I have endeavoured to study the various races and religions on their best side, and not to fetter myself to any individual teacher or party, for 'out of His fulness have all we received.' Max Müller was hardly right in advising the Brahmists to call themselves Christians, and it is a pity that we so habitually speak of Buddhists and Mohammedans. I venture to remark that the favourite name of the Bahais among themselves is 'Friends.' The ordinary name Bahai comes from the divine name Baha, 'Glory (of God),' so that Abdu'l Baha means 'Servant of the Glory (of God).' One remembers the beautiful words of the Latin collect, 'Cui servire regnare est.' Abdu'l Baha (when in Oxford) graciously gave me a 'new name.' [Footnote: Ruḥani ('spiritual').] Evidently he thought that my work was not entirely done, and would have me be ever looking for help to the Spirit, whose 'strength is made perfect in weakness.' Since then he has written me a Tablet (letter), from which I quote the following lines:-- _'O thou, my spiritual philosopher,_ 'Thy letter was received. In reality its contents were eloquent, for it was an evidence of thy literary fairness and of thy investigation of Reality.... There were many Doctors amongst the Jews, but they were all earthly, but St. Paul became heavenly because he could fly upwards. In his own time no one duly recognized him; nay, rather, he spent his days amidst difficulties and contempt. Afterwards it became known that he was not an earthly bird, he was a celestial one; he was not a natural philosopher, but a divine philosopher. 'It is likewise my hope that in the future the East and the West may become conscious that thou wert a divine philosopher and a herald to the Kingdom.' I have no wish to write my autobiography, but may mention here that I sympathize largely with Vambéry, a letter from whom to Abdu'l Baha will be found farther on; though I should express my own adhesion to the Bahai leader in more glowing terms. Wishing to get nearer to a 'human-catholic' religion I have sought the privilege of simultaneous membership of several brotherhoods of Friends of God. It is my wish to show that both these and other homes of spiritual life are, when studied from the inside, essentially one, and that religions necessarily issue in racial and world-wide unity. RUḤANI. OXFORD, _August_ 1914. CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION I. THE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS II. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL III. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL (continued) IV. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL; AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY V. A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION TO MEN AND WOMEN OF GOODWILL IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE _A Message (reprinted by permission) from the Religious Society of Friends_