[260] Baha, in the "Akdas," forbids women from going on pilgrimage, the adoration of pictures and the kissing of hands. Why does Abdul Baha encourage them? Ignorant devotion has so soon degenerated into superstition and iconolatry. Others are trading on the superstitious. Abdul Baha writes: "I have received news that some one in Persia has imitated the picture of the Manifestation and sold it for $200 to a believer. The real picture is not in the possession of any one but me."
[261] "Flowers from Acca," p. 34.
[262] "A Heavenly Vista," p. 22; and above references.
[263] Star, March 2,1914, p. 321.
[264] Doctor Jessup, Outlook, Ibid., says, "An old Persian Sheikh, in 1897, came to the American Press in Beirut, with a large sheet of paste board on which was written the motto 'Ya Baha ul Abha' and wished to have a map mounted on the face of it. In reply to inquiry why he thus would use it, he said: 'I have had it hanging on my wall for twelve years and prayed to it, and found it to be vanity and worthless. I now prefer to read the Bible.'"
VI
Bahaism and the State
Bahaism certainly does contemplate an earthly dominion which shall eventually subvert all existing governments.—Doctor Holmes in Speer's "Missions and Modern History," Vol. I, p. 129.
The supreme manifestation of social morality is always government and in formulating a politic, Baha Ullah most clearly earned our reverence as the prophet of modern society.... Democracy alone tends to vulgarize personal values, as the United States proves. By uniting the aristocratic spirit with the democratic form of Government, he insured a politic at once equable and effective.—H. Holley, "The Modern Social Religion" p. 203.
In calling Babi-Bahaism a worse cult than Mormonism, I do so deliberately.—S. K. Vatralsky in "Amer. Jour. of Theology," 1902, p. 73.
There can be little doubt from the intolerance they show to those who recant, that should they gain power enough they would be as ready to persecute Christians as was Mohammed to put to death the Jews of Medina.—Dr. G. W. Holmes in Speer's ibid., p. 130.