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The Reconciliation of Races and Religions

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




Baha-'ullah and Christ, therefore, were both 'images of God';
[Footnote: Bousset, _Kyrios-Christos_, p. 144. Christ is the
'image of God' (2 Cor. iv. 4; Col. i. 15); or simply 'the image'
(Rom. viii. 29).] God is the God of the human people as well as of
individual men, so too is the God of whom Baha-'ullah is the
reflection or image. Only, we must admit that Baha-'ullah had the
advantage of centuries more of evolution, and that he had also perhaps
more complex problems to solve.

And what as to 'Ali Muhammad of Shiraz? From a heavenly point of
view, did he play a great _rôle_ in the Persian Reformation? Let
us listen to Baha-'ullah in the passage quoted above from the Tablet
of Ishrakat.


PRAYER TO THE PERPETUAL CREATOR

O giver of thyself! at the vision of thee as joy let our souls flame
up to thee as the fire, flow on to thee as the river, permeate thy
being as the fragrance of the flower. Give us strength to love, to
love fully, our life in its joys and sorrows, in its gains and losses,
in its rise and fall. Let us have strength enough fully to see and
hear thy universe, and to work with full vigour therein. Let us fully
live the life thou hast given us, let us bravely take and bravely
give. This is our prayer to thee. Let us once for all dislodge from
our minds the feeble fancy that would make out thy joy to be a thing
apart from action, thin, formless and unsustained. Wherever the
peasant tills the hard earth, there does thy joy gush out in the green
of the corn; wherever man displaces the entangled forest, smooths the
stony ground, and clears for himself a homestead, there does thy joy
enfold it in orderliness and peace.

O worker of the universe! We would pray to thee to let the
irresistible current of thy universal energy come like the impetuous
south wind of spring, let it come rushing over the vast field of the
life of man, let it bring the scent of many flowers, the murmurings of
many woodlands, let it make sweet and vocal the lifelessness of our
dried-up soul-life. Let our newly awakened powers cry out for
unlimited fulfilment in leaf and flower and fruit!--Tagore,
Sadhana (p. 133).


THE OPPORTUNENESS OF BAHAISM

The opportuneness of the Baha movement is brought into a bright light
by the following extract from a letter to the Master from the great
Orientalist and traveller, Arminius Vambéry. Though born a Jew, he
tells us that believers in Judaism were no better than any other
professedly religious persons, and that the only hope for the future
lay in the success of the efforts of Abdul Baha, whose supreme
greatness as a prophet he fully recognizes. He was born in Hungary in
March 1832, and met Abdul Baha at Buda-Pest in April 1913. The letter
was written shortly after the interview; some may perhaps smile at its
glowing Oriental phraseology, but there are some Oriental writers who
really mean what they seem to mean, and one of these (an Oriental by
adoption) is Vambéry.

'... The time of the meeting with your excellency, and the memory of
the benediction of your presence, recurred to the memory of this
servant, and I am longing for the time when I shall meet you
again. Although I have travelled through many countries and cities of
Islam, yet have I never met so lofty a character and so exalted a
personage as Your Excellency, and I can bear witness that it is not
possible to find such another. On this account I am hoping that the
ideals and accomplishments of Your Excellency may be crowned with
success and yield results under all conditions, because behind these
ideals and deeds I easily discern the eternal welfare and prosperity
of the world of humanity.

'This servant, in order to gain first-hand information and experience,
entered into the ranks of various religions; that is, outwardly I
became a Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and Zoroastrian. I discovered
that the devotees of these various religions do nothing else but hate
and anathematize each other, that all these religions have become the
instruments of tyranny and oppression in the hands of rulers and
governors, and that they are the causes of the destruction of the
world of humanity.

'Considering these evil results, every person is forced by necessity
to enlist himself on the side of Your Excellency and accept with joy
the prospect of a fundamental basis for a universal religion of God
being laid through your efforts.

'I have seen the father of Your Excellency from afar. I have realized
the self-sacrifice and noble courage of his son, and I am lost in
admiration.

'For the principles and aims of Your Excellency I express the utmost
respect and devotion, and if God, the Most High, confers long life, I
will be able to serve you under all conditions. I pray and supplicate
this from the depths of my heart.--Your servant, VAMBERY.'

(Published in the _Egyptian Gazette_, Sept. 24, 1913, by
Mrs. J. Stannard.)



BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY

BROWNE, Prof. E. G.--_A Traveller's Narrative_. Written to
illustrate the Episode of the Bab. Cambridge, 1901.

_The New History_. Cambridge, 1893.

_History of the Bábís_. Compiled by Hájji Mírzá Jání of
Káshán between the years A.D. 1850 and 1852. Leyden, 1910.

'Babism,' article in _Encyclopaedia of Religions_.
Two Papers on Babism in _JRAS_. 1889.

CHASE, THORNTON.--_In Galilee_. Chicago, 1908.

DREYFUS, HIPPOLYTE.--_The Universal Religion; Bahaism_. 1909.

GOBINEAU, M. LE COMTE DE.--_Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie
Centrale_. Paris. 2nd edition, Paris, 1866.

HAMMOND, ERIC.--_The Splendour of God_. 1909.

HOLLEY, HORACE.--_The Modern Social Religion_. 1913.

HUART, CLEMENT.--_La Religion du Bab_. Paris, 1889.

NICOLAS, A. L. M.--_Seyy'ed Ali Mohammed, dit Le Bab_. Paris, 1905.

_Le Béyân Arabe_. Paris, 1905.

PHELPS, MYRON H.--_Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi_. New
York, 1914.

RÖMER, HERMANN.--_Die Babi-Beha'i, Die jüngste
muhammedanische Sekte._ Potsdam, 1912.

RICE, W. A.--'Bahaism from the Christian Standpoint,' _East and
West_, January 1913.

SKRINE, F. H.--_Bahaism, the Religion of Brotherhood and its place
in the Evolution of Creeds._ 1912.

WILSON, S. G.--'The Claims of Bahaism,' _East and West_, July
1914.

Works of the BAB, BAHA-'ULLAH, ABDUL BAHA, and ABU'L FAZL:

_L'Épître au Fils du Loup._ Baha-'ullah. Traduction
française par H. Dreyfus. Paris, 1913.

_Le Beyan arabe._ Nicolas. Paris, 1905.

_The Hidden Words._ Chicago, 1905.

_The Seven Valleys._ Chicago.

_Livre de la Certitude._ Dreyfus. Paris, 1904.

_The Book of Ighan._ Chicago.

Works of ABDUL BAHA:

_Some Answered Questions._ 1908.

_Tablets._ Vol. i. Chicago, 1912.

Work by MIRZA ABU'L FAZL:

_The Brilliant Proof._ Chicago, 1913.


LAUS DEO

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