The World Order of Baha'u'llah Part 9

It should be made clear to every one reading those extracts that by the phrase "the Tongue of the Ancient" no one else is meant but G.o.d, and that the term "the Greatest Name" is an obvious reference to Baha'u'llah, and that "the Covenant" referred to is not the specific Covenant of which Baha'u'llah is the immediate Author and 'Abdu'l-Baha the Center but that general Covenant which, as inculcated by the Baha'i teaching, G.o.d Himself invariably establishes with mankind when He inaugurates a new Dispensation. "The Tongue" that "gives," as stated in those extracts, the "glad-tidings" is none other than the Voice of G.o.d referring to Baha'u'llah, and not Baha'u'llah referring to 'Abdu'l-Baha.

Moreover, to maintain that the a.s.sertion "He is Myself," instead of denoting the mystic unity of G.o.d and His Manifestations, as explained in the Kitab-i-iqan, establishes the ident.i.ty of Baha'u'llah with 'Abdu'l-Baha, would const.i.tute a direct violation of the oft-repeated principle of the oneness of G.o.d's Manifestations-a principle which the Author of these same extracts is seeking by implication to emphasize.

It would also amount to a reversion to those irrational and superst.i.tious beliefs which have insensibly crept, in the first century of the Christian era, into the teachings of Jesus Christ, and by crystallizing into accepted dogmas have impaired the effectiveness and obscured the purpose of the Christian Faith.

"I affirm," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's own written comment on the Tablet of the Branch, "that the true meaning, the real significance, the innermost secret of these verses, of these very words, is my own servitude to the sacred Threshold of the Abha Beauty, my complete self-effacement, my utter nothingness before Him. This is my resplendent crown, my most precious adorning. On this I pride myself in the kingdom of earth and heaven.

Therein I glory among the company of the well-favored!" "No one is permitted," He warns us in the pa.s.sage which immediately follows, "to give these verses any other interpretation." "I am," He, in this same connection, affirms, "according to the explicit texts of the Kitab-i-Aqdas and the Kitab-i-'Ahd the manifest Interpreter of the Word of G.o.d... Whoso deviates from my interpretation is a victim of his own fancy."

Furthermore, the inescapable inference from the belief in the ident.i.ty of the Author of our Faith with Him Who is the Center of His Covenant would be to place 'Abdu'l-Baha in a position superior to that of the Bab, the reverse of which is the fundamental, though not as yet universally recognized, principle of this Revelation. It would also justify the charge with which, all throughout 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry, the Covenant-Breakers have striven to poison the minds and pervert the understanding of Baha'u'llah's loyal followers.

It would be more correct, and in consonance with the established principles of Baha'u'llah and the Bab, if instead of maintaining this fict.i.tious ident.i.ty with reference to 'Abdu'l-Baha, we regard the Forerunner and the Founder of our Faith as identical in reality-a truth which the text of the Suratu'l-Haykal unmistakably affirms. "Had the Primal Point (the Bab) been someone else beside Me as ye claim," is Baha'u'llah's explicit statement, "and had attained My presence, verily He would have never allowed Himself to be separated from Me, but rather We would have had mutual delights with each other in My Days." "He Who now voiceth the Word of G.o.d," Baha'u'llah again affirms, "is none other except the Primal Point Who hath once again been made manifest." "He is," He thus refers to Himself in a Tablet addressed to one of the Letters of the Living, "the same as the One Who appeared in the year sixty (1260 A.H.).

This verily is one of His mighty signs." "Who," He pleads in the Suriy-i-Damm, "will arise to secure the triumph of the Primal Beauty (the Bab) revealed in the countenance of His succeeding Manifestation?"

Referring to the Revelation proclaimed by the Bab He conversely characterizes it as "My own previous Manifestation."

That 'Abdu'l-Baha is not a Manifestation of G.o.d, that He gets His light, His inspiration and sustenance direct from the Fountain-head of the Baha'i Revelation; that He reflects even as a clear and perfect Mirror the rays of Baha'u'llah's glory, and does not inherently possess that indefinable yet all-pervading reality the exclusive possession of which is the hallmark of Prophethood; that His words are not equal in rank, though they possess an equal validity with the utterances of Baha'u'llah; that He is not to be acclaimed as the return of Jesus Christ, the Son Who will come "in the glory of the Father"-these truths find added justification, and are further reinforced, by the following statement of 'Abdu'l-Baha, addressed to some believers in America, with which I may well conclude this section: "You have written that there is a difference among the believers concerning the 'Second Coming of Christ.' Gracious G.o.d! Time and again this question hath arisen, and its answer hath emanated in a clear and irrefutable statement from the pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha, that what is meant in the prophecies by the 'Lord of Hosts' and the 'Promised Christ' is the Blessed Perfection (Baha'u'llah) and His holiness the Exalted One (the Bab). My name is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My qualification is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My reality is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My praise is 'Abdu'l-Baha. Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human race my perpetual religion... No name, no t.i.tle, no mention, no commendation have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Baha. This is my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is my everlasting glory."

The Administrative Order

Dearly-beloved brethren in 'Abdu'l-Baha! With the ascension of Baha'u'llah the Day-Star of Divine guidance which, as foretold by _Sh_ay_kh_ A?mad and Siyyid Kazim, had risen in _Sh_iraz, and, while pursuing its westward course, had mounted its zenith in Adrianople, had finally sunk below the horizon of Akka, never to rise again ere the complete revolution of one thousand years. The setting of so effulgent an Orb brought to a definite termination the period of Divine Revelation-the initial and most vitalizing stage in the Baha'i era. Inaugurated by the Bab, culminating in Baha'u'llah, antic.i.p.ated and extolled by the entire company of the Prophets of this great prophetic cycle, this period has, except for the short interval between the Bab's martyrdom and Baha'u'llah's shaking experiences in the Siyah-_Ch_al of ?ihran, been characterized by almost fifty years of continuous and progressive Revelation-a period which by its duration and fecundity must be regarded as unparalleled in the entire field of the world's spiritual history.

The pa.s.sing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, on the other hand, marks the closing of the Heroic and Apostolic Age of this same Dispensation-that primitive period of our Faith the splendors of which can never be rivaled, much less be eclipsed, by the magnificence that must needs distinguish the future victories of Baha'u'llah's Revelation. For neither the achievements of the champion-builders of the present-day inst.i.tutions of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, nor the tumultuous triumphs which the heroes of its Golden Age will in the coming days succeed in winning, can measure with, or be included within the same category as, the wondrous works a.s.sociated with the names of those who have generated its very life and laid its pristine foundations. That first and creative age of the Baha'i era must, by its very nature, stand above and apart from the formative period into which we have entered and the golden age destined to succeed it.

'Abdu'l-Baha, Who incarnates an inst.i.tution for which we can find no parallel whatsoever in any of the world's recognized religious systems, may be said to have closed the Age to which He Himself belonged and opened the one in which we are now laboring. His Will and Testament should thus be regarded as the perpetual, the indissoluble link which the mind of Him Who is the Mystery of G.o.d has conceived in order to insure the continuity of the three ages that const.i.tute the component parts of the Baha'i Dispensation. The period in which the seed of the Faith had been slowly germinating is thus intertwined both with the one which must witness its efflorescence and the subsequent age in which that seed will have finally yielded its golden fruit.

The creative energies released by the Law of Baha'u'llah, permeating and evolving within the mind of 'Abdu'l-Baha, have, by their very impact and close interaction, given birth to an Instrument which may be viewed as the Charter of the New World Order which is at once the glory and the promise of this most great Dispensation. The Will may thus be acclaimed as the inevitable offspring resulting from that mystic intercourse between Him Who communicated the generating influence of His divine Purpose and the One Who was its vehicle and chosen recipient. Being the Child of the Covenant-the Heir of both the Originator and the Interpreter of the Law of G.o.d-the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha can no more be divorced from Him Who supplied the original and motivating impulse than from the One Who ultimately conceived it. Baha'u'llah's inscrutable purpose, we must ever bear in mind, has been so thoroughly infused into the conduct of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and their motives have been so closely wedded together, that the mere attempt to dissociate the teachings of the former from any system which the ideal Exemplar of those same teachings has established would amount to a repudiation of one of the most sacred and basic truths of the Faith.

The Administrative Order, which ever since 'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension has evolved and is taking shape under our very eyes in no fewer than forty countries of the world, may be considered as the framework of the Will itself, the inviolable stronghold wherein this new-born child is being nurtured and developed. This Administrative Order, as it expands and consolidates itself, will no doubt manifest the potentialities and reveal the full implications of this momentous Doc.u.ment-this most remarkable expression of the Will of One of the most remarkable Figures of the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah. It will, as its component parts, its organic inst.i.tutions, begin to function with efficiency and vigor, a.s.sert its claim and demonstrate its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of time the whole of mankind.

It should be noted in this connection that this Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Baha'u'llah has Himself revealed its principles, established its inst.i.tutions, appointed the person to interpret His Word and conferred the necessary authority on the body designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its strength, its fundamental distinction, and the guarantee against disintegration and schism. Nowhere in the sacred scriptures of any of the world's religious systems, nor even in the writings of the Inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation, do we find any provisions establis.h.i.+ng a covenant or providing for an administrative order that can compare in scope and authority with those that lie at the very basis of the Baha'i Dispensation. Has either Christianity or Islam, to take as an instance two of the most widely diffused and outstanding among the world's recognized religions, anything to offer that can measure with, or be regarded as equivalent to, either the Book of Baha'u'llah's Covenant or to the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha? Does the text of either the Gospel or the Qur'an confer sufficient authority upon those leaders and councils that have claimed the right and a.s.sumed the function of interpreting the provisions of their sacred scriptures and of administering the affairs of their respective communities? Could Peter, the admitted chief of the Apostles, or the Imam 'Ali, the cousin and legitimate successor of the Prophet, produce in support of the primacy with which both had been invested written and explicit affirmations from Christ and Mu?ammad that could have silenced those who either among their contemporaries or in a later age have repudiated their authority and, by their action, precipitated the schisms that persist until the present day? Where, we may confidently ask, in the recorded sayings of Jesus Christ, whether in the matter of succession or in the provision of a set of specific laws and clearly defined administrative ordinances, as distinguished from purely spiritual principles, can we find anything approaching the detailed injunctions, laws and warnings that abound in the authenticated utterances of both Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha? Can any pa.s.sage of the Qur'an, which in respect to its legal code, its administrative and devotional ordinances marks already a notable advance over previous and more corrupted Revelations, be construed as placing upon an una.s.sailable basis the undoubted authority with which Mu?ammad had, verbally and on several occasions, invested His successor? Can the Author of the Babi Dispensation however much He may have succeeded through the provisions of the Persian Bayan in averting a schism as permanent and catastrophic as those that afflicted Christianity and Islam-can He be said to have produced instruments for the safeguarding of His Faith as definite and efficacious as those which must for all time preserve the unity of the organized followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah?

Alone of all the Revelations gone before it this Faith has, through the explicit directions, the repeated warnings, the authenticated safeguards incorporated and elaborated in its teachings, succeeded in raising a structure which the bewildered followers of bankrupt and broken creeds might well approach and critically examine, and seek, ere it is too late, the invulnerable security of its world-embracing shelter.

No wonder that He Who through the operation of His Will has inaugurated so vast and unique an Order and Who is the Center of so mighty a Covenant should have written these words: "So firm and mighty is this Covenant that from the beginning of time until the present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like." "Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy cycle," He wrote during the darkest and most dangerous days of His ministry, "shall gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning of its growth and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs."

"Fear not," are His rea.s.suring words foreshadowing the rise of the Administrative Order established by His Will, "fear not if this Branch be severed from this material world and cast aside its leaves; nay, the leaves thereof shall flourish, for this Branch will grow after it is cut off from this world below, it shall reach the loftiest pinnacles of glory, and it shall bear such fruits as will perfume the world with their fragrance."

To what else if not to the power and majesty which this Administrative Order-the rudiments of the future all-enfolding Baha'i Commonwealth-is destined to manifest, can these utterances of Baha'u'llah allude: "The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System-the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed."

The Bab Himself, in the course of His references to "Him Whom G.o.d will make manifest" antic.i.p.ates the System and glorifies the World Order which the Revelation of Baha'u'llah is destined to unfold. "Well is it with him," is His remarkable statement in the third chapter of the Persian Bayan, "who fixeth his gaze upon the Order of Baha'u'llah and rendereth thanks unto his Lord! For He will a.s.suredly be made manifest. G.o.d hath indeed irrevocably ordained it in the Bayan."

In the Tablets of Baha'u'llah where the inst.i.tutions of the International and Local Houses of Justice are specifically designated and formally established; in the inst.i.tution of the Hands of the Cause of G.o.d which first Baha'u'llah and then 'Abdu'l-Baha brought into being; in the inst.i.tution of both local and national a.s.semblies which in their embryonic stage were already functioning in the days preceding 'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension; in the authority with which the Author of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant have in their Tablets chosen to confer upon them; in the inst.i.tution of the Local Fund which operated according to 'Abdu'l-Baha's specific injunctions addressed to certain a.s.semblies in Persia; in the verses of the Kitab-i-Aqdas the implications of which clearly antic.i.p.ate the inst.i.tution of the Guardians.h.i.+p; in the explanation which 'Abdu'l-Baha, in one of His Tablets, has given to, and the emphasis He has placed upon, the hereditary principle and the law of primogeniture as having been upheld by the Prophets of the past-in these we can discern the faint glimmerings and discover the earliest intimation of the nature and working of the Administrative Order which the Will of 'Abdu'l-Baha was at a later time destined to proclaim and formally establish.

An attempt, I feel, should at the present juncture be made to explain the character and functions of the twin pillars that support this mighty Administrative Structure-the inst.i.tutions of the Guardians.h.i.+p and of the Universal House of Justice. To describe in their entirety the diverse elements that function in conjunction with these inst.i.tutions is beyond the scope and purpose of this general exposition of the fundamental verities of the Faith. To define with accuracy and minuteness the features, and to a.n.a.lyze exhaustively the nature of the relations.h.i.+ps which, on the one hand, bind together these two fundamental organs of the Will of 'Abdu'l-Baha and connect, on the other, each of them to the Author of the Faith and the Center of His Covenant is a task which future generations will no doubt adequately fulfill. My present intention is to elaborate certain salient features of this scheme which, however close we may stand to its colossal structure, are already so clearly defined that we find it inexcusable to either misconceive or ignore.

It should be stated, at the very outset, in clear and unambiguous language, that these twin inst.i.tutions of the Administrative Order of Baha'u'llah should be regarded as divine in origin, essential in their functions and complementary in their aim and purpose. Their common, their fundamental object is to insure the continuity of that divinely-appointed authority which flows from the Source of our Faith, to safeguard the unity of its followers and to maintain the integrity and flexibility of its teachings. Acting in conjunction with each other these two inseparable inst.i.tutions administer its affairs, coordinate its activities, promote its interests, execute its laws and defend its subsidiary inst.i.tutions.

Severally, each operates within a clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction; each is equipped with its own attendant inst.i.tutions-instruments designed for the effective discharge of its particular responsibilities and duties.

Each exercises, within the limitations imposed upon it, its powers, its authority, its rights and prerogatives. These are neither contradictory, nor detract in the slightest degree from the position which each of these inst.i.tutions occupies. Far from being incompatible or mutually destructive, they supplement each other's authority and functions, and are permanently and fundamentally united in their aims.

Divorced from the inst.i.tution of the Guardians.h.i.+p the World Order of Baha'u'llah would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which, as 'Abdu'l-Baha has written, has been invariably upheld by the Law of G.o.d. "In all the Divine Dispensations," He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, "the eldest son hath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright." Without such an inst.i.tution the integrity of the Faith would be imperiled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives would be totally withdrawn.

Severed from the no less essential inst.i.tution of the Universal House of Justice this same System of the Will of 'Abdu'l-Baha would be paralyzed in its action and would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author of the Kitab-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His legislative and administrative ordinances.

"He is the Interpreter of the Word of G.o.d," 'Abdu'l-Baha, referring to the functions of the Guardian of the Faith, a.s.serts, using in His Will the very term which He Himself had chosen when refuting the argument of the Covenant-breakers who had challenged His right to interpret the utterances of Baha'u'llah. "After him," He adds, "will succeed the first-born of his lineal descendants." "The mighty stronghold," He further explains, "shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the Guardian of the Cause of G.o.d." "It is inc.u.mbent upon the members of the House of Justice, upon all the A_gh_san, the Afnan, the Hands of the Cause of G.o.d, to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the Guardian of the Cause of G.o.d."

"It is inc.u.mbent upon the members of the House of Justice," Baha'u'llah, on the other hand, declares in the Eighth Leaf of the Exalted Paradise, "to take counsel together regarding those things which have not outwardly been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to them.

G.o.d will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He verily is the Provider, the Omniscient." "Unto the Most Holy Book" (the Kitab-i-Aqdas), 'Abdu'l-Baha states in His Will, "every one must turn, and all that is not expressly recorded therein must be referred to the Universal House of Justice. That which this body, whether unanimously or by a majority doth carry, that is verily the truth and the purpose of G.o.d Himself. Whoso doth deviate therefrom is verily of them that love discord, hath shown forth malice, and turned away from the Lord of the Covenant."

Not only does 'Abdu'l-Baha confirm in His Will Baha'u'llah's above-quoted statement, but invests this body with the additional right and power to abrogate, according to the exigencies of time, its own enactments, as well as those of a preceding House of Justice. "Inasmuch as the House of Justice," is His explicit statement in His Will, "hath power to enact laws that are not expressly recorded in the Book and bear upon daily transactions, so also it hath power to repeal the same... This it can do because these laws form no part of the divine explicit text."

Referring to both the Guardian and the Universal House of Justice we read these emphatic words: "The sacred and youthful Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of G.o.d, as well as the Universal House of Justice to be universally elected and established, are both under the care and protection of the Abha Beauty, under the shelter and unerring guidance of the Exalted One (the Bab) (may my life be offered up for them both). Whatsoever they decide is of G.o.d."

From these statements it is made indubitably clear and evident that the Guardian of the Faith has been made the Interpreter of the Word and that the Universal House of Justice has been invested with the function of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in the teachings. The interpretation of the Guardian, functioning within his own sphere, is as authoritative and binding as the enactments of the International House of Justice, whose exclusive right and prerogative is to p.r.o.nounce upon and deliver the final judgment on such laws and ordinances as Baha'u'llah has not expressly revealed. Neither can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other. Neither will seek to curtail the specific and undoubted authority with which both have been divinely invested.

Though the Guardian of the Faith has been made the permanent head of so august a body he can never, even temporarily, a.s.sume the right of exclusive legislation. He cannot override the decision of the majority of his fellow-members, but is bound to insist upon a reconsideration by them of any enactment he conscientiously believes to conflict with the meaning and to depart from the spirit of Baha'u'llah's revealed utterances. He interprets what has been specifically revealed, and cannot legislate except in his capacity as member of the Universal House of Justice. He is debarred from laying down independently the const.i.tution that must govern the organized activities of his fellow-members, and from exercising his influence in a manner that would encroach upon the liberty of those whose sacred right is to elect the body of his collaborators.

It should be borne in mind that the inst.i.tution of the Guardians.h.i.+p has been antic.i.p.ated by 'Abdu'l-Baha in an allusion He made in a Tablet addressed, long before His own ascension, to three of His friends in Persia. To their question as to whether there would be any person to whom all the Baha'is would be called upon to turn after His ascension He made the following reply: "As to the question ye have asked me, know verily that this is a well-guarded secret. It is even as a gem concealed within its sh.e.l.l. That it will be revealed is predestined. The time will come when its light will appear, when its evidences will be made manifest, and its secrets unraveled."

Dearly-beloved friends! Exalted as is the position and vital as is the function of the inst.i.tution of the Guardians.h.i.+p in the Administrative Order of Baha'u'llah, and staggering as must be the weight of responsibility which it carries, its importance must, whatever be the language of the Will, be in no wise over-emphasized. The Guardian of the Faith must not under any circ.u.mstances, and whatever his merits or his achievements, be exalted to the rank that will make him a co-sharer with 'Abdu'l-Baha in the unique position which the Center of the Covenant occupies-much less to the station exclusively ordained for the Manifestation of G.o.d. So grave a departure from the established tenets of our Faith is nothing short of open blasphemy. As I have already stated, in the course of my references to 'Abdu'l-Baha's station, however great the gulf that separates Him from the Author of a Divine Revelation it can never measure with the distance that stands between Him Who is the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant and the Guardians who are its chosen ministers.

There is a far, far greater distance separating the Guardian from the Center of the Covenant than there is between the Center of the Covenant and its Author.

No Guardian of the Faith, I feel it my solemn duty to place on record, can ever claim to be the perfect exemplar of the teachings of Baha'u'llah or the stainless mirror that reflects His light. Though overshadowed by the unfailing, the unerring protection of Baha'u'llah and of the Bab, and however much he may share with 'Abdu'l-Baha the right and obligation to interpret the Baha'i teachings, he remains essentially human and cannot, if he wishes to remain faithful to his trust, arrogate to himself, under any pretense whatsoever, the rights, the privileges and prerogatives which Baha'u'llah has chosen to confer upon His Son. In the light of this truth to pray to the Guardian of the Faith, to address him as lord and master, to designate him as his holiness, to seek his benediction, to celebrate his birthday, or to commemorate any event a.s.sociated with his life would be tantamount to a departure from those established truths that are enshrined within our beloved Faith. The fact that the Guardian has been specifically endowed with such power as he may need to reveal the purport and disclose the implications of the utterances of Baha'u'llah and of 'Abdu'l-Baha does not necessarily confer upon him a station co-equal with those Whose words he is called upon to interpret. He can exercise that right and discharge this obligation and yet remain infinitely inferior to both of them in rank and different in nature.

To the integrity of this cardinal principle of our Faith the words, the deeds of its present and future Guardians must abundantly testify. By their conduct and example they must needs establish its truth upon an una.s.sailable foundation and transmit to future generations unimpeachable evidences of its reality.

For my own part to hesitate in recognizing so vital a truth or to vacillate in proclaiming so firm a conviction must const.i.tute a shameless betrayal of the confidence reposed in me by 'Abdu'l-Baha and an unpardonable usurpation of the authority with which He Himself has been invested.

A word should now be said regarding the theory on which this Administrative Order is based and the principle that must govern the operation of its chief inst.i.tutions. It would be utterly misleading to attempt a comparison between this unique, this divinely-conceived Order and any of the diverse systems which the minds of men, at various periods of their history, have contrived for the government of human inst.i.tutions.

Such an attempt would in itself betray a lack of complete appreciation of the excellence of the handiwork of its great Author. How could it be otherwise when we remember that this Order const.i.tutes the very pattern of that divine civilization which the almighty Law of Baha'u'llah is designed to establish upon earth? The divers and ever-s.h.i.+fting systems of human polity, whether past or present, whether originating in the East or in the West, offer no adequate criterion wherewith to estimate the potency of its hidden virtues or to appraise the solidity of its foundations.

The Baha'i Commonwealth of the future, of which this vast Administrative Order is the sole framework, is, both in theory and practice, not only unique in the entire history of political inst.i.tutions, but can find no parallel in the annals of any of the world's recognized religious systems.

No form of democratic government; no system of autocracy or of dictators.h.i.+p, whether monarchical or republican; no intermediary scheme of a purely aristocratic order; nor even any of the recognized types of theocracy, whether it be the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the various Christian ecclesiastical organizations, or the Imamate or the Caliphate in Islam-none of these can be identified or be said to conform with the Administrative Order which the master-hand of its perfect Architect has fas.h.i.+oned.

This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government, without being in any sense a mere replica of any one of them, and without introducing within its machinery any of the objectionable features which they inherently possess. It blends and harmonizes, as no government fas.h.i.+oned by mortal hands has as yet accomplished, the salutary truths which each of these systems undoubtedly contains without vitiating the integrity of those G.o.d-given verities on which it is ultimately founded.

The Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah must in no wise be regarded as purely democratic in character inasmuch as the basic a.s.sumption which requires all democracies to depend fundamentally upon getting their mandate from the people is altogether lacking in this Dispensation. In the conduct of the administrative affairs of the Faith, in the enactment of the legislation necessary to supplement the laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the members of the Universal House of Justice, it should be borne in mind, are not, as Baha'u'llah's utterances clearly imply, responsible to those whom they represent, nor are they allowed to be governed by the feelings, the general opinion, and even the convictions of the ma.s.s of the faithful, or of those who directly elect them. They are to follow, in a prayerful att.i.tude, the dictates and promptings of their conscience. They may, indeed they must, acquaint themselves with the conditions prevailing among the community, must weigh dispa.s.sionately in their minds the merits of any case presented for their consideration, but must reserve for themselves the right of an unfettered decision. "G.o.d will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth," is Baha'u'llah's incontrovertible a.s.surance. They, and not the body of those who either directly or indirectly elect them, have thus been made the recipients of the divine guidance which is at once the life-blood and ultimate safeguard of this Revelation. Moreover, he who symbolizes the hereditary principle in this Dispensation has been made the interpreter of the words of its Author, and ceases consequently, by virtue of the actual authority vested in him, to be the figurehead invariably a.s.sociated with the prevailing systems of const.i.tutional monarchies.

Nor can the Baha'i Administrative Order be dismissed as a hard and rigid system of unmitigated autocracy or as an idle imitation of any form of absolutistic ecclesiastical government, whether it be the Papacy, the Imamate or any other similar inst.i.tution, for the obvious reason that upon the international elected representatives of the followers of Baha'u'llah has been conferred the exclusive right of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in the Baha'i writings. Neither the Guardian of the Faith nor any inst.i.tution apart from the International House of Justice can ever usurp this vital and essential power or encroach upon that sacred right. The abolition of professional priesthood with its accompanying sacraments of baptism, of communion and of confession of sins, the laws requiring the election by universal suffrage of all local, national, and international Houses of Justice, the total absence of episcopal authority with its attendant privileges, corruptions and bureaucratic tendencies, are further evidences of the non-autocratic character of the Baha'i Administrative Order and of its inclination to democratic methods in the administration of its affairs.

Nor is this Order identified with the name of Baha'u'llah to be confused with any system of purely aristocratic government in view of the fact that it upholds, on the one hand, the hereditary principle and entrusts the Guardian of the Faith with the obligation of interpreting its teachings, and provides, on the other, for the free and direct election from among the ma.s.s of the faithful of the body that const.i.tutes its highest legislative organ.

Whereas this Administrative Order cannot be said to have been modeled after any of these recognized systems of government, it nevertheless embodies, reconciles and a.s.similates within its framework such wholesome elements as are to be found in each one of them. The hereditary authority which the Guardian is called upon to exercise, the vital and essential functions which the Universal House of Justice discharges, the specific provisions requiring its democratic election by the representatives of the faithful-these combine to demonstrate the truth that this divinely revealed Order, which can never be identified with any of the standard types of government referred to by Aristotle in his works, embodies and blends with the spiritual verities on which it is based the beneficent elements which are to be found in each one of them. The admitted evils inherent in each of these systems being rigidly and permanently excluded, this unique Order, however long it may endure and however extensive its ramifications, cannot ever degenerate into any form of despotism, of oligarchy, or of demagogy which must sooner or later corrupt the machinery of all man-made and essentially defective political inst.i.tutions.

Dearly-beloved friends! Significant as are the origins of this mighty administrative structure, and however unique its features, the happenings that may be said to have heralded its birth and signalized the initial stage of its evolution seem no less remarkable. How striking, how edifying the contrast between the process of slow and steady consolidation that characterizes the growth of its infant strength and the devastating onrush of the forces of disintegration that are a.s.sailing the outworn inst.i.tutions, both religious and secular, of present-day society!

The vitality which the organic inst.i.tutions of this great, this ever-expanding Order so strongly exhibit; the obstacles which the high courage, the undaunted resolution of its administrators have already surmounted; the fire of an unquenchable enthusiasm that glows with undiminished fervor in the hearts of its itinerant teachers; the heights of self-sacrifice which its champion-builders are now attaining; the breadth of vision, the confident hope, the creative joy, the inward peace, the uncompromising integrity, the exemplary discipline, the unyielding unity and solidarity which its stalwart defenders manifest; the degree to which its moving Spirit has shown itself capable of a.s.similating the diversified elements within its pale, of cleansing them of all forms of prejudice and of fusing them with its own structure-these are evidences of a power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken society can ill afford to ignore.