ONE of the problems that confront a student of the Bahá’í Cause is the position it occupies among the other modern progressive movements. “Why is it,” he asks, “that we see so many societies, more or less contemporary with the Cause, which uphold similar views and aims? It cannot be a case of conscious plagiarism, for in most cases the leaders of these societies were absolutely ignorant of the Bahá’í Movement, its founders and principles. Can it be then that the Cause is merely eclectic, a movement that has achieved nothing more that to gather up ideas originated by others and to adopt them as its own ?”
To answer this difficult, yet legitimate question, we have to remember that the principal teaching of the Cause is that its founders were divinely inspired. It is not a man-made Movement. It is “the Cause of God.” Man’s affairs have fallen into such a tangled condition, his problems have become so complex and difficult, his motives so selfish and his aims so material, that no real solution is possible without a fundamental and complete reform.
God, therefore, having the good of His people at heart, undertook this gigantic task, and dealt with it in two ways. On the one hand, He sent His Prophet with a perfect code of laws to teach some chosen disciples, raise them to whole-hearted devotion and obedience, and make them active leaven to permeate the world with the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, reaching beyond this small circle of disciples, He inspired receptive souls, in all quarters of the globe and among all races and religions, to further the work by rending the veil of prejudice and opening the eyes to the need of Divine help and fundamental reform.
The Divine Power is behind all progressive movements. Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings would have remained a utopia, never to be realized, if His spirit, that is God’s hand, had not stirred some souls to establish new movements and work, although in apparent independence, yet for similar aims. These souls are the enlightened teachers who have been showing the world that material prosperity should not be the aim of life; that through appropriate taxation and education the rich can help the betterment of the social and economic conditions of the poor; that war should cease; that nationalism should give way to a higher and nobler policy of internationalism; that a League of Nations should be established to settle international disputes; that an international language should be created to become a universal medium of communication and eliminate misunderstandings.
In a word, these progressive movements which have sprung up during the ninteenth century have been instruments used by God to make the world more receptive to His Cause. They have been like the plowing and