lt is an inherent part of all ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s teaching on the subject of tribunals and political progress that the spiritual conditions for real justice have not yet been fulfilled. He regards the function of legislation as a function of illumined minds, severed from all considerations save those of justice and truth. Just as the poet receives his visions, or the scientist his principles, through intense meditation, so will the future legislative body arrive at its structure of civic, national or international law. Order is of the essence of the manifested universe, and that order flows through and inspires the minds that turn to it in unity and for the purpose of manifesting justice. Thus those who are capable of entering this unity and impersonal abstraction are to be selected by the people from their wisest men. The legislator, in fact, is placed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a high spiritual station, where the solving of great politicaland economic problems is dependent upon such intense meditation.

Thus, in brief, has the Successor and Interpreter of Bahá’u’lláh established a vital contact for His followers with thefundamental needs of the time—a contact which carries religion into the very heart of life, yet without impairing its essential sanctity and holiness. To produce a world civilization reflecting the oneness of God in the harmony of mankind—a civilization which is not merely the exploitation of nature but rather a fitting environmentfor the soul—such was the ideal of'Abdu'l-Baha, and the purpose inspiring His difficult and arduous journeys of teaching throughout the West. The social aspects of the Bahá’í teaching are supremely important at the present day.

The relationship of social service to the religious life, so strongly emphasized in the Bahá’í teachings, is perfectly symbolized in the form of the Temple, or universal House of Worship, which Bahá’u’lláh established. The Bahá’í Temple, already in process of construction at Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago, on the shores of Lake Michigan in the United States, embodies this conception on a most impressive scale. Open to all men and women without distinction of race, class, creed or color, this institution will, on completion, consist of a central structure devoted to meditation and prayer, surrounded by other edifices used as schools, asylums, hospitals, hostels, and orphanages—the embodiment, in fact, not merely of the relationship of religion to life, but also of soul to body. The first Bahá’í Temple to be constructed was erected at ‘Ishqábád, Turkistán. It is a matter of interesting record that contributions for the Temple at Wilmette have been sent by representatives of every race and creed both in the East and the West. The world contains no purer expression of the new inter-religious, inter-racial and international brotherhood that is coming to fruition in this age.

The wise student of religion, however, seeking for the hidden springs of any faith, examines not merely the documents and individuals which it has produced, but also the characteristic forms devised by its followers in order to perpetuate its existence. Alone among religions the organization of the Bahá’í Cause is evolving through forms laid down by the Founder Himself, forms which manifest the spirit of democracy and directly contribute to the habit of democracy among all who come under their influence.