The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-08-24
OUT OF THE MYSTIC EAST
NEW CULT THAT is SPREADING
IN CHRISTIAN LANDS.
Has Copied After Christianity and
Has 1000, 900 Adherents in Per-

Has 1000, 900 Adherents in Per-
STA. Votaries in This Country.
The attention of Europe has sud
denly been centered upon religion
which, already known in the United
States and enormously influential in
Persia and the east, is being herald
ed as the agency destined to weld
together whole faiths in the Orient,
if it does not as gravely influence
the religions of the west.
One national revolution-that of
Persia-is attributed to its powerful
influence. Emancipation from the
priesthoods dominance in Islam is
considered it's mission in the future.
1t proclaims anew the brotherhood
of man. and processes no claim to
the conversion of any believer from
the faith in which he has been
reared. 1t is a composite creed, and
its attack on the older religions is
most cunningly hidden, because it al
lows the individual to believe that in
espouBtng it he is being guided by
s. the hest teachings of the older faiths.
Tue religion is Behaism, or Bah
ism. Its adherents range from the
Shintoists of Japan to the christians
of London Its worldwide prosely-
tism comedies in point Of time with
the worldwide complaint of laXness
in the faith of Christendom, and,
strangely enough, in the rise of the
so-called new thought, which would
seek to find in all those faiths the
essence of truth, while denying to
all of them the exclusive possession
e 81 tTuth.
Behaism has been fatteringly de-
Tined as the Esperanto of religion.
It's latest European critic rejects the
clever phrase and replaces it with
another, which would seem to be as
specific as it is graphic-the Pro
tentantism of Islam.
Ten years ago in the United States
the bearers of it's doctrines were sue
ccessful in gathering about them thou
sands of believers; but the interest
in it's tenets has seemed gradually to
abate. Today some of Europe's lead
ing capitalists acknowledged the eX-
istence of Behaistic coteries, while
Asia is reported as thrilled by the
advent of the new gospel Of love,
"forbearance and the eternal brother
hood of man.
Founder of the Cult.
The founder of the religion was
Mira Ali Mohammed, a Persian,
who came to public notice in 1914,
proclaiming himself to be the Bah,
or gate TO heaven, and that he would
teach the people for nine years and
then be put to death, after which
God himself would manifest Himself.
The people flocked to him in legiOns,
and his mission created such COM
motion that the Mohammedan doc
tors condemned him and put him to
death Within two years there arose
Beha Ullah, meaning the Shining
Glory of God, proclaiming himself as
he of whose coming the Bah had
Drophesied SO vast were the con-
courses of people who attended him
that the Persian government arrested
and banished him. He went to Acre,
on the coast of Palestine where he
ing wherein he told the faithful that
MS lldHllG lGll upOH MS sun, NbDdS
Effendi, to whom they must ever
turn their gaze as toward the eastern
sun. In Persia and Asia Minor alone
there were then 100000 people
who believed in him, and who be-
lieve now in his son, Abbas Efendi.
Copies After Christianity.
Babism in its doctrines has much
IN common with christianity, en-
phasizing as it does the brotherhood
OF man and aspiring to a universal
reign OF peace, love, freedom and
unity Of belief 1t teaches that evil
may not be met with evil, and that
all enemies are to be forgiven, -
which is not so different from chris
tian doctrine. Again it teaches that
he who is attached to his riches
fails greatly Thou hast thought to
find thy riches in heaping gold to-
gether; l. know that to purify thy
.self from it is thy wealth.
Other tenets of Babism are
Possess a good, pure and enlight-
vgued heart, for therein is the King
dom, Eternal, Unpassing, Ancient.
'T'he best of all to Me is Justice.