The Reconciliation of Races and ReligionsCheyne, T. K. (Thomas Kelly)
Religion
The Reconciliation of Races and Religions
Cheyne, T. K. (Thomas Kelly)
Bahais
The want of a surely attested life, or extract from a life, of a
God-man will be more and more acutely felt. There is only one such
life; it is that of Baha-'ullah. Through Him, therefore, let us pray
in this twentieth century amidst the manifold difficulties which beset
our social and political reconstructions; let Him be the prince-angel
who conveys our petitions to the Most High. The standpoint of
Immanence, however, suggests a higher and a deeper view. Does a friend
need to ask a favour of a friend? Are we not in Baha'ullah ('the Glory
of God'), and is not He in God? Therefore, 'ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you' (John xv. 7). Far be it that we should
even seem to disparage the Lord Jesus, but the horizon of His early
worshippers is too narrow for us to follow them, and the critical
difficulties are insuperable. The mirage of the ideal Christ is all
that remains, when these obstacles have been allowed for.
We read much about God-men in the narratives of the Old Testament,
where the name attached to a manifestation of God in human semblance
is 'malak Yahwè (Jehovah)' or 'malak Elohim'--a name of uncertain
meaning which I have endeavoured to explain more correctly elsewhere.
In the New Testament too there is a large Docetic element. Apparently
a supernatural Being walks about on earth--His name is Jesus of
Nazareth, or simply Jesus, or with a deifying prefix 'Lord' and a
regal appendix 'Christ.' He has doubtless a heavenly message to
individuals, but He has also one to the great social body. Christ,
says Mr. Holley, is a perfect revelation for the individual, but not
for the social organism. This is correct if we lay stress on the
qualifying word 'perfect,' especially if we hold that St. Paul has the
credit of having expanded and enriched the somewhat meagre
representation of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels. It must be conceded
that Baha-'ullah had a greater opportunity than Christ of lifting both
His own and other peoples to a higher plane, but the ideal of both was
the same.
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 Muḥammad 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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