The Illinois times., September 20, 1963, Image 4

About The Illinois times. (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-19??

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
THE HEALER OF ALL OUR ILLS
V. hie Aeronaut Gordon Cooper
was in orbit about the earth at a speed
of more than 17,000 miles an hour,
there appeared an item in the local
paper which told of the first airplane
commissioned by the United States
Army from the Wright Brothers in
1908. It had to be able to fly at an
average '•peed of 40 miles per hour
over a 10 mile course. The plane on
its trial flight, July 30. 1909, did act
ia!Iy fly at an average of 42.6 miles
per hour from Ft. Myers, Virginia, to
Alexandria, more than 10 miles. Now,
although we have learned to take a
tomic power and the space age for
granted, when we think of that time
(and some of us remember it), we feel
'a.vd. One hundred years ago,when
Baha u ilah began to promulgate his
Message of the approching age of
peace and the unity of the nations,
races, and religions of the earth, the
I'nited States was in the midst of a
bloody war and had only just freed its
slaves. A large part of the world was
stable, governed by powerful and bril
liant empires; colonies seemed likely
to remain colonies forever; the dark
races were called “the white man'*
turden." Where are those empires?
Where are those colonies now?
Kipling, whose attitude towards the
colonial peoples has often been mis
understood, voice a foreboding of
what might come, at the time of
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in
lo97. (Baha’u’llah had sent letters
of warning to all the great kings and
emperors at least twenty years before.)
Kip.mg wrote:
1 he tumult and the shouting dies;
the Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice.
An humble and a contrite heart.
T...-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - - lest we forget!
I he change came with bewildering
velocity. Our ordered life was dislo
cated. Cracks appeared in the political
and social structures of the world.
Great rifts have opened between na
tions, within nations, in communities,
in family life. We even speak glibly
now about split personalities. Social
injustices, hitherto latent and com
placently accepted, became running
sores. The gap between the genera
tions widened. Two world wars
brought about great migratons of
peoples and a clash of culture and
mores. Colonies became nations over
night, and whole peoples, as well as
indisiduals, had suddenly to become
mature.
These changes are continuous and
painful. Esery day we stagger under
shock in the news —rots, revolutions,
crime, hate, violence, and the rumors
of total destruction. How can we ad
just ourselves to the increasing velocity
of this change? We seem to be whirled
toward something, and we must find
out what it is.
No one w ho belies es in God can
'tipposc that He does not preside over
His universe, that all these changes are
fortuitous. What, then, is He doing
with us?
The Scriptures of all the great re
ligions foretell an era of peace, when
the Kingdom of Heaven shall become
the Kingdom of this earth, when "na
tion shall not lift sword against na
tion, neither shall they learn war any
more." We are accustomed to think
of the milleniuni as something to come
in the for-off, indefinite future, but
the Scriptures of the Baha'i Faith tell
us that the time has come. Now. In
this century. It is this towards which
we aie being whirled, rapidly and
ruthlessly. The world moses to its des
t ny. The time has come for the
peoples of the earth to unite or perish.
en the scientists will tell us this
now. Some of the poets of the nine
teenth century caught glimpses of it
much earlier. Shelly wrote in 1821:
The world's great age begins anew.
The golden years return.
The earth doth like a snake renew
Her winter weeds outworn:
tasen smiles, and faiths and empires
gleam
l ,ke wrecks of a dissolving dream.
Tennyson, who foretold in Locks
ley Hall aerial warfare and "The Parli
ament of man, the Federation of the
HAVE YOU NOTICED THE DIFFERENCE?
THIS IS NO ORDINARY DROP OF WATCR . . . but a very
special drop pi quart/ softened water, stored and always
available tor iipmcdvde delivery to you, our customers,
when and where \u i m.-ed it.
PLENTY OF
QUALITY
world." wrote in that same poem.
Vet 1 doubt not tho’ the ages one
increasing purpose runs. And the
thoughts of men are widen'd with the
process of the suns.
\V hat then can we do in so crucial
a period.1 To begin with, let us rejoice
in the signs of approaching unity
wherever we find them: the Lnited
Nations; jhc many peace movements
which have arisen; inter racial groups
and bi-racial committees which are
devoting themselves to the solution of
our gravest domestic problem; the
long and uncompromsing stand of the
Society of Friends against violence;
the ecumenical movement; the libera
lizing and unifying influence of Pope
John, whom all meti of good will are
now mourning, and the world-wide
Baha'i Community' in which all the
diverse elements of the human family
are blended into a unity, rich and
beautiful in its diversity and held to
gether by the strong bond of the love
of God.
For love is the answer. It is the
heart of all the religions, the life
force of mankind. The world. Abdu 1
Baha said, is dying from lack of love.
We have to learn to love — all men.
even our enemies.
Christ said: "This is my command
ment. That ye love one another, as 1
have loved you.” In the writings of
BahaVIlah, we are told th'at. when we
submerge our will in the will of God,
we see with His eyes and hear with
His ears. His vision is universal. Ours
must become so. God sees the divine
image in all men. When Abdu’l Baha
was a^ked why all who had been in
His presence seemed to be so happv.
He answered; Because 1 see in cverv
face th ■ face of my F ather. In this
dav it is imperative that we stretch
ourselves, so that our vision and our
love mav become all embracing.
The love of God is poured out con
tinually upon His creation. His bounty
is like the sun. It contains all that we
need for spiritual wholeness and
growth. It is vast and unlimited, and it
is for all alike. No one can say, "I
own the sunshine." No one can stake
out a part of it and post it: "No tres
passing.” And we are glad that it is so.
So it is with the bounty of God.
When we open ourselves to that infi
nite and sustaining love, we begin to
shed its illumination on all about us.
Then we can love the world, not theo
retically, but in reality. This is the
healer of all our ills.
— Dr. Garreta Busev
PICK BI-RACIAL
COMMITTEE
M.ivoi Emrr.erson Dexter an
nounced a 24-member bi-racial
committee at Tuesday s meet
ing of Hie Champaign City
Ci tuned
The Councd unanimously ap
proved the names submitted.
Dexter said the first meeting of
the committee would be in about
two weeks.
| jn the four weeks it look him
to form the committee, Dexter
said, only two persons he invit
ed to participate declined. He
said they would have been hap
I py to serve but they were un
4 able to give up any lime from
their businesses.
Committee members Dexter
named were:
Jame« Quinlan. Robert Bowles,
Robert Sink. Scott Anderson,
Arnold Yarber, Fr. John Deane,
A1 Rivers, Joseph Clark, Charles
E Phillips, Dwyer Murphy,
Julius X. Davis, Charles Petry,
Richard W. Paterson. Aaron
Kurland, Sy Bing. John Frank
lin Bobbie Williamson. Cecil
Noison. Willard Hansen. Frank,
Burns. Lyle Smith, Hal Dawson,
joe Somers and Rev. Oscar
Plumb
c
•r.
3 t
C =
<S
u -
Lu
V £
« n
'3 ■=
o
=