# The Faiths Men Live By *Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.* --- > Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Charles Francis Potter, The Faiths Men Live By, bahai-library.com. > ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > > THE FAITHS MEN > LIVE BY -á' > > by > > Charles Francis Potter . . ... . > > .: i á:"á á. á á. á á_. . > .. -;.., i -.J' I: • • .. • > á- - r •. • .. . > ~ .t ' > I > : > • ' > .. > # > ~ > > - > .. \ -' - ' . > . . > ~ > . . > .. .. > . ' á. > . . - .... ; . ... ..... . . > - . > .. ..... : ,i > ... ~~ ..á á. . á ~ ,, > ' . ...~ ...~'. ~;/ > > l > > ' > > ' > ; > > I > > ; > > l > > THE \VORLD'S WORI< (1913) LTD > KINGS WOOD > ... > •• SURREY > Contents > II > FIRST PUBLISHED 1955 •• > PREFACE Vll > > • > INTRODUCTION Xl > > I HINDUISM I > > JAINISM > SIKHISM > > 2 JUDAISM > > 3 ZOROASTRIANISM 26 > > 4 BUDDHISM 35 > > 5 CONFUCIANISM ~1 > .) > > 6 TAOISM 61 > . > 7 SHINTO > > 8 ISLAM > > 9 CHRISTIANITY > > I0 THE Ro MAN CATHOLICS 97 > > PRINTED I~ GRE.-\T BRITAIN I I THE ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH I 14 > AT THE "\VINDZ..!ILL PRESS > KINGS\VOOD, SURREY > 12 THE LUTHERANS 124 > THE FAITHS MEN LIVE BY OTHER. CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS 27 l > she went to Madras, India, and established her society there. When prophet. After years in prison, where he wrote several books he > she died, in 1á891, she had one hundred thousand followers. Her died in 1892 and was succeeded by his son, Sir Abdul Baha Bahai, > disciples, now divided into two international societies, still com- who, before his dea~h in 1921,appointed his grandson Shogi Effendi > memorate the day of her death, May 8, as 'White Lotus Day'. as the next Guardian of the Bahai Cause. > ' > It wa~ u.nder th~ latter's able leadership that the Bahai > There are three divisions of American Rosicrucians, all teaching Assemblies in America were organised into a National Spiritual > mainly theosophical doctrines. The Societas Rosicruciana has an As.sembly and a larc?e and beautiful Bahai Temple built at > office in New York City, the Fraternitas Rosre Crucis has one in W1lmett~, Ill., :iear Chicago. This Temple of Peace is a nonagon in > Quakertown, Pa., and the Ancient Mystical Order Rosre Crucis s~ape~ .~1th n1n.e .great Rillars of white quartz to symbolise the > (AMORC) one in San Jose, Cal. nine 11;1ng rel1g1o~s of the world. Like Theosophy, Bahai > Rosicrucians belong to secret fraternities and have mystic emphasises the teaching of Comparative Religion. It also proclaims > symbols, like the pyramid, the swastika, and the rosy cross. áThe that the foundation of all religions is one, and teaches world > last is sometimes represented by a cross within a circle, but the peace, universal education, and the equality of the sexes. It > AMORC has a red rose on a golden cross. The name Rosicrucian advocates an international auxiliary language. > has been traced to the symbol, but it has also been derived from There are said to be 700,000 Bahais in Persia, but there are > the name of a German scholar and noble, Christian Rosenkreuz, only about fiv~ thousand ~n the United States. A recent interesting > said to have founded the brotherhood in 1420, after long travel development is the creation of the New á History Society of N e\v > and study in Damascus, Egypt, and Spain. It is asserted that the York, a Bahai group, of an international Caravan of East and > early Rosicrucians were alchemists, hypnotists, almoners, and w.est, a youth COrr.espondence peace Society With I ,300 chapters in > healers of the sick. thirty-seven countries and a membership of one hundred thousand. > Brothers of this order are found today in all parts of the British > Commonwealth as well as in America; and some of them are still Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was one of the most > interested in such unconventional means for the relief and cure of amazingly versatile geniuses who ever lived, a veritable Swedish > disease as hypnotism, vegetable drugs, and coloured lights. They Leonardo da Vinci. For the first half of his long life, he was a > teach a sort of pantheism, believing that the Creator is still in scholar, inventor, engineer, and an advanced scientist in the fields > every tree, plant, and rock, for the whole universe is instinct with of physics, anatomy, physiology, economics, astronomy, paleonlife, according to the supreme design of the Master Mind. tology, geology, and metallurgy. He anticipated several recent > developments and predicted others. Kant and Laplace have been > Bahaism, like Theosophy, has its roots in Gnosticism and Neo- credited with being the first to adduce the nebular hypothesis > platonism, especially in the Persian and Zor_oastrian strains of those theory to account for the formation of the sun and planets, but > types of east _Mediterranean mysticism. It also has elements of Swedenborg had published that theory in one of his books in r734, > Sufism, the Moslem mysticism of contemplation which developed twenty yearsá before Kant and sixty before Laplace. > in Persia in the 11th century. But its immediate origin was in In 1747, he suddenly resigned his government position as > Babism, a nineteenth-centt1ry mysticism, both Persian and Assessor of the Royal College of Mines which he had held for > Moslem, when Mirza Ali Mohammed took the title of Bab ed-Din thirty years a.nd devoted himself to theological and spiritual > (Gate of Faith). and announced himself the successor .of Moses, matters, declaring that heaven had been opened to him. First, he > Christ, and Mohammed. His teaching of a combination of had been instructed in dreams, then had seen visions and hear(l > Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Parseeism, plus Gnostic elements . voices. In his full illumination or theophany, after visiting heaven > aroused opposition, and he was imprisoned and finally shot, in and .hell an~ talking with angels and spirits, the Lord gave him > 1850. Babism went underground, but reappeared, in 1868, as full instructions as to the symbolic meaning and interpretation of > Bahaism with Baba Ullah as the Bab's successor and the next the Scriptures. > > — *The Faiths Men Live By (Used by permission of the curator)*