Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: George Townshend, The Promise of All Ages, bahai-library.com.
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TALISMAN BOOKS

NOá4

THE PROMISE OF ALL AGES

'Man is the supreme talisman'
BAHA'U'LLAH
BY THE SAME AUTHOR:
Christ and Baha'u'llih
The Heart of the Gospel
The Mission of Baha'u'llah
The Glad Tidings of Baha'u'llah
THE PROMISE OF
ALL AGES
by
GEORGE TOWNSHEND
Sometime Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and
Archdeacon of Clonfert

'It is my hope thy Church will
come under the heavenly Jerusalem.'
'ABDu'L-BAHA

GEORGE RONALD
5 BARANDON STREET
LONDON W.ll
First published, 1934
Revised and comp/etery reset 1948
This edition 1961

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PRINTED IN GREO\T BRITAIN BY TH£ WHITRFRIARS PRESS LTD.
LONDON AND TONBRIDGh.
PORBWORD

THIS volume contains not only an argument but a story, a
story of immediate interest and concern to everyone in the
West; a story of men of vision and of action, the pioneers
of a new era; a story of the first systematic effort to reconstruct the social order on a world-basis and to lift mankind
to the level of a new social responsibility.

The central figure of this story is a Great Seer, who in
prophetic tones forecast the character and magnitude of the
Day of God then at its dawning, and by word and by example,
in his Epistles to the Kings and in other writings, called on
his own and other nations to reduce their armaments, to
seek union and peace and to prepare for that long promised
civilisation in which righteousness and justice should prevail
throughout the earth.

Because he was ahead of his age he was misunderstood;
and with all his followers was proscribed, anathema tis ed, and
cruelly persecuted. But a truth whose time has come cannot
be suppressed by priests and tyrants. A strong fire smothered
at the surface will be driven deep, will spread far and wide
underground and will reappear later at a distance from its
source. The spiritual ideals and noble peace-aims that now
increasingly find utterance in western lands are as up rushes
from a hidden fire, glimpses of that ordered and balanced
scheme for world reform which was wrought out and promulgated by Bahi'u'lliih in prison some seventy years ago.
v
The challenge of this story, of the enthusiasm of its heroes,
their restless energy, their radiant faith, will bring delight
. and uplift to every spiritual mind. For it is not the challenge
of the cynic or the sceptic, but that of fellow believers in
God who with joy sacrificed all they had and all they were in
an effort to establish World Peace on an imperishable foundation.

RIPLEY,
DUNDRUM,
Co. DUBLIN.

vi
CONTENTS

CRAPTltft. PAOJ:

INTRODUCTION 1

I. THE EPIC OF HUMANITY' 20

II. THE SELF-MANIFESTATION OF GOD 30
III. THE SUCCESSION OF THE HIGH-PROPHETS 44
IV. THE MISSION OF THE LORD CHRIST 63
V. THE VIGIL OF THE DAY OF DAYS 72
VI. THE GATE OF THE DAWN 88

VII. THE ENTRANCE OF THE KING OF GLORY. 106

VIII. THE LIGHT OF THE KING'S LAW 133
IX. THE FIRE OF THE KING'S LOVE 155
CONCLUSION 177

vii
INTRODUCTION

THIS essay is an effort to sketch in the form of a continuous
and coherent argument the religious teaching of Baha'u'llih
on the subject of the unity of mankind and the establishment
in this century of a universal and permanent peace.
Baha'u'llih set forth a comprehensive and definite scheme
for a new world-economy. Men, he affirmed, would succeed
in putting this into practice so soon as they sincerely realised
the essential unity of the human race; but they could only
attain this extension of consciousness through their religious
instincts and their general obedience to one God under
one name. He connected the idea of peace indissolubly
with that of religion. Peace among the nations is only to
be secured through men's common submission to a God
oflove. To build on any other foundation is to build on sand.
Suiting the action to the word, he inaugurated a great
religious revival, and such was his power that he aroused in
those who turned to him for education latent energies of
spirituality and love, so that with new eyes they saw the
reality and authenticity of the ideals of brotherhood and
concord and forgot their differences in their common servitude to the Most High. The revival embraced men of diverse
nations and diverse confessions, uniting them with the
ardour of a single purpose. It did not stop with its author's
passing, but with slow and patient steps extended east and
west. To-day it has reached such dimensions that among
I
those who accept his teaching his programme of world
federation is beginning already to take shape.
The appearance, in such an age as this, and in a world
broken into fragments by group-jealousies, of an earth-wide
system of order based on spiritual faith is a phenomenon that
should awake the warm interest of all religious minds. The
presence in our midst of a movement on however small a
scale which has taken peace as its first practical objective,
and the whole world over is directing all its personal and
educational efforts to this immediate end is an asset which
peace lovers can ill afford to ignore. Yet no Christian body
seems to have paid any heed to the Baha'i Fellowship or the
teaching of its founder; and the public at large knows little
or nothing of the world-wide peace work which he has
inspired. In spite of glowing tributes paid by individuals of
high distinction in Europe (scholars and scientists, men of
letters and administrators, even by royalty itself) the Baha'i
movement remains little known in the West. Though it
pursues with a fresh and youthful ardour the same broad
ideals of world-wide righteousness and concord as are
commended by the communions of Christendom, yet its
appearance has been little noticed, and its potency little
recognised; its reading of history has aroused no interest;
its hopes have not been shared nor its warnings heeded; the
spiritual splendour of the character of its founder has not
been esteemed, nor the regenerative power of his teaching
felt by any save a very few.
Some fifty years ago when the movement was already
well established in the East and had received not a little
publicity in the West through the writings of OrientaUsts and travellers, its message of unity and peace was
a
brought to our shores by one of its three great leaders and
has since become the subject of an increasing literature in
the English tongue. 'Abdu'l-Bahi, the son and the successor
of the founder of the movement, was hospitably entertained
in London and travelled as far west as Bristol and as far
north as Edinburgh. In public and in private, in church
and temple, in mosque and hall, he presented the teaching
of Bahi'u'llih and secured at the time more than a little
notice from the Press. Representatives of many callings and
professions-clergymen, educators, journalists, and others
-met him and talked with him on the subject of his mission.
A number of his conversations and his addresses were
recorded and have since been published in book form. His
hostess, Lady Blomfield, has recently contributed to The
Baha'I World, Vol. IV, an account of his visit to her home
and of the throng of inquirers who for weeks beset her doors.
Clergy of various denominations were among the callers.
One of these, the Rev. R. J. Campbell, invited 'Abdu'l-
Baba to speak in the City Temple, and there 'Abdu-I'Baha's
first public announcement of the Message to a Western
audience was made on September 10, 1911. 'The Baha'i
movement is very closely akin to, I think I might say identical
with, the spiritual purpose of Christianity,' said the Pastor,
in introducing the speaker of the evening. As if to endorse
this statement 'Abdu'l-Baha before he left the building
wrote in the old Bible of the Temple:
'This book is the Holy Book of God, of celestial
inspiration. It is the Bible of Salvation, the noble Gospel.
It is the mystery of the Kingdom and its light. It is the
divine bounty, the sign of the guidance of God'-
and appended his signature.
On the following Sunday by the invitation of Archdeacon
Wilberforce (Chaplain to the House of Commons and Select
Preacher before the University of Oxford) 'Abdu'l-Baha at
the close of Evening Service addressed the congregation of
St. John's Church, Westminster. As the published record of
the meeting states:

'The Archdeacon had the Bishop's chair placed for his
guest on the chancel steps and standing beside him read
the translation of 'Abdu'l-Baha's address himself. The
congregation was profoundly moved and following the
archdeacon's example knelt to receive the blessing of the
Servant of God.'

On his visit to Oxford 'Abdu'l-Baha was the guest of
Professor and Mrs. Cheyne. Dr. Cheyne was (of course)
a theologian of international repute, the chief editor of the
Enryclopaedia Bib/ica, author of Critica Biblica, the Prophecies
of Isaiah, the Founders of O.T. criticism, and of other books;
and he had a few years before resigned the Oriel Professorship of the Interpretation of Scripture. On him the personality
of 'Abdu'l-Baha made immediately and permanently a
deep impression. 'This meeting was fraught with pathos,'
wrote Lady Blomfie1d, who was present on the occasion.
'It seemed almost too intimate to be described, and our very
hearts were touched as we looked on and realised something
of the emotion of that day.'
Three years later Dr. Cheyne expressed his mature conclusions as regards the Baha'i movement and its three great
figures (the Founder, Baha'u'llah; the Forerunner, the
Bab; the Exemplar, 'Abdu'l-Baha) in his Reconciliation of
Races and Religions.
'Abdu'l-Baha reminded him of S. Francis of Assisi; but
S. Francis 'despised human learning' and so ' 'Abdu'l-Baha
was a more complete man.' 'No one,' he writes again,
'so far as my observation reaches, has lived the perfect life
like 'Abdu'l-Baha, and he tells us he is but a reflection of
Bahi'u'llih.' Concerning the Herald or Forerunner of the
movement, entitled the Gate or the Bab, the professor says:
'His 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 of 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.'
To Baha'u'llah, whom both the Bab and 'Abdu'l-Baha
honoured as the source and original of any virtue and wisdom
that was manifest in them, Dr. Cheyne paid the highest
tribute.
'There was living quite lately,' he wrote, 'a human being
of such consummate excellence that many think it both
permissible and inevitable even to identify him mystically
with the invisible Godhead.'
Adverting to the various avatars or incarnations which
figure in many world-religions, he commented on the difficulty of obtaining contemporary or reliable evidence as to
these, and proceeded:
'The want of a surely attested life or extract from a
life of a God-man will be more and more acutely felt.
There is only one such life; it is that of Baha'u'lhih. Through
him therefore let us pray in this twentieth century amidst
the manifold difficulties which beset our social and political
reconstructions; let him be the prince-angel who conveys
our petitions to the Most High.'
Carrying his message to the Continent, 'Abdu-'l-Baha
visited France, Germany and Austro Hungary. At Budapest
he was met by Arminius Vambery, proFessor of Oriental
languages in the University, whose books of travel and whose
warm championship of British justice in the East had made
his name widely and favourably known in England.
Vambery wrote afterwards to 'Abdu'l-Baha as follows:
'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 realised the selfsacrifice 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 confer long life I will be able to serve you under
all conditions.'
America was included with Europe in the missionary tour
of 'Abdu'l-Baha, who thus spread the knowledge of the
advent of Baha'u'llih far and wide through the Near and the
Farther West.
His message, however, was not the first t"ews of the
movement that had reached the West. Tidings of the wonderful revival that had been started in Persia had been brought
to Europe and to America by the reports of travellers fifty
or sixty years before, and from that time onward references
to it by Orientalists and others had become increasingly
common. In his notes to the Traveller's Narrative issued
in 1901 Professor Browne enumerates twenty-seven different
European accounts of the Bab and Babism published in
various centres-London, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna, Paris,
St. Petersburg and Pest. The most valuable of these he
considers to be Count Gobineau's Les Religions et les Philosophies dans "Asie Centrale (Paris, 1865 and 1866), more than
half of the volume being devoted to Babism. Professor
Browne writes:
'This most brilliant, most graphic and most charming
book is too well known to need any detailed description ..•
Not only are the facts sifted with rare judgment and
consummate skill but the characters and scenes of stirring
drama are depicted in a manner so fresh, so vivid and so
life-like that the work in question must ever remain a
classic unsurpassed and indeed unequalled in the subject
whereof it treats.'
Lord Curzon, whose work is not included in the Professor's
list, dealt in his Persia and the Persian Question with the Bab
Revival at some length and in a tone of deep sympathy.
Writing from inquiries made in the country in which it had
originated and from which the government had taken such
cruel measures to expel it, he spoke of 'the tales of magnificent heroism which adorn its pages,' of 'the pure and
suffering life of the Bab, his ignominious death, the heroism
and martyrdom of his followers.' 'Of no small account,' he
says, 'must be the tenets of a creed that can wake in its
followers so rare and beautiful a spirit of self-sacrifice.' He
argues that since the new teaching in spite of persecution is
spreading in Persia, and since its recruits are gained from
among the nobler minds of Isl:im, it will eventually 'oust
Muhammadanism from the field in Persia and will ulti.
mately prevail.'
Professor Browne himself, however, did more to bring
Babism to the notice of the educated English public at the
close of last century than any other writer. As Sir Thomas
Adam's Professor of Arabic and Fellow of Pembroke College
in the University of Cambridge he made himself an authority
upon Persian literature and history and in his engaging
style wrote much upon the subject. Among numerous works
dealing with Persia his Materialsfor the stuc!J of the Bdhl Religion,
The New History of the Bdb, A Traveller's Narrative, A Year
among the Persians, not to mention briefer treatments, contain
an immense amount of information on the early days of the
movement. He had one experience in particular in the
course of his investigations into the Bahi'i or Bibi cause
which was shared by no other European writer and which
gives to his account a unique interest and value. Neither
he nor any of the authors aforementioned ever saw the
Bab; but he, and he alone, met Bahi'u'llih. In 1890, two
years before the prophet's death, he visited Syria to complete
his researches into the Bahi'i Faith, and it fell to his lot
to become the guest of the Baha'i settlement in 'Akki where
Baha'u'llih was still held as a prisoner. During this brief
sojourn he was granted an interview-in fact, four interviews
-with Baha'u'llih and heard from the Teacher's own lips
some of the outstanding points. of his doctrine.
In his introduction to A Traveller's Narrative he tells how
this experience came about, and proceeds:
'So here at Bahjt was I installed as a guest, in the very
midst of all that Babism counts most noble and most
holy; and here did I spend five most memorable days
during which I enjoyed unparalleled and llnhoped-for
opportunities of holding intercourse with those who are
the very fountain heads of that mighty and wondrous
spirit which works with invisible but ever-increasing force
for the transformation and quickening of a people who
slumber in a sleep like unto death. It was in truth a strange
and moving experience, but one of which I despair of
conveying any save the feeblest impression. I might indeed
strive to describe in greater detail the faces and forms
which surrounded me, the conversations to which I was
privileged to listen, the solemn melodious reading of the
sacred books, the general sense of harmony and content
which pervaded the place and the fragrant shady gardens
whither in the afternoon we sometimes repaired; but all
this was as nought in comparison with the spiritual atmosphere with which I was encompassed. Persian Muslims
will tell you often that the B<ibis bewitch or drug their
guests so that these, impelled by a fascination they cannot
resist, become similarly affected with what the aforesaid
Muslims regard as a strange and incomprehensible madness. Idle and absurd as this belief is it yet rests on a
basis of fact stronger than that which supports the greater
part of what they allege concerning this people. The spirit
which pervades the Babls is such that it can hardly fail to
affect most powerfully all subjected to its influence. It
may appal or attract: it cannot be ignored or disregarded.
Let those who have not seen disbelieve me if they will;
but should that spirit once reveal itself to them, they will
experience an emotion which they are not likely to forget'
(T.N. pp. 38-9).
His account of his meeting Baha'u'llah remains the only
known record made by anyone from the Western world of
----------------------------

such an interview. After some preliminary description he
writes:
'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 head-dress 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 an adoration and love which
kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vainl
'A mild dignified voice bade me be seated, and then
continued: "Praise be to God that thou hast attainedl •..
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 and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment. • • • 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 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 shall pass away, and the 'Most Great
Peace' shall come..•• Do not you in Europe need this
also? Is not this that w hieh Christ foretold? • •• Yet do
we see kings and rulers lavishing their treasure 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 all 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, as far as I can recall them, were the words which
besides many others I 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' (T.N.,
pp. xxxix-:xl).
Thus travellers and scholars had before the visit of
'Abdu'l-Baha given to the Western public some account of
the Great Revival that was arising in the East. Fragments
of evidence remain to certify that these accounts, scanty as
they were, made in some quarters a profound impression.
Professor Carpenter, Principal of Manchester College,
stated in the course of a speech at Oxford on December 31st,
1912, that
'the late Dr. Jowett once said to him that he bad been
so deeply impressed with the teachings and character of
the Bab that he thought Babism, as the present movement
was then known, might become the greatest religious
movement since the birth of Christ' (Christian Commonwealth, January .und, 1913)'
Dr. Caird, successor of Dr. Jowett as Master of Balliol,
has been quoted in a similar sense.
Knowledge of the movement had spread beyond academic
circles. Leading magazines contained notices of it (the
Spectator in April, 1892, for example; the Scot/ish Review
II
in the same month; the Acade!1J.Y in March, 1895; the Arena
in November, 1904). Inquirers from England and America
too had gone out singly or in groups to 'Akkli to gather
from 'Abdu'l-Baha himself further information.
Nor was the Baha'I movement known on the western side
of Europe only. Its fame had penetrated to Russia, and
Tolstoi had given it his warmest approval.
He wrote in a letter, October :und, 1903, as follows:
'I have known about the Babls for a long time and have
always been interested in their terlchings. It seems to me
that these teachings ••• have a great future for this very
reason that these teachings, discarding all these distorting
incrustrations that cause division, aspire to unite into one
common religion all mankind. Therefore the teachings of
the Babls, inasmuch as they have rejected the old Muhammadan superstitions and have not established new superstitions which would divide them from other new superstitions • • • and inasmuch as they keep to the principal
fundamental ideas of brotherhood, equality and love,
have a great future before them. • •• I therefore sympathise
with Babism with all my heart inasmuch as it teaches
people brotherhood and equality and sacrifice of material
life for service to God.'
And again in 1908 in a letter to Fridul Khan Wadelbekow:
'The teachings of the Babfs which come to us out of
Islam have through Baha'u'llah's teachings been gradually
developed and now present us with the highest and purest
form of religious teaching.'
The soil had thus been to some degree prepared for
cAbdu'I-Bahli before he came in person to sow through the
West the seeds from which he affirmed a millennial peace in
u
course of time would spring. His immediate achievement
was to bring the movement to more general notice, to
impress on it a more definite shape, to impart to it a fresh
impulse and to direct the lines of its future course and
progress. His influence as a teacher seems to have extended
far beyond his audiences or the circle of his avowed followers.
For some of the principles which Baha'u'IIah had set forth
in the sixties and seventies of the last century and which
'Abdu'l-Bahi transmitted in his missionary journeys have
since then entered the Western mind and been accepted as
distinguishing marks of what is best in the modern spirit.
Express tributes too to the beneficence of the ideals and
the work of the Baha'is have been paid by many who are in
no way affiliated to the fellowship-by Dr. J. Carpenter in
his Comparative Religion (pp. 70-1); by Rev. J. Tyssul Davis
in A Leagtle of Religions (London); by Charles Baudouin in
Contemporary Studies; by H. C. Lukach in The Fringe of the
East; by Sir Francis Younghusband speaking in The Gleam
of Baha'u'llah's forerunner:
'Thus in only his thirtieth year ended the heroic career
of a true God-man. Of the sincerity of his conviction that
he was God-appointed, 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 riddles.
This was the humility of true insight. And it has had its
effect. His movement has grown and expanded and it has
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 even into
Europe and America. His adherents are now numbered
by millions.'
It is, however, in the invigoration and extension of the
Baha'I Fellowship that the effect of 'Abdu'l-Bahi's tour is
most decisively marked. Groups of students were formed in
England and various parts of the Continent as well as in
America to study and promote the social and religious
teachings of Bahi'u'llih. Baha'i books and magazines began
to appear and multiply. The most useful text-book on the
Baha'i Faith produced up to the present time was written
by a Scotsman-Bahd'u'/Idh and the New Era, by Dr. Esslemont. But the most indefatigable worker in the Baha'i
cause on this side of the Atlantic was probably Professor
Auguste Forel, whose enthusiastic propaganda made the
name of Baha'u'lhih more familiar in Switzerland than it
seems to be in any other European country. He was a strongly
independent thinker; but he explained that when after the
war he came into touch with the Baha'is he found 'their
principles agreed to such an extent with my scientific religion
of the Social Good that I let the latter slide and became a
Baha'i' (The Wtry of Culture). In 1923 he founded the first
Baha'I group in Switzerland and devoted the latter years of
his long life largely to the promulgation of the Baha'I cause,
testifying in his will to his hope for its future-'C'esl la
vraie religion du Bien social humain• ••• Je suis devenu Bahd'i.
Que celte religion vive et prospere pour Ie bien de I'humanite; r;'esl
Id man vam Ie plus ardent.'
The extension of the Baha'i Fellowship throughout the
world at the present time, the domain of its special interests,
the character and range of its activities, can be ascertained
by a perusal of the twelfth and latest volume of the biennial
Bahd't World, which is the official record of the progress of
the Baha'i movement, and from which (it may be mentioned)
the quotations just made have for the most part been taken.
Here the Fellowship is shown to be established in
more than two hundred and fifty countries, the text-book
Babd'u'//db and tbe New Era has already been published in
over sixty languages and arrangements are being made for
its appearance in several more. In all these centres, and
in all these languages, the one common purpose of
reconciliation and peace throughout the world is pursued
in accordance with the principles laid down by Bah:i'u'llah.
Neither in this volume nor elsewhere in their work do
the Baha'is enter the political field. The meetings of their
groups are 'spiritual' assemblies; and their business is confined to spiritual and humanitarian matters. The primary
concern of all is to spread the Baha'i message of good will
and peace and of the fulfilment of God's promise to pour
out his spirit upon all flesh. Some years ago an English
princess, the Dowager Queen of Rumania, published in
Canada an encomium of the Cause, and said:
c• •• It is a wondrous message that Baha'u'llah and his
son 'Abdu'l-Baha 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.••• It is
Christ's Message taken up anew, in the same words almost,
but adapted to the thousand years' and more difference
that lies between the year one and to-day.••. If ever the
IS
-------------------

name of Baha'u'llah or 'Abdu'l-Baha comes to your
attention, do not put their writings from you. Search out
their books, and let their glorious, peace-bringing, lovecreating words and lessons sink into your heart as they
ha ve into mine.'
And this volume fitly opens with a renewed tribute from
her Majesty to the beauty and the power of the Ballii'! books.
'The Baha'i 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 of their intolerance
towards each other, I discovered in the Baha'i 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.'
Many lay members of Christian Churches (not the least
earnest, not the least loyal, not the least grateful for the high
tradition in which they had been nurtured) have been profoundly moved by 'Abdu'l-Baha's presentation of Christian
Truth. They have felt that here was one who spoke with
a new conviction and compelling power, who truly loved
Christ, and in the cause of his Heavenly Father had borne
with rejoicing and exceeding gladness the bitterest persecution. His words, gentle and undogmatic as they were, had
some strange power to pierce and germinate through which
they sank into the heart and there bore fruit richly and
continually. His exposition of the Gospels relieved for them
old difficulties and met new doubts, giving back to them
their trust in the Bible as the Word of God and in Christ
as the Son of God which modern theology and the infection
of belief had weakened. His description of what constituted
the real Christian was the one which at the present time
no organised body would unreservedly accept; yet they
realised it might prove the only basis on which a lasting
union of all Christian Churches could ever be effected.
'To be a real Christian,' he said, 'is to be a servant in
Christ's cause and kingdom, to go forth under His banner
of peace and love towards all mankind, to be self-sacrificing
and obedient, to become quickened by the truths of the
Holy Spirit, to be a mirror reflecting the radiance of the
divinity of Christ, to be a fruitful tree in the garden of His
planting, to refresh the world by the water of life of His
teachings; in all things to be like Him and filled with the
spirit of His love' (ProlJJulgation of Universal Peace, I, p. 4).
They felt that in him there was an authentic and radiant
spiritual force which might prove the beginning of a general
revival in Christendom of religious power, and that there
was much in his teachings to aid and shape that restatement
of the Christian Faith which is so greatly desired. They have
wished that others more competent than themselves would
give serious thought to 'Abdu'l-Baha's expositions of the
Gospels, and that the experience which had brought to them
so definite a renewal of hope and of aspiration could be
imparted to multitudes of their fellows. Nor was the sense
of the urgency of the need of such a revival made any less
by their despair of soul as they saw on every side the progressive decay of the old Christian loyalties, and watched
in more lands than one, ancient churches subjected not to
neglect alone but even to degradation or enslavement.
This essay, however, does not aim to put in order or to
collect the teachings of 'Abdu'l-BaM on the works of Christ.
It seeks rather to promote in our time that cause which
Christ so deeply loved and warmly blessed, and which has
now become the most vital of all the causes in the world:
the cause of peace, and. more especially of reconciliation
among the chu~ches and nations of Christendom. It approaches this cause from a new angle and presents an argument which sets the whole problem of unity in a new relation
to the movements of the hour.
The proposition which was the starting-point of 'Abdu'l-
BaM's message to the West and which filled the background
of all his addresses was the announcement of Baha'u'llah
that God had in this age fulfilled his ancient promise to
mankind, and that by his intervention the hearts of men
would be swiftly and completely changed, so that within
this twentieth century universal peace would be attained
and all nations would unite in founding a new worldcivilisation. This theme has been taken as the subject of
the present essay. It is worked out with special reference to
our Christian religion, and is expressed in our Western idiom
with sufficient clearness and candour (it is hoped) fu represent
faithfully the teaching of' Abdu'l-Baha.
What tidings to a travailing world could be happier than
that the birth of the long-promised peace is at handl Who
will wonder that the Baha'is accepting this are the most
hopeful, the most eager, the most active of all religious
groups? If to others, amid the pettiness and arrogance of a
self-infatuated age, these tidings seem in their vastness and
awfulness strange and challenging; yet when one looks with
saddening eyes and aching heart across Christendom and
beyond its borders and sees everywhere the unwilled disruption of the social and economic order, the neglect of
religion, the continuous enfeeblement of what is tender and
noble and creative in human nature, and the unrelieved
failure of all efforts to convert or to pacify those dark and
desolating passions that threaten to sink all civilised mankind
in final ruin, one wonders if any message less terrible than
this of the blast of the trumpet of Israfil proclaiming the
immediate consummation of the Apocalypse of God, would
startle humanity from such a deathly sleep.
Perhaps this vision of mankind's essential unity may by
divine grace not go unregarded, but may animate those who
love God and his peace with a new sense of power, a new
assurance of victory.
~---------

CHAPTER I

THE EPIC OF HUMANITY

BAHA'U'LLAH revealed a sublime vision of human history as
an epic written by the finger of God and proceeding along
an ordered course to a climax, the nature of which was
exactly defined before the story opened and the appearance
of which at the date ordained by the Author no human
misunderstanding nor opposition could prevent or postpone.
He taught that human history throughout its entire
length was an intelligible and connected whole, centring
round a single theme and developing a common purpose.
From the beginning of the cycle to the present day and
beyond the present to the cycle's distant end, one masterscheme is by set degrees disclosed. The stage upon which the
action moves forward is the entire globe, with all its continents and all its seas; and there is no race nor nation nor
tribe nor even individual who has not a designated place in
the unfolding of the Grand Design of God.
This doctrine of the unity of world-history held in the
revelation of Baha'u'llah a position of cardinal importance.
He was far from being the first among the Messengers of God
to reveal it. Those 'prophets which have been since the
beginning of the world' and lesser seers as well as they
have given glimpses of it to mankind, or have referred to it
in symbol and in parable. It is indeed involved in all the
historic faiths of the human race, and there is no worldreligion extant which can be fully understood without a
knowledge of its truth. But Baha'u'lhih was the first to lay
on it so great an emphasis and to expound it at large and in
plain terms. On it depends the significance of his own advent
and the timeliness of his humanitarian reforms; and on it
turns his teaching as to the aims and methods of Providence
in its dealings with mankind.
This scheme is carried out by the power of God's will
and it has its origin in his desire for the well-being of his
creatures. Its aim is the training of the peoples of the world
to live and to work together in harmony, and to establish
by God's particular assistance a universal civilisation in
which all the human faculties shall find at last adequate and
complete expression. The attainment of this goal is in the
Divine Author's eye the opening of the main movement of
human history. All previous and earlier events are in the
nature of an introduction. They are steps up a long ascent,
causes of a desired result. However important they be, their
meaning lies not wholly in themselves, but in the fact that
they look and lead forward to a transcendent issue save for
which they themselves would never have been called into
existence.
Secular schools of thought cannot be said to have applied
nor adopted any such broad conception of the integral
unity of all human history. In past times, truths so large did
not find easy entrance into the minds of men. So long as
accurate knowledge of distant peoples was as hard to gain as
accurate knowledge of past events, such doctrines would
remain for scholars disembodied and unsubstantiated ideas.
To-day, histories of mankind on a comprehensive scale have
become numerous; yet those of them which present the
complete story as having an organic plot like a well-constructed epic are probably few indeed.
In the sphere of religion, however, the case is different.
The idea that the course of human events is directed by a
stronger will and a clearer eye than man's to a predetermined
end is found in more revelations than one. It is said to have
been mentioned by the founders of all the world-religions.
Though it has not been in any past age of such critical
interest as it is to-day and has not before been treated so fully
as now by Bahi'u'lhih, yet it has never been kept wholly concealed from man. There are references to it in scripture or
tradition which are clear enough to show that this truth is part
of the common reFgious knowledge of mankind while slight
enough to prove that it did not hold in any High Prophet's
teaching the same importance as in that of Baha'u'lhih.
The general fact that God ordains human events long ages
before they take shape on this earth (somewhat as a dramatist
will complete his play before it is embodied in action on the
stage), W2.S alluded to by Jesus when he said of the righteous
in the Last Day, 'Enter into the joy prepared for you by
the Father before the beginning of the world'; and again
on many occasions by the Apostle Paul, as, 'He chose us
in him before the foundation of the world' (Eph. i, 4), and
by Peter who speaks in a similar connection of 'the foreknowledge of God the Father' (I Peter i, 2).
Muhammad bore the same witness when he revealed that
the first thing which God created was a pen and that he said
to it, 'Write.' It said to him, 'What shalll write?' and God
said, 'Write down the quantity of every separate thing to
be created.' And it wrote all that was and all that will be to
eternity.
More specifically, the Hindu religion ages long before
there was a word for evolution, taught the God-guided progress of history towards a distant but certain culmination.
At some unknown date the Hebrew allegory of the creation
of the world in seven days made a cryptic allusion to the
procession of world-religions and to the final consummation
of God's full purpose in the Seventh Day, the day of maturity,
completion and rest. The seers of the Hebrew people, lifted
by inspiration into the eternal realm, would descry some sign
or feature of the far-off Day of God, the fore-ordained
climacteric of worldá history, and in a mood of exaltation
would give utterance to their predictive vision without
fully comprehending what they saw or measuring the interval
which separated them from its fulfilment. Isaiah cries:
'It shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain
of the Lord's House shall be established in the top of the
mountains ••• and all nations shall flow to it. They shall
beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more' (i, 2, 4).
Or Zechariah:
'The Day of the Lord cometh ..• And the Lord shall
be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one
Lord and His name one' (Zeth. xiv, 1, 9)'
Or again Joel:
'The Day of the Lord cometh ••• there hath not been
ever the like, neither shall there be any more after it even
to the years of many generations .••• Ye shall eat in plenty
and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord that hath
dealt wondrously with you .•. 1 I will pour out my spirit
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy ••• your
old men shall dream dreams ••• your young men shall see
visions. And also upon the servants and the handmaids
in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show
wonders in the heaven and on the earth. The sun shall be
turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the
great and the terrible Day of the Lord come. And whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved'
(joel ch. 2).

Confucius, more than five centuries before Christ, outlined
in his book, Spring and Autumn, the ordained Plan of History
in brief but plain terms.
He divided history into three stages. In the first, which he
called the Stage of Disorder, the social mind was very crude;
there was a sharp distinction between one's own country and
other countries, and hence attention was paid more to conditions at home than abroad. In the second stage, the Advancement of Peace, there was a distinction between civilised
countries on the one side and those uncivilised on the other;
the range of civilisation extended and friendship between
nations became closer. The smaller people could make their
voices heard. In the third and final stage, the Supreme
Peace, there was no distinction at all among the natiops of
the world. All became civilised and met upon the level.
Righteousness prevailed and the world was unified.
Jesus spoke much of the Last Day (the Kingdom of God
as he usually called it) and of its near approach. 'The Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand.' He did not stress, as Confucius
had done, the historical aspect of the coming climacteric,
but taking up the warnings of the Hebrew prophets he spoke
of the unexpectedness of its advent and of the terrible jeopardy
2.4
into which it would bring mankind. Even in an age so late
in history as this, a full account of the development and
destiny of the race would have been premature. He kept
the fullness of this truth among those things which he had
to say to his disciples, but which at that stage they could not
yet bear.
But now a new occasion has arisen. New opportunities,
new problems, new perils, confront mankind; and with
these new conditions has come the need of a new knowledge.
He who, before the human race began, fixed the date at
which that yet uncreated race would reach the apex of its
course and attain the maturity of its powers, has now declared
that the Date has come. He who, in dim and distant ages
long past by, solemnly ratified with his people a Covenant
and made to them a faithful promise that he would bring
them all to his Kingdom in his own good time, has now in this
epoch kept his ancient promise and fulfilled the Covenant in
its completeness.
This present time is God's Good time. This present time is
the Era of which since the beginning of the world prophets
have chanted and seers have sung. Suddenly-unexpectedly
-unawares-without observation (exactly as Jesus said) the
fullness of the Glory of God has irradiated the globe from the
east to the farthest west. The Day of the Lord has dawned.
Keeping his pledge, God has thrown open to men a new
domain of life and activity, has conferred on them new
powers, laid on them new responsibilities; and he demands
that they enter as quickly as may be into this new order of
existence and fit themselves to these higher conditions.
The nature of those charges which in the Day of God are
to be laid upon mankind can be gathered from a sympathetic
P.A.A.
reading of the prophets of Israel. Those seers wrote-as a
great poet might write-with their minds turned towards
God and their hearts lighted and warmed by ardent faith.
They could not control the vision that was vouchsafed them:
they could not complete it nor set it in its own environment
and perspective, nor plumb its meanings nor yet count the
years which should elapse before it descended from the realm
in which they saw it to the realm of actuality. When the
prophets are read in this spirit as Jesus and the evangelists
read them, there rises into view a clear and boldly sketched
outline of those world-developments which from the creation
have been laid up to await the present hour.
The picture is one which has puzzled, fascinated and awed
the Christian mind. The impression made by the vision upon
the seer-prophets was profound. They write or chant in a
strain of exaltation which finds its answer across the years in
the rapturous faith of the Apocalypse and the controlled but
not less deep emotion of the Christ teiling of his second
Advent. The strange scenes and deeds and wonders that
appear in the picture are hardly more startling than the
violent contrast of the colours in which they are painted.
Here Hell seems to reach out to the gates of Paradise; delusion
and enlightenment, despair and victory, the unlighted Pit
and the sunshine of God's own presence seem all to have a
place here, and through some purgation of Phlegethonian
misery man hardly comes alive to inherit the promise of all
ages.
The Event which the Hebrew prophets foresaw was not
to be an isolated occurrence; it was one of a series of events;
it was the Last Day of many days. But it so transcended all
before it as to be outstanding and paramount. Its splendour
%6
outshone all previous splendours, and its blessings were so
far above all previous experience and precedent that men
would live in a new world and would not even remember
the former things that had passed so utterly away. So full
will be the Revelation vouchsafed by God in the Last Day,
so glorious the effulgence of this supreme Theophany that
darkness and error will not be able to withstand the impact
of its might. They will flee and perish. The radiance will
sweep across the entire globe from the east to the west. It
will settle and abide in every land. Mankind will become one,
and will be organised round a single central authority which
it will recognise as divinely appointed. One law will run
throughout the whole earth. National distinctions will not
be obliterated; the various nations will meet upon a common
level but will retain their separate identity. All peoples and
races will share a common relation to one another. A Universal religion will unite the hearts of all. Mankind will form a
single congregation, their God being recognised everywhere
as one and the same God endowed with the same attributes
and known by the same Name. The Glory of the Most High
in its depth and in its height will be poured forth over the
earth; and spiritual gifts, once the privilege of a gifted few,
will be possessed by the many. War will be abandoned. The
skill of those who made weapons of destruction will be turned
to beneficent uses. All the world over, men will be able to
enjoy their homes and their prosperity in security and peace.
(See, for instance, Isaiah ii, 2-4; xv, 17-2~; Zech. ix, 10;
xiv, 9; viii, 20 ff.; Ztph. iii, 9; Micah iv, I-~, etc.)
Such is the prophets' picture of the world conditions of the
Last Day; such-believe the Baha'{s-are the changes which
man in this hour is called upon to make.
.2
Prescient of the crisis and the difficulties that lay ahead,
Baha'u'llah, eighty years ago, with timely forethought,
offered to mankind the knowledge that would enable them
to shoulder the new responsibility about to be imposed upon
them. He not only outlined a large plan of reform, but he
explained, with an emphasis, a fullness, and a precision not
used before, the brotherhood of mankind and the unity of
their development from the infancy of the race to the present
time.
History, he taught, is in its length and breadth one and
single. It is one in its structure. It is one in its movement.
From the beginning of time the whole human race has been
subject to one law of development; and it has advanced
age after age in accordance with one and the same principle
and by the application of one and the same method. Its
whole movement has one source and one cause, and is
directed towards one goal. The unification of the world,
instead of being an afterthought, or of needing an improvised
miracle for its completion, is the normal conclusion of a
process that has been going on since the race began. Each of
the world-religions has its own set place within this vast
economy. Each is radiated through a Master Prophet from
God by one and the same principle and bears witness to some
phase of one indivisible Truth. No religion has been exhaustive or final. Every one admits of development and invites
it. If all were under God thus developed, each along the line
of its own implicit truth, they would not move farther and
farther apart, but on the contrary would approach one
another till at last they merged and became one. The ultima te
ideal of them all, while not the same as anyone of those
from which it grew, will yet be consistent with the essence of
each of them. It is the universal religion: the fruit and the
perfection of all that preceded it. He who accepts it on its
appearance will not deny the ancient Faith of his forefathers;
he will reassert it, and at the same time will accept all the
other revealed faiths of mankind.
When all men know the certainty of their common history
and their organic unity, then, said Bahi'u'llah, on that
knowledge will be built the temple of peace and the fabric of
future civilisation.
CHAPTER II

THE SELF-MANIFESTATION OF GOD

BAHA'U'LLAH not only filled in the fragmentary outline of
universal history sketched by the master prophets of the
past, but also revealed more fully the principles and methods
through which God has ensured the continuous unfolding of
his design. He would have men read history anew, seeing
past events in a new perspective, grouping them in new
relations and judging them by new values. The attitude
which he would have them take in reviewing the story of
mankind is the same as that which Jesus enjoins on a man
in regarding his own individual career. The life of every man
appears in the teaching of Jesus as in the last resort a drama
of two wills: his own will and the will of God. The most
critical of all matters for him is this inner relation between
himself and his Maker. If it be wrong, all things will be
wrong, and all his efforts will lead to nothing in the end. If
it be harmonious, he will go forward under the guidance and
protection of God, and his reward will be assured. Baha'u'-
llah would not have a man change his attitude in looking out
upon the larger affairs of the world. Here, too, the central
theme is the same. The vital concern for the race and for the
nation, as for every man, is co-operation with the creative
will and readiness to follow God's all-inclusive design for
progress and attainment. Other considerations, however
important, are for evermore less important than is this. He
who would learn from Christ and from Baha'u'llah to read
history aright, will assume this point of view as the startingpoint of his thought and will see all events revolving, however remotely, round this unchanging centre of the Decree
of God.
It may be that in classical literature illustrations of such
a point of view are hard to find. Unfortunately, not many
histories of note have been written on such a theme, and few
authors have embodied in their works such a conception of
the evolution of the human race. But there stands one ancient
book of surpassing and imperishable renown which from
first to last presents the course of human history as impelled
by the might and the will of God as taking shape under
the hand of those leaders of mankind whose sole aim it has
been to execute his pleasure and to carry out his command.
Whatever shortcomings critics have discovered in the Bible,
and whatever the limitations of any of its writers, its general
outlook upon mankind is that of the world seers and illuminators of the race, and it affords the most signal example now
extant of that philosophy of history which is set forth by
Baha'u'llah.
Baha'u'llah represented-in full agreement with the
Christian Scriptures-that the unfolding of God's design is
dependent not on the conscious good will of the multitudes
but on the concerted efforts of a succession of Great Souls
especially appointed and empowered for the task. These
Great Souls, who are men and yet more than men, are the
key figures of history: it is they who inspire the onward
movement of mankind and determine the manifold phases of
human progress and enlightenment.
For the development of civilisation does not proceed in a
manner parallel to that which science discovers in the eVOlution of material life. Humanity does not advance in wisdom,
virtue and happiness through the inward urge of some anonymous force or the uplift of some original inborn power of
its own. Far otherwise. For all that raises him above the
level of a human animal man depends upon a new and special
principle that is not found on the lower stages of being.
This principle is a part of the creative process, and is the
cause of all that is noble and gracious in life. It is active
to-day as it has been active since the time of Adam, and men
depend on it now for their well-being as completely as they
have done throughout the past.
This is the principle of God's Self-Manifestation in the
human degree of existence.
The operation of this principle is the force that gives to
history in its direction and its continuity. The part that man's
will plays in the perfecting of civilisation is a minor part.
His dependence on the will of God is more complete than his
ignorance realises and more abject than his pride inclines
him to admit. Were it not for the special intervention of God
in human affairs, so teaches Bahi'u'llih, the earth would be
the cockpit of base desires and raging appetites and man
himself would appear as the most disagreeable and dangerous
of the animals. History (if the annals of such a race could be
called history) would have neither coherence nor meaning
and the elevation of mankind would be impossible. Did not
God show himself in this human realm, bringing down gifts
from heaven, man would lack both the power and the will to
develop. There would be no spirituality, no vision, no true
life: the minds and the hearts of men would be wrapped in
infernal darkness. For God not only leads mankind onward
by his grace to a predetermined goal but in addition empowers
them to follow his lead.
This divine aid is not given by the Most High direct. It is
mediated through Great Souls whom God prepares, enduing
them with his dominion and imparting to them the fullness of
his perfections. These holy and transcendent Beings stand to
humanity in the place of God. Through them alone does he
bestow his blessings and his bounties on mankind, and through
them alone can he be approached or known. To turn to them
is to turn to God. To dishonour them is to dishonour God.
For God in his own being is for ever inaccessible and
inscrutable.
'To every discerning and illumined heart,' writes
Baha'u'llah, 'it is evident that God, 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 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 taken in Him
but He taketh in all vision; He is the subtile, the All-
Perceiving." No tie of direct intercourse can possibly bind
Him to His creatures. He standeth exalted beyond and
above all separation and union, all proximity and remoteness. No sign can indicate His presence or His absence;
inasmuch as by a word of His command all that are in
heaven and earth have come to exist, and by His wish,
which is the Primal Will itself, all have stepped out of
utter nothingness into the realm of being, the world of the
visible.•••
'All the Prophets of God and their chosen ones, all the
divines, the sages and the wise of every generation, unanimously recognise their inability to attain unto the comprehension of that Quintessence of all Truth and confess
their inability to grasp Him Who is the inmost Reality of
all things' (Book oj Certitllde, pp. 98-9)'

But since (so states Baba'u'llah) the purpose of existence
is the appearance of the divine perfections, God therefore,
that these might become known, sends forth certain Holy
Beings who are Places of Manifestation and in whom as in
pure and brilliant mirrors the light and glory of the Most
High are reflected in man's world.

'The Source of Infinite grace 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
all 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. Even as
He hath said, "There is no distinction whatsoever between
Thee and them, except that they are Thy servants and
are created by Thee" , (Book oj Certitude, pp. 99- 100).
H
To the same effect spoke the Rib in heralding the Divine
King whom God was to manifest:
'Verily He is the one who shall utter in all grades,
"Verily I am God. There is no God but Me, the Lord of all
things, and all save Me is created by Mel Ye are to worship
me." ,

And the Bah declared: 'Verily I am the first of those
who worship Him.' 'Abdu'l-Baha, being asked to expound
the degree of the power of the Manifestations of God, compared their influence over mankind to that of the sun upon
the earth and the planets. Rendered somewhat crudely into
English his answer was in part as follows:
'Consider the world of material things. The solar
system is in deep darkness save for the radiance shed by
the sun at its centre. All the planets of the system revolve
around his might and are partakers of his bounty. He is
the cause of life and light, and the means of the growth
and development of all the beings of the solar system.
Without his bounty no living being could exist: darkness
and death would envelop all. In like manner, the Holy
MaOlfestations of God are the centres of the light of Truth,
the Fountain-heads of Mystery and of the bounties of
Love. Their splendour irradiates the world of hearts and
thoughts, and they shower eternal grace upon the world
of spirits. They be&tow spintuaJ life and their glory is that
of the Light of Lights, the inmost Truth of Truth. The
illuminatIon of the world of thought comes from these
Holy Originals of Radiance and Mystery. Without the
knowledge and the instruction which they vouchsafe,
man's intellectual and spiritual realm would be unbrightened, wrapped In utter darkness.' (Some AnJweredQueJtions,
pp. 18 5-6).
The Bible testifies to the same truth, as when in Exodus
iv, 16, God defines Moses' relation to Aaron, 'thou shall be
to him instead of God'; and again in John xiv. 6, etc., when
Christ declares, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No
man cometh unto the Father save by me.••. He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. Believe me that I am in the
Father and the Father in me.'
These Holy Beings, standing between the Seen and the
Unseen and mediating between God and man, partake of the
human and of the divine nature. As men possessed of physical
bodies and rational human souls they come into existence
at a point of time: there was a time when they were not.
But in their true and inward essence, in virtue of that Fatherhood which as Christ said is in the Son and of their station
as the Word of God, they are exalted far above men and
belong to a different order of being. They outreach the human
mind. Aspiration cannot soar to their dwelling-place.
Whatever saintliness a man may acquire he can in no wise
pass into the realm which is their home. No Isaiah nor Peter
nor Paul nor Francis can ever share Christ's nearness to the
Father.
As an expression of the Divine energy, these Vicars and
Viceregents of God have since time began come again and
again to earth in answer to man's need, and they will in the
future come again till 'the end that has no end.' The bounties
of God are poured forth upon humanity everlastingly, and
these bounties are bestowed only through the agency of
these Holy Messengers. It is their function to 'breathe the
Holy Spirit into the dead body of the world,' to bring men
from sleep to wakefulness, from darkness to light; from a
merely animal life (which they count as death) to spiritual
life. They impart virtue; and whatever virtues men at any
time possess are not original but derivative, being bestowed
by the grace of God's High-Prophets. The higher evolution
of mankind is due to the influence of these Divine Spokesmen
who lead the world onward, unfold God's redemptive plan
by set degrees and give to universal history its structure and
its unity.
Though mankind hitherto has regarded these High-
Prophets only in their distinction and difference, yet in their
most important and eternal aspect they are one and indivisible.
'They are all but one person, one soul, one spirit, one
being, one revelation...• They all abide on the throne of
divine revelation and are established upon the throne of
divine concealment.••• Were any of the all-embracing
Manifestations of God to declare "I am God," He verily
speaketh the truth.'
Baha'u'llah declares also that Jesus, addressing one day
his disciples, referred to his passing and said unto them,
'1 go away and come again unto you,' and in another place
he said, '1 go and another will come who will tell you all
that 1 have not told you and will fulfil all that 1 have said.'
Both these sayings have but one meaning (Book of Certitude,
p. zo). 'Abdu'l-Baha, writing for an English newspaper in
I9II, stated:
'All the teaching of the prophets is one: one faith,
one divine light shining throughout the world. Now under
the banner of the oneness of humanity all people of all
creeds should turn away from prejudice and become friends
and believers of all the prophets' ('Abdu'l-Bahd in London,
Pá33)á
In one of his letters to an American believer he wrote:
'In this sense Christ is an expression of the divine
reality, the simple essence and heavenly entity which hath
no beginning or ending. It hath appearance, arising,
manifestation and setting in each of the cycles' (Epijlles,
i. 138).

This contemporary teaching does but corroborate and
expand the evidence of older Scriptures. Muhammad testified
to the same unity when in the Koran Sura I1 he sald:
'We make no distinction at all between His Messfngers
••• I am all the prophets ..•• I am the first Adam, Noah,
Moses and Jesus .••. We have but one command.'

So likewise did Jesus in his statement to the Jews (John
viii. ~6 and 58): 'Our father Abraham rejoiced to see my
day, and he saw it and was glad .•. Verily, veniy, 1 say unto
you: before Abraham was, I am.'
The immediate followers of Jesus learned this truth from
their Master and testified to it. The author of the Apocalypse
called Jesus 'Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, which is and which was and which is to come'
(Rev. i. 8). The author of the Hebrews states that Moses
esteemed 'the reproach of Christ' hIgher than the pleasures
of Pharaoh's court. And Paul speaking of the desert wanderings of the Israelites twice mentions Christ, saying that the
Rock which followed them was Christ and that they 'tempted Christ' (l Cor. x. 4). From another land and a yet more
distant age comes the same teaching in Sri Krishna's statement: 'Age after age I manifest myself for the establishment
of religion' (Bhagavad-Gita, iv. 8); and in the same passage
the Gita declares that whenever religion wanes and irreligion
prevails there will be an avatar or theophany (iv. 7).
On the other hand, the High-Prophets appear to mankind
not as one and the same, but as many and different. Each of
them has two stations: one of identity with all the others,
the other of separation from them all. The essential unity
which subsists between them all, pertains to the things of
heaven; their severalness pertains to the things of earth.

'Each manifestation of God has a distinct individuality,
a definitely prescribed Mission, a predestined Revelation,
and specially designated limitations. Each is known by a
different Name and is characterised by a special attribute'
(Book of Certitude, p. 176).

In this second character of differentiation, they manifest
absolute servitude before God, utter destitution and complete
self-effacement (p. 178). Among men they walk in the greatest lowliness and simplicity, choosing a life of poverty, and
even while they assert their Prophet hood and declare the
sublimity of their office, yet they behave personally as the
meekest of the meek, the gentlest of the gentle. In the sphere
of their distinction they appear in different periods and in
different places and form a Prophetic succession or network,
their influence spreading over all the world and all time.
Each is like a physician prescribing a remedy for a particular
disease (for the needs of mankind change and demand now
one kind of treatment now another). Each is like a teacher,
suiting the lesson to the capacity of the pupils. Each is like
a guide, leading the wayfarers over a special portion of their
journey. Each in turn founds a great religion; and though
all religions are at heart the same, yet each has its distinction
------------~

as in its purity the best possible medium for the spiritual
energies of the people at the time. All the great systems of
religion bear witness to the one Self-Manifesting God; if
they set forth varying aspects of the Truth and if some are
more rich and full than others, this is because each High-
Prophet has his individual mission and suits his teaching to
the reguirements of the people of his age. If Moses gave a less
exalted Revelation than Jesus; if he did not bid his followers
return good for evil, blessing for cursing, nor promise eternal
life to the faithful, the reason lies not in the limits of his own
knowledge-God forbid-but in the crud~r condition of the
world that he addressed. If, as 'Abdu'l-Baha has said, the
teaching of Confucius was less sublime than that of Buddha,
the cause is to be sought not in the Viceregents themselves
but in the varying receptivity of the people to whom they
were sent.
The material culture, too, which arises in every dispensation owes its origin to the influence and will of the High-
Prophet. It bears a definite relation to his spiritual teaching;
its character is determined by his decree and its limits are
set by his command. All the world over, mankind has
honoured the spokesmen of God, and has adopted their
teachings. It reveres Christ, Buddha, Zoroaster, Krishna,
and other High-Prophets as its greatest leaders. But it has
not looked on them as related to one another. It has thought
of them as rivals, competing for the homage of the world.
It has imagined that to accept the revelation of one is to
deny the revelation of every other and that the votaries of
anyone High-Prophet are not loyal to their Lord unless they
esteem him the sole authentic revealer come from God. It
has balanced the High-Prophets against one another as it
were in scales, so that when one goes up, the others must go
down; and the zealots of one faith have despised all others
as infidels and miscreants, outcasts in this world and doomed
to perdition in the next. Thus the influence of religion, which
ought to have tended to unify the peoples of the world, has
through a misunderstanding engendered hostility and strife.
The High-Prophets never spoke ill of one another: the
antagonism originated with their followers. Krishna in the
Gita does not suggest any criticism of any other avatar than
his own. Jesus did not belittle Moses; nor Muhammad,
Jesus. Every High-Prophet claimed that his teaching was
to be accepted as divine by those to whom he was sent and
that it contained all things necessary to their salvation.
None affirmed that his revelation was final or exhaustive:
and in relation to earlier Revelators of his own succession
he claims no more than that it developed the former teaching.
Now, in the Last Day, Baha'u'llah has dwelt at length
upon the nature of his Viceregency and Prophethood,
clarifying, expanding and adding to former teachings on the
subject.
With a new precision he reiterated all that had been
revealed on this central and all-important mystery and
emphasised in particular the interconnection of the Divine
Prophets and their common service of a single Cause. He
showed them all to be somewhat as relays of guides leading
the people of the world up the sides of a mountain by separate
paths to meet together at the top. For in the end, at the Last
Day, all the peoples of the world are gathered under the
shadow of one universal theophany. Different regions of the
globe have their own prophetic successions. No High-
Prophet appears to arise save out of the East, and in the
East there are several lines of succession, that which has its
place in the Holy Land holding the central position. Different
periods of time have their appropriate measure of Revelation.
There is no exclusiveness nor partiality in God's dealing
with the children of men, but there is method, order and
system.
Bah:i'u'll:ih quotes Sura 15 of the Koran, where it is
written: 'There is not one thing but the storehouses thereof
are in our hands; and we distribute it not save in a determinate measure.' He himself states in Seven Valleys, pp. 48-9:
'Although the bounty of the Bountiful One is continual
and free from interruption, yet for every time and age a
certain portion is ordained; and these are bestowed on
men according to a certain quantity and measure.'
More specifically, 'Abdu'l-Bah:i, in answer to a question
as to the meaning of the recurrence of cycles in the world of
existence, included the following statement concerning the
supreme Manifestation of the Last Day (Some Answered
Questions, p. 184):
'Briefly, we say a universal cycle in the world of existence
signifies a long duration of time and innumerable and
incalculable periods and epochs. In such a cycle the
Manifestations appear with splendour in the realm of the
visible until a great and universal Manifestation makes
the world the centre of his radiance. His appearance
causes the world to attain to maturity, and the extension
of his cycle is very great. Afterwards other Manifestations
will arise under his shadow who, according to the needs
of the time, will renew certain commandments relating
to material questions and affairs while remaining under his
shadow.'
The history of mankind takes shape therefore in the
writings of Baha'u'llah as an organic fabric, its parts coordinated and set in their due place in a complete design.
History, however long, complex and tumultuous in appearance, is at its core one and single and at its heart is sacred.
The driving force which impels the movement of history
is not the will of the human race, much less the action of
some blind chance: it is the conscious intelligent will of a
pre-existing Lord. This volition reaches out through all
events and occurrences, great and small, and its range is
limitless. History cannot be read aright unless it is approached
with a knowledge of the Centre around which it all revolves
and of the Energy with which it is all informed. He who
attempts to interpret the changes of the world without
reference to their Source will not be able-least of all in a
crisis such as the present-to analyse the situation correctly
or to act on it with foresight. The complete scheme of things
is known in its entirety to God alone. But every son of
man can now through the revelation of Baha'u'llah appreciate
its general structure and acknowledge that there is no way of
attainment or progress or hope or deliverance save by
submission before God and obedience to his declared command.
CHAPTER III

THE SUCCESSION OF THE HIGH-PROPHETS

As Baba'u'lIah has revealed that the High-Prophets are the
dominating figures of universal history, so he has revealed
that their appointed missions show forth the maturing
purpose of the Primal Will and mark the most critical stages
of human progress and the most important divisions of
historical time.
The advent of a Divine Messenger does not seem to be
represented in the canon or the sacred writings of any worldreligion, and is surely not represented in the Christian
Scripture, as an isolated phenomenon, simply an angelic
adventure; nor is the Messenger shown as a solitary figure.
He comes expressly as one of a line of teachers and is sent on
a specific mission. He appears invariably in fulfilment of an
ancient authoritative promise. Buddha foretold that in the
fullness of time another Buddha named Metteyya should
arise, and he taught that the Buddha's work was rather to
revive religion and to re-create order than to bring into being
something quite new.
'As a man,' he said, 'wandering in the forest, in the
mountain jungle, might see an ancient path, an ancient
road, trodden by men of an earlier age; and following it
might discover an ancient township, an ancient palace,
the habitation of men of an earlier age, surrounded by
park and grove and lotus-pool and walls, a delightful
spot; and that man were to go back and announce to the
king or his minister: "Behold, sir, and learn what I have
seen!" And having told him, he were to invite the king to
rebuild the city, and that city were to become anon flourishing and populous and wealthy once more: Even so,
brethren, have I seen an ancient Path, an ancient Road,
trodden by Buddhas of a bygone age .•. the which having
followed I understand life, and its coming to be and its
passing away. And thus understanding I have declared
the same to the fraternity and to the laity, so that the holy
life flourishes and is spread abroad once more, well propagated among men' (Buddhism, by Mrs. Rhys Davis, pp.
33-4).
Confucius, too, is quoted to the same effect:
'My work is to indicate rather than to originate.'
Moses foretold a successor (Deut. xviii 15). Speaking to
the people of Israel he said:
'The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me;
unto him ye shall hearken.'
The Hebrew prophets amplified this prediction; and
attention was drawn to these utterances by Peter in Acts
ill. Z4:
'all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after
as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these
days.'
John the Baptist quoted the words of Isaiah as indicating
his own work and that of the Lord for whom he prepared
the way:
'This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, the
---------------------

voice of one crying in the wilderneRs, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make his paths straight.'
As Moses linked his mission with that of his successor,
not less closely did Jesus connect his with that of Moses. He
made himself equal with Moses, claimed authority to change
the Mosaic law and represented his own work as so much
the same as the work of Moses that sincere acceptance of
one would involve acceptance of the other: 'If ye had believed
in Moses and ye would also have believed in me.'
Muhammad 'recognised the truth of the signs, prophecies
and words of Jesus and testified that they were alJ of God'
(Book oj Certitude, p. 21). He declared indeed, 'I am Jesus.'
He claimed for himself the position of being the last of all the
High-Prophets that preceded the Supreme Theophany. He
closed the line-'I am the seal of the prophets,' he said.
The two teachers, Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i and Siyyid
Kazim-i-Rashtf, who heralded the Advent of the Bab and
the Dawning of 'The Last Day,' bore witness to the continuity of the prophetic line. Ahmad is represented by
Nabil as conceiving his work to be 'To prepare the way for
him who must needs be made manifest in the fullness of
time.'
'He knew and was destined by the will of God to
demonstrate that nothing short of a new and independent
Revelation as attested and foreshadowed by the Scriptures
of Islam could revive the fortunes and restore the purity
of that Decadent FaIth' (p. 2.).
Kazim, too, taught that the advent of the Bab and that
of Baha'u'llah were long before planned and announced by
God, being referred to, for instance, in the Koran 39, 68:
'And there was a blast on the trumpet and all who
are in the heavens, and all who are in the earth expired,
save those whom God permitted to live. Then was there
sounded another blast, and lo! arising, they gazed around
them. And the earth shone with the light of her Lord and
the Book was set and the Prophets were brought up, and
the witnesses; and judgment was given between them
with equity; and none was wronged.'
Which prediction Kazim (following Ahmad) explained:
'Verily I say, after the Qa'im (the Bab) the Qayyum
(Baha'u'llih) will be made manifest. For when the Star of
the former has set, the sun of the beauty of Husayn will
rise and illuminate the whole world' (Nab", pp. 41-2).

Kazim used to speak, too, of the coming Advent as the
times which the Prophets of old had longed to witness.
The Bab himself ratified this teaching of his forerunners,
affirming that he was the successor and peer of Muhammad
who had borne witness to him, and that his particular mission
was to herald the greatest of all Advents and the greatest of
all Dispensations.
'Verily I declare, none beside me in this day, whether
in the East or in the West, can claim to be the Gate that
leads men to the knowledge of God. My proof is none
other than that proof whereby the truth of the Prophet
Muhammad was established' (Nabll, p. 34).
And again, in the same gospel he is quoted:
'I am-I am-I am the promised Onel I am the One
whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at
whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have
longed to witness and the hour of whose revelation you
have prayed God to hasten. Verily 1 say, it is incumbent
upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey
My word and to pledge allegiance to My person' (pp.
31 5-16).
If an assertion of this truth even more plain, more full,
more emphatic be desired, it may be found in the words of
Baha'u'IIah, for he has expressly based his work for mankind
four-square upon the foundation of all the work of all the
High-Prophets of past ages.
Thus does every High-Prophet on his appearance draw
attention as part of his credentials, to his fulfilment of authentic prediction; and before he departs, he foretells the continuance of the prophetic line through his own return.
To this custom there appears to be no exception. When
Muhammad said, 'I am the seal of the prophets: he did not
mean that he closed the succession for ever and that after
him the gates of communication between God and man
would never again be opened. On the contrary, he repeatedly
said that he would come again.
Whether a High-Prophet in giving his accustomed prediction says: 'I will come again: or 'Another like me will
come: his meaning is the same, and his purpose is in both
cases to bear witness to the continuity of revelation. It
is not recorded in any prophetic line that the same individual
(the same mother's son) ever returned to earth to carry
on his own work, for though all the Spokesmen of God have
the same qualities, function and effect, yet they have different
personalities. The river is the same though the water changes.
If a man keeps a lamp burning in a room its light at midnight
will be the same as an hour earlier so far as its qualities and
its effects are concerned; but will be different as regards the
constitutional elements of light. Nor will the caSe be altered
if the light should be extinguished and again relit.
Jesus spoke of himself and his return in the first or the
third person according as he looked at himself in one or other
of two aspects. If he thought of himself as the Word of God,
the image of the Father, he would say, 'I will come again.'
If, on the other hand, he adverted to his human personality,
he would say, 'When he is come,' because his successor would
be a different human person.
This idea of the renewal of the same quality in another
person appears in the Gospel with reference to Elijah and
the Baptist. John in his spirit and his power truly was Elijah
come again. But as a mortal being he was not Elijah: he
was, on the contrary, the Son of Zacharias and Elizabeth
and nobody else. Thus it could be said of him with equal
truth but with a different meaning, that he was Elias, or
that he was not; and between these two statements the
contradiction is not real but apparent. When Jesus said
that 'Elias had indeed come' he alluded to the spirit and
power of John which was identical with that of Elias; and
his pronouncement was not in conflict with John's emphatic
denial-'Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou
that prophet? And he answered, No' Uohn i, 21).
Whatever be his language, every Prophet, while asserting
his Own Age, forecasts the unceasing systematic development of God's purpose through the future as through the
past. It may be that in later times his followers do not appreciate this truth nor recognise what is involved in the prophetical succession. It may be they fall into exclusiveness,
delude themselves with the thought that they have a monopoly
of divine knowledge and that every other Teacher save their
own is an adventurer. It may be they will hold these narrow
views while they do not sincerely follow their own Prophet.
But human errors, however well established, do not invalidate the truth. The common testimony of God's Messengers
to their own place in history is incontrovertible; and one of
the chief benefits of the existence in every Revelation of
prediction is that it helps to impress upon the human mind
the eternal co-ordination of advents and eras and the constant
providence of an omniscient and all-powerful Mind.
The great world-task of Universal redemption is the
common responsibility of all the High-Prophets. Each has
his share, each his designated portion. Each takes the work
from the hand of his predecessor and carries it forward till
at the appointed hour he resigns his completed work to his
own successors.
The powers with which these Teachers are endowed are
transcendent and immeasurable.
'In whatever age and cycle,' writes Baha'u'IIah, 'they
are sent down from their invisible habitations of ancient
glory into this world, to educate the souls of men and
endow with grace all created things, they are invariably
endowed with an all-compelling power and invested with
invincible sovereignty. For these hidden Gems, these
concealed and invisible Treasures, in themselves manifest
and vindicate the reality of these holy words: Verily God
doeth whatsoever He willeth and ordaineth whatsoever
He pleaseth' (Book of Certitude, p. 97).
The splendour, however, of the High-Prophet is not at all
that which strikes every eye and commands the immediate
homage of the multitude. As a man, he is marked by his
simplicity and gentleness and lack of personal ambition.
So
Often he is born of lowly parents, is obscure and impecunious. He is always a man of little human learning. For the
execution of his mission he does not seek any of the means
that are used by conquerors, kings and aspirants to high
office, such as family influence, wealth, the arts of ingratiation, or armed force. Compared with the mighty ones of
the camp, the forum and the court, he appears as the weakest
of the weak. In the face of violence, he seems to be defenceless. Subject like any other man to the ills that flesh is heir
to, as hunger, thirst, weariness, sickness and the like, he lies
open to his enemies and falls an easy victim to those who
heap indignities and suffering upon him.
'Yet,' writes BaM'u'llah of the Prophets in the Book
just quoted (p. 130), 'though their dwelling be in the
dust, their true habitation is the seat of glory in the realms
above. Though bereft of all earthly possessions, yet they
soar in the realms of immeasurable riches. And whilst
sorely tried in the grip of the enemy, they are seated on the
right hand of power and celestial dominion. Amidst the
darkness of their abasement there shineth upon them the
light of unfading glory, and upon their helplessness are
showered the Tokens of an invincible sovereignty!
For the distinctive power of the High-Prophets is spiritual
and intellectual. It is of a kind not possessed nor understood
by other men. It operates on a plane of being beyond human
perception. It acts directly upon the subliminal faculties of
the race. It is creative; infuses into the deeper ranges of
man's being a new power, a power of thought and of feeling
that was not there before. It actually lifts mankind to a new
level of consciousness. It quickens latent abilities and
enables man to reach up a little high~r than ever before into
p
the spiritual realms which encompass him. The High-
Prophet brings always a new Name of God-not only a new
title but a new attribute of God: that is, he admits into the
human consciousness a new attribute by which God is
realised, a fuller conception of God.
His mastery of mankind is, therefore, such as no earthly
potentate ever shared, approached, or so much as dreamed
of. He is peerless, supreme, invincible. His sovereignty over
mankind is described by Baha'u'llih (Book of Certitude,
p. 107) as
'the all-encompassing, all-pervading power which is
inherently exercised by the Qi'im whether or not He
appears to the world clothed in the majesty of earthly
dominion. This is solely dependent upon the will and the
pleasure of the Qi'fm Himself. That sovereignty is the
spiritual ascendancy which He exercises to the fullest
degree over all that is in heaven and on earth and which
in due time revealeth itself to the world in direct proportion
to its capacity and spiritual receptiveness.'
This transcendent spiritual sovereignty he explains (p. I I I)
'resideth within and revolveth around them from eternity
to eternity. It can never for a moment be divorced from
them. Its dominion hath encompassed all that is in heaven
and on earth.'
The development which the creative fiat of the High-
Prophet produces in the hearts and souls of men appears in
many forms. A new basis of agreement is realised among
men, and people long sundered by prejudice of race or class
find themselves united in strong bands of harmony and
affection. The morai standard of whole nations is raised.
New means of self-expression are demanded by society. New
sz.
institutions arise, and gradually a new material civilisation
takes shape better adapted than the old to the advancing
consciousness of the people.
Reconstruction so great involves not a little demolition.
The High-Prophet himself, though he endorses all the spiritual teachings of the last Revelation, does not hesitate to
modify or repeal the material regulations and the ceremonies enjoined by his predecessors. These were suited to
the minds of the people at a particular stage of their growth.
But in a continuously changing world, rites and rules which
are expedient to-day will not be so to-morrow. Outward
modes of worship, and ordinances about feasts and fasts,
about eating, drinking, marriage and the like, are not in
themselves sacrosanct as are eternal truths. Such things,
therefore, are regulated anew from time to time. But the
Divine Messenger is never a revolutionary, nor is he always
in the ordinary sense of the word a reformer. He changes the
hearts of men and the economy of nations by quickening the
process of growth rather than by external display of power;
and the results of his influence do not appear immediately.
He is studious not to let his cause seem to be political,
and instructs his followers to observe a like carefulness. The
thoughts and tendencies which he imparts to mankind are
like seeds: they grow naturally by slow degrees. As in the
vegetable world, trees that live long do not mature quickly,
so do the great developments which the Prophet begins
appear in their full significance only after long years. First,
the people must be uplifted spiritually and morally; and
when this education has been carried far enough, then progress in secular matters, in law, order, art, music, letters,
and the like, next appears.
A High-Prophet founds the material civilisation of his Era
upon a basis of spirituality and preserves it by the influence of
religion. Centuries may pass before the new economy is established, but sooner or later appear it must. Throughout the
whole of his Dispensation his dominion is complete and his
will indefatigable. His precepts and ordinances are to be
obeyed as from God; his teaching is sufficient for salvation:
none can approach God save through him, since in him alone
God is manifest and to turn from him is to turn from God.
However unworthy the people of his help and however
meagre their response to his appeal, his work cannot fail nor
his mission go unaccomplished. For God's foreknowledge
covers all the deeds of the people in every Age and the
measure of their disobedience is not forgotten in his predetermined plan. Stage by stage, the divine purpose is
advanced exactly as foreordained in the beginning. Each
Dispensation continues as a rule for many hundreds of
years; but the length varies very greatly. That of Abraham
is said to have been between five and six hundred years
long; that of Moses some fifteen hundred; that of Christ was
six hundred and twenty-two years old at the time of the
Hegira, and that of Muhammad lasted twelve hundred and
sixty lunar years. The span of the Bab's Era, however, was
no more than nineteen years. The precise date of the end of
an Era is evidently fixed, and is sometimes in an oracle
designated by God beforehand: the witness of scriptural
prophecy shows this. But the Divine Messenger during his
lifetime seems not to predict nor perhaps to know the year of
'the end of the world' and of his return. Jesus prophetically sketched the phenomena which would signalise his
second advent, and his description now is seen to have been
wonderfully clear and accurate; but he stated that its date
was unknown to any save the Father. 'Of that day and hour
knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, neither the
Son, but the Father,' said Jesus (Mark xiii, 32). And on
another occasion he spoke of the Father's having put in his
own power the times and the seasons.
But though the prophetic Dispensations are of various
length, the development of each Prophet's influence in the
world follows an unvarying course. It is not perhaps what one
would expect. It is not-like that of an earthly rulersubject to mundane chance and circumstance. Nor does it
climb to its allitudo at the end and so close in its greatest
splendour. It follows the same law of generation and corruption, of growth and decay, which is observed elsewhere in
the divine creation. Jesus likens the High-Prophet's cause,
which he calls in this case the Kingdom of Heaven, to a seed,
the smallest of all seeds, which grows into a tree large enough
to harbour the birds of the air. Ultimately the tree dies and
falls. The cause of each Prophet springing from the minutest
beginnings by slow degrees matures, striking its roots deep,
and in its increasing strength spreading in all directions
upwards and about; till when it has reached the limit of its
power it slowly decays and at last, giving no longer shade
nor fruit, it dies and falls. In another place Jesus adverts
more specifically to the recurrence of growth and decay when
he speaks of his Era as a 'generation,' likening the ultimate
declension of his cause to the sinking of human life into
decrepitude and death: 'This generation shall not pass away
till all these things be accomplished.'
But the most common symbol under which in Scripture a
Dispensation is described is that of a Day, the High-Prophet
H
being its Sun, 'the Light of the W odd.' The splendour of
the dawn which invests the earth with light and colour, and
discloses objects to the sight of men, is a natural emblem of
the animating and revealing effect of the advent of a High-
Prophet; while the setting of the sun at the close of day
corresponds to the end of an Era and the completion of a
High-Prophet's mission.
Sometimes 'Abdu'l-Bahi would compare the coming of
the Prophet to that of spring, likening his creative power
upon the spirits of men to that of the springtide seen upon
the vegetable world. For instance, in Some AJlJweredQmstiofls,
p. 186, he writes:
'Now consider the influence of the sun upon the eartbly
beings: what signs and results become evident and clear
from its nearness and remoteness, from its rising and its
setting. At one time, it is autumn; at another spring; or
again, it is summer or winter. When the sun passes the
line of the Equator, the life-giving spring will become
manifest in splendour, and when it is in the summer solstice the fruit~ will attain to the acme of perfection, grains
and plants will yield their produce, and earthly things
will attain their most complete development and growth.
In like manner when the Holy Manifestation of God who
is the sun of the world of His creation shines upon the
world of spirits, of thoughts, and of hearts, then the
spiritual spring and new life appear, the power of the wonderful springtime becomes visible and marvellous benefits
are apparent. As you have observed, at the time of the
appearance of each Manifestation of God, extraordinary
progress has occurred in the world of minds, thoughts
and spirits. For example, in this divine age see what
development has been attained in the world of minds
and thoughts, and it is now only the beginning of its dawn.
Before long, you will see that new bounties and divine
teachings will illuminate this dark world and will transform
these sad regions into the Paradise of Eden.'
The year has its winter; day its night; and human life
doses in a death. So each Era (following a spiral course)
returns upon itself and passes back into the darkness out of
which it arose. When the High-Prophet's Sovereignty has
reached the Zenith of its Manifestation, when under his
sceptre a great Church and a great civilisation have been
established, when he is openly acclaimed the true Messenger
of God, his least utterance held in reverential awe by the
learned and the unlearned, when kings count themselves
less than the simplest of his Apostles: then the Era passing
its meridian begins a downward course. Enervation appears
amongst the Prophet's followers; enthusiasm and obedience
by slow degrees fail; faith weakens, love grows cold. The old
forms remain and receive still a superstitious respect, but
men lose touch with the Spirit of the ascended Prophet, and
the vast economy which had been built up under his protection lapses gradually into disintegration.
Were it not for this declension into the gloom of discord
and unbelief, the re-arising of the Divine Light would not be
necessary. Under an everlasting spiritual law it is man's
need which draws down aid from heaven, and it is in the
hour of spiritual death and misery that the Sun of Truth
once more draws near and the dawn of a New Day breaks
upon the darkness. Every advent, every avatar the world
over has occurred in an emergency when the fires of religion
had burned low and the people were immersed in base
materialism. Jesus said it had been so in the times of Noe
P.A.A.
57 c
------------

and that it would be 50 again in the times of the Bab and
Bahi'u'llah. So it was at the time of his own coming. In
consequence, the Prophet does not meet with a general or
ready response from those whom he has come to benefit.
The people do not understand their need and do not recognise
their deliverer. Self-complacent and absorbed in materialism
of every sort, they are looking for anything except a new
revelation of the Truth, a new spiritual birth, the advent
of a new Lord in place of him whom they falsely profess to
revere and follow. Not in one particular avatar only, but in
one and all, 'the light shineth in darkness and the darkness
comprehendeth it not.'
In his Book of Certitude Bahi sets forth the fact of this
ever-recurrent blindness and explains its causes: his declared
purpose being to help men to recognise the Theophany of
this present hour.
'Consider the past,' he writes (p. 4); 'how many both
high and low have at all times yearningly awaited the
advent of the Manifestations of God in the sanctified
persons of His chosen ones. How often have they expected
His coming, how frequently have they prayed that the
breeze of divine mercy might blow and the promised
Beauty step forth from behind the veil of concealment,
and be made manifest to all the world. And whensoever
the portals of grace did open, and the clouds of divine
bounty did rain upon mankind, and the light of the Unseen
did shine above the horizon of celestial might, they all
denied Him and turned away from His Face-the Face of
God Himself. Refer ye, to verify this truth, to that which
hath been recorded in every sacred Book.'

On page 6 he continues: 'Throughout all ages and centuries the Manifestations of power and glory have been
subjected to such heinous cruelties that no pen dare describe
them.' Baha'u'lhih sets forth clearly the causes for this
tragic and disastrous obtuseness. He states that they who
wish to be able to identify a Messenger on his appearance
'must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly-their ears
from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their
hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which
perisheth.' Nor must they 'regard the words and deeds of
mortal man as a standard for the true understanding and
recognition of God and the Prophets' (pp. ; and 4).

'Reflect: he writes on page 13, 'what could have been
the motive for such deeds? What could have prompted
such behaviour towards the Revealers of the Beauty of
the All-glorious? Whatever in days gone by hath been
the cause of the denial and opposition of those people
hath now led to the perversity of the people of this age.
To maintain that the testimony of Providence was incomplete, that it hath therefore been the cause of the denial
of the people, is but open blasphemy. How far from the
grace of the All-bountiful and from His loving providence and tender mercies it is to single out a soul from
amongst all men for the guidance of His creatures and,
on the one hand, to withhold from Him the full measure
of His divine testimony and, on the other, inflict severe
retribution on His people for having turned away from His
chosen One 1 Nay, the manifold bounties of the Lord of all
beings have, at all times, through the Manifestati"ons of
His Divine Presence encompassed the earth and all that
dwell therein. Not for a moment hath His grace been
withheld, nor have the showers of His loving-kindness
ceased to rain on mankind. Consequently, such behaviour
59 C 2
can be attributed to nought save the petty-mindedness of
such souls as tread the valley of arrogance and pride, are
lost in the wilds of remoteness, walk in the ways of their
idle fancy, and follow the dictates of the leaders of their
faith. Their chief concern is mere opposition; their sole
desire is to ignore the truth. Unto every discerning
observer it is evident and manifest that had these people
in the days of each of the Manifestations of the Sun of
Truth sanctified their eyes, their ears and their hearts
from whatever they had seen, heard and felt, they surely
would not have been deprived of beholding the beauty of
God nor strayed far from the habitations of glory. But
having weighed the testimony of God by the standard of
their own knowledge, gleaned from the teachings of the
leaders of their faith, and found it at variance with their
limited understanding, they arose to perpetrate such
unseemly acts.
'Leaders of religion in every age have hindered their
people from attaining the shores of eternal s~Jvation,
inasmuch as they held the reins of authority in their
mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership, others
through want of knowledge and understanding, have been
the cause of the deprivation of the people. By their sanction
and authority, every Prophet of God had drunk from
the chalice of sacrifice and winged his flight into the heights
of glory. What unspeakable cruelties they who have
occupied the seats of authority and learning have inflicted
upon the true monarchs of the world, those gems of
divine virtue! Content with a transitory dominion, they
have deprived themselves of everlasting sovereignty.
Thus,. their eyes beheld not the light of the countenance
of the Well-Beloved, nor did their ears hearken unto the
sweet melodies of the Bird of Desire. For this reilson, in
all sacred books mention hath bec;n made of the divines
~----~--------------------------

of every age. . . . The denials and protestations of these
leaders of religion have in the main been due to their
lack of knowledge and understanding. Those words
uttered by the Revealers of the beauty of the one true
God. setting forth the signs of the Manifestation to come,
they never understood nor fathomed. Hence they rai~ed
the standard of revolt and stirred up mischief and sedition'
(pp. 16, 17).
The mission of every Prophet must, therefore, at its birth
and in its infancy face criticism from the sophists and persecution from the powerful. His Cause becomes the touchstone by which the Lord of Truth tests the souls of men for
the purity of their faith and the reality of their devotion.
It separates those who seemed to be bound by close ties:
comrade from comrade, friend from friend, brother from
brother, father from son.
Those whom the divine assay proves to be true believers
are, if they arise to confess their faith and to propagate the
Cause, endowed by the Prophet with a superhuman power.
Their witness to him cannot be gainsaid. Though they may
1i>e few or poor or unlearned or obscure, or afflicted with
bodily infirmity; though they be hampered by opposition
or silenced by imprisonment or martyrdom, yet the Message
they transmit is caught by others, and passed on. At last it
prevails. It is accepted on every side and acknowledged by
all as the very Word of God. The period of transition,
known in Scripture as the Day of Judgment, is then complete. The second period of the Era-that of material
development-opens, and in due course, as in all previous
Eras, the rolling centuries bring again the recurrent phenomena of weakness and decay.
Such is the procession of the Ages which the High-
Prophets in their order, one by one, lead onward down the
high road of historic time. All are in structure and in movement alike; and all are made after that same cyclic pattern
to which in nature the day, the year, and the life of man also
conform. Yet each Age, while undisseverably bound to all
the rest, is a complete unit, serving its own special purpose
and having no duplicate in the entire series.
The progress of mankind as it appears in history is not
even, constant, uniform. It resembles in its motion the
incoming tide with waves that advance and recede, rather
than a smooth-sliding stream. To use another figure. The
High-Prophet is in relation to mankind as the heart is to
the human body. The life which he infuses into the world
has its rhythmic beats like the blood which pulses through
the arteries. These flowing waves, these pulses of the heart,
are impulses of the divine energy and constitute the vital
events of history. The advents of the High-Prophets f1.Y the
great historical epochs, and the duration of their missions
marks the great historical divisions of time.

62.
CHAPTER IV

THE MISSION OF THE LORD CHRIST

THE task of Christ differed from that of any of the High-
Prophets who preceded him in that to him was assigned the
duty of announcement that the Supreme Advent of all time
was now at hand and of completing the education of mankind
for that august event. His Dispensation stands apart from
all before it in that it crowns the period of preparation and
opens directly into that Age of God for which all previous
Messengers had made ready the way.
Never till now was it given to men to view the work of
Christ in its true perspective or to discern the full proportions
of his wisdom and beneficence. Those who have felt themselves forgiven and redeemed through him have throughout
the Christian Era chanted in many accents his praise; and
all that their lips could utter would not tell the tale of their
gratitude nor express the felicity which he had brought to
their lives. Historians, in belief and in unbelief, have extolled
the radiant beauty of his character, the elevating influence of
his teachings, and the transformation of the Western world
which has been effected through his power. But not until the
Dawn of God broke over the earth, not until Bahi'u'llah
told of the progressive revelation of God through a world-old
sequence of Divine Teachers, could men regard Christ's
Message in its larger aspects or set it in its due relation to
the complete redemptive purpose of the Eternal God.
Now that the faithful look back upon the past through
the portals of God's Age of Gold, it is possible to discern
from a new angle values in Christ's teaching that before were
hidden and to probe with a clearer insight the bearing and
significance of many of his utterances. The directions of
Jesus were, of course, like those of every other High-Prophet,
measured with loving care to the needs and capacities of the
people to whom he ministered. Out of the limitless treasury
of his knowledge he bestowed on them that whicb would
help them most. But his special mission of preparing humanity for the great climacteric that drew so near gave to his
teaching a special character. The substance of his revelation
was designed to prepare mankind for that severe test of love
and spirituality to which they were so soon to be subjected.
His heart was fixed upon the Kingdom that was to be, and
his central aim was to fit the people for this great enfranchisement and to strengthen them against the perils of the
awful Day of Doom.
Now in the twentieth century when that Doomsday has
come upon us, when the principles of that Kingdom have
been divinely revealed and when its outline is taking visible
shape throughout the earth, now for the first time the believer
is enabled to discern how the Revelation of Christ was so
conceived as to lead by a natural gradation into the Age of
Baha'u'llah; now for the first time he can appreciate something of the foreknowledge and the wisdom of him whose
far-reaching vision swept down the long vista of his own
Dispensation to the happenings of this new-born Day of
God.
The central message of Jesus was his promise and his
warning that before long (at the end of one more Era, the
Era then begun) God would in deed and in fact establish the
Kingdom upon earth; its foundations would be laid in the
hearts of men, and those who were found to be unworthy
would be destroyed. The Event of which poets had dreamed,
which seers had descried, which prophets had predicted, was
soon to be no more a dream or a hope or a forecast but an
accomplished fact of history.
This was from the first to the last throughout his ministry
the great theme of Jesus' preaching, as it had been the
theme of his forerunner, John:
'From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

The coming of that Kingdom was by this command to be
the prayer of the faithful all through his Dispensation:
'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven.'
And the prediction that one day he will again hold communion with the faithful on earth in his Father's Kingdom
is one of the parting thoughts of his discourse at the Last
Supper.
Jesus' revelation was not exclusively spiritual. It was in
part historical. He opened not only the gates of a future life
beyond the grave, but the gates of humanity's future life
upon the earth. He teaches men not only to look inward
where God has set his shrine in the human heart, but to look
forward to a time when God shall set his tabernacle among
men. Hope became a Christian virtue; and the object of
hope was not only the spiritual salvation of the individual
but the social salvation of the race. He bade believers have
no. fear, for it was the Father's pleasure, to give them the
Kingdom (in which utterance, of course, as when he said
'Watch, for ye know not what hour your Lord cometh,'
or 'I am with you always even to the end of the dispensation,' he addressed not only those who stood before him at
the moment but all the faithful of his 'generation,' and
after). The Gospel of Matthew quotes four of Christ's most
famous discourses. In everyone of these-the Sermon on the
Mount, the charge to the Twelve, the Seven Parables of
chapter 13 and the Words on Mount Olivet-reference is
made to the coming of the Father's Kingdom; and in one of
them, and not the least sublime, no leading reference is made
to anything else.
The intensity of Jesus' spirituality, the vigour of his
insistence that the vital matter in life is the right relation
of the individual soul to God, seem to make more startling,
more arresting by contrast, those historical predictions in
which he deals with outward happenings and world-wide
eventsá and speaks not alone to the individual but especially
to nations and the human race as a whole.
Not that in their character and essence the laws and
injunctions of Jesus are different from his forecasts and
promises. The outlook and the spirit is ever unchanging.
Indeed, in the light of the further revelation of Baha'u'lhih,
the connection between the two portions of Jesus' teaching
is seen to be close and intimate. The distinction is real; yet
it is now evident that the spiritual principles which Christ
most strongly urged are the self-same principles on which his
Father's Kingdom in the world to-day is based. His religious
teachings seem to have been directed to the purpose of
preparing mankind for the promised gift of the Kingdom,
and to have been designed to elevate and strengthen them
for the task of establishing it upon the earth.
For the Kingdom of the Father is indeed an earthly kingdom in the sense that it is set down four-square upon the
solid earth for all men to see it, know it and inhabit it. But
it is not less certainly a spiritual kingdom. The rule of the
Father is primarily over the hearts of men, and it is as the
winner of their hearts that he controls their wills and their
actions. Till the human heart is opened to God and is made
fit and ready to receive him, such a rule is impossible; and
it is to the preparation of the heart for God that Christ
addresses the main body of his teaching. Set the instruction
of Jesus beside that of the mighty Prophet who preceded
him, and in nothing does it show a greater heightening than
in its insistence on spirituality and love. Moses, meting his
message to a cruder people in a cruder age, had said nothing
of eternal life. His religion was a religion of one world. They
who faithfully obeyed the commandments of God would
dwell long in the land enjoying peace and plenty. But
Christ's was a religion of two worlds, the outer and the inner,
the material and the spiritual; and of the two by far the
more important was the latter. He did not teach believers
to set much store by temporal rewards, but rather to desire
the everlasting blessedness of the vision of God, admission
to his presence, and the enjoyment of his mercy. Moses had
given a comprehensive code of statutes and regulations;
Jesus-so far as our canon informs us-gave two material
ordinances only. He loosed men from the law of the sabbath
and made more tight the law of divorce. He removed a
complicated system of ritual and material sacrifice; and no
record remains of his having instituted in its place more
than two ceremonies, both of which were essentially symbolic.
In contrast to the offerings demanded by the old law these
-- -------------~-------

rites involve no material outlay of any moment. The ancient
ordinance that no worshipper should appear before the Lord
empty-handed was not fulfilled in them. No gift of bullock,
ram or sheep, not even of a little dove or two young pigeons,
was called for. A running brook, an ordinary meal, supplied
the Christian with all he needed for baptism and the breaking
of bread. The meaning and the value of the observance lay
wholly in that spiritual thing which is signified. The baptism
with water typified that baptism with the Holy Spirit and
the fire of the love of God (spoken of by John) which Christ
conferred on those who were able to receive it. The blessedness of the memorial feast was its renewing of that spiritual
love which gave to the Lord's last passover its unique and
imperishable glory.
Moses, like every High-Prophet before or since, proclaimed
the law of love. Every High-Prophet has done so-'All
laws and ordinances,' said Bahi'u'llih, 'have been changed
according to the requirements of the times, except the law
of love, which like a fountain ever flows and the course of
which never suffers change.' Moses commanded (Deut. vi, 5),
'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy might' and (Lev. xix, 18), 'Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' But Jesus revealed the
law more fully and insisted on a larger obedience to it.
'A new commandment I give unto you: that ye love one
another.' He made love the test of discipleship. 'By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples: if ye have love
one to another.' (John xiii, 35). If he taught that God was
Spirit, men learned from him that God was Love. The whole
duty of man towards his Maker and towards his fellowcreature was comprehended in the practice of Love. When he
carried men to the summit of all his most exalted and exacting
demands, he bade them to be perfect as their Father, whose
nature he revealed as being Spirit and Love.
Had men during the Christian Era learned from their
Master this lesson of spirituality and love, the establishment
of the Father's Kingdom upon earth would be an easy task
to-day. The fact that the Kingdom has-as the Baha'is
believe-in very fact been inaugurated, stands now fixed
upon irremovable foundations, and takes shape amidst the
chaos of the nations, is the greatest proof existing of the
wisdom and the power and the triumph of the Lord Christ.
Not only did Christ reveal the leading principles of the
Kingdom which was-he said-so soon to come, but he gave
many signs by which the approach of that Kingdom and of
his own advent might be recognised. The date he did not
give: it was known only to the Father. But he presaged a
number of events and omens, some of them unmistakable and
portentous, for which he bade men watch. The period was to
be distant. The Gospel would be carried to all lands; and,
nevertheless, before the Son of Man came, faith would be
hard to find and the people growing careless and disobedient,
would indulge in oppression and tyranny and would give
themselves up to wordly pursuits. The fate of the Jews,
however, would be the most definite prognastic of the time
of the end. During the Christian Era they were to be scattered abroad and held in exile. When they had served their
sentence and were permitted to return to their own land,
the world might know that an epoch had ended and a new
world-age begun.
Such a prediction was so clear that it would seem Christ
had made any failure to identify his coming impossible. Yet
he went further. He spoke repeatedly about his own coming.
His language was (as always) simple, yet it was such as to
arrest attention and to demand scrutiny. He announced that
he would come with power in the glory of the Father; that
he would send his angels throughout the world and would
destroy the ungodly; and that his splendour would shine in
the darkness from the east to the west. But he also said
with not less emphasis that his coming would take mankind
by surprise: as a thief enters stealthily at night and is in
the house while the master sleeps and knows it not, so he
would come into a world wrapt in spiritual ignorance and
would not be observed by those to whom he came.
It is not put on record that his disciples asked him the
meaning of forewarnings so important and seemingly so
contradictory, nor is there extant the explanation of any
inconsistency. He gave men enough information to guide
them aright when the emergency arose, and left the rest to
their own efforts.
The tone in which he delivered these prophecies about the
dawn of the Last Day was not that which his hearers might
have expected. He did not speak of the approach of worldredemption in a joyous and triumphant strain. On the
contrary, his words were those of premonition and anxiety.
Though the great Day which he had the privilege to foretell
was the time of the Victory of God, was to purge away
sorrow and tears and spiritual death, and to usher in the
reign of concord and peace and divine felicity when the
righteous would shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of
the Father, yet his language about its drawing near was
imbued with grave foreboding. He dwelt on the thought of a
Great Assize in which he would figure as Judge and would
be called on to condemn many who used his name and
counted themselves his friends; and impressed firmly on
men's minds the apprehension of a strict and universal
judgment and of a final exculpation that would only be
gained after an ordeal of unprecedented calamity.
CHAPTER V

THE VIGIL OF THE DAY OF DAYS

So deep was the impression made by the predictions of
Christ that from the time of the Apostles onwards for several
centuries the expectation of a Second Coming in power
held a prominent place in Christian ortbodox belief. It
was a leading feature in the teaching of Peter and of Paul.
It forms the subject of that wonderful series of visions which
closes the Canon of the New Testament. It is associated with
the names of some of the greatest of the early Fathers of the
Chmch: with Papias, with Irenaeus, with Justin Martyr
and with Tertullian. It is found in some of the earliest
Christian writings, in the Epistle of Barnabas, in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, in the Shepherd of Herrnas.
In spite of disappointments (for the early believers took
in too narrow a sense the promise that the Advent would
come to pass soon) the entbusiasm of this hope persisted for
some three centuries, and did not begin to wane till the reign
of Constantine. Discouraged by the ecclesiastical authorities,
it had sunk out of sight by the fifth century, and for a thousand
years from that date it appears but little in history.
It never died out of the popular mind, however, and with
the Renaissance and the Reformation it once more began to
take its old place in Christian belief and thought. As far back
as the begi~ning of the fourteenth century, from the time of
Dante and Giotto onward, the art and poetry of Idy depict
72.
the Last Judgment in works which are still famous. Orcagna,
for example, has a painting of it in the Campo Santo, Pisa,
Luca Signorelli in the Cathedral at Orvicto, Michael Angelo
in the Sistine Chapel (154 I), while Fra Angelico and Tintoretto
dealt with the subject more times than one. Thereafter
renderings of the same theme appeared in Germany and
elsewhere, Sir E. Burne-Jones's 'Dies Domini' holding the
position of a postscript to the long series. Old writers, too,
of less distinction than Dante sang of the Last Judgment
in verses that are not forgotten:
Judicabit omnes cr;entes
Et salvabit innocentes.
Dies ilia dies vitae
Dies fueis inauditae
Qua nox omnis des/ruetur
Et mors ipsa morietur.

The English poets of the seventeenth century began to
write of the Day that was to be. Henry Vaughan, for example:
'That day, Time's utmost line,
1I7hen all shall perish but l1Jhat is divine,
When the great trumpet's mighty blast shall shake
The earth's foundations till the hard rocks quake
And melt like piles of snOlV; when lightnings move
Like hail and the white thrones are set abot'e-
Tbat day, when sent in glory by the Father
The Prince of Life his blest elect shall gather;
Millions of angels round about him [[},ing,
1I7hile all the kindreds of the earth are crying,
And he enthroned t!pon the clouds shall gi~'e
His last iust sentence, l1,ho flJllst die, flJust live.'
And John Dryden:
'As from the pou'er of sacred lays
The spheres began to move
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the blessed above;
So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour
The trumpet shall be heard on high
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shalf untune the sky.'
In the eighteenth century great thinkers and teachers of
many schools of thought began once more to remember the
expectation of the Return of Christ. One of these was Bengel,
whose work as a scholar is the foundation of all modern
criticism of the text of the New Testament (d. 175 I). Another
was Sir Isaac Newton; another Charles Wesley. The period
of the French Revolution heightened the interest in Biblical
prophecy. During the first half of the nineteenth century the
general expectation of the return of Christ played a larger
part in general Christian belief than it had done since the
second century, and it resembled the belief of that early
time in that the Advent was thought to be imminent. Confined almost entirely to the Protestant communions it was
shared by individual Christians in most, if not all, of the
Churches, and aroused in some sections of Christendom the
greatest enthusiasm. It was proclaimed by bodies such as the
Irvingites, and became the distinctive tenet of various
Adventist groups. It was taught by illustrious divines on
the Continent as well as in England: by Delitzsh and by
Godet, as well as by Archbishop Trench, by Bishop Ellicott,
Bishop Ryle, Canon Fremantle and by Mr. Moody. The
literature on the subject from the time of Bengel's Exposition
of the Apocabpse and his Ordo Temporum a Principio per Periodos
Oeconomiae Divinae Historicus atque Propheticus, grew more
and more voluminous, and interpretations of ancient prophecies more and more various. One scholar fixed the date
of the return as 1785. Bengel gave 1836; William Miller
1843-4; Cumming 1866. Sometimes the manner, the place,
and the very day of the Second Advent were determined by
calculations of the pious; and on one notorious occasion a
concourse of votaries assembled at a designated spot to watch
the clouds from which before nightfall a white-robed Messiah
was to descend to earth.
The prevalence of this expectation, however, can easily
be exaggerated. The Roman and the Orthodox Churches as
a whole, and a .conservative majority in the more liberal
communions, seemed to have remained unaffected.
But the attitude of religious expectancy was not confined
to Christendom. It was shared by the followers of other
world-religions: by the Buddhists watching for the advent
of the fifth Buddha; by the Zoroastrians looking for the Shah
Bahram, by the Hindus who so long had waited for the tenth
incarnation of Truth called Kalki; and by Islam looking so
eagerly for the twofold Manifestation foretold by Muhammad.
By the middle of the last century the Christian expectation
of the Second Advent had reached its zenith. After that date
it began to decline and finally passed out of sight. Even when
the sign of the return of the Jews to Palestine was fulfilled so
dramatically as to startle the imagination of all acquainted
with the predictions of Christ, the former expectancy was
not reawakened, and the heart of Christendom was not
moved to seek the explanation of so astonishing a phenomenon.
Was this fond and ardent hope then a repetition of the
mistake of the second-century Christians? Was all this
enthusiasm and activity the product of an ill-ordered and
superstitious fancy? \X/ere those who evinced no interest in
the stirrings of expectancy, and who were not conscious of
any impulse from on high, proved by the event to be right,
and those who watched for the fulfilment of the ancient
promise demonstrably and utterly wrong? The world thinks
so to-day; but the Baha'is hold an opposite opinion. They
maintain that Christian Adventism was not a wild and
empty dream, but an intuitive response to a veritable fact.
They maintain that the sphere of spiritual thought within
which man dwells was charged and surcharged with the news
of the impending Manifestation, and that spiritual minds in
touch with this sphere were impressed with an authentic
sense of the divine birth that was to be.
It is on record that at the time of the First Coming of
Our Lord a mystical warning was floated down from the
presence of God upon the spirits of men far and wide. The
belief that a great ruler would arise ont of the land of Judah
was current throughout the East. It is mentioned by Suetonius
(Vesp. §4). It is thought by Tacitus to have been fulfilled
by Vespasian who, after the quelling of the Jewish revolt
and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, celebrated with
his lieutenant Titus a joint triumph for that signal victory.
It reached perhaps as far as to the west as Rome, where
Vergil introduced into one of his Eclogues a mysterious
allusion which Christians have always interpreted as a direct
reference to the birth of Christ, and its inspiration vouchsafed an exact knowledge of the truth to watchers as far apart
as the aged Simeon in Jerusalem and the Wise Men in some
unnamed region towards the rising of the stars.
However widespread and constant that belief, it did not
lead the compatriots of Vergil or of the Magi, nor any other
Gentile people to look for an epiphany of God or to recognise
the World Deliverer in the prophet of Galilee. Even the
Jews themselves, in spite of their extraordinary privileges,
in spite of the special guidance of their history and their
Scripture, and though their land was designated as the
centre of the general expectation, remained as blind to the
Divine Event as any of those whom they despised as uni!-
lumined foreigners and heathens.
The failure of the Jews to appreciate the importance of
the Lord Christ is compared by the Baha'is to the failure
of the world at the present time to appreciate the importance
of Baha'u'llah and his teachings. The reasons for the insensibility of mankind to-day are said to be of the same character as those which caused a similar insensibility at the beginning of the Era. In the case of the Jews, prejudice and
traditionalism had warped the judgment of the people and
their leaders and had led in particular to a profound misinterpretation of prophecy. Predictions were taken not in a
spiritual or in a figurative way but in a sense that was merely
literal and sometimes childish, so that instead of being a light
to guide to the truth they became a screen to shut off all
vision of it.
So significant did 'Abdu'l-Baha consider this misunderstanding that he added to Dr. Esslemont's Bahd'u'//dh and
the New Era a special statement of his own on the subject
(pp. 15- 1 7).
'When Christ appeared twenty centuries ago, although
the Jews were eagerly awaiting His Coming, and prayed
every day, with tears, saying: "0 God, ha,ten the Revelation of the Messiah," yet when the Sun of Truth dawned,
they denied Him and rose against Him with the greatest
enmity, and eventually crucified that divine Spirit, the
Word of God, and named him Beelzebub, the evil one,
as is recorded in the Gospel. The reason for this was that
they said: "The Revelation of Christ, according to the
clear text of the Torah, will be attested by certain signs,
and so long as these signs have not appeared, whoso layeth
claim to be a Messiah is an imposter. Among these signs
is this, that the Messiah should come from an unknown
place, yet we all know this man's house in Nazareth, and
can any good thing come out of Nazareth? The second
sign is that He shall rule with a rod of iron, that is, he must
act with the sword, but this Messiah has not even a wooden
staff. Another of the conditions and signs is this: He must
sit upon the throne of David and establish David's sovereignty. Now, far from being enthroned, this man has not
even a mat to sit on. Another of the conditions is this:
the promulgation of all the laws of the Torah; yet this
man has abrogated these laws, and has even broken the
sabbath day, although it is the clear text of the Torah that
whosoever layeth claim to prophethood and revealeth
miracles and breaketh the sabbath day, must be put to
death. Another of the signs is this: that in His reign justice
will be so advanced that righteousness and well-doing
will extend from the human even to the animal worldthe snake and the mouse will share one hole, and the eagle
and the partridge one nest, the lion and the gazelle s~aJl
dwell in one pasture, and the wolf and the kid shall dnnk
from one fountain. Yet now, injustice and tyranny have
waxed so great in His time that they have crucifled Him I
Another of the conditions is this, that in the days of the
Messiah the Jews will prosper and triumph over all the
peoples of the world, but now they are living in the utmost
abasement and servitude in the Empire of the Romans.
Then how can this be the Messiah promised in the Torah?"
'In this wise did they object to that Sun of Truth,
although that Spirit of God was indeed the One promised
in the Torah. But as they did not understand the meaning
of these signs, they crucified the Word of God. Now the
Baha'is hold that the recorded signs did come to pass in
the Manifestation of Christ, although not in the sense
which the Jews understood, the description in the Torah
being allegorical. For instance, among the signs is that of
sovereignty. The Baha'is say that the sovereignty of
Christ was a heavenly, divine, everlasting sovereignty,
not a Napoleonic sovereignty that vanisheth in a short
time. For wellnigh two thousand years this sovereignty of
Christ hath been established, and until now it endureth,
and to all eternity that Holy Being will be exalted upon an
everlasting throne.
'In like manner all the other signs have been made
manifest, but the Jews did not understand. Although
nearly twenty centuries have elapsed since Christ appeared
with divine splendour, yet the Jews are still awaiting the
coming of the Messiah and regard themselves as true and
Christ as false.'
In a parallel manner, the Baha'is believe the millennarians
of the last century, while showing a remarkable delicacy of
spiritual touch, were robbed of the first fruits of their intuitiveness by a misapprehension of the meaning of their Scriptures. By taking, for example, the statement that Christ
would return in a cloud in a purely literal sense, they missed
the warning conveyed by the allegory of a cloud (as explained
in Baha'u'lhih's Book of Certitude) and brought dire confusion
upon themselves by imagining that Jesus would descend
bodily out of the stratosphere in a floating fog. The whole
fact of the personal return of Christ indeed was misunderstood by them through their lack of information as to the
principle of God's recurrent manifestations. They did not
look for a return analogous to that of Elijah in John the
Baptist or Abraham in Moses. They did not consider that
he who said, 'I will come again' also said 'Before Abraham
was, I am.' Their minds were not set upon are-manifestation
in another human form of that eternal and unchanging
Essence which Christ called'!'; but merely on a reappearance
out of the sky of that very self-same being who previously
had been born among them of the Virgin Mary. Furthermore,
the Baha'Is assert that in the Bible, both Old and New
Testaments, as in the Scriptures of other world-religions,
the commands and ordinances of the Most High are given
in plain language and have no concealed meaning; but on
the other hand, the 'things kept secret from the foundation
of the world,' mysteries of the future and predictions of the
coming of the Kingdom, are set forth in symbol or parable
with a deeper meaning hidden underneath the literal significance of the words.
These prophecies, therefore, admit of misinterpretation;
and Holy Writ contained warnings of the difficulty of reading
them aright. In his 'Baha'i Proofs' Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, a
renowned Baha'i scholar, deals at length with this question
of Bible prophecy (pp. 198-214) and points out that while
predictions as to the Last Day are numerous in all the Holy
Books yet these Books definitely assert that by the decree
of God no one will be able to open and unveil the true
meaning of these predictions till the Great Day actually
breaks, and that even at that late date the right interpretation
will be withheld from all save those whom God elects.
He quotes as texts in proof Isaiah vi, IO-IZ.
'Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears
heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts
and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord how long?
And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without
inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be
utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed man far
away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land,'
and two passages from Daniel xii, 4:
'But thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words and seal the
book even to the time of the end; many shall run to and
fro, and knowledge shall be increased.'
(9, 10) 'And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words
are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many
shall be purified and made white and tried; but the wicked
shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.'
As in Christendom, so throughout the rest of the world.
J;he universal expectation of an august theophany was
vitiated by misunderstandings and led to no good result.
A rigid traditionalism cramped the souls of men. No organised religion in any quarter of the globe seems to have
believed that the coming Prophet would demand radical
reforms and lift the people to a higher level of thought and
conduct than that which they had contended themselves
in the past. Every religion looked for a Vindicator who
should be exclusively its own, who should justify its dogmas,
reinforce its institutions and exalt it to a position of complete
and unchallengeable supremacy over the erroneous faiths of
the rest of mankind.
The world's unanimity, therefore, in looking for a Divine
Advent was not so complete as to suggest that when the
Deliverer actually appeared all the communions of all races
would be at one in acclaiming him. Far otherwise. Not only
had each of the great religions drawn in rough outline its
own distinctive picture of the Messiah, but some of these
religions were themselves subdivided into numerous sects
each of which had prepared the Messiah's portrait in yet
smaller and more exclusive detail. However ready, therefore, to accommodate himself to the predilections of man the
Divine Teacher might prove to be, it is evident that he could
by no possibility gratify the expectations of more than a
minute proportion of the human race and must at the same
time keenly disappoint the hopes of all the other millions of
mankind. On the other hand, if the Holy Prophet should
come (as all Holy Prophets had done before him), disregarding all human preconceptions, bearing a new Name, bringing
a new Book, he would be confronted by the denial of every
section of every extant religion. His acceptance would be
secured through the private judgment of independent
individuals.
The primary blame for the disregard paid to the teaching
of Baha'u'lhih rests, according to the BaM'is, with the
votaries of one religion in particular: with the Muslims.
Had Islam been less unworthy of the great privilege vouchsafed it; had SMh and Sultan not headed the forces of
obscurantism, the plight of mankind to-day (believe the
8z
Baha'is) would be less sad, and the outlook would be less
menacing. Had not that mirror of divine perfection, the
Supreme Spokesman and Viceregent of God, been held in
prison during the whole period of his Manifestation he would
have been able, instead of addressing the rulers of the West
by letter (which he did), to visit their dominions himself and
to have lent to the Declaration of his Mission the immediate
authority and impressiveness of a more than imperial personality. Had such an ordinary freedom been allowed him, the
present delay in the recognition of the New Jerusalem would
have been avoided and the nations would have been saved
an immensity of suffering.
Muhammadanism was the last of the world-religions, and
it contained a number of predictions which indicated clearly
that it was to be the seat and centre of the universally expected
Avatar. These prophecies were in some respects more definite
and detailed than any in other faiths. They showed that the
coming Advent was to be twofold-there were to be two
Manifestors of the Very Self of God; and also that when these
appeared they would introduce far-reaching changes in the
order of Church and State, bringing a new social system and
a new teaching. All the sects of Islam accepted the former
prophecy; but none accepted the latter.
Furthermore, Muhammad had uttered one forecast which
by its subject stands apart from all, or almost all, the others,
because it concerns not so much the spiritual manifestation
itself or its effects, as the temple, the lamp, the particular
human body which was to be brought into being to serve as
the shrine for the manifestation.
The predictions of Christ had been many and remarkable.
But Christ had not named the religion within the confines of
which his return would take place. In these prophecies he
adverted once only to the Christian faith, and this reference
was a warning that he would cast out as workers of iniquity
some who used his name. Nor did he designate any point
about the locality or the corporeal element of his return.
On the other hand Muhammad, in one strange and definite
statement (the like of which does not seem to have been
made by any other High-Prophet before his time) foretold
that the next Mirror of the Godhead, the Qa'im, would
appear within the fold of Islim, and would be one of his own
lineal descendants. Because of this well-known and important prognostication the blood-descendants of the Prophet
were with the greater care marked out in Islam; and all
who claimed the honour of such ancestry were styled Siyyids,
and were publicly distinguished from all less fortunate
Muslims by wearing a turban of green.
A declaration so clear narrowed the field of search, and
made the task of recognising the new Qa'im a simpler undertaking. Had the adherents of other faiths heeded this prophecy, what errors and what calamities would have been
avoided I But even on Islim itself the kindly help and counsel
of its Prophet was wasted. Though they had these pronouncements and a hundred others hardly less illuminating
to aid them, the Muslims made no use of their Prophet's
assistance, and when the hour of fulfilment came rejected
without hesitation the stainless radiant Siyyid in whose person
met all the signs of divinity that Muhammad had set forth.
The name of him who was chosen as the new High-
Prophet was Mirza 'Ali Muhammad. He was the first of the
two expected Messengers, and his function was to open the
way in men's hearts for the still greater Messenger that was
to follow. He assumed in consequence the descriptive title
of 'the Gate,' drawing attention thereby to the preparatory
nature of his work. He was to Bahi'u'llah as John the Baptist
was to Christ. But inasmuch as the approaching Theophany
was to mark the culmination of all human history he himself
held the station of an independent High-Prophet and was
endowed, as Muhammad had been, with the fullness of divine
authority. Like any other High-Prophet, he did not come
among men unheralded. Fifty-one years before his Declaration there arose a certain Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i, a man of saintly
character and high intelligence, who began with tact and
caution the task of preparing the Muslims for the Advent of
the Qa'im. Great as was his reputation and influence he did
not find amongst those who listened one solitary person able
to appreciate the import of his message, till after twenty
years he was approached by a young man, Siyyid IGzim,
whom he at once recognised as a pure and spiritual soul.
He took Kazim as his comrade and fellow-labourer, and for
nineteen years the two worked together until Ahmad died at
the age of eighty-one.
From the beginning Ahmad knew and proclaimed that a
double epiphany of God was impending, and that the
approaching Day would be one of dazzling magnificence.
Though he never met the Bab in the flesh, nor yet Baha'u'llah, he drew particular attention to the city of Shfraz, the
place from which the voice of the Bab was to be heard;
and when men were astonished at the greatness of his enthusiasm over this city, he said, 'Wonder not, for ere long
the secret of my words will be manifest to you. Among you
there shall be a number who will live to behold the glory of
a Day which the prophets of old have yearned to witr:ess.'
He did not himself live, however, to see the dawning of
that Great Day. His task completed, he died at an advanced
age some eighteen years before the Declaration of the Bab
(Traveller's Narrative, note E), and was buried near the grave
of Muhammad in the city of Medina.
It was reserved for Kazim to meet the Bab in person, to
recognise and definitely acknowledge him as the Qa'im, and
though refusing to publish his name, yet to portray him so
distinctly as to leave little room for uncertainty. He said
that the Advent was at hand, and the Prophet himself in
their midst: 'You behold Him with your own eyes, and
yet recognise Him not.' Pressed with questions, he would
say, 'He is of noble lineage. He is a descendant of the prophet
of God, of the family of Hashim. He is young in age, and is
possessed of innate knowledge.••• He is of medium height,
abstains from smoking, and is of extreme devoutness and
piety.'
Teaching at all times the twofold nature of the coming
Manifestation, towards the close of his life he emphasised
this with greater force and insistence. He bade his more
earnest followers leave all they possessed, and scatter far
and wide to seek that hidden King of Kings, the un revealed
Overlord of the Last Day, Whose privilege it was to decide
who should become the champions of the Rib.
'Be firm,' he said to them, 'till the day when he will
choose you as the companions and the heroic supporters
of the promised Qa'im. Well is it with everyone of you
who will quaff the cup of martyrdom in his path •••
Verily, I say, after the Qa'im the Qayyum will be made
manifest (i.e. the Bab and Baha'u'lIa11). For when the star
of the former has set, the sun of the beauty of Husayn
will rise and illuminate the whole world. Then will be
unfolded in all its glory the mystery and the secret spoken
of by Shaykh Ahmad, who has said: The mystery of this
cause ~st ~eeds be made manifest, and the secret of this
message must needs be divulgedl .•• 0 my beloved
companions, how great, how very great is the cause 1 How
exalted the station to which I summon youl How great
the mission for which I have trained and prepared youl
Gird up the loins of endeavour, and fix your gaze upon his
promise. I pray to God graciously to assist you to weather
the storm of tests and trials which must needs beset you,
to enable you to emerge unscathed and triumphant, from
their midst, and to lead you to your high destiny.' (Nab/I,
pp. 41, 42).
CHAPTER VI

THE GATE OF THE DAW'N

A PEW months from that day on which in America the
adherents of William Miller stood looking up to heaven to
catch the first glimpse of the Saviour returning in glory
among the clouds, on the other side of the world the Bab
gave forth the Declaration of his Sacred Mission and began
his appointed work of preparing mankind for the dawning of
the Last Day and the advent of its Lord.
Born October 25th, 1819, he was at the time of his Declaration a youth of twenty-five years of age. Of those eager
active souls whom he quickly gathered about him to raise
the standard of the Cause of God, not a few were, like himself, in the prime of their young manhood. Perhaps the
flame of their youthfulness helped to animate the Babl
movement with that spirit of daring and adventure and
indomitable courage which has helped to spread its fame
far among the nations. Certainly the radiant charm and
sweetness of its hero which made him seem Love's avatar,
and that instinctive power which was his of drawing forth
from all who opened to him their hearts a passionate devotion
which shrank from no sacrifice-certainly these qualities
and the heinousness of the priestly hate that martyred him,
have given to the brief sad chronicle of his career a tragic
beauty which makes it one of the most poignant episodes in
the history of the religious world.
From the beginning it was the sole purpose of the Rib to
prepare men for the advent of Baha'u'lhih. In 1843, the year
before his Declaration, he had in a dream a strange symbolic
experience, and on his awakening he felt that the Spirit of
God had come upon him and possessed him and he saw
unfolded before his eyes all the glories of the great Revelation
that was to be. The sacred title which he assumed, the Gate,
signified that his mission was introductory: its intent was to
open into men's hearts a passage through which this mighty
Revelation could enter in.
The similitude of 'the Gate' was not unfamiliar to Christians. Christ had used it in one of the most beautiful and
favourite parables, and had applied it in a peculiarly enigmatic manner. He had strangely presented himself in one
and the same parable under two quite different images.
'I am the Gate,' he said, and again, 'I am he who enters
by the Gate.' He went on to explain that he who entered
by the Gate and not in any other way was the True Shepherd
and would be followed by those who knew the divine voice,
the divine word.
The title 'Gate' was yet more familiar to the Muhammadans, and the Bab took care that it should not be misrepresented nor misunderstood. 'The condemnation be also
upon him who regards me either as a representative of the
Imam or the gate thereof,' he declared publicly in the Mosque
at Sh£raz in 1845.
ik was the gate of a wholly new Advent. In his first and
most important book he adverted to his Lord: '0 Thou
Remnant of God! I have sacrificed myself wholly for Thee;
I have consented to be cursed for thy sake; and have yearned
for naught but martyrdom in the path of thy love.' While
~~~ 89 D
paying the greatest honour to the Apostles of Jesus, he
instructed the 'Letters of the Living' whom he sent forth
that even the Day of the Apostles was not as illustrious as
that which was about to break. He knew well that it would
be universal, compassing the whole world; and the thought
of his work for it was so precious that it illumined and
sweetened even his most intimate sorrows. His prayer of
self-consecration over the dead body of his little son concluded with the words:
'Endue with thy grace my life blood which I yearn to
shed in thy path. Cause it to water and nourish the seed
of thy Faith. Endow it with thy celestial potency that
this infant seed of God may soon germinate in the hearts of
men, that it may thrive and prosper, that it may grow to
become a mighty tree, beneath the shadow of which all
the peoples and kindreds of the earth may gather. Answer
thou my prayer, 0 God, and fulfil my most cherished
desire.' (Nab", p. 77).
Nor was it the teaching of Baha'u'llah alone that was to
girdle the earth. The influence of the Bab reached far to the
east and to the west-westward to the Adventists of Europe
and America, and eastward likewise, as appears from the
incident of the dervish whom the spell of the Bab drew to
his side from distant India. This pilgrim told how when he
was a nawab in India he had seen the Bab in a vision and
had yielded up his heart at once. The Bab fixed his gaze
upon him and bade him leave his native land and come on
foot to Persia where in Chihrfq he would attain his heart's
desire. The dervish, giving up his exalted post and laying
aside his gorgeous attire, travelled to Persia as bidden, and
finding the Bab in the prison of ~hrfq, acknowledged his
prophethood and mission and afterward returned on foot to
India as he had come, to spread there by the Bab's command
the Tidings of the New Revelation.
From childhood the Bab was remarkable for his natural
piety, his stainless life and his intuitive understanding of
spiritual things. Those who knew him speak of the engaging
grace of his manner, of his kindliness, his courtesy, his
dignity. The most humble and the most simple of men, he
combined serenity with eagerness of spirit; and none could
mistake his courage, his independence or the masterful
quality of his character and will.
His calling was that of a merchant; and his conception
of business morality was not only much above that of the
corrupt and venal people among whom he worked but was
such as is not always found in the market-places of Christendom.
The following account of one of the Bab's business transactions is recorded by Nabil (pp. 79-80).

'A certain man confided to his care a trust, requesting
him to dispose of it at a fixed price. When the Bab sent
him the value of that article, the man found that the sum
which he had been offered considerably exceeded the
limit which he had fixed. He immediately wrote to the
Bab, requesting him to explain the reason. The Bab
replied: "What I have sent you is entirely your due. There
is not a single farthing in excess of what is your right.
There was a time when the trust you had delivered to me
had attained this value. Failing to sell it at that price, I
now feel it my duty to offer you the whole of that sum."
However much the Bab's client entreated him to receive
back the sum in excess, the Bab persisted in refusing.'
D 2
On the other hand, the Bab taught that it was wrong to
permit a tradesman to ask more than the fair price for an
article. Once when he was in prison he asked that some
honey should be purchased for him. This was done, but at a
figure which he considered exorbitant. He refused to accept
the honey, and said:
'Honey of a superior quality could no doubt have been
purchased at a lower price. I who am your example have
been a merchant by profession. It behoves you in all your
transactions to follow in my way. You must neither
defraud your neighbour, nor allow him to defraud you.
Such was the way of your Master. The shrewdest and
ablest of men were unable to deceive him, nor did he on
his part choose to act ungenerously towards the meanest
and most helpless of creatures' (Nab!l, p. 303).
So long as the Bab appeared as a merchant and an ordinary
citizen, he enjoyed the warm friendship and regard of all.
When, however, he declared to Husayn, 'I am the Bab, the
Gate of God'; when he made a similar declaration to Mirza
Muhit in Mecca and delivered the Message of God to the
Meccan Sherif, calling on him to embrace the Cause of God;
when in the presence of the heir to the Persian throne and
the assembled dignitaries of Tabriz he publicly proclaimed,
'I am the Promised One, whose name you have for a thousand
years invoked'; when he wrote to :Muhammad Shah, '1
am the Primal Point from which have been generated all
created things • • • I am the Countenance of God, whose
splendour can never be obscured, the light of God whose
radiance can never fade •• .'; when with speeding pen he
poured forth epistles, commentaries and other writings with
such profusion that in the end-so he stated-the total
volume amounted to '500,000 verses'; when he sent forth
nineteen chosen messengers to prepare the way of the Cause,
and when, through his own influence and theirs, multitudes
in many districts were stirred by the new teaching:-when
he began to manifest such activities as these, the envious
hierophants of Persia took strong measures to check and to
reverse the current of popular feeling and to bring the new
prophet and his works to naught.
The teaching was in itself as no lover of God or of mankind
could object to.
'Babism,' wrote Lord Curzon in his Persia and the
Persian Question (pp. 501-2), 'may be defined as a creed
of charity and almost of common humanity. Brotherly
love, kindness to children, courtesy combined with dignity,
sociability, hospitality, freedom from bigotry, friendliness
even to Christians, are included in its tenets.'
The spiritual purity and exaltation of the Bab's Cause
may be gathered from the address he gave to his nineteen
apostles as he sent them out to spread his Gospel throughout
Persia. It runs in part as follows:
'Oh, my beloved friends ! You are the bearers of the
name of God in this day. You have been chosen as the
repositories of his mystery. It behoves 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. The very members of your body must bear
witness to the loftiness of your purpose, the integrity of
your life, the reality of your faith, and the exalted character of your devotion. For verily I say, this is the Day
spoken of by God in his Book, "On that day will we set a
seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak unto
us, and their feet shall bear witness to that which they
shall have done." You are the witnesses of the Dawn of
the promised Day of God. You are the partakers of the
mystic chalice of his Revelation. Gird up the loins of
endeavour. Purge your hearts of wordly desires and let
angelic virtues be your adorning. The days when idle
worship was deemed sufficient are ended. The time is come
when naught but the purest motive, supported by deeds
of stainless purity, can ascend unto the throne of the
Most High and be acceptable unto him. You have been
called to this station; you will attain it only if you arise
to trample beneath your feet every earthly desire and
endeavour to become those "honoured servants of his who
speak not till he hath spoken and who do his bidding."
Beseech the Lord your God that no earthly entanglements,
no worldly affections, no ephemeral pursuits, may tarnish
the purity or embitter the sweetness of that grace which
flows through you. I am preparing you for the advent of
a mighty Day. Exert your utmost endeavour that in the
world to come, I, who am now instructing you, may
before the mercy seat of God rejoice in your deeds and
glory in your achievements. Scatter throughout the length
and breadth of this land, and with steadfast feet and
sanctified hearts, prepare the way for his coming. Heed
not your weakness and frailty; fix your gaze upon the
invincible power of the Lord, your God, the Almighty.
Arise in his name, put your trust wholly in him, and be
assured of ultimate victory l'
Owing to the shortness of his life, and to his being immured at a distance from his followers for four years out
of the six of his ministry, he was prevented from directing
the practice of his precepts and from explaining as he would
have wished the changes which these precepts involved.
That which actuated the faith of the early Babfs was less the
acceptance of a new standard of conduct or a new philosophy
of life than a personal devotion to the Bab and an enthusiastic
belief in his prophethood.
The teaching of the Bab, like his character, was beautiful
and attractive; but his function of making ready a way for
the advent of Baha'u'llah combined with the abject degradation of the Persian Church, made him appear as in the
first place a breaker of idols, an assailant of abuses, a remover
of obsolete but cherished laws and traditions. As the Jews
of old accused Jesus of 'changing the customs which Moses
delivered unto them' so with not less indignation did the
Muslims accuse the Bab of altering the customs commanded
by Muhammad.
Those who were masters in Islam proved themselves
tragically incapable of perceiving his greatness, of recognising
the reality of his mission or of appreciating the value of the
gifts which he sought to bestow on them and on all their
countrymen. It was their habit to regard all matters in
relation to themselves only, and their view of their personal
interests was of the most narrow, trivial and sordid kind.
The spirit of the Faith which Muhammad and the Imams
had taught and lived had long since vanished. As Ahmad
and Kazlm had sadly testified, sincerity of devotion was
hard if not impossible to find. The forms of religion survived
and the apparatus of worship was still treasured; but in
spite of much self-righteousness and parade reality had gone.
The clerics of Islam had worked over and interpreted the
teachings of their Prophet and had deftly moulded it to fit
exactly their personal wishes and illusions. In their hands
it had been crystallised into the law of an institution which
encouraged every form of rapacity and oppression. The
officers of State and Church were enabled to follow in the
name of their Prophet their own dark pleasures, unillumined
by any love for God and undeterred by any fear of his
vengeance. The reforms of the Bab challenged the corruptions and the hypocrisies of the time; and when his energetic
measures rapidly spread his influence far and wide, the forces
of the government were at once mobilised against him.
From that moment the story of the Bibf Cause becomes one
of darkening tragedy, until at last the light of love seems to
be quenched in the dust of death for ever.
The authorities at first tried to bring the Bab into ridicule
and contempt and to intimidate him by cruel punishment.
Failing in this effort, they shut him up in a fortress, forbidding communication with the outer world. His followers
were denounced as foes of State and Church. They were
subjected to many forms of ostracism, were despoiled,
beaten, and in some instances put to death. In three districts
the persecution became so severe that the Bab£s, driven at
last to desperation, took up arms in defence of their lives.
In Naydz and in Zanjin they occupied military posts which
were lying virtually untenanted. In Mazindadn under the
leadership of Mulli Husayn and Quddus they built themselves a rude but well-contrived and substantial fortress. In
these positions (by a movement wholly spontaneous and
unconcerted and pressed on them in each case by local
violence) three several groups of Bib£s established themselves
and having procured what small arms they could, awaited
peaceably the onset of their assailants. That which follows
is surely one of the most extraordinary campaigns in the
chronicle of irregular warfare. One is not likely to find in
any age a more conspicuous example of the prodigious power
of sheer morale or of the literal truth of the poet's statement
that 'My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart
is pure.' The story disproves the well-known maxim of
the great conqueror that God is on the side of the biggest
battalions; for certainly in this instance, he was on the
side of the few who defied the many, of the weak who routed
the strong. A professional soldier would describe the
Babls as an 'armed mob,' for they were composed of civilians
of both sexes and of all ages: some had left their shops,
some their pulpits, but none had come from the camp.
Their numbers were in each case small-in Mazindaran
only some three hundred. Against each of these three companies were marshalled brigades of the choicest troops of
the Shah consisting of cavalry and artillery as well as infantry, fully equipped for battle and led by distinguished officers.
The Babfs were surrounded by their foes and subjected to the
privations of a siege. They suffered great hardship, and were
for days at a time reduced to subsisting on nothing better than
boiled grass. Yet their faith remained unshaken, their courage
undaunted, their enthusiasm undimmed. They took the
greatest care to stand strictly on the defensive and to leave aggression to their opponents. Many times, however, they anticipated an impending attack by a sally from the fort, and a few
hundred or a few score Babfs would break the enemy's line,
overturning their cannon, and driving them headlong in disorder. As soon, however, as they had made the threatened
attack impossible, the Babis would stay their pursuit, lower
their weapons, and return to their fort, there to enjoy as best
they might a respite from the struggle till once more the
enemy were reinforced and made ready for a new onset.
-------------~---

Quddus, during the last days of the siege of Mazindaran
and a short time before his own martyrdom, made the
following declaration:
'Never since our occupation of this fort have we under
any circumstances attempted to direct any offensive
against our opponents. Not until they unloosed their
attack upon us did we arise to defend our lives. Had we
cherished the ambition of waging holy war against them,
had we harboured the least intention of achieving ascendancy through the power of our arms over the unbelievers,
we should not until this day have remained besieged
within these walls. The force of our arms would have by
now, as was the case with the companions of Muhammad
in days past, convulsed the nations of the earth and prepared them for the acceptance of our Message. Such is
not the way, however, which we have chosen to tread.
Ever since we repaired to this fort, our sole, our unalterable
purpose has been the vindication, by our deeds and by
the readiness to shed our blood in the path of our Faith,
of the exalted character of our mission. The hour is fast
approaching when we shall be able to consummate this
task.'

This extraordinary conflict between a handful of beleaguered Babls and the encircling regiments of the ~ah
continued in each instance for months. No losses, no suffering
weakened the defence, nor did the thought of saving their
lives by any kind of recantation or compromise enter the
minds of the besieged. When not engaged in self-defence,
they spent their time in the study of the Scripture, chanting
with unabated fervour the praises of their Lord, the Bab,
and pouring forth thanksgivings to God for the heaven-born
felicity which had been poured into their hearts. In Mazindadn, and also in Nayrlz, the two commanders-in-chief of
the forces of the government, growing weary of the humiliating defeats to which their troops were subjected, at last
ostensibly yielded to the Babis and (under the most solemn
oath) promised them safe conduct and freedom from future
molestation. But as soon as the besieged had come out from
the shelter of their walls, had laid aside their arms and
separated, they ordered a general massacre, which was duly
carried out by the troops and the populace, not without the
accompaniment of torture. In Zanjan the numbers engaged
were larger, and the conflict more prolonged. In the tenth
month, the Babls having lost nearly a thousand men, including their leader, Hujjat, the Shah's general flung his troops
against the fort in a determined assault, and by sheer weight
of numbers drove the Babls before him into the neighbouring
houses where they stood once more at bay. Seeing the
position was untenable, and being encumbered with many
women and wounded, those of the Babis who still could
bear arms made a last charge upon the troops, being resolved
to die fighting. Some were killed, some were captured, and
all resistance ended.
Thus were lost to the Cause of Reform in Persia many of
the most earnest followers of the Rib, including four of his
ablest leaders, Mulla Husayn, the first to acknowledge the
Bab, and known therefore by the title of 'the Gate of the
Gate,' and Vahfd, and Hujjat, and Quddus, who was esteemed
as nearer to the Bab than any other of his apostles.
But the wanton sacrifice of all these lives was not the only
nor the greatest crime of the obscurantists of that time and
land. To this day they added another more heinous yet. They
felt that from his remote and lonely prison among the
northern hills the splendour of the Bab still shone afar,
troubling their darkness and lighting the onward path of his
followers. So long as he lived, their misdeeds might be
exposed and their power destroyed. The force of his presence,
though they did not doubt it was diabolical, was yet so
winning that if he succeeded at any time in his efforts to
gain an interview with the Shah, he might win his Majesty's
favour and supplant them in their position of privilege near
the royal person. They could not rest secure till the Bab was
dead.
Often had the Bab prayed for the glory of martyrdom.
Often had he with exultation foretold his prayer would not
go ungranted. To some he had indicated the approach of the
destined day. Now, aware that the time was at hand, he
collected all the documents in his possession and placing
them with a few personal treasures in a coffer sent them
all by a trusty messenger to his Lord BaM'u'lhih.
A few days later, he was (by an arbitrary act of the Grand
Vazir without any colour of law or justice) summoned from
his prison to Tabriz. There on July 9th, 1850, in the presence
of ten thousand people who crowded windows and roofs to
behold the spectacle, he attained the goal of his dearest
hopes, and, having ever offered up to his Beloved all that life
contained, now crowned his offerings with that of life itself.
His body, riddled with bullets, save for the face which was
but little marked, was recovered by his disciples, and under
the direction of BaM'u'llah, hidden in a place of safety.
Ultimately it was conveyed to the Holy Land and now lies
in a mausoleum on the slopes of Mount Carmel.
The martyrdom of the Bab and of so many of his ablest
and most eager followers, left the main body of the survivors
for the moment bewildered and despondent. But there
remaIned those amongst them who were able to face the
emergency, to instil courage into drooping hearts, and to carry
forward the work which the Bab's enemies thought must with
his disappearance sink speedily and for ever into oblivion.
The progress of the Cause had from the beginning been
due not a little to the efforts of a lady of wealth and noble
birth, known as Qurratu'l-'Ayn (Solace of the Eyes) or
Tahirih (the Pure) whose genius has made her one of the
most brilliant figures in the early history of the Baha'i movement. Professor Browne writes of her as follows:
'The appearance of such a woman ••• 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 marvellous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts,
her fervid eloquence, her fearless devotion and her glorious
martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable and immortal
amidst her countrywomen. Had the Bab! religion no other
claim to greatness, this were sufficient-that it produced
a heroine like Qurratu'l-'Ayn.'
Other impartial spectators have written of her with an
enthusiasm as warm. She was included by the Bab among
his chosen Apostles or Letters of the Living: the only
woman in their ranks. So clear was her vision, so deep her
faith in God, that she counted the earth and its concerns as
dust, and threw all to the winds that she might with a pure
heart give herself utterly to the Cause of the Bab. Her
personal charm, her intellectual supremacy and her radiant
confidence gained for her an immense influence with her
countrymen, which had reached its height in the summer of
----------------

J852. Nabfl, in his chronicle, tells of 'the affection and high
esteem in which she was held by the leading women of the
capital' and how her house 'was besieged by her women
admirers, who thronged her doors eager to enter her presence
and to seek the benefit of her knowledge.'
But the consolidation of the Bab's work at this time and
the extension of his teachings was due pre-eminently to the
enthusiasm and the ability of Baha'u'llah who set himself
the task of reviving the energies of the Bab's followers and
of organising and directing their activities. He gave them the
guidance of which in their consternation they stood so much
in need. He cheered their spirits, deepened their conviction
and inspired them with a fortitude steadfast enough to
endure the trials with which so soon they were to be confronted.
The adversaries of the Bab were thus compelled to watch
in astonishment and dismay the steady progress of the Cause
which they thought they had destroyed. They saw it spread
on every side, and even percolate into foreign lands. Determined to annihilate it, they waited with what patience they
might for an opportunity to arise. In the early autumn of
1852 their chance came. Two young Bahls, driven to frenzy
by the death of the Bab, determined to take revenge, and
made an attempt to shoot the Shah. The youths were obscure
and irresponsible, and the imbecility of their enterprise
was shown by the fact that they charged their pistol,
not with a bullet, but with small shot. They failed. The Shah
was but slightly wounded, and the assailant who firedthe
shot was lynched on the spot. But the attempt gave the
authorities the opportunity for which so long they had been
looking. They were able to represent the crime, though it was
repugnant to all the principles of the Bab, and was condemned with horror by every Bab!, as a proof that the Bab!
Faith was a subversive creed, and had for its aim the wrecking
of the realm. Inflamed themselves with apprehension and
fanatical hate, and resolved not to lose the excuse for extirpating the odious faith once and for all, they worked up the
populace to a storm of rage and turned them loose upon
the Babls in a campaign of wild and indiscriminate persecution. Throughout the length and breadth of the land
Babls, whatever their age or sex, were treated as outlaws
and without inquiry handed over to the mercies of their
adversaries. Indignities, crimes of all kinds, and death were
visited upon them; and to increase the terror their punishments were made as public, as spectacular and as atrocious
as possible. No citizen who at that period walked out into
the streets of a city could tell what scenes of carnage and of
torture he might be called upon to witness. No Bab! wife
or mother holding her infant to her breast could tell at what
moment she might not be haled from her hiding-place to
suffer any fate a ruffian soldier or blood-thirsty mob might
choose to inflict. Executions were carried out indifferently
in square, street or market-place and took what form the
carnival spirit of the doomsters might at the moment devise.
By a barbarous arrangement, surely without parallel, the
Grand Vaz!r directed that the responsibility for the martyrdoms should be divided out among the departments of state
as well as the chief professions and callings of the realm. All
these were to participate directly in the executions. One
Babl victim was assigned to the Home Office and was publicly
killed by its members. Another Bab! was cut to pieces by the
Foreign Secretary and his assistants. Another by the clergy;
10 3
another by the artillery; another by the infantry; others by
the cavalry, the nobility, the merchants or other bodies or
guilds. The Shah himself, through his representative, the
Steward of the Household, assisted by minor officials, carried
out the martyrdom of the believer allotted to him. Even
foreigners connect~d with the Court were involved in this
revolting scheme. One of them, Dr. Cloquet, the Shih's
French physician, was actually asked to take his share in
the massacre and kill a Babi with his own hand: which, of
course, he declined to do. Others were compelled as part of
their regular duty to witness scenes the bare description of
which makes a European's blood run cold with horror. An
Austrian officer, Captain von Goumoens, who was in the
Shih's service at the time, narrated how Babis were brought
to the place of the attempt on the Shih's life, how their eyes
were gouged out and they were forced to eat their own
amputated ears; how the bazaar would be lighted by Babis
whose bodies were all blood and fire because in breasts,
shoulders, and backs deep wounds had been made to serve
as sconces for lighted candles which burned down to the
flesh and flickered in their living sockets; how fresh tortures
would follow-how (he himself had seen it, often, too often I)
the executioners would 'skin the soles of the Babis' feet,
soak the wounds in boiling oil, shoe the foot like the hoof
of a horse and compel the victim to run. No cry escaped
from the victim's breast; the torment is endured in dark
silence by the numbed sensation of the fanatic; now he
cannot run; the body cannot endure what the soul has
endured; he falls. Give him the coup de gracel Put him out
of his painl Nol The executioner swings the whip, and-I

myself have had to witness it-the unhappy victim of
hundred-fold tortures runsl'
Baha'u'llih was arrested and flung into a noisome dungeon
along with some other Bibls and a number of criminals, to
await sentence. One by one the Bibls were taken out and
executed; but before the turn of Baha'u'llih arrived, an
edict was issued that no more Bibls should be put to death
without inquiry. Baha'u'llih's innocence being established,
his life was spared, and having been degraded from his high
estate and despoiled of his vast possessions, he was condemned to exile. In January, 1853, with his family and a
band of devoted followers, he left his beloved native land
for ever.
Thus did Persia scorn and reject those chosen sons of
hers who might have lifted her from her insignificance and
restored to her more than her ancient splendour and renown.
Thus did the Muslim hierarchy cast out the teachers who
would have purified Ishim and made it the starting-place of
a religious revival that in a few years would have poured
its light around the world.
When, at the beginning of 1853, the foes of the Bab!
movement considered their work, they thought their purpose
fully accomplished, their victory complete. The Bab was
dead. His name was anathema. If any of his votaries survived, they were cowed and silent. No sign or trace of that
brief impetuous crusade which had almost shaken a dead
land to life was now anywhere visible save perhaps some
bloodstains on the stones of a dismantled fort or the poor
fragments of some burned and mutilated body still hanging
by a city gate to remind the beholder of the awful malediction laid on that proscribed and execrated faith.
10 5
CHAPTER VII

THE ENTRANCE OF THE KING OF GLORY

IN this determined and ruthless campaign against the Bab!
Faith the Persian government made, however, two mistakes
of so serious a nature as to render nugatory all their scheming
and cruelty and to transform an apparent success into complete failure. In the first place, they forgot the adage that the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, and they could
not conceive that their efforts to suppress the truth by physical
violence were driving it to seek a hiding-place deeper in the
hearts of the people. This blunder is after more than a
hundred years obvious to all observers, but it began to be
evident even while the life-blood of the Bibfs was being
poured forth upon the earth. Professor Browne states in his
A Year amongst the Persians (pp. III-H):
'The barbarity of the persecutions defeated its own
ends, and instead of inspiring terror gave the martyrs an
opportunity of exhibiting an heroic fortitude which has
done more than any propaganda, however skilful, could
have done to ensure the triumph of the cause for which
they died. • •• The impression produced by such exhibitions of courage and fortitude was profound and lasting;
nay, the faith which inspired the martyrs was often contagious, as the following incident shows. A certain Yazdi
rough, noted for his wild and disorderly life, went to see
the execution of some Babls, perhaps to scoff at them.
But when he saw with what calmness and steadfastness
they met torture and death, his feelings underwent so great
a revulsion that he rushed forward crying, "Kill me too I
I also am a Babl f" And thus he continued to cry till he too
was made a partaker in the doom he had come out only
to gaze upon.'
To-day the record of those immortal martyrs still stirs
the blood and quickens the faith of those who read it. The
infamy of the persecutions has long since helped to carry
the story far and wide, and has awakened in distant lands
sympathy with the sufferers and admiration for that youthful
'Charmer of Hearts' (as they called him), for whom men.
women and children counted it happiness to face torture and
death. Outwardly among the peoples, inwardly in men's
souls, the efforts of the enemies of God were turned against
themselves and became the means of propagating the new
gospel and of fixing it on spiritual foundations from which it
can never be removed.
To this mistake the Persian Government added another
more signal. They had destroyed every Babl who had shown
any capacity for leadership except one.
They had not fully realised that of all the champions of
the New Revelation the most powerful was Baha'u'llah. His
eminent social position and his outstanding reputation as a
man and as a citizen had, to some degree, protected him;
while his acumen and prudence had enabled him to combine
the greatest possible amount of activity with the least possible
amount of provocation. After the attempt on the ':;~ah's
life, he was seized and without trial thrust into a dungeon
in Tihran. The chamber in which he was confined was
buried deep underground and received no light nor air
10 7
... _--------_._-------

save what could pass down three steep flights of narrow
stairs. Weighted with heavy chains which bent his back and
galled his neck, having a number of the basest criminals of
the empire for his companions, and being kept in daily
expectation of his execution, he was held here for four
months, under conditions too revolting to bear description.
In the end, his innocence being established, and the authorities being informed that his health was now so broken that
he certainly must soon die, he was taken up out of the prison,
degraded, and despoiled, and sent with his family into
perpetual exile.
In issuing this sentence of banishment, and in afterwards
directing his course through Constantinople and Adrianople
to the Holy Land, his enemies forgot that their Prophet
Muhammad had many times and with a strange emphasis
called the attention of the faithful to the City of 'Akka.
He had said:
'Verily, 'Akka is a city of Syria which God in his mercy
has distinguished.'
And again:
'Know that Askelon is the best shore; but 'Akka is
better than Askelon. The superiority of 'Akka over
Askelon and over all other shores is that of Muhammad
over all other Prophets. Now we speak unto you of a city
in Syria placed between two mountains: it is called 'Akka.
Know that he who enters it of his own accord and accomplishes the pilgrimage, will be forgiven by God for his
sins, both past and of the future .• .'
And again:
'Verily upon the shore there is a city situated at the
feet of the throne: it is called 'Akk:i. Unto him who sleeps
there for the purpose of communion with God, God will
reserve unto the Day of resurrection the recompense of the
patient, of the pious, of the humble and of the submissive.'
And again:
'Know that I announce unto you a white city, upon
the borders of the sea: its whiteness is its beauty, given
by God. It is called 'Akk:i.... The voice of him who there
utters the call to prayer will reach unto Paradise. • . •
There are kings and princes in Paradise; but the poor
of 'Akk:i are the kings of Paradise and its princes. One
month at 'Akk:i is worth more than a thousand years
elsewhere. . . . Happy is he who makes pilgrimage to
'Akka. Happy is he who makes pilgrimage to the pilgrim
of 'Akka.'
Finally, to Muhammad is attributed the statement that
'all of them (meaning the companions of the Qa'im) shall
be slain except One who shall reach the plain of 'Akka, the
Banquet Hall of God.'
The government's slaughter of the Bab and all his abler
companions save only one, and its sentence upon that one
of banishment to the gaol-city of 'Akka, were thus pregnant
with ironic significance; and while seeming to spell ignominy
and destruction, in reality drew upon the Bab and Baha'u'lhih the light and glory of divine prediction.
From childhood, and indeed from birth, subtle intimations
and open portents had marked out Mirza Husayn-'Ali,
eldest son of the Vizir Mirza Buzurg, as him whom God
should manifest. When he was born on November 12th,
1817, at the hour of dawn in Tihran, a disciple of Ahmad-i-
Ahsa'i (the forerunner of the Bab) who was then resident
10 9
in Nayin, bowing to the ground in an access of wonder,
testified that 'at this very hour the light of the Promised
One has broken and is shedding illumination upon the
world.'
His father had marked him as a child of extraordinary
promise, and his opinion was confirmed by a strange dream
in which he saw his son swimming in a boundless sea, his
body shining like the sun and his black hair floating across
the waters. The fishes gathered about him, and each seized
and held the end of one of his hairs as he swam; but not a
hair was dislodged from his head, nor was his movement
through the waters impeded. A famous soothsayer, being
brought in to interpret this dream, explained that the sea
was the world of being, the fishes were the peoples of the
earth who would gather about Bah:i'u'IIah and cling to him,
that the disturbance of their movement through the waters
was the turmoil Bah:i'u'll:ih would cause among men, and
that as no hair was broken nor drawn from his head, so
should his person, though he should be quite alone, remain
safe through all dangers.
Some years later an eminent jurist, Mujtahid, MIrzi
Muhammad Taqly-i-Nuri, having occflsion in the course of
his lectures on the law of Islam to speak of Bah:i'u'llih, then
a young man of twenty-four or twenty-five years of age,
told his listeners he had had two dreams lately in which
Baha'u'llih had figured and that he thought them of high
significance. In one he dreamed that he made his way through
a concourse of people to a house in which, they said, the
promised Qa'im dwelt; but his eager efforts to enter were
refused because, within, the Qi'im was engaged in a private
colloquy and could not be disturbed. He with whom the
IIO
prophet thus confidently talked proved to be none other
than Bahi'u'lhih. In the other dream, the Mujtahid seemed
to be in a library in which he saw a number of books that
belonged to Bahi'u'llah, and were stored in coffers. Opening
these books, he found that every word and every letter
inscribed therein was illumined with the most exquisite
jewels.
Bahi'u'llah was of a deeply religious nature and from his
early boyhood determined to devote his life to the cause of
religion. This choice was a departure from the tradition of
his family which pointed him to the service of the State
rather than to that of the Church. His forefathers had
played a leading part in the administration of the country
and had held high ministerial offices under the Crown. His
father himself was a distinguished Vizir, and the young heir
was expected by all to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors.
When his friends observed in him the rapid development of
great powers and perceived the keenness of his intelligence,
the vigour of his will, his charm of manner and eloquence of
tongue, they predicted that his success would be outstanding
and that his career would add lustre to the noble record of a
family of able administrators. When the young man showed
no inclination to enter the sphere of politics, their surprise
was great; but they trusted his judgment, assuring themselves that 'he knows what he is doing; he has his own
purpose.'
In devoting himself to the cause of religion, Baha'u'llah
did not become an ecclesiastic nor study in a theological
school. He was brought up as a layman, and wore that
lambskin hat or kulah which was in Persia the badge of
those who follow a secular rather than a clerical calling. He
III
frequently took part, publicly as well as in private, in discussions on spiritual matters and on the spiritual aspects
of Ishimic law, and gained a great reputation for his insight
and understanding. 'His speech,' writes Dr. T. K. Cheyne,
'was like a rushing torrent, and his clearness in exposition
brought the most learned divines to his feet.' But he was
without learning or academic training, and his knowledge
was attested by all as that of a genius, not of a scholar.
The first overt act by which Baha'u'llah exposed the
inner purpose of his life was his espousal of the cause of the
Bab. As soon as he heard of the Bab's appearance he proclaimed himself a Babf, and throwing himself heart and soul
into the movement he did all that insight and enthusiasm
could do to lay the foundations of the faith deep in the hearts
of his countrymen.
Three years after the Bab's martyrdom, at a time when
the Cause seemed to be at its lowest ebb, BaM'u'llah alluded
in some of his odes to his station as the Central Figure of the
whole movement which the Bab had initiated.
The Bab had anticipated this declaration, specifying its
date ('the year nine,' he had said, meaning the ninth year
of his own dispensation), and had not only implied by
several signs the identity of BaM'u'llah as the Promised
One of all ages, but had explicitly shown it to one or two of
his own most trusted apostles.
By this intimation Bah:i'u'llah unburdened his heart of
the divine secret committed to him and made clear the
motive which had led him to depart from his family tradition
and choose instead the religious life. But the reference was
of a private and preparatory nature. The Bab's Era continued: the Bab's writ still ran. The time had not yet fully
lIZ.
come for Baha'u'llah's formal proclamation of his prophethood and for his assumption of direct sovereignty.
'The proclamation was an event of the deepest moment
and fraught with far-reaching and immeasurable consequences. In the first place the Prophet's pronouncement of
a New Era would bring the former Era to an end and would
abstract from its ordinances, customs, rites and institutions
their authority and influence. 'The Era of the Bab bore indeed
to that which followed it a special and unparalleled relation.
'The Bab had the station of an independent High-Prophet,
directly informed by the Most High. But his function was
that of Baha'u'llah's immediate forerunner. His Era was very
short, the shortest known to human records, extending over
only nineteen years. So closely was his work connected with
that of his Supreme Lord that the year of the Bab's Declaration is continued as the date of the New Era. Bahi'u'llah
has ordained 1844 as the beginning of the Dispensation of
the Glory of God. Yet the Declaration of Baha'u'llih would
mark the birthday of a new system, a new economy, a new
morality, a new obligation and a new loyalty. It would also
introduce into that psychological realm, where mankind's
thoughts and feelings have their source, the impact of a
fresh spiritual influence and generative force. In matters of
nearer and more direct concern the High-Prophet's open
assumption of his office would set him in a new relation to
the men of his own time, whether they recognised him or not,
showing up weakness and error, however closely veiled, and
covering with glory the true-hearted and the faithful. Moreover, it would involve the Prophet personally in a number of
new responsibilities and difficulties which would call for the
exercise of the most delicate tact and judgment, would
II;
heighten the hostility and opposition of many, and would
bring upon him fresh suffering and trial
Ten years passed before Baha'u'lhih, in the spring of 1863,
decided that the moment was come for his explicit Declaration. His long sojourn in Baghdad was closing. The misrepresentations of an enemy had intensified the suspicions of the
authorities, and he was under sentence of removal to a more
distant place of exile, where he was to be held in stricter
ward. His personal position was full of danger, and the
future was laden with the darkest threats. But to be weighed
down with care or discouraged by calamities was not the way
of Baha'u'llih. His self-annunciation, however unworthy the
earthly circumstances amidst which it was made, was in
reality an occasion of triumph and rejoicing. It notified to
mankind that God's promised blessings were no longer in the
future but were now at hand, that the Ancient Covenant was
completed, that Doomsday, the Day of the Lord, had broken
upon the world, and that he who had been so long heralded
as the Everlasting Father was about to bring to his children
the realisation of their brotherhood and to dwell on earth
amongst them. In spite of his personal embarrassments
Baha'u'llah invested his Declaration with dignity and impressiveness, making it a unique season of holy festival
in which the social happiness of believers mirrored the joy
that was amongst the angels in heaven. The spot which he
chose for the event was a garden outside the town of Baghdad
where he and his family had withdrawn while the caravan
was being made ready for the long journey to Constantinople.
While in the garden, April 21st to May 2nd, 1863, he made
his Declaration. So powerful was the radiance of his spirit
that the despair of these followers who were now to be
separated from their beloved Lord and friend was transmuted
by his influence. They dried their tears, put away their
sorrow and grasping through his inspiration the profound
significance of the moment they partook of his spiritual
enthusiasm and were transported with a joy breathed on
them from heaven.
During his sojourn in Baghdad Baha'u'llah had won the
warm affection and admiration of all classes; his friends
were legion. Now at his departure crowds of people high and
low, rich and poor, from the governor and the nobility to
those of low degree, streamed out to his retreat to bid him a
reluctant farewell. The greatness of the concourse that
thronged about him day after day, the sympathy and sense
of irreparable loss which all expressed, the radiant devotion
of his followers whose spiritual illumination had driven away
unhappiness, constituted a spontaneous public tribute to
the charm and power of his personality and afforded a not
unsuitable setting to the mystical event of a High-Prophet's
Declaration.
In that solemn pronouncement Baha'u'IIah at last gave
full expression to the resolution which he had formed in
childhood, and which in the face of gathering difficulties he
was to pursue to his life's end. He made his statement openly
in the presence of a number of chosen believers, but he did
not blazon nor press it upon the notice of the public. He had
put the truth within their reach, and it was their responsibility
to take the knowledge which he had offered them. Among
the faithful a great change gradually took shape. B:iha'u'llah
was venerated no longer simply as the chieftain of the
B:ibfs. His authority now was independent. His broader
teachings supplanted the preparatory teaching of his forelIS
runner. The name Bab! by degrees gave way to the name
BaM'£. But the attitude of non-believers remained as before.
Few indeed knew of his pronouncement, none understood it.
The envy and malignity of his private enemies probably was
intensified; certainly they continued to out judas Judas. And
the governments of the SMh and the Sultan continued to
pursue a policy of condemnation and repression.
Nineteen years before, when he had first espoused the
cause of the Bab, BaM'u'llah was in his golden youth endowed with all that fills life with pleasantness and hope:
rank, wealth, health, popularity and growing fame. Now
when he assumed the full responsibilities of his divinely-given
office he had been denuded of all that could be taken from
him. He was homeless, destitute, branded, a captive, an
exile, with the threat of further punishment held over his
head. Only his life (according to the strange predictive
dream of his boyhood) had been preserved by God from the
powers of his enemies. Despoiled of all those facilities for
propagating the cause which originally he had had in so
great a measure, and left with nothing on earth but those
inalienable gifts of mind and heart which he had from his
Maker alone, Baha'u'llah was at the same time the victim
of active restraints and positive afflictions. He underwent at
the hands of the government every variety of punishment:
now he suffered from cruel exposure, now from continued
and close confinement; now he was subjected to torture,
now weakened by long privation. More than once the
inhumanities inflicted on him brought him to the verge of
death, and a hundred times his life was in peril from the anger
of a despotic master or the rage of a howling mob. He was
compelled from the time of his exile onward to the end of
his life to watch those most near and dear to him endure
for love of him calamities only less than his own, and to see
them in many instances untimely sink and die under their
miseries. Not until his closing days was there any abatement
of the rigours of his captivity, and he died as he had lived, a
prisoner and an exile, far from that fair and well-loved land
in which he and his forefathers had reigned in ducal affiuence
and splendour.
In spite of all his difficulties Baha'u'll:ih pursued with
inflexible determination the path which he from the beginning had marked out for himself. No obstacle stopped his
progress; no discouragement lowered his enthusiasm;
adversity did not break nor wretchedness weaken his equanimity and confidence. His will was adamant. His spiritual
powers inexhaustible.
Throughout his career his attitude towards this persecution and towards those responsible for it was marked by
an extraordinary independence. He was acutely conscious
of its injustice and constantly protested against his wrongs
in the most vigorous language. In one of his earliest works,
The Hidden Words, he referred to himself and to the treatment meted out to him thus:

'0 Dwellers in the city of love I Mortal blasts have
beset the everlasting candle, and the beauty of the celestial
Youth is veiled in the darkness of dust. The chief of the
monarchs of love is wronged by the people of tyranny, and
the dove of holiness lies prisoned in the talons of owls.
The dwellers in the pavilion of glory and the celestial
concourse bewail and lament while ye repose in the realms
of negligence and esteem yourselves as of the true friends.
How vain are your imaginings!'
He constantly referred to himself as 'This Oppressed
One,' and in his epistles set forth his wrongs. Writing to
Napoleon III he said:
'He, for whose sake the world was called into being,
hath been imprisoned in the most desolate of cities (,Akka)
by reason of that which the hands of the wayward have
wrought. From the horizon of his prison-city he summoneth mankind unto the dayspring of God, the Exalted,
the Great.'
To the Czar of Russia he wrote, 'Know thou that though
my body be beneath the swords of my foes, and my limbs be
beset with incalculable afflictions, yet my spirit is filled with
a gladness with which all the joys of the earth can never
compare.' Towards the end of his life, in 1890, he wrote in
his Epistle to the Son of the Wolf:
'They have incited a great many ••• and are busy themselves in spreading calumnies. It is clear and evident
that they will surround with their swords of hatred and
their shafts of enmity the one whom they knew to be an
outcast among men and to have been banished from one
country to another. • • • This wronged one, however,
remained calm and silent in the most great prison.'
To the Shah he wrote:
'0 King, I have seen in the way of God what no eye
hath seen and no ear hath heard. Friends have disclaimed
me; ways are straitened unto me; the pool of safety is
dried up; the plain of ease is scorched yellow. How many
calamities have descended, and how many will descendl
I walk advancing toward the Mighty, the Bounteous,
while behind me glides the serpent. My eyes rain down
tears till my bed is drenched; but my sorrow is not for
myself. By God, my head longeth for the spears for the
love of its Lord, and I never pass by a tree but my heart
addresseth it, "Oh, would that thou wert cut down in
my name and my body were crucified for thee in the way
of my Lord"; yea, because I see mankind going astray in
their intoxication and they know it not..•. Weare about
to shift from this most remote place of banishment
(Adrianople) unto the prison of 'Akkli. And according to
what they say it is assuredly the most desolate of the
cities of the world, the most unsightly in appearance, the
most detestable in climate, and the foulest in water; it is
as though it were the metropolis of the owl; there is not
heard from its regions aught save the sound of its hooting.
And in it they intend to imprison this servant and to shut
in our faces the door of leniency and take away from us
the good things of the life of the world during what
remaineth of our days .•• .'
Even while he painted in such dolorous colours the
afflictions heaped upon him, and with such energy protested
against their injustice, yet Baba'u'lilih endured them all
with a superhuman patience. 'His strength was infinite,'
said the chief of his intimates. 'You would have thought
he was living in the greatest comfort.' He affirmed his
independence of all his troubles and his ability to bear
undismayed whatever cruelties should be inflicted on him.
'My calamity is My Providence,' he testifies in The Hidden
Words; 'outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is
light and mercy.'
Condemned to imprisonment in 'Akka, he exclaimed:
'Though weariness should weaken me and hunger
should destroy me, though my couch should be made of
the hard rock and my associates the beasts of the desert,
1I9
I will not blench but will be patient, as the resolute and
determined are patient, in the strength of God, the King
of Pre-existence, the Creator of the Nations, and under
all circumstances I give thanks to God.'
In his Epistle to the Son of the Waif he writes:
c• • • it is no secret that I have been, most of the days
of my life, even as a slave, sitting under a sword hanging
on a thread, knowing not whether it would fall soon or
late upon him. And yet, notwithstanding all this we render
thanks unto God, the Lord of the worlds. Mine inner
tongue reciteth, in the day-time and in the night-season,
this prayer: "Glory to Thee, 0 my God!" But for the
tribulations which are sustained in Thy path, how could
Thy true lovers be recognised; •• .' (E.S.W., p. 94).
He bore no resentment against those who maltreated him,
but asked God
'by the sun of Thy grace, and the sea of Thy knowledge,
and the heaven of Thy justice, to aid them that have denied
Thee to confess, and such as have turned aside from Thee
to return, and those who have calumniated Thee to be just
and fair-minded.' (E.S.W., p. 107).
So complete was the plentitude of his selflessness that he
rejoiced in his adversity in so far as it might be made a gain
to the faithful. He prayed God 'to make this dark calamity
a buckler for the body of his saints, and to protect them
thereby from sharp swords and piercing blades.'
'Through affliction,' he added, 'hath his light shone and
his praise been bright unceasingly; this has been his method
through past ages and bygone times' (T.N. 147)'* No diffi-
* Traveller's Narrative, E. G. Browne.
12.0
culties would stay his course or interrupt him in the execution
of his Mission.
'Should they hide me away in the depths of the earth,
yet would they find me riding aloft on the clouds, and
calling out unto God, the Lord of strength and of might.'
(B.S. W., p. 53).
Regarding his persecution from this detached and impersonal point of view he declined to take refuge in flight,
even when the door was opened to him, and steadfastly
refused to ask the authorities for any favour or to make any
entreaty to them on his own behalf. In Constantinople, for
example, he was advised by certain friendly noblemen to
follow the usual custom and appeal for equity to the Shah.
He gave the remarkable and surely unique reply: -
'Pursuing the path of obedience to the King's command, we have come to this country. Beyond this we
neither had nor have any aim or desire that we should
appeal or cause trouble. What is (now) hidden behind the
veil of destiny will in the future be made manifest. There
neither has been nor is any necessity for supplication and
importunity. If the enlightened leaders (of your nation) be
wise and diligent, they will certainly make inquiry and
acquaint themselves with the true state of the case; if
not, then their attainment of the truth is impracticable and
impossible. Under these circumstances, what need is there
for importuning statesmen and supplicating ministers of
the Court? We are free from every anxiety, and prepared
for the things predestined to us .• .'
In which statement Baha'u'llah implies that while the authorities in appearance are passing judgment upon him, in reality
their judgment is passing sentence upon them.
P.".'" 12.1
No conditions of life could well have been more unfavourable for the prosecution of a great public mission, or for
the production of a vast body of practical and metaphysical
instruction. Yet there was one thing granted to Baha'u'llah
and to 'Abdu'l-Baha after him which had been denied to
the Bab. However dire his sufferings, he was permitted by
God's providence to live beyond man's span of seventy
years, and when he died in May, 1892, his eye was still
undimmed and his natural force unabated. The Bab, owing
to the shortness of his life, had not been able to train his
followers in the moral precepts of his religion. But Baha'u'llah throughout the whole of his active career, found opportunities of teaching by word of mouth and by writing, as
well as by example. At first he disseminated among the Babis
the principles set forth by their Lord; afterwards by measured
degrees he broadened these into the more universal principles
of his own revelation, for which the Bab had opened the
way.
During his exile, whether it was in Baghdad, in Constantinople, or Adrianople, he attracted the notice and the
admiration of many, and his cause spread widely. Up to the
time of his incarceration in 'Akka he made himself generally
accessible, mixing with some freedom in society and welcoming visits from inquirers of all kinds. Thoughtful and
earnest people of all classes, and indeed of many lands,
sought his acquaintance. If distance forbade a personal
interview they would communicate with him by letter. He
discussed questions of art and science, but more especially
problems of religion. So satisfying, so enlightening were his
expositions that he created no little stir among the people,
and in Adrianople became the centre of a considerable
122.
movement. Here it was that his public self-annunciation as
God's prophet first began to impress the public; and here
it was that the title Baha'i began to supersede the earlier
and preparatory title of Babt The success of his teaching
in this city was so conspicuous that it inflamed still further
the jealousy of his private enemies and instigated that campaign of calumny which involved them as well as himself
in yet another sentence of exile. Reaching 'Akka, Baha'u'llah at first from necessity and later from choice withdrew
into seclusion and devoted himself principally to literary
work. The oral instructions given to all and sundry by
Baha'u'llah during his long pilgrimage from Tihran to
'Akka, and his personal training of those about him, fill a
vital place in his mission and have enduring results. But
the religion of the Baha'is is the religion of a Book. Final
authority rests only on the written word of Baha'u'llah and
of 'Abdu'l-Baha, duly authenticated. The sole authoritative
interpreter of the meaning of the sacred text is the Guardian,
whose pronouncement on the matter is binding on all, even
on future Guardians. Texts attributed without verification
to Baha'u'llah or 'Abdu'l-Baha or accounts of their lives
and their teachings whether they be written by those who
knew or heard them, or by others, are to be judged according
to their merits: they are not 'gospel.'
The Baha'is honour the Scriptures of all preceding religions,
including the Bayan or works of the Bab, as their Old Testament. Their New Testament consists of the attested writings
of Baha'u'llah. These are voluminous, and are said to surpass
in bulk the whole body of earlier Scriptures. In form they
are various, and comprise poems, epigrams, prayers, exhortations, expositions, counsels, laws. Much appears in the
lIa
form of letters, of some of which Baha'u'lbih would have a
copy made and filed before the despatch of the original.
He is said to have composed at great speed, without premeditation and without revision. It was his custom not
to write with his own hand but to dictate to secretaries,
sometimes continuing with hardly a pause for hours at a
time. The style, as a rule, corresponds to this method of
composition: its movement is that of a cataract, while the
richness of language and imagery and the constant vigour
of thought testify to an energy which delights in working
at the highest pressure. On the other hand, he would often
condense much thought into a little phrase, and would even
compose a whole essay or a small book in aphorisms. He
wrote in Persian and in Arabic, and is said to have been a
master of his medium and to have used the purest diction.
Few translations have been made as yet, and out of a total
number of compositions which surmise has estimated as one
thousand no more than perhaps fifty are now within reach
of the English reader: twenty or thirty epistles of varying
length, a poem, a parable, some collections of prayers and of
precepts. But however few they be, they are quite sufficient
to indicate the character and the fundamental teachings of
the author's religious philosophy. The best known is undoubtedly The Hidden Words. This little book of doctrines
and precepts was written in Baghdad, and its title, by its
reference to a certain Muhammadan tradition, implies a
claim to divine Prophethood. Love and spirituality form its
keynote, and its purpose is the religious training of the
righteous, 'that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant
of God, may fulfil in their lives his trust, and in the realm of
spirit obtain the gem of divine virtue.' It gives sententiously
the pith of the prophetic teachings of the past. Justice is the
great principle of human life; love is the cause and the end
of creation. Man's reunion with God is heaven; separation
from God is the source of all misery. God's greatness, his
generosity, his forbearance, his displeasure, the menace of
his wrath, the promise of man's restoration, all are set forth
here.
Akin to this pocket volume are the Words of Wisdom
which in twenty aphorisms define twenty aspects of spiritual
truth. For instance:
'The essence of religion is to testify to that which the
Lord has revealed and follow that which he has ordained
in his mighty book.
'The source of all glory is acceptance of whatsoever
the Lord has bestowed, and contentment with that which
God has ordained.
'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.'
Bahi'u'llih's uncompromising monism appears in 'The
source of all evil is for man to turn away from his Lord and
set his heart on things ungodly.'
Like The Hidden Words, the Book of Certitude has been
twice rendered into English, the second translation being
by the Guardian of the cause. If The Hidden Words be an
example of the author's sententiousness, this may stand as
an example of his full-flowing eloquence. The argument
occupies two hundred and fifty-three pages. It deals with
the nature of God's self-revelation to man, and with man's
response thereto. It affirms in the first place that those who
would gain from a High-Prophet real knowledge of God
12 5
must make themselves proof against their intellectual, as
well as the more material, seductions of earthly existence,
and must be freed from prejudice and pride, as well as from
a subservient desire for comfort, popularity and the like;
and it affirms in the second place that man's attitude to the
High-Prophet in his Dispensation must be that of ready,
exact and complete obedience, inasmuch as the Prophet is
invested by God with the plentitude of divine power and
sovereignty. Baha'u'lhih states his thesis with the utmost
vigour and emphasis, showing that the facts of history bear
witness to the superhuman authority of all God's Messengers,
and that if on their appearance all alike are invariably traduced
by their contemporaries the reason is from age to age everlastingly the same. By showing the meaning of apocalyptic
texts from Christian and Muhammadan Scripture, and by
drawing parallels between the advents of the past and that
of the present, he seeks to save his generation from repeating
the historic error of their forefathers and failing to recognise
till too late 'the time of their visitation.'
These are doctrinal works; the Covenant and the Testament of Baha'u'llah are likewise of profound importance to
the Baha'i community and deal with more practical matters.
Baha'u'llah here appoints his eldest son, known as 'Abdul-
BaM, his successor, making him 'the Centre of the Covenant'
-'whosoever turns to him hath surely turned to God,
and whosoever turns away from him hath turned away
from my Beauty, denied my proof and is of those who
transgress'-bequeaths certain directions to the people of
the world and announces that after himself no High-Prophet
will arise for a full thousand years.
Better known to the general reader than these or any
u6
other of the writings of Baha'u'lIah are the letters he addressed
to the rulers of the Middle East and of the West, including
the Epistles to the Kings which were described and analysed
by Baron Rosen in the Bulletin de l'Institut Oriental de Saint-
Petersbourg and by Professor E. G. Browne in the Journal
of the Rqyal Asiatic Society. He wrote to the Shah, to the
Sultan, and to his prime minister, to Queen Victoria, to
Napoleon III (twice), to the Czar of Russia, to the Pope; and
included in the Aqdas messages to the Emperors of Germany
and of Austria, and to the Presidents of the American Republics. In these letters he stated that he was suffering a grievous
captivity; but his mode of address, though courteous, was
not that of a subject to a sovereign, nor of weakness approaching power and grandeur. The style is ringing and the rolling
periods are overcharged with the energy of the writer's will.
The monarchs are asked to co-operate with the writer in
his efforts for the amelioration of the condition of the people,
and to promote among their citizens his ideas of fraternity
and universal peace through which alone the happiness
and prosperity of mankind would be assured. They stand as
representatives of God on earth since in them the divine
attributes of power and authority are centred, and it is
therefore incumbent on them to show forth the attendant
qualities of God, such as justice and providence, and to take
the greatest care of those committed to their charge. Baba'u'llah calls on them to accept and acknowledge the High-
Prophet whom God has sent forth for the guidance of
mankind, and asseverates that honour and prosperity will
bless their reigns through his submission alone.
In these letters Baha'u'llah incorporated certain predictions of impending historical events, to which circumstances
IZ.7
have drawn some public attention. Other writings also of the
Prophet contain predictions, from his Hidden Wordr composed in 1857-8 to the works of his closing years. Some of
these predictions are warnings of retribution, of downfall, of
defeat, of immense calamity; others are blessings and promises
of reward. Some are material in their scope, others spiritual.
Some indicate an early fulfilment, others look farther into
the future. All are to be realised within a measurable time
-not later, it appears, than the end of this century. The
most daring, the most dramatic, the most stupendous of
all his prophecies are undoubtedly those which lie at the
centre of his divine message: his categorical and reiterated
assurances that after a period of world-wide purgation
human nature is to be regenerated, the nations federated
and permanent peace to be established. But the attention of
scholars and the public hitherto has been mostly confined to
statements which clearly foretold approaching national
changes, and which came exactly true according to his word.
Thus, writing in 1869 to Napoleon III, then at the zenith of
his fortune, Baha'u'llih foretold the Emperor's speedy
downfall: which occurred the following year. To the Sultan
of Turkey he wrote in 1868 from his prison in 'Akka that
'ere long God's wrath shall overtake thee, revolutions shall
appear in your midst, and your countries will be divided.
Then you will weep and lament, and nowhere will you find
help or protection.' To the Sultan's chief minister he foretold an early fall from power, the loss to the Sultan of Adrianople and other places and a general political disruption.
On the other hand, to Queen Victoria he promised a long
and happy reign. Writing in the early seventies, he issued
to Germany (then flushed with victory over the French) a
12.8
warning of a bloody defeat on her western border, and of yet
a second trouble that should thereafter ensue. At the same
time he bade Persia:

'Let nothing grieve thee, 0 Land of Ta (Tihran), for
God hath chosen thee to be the source of the joy of all
mankind. He shall, if it be His Will, bless thy throne
with one who will rule with justice, who will gather together the flock of God which the wolves have scattered.'

Among all his uncounted works, Baba'u'llah assigned the
first place in importance to the treatise which he named
Kitab-i-Aqdas, The Most Ho!J Book. This has not yet been
published in English, but has long been available in the
original. It contains the statutes and the judgments which
are to be the law of the Kingdom of God during the New
Era. These ordinances are designed to meet the needs of
every land and to ensure the continual progress of every
people. They are universal in their scope, preserve the liberties of the nations, and are to lead to the harmonisation of
all interests and the establishment of enduring concord
among the classes and the peoples of the world.
The career of Baha'u'llah now has passed into history.
Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. It
stands complete. Those who opposed him have perished,
and the system that gave them their opportunity against
him has perished with them. The ecclesiastical hierarchy of
Persia and of Turkey has been discredited and reduced by
its own votaries. The Sultanate and the Caliphate, those
ancient institutions of Sunni Islam have been destroyed.
But the name and the word of Baba'u'llah endure. The record
of his life remains to prove what heights of constancy and
12 9
- - ---------~---------------

achievement can in the face of every difficulty be attained by
one who has consecrated his will wholly to the omnipotent
will of God. His counsels and teachings have spread around
the entire globe and brought with them to many comfort,
courage and hope. His prescience and his modernity grow
ever more evident as the world-changes he forecast take
shape in fact and the ideals he promulgated permeate the
West and the East, and are hailed as the distinctive marks of
our progressive age. His wisdom impresses ever more deeply
its claim on men's admiration as the repeated failure of all
superficial schemes drives them back upon the truth that
the social order of the world will never now be rebuilt till
men subject their personal wills to him who is the Source
of all unity and the Cause of all concord.
NOTE

Cardinal Datu of the Bahd'i Faith

Shaykh Ahmad of Ahsa, Arabia: first
forerunner of the Rib.
Siyyid Kazim; second forerunner of the
Bab.
1817, Nov. 12th. Birth of Baha'u'llah.
1819, Oct. 20th. Birth of the Bab.
1 84 1 • Marriage of the Bab.
1844, May 23rd. Declaration of the Bab to Mulla Husayn
in Shfniz.
IS45, August. Persecution of the Babls begins.
18 47. Bab's first examination in Tabrfz.
1849, February. Death of Mulla Husayn, 'the Gate of the
Gate.'
IS49, May 16th. Death of Quddus.
IS49, June. Death of Vahfd.
IS 50, March. Death of the Seven Martyrs of Tihran.
1850, July 9th. Death of the Rib.
ISp, January. Death of Hujjat.
IS52, Aug. 15th. Attempt on the life of the Shah.
1852, August. Death of Tahirih. -
Imprisonment of Baha'u'llah.
IS,2, December. Banishment of Baha'u'llah.
ISH, March. Baha'u'llah reaches Baghdad.
IS54, April. Withdraws to wilderness.
13 1
Returns from wilderness.
Composition of Seven Va/lV's, Hidden
Words.
1 858• Composition of Iqdn, or Book of Certitude.
1863, April to Public Declaration of Baha'u'llah.
May.
1863, May. Departure from Baghdad.
1863, August. Reaches Constantinople.
1863, December. Reaches Adrianople.
1864. Expulsion of all Babls from Persia.
1863-8. Composition of Epistles of the Kings,
First Epistle to Napoleon, Epistle to
Shdh of Persia.
1868, Aug. 31st. Reaches 'Akk::i.
1868-9°á Composition of 2nd Epistle to Napoleon,
Epistle to Queen Victoria, to the Czar,
to the Pope, Epistle to Son of the W'olf.
1892, May 29th. Passing of Baha'u'llah.
1908 . 'Abdu'l-Baha's release from prison.
19°9-10. 'Abdu'l-Baha in Egypt.
191 I. First Missionary Journey of 'Abdu'l-Bah::i
(to Geneva, London, Paris).
Second Missionary Journey of 'Abdu'l-
Bah::i (to U.S.A., 1912; to five cities
in England, London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Clifton and Woking; to Paris,
to Stuttgart, to Budapest and to
Vienna, 1913).
192.0. Knighting of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
192.1, Nov. 28th. Passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahi.
CHAPTER VIII

THE LIGHT OF THE KING'S LAW

HAVING proclaimed the Day of God, laid the foundations of
his Kingdom in the consciousness of mankind and set forth
its principles and laws, Baha'u'llah, in the year 1892, at the
age of seventy-five years, ascended to the higher world. In
a written testament he appointed his eldest son, 'Abdu'l-
Bahl, the Interpreter of his Word and the centre of his
Covenant. To him, as to the Great Messenger himself, all
believers were now to turn for guidance.
'Abdu'l-Bahl at once took up the task of establishing
among men the first beginnings of that new civilisation which
his father had planned and ordered. The task was one of the
greatest difficulty, even for one who had not spent his life
amidst the rigours of a Turkish prison. Nothing but a
supreme and loving trust in Bahl'u'llah could have supported a man of sober judgment in attempting to build an
earthly Paradise in such a world as this.
We are too near in time to Baha'u'lhih, too enfeebled by
the mental habits of an unregenerate past, to be able to grasp
the meaning of his constructive work, or to form a picture
of the new society that is to arise under his command. But
'Abdu'l-Baha, out of his father's Revelation, has set forth
the main features of the divine scheme, and has explained
in clear perspective the central truths and instructions round
which humanity is to be reordered and reorganised.
The Lord Christ on that day when his disciples came to
him and said, 'Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught
his disciples,' must surely have looked far into the eternal
realm and have seen there the spiritual likeness of the world
of Bah:i'u'll:ih. For that which in this time of the End has
been brought down to men is the exact fulfilment of that
prayer which Christ taught his disciples, and which Christendom has down the ages repeated after him. 'Our Father
which art in heaven; hallowed by The name. Thy Kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.' Through
the regenerative and creative might of Bah:i'u'll:ih the
attributes of the Most High are now in very fact to be
honoured among men, and their opposites held in hate and
scorn. Justice, kindness, compassion, truthfulness, faithfulness, and the like, are to reign in the place of those satanic
qualities whose dominion has hitherto made human history
a tale of sadness and shame. The Kingdom which now has
come down upon the earth is not the Kingdom of a High-
Prophet, nor is this Dispensation called by any High-
Prophet's title: rather this Age is the Age of God Himself,
this Kingdom the Kingdom of God manifest in his glory.

'With the name of this Day Thou hast adorned Thy
Tablet which is known only to Thee. Thou hast called it
The Day of God. In it nothing is to be seen save Thy
Supreme Self, and nothing is to be heard save Thy sweetest
Name. Wherefore when He appeared the nations were
shaken to their foundations, the learned were bewildered,
the wise confounded, save those who turned to Thee.•. .'

In this Day it is required by Bah:i'u'll:ih that the will of
God be done by men; and men shall be judged by their
1304
deeds and by nothing else. Faith in the past has been shown
by words. But it is not so now. 'The essence of faith is
fewness of words and abundance of deeds.' And again:
'Guidance hath ever been given by words, and now
it is given by deeds. Everyone must show forth deeds that
are pure and holy, for words are the property of all alike,
whereas such deeds as these belong only to our loved ones.
Strive then with heart and soul to distinguish yourself
by your deeds.'

Men under former systems have been accepted on their
professions, and have been classed according to their lipstatements of belief. Now by express command of God a
man is required to prove himself this or that by his conduct.
Thus have Christ and those who devoutly have repeated
this prayer opened the way for the millennial reign of Baha-
'u'lIah, and those who are citizens of the New Kingdom,
under whatever Confession they were reared, acknowledge
with gratitude the aid of that ancient prayer that now has
found fulfilment.
For the first, the most eminent, the most vital of the great
truths which distinguish this Revelation from all others
is this: that God's love has won over the hearts of men, and
that his dominion on the earth is complete and permanent.
This is not the Age of the Promise renewed but of the Promise kept. It does not bring to man a new phase or a new
aspect of the Ancient Covenant, but brings the fulfilment of
that Covenant in its completeness. The epigram that man
never is but always to be blest has in times gone by been
true; but it is true no longer-it is out of date and now is
false. Blessedness is at the door. God hitherto has endured
the waywardness and rebellion of mankind in its immaturity;
his mercy has protected them from the natural penalty of
their disobedience. He has suffered the tares to grow among
the wheat, the bad to be gathered into the fold with the good,
and his sun has shone upon the just and the unjust alike.
But his patience now is at an end. The appointed time for
the weeding out of the tares, for the rejection of the insincere,
for the destruction by fire of all workers of iniquity is come
in very deed at last. The vision which in its beauty and its
terror closes the Bible is no longer to be unveiled to the eye
of a seer alone, but is to stand upon the earth before the eyes
of all, embodied in historic fact. The poet's pictures of a
Golden Age are to seem no more 'such stuff as dreams are
made on,' but are to be realised by every living soul as an
inspired anticipation of that which this present Age unfolds.
A far-reaching metamorphosis of man's outer world and his
inner world, of society and of thought, is already taking
place; and the power by which this change is enforced is the
unchangeable decree of the Most High God.
Baha'u'llah leaves no doubt as to the meaning of the
victory of God and the triumph of his Cause. It does not
mean what in previous Dispensations the followers of a
High-Prophet have usually understood the triumph of his
Cause to mean. It does not mean factiousness, much less
strife.
'The meaning of victory is not this, that anyone should
fight or strive with another. • • . That which Godglorious is His mention-has desired for Himself is the
hearts of His servants, which are treasures of praise and
love of the Lord, and are stores of divine knowledge and
wisdom..•• To-day victory neither has been, nor will be,
13 6
OpposltlOn to anyone, nor strife with any person; but
rather, what is well-pleasing is that the cities of men's
hearts. which are under the dominion of the hosts of
selfishness and desire, should be subdued by the sword of
the word of wisdom and of exhortation. Everyone then
who desires victory must first subdue the city of his own
heart with the sword of spiritual truth and of the Word,
and must protect it from remembering aught but God;
afterwards let him turn his efforts towards the citadel of
the hearts of others. This is what is intended by victory.
Sedition has never been, nor will be, pleasing to God, and
that which certain ignorant persons formerly wrought was
never approved by God. If you are slain for His good
pleasure, verily it is better for you than that you should
slay.'
When God's throne is set up within men's hearts, his
writ will run without opposition or question. No land, no
people, no activity, will lie beyond its jurisdiction. The arts,
the sciences, all the occupations of all sections of society,
will be grouped around one centre, and will be pursued by
men who share a common devotion and a universal obedience.
Such is the most important of the truths set forth by
Baha'u'llah and made effective by his Will. On this all else
depends, and from this all else proceeds.
The Revelation of Baha'u'lhih, therefore, does not deal
alone with pure religion. It is concerned with more than
man's soul-attitude towards God and God's creation. It is a
social, as well as a spiritual, gospel. It involves indeed a
reorientation of many phases of life, and it offers counsel
and direction along many lines of endeavour.
The Baha'i community is to be a hive of activity and
co-operation. Social intercourse and festal gatherings are
encouraged. There are no recluses. All share the simple
ordinary life of humanity. Marriage is commended and
shown as consistent with, indeed, conducive to, the highest
spiritual attainment-all the three great examples, Baha-
'u'llah, the Bab and 'Abdu'l-Bahi were married. There are
no idlers nor parasites. Every man must have a business or
profession of some kind, and work done in the spirit of
service to society is accepted by God as an act of worship to
himself.
'The best of men are they that earn a livelihood by their
calling, and spend upon themselves and upon their kindred
for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds.' Men and women
will all meet upon the level. 'Know ye not why we created
you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over another.' But inequalities will remain. Inequality
is found everywhere in creation, from the thistle to the
cedar, from the atom to Mount Everest; otherwise there
would be no world. Men will always be different in character,
in aptitude and in ability. Some will be wiser, or more
influential, or nearer to God than others. Some will be more
affluent, others poorer: the care of the needy, the distressed,
and of orphans is committed to those who are able to help
as well as to the authorities.
Nor are all callings of indifferent value. Agriculture is
esteemed as of primary importance because on it depends
the existence of the people. It is the basis of Bahi'u'lhih's
economic system. A high place is given to the arts, particularly to music, and those whose practise these are given a
place of honour. Constitutional monarchy is approved,
though not enjoined, as a form of government, partly
because it saves the people from the disorder and the expense
13 8
entailed by frequent elections of the chief officer of the
state, and partly because the king is a symbol of the unity
of God. Loyalty to the constituted authorities is incumbent
on all Baha'is. The highest of all callings is that of the
teacher of religion. But in the world of Bahi'u'IIah there are
no professional clergy, no ecclesiastical class or caste of any
kind. There are no rites, nor is there any room or opportunity for the appearance of priestcraft in any shape or
form. Teachers of religion are not paid for their teaching,
and must gain their livelihood from some other source.
Their merit as teacher depends on their purity of purpose,
and their efficacy on their being prompted in their work
solely by a desire that God should be known. Auricular
confession is prohibited because confession to another man
'does not tend to the forgiveness of God.' The era of
Bahi'u'llih is the era of individual responsibility. On every
man is laid expressly the duty of investigating the truth for
himself. He is not to be content to play in life at the game of
'Follow your leader'; he is not idly to accept tradition,
nor idly take his opinions from other men. Oppression and
subservience of any kind are not to be in the Baha'i world.
As Christ foretold that the reign of social injustice would
mark the end of his Dispensation, so Baha'u'IIah has poured
forth the thunders of his indignation upon tyrants and all
tyranny, and has sworn that God will put an end to it.
'0 oppressors of earth, withdraw your hands from
tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any
man's injustice. This is My covenant which I have irrevocably decreed on the preserved Tablet and sealed it with
the seal of glory.' .
Justice he sets forth as the great principle in the Law of
God: 'The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice.'
On this is based the social order, and on it the individual,
too, is to rely for real advance in independence and wisdom.
'Turn not away from justice if thou desirest Me, and
neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou
wilt 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 neighbour. • . • Verily
justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving kindness. See it then before thine eyes.'
On the other hand, Baha'u'llah warns men strongly
against mistaken praise of liberty. It is not a boon save when
limited and regulated. On the contrary, it is a cause of chaos
and leads to destruction. All goodness depends on the abandonment of a falsely conceived individualistic liberty.
'The source of all goodness is trust in God, submission
to His command, and contentment with His holy will and
pleasure.' The Baha'i is trained to think less about his
liberty than about the purpose with which he was given that
liberty by his Lord. He looks for his ideal to One who chose
as his title, 'The Bond Servant of God,' and from that
example he learns to seek to use all his faculties to their
fullest extent, but never to let self-expression be carried to
the length of self-emphasis. 'Blessed is he who prefers
others to himself,' said Baha'u'llah. The law of justice bids
a man choose for others what he chooses for himself; the
law of mercy to help others regardless of himself.
The duty of the group, on the other hand, is in the first
place to preserve order and harmony, and in the second to
give the personalities of the various members the fullest
scope in working for the common good. On each and all who
14 0
belong to the group lies the responsibility of preserving this
balance, and God gives his special aid to their sincere endeavours.
The citizen of the Kingdom is expected to have the right
mental attitude, not only towards such and such particular
groups, but also in like measure towards that all-inclusive
group, the human race. 'Let not a man glory in this,' s;lid
Baha'u'llah to Professor Browne, 'that he loves his country;
let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.'
Baha'u'llih suffered and toiled for the whole of humanity.
He did not address his appeal to any section. He did not
aim to revive anyone religion, nor to reform any special
civilisation. His outlook was world-wide; his teaching from
beginning to end universal. The distinction of his Revelation
from all before it is that by the Ancient Decree of God it is
to be accepted by all humanity. There will be no more a
number of concurrent systems of faith and order, but one
system elaborated and expressed by the agreement of all
nations. The consciousness of the human race has now in the
fullness of time reached a new degree of development. It is
capable of appreciating at last the unity of the race. To this
education everyone of the High-Prophets of the past has
contributed his share. The work of none of them is lost. The
work of all lives still in the attainment of the race to-day.
Now through the Supreme Advent of Baha'u'llah it is
completed by a new and crowning bestowal of the grace of
the Everlasting God and of his Holy Spirit. Men everywhere
are now to believe and know at last the truth of the old
revelation that there is one Father of us all, that the earth
is one home, and that all men are brothers, and this belief
is to direct conduct and to become the basis of the new worldorder. Baha'u%ih has bidden all his followers to purge their
hearts of all religious and racial prejudices, and of all national
or racial animosities. Obedience to this command is held
to-day as the hall-mark of the loyal Baha'I. Jews, Christians,
Parsees, Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Free-thinkers-all
met together at the table of 'Abdu'l-Baha and enjoyed the
same consideration and the same privileges. In his presence
differences were forgotten; the underlying brotherhood
became all in all. What moral effort and breadth of mind
unaided would hardly accomplish, would happen in a
moment through the inspiration of Baha'u'llah.
The unification of mankind is accordingly the first great
practical task which the High-Prophet laid upon his followers.
Success in that task is made possible, nay insured, by the
special intervention of God, but it will not come about of
its own accord. Its accomplishment will need effort. If that
effort be not promptly made, unnecessary delay will cause
great and increasing tribulation.
Bahi'u'llah would-it seems-have brought his message
in person to the peoples of the West, but was prevented from
doing so by his enemies, who kept him a prisoner to the day
of his death. It fell to the lot of his son, 'Abdu'l-Bahi, to
carry out this project and to travel across Europe and the
United States as far as San Francisco proclaiming the Cause
and explaining the primary principles of Baha'u'lhlh's
scheme, for the unification of mankind.
'Abdu'l-Baha drew attention in the first place to the fact
that God in this Age had removed those geographical
barriers which hitherto had separated nation from nation,
and which had impeded the spread of all past Revelations.
He had taught men improved methods of locomotion and
14%
communication, and had thus in his good time created those
physical conditions which would enable the peoples of the
East and the West to unite their activities and to form
themselves into an organic union.
The removal of traditional misunderstandings and inveterate prejudice was another matter. Towards this end
Baha'u'llah ordained that all peoples should henceforth be
bilingual and should share one universal tongue, in addition
to having their own separate national tongues. This universal
medium should either be one of the languages already in use
or should be a special composite structure.
Baha'u'llah set forth for convenience of world-use a
universal calendar also, to be emp'loyed by all peoples,
instead of the rival systems now in use. For this purpose he
adopted, with a slight adjustment, that already created by
the Bab. In this, as in the ancient Greek calendar of Meton,
familiar to the West through the Golden Numbers, the
cardinal number of the system is nineteen. There are nineteen
days in each month, and nineteen months in the year, with
four or five intercalary days to make the calendar correspond
with the solar year, and the years are grouped in cycles of
nineteen. The names of the months are taken from attributes
of God, such as Splendour, Glory, Beauty, Grandeur, Light,
Mercy and the like.
The immense importance attached to education (as well as
to learning and culture generally), constitutes one of the
outstanding features of the Baha'i economy and religion.
This appears throughout the writings of Baha'u'llah in many
forms, through some allusion or implication as well as in
definite statement or express provision. For instance, in the
statute regarding bequests, the principle that a teacher is
14~
truly in an intellectual sense a father to his pupil is made
the basis of a legal enactment. Or again it is laid down that
the schooling of a daughter, as a future mother, takes precedence over that of a son, for the significant reason that in a
family the first teacher of the children is the mother and that
her responsibility in this regard must be specially looked to
from the beginning.
The general care of the diviner and humaner letters
throughout the world is entrusted to a College of International Teachers, who are appointed by the Guardian, he
himself as the ordained Expositor of the Sacred Text being
Teacher in Chief. This body elects from its own number a
special Staff or Chapter of nine members whose special
business it is to work in the closest association with the Chief
Teacher. The system of education to be pursued among the
nations has in its character and broad outlines been defined
by Baha'u'lhih. It will provide for students of all ages and
of both sexes, of every grade of intelligence. It will not be
confined to the leading races, but will include all, not being
complete till peoples now in a primitive condition come
within its scope. Its range will be ample and diversified
enough to give full play to every variety of taste and talent.
No nation will find its special needs and peculiar interests
sacrificed to those of any other nation, nor to those of the
whole. The particular abilities of all will be encouraged and
developed. Indeed, the general purpose of the great educational scheme will be to bring every human power and
faculty to its best perfection in order that the race-regarded
as a whole-may reach the highest practicable degree of
knowledge and efficiency.
On the other hand, the distortion of national history,
the perpetuation of local SusptclOns and animosttIes, the
inculcation of narrow or separatist views will be prevented.
The drift and spirit of all the information given to each
student will have been approved by an international Board,
and all that the student is taught will be in accord with the
instruction given to every other student everywhere.
The establishment of these educational principles will be
a prerequisite of any real unification of mankind. It will
constitute, too, a strong and permanent basis for a singleworld-culture, a universal civilisation.
To give stability to such a civilisation, and to set a mould
in which it will take form and shape, Bahi'u'llih has included
in his teaching certain economic regulations, taken over
almost wholly from the writings of the Bib, and also a
number of important ordinances in the field of both civil and
criminal law. The economic and the legal system are both
to run throughout the entire globe. During the current
Dispensation nothing is to be subtracted from them, nor
is any addition to be made to them save by the desire of the
whole of humanity expressed through a representative
central Council. Gass distinctions, in the odious sense, will
fade out; but there will always be differences in social status,
for the reason that members of an army cannot all be privates
nor all be generals. Capital will remain, but extremes of
wealth and poverty will be prevented, and the hardships
caused by the present struggle for existence will be alleviated.
No private citizen will carry weapons of offence. Every
national government, however, will have its corps of police
to preserve order, and the central world-government will
have a paramount police force to maintain peace among
the nations and to reduce to subjection any aggressor.
At the apex of this administrative system stand two high
Responsibilities, two signal Institutions: the Guardianship,
and the Universal House of Justice. The Guardian is the
centre and the representative of the unity of the Cause and
of the believers. He is denominated by 'Abdul'-Baha 'the
Sign of God, the Chosen Branch, the Expounder of the
Words of God.' The office is hereditary, and descends
normally to the eldest son. But it is to be noted that even
in this hereditary office (as in all the other offices of the
Baha'i administration) godliness of character is an essential
prerequisite • Each Guardian is in his own lifetime to designate his successor, the assent of the Chapter of Nine Teachers
being necessary to the validity of the appointment. Should
his first-born son not be spiritually worthy of his post,
should he not be 'detached from wordly things, the essence
of purity'; should he not 'show in himself the fear of God,
knowledge, wisdom and understanding,' the Guardian is to
pass him over and to choose 'another branch' in his stead.
The Guardian has the privilege also of appointing the
College of International Teachers, the 'Hands of the Cause,'
whose function is 'to diffuse the divine fragrances, to edify
the souls of men, to promote learning, to improve the
character of all men and to be at all times and under all
conditions sanctified and detached from earthly things.'
These Teachers elect from their own number a Council of
Nine who are to devote themselves entirely to aiding the
Guardian in his work.
The Universal House of Justice elected by all the peoples
of the earth, with the Guardian as its chairman, is the supreme
legislative body of the Baha'i world. To it is reserved the
privilege of making statutes and ordinances on all matters
not expressly dealt with in the Aqdas, and also of modifying
or rescinding its own enactments if occasion arise. Rigidity
in the legal system is thus avoided, and sufficient provision
made for the adjustment of the law to the changing needs
of a continually developing world.
By both Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baba order and discipline
in the Baha'i community are vigorously insisted on. The
Guardian and the Universal House of Justice are under the
particular protection of the All-Wise, and any form of disobedience to them in their respective spheres is forbidden
under penalty of the dire wrath of God.
The general scheme of world-administration towards
which the Baha'Is are working is thus outlined by the Guardian of the Cause in an exposition of certain passages contained
in the Epistle which Baha'u?llih wrote and despatched to
Queen Victoria in 1868.
'What else could these weighty words signify jf they
did not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered
national sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to
the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the
nations of the world? Some form of a world Super-State
must needs be evolved, in whose favour all the nations of
the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make
war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to
maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining
internal order within their respective dominions. Such a
State will have to include within its orbit an International
Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be
elected by the people in their respective countries and
whose election shall be confirmed by their respective
governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment
will have a binding effect even in such cases where the
parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit
their case to its consideration. A world community in
which all economic barriers will have been permanently
demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labour
definitely recognised; in which the clamour of religious
fanaticism and strife will have been for ever stilled; in
which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally
extinguished; in which a single code of international law
-the product of the considered judgment of the world's
federated representatives-shall have as its sanction the
instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces
of the federated units; and finally, a world community
in which the fury of a malicious and militant nationalism
will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness
of world citizenship-such indeed appears in its broadest
outline, the order anticipated by Baha'u'lhih' (November,
1931, Bahd'i Administration).
In America the administrative work of the Bahi'{s had
by 1926 grown so extensive that it was found advisable to
bring into being a legal form within which these activities
could be more effectively and securely conducted, and a
Voluntary Trust was entered into. The terms of this Trust
which have been published in The Bahd'i World show it to
be an effort to apply to .certain practical affairs those spiritual
principles on which Bahi'u'llih insisted. It offers itself,
therefore, as an example of the Baha'! philosophy in action
in the modern world.
The Declaration of Trust contains XII Articles, from
which the following passages may be quoted as typical.
The latter part of the preamble reads:
14 8
'The National Spiritual Assembly in adopting this
form of association, union and fellowship, and in selecting
for itself the designation of Trustees of the Baha'is 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 an everincreasing diversity and volume of affairs and properties
for the Baha'is of the United States and Canada, that
we, its members, now feel it both desirable and necessary
to give our collective functions more definite legal form.
This action is taken in complete unanimity and with full
recognition of the sacred relationship thereby created.
We acknowledge on behalf of ourselves and our successors
in this Trust the exalted religious standard established
by Baha'u'lhih for Baha'i 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 fulfil that exhortation.'
Towards the dose of the Declaration, in Article XI of the
By-Laws, occur these striking words:
'Among the most outstanding and sacred duties incumbent on tho~e who have been called upon to initiate,
direct and co-ordinate 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 to 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 self-contained aloofness, the
suspicion of secrecy, the stifling atmosphere of dictatorial
assertiveness and of every word and deed that may savour
of partiality, self-centredness and prejudice; and while
retaining the sacred right of final decision in their hands
to invite discussion, ventilate grievances, welcome advice,
and foster the sense of interdependence and co-partnership, of understanding and mutual confidence between
themselves and all other Baha'is.'

Now around the world, in more than 260 countries, the
activities of the Baha'is are carried on in accordance with
the ordinances of Baha'u'llah set forth and developed by
'Abdu'l-Baha. A full account of this system and its working,
established by the Guardian of the Faith, is given in the
later volumes of Baha'I World. (Vols. IX et seq.)
The avowed purpose of Baha'i administration, in whatever
country it has been established, is to promulgate the knowledge of God, to proclaim the New Gospel of Baha'u'llah,
and to carry out his desire of peace and unity among mankind. Its spirit is that of disinterested service. Its motive
power is spiritual love. To a place on its councils all men
alike are entitled, the brown, the yellow, the red, co-equal
with white; 'He is greatest who is nearest to God.' The
moral qualifications of all officers are like their official
functions exactly and fully defined. The first obligation laid
on the members of any group is that of their perfect love and
harmony. 'They must be wholly free from estrangement
and must manifest in themselves the unity of God,' said
'Abdu'l-Baha. His second command was that 'when coming
together they must turn their faces to the Kingdom on
high and ask aid from the realm of Glory.' The discussion of
political matters is wholly forbidden, and business is by order
ISO
'confined to spiritual matters that pertain to the training
of souls, the instruction of children, 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.'
Discipline is strict, and the most complete and wholehearted unity among the Friends is expected. Every believer
is strongly enjoined to
'obey from his heart and soul every bidding of the local
Assembly, and to be submissive to it, that things may be
properly ordered and well arranged. Otherwise,' continued
'Abdu'l-Baha, 'every person will act independently and
after his own judgment, will follow his own desire and do
harm to the Cause.;
In neighbourhoods where the Baha'i Faith is well established the local assemblies have not a little to do, and often
carryon much of their work through committees. They seek
to promote good feeling among the Friends and to encourage
the most earnest co-operation in the Cause. They help the
poor, the sick, the disabled, the orphan and the widow,
regardless of colour, class or creed. They take the liveliest
interest in the material, as well as the spiritual, enlightenment of the young. They maintain correspondence with other
Baha'i centres throughout the world, stimulate the development of Baha'i publications and magazines, and undertake
arrangements for the regular meetings of the Friends, as
well as for special gatherings designed to advance the social,
intellectual or spiritual well-being of their fellow-citizens.
For the sake of efficiency, the procedure in one of these
Assemblies is guided by the most modern methods of business; but the spirit which pervades the meeting is one of
1~1
simplicity and friendliness, and the deliberations of the
group resemble nothing so much as those of a family council.
Indeed, to the Baha'i, every community is, like the human
race itself, a family, and its interests are best advanced when
approached with that knowledge.
Each local Assembly consists of nine elected members,
and at the head of all the Assemblies of any particular country
is a National Spiritual Assembly which links them all together.
This, too, consists of nine members elected, not directly
(as are the local assemblies) but indirectly through delegates
chosen in each locality for the special purpose. It is the
custom to hold elections during the period of the Feast of
Ridvan, which celebrates the Declaration of Baha'u'llih
and runs from April 21st to May 3rd.
Thus a universal system of administration, as well as of
economics, of education and ofIaw, with a universal calendar
and language, form the five chief instruments of unification
which in the name of BaM'u'llah were set forth by 'Abdu'l-
BaM in his missionary journey of 1912.
But behind these practical measures there lies a yet more
potent unifying force in the general character and influence
of the Revelation of BaM'u'llah. It induces in all who listen
to it a new frame of mind, a new outlook on life, a new
realisation of the Unity of God, of his creation, and of the
beings whom he has made. It shows that this proposed
organisation of many nations into one whole is not an afterthought, a felicitous conception of this latter time. It is, in
fact, the normal expression of an ancient and everlasting
truth which man has refused to apply or to appreciate. As
the human body, though complex and differentiated, is an
ordered whole, so is the human race an organic unity. 'One
15 2
soul in many bodies,' said 'Abdu'l-Bahi. To separate one
part from others is to weaken and paralyse. Perfect health
and strength exists only when all parts work together in
harmony. When all the nations consciously and intelligently
group themselves into a single co-ordinllted system, then for
the first time in human history the race will reach its full
strength and vigour. Then it will begin to know itself, to
feel its power, to perceive its possibilities, to reach in the life
of everyday heights of achievement and felicity of which
none of the nations had dreamed in the night of their estrangement.
This unity of mankind is put by Bahi'u'llah in the setting
of a yet greater unity. Man is shown to be by virtue of his
material nature no foreigner in his environment nor an alien
amid the lower kingdoms of nature. He is the 0 altitudo of
God's creation, yet he is a part of it, and inasmuch as he
lives in a body all the beings below him in the scale of life
are his lesser brothers and sisters. The whole creative process
is one-one in its movement, one in its origin, one in its end.
From the Day when the Spirit begins to act upon that
primordial substance which fills eternally all space, and
moulds it into structures and into yet higher structures till
after vast periods of time the elements are evolved and fixed
and there appear forms through which the ever-flowing
energy of God can manifest itself-from the first premundane stirrings of creation till at last one made in the image
of God walks upon the planet and bows his head in worship
before his Maker-through this whole process all that
happens proceeds from one will, is governed by one law,
directed to one purpose and carried through to one last
pre-ordained Event. The unity of God is mirrored in all that
153 F
be does. Man stands at the apex of creation, which exists
for him and was undertaken that he might be brought into
being. Baba'u'llih endorses the ancient quotation from
God, 'But for thee I would not have created the spheres.'
All men, to whatever race or nation they belong, represent
the highest work of the Creator. Each of them, be he white
or black, is endowed with all the faculties, and is 'the dawning
place of righteousness.'
With such teachings as these BaM'u'llah calls on the
people of his Dispensation, one and all, to probe the inner
meanings of the universe and to enter a new field of consciousness where knowledge of the truth will deliver them from tbe
base delusions that set man against man, nation against
nation, race against race.
CHAPT1':R. IX

THE FIRE OF THE KING'S LOVE

NOT by divine instruction, not by mind knowledge, nor by
the following of a code of law or system of administration is
the unification of mankind to be established or inaugurated,
but rather by a true abiding love that burns away difference
of self-interest, and melts by its flame all hearts into one
heart. Each stands for all, and where one is all are.
God in this last and great Day (as the Baha'is believe)
has fixed upon the earth a Centre towards which all men will
turn, a point of attraction that shall draw all men to it and
confer upon them for all time a common basis of sympathy
and agreement. God has set up his tabernacle among men,
has built in their hearts a dwelling-place where his love may
enter and abide, and deep in the affections of his children
has fixed the firm and everlasting foundation of world-wide
concord and unbroken unity. A religion springing from a
common aspiration, animated by a common devotion,
calling to a common obedience, bestowing upon all a common
happiness, shall bind all nations and all lives into one whole
by chains of a common awe and a common love.
The labours of all the High-Prophets of the past now have
borne fruit. Nothing has been lost. The harvest has come, and
to its coming all God's beloved down the ages, the martyrs
and the saints, those known to the world and those unknown,
all have contributed their share. Daily these are by every
believer remembered before God and glorified. The purpose
of all the Messengers of God has been to promote among
men unity through love.
'Know thou: said Baha'u'llah in a passage already
quoted, 'that in every age and cycle all laws and ordinances have been changed according to the requirements
of the time, except the law of love which, like a fountain,
ever flows, and the course of which never suffers change.'
When an Indian said to 'Abdu'l-Baha, 'My object in life
is to transmit so far as in me lies the Message of Krishna
to the world,' the Master replied, 'The Message of Krishna
is the Message of Love. All God's Prophets have brought
the message of love' (Paris, p. 30).
To a believer, 'Abdu'l-Baha wrote:
'The essence of the teachings of His Holiness Baha-
'u'llih is Universal Love which comprehends all the. virtues
of the world of humanity, and is the cause both of eternal
life and of the progress of the individuals of the human
race' (Ep. III, 544).
And again he wrote:
'The purpose of the appearance of the Blessed Perfection was the unity and agreement of the people of the
world. Therefore, my utmost desire is firstly the accord
and union and love of the believers, and after that of all
the people of the world' (II, 125).
And in another place:
'The first bounty from the True One is love, unity
and harmony, and without these all the deeds pass in
vain and give no result' (II, 183).
15 6
The beginning of this Revelation and its end, is Love.
God's love ordained it before the foundation of the world.
God's love in his good time has sent it forth in this human
realm. God's love has guided, governed and sustained its
course. Its three heavenly Light-bearers (its Morning Star,
its Sun, its Moon) shed forth in lavish and intense profusion,
without stint or limit or cessation, the rays of divine love,
scattering the darkness that enveloped the world. They
themselves in their own being were love, for God is love and
they were of his essence. Their characters and lives were all
instinct with love, and so likewise was every command,
every teaching they gave. By them love is revealed as the
originative and supporting principle of all existence. In
The Hidden Words, the Voice of God declares: 'Veiled in
My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My
essence I know My love for thee; therefore I created thee,
have engraved on thee My image and revealed to thee My
beauty.'
Through all the grades of all that has breath or being,
love is the building power, and all is enveloped by the everpresent love of God. Love reflected in the lower kingdoms
is the force that gathers primordial and undifferentiated
substance into structures and forms, that summons into
existence the ancient elements and all their offspring, the
fern, the flower, the bird, the beast, and man himself with
his transcendent gifts of mind and heart. When in this
mortal realm of growth and of decay this attractive power
is withdrawn, the combination which it formed is dissolved
and disappears. In all the activities of society, love is the
force that imparts unity and life, and when in the hearts of
men love ceases, the harmony and co-operation, of which
it was both the cause and the maintenance, give place to
separation and to death.

'Love,' wrote 'Abdu'l-Bahi in one of his tablets,-
'Love is the principle of God's holy Dispensation, the
Manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual
outpourings. Love is heaven's kindly light, the Holy
Spirit's eternal breath that vivifies the human soul. Love
is the cause of God's Revelation unto man, the vital bond
inherent according to divine creation in the essences of
things. Love is the one means that ensures true felicity
both in this world and in the next. Love is the light that
guides in darkness, the living link that unites God with
man, that assures the progress of every illumined soul.
Love is the supreme law that rules this mighty and heavenly
cycle, the sale power that binds together the divine elements
of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that
directs the movements of the spheres in the celestial
realms. Love reveals with unfailing and limitless power
the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of
life within the beautified body of mankind; it establishes
true civilisation in this mortal world, and sheds imperishable glory upon every aspiring race and nation... .'

The love of God surrounds every heart, but enters not
save as an invited guest. Conscious of his weakness and his
misery-of a life so transient, a knowledge so incomplete, a
happiness so narrow and unstable-man longs for better
things and dreams of a heaven, if one there be. God's love
is that heaven, cries BJ.ha'u'lLih, and summons to it every
child of man:
'Thy Paradise is áM~ love; thy heavenlv home re-union
with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which
15 8
hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and
Our exalted dominion.'
'My son, give me thine heart.' To love God is the supreme
duty, and the one beatific attainment of each human soul.
God waits without. Paradise stands with gates wide open,
but only the true lover may enter there. 'Love me that I
may love thee. If thou lovest me not, my love can in no wise
reach thee. Know this, 0 servant. • •• If thou lovest me,
turn away from thyself, that thou mayest die in me and I
may eternally live in thee.' There is no peace for man nor
any glory, save in self-abandoning love for God; nor though
he scour the wide earth and the highest heaven will he find
rest to his soul save in this love for God. God's love is a
stronghold wherein whoever enters is safe from adversity
and distress.
'Bless me with love for thine essence' (so the votary
is taught to pray) 'that being delivered from all regard
for myself, or for anything but thee, I may be utterly
enthralled by thee, knowing but thee, seeing nothing but
thee, thinking of nothing but thee.'
Love for God is the highest form of wealth man can gain
on earth: it is indeed the only true wealth. 'Whoso loves
me is the possessor of all things, and he who loves me not is
indeed of the poor and needy.'
It is the nature of man to love God, would he but perceive
and know. God has breathed a breath of his own spirit into
man that man may be his lover. 'My love is in thee. Know it,
that thou mayest find Me near to thee.' The believer prays,
'Grant me the joy of beholding thy eternal being, 0 thou
who art more real than myself, thou who dwellest in my
inmost heart.' And if he will but turn and gaze upon himself
he will find God standing there within him in love, majesty
and might. For God's dwellingplace is not the vaulted sky,
and he has no home on earth save in the heart of his children.
In The Hiddm Words the voice of God gives poignant
utterance to the lament of an unrequited love. The Great
Lover (who has nothing to gain from his creatures' love,
for all is his already, but has all to give) sorrows over the
infatuation of those Sons of Dust who through their lovelessness reject their heritage of bliss and bring down upon
themselves a thousand woes. Baha'u'11ah revealed that the
most important cause of man's evil plight was his lack of
love for God. He set forth four modes of love: God's love
for his own perfections which caused him to create that these
might be known, God's love for man, man's love for God,
and man's love for his fellow man. If a fifth be added, it is,
as 'Abdu'l-Baha said, the love of a man for his own higher
self which causes him to progress. But Baha'u'11ah defined
love to be in its essence the turning of man to God, his
severance from all save God, and his desire for naught save
what God desires.
'Abdu'l-Baha extolled the power created within man by
this love for God.

'By the fire of the Love of God the veil is burned which
separates us from the Heavenly R~alities, and with clear
vision we are enabled to struggle onward and upward,
ever progressing in the paths of virtue and holiness, and
becoming the means of light to the world. There is nothing
greater or more blessed than love for God. It gives healing
to the sick, balm to the wounded, joy and consolation to
the whole world, and through it alone can man attain Life
Everlasting. The Essence of all religions is the love for
God, and it is the foundation of all the sacred teachings'
(Paris, p. 74).
There are on earth many semblances and many mockeries
of the high name of love; but authentic love is rare. A
worldly friend, Baha'u'lIah taught, in his love for others is
really thinking of himself and his own good; his love is
unreal. 'Whereas the true friend hath loved and doth love
you for your own sakes; indeed he hath suffered for your
guidance countless afflictions' (P.H.W., 52.).
'Abdu'l-Baha would warn his hearers against putting their
trust in a love that was not of the truest. He uttered in his
gentle way warnings against a love that was mere fascination,
a love that was based (however subtly) on self-interest, a
love that had its end in antipathy and hate. A love that
has its selfishness or its limits is not enough. True love
in no way seeks its own, nor counts its gifts, and God in
this age demands from his creatures both for himself and
for one another the truth and very reality of love. 'The
true lover of God yearns for tribulation in his path.' The
Bab, Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Bahi with an unfaltering and
a radiant joy, immolated themselves upon the altar of servitude
to God, giving all they had and all they were up to him utterly.
They withheld nothing; neither their possessions, nor their
lives, nor even their families. They prayed for greater trials
yet: '1 never passed a tree but 1 cried out that 1 might be
nailed to it in his Name.'
Of the complete Baha'i it is required that he should love
his neighbour as himself to the extent, if need be, of sacrificing
for him his own comfort and convenience, even his limb
or his life. The brief annals of the Faith record already how
in Muhammadan countries many a BaM.'! in perilous times
has taken unto himself a brother's fault, or saved a brother's
life, at the expense of his own. Nor is the Baha'i to reserve
self-sacrifice within the circle of his comrades or well-wishers.
In obedience to God's command, and through the power
implanted in him by God, he must extend his love to all
mankind without discrimination of class or party, race or
creed.
'Know ye not why we created you all from the same
dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other.
Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created.
Since we have created you all from one 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' (A.H.W., 68).
In one of his talks in Paris, 'Abdu'l-Baba emphasised the
boundlessness of true love, and affirmed that now through
the gift of the Holy Spirit such love was brought within
reach of the sons of men. Love of family, of nation, of race,
of party, these and such limited expressions of love were all
inadequate.
'The great unselfish love for Humanity,' he said, 'is
bounded by none of these imperfect semi-selfish bonds;
this is the one perfect Love, possible to all mankind, and
it can only be achieved by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
No worldly power can accomplish this universal love'
(paris, p. 32).
No provocation is admitted by God as an excuse for a
Baha'is lack of love. Lovingkindness is to be a constant
impregnable attitude of soul.
'The more they oppose thee,' wrote 'Abdu'l-Baha to
one whose patience was sorely tried, 'the more do thou
shower upon them justice and equity. The more they show
hatred and opposition, the more do thou challenge them
with truthfulness, friendship and reconciliation' (Ep. III,
ppá551- 8).
In another letter (II, 389) he explained that according to
the teachings of Baha'u'llah believers must in this present
age be the friends of all nations and of all communities. They
must not let their eyes dwell upon the violence, the ill will,
the persecution or the hostility that might surround them
but instead should lift their gaze to the realm of divine glory
and look upon these ill-doers as creatures of God, 'signs
of the Lord of signs' who had been brought into existence
by the divine favour and volition, and were therefore to be
regarded, not as strangers or aliens, but as acquaintances
and friends. The believer was not to consider the merits and
capabilities of people, but to show sympathy to strangers
as well as to friends, to display genuine love to others under
all conditions, never allowing that love to be over-borne by
people's hatred, malice, contentiousness, or spite. If he be
made a target for their arrows, he is to give milk and honey
in return; if they administer poison, he is to bestow sweetmeats; if they inflict pain, he is to answer with balm.
'Love and faithfulness,' he wrote (I, 12.5), 'must so
fill the heart that men will look on the stranger as a friend,
• • • count enemies as allies, foes as loving comrades,
their executioner as a giver of life, the denier as a believer,
and the unbeliever as one of the faithful.'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----

Throughout the teachings this command that the heart
shall be taught and the actions shall express the law of
universal love is set forth repeatedly and insistently, in all
its details and in all its aspects. In that sketch of the good
life, for example, which 'Abdu'l-Baha gave, and which has
become the viaticum of every Baha'i, nearly every injunction
is some application of the supreme principle of love.
To live the life is:

'To be no cause of grief to anyone.
'To be kind to all people and to love them with a pure
spirit.
'Should opposition or injury happen to us, to bear it,
to be as kind as ever we can be, and through all, to love
the people. Should calamity exist in the greatest degree,
to rejoice, for these things are the gifts and favours of
God.
'To be silent concerning the faults of others, to pray
for them, and to help them, through kindness, to correct
their faults.
'To look always at the good and not at the bad. If a
man has ten good qualities and one bad one, look at the
ten and forget the one. And if a man has ten bad qualities
and one good one, to look at the one and forget the ten.
'Never to allow ourselves to speak one unkind word
about another, even though that other be our enemy.
'To do all of our deeds in kindness.
'To cut our hearts from ourselves and from the world.
'To be humble.
'To be servants of each other, and to know that we are
less than anyone else.
'To be as one soul in many bodies; for the more we
love each other, the nearer we shall to be God; but to
1 64
know that our love, our unity, our obedience must not
be by confession, but of reality.
'To act with cautiousness and wisdom.
'To be truthful.
"To be hospitable.
'To be reverent.
'To be a cause of healing for every sick one, a comforter for every sorrowing one, a pleasant water for every
thirsty one, a heavenly table for every hungry one, a
star to every horizon, a light for every lamp, a herald to
everyone who yearns for the kingdom of God.
'Abdu'I-Bahd.'

What the teachings show, the character and the action
of the Messengers themselves show yet more impressively.
A perfect love for God and for man is the explanation of
their lives, the key to the mystery of their combined achievement. Their laying aside their personal names and assuming
spiritual titles signified a complete self-abnegation, the
sacrifice of all their own ends and purposes for the pursuit
of a task undertaken in obedience to God. When Mirza
'Ali-Muhammad, the merchant, took the title of the Bab he
proclaimed himself the Gate through which the King of
Glory was to enter, and dedicated every thought and every
moment to making ready in the desert a highway for his Lord.
With a lover's firmness he faced in the Cause of God
misunderstanding, misrepresentation and torture, and before
he passed the age of thirty met a martyr's death.
Mirza Husayn 'Ali, at the bidding of the Most High,
surrendered rank, wealth and honour, and as Baha'u'llah
endured half a century of imprisonment, was four times
exiled, underwent year by year and day by day countless
16 5
afflictions, submitting to all with a radiant acquiescence in
the will of that Supreme Sovereign whom for love's sake he
served.
'Abbas Effendi, born the heir to high distinction and to
wide estates, at the age of nine years followed his father into
exile, and from that moment to his death at an advanced
age made himself as nothing but the servant of the Great
Beloved, and counted his title 'Abdu'l-Baha, 'the Bondservant of Glory,' as his sword and his crown.
The personal appearance of the three as seen in such
portraits as are extant bears witness to the same spirit of
goodwill and love. The picture of the youthful Bab shows
in his face that winning kindliness to which the records
testify. In that of Baha'u'llah a wonderful sweetness, it is
said, is mingled with an expression of authority and massive
power. Here is an American's account of his first view of the
portrait:
'We looked upon the photograph of Baha'u'IIah. It is
••• the face of one who had "found his beloved in the
garden" of his heart; in whom a wondrous power was
evident, not to oppose but to submit, and submitting to
conquer the opposers. There can be no doubt of the source
of that wondrous power which sits upon that brow as on
a throne of majesty, which rises up, unbidden as a maiden's
blush, upon that face with rarest beauty. It is the Blessed
Beauty, the Blessed Perfection. It is the face of him in
whom no wish nor desire is found save the will of God.
It is the Face of God-the lights of all the attributes of
God play over it.'
In the well-known photographs of 'Abdu'l-Baha taken in
Paris, strength of intellect and will appears in harmony with
a great humility and the sadness of a heart that ached in
sympathy with a suffering world.
Because a heavenly love was the ruling principle of their
activity, the Bab, Baha'u'lhlh and 'Abdu'l-Baha united to
an heroic energy and resolution the gentle beauty and perfections of the saint. Each arose in his place to confront, to
defy and to redeem a corrupt, godless and cruel civilisation;
In the terrific combat which ensued (a deadly combat in
which neither side asked nor gave quarter) the champions
of the Most High never lifted a hand in self-defence, never
fled from danger, nor showed personal resentment, nor
stinted kindness to any, even the meanest and most implacable of their foes. Detesting and denouncing evil, exposing
evil-doers and giving battle at any risk to themselves to all
who opposed the progress of God's declared will, they yet
were compassionate and forbearing, patient, calm, mild.
So radiant was the beauty of the Bab's character that his
influence on those about him seemed magical. He would
win the hearts even of his jailers, guards, inquisitors. His
personal effect upon those about him during his confinement
at Chihriq is described by Nabll, who states that the Governor
of the prison found himself powerless to carry out the
harsh treatment of the Bab ordered by the Vizir. For
'he too soon came to feel the fascination of his Prisoner.
he too forgot as soon as he came into contact with his
spirit, the duty he was expected to perform. At the very
outset the love of the Bab penetrated his heart and claimed
his entire being. The Kurds who lived in Chihriq •••
were likewise subjected to the transformingTnfluence of
the Bib. Such was the love he had kindled in their hearts
that every morning ere they started on their daily work
16 7
they directed their steps towards his prison, and gazing
from afar at the castle which contained his beloved self
invoked his name and besought his blessings. They would
prostrate themselves on the ground and seek to refresh
their souls with the remembrance of him' (p. 302).
Could he have gained access to the head of the Realm,
the Shah, he might have persuaded His Majesty to accept
the New Teaching, and have inaugurated an era of reform.
His enemies acknowledged and feared the danger. They were
ever alert to avoid it. His irregular and hurried execution
was especially designed to make such an interview once and
for all impossible.
Baha'u'llah had the same power of evoking a response
to his own outpouring of love.
In the earliest days of the Faith, long before Baha'u'llih
declared his mission, the poetess Tahirih bore witness to
this power: 'The effulgence of the 'Abba Beauty hath pierced
the veil of night; behold the souls of his lovers dancing,
mote-like, in the light that has flashed from his face I'
Professor E. G. Browne, visiting 'Akka in 1890, found him
the centre 'of a boundless and almost incredible amount of
love and reverence: and on being admitted to his presence
described himself as 'bowing before one who is the object of
a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors
sigh for in vain' (Trat'eller's Narrative, Introduction, p. 40).
The charm and might of that personality is now in the
providence of God being withdrawn by time from remembrance, lest men perchance should fall into error, honouring
the Superman too much and the Eternal Spirit which shone
through him too little. But the servitude to which he inspired
his lovers is recorded in history; and it is embodied in its
most perfect form in the life, the example, and the name of
the Centre of the Covenant.
Only one European is known to have written an account
of an interview with the Bab; only one likewise to have
recorded an interview with Baha'u'llah. But many travellers
and pilgrims from the West visited 'Abdu'l-Baha in his home
in Palestine and testified to the warmth and the breadth of
his sympathy, his kindness and his charm.
When in his old age, broken in health, he visited the West
in an effort to deter men from the war he saw impending,
thousands of people in Germany, France, England and
America saw him and heard him speak. His genial manner,
his quick sympathy, his ever-flowing kindliness, his selfless
devotion to the Cause of his Father, were evident to all who
had the privilege of meeting him. Physically exhausted, he
never declined an opportunity of giving his message. 'Where
there is love,' he would say, 'effort is a rest.' There are
still many in the Occident as well as in the Orient who
testify to the power of an utterance which touched all hearts
and brought to every attentive ear a new knowledge of what
is meant by true goodwill and love.
Of his visit to London, it was written ('Abdu'l-Bahd in
London, pp. xiii and xiv):
'A profound impression remained in the minds and
memories of all sorts and conditions of men and women.
The width of 'Abdu'l-Baha's sympathy proved, in every
instance, as helpful as his discrimination and perspicacity
in dealing with difficulties whether subtle or obvious. Each
person approaching him found himself understood, and
was astonished and relieved by 'Abdu'l-Baha's comprehension of religious differences; above all, of religious
agreements .... He left behind him many friends. His love
had kindled love. His heart had opened to the West, and
the West had closed around this patriarchal presence from
the East.'
'All the people know him and love him-the rich and
the poor, the young and the old-even the babe leaping
in its mother's arms. If he hears of anyone sick in the city
-Moslem or Christian, or of any other sect, it matters not
-he is each day at their bedside or sends a trusty messenger .••• He claims nothing for himself-neither comfort, nor honour, nor repose. Three or four hours of sleep
suffice him; all the remainder of his time and strength
are given to the succour of those who suffer in spirit or in
body.'
So wrote M. H. Phelps in his 'Abbas Effendi, pp. 6, 10.
Another who knew 'Abdu'l-Bahi (the Governor of Haifa)
spoke of him as follows (The Passing of 'Abdu'I-Bahd, p. 2.2.):
'Most of us here have, I think, a clear picture of Sir
'Abdu'l-Bahi Abbas, of his dignified figure walking
thoughtfully in our streets, of his courteous and gracious
manner, of his kindness, of his love for little children and
flowers, of his generosity and care for the poor and suffering. So gentle was he, and so simple, that in his presence
one almost forgot that he was also a great teacher, and
that his writings and conversations have been a solace
and an inspiration to hundreds and thousands of people
in the East and in the West.'
An American meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahi in Thonon recorded
his experience as follows:
'To look upon so wonderful a human being, to respond
utterly to the charm of his presence-this brought me
continual happiness•••• Patriarchal, majestic, strong, yet
infinitely kind, he appeared like some just king that very
moment descended from his throne to mingle with a
devoted people. • •• He laughed heartily from time to
time-indeed, the idea of asceticism or useless misery of
any kind cannot attach itself to this fully-developed
personality. The divine element in him does not feed at the
expense of the human element, but appears rather to
vitalise and enrich the human element by its own abundance, as if he had attained his spiritual development by
fulfilling his social relations with the utmost ardour'
(Horace Holley, Modern Social Religion, pp. 231-14).
When in November, 1921, 'Abdu'l-Baha passed away,
one of the tributes paid to him included these words:
'The eyes that had always looked out with lovingkindness upon humanity, whether friends or foes, were
now closed. The hands that had ever been stretched forth
to give alms to the poor and needy, the halt and the
maimed. the blind, the orphan and the widow, had now
finished their labour. The feet that with untiring zeal had
gone upon the ceaseless errands of the Lord of Compassion
were now at rest. The lips that had so eloquently championed the cause of the suffering sons of men, were now
hushed in silence. The heart that had so powerfully
throbbed with wondrous love for the children of God was
now stilled. His glorious spirit had passed from the life of
earth, from the persecutions of the enemies of righteousness, from the storm and stress of wellnigh eighty years of
indefatigable toil for the good of others' (The Passing of
'AbdJI'I-Bahd, pp. 9-10).
These quotations, culled almost at random, suggest
something of the impression made on those Westerners who
17 1
met and knew him. The classic expression of the inspiring
power which he could impart to one prepared to receive it is
from the pen of one of the writers cited above.
'. • • As the party rose I saw among them a stately
old man, robed in a cream-coloured gown, his white hair
and beard shining in the sun. He displayed a beauty of
stature, an inevitable harmony of attitude and dress I had
never seen nor thought of in men. Without having ever
visualised the Master, I knew that this was he. My whole
body underwent a shock. My heart leaped, my knees
weakened, a thrill of acute receptive feeling flowed from
head to foot. I seemed to have turned into some most
sensitive sense-organ, as if eyes and ears were not enough
for this sublime impression. In every part of me I stood
aware of 'Abdu'l-Bam's presence. From sheer happiness
I wanted to cry-it seemed the most suitable form of
self-expression at my command. While my own personality was flowing away, even while I exhibited a state of
complete humility, a new being, not my own, assumed its
place. A glory, as it were from the summits of human
nature, poured into me, and I was conscious of a most
intense impulse to admire. In 'Abdu'l-Baha I felt the
awful presence of Baha'u'llih, and as my thoughts returned
to activity, I realised that I had drawn as near as man
now may to pure spirit and pure being. This wonderful
experience came to me beyond my own volition. I had
entered the Master's presence and become the servant of
a higher will for its own purpose. Even my memory of that
temporary change of being bears strange authority over
me. I know what men can become; and that single overcharged moment, shining out from the dark mountain
pass of all past time, reflects like a mirror I can turn upon all
circumstances to consider their worth by an intelligence
172.
purer than my own' (Modern Social Religion, Appendix
I, pp. ZII, zu).
Such is the love that God has breathed upon the dead
heart of the world. Such is the love which is to reawaken the
souls of men to the consciousness of heavenly things and to
quicken their spirits to a higher life. Already it has shown
its efficacy in great and in little. It has lent a new charm to
social converse. It has broadened vision, it has broken
barriers, it has sweetened life, it has taught a daring and a
fortitude to which there seem no bounds. In the early days
of the Faith it used to be said that one could not take tea
with the Baha'is without wishing to join their society. The
Persian Muslims ascribed the attractive power of the Friends
to the use of philtres and magic charms whereby they infected their neighbours with their own madness. The
eagerness, the ardour, the rapture which filled the hearts
and souls of those early Babis, is indeed (even to those who
can only read now the record of it) a wonder, an inspiration
and a challenge. With what longing, what boundless enthusiasm they rejoiced to spend themselves in devotion to their
Lord. No effort was too difficult to make, no danger too
serious to court, if only thereby they thought they could
serve his Cause. Those possessions which they, like other
men, held dear-property, reputation, comfort, home, child,
wife and life itself-these they were ready to abandon for
their dear Lord's sake, and counted it the greater blessing
if by making some complete outstanding abnegation they
might the better show the full measure of their love and give
the greater glory to the Bab and to his God.
The Bab (himself a living flame from which all others
in those earliest days caught their fire, and which in its
intensity and power none else could rival or approach)-
the Bab in the perfection and the passion of his spiritual love
was the original and great exemplar of them all.
Once when some of the Bab's friends expressed to him
fear of his personal safety, he answered:
'Fear not. I am come into this world to bear witness
to the glory of sacrifice. You are aware of the intensity of
my longing; you realise the degree of my renunciation.
Nay, beseech the Lord your God to hasten the hour of my
martyrdom and to accept my sacrifice. Rejoice, for both
I and Quddus will be slain on the altar of our devotion to
the King of Glory. The blood which we are destined to
shed in His path will water and revive the garden of our
immortal felicity. The drops of this consecrated blood
will be the seed out of which will arise the mighty Tree of
God, the Tree that will gather beneath its all-embracing
shadow the peoples and kindreds of the earth' (Nabil,
pp. 140 - 1 ).
That sacred adage which Nabil applies to the martyr
Quddus would seem to apply with scarce less accuracy to
many of his fellow Babls:
'Whoso seeketh Me, shall find Me.
Whoso findeth Me, shall be drawn to Me.
Whoso draweth nigh unto Me, shall love Me.
Whoso loveth Me, him shall 1 also love.
He who is beloved of Me, him shall I slay.
He who is slain by Me, 1 Myself shall be his ransom.'
If another quotation from that heroic age be needed to
show the spirit of the Babls at that time, it may be the outcry
of the young Hujjat when, in the persecution of Zanjan, he
had just seen his dear wife and their infant killed.
'Though filled with grief he refused to yield to idle
sorrow. "The day whereon I found Thy Beloved One, 0
my God," he cried, "and recognised in Him the Manifestation of Thy Eternal Spirit, I foresaw the woes that I
should suffer for Thee. Great as have been until now my
sorrows, they can never compare with the agonies that I
would willingly suffer in Thy name. How can this miserable
life of mine, the loss of my wife and of my child, and the
sacrifice of the band of my kindred and companions,
compare with the bJessings which the recognition of Thy
Manifestation has bestowed on mel Would that a myriad
lives were mine; would that I possessed the riches of the
whole earth and its glory, that I might resign them all
freely and joyously in Thy path" , (Nabil, p. 572).
Baffled in their efforts to check this influence, the mullahs,
through a persistent persecution to which already reference
has been made, sought to destroy good with evil, and to
kill love with hate. The new faith was proscribed and its
votaries subjected to a violent and unrelenting persecution.
The Babls, and afterwards the Baha'is, were insulted, driven
from their homes, impoverished, beaten, exiled, paraded
under torture through the streets, beheaded, torn limb from
limb, or massacred indiscriminately by scores and hundreds.
Knife and bludgeon, boiling water and slow fire: these and
such as these were the weapons of the priesthood against
the objects of their wrath. Few of the faithful shrank from
the torture; few hesitated; many went to their death singing
in exultation the love song of the martyrs, and bore their
sufferings with benedictions on their lips. Thousands thus
have given their lives for the Baha'I cause.
As of old, so now, the blood of the martyrs is the seed
of the Church. The love which God had kindled in the world
lived on unquenched and undimmed. It spread far and wide,
east and west, traversing continents, leaping seas, consuming
all barriers, checked by no bounds. Its influence has been
felt up to the present time by but a small section of the
human race. Yet already under the banner of Baha'u'llah
men of many tongues and diverse loyalties stand united by
a bond more strong than that of common gain or common
blood. The divine love reflected in their hearts has burned
away prejudice and misunderstanding, and made them one.
To such men as these the wide earth is one kingdom and one
home, where all men think, feel and act as brothers beneath
the aegis of a Father-King.
This love now pouring down from God in fullest measure
upon the awakening consciousness of mankind is the power
that will regenerate human nature, and will create in deed
and in fact a new heaven and a new earth.
CONCLUSION

SUCH is Baha'u'llih's teaching on the original and essential
unity of the human race, on the unity of its religions, on the
unity of its divinely guided development.
Such too is the story of Baha'u'llih's endeavour to bring
to men tidings of the millennium and to inculcate in them
the ideal of universal harmony and the practice of universal
peace.
Is there in all this no message to a world sinking ever
deeper into political and economic distress, struggling on
from broken hope to broken hope, saddened by disillusion,
sickened by disappointment, haunted by increasing fears,
and seeking to forget its miseries in headlong extravagance
and passionate excess?
Since the first edition of this work was published the
progress and the consolidation of the Baha'i Cause has been
the most signal and hopeful achievement in the spiritual
history of the times.
The Faith has shown itself proof against those disintegrating forces which have corroded the fabric of human
society, have shaken or destroyed its institutions and have
brought about the fall of its proud and mighty civilisation.
While a disillusioned and visionless world was drifting from
misery to misery, from one uncontrollable crisis to another,
it has spread East and West till it has reached more than
eighty countries; it has preserved the integrity and exaltation of its teachings; has co-ordinated its expanding activities;
has developed its administrative Order and has animated its
followers with an enthusiasm which carries them continually forward to new ventures, to new triumphs.

It is fitting, therefore, that this edition (more especially
since the author has now identified himself with the Baha'i
Faith) should close on a yet stronger note of hope and
assurance than before. To all who can see the spiritual
situation of the world as a whole, it is manifest that humanity
will never build a new civilisation, nor escape from the
wreckage of the old, except by adopting in their fullness the
plans and counsels of Baha'u'llah.
Will not the religious leaders and thinkers of the West
examine thoroughly and without prejudice, the high claims
of Baha'u'llah? And will they not, discerning the true
Source and spiritual nature of this supreme Epoch of Transition, lead their churches into the heavenly Jerusalem, so
that all Christendom may arise for the regeneration of mankind?

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