audience at the Bahá'í House of Worship itself � his purpose was always the same: to further the oneness of mankind.
Everyone knew he was a Baha. He wrote about the Cause to all his friends � in Sweden, Holland, England,
Palestine. Travelingthroughout the United States on concert tours, he invariably met the Bahá'ís and spoke and sang for them.
On a tour through the South, he stayed overnight on the campuses of all the Negro Colleges which he visited, and in each one taught the Faith.
When he returned home his agent assured him that because he had remained in these institutions overnight, he would never be permitted to sing in any of the white colleges of the South. Walter answered: ''That's too bad for them.~1
He loved Negro Spiritualsand always included them on his programs. Critics praised the rare simplicity of manner and purity of feeling of these renditions.
In addition to traveling, teaching, and contributing freely of his voice, Walter served on many Bahá'í administrative agencies, such as the New York Regional,
New York Bahá'í LibraryOn this last committee he collected, made up and personally mailed packages to Europe over a period of years.
Walter Olitzki was invited to sing at the Bahá'í House of Worship for the Convention of 1948.
He regarded this evening as the highlight of his life. It took place during his last, happy year on earth, a year when, Liii said afterward, all his dreams were realized.
Oh, as his intimates called him, was temperrnental: before singing that night, he could speak to no one except Liii. As he paced the corridor outside the auditorium, he gestured to Liii. She conferred with him and then relayed his request to the speaker of the evening: He desired the speaker to include some element from the Biblical song he was about to sing. The following line was accordingly incorporated into the talk: "This is the generation of them that seek the Lord."
The last time Walter sang at the Opera House inin "Die Meistersinger" � seventeen of his Bahá'í friends were in the capacity audience. The last time he sang for the Bahá'ís was on the Birthday of Bahá'u'lláh at the Los
Angeles Bahá'í Centerin 1948. On this occasion he sang the prayer, admirably set to music, at Walter's request, by Charles Wolcott; "From the sweet-scented streams of Thine eternity give me to drink, 0 my
GodHe was ill of cancer seven and a half months. Much of this time he was in agony. His voice was destroyed. Meanwhile his spiritual stature greatly increased, and those who were close to
Page 473him recognized his ever-deepening love for God and man, and his great longing to serve both. He died in Los Angeles at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, August 2, 1949.
Although Walter Olitzki'sBahá'í life on earth was relatively brief, he rose through his own merit to national prominence as a servant of the Faith, and in these still early years of the Faith in the United States, his dedication of his voice to Bahá'í communities was a particularly valuable gift. He seemed much younger than his age; as an artist he had not yet reached his prime. His fellow-Bahá'ís who loved him can only compensate their loss in redoubled service to the Cause he loved so well, remembering that while the singer is gone, the song remains.
FANNY A. KNOBLOCHwas born in Bautzen, Saxony, Germany on December 22, 1859.
She received the Bahá'í message from Mirza Abu'1-Fadl in Washington, D. C., and through her sister, Mrs. Pauline Hannen, accepted the Teachings in 1904, after having attended classes for two years.
Previously, she related, she had been an ardent Christian. Her married sister, Mrs. Hannen, with her two boys, would come to visit Miss Fannie's home every Sunday afternoon and would discuss the Bahá'í interpretation of the Scriptures with their beloved mother, who was well versed in the Bible. The constant conversation dealing with religion became quite trying to Miss Fanny, and she requested her sister to discuss anything but religion.
The turning point came when one day Pauline, returning from a Bahá'í meeting, gave Mirza Abu'1-Fadl's explanation of the miracle of the loaves and fishes for it was so different from the one given by the members of Miss Fanny's Bible class, many of wham were retired ministers who had taught the Bible for many years. "Yet here," she later explained, "came one brought up in the
Muhanamadan Faith '~ndrevealed this jewel of wisdom conceahxi in the parable of our New Testament." From that time she attended the Bahá'í meetings, eager for more light, and finally became a Bahá'í after two years of struggle.
Eventually their entire family became ardent Baha'is.
So brilliant was the flame ignited within Miss Fanny by the Teachings, that she made it possible, out of her own earnings, to send her sister, Alma, to Germany as a pioneer in 1907 and to help her remain there until 1920, firmly establishing the Faith in that country. (See
The Bahá'í World, VolVII) She herself, traveled to Southernmost Africa as a pioneer, bringing the light to that far-off country!
In 1908 the three Knobloch sisters and Joseph Hannen (Pauline's husband) received permission from 'Abdu'l-Bahá to make a never-to-be-forgotten pilgrimage to the prison city of 'Akka. Because of the death of their beloved mother, Mrs. Amalie Knobloch, it was decided thgt Fanny should go first, accompanied by Mrs. Ida Finch, a Bahá'í from Seattle, Washington.
These two met Miss Alma Knobloch at Naples, en route to 'Akka. An hour's shore Leave at iVlessina, half an hour at Port Said, and then Alexandria. There in the harbor flags of all nations fluttered from the various ships.
On the wharf was a multitude of faces uplifted to the deck of the vessel.
As they looked down at these faces, Miss Alma said, "No-tice the man almost in the middle of the fifth row with a green scarf around his turban. Now count seven to the right. What do you see?" Mrs. Finch replied, "I see a very friendly face." They counted four friendly, illumined faces among that vast mass of men, and when they landed a gentle voice close to their shoulders said the Greatest Name, AuTh-u-AbUt, in an undertone, repeating it several times. Joyously they responded, but in an equally low tone, for in those days it was very dangerous to be known as a Baha'i.
Among these four Oriental brothers who had come to meet the steamer was Prince Khur~sAni. A visit was
Page 474made to the home of Muhammad Yazdi, the brother of Al3mad Yazdi of Port Said, where a meeting was held, first with the men, and then with the women on the second floor. From these Bahá'ís the three pilgrims carried a supplication to 'Abdu'l-Bahá that He would bless Egypt with a visit. At that time no one thought He would ever be outside the prison walls of 'Akka. When they delivered the message to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, He said,
"Insh4'll&h," meaning "Godwilling," and true enough, He did bless Egypt with His presence not long after His liberation.
In describing Haifa, MissFanny wrote, "In our small hotel we occupied a second story front room, one door of which opened on to a small balcony. That night the glorious rays of a full moon revealed the white crested waves of the sea, rolling upon the sands of the Valley of Achor. The minaret of the mosque gleamed white above the walls of the prison city. In the distance was Mt. Carmel, illumined, while close at hand great rows of tall palms cast weird shadows upon the road."
She spoke of her great happiness in meting Munirib KhAnum, the wife of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who told her on one occasion that personal nearness to the Manifestation of God does not in itself imply a high spiritual station, for Jesus had sisters and brothers and there is no mention of them; that His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh, had a brother who was far from God; likewise 'Abdu'l-Bahá had a brother who became an enemy of the Faith.
What joy to meet Shoghi Effendi (later to become Guardian of the Faith) and his little sister, and Bahá'í KhAnum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, as well as the other members of the Holy Household. Of Bahá'í Kh6num, she wrote, "A strange and unknown feeling possessed me while in the presence of Bahá'í KhAnurn, the
Greatest Holy Leaf. Possiblyit can be described as a feeling of awe, a feeling very unfamiliar to me.
However, later, I realized that I Md been in the presence of the greatest, the most holy woman in the history of the world � the Greatest Holy Leaf! the daughter of the Manifestation of God,
Fanny A. Knoblochare His words: "Verily, We have elevated thee to the rank of one of the most distinguished among thy sex, and granted thee, in My court, a station such as none other woman hath surpassed. Thus have We preferred thee and raised thee above the rest, as a sign of grace from Him who is the Lord of the throne on high and earth below.~~ Only one who had visited 'Akka during the days of 'Abdu'l-Bahá could understand what it meant to be with Him.
For nine days the three pilgrims experienced a happiness beyond expression because of their close contact with Him. When they were leaving, He said to them, "You are not weeping? Do not weep!
Many friends weep because they wish to remain longer." Miss Fannie replied, "No, we have received so many blessings and are eager to go out and share them with all who are ready to listen."
Nodding His blessed head, 'Abdu'l-Bahá replied, "The general does not love most the man in the back of the ranks. He loves most the man in front.
Page 475If you but knew the value of these days, you would not eat, you would not sleep, you would not walk. You would run and give to all the Glad Tidings!"
After leaving 'Akka, the three travelers went to Cairo, Egypt, to see once more their beloved teacher, Mirza Abu'1-Fagll, then living in that city. Upon their departure, he gave to Miss Fannie his most precious possession, his prayer beads, saying to her, "My Lord gave them to me."
Their steamer then took them to Marseilles. From there they sped on to Zurich, Switzerland, and then to Stuttgart, Germany, where Miss Alma had labored for two years and continued for yet another tw&lve, serving the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.The two sisters addressed a large meeting, bring-to the German friends 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í message of love.
After several days Miss Fannie then hastened to Paris, according to 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í wish, then to London, to convey His greetings, and back again to America, after an absence of three months.
Upon her return to America, she shared her experiences with the friends in Washington, Baltimore and New York, always working for the establishment of the
Faith. When 'Abdu'l-Bahácame to America in 1912, Fanny and her sister Pauline and husband were invited to Dublin, New Hampshire as His guests. While there they met Mrs. E.
Hoagg and Mrs. Klineof California, who had come for the privilege of being near 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The last morning of their stay, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, speaking to George Latimer and graciously including Miss Fanny and her sister Mrs. Hannen, said, "I will reveal a prayer which you shall use wherever you go." That prayer is now known as the "Prayer of the
Covenant."The two sisters were blessed with the privilege of bidding farewell to 'Abdu'l-Bahá aboard the steamer upon His departure from America.
Other Bahá'ís were there, too, and as they waved goodbye to their Beloved, many eyes were wet with tears.
In 1913 Miss Fanny returned to Stutt gart, Germany, to recover her health and at the same time to assist Miss Alnia in her work in that country and in Switzerland. While there, she received a telegram inviting her to Paris as the guest of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. In Paris, she, in company with Madam Holbach of Brittany, Mrs.
Beecle and Madam Blumenthalof New York, attended the meetings wherever 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke, in clubs, in large salons, in the homes of those interested, and elsewhere.
She mentioned one particular evening when 'Abdu'l-Bahá. addressed a group of some eighty people. Monsieur Hippolyte Dreyfus acted as interpreter for the French people, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, upon the conclusion of His address, unexpectedly called upon Miss Beatrice Irwin (a young lady present) to repeat His address in English for the benefit of the American friends.
The immediate obedience of Miss Irwin, although she was startled, was indeed beautiful to behold!
In 1923, Miss Fanny, dauntless and full of hope, went to Capetown, South Africa, to carry the light of Bahá'u'lláh to that country.
From Capetown, she traveled to Kimberley, Johannesburg, Pretoria and other parts of South Africa, bringing the message of brotherhood and peace. For three years she worked steadfastedly for the promotion of the Faith, giving many talks at teas and large public gatherings, enkindling many souls with the fire of the Teachings.
In 1926 it was necessary for her to come back to America because of ill health, but in 1928, at the age of sixty-eight, she found the courage to return to Africa, where she remained an additional two years.
Thus she was able to give a fresh impetus to the Faith, encourage the groups already established and awaken many more people to the fact that a New Day had dawned. She worked tirelessly and devotedly, ever having in mind the words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá at their parting in 'Akka: "If you but knew the value of these days, you would not eat, you would not sleep, you would not walk. You would run and give to all the Glad Tidings!"
In later years, Miss Knobloch livedwith her nephew, Carl Hannen, in Wil-mette, Illinois, in sight of the beautiful Bahá'í House of Worship, which was always an inspiration to her.
Carl's wife, Minneola, gave her much loving care.To the last, Miss Fanny was ever praying for an opportunity to render humble service to the Cause.
"My spirit is eager," she would say, "but the physical body is weak."
When I visited her at the nursing home on her eighty-ninth birthday, she said, among other things, "if you thanked God on your knees every remaining hour of your life, you could never thank Him enough for having allowed you to live at this time." And again, "Now when the pain in my back becomes severe, I say it is only for a little while, and then I shall leave this body and see our Lord face to face. So will you and all your family, and all these early believers.
It is wonderful, isn't it?"She held my left hand tightly, and did not know that I was writing down with my right hand what she said, for her sight was almost gone.
Her release came on December 9, 1949. A little less than ninety years old at the time of her passing, she was the first born of the three illustrious Knobloch sisters, Fanny, Alma and Pauline; the last to pass away.
Funeral services were held in Washington, D.C. Her body was interred beside her sisters, as well as Pauline's husband, Joseph Hannen, and their beloved mother, Mrs. Amalie Knobloch. It was upon the death of her mother Mrs. Amalie Knobloch, that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had written, "Happy are those souls who visit thy luminous resting place, and through thy commemoration receive and acquire spiritual powers."
At the time of Miss Fanny's passing, the Guardian cabled: "Grieve passing dearly beloved distinguished exemplary pioneer Faith Fanny Knobloch. Memory her notable services imperishable, her reward AbM Kingdom bountiful, assured, everlasting."
MARTA BRAUNS-FORELB AHA'U'LLAH spricht: ,,Mein erster Rat ist: besitze em gutes, em reines, em erleuchtetes Herz, damit du das Kbnigreich, das ewig, unsterblich und ohne Ende ist, besitzen m6gest!-0 Freund, dein Herz 1st der Sitz des ewigen Gehein-inisses, mache es nicht zum Gef~ss sterblicher Gedanken und vergeude den Schatz deines kostbaren Lebens nicht! Du geh6rst der Welt der Heiligkeit zu, hafte nieht an dem Staube!
Du bist em Bewohner des Hofes der N5he, erw~h1e keine irdische Wohn-ung!
� Hat der Wanderer dieerstiegen, so mag er das TM der wahren Armut und des v6lligen Vergehens betreten. Dies ist die StaTe, auf weicher das Ich stirbt und unsterblich in Gott, arm aus sich selbst und durch den Ersehnten reich wird. Wer diese Stufe erreicht hat, ist fiber alles, was in der Welt ist, geheiligt. Wenn darum die, weiche zu diesem Meere der Vereinigung hingefunden, nichts mehr von den verg~ng1ichen Dingen in dieser sterblichen Welt, sei es dusseres Gut oder elgene Meinung besitzen, so ist darin kein Harm, denn was immer der Mensch auch besitzt, ist begrenzt durch seine eigene Begren-zung, doch was Gottes ist, ist darflber geheiligt.
Wenn du diese Stufe erreicht hast, wirst du den Freund schauen und alles andere vergessen.
Dann hast dii deines Lebens Tropfen geopfert und das Meer Gottes gewonnen.
Das ist das Ziel, nach dem du gefragt hast.M5chte Gott dir geben, zu ihm zu gelangen. Wer in den Himmel der Einheit empor-steigt und zu dem
Meer der Vergeisti-gunghinfand, dem ward die Stufe des � Lebens in Gott � zum letzen Ziel fur die mit Wissen begabten und zum blei-benden Heim fUr die, weiche lieben. � So verbleibe denn in deiner Liebe zu Mir, dainit du Mich im Reiche des Lichts findest!"
Liebe Freunde, wir sind hier, urn Absehied zu nebmen von elnem gelieb-ten, von einem liebenden Menschen, den Gott die Stufe zu Seiner Ebene hat iAberschreiten lassen. Dieser geliebte
Page 477Mensch, urn den wir uns noch einmal versammelt haben, hat em Leben vol-lendet, das wert war, gelobt zu werden. Ihr Leben war em rastloses Streben, Baha'i, d. h. Lichttr~iger zu werden. ,,Baha'i, so sagt 'Abdu'l-Bahá, mtissen die Diener des universalen
Friedens werden, ArbeiterfUr die Einheit der Welt, die Verbreiter himmlischer Liebe unter den Menschen, die Verkiinder der Prinzipien, die den Forts chritt der Menschheit bedeuten, die Zerstreuer der Wolken religibser, nationaler und politischer Vorurteile, und die Stiitzen fUr das fundamentale Recht der Gleich-heit zwischeri Mann und Frau. Sie miissen die Religion mit der
Wissen-schaft in Einklangbringen und alle Theorien, die dem Intellekt und dem erfahrungsgem~ssen Wissen nicht standhalten, ablegen."
Wenn ich einen Menchen weiss, der diesen Forderungen nachiebte, so ist es die flier vor uns ruhende.
Hat sie doch z. B. zu einer Zeit, als die Pazifisten bespbttelt wurden, in-briinstig urn den Frieden gerungen! Gab sie sich nicht, des mitleidigen L~che1ns der Gebildeten nicht achtend, noch als Grossrnutter dem Erlernen einer Welthulfssprache hin, urn auch hier ihren Teil zur V51kerverst~ndigung beizutragen!
1st sie nicht zu einer Zeit, in der die alkoholischen Sitten noch als Erziehungsfaktor galten, geradezu f an-atisch gegen diese Unsitte Sturm ge-lauf en! Hat sie nicht mit untriiglicher Schiirfe des Verstandes die Erkennt-nisse der Wissenschaft mit der Religion zu vereinigen gewusst, und diese ilire Religion mit g1~ubigem Herzen und mit dern Mut des Bekenners verireten zu einer Zeit, in der Manner des Staates glaubten, ihren geistigen Besitz durch Wegnahme ihrer Blicher beseitigen zu kdnnen!
Hat sie nicht mit denen gelit-ten, als w~iren es ihre leiblichen Kinder, die clas Opfer der rassischen und politi-schen Vorurteile waren! Wie eine Lbwin ilire Jungen, so suchte sie diese gehetz-ten Mensehen zu verteidigen. Und werni danials der eine oder andere von ihr abriickte aus Furcht, sich zu kom-promittieren, so durfte er feststellen, dass ihr Herz fur ihn off en stand, sobald er ihrer Hilfe bedurfte. Und wenn sie spiirte, dass em Mensch Geftihie der Entfremdung, vielleicht des Neides oder tier Eifersucht gegen sie hegte, so betete sie fUr ihn und suchte, his sie ihn land, den
Weg zur Vers~hnung. Undbei diesen-i Leben lebte sie selbst das funda-inentale
Recht tier GleichachtungMit dem unbestechulehen Intellekt ilires grossen Vaters und mit dem liebe-vollen Herzen ihrer fiber alles geliebten Mutter begabt, stand sie an Verant-wortungs und Zielbewusstsein ihrem noch in vieler Herzen verehrten, dem so frtih von ihr gegangenen Mann nicht nach.
Ilir Leben glich einem Sturmwind, alle trilberi Wolken verjagend, rastlos and durch nichts aufzuhalten, dem kiareri Himmel, dem Licht Baha zu brechen.
Wo sie war, da wehte die kiare Luft der Berge ihrer Heimat. Wer selbst stilistand, dern moclite in diesem Sturmwind frdsteln.
Wer aber gleich ihr vorw~irtsschritt, der wurde erfrischt.
Es war nicht ihre Art, beschaulich zu verweilen, wenn Me eTh Stflck Arbeit geleistet hatte. Zum Rfickwartsschauen hatte sie keine Zeit. War eine Arbeit getan, so ejite sie zur n~chsten. So blieb auch in ihrem ausgefhhlten Leben kein Platz flir einen besehaulichen Lebensa-bend, wo sie in Betrachtung sich ibrer geleisteten
Arbeit erfreut Mtte.So wie ihr Leben war, so war auch ihr Tod: rasch und unerbittlich.
Dies Leben war in Wahrheit vollendet.In ihren letzten Bitten, die sie in einem Testament an uns Kinder rich-tete, schreibt sic ,,Ihr wisst, dass ich seine grosse
Abneigung gegen Fried-hofbesuchehabe. Deshaib habe ich mir schon lange ausgedacht, dass ich in dem kleinen
Hohenwettersbacher Frie-dhofbegraben gem mbchte, irgend an einem verborgenen Pliitzchen, ohne den Ublichen Grabschrnuck. Ihr kdnnt Lon-icera darauf pflanzen, die schnell eine grfine Decke bilden und kein
Unkraut durchiassen. Suchtmich nie dart! In Ettlingen, in unserem Steingartle, Grossmutters Hilgel, wie sie immer selbst sagte, Eures Vaters Andenken, Jiirgs geistige St~tte, da bin auch ich. Ich mdchte niemandem die Millie des Weges machen.
Deshaib macht das Begr~bnis still unter Euch. Rh mdchte so gem, dass Ihr das tut, was ich nach
Page 478Eures Vaters Tod tat: Nicht trauern, kein Schwarz tragen, frdhlich sein und das Gute und Positive, das geistige Erbe meiner Eltern unci Eures Vaters bewahren; meine Fehier und Schwachen braucht Ihr nicht zu vergessen, aber sie sollen das Positive nicht verdecken. Das Beste, was wir Euch gegeben ha-ben, ist die BahA'f-Lehre, Mirza brauche ich nicht zu sagen. Sie enthiilt alles, was ich Euch sagen mdchtei' Und sie schliesst mit den Worten: ,,Amor et labor omnia vincent."
Zuvor schreibt sie: ,,Wenn Ilir aus den Worten der Weisheit etwas lest, ware es mir am liebsten. Lasst bitte alles andere weg."
Lassen Sie mich also, ihrem Wunsche entsprechend, aus den Worten lesen, die ihr Leben bestimmten: ,,Die Quelle alles Guten ist: Ver-trauen in Gott, Gehorsam Semen Ge. boten gegentiber und Zufriedenheit mit Seinem Heiligen Willen.
� Das Wesen der Weisheitist: das anzuerkennen, was der Herr offenbarte und zu befolgen, was Er verordnet hat.
� Das Wesen der Liebe ist fur den Mensehen, sein Herz dem Geliebten zuwenden, sich loszulbsen von allem ausser Thin und nichts zu wiinschen, ausser dent was der Herr fUr ihn wiinscht. Wahres Gedenken 1st: den Herrn, den Hochgepriesenen zu er-wiihnen und alles ausser Ihnri zu verges-sen.
� Wabres Vertrauen ist: Seinem Beruf und seiner Arbeit nachzugehen und nichts ausser Seiner Gnade zu suchen. Die Queue des Mutes und der Kraft ist: Das Wort Gottes zu fdrdern und in Seiner Liebe standhaft zu blei-ben.
� Das Wesen des Reichtumsmich liebt, besitzt alles, und wer mich nicht liebt, ist in der Tat arm und bedflrftig.
� Das Wesen des Glaubensist: wenig Worte zu machen und elne Fillie von Taten aufzuweisen.
� Das Wesen von allem, was Rh far dich offenbarte, ist: die Gerechtigkeit.
Sie ist die Befrelung des Menschen von Einbildung und Nachah-mung. Sie Thsst dich die .Schdpfung mit dem Auge der Einheit und auf alle Dinge mit forseheridem Auge blicken)'
Diese g5ttlichen Gebotewaren die Queue des Lichts, das den Weg unserer lieben Toten erhelite. So war ihr Leben hell und reich.
� Wit nehmen Abscheid von ihr ohne Trauer, wie sie es wiinscht, aber Dank erfihiten Herzens fUr all das, was sie uns in ibrem Leben gegeben hat.
Gott gebe Dir, Du Liebe, die Du Dir im Leben nicht Ruhe noch Rast geg6nnt hast, den ewigen Frieden. Habe Dank fUr all Deine Liebe.
Verzeih uns, wenn wir Dich oft einsam liessen, weil wir niclit Schritt halten konnten. Du ejitest tins vorans. Lass Deine Liebe zu uns nicht verldschen, so wie wir Dich in un-serem Herzen bewabren wollen.
,,Du bist Mein Licht, spricht der Herr, und mein Licht wird niemals vergehen. Warun-i befiirchtest du sein Eribsehen? So verbleibe denn in deiner Liebe zu mir, auf dass du mich im Reiche des Lichts wiederfinden mbgest."
Wir wollen beten: 0 Gott! 0 Gott! Du hast Dein Pfand in meine Hand gelegt und hast es nach Deinem Willen nun zu Dir zurfick-gerufen.
Es steht mir, die ich Deine Dienerin bin, nicht zu, zu fragen, warum geschieht mir dies, da Du in all Deinem Tun verherrlicht wirst.
Deine Dienerin, o mein Herr, hat ihre Hoffnun-gen auf Deine Gnade gesetzt.
Gib, dass sie, erreichen m6ge, was ste Dir nahe bringt.
Du bist der Vergebende, der Aliglitige. Es ist kein anderer Gott ausser
Dir, den Urewigen!des Geden-kens wurden bei der Fejer in der Toten-halle des Diakonissen-Krankenhauses in
Rflppurr am 18. August1948 von ihrem Schwiegersohn gesprochen. Zu dieser Fejerstunde hatten sich viele, viele Mensehen eingefunden, urn von ihr Absehied zu nehmen.
Zu Haupten des fiber und fiber mit Blumen undbrannten neun Ker-zen, Sinnbild der neun Lichter der BahWf-Einheit.
Tm Rahmen der Fejer legten Beauf-tragte der dreiBrauns-Forel var allem angehdrt hatte, KrThze nieder. Herr Weber als Vorsitzencler des Geistigen Rates der Bahá'í in Karisruhe hob ihre Thtigkeit innerhaib der Bah&'i-Gem einde und
Page 479innerhaib des Geistigen Rates hervor und legte mit einem Hinweis auf die Bedeutung einen Kranz nieder, der ous Blumen ihres Hausle-Grunstfickes in Ettlingen gewunden war. Nach Herrn Weber legte Ursel Kohier aus
Stuttgart einen Heidekranznieder, den die Freunde auf der BahA'i-Sommerschule in Esslingen gewunden hatten.
Als Leiter des Kreisesder Kronacher-Freunde legte Herr Dr. Nbldecke einen Kranz nieder, der aus Blumen der Garten aller Freunde des Kreises gewunden war. Und im Auftrage des Aufsichtsrates der
Gartenstadt sprach HerrHils die Griisse der Gartenstadt aus. Tm besonderen erwiihnte er, wie Marta Brauns in den Kriegsjahren die pflegelos gewordenen
Vorgiirten der Siedlungin ihre Betreuung genommen hatte und dass sie am 23. Mai 1948 (einern Bah~i'i-Feiertage;) zum Mitglied des Aufsichtsrates und des Priifungs-aussehusses gewThlt worden war als erste Frau in der Geschichte der Gar-tenstadt.
tTmrahmt von 2 Liedern des Kron-acher Singkreises kiang die Fejer mit dem Musikstflck aus, was die Tote am allermeisten geliebt hatte: der Bacharie ,,Mein gltiubiges Herze, frohiocke, sing, scherze", gespielt von FUMe, Violine und
Cello.wurde der Sarg von sechs der Freunden, unter ihnen ihrem Sohn Sven, und ihrem Schwiegersohn herausgetragen.
Auf der Fahrt zu dem von ihr selbst aus-gewahitenbegleiteten sie ausser ihren Kind-em nur die a11ern~chsten Freunde. Nachdem an den-i offenen Grab das Totengebet gesprochen war, schaufelten die Angehbrigen und Freunde das Grab selbst zu. Als der Grabhiigel mit den Kr5nzen und Blumen bedeckt war, nahmen die Freunde mit em-em Gebet von der Toten Abschied. Auf ihrer Grabplatte werden die Worte Bahá'u'lláh's stehen: ,,Du bist mein Licht, und Mein Liclit wird niemals vergehen. Warum fiirchtest du sein Er-lbschen?
So verbleibe denn in deiner Liebe zu mir, darnit du Mich im Reiche des
Liclits findest". DieseWorte hatten der Verstorbenen in den schweren Kriegsjahren am meisten Trost and Kraft gegeben.
Eine Aufz~h1ung ihrer Thtigkeiten innerhaib der 6ffentlichen Fejer whre ilirem Wunsche entgegengewesen.
Dar-urn sei eine kurze Zusammenfassung ihres Lebens hier angefiigt.
Am 23. September 1888in ZUrich als Tochter des damaligen Chefarztes der Irrenanstalt Burgh6lzli, des Psychiaters Prof.
Dr. Auguste Forel geboren, wuebs sie im Kreise von fiinf Geschwi-stern von der besonderen Liebe ihrer Mutter, Emma Forel, geb. Steinheil, urnsorgt, in der deutschspraehigen und spater in der franzdsischen
Schweiz auf. Die TJmweltmit den Bergen, die sie als Sehnsucht ihr ganzes Leben hindurch begleitete, die glflhende Freiheitsliebe und die Selbstverstiind-Iichkeit des fibernationaldenkenden Weitbiirgers, das waren die Erbanlagen ilirer Heimat. Untrennbar verbanden sich mit ihnen die Grundsiitze ihres Vaters: Die Grundanschauung, dass Leben Arbeit bedeutet, die fanatisehe Wahrheitsliebe und die Kiarheit des Denkens.
Diese Erziehungsprinzipien vereinigten sich mit denii Erbteil der Mutter: Der alles umfassenden Liebe und der angeborenen
Gilte.Als sie Sekret~rin ilires Vaters in Yvorne war, lernte sie ibren Mann ken-nen, den damaligen
Medizinstudenten ArturBrauns, der als Studienfreund ihres ijitesten Bruders Eduard seine Ferien dort verlebt.
Mit diesem zusam-men griindete Me die eigene Familie, zunlichst in Miinchen.
WThrend sie mit ihren vier Kindern bei ihren Eltern in der Schweiz die vier Jabre des ersten Weltkrieges ver-brachte, war ihr Mann als Mi1it~rarzt an der deutschen Ostfront.
tinter diesem Zwiespalt zwischen Deutscb und Schweizer
Empfinden, zwischen Kriegund Frieden, hat sie in jenen Jahren viel gelitten, und es reifte in jenen Jahren zugleich der Entschluss wo immer es mdglich war, fUr den Frieden zu arbeiten.
1919 hess sich ihr Mann als prak-tischer Arzt und Psychiater in Karis-ruhe nieder. In der noch im Entstehen begriffenen
Gartenstadt-Siedlungfand die junge Arztfamilie eine geisteaver-wandte Urngebung var, die ihr bald zur
Page 480In wenigen Jahren war Dr. Artur Brauns zum bekannten und begehrten Vertrauen-sarzt in Karisruhe geworden, der auch als Stadtverordneter im Stadtrat durch seine Sozialarbeit in weiten Kreisen gesch~tzt wurde.
Als am 1. September 1925, dem Geburtstag ihres Vaters, ihr Mann bei einer Faltbootfahrt in der Rhdne verungliickte, stand sie als junge Wit-we mit 5 kleinen Kindern immitten eines Aufgabenkreises, dem gerecht zu werden die Hingabe der ganzen Pers6n-lichkeit erforderte.
So war sie nach dem Tode ihres Mannes zum Mittel-punkt der BahA'i-Gruppe in Karisruhe geworden, die sie als Delegierte und sp~iter als Mitglied des Nationairates in der deutschen BahA'f-arbeit vertrat. In dem Kampf der Guttempler gegen den Alkohol war sie massgebend beteilight.
Bei der Verbreitung des Esperanto zusammen mit den Arbeit-eresperantisten wirkte sie mit. In der Frauenliga fUr Frieden und Freiheit war sie t~tig und in dem das Bud der Gartenstadt formenden Kreis der Kron-acher Freunde war Me em nicht weg-zudenkendes Glied.
Hinzu kam, dass die Bearbeitung des Gartens und des von ihrem Mann in Ettlingen angelegten Grundstiickes allein in ihren Iflnden lag und sie derselben nachkam, als ware Giirtnerin ihr eigentlicher Beruf. Viele
Patienten ihres Mannesflber-trugen ihr Vertrauen auf sie und wur-den von ihr weiterbetreut und beraten. Die Korrespondenz, die sie mit alien Teilen der Welt verband, h5tte allein gentigt, einen Menschen zu beschMt-igen.
Bei all dem war sie ihrenwie man sich iiberhaupt nur eine Mutter vorstellen und wiinschen kann.
Elne hohe Zeit im Leben von Marta Brauns bedeuteten die Jahre 1934 � 1939, als ihre Mutter bet ihr in
Karisruhe wohute. Werzu jener Zeit im Hause Brauns sein durfte, war begliickt von dem strahienden Frohsinn und der AtmosplThre aufopfernder Liebe. Die durch den 2.
Weltkrieg bedingte Tren-nungvon ihrer Mutter hess in ihr em immer .qu5lenderes Heimweh erwach-sen, dem sich viel Schweres in jenen Jahren noch zugeseilte.
So litt Me unter den Ungerechtigkeiten des Dritten Reiches und unter der aligerneinen Freiheitsberaubung jener Zeit. Die Abschnfirung Deutschlands von der Welt, die Verfolgung der Juden und das Verbot der Bah&'i-Glaubensgemein-schaft liessen sie viel leiden.
Der Krieg verlangte weitere Opfer von ihr: Tm Jahre 1942 fiel ihr jiingster Sohn J6rg an der Ostfront.
In der Stand-haftigkeit, mit der sie den Tod dieses ihr am a11ern~chsten stehenden Kindes trug, bewies Me ihre Re1igiosit~t. Auch die schwere Kriegsverletzung ihres ~1testen Sohnes Wolf traf sie schmerz-lich.
Und als schijesslich im Jahre 1945 die von ihr so geliebte Anne, die Frau dieses Sohnes, pl6tzlich aus diesem Leben gerisen wurde, war sie fUr ihren Wolf eine feste
Stfltze.Ms zu Kriegsende die Franzosen auch in das kielne Dorf Hddingen am Hod-ensee, wohin sie mit ihrer Tochter evakuiert war, einzogen, hat sie an Seibstflberwindung
Grosses geleistet. Urnder armen Gemeindeverwaltung gegenflber den Forderungen der Sieger Hilfe zu leisten, tat sie Dolmetscher-und andere Hilfsdienste.
So hat sie, urn die jungen M~dchen zu schtitzen, selbst die Bedienung der Offiziere in dem Kasino jibernommen. Was sie da als perfekt franz5sisch sprechende Schweiz-erin und zum Schutz der deutschen Bevblkerung Dienst tuend auszustehen hatte, versteht nur der ganz, dec weiss, wie sie den Kampf gegen den Alkohol als Lebensaufgabe aufgefasst hatte.
Dass Marta Brauns zum Tode ihrer Mutter und deren Beisetzung im Jahre 1946 die Ausreise nicht bewilligt wurde, bedeutete fUr ste mit das schwertse Leid, das ihr im Leben zugefiigt wurde.
Nach ihrer Rflckkehr nach1945 hat sie alle ihre Kr~fte neben Haus, Garten-und Sozial-arbeit und neben der Weiterfimrung ibrer Korrespondenz vor allem auf die Bah&'i-Arbeit zu konzentrieren ver-sucht.
Ihrer Initiative ist die Neubele-bung der Bah&'i-Gruppe in Karisruhe zu verdanken, aus der dann im Friih-jahr 1947 die Gemeinde erstand.
Als Mitglied des NationalemGeistigen Rates und als Delegierte bel der Na-tionaltagung ist sie allen Bahá'í in Deutschland em Begriff geworden.
Page 481mit Freunden in Palastina, Irtin, 'IrAq, Afrika, Argentinien, USA, Kanada, England, Holland und in der Schweiz hat sie unter den BahA'ifreunden in der Welt bekannt werden lassen. In der BahA'i-Arbeit sah sie die Vollendung ihres Strebens und iher Arbeit.
So sind auch die Worte ihres Testaments zu verstehen: ,,Das beste was wir Euch gegeben haben, 1st die BahA'i-Lehre. Mehr brauche ich nicht zu sagen. Sie entiThit aUes, was Pt Euch sagen mdchte".
MARTA BRAUNS-FOREL18881948 Marta Brauns-Forel was born September 23, 1888 in Zurich,.~ the daughter of the famed scientist Dr. Auguste Forel, who was then chief physician of the mental hospital.
of Burghdlzli. She grew up first in German-speaking and later in French-speaking Switzerland, in a family circle of five sisters and brother under the loving care of her mother,
Emma Steinheil Forel.The environment of her youth left its imprint on her: the mountains, for which she longed all her life; the love of freedom; the capacity for thinking beyond national boundaries, which, as a world citizen, she took as a matter of course � these were the gifts of her homeland. Inseparably associated with them were her father's basic belief that life means work, his almost fanatical love of truth, and his ability to think with obi ectivi-ty. These united in her with an all-embracing love and an inborn goodness inherited from her mother.
Working as her father's secretary in Yvorne, she met her future husband, Artur Brauns, a medical student who, as the friend of her eldest brother Eduard, spent his vacations there.
After their marriage she and Artur lived at first in Munich.
During the four years of the First World War, Marta and her four chiN dren stayed with her parents in Switzerland, while her husband served as an
Marta Brauns-Forelarmy doctor on the Eastern Front. She suffered a good deal from the conflict between her German and Swiss loyalties, between war and peace. There matured within her in those years the resolution to work for peace.
In 1919, Artur settled down as a practising physician and psychiatrist in Karisruhe. In the newly-developing gar-den-city, the young physician's family found a congenial intellectual environment. Within a few years, Dr. Artur Brauns had become a wellknown and sought after physician in Karisruhe, and highly esteemed for his social work as one of the town councilors. Together, the young couple studied the Baha Faith.
On September 1, 1925, which was her father's birthday, her husband was drowned in a canoe accident in the Rh6ne river. She was left, a widow with five children, to face responsibilities that demanded all the resources of her nature.
After the death of her husband she became the center of the Bahá'í group in Karisruhe and later a Convention delegate from the community and a
Page 482member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Germany. She was active in the fight of the Guttempler Association against alcohol; she cooperated with the Esperantists; she served in the "Women's League for Peace and Freedom"; she was an indispensable coworker of the Kronach friends in their promotion of a garden-city. To this was added actual work on the garden and estate of her husband in Ettlingen, and she met these demands as if gardening were her real vocation. In addition, many patients of her husband transferred their confidence to her and came for advice, and the correspondence which she carried on with all parts of the world would in itself have been enough to keep one person busy. With all this she was an exemplary mother to her five children.
The years from 1934 to 1939 were a high point in the life of Marta Brauns, for during this period her mother lived with her in Karisruhe. Anyone who was fortunate enough to be a guest in the Brauns household at that time never forgot its atmosphere of happiness and self-sacrificing love. The separation from her mother, brought about by the Second World War, added to many new sorrows, not the least of which was an ever more torturing homesickness. Marta suffered from the many injustices of the Third Reich and the general loss of freedom.
The isolation of Germany from the rest of the world, the persecution of the Jews, the proscription of the Bahá'í community � all these caused her much anguish.
The war demanded further sacrifices from her. In 1942, her youngest son Jiirg fell on the Eastern Front.
The fortitude with which she bore the loss of this son who was really the closest to her showed her deeply religious nature. The serious war injury of her eldest son Wolf was a new calamity. In 1945 when the wife of this son, the beloved Anne, died suddenly, it was Marta who sustained him.
At the end of the war the French occupied the village of Hbdingen on Lake Constance, to which Marta and her daughter had been evacuated. During the occupation she acted both as interpreter and mediator. To protect the young girls, she herself served the officers at the Casino. One can oniy guess at the self-control such functions imposed on this French-speaking Swiss who had constituted herself the guardian of the German populace, and whose main task in life had been the fight against alcohol.
The direst sorrow of Martalife was when she was not allowed a permit to go to the bedside of her dying mother in 1946.
After her return to Karisruhe in the late summer of 1945, she tried to concentrate all her powers, beyond her home, garden and social duties, on activities for the Bahá'í Faith.
The renewal of the Bahá'í group in Karisruhe was due to her initiative.
From this group the Baha community arose in the spring of 1947. As a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, reelected in 1946 following the eight-year suspension of Bahá'í activity, and as a delegate to the National Convention, she was an inspiration to all the Bahá'ís of Germany, while her correspondence with friends in Palestine, Persia, 'Ir&q, Africa,
Argentina, the UnitedStates, Canada, England, Holland and Switzerland, made her known to Bah& is throughout the world.
Marta's death was sudden; as her son-in-law commented in his address at the funeral, held August 18, 1948, in the memorial hail of the Diaconiss Hospital at Rtippurr, there was no place in her crowded life for a lingering and meditative old age.
Many people gathered on that solemn occasion to pay their last respects.
The Bahá'í Assembly ofBaha School, her Konach friends, the Board of the garden-city there (of which Board Marta had recently been elected the first woman member), were represented. Nine candles, emblems of the nine lights of BaWt'i unity, burned at the head of the lavishly beflowered coffin.
These words from the funeral address, which was accompanied by appropriate Bahá'í prayers and readings, summed up her life: "At a time when pacificists were sneered at, she fought valiantir for peace. Disregarding the compassiornt
Page 483smile of the intellectuals, she spent the days of her advanced years learning an international auxiliary language. Almost fanatically, she challenged the moral degeneration of her times, in a place where alcohol and its attendant practices were considered educational factors. She matched the conquests of science with the conquests of religion. She fought for the triumph of her religion when the authorities imaged they could destroy her spiritual treasure by confiscating her books. She suffered like a mother with all the victims of racial and religious prejudice; she tried to shield them; if one, fearing to compromise himself, turned away from her, he found her heart still open to him when he came back again for help. If she knew that someone was withdrawing from her out of coldness or jealousy, she prayed for him, seeking a way of reconciliation until she found it. She demonstrated the principle of woman's equality with man by her own life. She had her renowned father's incorruptible intellect, her mother's loving heart, a sense of responsiblity and determination equaling that of her departed husband. Wherever she came, she brought with her the clear, bright mountain air of her native Switzerland, chilling the languid and the weak, perhaps, but refreshing the strong. Her whole life was a restless struggle truly to become a Baha � "a bearer of light."
For her children, Marta Brauns-Forel wrote out her last wishes in a warm, human testament: "You know that I have a great aversion to visiting cemeteries. For that reason I have long decided that I would like to be interred in the small cemetery of Hohenwettersbach, at some small, hidden place and without the customary wreaths and flowers.
However, you could plant Lonicera on it which grow quickly to a green cover without permitting weeds to come up. Never seek me there!
Where I am is at Ettlingen, in our stone garden, gandmother's hill as she herself used to call it, there at your father's memorial place, and Jurg's spritiual abode.
I don't want to trouble anyone with coming there.Therefore I ask you to have the funeral proceed quietly with only you present. I would like you so much to do what I have done after your father's passing: no mourning, no wearing of black; rather being joyful and preserving the good and the positive, the spiritual heritage of my parents and of your father.
You needn't forget my deficiencies and weaknesses, though they shouldn't entirely hide the positive.
The best we have given you is the Bahá'í teaching. I needn't say more. It contains everything that I would want to tell you."
FRED MORTENSEN'Fred Mortensen's youth was turbulent. His environment was not of the best, and he played with boys grown hard and ruthless. Determined to be their match, he broke the law whenever he had a chance. Inwardly he felt guilty, but he wanted to be like the others and went on from bad to worse. Strange, that his very conflict with the law should have given him the opportunity which led him to embrace the Bahá'í Faith, and completely changed the course of his life.
The account of his early days and his first contact with the Faith, and especially of his memorable experiences when 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited the United States in 1912 is given with feeling and sincerity by Fred Mortensen himself in an article entitled: "When a
Soul Meets the Master."This article was published in the March, 1924 issue of Star of the West. In it he writes: "My dear mother had done everything in her power to make me a good boy.
I have but the deepest love for her and my heart has often been sad when thinking how she must have worried for my safety as well as my future wellbeing.
Through it all and in a most wonderful way, with godlike patience, she hoped and prayed that her boy would find the road which leadeth to righteousness and happiness. But environment proved a great barrier to her 1Froin material furnis ed by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Chicago.
Page 484aspirations and every day in every way I became tougher and tougher. Fighting was a real pleasure, as welcome as a meal, and breaking a grocer's window to steal his fruit or whatnot was, as I thought, a great joke.
It happened that one night the gang was strolling along, just doing nothing in particular (looking for trouble I guess), when one of the gang said, "Oh, look at the swell bunch of bananas." "Gee, I wisht I had some," another said.
"Do you?" said I. About this time I heard a dog barking inside the store, and looking in, I saw a large bulldog. That seemed to aggravate me and to show my contempt for the watchdog I broke the window, took the bananas, passed them around and we merrily strolled up the street "Making the Jews feel that they were back in Russia was lots of fun. I can't begin to tell you how we enjoyed persecuting them, stealing their wine, breaking their windows, in fact doing everything but setting fire to their homes.
I plainly remember that it cost me sixteen dollars to pay for broken windows to keep out of jail.
"The great evil that did so much to make us hard, was the saloon with its attendant evils. My! how tough I have seen fine young fellows become under the influence of liquor. I could tell you many things of a lawless nature, but I write these few to show what the power of Bahá'u'lláh can do in this day.
"I was a fugitive for four years, having walked out of jail while awaiting trial.
Then, a young fellow was being arrested and I, of course, tried to take him away from the policeman.
While this was going on a couple of detectives happened along and in my haste to get away from them I leaped aver a thirtyfive foot wall, breaking my leg, to escape the bullets whizzing around about and wound up in the 'garden at the feet of the Beloved' as Bahá'u'lláh has so beautifully written in the Seven Valleys.
"At this time I was defended by our departed, but illustrious
Bahá'í brother, AlbertHall, to whom I owe many thanks and my everlasting good will for helping to free me from the prison of men and of self. It was he who brought me from out the dark prison house; it was he who told me, hour after hour, about the great love of 'Abdu'l-Bahá for all His children and that He was here to help us show that love for our fellowinen. Honestly, I often wondered then what Mr. Hall meant when he talked so much about love,
God's love, Bahá'u'lláh'slove, 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í love, love for the Covenant, love for us, from us to God, to His Prophets, etc. I was bewildered. Still, I returned, to become more bewildered, so I thought; and I wondered why.
It was, as I now know, the power of the Holy Spirit drawing one, who wished to be drawn.
"Thus the Word of God gave me a new birth, made me a living soul, a revivified spirit. I am positive that nothing else upon the earth could have changed my character as it has been changed. I am indeed a new being, changed by the power of the Holy
Spirit�I have been resurrected and made live in the Kingdom of Al Abh&.
"Again through the attraction of the Holy Spirit I was urged, so it seemed to me, to go to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
He was at Green Acre, Maine, at this time, and when I heard the rumor that He might go back to His home (Palestine) and not come west, I immediately determined to go and see Him. I wasn't going to miss meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá after waiting so long to see
Him."So I left home, going to Cleveland, where I attended a convention of printers for a few days. But I became so restless I could not stay for adjournment.
How often have I thought about that trip of mine from Cleveland to Green Acre! The night before leaving Cleveland I had a dream that I was 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í guest, that I sat at a long table, and many others were there, too, and of how He walked up and down telling stories, emphasizing with His hand. This, later, was fUlfilled and He looked just as I saw Him in Cleveland.
"As my finances were low, I of necessity must hobo my way to Green Acre. The Nickel Plate Railway was my choice, for conveyance to Buffalo, New York. From Buffalo I again 'rode the rods' to Boston, a long ride from
Page 485The Boston Maine Railway was the 1as~t link between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the outside world, so it seemed to me, and when I crawled off from the top of one of its passenger trains at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I was exceedingly happy. A boat ride, a streetcar ride, and there I was, at the gate of Paradise.
My heart beating double time, I stepped onto the soil of that to-be-famous center tired, dirty and wondering, but happy.
"I had a letter of introduction from Mr. Hall to Mr. Lunt, and in searching for him I met Mrs. Edward Kinney, who, dear soul, was kind enough to offer me a bed. She awakened me next morning about six o'clock saying I'd have to hurry if I wished to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
"Arriving at the hotel I found quite a number of people there on the same mission, to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Being one of the last arrivals, I Was looking around, to make myself comfortable, when someone exclaimed, 'Here He comes, now.' After greeting several others and when about to go to His room, He suddenly turned to me and said in a gruff voice (at least I thought so), 'Sit down,' and pointed to a chair � which I didn't care to do, as elderly ladies were standing. But what was I to do! I meekly obeyed, feeling rebelious over what had happened. Such a welcome, after making that difficult trip!
My mind was in a whirl."The first man to receive an interview with 'Abdu'l-Bahá was a doctor; he had written a book on love. It seemed but a minute until. ''Abdu'l-Bahá wishes to see Mr. Mortensen.' Why, I nearly wilted. I wasn't ready. I hadn't expected to be called until the very last thing. I had to go, and it was a strange feeling in my heart and wondering � wondering what would happen next. He welcomed me with a smile and a warm handclasp, telling me to be seated His first words were,
'Welcome! Welcome! You� which was repeated three times. I thought, why do you ask me that so many times? Of course, I am happy.
"Then, 'Where did you come from?'"Of all the questions I wished to avoid this was the one! I dropped my gaze to the floor � and again He put the question.
I lifted my eyes to His eyes and His were as two sparkling jewels, which seemed to look into my very depths. I knew He knew and I must tell "I answered: 'I did not come as peo-pie generally do, who come to see You.'
"Question: 'How did you come?'"Answer: 'Riding under and on top of the railway trains.~
"Question: 'Explain how?'"Now as I looked into the eyes of 'Abdu'l-Bahá I saw they had changed and a wondrous light seemed to pour out. It was the light of love and I felt relieved and very much happier.
I explained to Him I rode on the trains, after which He kissed both my cheeks, gave me much fruit, and kissed the
Page 486dirty hat I wore, which had become soiled on my trip to see Him.
"When He was ready to leave Green Acre I stood nearby to say goodbye, and to my astonishment He ordered me to get into the automobile with Him. After a week with Him at Maiden, Massachusetts, I left for home with never-to-be-forgotten memories of a wonderful event � the meeting of God's Covenant, The Branch of that Pre-Ex-istent
Root"A few weeks later I again had that wonderful privilege to be near the Covenant for a few moments.
"These events are engraved upon the tablet of my heart and I love every moment of them. The words of Bahá'u'lláh are my food, my drink and my life. I have no other aim than to be of service to His pathway and to be obedient to
His Covenant."This is the Power of His Spirit, His Love and His mercy to ~ Fred Mortensen was born February 7, 1887, at Fort Dodge, Iowa. He died June 13, 1946, at 6:10 p.m. of cerebral hemorrhage at the Chicago Hospital, Chicago.
He spent many years teaching throughout the country; at one period of his life, he pioneered in Montana, personally financing publicity for the Faith in various newspapers throughout the state, particularly in Helena and Butte. In 1916 he was the authorized representative of the Bahá'í Tern-pie Unity, and was its agent in carrying out plans for relief in Haifa,
Syria and Turkey. Fortwenty-one years he was a member of the Chicago community. His daughter,
Mrs. Kathryn MortensenPenoyer, writes, "My father lived and practiced the Bahá'í Religion to a degree beyond possible explanation on the very eve before his death he spent his last time teaching the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.His devotion cannot be measured in mere words, they are not powerful enough.
It might be of interest to know that he was also preparing to depart for Austria with the Guardian's blessings and wishes as his guide.
'Abdu'l-Bahá truly named him well when He said, 'My son.'" He was buried in Cedar Park Cemetery. As he had requested, his autobiographical ical account "When a Soul Meets the Master" was read at the memorial services. Not long before his passing he had written to the Guardian: "I am happy that you chose to include the story of my visit to 'Abdu'l-Bahá at
Green Acre in God Passes'That trip of thine fromMinneapolis to Green Acre will never be forgotten. Its mention will be recorded eternally in books and works of history. Therefore, be thou happy that, praise be to God, thou hast an illumined heart, a living spirit, and art vivified with merciful breath.'" When the Guardian received the news of Fred Mortensen's death he cabled the family: "Grieve passing beloved Fred.
Welcome assured Abh~progress his soul. His name forever inscribed Bahá'í history.~~
HAJ TAHA. EL~I1AMAMSi1On July 8, 1946, the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sudan were grieved at the passing away of Haj Taha Ei-Hamamsi, a sincere believer of
Tanta. He was a Bahá'íwho distinguished himself by the sacrifices he made ceaselessly throughout his life of service.
First awakened by the persecutions of the Bahá'ís of Port Said in 1920 and later impressed by the integrity of the persecuted, he began to inquire into the Bahá'í Faith. By 1923 he was thoroughly attracted to the Cause and made his first pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines on the second Commemoration Day of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, subsequently making the same trip almost every year. He adapted himself to the development of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh as it evolved, and he made the adaptation in deeds rather than in words.
Haj Taha distinguished himself particularly by his generous contributions to every institution of the Cause, the 200d Passes By, p. 290.
IBy the National SpiritualAssembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt, Sudan and Abyssina.
Page 487important achievement for the Cause in Khartoum � the first Spiritual Assembly bly was established in Sudan. Haj Taha had enabled his daughter and her husband band to emigrate to Khartoum, where they accomplished this wonderful task so desired by the beloved Guardian.
In June, 1946 Haj Taha fell ill while in Port Said, and on July 8, he passed away at the age of fifty-eight. As there is yet no Bahá'í burial ground in Port Said, his coffin was transferred to Is-mWiliyyih mWiliyyih where it was buried next to that of his wife.
His life of service and sacrifice gained him the title of "Zealous servant ant and symbol of faithfulness," which the beloved Guardian conferred upon him in his cable.
FRIEDRICH SCHWEIZER'last of which was the plastering of the interior of Haziratu'1-Quds of Cairo, where his name appears in the records. A sacrifice which places him among the pioneers was his immediate response to the proposal for emigration introduced by the beloved Guardian following the success achieved by the Bahá'ís of Egypt on the occasion of the Centenary celebrations in 1944; he emigrated to Tanta, the capital of the biggest province of Egypt.
At Tanta persecutions began and disturbances broke out there. The few Bahá'ís in that city were exposed to real danger and underwent many hardships, but the presence of Haj Taha seemed to assure them that the mercy of Bahá'u'lláh was with them, and through his steadfastness, sacrifice, and enthusiasm, they could remain firm and undaunted by the threats of their enemies.
Their reward from the AbliA Kingdom was success in the formation of the first Spiritual Assembly of that city in 1945.
Through the sacrifice and zeal of Haj Taha, the same year recorded a very Friedrich Schweizer, the husband of the wellknown and active German Bahá'í teacher, Mrs. Annemarie Schweizer, was born in Esslingen, September 12, 1884. He adopted the career of a topographer. In 1910 he was introduced into our Faith by Miss Alma Knobloch, at that time a pioneer in Germany. In November, 1911 our well-beloved Master invited Mr. and Mrs. Schweizer, who were then new believers, to come to Paris. They were both very anxious to see Him. Mrs. Schwei-zer tells about it: "During the trip from Stuttgart to Paris and the morning of our visit we prayed that our hearts and souls might be purified to receive the blessings of the meeting wiTh Him. Scarcely had we arrived when He summoned us to His presence.
Lady Blom-field had entered the room before us; ~re saw that she bent her knees before 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Friedrich said, 'That I cannot do � kneel down before a man!' We entered � and the first one to kneel down was Friedrich, so greatly was he overwhelmed by the majesty and glory of His sanctity. "'Abdu'l-Bahá lifted him up and embraced him. He was greatly moved.
On another occasion'Abdu'l-Bahá. called him to His side and kept his hand during His speech.
How happy he was, and we all with him! All the friends present congratulated him on this honor."
In April, 1913, when the Master, on His trip through Germany, stayed a few days in Stuttgart, Friedrich again had the privilege of meeting Him. His attachment to the Holy Cause grew, and he became one of the early pioneers for our Faith in Germany.
Friedrich Schweizer always put aside his own desires when it was necessary to sacrifice his interests to serve the Holy Cause or to help a believer in distress. But he never uttered many words. Silent, solid, and wholly reliable, he did his duty. In the same spirit he performed good, accurate work during the years he was the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly (from about 1930 to 1935) and as a member of the local Spiritual Assembly in Stuttgart.
The 13th of July 1946, he suffered an attack of pneumonia and passed away.
All who were close to our dear friend will know that when he passed away a life filled with labor, care, and the observance of duty combined with affection, love, and benevolence to everybody, came to its earthly conclusion. When enumerating his high qualities, we remember not only his professional activity and all the concern he displayed as a father for the welfare of his family, but also we remember especially a work not so obvious to the public: his labor for peace, his struggle for the conquest of national, racial, religious, and social prejudice and antagonism and his endeavors for the prosperity of all mankind.
Very early he was enlightened by the divine beam emitted by the eternal Light, the call of Bahá'u'lláh sent down again to the world through His love to redeem humanity. And it was this beam of the supernal Light which radiated from our friend's heart.
His name will always be connected with the history of the Baha Faith in Germany.
The German Baha'is, and those from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen in particular, owe him a great deaf of
Friedrich Schweizergratitude for his abundant love, knowledge, and advice, for his generosity and his readiness to sacrifice, and for the home we found with him. We know what he would say to us: "do your duty; work for the
Cause of God."At the gate of the garden some stand and look within, but do not care to enter.
Others step inside, behold its beauty, but do not penetrate far. Still others encircle this garden, inhaling the fragrance of the flowers, but having enjoyed its full beauty, pass out again by the same gate.
But there are always some who enter, and becoming intoxicated with the splendor of what they behold, remain for life to tend the garden. � 'Abdu'l-Bahá 'From material furnished by Ella Goodall Cooper and Bijon Straun.
Page 489Such a gardener was John David Bosch. And the flowers he tended were the men, women and children in whose hearts he had, at one time or another, planted the seeds of spiritual truth. When he spoke of spiritual things and of Bahá'u'lláh, there was a light in his clear blue eyes that seemed to be .a reflection of a splendor that few others have had the joy of beholding, and when he looked into the eyes of a fellow human being a glow of friendliness lighted up his face, crinkled his eyes at the corners and brought a quick smile to his lips.
Although there are many friends who remember him as a young man and possibly somewhat different in appearance, most of us who knew him only in his later years were sure that he must always have been a distinctive individual.
He was tall and straight. His hair was white and he wore a well-trimmed white beard. In the summertime, when he dressed in his spotless white serge and Panama hat, he had the look of a man of noble rank.
He was a person of few words; he did not need to speak. His handclasp was warm and firm, and one was instantly at ease in his company. His every action was an expression of love and kindliness, and he was never happier than when serving his beloved Faith and Bahá'í friends. To hear him tell of his precious experiences with 'Abdu'l-Bahá was to feel that one had inhaled a bit of the fragrance of the Master's presence, and be drawn more closely both to Him and the John He loved so dearly.
John David Bosch (JohannesDavid Bbsch) was born August 1,1.855, in New Sankt Johann in the Kanton of St. Gal-len, Switzerland.
His parents and grandparents were followers of the reformer Zwingali, a contemporary of Martin Luther. In the year 1621 twelve fathers of families in the Toggenburg of Switzerland had established a fund of two thousand florins to provide financial assistance every year to any two male descendants who cared to study theology.
John, a direct descendant of one of the founders, was enti-tied to the benefits of this fund, but evidently God had other plans for him. One of several children, he was but eleven years old when his mother died. She had been a woman of culture and deep spiritual insight and he felt her loss very keenly. His father married again.
The second wife was a follower of Swedenborg, and before long John became familiar with the books of that renowned philosopher.
Considering this exceptional religious background, it is not surprising that his impressionable young mind was influenced to want to know more about spiritual matters � a desire which was to be ultimately satisfied years afterward in another part of the world.
His formal education ended at the age of fourteen.
He soon left home, going to Germany where for a few years he worked at and studied wine-making. From there he went to France and spent five years in its famed wine districts; then to Spain to further acquaint himself with his chosen business.
In 1879 he came to America with his sister Louisa and her husband, Johann Zuberbfihler, who planned to farm in Nebraska.
For a while he worked on railroad construction.He began to learn English, and having decided that America should be his permanent home he made application for citizenship, which was granted in due time.
He did not remain long in Nebraska. Like many other young men of that era, he heard the call of the West and determined to wend his way to California.
In Oklahoma he worked for four months on a large ranch where he had charge of a thousand head of cattle and had to ride the range. The ranch was owned by a Chickasaw Indian in whom he found a true and lasting friend.
But the lure of California was too strong to resist and so he set out again, finally reaching Sacramento in 1881. During the next ten years he was occupied in various branches of the wine trade in the southern part of the state.
In 1889 he paid a brief visit to his native land.Some time after his return he moved to northern California to become superintendent of the large winery at
Windsor in Sonoma County.California Wine Association, he superintended the erection and equipment, at Geyserville, of the largest and most modern winery in the country for the manufacture of dry and sweet wines and brandies. He made his home there but retained his position as superintendent of both wineries until his retirement from the business. He also organized and managed the California Grape Nectar Company for the production, by an improved process of sterilization, of a superior quality of unfermented grape juice.
This company he eventually turned over to the Association.
Between 1909 and 1936 he acquired extensive properties in Sonoma, Men-docino, and Contra Costa Counties, on which were grown varied agricultural crops. As there were many olive and prune trees on his Geyserville land, he at one time experimented in the making of high grade olive oil, and built a plant for prune-drying on a commercial scale; and a hobby of his had been the raising of pure breed Swiss goats.
Incidentally, it was in 1900 that he completed his progress in the Masonic Order, receiving the thirty-second degree and becoming a member of San Francisco
Scottish Rite ConsistoryThroughout all these years Mr. Bosch persisted in his ardent search for truth. Referring to his passing, a friend recalled that when he had first met him he was investigating the claims of spiritualism and occult sciences. "He was an unusual seeker after truth," the friend wrote, "in that he was not urged because of misery or dissatisfaction in his life, nor by curiosity.
I saw him grasp the fact of the immortality of man, and that seemed sufficient for him."
Mr. Bosch had not heard of the Bahá'í Faith until early in 1905 when, traveling by train from San Francisco to Geyserville, he chanced to meet an old acquaintance, a Mrs. Beckwith of Chicago.
She was reading the book, 'Abbas Effendi, His Life and Teachings, by Myron H. Phelps. He picked it up, glanced over a few pages, and asked: "Where did you get this book? It is good enough for me and I want to buy a copy." She referred him to Mrs. Helen Goodall of Oakland, upon whom he called three months later and learned of the history and principles of the Faith. Having found what seemed to be the truth for which he had been seeking, he endeavored to attend the meetings in her home at least once a month.
As these meetings were of the afternoon tea party variety, there were seldom any men but himself present, and sometimes he would stand with one foot on the ferry and the other on the wharf, hesitating whether to join the ladies or remain in San Francisco; but always, when the whistle blew, he would be aboard bound for Oakland and the Goodall home.
On May 29, 1905, he wrote his first letter to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The acknowledgement, received through Mrs. Good-all, enjoined: "0 thou John
Bosch:Raise the call of the Kingdom and give the Glad-Tidings to the people; guide them to the Tree of Life, so that they may gather the fruits from that Tree and attain that great Bounty."
That was the first of many Tablets from 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Some were addressed to him alone, and some to him and another believer together. One was written June 23, 1912, to him and his friend, the famous
Mr. Luther Burbank of SantaRosa. In this Tablet, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called them: "Ye two roses in the Garden of the Knowledge of God," and expressed the hope that: "In the utmost of freshness and beauty ye may became manifest; that is, ye may arise to serve the
Kingdom of God."And in an earlier message 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote: "With the utmost humility I pray at the Kingdom of AbM that that soul [Mr. Bosch]
may become holy, find capacity to receive the outpouring of Eternity and become a luminous star in the
West."Upon learning that the use of alcoholic liquor as a beverage is forbidden in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh,
Mr. Bosch� a professional wine taster, though a nondrinker of spirituous liquors � became troubled about what he should do in regard to his wine business. Therefore, in a letter to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, he asked for advice. In reply, 'Abdu'l-Bahá suggested that it would be better
Page 491to engage in another business, but gradually. Consequently he severed his connection with the Association in 1916 and applied himself to the further development of his properties.
Mr. Bosch attended the first Bahá'í Temple Unity Convention in Chicago, in 1909, as a delegate from the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. While there he met many of the early Baha'is, and in a short time his home became a point of attraction for traveling teachers, including Mr. Thornton Chase, Mr. Charles Mason Remey, and Mrs. Isabella D. Brittingham; also Mrs. Lua Getsinger, whose visit inspired him to write
'Abdu'l-Bahá, December1, 1910, "May this simple place on the hills be dedicated to the universal spirit of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh."
When the news came that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was on the way to America, Mr. Bosch had such an overwhelming desire to see Him he started for New York on April 12, 1912. At Chicago, hearing that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was in Washington, he went there instead, only to find that 'Abdu'1 � Bah& had not yet left New York.
So he hurried on to that city, arriving very early on a cold and snowy morning.
As soon as he had secured his room in the Hotel Ansonia he stole to 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í suite :'nd was admitted almost immediately. Relating his experience to a friend, Mr. Bosch said: When I entered the room I had a pocketful of questions to ask 'Abdu'l-Bahá, but when I saw Him I suddenly felt quite empty.
I never took the questions out. Eventually 'Abdu'l-Bahá told me all that I had wanted to ask Him. Foolishly I remarked that I had come three thousand miles to see Him, and He smilingly replied, "I came seven thousand miles to see you." I told Him that I, being a foreigner, had not the capacity of a speaker and that my work so far had been to circulate books and a few pamphlets. 'Abdu'l-Bahá said: "You are doing very well; you are doing better than talking.
With you it is not words or the movement of the lips; with you it is the heart that speaks. In your presence silence speaks and radiates."
Then tea was brought in and after we had bothpartaken of it 'Abdu'l-Bahá said: "You are now one of the family. You may come and go as you please."
I remained with 'Abdu'l-Bahá while He received many visitors. Then I went for a walk, and when I returned after an hour I was amazed to see about two hundred people in the lobby. In a few minutes 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed through.
Noticing the respect that these people paid Him, the assistant manager of the hotel, who was standing near me, remarked, "That must be a man of God."
Three automobiles were awaiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His party to take them to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kinney for luncheon. 'Abdu'l-Bahá stepped into the first one with two ~of the Persian friends. There was a vacant seat and one of the attendants beckoned me to come.
As I reached the door, 'Abdu'l-Bahá seized me by the hand and pulled me into the car, seating me at His right. He seemed very tired. Immediately He put His arm around my waist, dropped His
Page 492head on my left shoulder, and with a deep sigh went to sleep. During the entire hour's drive, while the friends in the automobiles looked at the sights, 'Abdu'l-Bahá slept.
When we arrived at the Kinney home a chair was placed in the center of the room for 'Abdu'l-Bahá, but He did not sit in it. Instead, He walked about among the people, shaking hands. When He came to me He passed right by without seeing me, and for a moment I felt hurt. Then I remembered that in the morning He had told me that I was "one of the family," and I knew then that there had been no need to say anything to me.
'Abdu'l-Bahá departed for Washington five days later and Mr. Bosch went in the same car; eight days afterward he again traveled in the same car with Him to Chicago. It was on this trip that 'Abdu'l-Bahá bestowed upon him the name "N4r4ni," writing it out in His own hand and explaining, through an interpreter, that it meant "full of light."
Mr. Bosch humbly expressed the wish that 'Abdu'l-Bahá might find time to visit his unpretentious home in Geyserville, to which 'Abdu'l-Bahá replied, "With you," � and repeating � "with you, I would sleep in the basement."
Mr. Bosch remained in Chicago for the Annual Bahá'í Convention and was present when 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid the foundation stone of the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette,
Illinois, MayThe story of the visit of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to California cannot be told here, but suffice it to say that Mr. Bosch spent every possible moment in His presence.
In San Francisco, on Januaryof New York, being the second marriage for each of them. She, too, was a native of Switzerland, and from that time forward, in all their activities, the names of "John and Louise" were inseparable.
When the Teaching Tabletsof 'Abdu'l-Bahá were released, Mr. and Mrs. Bosch were eager to respond at once. As both spoke fluent French, they chose Tahiti of the Society Islands in which to pioneer, and in 1920 they taught for five months in Pap6iti. One whom they met was a minister, and he later thanked 'Abdu'l-Bahá for sending these emissaries to his people. On the day of their departure, the islanders showered them with gifts and, in accordance with a Tahitian custom, bestowed upon Mr. Bosch a title meaning "First king of the great family of Bah& is arrived among us." In April of the next year Mr. and Mrs. Bosch left Geyserville for Haifa to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá. After visiting and teaching in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, they reached Haifa on November 14, 1921. Only their spoken words could adequately describe the joy and happiness they had being with 'Abdu'l-Bahá for two heavenly weeks. But no words could portray the depth of the sorrow that descended upon them, and upon the household, and upon all the Bahá'ís of the world, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away on November 28, 1921.
Two days before His passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had walked in the garden with Mr. Bosch, giving him fruit from the orange trees.
He was the last Westerner to have this great blessing.
Also to him was given the sacred privilege of assisting the family with the preparations for the burial of the Servant of God; and the shoulder upon which 'Abdu'l-Bahá had slept in New York, helped in Haifa to carry His casket to its final resting-place on Mt. Carmel.
At the request of Bahá'í Kt&num, the sister of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Mr. and Mrs. Bosch remained in Haifa for the customary forty days of mourning.
During this period, the grandson of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, returned from England to become the first Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. When Mr. and Mrs. Bosch took their leave, he handed them the first copy of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to deliver to the Bahá'í Convention in Chicago in April 1922.
En route to the United States they revisited Germany, and it was then that Mr. Bosch was instrumental in bringing about one of the first Bahá'í meetings in Berlin.
Upon their return to Geyserville they were soon engrossed in teaching work.
Page 493Frequently they made trips to southern California.
In the winter of 19271928 Mr. Bosch visited Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, in the latter city aiding in the formation of the first local Spiritual
Assembly in 1928. Whereverhe w6nt he carried to the friends the spirit of love and devotion to the Faith that motivated hi~ own life. Mrs. Bosch, meanwhile, was doing her part, traveling from place to place, striving to spread the Faith in Sonoma County. But the greatest of all testimonials to their unremitting labors is the Baha School at
Geyserville.On August 1, 1925, more than a hundred Bahá'ís from the San Francisco Bay area, besides other guests, congregated at Geyserville to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Mr. Bosch. It proved to be such a happy affair it was repeated the succeeding year, and at that time the idea of a western school for the training of Bahá'í teachers began to take shape.
In the spring of 1927 the National Spiritual Assembly appointed a committee of three � John Bosch, Leroy loas, and George Latimer � to find a location for a western states Bahá'í summer school.
Mr. Bosch recalled that he had written 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1919, offering his Geyserville property for "a Bahá'í community home or cooperative institution and Bahá'í school." Hence it was but natural that he should again offer the facilities of his ranch for this purpose. Thus the first Bahá'í school in the West came into being, the first session opening on his seventy-second birthday, August 1, 1927.
In subsequent letters the Guardian stressed the hope that this school would "flourish and attract an increasing number of spiritually-minded, capable souls" who would "in time unreservedly accept the Bahá'í Revelation in its entirety and thus reinforce the work that is being achieved for our beloved Cause.
In 1936 Mr. and Mrs. Bosch deeded their property to the National Spiritual Assembly, thereby establishing the school as a permanent institution of the American Bahá'í community. In previous years they had been personal hosts to the friends, housing them without out cost, and demonstrating that unique spirit of hospitality which from the very beginning they had poured out in a veritable flood upon Bahá'ís and non-BahWis alike. Particularly was this true at the Unity Feasts, that each year marked the opening of the sessions, at which they so warmly web corned everyone. From 1927 on, the success of the school became the all-compelling purpose of their lives, and they liked nothing better than to share with the friends, at four o'clock tea under the "Big Tree," their recollections of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í and the believers of former days.
Mr. Bosch lived to see the school grow from a small, informal gathering to an efficiently operating institution, from which many young people went forth to take the teachings to countries in which he had once traveled and taught.
His last appearance at the school was on the festive occasion of his eighty-ninth birthday when students and invited guests assembled in the evening at Baha Hall to do him honor. An enormous cake, bearing eighty-nine lighted candles, was brought in and placed upon the table at which Mr. and Mrs. Bosch were seated. Then a long line of children marched in, singing "Happy Brithday" as they laid their handfuls of flowers on the table until it was entirely covered � evidence of the love cherished by both old and young for these two selfless souls.
Mr. Bosch, amid much advice and laughter, at last succeeded in blowing out the candles. After individual greetings and felicitations, the whole party moved down to the "Big Tree" to partake of the cake and elaborate refreshments the hostesses had prepared.
Following a lingering illness, Mr. Bosch passed quietly away on July 22, 1946, just at the end of the twentieth session of the Bahá'í School, and nine days before his ninety-first birthday.
On July 24, at two o'clock in the afternoon, funeral rites were held in Bahá'í Hall where the body had lain in state since midmorning.
Masses of floral pieces bore silent witness to the affection, esteem and respect of Baha'is,
Page 494neighbors, and business associates. During the impressive ceremonies conducted by Mr. Leroy Toas, an intimate Bahá'í friend, the village stores remained closed. The pallbearers were neighbors and Bahá'ís representing several nationalities. A beautiful spot in Olive Hill Cemetery, overlooking peaceful Sonoma Valley and shaded by the trees so dear to him, is now his resting-place.
A cablegram sent by the Guardian from Haifa was received by the National
Spiritual Assembly July29: "Profoundly grieve passing dearly-beloved, greathearted, high-minded, distinguished servant of Bahá'u'lláh, John Bosch. His saintly life, pioneer services, historic contribution of institution of summer school, entitle him to rank among outstanding figures of the closing years of heroic, and opening years of formative age of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
Concourse on high extol his exalted services. Assure his wife and valiant companion of my deepfelt sympathy.
Advise hold special gathering in Temple as tribute to his imperishable memory."
As befitting one of such lofty station, the earthly chapter of his life closed with a memorial service in the Baha'i. house of Worship at Wilmette, on Sunday, November 24, 1946, to pay homage to his immortal memory.
'ALt SABOORiSaboor, the patient, so addressed by the beloved Guardian, was a faithful believer of Bag~d&d. He passed away in Su1aym~niyyih on August 3, 1946. Tn a letter of tribute and consolation from the Guardian dated October 27, 1946 we read these words: "He was a sincere servant, gallant and faithful, patient in adversities, content with what had been ordained for him by his Creator."
Saboor had recognized the greatness of the Cause when as a boy he read the following in a verse from the QurTh (5:59): "0 ye who believe! God will then raise up a people loved by
'All SaboorFor the cause of God will they contend, and not fear the blame of the blamer."
In his youth he decided to bear from the enemies even a ''rain of arrows ,�~ as he wrote from BaghdAd to his father in KarbilA, who criticized him for his open declaration of his Faith and advised him to conceal it. Saboor remained firm and wrote 'Abdu'l-Bahá asking Him for His Divine Confirmations.
In His kind and encouraging reply, 'Abdu'l-Bahá alluded to his future and described "the absence of the believer from his native land for the sake of God" as "the cause of divine mercy and the source of rest and delight in both worlds." Accordingly Saboor devoted himself to the diffusion of the divine fragrances in the Bahá'í meetings or whenever he met a soul searching after truth. He suffered insults and even stoning from the enemies. He defended the interests of the Cause notably when he was a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Ba~d6d, which
Page 495repelled in 1922 the assaults of the Covenant-breakers.
Although Saboor had no high secular education, he drank deeply of the divine outpourings. His only happiness was in extracting from the Holy
Books the Glad-Tidingsof "the coming of the Lord" and in telling people about the new Revelation.
He collected the verses alluding to the "Lordship of Bahá'u'lláh" because he was dazzled by the signs of the greatness of Bahá'u'lláh.
Between 1924 and 1934 Saboor was greatly distressed by economic circumstances and by the death of his wife and children. He continually sought the prayers of the beloved Guardian, and received several comforting replies promising future blessings. These divine promises were later fulfilled.
Though old and weak he gave the last years of his life to pioneering the Bahá'í Faith in new areas. He joined the pioneers in establishing the first local Assembly in Kirkuk in 1942. Then in 1945 the National Spiritual Assembly of 'Tr&q sent him to Amara in the south to join the Baha Group there. Here the people were fanatical.
They stoned him, and the police called him for investigation. Returning to BaghdAd he was honored to receive his last letter from the Guardian dated May 23, 1946 which alluded to his last days. At this time, Saboor became radiant and had the beauty of a mature soul.
On June 28, 1946, he traveled to Sulay-m~niyyih to join the Baha Group. A month later his life ended peacefully on August 3, 1946.
He is buried on a high rocky hill overlooking the city, his grave covered with shadowy bougainvillaea.
The Guardian's tribute is engraved on white marble at his resting place, so that the friends will read and remember that he was the first Bahá'í pioneer to die in Su1aym~niyyih.
IBY the National SpiritualCutts-Pow-eli) was born June 12, 1887 in Tracy, Minnesota.
Planning in her youth to become a college professor, she attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied four languages and majored in education and domestic science. On receiving her Bachelor of Science degree, she took graduate work in philosophy and psychology, found her interests changing, and became a writer and lecturer.
The name "Orcella Rexford"is a cryptogram, made up of letters chosen for her by an acquaintance in New York City. To Orcella this name symbolized her wish to link her personality to cosmic forces for good, which would give her the grestest impetus for development.
Orceila first heard of the Bahá'í Faith from Mrs. Myrta Sandoz of Cleveland, Ohio, and was later confirmed by Dr. Edward Getsinger in Boston, Massachusetts. She became a believer in 19181919.
Since belief and action were inseparable to her, while studying the Faith with Dr. Getsinger she brought along two students from her own classes. These, too, became Baha'is.
Soon she began to organize classes for Dr. Gets-inger.
In order to serve the Faith with maximum efficiency, Orcella now took stock of her educational equipment and capacities; she even investigated her genealogy, to appraise possible inherited tendencies and thus fully to obey the commandment, "Know thyself". As a child she had often been told of her second great-grandfather, William Jarvis, appointed by Jefferson as consul and charge d'affaires at Lisbon, who gave his services without cost to the then young and impecunious American Government for nine years (18021811).
Orcella felt that her tendency to pioneer, and to contribute her services to a righteous Cause, might have come down to her from this ancestor.
'Abdu'1-I3ah&'s newly-revealed Tablets of the Divine Plan called for pioneers to spread the Faith.
In response, iFrom material furnished by Willard P. Hatch and others.
Page 496Orcella set out for Alaska in 1922. Same of her forbears had joined the gold rush to the Yukon; she determined to find the gold of souls receptive to her Message.
The first Alaskan to accept the Faith through Orcella was Gayne V. Gregory, who soon became the husband of his teacher and within two years gave up his extensive dental practice at Anchorage to serve as business manager of Orcella's lecture tours. Orcella continued to be a lecturer by profession; while conducting classes on various subjects (among other topics, such as diet, she did much to popularize the use of color in clothing and in household furnishings and utensils, at that time traditionally drab) she would refer her students to a lecture that would follow the paid series of talks, and would bring them a knowledge that was beyond price. This final talk was on the advent of Bahá'u'lláh. Invariably, she left a Bahá'í study class, which was then conducted by other Baha teachers.
That her method was successful is proved by the large number of Bahá'ís who first learned of the Faith through Orcella. In Denver, for example, eighteen hundred people attended the Denham Theater on each of two nights to hear Orcella speak on the Cause, and a study class of four hundred and thirtyfive people resulted. When, toward the close of her life, a serious accident ended her professional lecture career, giving her the freedom she had longed for, she found that she had been deprived of her best teaching medium.
In 1925 the Gregorys left Alaska for Honolulu, and after teaching there, returned to the mainland where they traveled from west to east and north to south; then crossing the Atlantic and taking their car with them, they motored through Europe.
While here (in 1926), they received permission to visit Shoghi Effendi in Haifa. Returning spiritually reinvigorated to the United States, Orcella continued her constant travels; at one time or another she taught in Oakland, Milwaukee, Denver, New York, Omaha, Seattle, Spokane, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Flint, Detroit, Butte, Phoenix, St. Paul, Mm-neapolis,-=-in Florida,
Texas, Okiahama, beyond the frontier in Mexico � the list seems endless.
While visiting Phoenix, Orcella was injured in a fall, which ended her professional career as a lecturer. In Hollywood to regain her health, she was active in teaching and administrative work.
Then she left California on what was to be the last of so many journeys for the Faith; alone, she attended the thirty-eighth
Annual Bahá'í Conventionat Wilmette, teaching in various cities and at the Geyserville Bahá'í School an her way home. On Sunday morning, August 11, 1946, she died suddenly in her bath.
Messages soon began to arrive from many parts of the Bahá'í world from the grieving spiritual children of Or-celia. Johanne Sorensen Hoeg wrote from Denmark, "It was through hearing her lecture about the Bahá'í Faith that I became a Bahá'í (in Honolulu, 1925) I will always be thankful to Orcella Rexford that she could not keep her great love of Bahá'u'lláh by herself but wanted to bring the loving message of God to her fellow men." And Ophelia B. Crum: "I was among the audience of about a thousand who heard Orcella say: 'I have been teaching you about these outer subjects in which you are interested, but now I will tell you of the greatest truth that you should know today ' The next night we met to form study classes and for three months we would meet At the end of that time some forty students became members of the New York
Bahá'í community." VictoriaE. Robarts, who introduced Gayne Gregory to Orcella, writes: "Orcella Rex-ford was an outstanding woman, one of the few persons whom I ever met who never said an unkind or critical word of another her one great desire was to establish the Bahá'í Cause over the world." From Boston,
Helenshe had been holding her Health Lectures whereby many were helped physically and mentally out of that group eleven became declared believers In 1939 Orcella came again to Boston out of this group nine have since declared their belief; my husband Victor Archambault and I
Page 497were among the first eleven and are grateful beyond words to our 'spiritual mother.'" Mrs. Wetzel Ingold of
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin:"My life has been deeply blessed by knowing her." Mariam Haney, Washington D.C., early Bahá'í teacher, says, "It was so easy for her to make contacts with her fellow human beings she had a precious and sweet sympathetic understanding of life and people. Orcella was a born optimist. This optimism drew people to her. She had an intense desire to really know the Bahá'í teachings. At one of our annual conventions there were twenty-two believers present who were the spiritual chiP dren of Orcella." Mamie L. Seto of San Francisco, one of the Bahá'í teachers who assisted Orcella with followup classes, writes of the study group which Orcella left in Honolulu, and adds, "She maintained that we must meet people on the personal plane, help them with their personal problems, and then take them to the universal or world aspect of our Faith she gave one of the most convincing opening talks on the Faith I have ever heard.
She could in the shortest time create, and with the greatest ease devise and formulate plans for any project and no task seemed too difficult.
She looked forward eagerly to the coming of each day as an opportunity for further development.
I can think of few people who loved a new idea as much as Orcella did.
She was born to conquer and overcome those obstacles which stand between one and his goal. I have seen her leave a sick bed to speak at a public meeting."
Orcella Rexford was laid to rest August 14 at Inglewood Park Cemetery, near the grave of Thornton Chase. Friends filled the chapel; Paul Scho-eny, who learned of the Faith through Orcella, traveled from Phoenix, Arizona to sing at the memorial service, and Mrs. India Tiaggarty, Mrs. Florence Holsinger, and Mrs. Emily
Schie-mann spoke. WinstonEvans read the prayer at the grave. The Guardian's cable to Dr. Gregory was read: "De-plore loss indefatigable, gifted promoter Faith.
Heartfelt sympathy. Fervent prayers.A letter from the Guardian, through Rf4iiyyih Kh&num, to the local Assembly of Los Angeles says in part: "She was one of the most devoted teachers of the Cause in the States, and responsible for bringing it to the attention of a great many people, as well as for the confirmation of many souls. Her radiant devotion will not be forgotten, and her example should certainly be an inspiration to her fellow believers. It is a great pity the Cause should lose her services just as the new Seven Year Plan is getting under way. He asks you to particularly convey to dear Mr. Gregory his profound sympathy for the loss of such a wonderful woman and to assure him he will pray for her happiness in the next world, a world in which she will find many of her old fellow teachers awaiting her.
A record of Orcella's last day on earth was set down by her friend,
Mrs. Edith Weston:That last morning Mrs. Weston drove Orcella and other friends up from Hollywood to the Fiesta in Santa Barbara. Orcella, true to her love of colors,
Page 498was wearing a striped green cotton dress and a dark emerald-green swea-er, and her hat and coat were two shades of purple; with her soft hair and fresh skin, she looked radiant and youthful.
They went up by the Coast road; the wind blew, the smell of fish was in the air, the spray stung their faces. In Santa Barbara Orcella guided them to the old Spanish mission � the "Queen of the Missions" � and then took them to call on a resident Bahá'í family, the Matte-sons, explaining on the way that Bahá'ís are hospitable and that they could doubtless eat their picnic lunch in the Matteson home. Mrs. Weston discovered that Mr. Matteson had built his house with his own hands, using sections of old buildings, packing cases and new lumber. Above the mantlepiece they saw a green, sculptured square of rosewood, on which was painted the symbol of the Greatest Name.
The visitors spread their lunch out on the long dining-room table. When they left, Orcella promised ta come and spend a weekend in the little guest house Mr. Matteson was building.
After that they watched the Fiesta parade, which depicts the city's history from
Indian times. Orcellaand Mrs. Weston sat in the curbing along the line of march; they saw babies in flow-er-decorated carts, young men and women in the costumes of long ago, Spanish dons on Arab horses � bright colors, shiny harness, tooled-leather saddles heavy with silver. Warner Brothers was taking pictures.
The sun was hot, but Orcella did not complain. Later they drove around a bit, started to window shop, ended by shopping in earnest � and Orcella was delighted with her purchases. At six she suggested they go over to the Samarkand, the Persian hotel; here they walked through the long twilit gardens with their light-blue alabaster vases. They looked down across the city. "See, before the Government took over this hotel for the soldiers, water used to flow down this broad decline clear to the bottom of the deli," Orcella said. "This is really Persian, with its sunken gardens, its flowers, its running waters. I'm going to Persia.
It is the one place I have missed, and I have always wanted to go." It got dark and they started for home. This was Orcella's very last journey; she devoted it to teaching her friend: "She talked Baha'i, she radiated it; she seemed like some spiritual elf, trying to share with us the ethereal joy of her religion. 'Bahá'ís love peace,' she explained.
'They are hospitable.No one has too much, for all share. Children must get the consent of both parents before they marry.
Those who come into the Faith receive a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This comes always with a new Manifestation.
Oh, if I could be your spiritual mother, and bring you into the peace, the happiness, the utter contentment, that the Faith has given me.
"After awhile she was silent. I asked if she was tired. 'Oh no,' she replied, and once again she became her old alert wonderful self. At 10:30 we said goodby. 'The doctor � my husband � ' she said reflectively, 'was my only regret on this perfect day. I wish he could have been with us.'"
ABTJL-FETOUH BATTAHiOn October 15, 1945, the Bah& 'is of Egypt received with sorrow the news of the passing away of Abul-Fetouh Battah, an early Egyptian Baha'i, and a true servant of the Faith.
He followed his father in embracing the Cause during the historic sojourn of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Egypt in 19101911, and had the privilege of being in His Holy Presence.
He devoted himself to the service of the Faith, and was never daunted by threats or persecutions.
Bravery in defending the Cause was his ditnetion, and his thorough study of the teachings enabled him to meet the various arguments of the opposition with a dominant power, and to surprise his adversaries with sound and convincing proofs.
In 1914 and 1935, when persecutions raged inspectively, he accomplished much in behalf of the Bahá'ís by interviewing high officials and giving sound statements on the truth of the Bahá'í Faith.
As a government employee, he was transferred to Nag-Hammadi, Upper Egypt, where in 1941 he attended a course on civil defense against air raids, and made his first lecture on Universal Peace as ordained by Bahá'u'lláh.
Observing the tumult his lecture caused, especially among the Muslim clergy present, he published an invitation to them as well as to certain eminent persons of the town to hold a meeting to discuss the Bahá'í Faith. He was soon transferred, however, to the more remote city of Luxor, and was warned by his chief, the Judge of the Tribunal, against continuing such activities.
In Luxor he resumed his activities, delivering the Message to a few souls and supplying one of the biggest hotels with Bahá'í literature for its reading library.
Feeling that he could serve the Cause better as a free agent, he retired and settled in Cairo. He continued his service with great zeal and energy until he passed away. His loss was deeply regretted by the beloved Guardian.
'ALt SAID-EDDIN'On February 19, 1947 the Bahá'ís of Egypt were shocked at the irreparable loss of a staunch believer, and a sincere servant of the Cause, 'All Saki-Eddin.
His knowledge of the Cause went back to the early days of the Beloved 'Abdu'l-Bahá, when at the age of sixteen he noticed in one of his school teachers at Beirut certain characteristics and virtues which he greatly admired. When he learned that that teacher was a Baha'i, it was sufficient to attract him wholly to the new Faith. Later he was brought into the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by his teacher, and the moment his eyes fell upon the Holy Countenance he recognized at once the Divine Resplendency shining from the Beloved Master and became devoted to
Him.Some years later he lived in Palestine where he received the blessings of the Master. On various occasions he served the Cause under circumstances which for a long period of his life were very hard, as the hatred and enmity of the Covenant-breakers were raging.
The ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá was a deep shock to him, but he soon found his consolation in the Guardian.
Being wholly devoted, he sought the advice of Shoghi Effencli in every undertaking, and so in 1931 he proceeded to Egypt to settle permanently in Port Said.
Not only those fellow believers who had the privilege of seeing him at the Holy Shrines on every commemoration and festival occasion, but the entire Bahá'í community of Egypt will remember how great was his faithfulness and how amazing was his love and devotion.
Although he was ill from 1940 until his death, he participated in all Bahá'í activities, and indeed his sick-'By
'By the National SpiritualAssembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt, Sudan and Abyssinia.
Page 500"Villa Safwan," bequeathed by him to the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt, stands as a monument to his generosity, and his gift of land to the Holy Shrines at Carmel ranks him among those whose names and deeds are imperishable.
The following cable was received from the beloved Guardian: "Deeply grieve (the) passing (of the) beloved staunch servant (of the) Faith, 'All Effendi Said-Eddin. His exemplary services enriched Bahá'í endowments in both Egypt and the Holy Land.
Advise friends hold memorial gatherings s (in) memory (of) his imperishable services.
MUHAMMAD TAQI ISFAHANIlOn December 13, 1946, the Baha 'is of Egypt learned with deepest sorrow and grief of the passing of Muhammad Taqi 1sf 6iThni, the last survivor of the age of Bahá'u'lláh. His loss is irreparable, ~not only to his friends in Egypt, who had received from him true fatherly love and kindness, but also to those innumerable friends in both the East and West who knew him well, greatly valued his services, and appreciated his help on their visits to and from the Holy Land.
He grew up in Persia where he first glimpsed the light of truth shining from the horizon of Bahá'u'lláh.
This was in the early days of His Declaration, when the fire of hostility toward the Faith was being lit by its enemies, who were drawn from among the various classes and dignitaries of Persia.
He heard the 'U1am~s (Mos-lem leaders) addressing the masses from their pulpits, arousing them and inciting them to rise against the believers of the new Faith, to destroy them, and to uproot their movement; and he witnessed the patience, forgiveness, serenity, uprightness, and steadfastness of those men whom the
'By the National SpiritualAssembly of the Baha of Egypt, Sudan and Abyssina.
'Au Said-Eddin'UlamAs cursed and accused of heresy. He was horrified when Mulh Muhammad B&qir (surnamed "the Wolf" by the Supreme Pen), and ImAni-Jum'ih killed the two brothers, Muhammad I~asan (surnamed the SultAn of Martyrs) and Muhammad Husayn (sur-named the Beloved of Martyrs), not because they were Báb's, nor because they were regarded as apostate, but because IrnAm-Jum'jh was indebted to them for LE 8000 and sought to free himself from debt by this savage and brutal crime.
In 1878 Mul2aniimed TaqiDuring this voyage he met many believers in various countries and thus learned more of the new Faith.
He stopped at 'Akka, the city of the Prison, where he was welcomed by the friends of the Faith, and where the brothers' murder was much discussed.
The first day he had the honor of meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and the sec-and morning he was privileged to make his first visit to the Holy Presence of Bahá'u'lláh, when the Tablets revealed in honor of the two martyrs were being chanted by Aq~ JAn,
Page 501(surnamed the Servant of God). After thirteen days stay he resumed his journey to Egypt.
Later, he made four more trips to the Holy Land; the second one initiated his career, because on that visit Bahá'u'lláh advised him to settle in Egypt, and his last visit was in 1891, just a year before the ascension of the Blessed
Beauty.His devotion to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant, was very sincere, and he had the privilege of receiving His blessings on many visits to the Holy Spot, the last being on February 4, 1919. The historic visit of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Egypt in 19101912 gained Muhammad Taqi T~f~h~ni fresh grace as he devoted himself to His service as well as to the service of the pilgrims.
On November 28, 1921, he was deeply shocked by the news of the ascension of the Beloved Master, announced by the Greatest Holy Leaf by a cablegram. He proceeded to Haifa immediately and there he felt that the world had become devoid of life. On the fortieth day he left Haifa, when the sighs of sorrow and grief of the bereaved, both Bahá'ís and non-Bah&fs, were suddenly transformed into delight and happiness on reading the "Will and Testament," in which the Beloved Master directed His followers to turn their faces towards the light shining from the Distinguished Branch, the Beloved Guardian of the Cause of God, Shoghi Effendi.
The progress of the Cause in Egypt is associated with the services of Muhammad
Taqi I~f&h~ni. Therewere only a few believers when he first came to Egypt, but through his activities many souls came to embrace the Cause, and many centers were established.
His house was dedicated to Baha activities and many meetings were held there.
It was honored by the visit of the Beloved Master during His sojourn in
Egypt. Mirza Abu'1-FaQ1and Mrs. L. M. Getsinger spent their last days on earth in that house, receiving all hospitality and care.
His spirit of faithfulness shone with full brightness when the Covenant-breakers began their activities and
Muhammad Taqi Isfahiinisought through their agents in Egypt to mislead the believers. His steadfastness and zeal disclosed their conspiracy and protected the Cause of God against their mischief.
In the field of literature Taqi Effendi took a notable part. He knew by heart almost all the general Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and he could recount most of the outstanding historical events as if they were yet fresh.
As chief member of the Publishing Committee, he helped to translate into Arabic many books and Tablets, such as the iqdm and
Some Answered Questions.He also wrote articles demonstrating the truth of the Cause and promoting its teachings and principles.
Years did not dim the brightness of his spirit, although they laid upon him and increasing burden of sorrows and disasters.
The deaths of his sons, followed by the death of his wife, left
Page 502him alone, but his spirit never faltered nor felt loneliness, as his true comfort was found in his
Beloved Bahá'u'lláh.His kindness and hospitality were extended to everybody, and his innumerable services are graven upon the hearts of the believers of the
East and West.As a Hand of the Cause of God, Muhammad Taqi I~fAh4nf served, underwent hardships, and passed away with a smile of peace. Memorial gatherings were held by the believers in various centers, and a suitable resting place is in course of construction in the
Bahá'í Cemetery. Nothingcan better express the measure of this rich life and its blessed termination than the following cablegram received from the Beloved Guardian: � "Hearts (are) grief stricken (by the) passing (away of) beloved, outstanding, steadfast promoter (of the) Faith, Muhammad Taqi T~f4h&ni. Long record (of) his magnificent, exemplary services (is) imperishable (and) deserves rank (him among the) hands (of the) Cause (of) God. Advise hold befitting memorial gatherings (by) Egyptian centers.
(I am sending a) contribution (of) two hundred pounds (for the) construction (of a) grave.
(Signed) Shoghi."On the morning of September 13, 1947 the friends of 'Ir&q were deeply grieved by the news of the loss of the wellknown believer, 1{&ji Mahmttd Qassabchi, that faithful, steadfast and devoted Bahá'í who loved and served the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh until the last days of his life on earth.
The Guardian paid tribute to him in the following telegram to the National Spiritual Assembly dated September 17, 1947: "Deeply grieved loss dearly-beloved, illustrious promoter Faith, IJAjI Mahmfld Qassabehi. His precious, historic services in 'Ir&q, Persia, Holy Land, unforgettable, exemplary. Advise centers hold befitting
IBY the National Spiritualmemorial gatherings to commemorate his high achievements which Concourse on High extol, for which I feel deeply grateful. .Shoghi."
H4ji Mahmiicl Qassabehi, who was a descendant of a very old family of BagjyI~d embraced the Bahá'í Faith in 1911 through reading The Star of the West which then published reports of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í travels in Europe. His addresses, His photographs, and accounts of the deep and widespread interest He created among the various classes of the Western world.
The issues of this Bahá'í magazine were presented to him by a certain Bahá'í merchant of Jewish extraction, the late Joseph Moshi, who later gave Qassabehi, at his request, a copy of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, which served to reinforce and consummate his faith in the new Revelation. The Master, in a Tablet revealed in his honor in this connection, blessed him for having attained the summit of being and believed in the revealed signs of the secret of existence. From then on he continued to offer to thirsty souls the celestial Water of Life of which he had been given to drink.
HAji Mahmtid Qassabchi'sservices to the Cause of God started soon after World War I when, by permission of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, he undertook the restoration of the blessed House of Bahá'u'lláh.
Although he had expressed his readiness to do this important work at his own expense, the Master and a number of believers participated in contributing to this end.
In 1925 when the case of the House of Bahá'u'lláh was being considered and decided upon by the law courts of BaghdAd, and the Shi'ih popuhee were causing a great agitation about the disputed case, thus rendering the situation of the believers in Bagj~dAd very critical, H4ji Mabmild Qassab-chi not only stood firm and faithful to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh but encouraged other friends to do likewise. Meantime, he expended freely to defray the fees of the lawyers who were engaged to defend the Bahá'í case.
A few years later, he was privileged to play the leading part in the purchase
Page 503and establishment of the first Haziratu'1-Quds of Bag]~dAd, and when the friends undertook to construct the present
National Haziratu'1-Qudshis contributions were very generous. Qassabchi was also among the first believers who participated in no small measure in the erection of the Hazi-ratu'1-Quds of the village of Avashiq, the first of its kind to be built in 'Ir4q.
Perhaps the most distinguished and imperishable service he was privileged to render to the Bahá'í Faith was the construction of the three additional rooms adjoining the Shrine of the BTh on Mount Carmel.
These rooms now contain the International Bahá'í Archives. The beloved Guardian, who personally supervised the work, repeatedly extolled this meritorious service of I-{4ji
MahmM.Qassabchi participated through his contribution, in the purchase of the land which is to be the site of Persia's Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
A few years before his passing, 1{Aji Mah-mfld Qassabchi donated to the Cause three small houses adjoining the
House of Bahá'u'lláh.Concerning one of his recent contributions to the Faith, Ruhiyyih Khhnum writing to a friend i~i Baghd4d stated:
"Please inform Mr. Qassabehiwhen you give him the enclosed receipt that the Guardian has decided, in view of his great affection for him, to use this loving contribution of his to the Faith for work on completing the superstructure of the B&b's blessed Temple, whenever circumstances permit this historic enterprise to be commenced."
In 1931 Qassabchi with the approval ~of the Guardian traveled to Bahá'u'lláh's native land, where he was very delighted to meet large numbers of devoted and zealous believers in TilirAn Khurhsftn, and other cities and towns.
There he lost no chance to contribute to various Bahá'í enterprises and undertakings.
In 1932 Qassabehi had the honor to visit the beloved Guardian and the Bahá'í Holy Shrines.
Later in the year, while spending the summer in Damascus, Syria, he received the shocking
Mahmtid Qassabehinews of the ascension of the Greatest Holy Leaf, whereupon he hurried back to the Holy Land where he took part in the funeral of Bahá'í
KhAnum.In 1933 Qassabchi suffered a severe attack of paralysis which he narrowly survived and as a result of which he could hardly move or speak for the rest of his life. On September 11, 1947 Qassabchi, who had already grown frail and weak, fell ill, and two days later winged his flight to the AbhA Kingdom. He was buried at Salman Pak, about thirty miles southeast of Baghdad.
BEULAH STORRS LEWISwas born of a wellknown Mormon family in Springville, Utah, on January 21, 1881. She died in Los Angeles, California, on November 9, 1947. Her life had been a tree that bore much fruit. As Miss Hew lah Storrs, she married Albert E. Lewis. They had no physical children,
Page 504but Mrs. Lewis had a spiritual family that was indeed numerous. For Mrs. Lewis was an eloquent speaker, a fluent writer and an active Bahá'í teacher.
For approximately twenty-eight years she had devoted an increasing amount of her time and her unique capacities to spreading the "Glad-Tid-ings" of the coming of Bahá'u'lláh.
According to her brother, Kindred L. S'torrs, Beulah became a follower of the
Bahá'í Faith in California.He writes: "As I remember it, Beulah first became a Bahá'í in 1919. I became a Bahá'í almost instantaneously when I first learned of it through Beulah. My mother followed soon after that.
My father never declared himself to be a Baha'i, but talked Baha to practically everyone he met. Beulah attended the
Brigham Young Universityat Provo, Utah, and later studied in England. She had a varied experience in dramatics, and had been in the movies in Hollywood in the silent days.
I do know that she gave up everything, including her ambition in the field of dramatics to serve Bahá'u'lláh."
Mrs. A. C. Platt relates that, while Beulah was acting in the silent moving pictures, she met with an accident and was taken for recuperation to the home of Mother Wright, a Bahá'í and a competent character actress. But it was at the home of Mrs. Platt that a Bahá'í study class was conducted. Two members who attended the class regularly and expressed keen interest in the teachings were a little girl and her mother. That girl was Carole Lombard who later became a worM-famous actress, and a close friend of Beulah Lewis.
In the spring of 1938, Carole Lombard Gable, already a Baha at heart, was encouraged by Mrs. Lewis to appear before the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Los Angeles and to declare her belief. She joined the Bahá'í World Faith and became a member of the Los Angeles community.
Mrs. Lewis was active in civic affairs. Tn 1930 she was president of the Cadman Club. She had Mso served as president of the City Women's Breakfast
Club.When on a visit to New York City, Mrs. Lewis devoted her time to spread-Beulah ulah Storrs Lewis ing the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
After a lecture, one of the members of the audience who came to speak to her was Dr. Mayo, of the wellknown Mayo Brothers of Minnesota. He told her that he was impressed by her efforts to serve humanity spiritually without ft-nancial return.
He said that he had noticed in her symptoms of a kidney ailment, which if treated in time, could be greatly benefited, if not cured. Then he added that he too was trying to aid mankind in the field of physical health, and that he would like to offer her the facilities of the Mayo Brothers Clinic without cost. Though his kind and unselfish offer was deeply appreciated, she decided she could not accept it. It was also in New York City that an enemy of the Faith came to Mrs. Lewis and offered to establish her as a minister in a church of her own, saying that from this position she could obtain both wealth and fame. Her refusal was immediate and definite.
A close friend of Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Martin G. Carter, who lived in Los Angeles, opened her hospitable home
Page 505for many years to classes that Mrs. Lewis taught of the Bahá'í Faith.
Mrs. Carter actively interested herself in inviting the open-minded and progressive among those she contacted to attend and study in these classes. She states that in her opinion possibly one hundred souls became awakened and declared themselves Bahá'ís through the effective teaching of Mrs. Lewis, either directly or indirectly.
As to the spirit which animated Mrs. Lewis as a Bahá'í teacher, her brother has written from Salt Lake City: "She was extremely humble and grateful to Bahá'u'lláh for the inspiration which she received and for the good that so many people derived from it." From Miss Clara E. Weir, a close friend of Mrs. Lewis, comes this statement: "I knew Beulab in the days of her robust vitality.
By her eloquence she could warm and inspire her listeners with the love of God and stimulate them to rise to heights of service My earnest prayer for her is that doors of service may open to her in all the worlds of God."
HASAN MARl TANTAWIThe passing of our dear brother, Hasan Mar'i TantAwi on the twenty-eighth of August, 1949, terminated a period of heroism in the annals of the Cause in Egypt. He was one of the four heroes of Kawmu's-Sa'&yidih, the historic village in Upper Egypt, who, undeterred by the forces of terror, appeared before the Muslim Court and courageously and unreservedly declared their faith in Bahá'u'lláh. Taking into consideration the times, and how great has been the evolution in the thinking of their countrymen in the course of the twenty-five years since that first charge was brought against the Bahá'ís in Egypt, the championship of the Cause which he and his fellow-believers displayed appear incomparably greater than similar events recorded later.
That championship stands in the annals closely associated with their sacrifices and sufferings and marks the Hasan Mar'i Tant&wi turning paint in the history of the Cause in Egypt.
Through this championship, thewas for the first time, declared by Muslim religious authorities to be an independent Faith, so that a Baha could not be regarded as a Muslim, nor a Muslim as a Bahá'í Upon the issuance of that historic verdict, Ijlasan Mar'i moved from his village and settled in Cairo.
His hardships did not cease, but his spirit continued to grow stronger.
At last he was appointed a teacher by the Ministry of Education, and was thus afforded a comparatively peaceful life.
As a graduate of the thousand-year old Muslim University, al-Azhar, he exerted his knowledge, strength and skill in assisting in translating into Arabic many of the
Bahá'í Writings.In August, 1949, he visited the friends of Alexandria during his summer holiday.
His regular attendance at their meetings caused mutual delight and happiness.
On the evening of his passing he attended a local symposium of the Baha youth of Alexandria.
It is said that hisjoy, happiness and thankfulness to Bahá'u'lláh were so great that he seemed to feel as if it were the last occasion for him to express his deep affection, love and appreciation to his beloved fellow-believers! Just as he reached his home, he began to suffer heart failure and within fifteen minutes he passed away. He was fifty-six years of age.
His body was interred in the Bahá'í burial ground in Cairo.
May his soul abide in eternal rest in the Kingdom of Abh&!
(National Spiritual Assemblyfrom data supplied by 'Abdu'r-Razz&q 'Abbas Toward the close of 1949, violent death claimed Nfiri'd-Dfn 'Abbas, one of the most active and enthusiastic Bahá'ís of 'Ir4q. He was born in August 1902, the son of 'Abbas RidA Mashadi 'Abbas who had four years earlier embraced the Cause.
Nfiri'd-Din was one of those blessed souls who thirst after righteousness. Although Bahá'í literature was very scanty during the days of his youth, he loved to read whatever he could find about the Faith.
He spared no effort to seek out every manuscript in his eagerness to master the Teachings. He shared his father's perseverance and devotion to the Cause.
Attacks and persecution only served to strengthen his efforts, and his loyalty and self-s acri-fice reached their zenith in the face of opposition.
In his library he kept every available Bahá'í book, including many published in other parts of the world. His time and money were consecrated to Bahá'í service, his one consuming interest in life. His love for the Cause and for Shoghi Effendi was further expressed
Nfiri'd-Din 'AbbasA teacher by profession, he spent most of his life in the employ of the Ministry of Education of 'Irtiq.
The inspectors knew of his allegiance to the Faith and because of this sent him to distant and uncoveted places in 'Ir&q. This discriminatory treatment enabled him to render unusual services to the Faith as a pioneer settler and teacher.
During the last seven years of his earthly existence, he and his wife taught school in Sulaym&niyyih, a town in 'Ir&qf Kurdistttn which will forever be remembered because of the sojourn there of Bahá'u'lláh.
Ntiri'd-Din 'Abbas loved the Kurds and his affection was reciprocated. He performed the historic service of securing the translation into
Kurdish by MahmiTh Jawdatof Dr. Esslemont's Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era. Not only did he succeed in getting the volume translated but he also distributed it widely among the Kurds.
He personally translated into Arabic George Townshend' s pamphlet about Queen Marie's conversion to the Faith,
Page 507publishing and distributing hundreds of copies and presenting a goodly supply to the Baha library in Bagjid4d.
He was loved by his students and by all who knew him intimately.
JULIA CULVER1950 Julia Culver, after forty-seven years of devoted, generous and sacrificial service to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, was released from this world of limitations on
January 22, 1950 in EastOakland, California, and passed to broader horizons at the age of eighty-nine.
Born in 1861, Julia Culverspent four years as a child in Germany. When the family returned to the United States, they lived in Chicago. At twen-ty-six, Julia returned to Europe.
It was in Munich, in 1903, sixteen years later, that she first heard of the Bahá'í Faith from an American woman who was there at the time.
In those days there were few persons in the United States or in Europe who knew about Bahá'u'lláh, much less recognized Him as the Manifestation of God for our time. Julia Culver, however, was one of those rare souls who seemed to have been spiritually prepared to recognize the Prophet on learning of His coming. No sooner had she heard of His Message and perused what little was available to the Western world at that time of His Teachings, than she accepted their validity and dedicated her life to the promotion of His Cause. Back in the United States in 1904, she went to Green Acre, in Maine, where Sara Farmer, through her Green Acre Conferences, was spreading the Glad
Tidings of Bahá'u'lláh'sjoined forces with Martha Root, that intrepid Bahá'í teacher who won such a crown of glory by her tireless efforts and
Julia Culverachievements. Together they labored in Europe for five years and did outstanding teaching work in Breslau and in Budapest at the Esperanto Congresses held in those cities. Julia contributed large sums of money at this time so that the teaching work might go forward and throughout the following years continued to aid greatly the activities of Martha Root and other Bahá'í teachers.
Early in 1927, the failing health of Mrs. Stannard, who had established the Bahá'í
International Bureauin Geneva at the request of the Guardian, made it imperative to find someone to take over the burden.
Julia Culver, familiar with the Continental peoples and languages, seemed the ideal choice and was heartily approved by the Guardian.
With Mrs. Stannard no longer able to assume the expenses of the Bureau, Julia Culver, by that October, was faced with the choice of seeing this important, though embryonic, international center closed, or of taking upon herself the full responsibility for it. She
Page 508elected the latter, and with a contribution of six English pounds a month from Shoghi Effendi, (later increased to nine pounds), Julia Culver supplied the remaining and major share of the necessary funds to keep the Bureau. functioning and expanding.
In the early summer of 1928, Emo-gene Hoagg, at Julia's suggestion, came to Geneva to help and together they built the Bureau Library, initiated a bulletin and arranged lectures, teas and other activities designed to make the Bureau a meeting ground for all persons and groups who were working for peace and the betterment of the world. Many notable persons visited the Bureau in those years and attended its functions. Among those who have openly voiced their sympathy with and appreciation of the Bahá'í Faith and proclaimed it as perhaps the greatest force in the world for the unification of mankind, was the late Eduard Bene~, then Minister of Foreign
Affairs for Czechoslovakia.Bureau thus cooperated with all organizations in Geneva that were striving towards goals simi-hr to those of the Baha'is, maintained contact with the activities of the Faith throughout the world and did all in her power to make it an auxilliary nerve center to Haifa, as the Guardian wished, in all that pertained to the Faith. This was no small task, but with the aid of Bahá'í travelers from all parts of the world, both the Bureau and the number of Swiss believers steadily grew.
One of those Bahá'í travelers to visit Geneva in those days, was the eminent George Townshend, Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral in
Dublin and Archdeaconof Clonfert (positions he has recently renounced to devote his entire time to the teaching of the Bahá'í Faith). On his return to Ireland in October 1929, Dr. Townshend wrote to Ju-ha Culver: "Geneva is to me a haven of spiritual beauty an echo of Haifa. I have seen Geneva and felt there a spiritual power I had not felt elsewhere. I hope that more and more the Bahá'í Bureau will increase in power and will gather round it the other movements represented there (all of them less complete, less informed, less inspired than it) until it becomes, by the sheer force of its own merit and character, the acknowledged Center of all the constructive energies of that International city. This of course will happen. Nothing can stop it. May it be soon. How great a privilege is yours and Mrs. Hoagg's to be so bravely and successfully upholding there this great Cause through these difficult times.
Nor was the development of the International Bureau the only service that Julia Culver offered her beloved raith. It was she who arranged for the French translation of Dr. Esslemont's Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, and she who shared her own limited resources to help any and all who were in need. Her diary discloses but a few of the host of deeds and contributions which flowed from her loving, generous heart and purse: a hundred dollars to help educate a Persian youth; eighty dollars to aid someone else; a check to a mother whose daughter had suffered the amputation of a leg; checks to Bahá'í teachers in Europe whose means were too limited � everywhere the helping hand.
Small wonder that George Townshend wrote at this period (July 1930): "The bugles of heaven are blowing strains of thankfulness for your faithful, staunch and determined efforts to obey the Center of the Covenant and keep the Geneva Bureau going. Listen to the bugles and do not mind the yappings of mortals....
My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your brave, lonely and invaluable work for God and His Cause."
In January 1931, on the eve of her seventieth birthday, her physical strength failing, Julia Culver wrote to Shoghi Effendi asking permission to return to the United States. His answer came saying she might go home.
Emo-gene Hoagg was to return to Geneva to replace her.
In June, Julia wrote to her to say that she was putting aside
Page 509funds to maintain the Bureau until the following May. But due to unforseen circumstances Emogene Hoagg was not able to leave for Europe, and the next spring found Julia Culver still in Geneva, still hoping to be relieved and, at that time, planning to arrive in Gey-serville, California, in good season for the Baha Summer School sessions there. In August, she was "hoping to go in September." But it was May 1933 before it was possible for Julia Culver to leave for California.
Even then she could not be idle. After a short rest she was busy once more promoting the Teachings of the Cause she loved so well. In California she spread the Divine Message in various cities and in Chemeketa Park was planning to open a children's school.
But failing health and finances frustrated her purpose-and she was at last forced to sell her property and live quietly with her sister in Berkeley until it became necessary to place her in a rest home in East Oakland where she passed away.
Julia Culver, in her forty-seven years of Bah~ 'i service, gave of her substance until she had no more to give, either physically or materially.
Surely as she entered the Abh& Kingdom she was greeted by "the bugles of heaven blowing strains of thankfulness" for her "faithful, staunch and determined efforts" for the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
On receiving news of her passing, the Guardian cabled this message: "Grieve passing devoted pioneer (of) Faith, Julia Culver. Her exemplary spirit, unshakable loyalty, generous contributions unforgettable. Fervent-iy praying (for) progress (of) her soul (in) Abh4
Kingdom."The passing of Mountfort Mills on April 24, 1949, deprived the American Baha community of the influence and experience of a very distinguished believer.
He had been a follower of Bahá'u'lláh since 1906.Before the end of 1909, Mountfort Mills had made two pilgrimages to 'Akka.
His third pilgrimage to visit the Master was made early in 1921. Tn 1922, with Mr. Roy C. Wilhelm, he was invited by Shoghi Effendi to go to Haifa for conference with the Guardian on matters related to the new conditions created for the Faith by the Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
During the Master's visits in New York during 1912, Mr. Mills served on the Bahá'í reception committee which arranged public addresses for 'Abdu'l-Bahá in that city.
First chairman of thewhen formed in 1922 in accordance with the provisions of the Will and Testament left by the Master, Mountfort Mills was elected a member of that body for seven terms between 1922 and 1937. As trustee of Bahá'í Temple Unity he had served annually from its inception in 1909.
The final draft of the Declaration of Trust and ByLaws adopted by the National Assembly in 1927 was prepared by Mills.
Page 510It would be impossible in brief space to report his activities for the New York Bahá'í community throughout the years of his residence there, for the national Baha community, or in Europe. He was a winning public speaker and his personality gained many influential friends for the Faith in some of its most difficult days in the West. His devotion to the Master was impressive.
A few outstanding events will serve to indicate the unusual scope of his Bahá'í activities.
At the Conference of LivingEmpire, held in London, Mills represented the Bahá'ís on the public platform.
His appeal of the case of the House of Bahá'í at Baghd~d to the League of Nations, whose verdict was favorable to the Faith, is historic. The case is documented in earher volumes of this biennial record.
Mills made two journeys to BaghdAd while studying the facts pertaining to the Bahá'í rights to possession of a sacred Bahá'í shrine confiscated by leaders of IslAm. During this mission, acting on behalf of the duardian, Mountfort Mills had audiences with the late King Feisal of 'Iraq, who assured him that the government would carry out the terms of the decision rendered by the League, an intention the King's untimely death made it impossible for him to fulfill. Mysteriously attacked while in Bag~d~d, Mr. Mills suffered a brutal assault the effects of which lingered for many years.
Mountfort Mills prepared the Resolution adopted by the National Spiritual Assembly for presentation to President Roosevelt with an engrossed copy of the Tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh for the heads of the Republics throughout America and a copy of the Master's Prayer for America. This document was reproduced in The Bahá'í World at the time.
In Geneva, Switzerland, Mills spent much time during sessions of the League of Nations, serving as an unofficial observer and interested friend of its public proceedings, and exerted a good influence among many of its leaders on behalf of the Bahá'í principles and ideals.
He was a member of the committee which appeared before the Wilmette Village Board to apply for a building permit for the House of Worship, at a time when the Bahá'ís owned land and possessed Mr. Bourgeois' design but from a worldly point of view seemed incapable of carrying out so impressive and costly a structure.
Characteristic of his influence upon people was his discussion with the late Professor
Edward Browne of CambridgeUniversity, translator of A Traveller's Narrative: the Episode of the B&b, the Persian text of which had been presented to Professor Browne by 'Abdu'l-Bahá at the time of his famous visit to Bahá'u'lláh. After hearing Mr. Mills' explanation of the evolution of the Faith from the BTh to Bahá'u'lláh, and its subsequent stages under the Center of the Covenant and the terms of His Testament, Professor Browne realized that he had been veiled by the preoccupation with conflicting claims and disturbances which followed the Martyrdom of the Báb.
He expressed his desire to translate later Bahá'í works, but died before this contribution to the Faith could be made.
Mills brought into the Bahá'í community a trained mind, a gracious presence, a rare quality of friendly relationship and a keen awareness of the need of our time for the inspiration and guidance of a new Revelation.
"As already intimated," the Guardian wrote on October 18, 1827, "I have read and reread most carefully the final draft of the ByLaws drawn up by that highly-talented, much loved servant of Bahá'u'lláh, Mountfort Mills, and feel I have nothing substantial to add to this first and very creditable attempt at codifying the principles of general Bahá'í administration."
In his letter dated March 20, 1929, reporting the favorable verdict pronounced by the League of Nations, the Guardian said: "I must not fail in conclusion to refer once again to the decisive role played by that distinguished and international champion of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, our dearly-beloved Mountfort Mills, in the negotiations that have paved the way for the signal success already achieved. The text of the
Page 511Bahá'í petition, which lie conceived and drafted, has been recognized by the members of the Mandate Commission as 'a document well-drafted, clear in its arguments and moderate in tone.' He has truly acquitted himself in this most sacred task with exemplary distinction and proved himself worthy of so noble a mission.
I request you," (ad-dressing the American Baha'is) "to jion me in my prayers for him, that the Spirit of Bahá'u'lláh may continue to guide and sustain him in the final settlement of this most mighty issue.~~
GEORGE ORR LATIMERThe Centenary of the Declaration of the B&b brought forth in North America a notable
Mi-America Convention.Representatives chosen by the Latin American communities assembled with the delegates elected for the United States and Canada, and a Latin-Ameri-can co-chairman was appointed to serve with the Convention chairman during the sessions.
George Orr Latimer as chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly convened the Convention and continued to preside when elected Convention chairman by the delegates.
Perhaps in each active life there is one episode which seems to stand out as a culmination, a climax, in which all the person's capacity and experience are given their supreme fulfillment.
If that is so, many American Bahá'ís will associate George Orr Lati-mer with the
Centennary Conventionin 1944, when the Latin American teaching work had become firmly established, when a local Assembly had been formed in every State and Province of North America, and when the completed exterior ornamentation of the House of Worship made possible a floodlighted Temple which impressed every observer with a sense of exalted beauty.
Mr. Latimer was born into and grew up with a family of pioneer Baha'is. His spiritual environment from youth
George Orr Latimerwas Baha'i. Around him he could see daily evidences of the working of an indomitable spirit of faith. Here was no static belief in a past and finished revelation, providing slumber for souls too fearful to confront reality, but a crusade undertaken by staunch and vigilant personalities who had to build their own path of progress from day to day through the wilderness of the world.
His lifespan coincided with the unprecedented impetus which 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave to the concept of religion. Religion had been revealed truth, majestic law, glorious hope and sublime sacrifice, but never in any previous dispensation had religion been community, socialized in terms of civilization attuned to a valid manifestation of the divine Will. This mighty transformation of religion from universal truth to community was the providential mis-Sian of 'Abdu'l-Bahá fulfilling the aims and conveying the powers flowing from Bahá'u'lláh to mankind. 'Abdu'l-Bahá inspired in the understanding and practice of religion its final dimension in
Page 512human relationships and the relationships of social institutions created for an ordered world.
We did not know what 'Abdu'l-Bahá was doing in those years, but those who heeded Him, remained faithful to the Covenant and following in His road were participating in the very miracle of human experience. Of these was George Orr Latimer, from his youth to his sudden and unexpected death in June, 1948.
Latiiner lived deeply in the Bahá'í community on many levels: as teacher, lecturer, author and administrator.
His devotion expressed itself in work for the Bahá'í schools, in writing pamphlets and magazine articles, in the development of local and national Bahá'í institutions, in extensive travel among communities in America and Europe, and in the legal work of the Cause. He died while a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, entering his fourteenth year of service in that capacity since 1922.
"Greatly deplore passing of distinguished disciple of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, firm pillar of the American Bahá'í community, George Latimer.
His outstanding services in the closing years of the Heroic and first stages of the Formative Ages of the Faith are imperishable," the Guardian declared in his cablegram to the National
Assembly received JuneFrom a brief memorial prepared for the Portland Assembly, this summary is quoted: � "His firmness in the Covenant established with the Bahá'ís of all the world by Bahá'u'lláh in the Person of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, joined with that of the other members of that company (of early believers), constituted the axis around which revolved the spiritual opening of the West to the new Message of the oneness of God and the oneness of mankind.
"Hence in our vivid appreciation of the value of George Latimer's faith and work, we gratefully recall these salient events: development of a local Bahá'í community from the days of the first pioneer teachers to the days of a worldwide Bahá'í religious society; capacity to apprehend the social meaning and application of truths which could not be previously applied in the East; assistance to the work of establishing a Bahá'í corporate body in America, firM as Bahá'í Temple Unity, later as National Spiritual Assembly; aid in the work of the construction of the Bahá'í House of Worship; travel to distant lands to teach the Bahá'í principles and to strengthen the bonds of fellowship uniting the believers of all lands; pilgrimage to 'Akka and Haifa for association with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and prayer at the Shrines consecrated to the Herald and the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation; initiation of orderly development of Bahá'í properties held in trust as national endowments; personal services at the schools founded in Eliot, Maine and Geyserville, California; contribution of legal knowledge to the important task of incorporating fifty or more local Baha communities in the United States and
Canada."tribute we can perceive the great and lasting monument which George Orr Latimer's accomplishments have raised up in the Bahá'í community.
MANI MEHTA1On the morning of February 4, 1947, Mani Mehta, son of a leading industrialist of Bombay, was driving home, tired and sleepy, when his car crashed into a lamp post. He was taken to a hospital, but in spite of the best medical care, he died two days later without having regained consciousness.
Mani Mebta first heard accidentally of the Bahá'í Faith but he was immediately attracted to it and delved into a study of its teachings with intensity and zeal.
In 1942 he formally accepted the Faith. Propelled by boundless devotion, he launched with all the fervor of his soul and the warmth of his heart into carrying to others the Glad-Tid-ings he had received. His enthusiasm was unrestrained.
He would have the whale world know of the Truth and share with him the Priceless Pearl he had obtained. Disregarding position, 'By the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and flurma.
Page 513wealth and even safety � which traditional and vested interests in his community, apprehending the menace to their stronghold implied in his championship of the Cause, were bound to threaten � he arose to demonstrate the truth of the Cause with remarkable vigor.
He felt that the principles of the Faith had but to be presented to an audience for its members to acknowledge and accept their truth.
Under such an impression, he organized a public lecture at Bombay where he invited his former coreligionists, the Zoroastrians, to prove to them the validity of the claim of Bahá'u'lláh to be the Promise of all Ages. The meeting broke up in confusion for the majority of the audience had come, not to listen, but to oppose. The protection offered by a few Bahá'ís and sympathizers prevented him from falling a victim to the premeditated plan of assault on his person by the baser elements of the community who constituted a section of the crowd.
Before the intense, persistent and organized opposition which Mani Mehta had thereafter to face, a spirit less stout would have quailed, but his did not falter. His own relatives opposed him; those within his immediate circle of acquaintances called him bigoted; those without thought him demented. But he went straight on in his path, swerving neither to left nor right. His attachment to the Cause was well demonstrated during this period. The storms of trials that beat against him, failed to subdue him. They tended but to fan into a fiercer blaze his love for the new Faith.
Shortly after his enrollment, he received a copy of
The PTomised Day is Comeby our Guardian. A study of its contents raised his enthusiasm to fever pitch. He was instrumental in bringing out an edition in Bombay. He presented copies to the eminent men in the country and received testimonies from a few as to the greatness of the Bahá'í Faith.
Mani Mehta's passion for speaking to all, without exception, about the Cause is well known. To the general across the table or the coachman whose carriage he has hired, he would without any preliminary ado plunge into a talk of the Cause and give the Message.
On one occasion, live people were traveling in a railway car; one, unknown to the others, was a Baha'i. As they passed a factory which had been recently acquired by Mr. Mehta's father, the talk turned to the family and the capacity of the sons to carry on the vast interests of the father.
Mani came in for his share of their comments. "He is all right, you know, but he is so crazy. All his talk is about Baha'i".
Mr. J. S. Harper, who met Mr. Mehta on his Kashmir trip and participated with him in his teaching activities on that trip, writes in his report: "Many English Bahá'ís will know the great Mr. Mehta of Bombay, and of his fine and direct approach in teaching the Cause. I found him at my hotel after five days, having also come for a holiday from Bombay.
It was no holiday though for Mani, for he had come solely to set Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, on 'fire' with the word Baha'i. I was quickly to learn of his ambitious and far-reaching plan and to learn to my great surprise that I was to be a part of it. "We visited all sorts of people whom I never knew existed, and from the Prime Minister down; and we talked Bahá'í in cafes, in tongas and in the street. We sought platforms at several schools and I helped to address the girls at a convent and the boys at a Protestant school. We printed and distributed five thousand leaflets advertising a public meeting. I had to keep away from this, being subject to military law, but the high light of this experience was the Press Conference at the largest hotel in Srinagar.
All press delegates were present and also several leading businessmen and schoolmasters.
Mr. Melita introduced the meeting after tea and then called upon me to outline the principles of the Cause, which I did in a talk lasting forty minutes. The meeting was successful from the start and I would say that 'tolerance' was the keynote of its success."
In spite of the handicaps under which, due to his very position in life, he had to labor, he was always ener
Page 514getic in service to the Faith. In fact, the exuberance of feeling he had on the matter often led him to complain of the slow progress we were making in the Cause in this country, and to suggest diverse ways and means for the capture of the attention of the masses.
Mani Mehta went to Europe and the Middle East during 1945 and he visited the friends in London, Manchester, Beirut, TihrAn, Bahá'u'lláh and Egypt. He was keenly disappointed that he could not meet out beloved Guardian.
He was on the local Assembly of Bombay as well as on the National Spiritual Assembly for two years, and was vice-chairman of both these Assemblies at the time of his passing.
He was humble, and of a forgiving disposition.He was affable towards his subordinates. "We shall all be terribly cut up if our master passes away," sobbed his chauffeur when Mani Mehta was lying unconscious in the hospital.
"He never treated us who served him as inferiors.Sometimes he used to get angry with me and disclose to me what was in his mind, and sometimes it was the other way about.
At such times, he would listen with patience and forbearance and never reply in a manner as to remind me that I was his subordinate."
A few passages from the press obituary notices throw further light on his character.
"The death of Mr. Mani H. Melita, eldest son of Sir Homi Mehta, the wellknown industrialist, this morning following injuries sustained in a motor accident on Tuesday removes a prominent figure from Bombay's business circles," writes The Evening News of India. It adds, "Mr. Mehta, after his education joined his father's business. He was a partner in Messrs.
H. M. Mehta and Co., and was a director of theof India Ltd., and several other companies. He took keen interest in the Bahá'í movement and was president of the Bahá'í Spiritual
Assembly of Bombay. Hewas also associated with the war effort and was Honorary Secretary of the Gifts Fund, and in recognition of his serv
Mani Mehtaices, was awarded the M.B.E. in 1945. "Quiet and unassuming in manners and abstemious in habits, Mr. Mani Melita had a genial disposition and was charitably inclined."
"Mr. Mehta", writes the Bombay Sentinel, "who leaves behind him a widow and a daughter, was comparatively young, being oniy fifty-two years old, was wellknown in Bahá'í circles of Bombay and other parts of India, for the active interest he took in the movement.
"Many journalists knew him personally, as a friendly, unpretentious and humble man. In spite of the fact that he was harnessed to multifarious business activities of his father, he always remained a dreamy idealist, with an unworldly look about him."
"Bombay lost one of its finest young workers in the untimely and tragic
Page 515death, as a result of a motor accident, of Mr. Mani H. Mehta," writes
The Blitz on February8, 1947. "Although blessed with wealth, Mani was one of those few men of his class who felt pain for the sufferings of the common people and worked towards their emancipation in many different fields What really marked him out was his honesty, independence, convictions � and the courage to implement those convictions in his life and work.
A competent organizer, convincing orator, writer of rare literary merit, at home equally in the business, social and spiritual world, Bombay will take long to forget Mani Mehta."
And finally this warm tribute from the pen of a literary figure in the Rast Rahbar of February 9: "Memory holds back the door and I see your thin eager form consumed by a mighty faith, courting persecution and championing a cause by which, in a worldly sense, you had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
You lived your convictions.No man can do more. Your faith was reviled as the stuff that dreams are made of, but you were the stuff that martyrs are made of. So to your home in the falling daylight.
"Your fine intelligence, your deep capacity for friendship, your warm affection and your social position, could have ensured for you a life on velvet. But ten years ago a great faith entered your life.
Then you could only perceive the heavens brightened and the sound of a rushing mighty breath of fresh air that filled all the world.
Thenceforth life was for you no stage play but a hard campaign. You gave up all, sacrificed all, for what you believed to be a new civilization of worldwide brotherhood of justice and love."
Mr. Mani Mehta attended the National Spiritual Assembly meeting at Poona on the 26th of January, 1947. He presided at a public meeting in the Bombay Bahá'í Hall on the 2nd of February when an editor of a local Urdu paper spoke on the Cause. These were his last official acts for the Cause he loved so deeply and served so well.
MAULVI MUIJAMMADEver since he accepted the Faith, Maulvi M. A. Vakil was assiduous in its service. Simple in his ways, indifferent to worldly fame, detached from material things, he devoted the last years of his life to teaching the Faith with a zeal that neither adversity, old age nor infirmities could diminish. Selfless and sincere, his patience and perseverance were chiefly responsible for the formation and consolidation of several Assemblies and groups in Kashmir.
Despite the respect he commanded in his community by virtue of his knowledge and sincerity, his letters to the National Spiritual Assembly breathed a spirit of humility which was truly Baha'i, and in a man of his age and position, worthy of remark.
Maulvi 'Abdu'114h Vakilwas indefatigable in his labors for the Cause even unto the last. His writings were constantly directed towards guiding his former coreligionists, the QftdiyAnis, to the truth. Among his published pamphlets, the best known is the Maqbariy-i-KhAniy&r.
Maulvi 'Abdu'11&h Vakilwas taken ill on the evening of the 9th of April, 1948 and on the morning of the 12th he passed away. The Guardian was informed of his passing and he replied by cable: "Grieve passing notable promoter Faith Maulvi Vakil. Ardently praying progress his soul. Urge Kashmir friends persevere meritorious labors."
As there was no Gulistan in Srinagar, Maulvi Muhammad 'Abdu'lhh Vakil was buried with Bahá'í rites in his own grounds at Srinagar.
The friends at Srinagar, and specially Chaudhri 'Abdu'1 Rahman, are to be thanked for the steadfast stand that they took on this matter and their reasoning which led the late Maulvi's wife and son to agree to such a burial.
It speaks of the popularity of our late brother that in spite of his being an avowed Baha'i, a group of the Lahore iBy the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan and
Burma.Ahmadiyyihs, the QAdjyAnisleaves a gap which it of Srinagar and other will be hard to fill.
Muslims as well as Hindus attendedHis life will inspire the burial ceremony. other Bahá'ís in this This gave the Bahá'ís country to emulate his an opportunity to speak example and serve the on the oneness of religionCause with the same traits and the Message of the of selflessness, ardor Bahá'í Faith. and steadfastness that Maulvi 'Abdu'lThih Vakil'sMaulvi 'Abdu'llhh Vakil so passing conspicuously displayed.
Page 517National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand, 2 Lang Road, Paddington, N.S.W., AUsTRALIA.
Cable: "NatBah~t'i," Sydney.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles, 158-A Old Brompton Road, London, S.W. 5, ENCLAND.
Cable: "Baha'i," London.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, 44 Chestnut Park Road, Toronto 5, Ontario, CANADA.
Cable, "Baha'i," Toronto.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sudan, P. 0. Box 29, Faggala, Cairo, EGYPT.
Cable: "Baha'i," Cairo.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany, Wallmerstrasse 7, Stuttgart-Untertuerkheim, Wurttemberg, GERMANY.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India, Pakistan, and Burma, P. 0. Box 19, New Delhi, INDIA.
Cable: "Rabbanian," New Delhi.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of tr~q.
P.O. Box 5, BaghdAd, IRAQ.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia, % Shirkat, Nawnhalan, Tihr~n, PFmsn.
Cable: "RowlxAni ," Tihr~n, Persia.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, Illinois, U. S. A. Cable: "Baha'i," Wilmette.
International Bahá'í Bureau, 37 Quai Wilson, Geneva, SWITZERLAND.
Cable: "Baha'i." Geneva.*Denotes Local Spiritual Asse ABYSSINTA
*Addis Ababa: Secretary*Bahrayn: Mr. F. Faizi BALUCHISTAN *Quetta: P.O. Box 11 BELCIAN
CoNCoBURMA (See subsection 6.) CANADA (See subsection 9.)
CAUCASUSBalangoda: Mr. M. Anwar Cadir, 68 Chetnole Street,
JumbagodaCOSTA RICA (See subsection 7.) CUBA (See subsection 7.)
CzEcHosLov~IASpiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Anchorage, Alaska Incorporated February 24, 1948.
Balyana: Youssef Eff.Eff. Zaqzouq. Delta-Barrage: Nessim Eff. Iskandar, Municipality
El-Berigat: Sheikh MahmoudEff. Mohamed, Storekeeper, E. S. Railway Station.
Minia: Abdel Gaffar Elf.522 THE BAHÁ'Í *Tanta: Secretary P.O.
Box 9Suva: Mr. M. T. Khan, 5/c Public Relations Office,
Government Buildings.Brives: M. M. F. Rouchet, rue Lafayette Hyeres: Mine. L. Acart, "Le Cbs Fiend", La Pot6rie, route de Toulon
La-Chaise Dieu: Mine.Marseille: Mine. Soghomonian, 31 rue Duverger Niort: Mile. Paulette Liard, 69 rue St. Gelais.
*Paris: Mr. C. N. Kennedy, & rue L6on Bonnat.Akini, Akwatia: Mr. George K. M. Warhill, Zongo Street GUATEMALA (See subsection 7.)
HAITI (See subsection 7.)Batavia: Capt. H. Buys, Leger Nr. 9111 24001 L.T.D.
IRAQHokkaido: Mr. D. Inouye, % Honda, 94 Takasago Cho,
HakodateKyoto: Mr. Tokujiro Toni, 11 Murasa-kino, Kamiwakaku-Sacho,
Kamiky-okuShizuoka-K en: *Tokyo: Mr. Toshio Hirohashi, 106 2-chome, Kita-Shinagawa,
ShinagawaH. PAKISTAN (See subsection 6) PANAMA (See subsection '7.)
PARAGUAY (See subsection 7.)Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Incorporated March 29, 1948.
Kadrif: Hahn Eff. Sous,Istanbul: Medci man, c/o Socany Vac. Oil Co., Inc., P.O. Box 660.
TURKISTANURUGUAY (See subsection 7.) VENEZUELA (See subsection 7.)
YuaosI,Avn19491950 THE NATIONAL SPIRITUA Mrs. Dorothy Baker, Chairman Mr. Paul Haney, Vice-Chairman Mr. Horace Holley, Secretary
Miss Edna True, RecordingMr. Philip Sprague, Treasurer Mr. Win. Kenneth Christian
Miss Elsie Austin'Abbas 'Abdu'l-Bahá 'Abdu'1-Hamid 'Abdu'I-Husayn 'Abdu'llAh
Abh&Amru'llhh Amul Anzali AqA Aqdas 'Arabist&n Asm& 'AvAsffiq AyAdi Azal 'Aza
mat 'Aziz:11 'Tim Im~m Im~m-Jum'ih Im~m-Z~dih Iqan IrAn 'IrAq 'Iraqi 'IrAq-i-'Aj
am 1sf 'Is1sq~b~da...asin i...as(e)in u...as(o)in aw...asin account best short mown a...asin i..as(ee)in u...as(oo)in arm meet moon The "i" added to the name of a town signifies "belonging means native of Shir~z.
to." Thus Shir~ziThe emphasis in Persian words is more or less evenly distributed, each sy~11ab1e being equally stressed as in French. For example, do not say Tabriz or Tabarsi; stay as long on one syllable as on the next; Tabriz; Tabar-si.
(While there are many exceptions to this rule, it is the most generally correct method of treating the question of stress).
A frequent mistake is the failure to distinguish between broad and flat "a's." This differentiation makes the language especially musical and should be observed: in the word Afn~n, for example, pronounce the first "a" as in mat, and the second syllable to rhyme with on. Americans are apt to pronounce short "a" plus "r" like the verb form are; this is a mistake; "ar" should be pronounced as in the name of Harry � cf. Tarbiyat.
The same differentiation should be observed in the case of long and short
Page 647Dome of HaPratu'1-Quds, TibrAn, Persia� Completed 1947.
''i~~ and long and short ''u.'' As the guide to the transliteration indicates, short "i" is like "e" in best, and long "F' like "ee" in meet; for example, Ibr4him is pronounced Eb-r&heem;
Is-1&m is Ess-lahm. Shortbeing like "00~~ in moon, the following would be pronounced:
Quddtis � Qod-dooss; Bahá'u'lláh's � B6r-fo-roosh.
Pronounce "aw" to rhyme with oh, or mown; Nawruz is No-Rooz.
The following consonants may be pronounced like z: dh, z, z, d. The following consonants may be pronounced like ss: th s s Zh is pronounced like the "s" in pleasure. Kh is pronounced like "ch" in Scotch loch or German noicht. Do not pronounce it as "k." Westerners are as a rule incapable of pronouncing ~ and ~ a guttural French '�" will serve here; otherwise use hard "g" as in good.
I~{ and i~, approximately like the English aspirate "li," should never be dropped. Tihr&n is Teli-ron; madrisih is mad-res-seh;
Mihr&b is Meh-rob.In the case of double letters pronounce each separately: 'Abbas.
The character transliterated (') represents a pause; it is not unlike the initial sound made in pronouncing such a word as every.
The word Bahá'í is phonetically as follows: "a~~ as in account; ''a~~ as in father; ('), pause ''i'' as ee in meet.
The character transliterated (') may also be treated as a pause.
N.B. As Persian often indicates no vowel sounds and as its pronunciation differs in different localities throughout Persia and the Near East as well as among individuals in any given locality, a uniform system of transliteration such as the above, which is in use by Bahá'í communities all over the world, is indispensable to the student.
Page 648DEFINITIONS OF ORIENTAL TERM 'Abh: eloak or mantle. 'Abdu'l-Bahá:
Servant of Bah4. AdhAn:Muslim call to prayer. Adib: literally "the learned." Aghshn: literally "branches."
Denotes Sons and descendants of Bahá'u'lláh.migration from Mecca to Me-dma, and basis of Muhammadan chronology.
Akbar: "Greater."Amir: "Lord," "prince," "command AqA: "Master." Title given by Bahá'u'lláh to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
A'zam: "The greatest."B~b: "Gate." Title assumed by Mirza 'All-Muhammad, after the declaration of His Mission in Shir~z in May, 1844 A.D. Bttbi: Follower of the
BTh.Baha: "Glory," "splendor," "light." Title by which
Bahá'u'lláh (Mirza Husayn-'A1I)Denotes that part of the Plain of 'Akka where the Shrine and the Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh are situated.
Bani-H&shim: The family from which Muhammad descended.
Bahá'u'lláh: "Remnantof God"; title applied both to the Bit and to Bahá'u'lláh.
Bay&n: "Utterance," "explanation." Title given by the Báb to His Revelation, particularly to His Books.
Big: Honorary title, lower title than KlThn."Endowed with constancy"; a title given to Prophets who revealed a book and instituted religious laws.
Farmhn: "Order," "command," "royal decree.Its length differs in different parts of the country according to the nature of the ground, the local interpretation of the term being the distance which a laden mule will walk in the hour, which varies from three to four miles. Arabicised from the Persian "parsang," and is supposed to be derived from pieces of stone (sang) placed on the roadside.
"Fourth Heaven"; one of the stages of the invisible
Realm.H~jf: A Muhammaclan who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Haziratu'1-Quds: BahaThe basis of Muhammadan chronology. The date of Muhammad's migration from
Mecca to Medina.H6wdah: A litter carried by a camel, mule, horse or elephant for traveling purposes.
Ii: ''Clan.''ImAm: Title of the twelve Shi'ih successors of Muhammad. Also applied to Muslim religious leaders.
648DEFINITIONS OF ImAm-Jum'ih: The leading im~m in a town or city; chief of the inuiThs.
Im&m-Z~dih: DescendantsThe title of Bahá'u'lláh's epistle to the uncle of the ETh.
Ishrhq&t: literally "effulgences."IsrAfil: The Angel whose function is to sound the trumpet on the Day of Judgment.
Thhiliyyih: The dark age of ignorance among the Arabs before the appearance of Muhammad.
Jam&1-i-Mub&rak: literally "the Blessed Beauty," applied by certain Bahá'ís to
Bahá'u'lláh.Ka'bih: Ancient shrine at Mecca. Now recognized as the most holy shrine of
Islam.Kabir: literally "great." Kar-KhudA: Chief of a ward or parish in a town; headman of a village.
Kalantar: "Mayor."Kawthar: A river in Paradise, whence all the other rivers derive their source.
Kh&n: "Prince," "lord," "nobleman," "chieftain."Kulhh: The Persian lambskin hat worn by government employees and civilians.
Madrisih: Religious college. Man-Yuzhiruhu'11&h:"He Whom God will make manifest." The title given by the Báb to the
Promised One.Mashriqu'1 � AdhkAr literally "the dawning ing place of the praise of God." Title designating
Bahá'í House of Worship.Mayd&n: A subdivision of a farsakh. A square or open place.
Mihdi: Title of the Manifestation expected by IsThm.
Mihr4b: The principal place in a mosque where the imhm prays with his face turned towards Mecca.
Mi'r~j: "Ascent," used with reference to Muhammad s ascension to heaven.
Mirza: A contraction of Amir-ZAdih, meaning son of Amir. When affixed to a name it signifies prince; when prefixed simply Mr. Mishkin-Qalam: literally "the musk-scented pen."
Mu' adhdhin: The one who sounds the AdhAn, the Mubammadan call to prayer.
Mujtahid: Mutammadan doctor-of-law. Mostof the mujtahids of Persia have received their diplomas from the most eminent jurists of Karbil& and Najaf.
Mull4: Muliammadan priest.Mustag~Ath: "He Who is invoked." The numerical value of which has been assigned by the Báb as the limit of the time' fixed for the advent of the promised
Manifestation.applied to the Bahá'í New Year's Day; according to the Persian Calendar the day on which the sun enters Aries.
Nuq{ih: "Point."PahiavAn: "Athlete," "champion"; term applied to brave and muscular men.
Q4di: Judge; civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical.
Q4'im: "He Who shall arise."Qiblili: The direction to which people turn in prayer: especially Mecca, the Qiblih of all Muhammadans.
Page 650650 T Qur'an: "Sacrifice."
Ridvan: The name of the custodian of Paradise.Sadratu'1-Muntahti: the name of a tree planted by the Arabs in ancient times at the end of a road, to serve as a guide.
As a symbol it denotes the Manifestation of God in His Day.
SAhibu'z-Zam&n: "Lord of the Age" one of the titles of the promised Q&'im.
Salsabil: A fountain inSark4r-i-Aq4: literally the "Honorable Master," applied by certain Bahá'ís to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
"Seal of the Prophets": One of the titles of Muhammad.
"Seventh Sphere": Thehighest stage of the invisible Realm. Denbtes also the
Manifestation of Bahá'u'lláh.Shaykhu'1-IsThm: Head of religious court, appointed to every large city by the $�~h.
Sirttt: literally "bridge" or "path," denotes the religion of God.
Siyyid: Descendant of the'Urvatu'1-Vuthq~: literally "the strongest handle," symbolic of the Faith of God.
Valf-'Ahd: "Heir to the throne."Varaqiy-i'U1y~: literally "the most exalted Leaf," applied to Bahá'í Kh&num, sister of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
VarqA: literally "the dove." Vil4yat: guardianship.
"White Path": SymbolizesTHE largest telescope yet designed has been raised by scientists on a mountain under the clear California sky.
Its lens, measuring sixteen feet eight inches in diameter, gathers light with so much more intensity than the human eye that its reflected image discloses an endless heaven hung with brilliant orbs. Its power is so encompassing that it extends human vision to bodies whose distance from the earth, measured by the time required for the travel of a ray of light, is not less than one billion years.
Since the speed of light is 186,000 miles a second, no terrestrial system of measurement can contain this utter remoteness or translate it into ordinary human meaning.
The universe of Palomar engulfs the small and familiar worlds sustained by the imagination of the poet, the shepherd and the mariner of ancient times. Its infinity of space and time can never be subjective to hope or fear. It is a motion we cannot stay, a direction we cannot divert, a peace we cannot impair, a power we cannot control. Here existence realizes the fulness of its purpose. The design and the material, the means and the end, the law and the subject, seem wholly one.
At Palomar the mind of man, standing on tiptoe, can behold the cosmic spectacle and grow by the eternal majesty it feeds on, but searching east or west or north or south one finds here no candle lighted to welcome the errant human heart.
"This nature," the Bahá'í teachings observe, "is subjected to an absolute organization, to determined laws, to a complete order and a finished design, from which it will never depart; to such a degree, indeed, that if you look carefully and with keen sight, from the smallest invisible atom up to such large bodies of the world of existence as the globe of the sun or the other great stars and luminous spheres, whether you regard their arrangement, their composition, their form or their movement, you will find that all are in the highest degree of organization, and are under one law from which they will never depart.
"But when you look at nature itself, you see that it has no intelligence, no will Thus it is clear that the natural movements of all things are compelled; there are no voluntary movements except those of animals, and above all, those of man. Man is able to deviate from and to oppose nature, because he discovers the constitution of things, and through this he commands the forces of nature; all the inventions he has made are due to his discovery of the constitution of things "Now, when you behold in existence such organizations, arrangements, and laws, can you say that all these are the effects of nature, though nature has neither intelligence nor perception? If not, it becomes evident that this na 653
Page 654First Spiritual Assembly of Amsterdam, Holland, elected April 21, 1948.
ture, which has neither perception nor intelligence, is in the grasp of Almighty God Who is the Ruler of the world of nature; whatever He wishes He causes nature to manifest."1 Another passage states: "Know that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God. Each, according to its capacity, is, and will ever remain, a token of the Almighty So pervasive and general is this revelation that nothing whatsoever in the whole universe can be discovered that does not reflect His splendor Were the Hand of Divine Power to divest of this high endowment all created things, the entire universe would become desolate and void."2 The Bahá'í teachings also declare: "Earth and heaven cannot contain Me; what can alone contain Me is the heart of him that believes in Me, and is faithful to
My Cause."8From man's inner world of hope and fear the cry fbr help has never been raised so desperately nor so generally across the whole earth. Civilization is in conflict with the man of nature. Civilization betrays the man of understanding and feeling. The individual has become engulfed in struggles of competitive groups employing different weapons to attain irreconcilable ends. The beginning and the end of his actions lie concealed in the fiery smoke of furious, interminable debate.
His personal world has been transformed into an invaded area he knows not how to defend.
Sickness of soul, like physical ailment, manifests itself in many forms. It need not be a localized pain nor an acute sense of shock and disability.
An ailment can produce numbness as well as torment, or it can spare the victim's general health but deprive him of sight, hearing or the use of a limb.
Soul sickness that goes deep into the psychic organism seldom finds relief in hysteria or other visible adjustments to ill-being. It expresses itself in successive reorientations to self and to society, each of which results in a conviction representing a definite choice or selection between several possibilities.
When the conviction hardens, all possibilities but one are denied and dis
Page 655International Center, 37 Quai Wilson, Geneva, Switzerland, site of Bahá'í
International Bureau and offices of Bahá'í European Teaching Committee
missed. If individuals come to realize that effort to express certain qualities through their daily lives is continuously unsuccessful, they will, in the majority of cases, abandon the exercise of that quality and concentrate on others. If individuals find that their civilization makes demands on them for the exercise of qualities they personally condemn, in most cases the necessary adjustment is made.
The modern individual is in the same position as the mountain climber bound to other climbers by a rope. At all times he is compelled to choose between freedom and protection � to balance his rights and his loyalities, and compromise between his duty to protect others and his duty to develop something unique and important in himself.
As long as the route and the goal are equally vital to all the climbers, the necessary adjustments can be made without undue strain. But modern life binds together in economic, political and other arrangements groups of people who never entered into a pact of mutual agreement, who inwardly desire and need diverse things. The rope that binds them is a tradition, a convention, an inherited obligation no longer having power to fulfill.
Here, in essence, is the tragic sickness of modern man. What he sows he cannot reap. What he reaps he cannot store until a new harvest ripens. He feeds on another's desire, he wills to accomplish an alien task, he works to destroy the substance of his dearest hope. Moral standards stop at the frontier of the organized group. Partisan pressures darken the heavens of understanding.
Humanity is undergoing a complete transformation of values. The individual is being transplanted from his customary, sheltered traditional way of life to the vast and disruptive confusions of a world in torment. The institutions which have afforded him social or psychic wellbeing are themselves subject to the same universal dislocation.
The label no longer identifies the quality or purpose of the or
Page 656ganization. One cannot retreat into the isolation of primitive simplicity; one cannot advance without becoming part of a movement of destiny which no one can control nor define.
Where can a new and creative way of life be found?
How can men attain knowledge of the means to justify their legitimate hope, fulfill their normal emotions, satisfy their intelligence, unr-fy their aims and civilize their activities?
The astronomer has his polished lens of Palomar to reveal the mysteries of the physical universe.
Where can mankind turn to behold the will and purpose of God?
CoNscffNcr: THE MIRRORMany persons feel that in man there is a power of conscience that will unfailingly, like the compass needle, point to the right goal. If in any individual case, this conception believes, the power of conscience fails to operate, it is because the human being himself has betrayed his own divine endowment.
He has heard the voice but refused to heed. He has seen the right course of action but preferred to take the evil path.
If we examine this contention as applied to ourselves and others familiar to us over a considerable period of time, we find that conscience, as a faculty, cannot be understood by reference to any such naive and conventional view.
The individual has no private wire to God. The dictates or impulses we call conscience indicate different courses of action at different times. The truth, the law, the appropriate principle or the perfect expression of love is not when wanted conveyed to our minds like a photograph printed from a negative developed in the subconscious self.
No individual can afford to rely for guidance in all vital affairs on the testimony offered from within.
Individual conscience appears to be compounded of many ingredients at this stage of mass development: childhood training, personal aptitude, social convention, religious tradition, economic pressure, public opinion and group policy.
It is when we examine individual conscience in the area of social action and public responsibility that its limitations become clear. Public policy is the graveyard in which the claim to perfect personal guidance lies interred. In every competitive situation involving social groups, conscientious persons are found on both sides of the struggle. The conscience of one leads to a definition of value or a course of action which stultifies the other.
Conscientious persons in the same group seldom agree on matters affecting the whole group. Individual conscience retreats to the realm of the private person when it cannot share or alter the conscience and conviction of others.
The result is that while theoretical exaltation of conscience is seldom abandoned, the operation of conscience, outside the small area controlled by personal will, is continuously suppressed. Policy is the conscience of the group, and dominant groups sanction collective actions frequently abhorrent to the individual. Our dominant groups are the successors to the primitive tribes in which the individual was once completely submerged.
Like the primitive tribe, their basic policy is to survive.
So helpless has the individual become under pressure of world-shaking events that leaders of revolution dismiss his moral worth entirely from their considerations.
The individual ceases to be a person. He is made subject to mass regulation under penalty of punishment for disobedience and, if obedient, under hope of his share of a mass award. Societies have arisen composed of this unmoral mass of human beings, the nature of which resembles the physical monsters terrorizing the earth aeons ago.
Between the naive spiritual conception of conscience as divine spark, and the naive rational view that conscience is automatic response to external stimuli, the actual truth undoubtedly lies.
Human conscience is a quality existing in different stages of development. In the child it makes for obedience to the power by which the child is protected. It can manifest as an expression
Page 657of the instinct of self-survival or self-development.
It can inspire loyalty to the group. It can subject the individual to complete sacrifice for the sake of his group or for the truth he most reveres.
Moral attitudes become established through social education and discipline conducted over long periods of time. The moral worth of the individual consists in his capacity to share in a process of endless evolution. Though at tithes he seems bogged down in the swamp of evil, the ladder of development stands close to his hand and he can ascend it rung by rung. His moral responsibility can never be disclaimed by him nor voided by others on his behalf, since the principle of cause and effect operates throughout all life. No man and no society exists in a universe shaped to the pattern of human d6sire.
Conscience is not a form of wisdom or knowledge.It cannot be dissociated from the development of the individual or from the condition of his society. But one may say that conscience is a mirror hung in a room. If the room is darkened the mirror reflects but dimly. Light is needed � the light of truth and love.
Then will the mirror of spiritual awareness disclose to the individual the essential nature of his own problem of choice, and open for him the door that leads from the private person to mankind.
The helplessness of the individual today is due to the absence of light.
"When man allows the spirit, through his soul, to enlighten his understanding, then does he contain all creation� because man, being the culmination of all that went before and thus superior to all previous evolutions, contains all the lower world within himself.
Illuminated by the spirit through the instrumentality of the soul, man's radiant intelligence makes him the crowning-point of creation.
"But on the other hand when man does not open his mind and heart to the blessing of the spirit, but turns his soul towards the material side, towards the bodily part of his nature, then is he fallen from his high place and he becomes inferior to the inhabitants of the lower animal kingdom.
In this case the man is in a sorry plight! For if the spiritual qualities of the soul, open to the breath of the Divine Spirit, are never used, they become atrophied, enfeebled, and at last incapacitated; while the soul's material qualities alone being exercised, they become terribly powerful, and the unhappy, misguided man becomes more savage, more unjust, more vile, more cruel, more malevolent than the lower animals themselves.
"If, on the contrary, the spiritual nature of the soul has been so strengthened that it holds the material side in subjection, then does the man approach the divine; his humanity becomes so 4orified that the virtues of the celestial assembly are manifest in him; he radiates the mercy of God, he stimulates the spiritual progress of mankind, for he becomes a lamp to show light on their path."4 In such words the Bahá'í teachings describe the two paths which open before each human being, choice of which he himself is free to make.
SEcTARIANISM � FROM CREATIONIf individual conscience bannot ii-lumine from man's inner world the na-Wire of basic social problems, what of religion?
Have the traditional faiths such command of spiritual truth that they can serve as the guide and conscience of mankind?
Do these sects and denominations constitute the moral Palomar bestowing vision upon a divided, a desperate humanity? Has God spoken to our age from these minarets, these temples, mosques, chapels and churches which represent the meaning and purpose of religion to the masses in East and
West?The world of sectarian religion is not a universe, ordered by one central creative will, but the fragments of a world which no human authority has power to restore. There are the main bodies of ancient, revealed religion: Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism,
Judaism, Mul2ammadanismand Christianity, standing apart like continents separated by the salt, unplumbed sea. There are in each of these bodies a large
Page 658number of independent, mutually exclusive subdivisions.
Their diverse claims to organic sovereignty maintain in the realm of faith the same condition which exists among nations, principalities, kingdoms and empires.
They deal with one another by treaty and truce; there are conquests and seizures, colonies and alliances, plans and strategies, wars and revolutions, all without control of the greater and vital movements of society or even foreknowledge of what was and is to come.
This is why mankind has suffered two world wars, social dislocation and a plague of immorality, faithlessness, materialism and discontent. No universal religious body has existed to stay the swift descent of our age into the gloom of savage strife. Events do not wait upon doctrinal readjustments. When peace does not exist in the world of the soul it cannot exist in any other realm of human intercourse and experience. The masses have been given no moral unity, no common purpose which, stamped with divine authority, could raise them above the fatal disunities and conflicts distilled by their economic and political institutions.
Yet each of these faiths was divinely revealed, imbued with a universal spirit, charged with a high creative mission, and established itself through the sacrifice and heroism of those early believers who beheld the Word of God. Each faith has reconsecrated human life and by its lifeblood nourished great progress in civilization. What has happened to the first, true vision? What has extinguished the flame upon the altar of worship?
The superhuman character of revelation has gradually undergone dilution and admixture. The human explanation of a truth has been substituted for the truth itself. The performance of ceremonial rites has come to occupy the place held by the mystery of spiritual rebirth.
Obligation to a professionalized institution has weakened the duty laid upon individuals to serve society and mankind.
The aim of a regenerated, righteous, peaceful civilization inspired by the founders of religion has become diverted into hope for the vic~ tory of the church. Sectarianism in essence is not freedom of religion. It is an opportunity to abandon the way of life revealed from on high and substitute belief for sacrifice, ritual for virtue, creed for understanding, and a group interest for the basic rights of mankind.
All things exist in a process of life and death, growth and development, extinction and renewal. The fact that what men devise as a counterfeit for truth is eventually destroyed, does not confirm the rejection of religion by the cynic or the materalist. Qn the contrary, the succession of faiths throughout the period of known history points to a complete vindication of faith in God, since He divides truth from error, the spirit from the letter. He punishes and He rewards. For every death He sends a new life.
"0 army of life!" the Bahá'í teachings warn, "East and West have joined to worship stars of faded splendor and have turned in prayer unto darkened horizons.
Both have utterly neglected the broad foundation of God's sacred laws, and have grown unmindful of the merits and virtues of His religion.
They have regarded certain customs and conventions as the immutable basis of the Divine Faith, and have firmly established themselves therein. They have imagined themselves as having attained the glorious pinnacle of achievement and prosperity when, in reality, they have touched the innermost depths of heedlessness and deprived themselves wholly of God's bountiful gifts.
"The cornerstone of the Religion of God is the acquisition of the Divine perfections and the sharing in His manifold bestowals. The essential purpose of faith and belief is to ennoble the inner being of man with the outpourings of grace from on high. If this be not attained, it is indeed deprivation itself. It is the torment of infernal fire."
~ And even more definitely: "Supersti-tions have obscured the fundamental reality, the world is darkened and the light of religion is not apparent. This darkness i~ conducive to differences
Page 659and dissensions; rites and dogmas are many and various; therefore discord has arisen among the religious systems whereas religion is for the unification of mankind. True religion is the source of love and agreement amongst men, the cause of the development of praiseworthy qualities; but the people are holding to the counterfeit and imitation, negligent of the reality which unifies, so they are bereft and deprived of the radiance of religion."6 "When the lights of religion become darkened the materialists appear. They are the bats of night. The decline of religion is their time of activity; they seek the shadows when the world is darkened and the clouds have spread over "If the edifice of religion shakes and totters, commotion and chaos will ensue and the order of things will be utterly upset."8 "Religious fanaticism and hatred," the Bahá'í teachings affirm, "are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine Power can alone deliver mankind from this desolating affliction."9
INTERNATIONALISM: THE END
OF AN ERAWhen changes take place in the spiritual life of a people, they produce effects not only upon the realm of personal conscience or upon the definitions of denominational faith � their results flow forth throughout the civilization. Society, indeed, is the outer surface of human action, as religion is the inner surface.
The persons who are impressed with certain values from the religious teaching of their childhood, strive to fulfill them as adults in their civilization.
The nations of the world are not composed of a separate race of human beings called citizens or subjects; all this mass of humanity who serve as citizens or subjects are at the same time members of different racial groups and members of different religious bodies.
Since religious training has for the most part been based upon pre-rational states of childhood, the vital assumptions of faith or theology continue from generation to generation without analysis or investigation.
The child assumes that his religion sets him off in some mysterious but inevitable and justifiable manner from those people who belong to a different religion. This pre-rational experience becomes an imperative directing his activities in other fields, all the more effective because it works behind his conscious and rational thought. Religion has thus prepared the way for the spirit of exclusive nationalism, class competition and other self-centered types of social institution. The pre-rational experience of justifiable division matures in the irrational attitudes of partisan loyalty which set people off from one another in political and economic matters, eventuating in strife and ruin.
The modern nation represents the most powerful and effective social unity ever achieved. It has coordinated the human qualities and possibilities to an unprecedented degree, liberating people from servitude to nature and laying the foundations of orderly progress by reconciling the political claims of the state with the social and cultural needs of the individual. But like every human institution, the nation cannot become an end unto itself. It cannot draw arbitrary lines and decree that human evolution must stop short at this line or that.
The nation cannot reduce all questions of human relations to political principle, and solve them by a formal relationship to the state.
The movement of life is irresistible. When the modern nation had organized its area and completed the creation of the necessary institutions, it became mature and incurred obligation to establish useful relationships with other nations. The nation became more and more involved in activities and affairs outside its boundaries and beyond its jurisdiction. Internationalism has been the principle of civilization for more than a hundred years, but the nations could not realize themselves as means to an end, as instruments called upon, for the sake of humanity, to create a sovereignty of and for the entire world. This moral resolution has been lacking.
Denied fulfilment in world order,modern internationalism has organized the nations for their QWfl destruction. The social organism made an end unto itself becomes self-consuming. First there has been an interval of spiritual blindness, a miscalculation of the essential nature of human life; then a denial of the obligation to join with other nations for the sake of peace, then a denunciation of some threatening foe, and, finally, a plunge into the maelstrom where every trend toward world unity is accelerated faster than the public intelligence can comprehend.
Power to make permanent and workable decisions has been temporarily lost.
Our international relations rest upon formal agreements which have not yet become translated into world relationships and hence remain subject to abrupt dissolution if the strains of social dislocation go to the breaking point. In this condition of crisis humanity stands, unable to return to the simpler societies of the past and unable to generate sufficient power for true unity in a world civilization.
The races and peoples meet in a fateful encounter, each cherishing its separateness as a duty and a right.
One may say that humanity does not yet exist, for men are not directed by a world consciousness or impelled by a mutual faith.
"Today the world of humanity," the Bahá'í teachings stated a generation ago, is in need of international unity and conciliation.
To establish these great fundamental principles a propelling power is needed. It is selfevident that unity of the human world and the Most Great Peace cannot be accomplished through material means.
They cannot be established through political power, for the political interests of nations are various and the policies of peoples are divergent and conflicting. They cannot be founded through racial or patriotic pQwer, for these are human powers, selfish and weak. The very nature of racial differences and patriotic prejudices prevents the realization of this unity and agreement.
Therefore it is evidenced that the promotion of the oneness of the kingdom of humanity, which is the essence of the teachings of all the Manifestations of God, is impossible except through the divine power and the breaths of the Holy Spirit. Other powers are too weak and are incapable of accomplishing this."10 "Among the teachings is man's freedom, that through the ideal Power he should be free and emancipated from the captivity of the world of nature; for as long as man is captive to nature he is a ferocious animal, as the struggle for existence is one of the exigencies of the world of nature. This matter of the struggle for existence is the fountainhead of all calamities and is the supreme affliction."11 "Universal peace is a matter of great importance, but unity of conscience is essential, so that the foundation of this matter may became secure, its establishment firm and its edifice strong."12 In the Bahá'í writings, peace is revered because in essence it is a spiritual mystery in which humanity has been invited in our day, for the first time, to partake. Peace is a divine creation; a reconciliation of human and divine purpose.
Peace appears jfirst as a universal religion; as its influence gathers force and its principles spread then peace can permeate the body of society, redeeming its institutions and its activities and consecrating its aims.
"Universal peace," these writings promise, "is assured as a fundamental accomplishment of the religion of God; that peace shall prevail among nations, governments and peoples, among religions, races and all conditions of mankind.
This is one of the special characteristics of the Word of Gad revealed in this Manifestation."
1~The issues of human existence turn upon the axis of education. Education alone can overcome the inertia of our separateness, transmute our creative energies for the realization of world unity, free the mind from its servitude to the past and reshape civilization to be the guardian of our spiritual and
Page 661The true purposes of education are not fulfilled by the knowledge conferred through civil education, since this knowledge ends with the purposes of the individual or the needs of the state. They are not fulfilled by sectarian education, since sectarian knowledge excludes the basic principle of the continuity and progressiveness of revelation.
The true purposes of education are not achieved by independent pursuit of knowledge undertaken through study of the classics, the great philosophies or even the religious systems of the past. Such education enhances the individual capacity and deepens the insight of a group. It opens the door to a world of superior minds and heroic accomplishment.
But that world is the reflection of the light of truth upon past conditions and events. It is not the rising of the sun to illumine our own time, inspire a unified world movement, and regenerate withered souls.
Nor may we hope that psychology can develop the necessary transforming power for a dislocated society, a scientific substitute for the primitive offices of religion. The explorer in the world of the psyche sees the projection of his own shadow, finds the answer determined by his own question.
He can prove mechanistic determinism or demonstrate the freedom and responsibility of the soul. The area within which he works is suitable for the development of personal healing.
He can learn the habitual reactions of persons in a group or of groups in a society, but this knowledge is statistical until applied by a comprehensive organ of intelligence on a world scale.
"The human spirit which distinguishes man from the animal," the Baha teachings state, "is the rational soul; and these two names � the human spirit and the rational saul � designate one thing.
This spirit, which in the terminology of the philosophers is the rational soul, embraces all beings, and as far as human ability permits discovers the realities of things and becomes cognizant of their peculiarities and effects, and of the qualities and properties of beings. But the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities.
It is like a mirror which, although clear, polished and brilliant, is still in need of light. Until a ray of the sun reflects upon it, it cannot discover the heavenly secrets."14 This significant comment is also found: "With the love of God all sciences are accepted and beloved, but without it, are fruitless; nay, rather, the cause of insanity. Every science is like unto a tree; if the fruit of it is the love of God, that is a blessed tree. Otherwise it is dried wood and finally a food for fire."'5 A new and universal concept of education is found in the literature of the Bahá'í Faith.
"When we consider existence, we see that the mineral, vegetable, animal and human worlds are all in need of an educator.
"If the earth is not cultivated it becomes a jungle where useless weeds grow; but if a cultivator comes and tills the ground, it produces crops which nourish living creatures. It is evident, therefore, that the soil needs the cultivation of the farmer.
"The same is true with respect to animals: notice that when the animal is trained it becomes domestic, and also that man, if he is left without training becomes bestial, and, moreover, if left under the rule of nature, becomes lower than an animal, whereas if he is educated he becomes an angel.
"Now reflect that it is education that brings the East and the West under the authority of man; it is education that produces wonderful industries; it is education that spreads glorious sciences and arts; it is education that makes manifest new discoveries and laws. If there were no educator there would be no such things as comforts, civilization, facilities, or humanity.
"But education is of three kinds: material, human and spiritual. Material education is concerned with the progress and development of the body, through gaining its sustenance, its material comfort and ease. This educa
Page 662tion is common to animals and man. "Human education signifies civilization and progress: that is to say, government, administration, charitable works, trades, arts and handicrafts, sciences, great inventions and discoveries of physical laws, which are the activities essential to man as distinguished from the animal.
"Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God: it consists in acquiring divine perfections, and this is true education; for in this estate man becomes the center of divine appearance, the manifestation of the words, 'Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.' This is the supreme goal of the world of humanity.
"Now we need an educator who will be at the same time a material, human and spiritual educator, and whose authority will be effective in all conditions "It is clear that human power is not able to fill such a great office, and that the reason alone could not undertake the responsibility of so great a mission. How can one solitary person without help and without support lay the foundations of such a noble construction?
He must depend on the help of the spiritual and divine power to be able to undertake this mission.
One Holy Soul gives life to the world of humanity, changes the aspect of the terrestrial globe, causes intelligence to progress, vivifies souls, lays the foundation of a new existence, establishes the basis of a marvelous creation, organizes the world, brings nations and religions under the shadow of one standard, delivers man from the world of imperfections and vices, and inspires him with the desire and need of natural and acquired perfections. Certainly nothing short of a divine power could accomplish so great a work."'6 Who is this educator?
"The holy Manifestationsof God, the divine prophets, are the first teachers of the human race. They are universal educators and the fundamental principles they have laid down are the causes and factors of the advancement of nations. Forms and imitations which creep in afterward are not conducive to that progress.
On the contrary these are de stroyers of the human foundations laid by the heavenly educators."'7 "Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive.
If it be without motion and nonprogressive it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore, the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous."1 S
Ti~ MANIFESTATION or GonThe focal point of the Bahá'í teachings is clarification of man's relationship to God. As long as peoples differ, or are unaware, or accept a substitute for this relationship, we cannot distinguish between truth and error, or discriminate between principle and superstition. Until we apprehend human beings in the light of the creative purpose, it is impossible to know ourselves or others.
Social truth is merely experiment and hypothesis unless it forms part of a spiritual reality.
The founders of revealed religions, who have been termed prophets, messengers, messiahs and saviours, in the Bahá'í teachings are designated Manifestations of God. These beings, walking on earth as men, stand in a higher order of creation and are endowed with powers and attributes human beings do not possess.
In the world of truth they shine like the sun, and the rays emanating from that sun are the light and the life of the souls of men.
The Manifestation is not God. The Infinite cannot be incarnated. God reveals His will through the Manifestation, and apart from what is thus manifested His will and reality remain forever unknown.
The physical universe does not reveal the divine purpose for man.
"Every one of them," the Bahá'í teachings state, "is the Way of God that connects this world with the realms above, and the standard of His truth, unto every one in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. They are the
Manifestations of Godamidst men, the evidences of His truth, and the signs of His glory."19
Page 663What almighty power is exercised by a will manifested through a person who has been flouted, denied, imprisoned, tortured and crucified? No human authority could survive such savage onslaughts as have greeted each messenger who has come from the heavenly realm to this lowest of worlds.
The divine power expresses itself by compulsion in the kingdoms of nature.
In the kingdom of man the divine power operates in such a manner that men are free to accept and adore, or repudiate and condemn. The divine power compels that from age to age men must come to a decision, but the decision itself is free. By that decision, when the prophet has revealed the will of God, men separate into two organic companies: those who believe and those who deny.
The whole pattern and process of history rests upon the succession of dispensations by which man's innate capacities are developed and by which the course of social evolution is sustained. The rise and fall of civilizations proceed as the effect of prior spiritual causation. An ancient civilization undergoes moral decadence; by division of its own people and attack from without its power and authority are destroyed; and with that destruction collapses the culture and the religious systew. which had become parasites upon its material wealth. Concurrently, a new creative spirit reveals itself in the rise of a greater and better type of society from the ruins of the old.
The critical point in this process is the heroic sacrifice offered the Prophet by those who see in Him the way to God, and His official condemnation by the heads of the prevailing religious system.
That condemnation, because men cannot judge God, recoils back upon the religion and the civilization itself.
They have condemned themselves.In the same manner, the small and weak minority who have seen the Face of God in His Manifestation grow from strength to strength.
The future is with them.In their spiritual fellowship the seeds of the new civilization are watered and its first, tender growth safeguarded by their heart's blood.
Through the Manifestationof God the power of the Holy Spirit accomplishes the will of God. Nothing can withstand that power. Because its work is not instantaneous, a darkened age cannot perceive the awftll process of cause and effect � the divine will as cause, and human history as effect � guiding human destiny from age to age.
But the Bahá'í teachings penetrate farther into the mystery when they affirm that in spirit and in aim the successive prophets are one being, one authority, one will.
This teaching on the oneness of the Manifestations of God is the essential characteristic of a revelation which represents religion for the cycle of man's maturity and the creation of world peace.
"There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source and are the subjects of one God. The difference between the ordinances under which they abide should be attributed to the varying requirements of the age in which they were revealed."20 Those who deny and condemn the Prophet, therefore, are not defending the divine purpose from sinister betrayal by one who introduces new laws and principles; on the contrary, since the
Manifestation in Himselfis one, they condemn their own Prophet when He returns to regenerate the world and advance the true Faith of God. Thus is the moral nature of human life, and man s responsibility to God, sustained throughout the devious course of history. Faith is no mere belief, but a connection with the only power that confers immortality on the soul and saves humanity as a whole from complete self-destruction.
"A man who has not had a spiritual education," the Bahá'í writings attest, "is a brute." (21) "We have decreed, o people, that the highest and last end of all learning be the recognition of Him Who is the Object of all knowledge; and yet behold how ye have allowed your learning to shut you out, as by a veil, from Him Who is the Dayspring of this Light, through Whom every hidden thing hath been revealed."22
Page 664Bahá'ís attending the First Bahá'í European Conference
Geneva, Switzerland, May, 1948.The oneness of the Manifestations has been thus established in the Bahá'í writings: "In the Word of God there is unity, the oneness of the Manifestations of God, His Holiness Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mutiam-mad, the B&b and Bahá'u'lláh. This is a unity divine, heavenly, radiant, merciful; the one reality appearing in successive manifestations.
For instance, the sun is one and the same but its points of dawning are various. During the summer season it rises from the northern point of the ecliptic; in winter it appears from the southern point of rising. Although these dawning points are different, the sun is the same sun which has appeared from them all.
The significance is the reality of prophet-hood which is symbolized by the sun, and the holy Manifestations are the dawning-places or zodiacal points."28 The coming of the Manifestation in this age signalizes the termination of a long epoch in human history, the prophetic era in which mankind was gradually prepared for the promised day of universal peace.
In Bahá'u'lláh the spirit of faith is renewed and given expression in teachings which affirm the organic unity of the whole human race. Nothing sacred and valid revealed in former dispensations is denied, but the spirit of faith has been endowed with a worl4wide and universal meaning.
The Bahá'í teachings overcome prejudices of race, nation and sect by inspiring sentiment of brotherhood. They create not only a pure well of feeling but constitute also a unified body of knowledge in which the power of reason can be fulfilled. They connect social truth with the truth of worship, and broaden the field of ethics to include right relationships of races as well as individual persons. They formulate law and principle which will bring order into international affairs.
"In this present age the world of humanity," the teachings declared before the first World War (anticipating the conditions of today) "is afflicted with severe sicknesses and grave disorders which threaten death. Therefore His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh has appeared.
He is the real physician bringing divine remedy and healing to the world of man."24 "The first teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is the investigation of reality. Man must
Page 665Group of representatives present at the Second European Teaching Conference in Brussels, August 57, 1949. Taken on the steps of the Universit6 Libr6 seek the reality himself, forsaking imitations and adherence to mere hereditary forms. As the nations of the world are following imitations in lieu of truth and as imitations are many and various, differences of belief have been productive of strife and warfare. So long as these imitations remain the oneness of the world of humanity is impossible.
Therefore we must investigate the reality in order that by its light the clouds and darkness may be dispelled. If the nations of the world investigate reality they will agree and become united."25 "The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory, and this cannot be attained save through the knowledge of His divine Manifestation."26 This knowledge offers to men the substance of the education needed for the establishment of a society worthy of the blessings of justice and peace.
REFERENCES1. Some Answered Questions, page 3 2. Bahá'í World Faith, page 97 3. Bahá'í World Faith, page 98 4. Reality of Man, page 6 5. Selected Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá page 43 6. Bahá'í World Faith, page 237 '7. Baha World Faith, page 238 8. Bahá'í World Faith, page 289 9. Gleanings, page 288 10. Selected Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
page 5 11. Bahá'í World Faith, page 288 12. Bahá'í World Faith, page 285 13. Bahá'í World Faith, page 247 14. Bahá'í World Faith, page 317 15. Bahá'í World Faith, page 366 16. Some Answered Questions, page 8 17. Bahá'í World Faith, page 250 18. Bahá'í World Faith, page 224 19. Bahá'í World Faith, page 21 20. Gleanings, page 217 21. Some Answered Questions, page 135 22. Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, page 129 23. Baha World Faith, page 259 24. Selected Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, page 12 25. Bahá'í World Faith, page 238 26. Baha World Faith, page 140
Page 666First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Geneva, Switzerland.
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Bern, Switzerland, elected April 21, 1948.
Page 667B~ GEORGE TOWNSHEND, M.A. (oxoN) (Sometime Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and Archdeacon of Clonfert) HAVING identified myself with the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and sacrificed my position as a canon and a dignitary of the Church of Ireland that I might do so, I now make this statement on the relation of this Faith to Christianity and to the Churches of Christ.
It is submitted to all Christian people in general but more especially to the bishops and clergy and members of my own communion, with the humble but earnest and urgent request that they will give it their attention as a matter of vital concern to the Church.
Only through an impartial investigation of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh will they find, I fully believe, a means of reviving the fortunes of the Church, of restoring the purity and the power of the Gospel and of helping to build a better and more truly Christian world.
Bahá'u'lláh (Whose approaching advent had been announced in Persia nineteen years before by His prophetic Herald, the Báb, Himself a world-famous figure) made His public dee-laration as a Messenger of God in BaghdAd in the year 1863. He affirmed that His appearance fulfilled the promised Return of Christ in the glory of the Father. He brought a Teaching which though ampler and fitted to a more advanced Age was in spirit and purpose the same as that of Christ.
He revealed those "other things" which Jesus told His disciples He had to give them but which they could "not bear" at that time. His mission was to bring the work of Christ to its completion and realisation, to reconstruct the social order of the world and build the long promised Kingdom of God in very fact.
He addressed individual letters or specific messages to the monarchs of the West and to the members of the various ecclesiastical orders of the Christian Churches, and directed numerous and repeated exhortations and warnings to the entire Christian world. These without exception were ignored by Christendom when they were made, and they have now been set aside and disregarded for some eighty years. During that period the long established influence of Christ in Christendom has suffered a decline so unprecedented, so precipitous that the Bishops gathering for the Lambeth Conference were greeted in the London press with the challenge that "Christianity is fighting for its life"; while the Bahá'í Faith proclaimed at that time by one lone Prophet shut in a Turkish prison has spread through the whole globe, has led the constructive thought of our time, has created a spiritual world-commu-nity joining the East and the West, and is fast making good its right to a place in the agelong succession of world-faiths.
"Followers of the Gospel," exclaimed Bahá'u'lláh addressing the whole of Christendom, "behold the gates of heaven are flung open. He that had ascended unto it is now come. Give ear to His voice calling aloud over land and sea, announcing to all mankind the advent of this Revelation � a Revelation through the agency of which the Tongue of Grandeur is now proclaiming: 'Lo, the sacred Pledge has been fuUifled, for He, the Promised One is come.~
� "The voice of the Son of Man is calling aloud from the sacred vale, 'Here am I, here am I, 0 God, my God!' whilst from the Burning Bush breaketh forth the cry, 'Lo, the Desire of the world is made manifest
Page 668That which ye were promised in the Kingdom of God is fulfilled. This is the Word which the Son veiled when He said to those around Him that at that time they could not bear it. Verily the spirit of Truth is come to guide you unto afl truth. He is the one who glorified the Son and exalted His Cause " "The Comforter whose advent all the Scriptures have promised is now come that He may reveal unto you all knowledge and wisdom.
Seek Him over the entire surface of the earth, ha ply ye may find Him."
Through a period of some twenty-five years from about 1865 to 1890', Bahá'u'lláh.
sent letters and messages to the monarchs and leaders of mankind proclaiming to them that � however little they recognised it � a world-crisis had already taken shape and profound changes on a world-scale were at hand; the old civilization would pass away and another take its place; a new race of men would arise, and reverence, unity, peace, justice would become watchwords in a new and happier order. He challenged them in burning words of power to acknowledge the spiritual cause of world-events already coming into view and to fill the lofty and noble part for which God and Christ had prepared them. He warned them not to let prejudice or dogma or superstition or self-interest or desire for leadership and glory from men deter them from accepting this summons. Again and again He urged on their notice that the true cause of this New Age and its happenings was spiritual and that they would find the key to it in the Gospel which they so continually perused.
In a Tablet to NapoleonIII, the most outstanding monarch of the moment, He informed his Majesty that in the providence of God a new age of unprecedented changes in human history was opening. He outlined certain features of its ordained pattern, which would vitally concern a King-states-man, and called on him to arise, humble himself before God, follow the guidance of God's Prophet and take a bold initiative in unifying mankind.
This, he wrote, was the Wondrous Age Christ had come to announce. Christ's dominion had spread westward that the West and its rulers might now give a lead in His holy service.
Would Napoleon now play the man in the precious Cause of God, he would make himself an emperor of the wide world.
Bahá'u'lláh had already been in communication with Napoleon and had discovered his hypocrisy and insincerity. He makes mention of this, and warns the Emperor (then in the plenitude of his pride and power) to give immediate heed to the Prophet's word, else, He writes, "thy kingdom shall be thrown into confusion and thine empire shall pass from thy hands. commotions shall seize all the people in that land We see abasement hastening after thee, whilst thou art of the heedless."
The contemptuous rejection of this warning was followed not many months after by the sudden outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, the utter defeat and capture of Napoleon at Sedan, and the collapse of his empire.
To Queen Victoria Bahá'u'lláhin London! Incline thine ear unto the voice of thy Lord, the Lord of all mankind �He in truth hath come into the world in His most great glory and all that is mentioned in the Gospel hath been fulfilled. Lay aside thy desire and set thine heart towards thy Lord, the Ancient of Days. We make mention of thee for the sake of God and desire that thy name may be exalted through thy remembrance of God, the Creator of earth and heaven Turn thou unto God and say: 0 my Sovereign Lord, I am but a vassal of Thine, and Thou art, in truth, the King of Kings �Assist me then, 0 My God, to remember Thee amongst Thy handmaidens and to aid Thy Cause in Thy lands.
To Alexander II He wrote,thine ear unto the Voice of God, the King, the Holy. Beware lest thy desire deter thee from turning unto the face of thy Lord, the Compassionate, the Most MercifuL He veriiy is come with His Kingdom,
Page 669and all the atoms cry aloud, 'La, the Lord is come in His great majesty.' He who is the Father is come, and the Son in the holy vale crieth. out, 'Here am I, here am I, 0 Lord, My God.' Arise thou amongst men in the name of this aU-compelling Cause and summon, then, the nations unto God. Could'st thou but know the things sent down by My Pen and discover the treasures of My Cause and the pearls of My mysteries.
thou would'st in thy love for My Name and in thy longing 5 or My glorious and sublime Kin gdom lay down thy hfe in my path.
He wrote to Pope Pius IX announcing that "He who is the Lord of Lords hath come" and that he who is the Rock (meaning Peter), crieth out saying "Lo, the Father is come, and that u'hich ye were promised in the Kingdom is fulfilled."
Bahá'u'lláh bade him � "Arise in the name of the Lord, the God of Mercy, amidst the peoples of the earth and seize thou the cup of life with the hands of confidence and first drink thou therefrom and proffer it then to such as tuTn towards it amongst the peoples of all faiths." He warned him not to repeat the error of the Pharisees and of the men of learning who on His first coming opposed Jesus Christ and pronounced judgment against Him, whilst he who was a fisherman believed on Him. He called on him to "sell all the embelLished ornaments thou dost ~ and expend them in the path of God" to "abandon thy kingdom unto the kings, and emerge from thy habitation," and should anyone offer him all the treasures of the earth "refuse to even glance upon them": then, detached from the world, let him, "speak forth the praises of thy Lord betwixt earth and heaven" and warn the kings of the earth against injustice in their dealings with men.
In the concluding pages of His communication to the Pope which contain some of the most tender, moving and impassioned passages in these writings He expresses the warmth of His desire, the earnestness of His effort to bring the followers of the Gospel into the Most Holy Kingdom of God and to enable the truehearted to discern its opened Gates. He urges them to rend the spiritual veils that blind their eyes, to cast away everything, everything that prevents them accepting this divine deliverance. He calls them to come out of the darkness into the light poured forth by the sun of the Grace of God. He tells them of the sovereignty that awaits them in the Kingdom on High if they will but heed and obey, of the friendship of God and His companionship in His everlasting realm of Beauty and of Power that He longs to bestow on them according to His ancient promise. The Kingdom is theirs of right.
He has bidden them welcome to it, and His heart is sad to see that others enter but they, alas!
tarry before its gates in the darkness. How blessed are those who will keep the covenant Christ made with His people, who will watch for their Lord's return as He bade them, and know His voice when He calls them. Blessed are they who will walk forward in the path Christ laid out for them so straight and true and will take their rightful place in the van of the Legions of Light.
Elsewhere in these letters to the kings, and also in other writings, Bahá'u'lláh speaks to the entire Christian world and addresses directly officers of the various ecclesiastical orders in Christendom.
For instance: "0 concourse of archbishops! He who is the Lord of all men hath appeared. In the plain of guidance He cafleth mankind whilst ye are yet numbered with the dead. Great is the blessedness of him who is stirred by the Breeze of God and hath arisen from amongst the dead in this perspicuous
Namet""0 concourse of bishops! He 'who is the Everlasting Father cafleth aloud, between earth and heaven. Blessed the ear that hath heard and the eye that hath seen and the heart that hath turned unto Him.
." And, "the stars of the heaven of knowledge have fallen, they that adduce the proofs they possess in order to demonstrate the truth of my Cause and who make mention of God in My Name; when however I came unto them in My majesty, they turned aside from Me. They,
Page 670This is what the Spirit (Jesus) prophesied when He came with the truth and the Jewish Doctors caviled at Him He addressed the priests, telling them it was their duty to proclaim aloud the Most Great Name among the nations � they chose to keep silence when every stone and every tree shouted aloud, "The Lord is come in His great giory!" "The Day of Reckoning," He wrote, "hath appeared, the Day whereon He who was in heaven hath, come.
He verily is the One whom ye were promised in theHow long will ye wander in the wilderness of heedlessness and superstition?"
He warned the monks that they little understood the real greatness of Jesus Christ which had been "exalted above the imagination of all that dwell on the earth. Blessed are they who perceive it." "If ye choose to follow Me," He wrote, "I-will make you heirs of My Kingdom; and if ye transgress against Me I will inMy~ long suffering endure it patiently." He expressed His wonder at their men of learning who read the Gospel and yet refused to acknowledge its All-Glorious Lord on His appearance.
Again and again, in general statements and in particular prophecies, Bahá'u'lláh warned the rulers of the world and their peoples that if these clear, solemn 'and public pronouncements went unheeded and the reforms enjoined were not made, then divine chastisement would descend from all sides upon mankind: irreligion would spread and deepen; from it would flow anarchy; authority and power would pass from the priesthood; the social order would break up and dissolve to make place for another which God would guide men to build in its stead.
Whatever "Lesser Peace"the war-weary nations might at last arrange among themselves, it would not bring them a final solution of their problems. This would come only with "The Most Great Peace" of which He wrote in His Tablet (or letter) to Queen Victoria, with the creation of a world-com-monwealth and with the ultimate emergence of a divine world-civilization.
These objectives could be attained only through acceptance of the Prophet of the Age and through the adoption of the principles, plans and patterns for the new World Order which were transmitted by Him from God.
When no heed was given to Bahá'u'lláh's Declaration that His prophethood was the return of Christ, when His appeal for the examination of His Cause and the redress of cruel wrongs inflicted on Him was ignored; when no one regarded His forecast, so forcefully and so fully presented, that a new Dawn had broken, a New Age had come (new in a spiritual sense, in a moral sense, in an intellectual sense) an Age which would bring a new outlook and new concepts, an Age of Divine Judgment, in which tyranny would be thrown down, the rights of the people asserted, and in which the social structure of the human race would be changed; when no attention was paid to the vision He opened, to the opportunities He offered, to the bold challenge which He had from prison flung before the mighty ones of the world; then alas!
the Churches as the years went by found themselves caught into a current which bore them irresistibly downward at an ever increasing speed and which at the end of eight decades was still to be bearing them down to lower and yet lower levels in their political standing, in their moral influence, in their intellectual prestige, in their social authority, in their numbers and their financial resources, in the popular estimate of the relevancy and the reality of the religion which they taught and even in the vigour and unanimity of their own witness to the basic truth upon which the Church itself had been founded.
No comparable period of deterioration is to be found in the long records of the Christian Faith. In all the vicissitudes of fifteen eventful centuries (and they were many); in all the misfortunes, the mistakes, the failures and the humiliations in which from time to time the Church was involved, no such catastrophic decline is to be traced. The sovereignty which the church had wielded in the Middle Ages had indeed
Page 671by the nineteenth century become in Western Europe a thing of the past; but the diminution had been gradual and moderate.
The loss suffered during the previous eight hundred years can hardly be compared with the vital damage inflicted during the last eighty.
In past crises the foundations of faith and of western society were not shaken; hope remained dominant, and from tradition and memory men drew inspiration.
Society remained Christian and to that extent unified.
But now the very foundations have gone. Reverence and restraint are no more.
The heights of human nature are closed: its depths opened.
Substitute systems of ethics, manmade and man-regarding, are invented, dethroning conscience. The dignity of reason and of knowledge is denied; truth itself is impugned.
The story of this calamitous decline is well known to all, and its outstanding features can be briefly summarised.
In the year 1870, not long after the despatch of Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to his Holiness, the Pope was through King Victor Emmanuel's seizure of Rome deprived by force of virtually the whole of that temporal power which Bahá'u'lláh had advised him to renounce voluntarily.
His formal acknowledgment of the Kingdom of Italy by the recent Lateran Treaty sealed this resignation of sovereignty.
The fall of the Napoleonic Empire was followed in France by a wave of anticlericalism which led to a complete separation of the Roman Catholic Church from the State, the secularisa-tion of education, and the suppression and dispersal of the religious orders.
In Spain, the monarchy which for so long had been in Christendom the great champion of the Roman Church was overthrown and the State secularised.
The dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy caused the disappearance both of the last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire and of the most powerful political unit that gave to the Roman Church its spiritual and financial support.
In Soviet Russia an organised assault directed against the Greek Orthodox Church, against Christianity, and against religion, disestablished that church, massacred vast numbers of its hundred million members, stripped it of its six and a half million acres of property, pulled down, closed or perverted to secular uses countless thousands of places of worship and by "a five year plan of godlessness" sought to eradicate all religion from the hearts of the people.
In every land and in all branches of the Christian Church, even where there was no system of Establishment, the rising power of nationalism continually made churches more and more subservient to the interests and the opinions of the State � a tendency brought into strong relief and notoriety in the first world-war..
The gradual decay of the intellectual prestige of religion in Europe had extended over many generations, but it was brought prominently before the public mind in the seventies of the last century, largely through the controversies which followed Tyndale's Belfast address in 1874.
The character of this decay has been epitomised by Professor Whitehead, writing in 1926, thus: "Religion is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life. For over two centuries, religion has been on the defensive, and on a weak defensive. The period has been one of unprecedented intellectual progress. In this way a series of novel situations has been produced for thought. Each such occasion has found the religious thinkers unprepared.
Something which has been proclaimed to be vital has, finally, after struggle, distress and anathema been modified and otherwise interpreted. The next generation of religious apologists then congratulates the religious world on the deeper insight which has been gained. The re-suit of the continued repetition of this undignified retreat during many generations has at last almost entirely destroyed the intellectual authority of religious thinkers. Consider this contrast; when Darwin or Einstein proclaim theories which modify our ideas, it is a triumph for science. We do not go about saying there is another defeat for science, because its old ideas have been abandoned. We know that another
Page 672The loss in the moral and spiritual field has been even more vital and conspicuous, especi~i1y of recent years. There is no need to enlarge upon the matter. The sickness at the heart of Christian life and thought which made these humiliations possible has been the decay of spirituality.
Love for God, fear of God, trust in God's overruling providence and ceaseless care have been no longer active forces in the world. The religious thinkers find themselves baffled by the portents of the time: when men in disillusionment, in anguish and despair come to them for counsel, seek from them comfort, hope, some intelligible idea as to what this cataclysm means and whence it came and how it should be met, they are completely at a loss. Though the Church for nineteen centuries has proclaimed, and has enshrined in its creeds, the emphatic and repeated promise of Christ that He would come again in power and great glory to judge the earth, would exalt the righteous and inaugurate the Kingdom of God among mankind, yet they believe and teach that through all these years of deepening tribulation no Hand has been outstretched from heaven, no light of Guidance has been shed upon the earth; that God has withheld from His children in their deepest need His succour, His comfort and His love; that Christ has utterly forgotten His promise or is impotent to redeem it and has permitted His universal Church to sink in ruin without evincing the least small sign of His interest or His concern.
Meantime the Baha Messagehas kindled once more on earth the ancient fire of faith that Jesus kindled long ago, the fire of spontaneous love for God and man, a love that changes all life and longs to show itself in deeds of devotion and of self-sacrifice even to death and martyrdom.
To them who have recognised Christ~ s voice again in this Age has been given in renewed freshness and beauty the vision of the Kingdom of God as Jesus and the Book of Revelation gave it � the same vision, but clearer now and on a larger scale and in more detail. A new enthusiasm has been theirs, a power that nothing could gainsay or resist. Their words reached the hearts of men. With a courage, a determination that only divine love could quicken or support they rose in the face of ruthless persecution to bear witness to their faith. Fearless, though comparatively few, weak in themselves but invincible in God's Cause, they have now at the close of these eighty years carried that Faith far and wide through the globe, entered well nigh a hundred countries, translated their literature into more than fifty languages, gathered adherents from East and West, from many races, many nations, many creeds, many traditions, and have established themselves as a world-com-munity, worshipping one God under one
Name.The Bahá'í Faith today presents the Christian Churches with the most tremendous challenge ever offered them in their long history: a challenge, and an opportunity. It is the plain duty of every earnest Christian in this II. lumined Age to investigate for himself with an open and fearless mind the purpose and the teachings of this Faith and to determine whether the collective center for all the constructive forces of this time be not the Messenger from God, Bahá'u'lláh, He and no other; and whether the way to a better, kinder, happier world will not lie open as soon as we accept the Announcement our rulers rejected.
"0 Kings of the earth; He Who is the Sovereign Lord of all is come.
The Kingdom is God's, the Omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting.
Worship none but God and with radiant hearts lift up your faces unto your Lord, the Lord of all names. This is a Revelation to which whatever ye possess can. never be compared could ye but know it. "Ye are but vassals, 0 Kings of the earth! He Who is the King of Kings hath appeared, arrayed in His most wondrous glory, and is summoning you unto Himself, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
Take heed lest pride deter you from recognising the Source of Revelation, lest the things of this worLd shut you out as by a veil from
Page 673Him Who is the Creator of Heaven. Arise and serve Him Who is the Desire of aU nations, Who hath created you through a word from Him and ordained you to be, for all time, embLems of His sovereignty.
"0 Kings of Christendom!Heard ye not the saying of Jesus, the Spirit of God. 'I go away and come again unto you?'
Wherefore, then, did ye fail, when He did come again unto you in the ctouds of heaven, to draw nigh unto Him, that ye might behold His face amd be of them that attained His Presence. In another passage He saith: 'When. He the Spirit of Truth, is come, He wifl guide you into aU truth.'
And yet behold how when He did t~ring the truth ye refused to turn your faces towards Him and persisted im disport-irtg yourselves with your pastimes and your fancies.
Page 674M ANY people feel that religion has nothing to offer modern life except idealism for the very young and consolation for the aged.
Bahá'ís do not share such a limited view. In their experience religion is dynamic, applies to all the major phases of the individual life, and is the unifying force in society. Bahá'ís look to the future with confidence. They know that grave difficulties lie ahead for the people of the world. But their Faith strikes at the roots of modern problems and offers a healing and unifying solution. At the heart of the Bahá'í teachings is a universal moral basis for the building of an enduring and just world order.
We must recognize that, first and foremost, the Bahá'í Faith is a revealed religion.
It is not an economic system even though its teachings include some principles of economics. It is not a political system even though it offers a plan for world organization.
The Bahá'í Faith is a revealed religion with its basic tenet being a belief in one God, Who reveals His will and purpose for human development in each age of history through a Manifestation.
Bahá'ís recognize IBah&'u'114h, the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, as the Manifestation of God for our own time.
Tux BASIS OF MORAL Aunrniirr~In the last one hundred years human life has undergone many radical changes.
Methods of travel and work, ideas of time and distance have been rapidly altered. Classes, races, and nations can no longer live and work apart from each other. These revolutionary changes upset the old moral values so that now men and women live in great moral confusion.
There are several reasons for this. The old moralities were largely sectional; they tended to apply to a certain race, nation, or class. And also, time has shown that the old moralities were suited to a simpler age and not meant for our present complex world.
To condemn all forms of morality and religion would mean that men can now manufacture their own moral law to suit themselves.
Bahá'ís reject this idea.The Bahá'í Faith upholds a belief in God, Who speaks His will to men in each age through a chosen Manifestation. The moral law is not manufactured by men and women to suit their own inclinations or to serve as a mask for catch phrases in order to gain power over others.
Bahá'ís firmly declare that the moral law originates in the teachings of those few men in history who are the Manifestations of God.
The basis of authority in determining what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, is, for the Bahá'í the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
The Bahá'í rejects political tradition as the chief measure of what is good or bad. The Bahá'í rejects economic necessity as the chief measure of good. The Bahá'í rejects class or race or national interests as a fit measure for determining the ultimate good for human beings.
Bahá'ís feel that the moral law is the basis of personal happiness and the basis of decency and order in the local,
'William Kenneth ChristianCollege and received his MA. degree from Cornell University. Before going to Michigan State, be taught at Morrisville
Agricultural and Technicalhas served on several local Spiritual Assemblies and as regional secretary of New York State. He is a wellknown lecturer and a freQuent contributor to World Order magazine.
He is a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United
States.They look at the present world around them � with millions oppressed by fear, misery, and hatred � and reject the idea that any group of scientists, economists, or politicians could formulate an adequate moral force to remove these evils, They are convinced that materialism and the rejection of God are the prime causes of these evils, They recognize the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh as the higher,slivine law for the development of humanity in this age.
Perhaps we might summarize it thus: while some men proclaim materialism � the kingdom of man � Bahá'ís proclaim the growing World Order of Bahá'u'lláh � the
Kingdom of God.Some people regard the economic organization of society as the most important factor in the solution of human affairs, They think of man as an economic unit, as if he were valuable only in terms of what he could produce. Such people are apt to regard history as a continuous struggle between economic classes.
Bahá'u'lláh taught that the chief basis of society is religion, that the moral, divine laws provide the real framework for civilization.
As 'Abdu'l-Bahá taught: "The fundamentals of the whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit."
The Bahá'í teachings stress the idea that man is a responsible moral being, and the chief purpose of his life is the attainment of spiritual greatness.
Because of the approaching maturity of the human race, Bahá'u'lláh has brought us a system of divine economy: laws, principles, and institutions for unifying the people of the world in one religion and one order.
THE INTERPRETATION OFBahá'ís reject the national, racial, or class struggle theory of history as too limited a view since it ignores the influence of religion and other forms of idealism. Bahá'ís regard history as the evolution of man and society toward higher forms of moral conduct and a wider organization of social life. When men and society repudiate moral values, then class divisions appear a~ part of the disintegration of an old order. The solution cannot be found in the triumph of one group at the expense of others, but the solution grows as men accept a renewed statement of the divine law. Bahá'ís feel that the ethical justification for the changes of individual standards and social forms in history, has been the suc-ces sive revelations of religion.
THE M~i~Ns or Soci.~ CHANGEBahá'ís completely reject the use of force to bring about a change in human affairs, They reject the principle of violence because it has its roots in lawlessness, it denies human rights due to all men, and it is contrary to the moral law.
Bahá'ís believe in the use of persuasion and the demonstration of Baha'is, in their personal conduct and their social relations within the Bahá'í community, of a way of life morally and socially superior to general practice in the modern world. Bahá'ís cannot use secrecy to hide their methods or their ultimate objectives, Anyone can find out what Bahá'ís teach and what they are doing. The Bahá'í teachings condemn deception.
There is no secret about the objective of Bahá'ís to unite all the people of the world in one faith and one order.
In the Baha view, any man or group of men who attempt to divide human beings along racial, nationalistic, religious, or class lines, are committing the greatest possible evil against the welfare of the human race.
Bahá'ís believe in uniting all men and women, regardless of class, creed, or color, on a spiritual basis.
Bahá'ís cannot accept any philosophy which tries to divide society on arbitrary class lines.
Bahá'ís teach brotherly love, regardless of who the brother may be. The Bahá'í Faith changes all classes by establishing a spiritual unity; this is much more effective � it is the divine way.
The Bahá'í position on the means of social change is probably best summarized in this way: Bahá'ís believe in
Page 676peaceful means, not force; openness, not plots; evolution, not revolution.
ATnTTYDE TOWARD GOVERNMENTBahá'ís do not fear the idea of government; they know that a government is as good or as bad as the people who are in responsible charge. Bahá'ís believe in the necessity of government if justice is to be established throughout the world.
The teachings of Bahá'u'lláh show men how a just society � for all kinds of people � may be evolved. The growing Bahá'í world community is a laboratory where the principles of Bahá'u'lláh are being applied in human relations, where the future institutions of justice are taking shape, where Bahá'ís are learning how to act justly and to develop methods for the just conduct of their own affairs.
Since Bahá'ís reject the idea that all men are controlled by self-interest, they know from increasing experience that a governing body of men and women can be elected to act as responsible trustees for the whole community. Bahá'ís believe, and strive to practice in their own affairs, the principle that positions in government should go to those men and women who have demonstrated that they can rise above self-interest and serve as "trustees of the Merciful One among men." They believe that government � whose members are freely selected and secretly elected by the people � is the natural social agency for attaining "the best beloved of all things" in the sight of God � justice.
ECONOMIC PRINCIPLESThe Bahá'í teachings contain some economic principles, but not a system of economics.
"The fundamentals of the whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit."
An economic system must be flexible, evolving and changing according to the needs of the time.
The Bahá'í Faith creates the vision of a united world composed of various classes and races, each man and woman of which possesses equal human rights.
Bahá'ís likewise believe that unless social planners recognize the superior law of God they will not be able to plan justly.
The Bahá'í teachings advocate the organization of society so that extremes of wealth and poverty may be eliminated.
To attain this, the men in positions of public responsibility need a high sense of spiritual trusteeship.
In this sense, Bahá'ís believe in the principle of equitable distribution of income.
The Bahá'í Faith advocates (1) that the state should be the mediator between capital and labor, (2) that both capital and labor are essential to the welfare of all the people, (3) that both should have their rights and responsibilities clearly defined in law, (4) that various classes, economic as well as social, are inevitable in human society and must realize their mutual interdependence, (5) that labor deserves the security of a share in the profits of business.
Any economic system, no matter how appealing in theory, will be immoral and unjust unless the men and women responsible for it have a high sense of dedication to the wellbeing of humanity.
It is to protect men and women from injustice � economic and political � that Bahá'u'lláh has emphatically declared: "The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men."
THE RIGETS OF ALL PEOPLEBahá'ís believe that any rights which are valid, should apply to all people regardless of class, sex, or color.
The rights of men and women have their origin in the moral law as revealed by the divine Prophet of the age.
These rights should be written into law, but they are best safeguarded and applied in plans and policy by men and women dedicated to the service of God. Such men and women recognize as their first obligation the shaping of policy closer and closer to the divine standard.
Page 677The laws of God, the Creator, give men their true liberty.
Moses enunciated the Ten Commandments. These gave basic rights � the right to property, the right to live without fear of lawful murder. Jesus stressed the dignity of man, and from this have come such rights as are implied in the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Bahá'u'lláh has brought men the right to live in a united world society, the right to be recognized as a spiritual being and not a mere physical and economic mechanism, the right to an education and equal opportunities, the right to worship God through creative work, the right to such self-knowledge as will eliminate useless fears and frustrations, the right to the means of physical health and human necessities, the right to family life and normal human relationships, the right to develop spiritual capacities without the corrosion of ruthless competition or arbitrary authority.
'Abdu'l-Bahá declared: "There shall be an equality of rights and preroga tives for all mankind."
The Baha insistence upon the divine law and its application everywhere in the world grows from two facts. First, Bahá'ís recognize Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God chosen to renew religion in our time.
And second, the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh stem from the fundamental principle of the Oneness of Mankind.
This principle "represents the consummation of human evolution � an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.
"The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it." 4.
THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARSB AHA'U'LLAH is known to the world as the Founder of a World Religion named after Him, the Bahá'í Faith. He is not so well known, however, in relation to His remarkable prophetic utterances, dating from 1868 on, regarding the cataclysms and disintegration of modern civilization.
More clearly and more powerfully than anyone who has subsequently analyzed the vital flaws in world civilization of the present day, Bahá'u'lláh diagnosed its condition, revealed its symptoms of decay and prophesied its complete disintegration.
"The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discovered, inasmuch asmuch as the prevailing order appear-eth to be lamentably defective."2
Again'Stanwood Cobb is well known in the field of child training, having written many books on the subject, among which are: The
New Leaven, D~s-coveringthe Genius Within You and New Horizons for the Child. lie is the founder of the Progressive Education
Association and Directorof the Chevy Chase Country School. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he studied at Harvard. Then in 1907 he went to Constantinople to teach at Robert College. At that time he made a visit to 'Abdu'1-Hah~, who was then a prisoner at Akka Palestine. He became interested in the broader field of education for a better social order.
His book, Security for a Failing World, analyzes the basic needs of this age and presents the answer in the comprehensive teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
2Gieanimgs from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 216.
Page 678and again He pointed out the causes of this disintegration, which could be all summed up in the single word "god-lessness." This evil, like a cancer, He said, was gnawing at the vitals of Europe, and would completely destroy the stability of all its institutions.
He foretold the overturning of empires, the downfall of dynasties, revolutionary and disintegrating changes sweeping away all the established institutions and leaving chaos in their stead.
He forecast in vivid terms the complete downfall of the powerful Islamic clergy in Persia, who at the time of Bahá'u'lláh's preachments were more powerful even than the Shhh. He forecast the coming of universal war, including even the discovery of atomic power, a discovery which He said had been held back from humanity lest it destroy itself, Of Germany He made prophecies which have definitely been fulfilled: "Oh banks of the Rhine!
We have seen you covered with gore, inasmuch as the swords of retribution were drawn against you. And we hear the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in conspicuous glory."8 He foretold the humiliation and disaster approaching
Napoleon HI of France.Reflecting that same gift of prophetic vision, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, His son, who in this country in 1912 lectured from coast to coast on the new World Order of the Bahá'í Faith, said in California in 1912: "We are on the eve of the battle of Armageddon The time is two years hence, when only a spark will set aflame the whole of Europe. The social unrest in all countries, the growing religious scepticism, antecedent to the millennium, and already here, will set aflame the whole of Europe.
By 1917 kingdoms will fall and cataclysms will rock the earth."4 More important by far than the forecasting of important events by Bahá'u'lláh is His prophetic delineation of the outline of a new World Order, destined by the Will of God to develop and ultimately control the whole planet Bahá'í WorZd Faith, p. 55.
4BaM'u'Udft and the New Era, p. 296.in a great universal civilization based on world peace, world brotherhood, and world unity expressed in terms of a concrete world organization.
If we examine one by one the chief principles which Bahá'u'lláh proclaimed as the essential foundations of this world unity and world civilization, we shall trace in each instance a remarkable correlation between these principles as enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh (in the name of God) and the growing conviction of the intelligent leadership of the world as to the vital need of such principles, and in most cases the actual development of these principles to an embryonic degree.
1. WOULD UNITYBahá'u'lláh said that humanity must develop a new consciousness, the consciousness of the oneness of mankind. Only on such a new psychology could world unity be effectively organized. "The world is one country and mankind its citizens."
A remarkable advance has been made in world consciousness since this utterance of Bahá'u'lláh. Intelligent people the world over realize, as did Wendell Wilikie, that this is indeed ''one world.'' There is no nation on the planet, no matter how powerful it may be or how retarded and weak from a political and military point of view, but what realizes that the destiny of each people is linked up indissolubly with the destinies of all the other people on the planet.
As an intellectual concept then, this pronouncemeht of Bahá'u'lláh has a parallel the world over in the realization of the essential oneness of mankind. But this progress toward unity is still in the domain of man's intelligence only.
Such a concept of oneness must pervade the heart and be fortified by the spiritual potencies before it can become effective in the sense that Bahá'u'lláh indicated.
2. WORLD PEACEBahá'u'lláh called, in the name of God, upon all the riders of the world to abolish, warfare on the planet and organize in terms of peace. The instrumentations of warfare, He stated, were
Page 679becoming so devastating as to threaten the very existence of humaruity.
War was disastrous to civilizatiom. World peace, on the contrary, wouLd become the founr1at~on for ztniversa~ prosperity and happiness.
It is hardly necessary to point out the extraordinary development, subsequent to these pronouncements, on the part of world leadership as to the imperative need for world peace.
Two world wars have proved more convincing than any arguments could be in the development the world over of a will-to-peace.
Great as are the obstacles to such a longed-for goal, there is no one who doubts the alternative of its achievement, or of the complete and permanent destruction of civilization on this planet.
3. WORLD FEIERAT1ONBahá'u'lláh proclaimed also to aU the rulers OS the world their duty im the name of God to organize the planet into am effective Federation with an. In-ternationaZ Legislature, Court of Justice, and PoUce Control.
To make effective such an organ~zatiom individual nations must relinquish szch factors o~ their sovereignty as would compete with this new ~mternationa~ order, � most notabiy, the privilege of nationalistic milAtarism.
National armamenta-tiori, He stated, should be reduced to the needs oj~ imternal order only; and an international police Sorce should be buflt up, powerful enough to regniate any contrary-rn ~nded nations which might from time to time endanger world peace.
The world has advanced to this point also, as evidenced by its creation of the United Nations and the recognition of the imperative need of those very factors of world organization emphasized by Bahá'u'lláh.
The world recognizes these needs. But tragically enough, it is not yet prepared sufficiently in mind and spirit to sacrifice national sovereignty to that point at which international sovereignty could become effective.
The unwillingness of the most powerful nations to submit their destiny completely to the majority will of a World Federation is the Achilles' heel of the United Nations.
An even greater weakness is the lamentable truth that a world government can have no potency if and when many of its component parts have a tremendously greater military force than the world government they are supposed to obey.
Just as in the days of feudalism, kings had little power when their feudal lords had greater armed forces than the king himself, so it is clear the anarchy of war which at present prevails upon this planet can never become regulated into ways of peace until this nationalistic feudalism gives place to a strongly constituted planetary rule and order.
Several necessary factors of world federation, then, remain still to be developed.
But it is evident to any intelligent person that destiny will gradually impel the acceptance of those terms without which world peace and world order could not be established.
4. WORLD TRADEBahá'u'lláh indicated that interna-tionai trade, through whose arteries the pulse of international prosperity must flow, should be freed from barriers. There shou~cZ be established also an interncttiona~ controi of those important basic resources oJ~ the planet, the lack of which or the desire for which has up to date been such an impelling influence towards war.
Also, there should be a aLnitary system of moneys, weights and measures for the whoie world.
In these important directions we see both concept and practice, feeble up to the present it is true, but indicative of the growing consciousness on the part of world leadership that international trade must be freed from tariff barriers and that the world's basic resources, under some form of international guarantee, must be equitably available to all peoples of the planet; just as in the United States of America the resources of each and every state are mutually available without calling into requisition the force or threat of warfare.
The organization of ITO with its concrete objectives of facilitating international trade even to the point of reduction of tariff barriers, weak and obstructed though its efforts be, is a welcome evidence of the desire of world leadership to work toward those noble goals which Bahá'u'lláh envisioned.
5. A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGEBahá'u'lláh stated the need of a urn-versal auxiUary Language, the purposes of which should be not only to facilitate travel, trade and culture, but also to help create that consciousness of the oneness of humanity which is the keystone of the arch of Bahá'u'lláh's new World Order. The leaders of the world should meet in council, He stated, and select such a language � either an existing language or an artiftciai language � and require it in all the schools of the world, not to displace the native language, but to serve as auxiliary to it. Thus in a single generation such a language would become effective all over the planet. And as a corollary to universal language there should also be established a universal script.
Modern progress shows vividly the need of such an auxiliary language. International conferences; the sessions of the United Nations and its component bodies such as UNESCO; the radio and the moving pictures � all these expressions of modernization emphasize the need of unity in speech the world over.
So closely was Bahá'u'lláh's pronouncement followed by the inspired thought of humanity that only a few years subsequent to His declaration on the subject of a universal language, a Polish educator, Zamenhoff, became aflame with the vision of creating an artificial language to neutralize the jealousies of existing nationals and to make possible an effective universal auxiliary to the world's languages.
This artificial language, Esperanto, has steadily won its way to the forefront of all such experimental creations. Probably it would be the world's choice as an artificial language in case such a selection were to be made.
Among existing languages, English has shown in the last generation an extraordinary development. A tre mendous advantage possessed by an existing language, such as English, lies in the great body of literature already present in the language. And it is safe to say that either in original creation or in translation there is more literature extant in the English language than in any of the other languages of the world. Hence the resident of a small country like Bulgaria, or of a retarded country such as China could upon the study of English as an auxiliary language become immediately heir to all its vast body of literature in the belles-lettres and the sciences. Whereas if Esperanto were to be the choice as the international language its study would unlock to the ~upi1 only a few hundred volumes of literature.
6. UNIVERSAL EDUCATIONBahá'u'lláh ordained as a spiritual obligation to humanity the complete oh-literation of illiteracy and the training of all children, not only in the arts and sciences but also in some practical line of vocation, which should lit them for a livelihood.
"Knowledge is as wings to man's spirit."This insistence on universal education, although hardly needed in the Occident, remains still an obligation unfulfilled by over half of humanity. But the consciousness of this obligation has by now permeated all countries of the world. Most significant is the dedication of UNESCO to this task. Special committees have been set up to investigate illiteracy the world aver, to formulate plans for its elimination, and to stimulate backward nations in that process.
Surely one of the first steps toward raising the human race in the direction of its ultimate goals must be the opening of the gates of literacy and knowledge to all human beings. This is in reality a spiritual enterprise, based upon the doctrine of the soul constituting every man a sacred individual � worthy of all the benefits and developments that God has destined for humanity � it was this spiritual factor chiefly that instituted in Christian countries the noble doctrine and practice of universal education.
Page 681The doctrine of universal education proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh has already powerfully begun to affect Oriental groups that have become His followers. Wherever such groups are suffi-cienily large to make it possible, schools are established not only for the boys but also for the girls. For Bahá'u'lláh stated that it is more important even to educate the female than the male, because the female becomes the mother and in her hands chiefly lies the destiny of her children.
7. A UNIVERSAL CURRICULUMThe world pattern of Bahá'u'lláh calls uLtimately for a universal curriculum, establishing the foundations for a noble cosmic culture and civilization freed from all limitations of insularity and local idiosyncracies. This universal civilization would, however, not obliterate those pleasing features of racial and nationcti culture which are the varytnq expressions of the vaTiegated emotiomal tones and background of racial groups.
This development of a universal curriculum is already making steady headway without the need of any propaganda in its favor. For modern science demands and obtains this right. There cannot be varying and contradictory approaches to scientific knowledge. Truth is one, science is one, the world over. And a true scientist � whether in Tokyo, Bombay, Leningrad, Constantinople, Paris, London, or New York � must have identical foundations and qualifications for scientific procedure and exposition.
If we add to this oneness of knowledge, already arising on the planet, the significant aid of an auxiliary universal language, not many generations will have passed until education the world over, apart from belles-lettres and certain local needs, will follow one and the same curriculum. So again we see how recent developments in the evolution of civilization on this planet are distinctly in line with Bahá'u'lláh's teaching for a universal curriculum.
8. THE Equarry OF M~n ANDBahá'u'lláh proclaimed the absolute equality of man and woman.
Man and woman are the two wings upon which humanity fUes and if one of these is weak humanity cannot make due progress.
In the Occident the feminist movement had begun before the days of Bahá'u'lláh, but its progress was feeble and its claims only partial. Since the period of His pronouncements, however, there have taken place significant developments in the feminist movement, bringing about women's suffrage in many countries; opening the doors of higher education and of all professions to women; freeing matrimony in the most advanced sections of humanity from that economic bondage which tended to hold woman in servitude and hence in virtual inequality.
Bahá'u'lláh did not assert that man and woman are the same. It is equality of opportunity, privileges and rights which He demands for woman. This, too, is destined to come to pass.
9. ThE HARMONIZATION OFSo important is the need of a rapprochement between science and reLigion that Bahá'u'lláh made it one of the cornerstones of His world pattern.
He said that science and religion are equally needed for the progress and. deveLopment of humanity. Either one without the other will not suffice for its perfect development.
Both He and 'Abdu'l-Bahá powerfully asserted the claims of the verities of sciences as over against the traditions and superstitions of an erring theology which clis-pute those noble truths that science brings to humanity.
In all the history of humanity no schism has been so disastrous as the modern schism unnecessarily dividing man's allegiance between science and religion.
Such is the apparent opposition between the two that if a man elects to follow zealously the path of religion he fears to admit the claims of science; while on the other hand those who devote themselves earnestly to science feel themselves forced into a state of mind critically agnostic toward religion.
Page 682This schism cannot go on. Next to war, it is the most dangerous foe to human progress. The Bahá'í religion frankly faces this difficulty and solves it. Truth cannot be divided against itself.
The universe is one and the truth about it is one. If any religion denies the plain truths of science, says 'Abdu'l-Bahá, then it is not religion.
We see a slight movement in the secular world toward this harmonization of science and religion.
For science � which has not itself escaped the evils of dogmatism, of tradition and of fallaciousness � is now becoming less dogmatically assertive in relation to those occult approaches to existence which we call spiritual.
The great scientists of today realize that their discoveries in the world of matter by no means preclude spirit from the universe. And the bewildering majesty and complexity of the universe force them to recognize that back of all this infinite detail there must be a Plan and a Planner. And hereby they approach a reconciliation with religion. All that remains then, is to continue on this road, and through complete scientific thinking and investigation work out man's relation to this Plan and Planner.
As to the nature of this Planner whom we may call God, Bahá'u'lláh concords with the scientist in stating that He is the great Unknowable of the Universe. God in His essence cannot be understood or comprehended.
The Infinite does not at any point contact finite phenomenal existence.
The ways in which this Infinite Essence, the Creator, does approach, vivify and direct His creation is a story that cannot be unfolded here.
Suffice it to say that in the Bahá'í universities of the future all the sciences will be earnestly studied, as well as the spiritual doctrines which are needed for the revaluation and direction of man's daily life.
10. O~i~ss OF RELJGIoNLast and of great significance in the noble pillars of the Bahá'í temple Jar humanity is the proclamation of the essential oneness of religion. Religibns in their essence are one, said Bahá'u'lláh, and the divisions and differences between them are due to human error and human limitations and do not flow from the purpose of the Founders of religions, or of that divine power which stands back of all Revelation. Religion is one, and should be recognized and practiced as one, the world over.
This is a breathtaking pronouncement for humanity.
That which the greatest vision and zeal of missionary movements in the various religions has been unable to accomplish, the Bahá'ís accomplish by the simple factor of the recognition of the validity of all the world's religions and of their essential unity. Thus obstacles are obliterated. The unity of religion in actual practice, however, remains for a future century to witness.
Since this statement of Bahá'u'lláh there has been a miraculous transmutation in all enlightened religious thought in the direction of the recognition of the validity of other religions than one's own. One can approach this concept from pure logic, as the writer did in his youth, upon reflection that of the some three-hundred-fifty sects of Christianity � many of which claim not only to have truth but to have an absolute monopoly of it � it is evident that it would be a strange universe if one of these sects should have all truth and the other sects be completely in error.
It must be, rather, that all sects have some truth, and none a monopoly of it. Enlarging this thought to a consideration of the major religions of the world, one might also conclude that all of them have some truth, but none of them a monopoly of it. This process of reasoning has evidently passed through the minds of intelligent people the world over, because it is today the prevailing attitude among those intellectuals who still follow religion, whatever sect or religion they belong to. And this transformation has affected missionary movements so that their approach now to other religions is not to attack them ds inventions of the devil but to admit that they have truths and spiritual values.
The effort is to meet other religionists on a basis of fellowship and friendship.
Page 683First All-Swiss Bahá'í Conference, Bern, Switzerland, November 56, 1949.
The National Bahá'í Center, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, August, 1949.
Page 684Many an intellectuai of today has become an eclectic, gleaning truth as he finds it from any source the world over � taking effectively into his spiritual life gems of wisdom springing from various climes and races and epochs.
The progress as regards these ten principles in the world situation between the day of Bahá'u'lláh and the present day, is so tremendous as to significantly support the writer's contention that the world is inevitably evolving in the direction of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings, quite apart from any conscious knowledge of His message and mission. "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
With this thesis in mind, let us look ahead a hundred years. What may we expect, in a general way, to be achieved in the direction of world order and world unity?
The Bahá'ís are not blind optimists. They do not expect such a noble world order to spring full fledged from the brains of the twentieth century, as Athene sprang from the brain of Zeus. No, they expect, and have been told by Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the present Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, that dire disasters will press upon humanity; that the world may and probably will pass through greater cataclysms than it has yet faced.
This is hardly cheeritil news. But while its destiny lies within the will and power of mankind, do we see sufficient will toward world unity to steer the power of mankind into safe channels? Or shall it be that humanity must learn still greater lessons; must drink its cup of degradation to the bitter dregs, before its eyes are opened clearly and its will becomes effectively directed toward its own true welfare.
What do the Bahá'ís then expect will happen within the next hundred years?
Their expectations are based on three distinct premises: 1. The evident trend of human progress, ~s already indicated in the foregoing pages.
2. Faith in the prophetic vision of Bahá'u'lláh and His son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who have repeatedly made definite statements regarding the developments to be expected in the near, as well as distant, future.
3. Faith in a new world order as part of the blue prints of destiny � so to speak; a development of humanity that preexists on the plane of the unseen, the archetypal � described and preached by Christ as the Kingdom of God on earth.
Baha'is, then, look forward to a bright future for humanity and confidently expect better conditions to commence on effective foundations before the end of the present century.
The Bahá'ís thus are, as one government official, not himself a Baha'i, recently said, "the only true optimists left in the world."
The Baha'is, as has already been stated, believe world conditions will continue to worsen. But they expect that these chaotic disturbances will end within the present generation; and that then world peace will be effectively established and a form of international federative government put into practice.
They expect all this to happen before the end of the twentieth century.
Beyond that point, they see a steady ascent, a sound human progress founded not on the sands of materialism, but on the everlasting rock of spiritual verities and human righteousness.
This is to be the Day of the Kingdom. This will be the beginning, feeble though it may be at the start, of man's Golden Age upon this planet.
The energies of the human race, at last freed from war with its dire and absorbing necessities, and freed from want by science and technology put worldwide at the disposal of all peoples, � the energies thus released will cause to blossom forth a worM civilization, the beauty, the prosperity, and the joyousness of which it is hard to conceive under the present condition of humanity.
The Baha'is, because of this vivid faith, endure more cheerfully than other groups, the shocks, the turmoils, the fateful exigencies of this era of transition. And they work, with the aid and guidance of their world Guardian,
Page 685Shoghi Effendi, with steadfast assurance and indefatigable energy for the directives given them by their Founder and
Teacher.Faith is a great and important factor of achievement.
Enlightened faith has, in addition to the automotive power which even a blind zeal bestows, the perfect chart for arriving at the aimed-for goals.
May our readers, whoever they may be, derive from the foregoing pages some bit of added assurance as to human destiny, and as to the individual part they may play in it. Black as the present clouds may be, let us remain convinced, as the history of human progress compels us to believe, that no effort of idealism is ever futile, no consecration to the world's progress ever wasted. These drops, these springs of dedicated service flow inevitably together with great streams of progress toward the ocean of perfection.
5.B~ DR. R. BRADLEY ROE TONIGHT I have the very pleasant duty of introducing the speakers of the Baha Community in a discussion on the most important subject,
"Can We Hold the Peace?"I hope to hear a most interesting discussion following the main speeches; an open forum should be truly open to all shades of opinion, and the more free the discussion is on so important a subject, the better for all.
In particular, I should like to thank the Northampton Bahá'ís for what I consider to be a signal honor in being asked to take the chair tonight. I know of no movement of greater interest, or, in my opinion, of greater importance today.
Moreover, I think this Movement may yet play a greater part in public affairs than we at present recognize. For in the last analysis I believe the peace of the world will depend on what the people of the world think in their hearts.
I have long been an interested observer of this Movement.
However, there may be some in the audience who have no knowledge of the Bahá'í Corn-llntroductory remarks by Dr. B. Bradley Roe as chairman of a symposium on the subject "Can We Hold the Peace" given in Northampton, England on Naw-RCiz, 1946.
munity and their aims, and who may be wondering who the Bahá'ís are and why in particular they should be in a position to discuss peace, so it may save the time of the speakers if I very shortly state the Bahá'í aims from the point of view of an outsider, and if I am wrong, the Bahá'ís present will, I hope, correct me.
To explain briefly, then, this Movement was started just one hundred years ago in Persia by the Leader of a Great Reform Movement for World Unity and Regeneration.
The Founder of the Movement was Bahá'u'lláh a great Prophet. The character of the Movement is therefore reformative. The basis is spiritual. The goal and aim is the formation of a new World Order of a constructive nature leading to world peace.
Its quality is that of a great unifying or harmonizing force in the world of today.
Two matters need further qualification. The first is the character of this Movement.
The point that has always caught my attention has been the extraordinary degree of prophetic insight Bahá'u'lláh showed in sensing the intense urgency of the situation. I am talking of the period approximately between 1860 and 1870, some seventy-five
Page 686years ago. Bahá'u'lláh, a Persian nobleman, spent a large part of His life either in exile, or, on account of the fotce of His teaching, in prison in the fortress of 'Akka in Palestine, with no access to the outside world. At this same time, we, in England, were in a century of unparalleled scientific and industrial expansion, in the midst of a long peaceful period in the reign of Queen
Victoria. The Boer Warwas not in sight, while the two great wars of 1914 and 1939 were not only undreamt of, but any suggestion of their extent would have been laughed at. Yet one Man only in the whole world saw the danger, and although imprisoned, took immediate action.
He wrote to all the crowned heads in Europe, warning them that unless humanity united (and He outlined some of the basic factors which would bring about the unity of nations), the most terrible disaster would follow. That is why He is so widely regarded as a Prophet, since of His own knowledge, in the limited circumstances in which He was placed, He could not possibly have received sufficient information to enable Him to have formed an adequate and accurate opinion, that has, in the light of subsequent events proved to be absolutely right.
He grasped the absolute and urgent necessity at that date, long before the great events we have passed through, of the necessity for cooperation and unity in order to achieve peace; as opposed to selfishness, greed, nationalism, and the ruthless international competition which inevitably must lead to international jealousy, hate and war.
That brings me to the second point concerning the spiritual basis of the Bahá'í Movement. A year after His death in 1892, the Reverend Dr. Jessup, said of Him that "He was the head of that vast reform movement (he was talking of Persia) who accept the New Testament as the Word of God, and Christ as the Deliverer of men, who regard all nations as one and all men as brothers." Bahá'u'lláh based the spiritual foundation of this great call to the world on the simple fact that all men in all nations and of all re ligions worship the same God. Here was a common basis on which all men could meet and cooperate with each other in full understanding.
It was a common basis which interfered with no existing religion either then, or today.
� And so, on that basis,great call to all men of every nation, every color, every caste, and every creed � to join together under God, to unite, and together to build a World Order, based on justice, tolerance, wisdom, and love under God, and expressed in most practical measures by their acts. He raised the consciousness of the individual to an understanding of the need of other peoples as well as of their own, so there should come into existence a positive world consciousness of brotherhood expressed in practical work and reform.
It is not surprising that a Movement with such spiritual force behind it has, in a hundred years, spread into five continents and seventy-three countries. For it is a world Movement, probably better known outside England than in it. Nor is it surprising that so many men of great character have appreciated this Movement. For tonight we walk in good company.
To enumerate all their names would take half the evening, but F quote a few from memory. Great writers such as Tolstoy, Emil
Ludwig, and Ernest Renanhave written in high praise of this Movement. So have great statesmen, such as the late President Masaryk, President Benes, and the late Lord Curzon. Bahá'u'lláh's son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, came to the West on a world tour.
He visited England in 1911 and was invited to preach in the City Temple by the Reverend J. R. Campbell, and also in St. John's Church, Westminster, by Canon Wilberforce.
I was interested to see that Sir Ron-aid Storrs, in opening the Centenary Celebrations in London in 1944, quoted the late Dr. Joweit of Balliol as having said of the Bahá'í Movement, that we were too near this great Movement to appreciate its full extent, but that it was probably the greatest religious movement since the time of Christ.
It is interesting to remember also that theExhibit of Baha literature, Bern, Baha gathering in Zurich, Switzerland, Switzerland, April, 1947. April 27, 1q47.
Group of Baha'is, Bern, Switzerland, April, 1947, at
International E speranto Congress.~ah~'i gathering, Berneck, Switzerland, Apr11, 1947.
Page 688present Guardian of the Faith was being educated at Balliol at the time of his Grandfather's death in 1921, and went straight from that college to take up his great work in H7aifa.
I think the Bahá'ís in Northampton have indeed every right to inaugurate a discussion of this type tonight.
6.RELIGIONS of the past have been successful in instilling moral responsibility in individuals, families, tribes and even, with certain reservations, in national communities.
The way seems to have been paved for a world religion which can command universal allegiance to the one and same God, and develop a world conscience without which there is no hope for justice nor peace among minority peoples.
The Bahá'í Faith, founded one hundred years ago in Persia, is not another creed to compete with the older faiths. It does not offer a new path to immortality, nor does it attempt to abrogate the religions that have preceded it. It upholds the principle that "religious truth is not abscilute but relative and that divine revelation is progressive, not final."
The pivotal message of the Bahá'í Faith is the consciousness of the oneness of mankind. "Regard ye not one another as strangers .", declares Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Faith, "Of one tree are all ye the fruit and of one bough the leaves It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country but rather for him who loveth the whole world."
Bahá'u'lláh offers world justice as the highest moral principle for our present stage of evolution: "The best beloved of all things in my sight is Justice." Justice, as Bahá'ís conceive it, is the collective moral expression of the community.
The range of moral awareness of the individuals that compose a community, determines the area in which justice can function.
If the range of individual conscience does not project across national frontiers world justice is impossihie.
One of the distinctions of the Bahá'í Faith is that it can, unlike Christianity, project its faith into the realm of social action. In Bahá'í experience, divine love of the individual is transformed to divine justice in the community. Bahá'í religious practice does not consist only of formal worship and adherence to certain rituals, but rather of membership in an organically united world community which satisfies the individual and collective needs of men.
A Nsw CoNcn'noN OF DEMOCRACYUnder our party system, which is inherently divisive, minorities cannot hope to attain an equal status with majority groups.
At best, they are tolerated.Our democratic form of government, perhaps the best so far developed, boasts 'Emeric Sala, widely traveled Montreal executive and Bahá'í author, knows the tragedy of war and its uncertainties. His birthplace in Hungary has changed its national flag four times since the first Wofid War. He has lived as subject of eight crowned kings, and one year under a
South American President.A Canadian citizen with a Ozecho-slovakian mother, a Hungarian father, a Scotch wife, he has earned the citizensbip of the world. Mr. Sala has lectured in several universities, before cultural, social and religious groups, speaking to audiences as far apart as Haiti and Vienna, Vancouver and Buenos Aires. His book, This Earth One Country is very popular and is used extensively by discussion groups in several countries
Page 689of being government of the people since it derives its authority from the majority of the electorate.
The minority groups feel separated and neglected, the nation is pulled apart by a crosscurrent of racial, religious, regional, economic and party interests, preventing it from functioning as an integral unit.
The justification of the democratic party system is vigilance. The party in power is mistrusted by those who are not in power.
The opposition checks and criticizes the party wielding power for fear that it might usurp it. This attitude, therefore, is uncooperative. It watches jealously and critically the actions of its avowed political enemies. The net result is a house divided against itself.
In such a democratic house the minority communities, fighting for their own existence, cannot hope for equal treatment. In a divided house loyalty belongs to the part and not to the whole. The divisive forces within our own democracies offer a premium for allegiance to a group rather than to the nation.
The circle of interest, and the world to which most people belong, is usually smaller than that of the nation. Only an attack from outside, or a major crisis from within, could arouse our unintegrated democracies to anything resembling a concerted national effort.
In contrast, the Bahá'í conception of a democratic form of government, which already operates in an embryonic form in more than seventy-coun-tries of the world, establishes a new standard of social responsibility, unknown in the history of political or ecclesiastical institutions.
No Baha can join a political party or a religious group which divides a community into parts. It is inconsistent with the Bahá'í attitude of life to sacrifice the whole for a part.
No Bahá'í can conscientiously subscribe to a program which discriminates against a class, a race, a religion, or a nation. Nor can a Bahá'í take sides in any economic, political or military conflict.
He is not a conscientious objector, for it would be inconsistent with the Baha requirement for law-abiding citizenship.
Nor is he a pacifist, for Bahá'ísof the Bahá'ís of Stockholm, Sweden, elected April 21, 1948.
accept the necessity of enforcing just laws. He is first of all a citizen of the world, and in any dispute between nations he sees no settlement unless the interests of all parties are respected.
Bahá'u'lláh speaks to kings and rulers as the trustees of mankind.
He admonishes them to dispense "justice" rather than "love." He refers to just governments and Houses of Justice as "one soul and one body," with a collective conscience, collectively responsible to God. Bahá'u'lláh' s greatest contribution lies perhaps in the projection of individual conscience into collective action, through the establishment of local, national and the universal Houses of Justice.
For in the Bahá'í community responsibility to God is coexistent in the individual and society.
The world plan of Bahá'u'lláh calls for democratic elections at regular intervals without political parties, without any campaign promises or party platform, without candidates or nominations, and without party funds.
The peo-pie chosen do not represent any party or group interest. They are chosen for their ability, character and past service to the community, rather than for their political views or personal interests. The local, national and universal Houses of Justice elected by the Bahá'ís are, contrary to present democratic practice, not responsible to the people who elect them, nor are they allowed to be swayed by public opinion, mass emotion or the convictions of the elec
Page 690torate. They are bound only by the promptings of their own conscience, a conscience which in the process of Bahá'í education is transmuted into the collective conscience of the community.
Under our present system the party in power tends to extend its favor to those who contribute to the party fund and to those who might vote for it at the next election. Such favoritism, inherent in the system, is made at the expense of the rest of the community. Social justice under such patronage is unobtainable. It leaves the minority problem unsolved.
MErrnw THE Mn~roRrrY PROBLEMWith the shrinking of the world into a neighborhood the minority problem can no longer be shelved.
Migration of large groups of people has not been stopped.
If the pressure of future conflicts is to be relieved, the movement of populations will continue. The tendency in favor of larger and larger political administrative units will increase rather than lessen the minority prob-lern. And when this tendency cuLminates in the political federation of all the peoples of the world, every majority group of today will find itself a minority in such a world federation.
The social laws of Bahá'u'lláh have an answer to the minority problem. To appreciate them, however, understanding of the Baha principle of consultation is necessary, a principle which, incidentally, reconciles freedom with authority, minorities with majorities, and mercy with justice. Each Bahá'í community elects once a year a House of Justice (temporarily called a Spiritual Assembly), consisting of nine adult members, to legislate and adjudicate on all matters of community action. When these nine people meet, they may represent different temperaments and cultures, and will probably differ in their points of view. The chairman chosen from their midst encourages opposing views and every side has a hearing for "the shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions."
What makes this meeting unique is that, when each member gives his conscientiously considered opinion, he gives it away. Once a vote is taken, it is no longer his, and if carried by a majority, though usually modified, it becomes an expression of the collective conscience of the community. Since the majority as well as the minority surrender their personal views to the assembly, the decision reached is not the wish of the majority, but of all nine members. That is why it is not likely that two Bahá'ís will argue with each other. They will, after presenting their case as well as they can, try to understand the other point of view rather than defend their own. The religious mind is considered usually a closed mind.
Bahá'í training does exactly the opposite, by constantly testing and purifying one's ego.
In Bahá'í consultation each mind gives as well as takes, is constantly trained to remain open, and to understand and appreciate points of view other than its own. The ideas born in such a meeting are the result of creative interaction with other minds, inspired by a common faith and a common aim: the welfare of the whole community.
As social responsibility is shifted from the individual to the assembly, individual opinion tends to become more and more impersonal.
A mind freed from personal ambition and detached from the ego, can see more clearly.
It is the detached attitude of a scientist absorbed in an objective search, and yet with a passion for truth. It is a new process of intercre-ative thinking. It cures the opinionated person whose mind is all made up.
One who obeys his conscience has overcome his baser instincts. A community with a collective conscience overcomes the desire for national supremacy, for monopolistic privileges or for racial priority. The Bahá'í administrative system not only incorporates individual good will into a social mechanism, but produces a quality of the soul which can be born only out of a collective experience.
Justice as an abstract idea is relative. It is often mistaken for legalized revenge.
Justice is the balance betweenThis balance is impossible between individuals without love. Between nations, or between minority and majority groups, this love is expressed through justice. Though love and justice spring from the same divine source, their expression is different.
One hundred true Muhammadan, Jewish or Christian believers will, as individuals, show the same qualities of love and goodwill as one hundred true Baha'is, but with this difference � the hundred Bahá'ís will elect a House of Justice and will express their social attitude towards others as one organic unit, with a collective conscience, trained ed for collective action, collectively responsible to God.
Justice cannot be enshrined in any constitution. No book can contain it. Justice like love cannot be preserved in a legal document or established by precedent. Justice like love cannot be separated from conscience. When conscience goes, justice goes with it. Social justice is impossible without a collective conscience.
And it is this collective conscience which is the basic working principle of the Bahá'í House of Justice, and the new hope for minority peoples of the future.
7.Br Ross WOODMAN, M.A. FEW would deny that in this modern age the laws given to the world by the scientist are more highly esteemed and more universally applied than the laws given by the Prophet. Indeed it might be said that modern society is the product of the application of those laws enunciated by the scientist on the one hand, and the lack of application of those laws enunciated by the Prophet on the other. This has produced a onesided, materialistic society. 'Abdu'l-Bahá has observed that religion and science must work together as the two wings of a bird if man is to keep his balance in his progressive flight to truth.
It is the failure to keep both wings in operation that has produced the sickness of the age.
Man, attempting to scale the heights of knowledge on the wing of science alone, has fallen into the quagmire of materialism, as the broken-winged bird, attempting to fly into the heavens, falls to the earth.
If this broken wing is to be healed so that once more mankind may continue its flight it is imperative that we should learn to appreciate and ac cept the station and the function of the Prophet.
With this in mind let us compare the scientist and the Prophet, noting wherein they are alike and wherein they differ.
The function of the scientist lies in the investigation of nature in an attempt to discern its laws so that their operation may be predicted and subjected to human control. Through the discoveries of the scientist the whole realm of nature is progressively brought under man's control and its powers exploited for human ends. "Man," says 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "through scientific knowledge and power rules nature and utilizes her laws to do his bidding. According to natural limitations he is a creature of earth restricted to life upon its surface, but through scientific utilization of material laws he soars in the sky, sails upon the ocean and dives beneath it. The products of his invention and discovery so familiar to us in daily life were once mysteries of nature.
For instance, man has brought electricity out of the plane of the invisible into the plane of
Page 692the visible, harnessed and imprisoned the mysterious natural agent and made it the servant of his needs and wishes."
The scientist is to nature what the Prophet is to man. Just as the scientist discovers the laws that govern nature so that nature submits to the will of man, so the Prophet reveals the laws that govern man so that man submits to the will of God. The scientist brings the forces at work in nature, "out of the plane of the invisible into the plane of the visible." As with nature, so with man. The Prophet brings the powers and capacities hidden in man "out of the plane of the invisible into the plane of the visible."
The scientist and the Prophet, therefore, are alike in that both are enunciating laws and releasing powers which are harnessed to serve a higher end. In the case of nature, the powers serve man; in the case of man, the powers serve God. The scientist and the Prophet differ, however, in their field of activity. The scientist works with nature, the Prophet works with man.
It is unnecessary to deal here with the laws of nature which the scientist discovers since our chief concern is with the Prophet. His laws are to be found in all the Holy Scriptures.
In the Hidden Words, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh prior to His declaration, these eternal, spiritual laws are restated "clothed in the garment of brevity."
In the great civilizations that have emerged from the revelation of these laws is to be witnessed their application to human affairs. Civilization is the meeting place of applied science and applied religion.
As more physical and spiritual power is released and harnessed the tent of civilization spreads and more and mare of humanity are held together in unity within it. The distinction between the scientist and the Prophet, however, goes beyond their different fields of activity.
They belong to different orders of reality so that, in the final analysis, the scientist, like the rest of humanity, is dependent upon the Prophet. The scientist is primarily one of us, a human being and nothing more.
The Prophet of God is something more. When Jesus asked Peter whom He, Jesus, was, Peter replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." No one has declared this of a scientist. No one has claimed that he is anything more than a gifted human being. No one has claimed that he is divine. And here, of course, is the barrier that keeps many from accepting the Prophet of God; they cannot accept His divinity.
The idea of divinity belongs to the realm of revealed religion so that if we are to understand what is meant by this idea it is necessary to know something of the nature of religious truth. The truths of religion, declares Bahá'u'lláh, are relative, not absolute, in the sense that the teachings of the Prophet are relative to man's capacity to understand them. The word divine must, therefore, be understood in this relative sense.
Divinity may be defined as that which, by its very nature, cannot be comprehended by the finite human mind.
The Prophet is divine in the sense that no mortal can comprehend His station.
"All comparisons and likenesses," declares Bahá'u'lláh, "fail to do justice to the Tree of Thy Revelation, and every way is barred to the comprehension of the Manifestation of Thy Self and the Day Spring of Thy Beauty."
The Prophet is as different from man as man is different from the animal. His divinity lies in the nature of this difference. It does not lie in the fact that He is one with God in essence. "Nay, forbid it, 0 my God," declares Bahá'u'lláh, "that I should have uttered such words as must of necessity imply the existence of any direct relationship between the Pen of Thy Revelation and the Essence of all created things.
Just as it is possible to maintain the divinity of the Prophet relative to man so would it be possible to maintain the divinity of man relative to the animal and the other lower kingdoms. And the nature of that divinity relative to the animal would lie in the rational soul of which the animal is totally bereft.
The divinity of theProphet, on the other hand, lies in the fact that He is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the activity of the Holy Spirit that makes the discoveries within man, illumines his powers, kindles his light, and raises him to the utmost perfection. "Every time it appears," states 'Abdu'l-Bahá speaking of the Holy Spirit, "the world is renewed, and a new cycle is founded.
The body of the world of humanity puts on a new garment. It can be compared to the spring; whenever it comes, the world passes from one condition to another. Through the advent of the season of spring the black earth and the fields and wildernesses will become verdant and blooming, and all sorts of flowers and sweet-scented herbs will grow; the trees will have new life, and new fruits will appear, and a new cycle is founded.
The appearance of the Holy Spirit is like this.Whenever it appears, it renews the world of humanity and gives new spirit to the human realities; it arrays the world of existence in praiseworthy garments, dispels the darkness of ignorance, and causes the radiation of the light of perfections."
Just as nature submits to man through the scientist so man must submit to God through the Prophet.
Unlike nature, however, he must do so through his own volition. This law of submission of a lower to a higher kingdom is one that operates throughout the creation. In a sense, the lower kingdom submits to a higher kingdom through the turning of the higher to the lower. The vegetable kingdom sends its roots down into the mineral kingdom and from the earth receives its sustenance.
The animal kingdom, in turn, is nurtured by the vegetable, and the human by the animal. "Thus this flower," says 'Abdu'l-Bahá speaking of this process, ''once upon a time was of the soil. The animal eats of the flower or its fruit, and it thereby ascends to the animal kingdom.
Man eats the meat of the animal, and there you have its ascent into the human kingdom, because all phenomena are divided into that which eats and that which is eaten."
This same relationship in a spiritual, rather than physical sense, holds between tween man and the Prophet of God. The Holy Spirit makes its descent into the human form of the Prophet and humanity submits to the manifestation of that higher reality. Man casts himself into the fire of the love of God. This is the meaning of rebirth and can be compared to the rebirth of nature when its powers are harnessed by man so that they become a part of human society.
"Blessed is the neck that is caught in His noose," declares Bahá'u'lláh of this sacrifice of man's will to the will of God revealed by the Prophet, "happy the head that falleth on the dust in the pathway of His love. Wherefore, 0 friend, give up thy self that thou mayest find the Peerless One, pass by this mortal earth that thou mayest seek a home in the nest of heaven.
Be as naught, if thou wouldst kindle the fire of being and be fit for the pathway of love."
When man submits to the will of God revealed by the Prophet the law of creation is fulfilled. The whole creation, including man, then reflects the glory of its Creator as different objects reflect the light of the sun according to their capacity. "In this station," declares Bahá'u'lláh, "he pierceth the veils of plurality, fleeth from the worlds of the flesh, and ascendeth into the heaven of singleness.
With the ear of God he heareth, with the eye of God he beholdeth the mysteries of divine creation.
He looketh on all things with the eye of oneness, and seeth the brilliant rays of the divine sun shining from the dawning-point of Essence alike on all created things, and the lights of singleness reflected over all creation."
Thus, when science brings nature under human control and religion brings man under God's control, science and religion become the two wings supporting man in his onward flight to truth. In this day Bahá'u'lláh has come to heal the broken wing of religion that man once again, in the name of God, may leave the world of clay and "seek his home in the nest of heaven." Through the recognition of the unity of science and religion mankind is destined to achieve in this day the Kingdom of God on earth.
"This is theDay," Bahá'u'lláh has revealed, "whereon the unseen world crieth out: 'Great is thy blessedness, 0 earth, for thou hast been made the footstool of Thy God, and been chosen as the seat of His mighty throne'."
8.T HE achievement of effective understanding and cooperation among the diverse nations, races, and classes of mankind is the chief essential for the survival of civilization.
This urgent need is only partially fulfilled by the political, social, and economic theories proffered today. The great and powerful religions emphasize this need in their proclamations, but their practical programs have barely touched the issues involved.
Against this background of dire need and groping effort, the Bahá'í World Community stands out significantly for its development of a real and workable technique for harmonizing the differences of humanity and using them to achieve something new in cooperation. The Baha is are numerically a small force in contrast with old established religions; yet, in a little over a century they have spread from a small, persecuted and harassed group in Persia to a world community touching eighty-eight countries and embracing peoples of widely different cultural, racial and national backgrounds. The Bahá'ís are a people who are "at home" all over the world. To those lElsie Austin is a graduate of the College of Law of the University of Cincinnati. In 1937 she was appointed Assistant Attorney General of Ohio, and was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law by Wilberforce University icr outstanding service as the first colored woman to hold this past.
Subsequently, she served in legal capacities who study this Faith and observe its communities, it is apparent that the Bahá'ís have made world unity a way of life.
The antagonisms growing out of racial differences, the jealous pride and conflict from national differences, the suspicion and estrangement springing from religious differences, and the despairing conflict, irritability, and tensions of any group of humans who differ greatly, make the existence of unity under such circumstances a cause for serious question and examination. How have the Bahá'ís achieved this unity?
The Bahá'ís have accepted and used that which is the core of change and development in civilization: change and development in human beings. They have made faith the force for change in both the individual and the social order.
For them behavior is the measure of spiritual conviction and devotion.
The Bahá'í lives world unity by lifting human relationships from the realm of personal susceptibility to the realm of spiritual principle. Religion to the Baha is an attitude toward God expressed in living. Thus human rela-with various agencies of the
United States Government.Miss Austin has been active in national educational and public welfare organizations.
She was a representative of the International Council of Women at the first World Organizations Conference called by the United Nations. Since 1946 she has been a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the
United States.Bahá'ís and friends at the reception dinner of the Third South American Bahá'í Congress, in S&o Paulo, Brazil, January, 1949.
tionships, the attitudes and values they express, become a means of worship, a form of prayer.
"Your behavior toward your neighbor should be such as to manifest clearly the signs of the one true God,"' enjoined Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Faith.
The neighbor of a Bahá'í is not just the person with whom he is familiar, or to whom he is related by some accident of residence, race, creed, or mutual interest. The Bahá'í is a world citizen and his neighbor is in this sense any man. Every principle of his Faith keeps before him the oneness of mankind, the unity and interdependence of the world, the necessity of treating the stranger as a friend.
Such relationship and responsibility toward all peoples is achieved through the experience and exercise of a spiritual love which has tremendous social force. It is difficult for most people to understand, let alone experience, a love which is not based upon some human attachment or mutuality, which does not rise from some ego-building concept of charity and pity, or which does not have its roots in some human urge for possession and power.
Thelove which is the welding force of the Baha community is different. Its drawing power is not dependent upon human perfections or imperfections. This love has been described by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the great Exemplar of Bahá'í living: "Love the creatures for the sake of God and not for themselves. You will never become angry or impatient if you love them for the sake of God. Humanity is not perfect. There are imperfections in every human being and you will always become unhappy if you look toward the people themselves. Therefore do not look at the shortcomings of anybody; see with the sight of forgiveness.
The imperfect eye beholds imperfections."2 If we reflect deeply upon these words, we can understand the wisdom and vitality in such an attitude toward humanity.
We are able to grasp dimly the profound statement that "unity is the expression of the loving power of God and reflects the reality of divinity."8 Assuredly this is love at its greatest maturity, love which wid-1BuM'i World Faith, p. 118.
2selected Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 18.ens the horizon of human appreciation. A deeply spiritual love of God changes the values by which man interprets people and experience, and frees him from dependence upon values based on emotion and temperament.
The Bahá'í community provides striking evidence of this change in values. We see it in the Bahá'í attitude toward individual capacity. As the Bahá'í matures in his Faith he is freed from both depreciation and overemphasis of his abilities and talents.
He understands that his capacity, whatever it may be, is of great importance to the community, but that it must also be related to the capacities of other believers. "All men," said Bahá'u'lláh, "are created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization."
This is the standard and this is the goal. Conviction of one's worth in these terms brings a sense of responsibility to develop, to train, and to perfect one's talents; it leaves no place for the sluggard or the parasite. Yet the impulse to develop must never by expressed at the expense or by the exploitation of others.
The working of this principle of individual worth and responsibility makes possible an important step in social maturity. It removes at least two of the great impediments to cooperation between human beings who must work together: the insecurity of the individual as to his worth and function in the group, and the inability of individuals to accept without hostility the differences in human capacity and ability.
No less striking is the effect of this change of values in dealing with the wide differences of race, culture, nationality, and religious background which are found in Bah& 'i communities. The Bahá'ís are not developing a regimented culture. There are Americans, Europeans, Africans, Indians, Arabs, and Orientals among them.
Languages, features, dress, and thought associations are extremely varied.
Beyond these differences, however, there is the tough and vibrant bond of unity which makes every Bahá'í at home in every community, although he may meet people he has never before known and with whom he shares little in custom or language.
The strength of this bond lies in the fact that for all Bahá'ís the main emphasis is upon the things which unite them, which make them see differences as a source of an interesting and beautiful variety. There is an overall emphasis upon freedom and dignity, upon spiritual depth, upon high moral standards, noble motives, and good character as set forth in the Baha teachings.
In the attainment of these objectives mutual respect and a maturity of judgment combine to adjust the cultural traits of all, preserving the diversities which are the source of color and beauty, and sloughing off those habits which cause friction, animosity and degradation.
In dealing with differences of race, creed, and nationality, which have such a tradition of hate and estrangement, the Bahá'í is educated by his Faith and his community.
His race consciousness is turned into human-race consciousness. His national pride widens to a sense of world citizenship. He learns by direct association with those of other races and backgrounds that behavior, which is often considered to be a characteristic of race, nationality,, or creed, is purely cultural, and that problems of character are human problems. The truth of the matter is that human beings tend to act like human beings.
They respond in a similar way to environmental and cultural pressures. The Bahá'í learns not only intellectually but also emotionally that the basis for antagonism is not instinct, but is rather an accumulation of well-propagated falsities, enhanced by tradition and custom. As one writer expresses it: "Race theories are not only a modern invention to explain group conflicts, but they are also a means for fomenting them."4 The life of love and faith surmounts all barriers.
Its appeal, like the appeal of the Word of God, is to the spirit of man. The power of this spiritual love was demonstrated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. All people came to Him. They 421w Faith of A Liberal,
Morris Cohen.Miss Beatrice Irwin, holding the Greatest Name, with the Assembly at Tunis, North Africa, two members absent due to illness.
were from distant countries, strange to Him and to each other. They did not know His way of life.
Often they could not speak His language. But they felt the power of His spirit and His great love for mankind. They learned, through their reverence and love for Him, an appreciation and respect for each other which transcended all their differences.
Even as the love of God gives a man new values with which to measure other men and his relationship with them, it also gives him a deeper regard for the law and order which are the basis for any progressive society. Loyalty to spiritual principle and conscientious use of it in human affairs is the beginning of social order and security. The spiritual laws of God give man his great ethical standards. Belief in God and sincere effort to live one's faith are the generative forces of man's conscience. When human conscience and social ethics are united in their objectives there is cooperation between inner and outer disciplines. The result is a matured and refined individual and society. The forward pressures of these maturing forces can be seen even now in Bahá'í communities, though most of them are not yet at a stage of full development.
In these communities one may observe the unique process of consultation.
Bahá'í consultation is a procedure which 4tains truth and agreement by prayer, free and open discussion, and harmonious decision.
Decision is not arrived at through partisan activity, pressure, or the trading of interests. Truth is not achieyed by the influence of one personality or the pressure of authority.
It dawns when all have expressed themselves and striven in the light of all views to arrive at a solution consistent with the Faith and which best embodies its principles.
Even for individual problems the procedure of consultation is used. The individual may con-suit with elected representatives, the Assembly, for prayer and discussion of
Page 698a problem. He i~ helped without violation of the privacy and dignity of his personal life.
Certainly the Bahá'ísare moving toward something new and epochmaking in civilization. To many their progress seems slow and their influence slight. They are, however, a powerful leaven. What cause in human history has spread so far, so steadily, and despite such persecution and handicaps as has this Baha Faith? There are those who doubt the effectiveness of spiritual force in an utterly materialistic age. There are those who will oppose anything new which threatens old and established barriers.
There are those who will rise up to calumniate and attack, seeing in the Bahá'ís a dreaded and long overdue challenge to the forces of corruption, cruelty, and decay in so-c:ety. The Bahá'ís have power within their Faith and in their conviction to meet all these forces.
They will go on, and as they perfect their patterns and demonstrate the efficacy of their teachings, a frantic and searching world will give them attention and accept their principle of human unity as the one great force for saving and improving civilization.
"There is perfect brotherhood underlying humanity, for all are the servants of one God and belong to one family under the protection of divine providence. The bond of fraternity exists in humanity because all are intelligent beings created in the realm of evolutionary growth.
There is brotherhood potential in humanity because all inhabit this earthly globe under the one canopy of heaven.
There is brotherhood natal in mankind because all are elements of one human society subject to the nccessity of agreement and cooperation.
"The real brotherhood is spiritual.�Material brotherhood does not prevent or remove warfare; it does not dispel differences among mankind.
But spiritual alliance destroys the very foundation of war, effaces differences entirely, promulgates the oneness of humanity, revivifies mankind, causes hearts to turn to the Kingdom of God and baptizes souls with the Holy Spirit. Through this divine brotherhood, the h~ateria1 world will become resplendent with the lights of divinity, the mirror of materiality will acquire its lights from heaven, and justice will be established in the world so that no trace of darkness, hatred, and enmity shall be visible."5 5selected Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 21 9.
BUILDING THE PEACEWHILE statesmen, political leaders and other trained observers some time ago recognized the signs of growing confusion, only comparatively recently has the average man begun to appreciate what lies ahead. Judging by his reactions, he is unhappy and indignant. He feels That somehow, somewhere in the tangled course of negotiations, he has been let down.
Within a quarter of a century humble men and women in different countries were asked twice to sacrifice their material possessions, their near and dear ones, and their very life's blood at the altar of permanent peace. In 1919 when people were jubilant at the establishment of the League of Nations, and felt sure that the foundation for peace had been laid through international arbitration, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of Bahá'u'lláh assured His audiences that the end of war was not yet, and that the very terms of the Treaty of Ver
Page 699sailles would be the cause of another war. He taught that war could not abolish war, nor bloodstain be erased with blood. He warned the people of the world that hardships and misfortunes would increase day by day, and the people would be distressed. The doors of joy and happiness would be closed on all sides and terrible wars would take place. Disappointment and frustration of hopes would surround the people from every direction until they were obliged to turn to God.
To a world which has sunk deep in the mire of materialism and godlessness, the prospect of having ultimately to turn to God is not a very promising one. The people of this generation have been disillusioned by the sorry spectacle presented to the world by men known to be treading the path of religion.
Such men have presented no solution to the knotty problems that face the world, and their lives have not reflected any greater virtues than the lives of others who have made no special claim to righteousness.
The dignitaries of the established churches, temples and mosques, have failed to come together in a concerted manner to work for the amelioration of the living conditions of humanity. A confederation of the existing churches of the various denominations could perhaps, through cooperation and collaboration with one another, have contributed toward the laudable task of regenerating human personality. But, on the contrary, this institution of religion, 'Prominent woman lecturer and writer Shirin Fozdar is a leader of thought in India today. She has been active in promottng education and in advancing the status of women in her country, and in spreading the ideals of the Bahá'í Faith. In 193435 she served as delegate to the League of Nations, representing the All-Asian
Women's Conference. In1943 she was sent by Gandhi to Ahmadabad, where she worked among the poorer classes. Recently she was a delegate to the Indian Educational
Conference in Delhi.For several years she has been a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India, where she has held the office of vice-president.
Bahá'í National Headquarters, New Delhi, India.whose avowed aim is to promote human brotherhood, has only succeeded in creating greater division.
A presentday survey of old religions shows them divided into many warring factions; without any clear message for the age we are living in, and devoid of their pristine purity and sublimity.
The question arises, has the mission of the Prophets failed, since it is obvious that human nature has yet many imperfections and defects and God does not seem to have come to His Own, in His Own universe. The law of love is replaced by that of hate, and men are left guessing as to their duties as individuals and as a community. Students of world Scriptures cannot deny that the message of the Prophets was delivered for a practical purpose, as a way of life, and not for intellectual entertainment or the quenching of specu-lafive thirst, nor as a mode of spiritual perfection far removed from the scene of a workaday world.
People glibly remark that religion has outlived its utility and should now be abolished. These criticisms are understandable, for the believers today hug the lifeless body of their former faiths, worshipping a mental image of their God, without realis-ing that it is the negation of all that Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Christ or Mutiammad preached to their followers.
The terrible world-devastating wars, followed by the misery which they entailed in the form of economic depression, unemployment, starvation and disease, have left many in doubt whether after all there is an omnipotent, omnipresent God, and whether He is just and merciful. They cannot understand why God does not stop the destruction of innocent lives. If, they ask, He can feed the birds in the air, the fishes in the sea, the beasts in the jungle, why must man, who is created in His own image, suffer shortage of food, of clothes and of many things which contribute to a contented life in which God could be remembered and praised?
The answers to these doubts have been fully met in the various Scriptures, but people are not interested to refer to them for guidance as they seem to be confirmed in their beliefs that these "antiquated" writings cannot solve presentday problems. The Prophets, they say, lived in primitive ages when men walked and did not fly, and when communities lived isolated and in watertight compartments, ignorant of the vastness of the world. How could they have visualized modern world problems in politics, economics, trade and social relationships between people of different nations and communities?
The Prophets of the past, it is true, did not give the solutions to the prevalent problems of our time. The Prophets of the past could not have given the solutions to such problems as there was no need for them then.
But they did visualize and predict the chaos and world calamity and the terrible wars in which humanity would be involved. They also exhorted their followers to await the advent of a great Divine Teacher who would arise and found a universal religion that would usher in universal peace and brotherhood whereafter mankind would attain its full stature of mental and spiritual growth culminating in 'a golden age.
The claim of Bahá'u'lláh is that all these predictions referred to His advent, and that He is the promised World
Redeemer. ConsideringHis life, teachings, place of birth, sufferings, imprisonment and banishment, one finds that in these events the prophecies are fulfilled. His opponents, however, object that while Bahá'u'lláh's claim is to usher in an era of permanent peace and brotherhood, yet there have been wars of greater intensity than any the world has known before. These critics seem to be ignorant of the fact that immediately with the advent of the World Redeemer peace was not to be established. Bahá'u'lláh in His Tablets to the monarchs of the world between 1865 and 1870, clearly warned them of the terrible cataclysms and miseries in which humanity would be involved, and He assured all that it was after this purgation through the fire of intense wars and their aftermath, that God would be reinstated in human hearts and mankind regenerated.
The teachings of Bahá'u'lláh dealwith the root causes of conflicts which lie deep iii the entire sociopolitical system of the world. The immediate causes of war are often mere pretexts, yet tradition has made people look upon political issues as much more important than any others. The ultimate source for even political issues lies in spiritual and economic factors. They are, therefore, the real motivating impulse in all international jealousies, nowadays culminating in war. This does not mean that the political aspects of economic factors have to be ignored. But the removal of the root causes of conflict makes the best foundation for peace.
Peace in the Bahá'í terminology is not armed neutrality, nor an interlude between wars, but is something much more positive and constructive. The real and abiding peace is a condition of human society wherein all parts of the world are in harmony with one another and seeking to do each other good.
Without a complete, unconditional, unreserved renunciation, by the free consent of each and all concerned of any recourse to violence for settling international differences; without adequate, efficient machinery to settle such differences amicably; without effective arrangements for constant cooperation � there can never be real, abiding, universal peace.
People who wish to belittle the importance of religion in the establishment of peace, argue that the United Nations, having come into existence and having delivered the charter to the world, will induce nations to no longer appeal to arms in their dealings with one another, but bring their case to law and settle it by reason. Little do they realize that peace is not created by any human concept. None of the horrible means of extinguishing life that science has discovered, nor the Hague Tribunal, the League of Nations, the Atlantic Charter, the Dumbarton Oaks conference, the Yalta meeting and the United Nations can bring about universal peace.
Submission through preponderance of force is not peace.
With the aid of science we have improved our method of killing and mass butchery and have fallen pitiful victims of the machines of our own creation. It is futile to imagine that the world could be reconstructed with mundane ideas. It is like putting new wine into old bottles. Humanity needs new hearts free from the deadly poison of racial and national prejudices.
Without this first requisite all efforts will be useless.
It is sages and seers, not statesmen and strategists, who can reconcile the differences that prevail among the various nations. The evils of race rivalries, economic competitions and armament disputes will vanish if the nations of the world realize that human nature and needs are fundamentally the same all the world over, and that in the eyes of God there is no difference between man and man. Past attempts at international amity and peace have failed because they were not inspired by the true spirit of friendship and love which can result only from an understanding of the principle of the oneness of mankind.
After six weary years, 1939 to 1945, wasted in the destruction of human life and property by the followers of a Prophet, Who exhorted His flack to love their neighbor as themselves, the united experience and wisdom of the world gathered at San Francisco to bring about a real union of mankind.
In spite of the best will in the world, the great powers that constitute the United Nations have, after two long years, proved themselves unable not only to bring peace to the world, but even among themselves. This was not what humanity had longed and died for.
Under the stress of the blitzkrieg and the fear of invasion, the governments and the clergy of the various countries urged their countrymen to flock to the churches and pray to God for deliverance.
Is it not strange that now, when the prayers have been answered, God has been forgotten again?
The Bahá'ís have, indeed, attracted the favorable attention of various United Nations and other statesmen to the Peace Charter of Bahá'u'lláh, but the majority of today's policy makers are reluctant to consider seriously any plan with a religious aspect; this, although renewed religion is the only medicine for the ills
Page 702Writing in this connection in his article on "Prelude to World Society," Mr. Manu Subedar, India's renowned economist and politician, states, "If a council of one hundred wise men from all over the globe were sitting down for a year, they could not have reached a nobler conception of peace than Bahá'u'lláh's
Peace Plan."The Bahá'í teachings provide the motive and the pattern, the spirit and the form of a divinely-ordained World Order toward which humanity must strive.
They affect the very basis of our lives. Their social consequences are far-reaching. They lead to the development of new standards and new institutions.
These are best explained byCivijization, he writes: "The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá'u'lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the au toriomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded. This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples.
A world executive, backed by an international Force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by this world legislature, and will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth.
A world tribunal will adjudicate and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes that may arise between the various elements constituting this universal system. A mechanism of world intercommunication will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with
Page 703marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity. A world language will either be invented or chosen from among the existing languages and will be taught in the schools of all the federated nations as an auxiliary to their mother tongue. A world script, a world literature, a uniform and universal system of currency, of weights and measures, will simplify and facilitate intercourse and understanding among the nations and races of mankind. In such a world society, science and religion, the two most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled, will cooperate, and will harmoniously develop. The press will, under such a system, while giving full scope to the expression of the diversified views and convictions of mankind, cease to be mischievously manipulated by vested interests, whether private or public, and will be liberated from the influence of contending governments and peoples. The economic resources of the world will be organized, its sources of raw materials will be tapped and fully utilized, its markets will be coordinated and developed, and the distribution of its products will be equitably regulated.
"National rivalries, hatreds and intrigues will cease, and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity, understanding and cooperation Destitution on the one hand, and gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear.
The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political, will be consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and technical development, to the increase of the productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, and to the furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of the entire human race.
"A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising unchalleng-able authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East and the West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the ex
Bahá'í Center, 63 Elizabethploitation of all the available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation � such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving."
It is impossible to lay out in this brief article the great results nations can achieve by uniting together under one world government.
The ideal of a single world federation is not merely a legal or constitutional matter. Everything depends upon the people's understanding of correct values, their spirit of goodwill and love and justice for one another. The governments of the world, instead of wasting their time, wealth and energy on building up alliances and hoping to abolish war through balance of power should turn their attention to the Bahá'í Charter, which, besides being complete, is claimed to be revealed by God to Bahá'u'lláh, His Manifestation for this day. It is incumbent upon the governments of the world to investigate this claim, and if they find it justified, to
Page 704It is said that nations learn slowly and often times at a dear price.
The incalculable horrors of two world wars do not seem to have yet seriously impressed upon the world how vain and how unworkable is the wornout idea of rival empires, safeguarded by armed force, and how practical is the idea of federation, secured by law and based on love and human fellowship.
The more humanity clings to old methods and ideas, the quicker the succession of wars and disasters; and the greater the intensity of conflict, the greater is its failure.
The economic strangulation and dis memberment of enemy countries through force and fear will not maintain the peace; fear gives birth to hate, not to love; to revenge, not to cooperation that endures. Nations must learn to build their fortifications not upon the sands of intrigues and selfishness, but upon the rock of God's love. Kingdoms and empires raised upon the bespoiled and ruined cities of smaller nations are bound to disintegrate and decay. Mighty rulers and dictators have gone the way of the damned, but eternal are the glories that await those who bring prosperity and peace to the world, for "Blessed are the peacemakers."
10.WE LIVE in a world on the brink of chaos. Nations are aggressive and fearful.
People are bewildered and uprooted, acting through custom or impulse. We know that we must have a pattern for a world society, international organization, wise laws and agreements, but also we need, as individuals, inner security, hope and assurance.
One of the questions most ignored, and yet profoundly rooted in our hearts and minds, is that of immortality.
We are curious, naturally, about our individual destinies, dwarfed though they may seem in the kaleidoscope of world events. We might say that the desire for self-perpetuation is inherent in us. Whether we believe that we live as personalities in another world after death Ijoyce Lyon Dali graduated in social sciences from Stanford University and did graduate work at the
University of California.After her studies she spent a year in Paris, France, where she was introduced to the Paris Bahá'ís by Mrs. Grace Holley. The interest they araused led her to dedicate herself to the promotion of the ideals of the RahA'f Faith.
She is a writer and teacher, and has served on the National
Teaching Committee. Shenow lives in Palo Alto, California and devotes much of her time to her three children.
or live in our works that live after us, the idea of continuing to exist gives us deep satisfaction.
We have also a natural longing for progress and fulfillment, heightened in many of us by a religious tradition which has come down to us through the ages.
These two wishes, for life after death and for self-improvement, are linked and have an important bearing on our actions.
In the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith we find answers to the questions we have often asked ourselves � ' 'Why are we here?" "What is death?" "Do we continue to exist after death?"
"Where does justice fit into the picture?"Let us consider first the question: "Why are we here?" According to the Bahá'í view, in the larger sense man exists because it is God's Will.
God, the preexistent Essence, without beginning or end, has eternally been the Creator, and therefore always has had and always will have a Creation.
Man is to this earth as the fruit is to the tree. He is the apex of creation, its potential goal and crowning glory. Through long
Page 705ages man evolved. He took different forms as he progressed, but always he was man evolving.
As the sum of creation, man includes in his physical makeup the distinguishing quality of the mineral kingdom, Cohesion, plus the essential attribute of the vegetable kingdom, growth, also the special quality of the animal kingdom, sense perception.
In addition he has a rational soul, a quality which is not shared by any other thing in nature. This rational soul, of which the human mind is a power, gives man his mastery over nature.
The soul, however, remains in its essence a mystery.
There is another and all-important attribute which man may acquire: the spirit of faith. This is the quality which links him with the spiritual world and without which he sinks into the lowest depths of abasement. In Some
Answered Questions 'Abdu'l-Bahá.says: "But the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and heavenly realities. It is like a mirror which, although clear, polished, and brilliant, is still in need of light.
Until a ray of sun reflects upon it, it cannot discover the heavenly secrets."2 The motivation for this progress beyond the natural realm had to be given by some force distinct from and above the world of nature. This animating power has come successively through the ages from the Founders of the great religions
Who are Manifestationsof God and reflect the Will and the Effulgence of the unknowable Essence, God, as a pure mirror reflects the rays of the sun. Answering the question: "Why are we here?" in a narrower sense, we can say that we are here to start on a journey. Each of us is born into this world an individual, eternal soul. According to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "The wisdom of the appearance of the spirit in the body is this: the human spirit is a Divine Trust, and it must traverse all conditions; for its passage and movement through the conditions of existence will be the means of its acquiring perfections."3 Before birth we evolve 2p. 244.
~Ibid. p. 233.During childhood this process is continued and many factors of heredity, environment, and training play their parts.
When we reach the age of discretion the age-old choice between good and evil is our responsibility.
There are two aspects to our natures. We all have an animal side and a spiritual side. If the qualities we have in common with animals, such as jealousy, lust, and cruelty, become strongest, we become bestial, but if the spiritual qualities, such as wisdom kindness, justice, and faithfulness, predominate we become enlightened human beings capable of progressing indefinitely.
Two other questions: "What is death?" and "Do we continue to exist after death?"
have been more fully answered in the Bahá'í writings than ever before. Briefly, the explanation is as follows: the soul or spirit of man is exempt from place or time. In the words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "the soul of man is exalted above and is independent of all infirmities of body or mind."4 If a person becomes sick or insane, loses a limb or sight, his spirit remains outside the realm of these bodily disorders and is not damaged or harmed.
So it is, when the body, which is composed of elements, must become decomposed in obedience to an unalterable natural law, this death does not affect the spirit except to liberate it. Death for us, then, is a change of condition, a release from the limitations of the body and the restrictions of time and space. Bahá'u'lláh has said, "0 Son of the Supreme!
I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve?"5 This earthly existence and the worlds after death, though divided by a curtain of our incomprehension, are not two separate, far-apart places. Through the spirits of men and their efforts, the material world reflects the spiritual world. The spiritual force of the heavenly souls continues to exert its influence after their departure from this world. "They are like unto 4Bahá'í World Faith, p. 120.
CHidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh, Arabic, no. 22.In a volume entitled 'Abdu'l-Bahá iii London we find this enlightening passage: "A friend asked: 'How should one look forward to death?'
"'Abdu'l-Bahá answered: 'How does one look forward to the goal of any journey?
With hope and with expectation.It is even so with the end of this earthly journey.
In the next world, man will find himself freed from many of the disabilities under which he now suffers.
Those who have passed on through death, have a sphere of their own.
It is not removed from ours; their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours; but it is sanctified from what we call 'time and place.' Time with us is measured by the sun. When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes (conditions) from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.
"'In prayer there is a mingling of stations, a mingling of condition.
Pray for them as they pray for you!' "~ Many thoughtful people are troubled because they cannot see justice in the pattern of our lives.
Justice is one of the attributes of God. Through the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh men are called upon to reflect the heavenly justice in their dealings with each other, both individually and collectively. In the old order there is little or no justice in the distribution of wealth, in the relationship between master and slave, in the inferior position of women, etc. But those standards which were formerly accepted have been superseded by the principles of Bahá'u'lláh. At present the world is in the throes of reshaping its institutions to meet the new standard of justice.
For the individual soul, there is justice, the giving of what is deserved, and mercy, the giving of bounty not deserved. Both in this world and in OGteanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 157.
Abdu'l-Bahá in London, r. 9~.the next there are rewards and punishments for our own actions. Heaven is nearness to God; hell, whether in this world or hereafter, is our remoteness and indifference to God, and our deprivation of
His Love and Bounty.If we cannot find justice in the pattern of our lives, the answer lies in the fact that our lives are not finished here.
We cannot see the deserved retribution or the earned reward that may await the soul in the next world. God will recompense patience and longsuffering, and for those who have died before birth or in childhood, and for those who have been struck down by calamity, He has a special mercy and a bountiful favor.
When we are beset by doubts, we ask ourselves, "Are there any proofs of immortality?"
In Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and in
Some Answered Questionswe read the rational proofs and evidence that the spirit exists independently of the body. So we find that with our power of reason we can deduce the logic of immortality, but with spiritual insight we gain conviction.
If we have assurance of immortality, ~rhat difference does it make in our daily lives? One salutary result is that much of the fear of death vanishes. That burden we do not need to carry any longer. Also, the knowledge that our life is to continue gives us a great impetus to make the most of our time on this earth, and gives us a balance with which to weigh our pursuits. When death comes to those who are dear to us, the inevitable pain of separation is softened by the thought that we are not cut off completely from them, and that they, like treasured plants in a garden, have been trans-phnted to a freer and more desirable location.
This earth has been composed with wondrous perfection, but it is of necessity a world of change, of becoming and of reverting, of composition and of decomposition. We will find the fut filment of our desperate need for security and tranquillity in the abiding spir!tuai world.
Page 707THERE was fear of a race riot in Richmond, California, during the late summer of 1945. Ever since the Detroit riots of 1943, when 35 persons were killed and property damage amounted to more than $2,000,000, there had been giowing concern on the West coast that racial tension would explode into a riot.
In Richmond altercations between negroes and whites were on the increase.
Fantastic rumors were to be heard in every barber shop, at every lodge meeting, and on many street corners.
Alertness of the police amounted to tension.One incident took place in a shipyard: A fight started between a white man and another worker who was negro, the latter having inadvertently kicked over a lunch pail. While only the two exchanged blows, many others came close to conflict. An alert officer noticed that during and immediately after the fight negroes and whites were gathering in separate groups, and that each man, as if by accident, had in his hand a wrench, a hammer, or a heavy drill. Guards were immediately summoned, and their timely arrival served to break the tension.
Another apparently trivial but significant incident was reported. Officer Olvera while patrolling came upon a negro and a white boy fighting. Ques-iBob Powers is a free lance writer who is retired as Coordinator of Law
Enforcement AgenciesOfficer for the California State War Council and was a police chief for ten years prior to that.
He has written narratives for race relations documentary films and was coauthor of A Guide to Race ReLations for Pojice Officers. Mr. Powers was first attracted to the Bahá'í Faith by the "principle of an unfettered search after truth."
The first Bahá'í bcok he read was This Earth, One Country. He has remarked: "When I read the chapter on Isl&m I accepted Mutiammad as a Prophet. When I'd finished the book T was a Baha'i, although it was five months later, in April, 1047, before I declared my faith."
tioned, the white boy replied: "Sure, I started it. He's got no business walking on this street.
It's just for white peo-pie.""I saw the fight from my window; and my kid was doin' all right, too!
He'll teach that other kid his place."Incidents of this kind, coupled with fast-spreading rumors, could not but disturb the city officials. Richmond, which had expanded to a city of 120,000 population during the war, found itself facing danger � almost one-tenth of its citizens were negroes. And now, with the war ended, cutbacks in production, layoffs in the shipyards, uncertainty as to the future, and all the problems of readjustment facing the people of this community � trouble was brewing.
After many sleepless nights, the city manager decided to call for help from the
American Council on RaceI was assigned by the Attorney General to work with Davis MeEntire of the American Council and see what could be done.
iVicEntire and I met, for the first time, to discuss the problem and plan a course of action.
We knew that a police department tends to reflect the prejudices of a community, that prejudiced officers do not inspire confidence in any group of the citizenry, and that people are more liable to riot when they hold their enforcement officers in contempt. Consequently we decided to give the police some training in human relations so that they could do a better job, allay fears, scotch rumors, afford all citizens a greater sense of security, and enhance their own prestige. As nothing like this had been attempted before in California, hardly in the Unit
Page 708Making of Braille plates at the Braille Institute of America.
Alice Tilly is doing the Braille work on a Bahá'í book.
Bahá'í Exhibit, Palmer Fair, Palmer, Alaska.ed States, we were free of any restriction by precedent.
One question which had to be answered was this: "How can good practical methods of handling minority group members be taught?"
And the answer, of course, was that they can't be taught as skills or methods or techniques.
It proved fortunate that our final decision was to concentrate on eliminating prejudice and giving the officers a better understanding of the effects the environment of segregation and dis-ci'imination has on citizens in a democracy.
Eliminating prejudice and influencing social attitudes in the short time we had to devote to this project appeared to be a gigantic undertaking � almost impossible.
We decided that more help was needed. After making four telephone calls we had promises of that help from Walter Gordon, a negro who is Chairman of the California Adult Authority of the
Department of Corrections;Joseph James, another negro who was President of the San Francisco chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Joe Grant Masaoka of the
Japanese American Citizens'League; and Ken Kato, a Nisei soldier just back from the Pacific.
They were enthusiastic about helping.Two weeks later, on a Monday morning, fourteen officers of the Richmond Police Department were assembled for a conference that was to last a week. Frankly they were skeptical that anything of value could come out of the course, yet it must be said to their credit that they were willing to "try anything once." On one point everyone was in agreement: something had to be done without delay.
MeEntire was an economist who had for a number of years been devoting his full time to work in the field of race relations.
His background made him an outsider to the police � a "do-gooder" or ''social worker'' they would have stereotyped him. However, I had had more than twenty years of experience in law enforcement and was known, at least by reputation, to all of the men present. They were willing to accept me, but with some reservations because of the company I was keeping.
McEntire opened the discussion by reviewing the problem nationally and locally.
He had hardly finished his summation when one inspector spoke up: "I don't think there'd be any problem," he said belligerently, "if those people would keep their place!"
It was a fortunate remark reflecting the attitude of the officers and many members of the white community.
Another officer turned to the inspector, "You say they should keep their place; but what is their place?"
The question was unanswerable, but it served to bring to the surface all of the prejudices, doubts, fears, and questions of those present. When the class adjourned for the day it was difficult to clear the room. No one had finished talking.
All through that first meeting derogatory terms and epithets had been bandied about quite freely; and it appeared that our pupils thought they had gained an upper hand over their instructors.
Next day came the surprise.When the officers had been seated around the conference table, MeEntire entered with Joseph James, introduced him and gave him a seat among the officers. On the following days there were other participants in the discussion, Walter Gordon, Joe Grant Masaoka, and Ken Kato. They answered many questions, making it clear that in so far as they and the people they represented were concerned, no public officer could advocate segregation or countenance discrimination and retain their respect or remain constant to his oath to "uphold the Constitution of the United
States."If nothing else had been accomplished, affording these policemen the opportunity to become friends with leading negroes and Japanese-Ameri-cans would have justified the whole undertaking.
In miniature we had begun to solve the problem which is national and worldwide. Through bringing strangers together, we were breaking down the barriers of misunderstanding, fear, and distrust which separate people into potentially warring groups. Stagnant ponds of prejudice were beginning to evaporate
Page 710and the poisonous vapors to dispel. Segregation came in for much discussion, and there developed an understanding of its effects on the Negro, the Jew, or anyone else who is so confined. One of the consultants explained: "Aside from the natural desire for decent homes, restricting a negro to some particular area is making him want to escape. And even when good housing is available, surrounding territory which cannot be entered because of restrictive covenants is a constant source of irritation. Segregation is a form of imprisonment, and since it is directly contrary to the principles of democracy and Christianity, it is fundamentally cruel and unjust."
Another consultant told the police officers: "When you, a white man, go into a restaurant only to find that the service is slow, the food is poor, and the prices are high, you cuss the service, the food, the prices, the management, or even the ration boards. But you do not identify these unsatisfactory conditions with the fact that you have skin of a particular color; there is no personal affront. Yet when I, as a negro, go into a restaurant I am inclined to feel that the slow service means � 'Why did you come here in the first place?' The poor food � 'You know we don't want you here' And the high prices � 'Maybe you will stay out next time'.'' During the course of the conferences, the President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter spent two hours sitting down at a table discussing the problems of race relations with police inspectors, sergeants and patrolmen. He told of his own experiences and those of his friends; and he spoke of what the Negro eventually hopes to get from and contribute to life in America.
He told of an American boy who, having spent years in study and preparation to fit himself for a job, finds the doors of employment locked against him by bigotry � this because he happens to be one-sixteenth Negro. He discussed the irresponsible, rabble-rous-ing leaders among negroes who profit from stirring up hatred. He told the police officers that he, as a negro, believed that they were doing him a service when they suppress the negro hoodlum, the rowdy, and the thug.
He ~rent on to tell them how concerned farsighted negroes are over any bad conduct by others.
Within a halfhour questions were coming too fast for him to answer. He was no longer the representative of a minority group; he was a confrere � with special knowledge, yes; but with special interest, no. All differences had disappeared in the search for and contribution to better understanding.
The California Adult AuthorityIts Chairman, a lawyer and former police officer, was present during two of the sessions. He told of the problems faced by a negro peace officer; not only those encountered in dealing with the public, but also those of relationship with white members of a force. And he convinced some of the group that a negro can serve in law enforcement performing general duties � in contact with all kinds of people � that he need not be confined to the ghetto.
During one of the conferences a regional representative of the Japanese-American Citizens' League and a young Japanese-American who, as a staff sergeant in the United States Army, had served with the Marines from Gu-adalcanal to Leyte, told of tragic experiences of their people uprooted from the west coast during the war and confined in concentration camps. The young soldier related his story of service with the Marines, of the protection thrown around him to prevent his being shot through mistake; of the extreme consideration with which he was treated by his fellow fighting men; and of an experience which was significant because it was the only unpleasant one he encountered in more than two years of service. Even that consisted merely in one marine's referring to him as a "Jap" No lectures, no prepared speeches were given. There were interruptions, questions, contrary stands taken on issues. Control was merely direction of conversation toward knowledge, sympathy, and solution of the problems of
Page 711Japanese-Americans, Mexicans, Negroes � and policemen.
In no instance, during the series of conferences was any peace officer told how he should handle a case, or how he should conduct himself; but each was very definitely given the opportunity to understand the effect of his actions, good or bad, on the people with whom he was dealing, on his department, and on himself as an individual.
There were ten hours spent by fourteen police officers, a race relations expert, and various of the consultants, sitting around a table engaged in the common purpose of trying to gain a better understanding of their fellowmen.
And it is significant that whereas on the first day derogatory and contemptuous terms were carelessly and frequently used, on the last day of the discussions, anything other than "col-med man~~ or "Negro" or "Japanese-American" caused group discomfort, the raising of eyebrows by those present.
Shortly after these original conferences were completed the entire police force was ordered into a meeting.
A panel of officers and consultants told those assembled what had been learned.
Questions were asked from the audience. They were answered with authority.
A test of the effectiveness of this experiment came early in October. The incident occurred which might have precipitated a riot.
Trouble developed between negro and white children in the schools; there were fights; rumors spread like a grassfire on a windy day; the white pupils went on strike demanding segregation.
But a small group of informed and assured policemen quickly averted the danger.
They met with both negro and white groups; they insisted that the school authorities take a firm stand; they worked with radio stations and newspapers to dispel rumors; and they gave assurance of protection and fair treatment to the negroes in the community. Within a week all was quiet, the children back in school, the tension broken.
Manuel Gorgas, First IndianMcEntire and I had separated, considering our job done.
He went back to his work and I to mine. We didn't realize that we had set in motion forces that were greater than either of us. Inquiries started coming in regarding our experiment.
We found it necessary to write a booklet, "A Guide To Race Relations for
Police Officers." Itwas published by the State of California and reprinted by the American Council on Race Relations. More than 15,000 copies went to police chiefs and other enforcement officers throughout the United States.
The story was told in newspapers all over the country. The New York Times devoted two columns to it; Eleanor Roosevelt told of the experiment in her column, "My Day."
The Saturday Evening Postpublished an account in its issue of December 28, 1946. The State Department, early in 1947, decided to tell the story in documentary film to the people of other countries; the script has been written.
The Rosenwald Fund and the Columbia Foundation are jointly exploring the possibility of using training films based on the Richmond Experiment to teach law enforcement officers something of
Page 712the evils of segregation and the nature of prejudice.
Five-thousand dollars have been made available for research and the writing of scripts.
This is not an account of how the problems arising from racial tension were solved. It is the story of the instrumentality of two men who, fumbling and groping in an effort to improve the way men live together, attained results far beyond their expectations. The publicity and the effects of our effort were gratifying.
However, my greatest satisfaction came from a letter written by one of the officers who had participated in the conferences. He wrote: "Being a policeman I naturally come into contact with the criminal element and I had been judging all negroes accordingly. After attending the classes on race relations I understand things a lot better. I know that these classes were a real step in the right direction. If it were only possible to teach every person what I know now, it would be a great thing for mankind, You can depend on me to do whatever I can to help you attain your goal."
12.THE city lay quiet. On Powell Street the salt fog had brushed the cable tracks with the first faint touches of rust. The yards of the drayage companies were clogged with silent trucks.
The waterfront, too, was dead. Motionless ships filled San Francisco Bay.
This was the general strike of 1934. This might have been revolution. Most of the union leaders who voted for the general strike thought in terms of labor solidarity, of helping their fellow workers, but the implications of their action hung over the grey, lifeless city.
By choking the entire economy of an area, the general strike forces not only all the antilabor groups, but also a great mass of ordinarily neutral people into the fight to break the strike.
Labor must then either seize control of and operate all vital services � in effect a 'Harold Gail has bad twenty-two years of industrial experience, both in direct production and in management. He has worked for Republic Steel and for Studebaker as well as in smaller factories on the Pacific Coast. He is now in charge of production and of labor relations f or his company in San Francisco. As a 8aM'!,
he has tried to present an impartial view and has been aided in this by his personal knowledge of the problems besetting both labor and management.
revolution � or gradually permit vital services to function under customary management, thus releasing its grip on the economy and causing eventual disintegration or abandonment of the general strike.
Since the majority of the union leaders in San Francisco were not prepared, either practically or ideologically, to carry through the full implications of the strike, it failed.
The newspapers said public opinion defeated the strike. This may have been true in part, but the difficulty with public opinion is that it is often opinionated rather than analytical, it is second hand and second rate, and its rush into battle woefully late.
This need not be the case.A well-informed, judicious, responsible public opinion could force industrial disputes to be arbitrated, could result in fair labor-management legislation being passed and justly executed.
At present we have only the pendulum swings from pro-labor to antilabor legislation and the pendulum is rather like the one in Poe's story, swinging its edged blade closer with each stroke to the bound
Page 713Although labor-management relations may be complicated, the essentials of the conflict are easy to understand: labor is a commodity � a commodity of worldwide distribution, and the most vital primary need in any economy. Although the labor problems discussed in this article will center on industrial labor it should be understood that the term labor reaches far beyond the factory. The commodity, labor � the ability to render necessary or desired services � is placed on the market by most of us, whether we are workers in mills or in offices, whether we are in the professions or in service trades. To a degree, even the employer offers his working ability and training in the labor market.
Since labor is a commodity, and enters into the cost of any product, a manufacturer is forced by competition to obtain it for as little as possible. This need not mean that he pays low wages; it does mean that he must try to get the greatest number of units produced for the number of dollars paid out.
Everybody recognizes the fact that the manufacturer needs to buy his materials, for example, his steel, as cheaply as possible; but not everybody realizes that he would, owing to the logic of his situation, also need to buy his labor as cheaply as possible.
Opposing this need of the manufacturer, is the working man's need to sell his labor, his ability, as high as he can. His own welfare and the proper care and education of his children make this demand upon him.
From these two factors � the need for the employer to keep his costs low and the need for the employee to sell his labor at as high a figure as possible � we get a direct clash of interests. Such a clash, in fact, that it has become warfare.
In the strategy of strikes � industrial warfare � concern for the public welfare is bound to be a secondary consideration, if indeed it is considered at all.
When military forces are fighting for possession of a city, civilian lives and property are likely to be destroyed before the battle ends.
Not only do union workers and strikebreakers die in bitter industrial struggles, but the far-reaching effects of strikes may bring death to persons who have never been inside factory gates.
Every so often I hear someone complain that a strike ha~ come at an inconvenient time.
Strikes always do. They must. But sometimes even a union man will fail to see the logic of strike tactics. I recall, a number of years ago, talking to a shipyard worker who was on strike. "Why do they have us go out on strike," he asked, "right when we have a chance to get some big overtime checks?
Why don't they wait till this winter when work will be slack?" I pointed out to him that nothing would suit the employers better than to have a strike, if it must come, when work is slack. They don't need workers then. They can let a strike drag on until economic pressures � debts and hunger � force the workers to give in. According to the system under which we now operate, labor is in its best bargaining situation when it is in greatest demand. This happens also to be the time when there is the greatest need for goods: when labor should be producing the most. Conversely, as we have seen, labor is at its lowest bargaining power when business is bad.
As long as this situation obtains, with the clash of interests and the changes in degree of bargaining power, we are bound to have interruptions in production � i.e., strikes, or lockouts on the part of employers � and these interruptions are bound to come at the most inconvenient times for one party or the other, or sometimes both.
And because of our extremely involved industrial organization and its ever-increasing complexity, any strike and particularly a strike affecting any large segment of the working population, becomes so disrupting in its effect not only on the industry concerned but on all the interdependent industries, that it produces a virtually intolerable situation.
So intolerable that in recent years we have seen that the Govern
Page 714First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia.
ment has had to step in and maintain production in order to prevent a breakdown of the entire economy.
Strikes, while they have been labor's only powerful weapon, have become potentially so devastating that most thinking people are trying to find some other solution to the problem. Then too, another factor has becomd obvious: that strikes work against the workman himself; as we have seen recently, the net gain in increased wages from a long drawn out strike has not been sufficient in some cases to offset the loss of wages incurred during the strike.
It is interesting that the strike now tends to follow a fairly definite pattern. If the general public knew this pattern it would be in a much better position to understand the strike problem. First of all, strikes are apt to center around the wages to be paid. Most of the other issues are likely to be spoken of by labor relations people as ''fringe~~ issues. There are several good reasons why strikes center around wages.
These provide a clear objective: 16 cents more per hour is a definite concept. Also, and probably most important of all, a union leader gains more popularity from a wage increase put through than for putting through welfare measures for his men.
Now it would seem to reasonable persons that the wages asked should be the wages that the workers feel they should receive. Not at all. They are "bargaining"; hence the wage demands at the outset of the strike have to be excessive so that they can be scaled down during negotiations.
Qne of the byproducts of this method is that when a settlement is effected the workers may feel let down. This dissatisfaction plants the seed of the next strike. Furthermore, if a worker is out on a picket line carrying a placard that demands "A dollar twenty an hour if it takes all summer," that placard becomes his battle slogan and he may feel his union leaders have "sold out" when, after it does take all summer, they settle for $1.07 per hour.
Page 715First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the city of Hobart, Tasmania, April 21, 1949.
Another factor in making the strike take all summer is the employer's counter offer. Does he go over his books and make the best possible offer in keeping with conditions and business prospects?
No. He "bargains" too.It is, I should mention in passing, and speaking from experience both as employee and employer, fundamental employer psychology for the employer to believe that whatever wage he is paying is the maximum he can afford to pay, but his offer to the union will almost always be lower than he is prepared to settle for. Suppose the union is asking $1.20 an hour; the employer feels sure it does not expect to receive this amount; he offers, let us say, $1.00 an hour, although he knows that he will have to settle for a higher figure.
This is the poker-playing stage. While the bluffing goes on, the public, labor, and the employer, all lose.
When the strike is finally settled, what are the results? The workers return to work happy to be earning mon ey again but full of ill will toward their employers who in the course of many union meetings were denounced as greedy, scheming exploiters without heart or conscience. Management, too, is bitter � over lost production, over the libelous charges made against them, over the divisive action of the union in coming between them and their employees.
Society likewise has suffered irreparable losses. Strikes and lockouts (strikes on the part of the employer) rob society of the products that should have been produced during those strikes or lockouts. That amount of production can never be made up. It is lost forever.
This also holds true for losses from interrupted production in interdependent industries. A coal strike will cause steel mills to shut down. This in turn will cause automobile plants to slow down production or close altogether. Parts suppliers for the auto companies will then have to curtail production to
Page 716Production stops all down the line, in all sections of the country, sometimes in other parts of the world. This lost production, too, can never be regained.
What is the solution to this fundamental clash of interests?
When an attempt is made to prevent strikes through the arbitration of a Government agency, we find employers seeking to gain control of the Government so as to control the arbitrating agency. And we find associated unions seeking the same control of Government. Thus, the clash of interests goes on, at higher levels.
If the unions control enough votes, the Government naturally reflects the wishes of the unions. If management, through the press, radio and other media successfully influences the public, it can control the election to government of its candidates. The Government tends to be manipulated by one �or the other of the conflicting interests � and a large part of the population is bound to suffer.
This tendency to strive for the interests of a particular group always impedes attempts at a solution.
And yet, if Government gets absolute control of both parties � that is, if Government through many changes becomes not the agency of the people but the dictatorial power over them � then we suffer from the attendant and all-too-well demonstrated evils of the police state.
Legislative action is surely a remedy for the abuses of both management and labor, but Bahá'ís believe, and the events of the last sixteen years provide ready proof, that legislation to have long range and world wide effectiveness, and to avoid the evils shown above, must be founded on more than the will of the electing majority.
It must have regard for all mankind.By the two steps forward and one step backward method (occasionally replaced by the two steps backward and one step forward technique) we have made some progress in labor relations. But we could easily slip once more into the old ways. It has not been many years since I was told of a man who had to oil a line shaft running in a tunnel between buildings. He had barely room to crawl through the turn nel, it was so narrow, and he had to oil the bearings while the shaft was turning. One day his clothes caught on the shaft; his body was whipped around the shaft and he was smashed against the brick wall of the tufinel. The superintendent of the plant went to the owner and told him what had happened. His hope was the owner would take action to prevent a recurrence.
The owner's only comment was: "How soon can we get another man?"
The inhumanity of employers has been matched by ruthless union terrorism as exemplified by goon squads and one of their gentler practices, that of breaking arms over curbstones as if they were kindling wood. Murder, too, has had a long history in labor relations.
Brutality and murder can have no place in our future if we are to reach our destiny: a unified, peaceful world. They can and will be eliminated when labor and management work together for common, clearly understood, and socially responsible goals.
One of the means of fusing the interests of workers and employers is profit-sharing.
'Abdu'l-Bahá clearly expounded this Bahá'í principle on His visit to the United States in 1912. We now see it gaining such momentum that a number of companies, among them Pitney-Bowes, Inc., of Stamford, Connecticut, Lincoln Electric Co., Cleveland, Ohio, S. C. Johnson & Son, Racine, Wisconsin, and Progressive Welder Co., Detroit, Michigan, have organized a Council of Profit-Sharing Industries.
Encouraging as this is, we would be wrong to assume that much work does not lie ahead before the benefits of profit-sharing can be extended throughout all industry. The initial reluctance of employers to apply this principle is, of course, an obstacle, but one which will diminish in importance as proofs of the beneficial results grow increasingly apparent.
In many industries, the immediate advantage to the worker will be small and greatly out of proportion to his anticipations. He is not likely to place
Page 717the blame on competition, failing natural resources or other causes of a low rate of profit, but upon management. Union attacks as well as employer actions have caused him to lose faith in employers. He is apt to feel that he is not getting his just share.
He distrusts bookkeeping because he does not understand it, and tends to think the books are juggled to give him only a token payment out of profits.
He thinks high production always means high profits.
This is not necessarily the case, for the increased sales may have been achieved by reducing the profit margin on each article.
As a survey has shown, workers have a greatly exaggerated idea of the percentage of profit made by their employers.
Some who were questioned thought 75 percent of each sales dollar went into profit; many ethers thought 50 percent; whereas the average profit for the recent period of high national prosperity was less than 10 percent of the sales dollar.
Contrary to the opinion of most workers and of the public, there is not a great fund of profits which can be converted to wages. We are very apt to make the mistake in these days of believing that because a few corporations show large profits this is true of all companies, and that this condition will continue from year to year. Some profits have to be ploughed back into expanded and more efficient plant, and considerable reserve has to be set aside for bad years, otherwise bush nesses will fail; and when that happens, the worker will find himself out of a job.
If we have not already reached it, we are inevitably reaching the stage where the only way in which workers can get more take-home pay is by greater productivity.
Not per hour, not per day, but per working lifetime.
Educational campaigns can do much to clarify this situation for the workers. They shoifid be shown the extent to which they actually are the partners of management, where the difficulties lie, and what they as a working group can do to overcome them.
The Bahá'í principle that work is identical with the worship of God, that one should occupy himself with that which will profit himself and others beside himself, will go far in reestablishing the craftsmanship that once made his work a source of pride for the worker and will do away with the trend toward poor workmanship and shoddy products that often mars our present output.
Nor should we neglect to educate employers.They ought to know the pres-ent-day needs of their employees. Many need to realize they have responsibilities other than to their own families and their stockholders. A campaign of employer education in regard to taxes, would, I think, bring good results.
Taxes represent an additional cost factor, often quite a large one, and businessmen tend to wage a constant and generally indiscriminate battle against taxes as they do against other costs. They need to understand that taxes are levied to finance vital group activities which they as individuals could never perform; that the graduated income tax ~tnd inheritance taxes � both set forth in the Baha Teachings before they found legislative acceptance � are respectively the necessary means of reducing the inequities in earning power which are bound to arise, and of preventing the amassing of huge family fortunes.
When businessmen realize fully the extent to which they participate through taxation in the administration and continual development of their economy, they may be expected to bring to bear upon the management of that economy the same zeal for efficiency and progressive methods that is now narrowly channeled in their individual enterprises.
Pension plans are being placed in operation by some of the larger corporations.
Although management doubtless expects definite material gains from such plans and at present they can only be considered as supplements to the United States social security program, they do demonstrate that industry is becoming aware of its long-term duties. These plans will provide psychological as well as cash benefits for the workers. When their pension checks come from the company in whose service they worked, they will
Page 718enjoy a feeling of having earned their retirement, not of being dependent on governmental charity, and they will continue to be interested in the activities of that company.
Anyone who has had a former employee tell him: "Say, you ought to go down to the old place and see that new automatic furnace � practically thinks for itself," knows that the man is just as interested in the expansion of "his" company as the president.
The increase in pension plans and in profit-sharing is especially heartening to Bahá'ís because it proves that the benefits from the acceptance and translation into action of Bahá'í principles are already at hand, and precede the worldwide acceptance of the spiritual responsibilities of this age.
Nevertheless, Bahá'ísknow that what we witness today are ameliorations that could easily be lost in another economic disaster.
We must insure the future.The only complete solution to the la-bor-management problem is not one that can be put into practice today, or this week. It involves changes in the individual and also in the social structure. Shoghi Effendi says, "It implies an organic change in the structure of presentday society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced."
It means ceasing to think of what is good for the steel industry, or what is good for the steelworkers union, and beginning to think of what is good for mankind.
I do not wish at this point to sound utopian or seen-i to offer a vague panacea such as "the brotherhood of man" or "pie in the sky when you die" as the old socialist jibe had it. The GuardIan of the Faith states: "Let there be no mistake.
The principle of the Oneness of Mankind � the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve � is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. It represents the consummation of human evolution � an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.
"The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it." Labor economists properly place considerable emphasis on raising living standards.
This is a vital need and visits to workers' homes, even in the United States with its high wage levels, will show that we must make much progress before we shall have a sound economy and more fully evolved individuals.
An increase in living standards is bound up with three things: increase in productivity; an efficient and low-cost distribution of goods; a fair distribution of profits, so that profits are not siphoned off for the benefit of a greedy few.
This rise in living standards can be achieved through cooperation based on mutual trust. And this mutual trust has to be based upon a joint responsibility to a higher power. Not Government, which can become the tool of one or the other contending parties, but a power that transcends all government and all human affairs.
This means religion in labor relations. Socialists and Communists love to talk about Christ being the greatest Socialist, or Communist, but meanwhile they reject His other principles.
They forget that, as an editorial in Life pointed out, He emphasized the Fatherhood of God three times more often than the brotherhood of man.
What the Bahá'í Faithpresents to management and labor alike is a program geared to modern technology, a religion promulgated during the
Industrial Age. Firstof all, certain goals will be set up which will seize the imagination and cause all groups to merge their interests in the interest of mankind.
There will be mutual trust and responsibility toward each other based
Page 719upon a renewed understanding of our responsibility to God. These goals I have spoken of, the goals that have al. ready seized the imagination of Bahá'ís and will in turn seize all our minds, are world goals.
I know that within the framework of these goals there will be more immediate aims to be realized: profit-sharing will be made to work because it will be firmly founded on mutual trust and common aims. Social security measures will be greatly broadened.
Public health programs, welfare programs, educational programs will be greatly expanded. But, important as these measures are, they are but part of the major projects of our age.
It is like unrolling the master plan for the world to read Shoghi Effendi's "A
Pattern for Future Society."The same excitement surges through one that must be experienced by an engineer when the blue prints are unrolled for some vast industrial expansion: here is expansion for all humanity.
Although it is still a long way ahead, we are steadily moving toward the establishment of a world commonwealth, based on the unity of the human race. Science and religion will be brought into harmonious and cooperative development.
The economic resources of the world will be efficiently organized; full utilization of natural resources will be achieved, world markets will be coordinated and developed. In that day, we shall not see class ranged against class, for " the inordinate distinction between classes will be obliterated.
Destitution on the one hand, and gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear." We shall see workers and managers, freed from the necessity of fighting bitter and costly bat-ties for supremacy, engaged in a corn-mon cause � the production of goods of quality at lowest possible cost. With harmonious, integrated production, the struggle can cease to be for existence and can become the infinitely more rewarding struggle toward God.
13DO not have to prove that we are happy. Our own unsupported testimony is sufficient. The cause of our happiness is, however, quite another mailer. That is an inference, and our inferential knowledge is not infallible. We are never absolutely sure about the origin of our inner experiences, but the experiences themselves are known to us by direct cognition, that is, they are immediately apprehended.
If a man has an aversion to religion no atgu-ment will convince him that the feeling of aversion is not real. It is real and we can do nothing about it. But we might convince him that the reason for this feeling is false.
The feeling of beauty, compassion, or love is just as real to us as are external objects.
In fact it is decidedly more real, for the external world is lGienn A. Shook, Pn.D., F.R.S.A., is Professor of
Physics and Directorof Observatory at Wheat-on College in Norton, Massachusetts.
He is a pioneer worker in mobile color and applied optics. His publications on mobile color apparatus are the only available source of information on the design and construction of color organs. Dr. Shook's articles have appeared in many journals of science, both here and abroad.
He is a lecturer of note and has gsen addresses at leading universities on science, art and music.
He is a frequent contributor to World Order, the Bahá'í magazine, and has given many courses at HahA'i summer schools.
Page 720We see an object before us and we call it a stone merely because it lobks like other objects which are known to us as stones.
Again we know that in meditation, when the mental activity is low, insight or intuition often suggests what is new. Perhaps we should not call intuition knowledge, but since it is so essential to new knowledge we are justified in using the term intuitive knowledge. We must remember, however, that intuition lUke all other human methods of acquiring knowledge, is liable to error. Broadly speaking, then, there is a kind of intuitive knowledge which comes to us through an inexplicable, unconscious process of thought. Science does not deny this kind of knowledge. In fact, no great creative work was ever accomplished without it. We might distinguish between the intuitive knowledge of the scientist and that of the religious genius, which is ostensibly of a higher order. The mystic in a state of ecstasy or vision sometimes receives what he calls revealed knowledge.
The mystic believes that the phenomenal psychic experience produces something that is superior to any kind of mental effort. Moreover, he is inclined to believe that his intuitive or revealed knowledge is more valid than the intuitive knowledge of the scientist.
But here again we must remember that the intuition of the mystic, like the intuition of other artists, is not infallible.
Contrasted with intuitive knowledge there is the kind that comes through experience, which we call empirical knozviedge.
The scientist, as we all know, is concerned with empirical knowledge � but not exclusively. He is also concerned with the kind of knowledge that comes through mental processes, logic, inductive and deductive reasoning. This inferential knowledge is indispensable to science.
Some of the most important scientific truths are derived from known laws and assumptions.
For example, the inverse square law of gravitation may be derived from Kepler's second and third laws.
When we think of divine revelation we naturally think of revealed or intui tive knowledge. The knowledge possessed by the great creative personalities of prophetic religion, or in the language of religion, the Prophets, like Moses, Jesus and MUl)ammad, is ii~. nate, immediate. We are fairly certain that they did not attend schools, nor did they create eclectic systems out of contemporary or ancient wisdom. There is, however, this essential difference between the intuitive knowledge which we associate with divine revelation and that which we associate with science: The intuitive knowledge of the scientist must be checked constantly by empirical knowledge whereas the intuitive knowledge of the Prophet needs no check. This is rather difficult for the scientist to accept, but as we hope to show, the difficulty begins to vanish when we think of revealed knowledge in terms of total experience, not merely experience in the world of science.
We must admit, however, that the phenomenal success of science in the physical world, the failure of religion to establish peace and harmony in the world at large, and, finally, the seen-larization of religion as well as society, all tend to create in the mind of the layman the idea that the revealed knowledge of the Prophet is not so reliable as the intuitive knowledge of the scientist.
Of course, many laymen feel that scientific knowhledge is the only certain knowledge we possess today. They firmly believe that scientific knowledge is final and absolute, but the modern scientist, at least the modern physicist, does not make this claim.
Ever since the decline of organized religion there have been many attempts to create eclectic systems out of the salient features of extant religions.
So far as world outlook goes, some of these movements are superior to religious systems, but they lack the force to ef-feet any large scale reform, either in the individual or in society.
Within the pale of any particular religious system there are many who have faith in revealed knowledge, but they feel constrained to regard the revealed knowledge of their own religion as final and absolute. For the Christian
Page 721the Divine Will was revealed through Christ once and for all time; all other Prophets are at least inferior if not false. Despite the teachings of the Qu'rAn, the average follower of Muhammad makes a similar claim for Is-14m. It has taken man a long time to realize that creation is a mode of causation, and it may take him some time to realize that divine revelation is continuous.
For the scientist, however, the proW lem is not progressive revelation, but simply revelation. How can we reconcile the innate revealed knowledge of the Prophet with scientific thinking? The intuitive knowledge of the mystic presents some difficulties but, as we shall see, they are insignificant when compared with the revealed knowledge of the Prophet.
PROPHETIC RELIGION ANDIn the words of Heiler, "Mysticism and the religion of revelation are the two opposite tendencies of the higher piety which in history ever repel, yet ever attract each other."
Prophetic religion is dominated by the idea that the Divine Will is revealed to mankind through a great spiritual genius, or through a Prophet like Christ or Muhammad.
When the Prophet appears the world is always revived spiritually.
The Prophet may also reveal new social laws, as in Judaism, or He may stress individual spiritual development as in Christianity. In either case the transcendent
Divine manifests Himselfto man through the Prophet, who is an intermediary.
He is the creator of the world of value. If we follow the precepts of the Prophet, if we try to understand Him, try to become like Him, we shall be re-cre-ated, and without this recreation religion is of very little value.
Mysticism, at least in its extreme or absolute form, maintains that through meditation and contemplation man may enter the presence of the infinite God, and may be absorbed in the infinite unity of the Godhead. In a broad sense anyone who is aware of the indwelling Spirit of God is a mystic, but we must use the term in a more restricted sense.
In fact we are concerned here with the modern mystic who has completely discarded asceticism but who retains the doctrine that a particle of the Divine Essence exists in man and who believes that man may enter the presence of God. He also believes that divine revelation can come to humanity through the mystic as well as the Prophet. That is, the Divine Will may be revealed to man as well as to the Prophet. For most of these modern mystics, man differs from the Prophet only in degree and not in kind.
In general then, we are concerned with two types of revealed knowledge: the kind that comes to the Prophet, which is innate, independent of training or reflection, and the kind that comes to the mystic in his moments of meditation, particularly in the state of ecstasy or vision.
REVEALED KNOWLEnGE OFnn~ Mvsmz Let us consider the revealed knowi � edge of the mystic first as it is more akin to the intuitive knowledge of the scientist. To begin with let us observe that Bahá'u'lláh refutes the claim that man is a part of the Divine Essence, and that man can experience immediately, the presence of God. This removes two formidable stumbling blocks to the scientist for certainly no scientist would admit that man is a part of God, nor that man could experience immediately the infinite, that is, enter into the presence of God. Bahá'u'lláh also reminds us that man's insight or intuition is not infallible. This applies to the revealed knowledge of the mystic as well as to the intuitive knowledge of the scientist.
The mystic and the mystic philosopher realize this.
In the words of Russell, "Of the reality or unreality of the mystic's world I know nothing. I have no wish to deny it, nor even to declare that the insight which reveals it is not a genuine insight.
What I do wish to maintain � and it is here that the scientific attitude becomes imperative � is that insight, untested and unsupported, is an insufficient guarantee of truth, in spite of the fact that much of the most important truth is first suggested by its means." James reminds us that, "Mystical
Page 722states indeed wield no authority due simply to their being mystical states." Underhill speaks in a similar fashion.
The majority of modern mystics are concerned primarily with individual spiritual development and we must allow that they have succeeded where organized religion has failed.
It is true that by turning inward, men (a very few men) have been able to improve their individual behavior, but it is equally true that mysticism has no solution for our baffling social proW lems. A small minority feel that new social laws can and will be revealed to gifted individuals and that in this way a new world order will be created. Although mysticism has exerted considerable influence upon prophetic religion, history does not indicate that the creative force back of great religious movements is due primarily to mysticism.
The combined effect of all the great mystics of Christianity is surely small compared with the effect of the adherents of the primitive church who were inspired by the Founder of Christianity. The same may be said of IslAm.
SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALLet us digress long enough to defend the spiritually-minded individual who does not make extravagant claims for his inner experiences.
From what we have said above it must not be inferred that all those inner experiences which we associate with spirituality are illusions, or projections of emotional experiences.
Clearly we cannot say that the love, the trust, and the faith which we experience in our devotion to God are purely subjective.
When the scientist tells us that the inner experiences which we associate with our spiritual life have no objective validity, he apparently forgets that he never worries about the validity of other inner experiences. Should science question the validity of aesthetic appreciation as it sometimes questions the validity of religion we should have to conclude that the aesthetic feeling we experience when, for example, we are uplifted by a great symphony, is a pure illusion. The sight of a certain color may evoke within us an emotion which we can neither measure nor describe, but we do not deny its reality.
To be sure, in the analysis of color the physicist treats color as he treats other objects of sense perception, but while he is considering color in this way he is not thinking of aesthetic appreciation. The beauty that is apprehended is be-yowl physics. On the other hand, probably no scientist is so deficient in aesthetic appreciation as to be entirely incapable of the feeling of beauty.
It is true that there have been many attempts to establish some kind of aesthetic measure, but it is also true that these attempts have been severely criticized by creative artists who have aesthetic appreciation and also scientific knowledge.
The reader probably will agree that values like beauty, justice, and mercy, are in a category which is beyond the space-time world of science. When we try to evaluate spiritual experiences we must remember that they also may be in a category which is beyond science. There are, to be sure, many reasons why a skeptic would deny oW ~ective validity to a spiritual experience and not deny it to a feeling of beauty. One, certainly, is the tendency toward abnormality. While theorists have grossly exaggerated this factor, often there is just enough to discourage many healthy-minded individuals from becoming spiritual.
This is particularly true in evangelistic piety.The most disturbing factor is, of course, the conglomeration of superstitions and unwarranted practices which we invariably associate with religious orthodoxy. This is the obstacle that prevents the majority of thinking people (as well as the scientists) from investigating the reality of religion. Many years ago, speaking of the history of religion, James said, "There is a notion in the air about us that religion is probably only an anachronism, a case of 'survival,' an atavistic relapse into a mode of thought which humanity in its more enlightened examples has outgrown.
Even the old nomenclature, which we cannot wholly discard, is often a barrier to many who are in search of a
Page 723rational religion, a religion that is compatible with a scientific age. The spir-itually-minded scientist (and perhaps the creative genius) could accept the ~'numinous" of Rudolf Otto more readily than the Holy Spirit of prophetic religion.
TIff' REvEaLED KNOWLEDGEWe have considered briefly the revealed knowledge of the mystic, which, like the intuitive knowledge of artists, sometimes goes astray. Now we must consider the revealed knowledge of the Prophet, which is of a different order. The knowledge of the Prophet is infallible and therefore requires no test. As we said in the beginning, the scientist is skeptical about this kind of knowledge.
For him and for the layman who tries to follow him, there is simply nothing in our scientific experience that corresponds to the innate revealed knowledge of the Prophet. In a very real sense, perhaps, this is true, but there is still another approach.
First, however, let us bear in mind that a scientific search for revealed truth might be about as useless as a scientific search for beauty. One should experience a feeling of beauty before he starts looking for it. Values are antecedent to discussions about them. For this reason, one should have some awareness or appreciation of revealed truth before he starts on his search for it. It is sometimes maintained that if the scientist would pursue his search far enough (whatever that means) he would discover God. This may be true, but the god he finds will not be the historic God of prophetic religion, who reveals Himself to man through a Prophet, like Bahá'u'lláh. Should he investigate secular and religious history he might fare better, but the chances are really against him. He might arrive at the conclusion that all religions are equally true and none really false. By the time he reaches this stage of his quest, however, the divine element will probably have disappeared � at least, that is what usually happens. He might conceivably conclude that all religions are divine in origin but that is really asking too much of a scientist, even a hypothetical scientist.
The case is not hopeless, however, for two reasons.
In the first place, revealed knowledge has come to mankind in our day. In the second place, I believe we can demonstrate that revealed truth is not foreign to our experience. The historical fact that Bahá'u'lláh did bring to our age a divine Faith commensurate with our scientific advancement enables us to reconstruct our analysis along easier paths. If the scientist will investigate the tenets of this Faith, which has now encircled the globe; if he will study the lives of the Founders with an unbiased mind, he will discover that divine revelation is not incompatible with scientific thinking.
Let us now consider the problem of experience.To be more specific, we might say the problem of total experience or all experience.
REVELATION AND EXPERIENCEThe average intelligent thinker who is influenced by the method of science finds it difficult if not impossible to believe that a Manifestation of God or a Prophet could completely change the consciences, the patterns of thought, or the thinking habits of the generality of mankind.
He also finds it difficult to believe that laws and principles for a new social order could ever be revealed to mankind through a religious genius. At the same time he is, at least dimly, aware that the existing ideologies can never establish any kind of peace and harmony.
The dilemma may be due to a restricted view of experience. If we limit ourselves to the scientific approach in evaluating the Prophet, we may find nothing in our experience that corresponds to revealed truth. And yet in a very real sense, there is nothing in our experience that corresponds to scientific truth. Science has failed to explain the underlying reality of nature in terms of mechanical models, which is equivalent to saying that science has failed to explain nature in terms of experience.
Moreover, for the average man the symbolism of mathematics is just as irrelevant
Page 724to his experience as is the concept of revelation.
To be sure, we assume that there is an underlying reality in the physical world and we draw diagrams and construct models to represent it, but we cannot prove that these pictorial representations really correspond to this reality. We may build, in our imagination, a scientific model to imP tate a given phenomenon but, today at least, we do not claim that the model really explains the phenomenon.
Science is concerned with a world of appearance, and the best we can do is to express our knowledge of this world in a sort of symbolic language which is unfamiliar to most of us. As we have indicated, the external world is known to us only by inference.
Scientific laws and concepts are not immediately apprehended as are values like beauty, justice, and goodness.
The idea of revealed truth is not wholly incomprehensible to us if we think in terms of all experience and not merely experience in the world of science.
When we turn to the world of value � the world of art, music, and literature � we see that creations and standards come to us through inspired individuals and not through any scientific procedure. These creative personalities reveal aesthetic values to us. The language of the world of value is not the unfamiliar symbolic language of science but the more intimate language of color and form, rhythm and harmony.
We are all familiar with this sort of revealed knowledge. It is not really foreign to our experience. We know, moreover, the futility of applying any kind of scientific analysis to aesthetic values.
It has been done, to be sure, but the results are certainly not very convincing.
We do not evaluate the art of Leonardo, the music of Beethoven, or the style of Shakespeare, in terms of our experience in the world of science. Can we not evaluate the revealed knowledge of the Prophet as we evaluate the revealed knowledge of the artist or musician? It is true that in the realm of aesthetic values men do not resort to the sword or the torch, but it is also true that in the realm of aesthetic values a complete transformation of society is not effected. To illustrate, in the realm of art we are now suffering a relapse but there is no indication that there will be any bloodshed.
Should a great creative genius appear and establish new art values it is highly improbable that he would be persecuted. However, if at the same time he should attempt a few social reforms, we all know what would happen. A literary genius may not have an exemplary character, in fact he may have a very bad character, but we usually accept his contributions for their intrinsic worth.
The Prophet must necessarily deal with man's grosser as well as his finer nature.
Everything that is small, contemptible, and ferocious comes to the surface, but surely that does not mean that his work is less meritorious than that of the revealer of art values. Should the Prophet overlook the despicable characteristics of a declining social order and preach only individual spiritual development, he would never be persecuted but neither would he establish social justice. In eliminating in its adherents racial animosity, national hatreds, and class distinctions, the Bahá'í Faith has succeeded where humanitarian movements and older faiths have failed. The Bahá'í Faith has actually transformed the individual lives of its adherents.
The proof of a creative artist's message is the artist himself and his creation, and the same can be said of the Prophet.
Bahá'u'lláh says, "Thefirst and foremost testimony establishing His Truth is His own Self. Next to this testimony is His Revelation." The advent of a Manifestation of God in our day is an historical event which cannot be overlooked but we will not attempt here even a cursory glance at this world-embracing Faith.
Our purpose is to show that the concept of divine revelation is not wholly foreign to our experience, provided we take a comprehensive, inclusive view of experience.
In fact, all new knowledge is a matter of revelation but revelation in its compkteness is seen only in prophetic religion.
Page 725In the words of Bahá'u'lláh, "To whatever heights the mind of the most exalted of men may soar, however great the depths which the detached and understanding heart can penetrate, such mind and heart can never transcend that which is the creature of their own conceptions and the product of their own thoughts. The meditations of the profoundest 'thinker, the devotions of the holiest of saints, the highest expression of praise from either human pen or tongue, are but a reflection of that which hath been created within themselves through the revelation of the Lord, their God."
14.THE religion, or the lack of it, with which we start out in life is usually dependent upon the environment into which we happen to be born. Usually, we take on as our own the religious beliefs or philosophy of our parents; it is a passive process like taking on our family name. We become emotionally attached to a particular religion and use our intellects to justify our belief that it is superior and right, because our parents tell us that it is superior and right. Everything goes along fine so long as life is pleasant and we have no problems to face.
Then the day comes when something goes very wrong.
We are disappointed in love; we fail in school; we don't get the job we felt we should have had; we lose a loved one by death. In short, the time finally comes when we need to use our faith.
We desperately need a source of strength to draw upon.
Nothing adds up and nothing makes sense. We have lost our emotional equilibrium; we can't find any answers.
'A graduate of Vassar College and of Northwestern University Medical School, Dr. Edris Rice-Wray has practiced medicine in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. and was on the staff of Northwestern University for several years. She was also school physician at National College of Education in Evanston and has lectured extensively on "Marriage and Sex Education." Dr. Rice-Wray has ~iven public addresses in many parts ci the United States and Canada on the application of the Baha teachings to individual and world problems. She now lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she is Medical Director of the District of Arecibo.
Then we may try to turn to God, only to find perhaps that we are at a loss for words, or that the prayers we have been accustomed to saying don't help, don't give us any assurance or solace.
Weaklings may take to drink to try to forget, or jump off a building, or find escape in insanity.
Others actually enjoy their troubles; they like to worry and to dramatize their grief. They would only find something else to worry about if the particular difficulty should be solved, for although they profess to want to find a way out they really don't; they resist violently any new attitude which might challenge their preconceived ideas.
There are others who, upon hitting rock bottom, realize they need help and determine to get it. First, naturally, they go to the source of help with which they are most familiar. Some seek help from psychiatry, and they may get some help, but not enough.
Some seek help from their own religious background, and, in their need, may find real faith for the first time. For faith is not something that anyone can inherit. Every soul has to find it for himself. He may find that his father's particular brand is empty for him and has nothing to offer him in his need. He may then abandon religion altogether, as many have done, to wander aimlessly and uselessly
Page 726through a meaningless, troubled life. But others may set out on their quest determined to find answers, logical, acceptable answers to life's questions. And these seekers begin to recognize the indefinable quality that they are seeking in this or that person, and the desire grows in them to be like these people to whom they are attracted, those who have this indefinable thing � inner serenity," "inner radiance," inner balance."
It is a vital quality and one unconsciously feels that by being around such people, he can acquire it by absorption, or as one catches a disease.
But this is not enough.Finally the time comes when one is ready to make the necessary sacrifices to get this quality for himself. It takes great eagerness and constant effort and a complete willingness to sacrifice all preconceived ideas in order to attain an understanding of spiritual truth.
The Bahá'í Faith teaches that the attainment of spiritual qualities is the object of human existence on this planet. Unless this is achieved, the whole purpose of life here is unfulfilled. Then, indeed, everything is meaningless. At the hour of death, one becomes aware of the uselessness of having lived; and he is born into the next world completely unequipped and undeveloped, like a babe born into this life, deaf, dumb and blind.
He will receive help there from those more advanced, just as handicapped children here are helped in special schools, but his progress will be painfully slow and difficult.
Should one be aware of the need for something intangible, should one be conscious of his own helplessness, that is good. This is the first step out of the blind complacency which is stagnation. In order to find, one must first be aware of a need to seek.
Trials and difficulties then have tremendous significance, for without them we cannot progress.
They serve to shake us out of our indifference and negligence. They give us our first opportunity to test our faith~ It is not enough to say, "I believe;" one must be tested � just as it isn't enough for a student to say, "I know"; he must take and pass the examinations to prove his knowledge to himself as well as to others. A student who knows his subject does not dread his examinations; he takes them in his stride when they come and that's that. Similarly, if we have real faith we will not spend time worrying about what misfortune may befall us in the future or even about a present difficulty. Instead our attitude will be one of turning to God and relying on Him for guidance. We will use this prayer from the Bahá'í writings: "0 God, refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart.
Illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art My Guide and My Refuge. I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved, I will be a happy and joyful being.
0 God, I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.
"0 God, Thou are more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, 0 Lord."
And we may repeat these words: "Put thy complete trust and confidence in God Who hath created thee; help cometh from Him alone!"
The result is a sense of relaxation. Worry, anxiety, fear, and resentment disappear.
Now we can begin to think clearly.Usually the solution becomes apparent or the problem solves itself. After having met a few difficulties in this way, we take them as they come and they lose their power to dismay us. Insight grows, understanding increases, inner strength becomes apparent. A new stability is attained and life takes on a thousand new meanings. If whatever faith or philosophy we have does not give us all this, then we have no real faith. An individual who worries, and complains about his lot, and fears the future is a person without faith, regardless of what he may call himself.
It is not enough to say, "I am a Catholic" or "I am a Methodist" or "I am a Muslim," and "therefore, I have faith. Therefore, I believe in re
Page 727First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Brussels, Belgium, elected April 21, 1948.
First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Oslo, Norway, elected April 21, 1948
Page 728ligion." The Bahá'í Faith declares that humanity in this Thy is, for the most part, clinging to the counterfeit in religion.
Creeds, dogmas, ceremonies, and manmade interpretations have become more important than the original message of the Founders of religion.
Further, the Bahá'í Faithdeclares that all religion has come from the same source, the one God.
Its purpose has always been the same � to guide man so that he may attain his destiny which is the gradual unfoldment of his God-given perfections.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God. But this likeness is not physical; it is spiritual. Moreover, this likeness is potential, as the flower is potential in the seed. It needs to be brought forth, and so the Founders of the world's great religions are like gardeners; by Their tender care, Their teachings, and the example of Their own lives, They coax forth this hidden beauty. The purpose of the coming of God's Messenger in every age has been to reveal God to man and to make available to him the power and the spirit of God, of which he can partake by turning to the Prophet of God.
This is the attainment of the second birth to which Christ refers. Man must be born of the spirit; otherwise he is as dead.
We may ask why God needed to reveal Himself to man more than once. Bahá'ís believe that religion is progressive, that God speaks to mankind in every age for three reasons: First, man gets off the track as time goes by; he becomes confused by the mass of manmade explanations of what the Prophet said until he is not sure just what the Prophet did say. He loses sight of what is really important because there are so many different ideas of what is important.
Second, times change and as man becomes more mature, he finds it difficult to apply a teaching given to a former people at a former time, to a modern age which is different in so many ways. The new Prophet renews the original message which man has lost and applies it to the day in which He speaks.
Each age has its particular problems which differ from those of previous ages. Today, for example, we have the all-important, the imperative problem of world order. At the time of Christ, the world was not yet discovered, and it would certainly have been premature and meaningless if Christ had given a plan for world government. The people at that time could not even conceive of a united world. Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, has concerned Himself greatly with world order, world government, world education, world religion.
And third, man loses the spirit of real religion.For example, in the first century it was very difficult for the sincere Jew to find true faith, for although Moses had pointed out the path many years before, the early teaching had been largely obscured by the interpretations of the rabbis and scribes. Judaism had become largely a matter of the letter of the law instead of the spirit.
God renewed the spirit of religion in His own way. He revealed Himself anew through Jesus, the Christ.
Thus, the faith of the early Christians became the light wherewith the lamp of civilization was relit. They became new individuals.
They experienced what Christ meant by the second birth.
This transformation of the heart of these people made possible the transformation of society, and civilization again took an upward swing.
Today the light of true faith has largely flickered out in our world. The result is, as always, chaos and confusion. It is being relit by a fresh revelation from God.
We will not find it � and we never have � by trying to dig it out of the past, but we will find it in this day, one by one, little by little. Mankind will find security and peace as rapidly as the individuals making up our world find real faith and practice it. Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh, is the Voice of God for this day. They believe that God has again taken a hand in human affairs, that Christ really has returned to reawaken the Christians, to unite them, and to bring the spirit of true faith and unity to the followers of all religions.
Page 729The student of the Bahá'í Faith finds that he grows in his love and understanding of Christ and in his appreciation of His great value to mankind. He sees that Christ has the power to fulfill His promises and has done so. As he reads and studies, the mists begin to fall away and he sees meaning in his experiences.
His great realization comes when he grasps the fact that his problems and difficulties were the very things which started him thinking and questioning and seeking. Now he can say, "Thank God for every bit of it. What I wanted was understanding and assurance and inner peace.
Now I have them, or at least I know how I am going to get them and I am on the path. If life had continued to be easy, I would still be where I was � blind, complacent, and stagnant. Now I understand what Bahá'u'lláh means when lie says, 'Should calamity exist in the greatest degree we must rejoice for these things are the gifts and favors of God.'" Many believe that to put one's affairs in the hands of God is a supine act.
This shows a lack of understanding of what faith means. Real faith is the sense of inner relaxation and assurance which comes from consciously putting our affairs in God's hands and sincerely wanting His will, knowing that nothing can happen to us from which we cannot derive benefit. But this inner state must not lead to stagnation. Just as one can't steer an automobile which is parked at the curb, but only one which is in motion, so God can't very well guide someone who is inactive.
Thus, an inner dependence upon God coupled with intelligent activity is real faith.
God becomes a vital, living, personal God, a source of power to draw upon in time of need.
The whole process of attaining spirituality is a slow one. It takes constant effort and desire. It does not come all in a rush but little by little. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, once said, "Faith is like rain. At first the drops are far apart. Later they cone in torrents."
It should be pointed out that one who attains faith can lose it unless he constantly prays to God, reaches out to God in his heart, and makes a steady effort to maintain the right attitudes.
The difference between a person who has, faith and a person who has not is one of attitude and perspective. Life's problems are ever-present to both, but the individual who has real faith is not thrown off balance by his experiences. He knows that his life here is for the purpose of developing him toward spiritual maturity; that the problems which come to him, come for a specific reason, as the means of his development; and that God does not test any soul beyond the limits of his capacity.
Each problem one meets, makes the next one less difficult. One learns the method of handling them. A pleasant surprise is that once one has met real difficulties and risen above them, he is in a position to help others. Until then, faith is only printing on a page.
We should be aware of our good fortune in living in this day. Real faith is much easier to attain.
God has again spoken and told us just what it is and how to attain it and has revealed prayers for our assistance. He has shown that, in essence, a lack of spirituality or faith is the underlying cause of the world's ills.
The chief goal of the Bahá'í Faith is "the development of the individual and society through the acquisition of spiritual virtues and powers. It is the soul of man which has first to be fed."1 Our inner spiritual life must be transformed and perfected. "Otherwise religion will degenerate into a mere organization and become a dead thing."2 Man cannot raise himself by his own bootstraps.
He can only achieve his destiny with the assistance of God. God does not forget us. He sends His Messengers in every age. These Messengers come for the distinct purpose of helping man to know His Creator and to achieve his destiny.
God has spoken again in this day. The spirit of real religion has been renewed. The remedy has been given for the world's ills.
But, as always, God has given us free will. We can stumble along blindly, or we can consciously turn to His Messenger and partake of this life-giving spirit.
'Letter to the author from Shoghi Effendi, 1938. 2lbid
Page 730christlicher Zeitrechnung hat in der westlichen Welt ausserlich einen besonderen Anlass zur Riick-und d Umschau geboten.
Das Ergebnis dieser BetrachtungenThsst sich trotz der Versehiedenheit der Stan-dorte und Blickrichtungen in der niich-. ternen Feststellung zusammenfassen, dass dem Menschen die Illusion des "unvermeidlichen" Fortschrittes durch die fiberstiirzenden Ereignisse des 20. Jahrhunderts entrissen wurde. An die Stelle der
Fortschrittsgltiubigkeitist die ANGST gleichsam als Stigma zur be-herrschenden Stimmung trnserer Zeit geworden.
Em weiteres Kennzeichender heutigen geistigen Situation ist die weitgehende Entpersdnlichung des sozialen und wirt-schaftlichen
Lebens. Die Industriali-sierunghatte eine Vermassung und Anonymitiit der gesellschaftlichen Struktur und dadurch eine Zers$rung personlicher
Bindungen zur Folge.steht der Zerf all der ethisehen Grundlagen der sozialen Ordnung im unmittelbaren Zusammen-hang.
Die Unternebmensformder Ak-tiengesellschaft (soci6t6 anonyme) kann fUr diese Verhilitnisse als charakteris-tisch bezeichnet werden, ebenso die im Mittelalter noch undenkbaren Begriffe des
Strohmannes mA Manager.schreibt in einem Auf-satz von der Aktiengesellschaft: "Sie machte das, was nunmehr unpers5nlich war, in Gestalt einer Einrichtung greif-bar; aber eine Aktiengesellschaft ~hatte � wie die Redensart lautete � weder einen Kbrper, der misshandelt. noch eine Seele, die verdammt werden konnte."
Die Zerstbrung jeglicher aus-serer Sicherheit und die Verweitlichung des menschlichen Daseins, der zivilisa-torisehe
Preis der Verzichtleistungauf die Pflege des Innenlebens und die Uberbewertung materieller Werte trei-ben den heutigen Mensehen in "die Fluclit vor der Freiheit," die Erich Fromm als einen charakteristischen Zug unseres Zeitalters bezeichnet. Angst,
Resignation, Orientierungslosig-keitund Verzweiflung entziehen dem Mensehen die Kraft der Entscheidung und der eigenen Verantwortung.
Es wird versucht, auf den-i Boclen elner atheistischen, anthropozentrisch aus-gerichteten sog. "Existential' '-Philo-sophie klarzumachen, dass der Mensch "zur Freiheit verurteilt" und diese Fret-heit eine
Biirde sel. (Sartre)Mit clieseni "existentialistisehen Humanismus" soil der Mensch daran erinnert werden, "dass es ausser ihrn keinen anderen Gesetzgeber gibt und class er in seiner Verlassenheit fiber sich selber ent-scheidet."
Wir wissen, dass elne soiche pessimistiseli-antireligibse mis der Le-bens angst geborene Denkrichtung dem unerldsten Mensehen keine neue bin-dende Ordnung der wahren Werte des Lebens zuriickbringen kann.
Sie muss in ihren gefThrlichen Konsequenzen be.-sonders fUr unsere Jugend erkannt werden.
Wie steht es heute urn die Verstiindi-gungsbereitschaft unter den Vdlkern die r~um1ich im Zeichen der modernen
Ver-kelirs- und Nachrichtenmitteleinander so nahe gertickt sind? Lasst sich keine Briicke von den Wunschtr~umen der kriegsmiiden Welt zu den technisehen Gegebenheiten unseres Planeten schia-gen?
Die offensichtliche Diskrepanz zwischen der gegebenen r~um1ichen und technischen Einheit einerseits und der geistigen Zerrissenheit der Menschheit andererseits 1st zur Lebensfrage gewor-den.
Es zeigt sich immer deutlicher, dass die Bildung einer planetaren pout-isehen, wfrtschaftlichen und sozialen Einheit ohne die Begrlindung elner
Uber-nationalen Gemeinsehafterweist sich heute als das Problem erster Ordnung. Reinhold
Niebuhr selirieb: "DieTechnik hat zwar elne rudimenThre Weltgemein-schaft gesohaffen, doch beruht diese auf dem gegenseitigen
Abhiingigkeitsver-haitnisder Vdlker und nicht auf gegen-seitiger Achtung und Vertrauen." Zwei-fellos hat Albert Einstein recht, wenn er sagt: "Letztlich ist jede Art der fried-lichen Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Menschen in der Haupfsache auf gegen-seitigem Vertrauen aufgebaut und erst in zweiter Link auf Gerichten und der Polizei. Das gilt ebenso fflr die Staaten wie fUr den einzelnen."
Wo sollen nun die Mensohen und Vd1-ker die Grundlagen des verloren gegan-genen Vertrauens angesichts der heuti-gen Weltsituation finden, in der nach Einstein als Folge einer radioaktiven Vergiftung der Atmosphare "die Ver-nichtung alles Lebens auf der Erde in den Bereich der technisehen Mbglich-keiten geriickt" ist? Da Vertrauen und Glauben unlbslich miteinander verbun-den sind und wir uns einer waclisenden Glaubenskrise gegenilber sehen, scheint es flir viele auf diese Frage keine be-friedigende Antwort zu geben. Em amerikanischer
Universitiitslehrer (Wal-terT. Stace) meint im Ilinbijek auf die moderne Skepsis, die "den Glauben an eine sinnund zweckvolle Welt" zerstdrt habe, ". dass ohne romantische und religiiise
Verbr~mung -der baldige Untergangunserer Kultur unvermeid-lich" erseheine. Es liegt eine grosse Gefahr in dieser modernen Skepsis, die als Krise des abendlandischen
Ge-schichtsbewusstseinsin Erseheinung tritt und in der unumwunden von der "M6glichkeit des Nichts, des Scheiterns jeder Sinnbemflhung" gesprochen wird. "Die Angst urn die M5glichkeit sinn-vollen Menschseins" ist an die Stelle der Versuche getreten, den Sinn der Ge-schichte zu retten. (Herbert von
Boreb)Wir erkennen, dass sich die oben auf-geworfene Frage unter den skizzierten VerhMtnissen weder politisch noch wirtschaftlich oder soziologisch hin-reichend beantworten liisst. Aus der Diagnose der tiefsten Ursachen der heutigen
Unsicherheit, des Misstrauensund des Zwefels, der Verantwortungs-mtidigkeit und des Glaubensschwundet ergibt sich fib den tiefer Schauenden fast zwangsl%ufig die Antwort: Nur eine neue sittflche Fundamentierung der einzelmenschlichen, geselisehaftijehen und zwischenstaatlichen Beziehungen und Bindungen kann eine durchgrei-fende Wendung der bedrohijehen Lage der Menschheit herbeifiihren.
Der einzelne wie all Vblker haben sich heute zu entscheiden fur Verstandigung oder Chaos, Ordnung oder Tntergang. Diese Lebensfrage hat sich zur Schick-salsfrage der Menseliheit, zum Problem der Weiteimheit verdichtet.
"Gabe es fUr das Problem der Welteinheit elne Patentibsung, so kdnnten wir unsere (Jelehrten defiir bezahien, sie zu finden. Wenn diese Aufgabe aber � wie es in Wirklichkeit der Fall ist � einen inneren Wandel des modernen Menschen erfor-dert, dann kdnnen wir sie nicht irgend-weichen Fachleuten iibertragen.
Jeder einzelne von uns muss die Arbeit selber leisten Die grossen geschichtlichen Entscheidungen sind immer sittlich fundiert."
(Arnold J. Toynbee)Wie sollen aber die "emotionellen und sittlichen Kriifte des Individuums und der Gemeinschaft auf das ausserste" angespannt werden, wenn die Lebens-kraft der "alten Religionen" als Grund-lage sittlichen Handeins mehr und mehr versandet, wenn sich die westliche und 6stliche Welt ideologiseb nicht mehr versteht, wenn man glaubt, tats~ch1ich keine Gewissheit zu besitzen, "dass irgendeine Ldsung mdglich ist"? Soilte es der Wissenschaft und Technik durch die Verweitlichung und Atomisierung des mensehijehen Zusammenlebens gel-ungen sein, die GlaubenskrMte als tragenden Grund sittlicher Verantwor-tung und schdpferisch-aufbauender Tat endgflltig zu verschiitten?
Viele Men-schen neigen heute dazu, var soichen Fragen zu resignieren oder gar zu ver-zweifeln. Wir teilen aber die Auffassung Toynbee's "Was der modernen Welt zutiefst not tut, ist eine Neugeburt des Glaubens an das tibernattirliche.
Ohne ihn kann man dem Menschen � dem noch nicht wiedergeborenen Mensehen � kaum das gefThrliche Spielzeug an-vertrauen, das seine Laboratorien aus-gebrtitet haben."
Page 732Die Probleme des Aufbaus einer friedlichen uncl gerechten Weltordnung tibersteigen ausser jedem Zweifel menschliches Kbnnen und Vermdgen; sie erheisehen walirlich eine gdttlich inspirierte Lbsung, die nur aus dem Bereich der Religion kommen kann.
Alle grossen Kulturen hatten ihren Auf-stieg g elnem reUgi6sen Impuls zu ver-danken n und zerfielen mit dem Nieder-gang g ibrer g6ttlichen Bindungen (Grie-chenland,
, Rom)Abdu'l-Bahá hat uns folgende Charak-. terisierung der
Religion gegeben: "Re-ligionist der iiussere Ausdruck der gbt-tijehen Wirklichkeit.
Sie soil daher lebendig, kraftvoll, beweglich und fort-schrittlich sein.
Mangelt sie der Bewe-gung und des Fortschrittes, so fehit ihr das gdttlich Leben � sie ist tot. Da die gbttlichen Gesetze stets wirksam und in der Entwicklung begriffen sincl, muss ihre Offenbarung immer cine fortschrei-tende sein. Alle Dinge sind der Neuges-taltung unterworfen.
Wir befinden uns in einemist die Liebe Gottes u~d sie 1st die Grundlage aller heiligen Leh-ren."
Die innere Bereitschaftund der Gehorsam gegenilber dern Willen Gottes kennzeichnen den religi6sen Menschen. Bahá'u'lláh verkflndete: "Das Wesen der Religion ist, das anzuerkennen, was cler Herr offenbarte und zu befolgen, was Er in Seinem miichtigen Buch verordnet hat."
In alien Heiligen Schriftender Off en. barungsreligionen erblicken wir die Niederlegung des Wortes Gottes. Die absolute Einheit der Gottesoffenbarun-gen, im Hauptthema und Ausmass der jeweiligen Fassungskraft der Mepschen angepasst, begriindet die umfassende Geltung jeder Religion und schliesst den von Mensehen gesetzten
Absolu-theits- und Einmaligkeitsanspruchaus. tYber die ewige uncl zeitliche Bes-timmung der geschichtlichen Religionen sefirieb Shoghi Effendi u.a.: dass religidse Wahrheit nicht abso1~ut, son-dern relativ ist, dass Gottesoffenbarung em fortdauerndes und fortschreitendes Geschehnis ist, dass alle grossen Re-ligionen der Welt gdttlich in ihrem Ursprung sind, dass ihre Grunds~tze
Bahá'í Exhibit at WorldFederalist Congress held in Luxembourg, September, 1948.
zuelnander in v6uigem Einklang stehen, dass ihre Lehren nur die Widerspiege-lungen der elnen Wahrheit sind, dass ilir Wirken sich erg~nzt, dass sie sich nur in unwesentlichen Teilen ihrer Lehren unterseheiden und dass ihre Sendungen aufeinanderfolgende geistige Entwicklungsstufen der Menschheit dar-stellen."
Bahá'u'lláh antwortete auf eine Frage fiber das Wesen der Religion folgendes: "Wisse du, dass jene, die wahrlich weisse sind, die Welt mit dem menschlichen Tempel verglichen haben. 'Wie der K6rper des Menschen eines Gewandes bedarf, urn sich zu bekleiden, so muss der Kdrper der Menschheit mit dem Mantel der Gerechtigkeit und Weisheit geschmiickt werden. Ihr Ge-wand ist die von Gott ihr gewThrte Oflenbarung.
Wenn immer dieses Ge-wand semen Zweck erfflhlt hat, wird der
Page 733Alimaclitige es gewisslich erneuern. Denn jedes Zeitalter erfordert cm neues Maass des Liebtes Gottes. Jede Gdttliche Offenbarung ist in einer Weise herabgesandt worden, die den Umst~n-den des Zeitalters angepasst war, in den-i sie ersehien."
Die Geschichte der Offenbarungsre-ligionenEs ist erwiesen, dass keine soziale oder politische
Ord-nung lhngeren Bestandhat, wenn sie ihrer sittlichen Grundlagen beraubt ist. Die
Lebensfrage der Menschheitist eine sittliche und somit eine religibse Frage im ausgefiihrten Sinne. Bahá'u'lláh hat erkijirt, dass die Religion der Eckstein der kommenden Weltordnung sein wird.
Die zurflckliegenden Ereignisseund die heutige Verwirrung lassen zwingend erkennen, dass die Sicherung des Welt-friedens und eines sozialen Ausgleichs ohne die Errichtung ciner gerechten Weltordnung em Wunschtraum bleiben rniisste.
Diese Menschheitsordnungmuss aber giittlichen Ursprungs sein. In religionsgeschichtlicher
Einmaligkeit hat Bahá'u'lláhschon vor mehr als achtzig Jahren trotz Verfolgung,
Ver-bannung, Einkerkerungund Lebensbed-rohung "den Zirkel der Einigkeit gefiihrt, Er hat einen Plan niedergelegt fur die Vereiningung aller Vblker, urn sie alle unter dem schfltzenden Zelt der Einigkeit zu sammein."
('Abdu'l-Bahá) Fur die V6lker der Welt liegt eine gdttlich geoffenbarte Welt-Charta in authentisch-dokumentarischer
Form bereit. Die Zukunftder Menschheit wird durch deren ailgemeine Annabme und Verwirkitchung bestimmt werden.
Die von Bahá'u'lláh niedergelegte Weltordnung und deren autoritative Erliiuterung durch 'Abdu'l-Bahá ver-blirgen in ihrem Aufbau soziale Gerech-tigkeit, treuhanderische, beratende und jibernationale
Zusammenarbeit im Be-wusstseinvon der von Bahá'u'lláh verkiindeten Idee der geis-tigen Einheit cler
Menschheit zielt Seine Ordnungab, denn die national-staatliche Entwicklung hat ihren
Ab-schiuss gefunden. Zuden wesentlichen Bestandteilen der neuen Menschheit-sordnung werden folgende Vorausset-zungen z~h1en: tYberwindung aller im-perialistischen Macht-und Herrschaft-sanspriiche, Einffihrung der obligatori-schen internationalen Schiedsgerichts-barkeit und Bildung eines Internation-alen
Schiedsgerichtshofesnebst einer Weltpolizei als Sicherheits-und Voll-zugs-Weltorgan, ailgemeine
Abriistung, Kriegfiihrungnur bei unbestrittener Verteidigungszwangslage im Sinne einer kollektiven
Verteidigungs-und Schutz-pflichtim Agressionsfalle, Abschaffung der aligemeinen Wehrpflicht ohne unbedingte Kriegsdienstverweigerung, Lbsung der sozialen Fragen auf der Grundlage der Wiirdigung jeglicher mensehendienenden Arbeit und ciner Begrenzung von Armut und Reichtum nach
Grundsatzen der Leistungtmd gerecliter Tejihabersehaft am Arbeit-sertrag. Einheit von Religion und Wis-senschaft als Basis der Vdlkerverstiindi-gung, Einffzhrung einer Welthilfssprache und Einheitsschrift, einer Weltverfas-sung unter Einbeziehung der unverletz-lichen Menschenrechte und-Pflichten.
Das Menschheitsziel, das von Bahá'u'lláh, dem Sprecher Gottes un-serer Zeit, umrissen wurde, fasst Shoghi Effendi in folgenden Worten zusammen: "Em Weltbundsystem, das die ganze Erde beherrscht und eine unanfeclit-bare Befugnis fiber ihre unvorsteilbar umfassenden Hilfsquellen ausiibt, die Ideale sowohi des Ostens als auch des Westens verschmilzt und verk6rpert, von dem Fluch des Krieges und seines Elends befreit ist und sich auf die Ausnfitzung aller verfiigbaren Kraft-quellen auf der Oberf1~che des Plane-ten richtet, em System, in dem die Starke zur Dienerin der Gerechtigkeit gemacht ist, dessen Dasein durch seine allumfassende Anerkennung des einen Gottes und durch semen Gehor-sam gegen eine gemeinsame Offen-barung getragen wird � dies ist das Ziel, dem die Menschheit duroli die vereinenden Lebenskrafte zustrebt."
Der Ruf von Bahá'u'lláh, der em neues Bflndnis zwischen Gott und der Menschheit schuf, ist zugleich Warnung und verheissende, tr5stliche Antwort aiM
Page 734Seine Sendung macht den Menschen kiar, dass die Weltfriedensfrage keine
Frage der Organisationoder der Laboratorien, sondern eine sittlich-religibse Grund-frage ist. Sie lautet: Wie findet die Men-schheit den Weg zu einem afle
Vdlker, Rassen und St~ndevereinigenden Glau-ben, der sich schdpferisch mit der Wis-sensehaft zum Wohi der ganzen Men-schheit vermThlt, der das Gebot der N~chsten1iebe und der Gerechtigkeit zwischen alien Mensehen und Vblkern der Welt wirksam werden liisst? Bahá'u'lláh hat in Seiner gbttlichen Bob schaft den Weg zur
Auss5hnung und Einigungdes Menschengeschlechts gewiesen und wendet sich an dieses mit folgenden Worten: "Wisst ihr, warum Wir euch aus einer Erde ersehaffen haben?
Damit keiner sich fiber den anderen erhete. Denket immer damn, wie ihr erschaffen wurdet. Lasset alle Vblker in einem Glauben sich vereinigen und alle Mensehen BrUder werden, auf dais das Band der Zuneigung und der Einigheit zwischen den Mensehenkin-dern gest~rkt werde. Diese Kampfe, dieses Blutvergiessen und diese Uneinig-keit miissen aufhdren, und alle Menschen mfissen sein, als gehbrten sie einer Rasse und elner Familie an Der wahrlich 1st em Menseli, der sich heute dem Dienste am ganzen Men-schengeschlecht weiht."
16."Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast; One tries to tear itself away from the other GOrrHE, Faust, P~urr ONE '\VITH the same divinely inspired sagacity and faithfulness with which they transcribed the Prophet's austere and Godly message into more wo4dly notions and realistic interpretations, both 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi
Effendi'Karl Schueck was born and reared in Germany, where he studied at the universities of Munich, Leipzig, and Heidelberg.
For several years he was engaged in directorial work with theaters and operas. He also wrote poetry, novels, and plays for the stage and radio, receiving many awards.
In 1933 he left Germany, and six years later came to the United States where he is now living.
He became a Bahá'í in 1947. Since then he has worked in collaboration with the Bahá'ís in Germany, translating several Bahá'í books, writing radio scripts, and preparing plans for a German Baha
Publishing House. Hisnew novel Our Time is scheduled for publication in the near future.
put equal trust in the great missions of the American and the German peoples. America had become, with all its peo-pies and races and creeds from all over the world, the testing ground upon which, by the strength of the Bahá'í Faith of this age, the idea of the oneness of mankind was to become a reality.
The German people, on their part, felt, with their deep and ancient disposition to advocate the cause of mankind as their own, the driving force of the spiritual conquest of the world.
Deep and ancient, indeed, is this innate dream and yearning in the German soul for a moral and spiritual reality greater than the realities they have been forced to experience throughout the tragic course of their history.
Such an assertion may appear paradoxical in face of the havoc and calamities of war wrought upon the world
Page 735But was it merely an unquenchable thirst for destruction that spurred them on to wage war after war, merely an insanely devilish ambition to Germanize and rule the world? How could it be that the same nation which had produced the world's great geniuses of peace and art and music, inventive masters of patient efficiency in all sorts of crafts could combine its high ethical considerations and ideals with merciless destructiveness?
There must be elements and dispositions in these Germans to respond to the Prophet's mission, 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í interpretation, and the Guardian's wise appeal to these people. And this appeal � to what did it call, regardless of the world's horror and distrust of the German possibilities?
To the deep source of Faith which princelings and leaders have, time and again, abused for their own greedy purposes?
To a special disposition waiting to be roused and directed towards the very fulfillment of an ancient German dream?
We know the havoc frustrated dreams can wreak upon man's inner being. His peaceful disposition will suddenly change into cruel lust for destruction, his ideal of beauty be distorted to the grimace of painful disharmony. Thus, the German history is a chronology of increased frustrations, of snapping tensions, new yearnings and more suppressions.
In the sparse news coming now from Germany, the reports of intellectual and artistic activities in that gutted country, remind us of similar phenomena at the end of the first world war. There was no art exhibition, no theater, no book, no lecture, or other intellectual manifestation that did not emphatically and most seriously exalt the greatness of the ideal of a unified mankind.
People cheered upon hearing such words as "Unification of the World" and "Spiritual
Justice."Mankind! This, truly, was the ancient, German dream. Mankind, this supreme unity which would eventually deliver the German nation, too, from its so creative and alas! so destructive disunity.
Looking back into history one can see this deep nostalgia, this yet nameless yearning, take root within the inhabitants of strongwalled burghs where they, vassals to lordly knights, emerged from their narrow workshops and, glancing from the towers into the far lands, dreamed themselves away from this narrowness towards the hazy, blue mountain ridges and star-studded horizons. With eagerness they listened to the errant troubadours telling of cities and lands near and far, which, in their frustrated imagination, took on the fabulous and mystic character of divine beauty and holiness.
Unable to read and to write, they depended on the veracity of story-tell-ers and of monks. And when the latter spoke to them of a Holy Grail or roused their indignation over the pagans' profanation of the distant Holy Sepulchre, they did not hesitate to follow their knight on his God-ordained mission of deliverance.
Whatever made a breach in the walls of their dark enclosures and opened to them the gate of the burgh to emerge and to roam towards the blue horizon, was gratefully web corned and willingly obeyed.
Somewhere, they heard, there grew a mysterious Blue Flower. What this meant nobody much cared, nor did it matter if one ever found it; for to possess is to know and to remain without the fascination of dream, and possession stifles further aspiration. Dreaming was better.
But these exploits for which the burghers had been called upon to serve and die, were not always of unselfish or of saintly character and purpose. The knights and princelings were shrewd enough to abuse for their own frivolous purposes, the people's untiring nostalgia. They simply cloaked the warlike enterprise with the garment of a lofty mission, called the dwellers of other burghs and lands heathens and Sons of devils, thus confusing the aim of conquest, mystifying the uneducated minds of peasants and burghers, and calling this new adventure another Holy Cause. Once their ardor had een aroused, it was easy enough to appeal to and cancti .y � with the zealou. hel
Page 736First Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly, Copenhagen, Denmark, elected April 21, 1949.
of vassal-monks � the quickly roused, baser instincts of the people, who, aiming for beatitude and with an efficiency worth~r of the mystic goal, fought for their knights as the appointed representative of God.
They returned, then, to the old, dark steads where the unquelled yearning seeped into the work of carving and molding. But a schism had cleft their beings.
Here was the loving attachment to the little hut and small piece of land and there the constantly growing nostalgia for those worlds of which they had barely gained a foretaste. It was impossible to combine these trends, and painful tension was the result.
This tension demanded release and called upon the instincts to justify the heedless rush into war and strife.
This dualism grew, notwithstanding enlightenment and the expansion of burghs and lands. The constant yearning for the Blue Flower in the remoteness of space had created a deep love for mysticism which made these Germans eager and devout followers of such mystics as St. Francis, Tauler, Eckehard, while their own strong and loving attachment to their proper soil and stead had sharpened their sense of observation and such efficiency as proved indispensable to make the most of the least.
Consequently the critical and rationalistic mind increased its power. These two dispositions were uncombinable and created nothing but unbearable tension requiring release.
This dualism broke through everywhere. At one moment Christians, they became, at the next moment, critical of Christ as not being German and of Christianity itself, innoculated as an alien thing upon their own pagan nature. They worshipped the idol and the image of the Crucified One and, while one self bemoaned all suffering and was humble, the other ego dreamt of Siegfrieclian heroes commissioned to slay the dragon of mischief and grief with the power of a fabulous and mystic sword.
And just as the German's Christianity was, thus, of dualistic nature, his deep-rooted paganism suffered
Page 737First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Rome, Italy, elected April 21, 1948.
from a similar schism.To him, the complex of nature was inhabited by the ancient gods. He felt in concord with the elementary spirits of trees and fire, of water and winds. But, soon enough, his other, rationalistic self would step into the foreground and go about dissecting what he had just adored. With unemotional aloofness and defiant reason he probed into the mysteries of Nature to discover its laws and exploit them for his prospective inventions.
By the same token at one moment he deeply believed in a world-embracing faith, in a mystic and saintly entity of all mankind, and at the next fell back into the medieval narrowness of his burgh. Here he dreamt of a supernatural blend of all nations into one, and there his old vassal � obedience � repudiated such a thought as sacrilegious.
Here he was convinced this mankind-ideal would come true by means of organic growth and inner necessity and there he fancied that he, descendant of Siegfried, had been commissioned to this task regardless of the means.
Paradoxical though it may appear, the Germans possess a similar quality, a similar nostalgia to that with which they characterize their "very opponents": the Jewish people. Both yearn for the Messiah of deliverance, and for unity and station in the world. The Germans hated the Jews for what they themselves had ever hoped to accomplish: world-citizenship, overcoming of the old narrowness, and release of their innermost powers of faith.
This old battle between the ego and the world was keeping the German soul in agonizing confusion and tormenting dualism, while the search for the Blue Flower continued despite the growing mechanization and materialism all around.
This constant tension kept their forces awake and vigilant while other nations merely existed on in old, though harmonious, patterns.
Then came the great experience when the French revolutionaries of 1789 proclaimed for the first time Hurnanit6, Mankind, as the dawn of a new age.
Page 738With the power of a storm this word shook the Germans out of a temporary stagnation.
Their response was jubilant.What had remained vague and nameless in their souls, suddenly arose, unfurling its banner and pronouncing its destiny. Humanity! Beethoven's titanic voice proclaimed this jubilation in his Ninth Symphony and its final chorus, "Be embraced, you millions, take the kiss of the whole world."
The Olympian Goethe pronounced the new station of man as that of world-citizen-ship, and even the austere and sober genius of reason, Immanuel Kant, added his confirmation of mankind's new morale to the general acclamation of the ancient and reborn ideal.
Here, truly, was the foundation of the German's self.
Here was his destiny.The Blue Flower had its name. Here was substantial food for reason, sufficient inspiration for dreams, legitimate right to turn to the world, ethical justification for a new heroism, the chance of tearing down the barriers between people � What was more exalting and invigorating! What greater Faith could ever be found!
The great ideal stood beyond the gate; to reach it one had only to crash the barrier. But with what means? He was told to accept "Germany, Germany above all" as his national hymn; philosophers such as Ilegel, whose authority he dared not doubt, taught him to deify the State and its representatives or, like Nietzsche, called on his grotesquely overdrawn heroic feeling; and the materialism of the new age started to absorb his forces. Unable by nature to keep balance between mind and yearning, rationalism and idealism, and other conflicting antagonisms within his nature, he found a new tension growing in and pulling at himself. And as the knights in old times called on his obedience and his deference for a Holy Cause to inspire him for warfare, so did now the Kaiser. And as the Kaiser failed, sadness and despair befell the German who, convinced of the Divine Necessity of his world-convert-ing mission, could not forgive the other nations, no; b1essec~ by such high voca~ tion, for obstructing his heroic march.
And then Hitler came, the voice of the confused, inner yearnings, who shrewdly played on the ancient mysticism and the new religion of mankind blending both into one and bidding for the throne. The fantastic computation would have promised success � if the fundamental essence had not been forgotten: the new ethics as the premise for the new world. The new ethics, the name of which was consideration, kindness, and responsibility of all for all. The new reality, the name of which was mankind rather than any particular or favorite nation! Here was the deciding error: mistaking the drive for the aim. The old medieval pettiness that grew in the walled burghs could not be used for a "mission" of unma-terialistic nature. The fact that in this colossal gamble the spiritual station of man himself was harnessed and subjected to a military maneuver, the fact that this satanic venture was carried by the misconception of man as well as by the same old fatal forces of power, and that this drive exalted and continued the old worship of the morale of power rather than changed to the worship of the power of morale predestined the exploit to a catastrophic collapse.
Now the country is in ruins. For the second time the German has had to wake up to the fact that he has abused the tremendous possibilities within himself, and that every attempt at arbitrarily wanting to change a Godly ordained course of history must by necessity end in tragedy.
He has known so long that spiritual history, in contrast to the chronological one, has been developing since the early dawn of man toward just one goal: the awakening of many s consciousness of his true station and mission and the ripening of the seed of man's ultimate destiny � Mankind as a reality ordained by God.
This, the German has known and felt. Of this, he has dreamt. He has yearned towards that goal. Only this he has failed to grasp: the fulfillment of this final Teahty is less man's own decision or the German nation's self-made privilege than it was, is, a wifl e God': wi a d postulation.
Thpower of faith to accomplish this high goal is there; what he now has to learn and to accept is to put the name of God where he had but seen the word ''Germany.~~ And now? There are innumerable indications pointing to the German soul writhing in agony without, however, letting loose of its mankind-vision.
The old dreams of Siegfried and ]3arbar-ossa are shattered, but the power of faith has not spent itself. Yes, faith, religious faith it was with which the Germans accepted the self-deification of Hitler.
They saw in him their own potentialities, their own confusion, and worshipping him, worshipped themselves.
He who has studied German history and become acquainted with the in-usual German disposition for faith, has no difficulty in grasping the meaning of Bahá'u'lláh's Message to the German people.
Here, for the first time, they are being offered a Faith the spiritual aim of which has been their own. The romantic ideal of their own has found confirmation from a Divine Source, on a realistic foundation such as their own geniuses had sometimes dreamt about. This being a world religion, the German no longer has to fear the incompatibility of the remnants of his pagan inclinations with an inoculated Christianity."
There can be no danger of a wanton and mystic misinterpretation nor of leaders using this Message as a pretext for a specific German mission.
The holy blue print of Bahá'u'lláh's new World Order excludes the risk of having to ramble again through the haze and vagueness of
Blue-Flower-Dreams. Acceptanceof this magnificent and world-embracing oneness and unity will, by necessity, lead to the long-yearned-for consolidation of a German spiritual unity. The German's power of faith will forge the tools necessary to keep driving himself and leading other nations towards the high goal.
There is room for every believer in heroic living, for all those finding happiness in and through obedience. This is the language of God the German ear and soul can understand. He will not stay behind in this universal drive towards the envisioned Holy Grail. On the contrary, he feels he owes it to his very nature and predisposition to show the way and to enlighten others. His ambition will find nourishment and satisfaction. The mystic and the real have merged into one reality thus appealing to his ancient dualism which, in turn, will find deliverance and release in and through this German mankind-service.
Even the antagonism between his love for materialism and for high spiritual qualities will come to an end, and triumphant as
Beethoven's Chorus, "Beembraced, you millions," will be the German's dedication to the Faith of Baha as the reality of his own dream of mankind which, having now fully become a property of his consciousness, will henceforth refuse to swear allegiance to the semi-gods and fallible idols of power.
Thus the World Faith of Bahá'u'lláh will, by necessity, find its most eager and devoted European believers and forefighters in all those who had been forced by fate to understand that their reality is not a world Germanized by force of arms, but a Germany peacefully and faithfully permeated by God's love of this world as manifested by
His beloved Bahá'u'lláh.T HE departure from Baghdad had been hectic because the plane for Persia arrived at an unscheduled time. I had hurried to the airport with the goal of persuading the American pilot to postpone taking off until an 'IrAqi friend could round up my baggage.
The confusion was followed by happy serenity with the discovery that the steward on the plane was a Bahá'í Once aloft I repeatedly asked, "Have we reached Iran yet?"
It was as though I were approaching my native land after a long absence.
Soon came the time to fasten our seat belts for the landing in Persia's glorious capital. Below us was Tihran, "the holy and shining city � the city wherein the fragrance of the Well-Beloved bath been shed."
My arrival was unannounced, but I met another Bahá'í at the airport and he escorted me to the magnificent Ua~iratu'1-Quds, a building of which the Persians have every right to be proud. The design for the dome was drawn by a young artist whom I had already seen in
Paris. The National SpiritualAssembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia was in session when .1 reached the Bahá'í Headquarters and the members graciously put aside other business to welcome me. The Assembly then invited me to be its guest at one of TihrAn's better hotels, but I accepted instead an invitation to the home of the esteemed believer, Ntiri'Din Fatit-A'azam, whose son Shid&n, is studying agriculture in the United States. The same qualities which have endeared ShidAn to the Americans are abundantly manifested by the other members of his family.
As we were leaving, an interesting episode occurred; a young Bahá'í whom I had never seen before came up and greeted me with great cordiality; I was surprised at this warmth from a total stranger, but afterward learned that six months previously, the youth had dreamed of an American standing on this very spot, and accompanied by the Bahá'ís who were now with me; he had even visualized the red automobile in which we were about to ride. At the time of his dream the car had not been purchased, and my trip had not been planned.
One of the world's best known statesmen had reminded me that the people of Persia have been blessed by the teachings of more than one Messenger, and I often reflected on his words and on the special bounty which God has bestowed on beloved Persia. It was here that the Zoroastrian Faith was born, and that Is1~m was later established. Although represented in the Majlis or Parliament, the Zoroastrians are today not a large group. The teachings of Zoroaster continue to exert an ennobling influence on the lives of those followers who have not abandoned Him for the ways of materialism.
Future scholars will develop His undoubted influence on the West; it is significant 11n the summer of 1947, Robert Lee Gulick, Jr. visited France, Switzerland, Egypt, 'IrAq, Persia and Spain, returning to the United States by way of the British Isles. Mr.
Guhick is Secretary-Treas-urerCity, and lecturer at the Institute of Economics, University of California, Berkeley.
He attended the Congress of the International Chamber of Commerce, Montreux, Switzerland, as Adviser to Winthrop W. Aldrich, President of the I.C.C., and as Delegate of the Carrie. gie
Endowment for InternationalPeace. He remained in Geneva during the drafting of a Charter for an International Trade Organization as the observer for the Committee on International Eco-nonilc Policy, April-Xuly 1947.
Page 741that one of the early teachers of Socrates was a Zoroastrian. At the present time, the Parsees are more numerous in India than in Persia, just as the Buddhists are more in evidence in Japan than in the land of the Buddha. Striking, too, is the fact that Christianity has never succeeded in winning the allegiance of the neighbors of Jesus.
A guide at the Carlsbadexplains to visitors that ninety per cent of the action of the water in creating new formations is completed. There are cities which give the impression that their greatness has passed, that little remains to happen to them, that the action is completed. TihrTh is the reverse of these; here everywhere are signs of wonders to come. Regardless of appearances, the people are in my view like unworked diamond mines. They are abundantly intelligent, and they have a special f a-cility for winning friends and influencing people. They are more understandable to Americans than the nationals of many other countries of Europe and Asia. We are closer to them than geography would indicate; we are psychological neighbors.
The hospitality of the Persian Bahá'ís is justly famous. When visiting SbirAz, I reposed between silk sheets in a large room hung with lovely tapestries.
Just before I left, the host apologized � and with a straight face � for the trouble and discomfort to which he maintained I had been subjected.
In another city, the chairman of the Assembly noticed that I was looking through my luggage for a change of linen; he promptly contributed the articles from his own wardrobe.
After that, I took pains to conceal my wants.The spirit of sacrifice shown by the Bahá'ís in Persia verges on the miracu-bus. An illiterate man of considerable wealth recently gave all his property to the Cause.
Later, he humbly r~-quested a distinguished Bahá'í teacher sometime to read him the Most Holy Book of Bahá'u'lláh.
At the time of my visit, the Persian Bahá'ís were sending a thousand packages a month for the relief of the needy in Europe. They had already dispatched around fourteen tons of foodstuffs. In one of the villages, a nine-year-old Persian boy stayed awake one night trying to think of something he could contribute to relieve distress in another country. He had no money or food to give.
When morning came, the idea occurred to him to donate the cloth that had been purchased for his new suit. The Bahá'í boy continued to wear his old clothes and the cloth went to a twelve-year-old German boy who replied with a letter of heartfelt gratitude.
The devotion of the Persians toward the Faith is wonderful to witness. When I was in Persia, there were meetings to discuss the Forty-five Month plan under which believers are to be dispatched to hostile villages and unhealthful regions and to countries whose inhabitants hate, not only Baha'is, but all Persians. The first letter I received from Persia after leaving carried the good news that the fifty families required by the Plan had already volunteered. We can learn tavajjuh from the Persians: this term may be defined as a steadfast, unwavering love in our hearts for God, an adoration whose existence is proven by daily service to the human race. During my visit in TihrAn, a curfew ordinance prevented the residents from being on the streets after midnight. This was not an altogether bad idea as it made it necessary for people to advance their evening meal to a time not much later than eleven o'clock, and prevented guests from tarrying too long. I was interested to see how the friends overcame the curfew problem in order to commemorate the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh at the appointed time of three in the morning: they assembled at eleven and prayed all night!
I shall never forget the exquisite chanting of that night.
One meets excellent people in the Cause of God. Among them are Miss Adelaide Sharp and her mother, Amen � cans who have spent the last eighteen years in TihrAn. Among the persons to whom Miss Sharp has taught English is 'Au, a shepherd boy from northeastern Persia.
'Au has been using hisknowledge of English to familiarize himself with God Passes By and other writings of the Guardian. Later, he will teach his neighbors.
I also recall the blind man at Ab&lih whose rendition of a difficult prayer in Arabic was extraordinarily beautiful.
I saw the Gulist4n palace with the Peacock Throne, and the national museum containing treasures from Perse-polls. In the older sections of the city, there are everywhere places made sacred by the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, streets sanctified by the blood of the martyrs. The Siy4h-0h41, the Black Pit of TihThn where Bahá'u'lláh was chained, is no more; they are erecting a modern bank building on the site.
I went to the room in which the body of the Báb was once hidden.
A magnificent boulevard now leads toward the Alburz Mountains and the hill villages of Shimrttn where the Blessed Beauty used to go in the summer time.
Somewhat eastward is the NiAvartin Palace to which the illustrious Badi' carried an epistle from Bahá'u'lláh to the $h4h, and was killed for it. I hiked over a part of the extensive land that has been acquired as the site for Persia's first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Karaj, situated about 25 miles from TihrAn, has an agricultural college that is conducting research of great importance to the Persian people. It is my hope that under the Fuibright program and other measures, America will find it possible to extend important technical assistance for the economic devel-. opment of Persia.
As a member of the Persian Majils said to me, the Bahá'ís are the best friends of Persia in America.
It is my hope that this friendship may be demonstrated in concrete terms. We Bahá'ís are assured of the glorious future of Persia, the "mother of the world and fountain of light unto all its peoples."
Persia seemed to me a country of light, both spiritual and physical light. At present the Faith there is obscured by encircling prejudice and disbelief; but I remember that Mt. Dim~vand, a snowcapped peak of about 18,600 feet, was during my first weeks in Tihr~n hidden by mists � and then one morning, ing, suddenly and without fanfare, it shone out in all its splendor.
Perhaps the day is not so distant when the Faith of God will shed its radiance over the entire planet and the slumbering peo-pies will waken and enter the army of life in troops.
"Let nothing grieve thee, o land of T~ (Tihr~n), for God hath chosen thee to be the source of the joy of all mankind."
hFAHAN The road was good, even though unpaved, and the companionship excellent but 1sf tth4n still seemed to be a long journey from Tihr4n. The high altitude kept the temperature moderate, even for late May, and an occasional stop prevented the trip from becoming too wearying. Once we stopped to drink from a roadside stream. The only ill effect I suffered from the consumption of this unboiled water, against which all my Western friends had warned me, was that I lost a silver tie-clasp.
The landscape could easily be duplicated in California, Utah, Arizona, or New Mexico � vast empty spaces requiring only water and moderately intelligent human effort for their transformation into highly productive wheat fields, gardens, and pastures. This is no desert, but fertile, dry land. The Persians need machinery and "know-how" and America is well equipped to furnish both, but something rarer is also needed; I refer to that state of mind which exalts honest and efficient effort to the rank of worship. Engineers and economists fully understand the importance of this intangibile factor but they cannot mention it in their reports. It is something with which they cannot cope. Fortunately, the Bahá'í Faith has amply demonstrated its power to change human nature.
Muslims often choose Bahá'ís for positions of trust and responsibility, finding them more reliable and dependable than the others.
In the highest part of the province of F&rs, is a village named Dih Bid. It is a wholesome place with a refreshing atmosphere, excellent water, and simple, nourishing food. Although the Bahá'í community is small, it boasts a
Page 743First Spiritual Assembly, Barcelona, Spain, elected April 21, 1949, with pioneer from Madrid.
new, attractive Bahá'íA member of the gendarmerie had been notified by the Governor General of our impending arrival and he courteously extended his salutations and offers of assistance. His religious views were very liberal, at least for the occasion; he affirmed that all of the great religions of the world have the same fundamental teachings and objectives. The friends were hurriedly assembled and we had another meeting which constituted visible evidence of the universal, unifying power of the Faith; in one fold, under one Shepherd, there were friends from Asia and America, city-d~el1ers and farmers, learned and unlettered.
We came next to a small city, Ab~dih, famous inthe gendarmerie was in greater evidence than elsewhere, partly because the Haziratu'1-Quds is next door to the police station, and perhaps also for the reason that the name of one of our companions was scrambled in the advance notice of our arrival, so that it became "Greatest Pope" instead of "Greatest Victory" (Fath-A'azam). Anyhow, the officers stood at attention as we passed.
Our American advisor, Mr. Schwartzkopf, seems to be doing an excellent job in improving the gendarmerie.
Evidence of the great, recent persecution of the Bahá'ís still remained within the walls of the Ha4ratu'1-Quds. Three years before our visit, a band of fanatics, unrestrained and even abetted by the police, broke into the Bahá'í premises, destroyed the garden, desecrated a tomb, and tried to set the building on fire.
I saw photographs of the wounded believers, and I saw a charred door.
When the courteous and quiet head of the gendarmerie visited us, I explained that those fanatics who had attacked the Bahá'ís were not true Muslims but were in fact spiritually in the "Days of Ignorance" (the time of idolatry, preceding the advent of Muhammad), and as evidence I quoted in the Arabic that injunction of the Qur'an which has been translated:
"LetAfter attending two meetings and a dinner, we spent the night at the Bahá'í property.
Three of us slept on the porch and the stars seemed unusuMly large and brillianL In a corner of the courtyard, two members of the gendarmerie stood guard. A few steps away, beneath a nine-pointed star, rested the heads of two hundred martyrs of Nayrfz. As I fell asleep I thought how a malicious mull&, still active in the b&z4rs, is striving to add to their company. Perhaps he will fail, because in signing the Charter of the United Nations, Persia has subscribed to the principle of no discrimination against religion and she cannot afford to incur the wrath of other countries by permitting a repetition of those barbarous acts which must forever constitute a condemnation of the reign of N~siri'd-Din
ShAh.At daybreak, we left for I~fAhAn. The expression, "Half the world is I~fAh~n," is a translation of the Persian pun: Isf~h~~n ni4-i-jihAn.
This onetime capital and throne-city of Persia is a place of lovely gardens.
Flowers are so common that it was not possible to find a shop where I might purchase some for the grave of our ardent and powerful American Bahá'í teacher, Keith Ran-som-Kehier.
Instead, I was given some by my host and we went to the cemetery where the King of Martyrs, the Beloved of Martyrs, and Keith Ran som-Kehier are buried.
It was about a century earlier, toward the close of the summer of 1846, that the B&b made His triumphant sojourn in hf4hAn. The first to embrace His Cause in that city was a sifter of wheat who was a ''waiting servant,'' a prepared soul who accepted the IVIes-sage at the instant of hearing it. A few years later, sieve in hand, he rushed through the b4z&rs of the city on his way to join the defenders of Shaykh Tabarsi. When questioned as to the cause of his excitement, he cried: "With this sieve which I carry with me, I intend to sift the people in every city through which I pass."
The time of the Báb's visit in 1sf &h~n was a period of keen expectancy.
Greatnumbers of perceptive souls sensed that the day was at hand for the advent of the Promised One, even as the Mu-lerites in America had recently been disposing of their possessions in anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ.
The mosques of T~f~h4n are magnets for the reverent, the curious, and the lovers of beauty. Tourists are fascinated by the Min~r-i-Jumb~n, two small minarets that shake together like dancing Siamese twins when one is moved. In the center of the Masjid-i-Sh&h Persians often say, "mullAs are donkeys," and hear the words echoed four times. The tiles form intricate patterns that encourage abstract meditation and conversation with God.
In my opinion, the Masjid-i-Sb~h surpasses in beauty the mosques of Cairo and even the Aihaim-bra. Incidentally, a scholar in Spain told me that the name "Espajia" is derived from 1sf &hAn; even if this should some day be disproved as folk etymology, it is of interest to note that the Spanish people themselves claim this connection with the fascinating city in the heart of Persia.
Also of incredible beauty is the Masjid-i-Jum'ih, which has a room dedicated to the Lord of the Age (the S&liibu'z-ZamAn, Whose coming was fulfilled in the advent of the Báb) and which has been hallowed by the presence of the B&b, Who came there to pray.
Certain groups have spread the report that there are no Bahá'ís in America and that the Temple at Wil-mette is only a drawing, not a building. On our way to the town of NajafTh~d, center of a rich fruit and almond section, we drove to a service stationed operated by a Baha'i.
One of the sceptical customers at that place remarked that if he could be shown one American Baha'i, he would become a believer. I was gleefully pointed out to him.
lit is wonderful to visit small cities like NajafTh~d where there are thousands of believers, leavening the lump. The grandson of the Beloved of Martyrs led us through alleys which had been sanctified by the feet of the BTh.
When our guide was a smafl boy, he was often beaten by the enemies
Page 745of the Cause. His attackers have long since dispersed and he remains a strong champion of the Cause which teaches that "all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers."
SHfRAZIt was my inestimable bounty to be the first pilgrim from the West to enter the blessed House of the B&b on the anniversary of His inauguration of the new world faith which provides mankind with the means of attaining a peaceful world of freedom, happiness and justice. I have often visited the lovely Bahá'í Temple in Illinois, and it has been my privilege as well to come into the precincts of the Holy House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghd&d, and to see Kh4mayn and other shrines of Isl&m, and such Christian cathedrals as Notre Dame. But within the Holy House in Shfr4z I found a spiritual atmosphere more exalted than any I had experienced before. Even persons of other faiths and of no religion comment on their feeling that the Declaration Chamber is in reality an ''upper room.'' The French ambassador on the occasion of his visit to the House expressed a similar feeling.
The way to the House, past b4z&rs and through winding, noisome alleys, was anything but promising. Once inside the portal, however, I found another world. The Persian friends and I performed our ablutions with water from the same well that the B&b had used. It is virtually as it always was, and the water is cold and refreshing. Next to it is the orange tree planted by the Báb and nearby a small pool bordered with flowers. The pilgrims remove their shoes before entering this tiny courtyard.
The crossing of each threshold, the ascending of each step is an occasion for prayer and demonstrations of devotion. After kneeling down and touching with our lips and foreheads the steps leading into the House, we entered a chamber on the main floor and HaKlrat-i-Afn&n, the third cousin of the Báb, poured rose-water into our hands so that we might anoint our heads before climbing the eight steps leading to the floor above.
The friends asked me to chant in Persian and Arabic and I felt highly honored to participate in the praying in such a wondrously holy spot. In my prayers, I remembered many friends in various parts of the world and also the National Spiritual Assemblies of Persia and
America.I also thought of that model American teacher, Martha Root, who laid her forehead on the sacred Threshold here and wept.
That such a great Cause that a Messenger of God, should have come from such a small House filled her with sorrow.
But the House seemed to me a gem, perfect in size.
In the future when vast multitudes make the pilgrimage to this place, it will not be possible for the friends to enter the House.
Finally, we assembled in the room where the glorious Youth of twenty-five years had bidden His friend, Mullft Husayn, to enter � a hundred and three years ago this night. Rare, framed Tablets hung on the walls. A magnificent silk rug, donated by Shoghi Effendi at the time of the Centenary, covered the floor. The room has five windows which face the garden. We turned toward the corner near the first window; here a lamp marks the place where the B&b was seated as He gave the glad tidings of the birth of a wondrous, world-em-bracing Cause.
He had truly prophesied on that immortal night: "This night, this very hour, will in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals."
Later, we went to the house of Hadrat-i-Afn&n and he showed us relics of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. There were garments worn by the ETh when He went to Mecca; we saw how delicate that precious Being must have been, although He was about the average height of the Shir~zis of His day, and that very slightness enhanced our appreciation of His grandeur. We saw a ring on which the Greatest Name was cut and we learned that it had been worn by Bahá'u'lláh. I have mentioned only a few of the wonders in store for the pilgrim to ShirAz
Page 746The First Baha Spiritual Assembly of the Philippines, Solano, Nueva Viscaya.
Shfr&z is famed for nightingales, roses, lovers, and poets to write about them. Some Bahá'ís who operate a bus service placed a vehicle at our disposal and we first went to the tomb of Ijl&f4, the "Tongue of the Invisible," a poet far greater than 'Umar ~~ayyt~m but who lacked a Fitzgerald. On another occasion, we visited the grave of Sa'dif, perhaps even more admired by the Persians than HAfiz, and we noticed with interest that some of the inscriptions on the walls surrounding the tomb were verses from the blind Bahá'í poet, Shfiridih, whose awn grave is in another room not far distant.
On our departure from the TihrAn Airport, many friends came to bid us goodby.
Of interest was the comment of a wealthy non-Bah~i'i who was leaving on the same plane: "See how much love these Bahá'ís show toward each other; but nobody cares very much whether we go or stay." It was exciting to see the friends of Isf4h&n rush forward to the plane during the brief stop in that delightful city; they brought flowers and candy, especially the white, hard gaz for which the place is famous, and also books to supply the requirements of their coworkers.
One of my memorable experiences in Persia was an appearance before an assemblage of 340 Bahá'í children in ShirAz.
I urged them to store up in their minds those verbal treasures which are to be discovered in the Hidden. Words and other Bahá'í books, and also referred to the Tablet revealed by the Master when Shoghi Effendi, as a small boy, had told Him of a dream in which he saw the Báb.
If was followed on the program by Jinijh-i-Samandari, an extremely capable and devoted believer, who on the spot � without advance warning as to my subject � described the circumstances of the dream of that marvellous figure who is now our Guardian, produced the text of the Tablet, and also quoted the affirmative words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to an American woman who had inquired as to whether the Guardian had yet been born.
In the footsteps of Martha Root, we also visited Persepolis Takht-i-Jam-shid, that testimonial of Persia's past. Sixty years ago the Master described various articles at Persepolis and these were not discovered until a half-century afterward.
A few miles from there is Takht-i-T&viTh, a holy place of the Zoroastrians where are to be found inscriptions in Pahiavi and Latin.
Shir~z fills the receptive soul with wonderment. Yes, the skies are bluer and the stars much brighter there even than in California, and there is an air of peace and repose. In that blessed city we acquired � even if only for the time being � some of the "priceless possessions of the people of Paradise" and we sensed in a measure the experience of Mu11~ Ijusayn, the gate of the Gate of God, on that long-ago night: "Me-thinks I was in a place of which it could be truly said: 'Therein no toil shall reach us'; 'No vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor any falsehood, but only the cry, Peace, Peace!'"
Page 747IT WAS the early part of November 1945 when our hospital ship docked in the harbor of Yokohama.
As part of the medical personnel I was stationed for a few weeks near Yokohama, and then transferred to a hospital in Tokyo.
Now, as I was about to enter this new, strange country about which I knew little, I looked forward eagerly to finding the Japanese Baha'is. For several years nothing had been heard of them. In a country devastated and disorganized by war, I faced the challenging but fascinating task of trying to locate my fellow believers. I recalled my experiences with the Philippine Bahá'ís only some ten days before. After months of waiting I had finally been able to make the difficult trip one hundred and fifty miles north of Manila, to a town called Solano. There I had found my friends.
They had little worldly goods, but nevertheless were eager and enthusiastic to talk of plans to promote the Bahá'í World Faith.
I wondered if I would repeat this pleasant experience now that I was in Japan.
My first few months were very busy because of the rapid change in personnel.
During this time I wrote to friends in the United States and asked for addresses of Japanese Baha'is. I received several names, and wrote letters to each of them. Then I went about my work, waiting for results.
At last I received my first reply. It came from Mr. Tokujiro Toni of the city of Kyoto. In 1916, Toni had written two letters � one in English, one in Esperanto � to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had replied to both letters.
Toni expressed his gladness at having a Bahá'í friend in the United States Army. He then said, "After the long night of war, we can take our hands in each other's now. How happy it is for us! But we are very sorry that we Bahá'ís could not prevent the war. We Japanese are now in great difficulty in every way, but I still believe that God is love." It was a heartwarming letter, and I looked forward to the time when I could meet him. But there was not to be until several months later, in May.
Another reply was a card sent by a friend of another Baha, Mrs. Yuri Furukawa.
This friend wrote that Mrs. Furukawa had left Japan for Manchuria ten years ago, and that when communications improved, contact might be established.
To Mrs. Furukawa, when she was a young girl in Tokyo, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had sent three inspiring Tablets.
The opening salutation and sentence of the first Tablet points to the quality of Mrs. Furukawa's soul when He says: "0 thou beloved daughter. Thy letter was received and was perused in the utmost joy, that, praise be to God, in the land of Japan, the light of the love of God has appeared resplendently and a torch, such as thee, has been kindled, for thy heart overflows with the wine of the love of God and thy spirit is ablaze.
From Toni's letter I made contact with Mr. K. Sawada who, before becoming blind, had traveled and studied in America. He was of slight build and had a very gracious manner.
He had a good education and expressed himself easily in English. It was a familiar sight to the neighbors to see Mrs. Sawada escorting her husband to the Censorship Department of the Tokyo Post Office where both worked. Because of his many meetings with Miss
Agnes Alexander, Bahá'íteacher from Honolulu, and his meeting with Miss Martha Root, internationally known American Bahá'í teacher, Mr. Sawada was acquainted with many of the Bahá'í teachings. At his home in
Page 748Tokyo, we had several interesting visits discussing our experiences.
Through the kindness of Mr. Saw-ada, I was able to meet Mrs. Naoe Naganuma, wife of a Japanese educator in Tokyo. Mrs. Naganuma is a former New York City girl who first came to Japan as a tourist. She fell ill during her visit and remained to regain her health. It was during her convalescence that she met her future husband.
A professor of Japanese and English, Mr. Naganuma is much admired by his students because of his kind and just nature.
Mrs. Naganuma was cQnversant with several Bahá'í tenets and also had the privilege of meeting Miss Alexander and Miss Root. At her home we held several meetings, attended by Japanese students, Nisei girls, and an American whom Miss Alexander had met in Honolulu.
Among Naganuma's duties as an instructor, was the task of teaching English to Prince and Princess Takeda, the prince being a cousin of Emperor Hirohito.
I had thus the opportunity, on Naganuma's arrangement, to visit the royal couple twice at their winter home in Tokyo. The prince appeared to be about forty years of age and was of medium build. His bearing was dignified but not stilted. The princess, about six years younger than her husband, was charming and gracious. She was dressed in a western style woman s suit. Her pretty face was lightly made up, much in the manner of western women, except for a pink spot of rouge in the middle of each eyelid.
Though we spoke little English, our first visit was a very pleasant one.
It included a dinner of various Japanese vegetable and pastry dishes exquisitely and colorfully prepared, and a view of the doll festival exhibit. This is one of the many festivals of Japan. It is called the Doll Festival for
Girls (Hina Maturi). Itis observed throughout the country on the 3rd of March by families with young daughters.
The dolls are made to represent the Emperor and the Empress, court officials and nobles, court minstrels and dancers, all in their oldfashioned, magnificent costumes.
Originally there was a religi mis significance in this doll festival. The children supposedly transferred their bad qualities to the dolls which would then be thrown into the river. The festival has now become mostly a pastime for the girls and an occasion for family reunions. Before leaving our royal hosts that day, we were presented with souvenir dolls.
In another visit several weeks later, a Nisel friend and I were shown the prince's miniature horse collection. During this visit, I was able to take some photographs of the prince and his family.
They accepted from me a pamphlet of the Bahá'í principles in English and Japanese, and also A Bahá'í Child's A.B.C which I hoped would be used especially for the four young children of the royal couple.
One of my most difficult tasks was contacting Mr. Dajun Inouye, a Bahá'í who was formerly a Buddhist priest. He resided in Hokkaido, a northern island of Japan. This island is the home of the Ainu, the aborigines, who before the war numbered about fifteen thousand. It has beautiful parks, botanical gardens, museums and numerous hot springs.
Visitors are also attracted by the Ainu village at Tikabumi.
The island itself is about the size of the state of Indiana. Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, has a population of one hundred and ninety-six thousand.
It is the home of HokkaidoThis administrative and industrial center was first laid out in 1871, and patterned after our American cities.
Inouye is mentioned in the first Tablet sent to Toni by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who sent His love to ]Inouye and his friend, and then said, "My hope is that those two blessed souls may shine like unto two heavenly stars from the horizon of Japan and may be the cause of its enlightenment."
Inouye finally learned of my presence in Tokyo through his friend Toni.
He then wrote a very warm and enthusiastic letter from Hokkaido, saying that he wished to come to Tokyo and teach the Baha Faith. Later he mentioned Martha Root. He said he remembered meeting her at a hotel in Kobe and he still recalls "her gentle and full-of-love grace."
He wasnot able to come to Tokyo however, because of the military restrictions on people from the country coming into the larger cities where there was such an acute shortage of food and housing. Therefore, in another letter, he said he would do the utmost he could for the Bahá'í Cause while living in Sapporo, Hokkaido, because "we Japanese must awaken to the truth which has been revealed by Bahá'u'lláh.
The time has come when His light should cover not only Japan and the whole of Asia, but all the world." In both our conversations and letters, my Japanese friends would repeatedly say what a sorrowful thing it was that these teachings of the Bahá'í World Faith, which had been given to mankind by its Founder almost eighty years ago, were so long in being understood and accepted by the world.
Mr. Tanaka, from the western part of the Island of Honshu, came to see me at the hospital where I was stationed. Unfortunately I was away at the time.
Later I received a letter from him explaining that he had learned of my address from Toni, that he was a Baha, and that he had wished to visit with me.
In a second letter, Tanaka wrote this interesting observation: "I believe that present Japan indeed should find her aspiring way in the Baha twelve basic principles!"
He also wrote that he was employed in a raw silk mill and that he had a family of ten children.
Before leaving Japan, I made sure that among the Bahá'í literature I sent to him,
I included A Bahá'í Child'sA.B.C. I was still unable to locate H. S. Fuj ita, an internationally known Baha'i.
Mr. Fujita had gone to America in 1904 as a young student. There he had learned of and accepted the Bahá'í Faith through Mrs. Kathryn Frank-land.
Later he had had the great experience of meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá during his visit to the United States.
In 1919, he had gone to Haifa, Palestine, and there served first 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and then Shoghi Effendi until 1939 when he left Haifa and returned to his native land.
Knowing the great interest of American Bahá'ís in Mr. Fujita's welfare and whereabouts, I had exhausted every avenue of search. One afternoon, to my delight, I received a very welcome letter.
It was from Mrs. Corinnehis sojourn in Amer-lea, Mr. Fujita lived for several years at the home of Mrs. True and her family.
In her letter Mrs. True told me that through a discharged American soldier she had received word that Mr. Fujita was alive, and was still in Japan.
She sent me a more complete address.I wrote him again, and this time I also wired him. In a few days, a telegram reached me saying, "Re-ceived wire � many thanks � awaiting letter � hope you are well. Bahá'í greetings. Fujita."
As soon as it was verified that liewas in Yanai, a town some six hundred miles southwest of Tokyo, If was determined to make the trip to see him. Fortunately 1 was able to ride on the fast hospital train which was running to the north and south of Japan. After an overnight trip I arrived in Yanai on Sunday, May 19, 1946.
During the two days and night that I visited with Mr. Fujita, I found him enthusiastic in our discussions on the Bahá'í Faith. At sixty-one he was youthful and vibrant.
Although less than five feet in height, he gave the impression of strength and vitality as he went about his duties in the railroad office. He would laugh and joke with the service men as he gave his directions and, when a humorous situation would arise, he would heartily enjoy it. His work as interpreter at the Yanal railroad station, put him in contact with many American, British and New Zealand soldiers and civilians. This gave him frequent opportunities to speak of the Bahá'í principles, something which he, of course, was not able to do during the long years of Japanese imperialism.
During the war he had lived quietly, working on his brother's farm.
Fujita's native town of Yanai is located but a few train hours south of the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. Yet it was untouched throughout the war. It is still sleepy, small and quaint. It lies at the foot of little hills and borders the beautiful Inland Sea.
Like many other westernizedUp-to-date banks, hospitals, business establishments, stand next to oldstyle Japanese homes and ancient shrines. Throughout Yanal, even the smallest piece of land � whether a backyard or small patch in the foothills � is cultivated for the all-important production of food. This intense cultivation assured Yanai an ample supply of food even during the war.
Fujita told me that now that the war was over, and there was more opportunity to live and speak freely, his wish was to go to a larger city where he could teach the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
We shared our many wartime experiences. And, as I told him about the work of the Bahá'í Faith in America, his head would nod up and down and his whole face would light up. He told me that when he heard the names of these old friends, memories came flooding back to him from sunnier days. He wished me to express his loving greetings to his friends when I returned home.
He brought out his address book and we went over every one of the names to see what I could tell him about them. During our meals together, Fujita enchanted me with stories of his experiences in the service of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
On the day he did not work, he took me on a tour of the town. We visited his brother's farm on which he worked. Then we went to the Inland Sea, where he liked to rest and fish on occasional summer evenings. This sea is in the southern part of the main island of Honshu.
It is part of one of the most scenic of Japan's national parks � a natural playground for yachting, boating and fishing. A breathtaking study in contrasts, it has a granite rock coastline, and bluegreen waves that wash along a winding beach of white sand. Dark, somber green pines stand against a robin's egg sky.
After discussing my plan to meet Toni in Kyoto, Fujita and I decided to send a wire to Mr. Fukushima, a friend of Toni. We sent this wire early one evening at a nearby postal station, saying that I would wish to meet the Bahá'ís of Kyota when I arrived there Tuesday morning.
Then we walked back to Fujita's small room on the second floor of his brother's home. In a short while, from my position at the low Japanese table, I saw him bringing in a tray of four Japanese dishes, very colorfully prepared. The food was part of a marriage feast which neighbors across the street were celebrating, and they had kindly presented this food to me. Before tasting it, I photographed the table with the tray, beside which lay a copy of World Order magazine. At the same time I was able to get a photograph of
Fujita.news had reached Fujita, he was very glad to accept some Bahá'í magazines and the book, God Passes By, written by the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.
On Monday night I said goodbye to Fujita's relatives.
They invited me to come again. Accompanied by Fujita's niece, we walked to the station where farewells were said as I boarded the train for Kyoto.
After a three hundred mile overnight ride from Yanai, I arrived the next morning in Kyoto, which had also been spared the bombings. Kyoto is a city celebrated for its artistic handmade products such as lacquer, silk embroidery, kimonos, cloisonne, bronze and porcelain.
It is a classic city, representing the civilization of old Japan in art, literature, temples and shrines. It is rich in history and legend. Of the three thousand temples and shrines that once existed in Kyoto and its environs, more than a thousand still remain.
For over a thousand years, from its founding in 794 A.D. until the removal of the Imperial Court to Tokyo in 1868, Kyoto was the capital of Japan.
It is situated on the main line between Tokyo and Kobe.
I was met at the station by Mr. and Mrs. Toni, and Mr. Fukushima. They had been waiting for me without knowing what I would look like. However, remembering that Mr. Toni was blind, I was able to recognize him because of his cane and dark glasses. I introduced myself.
At once there was a feeling of gladness at our being able to clasp hands. Mr. Toni was about fifty-two. Possessed of a very kindly disposition, he was greatly loved by the blind children he taught in school. His friend, Fukushima, a Catholic and Esperantist, also taught in the same school.
Being a friend of Toni for many years, Fukushima knew of the Baha teachings.
He showed me an Esperanto book, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, which he said Miss Alexander had given him years ago.
After our warm greeting, we decided to visit the Kyoto School for the Blind where Toni had been teaching for many years.
Toni invited me to speak before one of the classes, a class in English, consisting of about fifty blind pupils, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-five.
Arriving at the school, I was introduced to the principal and a few of the instructors. We were served tea before proceeding to the class room. I was introduced by Toni, who said I was an American soldier who would speak on the twelve Bahá'í principles.
A light of interest illumined the faces of the students as they adjusted themselves in their seats.
Toni acted as interpreter.On our way out from the class room I passed among the children again. I shook hands with many of them and I will remember for a long time their cheerful, upturned faces.
In the school office we were treated to some Japanese music played on Japanese string instruments.
At the end of a well-performed concert, I shook hands with the musicians and thanked them. The Japanese custom of greeting is to bow to each other a few times, but now many are learning again some of the western customs.
Leaving the school amid the happy goodbyes of the students, we took a trolley to Toni's for the evening meal. Knowing the scarcity of food, I gave Mrs. Torh some of the army "K" rations and some dehydrated soup mixture that I had with me. She accepted them, but served a delightful Japanese dinner. The meal, prepared with the greatest of care by Mrs. Toni consisted of boiled rice, with some of the following: otsuyu (clear soup) sashimi (sliced raw fish), yakimono (broiled fish), sit-kiyaki (chicken or beef stew), various scalloped dishes, tern pura (fritters), chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), kabayaki (spitcheock), or boiled vegetables, and pickles.
Mrs. Toni did not speak English, yet I was very much at home with her. She radiated such a strong feeling of friendliness and kindness. Through Mr. Toni, she told me that Miss Alexander had been a guest at their home and that they had spent many pleasant hours together.
After our dinner we took some pictures both inside and outside their home.
Toni, Fukushima and I thenwent on a walking tour through tree-lined avenues of temples and gardens. Again I was busy with my camera.
Our visit together had to be cut short that summer afternoon for it was necessary for me to meet the army hospital train. As we walked to the station, I remarked to Toni how much I admired his wife. This he translated to her, and as she understood, she smiled and put her arm about me. I boarded the train carrying their parting gifts of lacquer ware, silk goods and fans in my hand and a never-to-be forgotten memory of their kindness in my heart.
When I arrived in Tokyo, I returned to my base.In just a few weeks, I found myself leaving Japan. Before sailing for America, I sent my farewell letters to Japanese Baha'is, expressing my regret that another meeting had not taken place, but also my delight that we had been able to see and talk with each other.
I promised to carry with me to America their greetings and affection, to share with the American Bahá'ís the story of their experiences during those isolated years. It was with a lighter heart that I embarked for home, cheered by their own hope for the future of Japan.
Fireside meeting � Bahá'ís of Japan.IN THE city of Quito, capitol of Ecuador, there is a flower mart in the square of San Bias. It is nothing more than a row of rude tables upon which are displayed carnations. Long-stem-med, full-bloomed carnations with their salty fragrance.
Scarcely ever anything else, except the wistful, tiny white blooms of gypsophila (baby's breath) often given you by the florist as a green or background for your bouquet. These the Indian Quichua women of the flower mart call "ilu-siones."
Whether in Spanish the word means elusive or illusion I do not know, but it is as descriptive of the flower as is the Quichua word "wah-wah" for baby.
In writing now of my experience as a Bahá'í pioneer in Ecuador I am blocked for the moment; barred, as it were, from collecting my thoughts beyond a recollection of startlingly large and fragrant carnations sensed through a filmy veil of ilusiones.
There are other squares or plazas, of course, in Quito of which the Plaza San Bias is one of the smallest.
There is the Plaza de Independencia upon which the Palacio de Gobierno faces. It was in this palace of Government I was honored by witnessing the historic interview by Mrs. Gayle Woolson, Baha pioneer of Bogota, Colombia with
Dr. Jos6 Maria Velascowas then he, the President, said, "I am happy to see there is a Centro Bahá'í in Quito," and likened the Bahá'í Message to the opening of a window to allow fresh air to waft through.
It was over the Plaza de Independencia I heard the President's voice rebound in strident tones, "Bahá'u'lláh", he voiced. What happened to my heart I do not know, but, I felt I was carried out the window over the plaza on the force of the intonation. "Is this how His Name is pronounced?"
I regained my composure as Gayle assured him he had done well.
There is the park in Quito called the Alameda upon which faces the presidential palace. It was in the yellow room of the White House of Ecuador I escorted Gayle Woolson on her interview, at the invitation of the President, with his charming intellectual wife, Sra. Gonna
Porras de Velasco Ibarra.The first lady of Ecuador during our rather long visit excused herself to go into a bedroom to see the copy of Bahá'u'lláh and The New Era in Spanish, which her husband was reading.
She then presented us each with a copy of one of her books of prose.
There is the Plaza Sucre in Quito upon which faces the national theater of Ecuador, El Teatro Sucre.
The Teatro Sucre was put at the disposal of the Bahá'ís of Quito by the Minister of Education for a Bahá'í talk by Gayle Woolson.
The theater was filled to the rafters. The loveliness of her person, the soft elegance in her manner of presenting the Cause of God enthralled the capacity audience into exhibiting a decorum of reverence.
There is the Recoleta in Quito with a guard at the gate for it is here that stands the building of the Ministry of Defense. The Minister of Defense called a meeting in the officers' salon of this building where Gayle gave the Message, speaking on the attainment and maintenance of peace to about seventy-five of the high ranking officers of the Ecuadorian army.
One of them, Major Carlos Suarez Palacios, was already a Baha'i. The uniformed and capeci as
Page 754semblage hung on each word with the hunger and respect one gives true manna from heaven. Here was felt an air of awesome attentiveness.
Of all these things I hope Gayle will write in detail. There are many other facts of her visit in Quito of interest to the Baha World: the intimate talks at table; the talks to groups and clubs such as the Rotarian and Lions clubs; the cooperation of radio and press, for the Bahá'í Message was front page news in Quito for some weeks. The leading papers carried her picture and a full column or more on the front page several times during her visit to the "city of eternal spring," Quito.
Quito has many stories one of which, I know, an historian will some day record. It will be an historian who will collect the data and record only the proven facts in order to retain the drama of the sacrifice of the lone Baha figure of Ecuador,
John Stearns.I was present at the establishing of the first Bahá'í Assembly of Quito a few years after Johnny's death. The assembly was formed in April, 1947 in the Centro Bahá'í at Calle Sodiro No. 133, a half block up the cobblestone street from the Alameda. There I witnessed the tears of the men who formed that Assembly when someone said, "If only Johnny were here." And the answer came, "I think he is." That historian will record how John Stearns left the comparative luxury of his native United States for the then much different mode of living in Quito. Quito is lodged 9000 feet up in a valley between the peaks of the Andes. Until recently it was quite isolated.
At the time Johnny came such commodities as butter and bread were for the first time being made available to the public in the market places.
Water was scarce, some days there was none at all.
These luxuries and many others were indulged in only intermittently by Johnny.
He will tell how Johnny seated in the dining room of a middle class pensi6n having difficulty in ordering a plate of soup because of his inThility to speak Spanish.
He will tell of the Ecuadorian youth, Eduardo (Les) Gonzalez, who spoke English, helping him order his soup. And then of their long talk; Les and Johnny together, into the small hours of the morning when Les accepted the Bahá'í Faith.
He will tell of Johnny's difficulty in manufacturing candy, a delicacy not before on the open market in Quito. How his equipment had to be made by hand.
Yes, pots and pans too.How he had to learn to cook his products at that high altitude, on wood, alcohol or gasoline stoves.
He will tell how Johnny inaugurated and maintained a Bahá'í radio program.
How he played his cello in the symphonic programs at the Teatro Sucre. And how he played it again when he changed to a mean room in order to maintain his Bahá'í activities � this time accompanied by Bahá'í students, including Les with his guitar, playing, laughing, and singing atop a load of his belongings piled on a rickety little truck rumbling over the cobblestones.
And how he fell ill with cancer.And he will tell how Johnny's radio program during the war years gave the Bahá'í principles of peace, the Lesser Peace and the Most Great Peace. Then of the Bahá'ís pressing him to go home to the States for treatment.
And of the great turmoil and boycott of his business caused by a group of European refugees because of his peace program. And of the jamming of his radio programs. And of the worsening of his health.
With the world about him bent on his destruction the laughing, young, eager John Stearns made his decision. He moved.
Not back to the States for medical treatment.He rented a room in the home of a European woman who had attended Bahá'í classes.
She told me that he had said he hadn't slept between sheets for the three previous years.
He spoke to consuls and officials to no avail.Then, counteracting attacks in the newspapers, he placed an advertisement inviting Quito to listen to a Bahá'í radio program of current importance. Outwitting those who had caused interference in the remote control presentations of his radio pro
Page 755grams, he went out into the country to the transmitting towers. There the broadcast was made direct and without interference. In the broadcast, among other pertinent facts, he gave the statements on the Bahá'í Faith made by Jan Masaryk and Eduard Bene~ of Czechoslovakia.
The next day, at his candy shop, there was a lineup of the people who had caused the misunderstanding.
They made token purchases, indicated they regretted their behavior and extended words of encouragement. A few years later a young Czech girl asked me for Bahá'í literature in English, explaining that she had been translating it from the Spanish into her native tongue and sending it on to Czechoslovakia.
A historian will get interesting data from Eve Nicklin in Lima, Peru, where afterward John Stearns went to die in peaceful surroundings.
Or from Virginia OrbisonI never met Johnny, not in person, that is. But I've a peculiar feeling he was present among the friends that April in Quito.
About a year previous to that historic event the first Ecuador-Thn Thn Bahá'í Assembly was established in Guayaquil with the assistance of
Virginia Orbison. ManyOf Ambato, I have not heard from the Bahá'í group since the recent disastrous earthquakes.
I have seen pictures of the ruins of buildings I had known. I can only pray that God will assist in rebuilding that city with the spirit that demands an unshakable foundation.
Of Manta, I recall with awe the rising of a huge golden moon over the sea to appear white and small in the dark sky. It was whiter and brighter than I have ever seen the moon.
After a meeting in the sala which the duefia of the hotel had given us we watched the moon for hours. Never will I forget the moon at Manta.
Of Baha de Caraquez, its beauty evokes a yearning to feel again the soft delight of its yellow and blue sunset: clear gold of the sun on clear gold of the sands and clear blue of the sea. This blue-gold sunset blends in my memory with the love and courtesy of the seekers as we sat in tropical salas of strong bamboo-like buildings dis
Page 756Official delegates to First South American Bahá'í Congress, Buenos Aires, November, 1946.
cussing the wonders of the Bahá'í Faith. There are carnations and ilusiones in the other cities also, but they are for the most part flown in from Quito.
When I visited the Equatorial Monument, an unimposing marker purported to fix the spot for the dividing lines of the earth, I was told to circumambulate the pillar and to say I had been around the worM in a few steps.
Then I was shown a picture of John Stearns and was told to stand with one foot on either side of the equatorial line, hold my hand high and smile joyously as Johnny had done. I tried to do so. Ecuador to me is the remnant of the cultures of the Incas and the Conquistadores.
For Ecuador holds still extant some of the oldest buildings in the Americas of European architecture, and the traces of medieval Southern European culture.
This is clearly visible as well as the underlying trend of passive resistance maintained for centuries by the underprivileged conquered hordes, to which the Conquistadores made concessions in order to call them their own.
And concessions are still being made, as witnessed by their festivals. All of this I see through a delicate tracery of ilusiones. Baby's breath, we call the flower. It is well, as I see the birth of the people of this land in spirituality, soft and elusive as a baby's breath, grow into consciousness of its development in the future, all of its inhabitants as one unit instilled with confidence in the capacity of a human being to develop into a man among men.
Just as in the United States men must become conscious of their abilities as human beings, regardless of color.
As I think of some nine days spent in Colombia, my memory is no longer filtered through ilusiones. However, for brevity my thoughts will light only as briefly as the planes that carried me on. I left Quito by plane one day to bid the friends in Guayaquil goodbye.
An interesting evening was spent therewith the pangs that go with the parting of friends.
The plane next day was bound directly for Cali. However, a change was made and the plane stopped in Quito for repairs. We were grounded for the night. There was no place at the airport to check my baggage.
You can imagine the surprise of flora Hottes when I arrived at the pensi6n with my bags. Next day as I was hurrying to get to the airport again, I met a young lady who had been attending classes. As we spoke on the street she announced her intention to make her declaration as a Baha'i. So with a happy heart I left Ecuador for Colombia, arriving in Cali the same day.
I put up at a hotel and half-hearted-ly, not even hoping he might succeed, I gave the bell boy an address and a coin. I told him to find the secretary of the Local Baha Assembly, deliver my note personally and wait far a reply. The bell boy did not return. But before I could finish my shower the secretary, Sr. Compos, and his son were in my room. I had several Bahá'í visitors and gave a talk that night fob lowed by more visits in coffee shops, and left the next day for
Bogota.At the airport of Bogota there were two sedate and elegant ladies softly calling my name to each passenger as he passed through the gate. They were a committee sent to fetch me. Gayle Woolson, the only person in Bogota who knew me, could not come. There is a rather large Bahá'í community in Bo-got~; I stayed there for a couple of days for I was loath to leave these friends, who feted me sumptuously. I remember a princely banquet befitting a dignitary, but with the added warmth of sincere Baha love and friendship. I could look down the long table as far as the eye could see, and there were faces, all kindly, overlooking my gorging myself with foods I hadn't had for some time, such as good ice cream. No wonder I didn't want to leave Do-got~! Gayle
Woolson and Leonor Por-rosof the teaching committee for Go-lombia suggested I go to Mogotes, warning me it was a difficult trip over the mountains.
I refused, with the ex cuse that I needed rest.Nevertheless, Gayle gave me the name of a young man in Bucaramanga who was interested in knowing something of the Faith.
So I boarded a plane for Buca-ramanga where I went to the home of the young fellow, whose name was David Silva.
He was so interested in our conversation about the Faith that he went with me about a mile out of town to a crossroads where I hoped to catch a bus to Mogotes. We talked there for some time before David said he would accompany me to Mogotes if I would wait while he went home and packed his bag. I sat on my suitcases in the scarce shade of an adobe wall for an hour or more before his return. Then we decided we had either missed the bus or it might not run that day. So we hitchhiked through several towns and stopped for lunch at a village in the foothills. We were fortunate in getting a ride on a truck all the way to Sanquil.
We had to hire a cab to take us from there to Mogotes. It took hours through the rain over slippery roads to get to Mogotes, where we arrived long after nightfall. We put up at a dimly lit and dank inn, which I must say was not too clean � but we were tired and it was shelter. We opened the window and watched the rain pour down in a solid sheet as we lay on the thin pads over wooden slats that made our beds. We fell into a restful slumber, satisfied in having made the trip over the spine of the cordilleras of the Andes and caught a glimpse in Mogotes of one of the friends.
Later I learned that Leonor Porros and Gayle Woolson, both of delicate frame and mild constitution, had made the arduous trip and washed the floor in that very room before they would sleep.
The Mogotenos are a simple country people, campesinos.
We spent two days in Mogotes With two meetings each day for the Baha'is, and a meeting for the public.
Then the tortuous trek back by bus through Sanguil to Bucaramanga.
It is interesting to note the distinct breakfasting habits of the different towns of South America. In Quito it is always just a dry roll and a cup of coffee made with milk.
In BucaramanDelegates to Second South American Congress, Santiago, Chile, January, 1948.
Partial view of table at banquet at close of Second Bahá'í Latin American Conference of Panama, 1947.
Page 759ga one is awakened about six in the morning with a small glass of citrus fruit juice and a tiny cup of delicious strong black coffee. An hour or so later one has a full course breakfast starting with an enticing light soup called pavo peligroso (dangerous turkey), eggs with ham or sausage, pots of hot milk and coffee, and all topped off with a rice pudding of fresh coconut and fresh pineapple.
In the late afternoon on arrival at the hotel I had intended to sleep until breakfast. This, I thought, would rest my aching back from the rough treatment of the buckboard that was my seat on the bus and upon which I had bounced over the precipitous ridges of the Andes from Mogotes.
I had not yet had time to enjoy the luxury of a shower before David burst in with the news that he had arranged for a meeting at his home that very night. He had invited the members of his athletic club to hear the Bahá'í Message.
The room fairly bulged at the seams with these interested young men.
The girls with their duefias filled the doorway and windows. There was much conversation that night in the coffee shops of Bucaramanga, vibrant discussions on the Bahá'í Faith.
In the morning I had visitors at breakfast and on until David and his brother, who had also become interested, took me to the airport.
Back in BogotA for a day, and then to Barranquilla, the teeming Colombian port.
I visited with Bahá'ís in Bahá'u'lláh that night and the next day until the meeting time which was followed by the usual delightful discussions in a coffee shop. Then by bus to
Cartagena.sea fort with a walled town. The modern city has grown far beyond the old walls. The walls themselves are being torn down in order to let air into the old town. There is a fresh spirit being wafted in old Cartagena for the Bahá'í Assembly there which meets in the Masonic hail is anxious to deepen in the teachings and asks always for more and more Bahá'í literature in Spanish. During a public meeting there I lost my sense of time and spoke for two hours in my ungrammatical and limited Spanish. These men listened most attentively and then kept me for another two hours with pertinent questions. After this some of them gathered about a table in a coffee shop where we talked until the cafe closed. Then a few sat in the lobby of the hotel where we talked, never able to quiet their insatiable hunger for the Bahá'í teachings.
Here as everywhere are shown the results of Gayle Woolson's work.
Here as everywhere there is a constant clamoring for Bahá'í literature in Spanish.
Of interest to North American Bahá'ís is the fact that in these countries there is a great preponderance of men who have found the courage to make their declarations as Baha'is. By contrast, in the United States the Bah~ 'i women outnumber the men.
So, leaving the then all � male Bahá'í community of Cartagena, I flew back to Barranquilla and on to Panama. It was nice to be in the Tivoli Hotel at Ancon again.
This hotel is in the Canal Zone and it is just across the street and up a block to the apartments of Cora Oliver and Julie Regal, longtime pioneers in PanamA City. After a short visit with them I took the train across the isthmus to Col6n. The train takes about an hour and a half as it follows the Canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic side.
In Col6n I was met by Louise Gas-well, who for a decade had pioneered for the Faith. Would I take over her apartment in Col6n for three months while she went to San Salvador?
Cristobal in the Canal Zone is just across the street from Col6n, PanamA. I was told by the labor office in Cristobal that there was no work to be had, that many were out of work. However, the first day I went out to look for work I want to dock No. 9 at Cristobal where I was offered a job if I would take it for a temporary period of three months. When Louise returned I moved into bachelor quarters in Cristobal. The beautiful spirit of the friends of Col6n was exemplary.
We continued the classes inaugurated by Louisein CoI6n was established in April, 1948 as a crowning achievement of the efforts of Louise
Page 760Members of the Bahá'í community of S4o Paulo, Brazil rejoicing over the choice of their beautiful mountain city as the site of the 3rd annual South American Congress and International Summer School, held January, 1949.
Settlers in the group are Mr. Edmund Miessler, standing center, Muriel, his wife, at right and Margot at left of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í picture, with Bob standing second from left.
Caswell. She has made many trips into the interior, as have Julie Regal and others.
The trip across the isthmus and return in order to give a talk can be made after work. This interchange of speakers is made by both communities.
I spent nine months in Panam&, working until the day I left. Early in 1948 I boarded a boat in the sweltering heat of Cristobal and five days later arrived in New York in zero weather. Still three thousand miles from my home in Los Angeles, I stopped at several Bahá'í centers on my way. While I was in Chicago the National Teaching Committee asked me to go to the northwestern states of Washington and Oregon to help prepare groups for assembly status before April, 1948.
A fast train brought me home for about ten days with my family. Then, taking my still unpacked suitcases with me, I made my headquarters in Seattle. The Regional Teaching Committee there did a splendid job in planning my itinerary and the Bahá'ís themselves were most cooperative.
The hospitality and personal kindnesses of these peo-pie, mostly of Nordic descent, is bound in my memory with those of Col6n, of West Indian ancestry, and Quito, of Spanish extraction, as a token of worldwide respect shown to anyone, anyone at all, who arises to promote ti-ia Word of God.
In some instances the people are most receptive, in others they are adamant in old world immobility.
I rack my brains trying to think of how I can convey to you how it feels to travel and teach the Faith. It all sums up to this: not to see the friends, not to travel among the searchers would result in stagnation.
Not to teach the Faith by word or deed is a life without value, without validity of existence.
It is the age-old choice between the quick and the dead.
What urges one on is the dawning of pride and gratitude in the face of the seeker when he has been guided to his purpose in life.
It is the same thing Isaw in the face of a ragged Indian when, using Professor Laurbach's method of alphabetization, I took the time to teach him to read and write. What bliss people radiate when they achieve what they had been led to think they were incapable of doing! It was then I realized that man has capacity of which he is not aware.
The Bahá'í Faith sheds the great light on this subject of revealing to the human being his true station as Man.
20."Warn and acquaint the people, 0 Servant, with the things tue have sent down to thee, and let the fear of no one dismay thee, and be not of ti-tern that waver." (Bahá'u'lláh) T HUS admonished through the Pen of Bahá'u'lláh, the pioneers of the Bahá'í Faith have gone out to meet the people. Since His precepts have to do primarily with a way of life, it is not difficult to introduce His words into the conversation wherever we may be. Because of its universal appeal, the Cause of God has brought us into contact with the peoples of all races, and of different geligious backgrounds, in the various countries we have visited, professional men and women, office workers, laborers, homemakers, students � faces, names, personalities � crowd the memory, clamoring to be presented. Only a few individuals can be chosen here � a few incidents related, as representative of the way in which we are able to acquaint the people with the Message of Bahá'u'lláh.
"When a man had found gold in a mine he returns again to the mine to dig for more gold." (Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá) We were teachers together at a cub tural institute in one of the capital cities of South America, Frances and I. Casually, the name "Baha'i" slipped into our conversation.
I sensed that it was the first time Frances had heard the name. Later on, over a cup of tea, she admitted that she had memorized the word and hurried home to look it up in the dictionary.
A day came when Frances had an opportunity to go to the United States. Letters began arriving from her, saying, "I've sought the Bahá'ís in every city in which I have visited.
They are hospitable and make me feel at home."Then Frances journeyed on to Scotland to see her mother. It was at the close of World War II; people were restless, and Frances missed the assurance of hope and the tranquility of spirit that Bahá'í associates had been able to impart through their Teachings. It was then that she put a notice in the local paper, requesting Bahá'ís to get in touch with her.
Evidently none saw her announcement, because none answered. Her visit ended, she returned to her home in South America. One day, a few weeks after her return, she came to the Bahá'í Center with a clipping from an Edinburgh newspaper.
"Look," she exialmeci, "an account of a Baha School summer session in Scotland! If it had been a few months earlier, I could have attended it," she mourned. Although Frances has not as yet become a Baha in
Page 762name, everywhere she is, on board ships, at summer resorts, or among her own circle of friends, she acquaints people with the Message, and tells them to get in touch with the believers. Many people have heard the name "Baha'i" for the first time, because of Frances.
III"Deeds reveal the station of the man." (Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá,') A book lay open on the small table beside her chair. Mrs. Braddock glanced down at it. Suddenly, a name was alive on the printed page. "'Abdu'l-Bahá!"
She spoke the name aloud.Her hostess looked up from her knitting. "What did you say, my dear?" "The name in this book!" she said, "'Abdu'l-Bahá I knew Him. Where did you get this book?" "A woman lent it to me. She teaches here in Lima, Peru." Mrs. Braddock and her daughter found their way to the Bahá'í Center. She told us of her life as a young Armenian woman, living in Egypt, of her visits with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His family in Haifa,
Palestine. "Al-thoughI was just a child, I remember Him too," said the daughter. "I remember sitting at His feet with the other children." She added, "And He gave me a ring-stone that I treasured very much." We showed them the Bahá'í World books.
How eagerly Mrs. Braddocksearched through them for pictures of familiar faces! There was an especial face that she wanted to find � Lua Getsinger.
"Lua was a guest in our house," she said, "and it was there that. she died." "We all loved her very much," she added softly. We told her that Lua had been named The
Mother Teacher of TheMrs. Braddock invited us unto her home to meet her husband, an Englishman.
They showed us their albums of photographs.One picture was of 'Abdu'l-Bahá walking along a path, His cloak billowing in the wind. Mrs. Braddock seemed surprised when we informed her that the Faith which 'Abdu'l-Bahá had advanced, was becoming recognized around the world.
She had not thought much about re. ligion through the years, but she had often remembered the way of life exemplified by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
His selfless life of service had said louder than words that He was a Baha'i; she could not speak His name without betraying her emotion. To us, who had not known 'Abdu'l-Bahá personally, yet loved him with an overwhelming love, Mrs. Brad-dock had brought another glimpse of His matchless example of Bahá'í living. We in turn, shared with the Brad-docks, His writings.
"Such children I have never seen, so courteous, unselfish, thoughtful of others, unobtrusive, intelligent, and swiftly self-denying in the little things that children love."
wrote Mr. Thornton Chase of the household of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Irene is a wellknown writer of books on parent education. We were having tea together; our talk centered around the topic of education.
I brought out stories that had been prepared for preschool children, and let her read them, commenting that Bahá'ís believe that character-training is of paramount importance, that accordingly the aim of these stories was to influence the child to keep his word, to be on time, and to be thoughtful of all creatures. Then I quoted from The Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: "For unless the moral character of a nation is educated, as well as the brain and talents, civilization has no basis." Irene was thoughtful. "My pea-pie here in Peru need this type of training," she said. "Yes, and in every country in the world," I added.
Suddenly, she asked, "May I translate these stories into Spanish?
I'll help you have them printed too," she added. After much labor the task was finished. It is dedicated to an organization that Irene had founded, "The Crusaders of Education for the Future Mothers of Peru," and also to that generation of children that will make a new and better world. In the prologue of the little book, one may read Irene's own words, ". thinking people everywhere are realizing the importance of child-training as a firm basis for a
Page 763"Bodily cold and heat cannot affect the spirit for it is warmed by the power of the love of God. When we understand this, we begin to understand something of our life in the world to come."
(Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá)pioneer~ s correspondence becomes! The mail had arrived � welcome at any time and place, but even more when one lives in the southernmost city in the world. The letters were from an English friend, a Hungarian, a Jewess, a Japanese, a Peruvian; all non-Bah&'is, but each had been made acquainted with the teachings, and each had been moved by them. One letter contained a request: "Please say a Bahá'í prayer for my little new baby; he is so very ill." Another wrote of a man in public office: "He must have heard of the Bahá'í teachings because he is doing good works."
And a letter from a youth learning English: "Write more the beautiful words of Bahá'u'lláh." I prayed for each of them. The cold wind blew in from the Strait; it howled at my windows and doors to chill me, but my spirit was warmed by the power of the love of God.
"A physician ministering to the sick, gently and tenderly, tree from prej udice is giving praise."
(Wisdom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá) Dr. Guillermo A. comes to the English Academy in the Bahá'í Center in Punta Arenas, Chile.
He is taking private lessons to facilitate his studies in the United States this coming year. One evening, not long ago, he came to the word "dwarf" in an article that he was reading. It was a new word for the Doctor.
"The word 'dwarf'," I explained, "means a person much below average height."
Then using it in a sentence: "There are many dwarfs here in Punta Arenas. The cause, I presume, is rickets, but what is medi-. cal science doing about it?"
His eyes brightened with interest."We have been working very hard since 1938," he said, "in collaboration with the Government, and with the 'help of the people.
The work has been slow," he continued, "but it is growing stead
Page 764Bahá'ís and friends at Punta Arenas, Chile, southernmost city of the world, November 21, 1948. Eve Nicklin, pioneer, back row center.
ily. Now we have a clinic called 'La Gota de Leche' or 'The Drop of Milk.'" "And for whom is this service?"
"For all those who cannot afford to pay for medical care. Last year, 1948, in the Province of Magallanes, there were 1,400 babies born; of that number nearly 700 were given free service."
"And afterward?" "Afterward, 'La Gota de Leche' takes charge of them. The children receive medical care and milk; the mothers, information in child-care. When I first came to Punta Arenas in 1932," he stated, "the fight had not yet begun against rickets, and one saw an unusual number of dwarfs," he said, pronouncing the new word carefully, "but the new generation," he added, "is growing to average height, and with straight limbs.
The last health census showed that Magallanes had the lowest mortality rate in all of Chile." "Why has rickets been so prevalent here?" "Partly because of climatic conditions," he answered. "The weather is severe at times, as you know, and chil dren must of necessity wear many clothes; therefore, the skin is not sufficiently exposed to air and sunshine. Then, too, lack of vitamins in the soil is a factor."
"Is health care taught in the schools?""A little, but as yet, not enough. We doctors, realize that with all our medical assistance, there are many things we cannot overcome until children learn certain fundamental health rules for themselves."
Thus the doctor had a practical lesson in English on a subject dear to his heart.
And the teacher? � another revelation of the regenerative split at work in this presentday world.
Often the minutes stretch on, over the class period � minutes free to discuss with the doctor, the advanced teachings of Bahá'u'lláh on such vital topics as health, religion, science, and the creation of society.
Page 765"The Source of alt learning is the Knowledge of God, exalted be His Glory. And this cannot be attained save through the knowledge of His divine
Manifestations." (Bahá'u'lláh)There is no lack of charm in the landscape of Patagonia, but there are also large territories which for geographical and climatic reasons must be reckoned among the most desolate on earth. There are the icebound, glacier-cover-ed portions of the High Cordilleras, and in the western part of the Strait of Magallanes, glaciers which reach all the way down into the sea and form icebergs.
Deep esteros, or fjords, cut through the mountains into the sea � fjords that are said to resemble those of Norway. This is Patagonia, or the "Big Foot," a fantastic land, where the Strait of Magallanes and the Beagle Channel make sea lanes for travel and commerce among the nations of the world.
Patagonia, which has long held a fascination for explorers, is now becoming a great tourist attraction.
It is in this far, southern country, in the city of Punta Arenas, Chile, that I met Mary. Mary is a tourist. In her early years, she taught philosophy in a State University, travelled in many lands, and even won fame for herself as a mountain climber. But this is her first trip to Patagonia, and here in this southernmost outpost of the Bahá'í Faith she has heard the name Bahá'u'lláh for the first time. She is destined to stay in Magallanes for many weeks because the boat that is going to the fjords is under repair. The other day she said to me, "I can't understand this delay, but," she added philosophically, "there must be some good reason."
I said, but not aloud, "Yes, Mary, there is a good reason. This delay will give you an opportunity to hear the most important Message of all times, the news that the Promised One of all the ages has now come! Oh, I know that you have told me, by implication, that my religion cannot be as important as I think it is, for otherwise you, with your wide experience and learning, would surely have heard of it. But, I pray, that you will grasp its importance when you read through the literature that I have chosen for you. I shall not force these teachings on you, Mary, but I shall be praying that you will investigate them with a humble heart. You are a woman with a keen mind, and fine innate qualities.
God can, if you will let Him, bless your closing years with the most wonderful career of your life � that of becoming a humble teacher of great Truths, and a wayfarer in the
Path of God."Many times, it so happens that the person who is not yet ready to give a listening ear to the Bahá'í teachings, is the means of acquainting another, who has long wanted to hear it, that there is a worldwide, unified faith at work today, building a civilization founded upon spiritual and universal principles.
Last Sunday, Mary invited me to go to the house of a European family to whom she had been giyen a letter of introduction.
The young mother in the family is an artist. She has thought up the interesting occupation of designing and having Magallanicos made into saleable articles, ski suits, sweaters, mittens, slippers and caps. She uses the wool from sheep raised on the Patagonian pampas; penguin and seal skins from the coast and nearby islands; feathers supplied by the ostriches; white crystals picked up in the mountains and which make pendants and pins.
My interest in her work re-suited in her acceptance of an invitation to visit the Bahá'í Center to see materials from Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador that are used there as decorations. Almost upon entering the room, my new friend asked me to explain to her the significance of the sign on the door "Centro Baha'i".
Forgotten for the moment were ponchos, mantos, llamas and rugs, in the excitement of hearing for the first time the Message of Bahá'u'lláh. She commented:
"Theseare my ideals. One reason for my learning many languages, was in order to know my fellow men better." From the Bahá'í bookshelf I took three books, Spanish, English and French translations, of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings. "Someone has borrowed the German copy," I remarked; "In which language do you wish to read His Message?" "I~11 choose the French book," she said, "I'm teaching French."
When we parted, we planned to have tea together and more talks. All day long, my heart said, "Another opportunity to give the Glad Tidings, and thanks be to God, to hearing ears."
21.A BAHÁ'Í who has never lived in the capital of the United States, it is a most interesting experience to come to Washington, D.C. during these closing days of the "fateful forties" and to speculate on what the immediate years ahead hold in store.
Are there any signs here which can indicate to us the direction in which both the nation itself and the world are heading?
Is the United States showing any evidence of fulfilling the high but demanding destiny predicted for it in the Bahá'í Writings?
Surely here at the heart of the nation one should be able to feel its pulse and make a diagnosis.
Let us see what we find.To begin, let us turn to the Current Events Section of a single edition of one of the leading newspapers of the capital.
States one paragraph of the editorial: "This Christmas Day finds us full of so many tensions, fears and anxieties that it is almost as though the first Christmas had not come at all. There is no real peace upon earth, and even men of goodwill � who perhaps even now, if we make due allowance for human frailty, constitute the bulk of mankind � are full of foreboding. Fear runs as a sort of insistent undertone in all our festivity and merriment.
Over the screams of the propa gandists, the warnings of statesmen, the clamor of jealous minorities, it is hard, indeed, to distinguish the voice of an angel saying: 'Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, ' It seems to us that it can be heard only with the ears of faith � and of a powerful faith at that."
Another paragraph of the editorial treats the new International Court of Justice, terminating: "and its importance as an instrument of peace is certain to grow as rapidly as justice can be substituted for force in the settlement of disputes that reach across national boundary lines." On the same page is a letter from a reader entitled "Approaches to World Government" in which two plans for a world government are outlined. Still another letter from a reader pleads for an army to pray for peace: "Perhaps the most significant utterance of this year on the subject of peace," it says, "was that of General MacArthur, when he said that 99 per cent of the people of the world want peace It may be later than we think, but surely it is not too late to do something about mobilizing that overwhelming mass of the earth's population into the greatest army the world has ever known, an army not to fight war, but to pray for peace, an army to make war against war And here is a hope: May the Voice of America sound the call to prayer.
Page 767And on the opposite page an internationally known columnist apologizing that "even a hardboiled newspaperman may be forgiven for letting his thoughts stray on Christmas," heads his column "Applying Sermon on the Mount" and then proceeds to show "how miserably the present generation has failed in keeping the peace of the world" because it has not applied to diplomacy and international relations the spiritual principles voiced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
He concludes: "Thus, all too slowly are we veering arotmd to some of the principles of the Man whose birth today we celebrate, And while timid men may not be willing to risk the revolutionary diplomacy necessary to achieve His goals, yet the alternatives in this day of the atomic bomb may be what the prophets of Israel warned: Reform or ye perish."
In appraising this evidence it must be said in all fairness that every number of this newspaper is not so full of thoughts and sentiments of this class as is this one, but, on the other hand, no edition is void of them.
Surely to one looking for signs, it indicates a remarkably deep and poignant yearning for "peace on earth, good will to men" on the part of the people of the capital.
What about Government?Do we find these same sentiments of peace and global consciousness among political leaders and statesmen, or are they too embroiled in personal and partisan interests to perceive reality? Let us again review the evidence at hand.
In January of this year 1950, the agenda of theincludes a series of hearings on different proposals dealing with regional or world union. One of these proposals was introduced by no less than 19 Senators and declares that the goal of the United States foreign policy should be to strengthen the United Nations and "seek its development into a world federation" with defined powers to enforce peace by international law. Another, sponsored by 22 Senators as well as several former high officials of the Federal Government, seeks the formation of an Atlantic Union. A third calls for a United Nations Conference to establish "true world government." Last year a special committee of the House of Representatives listened to similar proposals.
Speeches and other public utterances of high officials make repeated references to the responsibility of the United States to establish world peace and order, to protect the freedom of the individual, and to help less fortunate members of humanity in all parts of the earth to better their lot. God and the necessity for religion are mentioned with increasing frequence in high places. As one example, one of the top officials of the U.S. armed forces declared in a recent public speech that "this country's democracy is based upon recognition of a Supreme Being" and that there is "increasing recognition and admission that hope of the solution of the problem of the world, hope of reestablishment of better conditions, lies in religion and in more faithful reliance on religion."
As concrete proof of the sincerity of such declarations is the steadily growing number of institutions founded by Government whose purpose is in some way linked with international collaboration and the building of a better world.
Typical of these are the Institute of Inter-American Affairs and the Division of Libraries and Institutes.
The former was organized by Congress in 1947 as a separate corporation "to further the general walfare of, and to strengthen friendship and understanding among, the peoples of the American Republics through collaboration with other governments and governmental agencies of the American Republics in planning, initiating, assisting, financing, administering and executing technical programs and projects, especially in the fields of public health, sanitation, agriculture and education."
It can be added that this institution is establishing an enviable record for the skill, sincerity and understanding with which it is carrying out its truly noble mission.
It has not only already gained much goodwill in Latin America but has also contributed greatly to raising the standard at living
Page 768Mexico City Bahá'ís and friends at a picnic, January 1, 1949.
in the countries in which it has functioned. Its projects are financed jointly by Congress and the government of the country involved. The Division of Libraries and Institutes, a separate section of the State Department, has as its principal function the creation of better understanding through the medium of culture, especially the teaching of English. One of the chief instruments used in this work is the Cultural Center, established in different countries through the joint efforts and finances of the United States and the country in question, and governed by a Board of Directors elected by its own local associates. Both the Division of Libraries and
Institutes and Instituteof Inter-American Affairs are expressly forbidden by their own charters to have anything to do with political matters, and neither has any provision for getting back any of the money spent in its programs nor does the United States profit materially in any way from their operations except in so far as helping to create better and more prosperous neighbors can be of benefit to it. Finally, probably the most discussed single item is "Point Four" of the President's Inaugural Address which would provide technical assistance to help underprivileged peoples in other parts of the world improve their lot.
Younger men � lawyers, business men, educators � are giving up some years of their private careers and taking key spots in Government often with the chief motive of helping their country to help the world. As a wellknown writer and educator of the capital expresses it: " a new type of statesman is making his appearance, one with truly humanitarian and idealistic motives."
As one talks with these men, he is impressed with the deep sense of mission that many of them have, although probably they cannot explain the origin.
Many departments are frankly only interested in employing people with this "sense of mission."
Hardly any one speaks any more in narrow, nationalistic terms; practically all have or are obtaining a global point of view.
The words "the world," ''mankind,'' are as common here now as were "the nation," and "Ameri-cans" 10 years ago.
Tm BAHÁ'Í PLAN FOR WoRLDNow what does all this indicate for the nation and for the world, and how does it fit in with the predictions found
Page 769Let us try to summarize the latter. The Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh, Author of the Bahá'í Faith, brought the Divine Teachings necessary for humanity's development and guidance in this age, and that therefore any one who studies His Teachings will find complete orientation in what is otherwise a period of distress and confusion.
Over 80 years ago Bahá'u'lláh outlined the Plan for World Order which He said must be put into effect in order that the Divine Will be carried out for our times. In subsequent writings He intimated quite clearly that mankind would only adopt this Plan after a time of wholesale frustration and suffering, even predicting worldwide disorder and destruction akin to chaos before enough people would awaken to the Divine Message in order to make it sufficiently effective to build world peace and order.
The core of Bahá'u'lláh's Plan is world unity. Up until now, He declared, man has been going through a preliminary period of growth and training during which, in addition to developing his individual capacities, he has established successively the unity of family, tribe, city-state and nation. Now he is about to enter the stage of maturity and so he must complete the process already started by unifying the planet. This means briefly that a world commonwealth must be set up in which "all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguardedU~* This world commonwealth must have a world legislature, a world executive, a world tribunal, and a world capital.
It will be necessary to establish a world language, a world script, a uniform currency and system of weights and measures, and a universal system of education. A world religion, in which tradition and manmade creeds, rituals of worship and ecclesiastical organizations are subordi-tpattern
For Future Societu � By Shoghinated to fundamental spiritual truths and universal laws revealed by the Divine Prophets, must serve both as the inspiration and foundation of this world commonwealth.
Naturally a change so radical as this in the very basis of society must come about as a gradual evolution as man himself matures sufficiently to become fit and capable to live in and play his part in running such a world. However, if we interpret correctly Bahá'u'lláh's utterances, certain critical stages of suffering and destruction accompanied by spiritual awakening and growth of the surviving members of society bring in their wake rather sudden and far-reaching developments. Some of these crises have already been experienced; others are still to come, probably very soon.
Now it seems that for reasons still perhaps not completely understood by us, Providence has decreed that the fate of the world at this juncture depends to an important degree upon that of North America; that upon the shoulders of the United States of America has been placed the tremendous and exacting burden not only of taking the vanguard in promoting the unity of the world but also in leading the world spiritually.
Over and over during His visits to this country in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, eldest Son of Bahá'u'lláh and appointed by Him as Interpreter of His Teachings, referred to this divinely-conferred mission of the United States of America, fervently expressing the hope that she would not fail in her tasks. In more recent years Shoghi Effendi, present Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith has reiterated these statements, and added further that only in fulfilling these responsibilities could the United States of America hope to solve its own problems.
Clearly then, it should be of vital interest at this critical hour in the affairs of humanity, not only to the Bahá'ís but also to every citizen of the planet, to focus their eyes upon the American Nation to try to determine whether or not her people and her government are showing any signs of fulfilling her divinely-appointed destiny.
Page 770Much attention was attracted by the interesting window displays on the Main street of Santiago, Chile, during the second South American Bahá'í Congress held in that city, 1948. The one shown above depicts the Baha world. The rays radiating from the map point to photographs of Bahá'í gatherings in most of the countries of the world.
Tax UNTXSD SrAn~s FtnrnisOn summing up the evidence, great care must be used because the Bahá'í is so keenly aware of the future as traced by the prophetic Pen of Bahá'u'lláh, that it can be too easy to pick out one or two isolated signs and designate them a trend.
We are not trying to declare that all or even a majority of the people in or outside of Government have a clear picture of what the future holds or a positive faith of achieving world peace or unity. On the contrary, the confusion at times is rather appalling, as indeed it must be for those who do not possess the Divine Blueprint as revealed by Bahá'u'lláh.
What we do claim is that at long last a great number of people are awakening; that the masses are becoming spiritualized; and that certain ones of the leaders are beginning to realize their responsibility and that of the United States and that the trouble confronting the world is of such magnitude that human efforts and brains alone cannot solve it. These we hold to be very hopeful signs both for the future of the United States and for mankind.
As we finish this article on January 17, 1950, a synopsis of a recent unreported speech of the President is pub-hshed which is most relevant.
It states in part: "He (the President) said that the welfare of this country is the welfare of the world 'Whether we like it or not, we are at the top of the heap in world affairs, a position which none of us likes to contemplate, a position which has possibilities almost too big for any man or group of men to contemplate..
I am just an ordinary citizen at this great republic of ours, who has the greatest responsibility in the world and whose responsibility is
Page 771your responsibility. And that is peace in the world, � peace in Europe, peace in Asia, peace in South America, peace in Africa, peace in the Western Hemisphere, and the assumption of the leadership to bring that about.'
From the review of the evidence as well as because of a tremendous feeling in the atmosphere of the capital of the United States, we conclude that this nation is going to fulfill its destiny.
"May this American Democracybe the first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind.
May it be the first to unfurl the Standard of the Most Great Peace."
"The American Continent gives signs and evidences of very great advancement.
Its future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are far-reaching.
It will lead all nations spiritually."D AYTIMES the trout stream was a big trout, slippery, dappled, now and then flashing white, easing under the watery aspens. At night it was pale in the blackness.
Sitting by the campfire one could only hear it and see a vagueness down there under the bank where it ran. One could not distinguish between the moths brought into the flame, and the sparks flying out, and higher insects catching the light as they passed, and shooting stars, and stars. One couM not keep track of these things.
Except that the stars were campfires again. This used to be Indian country, here under the incongruously Swiss-looking snow crags, along the trout stream; here you can still pick up Indian arrowheads of dark bottle-green obsidian, with the hairy chisel marks. When the white man drove the Indians away, they went up there in the sky, over our heads, and lit those campfires.
So we have peace between the two again, with the red man up there the winner.
His spirit is always seeping back into America, like the blood of the heart seeping back, and it never wipes away. (That time we saw Boulder Dam, the least Indian of all things, we found that Indian patterns had been worked into the massive floors; soft, moccasined, his spirit had come back.)
You would look into the redness of the campfire, and there, standing on its tail and watching you with white, piteously smoking eyes, was the ghost of the trout you had caught in the morning and fried at noon; fried it so fresh that it leapt in the pan.
That particular night something was going to happen, up there in the maim-tains.
Everything was waiting for it. The wind had lowered, the hot ashes fell softly, the stream quieted and the aspens stilled. Now it was happening. We looked up out of our well of black-lMarzjeh Gail was born of a persian-American marriage and was brought up in Washington, D.C., Paris, Istanbul. Tiflis, and Tihr&n. She holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of California, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Returning to TihrAn after college, she served on the staff of the leading newspaper there, later joining the Office of War Information in New
York City as a PersianLanguage Editor. She is now on the staff of The Bahá'í World. Mrs. Gall has traveled widely in the interests of the Bahá'í Faith and has paid three visits to Shoghi Effendi at Haifa, Palestine. Early in 1948 she attended the
Caribbean flah&'i Congressin Mexico City, where she gave a course on IslAm at sessions of the International
School.ness to the ridge: the trees along the ridge were catching fire, they were burning, like hair in a nimbus on some old saint's picture.
Flaming hair of trees along the ridge. We waited not moving, and we saw the white fire growing, and then we Saw it was the white moon burning and rising up there over the fall of the ridge.
Then the night went on as before. It resumed.Later in the night we went aver to the little store on the lake for a couple of bottles of milk. This place is listed on the map as "primitive area," and it is safely far away from any towns, but even so we were only around the corner to milk "from nonreactive tuberculin tested cows." That is
America.No moon during the mile's walk, only the black wind to lean against. The lake was rimmed with a beach piled with tree limbs twisted satiny-white wood that made good burning. We could have sworn the lake was an ocean with China just beyond it, its further shores were so lost and unattainable.
On our way back we punched the dark now and then with our flashlight.
Everything was black and quiet. Something was going to happen. We looked up to the hilltop, above the road, and there suddenly was the moon, dawning again, with all the freshness and drama, the ceremony and pause, of its dawning an hour ago, over our campfire.
I had never known before that the moon has many dawnings in a single night.
It comes up as many times as there are hills and valleys and eyes watching.
An idea in the world is the same � it has many risings, each authentic and new and especially for the people it shines on. When you describe it, the people do not only hear what you tell them, they get the idea at first hand. It rises for them as it did for you.
The great world ideas are like that. For instance, about the time Jesus rose over England � 597----Buddha rose over Japan, 552. A new world idea comes, this time from Shir&z and Baghdad, and it is only beginning to rise, say over the western seas.
"I do not see the new world idea Havana, Cuba Bahá'ís with Natalia Chavez, center, during first Regional Conference of the Baha of the Antilles, November 6, 1949.
Page 773coming out of the East as you describe it," people comment. It is perfectly all right for them to say this; they are telling you the truth. But then other people, apparently no more bril-lignt or stupid than the first, do see it. It rises for them, a special dawning for them, and their faces begin to glow with it. It is not only your moon any more, it is theirs too. You don't have to repeat any more, "See the moon coming up � " or "Wait a minute and you'll see the moon coming � " They would only look at you and say, "Are you crazy? Of course I see it." Back at the campfire, the tamaracks had turned to cypresses in the moonlight. t. You had to force yourself not to imagine an Eastern palace there, piling lightly into the sky, poised above seven cloudy pools, tiled and terraced, one below the other, one spilling into the other. You had to hang on to yourself not to feel a nostalgia for something long ago that you never knew about; this is much worse than missing something that was once yours. Probably, through a twisting of time, it is a homesickness for what will come later on, perhaps in the world beyond this. Anyhow it takes hold of you if you sit by a trout stream in the summer moonlight.
23.IT WAS a never-failing source of excitement to walk up the hill to the Book Cache, my shop in Anchorage, Alaska. On this particular winter's morning I left the house early, wondering what colored dress the "Sleeping Lady" would be wearing. As I reached the top of the hill all excitement left me. It was as if a hand had been laid upon me and I was still. Only a quiet awe remained. Never had my mountain looked so beautiful. She lay wrapped in a pure white robe of glistening snow. Beneath her lapped the living blue waters of Cook Inlet.
Across the valley stood the sentinel peaks of the Chugach Mountains paying tribute as the rising sun behind them softly touched my "lady's dress."
Whatever hardships one may endure in Alaska they are more than compensated by the majestic grandeur and beauty of the country.
God must have loved this land when He created it � this land of a thousand lakes, of snowy mountain peaks, of green forests, of rare and delicate mosses, and gorgeous flowers.
But God desired this lovely land to be still more brilliantly illuminated and blessed.
These were the thoughts of a Bahá'í pioneer going to work on a winter's morning.
'Abdu'l-Bahá tells us in America's Spiritual Mission: "Alaska is a vast country.. yet the call of the Kingdom is not yet raised through that spacious territory.
Consequently strive as far as ye are able to send to those parts fluent speakers, who are detached from aught else save God, attracted with the fragrances of God, and sanctified and purified from all desires and temptations.
Their sustenance and food must consist of the teachings of God. First they must themselves live in accordance with those principles, then guide the people. Perchance, God willing, the lights of the most great guidance may illumine that country and the breezes of the rose garden of the love of God may perfume the nostrils of the inhabitants of Alaska."
"Oh God, if it is Thy Will, give me an opportunity to speak of Thy Cause this day. Help me to spread
Thy FaithAnniversary of the Birth of the Báb celebrated in Anchorage, Alaska, October 19, 1947.
over this vast and spacious country. Help me to 'become like unto a regiment and conquer these countries through the love of God and the illuminations of divine teachings.'" Such was my earnest supplication before a busy day at the
Book Cache.Later that day, as always after the weekly broadcast of the Bahá'í teachings, I left the radio station in a state of utter happiness, almost of ecstasy. Such elation comes because something great has happened.
One feels a vibrant power as the name of Bahá'u'lláh goes out over the ether, and with the knowledge of that power comes a sense of humility and of tremendous responsibility.
The word of God is sent out far into the wilderness, to the tiny cabins of the sourdouglis, to the trappers' lonely homes, the prospectors' log cabins, the Ranger's lookout at the foot of Mt. McKinley, the old trading posts in Canada; to places like Dawson Creek, Whitehorse, Skagway; to Matanuska Valley, nestling under towering mountains, with its cluster of red roofed farmhouses, its school and its hospital.
It goes up north to the native vii-lages of Nome, Point Hope, Wainright, King Island; still farther north to the lonely outpost of Point Barrow with its valiant band of nurses and teachers, who, under terrific hardships, serve these happy people, the Eskimos. It goes west to Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, and still farther west down to the lonely wastes of the Aleutian Islands, to the villages of the Aleuts, as far down as the windswept island of Akka, where there lives a radiant Baha, Ethel Oliver, and her talented husband Simeon. (In their home in this desolate yet strangely beautiful village there hangs a picture of the Bahá'í House of Worship, and the little native children when the pass before this picture look up and say, in their quaint
Aleutian dialect, "TheThe Word goes out to the sturdy little planes of the "bush pilots," to the majestic planes on their way to and from the Orient, down to the ships plying the waters of the Bering Sea, and across that sea to the wastelands of Siberia, to the Alaskan Gulf and the Arctic Ocean.
To the sea, the earth, and the sky goes out the creative Word of God and the name of His Manifestation, Bahá'u'lláh.
Later that same winter day, when I was back again in the Book Cache with
Page 775its constant, exciting activity, the telephone rang. It seemed an unusually insistent ring. I picked up the receiver. A quiet voice asked, "Will you please tell me about this Bahá'í Faith? I listened to your program for the first time three weeks ago and thought, 'That is good.' I listened the next week and said to myself, 'That is very good. I must do something about it.' I heard you again today and I cannot stand it any longer. I must know more." Our invitation to dinner was immediately given and accepted.
That evening, as we were putting the finishing touches to the dinner table, there was a knock at the door. There stood a beautiful woman. Her regal bearing and glowing face marked her as a leader of her race. In the soft rich tones heard often among the Negro people she introduced herself as Grace Bahovec froni Baranof Island, Alaska.
Her story is a fascinating one. She and her husband, who is postmaster, live on this remote island.
During the long summer evenings they would walk along the edge of the water seaching for semiprecious stones, petrified pearls, and the like. After a while they found that they had a valuable collection.
Then Mr. Bahovec began to carve the stones for setting into rings, bracelets, lockets. He came to have a strong desire to possess some Alaskan jade. This jade comes from the interior of Alaska far up north.
One day Mr. Bahovec said to his wile, "You have worked hard this winter with little recreation.
I suggest that you go 'outside' for a trip."Instead of going to Seattle she headed for Anchorage to see if she could find the much-coveted jade for her husband. Once in Anchorage she obtained work and quietly began to search for some clue to the whereabouts of the jade, but with no results.
It was at this time that she heard the radio talks on the Bahá'í Faith.
Grace told us her story and expressed her keen disappointment at her failure to find the jade.
Dagmar Dole looked up at her smilingly and said, "I can tell you where you can get all the jade you want," and then proceeded to tell her just how she could procure the jade.
Later, following Dagmar'sinstructions, Grace did obtain all the jade she wanted.
That was a memorable night.We talked of the Bahá'í Faith way into the small hours of the morning.
Our listener was so deeply interested. When she arose to go, both Dagmar and I felt impelled to give her a Bahá'í book. On the flyleaf I wrote these words of
Bahá'u'lláh:If one speck of a jewel lie hid in a stone and that stone be beyond the seven seas, until I have found and secured that jewel, my hand shall not stay from its search."' Grace came again and again; she asked many questions and read the Bahá'í books.
One Sunday night we were holding a fireside and were planning to show pictures of the Bahá'í Temple.
There were many young couples present � about thirtyfive people in all. There was a knock at the door and there stood Grace with two of her friends. We welcomed them with great joy, and presented them to the rest of the gathering.
The graciousness and courtesy of Grace Bahovec won everybody's heart. When after the meeting she thanked each one for the welcome so freely given, every man in the room came forward to shake her hand. For many of the nonBahá'ís it was a new and wonderful experience.
As time drew near for her to leave Anchorage we decided that we would arrange a farewell dinner. All the Bahá'ís in the community helped. It was to be a very special evening.
Just as everything was ready, there came the familiar knock and there stood Grace. Again her face had that illumined look. I stood very still, possessed by a strange feeling of expectation.
Again that radiant smile.Then she said: "I am one of Bahá'u'lláh's jewels and He has found me.
I came for jade but I have found a priceless jewel."
~From "Gems of Nabil translated by Shoghi Effendi and Dr. Esslemont, p. 934, Bahá'í WorZd, Vol. VIII.
Page 776Delegates to Congress at Guatemala City, with Mrs. Dorothy Baker, center.
Delegates and visitors, Second Central American Bahá'í Congress
at Mexico City, 1948.Delegates and representatives at Press Conference, Continental Hotel, November er 7, 1946. First South American Bahá'í Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
That night we talked, That was only one of the and read the creative things that happened in words of Bahá'u'lláh. Alaska. A chosen soul, born We read and discussed in Haiti, had found her the Will and Testament of way to Anchorage and there, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Grace expressedout of the ether, came her ardent desire to becometo her the message of a Baha'i. After she had Bahá'u'lláh signed the card of membership, � the Manifestation of God I bent over and kissed for this day. It is one her and said, "Now you of my precious memories are my Bahá'í sister." of the things that happened in the shadow of the "Sleeping
Lady."ON A 1'habitude d'assimiler avant tout les religions it une s6rie de gestes rituels devant un autel mat6riel et A la croy-ance en des dogmes obligatoires inex-plicables pour beaucoup.
S'il y a con-flit entre les dogmes et 1'intelligibilit6 des Ecrits sacr6s r6v616s, c'est que ces dogmes ne reflAtent pas ou plus la R4v6lation primitive.
Une R6v6lation a touj ours 6t6 une grande 1umi~re jet6e sur toute la cr6a-tion: religion certes, puisque notre but est d'approcher Dieu de plus en plus, mais aussi enseignements sur bien d' autres questions: philosophic, sciences, arts, lois de la vie, sociales et juridiques, en un mot moyen de clviii-sation.
Si le monde ne 1'a pas toujours compris, c'est cependant un fait qui ressort de 1'4tude et de la m6ditation de 1'histoire.
D'aucuns diront: mais II n'y a eu qu 'une seule R6v4lation. Et chacun d'ajouter que c'est celle qu'i1 poss6de, tandis que celle pr6n4e par le voisin eM fausse et sort du diable.
Cons6quence:toutes sont qua1ifi~es de fausses. Seule-ment d'oii vient ce f alt 6trange que ces "R4v6lations fausses" ont toutes apport6es au monde chacune dans leur temps ce magnifique fruit: une civilisation? Ii est impossible, & mains d'~tre de mauvaise foi de nier ces faits historiques.
A chacune des R6v6-lations du pass6 6manant d'un Fonda-teur, les peuples qui 1'acceptArent eurent le pouvoir de construire une civilisation; puis, awe le temps et pour des raisons 6videntes & trouver, ces civilisations d6g6n6r&ent et moururent; d'au-tres mont~rent alors au z6nith, toujours provenant de la m&me origine divine. Quelques regards dans le temps et sur chaque partie du monde ancien suffisent & convaincre.
La premi~re conclusion qui s'impose est donc celle-ci: puisque les civilisations meurent, ii faut que la Lumk~re universelle revienne de temps 4 autre. Sinon, comment les reconstruire.
C'est ce que nous allons constater: ce retour p6riodique de la Lumi~re qu'on appele "R~v61ation".
A travers les &ges, c'est une longue ehaine ininterrompue de grands jours et cle grandes nuits, comme des saisons spirituelles & longue 6chdance. Aussi lain que remontent les souvenirs actuels de 1'histoire de notre terre, nous retrouvons ce rythme. De-puis Adam, dernier souvenir panni les plus anciens, cette grande respiration berce le inonde. Les R6v6lations du pass6 dont ii reste encore la trace visible sur la terre apparaissent sous deux aspects: des unes, les plus anciennes, nous ne retrouvons que des traditions orales comnme par exemple dans le Zoroastrianisme ou le Boud-hisme, mais aucun 6crit originel du Proph~te 1ui-m~me d'ott, coinme dans toute transmission humaine verbale, surtout ~ longue 6ch6ance, elles sont sujettes ~ caution; des autres nous pos-s6dons des textes &rits comme dans le Judaisme, le Christiansme,
I'Islam-isme. Quelques-unsd'entre eux cepen-dant ont 6t6 remani6s ou r6crits depuis leur premiAre parution.
Ces textes sont: 1'Ancien Testament et 1'Evangile; seul, le Coran dict4 par 1e Proph&te liii-m~me nous offre encore les textes primitifs.
Mais apr&s le Coran, d'autres ~crits sacr& ont ~t6 donn6s au monde it une ~poque fort rapproch6e de nous puiscju'ils datent d'& peine tin si~c1e. us sont encore & 1'&at de manuscrits originaux, parfaitement authentiques et conserv6s soigneusement.
Ce sont donc les seuls qui ne peuvent &re suspect6s de d6forrnation humaine et chacun petit
Page 779Recently acquired land for the first Bahá'í Summer School
Institution of New Zealand.First Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Madrid, Spain, elected April 21, 1948.
Page 780les consulter s'il le d4sire: ce sont les Oeuvres du B&b et de Bahá'u'lláh.
Artcien TestamentL'Ancien Testament est le document de la R6v6lation de Moise. Le fruit de cette R6v6lation est la civilisation judai-que. Qul le contestera si, ne se conten-tant pas de lire les fastidjeux r6cits des actes inat6riels des juifs primitifs ou de la vie de tel ou tel roi isra~1ite, ii 6tudie plut6t le d4veloppement et la hauteur de la civilisation que ce peuple sut cr6er apr~s son installation en Palestine. Le grandeur de cette civilisation ne rend-elle pas plus perplexe encore si 1'on songe & 1'origine et tt 1'abaissement de ces hordes esciaves, les parias d'Egypte, de la cat~gorie la plus basse de naissance, esciaves de la soci6t6 qui &aient vou6s par d6finition A une vie rampante aupr~s de leurs maitres; destin6e toute trac& et sans espoir, 115 6taient 6lev6s dans le dur apprentissage des plus basses besognes mat6rielles maintenus dans tine obscure ignorance intellectuelle, sans 6tincelle spirituelle non plus. Ce sont ces 6l6ments craintifs, born6s, ignares, habitu6s & Ia tyrannie et aux coups, n'ayant donc nulle notion de la discipline volontaire que doit comporter toute 1ibert~ que Moise sut sortir des mains de leurs maitres: Ii le fit seul. Sa seule force 6tait Sa parole. Comment r6ussitil & mener ce troupeau redou-tablement indodile et aveugle devant cette inconnue: sa libert6?
~ le conduire victorleusernent en Palestine, & vaincre toutes les tribulations de 40 ann6es de marche errante?
Suivons ensuite le chemin ascendant de cette histoire jusqu'& 1'6panouissement d'une civilisation qui &zlaira tous les autres peuples, au point que los grecs eux-m~mes, ces repr6sentants d'une autre glorleuse civilisation venajent chercher 1'instruction et la philosophie aupr~s du penpie juif. Certes, cette marche ascendante fut 6troitexnent entretenue par les envoy6s inspir6s que furent les proph~tes d'Is-ra~1. Ce ne fut pas sans chutes et re-chutes que cette progression fut fid&le et continue; niais pr6cis6ment voyons-nous 1& tine continuit~ de pens6e, d'illumination et d'action. C'est pr6-cis6ment cette influence & langue 6ch6ance qui souligne une des caract4r-istiques d'une v&ritable R6v6lation de Dieu. Outre sa puissance qui permet de faire d'un peuple d'esclaves Un des premiers de la terre par 1'intelligence et 1'activit6 d6velopp&s par la foi, la longue dur6e de cette action place tine R6v6lation ~ un rang infiniment sup6r-jeur & celui d'une simple r6forme ou d'un simple mouvement spiritualiste bienfaisant.
Tandis qu'une r6forme ou un mouvement dolt trouver devant sol une organisation d6j& construite qu'il modifiera ou transforinera, la R6v~1a-tion isra~1ite offre le spectacle d'un peuple de parias ignorants parti de z6ro a plusieurs points de vue et parvenu au sommet d'une civilisation bas6e sur les enseignements donn6s par cet Etre sup6rieur: la Manifestation divine. Nulle comparaison ne peut tenir entre une Manifestation divine et un h~ros, un philosophe ou ian r6formateur re-ligleux quant au degr6 de son influence et de son action r6ele profonde et durable sur la vie des peuples.
D6cactenceComme dans toute soci6t6 humaine, 1'influence bienfaisante m~me d'une R&-v6lation n'est pas 6ternelle.
Tant que les honiimes savent vivre 1'esprit m~me de la R6v~1ation spirituelle ~ travers les formes dont us ne peuvent se sous-traire puisque nous vivons dans le do-maine de la forme, us continuent & progresser et ~1argir leur civilisation. D6s que, queue que soit la cause: int6r6t, incompr6hension, n6gligence, us glissent dans 1'accomplissement in6canique des formes rituelles en sub vant par ailleurs leur seules impulsions dans la vie courante, la R6v6lation devient lettre mate pour eux et la d6cadence commence.
La civilisation s 'effrite peu A peu, des d6sordres nais-sent au sein tie la soci6t6, la corruption s 'installe, la paresse et la discorde. Le grand souffle harrnonique gui dyna.-mis aft les individus et les institutions semble s'en Atre a116. La confusion r~gne et les individus, troubl6s et maiheureux au sein de leurs plaisirs m&mes et de leur apparence de parfaite libert6 se mettent, les uris conscien-cieusement, d'autres sans toujours s'en rendre compte, d'autres enfin sans
Page 781Bahá'ís representing seven participating South American countries and the United States gathered at the site of the Third South American Teaching Congress, January, 1949, S~o Paulo, Brazil.
Bahá'í Conference in Panama, 1947. Delegates and friends visiting ancient ruins.
Page 782vouloir 1'avouer, a la recherche d'une Chose nouvelle, un remade qui rani-merait et revivifierait les activit6s et les institutions.
Ceux qui cherchent con-scienojeusement savent qu'une R6v6la-tion nouvelle apporterait la r6surrection au monde agonisant; les antres ne le savent pas. 1k cherchent & imaginer un syst~me ou une doctrine qu'ils crojent pouvoir &tre une panac6e universelle. Les uns, les r6formateurs et les spin-tualistes s'inspirent des 6critures et, le plus souvent, d6noncent 1'6loignement profond des peuples de la Source pure qui les avait 6lev6s.
us t&chent de sup-primer certaines formes mat6rielles devenues surann6es pour 1'6poque, formes emprisonnant les aileg de 1'~me; us imaginent d'autres forines mieux aptes scion eux & refl4ter ce qui fut Ia Cause premi~re de vie. us y r6ussissent A divers degr6s; et us font plus ou moms d'adeptes.
Certains sont purifi6s et 4clair6s. Mais en mAine temps, cela cr6e des divisions an sein de la soci4t& Comme toute entreprise purement hu-maine, cela produit un progr~s dans une seule sp4cialisation: ceux qui de-viennent ainsi sectaires ne sant pas toujours anim4s de cette charit~ bien-veillante A 1'4gard des autres croyants command6e cependant par tous les R4v6lateurs; car seuls, Ceux-ci sont capables de 1'insuffler au coeur humain par leur nature divine dou6e pr&is6-ment d'un pouvoir re-cr6ateur.
D'autres se d6tournent de la R6v6la-tion it eux impos6e dans leur jeunesse par leur famille ou leur instructeur et essalent de remonter & une autre qui se perd dans In nuit des temps et qui, r6v614e & une 4poque diff6rente de la leur ne pent, dans sa forme, leur Atre adapt4e.
Comme ils se perdent dans des traditions plus ou moms d6form6es et des comnientaires humains sura-jout4s, ii s'ensuit une doctrine purement irnaginaire qul ne ressemble plus que de fort loin ~ Ia doctrine originelle.
Les autres enfin tournant coinpl&te-inent le dos & la R6v6lation, ~ toute id6e d'inspiration divine, & toute croy-ance en un Dieu, essajent de construire quelque syst&me purement politique ou quelque doctrine sociale.
Mais dans ces tentatives & base comp1~tement hu maine, le r6sultat n'est que partiel; ii peut &re bon pour un petit noinbre d'hommes s'il avantage ce petit groupe; maTh ii ne satisfera qu'un nombre re-streint parce qu'un cerveau humain ordinaire ne peut construire une pana-c4e pour le monde entier. Ii faut un cerveau dominant de bien loin tous les n6tres et une prescience surhumaine pour mettre au point une doctrine con-venant ~ tous et dans tous les domaines. Evangiles Ce cerveau sup6rieur existe de temps & autre sur terre.
A ces p6riodes de tAtonnements et de tentatives de resurrection, ii apparait & point et apporte aux hommes ce qu'ils cherchent, bien que ceux-ci le traitent presque tous chaque fois en ennemi, 1'obligeant chaque fois aux souffrances, au sacrifice complet. Ce cerveau une fois dis-paru, son aeuvre et sa doctrine de-meurent cependant et, au fur et A mesure que les ann6es s'6coulent, le monument constructif qu'il a laiss6 se d6voile, les hommes le reconnaissent plus ou moms vite et, sur cette inspiration, construisent la civilisation nou-velle.
Et us r6ussissent cette fois, car la nouvelle R~v61ation apport6e possMe deux caract~res distinctifs surhumains: 10-elle est comp1~te pour 1'4poque; 2o~ elle poss~de le gage et la puissance de vie, condition indispensable & son succes.
Qui peut nier que la R6v6lation Chr6-tienne ait apport6e cette r6surrection A son 6poque, ~ un monde d6cadent et corrompu?
IslamismeMais si le Christianisme en son essence 6tait parfair pour la terre en-tiAre, la terre enti~re ne put en profiter car tous les peuples ne se connaissajent pas encore entre eux et beaucoup n'ont connu le Message Chr6tien que bien des si&les apr~s sa naissance. Avant qu'il ne parvienne & tous au long des &ges, une autre R6v6lation 6tait donn6e au pays. Arabe; 1'Islamisme. A nouveau, le miracle s'accomplissait, faisant d'un peuple arri6r6, cruel, barbare, un peuple ordonn6, soumis et travailleur. Le merveilleuse civilisation musulmane fleurissait en Orient mais venait 6clairer une partie de 1'Occident lui
Page 783m~me, Afrique du Nord, Espagne. Tout ceci peut ~tre connu et compris par 1'6tude int~gre de
1'histoire. L'impar-tialit6nous commande m~me d'avouer que la civilisation chr6tienne sur la-queue nous sommes toujours seulement cens6s vivre, a adopt6 bien des prin-cipes sociaux et des institutions dont les bases furent r6v61&s dans le Coran. Nous vivons sur ces institutions sociales bienfaisantes; nous ne pourrions plus nous en passer, mais tant de personnes continuent a railler 1'Islamisme ou a ignorer son Fondateur.
L'epoque ModeTneSi cette courte revue des R6v6lations A travers les &ges a r6ussi ~ mettre quelque peu en 1umi~re cette grande 101 du rythme des saisons spirituelles, une r6flexion bien courte nous am~nera ~ cette conclusion: "dans ce cas, A quel degr6 aujourd'hui avons-nous besoin d'une fraiche R6v6lation si Ofl en juge par 1'6tat chaotique non d'un seul pays, mais du monde entier cette This, puisque la terre enti~re est maintenant connue et forme une unit6 mat6rielle. Et queue devrait ~tre la force inouje et la corn-plexit6 de cette R6v6lation pour lui permettre de satisfaire tous les hommes diff6rents des antipodes et &re adapt6e ~ tous les modes de vie."
Vest en elfet ]& que nous en sommes. Et, fidMe aux tableaux antiques pr6c6-dant 1'apparition de la spendeur pro-ph6tique, 1'image des peuples cherchant la "Chose nouvelle", le rem~de rank mant et revivifiant se pr6sente A nos yeux une fois encore, inais & un degr6 universel et ~ une profondeur vertigi-neuse.
Nous assistons aux angoisses multiples d'un monde divis6 & 1'extre me: les uns s'accrochentd&espAr6ment aux ruines dogmatiques de leurs sectes qui ne repr6sentent que peu on plus rien de 1'esprit initial de leurs R6v6lations, d'autres r6alisent le vide de ces formes, s 'en aifranchissent.
mais pour en r6former imm6diatement d'autres qui ne sont toujours que des formes plus ou moms d4nu6es d'esprit; d'autres, rejetant comme toujours croyance et foi, se tournent vers un syst~me poli-tique ou vers une doctrine philosophique ou sociale quelconque, pensant y trouver le rem~de universel du monde, en mAine temps que 1'id6al de toute leur vie. Mais de meme qu'un &tre humain n'a jainais Pu combler A lul tout seul la vie d'un autre, encore moms une doctrine poli-tique ou sociale ne peut-elle suffire & donner un id6al complet.
"Ne te d6pouille pas de la beaut6 de man Manteau; ne te prive pas de ta part de ma merveilleuse Fontaine, autrement la soif te saisirait dans mon 6ternit6", a dit Bahá'u'lláh. C'est cela La soif: c'est cette recherche angoiss6e, cette poursuite et ces essais infructueux qui ne vous satisfont point.
Queue concitision? A 1'6vidence, la terre a soil d'une nouvelle R6v6lation et cc besoin est d'une urgence aigu~.
Bahá'u'lláhCes R6v6lations successives forment & travers 1'histoire une chaine ininterrom-pue.
Chacun des chainons s'encastre dans le pr6c6dent. Et les hommes qui s'y aecrochent sont arriv6s au port et ne risquent plus de se perdre.
Le ch&rnon d'aujourd'hui s'est pr6-sent6 de Lui-m~me comme les Autres: c'est BAHÁ'U'LLÁH. A 1'image de ses illustres Pr6d6cesseurs, Ii a apport6 preuves et arguments et laiss6 des fruits beaucoup plus encore que nagu~re. Les bases de la civilisation que petit construire le monde sur Sa R6v6lation sont puissantes et universelles, aussi bien pour 1'Orient que pour 1'Occident; elles sont acceptables par les hommes de toute race, tout nation, toute classe et, miracle nouveau, par toutes les d4nominations religieuses du globe.
Loin de paraitre ennemie � je dis bien "paraitre", car toutes les R6v6lations sont unes dans leur essence, ayant Dieu comme source; ce sont les hommes qui se font & tort les ennemis les uns des autres en leurs noms � de ce qui subsiste sur terre des R6v6lations du pass6, elle les confirme dans leur essence primitive, tandis qu'6videmment, elle d6voile et d6nonce les d6formations que leur ont fait subir les hoinmes.
Mon but n'est pas ici de d6tailler ce qu'est la R6v6lation Baha'i, pas plus que je n'ai d6taill6 ce que sont celles du pass6 que chacun cormait plus ou moms. Tout le monde peut ais6ment s'informer A son sujet et se faire rapide
Page 784Mon but a simplement 6t6 de tracer en quelques touches sch6matiques la vision die cette chaine gigantesque qui se tisse lente-ment dans le temps et qui est le guide fixe, stable, soMe et stir, le c~b1e in-d6racinable touj ours ~ port6e de la main de 1'homme dans son chemin de 1'6volu-tion. Mon but a aussi &6 d'ajouter le nom du Dernier Chainon encore si peu connu.
ConclusionOn pourrait se demander pourquoi, parmi ces masses d'~tres humains ~t la recherche ardente d'une nouvelle ascension 6volutive, si peu savent voir et accepter le grand Maitre de la
R6v6la-tion Iorsqu'I1parait, au point qu'ils le pers6cutent horriblement chaque fois. Et cependant, le temps ouvre ensuite leurs yeux; un grand nombre viennent A Lui et se rallient ~ son programme de tout leur coeur. Les raisons sont certes diverses.
Sans 6num6rer les raisons personnelles multiples, attar-dons-nous sur une raisan tr&s courante de cet ~1oignement, cause impersonnelle affectant quantit6s de personnes de bonne foi: c'est la confusion de deux parties tr~s clistinctes dans la R&v6la-tion: la partie transitofre avec la partie 6ternelle.
Toutes les R6v6lationsont comport6 deux aspects: 1O~ La partie profonde, toujours invisible, une dans son essence avec les autres sources puisqu'elles sont toutes de Dieu, 6ter-nelle, et que chaque
Proph~te ou Manifestationdivine ne modifle jamais A son apparition, ne faisant que le confiriner d'une mani~re plus 6nergique encore; 2~-la partie transitoire qui n'est qu'une forme visible et qui est adapt6e A une p6riode de temps d'6volution sur terre.
La partie 6ternelle est la portion pure-Inent spirituelle, celle en somme que 1'on pourrait qualifier de "valable" dans tous les mondes, meme sans con-naitre ces mondes, que 1'on soit incarn6 ou non: morale, amour, fraternit6, justice, etc la partie visible est le cOt6 dogmatique, celle que 1'on cristal-Use dan des rites ext6rieurs mat4riels et qui n'est qu'une tentative de manifester sir le plan purement physique, les beaut6s et les r6alit6s supr6mes du monde spirituel.
Dira-ton donc que les hommes, parce qu'iis ont adh6r6 A une religion r6v616e ancienne, parce qu'ils ont reconnu une Manifestation divine, un des Messies des peuples venus au cours de 1'histoire, sont soudainement devenus si parfaits que leurs pratiques et leurs dogmes ref1~tent fidMement, parfaitement et d'un seul coup, la pure et 6ternelle spiritualit6?
Stirement pas. Alors, II faut compter modifier ces enseignements, ces rites, ces institutions, afin de s 'approcher de plus en plus du reflet cherch6.
On est donc ob1ig~ de changer les rites et les dogmes lorsque ceux-ci ont fait avancer 1'humanit6 & un point maximum de ce qu'ils pouvaient.
Vest ~ ce moment que le R~v61ation suivante vient confirmer le partie 6ternelle, mais donne de nouveaux moyens de pratiquer la vraie vie pour la rendre plus proche des r6alit6s spirituelles. Et c'est pour cela que beaucoup tournent le dos ~ cette R~v61ation nouvelle: parce qu'elle abroge la partie transitoire de la pr6-c6dente pour le remplacer par une autre progressive pour 1'~poque et destin& ~ faire franchir un bond nouveau 1'humanit6, les hommes se d6tournent de 1'effluve 6ternelle pour s'accrocher aux formes transitoires et mortelles.
Page 785DIE Erfinciungen der letzten hundert Jahre haben die Welt klein gemacht. Weit auseinander leigende
Lander und Kontinentesind durch Dampfschiff, Eisenbahn und Flugzeug, Telegraph, Fernsprecher, Fernseher und Radio naher zusammengeruckt als die ent-fernteren Gebietsteile
Deutschlands oder Frankreichshaben aufgehort, Hindernisse zwischen den verschiedenen Kulturen zu bilden, und selbst die Landesgrenzen beginnen ihren hemmenden Charakter zu verli-eren. So konnten Handel unci Wandel weithin uber die Erde fluten, vermoch-ten die Geister des Abend � und des Morgenlandes einander zu durchdrin-gen.
Sculen und Ausblldungsmoglich-keitenentstanden in den uberseelsehen Landern, durch die abendlandisohes Wissen,
Denken und Empfindenvermit-telt wurden, spater sandte Aisien unci Afrika selbst seine Sohne nach dem Westen, urn ihm die
Geheimnisse seiner Zivilisationabzulauschen. Ausgrabun-gen und scharfsinnige wissenschaftliche Ueberlegungen flordern em immer urn-fangreicher werdendes BiLl alter und altester Zeiten, ibrer Anschauungen und Gebrauche, wahrend die Astron-arnie entfernteste Welten,
Physik, Chemie und Biologieist nicht nur die Erde sondern der ganze Kosmos gleichsam in der Retorte des forschenden Men-schengeistes zusammengeschmolzen, und hat sich eine Fulle von Erkennt-nissen, freilich auch von ungelos-ten Fragen und scharfsten Gegensatzen ergeben.
Die Welt ist kleiner, das flick-feld feld grosser geworden, aber das Auge sieht sich einer verwirrenden Unzahl von Einselheiten gegenuber, ohne sie mehr zu einem geschlossenen Biki Ver-einen zu konnen. So stossen die Geister des Ostens und Westens, des Nordens und Suclens mit ihren Weltanschauun-gen und Sitten, ibren Bestrebungen und Instinkten hart aufeinander, jeder be-strebt, sich durchzusetzen, und doch ist jeder in sich selbst durch die Fuile der unverarbeiteten Einflusse geschwacht und zersetzt, keiner stark genug, den andern niederzuzwingen und jeder zu stark, urn selbst zum Erliegen zu kom-men. Die fruhere grosse Welt konnt.e in einzelnen Teilen versteppen, Volker ausrotten und Kulturen vernichten, ohne dass es die ubrigen Gebiete betraf oder sie auch nur darum wussten, und wenn auch einzelne Zweige des Baum-ens tier Menschheit verdorrten und ab-starben, so blieb doch anderswo uber-genug an Leben vorhanden, das sich entwickeln und ausbreiten konnte. Die heutige Welt aber in ihrer gegenwarti-gen Durchdringung und Verflechtung, bei der unabweichbar eines vom an-dern abhangt, kann nicht recht leben noch sterben � bis sie den Sinn ihres chaotischen Zustandes und die Notwen-digkeit seiner Ueberwinclung in einem ailgemeinen Frieden der Einheit a-kannt hat und sich ernsthaft und mutig auf den Weg des einzig moglichen Heils macht.
Und wie es eine grosse Em-heit ist, die im Ziel liegt, so 1st es auch em grosser Friede, den die Menschheit benotigt, umso grosser, je kleiner die Welt wird.
Mit dem Wart, dass wir alle "die Fruchte eines Baumes und die Bluten
Page 786der durch Jahrtau-sende genahrten Shensucht der Men-schheit nach jenem "Frieden auf Er-den", der ihr endlich Erlosung aus den qualenden taglichen Aengsten und No-ten beseheren soil. "Diese Handvoll Staub, die Welt, ist eine Heimat, lasst sie eine soiche in Einheit sein. Entsaget dern Stolz, denn er 1st eine
Ursache der Zwietracht.Folget nur dem, was Harmonie zur Fo1ge hat." Es ist das Befehlswort der gottlichen Autoritat selbst, das in der Geburtsstunde des allrnnfassenden Einheitsbegriffes durch den Mund des Ofienbarers an die geb-arende Welt geht.
Der erste Schritt zu einem dauernden Frieclen, von dem Bahá'u'lláh spricht, ist der "kleinere Friede," em Friede in der politischen
Sphare der Vol-ker. "Diewahre Zivilisation," so fuhrt 'Abdu'l-Bahá dazu aus, "wird ihr Banner ininitten der Welt erheben, wenn elnige edle Herrscher mit hohem Ehrgeiz, gleich Sonnexi. am Himmel der menschlichen Begeisterung leuchtend, zum Besten der ganzen menachijehen Art Schritte ergreifen und mit fester Entschlossenheit und geistiger Tatkraft eine tier aligemeinen Weltfriedensfrage gewidmete Versammiung beruf en, wenn sie, unter Ausnutzung aller Mog-lichkeiten zur Verwirklichung ihrer Ideale, elne Einheit under den Staaten der Welt schaffen und em endgultiger Vertrag tint! starkes Bundnis tinter ih-nen zu Bedingungen folgt, die kein Aus-brechen mehr moglich gem lassen.
So-bald das ganze Menschengeschlect em-mal durch seine Vertreter beteiligt und zur Ratifizierung dieses Vertrages em-geladen ist, der in der Tat em uni-versaler Friedensvertrag sein und von alien Volkern tier Erde heilig geachtet werden muss, wird es die Pflicht der vereinigten Menschen der Welt sein, daruber zu wachen, dass dieser grosse Vertrag Kraft und
Dauer gewinne." Die Grundlagedieses Bundnisses "soil so gefestigt sein, dass sich im Fall der Verletzung irgend elnes seiner Para-graphen durch einen Staat die ubrigen Nationen der Welt erheben und ihn zum Gehorsam zuruckzwingen. In der Tat, die ganze Menschheit muss ihre Krafte derart vereinen, dass sie die betref fende Regierung zum Sturz bringt." Em internationales Schiedsgericht, des-sen
"Mission die Vorbeugegegen den Krieg" sein wird und eine universal zu lehrende Welthilfssprache und Welteiriheitsschrift sollen die Bemuh-ungen der verbundeten Nationen er-ganzen.
Doch clieser "kielne Friede" ist nur em Schritt, und er vermochte zu keinem bleibenden Ausgleich zu fuh-ren, wenn ihm nicht der "Grosste Friede" als wirkliche Erfullung des Traumes der Jahrtausende nachfolgt, der Friede, der in gleicher Weise von Herz unci Bewusstsein der Mensehen Besitz nimmt, der seine Kraft was dem Wesen der wahren Religion zieht und seine Grundlagen in der Er-kenntnis der von Bahá'u'lláh gelehrten allumfassenden, vorurteilsiosen Einheit in der Mannigfaltigkeit hat. Das ist die Einheit, die "in ibrem wahren Sinn bedeutet, dass Gott allein als die em-zige Macht gedacht werden soil, die ale Dinge belebt und beherrscht, die ja nur Aeusserungen Seiner Schopfer-kraft sind," und die Queue der Er-kenntnis dieser Einheit bildet darum die "Erkenntnis Gottes," die "auf keine andere Weise erlangt werden kann, als durch die Erkenntnis Seiner gottlichen
Manifestation" (Bahá'u'lláh).in Wahrheit "einen neuen Hixnmel und eine neue Erde" und mit ihnen einen neuen Mensehen in elner neuen Ordung. Der "homo sapiens," der uns erstmalig in den Funden aus der mittleren Steinzeit entgegentritt, ist nach Jahrtausenden der Vorbereitung nun ins Alter der Reife eingetreten, in dem er beweisen soil, was er seither gelernt hat. Gross erseheint uns der Wandel von jenen fruhen Mensehen bis heute, unendlich grosser noch mag den Spateren die Veranderung zum neuen Menschen, der nun in den Wehen seiner Geburt liegt, und zu seiner kommen-den Ordnung dunken, denn "dies ist em nener
Zykius. Alle Horizonteder Welt sind erleuchtet, und die Welt wird in der Tat zu elnem Garten und Para-dies werden." ('Abdu'l-Bahá).
Mit den Manifestationenoffenbaren" werde, wurde var hundert Jabren das glorreiche Zeitalter der Em-heit eroffnet, mit der Erscheinung Bahá'u'lláh's hat es seine universale Offenbarung erfahren, deren uber-ragende Bedeutung noch dureli die von Bahá'u'lláh Selbst vorgenominene Em-setzung 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í als "Mittelpunkt seines
Bundes" eine Hervorhebungfin-det, eines Bundnisses zwischen dem Offenbarer und Semen Getreuen, gleich wie Er, der Offenbarer, Ausdruck des Bundnisses Zwischen
Gott und Semen Gesehopfenist. Mit diesein hohen em maligen Anile wurde den Glaubigen in 'Abdu'l-Bahá das "wahre Beispiel" und der erleuchtete zeitnahe
Erkiarer seines Wortesgegeben. Durch das Wort aber ergeht der gottliche Ruf an die in den Wehen liegende Mensehheit: "Kein Friede ist dir beschieden, es sei denn, du entsagst deinem Selbst und kommst zu Mir, denn es geziemt slit, dass dein Ruhm in Meinem Namen und riicht in dem deinen liege und dass due dein Vertrauen auf Mich mid nicht auf dich selbst setztest, denn Ich will allein und vor allem geliebt gem" (Bahá'u'lláh).
26.THE inventions of the last hundred years have made the world small. Countries and continents, far apart before, have by means of steamship, railway and airplane, telegraph, telephone, television and radio, been brought closer together than the farthest territories of Germany or France at the beginning of the new era. Mountain ranges, rivers, and oceans have ceased to be barriers between the various civilizations, and even the national boundaries are beginning to lose their separating character.
Under such circumstances trade and commerce were able to encompass the entire world, and the spirit of Occident and Orient could increase its mutual penetration. Schools and educational institutions were founded in countries overseas which transmitted occidental knowledge, experience and emotions; in later time, Asia and Africa sent their sons to the West to study the secrets of its civilization.
Excavations, and methodical, scientific speculations keep un earthing a steadily widening picture of remote and ancient eras, of their manners and habits, while astronomy reveals the distant worlds, and physics, chemistry and biology approach the borders of the elemental part and the origin of life itself. In such fashion, not only the earth, but the entire cosmos have been reduced in the retort of the searching human mind, and an abundance of knowledge � and also of unsolved problems and extreme conflicts � has come forth.
The world has become smaller, the outlook has become larger. Yet, the human eye finds itself in view of a confusing multitude of details without succeeding in combining them into one complete picture.
Thus, the spirits of the East and the West, of North and South keep conflicting and antagonizing one another bitterly with their world-concepts and morals, their aims, and their instincts, each of them trying to assert itself against the others and each of them so weakened and sapped
Page 788Bahá'ís attending the opening session of the First Regional Teaching Conference for Brazil held in Rio De Janeiro from October 9 to October 12, 1949, inclusive.
by the multitude of undigested influences, none of them strong enough to force clown the other and yet each of them still strong enough to escape defeat.
The erstwhile "great world" partially succeeded in destroying nations and annihilating civilizations without remote and other territories becoming afflicted by or aware of it. Regardless of single twigs of the tree of mankind rotting and dying, there remained life enough to develop and to extend itself. The presentday world with its increasing integrations and mutual adaptations in which one thing depends on and affects the other, can neither quite live nor die. It has, first, to grasp the meaning of its chaotic condition together with the necessity of overcoming it in and through a universal peace of unity, moving then forward determinedly and courageously on the path of the only possible salvation. Just as there is one great unity as the goal of all efforts, there is a great peace, too, which is needed by all; the smaller the world, the greater the peace.
With the words that we are all "fruits of one tree and the blossoms of one twig" Bahá'u'lláh expresses the quintessence of a yearning reaching back into the ages and groping for a "Peace on Earth" which is to deliver mankind from the torments of continuous fears and needs.
"This handful of dust, the world, is one home.Let it be in unity. Forsake pride, it is a cause of discord. Follow that which tends to harmony~~ (Bahá'u'lláh).
This is the keyword of Divine Authority Its elf which in the birth-hour of the all-encompassing concept of unity comes from the mouth of the Revealer to this nascent world.
The first step towards lasting peace of which Bahá'u'lláh speaks, is the Lesser Peace, a peace within the political realm of the nations.
'Abdu'l-Bahá explains, "True civilization will unfurl its banner in the midmost heart of the world whenever a certain number of its distinguished and high-minded sover
Page 789eigns � the shining exemplars of devotion and determination � shall, for the good and happiness of all mankind arise, with firm resolve and clear vision, to establish the Cause of Universal Peace.
They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking � the real source of the peace and wellbeing of all the world � should be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of the Most Great Cove nant The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to de-stray that government."
An international tribunal with the ''mission to seize every conceivable means for preventing war, an auxiliary universal language, and a world literature are to complete the efforts of the unified nations."
This "lesser peace" is but one step, though, which would have but little chance of equalization without the consecutive "Most Great Peace" as the true realization of a dream which has propelled mankind throughout thousands of years: a peace taking equal possession of man's heart and consciousness; a peace which draws its potency from the essence of true religion and which is based on the understanding of Bahá'u'lláh's principle of all-embracing, unbiased unity in the plurality of appearances. This "unity in its true meaning is that God should be realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things which are but the manifestations of its energy." (Bahá'u'lláh); the source of knowing this unity is, therefore, the "lnrnwl-edge of God" which can be obtained only through the knowledge of His Divine Manifestation.
Thus, the dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh reveals to us in truth "a new heaven and a new earth" and, with them, a new man in a new order. The "homo sapiens" as we know him from the findings of the stone-age, has after thousands of years of preparation entered the age of maturity where he is to apply the knowledge acquired during his growth.
Immense though the change of the early man to that of our days may appear, vaster still shall future generations call the transformation of this new man, now in the state of nascence, into the future order of mankind. For "this is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed as a garden and a paradise."
('Abdu'l-Bahá)of the B6t as the radiant Herald and the path-maker of "Him Whom God shall make manifest," the glorious age of unity has been started a hundred years ago; with the appearance of Bahá'u'lláh it has entered the state of its universal Manifestation. Its outstanding significance is the appointment bestowed by Bahá'u'lláh upon 'Abdu'1 Baha as "the Center of His Covenant," a covenant between the Manifestor and His believers, such as He, the Revealer, is the expression of the Covenant between God and
His creations. Throughthis high and unique station 'Abdu'l-Bahá became to the believers the "true example" and the inspired expounder and interpreter of His word. The word itself is the bearer of the Divine Appeal to this nascent mankind: "There is no peace for thee save by renouncing thyself and turning unto Me; for it be-hooveth thee to glory in My name, not in thine own; to put thy trust in Me and not in thyself, since I desire to be loved alone and above all that is."
(Bahá'u'lláh)Dedicated to the Bahá'í pioneers all over the world
LORNA TASKERI walked in the wet night, Alone in a strange country.
I was not sure the earth was friendly Beneath my feet, But I was aware of a light That shone in me, Even as a torch held high In the hands of a seeker Of lost faces.
It lighted the glistening leaves Of pepper trees in the rain, It fell on the feathery darkness Of jackaranda trees In walled gardens, It caught the majesty of a date palm, Black and breathless under sombre skies.
And suddenly I knew that there are friends, Even for those who walk alone Through the wet night in a strange country; There are friends Even where the earth is sullen, If oniy one holds the torch aloft With sturdy hand.
ON A BLIND INDIAN PIPINGthere often sits, at the base of the statue, a blind Indian playing Ins quena.
As I strolled with you one evening To us, on the scented breeze, Came the sound of plaintive piping Floating through the flowering trees.
"Let us linger," you said softly; "Let us find this piper, who Traps within his pipe so deftly So much old and so much new."
"Seems," you said, as through the gloaming Pressed we onward in our search, "That must be an Indian piping Sitting on his stony perch."
'Twas an Indian. blind and dirty, Piping forth his sad lament. Asking us, now listening raptly, "Tarry, Sefiors, 'til I am spent."
So we waited, and 'twas worth it, For there poured forth from his reed Notes, the like of which this orbit Does most sorely stand in need.
" 'Tis a lesson," you said humbly, 'Tis a moral to accrue, He has taught us very subtly, All is old, yet all is new."
FOUNDATION STONEThere is a stone in our land Within a temple fair; A holy hand, mysterious, Blest it and placed it there.
On wing~d feet we hasten � All love, all hate, forsworn, Bare-hearted, single-spirited, Of fears and sorrows shorn.
The Gate is wide in welcome, Our spirits seek repose, In solitude we contemplate The Beauty of the Rose.
793o rack of faith, 0 symbol! Our souls, alive, aware, Kneel low before thy majesty And find God there.
"ABANDON NOT THEBecause you are fearless You can pass, and leave The flower swinging in the wind Below the garden path, But I must breathless wait Lest one frail petal fall Or a leaf drop Or this sweet sunlight Never shine again.
So you will find the deathless Flower, And never grieve to see These petals drifting on the wind With fading hours, And never need to know How the pale evening Clings to the quivering leaves.
HEAVEN AND EARTH HAVE SWORNLike the sorrowful sighing of horns, Lo, the slain unceasingly weep; Like the mournful moaning of doves, Their weeping is solemn and deep; Though hid from the land of the living, They slumber not, never, nor sleep!
They are yoked to our greeds and transgressions By a new and portentous decree: Know ye, heaven and earth have sworn War's dead shall not rest or be free Till the living have utterly 1ear~ed: All men are the leaves of One Tree!
STARS BEFORE THE DAWNThese are the glowing stars before the dawn, These are the pledges of a brighter time, The gleam, before hope wavers and is gone, That earth be constant in its upward climb.
These are the stars that men of every race Shall meet in council for the common good, That science with new wonders keeps apace And lights the way to greater brotherhood.
Now justice deaTh with crime against mankind; The brawn and grasping ego of the fool No longer struts in glory, but must find A higher dream where heart and brain shall rule, And cries for peace swell in a rising tide, Silvered by prayer, which cannot be denied.
DAWN IN THE EASTThe dawn is in the east, my friend. The night Has been so dark the stars could not be seen, And you have long since ceased to look for light On far horizons where faith dwells serene.
Yet quietly day breaks.Faint lines of rose Illumine clouds, low-hanging, dense and black.
Above a storm-drenched earth the wind still blows; Yet to the heart expectancy comes back.
I know that pain and hatred stalk the world; Men cry out "Peace!" and still there is no peace.
Fear rules the heart.Great wings are still unfurled To shield from war that can not bring surcease From pain. Yet nights of turbulence must end.
Law reigns. The dawn is in the east, my friend.0, ask not whence this joy, So resonant and clear � It drowns the voice of anguish And floods my heart with cheer; Nor whence that temperate love That ebbless flows in me, Bearing me lightly, lightly, As foam is borne by the sea.
0, wonder not at all My bubbling ecstasy That like a fount of peace Flows, immersing me; I only know 'tis Dawn
And a New Day comes apace WithBeyond the dreaming trees A white sky drifts Like a great cloud of light.
Within my shadowed room, I wake, Bathed in a sudden flow Of misty white.
A white light gleams Reflected from dark pictures On the wall.
My pillow is a throne of white Like drift of snow.
And we are bidden pray At dawn, to God.Perhaps the soul then is most white, Before the gold of day Gleams on its shadowed walls, And prayers on white wings Mount to Him, untouched By any color of our deeds Or dusk of dream.
PRAYERThe Love that needs No knowledge of face, or form or speech, The Love so great we can never touch Thy Reality But whose touch has realized all things And Whose knowledge molds life's essence � Thou only are the Eternally Perfect And the totality of beauty.
Out of eternity Thou hast plucked the smallest grain And called it time � A speck of dust on Thy robe's hem Is the material universe � Thy thought in the space of an eyewink Coinprehendeth the spiritual universe.
O Thou! Who asketh for all we know Yet givest all we know � Infinity is not enough for all our praise of Thee,
O Most Adored One!Origin of man's spirit � Singular, yet All-Containing � Though beyond any and all approach, Thou art the life of every living soul.
THE SONGMany a sweet song has been heard From human voice and singing bird On sequestered mountainside In primal wood where wild things hide; In the summer evening hush I have heard the hermit thrush His silvery liquid notes outpour For those who listen to adore; But no music have I heard Like the white Shfr&zi bird!
At the ebon instrument With a face of grave intent The musician sat at ease, Pale white hands on ivory keys, And the glimmering candle flare Lighted roses in her hair; She, interpreting a song That the world had loved so long. Still no music have I heard Like the white Shir&zi bird!
O Beloved! When the songs of children rise The Superlative of every good, Under the summer sunset skies
Page 796From young hearts so free and gay And youthful joy has claimed the day, Dancing down the flower-strewn lane Free from all old grief and pain, This seems only a small part To still the tumult of the heart, Such a calming song is heard From the white ShirAzi bird.
Be still! What wondrous thing is here?The instruments are tuned to ear The leader, mounting on his stand, Takes lightly his baton in hand, When lo! a mighty praise in notes Through the lofty chamber floats; The hearts are calmed, the minds are stilled, The souls with heavenly rapture filled. And yet � above this joyful throng I hear the glad ShirAzi Song!
THE SONG OF TAHIRIIIThhirih, flower of Persia's women, Pure white rose of love!
I see thy petals falling in the mirrored fountain And the dark cypress pointing to the stars above; Hear the nightingale, his full throat singing Music in thy praise, fair follower of the dove.
When the Shfrftzi Youth, with his great story, Opened wide the realms of light,
Announcing the ImmortalGlory, Became the "gate" and took the flight, His radiance flooded every city, Harsh voices called to new alarms, Shouting "Down! for we have no pity!"
Evil and darkness sprang to arms!His pen had moved, Glad Tidings given, His destiny fulfilled and passed; The youthful Báb's great heart had striven; He met His martyrdom at last.
Fearless and filled with firm devotion, Dauntless you stood for freedom's goal; From the wellspring of your deep emotion You surrendered your immortal soul!
You gave your life without a tremor To make the old traditions fall, Called the world's sisterhood together To batter down the ancient wall.
How wise men came to hear your wisdom From behind the curtained door; And the monarch tried to save you, � For your hand he did implore!
Your brave deeds rang around the world, Thhirih, And a wave of justice swept For your many unseen sisters Who in bondage long had wept; And the wonder of it all, TAhirih, That from out the land of TA You sent your silver bugle notes To the Western world afar!
T&hirih, flower of Persia's women, Pure white rose of love!
I see thy petals falling in the mirrorea fountain And the dark cypress pointing to the stars above; Hear the nightingale, his full throat singing Music in thy praise, fair follower of the dove.
THIS HEART THAT IS THYMy heart it is Thy quivering lyre, Thy vital fingers sweep its strings Sweep its strings, sweep its strings!
Its strings are set afire, my Lord Its strings are set afire!
Oh kindled by Divine desire For Thee it sings, for Thee it sings, Forevermore for Thee it sings, This heart that is Thy lyre, my Lord � This heart that is Thy lyre.
TO S. J. FARMER ON HER BIRThDAYWhat shall we bring to her, What shall we sing to her, Of our love a token
Page 797Here on her birthday What of her worth say Written or spoken?
Perchance while these latter days Light up Piscataqua's Sunsets of glory,
Some bard of Green Acre MoreIf vainly we thank her For all she has given, Her years of right living, Of blessing and giving, Are counted in heaven.
Of rough life the smoother, Of sorrow the soother, Of trouble the calmer, For blinded eyes seeing, God bless her for being
Just Sarah J. Farmer!J. W. G. Bahá'u'lláh, Thy spirit speaks to mine; Thy truth reveals the mind of One divine; Thy words are life, � Thy words are liberty; My heart is filled with Thine own ecstasy!
Bahá'u'lláh, the Wordof God ta-day, I would more deeply know Thy righteous
Way;I would be true to Truth that Thou hast taught, I would be seeking God whom Thou hast sought.
Bahá'u'lláh, my soul with love inspire; Kindle within, the Holy Spirit's fire; Set me aflame to tell Thy word abroad, And lead imprisoned souls to Thine abode!
Bahá'u'lláh, when night's dark shadows fall, May God through Thee be my soul's All-in-all; And through Thy grace, may light immortal shine, And grant me Love in God's own home divine!
September 11, 1948Fu6, Di6s, Tu voluntad oninipotente, Que por un mar de penas nos lievaba Y con la mano de Tu amor clemente De tin infierno tie angustias nos salvaba.
Y fu6 Tu Fe, Sefior, que cual torrerite De cristalino sol nos inundaba Y en al noche de un siglo decadente La luz de Tu socorro nos mostraba.
0 cu&n hermosa naces, madrugada! Con nueva fe radiante de esperanza Ante Tu majestad mi amor se inclina, Mientras el coraz6n en bienandanza Ya logra distinguir la voz sagrada, De Tu Revelaci6n la voz Divina.
DER WEG NACH TADas ist der Frieden, Herr, die tiefe Stille, Die Sehnsucht, Gott, nach fleinem Licht,
Der Tag, an dem Dein Sch6pferwilleUnd flihibar wird em Wogen, Wallen, Nach Deinen-i Meere, Herr, so gross � Und Wellen branden und verhallen Und rinnen still in Deinen
Schoss.Am Weg liegt meine Kraft zersehiagen, Das heisst, mein Wille, der nur sich geliebt, Und Deine Kraft, sie will mich tragen, Sie ist es, die mir Flilgel gibt. Ich komme aus der Tiefe, atme Frieden,
Page 798Well ich mit Wissen meine Last verlor, T.Jnd wandernd durch das Tal hienieden Hebt langsam sich mein Buck empor.
Ich flihi den Duft im Morgengrauen, Da krampft mein Herz in neuer Qual:
"Du solist Mein AntlitzHailt Gottes Stimme dureli das Tal, Mein Herz will sich in Pein zerspalten In Gottes und der Erde Reich, "Hie!" "Drilben!" toben die Gewalten, Hermaggedon, dem Ende, gleich.
Ich greife nach der ErdeUnd trinke seine voile Lust, Da wird im Angesicht der
ZecherJa, gibt es, Herr, denn kein Entrinnen Und endet nichts der Seele
Qual?Soil jeder Tag mir neu beginnen Und enden in dem gleichen
Tal?Unci wider ging icl2 hin, es war am Morgen, Und ineine Fiisse schritten durch das Land von Ta, Da fand ich jenen Schatz verborgen, Den Gott allein in seiner Schbnheit sah. Tm Kiang der Sph~ren schien die Luft zu schwingen Und jegliches Atom vereinte sich dern
Wort:Licht an Gottes Tor. "Sieh, Er 1st Gott!" so jubein die
Atomeim hdchsten Reich, Und dennoch schwingt Sein Wort durch alle Himmelsdome: "Mein Selbst, es ist dem Staube gleich!"
Mein Auge will sich nimmer schijes-sen, Seit ich, a Ta, Dein Licht gesehn.
Mein Selbst, es liegt zu Deinen Fflssen Und will entzflckt in Deinem Glanz vergehn.
Ich fiihie Zykien, JahrmillionenSich beugen hier vor Deter -Macht Und flihi den Dank aus allen Sch5pfungszonen,
Den reine Seelen DeinerWie kann mein Sein Dich je erfassen, Der aller Himmel, aller Welten GLanz umschliesst, Vor dem die Sonnen selbst in ihrem Schein verbiassen, Well Er das ganze All mit Seiner Maclit umfliesst!
0 Ta!, in meinem Innersten verborgen Bring ich mein letztes "ich" an Deinem Tempel dar; Dies ist der Schdpfung erster Morgen Und Gott allein 1st, bleibt und war.
FIDELITY"It behoove flu, thee to consecrate thyself to the will of God."
� BAHÁ'U'LLÁH"When in perfect obedience thou Jofloweth the path of evident Light, thou mayest rest assured that in a little white Life will find the Beloved, the seeker, the Desired One, and the traveler the GoaL" � 'AEDU'L-BAIEA Fidelity, the Servant, draweth near his King, And close abides where
HeDoth dwell in Mystery: Sent forth � His ring would wear To draw the questing gaze, out there, Of those who seek His
Realm;Bring them His Word and healing care � Flung over land � skimming the sea � How swiftly God's Words flee, Ranging the far horizons with
Fidelity!Fidelity to God! thus man can lifted be To pilgrimage: journeying through life's history From dust to Adam � then, by faith in Thee, Prostrate before the King of Majesty:
Prostrate � through Himto pray � The while eternal lightnings play From His great Kingdom, in this Judgment Day � Firm hearts find peace and souls grow
Page 799VERSE clean through Thee, Guardian of Fidelity.
O God! Forgiver of our great arrears! We pray to Thee, through falling tears � Thy Spirit changeless through the changing years � Grant us
Fidelity!These troubled times that wait the death of hate � They need from Thee Fidelity!
That man, reborn unto the honor state, Thoughts pure from strife, May hear the tongues of atoms all relate
Thy Sacrifice and Life!down before His Face, For God, through Him, builds order o'er Earth's mighty, rounded space:
His planned Administrationchannels His Spirit's Sun � Growth brings to them who draw thus near to Him, To find more selfless love begun, It's shining texture spun To clothe all truthful souls, as He
Guards Firmness and Fidelity.� Sr. PAUL, Coan~nnuis 115:26 But seventeen � his father thought him dull: His life was quiet, like the lull Before a hurricane � what chemistry Could raise this leaden weight to gold?
What sunrise on his field of spirit shine, Him to enthrall, enfold?
Could he, a peasant, talk unto a king, From King of kings, God's Word to bring: This youth, whose life from morn to night seemed void � A shell but cast upon a shore By tides that flow and ebb and flow again; This youth, unknown before?
And yet his world was tense, and anger flowed, As weeds grow thick along a road; For IslAm s priests Bahá'u'lláh dared flout, For He their Muslim life would free From greed, and vice, and bigots' creeds that bound That life to misery.
For volunteers, God's Wordwent forth, and all The leaders answered to Its call: "But no," Bahá'u'lláh replied: "Not they Would have the spirit firm and bald To face a martyr's painful death, therefore, God's might shall be extolled."
To "Badi", then, He spoke, and "Badi" shook And all his inmost heart awoke: From ice, he changed to brilliant, burning flame; His veins with fiery power surged; The Tablet to the ShTh concealed, he bore � His soul and death had merged:
For death, Bahá'u'lláhhad said would be The fate His messenger should see: From 'Akka, "Badi" to far Tihr&n did go; On foot, the desert miles did trace; Then, dressed in white, his fast complete,
"Badi""0 king, with message from Sheba I come to thee!"
The Tablet held aloft: "This to be My death!""Not so," they said: ("Bach" they chained): "Easy is quick death, tortured thy role!"
Serene, his mighty soul, undaunted, paid Three days, a frightful toll: They killed his body, yes � his beaten head, His branded limbs, proclaimed him dead: His spirit, free, had risen � God had called � How blind their eyes, that could not see � Joyous, "Badi" radiant, had gone to dwell In Heaven's ecstasy.
But seventeen � his father thought him dull: His life was quiet, like the lull Before a hurricane � God's chemistry Had changed its leaden weight to gold; God's Sun upon his field of vision shone, Him to enthrall, enfold.
'AKKADark 'Akka! Ancient fortress beside the Eastern Sea, Where Christian fought with Saracen in the days that used to be, Drear 'Akka! in whose dungeon-tombs beside thy changeless tide Lay, rotting, hapless prisoners whom Earth had cast aside.
Dread 'Akka! Citadel accursed by anguish and despair Of all the myriads who were doomed to pine and perish there.
Dark 'Akka! foul and deadly!The birds that flew o'er thee Were poisoned by thy putrid breath and by thy stagnant sea!
Till lo! One day from IrAn's land by order of the Turk, A Prisoner passed within thy gates, into thy filth and murk � A Prisoner such as n'er before thy dungeons did enclose,
A Messenger of God � a ManWithin thy darkest dungeon, with the lowest dregs of men, They locked the irons round His neck and beat Him yet again.
His gaolers came, and marvelled, when they saw the face of Him Whom ShAh and MuliTh had condemned for heresy and sin.
For in His eyes glowed Power, His voice rang with command, And all His words were holy, and all His little band Filled the long night with praying and chanting praise to God, Nor would they stop for hunger, nor ceased they for the rod.
The winds that blew o'er 'Akka and found this Prisoner there Swept out the stench and staleness with a purer, fresher air.
The stagnant' sea of 'Akka felt that Holy Presence too, And, cleansed and purified it sparkled brilliant, blue.
The hearts that were in 'Akka all felt that mighty love And opened, like red rosebuds to the shining sun above.
And those whose souls could listen and those whose hearts could hear Thrilled with new conviction of God's Kingdom, drawing near.
For this Prisoner brought a Promise of the Day of God, on earth, The Day the Prophets prophesied, for which mankind had birth.
A promise of a world, reborn, a new, God-given Plan, With the peoples joined to peoples in the Brotherhood of Man.
To Him who came to 'Akka a Prisoner in chains, Whose Message rings around the world o er mountains, seas and plains Whose clarion Call flung wide the gates to usher in God's Day, 0! May our hearts be open, our minds and wills obey!
Bright 'Akka! Thou art purified because He dwelt in thee Thy Prisoner from I r~n has cleansed and set thee free.
Blest 'Akka! Beauteouscity below Mount Camel curled, The New Day dawns, and crowns thee The Center of the World!
Page 801A I. I. A mi � n � j � I. ~j~J tern-1-ty Give meta drink� � 0 my pres -ence makemeableto 0 myBe.
roam� �I * w ~ the sweet-scented streamsof Tidne e � ' � '-I Within the meadows of Thy before nearness, Thy
Page 804A I 6) and of t God the fruits of � the tree � � � of
� Thy� A eJ 9 by and at the right band of of the throne ed - of of Thy "#~ "#~ .tz ;I.. I U. Be -ing ing en-ablemeta taste 0 my mer cy cy Seat me � � � 0 my
DcI, I piu &~so t) � w Hope From the c~ys~1 springs of of
Thysire' From the fra-grantbTeezes ofThy � � � � � '7 I piu
Page 805.4, ~r~I love - -Suf-fer uf-fer me to quaff - -0my 0my joy - let a breath pass over me � � � 0 my ie Go al - and and in to the heights of the paradise of Thy A I I'st ending t) w V � ti prov i -dence- � � p let me a-bide-� �
Al.807 eJ A one -nessSuffer nessSuffer me to hearken 0 Re � I � ~ r3 � ~ � 3, coun � ten � ance let me a bide forever 0 U 1~~ ~AK~ 'fk~ v 1 � ~ ml ghquick-en me0 my Pro-Gb Gb es es � ta � blish me, OThouwhoartmyPos * �
Page 808piu. �oss~ vid - - In thespii~ � it ofThy f ses -sor To the heaven of Thy by -ing Keep me steadfast 0 my land ness, lilt me up 0 0 my ~ ~ ~ �
WF F.meno I I t) suc-car- er And in the path of Thy
Al. I I Iquicken- e~ And tin ta the Day Star of Thy ~ � ~ � ~ � ~ � meno mosso ~e. ~ F ~
Page 809� 3--Thauwhaartmy tmy ar-i-gin and my High-es~ wish we. I
L1~ �_ I 3 K '�~'~ 811 L Thou wilt manifest - cause cause meto return 0
4 Cresc.r r Thou who art my God! Potentart Thou to do what fp p pleaseth Thee � � � p Thou aTt .5'--t t ped.... * simile
Page 812ver-i ly ~he Most Ex -alt-ed the All-A..
A.."? ~ ~ 9L~-W-~ -u~uw~. ~ ~Now my work and play are done, I rest me in Thy Care: And while I sleep,
Thy'r r ~: '~ ~ : r7: -~zzZ3 I I I I Love will keep Thy cU.ldren every � where: I love Thy little stars dear Lard,t~y ~ ~: �~ � i ~. . I ~ eCI r AM nt. and dim.
I a, I I I I (i~seem to twinkle 3o: And now, Good n�ght,I'm off to sleep and in Thy Care I know.
_'F~F ~'In the gar den of thy heart plant nought but the I � � .1 dim. dim.
r I of the righteous eous and eschew all fe1-1ow � ~hip with the iiii
+ From 'Hiddengodly. 0 friend, In the garden of thy p dim
Page 816/ I / / / h A1-1ah-u-Ab-1~a A1-lah-u-Ab-ha AI-lah-u-Ab-ha ha p � I r I I I I I
F7 'F -A1-1h-u-Ab-Ii~A1-1h-u-Ab-Ii~ A1-1~h-u-Ab-ha Al -1~h uI I I
Al-1~h 1~h -u-Ab Ab AFi~e-foId ~Yd-Baha" u'I -Abha"' Very Slow and Soft Composed by
Saffa KinneyI r'~ ~'Vjj ha Ya-Ba-lia'u'1 -Ab-Ya- YaBa- 4
Ab'~ '~ I(i p I --- 1 0 Friend!In the garden of thy heart plant not but the I 9 I � I I [N;H] I I p I I. ~ � ~~~ ra:~1.1 ki I ~
[IIrose oflove, and from the nightingale of af � fection and desire a a tempo rail. N ~ loosen not thy hold: Treasure the corn-panionship of the
~ I ~ Nh~ � � � ~ w I I I A It I.. ~ I I I I I I right-eou~,and eschew all � fellowship with the un � god ly.
4 ~J 4 � ~ Co~nposed and harmonized byEjl~-� e ,~.� ~i From out the night a voice has spoken, migM-y and in clar i on tones, The Prophets aU Mve told the story of the promised one to come - -llAh the Prince of Promise calls the worbLto ways of peace, Rise, Oh Rise, Ba-i i Youth, This is ~he dawn of a glorious day; cresc. ~dim.
P I. [1 I I I k I ~il k i Un-i-ty and Peace on eartn, wondrous e ra El
Ba-hE(.A I t I i I .1; F r 'r ~ raii..Y r p r r
IIRevealed by Bahá'u'lláh Music by ~ugene Babcock
MM~ 60 To be interpreted freely 3 3Sostenuto 0
my God, makewill--and and my ~ Acce~ et Gresc nt. a tempo deeds ac cord -ing ing to
Thysc ~iiiiZZZI3 tJ w w w se~v-ice be accept- cept-a-ble able to
Theemy mf Un poco nt. agitato
Page 821821 ~ I help come on ly from Thee, and home Man .
or � dam my to sion be � �
Thyt~ ~ Bound less ss and Ho ly mp Thou art A I the 4~i~ a a tempo decresc p 3 3 Pre � cious, theEv � er pre � sent,the ing.
Lovr.1 ~ I I I
Page 822SETTINGS OF SOME OF THE "HIDDEN WORDS' OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
FOR SOLO OR UNISON CHANTING WITHOUT ACCOMPANIMENT0 son of Spirit! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, Idnd-ly and ��, I �I A radiant heart, that Thine may be a sov'-reign-ty ancient, imperishable and .~ I ev er � last � ing.
II f~I K kI L 1 ~ ~i� i 9 � 0 ~on of Spirit! The best be-by-ed of all things in My sight is Ths-tice;
~j ~j ~ II. � � W �
turn not away there from if thou de-sir-estMe, and neg -lect it not that .1~ I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and 0)vw w W W� W ~~W� ~, ~� ~, not through the eyes of others, and shalt laiow of tbine own knowledge and ~ K AI of thyi~ei,gh-bor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it be-not not through the knowledge rrr hoov -eth thee Ver-i -lyJus-tice is My gift to be. to thee and �he A I C)-w~.
w~. w sign of My by-ing r. v kind ness. Set it then be fore thine eyes.
Composition by Charles Duncan of theVeiled in My im-mem-o-ri-aI w.. W 0 son of man! being and the - w. w ~.� ', an � dent e tern- i-ty of My es � serice, I Imew My love for thee; I I I therefore I cre � at ed thee, have en graved on thee Mine image and re � L ~. �.
vealed to thee My beau ty. t~EJW I � 0 son of man! I loved thy cre-a � tion, hence I cre a � � ted thee.
k ~ i I k ~ Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and � , � . w. fill thy soul with the spirit of lile.
0 son of be-ingi Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lov-est Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, 0 ser -vant.
REMOVER OF DIFFICULTIESw w U j 7 � Is there an y Re may er of dif � fi-cult -jes save God? Say: Praised be Godl He is Godl AU. are His ser -vants, and ~~ all a bide by His bid ding!
Page 824ti it s~ jtj~t~~ t~tt And spread tl~s Cauae of Al, � b~. Let us teach HuB CIau~e to ali be � � ~9 � ~ ~it,tt it*~�~s , be In His Path and for Hi~ Sake, We will gladlyom'~, sac � ri � fice~, Any � tldng that may 5-~g*d-~f ~f ~ E � ven if it be our lives. Come aU ye fol � low � ers of Ba � hA' uJ. � la'h, � V ~� .~. ~ 1 Let .~ fri � low His Ccs � mands, And s~read � the Cau8e of Ab t t t w A ~ ~ ~ cause it's the No uattor wbat We shall be Will of Gad; we sliall suffer,repaid by our
LardA i I I I 0) / Ya � 13a-b~I' u'1-Ab ha; ha; I I I I I I.
~y�-~~ Ya'Ba- h~' u'I I I i I I I j j
KI r r ri I I/ tJ My Gad, my A dared One, my King, my De sire! What I I i I
Maes~osoI I I I tongue can voice my Thanks to - Thee? I was heedless,
Thou~. J .~-I I I I didst awaken me: I I I had - turned back from -
Thee.I I I gr~cious1y - aid aid me to turn towards
Thee:I I_ j~ I � � Ada$ed and harmonized by Louise C. Rich 1947 A. D. Bahá'í Year 104
Page 827' I I was onedead,Thou quickenme: With the wa-terof as didst
(Pk~iI I I I II I0) l life - I was withered, Thou didst re vive vive me with the heavenly stream of
Thine� utter --ance: e: which hath flowedforthfrom the L.J ''F F I I � I
Pen(Aa4 I l~ k ii I4=~II � I � � I Chicago. Illinois U.S.A.
Page 828flfM.L~ � I � 0II~I I � � I, V All - ex - istence is be gotten by Thy boun ty, de I I I ii L I I I I I I ~ ~
I I I�I I I I I I prive it � not of thewaters of Thy gener -osity, neither do Thou with hold it - from - the ocean of
I IIKj~~~j'I t'F I riten. a tempo Thy � mer � cy. I be � seech Thee to aid and as I I I I ~ ~
I I' II I I sist meat all � � limes and under all con � I I I A. ~ j
' IIditions, and seek from the heaven of Thy Grace
I I I I I I II~
+ b4~
II I~I I I I Thine ancient favor. Thou art, in truth, the Lord of bounty, and the Sovereign of-the kingdom of e tern tern � 1 � W. r7~ I ii I I I I I dl ~1i ~ ~44~4 4. ~ A
Inscribed to Shoghi EffendiI I I I I p � � F F r 1r p p p ; 3 p ii: A ;Ii,L I -r r -- --.J.J said: A~ a � round him they feel 2{i8 deai gath � ered to Thee: ~nd, g~a~d band Thou my tongue, keep me pure, un � de ~t-~-a-,-# .� � files; ~~- ~-. .
Al I I I I I I I I ft B c Blesoing each lit � tie head. Comechildren and lit � tie join in Worthy my Lord to see. 0 letlove him our us Savior and
* * ~ ~� A~ A A
I I I i II I I II I II I i i I
� 1 � r to Om' Savior
song Praising Hun morn and eve:we'll For Loz'd; Be � cause He has loved And let us read u~ 80: His a fr ~ A.. � ~ � I I I g I tJ LW � ~� � � � � bles8 � i.ngs re al � ~ys be � long; f4n~ ev � er His � oeiTe. Lard ho - ly Word; - That That we- may 3mow.
our ~-~m~* ~m~* � � I I I I 'I I I I � I I I I I 'I. � 1.. Suf � fer Helpthechilcfrencome me; kind;Our 8av 2. me dearto im � to Precious WIU � ing � �or serve ~ .-Lord patient to for to and , be 1a-~-A .-.-~-I I I I 1�~
AL. I I K I i IA Statement of the Purpose and Principles of the Bahá'í Faith.
Outline of Bahá'í History.A Statement on Presentday Administration of the Bahá'í Cause.
Bahá'í Calendar and Festivals.Brief History of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in America.
Extracts from Mashriqu'1-Ajbk~r Report.European and American Cities Visited by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Transliteration of Oriental Terms Frequently Used in Bahá'í Literature.
Dr. J. FL Esslemont.The Relation of the Bahá'í Cause to Modern Progressive Movements.
The Unity of Civilization.A Statement of the Purpose and Principles of the Bahá'í Faith and Outline of
Bahá'í History.Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
PART TWOA Statement on Presentday Administration of the Bahá'í Cause.
Excerpts from the Will and Testament pf 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Spirit and Form of Bahá'í Administration.Address of 'Abdu'l-Bahá delivered at Bahá'í Convention, Chicago, 1912.
The Structure of the Bahá'í Temple.Address delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá at the Dedication of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar k&r Grounds, May, 1912.
The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of 'Ishqabad.Queen Marie of Rumania pays tribute to the beauty and nobility of the Baha'i
Teachings.Baha Groups with names and addresses of correspondents.
Bahá'í Groups.Section One � List One: Bahá'í Publications of America.
Section Two � List Two: Baha Publications of England.
� List Three: Bahá'í Literature in French.Section Three � Alphabetical list of Bahá'í books and pamphlets.
Section Four � References to the Bahá'í Movement in Non-BaM'i works.
Section Five � References to the Bahá'í Movement in Magazines.
Transliteration of Oriental Terms frequently used in Bahá'í literature.
Guide to the transliteration and pronunciation of the Persian alphabet.
PART FOURIntroduction to The Promulgation of Universal Peace.
Poem � ' 'A Prayer."The Bahá'í Religion � Papers read at the Conference of Some Living Religions
Within the British Empire, 1924.The Bahá'í Cause at the Universal Esperanto Congresses at Edinburgh and
Danzig.Translation of a Letter from the Israelitish Assembly of Bahá'ís of Tihr~n, Iran.
InterRacial AmityAppendix � Tablet to America revealed by Bahá'u'lláh.
Bahá'í Persecutions in Persia � An Appeal to His Imperial Majesty RidA ShAh
Pahiavi.Appendix Two � Excerpts from Letters of Bahá'u'lláh to the SultAn of Turkey and the Shah of Persia.
Appendix Three � Words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá concerning Persia.
VOLUME IIIBahá'u'lláh: The Voice of Religious Reconciliation.
The Dawn of the Bahá'í Revelation. (From Nabit's Narrative.)
Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
PART TWOExcerpts from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Spirit and Form of Bahá'í Administration.Declaration of Trust by the National Spiritual Assembly.
Excerpts from the Letters of Shoghi Effendi.Text of Bahá'í application for civil recognition by the Palestine Administration.
ration.Facsimile of Baha I marriage certificates adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of Persia and Egypt.
Bahá'í Calendar and Festivals.Green Acre and the Bahá'í Ideal of Interracial Amity.
References to the Bahá'í Faith.The Case of Bahá'u'lláh's House in Bagjicl~d before the League of Nations.
Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney.References to the Bahá'í Faith in Non-Bahá'í works.
References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines.Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature with guide to the transliteration and pronunciation of the fr~nian Alphabet.
Definitions of Oriental Terms used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOURBahá'u'lláh's Divine Economy: a Letter of Shoghi Effendi.
The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh: A Reflection, by G. Townshend.
'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Visit to Woking, England.Impressions of Haifa, by Alain Locke, KB., Ph.D. The World Vision of a Savant, by Dr. Auguste Henri Farel.
The Cultural Principles of the Bahá'í Movement, by Dr. Ernst Kliemke.
The Relation of the Báb to the Traditions of Is1~m, by Wanden Mathews
LaForge.The Bahá'í Movement in German Universities, by Martha L. Root.
The City Foursquare, by Allen B. McDaniel.The Races of Men � Many or One, by Louis G. Gregory.
Haifa � and the Baha, by Dr. John Haynes Holmes.The Bahá'í Cause at the XXth Universal Congress of Esperanto at Antwerp, Belgium, August, 1928, by Martha L. Root.
Page 837Bahá'u'lláh and His Teachings, Reprinted from the Japan Times and Mail.
'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Rabbi, by Willard P. Hatch.Some Experiences Among the Poor in Brazil, by Leonora Holsapple.
A Trip to Tahiti, by Louise Bosch.Bahá'u'lláh: The Voice of Religious Reconciliation.
Aims and Purposes of the Bahá'í Faith.Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
Excerpts from Bahá'í Sacred Writings.Excerpts from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Spirit and Form of Baha Administration.Declaration of Trust by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Certificate of Incorporation by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of New York.
Documents related to the incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada as a recognized
Religious Society in Palestine.Petition addressed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of the United States and Canada to the Prime Minister of the Egyptian
Government.Facsimile of Bahá'í Marriage Certificates adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of fran and of Egypt.
Facsimile of the Certificate of the United States Federal Government to the Declaration of Trust entered into by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Facsimile of the Certificate of the Pal5stine Government incorporating the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada as a Religious Society in Palestine.
Facsimile of the Certificate of Incorporation, The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of New York.
The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Page 838Further Developments in the Case of Bahá'u'lláh's House: Extracts from the Minutes of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of
Nations.Minutes of the Twenty-first Session: November 1931.
Extracts from the Report to the Council of the League of Nations.
Bahá'í Calendar and Festivals.Additional Material gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Vol. II) regarding the
Bahá'í Calendar.Historical D~ta gleaned from NabiCs Narrative (Vol. II) regarding
Bahá'u'lláh.Short History of the International Bahá'í Bureau at Geneva, Switzerland.
In Memoriam.Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Local Baha Spiritual Assemblies and Groups in the United States and
Canada.Addresses of Centers of Baha Administrative Divisions in Persia.
List of the Báb's BestKnown Works.References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books by non-Bahá'í Authors.
References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by non-Bahá'í Writers.
Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature with Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation of the Persian Alphabet.
Definitions of Oriental Terms used in Baha Literature. Glossary.
PART FOURThe Goal of a New World Order: A Letter of Shoghi Effendi.
The Way of the Master, by G. Townshend.Italy and the Baha Cause, by General Renato Piola Caselli.
The World Economy of Bahá'u'lláh, by Horace Holley.
Education as a Source of Good Will, by President Bayard Dodge.
Unity through Diversity: A Bahá'í Principle, by Alain Locke, A.B., Ph.D. A Short Chronicle of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Visit to London, 19111912, by Lady
Blomfield.Professor Auguste Forel and the Bahá'í Teaching, by Stanwood Cobb.
A Tribute from Dr. Edmund Privat.The First Fruits of Victory, by Keith Ransom-Kehier.
Where Is the Key to World Unity, by Louise Drake Wright.
A Visit to Baha, by Nancy Bowditch.Appreciations of the Bahá'í Movement, by Martha L. Root.
The Supreme Affliction, by Alfred E. Lunt.The Bahá'í Movement and North American University Circles, by Martha
L. Root.Man and Mankind on the Way of Progress, by Lidja Zamenhof.
The Epidemic of the Persian Jews, by A. I Wienberg.
The Younger Generation, by MarQiyyih Nabil Carpenter.
Light on Basic Unity, by Louis G. Gregory.Science and Religion, compiled by Loulie A. Mathews.
A Baha Traveler in Palestine, by Walter B. Guy, M.D. Dr. David Starr Jordan, by Willard P. Hatch.
Song Offerings.Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
Excerpts from Bahá'í Sacred Writings.The Passing of Bahá'í Kh4num, the Most Exalted Leaf.
PART TWOExcerpts from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Genealogy of the Báb.Facsimile of Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of Persia and of Egypt.
The Spirit and Form of the Bahá'í Administrative Order.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of the United States and Canada.
Facsimile of the Certificate of the United States Federal Government to the Declaration of Trust entered into by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Facsimile of the Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. Facsimile of the Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Washington, D. C., U. S. A. ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of New York.
Facsimile of the Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Teaneck, New Jersey, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma.
Certificate of Incorporation, the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Esslingen, Germany.
Excerpts from the Letters of Shoghi Effendi.Map of Bahá'í holdings surrounding and dedicated to the shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel and tentative design of terraces.
The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.The Spiritual Significanc4 of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
~The Spell of the Temple.The Project of Ornamenting the Bahá'í Temple Dome.
Architectural Concrete of the Exposed Aggregate Type.
God-Intoxicated Architecture.Model of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at the Century of Progress Exposition, Chicago, 1933.
References to the Bahá'í Faith, by: Archduchess Anton of Austria, Charles Baudouin, Prof. Norman Bentwich, Prof. E. G. Browne, Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, General Renato Piola
Page 841Caselli, Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Valentine Chirol, Rev. K. T. Chung, Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston, Prof. James Darmesteter, Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, Dr. Auguste Forel, Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons, Dr. Henry H. Jessup, Prof. Jowett, Prof. Dimitry Kazarov, Helen Keller, Harry Charles Lukach, Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania, Alfred W. Martin, President Masaryk, Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Mr. Renwick J. �4. Millar, Prof. Herbert A. Miller, The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, Rev. Frederick W. Oakes, Sir Flinders Petrie, Charles H. Prisk, Dr. Edmund Privat, Herbert Putnam, Ernest Renan, Right Hon. Sir Herbert Samuel, Emile Selireiber, Prof. Han Prasad Shastri, Rev. Griffith J. Sparham, Shri Purohit Swami, Leo Tolstoy, Prof.
Arminius Vamb6ry, Sir Francis Younghusband.Further Developments in the case of Bahá'u'lláh's House in Bag~d&d. Excerpts from the Minutes of the XXII session of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations: Nov. 3 to Dec. 6, 1932.
Excerpts from the Minutes of the XXIV session of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations: Oct. 23 to Nov. 4, 1933.
Note.Additional Material gleaned from Na bit's Narrative (Vol. II) regarding the Bahá'í Calendar.
Historical Data gleaned from Nab ii's Narrative (Vol. II) regarding
Bahá'u'lláh.Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies and Groups in the United States and
Canada.Address of Centers of Bahá'í Administrative Divisions in Persia.
Alphabetical List of Bahá'u'lláh's BestKnown Writings.
List of the B&b's BestKnown Works.References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books by non-Bahá'í Authors.
References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by non-Bahá'í Writers.
References by Bahá'ís in non-Bahá'í Publications.Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature with Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation of the Persian Alphabet.
Definitions of Oriental Terms used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOURThe Administrative Order in the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh, from a letter of Shoghi Effendi.
The Descent of the New Jerusalem, by G. Townshend.
The Spiritual Basis of World Peace, by Horace Holley.
Page 843In the Footsteps of the Pioneers, by Keith Ransom-Kehier.
The Orientation of Hope, by Alain Locke.La Foje et la Science Unies par 1'Art, by Marie Antoinette Aussenac, Princess de Brogue.
Religion and Social Progress, by Keith Ransom-Keller.
Prince Paul and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia, by Martha L. Root.
A Religion of Reconciliation, by Rev. Griffith 3. Sparham.
The Men of the Trees, by Richard St. Barbe Baker.Les Probl6mes du Monde et la Foje Baha'i, by 'All Afdalipur.
The Baha Movement, the Greatness of Its Power, by Martha L. Root.
Der Sinn Unserer Zeit, by Dr. Hermann Grossmann.The Re-florescence of Historical Romance in Nabil, by Mary Maxwell.
William Miller, Student of Prophecy, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
A New Cycle of Human Power, by Marion Holley.The Nature of the Divine Manifestations, by Glenn A. Shook.
Religious Education for the Young, by Mrs. M. H. Inouye.
Why Do I Espouse the Bahá'í Cause? by Chi Kao Fujisawa.
Count Leo Tolstoy and the Bahá'í Movement, by Martha L. Root.
A Chinese View of the Bahá'í Cause, by Chan S. Liu.
Vernunft und Glaube, by Dr. Adelbert Mfihlschlegel.
Influence of Astronomy on Religious Thought, by Giorgio Abetti.
Haifa Calling, by Florence E. Pinchon.Taking the Message to the Maori People, by Keith Ransom-Kehier.
Only a Word, by Laura Dreyfus-Barney.Survey of Current Baha Activities in the East and West.
Excerpts from Baha Sacred Writings.Excerpts from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Excerpts from the Letters of Shoghi Effendi.Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of the United States and Canada.
Page 844Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Declaration and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany and Austria.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma.
Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of India and Burma.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Ir&q. Text of Authorization Issued for Registration by the Mixed Court in Egypt of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New York.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
New York.Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Teaneck, New Jersey, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Washington, D. C., U. S. A. Petition of the Bahá'ís of Montreal, Canada.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Bahá'ís of Montreal, Canada.
ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Montreal, Canada.
ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Esslingen, Germany y Certificate Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Esslingen, Germany.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Karachi, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Calcutta, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Delhi, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of Bahá'ís of Rangoon, Burma.
Certificate of Registration of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Daidanaw, Burma.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Mandalay, Burma.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Auckland, New Zealand.
Documents Related to the Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, as a
Recognized Religious Society in Palestine.Certificate of the Palestine Government Incorporating the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, Palestine Branch, as a Recognized Religious Society in Palestine.
Text of Application to the Palestine Government for Incorporation of the Palestine Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma.
Page 845Certificate of the Palestine Government Incorporating the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma, Palestine
Branch.Trade Mark Certificate obtained from the United States Government
covering the word "Baha'i."Trade Mark Certificate obtained from the United States Government
covering the symbol of the Greatest Name.Trade Mark Certificate obtained from the Canadian Government covering the name "Baha" Trade Mark Certificate obtained from the Canadian Government covering the symbol of the Greatest Name.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Irhq.
Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Outline of Bahá'í Laws regarding matters of Personal Status submitted for recognition to the Egyptian Government by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Text of the Farm~n issued by SultAn 'Abdu'1-'Aziz banishing Bahá'u'lláh to 'Akka, Palestine.
Text of the Resolution presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United
States and Canada.Map showing Section of Route followed by Bahá'u'lláh on His Journey from BagpdAd to Constantinople.
Map showing Path of Travel of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the United States of America and Canada, 1912.
Facsimile of Tablet addressed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the Chicago "House of Justice.~~ The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Foreword.The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
The Bahá'í Temple � Why built near Chicago?The Five Billion Carat Gem Bahá'í Temple at Wilmette, Ill.
Temple Echoes from the World's Fair.Bahá'í Holy Days on which Work should be Suspended.
Additional Material Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Volume II) regarding ing the Bahá'í Calendar.
Historical Data Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Volume II) regarding ing Bahá'u'lláh.
Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá'í World.Bahá'í Youth � An Estimate and Survey of International Events.
Baha Youth in Persia.Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University.
Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, D.Litt, Manchester College, Oxford.
Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University, Fellow of British
Academy.Prof. Arminius Vamb6ry, Hungarian Academy of Pesth.
Harry Charles Lukach.Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New York.
Prof. James Darmesteter, tcole des Hautes ttudes, Paris.
Charles Baudouin.Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D.D. Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston.
Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.L; K.C.I.E. The Christian Commonwealth, Anonymous.
Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A. Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C.
Leo Tolstoy.Renwick J. G. Millar, Editor of John O'Groat Journal, Wick, Scotland.
Charles H. Prisk.Right Hon. Sir Herbert Samuel, G.C.B., M.P. Rev. K. T. Chung.
Prof. Dimitry Kazarov, University of Sofia.The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, J.P., D.H.L. Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
emile Schreiber, Publicist.Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan.
Miss Helen Keller.President David Starr Jordan, Leland Stanford University.
Page 847Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, University of Belgrade, Jugoslavia.
Ex-Governor William Suizer.Prof. Dr. Jan Rypka, Charles University, Praha, Czechoslovakia.
A. L. M. Nicolas.Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Isolated Believers in the
United States and Canada.Addresses of Centers of Baha Administrative Divisions in Persia.
Alphabetical List of Bahá'u'lláh's BestKnown Writings.
List of the B&b's BestKnown Works.References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books and Pamphlets by nonBahA'i
Authors.References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by nonBahá'í Writers.
References to the Bahá'í Faith by Bahá'ís in non-BahWi Publications.
Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature with Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation of the Persian Alphabet, and Notes on the Pronunciation of Persian Words.
Definitions of Oriental Terms used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOURSpiritual Perspectives, by Prof. Raymond Frank Piper.
Splendor at the Core, by Angela Morgan.BahA'i-Glaube und Christentum, by Dr. Eugen Schmidt.
BahA'ismo kaj la Socia Problemo, by Prof. Paul Christaller.
Bahá'u'lláh's Ground Plan of World Fellowship, by Archdeacon George
Townshend.Die Bahá'ís und Meine Erfahrungen, by Prof. Dr. J. Rypka.
Impressions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, by Louise R. Waite.Zwei Heilige Grabst~tten, by Dr. Adelbert Miihlschlegel.
In Praise of Words, by Helen Bishop.Some Memories of the Sojourn of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris, by Lady Blomfield.
Racial Likenesses and Differences: the Scientific Evidence and the Bahá'í Teachings, by Louis G. Gregory.
Denmark's Oriental Scholar, by Martha L. Root.'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Historic Meeting with Jane Addams, by Ruth J. Moffett.
The Soul of Iceland, by Martha L. Root.Em Junger Glaube wird Bekannt, by Dr. Hermann Grossmann.
South America: Journey Taken in the Interest of the Bahá'í Cause, by Loulie A. Mathews.
Glimpses of Sweden, by Olivia Kelsey.Russia's Cultural Contribution to the Baha Faith, by Martha L. Root.
A Bahá'í Incident from the Netherlands, by Louise Drake Wright.
Mr. Harald Thilander and his Publications for the Blind in Sweden, by Nellie S. French.
The Modern Miracles of Palestine, by Beatrice Irwin.
A New Future for Radio, by Shirley Warde.Map of the United States of America Showing Bahá'í Centers.
VOLUME VIISurvey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
Excerpts from Bahá'í Sacred Writings.Commemoration of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í Visit to
America.Excerpts from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Excerpts from the Letters of Shoghi Effendi.Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Page 850Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the 'United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany and Austria.
Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Iraq.
Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Facsimile of Document related to the Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand.ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New York, N. Y., U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New York, N. Y., U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Kenosha, Wisconsin, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Racine, Wisconsin, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Detroit, Michigan, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Los Angeles, California, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Minneapolis, Minn., U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Bombay, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Poona, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Adelaide, Australia.
Trade Mark Certificate obtained from the United States Government
covering the ''World Order Magazine.~~ Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the lBahá'ís of Persia.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IrAq.
Certificate of Marriage issued by the Palestine Government and delivered to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Haifa for official registration.
Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt.
Page 851Translation of the Record of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'í voice.
Map of Bahá'í holdings showing extension of properties surrounding and dedicated to the Shrine of the BTh on Mt. Carmel.
The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Progress of Temple Ornamentation.References to Bahá'í House of Worship in U. S. Steel News.
When Bahá'ís Build a Temple.Bahá'í Holy Days on which Work should be Suspended.
Additional Material Gleaned from NabWs Narrative (Volume H) regarding arding the Bahá'í Calendar.
Historical Data Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Volume H) regarding
Bahá'u'lláh.The World Activities of Bahá'í Youth, 1936 to 1938.
Excerpts from Bahá'í Youth, 1937 to 1938.Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University.
Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, D.Litt., Manchester College, Oxford.
Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University, Fellow of the British
Academy.Prof. Arminius Vamb6ry, Hungarian Academy of Pesth.
Harry Charles Lukach.Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New York.
Prof. James Darmesteter, frole des Hautes etudes, Paris.
Charles Baudouin.Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D. D. Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston.
Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.T., K.C.I.E. The Christian Commonwealth, Anonymous.
Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A. Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C.
Leo Tolstoy.Renwick J. G. Millar, Editor of John O'Groat JournaL, Wick, Scotland.
Charles H. Prisk.The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, J.P., D.H.L. Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
~mi1e Schreiber, Publicist.Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan.
Miss Helen Keller.President David Starr Jordan, Leland Stanford University.
Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, University of Belgrade, Jugoslavia.
Ex-Governor William Suizer of New York.Prof. Dr. Jan Rypka, Charles University, Praha, Czechosolvakia.
A. L. M. Nicolas.Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies and Groups Alphabetically listed according ing to Nations.
Abyssinia.Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Isolated Believers in the
United States and Canada.Addresses of Centers of Bahá'í Administrative Divisions in Persia.
Alphabetical List of Bahá'u'lláh's BestKnown Writings.
List of the Báb's BestKnown Works.References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books and Pamphlets by non-Bah&'i
Authors.References to the Baha Faith in Magazines by nonBahá'í Writers.
References to the Bahá'í Faith by Bahá'ís in non-Bahá'í Publications
Page 855Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature with Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation of Persian Alphabet and Notes on the Pronunciation of Persian Words.
Definitions of Oriental Terms used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOURThe Seven Valleys by Bahá'u'lláh; A Meditation, by G. Townshend.
The World of Heart and Spirit, by Horace Holley.A Session at the World Congress of Faiths, by Helen Bishop.
Importance de 1'Id6e Spirituelle dans la Vie Actuelle, by Lucienne Migette.
Racial Amity in America, by Louis G. Gregory.Dawn over Mount Hira, by MarQiyyih Nabil Carpenter.
The Bahá'í Faith and Eastern Scholars, by Martha L. Hoot.
The Unity of Nations, by Stanwood Cobb.Baha'i, from "La Sagesse de 1'Orient," by Dr. Edmund Privat.
Sources of Community Life, by Marion Halley.A Brief Account of Thomas Breakwell, by May Maxwell.
Unity of Races, by Genevieve L. Coy.The Fulfillment of Religion, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
A World Community, by George 0. Latiiner.Bahá'í Radio Program, delivered over Station "WHN," New York.
The Bust of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, by Mrs. Stannard.The NonPolitical Nature of the Bahá'í Cause, by Emily M. Axford.
Teaching the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh in Distant Lands, by Nellie S. French.
Two Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst from "Persia by a Persian.~~ A Tribute from Iceland, by H6lmfridur Arnad6ttir.
Song Offerings.Map of the United States and Canada Showing Bahá'í Centers.
VOLUME VIIIH. Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
International.Martha Root's Travels in India, Burma, and Australia, Her Death in
Honolulu.Persecution and Deportation of the Bahá'ís of Caucasus and Thrkist~n.
The Bahá'í Faith in Australia and New Zealand.Important Developments in the Bahá'í Community of North America.
Bahá'í Summer Schools.National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada. Annual report, 19381939.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada. Supplementary report, 19381939.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada. Annual report, 19391940.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada. Supplementary report, 19391940.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles. Annual report, 19381939.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles. Annual report, 19391940.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia. Annual report, 19381939.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia. Annual report, 19391940.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Irhq. Annual report, 19381940.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma. Annual report, 19381940.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand. Annual report, 19381940.
III. Excerpts from Bahá'í Sacred Writings.Excerpts from Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh.
Words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.Explanation of the Rebukes Addressed by God to the Prophets.
Explanation of the Verse of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. "There Is No Associate for the Dawning-Place of Command in the Supreme Sinlessness."
Perfections Are Without Limit.The Existence of the Rational Soul After the Death of the Body.
Page 857Eternal Life and Entrance into the Kingdom of God.
Industrial Justice.IV. Transfer of the Remains of the Brother and Mother of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Mt. Carmel.
The Spiritual Potencies of that Consecrated Spot.The Burial of the Purest Branch and the Mother of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
V. The Passing of Munirili Khtinum, the Holy Mother.
Episodes in the Life of Munirili Khhnum.A Procedure for the Conduct of the Local Spiritual Assembly.
The Annual Bahá'í Convention.Concerning Membership in NonBahá'í Religious Organizations.
Bahá'ís and War.Excerpts from The Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Excerpts from the Letters of Shoghi Effendi.Messages from the Guardian, 2. The Spirit and Form of the Bahá'í Administrative Order.
Certificate of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany and Austria.
Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India and Burma.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Iraq.
Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sfid&n. Facsimile of Document related to the Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and S4cThn.
Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles.
Memorandum and Articles of Association of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles.
Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand.
Page 858ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of New York, N. Y., U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of New York, N. Y., 13. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of Sydney, Australia.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of Vancouver, B. C., Canada.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of San Francisco, California, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Lima, Ohio, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation and Articles of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Columbus, Ohio, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation and Articles of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Portland, Oregon, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Jersey City, New Jersey, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Wilmette, Illinois, U. S. A. Corporation Declaration by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Peoria, Illinois, U. S. A. Corporation Declaration by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Winnetka, Illinois, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Seattle, Washington, U. S. A. Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A. Certificate of Formation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Mexico City, Mexico.
Membership card used in enrolling new believers in the Bahá'í Faith in the City of Mexico.
Trade Mark Certificate obtained from the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia covering the Name "Baha" and the Symbol of the Greatest Name.
Baha Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Baha Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and StidAn.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'Ir&q. Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Baha Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sadhn.
Page 859Marriage License issued by the State of Illinois authorizing the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Chicago, Ill., to solemnize Baha Marriages, with explanatory letter.
Text in Persian of the Outline of Bahá'í Laws regarding Matters of Personal Status submitted for recognition to the Egyptian Government by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Stid&n. Map of Bahá'í holdings showing extension of properties surrounding ing and dedicated to the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel.
3. The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Bahá'í Texts for the Nine Outer Doors of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar The Bahá'í Temple used as design for Cachet selected by the Postal Authorities of Wilinette, Illinois.
Envelope and Article related to the Cachet used by the Postal Authorities of Wilmette, Illinois.
Letter of the Postmaster of Wilmette, Illinois, to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and
Canada.Two Articles on the Bahá'í Temple published in Finland.
4. Bahá'í Calendar and Festivals.Bahá'í Holy Days on which work should be suspended.
Additional Material Gleaned from NabiVs Narrative (Vol. II)
regarding the Bahá'í Calendar.Historical Data Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Vol. II) regarding ing Bahá'u'lláh.
5. Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá'í World.
Introductory Statement.Excerpts from Bahá'í Youth Magazine, 1938 to 1939.
TI. References to the Bahá'í Faith.2. Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University.
3. Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, D.Litt., Manchester College, Oxford.
4. Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University, Fellow of
British Academy.5. Prof. Arminius Vamb6ry, Hungarian Academy of Pestli.
6. Sir Valentine Chirol.9. Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culturer New York.
10. Prof. James Darn-xesteter, ~ico1e des Hautes etudes, Paris.
H. Charles Baudouin.12. Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D.D. 13. Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston.
14. Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.SI.; K.C.I.E. 15. The Christian Commonwealth, Anonymous.
16. Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A. 17. Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C. 18. Leo Tolstoy.
19. Dr. Edmund Privat, University of Geneva.23. Renwick J. G. Millar, Editor of John O'Groat Journal, Wick, Scotland.
land.28. Viscount Herbert Samuel, G.C.B., M.P. 29. Rev. K. T. Chung.
30. Prof. Dimitry Kazarov, University of Sofia.33. The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, J.P., D.H.L. 34. Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
35. e~j1~ Schreiber, Publicist.37. Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan.
38. Sir Flinders Petrie, Archaeologist.46. Princess Marie Antoinette de Brogue Aussenac.
47. Late President David Starr Jordan, Leland Stanford University.
48. Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, University of Belgrade, Jugoslavia.
49. Ex-Governor William Suizer.55. Prof. Dr. Jan Rypka, Charles University, Praha, Czechoslovakia.
56. A. L. M. Nicholas.58. Sir Ronald Storrs, N.y.C., M.G., C.B.E. 59. Ccl. Raja Jai Prithvi Bahadur Singh, Raja of Bajang (Nepal).
60. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
61. Rt. Hon. M. R. Jayakar.3. Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
4. Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Isolated Believers in the United States and Canada.
5. Bahá'í Administrative Divisions in Persia.6. Directory of Leading Assemblies in Bahá'í Administrative Divisions
of Persia.7. Alphabetical List of Bahá'u'lláh's BestKnown Writings.
8. List of the B&b's BestKnown Works.27. Bahá'í Literature in Braille (for the Blind).
America.29. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books and Pamphlets Published under Non-Bahá'í Auspices.
30. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by Non-Bahá'í Writers.
31. References to the Bahá'í Faith by Bahá'ís in NonBahá'í Publications.
ions.82. References to the Baha Faith in Specialized Reference Works.
III. Transliteration of Oriental Words frequently used in Bahá'í Literature.
Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation of Persian Alphabet and Notes on the Pronunciation of Persian Words.
IV. Definition of Oriental Terms used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOUR4. International Bahá'í Congress Day at the Panama-Pacific International
ional Exposition.5. Bahá'í Message to the Universities of Northern India, by Mirza L.
Root.6. Essai sur les Diff6rentes Formes de Pri&res, by Lucienne L.
Migette.7. Crisis of the World Psyche, by Wilfrid Barton.
8. The New Citizenship, by Beatrice Irwin.12. Conf~rence dans un cercie Bahá'í a Paris, le 19 Mars, 1939, by Madame 3. Montefiore.
13. Rejoice, 0 Israel, by Alice Simmons Cox.14. Pioneer Introduction of the Bahá'í Faith to the Netherlands, by
Louise Drake Wright.15. An Interview with A. L. M. Nicolas of Paris, by Edith Sanderson.
16. Yucatan 1939, by Loulie A. Mathews.17. The Scriptures of Different Faiths, by Pritam Singh.
18. Faith and the Man, by Louis G. Gregory.19. Appreciation by Leaders of Thought, by Ru~Aniyyih Moffett.
20. A Journey to the Arctic, by Nellie S. French.21. T~hirih's Message to the Modern World, by Martha L. Root.
A Brief Commentary, by Marian Little.22. A Brief Survey of the Literature of the Bahá'í Faith in English, by William Kenneth Christian.
23. John Ebenezer Esslemont, His Life and Service, by Jessie E.
Revell.V. Maps of Teaching Regions of the United States and Canada, of Central and South America, and of the Baha World.
Page 865I. Aims and Purposes of the Bahá'í Faith 1. A Worldwide Spiritual Community.
2. The Renewal of Faith.H. International Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
Ill. Excerpts from the Bahá'í Sacred Writings.1. PresentDay Administration of the Bahá'í Faith.
Introductory Statement.A Procedure for the Conduct of the Local Spiritual Assembly.
The Annual Bahá'í Convention.Concerning Membership in NonBahá'í Religious Organizations.
Bahá'ís and War.A Commentary on The Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Promised Day Is Come.2. The Spirit and Form of the Bahá'í Administrative Order.
Foreword.Certification of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Germany and Austria.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IrAq.
Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and SfidAn.
ByLaws of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of
New York.Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the City of New York.
Page 866Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Berkeley, Calif.
Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Binghamton, N. Y. Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Flint, Mich.
Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Helena, Mont.
Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Honolulu, T. H. Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Indianapolis, md.
Certificate of Inc6rporation of Bahá'ís of Miami, Fla.
Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Oakland, Calif.
Certificate of Incorporation of Baha of Pasadena, Calif.
Certificate of Incorporationthe Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual the Spiritual Assembly of the Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Richmond Highlands, Wash.
SpiritualCertificate of Incorporation of the Baha of Springfield, Ill.
Certificate of IncorporationCertificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Andheri, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Bangalore, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of Bahá'ís of Baroda, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Bahá'ís of Hyderabad, Sind, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Bahá'ís of Panchagani, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Bahá'ís of Serampore, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Bahá'ís of Vellore, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Bahá'ís of San Jos6, Costa Rica.
Certificate of Incorporation of theAssembly of the of the Spiritual Assembly of the of the Spiritual Assembly of the of the Spiritual Assembly of the of the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the the Spiritual Assembly of the Spiritual Assembly of the Spiritual Assembly of the Spiritual Assembly of the Spiritual Assembly of the Spiritual Assembly of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and SadAn.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IrAq.
Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Page 867Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sad&n. Minister's License issued by the State of Ohio authorizing the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Lima to solemnize Bahá'í
Marriages.Minister's License issued by the State of Ohio authorizing the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Cincinnati to solemnize
Bahá'í Marriages.Minister's License issued by the State of Ohio authorizing the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Cleveland to solemnize
Bahá'í Marriages.Text in Persian of the Outline of Bahá'í Laws regarding Mattprs of Personal Status submitted for recognition to the Egyptian Government by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and SadAn.
Text of Letter from the United States War Department granting permission to use the Baha emblem of the Greatest Name on Bahá'í graves.
Text of Letter from the Egyptian Ministry of Health Allotting a Burial Ground for the Bahá'í Community of Cairo.
Facsimile of Document Related to the Formation of the First Bahá'í Association Established in Persia, 1319, A. H. Trust Deed by which Villa Safwan at Port-Fouad was conveyed to the property of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt on December 27th, 1943.
3. The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
The Bahá'í Temple, House of Worship of a World Faith.
The Bahá'í Temple and the Development of the Faith in America.
The Realization of the Architect's Design.Bahá'í Holy Days on which work should be suspended.
Additional Material Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Vol. II)
regarding the Bahá'í Calendar.Historical Data Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (Vol. II) regarding ng Bahá'u'lláh.
5. Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá'í World.
Introductory Statement.A Tribunal Grants English Bahá'í Exemption from Combatant
Service2. Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University.
3. Dr. 3. EstlinCarpenter, D.Litt., Manchester College, Oxford.
4. Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University, Fellow of British h Academy.
Page 8685. Prof. Arminius Vamb6ry, Hungarian Academy of Pesth.
6. Sir Valentine Chirol.9. Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New York.
10. Prof James Darmesteter, ~co1e des Hautes ttudes, Paris.
11. Charles Baudouin.12. Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D.D. 13. Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston.
14. Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.L, K.C.I.E. 15. The Christian Commonwealth, Anonymous.
16. Rev. J. Tyssul Davis, B.A. 17. Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C. 18. Leo Tolstoy.
19. Dr. Edmund Privat, University of Geneva.27. Prof. Herbert A. Miller, Bryn Mawr College 28. Viscount Herbert Samuel, G.C.B,, M.P. Lord Samuel of Carmel, G.C.B., C.B.E. 29. Rev. K. T. Chung.
30. Prof. Dirnitry Kazarov;. University of Sofia..
31. Rev. Griffith J. Sparham.33. The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, J.P., D.H.L. 34. Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
35. A~mi1e Schreiber, Publicist.37. Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan.
38. Sir Flinders Petrie, Archaeologist.46. Princess Marie Antoinette de Brogue Aussenac.
47. Late President David Starr Jordan, Leland Stanford University.
48. Prof Eogdan Popovitch, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
49. Ex-Governor William Suizer.55. Prof. Dr. Jan Rypka, Charles University, Praha, Czechoslovakia.
56. A. L. M. Nicolas.58. Sir Ronald Storrs, N.y.C., M.G., C.B.E. 59. Col. Raja Jai Prithvi Bahadur Singh, Raja of Bajang (Nepal).
60. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
61. lIt. Hon. M. R. Jayakar.62. Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, M.A., Ph.D. 63. Mrs. Sarojinu Naidu.
64. Jules Bois.3. Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
4. Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Localities Where Isolated Believers Reside in the U. S. A. and Canada.
5. Bahá'í Administrative Divisions in Persia.6. Directory of Leading Assemblies in Bahá'í Administrative Divisions
of Persia.7. Directory of Localities in India Where Bahá'ís Reside.
II. Bahá'í Bibliography.1. Alphabetical List of Bahá'u'lláh's Best Known Writings.
2. List of the Báb's Best Known Works.d. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Bah&.e. Works Compiled frpm Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
f. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
g. Writings of Shoghi Effendi.k. Outlines and Guides for Bahá'í Study Courses.
1. Children's Courses.3A. Bahá'í Publications of America That Are Out of Print.
4. Bahá'í Publications of Great Britain.b. Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá c. Works Compiled from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Baha.30. Languages in which Bahá'í Literature is being translated.
a. Kinarese.31. Bahá'í Literature in Braille (for the blind).
a. America.33. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books and Pamphlets Published
Under NonBahá'í Auspices.34. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by nonBahá'í Authors.
35. References to the Bahá'í Faith by Bahá'ís in non-BaM'i Publications.
.36. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Encyclopedias and Reference
Books.III. Transliteration of Oriental Words Frequently Used ~n Bahá'í Literature.
Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation of Persian Alphabet and Notes on the Pronunciation of Persian Words.
IV. Definitions of Oriental Terms Used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOUR1. The Bahá'í Principle of Civilization, by Horace Halley.
2. Joined by God, by George Townshend.4. The Concept and Goals of Human Progress, by Stanwood Cobb.
5. The Beloved Returns, by Helen Bishop.7. The Bahá'í Faith in the Colleges, by Dorothy Baker.
8. Ways to Wholeness, by Raymond Frank Piper.10. The Prayers of Bahá'u'lláh, by Rti~iiyyih Kh&num.
11. Two Glimpses of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, by Roy C. Wilhelm.
12. The Lesser and the Most Great Peace, by George Orr Latimer.
13. The White Silk Dress, by Marzieh Gail.14. Charter for World Peace, by Alice Simmons Cox.
15. The Baha Faith and Problems of Color, Class and Creed, by Elsie
Austin.16. Broadcasting the Bahá'í Message, by Mildred Mottahedeb.
17. Our Heritage from Bahá'u'lláh, by William Kenneth Christian.
18. IslAm and the Scientific Spirit, by Robert L. Gulick, Jr.
Page 87419. Mirza Abu'1-FaQ1 in America, by Ali-Kuli Khan and Marzieh Gail.
20. The "Bab" Movement, Flowering from Islamic Soil, by Ernest G.
Dodge.21. By the Mouth of His Prophets, by Maye Harvey Gift.
22. The Importance of the Bahá'í Faith Today, by George W. Goodman.
23. Accelerated Progress in Race Relations, by Louis G. Gregory.
24. Chile and Three Crucial Years, by Marcia Steward.
25. Pioneer Journey, by Virginia Orbison.27. Haiti, the Magic Isle, by Amelie Pumpelly Bates.
28. El Peru, by Eve B. Nicklin.29. The Story of the Bahá'í Faith in Cuba, by Eugenia Gin6s.
30. Alaska, Our New Frontier, by Orcella Rexford.32. La Aurora de un Nuevo Dia, by Diego B. Garcia Monge.
IT. Verse.V. Maps of Mexico, West Indies, Central and South America, India and Burma, Teaching Regions of the United States of America and Canada, and of the Bahá'í World.
VOLUME XII. International Survey of Current Bahá'í Activities in the East and West.
III. Excerpts from the Bahá'í Sacred Writings.
1. Words of Bahá'u'lláh.4. Bahá'í Centenary Celebrations in the United States of America.
5. Persia Celebrates the First Hundred Years.6. Bahá'í Centenary Celebrations in the British Isles.
7. Bahá'í Centenary Celebrations in India.11. Latin-America Celebrates the Bahá'í Centenary.
PART TWO1. The PresentDay Administration of the Bahá'í Faith.
The Formation of an Organic Religious Community, by Horace
Holley.A Procedure for the Conduct of a Local Spiritual Assembly.
The Annual Bahá'í Convention.Concerning Membership in Non-Bahá'í Religious Organizations.
Interpretation of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Formation of the Administrative Order.Important Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the American
Believers.Selections from "God Passes By," by Shoghi Effendi.
2. The Spirit and Form of the Bahá'í Administrative Order.
Certificate of Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of the United States and Canada.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany and Austria.
Declaration of Trust and ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IrAq.
Declaration of Trust arid ByLaws of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Sttd&n. Certificate of Incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand, Issued by the
Supreme Court of New Zealand.Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Baltimore, Maryland.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha of Birmingham, Alabama.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Kansas City, Missouri.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Atlanta, Georgia.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Dayton, Ohio.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Denver, Colorado.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Sholapur, India.
Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Koihapur, India.
Certificate of marriage license issued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts authorizing the Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of Massachusetts to solemnize Bahá'í marriages.
Act Passed by the House of Representatives, Massachusetts, authorizing ng Spiritual Assemblies Within the State to Solemnize
Bahá'í Marriages.Certificate of Incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Kari Afghanan, India.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Page 876Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Stid~n.
Bahá'í Marriage Certificate adopted and enforeed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of 'IMQ.
Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia.
Bahá'í Divorce Certificate adopted and enforced by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and S4d~n.
Marriage Certificate Issued by the State of Delaware, Authorizing
the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Wilmington to perform a Bahá'í Marriage.
Text in Persian of the Outline of Bahá'í Laws Regarding Matters of Personal Status Submitted for Recognition to the Egyptian Government by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Egypt and Stidiin.
Permits Issued by the American Military Government in Germany
ny Authorizing the Bahá'ís to Resume Activities.Decree Printed in the Official Gazette in Egypt in Connection with the Baha Burial Ground at TsmA'fliyyih, Egypt.
Trust Deed of the Transference of a Property in IsmA'ilfyyih, Egypt, to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
Egypt and S~d~n.The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
Passages Regarding the Temple in America, Taken from "God
Passes By" by Shoghi Effendi and Introduction by Archdeacon
Townshend, M. A. "The Story of the Bahá'ís and Their Unique Temple of Worship" Reprinted from "Chicago Sunday Tribune" June 17th, 1945.
"A New 'Taj Mahal' " Reprinted from "The Magic Powder" by
Earl Hadley."The Bahá'í Temple" Reprinted from the "Architectural Concrete
te Magazine"4. Bahá'í Calendar, Festivals and Dates of Historic Significance.
Foreword.Bahá'í Holy Days on which work should be Suspended.
Additional Material Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (vol. II.) Regarding ng the Bahá'í Calendar.
Historical Data Gleaned from Nabil's Narrative (vol IL) Regarding
ng Bahá'u'lláh.Dates of Historic Significance During the First Bahá'í Century.
5. Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá'í World."Youth's Role in Future Civilization," a Symposium.
"Faith in Action" by John C. Eichenauer, III."Youth and the Bahá'í Cause" by Esteban Canales Leyton.
"The Children's Share of Summer School" by Doris Goodrick.
Random Pages from "A Bahá'í Child's ABC".2. Prof. E. G. Browne, M.A., M.B., Cambridge University.
3. Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, D.Litt., Manchester College, Oxford.
4. Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D., Oxford University, Fellow of
British Academy5. Prof. Arminius Vamb6ry, Hungarian Academy of Pesth.
6. Sir Valentine Chirol.9. Alfred W. Martin, Society for Ethical Culture, New York.
10. Prof. James Darmesteter, ~co1e des Hautes etudes, Paris.
11. Charles Baudouin.12. Dr. Henry H. Jessup, D.D. 13. Right Hon. The Earl Curzon of Kedleston.
14. Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E. 15. The Christian Commonwealth, Anonymous.
16. Rev. 3. Tyssul Davis, B.A. 17. Herbert Putnam, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C. 18. Leo Tolstoy.
19. Dr. Edmund Privat, University of Geneva.23. Renwick 3. G. Millar, Editor of John O'Groat Journal, Wick,
Scotland.33. The Hon. Lilian Helen Montague, J.P., D.H.L. 34. Prof. Norman Bentwich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
35. Emile Schreiber, Publicist.37. Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Doyen of Jurisprudence of Japan.
38. Sir Flinders Petrie, Archaeologist.46. Princess Marie Antoinette de Brogue Aussenac.
47. President David Starr Jordan, Leland Stanford University.
48. Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
49. Ex-Governor William Suizer.55. Prof. Dr. Jan Rypka, Charles University, Praha, Czechoslovakia.
56. A.L.M. Nicolas.58. Sir Ronald Storrs, N.y.C., M.G., C.B.E. 59. Col. Raja .Jai Prithvi Bahadur Singh, Raja of Bajang (Nepal).
60. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
61. Rt. Hon. M. R. Jayakar.62. Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, M.A., P.H.D. 63. Mrs. Sarojinu Naidu.
64. Jules Bois.3. Officers and Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada.
4. Local Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies. Groups and Localities where
Isolated Believers Reside in the United States and Canada.
5. Bahá'í Administrative Divisions in Persia, Listing Local Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Isolated Baha'is.
6. Directory of Leading Assemblies in Bahá'í Administrative Divisions
of Persia.7. Directory of Localities in India where Bahá'ís Reside, Listing Local Spiritual Assemblies, Groups and Isolated Baha'is.
IT. Bahá'í Bibliography.1. Alphabetical List of Bahá'u'lláh's BestKnown Writings.
2. List of ETh's BestKnown Works.3. Bahá'í Publications of North America in Print.
a. Writings of Bahá'u'lláh.d. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Baha.e. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, The B&b and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
f. Works Compiled from Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
g. Writings of Shoghi Effendi.SA. Bahá'í Publications of North America that Are Out of Print.
4. Bahá'í Publications of Great Britain in Print.
a. Writings of Bahá'u'lláh.c. Works Compiled from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
d. Writings of Shoghi Effendi.4A. Publications of Great Britain that Are Out of Print.
5. Bahá'í Publications of India in English (Publications in other languages spoken in India, Burma and Ceylon listed elsewhere under name of language).
Page 88130. Languages into Which Bahá'í Literature Is Being Translated.
Latvian.31. Bahá'í Literature in Braille (for the Blind).
a. Published in America.33. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Books and Pamphlets published under Non-EahA'i Auspices.
34. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Magazines by Non-Bah6A Authors.
35. References to the Bahá'í Faith by Bahá'ís in Non-Bahá'í Publications.
ions.36. References to the Bahá'í Faith in Encyclopedias and Reference
Books.III. Transliteration of Oriental Words Frequently Used in Bahá'í Literature.
Guide to the Transliteration and Pronunciation of the Persian Alphabet.
Notes on the Pronunciation of Persian Words.IV. Definition of Oriental Terms Frequently Used in Bahá'í Literature.
PART FOUR1. Speech Delivered at the Opening of the Bahá'í Centenary Exhibition, tion, London, May 20th, 1944, by Sir Ronald Storrs, K.C.M.G., L.L.D., L.C.C. 2. The Assurance of World1 Peace.
The Evolution of Peace, by Horace Holley.The Nations Build the Lesser Peace, by George Orr Latimer.
The Most Great Peace, by Dorothy Baker.3. The Call to God: A Meditation, by Archdeacon George Townshend.
4. Religious Foundations of World Unity, by Dr. Raymond Frank
Piper.5. What the World Needs Today, by Prof. Stanwood Cobb.
6. California � Host to the Nations, by Marzieh Gail.
7. His Japanese Witnesses, by Helen Bishop.8. The Meeting of the Americas, by Philip Leonard Green.
9. Social Basis of World Unity, by Elsie Austin.II. Getting Ready for the Peace, by Dr. H. 0. Overstreet.
12. Nene Arbeit, by Dr. H. Grossmann.13. Recent Stirring Years in Chile, by Marcia Steward.
14. Bahá'í Order and Social Justice, by Prof. K. T. Shah.
15. Little Did I Dream, by John Carl Eichenauer, ITT.
16. Hacia una Religion Universal: el Bah~'ismo, by Vicente Donoso
Torres.17. The Bahá'í Faith and the San Francisco Conference, by Marion aouey.
Page 88318. Religion Comes Again to Mankind, by Dorothy Baker.
19. The Oneness of Humanity, by William Kenneth Christian.
20. San Francisco and the Bahá'í Charter, by Shirin Fozdar.
21. hnpresiones de un Delegado Bahá'í Durante su Visita a los Bahá'ís de los Estados Unidos, by Salvador Tormo.
22. Pioneer Journeys: Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, by Virginia Orbison.
23. The Spiritual Conquest of Magallanes, by Artemus Lamb.
24. Carrying the Faith to the Philippines, by Loulie A. Mathews.
25. Costa Rica, the Beautiful, by Gayle Woolson.26. Founding the Faith in Puerto Rico, by Ayned McComb.
27. The Founding of the Bahá'í Faith in Venezuela, by Elisabeth
Cheney.28. Commemorations Explicit and Implicit, by Christine Lofstedt.
II. Verse.IV. Contents of Volume I � Bahá'í Year Book and Volumes II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, and IX � The Bahá'í World.
V. Maps of Mexico, West Indies, Central and South America, India and Burma, Teaching Regions of the United States and Canada, and of the Bahá'í World.
Page 884ISLES, RAL AMERICA, AUSTRIA, INDIA, BURMA, SOUTH UNITED STATES,
AHA'I WORLDTHE BAHÁ'Í COMMUNITY TASMAN SEA
OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALANDOF CANADA * SPIRITUAL
1950 ASSEMBLY .
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