It behooves us, dear friends, to endeavor not only to familiarize
ourselves with the essential features of this supreme Handiwork of
Baha'u'llah, but also to grasp the fundamental difference existing between
this world-embracing, divinely-appointed Order and the chief
ecclesiastical organizations of the world, whether they pertain to the
Church of Christ, or to the ordinances of the Muhammadan Dispensation.
For those whose priceless privilege is to guard over, administer the
affairs, and advance the interests of these Baha'i institutions will have,
sooner or later, to face this searching question: "Where and how does this
Order established by Baha'u'llah, which to outward seeming is but a
replica of the institutions established in Christianity and Islam, differ
from them? Are not the twin institutions of the House of Justice and of
the Guardianship, the institution of the Hands of the Cause of God, the
institution of the national and local Assemblies, the institution of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, but different names for the institutions of the
Papacy and the Caliphate, with all their attending ecclesiastical orders
which the Christians and Moslems uphold and advocate? What can possibly be
the agency that can safeguard these Baha'i institutions, so strikingly
resemblant, in some of their features, to those which have been reared by
the Fathers of the Church and the Apostles of Muhammad, from witnessing
the deterioration in character, the breach of unity, and the extinction of
influence, which have befallen all organized religious hierarchies? Why
should they not eventually suffer the self-same fate that has overtaken
the institutions which the successors of Christ and Muhammad have reared?"
Upon the answer given to these challenging questions will, in a great
measure, depend the success of the efforts which believers in every land
are now exerting for the establishment of God's kingdom upon the earth.
Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by Baha'u'llah upon
the world, and which is manifesting itself with varying degrees of
intensity through the efforts consciously displayed by His avowed
supporters and indirectly through certain humanitarian organizations, can
never permeate and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind unless and
until it incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would bear His name,
wholly identify itself with His principles, and function in conformity
with His laws. That Baha'u'llah in His Book of Aqdas, and later
'Abdu'l-Baha in His Will--a document which confirms, supplements, and
correlates the provisions of the Aqdas--have set forth in their entirety
those essential elements for the constitution of the world Baha'i
Commonwealth, no one who has read them will deny. According to these
divinely-ordained administrative principles, the Dispensation of
Baha'u'llah--the Ark of human salvation--must needs be modeled. From them,
all future blessings must flow, and upon them its inviolable authority
must ultimately rest.
For Baha'u'llah, we should readily recognize, has not only imbued mankind
with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain
universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however
potent, sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He, as well
as 'Abdu'l-Baha after Him, has, unlike the Dispensations of the past,
clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite
institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These
are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for
the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the
unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of
righteousness and justice upon the earth. Not only have they revealed all
the directions required for the practical realization of those ideals
which the Prophets of God have visualized, and which from time immemorial
have inflamed the imagination of seers and poets in every age. They have
also, in unequivocal and emphatic language, appointed those twin
institutions of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship as their
chosen Successors, destined to apply the principles, promulgate the laws,
protect the institutions, adapt loyally and intelligently the Faith to the
requirements of progressive society, and consummate the incorruptible
inheritance which the Founders of the Faith have bequeathed to the world.
Should we look back upon the past, were we to search out the Gospel and
the Qur'an, we will readily recognize that neither the Christian nor the
Islamic Dispensations can offer a parallel either to the system of Divine
Economy so thoroughly established by Baha'u'llah, or to the safeguards
which He has provided for its preservation and advancement. Therein, I am
profoundly convinced, lies the answer to those questions to which I have
already referred.
None, I feel, will question the fact that the fundamental reason why the
unity of the Church of Christ was irretrievably shattered, and its
influence was in the course of time undermined, was that the Edifice which
the Fathers of the Church reared after the passing of His First Apostle
was an Edifice that rested in nowise upon the explicit directions of
Christ Himself. The authority and features of their administration were
wholly inferred, and indirectly derived, with more or less justification,
from certain vague and fragmentary references which they found scattered
amongst His utterances as recorded in the Gospel. Not one of the
sacraments of the Church; not one of the rites and ceremonies which the
Christian Fathers have elaborately devised and ostentatiously observed;
not one of the elements of the severe discipline they rigorously imposed
upon the primitive Christians; none of these reposed on the direct
authority of Christ, or emanated from His specific utterances. Not one of
these did Christ conceive, none did He specifically invest with sufficient
authority to either interpret His Word, or to add to what He had not
specifically enjoined.
For this reason, in later generations, voices were raised in protest
against the self-appointed Authority which arrogated to itself privileges
and powers which did not emanate from the clear text of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, and which constituted a grave departure from the spirit
which that Gospel did inculcate. They argued with force and justification
that the canons promulgated by the Councils of the Church were not
divinely-appointed laws, but were merely human devices which did not even
rest upon the actual utterances of Jesus. Their contention centered around
the fact that the vague and inconclusive words, addressed by Christ to
Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church," could
never justify the extreme measures, the elaborate ceremonials, the
fettering creeds and dogmas, with which His successors have gradually
burdened and obscured His Faith. Had it been possible for the Church
Fathers, whose unwarranted authority was thus fiercely assailed from every
side, to refute the denunciations heaped upon them by quoting specific
utterances of Christ regarding the future administration of His Church, or
the nature of the authority of His Successors, they would surely have been
capable of quenching the flame of controversy, and preserving the unity of
Christendom. The Gospel, however, the only repository of the utterances of
Christ, afforded no such shelter to these harassed leaders of the Church,
who found themselves helpless in the face of the pitiless onslaught of
their enemy, and who eventually had to submit to the forces of schism
which invaded their ranks.
In the Muhammadan Revelation, however, although His Faith as compared with
that of Christ was, so far as the administration of His Dispensation is
concerned, more complete and more specific in its provisions, yet in the
matter of succession, it gave no written, no binding and conclusive
instructions to those whose mission was to propagate His Cause. For the
text of the Qur'an, the ordinances of which regarding prayer, fasting,
marriage, divorce, inheritance, pilgrimage, and the like, have after the
revolution of thirteen hundred years remained intact and operative, gives
no definite guidance regarding the Law of Succession, the source of all
the dissensions, the controversies, and schisms which have dismembered and
discredited Islam.
Not so with the Revelation of Baha'u'llah. Unlike the Dispensation of
Christ, unlike the Dispensation of Muhammad, unlike all the Dispensations
of the past, the apostles of Baha'u'llah in every land, wherever they
labor and toil, have before them in clear, in unequivocal and emphatic
language, all the laws, the regulations, the principles, the institutions,
the guidance, they require for the prosecution and consummation of their
task. Both in the administrative provisions of the Baha'i Dispensation,
and in the matter of succession, as embodied in the twin institutions of
the House of Justice and of the Guardianship, the followers of Baha'u'llah
can summon to their aid such irrefutable evidences of Divine Guidance that
none can resist, that none can belittle or ignore. Therein lies the
distinguishing feature of the Baha'i Revelation. Therein lies the strength
of the unity of the Faith, of the validity of a Revelation that claims not
to destroy or belittle previous Revelations, but to connect, unify, and
fulfill them. This is the reason why Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha have
both revealed and even insisted upon certain details in connection with
the Divine Economy which they have bequeathed to us, their followers. This
is why such an emphasis has been placed in their Will and Testament upon
the powers and prerogatives of the ministers of their Faith.
For nothing short of the explicit directions of their Book, and the
surprisingly emphatic language with which they have clothed the provisions
of their Will, could possibly safeguard the Faith for which they have both
so gloriously labored all their lives. Nothing short of this could protect
it from the heresies and calumnies with which denominations, peoples, and
governments have endeavored, and will, with increasing vigor, endeavor to
assail it in future.
We should also bear in mind that the distinguishing character of the
Baha'i Revelation does not solely consist in the completeness and
unquestionable validity of the Dispensation which the teachings of
Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha have established. Its excellence lies also in
the fact that those elements which in past Dispensations have, without the
least authority from their Founders, been a source of corruption and of
incalculable harm to the Faith of God, have been strictly excluded by the
clear text of Baha'u'llah's writings. Those unwarranted practices, in
connection with the sacrament of baptism, of communion, of confession of
sins, of asceticism, of priestly domination, of elaborate ceremonials, of
holy war and of polygamy, have one and all been rigidly suppressed by the
Pen of Baha'u'llah; whilst the rigidity and rigor of certain observances,
such as fasting, which are necessary to the devotional life of the
individual, have been considerably abated.