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The Reconciliation of Races and Religions

T >> Thomas Kelly Cheyne >> The Reconciliation of Races and Religions



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[Illustration:
_Lafayette, Manchester._
THE REV. T. K. CHEYNE, D. LITT, D. D.]



THE RECONCILIATION OF RACES AND RELIGIONS

BY

THOMAS KELLY CHEYNE, D. LITT., D. D.

FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY, MEMBER OF THE NAVA VIDHAN (LAHORE), THE
BAHAI COMMUNITY, ETC. RUHANI; PRIEST OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE


To my dear wife in whose poems are combined an ardent faith, an
universal charity, and a simplicity of style which sometimes reminds
me of the poet seer William Blake may she accept and enjoy the
offering and may a like happiness be my lot when the little volume
reaches the hands of the ambassador of peace.



PREFACE


The primary aim of this work is twofold. It would fain contribute to
the cause of universal peace, and promote the better understanding of
the various religions which really are but one religion. The union of
religions must necessarily precede the union of races, which at
present is so lamentably incomplete. It appears to me that none of the
men or women of good-will is justified in withholding any suggestions
which may have occurred to him. For the crisis, both political and
religious, is alarming.

The question being ultimately a religious one, the author may be
pardoned if he devotes most of his space to the most important of its
religious aspects. He leaves it open to students of Christian politics
to make known what is the actual state of things, and how this is to
be remedied. He has, however, tried to help the reader by reprinting
the very noble Manifesto of the Society of Friends, called forth by
the declaration of war against Germany by England on the fourth day of
August 1914.

In some respects I should have preferred a Manifesto representing the
lofty views of the present Head of another Society of Friends--the
Bahai Fraternity. Peace on earth has been the ideal of the Babis
and Bahais since the Babs time, and Professor E. G. Browne has
perpetuated Baha-'ullah's noble declaration of the imminent setting up
of the kingdom of God, based upon universal peace. But there is such a
thrilling actuality in the Manifesto of the Disciples of George Fox
that I could not help availing myself of Mr. Isaac Sharp's kind
permission to me to reprint it. It is indeed an opportune setting
forth of the eternal riches, which will commend itself, now as never
before, to those who can say, with the Grandfather in Tagore's poem,
'I am a jolly pilgrim to the land of losing everything.' The rulers of
this world certainly do not cherish this ideal; but the imminent
reconstruction of international relations will have to be founded upon
it if we are not to sink back into the gulf of militarism.

I have endeavoured to study the various races and religions on their
best side, and not to fetter myself to any individual teacher or
party, for 'out of His fulness have all we received.' Max Müller was
hardly right in advising the Brahmists to call themselves Christians,
and it is a pity that we so habitually speak of Buddhists and
Mohammedans. I venture to remark that the favourite name of the Bahais
among themselves is 'Friends.' The ordinary name Bahai comes from the
divine name Baha, 'Glory (of God),' so that Abdu'l Baha means 'Servant
of the Glory (of God).' One remembers the beautiful words of the Latin
collect, 'Cui servire regnare est.'

Abdu'l Baha (when in Oxford) graciously gave me a 'new name.'
[Footnote: Ruhani ('spiritual').] Evidently he thought that my work
was not entirely done, and would have me be ever looking for help to
the Spirit, whose 'strength is made perfect in weakness.' Since then
he has written me a Tablet (letter), from which I quote the following
lines:--

_'O thou, my spiritual philosopher,_

'Thy letter was received. In reality its contents were eloquent, for
it was an evidence of thy literary fairness and of thy investigation
of Reality.... There were many Doctors amongst the Jews, but they were
all earthly, but St. Paul became heavenly because he could fly
upwards. In his own time no one duly recognized him; nay, rather, he
spent his days amidst difficulties and contempt. Afterwards it became
known that he was not an earthly bird, he was a celestial one; he was
not a natural philosopher, but a divine philosopher.

'It is likewise my hope that in the future the East and the West may
become conscious that thou wert a divine philosopher and a herald to
the Kingdom.'

I have no wish to write my autobiography, but may mention here that I
sympathize largely with Vambéry, a letter from whom to Abdu'l Baha
will be found farther on; though I should express my own adhesion to
the Bahai leader in more glowing terms. Wishing to get nearer to a
'human-catholic' religion I have sought the privilege of simultaneous
membership of several brotherhoods of Friends of God. It is my wish to
show that both these and other homes of spiritual life are, when
studied from the inside, essentially one, and that religions
necessarily issue in racial and world-wide unity.

RUHANI.
OXFORD, _August_ 1914.



CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

I. THE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS

II. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

III. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL (continued)

IV. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL; AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY

V. A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION

BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY



INTRODUCTION


TO MEN AND WOMEN OF GOODWILL IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE

_A Message (reprinted by permission) from the Religious Society of
Friends_

We find ourselves to-day in the midst of what may prove to be the
fiercest conflict in the history of the human race. Whatever may be
our view of the processes which have led to its inception, we have now
to face the fact that war is proceeding upon a terrific scale and that
our own country is involved in it.

We recognize that our Government has made most strenuous efforts to
preserve peace, and has entered into the war under a grave sense of
duty to a smaller State, towards which we had moral and treaty
obligations. While, as a Society, we stand firmly to the belief that
the method of force is no solution of any question, we hold that the
present moment is not one for criticism, but for devoted service to
our nation.

What is to be the attitude of Christian men and women and of all who
believe in the brotherhood of humanity? In the distress and perplexity
of this new situation, many are so stunned as scarcely to be able to
discern the path of duty. In the sight of God we should seek to get
back to first principles, and to determine on a course of action which
shall prove us to be worthy citizens of His Kingdom. In making this
effort let us remember those groups of men and women, in all the other
nations concerned, who will be animated by a similar spirit, and who
believe with us that the fundamental unity of men in the family of God
is the one enduring reality, even when we are forced into an apparent
denial of it. Although it would be premature to make any
pronouncement upon many aspects of the situation on which we have no
sufficient data for a reliable judgment, we can, and do, call
ourselves and you to a consideration of certain principles which may
safely be enunciated.

1. The conditions which have made this catastrophe possible must be
regarded by us as essentially unchristian. This war spells the
bankruptcy of much that we too lightly call Christian. No nation, no
Church, no individual can be wholly exonerated. We have all
participated to some extent in these conditions. We have been content,
or too little discontented, with them. If we apportion blame, let us
not fail first to blame ourselves, and to seek the forgiveness of
Almighty God.

2. In the hour of darkest night it is not for us to lose heart. Never
was there greater need for men of faith. To many will come the
temptation to deny God, and to turn away with despair from the
Christianity which seems to be identified with bloodshed on so
gigantic a scale. Christ is crucified afresh to-day. If some forsake
Him and flee, let it be more clear that there are others who take
their stand with Him, come what may.

3. This we may do by continuing to show the spirit of love to all. For
those whose conscience forbids them to take up arms there are other
ways of serving, and definite plans are already being made to enable
them to take their full share in helping their country at this
crisis. In pity and helpfulness towards the suffering and stricken in
our own country we shall all share. If we stop at this, 'what do we
more than others?' Our Master bids us pray for and love our enemies.
May we be saved from forgetting that they too are the children of our
Father. May we think of them with love and pity. May we banish
thoughts of bitterness, harsh judgments, the revengeful spirit. To do
this is in no sense unpatriotic. We may find ourselves the subjects
of misunderstanding. But our duty is clear--to be courageous in the
cause of love and in the hate of hate. May we prepare ourselves even
now for the day when once more we shall stand shoulder to shoulder
with those with whom we are now at war, in seeking to bring in the
Kingdom of God.

4. It is not too soon to begin to think out the new situation which
will arise at the close of the war. We are being compelled to face the
fact that the human race has been guilty of a gigantic folly. We have
built up a culture, a civilization, and even a religious life,
surpassing in many respects that of any previous age, and we have been
content to rest it all upon a foundation of sand. Such a state of
society cannot endure so long as the last word in human affairs is
brute force. Sooner or later it was bound to crumble. At the close of
this war we shall be faced with a stupendous task of reconstruction.
In some ways it will be rendered supremely difficult by the legacy of
ill-will, by the destruction of human life, by the tax upon all in
meeting the barest wants of the millions who will have suffered
through the war. But in other ways it will be easier. We shall be able
to make a new start, and to make it all together. From this point of
view we may even see a ground of comfort in the fact that our own
nation is involved. No country will be in a position which will compel
others to struggle again to achieve the inflated standard of military
power existing before the war. We shall have an opportunity of
reconstructing European culture upon the only possible permanent
foundation--mutual trust and good-will. Such a reconstruction would
not only secure the future of European civilization, but would save
the world from the threatened catastrophe of seeing the great nations
of the East building their new social order also upon the sand, and
thus turning the thought and wealth needed for their education and
development into that which could only be a fetter to themselves and a
menace to the West. Is it too much to hope for that we shall, when
the time comes, be able as brethren together to lay down far-reaching
principles for the future of mankind such as will ensure us for ever
against a repetition of this gigantic folly? If this is to be
accomplished it will need the united and persistent pressure of all
who believe in such a future for mankind. There will still be
multitudes who can see no good in the culture of other nations, and
who are unable to believe in any genuine brotherhood among those of
different races. Already those who think otherwise must begin to think
and plan for such a future if the supreme opportunity of the final
peace is not to be lost, and if we are to be saved from being again
sucked down into the whirlpool of military aggrandizement and
rivalry. In time of peace all the nations have been preparing for
war. In the time of war let all men of good-will prepare for
peace. The Christian conscience must be awakened to the magnitude of
the issues. The great friendly democracies in each country must be
ready to make their influence felt. Now is the time to speak of this
thing, to work for it, to pray for it.

5. If this is to happen, it seems to us of vital importance that the
war should not be carried on in any vindictive spirit, and that it
should be brought to a close at the earliest possible moment. We
should have it clearly before our minds from the beginning that we are
not going into it in order to crush and humiliate any nation. The
conduct of negotiations has taught us the necessity of prompt action
in international affairs. Should the opportunity offer, we, in this
nation, should be ready to act with promptitude in demanding that the
terms suggested are of a kind which it will be possible for all
parties to accept, and that the negotiations be entered upon in the
right spirit.

6. We believe in God. Human free will gives us power to hinder the
fulfilment of His loving purposes. It also means that we may actively
co-operate with Him. If it is given to us to see something of a
glorious possible future, after all the desolation and sorrow that lie
before us, let us be sure that sight has been given us by Him. No day
should close without our putting up our prayer to Him that He will
lead His family into a new and better day. At a time when so severe a
blow is being struck at the great causes of moral, social, and
religious reform for which so many have struggled, we need to look
with expectation and confidence to Him, whose cause they are, and find
a fresh inspiration in the certainty of His victory.

_August 7, 1914._

'In time of war let all men of good-will prepare for peace.' German,
French, and English scholars and investigators have done much to show
that the search for truth is one of the most powerful links between
the different races and nations. It is absurd to speak--as many
Germans do habitually speak--of 'deutsche Wissenschaft,' as if the
glorious tree of scientific and historical knowledge were a purely
German production. Many wars like that which closed at Sedan and that
which is still, most unhappily, in progress will soon drive lovers of
science and culture to the peaceful regions of North America!

The active pursuit of truth is, therefore, one of those things which
make for peace. But can we say this of moral and religious truth? In
this domain are we not compelled to be partisans and particularists?
And has not liberal criticism shown that the religious traditions of
all races and nations are to be relegated to the least cultured
classes? That is the question to the treatment of which I (as a
Christian student) offer some contributions in the present volume. But
I would first of all express my hearty sympathy with the friends of
God in the noble Russian Church, which has appointed the following
prayer among others for use at the present crisis: [Footnote:
_Church Times_, Sept. 4, 1914.]

'_Deacon_. Stretch forth Thine hand, O Lord, from on high, and
touch the hearts of our enemies, that they may turn unto Thee, the God
of peace Who lovest Thy creatures: and for Thy Name's sake strengthen
us who put our trust in Thee by Thy might, we beseech Thee. Hear us
and have mercy.'

Certainly it is hardness of heart which strikes us most painfully in
our (we hope) temporary enemies. The only excuse is that in the Book
which Christian nations agree to consider as in some sense and degree
religiously authoritative, the establishment of the rule of the Most
High is represented as coincident with extreme severities, or--as we
might well say--cruelties. I do not, however, think that the excuse,
if offered, would be valid. The Gospels must overbear any inconsistent
statement of the Old Testament.

But the greatest utterances of human morality are to be found in the
Buddhist Scriptures, and it is a shame to the European peoples that
the Buddhist Indian king Asoka should be more Christian than the
leaders of 'German culture.' I for my part love the old Germany far
better than the new, and its high ideals would I hand on, filling up
its omissions and correcting its errors. 'O house of Israel, come ye,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.' Thou art 'the God of peace Who
lovest Thy creatures.'



PART I

THE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS


A STUDY OF THE CHIEF RELIGIONS ON THEIR BEST SIDE WITH A VIEW TO THEIR
EXPANSION AND ENRICHMENT AND TO AN ULTIMATE SYNTHESIS AND TO THE FINAL
UNION OF RACES AND NATIONS ON A SPIRITUAL BASIS

The crisis in the Christian Church is now so acute that we may well
seek for some mode of escape from its pressure. The Old Broad Church
position is no longer adequate to English circumstances, and there is
not yet in existence a thoroughly satisfactory new and original
position for a Broad Church student to occupy. Shall we, then, desert
the old historic Church in which we were christened and educated? It
would certainly be a loss, and not only to ourselves. Or shall we wait
with drooping head to be driven out of the Church? Such a cowardly
solution may be at once dismissed. Happily we have in the Anglican
Church virtually no excommunication. Our only course as students is
to go forward, and endeavour to expand our too narrow Church
boundaries. Modernists we are; modernists we will remain; let our only
object be to be worthy of this noble name.

But we cannot be surprised that our Church rulers are perplexed. For
consider the embarrassing state of critical investigation. Critical
study of the Gospels has shown that very little of the traditional
material can be regarded as historical; it is even very uncertain
whether the Galilean prophet really paid the supreme penalty as a
supposed enemy of Rome on the shameful cross. Even apart from the
problem referred to, it is more than doubtful whether critics have
left us enough stones standing in the life of Jesus to serve as the
basis of a christology or doctrine of the divine Redeemer. And yet one
feels that a theology without a theophany is both dry and difficult to
defend. We want an avatâr, i.e. a 'descent' of God in human
form; indeed, we seem to need several such 'descents,' appropriate to
the changing circumstances of the ages. Did not the author of the
Fourth Gospel recognize this? Certainly his portrait of Jesus is so
widely different from that of the Synoptists that a genuine
reconciliation seems impossible. I would not infer from this that the
Jesus of the Fourth Gospel belonged to a different age from the Jesus
of the Synoptists, but I would venture to say that the Fourth
Evangelist would be easier to defend if he held this theory. The
Johannine Jesus ought to have belonged to a different aeon.


ANOTHER IMAGE OF GOD

Well, then, it is reasonable to turn for guidance and help to the
East. There was living quite lately a human being of such consummate
excellence that many think it is both permissible and inevitable even
to identify him mystically with the invisible Godhead. Let us admit,
such persons say, that Jesus was the very image of God. But he lived
for his own age and his own people; the Jesus of the critics has but
little to say, and no redemptive virtue issues from him to us. But the
'Blessed Perfection,' as Baha'ullah used to be called, lives for our
age, and offers his spiritual feast to men of all peoples. His story,
too, is liable to no diminution at the hands of the critics, simply
because the facts of his life are certain. He has now passed from
sight, but he is still in the ideal world, a true image of God and a
true lover of man, and helps forward the reform of all those manifold
abuses which hinder the firm establishment of the kingdom of God. I
shall return to this presently. Meanwhile, suffice it to say that
though I entertain the highest reverence and love for Baha'ullah's
son, Abdul Baha, whom I regard as a Mahatma--'a great-souled one'--and
look up to as one of the highest examples in the spiritual firmament,
I hold no brief for the Bahai community, and can be as impartial in
dealing with facts relating to the Bahais as with facts which happen
to concern my own beloved mother-church, the Church of England.

I shall first of all ask, how it came to pass that so many of us are
now seeking help and guidance from the East, some from India, some
from Persia, some (which is my own case) from India and from Persia.


BAHA'ULLAH'S PRECURSORS, _e.g._ THE BAB, SUFISM, AND SHEYKH
AHMAD

So far as Persia is concerned, the reason is that its religious
experience has been no less varied than ancient. Zoroaster, Manes,
Christ, Muhammad, Dh'u-Nun (the introducer of Sufism), Sheykh
Ahmad (the forerunner of Babism), the Bab himself and Baha'ullah
(the two Manifestations), have all left an ineffaceable mark on the
national life. The Bab, it is true, again and again expresses his
repugnance to the 'lies' of the Sufis, and the Babis are not
behind him; but there are traces enough of the influence of Sufism
on the new Prophet and his followers. The passion for martyrdom seems
of itself to presuppose a tincture of Sufism, for it is the most
extreme form of the passion for God, and to love God fervently but
steadily in preference to all the pleasures of the phenomenal world,
is characteristically Sufite.

What is it, then, in Sufism that excites the Bab's indignation? It
is not the doctrine of the soul's oneness with God as the One Absolute
Being, and the reality of the soul's ecstatic communion with Him.
Several passages are quoted by Mons. Nicolas [Footnote: _Beyan
arabe_, pp. 3-18.] on the attitude of the Bab towards Sufism;
suffice it here to quote one of them.

'Others (i.e. those who claim, as being identified with God, to
possess absolute truth) are known by the name of Sufis, and believe
themselves to possess the internal sense of the Shari'at [Footnote:
The orthodox Law of Islam, which many Muslims seek to allegorize.]
when they are in ignorance alike of its apparent and of its inward
meaning, and have fallen far, very far from it! One may perhaps say of
them that those people who have no understanding have chosen the route
which is entirely of darkness and of doubt.'

Ignorance, then, is, according to the Bab, the great fault of the
Sufis [Footnote: Yet the title Sufi connotes knowledge. It means
probably 'one who (like the Buddha on his statues) has a heavenly
eye.' Prajnaparamita (_Divine Wisdom_) has the same third
eye (Havell, _Indian Sculpture and Painting_, illustr. XLV.).]
whom he censures, and we may gather that that ignorance was thought to
be especially shown in a crude pantheism and a doctrine of incarnation
which, according to the Bab, amounts to sheer polytheism. [Footnote
4: The technical term is 'association.'] God in Himself, says the
Bab, cannot be known, though a reflected image of Him is attainable
by taking heed to His manifestations or perfect portraitures.

Some variety of Sufism, however, sweetly and strongly permeates the
teaching of the Bab. It is a Sufism which consists, not in
affiliation to any Sufi order, but in the knowledge and love of the
Source of the Eternal Ideals. Through detachment from this perishable
world and earnest seeking for the Eternal, a glimpse of the unseen
Reality can be attained. The form of this only true knowledge is
subject to change; fresh 'mirrors' or 'portraits' are provided at the
end of each recurring cosmic cycle or aeon. But the substance is
unchanged and unchangeable. As Prof. Browne remarks, 'the prophet of a
cycle is naught but a reflexion of the Primal Will,--the same sun with
a new horizon.' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 335.]


THE BAB

Such a prophet was the Bab; we call him 'prophet' for want of a
better name; 'yea, I say unto you, a prophet and more than a prophet.'
His combination of mildness and power is so rare that we have to place
him in a line with super-normal men. But he was also a great mystic
and an eminent theosophic speculator. We learn that, at great points
in his career, after he had been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might
and majesty streamed from his countenance that none could bear to look
upon the effulgence of his glory and beauty. Nor was it an uncommon
occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly
obeisance on beholding His Holiness; while the inmates of the castle,
though for the most part Christians and Sunnis, reverently prostrated
themselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness. [Footnote:
_NH_, pp. 241, 242.] Such transfiguration is well known to the
saints. It was regarded as the affixing of the heavenly seal to the
reality and completeness of Bab's detachment. And from the Master we
learn [Footnote: Mirza Jani (_NH_, p. 242).] that it passed to
his disciples in proportion to the degree of their renunciation. But
these experiences were surely characteristic, not only of Babism,
but of Sufism. Ecstatic joy is the dominant note of Sufism, a joy
which was of other-worldly origin, and compatible with the deepest
tranquillity, and by which we are made like to the Ever-rejoicing
One. The mystic poet Far'idu'd-din writes thus,--

Joy! joy! I triumph now; no more I know
Myself as simply me. I burn with love.
The centre is within me, and its wonder
Lies as a circle everywhere about me. [a]

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