A glance at the writings of the Author of the Baha'i Revelation will
reveal the important and significant fact that He Who addressed
collectively an immortal message to all the kings of the earth, Who
revealed a Tablet to each of the outstanding crowned heads of Europe and
Asia, Who issued His call to the sacerdotal leaders of Islam, both Sunni
and _Sh_i'ih, Who did not exclude from His purview the Jews and the
Zoroastrians, has, apart from His numerous and repeated exhortations and
warnings to the entire Christian world, directed particular messages, some
general, others precise and challenging, to the heads, as well as to the
rank and file, of the ecclesiastical orders of Christendom--its pope, its
kings, its patriarchs, its archbishops, its bishops, its priests, and its
monks. We have already, in connection with the messages of Baha'u'llah to
the crowned heads of the world, considered certain features of the Tablet
to the Roman Pontiff, as well as the words written to the kings of
Christendom. Let us now turn our attention to those passages in which the
aristocracy of the church and its ordained servants are singled out for
exhortation and admonition by the Pen of Baha'u'llah:
"Say: O concourse of patriarchs! He Whom ye were promised in the Tablets
is come. Fear God, and follow not the vain imaginings of the
superstitious. Lay aside the things ye possess, and take fast hold of the
Tablet of God by His sovereign power. Better is this for you than all your
possessions. Unto this testifieth every understanding heart, and every man
of insight. Pride ye yourselves on My Name, and yet shut yourselves out as
by a veil from Me? This indeed is a strange thing!"
"Say: O concourse of archbishops! He Who is the Lord of all men hath
appeared. In the plain of guidance He calleth mankind, whilst ye are
numbered with the dead! Great is the blessedness of him who is stirred by
the Breeze of God, and hath arisen from amongst the dead in this
perspicuous Name."
"Say: O concourse of bishops! Trembling hath seized all the kindreds of
the earth, and He Who is the Everlasting Father calleth aloud between
earth and heaven. Blessed the ear that hath heard, and the eye that hath
seen, and the heart that hath turned unto Him Who is the Point of
Adoration of all who are in the heavens and all who are on earth." "O
concourse of bishops! Ye are the stars of the heaven of My knowledge. My
mercy desireth not that ye should fall upon the earth. My justice,
however, declareth: 'This is that which the Son [Jesus] hath decreed.' And
whatsoever hath proceeded out of His blameless, His truthspeaking,
trustworthy mouth, can never be altered. The bells, verily, peal out My
Name, and lament over Me, but My spirit rejoiceth with evident gladness.
The body of the Loved One yearneth for the cross, and His head is eager
for the spear, in the path of the All-Merciful. The ascendancy of the
oppressor can in no wise deter Him from His purpose." And again: "The
stars of the heaven of knowledge have fallen, they that adduce the proofs
they possess in order to demonstrate the truth of My Cause, and who make
mention of God in My Name. When I came unto them, in My majesty, however,
they turned aside from Me. They, verily, are of the fallen. This is what
the Spirit [Jesus] prophesied when He came with the truth, and the Jewish
doctors caviled at Him, until they committed what made the Holy Spirit to
lament, and the eyes of such as enjoy near access to God to weep."
"Say: O concourse of priests! Leave the bells, and come forth, then, from
your churches. It behooveth you, in this day, to proclaim aloud the Most
Great Name among the nations. Prefer ye to be silent, whilst every stone
and every tree shouteth aloud: 'The Lord is come in His great glory!'?...
He that summoneth men in My name is, verily, of Me, and he will show forth
that which is beyond the power of all that are on earth. ...Let the Breeze
of God awaken you. Verily, it hath wafted over the world. Well is it with
him that hath discovered the fragrance thereof and been accounted among
the well-assured." And again: "O concourse of priests! The Day of
Reckoning hath appeared, the Day whereon He Who was in heaven hath come.
He, verily, is the One Whom ye were promised in the Books of God, the
Holy, the Almighty, the All-Praised. How long will ye wander in the
wilderness of heedlessness and superstition? Turn with your hearts in the
direction of your Lord, the Forgiving, the Generous."
"Say: O concourse of monks! Seclude not yourselves in churches and
cloisters. Come forth by My leave, and occupy yourselves with that which
will profit your souls and the souls of men. Thus biddeth you the King of
the Day of Reckoning. Seclude yourselves in the stronghold of My love.
This, verily, is a befitting seclusion, were ye of them that perceive it.
He that shutteth himself up in a house is indeed as one dead. It behooveth
man to show forth that which will profit all created things, and he that
bringeth forth no fruit is fit for fire. Thus counseleth you your Lord,
and He, verily, is the Almighty, the All-Bounteous. Enter ye into wedlock,
that after you someone may fill your place. We have forbidden you
perfidious acts, and not that which will demonstrate fidelity. Have ye
clung to the standards fixed by your own selves, and cast the standards of
God behind your backs? Fear God, and be not of the foolish. But for man,
who would make mention of Me on My earth, and how could My attributes and
My name have been revealed? Ponder ye, and be not of them that are veiled
and fast asleep. He that wedded not [Jesus] found no place wherein to
dwell or lay His head, by reason of that which the hands of the
treacherous had wrought. His sanctity consisteth not in that which ye
believe or fancy, but rather in the things We possess. Ask, that ye may
apprehend His station which hath been exalted above the imaginings of all
that dwell on earth. Blessed are they who perceive it." And again: "O
concourse of monks! If ye choose to follow Me, I will make you heirs of My
Kingdom; and if ye transgress against Me, I will, in My long-suffering,
endure it patiently, and I, verily, am the Ever-Forgiving, the
All-Merciful. ...Bethlehem is astir with the Breeze of God. We hear her
voice saying: 'O Most Generous Lord! Where is Thy great glory established?
The sweet savors of Thy presence have quickened me, after I had melted in
my separation from Thee. Praised be Thou in that Thou hast raised the
veils, and come with power in evident glory.' We called unto her from
behind the Tabernacle of Majesty and Grandeur: 'O Bethlehem! This Light
hath risen in the orient, and traveled towards the occident, until it
reached thee in the evening of its life. Tell Me then: Do the sons
recognize the Father, and acknowledge Him, or do they deny Him, even as
the people aforetime denied Him [Jesus]?' Whereupon she cried out saying:
'Thou art, in truth, the All-Knowing, the Best-Informed." And again:
"Consider, likewise, how numerous at this time are the monks who have
secluded themselves in their churches, in My name, and who, when the
appointed time came, and We unveiled to them Our beauty, failed to
recognize Me, notwithstanding that they call upon Me at dawn and at
eventide." "Read ye the Evangel," He again addresses them, "and yet refuse
to acknowledge the All-Glorious Lord? This indeed beseemeth you not, O
concourse of learned men!... The fragrances of the All-Merciful have
wafted over all creation. Happy the man that hath forsaken his desires,
and taken fast hold of guidance."
These "fallen stars" of the firmament of Christendom, these "thick clouds"
that have obscured the radiance of the true Faith of God, these princes of
the Church that have failed to acknowledge the sovereignty of the "King of
kings," these deluded ministers of the Son who have shunned and ignored
the promised Kingdom which the "Everlasting Father" has brought down from
heaven, and is now establishing upon earth--these are experiencing, in this
"Day of Reckoning," a crisis, not indeed as critical as that which the
Islamic sacerdotal order, the inveterate enemies of the Faith, has had to
face, but one which is no less widespread and significant. "Power hath
been seized" indeed, and is being increasingly seized, from these
ecclesiastics that speak in the name, and yet are so far away from the
spirit, of the Faith they profess.
We have only to look around us, as we survey the fortunes of Christian
ecclesiastical orders, to appreciate the steady deterioration of their
influence, the decline of their power, the damage to their prestige, the
flouting of their authority, the dwindling of their congregations, the
relaxation of their discipline, the restriction of their press, the
timidity of their leaders, the confusion in their ranks, the progressive
confiscation of their properties, the surrender of some of their most
powerful strongholds, and the extinction of other ancient and cherished
institutions. Indeed, ever since the Divine summons was issued, and the
invitation extended, and the warning sounded, and the condemnation
pronounced, this process, that may be said to have been initiated with the
collapse of the temporal sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff, soon after the
Tablet to the Pope had been revealed, has been operating with increasing
momentum, menacing the very basis on which the entire order is resting.
Aided by the forces which the Communist movement has unloosed, reinforced
by the political consequences of the last war, accelerated by the
excessive, the blind, the intolerant, and militant nationalism which is
now convulsing the nations, and stimulated by the rising tide of
materialism, irreligion, and paganism, this process is not only tending to
subvert ecclesiastical institutions, but appears to be leading to the
rapid dechristianization of the masses in many Christian countries.
I shall content myself with the enumeration of certain outstanding
manifestations of this force which is increasingly invading the domain,
and assailing the firmest ramparts, of one of the leading religious
systems of mankind. The virtual extinction of the temporal power of the
most preeminent ruler in Christendom immediately after the creation of the
Kingdom of Italy; the wave of anticlericalism that swept over France after
the collapse of the Napoleonic empire, and which culminated in the
complete separation of the Catholic Church from the state, in the
laicization of the Third Republic, in the secularization of education, and
in the suppression and dispersal of religious orders; the swift and sudden
rise of that "religious irreligion," that bold, conscious, and organized
assault launched in Soviet Russia against the Greek Orthodox Church, that
precipitated the disestablishment of the state religion, that massacred a
vast number of its members originally numbering above a hundred million
souls, that pulled down, closed, or converted into museums, theatres and
warehouses, thousands upon thousands of churches, monasteries, synagogues
and mosques, that stripped the church of its six and a half million acres
of property, and sought, through its League of Militant Atheists and the
promulgation of a "five-year plan of godlessness," to loosen from its
foundations the religious life of the masses; the dismemberment of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy that dissolved, by one stroke, the most powerful
unit which owed its allegiance to, and supported through its resources the
administration of, the Church of Rome; the divorce of the Spanish state
from that same Church, and the overthrow of the monarchy, the champion of
Catholic Christendom; the nationalistic philosophy, the parent of an
unbridled and obsolete nationalism, which, having dethroned Islam, has
indirectly assaulted the front line of the Christian church in
non-Christian lands, and is dealing such heavy blows to Catholic,
Anglican, and Presbyterian Missions in Persia, Turkey, and the Far East;
the revolutionary movement that brought in its wake the persecution of the
Catholic Church in Mexico; and finally the gospel of modern paganism,
unconcealed, aggressive, and unrelenting, which, in the years preceding
the present turmoil, and increasingly since its outbreak, has swept over
the continent of Europe, invading the citadels, and sowing confusion in
the hearts of the supporters, of the Catholic, the Greek Orthodox, and the
Lutheran churches, in Austria, Poland, the Baltic and Scandinavian states,
and more recently in Western Europe, the home and center of the most
powerful hierarchies of Christendom.