Babism: What Is It?
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: E. G. Tisdall, Babism: What Is It?, bahai-library.com.
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THE
MEDICAL MISSIONARY'
PRICE
VOL.   XUI    No. 1                  JANUARY, 1904                                   SO cents a year

. ANOTHER YEAR                            The Season of Good Resolutions
ANOTHER year is dawning!     dear Master, let       THE sick-bed, the ocean in a storm,
it be                                        and the beginning of a new year are
In working or in waiting another year with      seasons when mental reformations are
Thee!                                       always very near the s~rface of our
Another year of leaning upon thy loving         tboughts and purposes. The habit of
breast,                                     making periodical reforms is not one to
Of ever-deepening trustfulness, of quiet,       be decried, for tbese are steps in the up-
happy rest.                                 ward path. Tbe trouble witb good reso-
Another year of mercies, of faithfulness lind
lutions is not in the habit of making them,
grace;
Another year of gladness in the shining of      but in tbe habitual failure to carry them
thy face.                                   out. One reason wby people so often fail
Another year of progress, another year of       to live up to tbe good resolutions they
praise,                                     adopt at the New Year season is that the
Another year of proving thy presence •• all     resolutions are so indefinite. Tbey are
the days."                                  adopted under a vague sense tbat the life
Another year of service, of witness for thy     has not been just what it sbould have
love;                                       been, and no well-defined sense of what
Another year of training for holier work
tbe defects are. Tbe only way to make
above.
Another year is dawning! dear Master, let        a reformation effective is to make it defi-
it be                                        nite. We need to deal faithfully witb our-
. Anywhere and everyw.here, another year for       selves. Has life been a struggle for self-
Thee!                                        isbends? Have our energies been con-
- Francis Ridley HaverlJal.      sumed in the narrow purpose of getting
wbat we could and trying to keep wbat
we got? Then let us remember tbat .. A
We indulge the bope that the appear-           man's life consisteth not in the abun-
ance and contents of the first number of          dance of the things he possessetb." Let
the new volume will commend the paper             us defillitely determine in the strengtb of
to our readers with sufficient force to in-       God that our hearts shall open to tbe
duce them to help in raising our subscrip-        wants of others, and our bands sball
tion list to a good round number. Tbis            minister to the suffering around us. Let
is a good number and well wortb the               us resolve that not another year or day
price, but it is hardly a fair sample of          sball pass witbout someone being made
wbat we hope to do in succeeding num-             bappier and better for our infiuence, and
bers.                                             the belp we are waiting to bestow. Do
We are sending tbis paper to quite             not let us permit either the cares or pleas-
a number of friends of the cause whose            ures of life, or the deceitfulness of ricbes
names are not yet on our lists. It is a           to crowd out the better part of life, and
gentle invitation to have tbe names of            so defeat it. Now it is bigb time to
such, and tbe names of tbeir friends,             awake out of sleep; for the day is at
placed there.                                     hand.
Bentley Historical
Library
.- •• !.-Ll __ _
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BABISM - WHAT IS IT?
OWING to the riots which have taken                         Thus, then, we have the idea that the
place during the past few months in                          Bab is Christ returned with angels,
Persia and the hundreds who have laid                        clouds, and trumpets. His angels are
down their lives for what they believe                       his messengers; the clouds are the
to be the truth, we propose to give, as                      doubts which prevent Christians, Mo-
far as is possible in a short article, some                  hammedans, and others from recogniz-
idea of this new religIOn which is ob-                       ing him; and the sound of the trumpets,
taining such a hold on the people, more                      the sound of the proclamation which we
especially the upper-class people in this                    now hear.
land.
In August last, the mob, incited by
the MullaQ,s, or priests, rose in Tabriz,
Teheran, rspahan, and Yezd, and killed
some hundreds of those who had joined
this new sect, at the same time pillag-
ing their houses and carrying off every-
thing of value they could lay hands
upon. Numbers were, however, able
to flee to other towns where the bulk of
the population are Babis, and it was in
passing through one of these towns
that I met some of their chief priests
who bad fled there for "refuge from
Teheran.

A 8ROTHKR 01" THI£   "R~lItNDRD   CHRIST

The Jews were told to expect a
Messiah, but when he came, they did
not accept him; the Christians to look
for Christ's second coming, but when
he came (in the person of the Bab), they
rejected him ; and the Mohammedans to
look for the fulfilment of the promise of
Al Mahdi, yet now when that promise
has come (the Bab), they persecute
him.
They deny the crucifixion, saying
that God made a man the image of
Christ, whom the Jews cruoified by
mistake, thinking it was Christ. They
'!'HB PUS&MT 8048, WHOM   CHRIST I AN
Ba CHRIST IIl.TURNBD TO kARTH
BA815   BaLI.vB TO
deny the atonement, for they say the
smaller must be a sacrifice for the
Their doctrine is that when one leader                    greater and not the greater for the less
dies, his (i. e., the same divine) spirit                    (i. e., if a horse is sick. they kill a fowl
passes on to his successor, and is the                       as a sacrifice for it, but would not kill
same divine spirit which worked in all                       a horse if a fowl was sick). They deny
the prophets from Adam to Moses,                             the resurrection and the ascension of
Christ, Mohammed, and the Imams, all                         Christ's body. while they accept the
of whom they accept as prophets sent                         resurrection and ascension of his Spirit,
from God.                                                    for they hold that flesh and blood can-
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222                        BABISM- WHAT IS iT'!

not enter heaven, it being a place of         to death. People who are in doubt or
spirits only as God is a 8pirit, being        dissatisfied with the Mohammedan faith
everywhere at once and yet unseen.             (and there are many), when looking
They read and prize the whole of the          on at one of these scenes, immedi-
Scriptures, but twist the meaning of          ately conclude that, if so many are will-
every part to suit themselves. They           ing to die for the Babi faith, then it must
are exceedingly friendly with Chris-          be true, and so become enquirers and
tians, and say, "There is no dif-             then converts.
ference between us, for we both accept           Another reason for their increase is
Christ as the Son of God." They are           owing to the reputed growth of the
taught to practice love and gentleness        movement in America. Tales of the
toward everybody, no matter of what           most exaggerated description are circu-
religion; to be kind to strangers and         lated about the hundreds of thousands
travelers, and to call no one unclean.        of followers the Bab has in America.
There is also a sort of free-masonry          and these poor, uneducated people think
among Babis and they will always help         that if the Americans accept this faith.
one another with money, food, or              then it must be true.
clothes.                                         Babism, in my opinion, is not a step
Of late years the faith is making          toward Christianity, but, on the con-
great strides in Persia, and they have        trary, they do their best to make' Chris-
very earnest missionaries working zeal-       tianity a stepping-stone toward Babism.
ously in every part of the country. It        The fact that so many hundreds are
is said that some of the highest govern-      willing to lay down their lives for what
ment. officials are Babis, and I know of      they consider the truth ought to encour-
several villages where the whole popu-        age the missionaries, showing as it does
lation are followers of the Bab.              that once the Persians accept Christian-
The persecutions which take place          ity, they will not be "rice Christians,"
from time to time are the cause of            but will stand firm through any perse-
numerous converts joining them, for a         cution.
Babi who is going to be killed, by burn-         The fact that under the new customs
ing or otherwise, is generally taken into     regulations no Scriptures in the Persian
the public square of the town and there       language are allowed to enter the coun-
given a chance of cursing the Bab and         try makes it doubly hard for the mis-
repeating the formula, "There is no           sion~' all over Persia. No army can
God but God, and Mohammed is the              fight without ammunition, and the am-
Prophet of God." If they do this, they        munition of Christ's army is the Word
are allowed to go free, but if they re-       of God.- Ckas. E. G. Tisdall, in Recortf
fuse, as they generally do, they are put      01 Ckristian Work.
-.
A CRYING NEED
A. W. SBMMBN S

IF ever there was a time in the his-      matters pertaining to preventive medi-
tory of the world when people needed          cine - the simple agencies of nature.
educating in the principles of healthful      which are within the reach of all, rich
living, it is now. The world's greatest       and poor alike. Why this ignorance?
need to-day is a gospel to reach both         One thing seems evident,- the "people
body and soul. A gospel that is not           perish for lack of knowledge." True,
broad enough to include the body, fails       there is a wisdom and knowledge to be
of its mission.                               found, but it is the wisdom ot the
With all the boasted civilization. en-    world, and lacks the most essential
lightenment, and progress of this age,        element, viz., God. II The fear of the
II darkness covers the earth and gross        Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and
darkness" the multitude of mankind on         in him are hid al1 the treasures of
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-- Babism: What Is It? (Used by permission of the curator)