The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

To the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada.

Dearly-beloved co-workers:

I have been acquainted by the perusal of your latest
communications with the nature of the doubts that have been publicly
expressed, by one who is wholly misinformed as to the true precepts
of the Cause, regarding the validity of institutions that stand
inextricably interwoven with the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
Not that I for a moment view such faint misgivings in the light of an
open challenge to the structure that embodies the Faith, nor is it
because I question in the least the unyielding tenacity of the faith
of the American believers, if I venture to dwell upon what seems to
me appropriate observations at the present stage of the evolution of
our beloved Cause. I am indeed inclined to welcome these expressed
apprehensions inasmuch as they afford me an opportunity to
familiarize the elected representatives of the believers with the
origin and the character of the institutions which stand at the very
basis of the World Order ushered in by Bahá’u’lláh.
We should feel truly thankful for such futile attempts to undermine
our beloved Faith—attempts that protrude their ugly face from
time to time, seem for a while able to create a breach in the ranks
of the faithful, recede finally into the obscurity of oblivion, and
are thought of no more. Such incidents we should regard as the
interpositions of Providence, designed to fortify our faith, to
clarify our vision, and to deepen our understanding of the essentials
of His Divine Revelation.

Sources of the Bahá’í
World Order

It would, however, be helpful and instructive to bear in
mind certain basic principles with reference to the Will and
Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which, together with
the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, constitutes the chief depository wherein
are enshrined those priceless elements of that Divine Civilization,
the establishment of which is the primary mission of the Bahá’í
Faith. A study of the provisions of these sacred documents will
reveal the close relationship that exists between them, as well as
the identity of purpose and method which they inculcate. Far from
regarding their specific provisions as incompatible and contradictory
in spirit, every fair-minded inquirer will readily admit that they
are not only complementary, but that they mutually confirm one
another, and are inseparable parts of one complete unit. A comparison
of their contents with the rest of Bahá’í sacred
Writings will similarly establish the conformity of whatever they
contain with the spirit as well as the letter of the authenticated
writings and sayings of Bahá’u’lláh and
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In fact, he who reads the Aqdas with
care and diligence will not find it hard to discover that the Most
Holy Book itself anticipates in a number of passages the institutions
which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá ordains in His Will. By leaving
certain matters unspecified and unregulated in His Book of Laws,
Bahá’u’lláh seems to have deliberately left
a gap in the general scheme of Bahá’í
Dispensation, which the unequivocal provisions of the Master’s
Will have filled. To attempt to divorce the one from the other, to
insinuate that the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh
have not been upheld, in their entirety and with absolute integrity,
by what ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has revealed in His Will, is
an unpardonable affront to the unswerving fidelity that has
characterized the life and labors of our beloved Master.

I will not attempt in the least to assert or demonstrate
the authenticity of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
for that in itself would betray an apprehension on my part as to the
unanimous confidence of the believers in the genuineness of the last
written wishes of our departed Master. I will only confine my
observations to those issues which may assist them to appreciate the
essential unity that underlies the spiritual, the humanitarian, and
the administrative principles enunciated by the Author and the
Interpreter of the Bahá’í Faith.

I am at a loss to explain that strange mentality that
inclines to uphold as the sole criterion of the truth of the Bahá’í
Teachings what is admittedly only an obscure and unauthenticated
translation of an oral statement made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
in defiance and total disregard of the available text of all of His
universally recognized writings. I truly deplore the unfortunate
distortions that have resulted in days past from the incapacity of
the interpreter to grasp the meaning of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
and from his incompetence to render adequately such truths as have
been revealed to him by the Master’s statements. Much of the
confusion that has obscured the understanding of the believers should
be attributed to this double error involved in the inexact rendering
of an only partially understood statement. Not infrequently has the
interpreter even failed to convey the exact purport of the inquirer’s
specific questions, and, by his deficiency of understanding and
expression in conveying the answer of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
has been responsible for reports wholly at variance with the true
spirit and purpose of the Cause. It was chiefly in view of the
misleading nature of the reports of the informal conversations of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá with visiting pilgrims, that I have
insistently urged the believers of the West to regard such statements
as merely personal impressions of the sayings of their Master, and to
quote and consider as authentic only such translations as are based
upon the authenticated text of His recorded utterances in the
original tongue.

It should be remembered by every follower of the Cause
that the system of Bahá’í administration is not
an innovation imposed arbitrarily upon the Bahá’ís
of the world since the Master’s passing, but derives its
authority from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
is specifically prescribed in unnumbered Tablets, and rests in some
of its essential features upon the explicit provisions of the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas. It thus unifies and correlates the principles
separately laid down by Bahá’u’lláh and
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and is indissolubly bound with the
essential verities of the Faith. To dissociate the administrative
principles of the Cause from the purely spiritual and humanitarian
teachings would be tantamount to a mutilation of the body of the
Cause, a separation that can only result in the disintegration of its
component parts, and the extinction of the Faith itself.

Local and National Houses of Justice

It should be carefully borne in mind that the local as
well as the international Houses of Justice have been expressly
enjoined by the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; that the institution of the
National Spiritual Assembly, as an intermediary body, and referred to
in the Master’s Will as the “Secondary House of Justice,”
has the express sanction of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; and that
the method to be pursued for the election of the International and
National Houses of Justice has been set forth by Him in His Will, as
well as in a number of His Tablets. Moreover, the institutions of the
local and national Funds, that are now the necessary adjuncts to all
local and national spiritual assemblies, have not only been
established by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Tablets He
revealed to the Bahá’ís of the Orient, but their
importance and necessity have been repeatedly emphasized by Him in
His utterances and writings. The concentration of authority in the
hands of the elected representatives of the believers; the necessity
of the submission of every adherent of the Faith to the considered
judgment of Bahá’í Assemblies; His preference for
unanimity in decision; the decisive character of the majority vote;
and even the desirability for the exercise of close supervision over
all Bahá’í publications, have been sedulously
instilled by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as evidenced by His
authenticated and widely-scattered Tablets. To accept His broad and
humanitarian Teachings on one hand, and to reject and dismiss with
neglectful indifference His more challenging and distinguishing
precepts, would be an act of manifest disloyalty to that which He has
cherished most in His life.

That the Spiritual Assemblies of today will be replaced
in time by the Houses of Justice, and are to all intents and purposes
identical and not separate bodies, is abundantly confirmed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself. He has in fact in a Tablet
addressed to the members of the first Chicago Spiritual Assembly, the
first elected Bahá’í body instituted in the
United States, referred to them as the members of the “House of
Justice” for that city, and has thus with His own pen
established beyond any doubt the identity of the present Bahá’í
Spiritual Assemblies with the Houses of Justice referred to by
Bahá’u’lláh. For reasons which are not
difficult to discover, it has been found advisable to bestow upon the
elected representatives of Bahá’í communities
throughout the world the temporary appellation of Spiritual
Assemblies, a term which, as the position and aims of the Bahá’í
Faith are better understood and more fully recognized, will gradually
be superseded by the permanent and more appropriate designation of
House of Justice. Not only will the present-day Spiritual Assemblies
be styled differently in future, but they will be enabled also to add
to their present functions those powers, duties, and prerogatives
necessitated by the recognition of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
not merely as one of the recognized religious systems of the world,
but as the State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power. And
as the Bahá’í Faith permeates the masses of the
peoples of East and West, and its truth is embraced by the majority
of the peoples of a number of the Sovereign States of the world, will
the Universal House of Justice attain the plenitude of its power, and
exercise, as the supreme organ of the Bahá’í
Commonwealth, all the rights, the duties, and responsibilities
incumbent upon the world’s future super-state.

It must be pointed out, however, in this connection
that, contrary to what has been confidently asserted, the
establishment of the Supreme House of Justice is in no way dependent
upon the adoption of the Bahá’í Faith by the mass
of the peoples of the world, nor does it presuppose its acceptance by
the majority of the inhabitants of any one country. In fact,
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Himself, in one of His earliest
Tablets, contemplated the possibility of the formation of the
Universal House of Justice in His own lifetime, and but for the
unfavorable circumstances prevailing under the Turkish régime,
would have, in all probability, taken the preliminary steps for its
establishment. It will be evident, therefore, that given favorable
circumstances, under which the Bahá’ís of Persia
and of the adjoining countries under Soviet rule, may be enabled to
elect their national representatives, in accordance with the guiding
principles laid down in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
writings, the only remaining obstacle in the way of the definite
formation of the International House of Justice will have been
removed. For upon the National Houses of Justice of the East and the
West devolves the task, in conformity with the explicit provisions of
the Will, of electing directly the members of the International House
of Justice. Not until they are themselves fully representative of the
rank and file of the believers in their respective countries, not
until they have acquired the weight and the experience that will
enable them to function vigorously in the organic life of the Cause,
can they approach their sacred task, and provide the spiritual basis
for the constitution of so august a body in the Bahá’í
world.

The Institution of Guardianship

It must be also clearly understood by every believer
that the institution of Guardianship does not under any circumstances
abrogate, or even in the slightest degree detract from, the powers
granted to the Universal House of Justice by Bahá’u’lláh
in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and repeatedly and solemnly confirmed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will. It does not constitute
in any manner a contradiction to the Will and Writings of
Bahá’u’lláh, nor does it nullify any of His
revealed instructions. It enhances the prestige of that exalted
assembly, stabilizes its supreme position, safeguards its unity,
assures the continuity of its labors, without presuming in the
slightest to infringe upon the inviolability of its clearly-defined
sphere of jurisdiction. We stand indeed too close to so monumental a
document to claim for ourselves a complete understanding of all its
implications, or to presume to have grasped the manifold mysteries it
undoubtedly contains. Only future generations can comprehend the
value and the significance attached to this Divine Masterpiece, which
the hand of the Master-builder of the world has designed for the
unification and the triumph of the world-wide Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
Only those who come after us will be in a position to realize the
value of the surprisingly strong emphasis that has been placed on the
institution of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship. They
only will appreciate the significance of the vigorous language
employed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with reference to the
band of Covenant-breakers that has opposed Him in His days. To them
alone will be revealed the suitability of the institutions initiated
by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the character of the future
society which is to emerge out of the chaos and confusion of the
present age. In this connection, I cannot but feel amused at the
preposterous and fantastic idea that Muḥammad-‘Alí,
the prime mover and the focal center of unyielding hostility to the
person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, should have freely
associated himself with the members of the family of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
in the forging of a will which in the words of the writer herself, is
but a “recital of the plottings” in which for thirty
years Muḥammad-‘Alí has been busily engaged. To
such a hopeless victim of confused ideas, I feel I can best reply by
a genuine expression of compassion and pity, mingled with my hopes
for her deliverance from so profound a delusion. It was in view of
the aforesaid observations, that I have, after the unfortunate and
unavoidable delay occasioned by my ill health and absence from the
Holy Land during the Master’s passing, hesitated to resort to
the indiscriminate circulation of the Will, realizing full well that
it was primarily directed to the recognized believers, and only
indirectly concerned the larger body of the friends and sympathizers
of the Cause.

The Animating Purpose of Bahá’í
Institutions

And now, it behooves us to reflect on the animating
purpose and the primary functions of these divinely-established
institutions, the sacred character and the universal efficacy of
which can be demonstrated only by the spirit they diffuse and the
work they actually achieve. I need not dwell upon what I have already
reiterated and emphasized that the administration of the Cause is to
be conceived as an instrument and not a substitute for the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh, that it should be regarded as
a channel through which His promised blessings may flow, that it
should guard against such rigidity as would clog and fetter the
liberating forces released by His Revelation. I need not enlarge at
the present moment upon what I have stated in the past, that
contributions to the local and national Funds are of a purely
voluntary character; that no coercion or solicitation of funds is to
be tolerated in the Cause; that general appeals addressed to the
communities as a body should be the only form in which the financial
requirements of the Faith are to be met; that the financial support
accorded to a very few workers in the teaching and administrative
fields is of a temporary nature; that the present restrictions
imposed on the publication of Bahá’í literature
will be definitely abolished; that the World Unity activity is being
carried out as an experiment to test the efficacy of the indirect
method of teaching; that the whole machinery of assemblies, of
committees and conventions is to be regarded as a means, and not an
end in itself; that they will rise or fall according to their
capacity to further the interests, to cöordinate the activities,
to apply the principles, to embody the ideals and execute the purpose
of the Bahá’í Faith. Who, I may ask, when viewing
the international character of the Cause, its far-flung
ramifications, the increasing complexity of its affairs, the
diversity of its adherents, and the state of confusion that assails
on every side the infant Faith of God, can for a moment question the
necessity of some sort of administrative machinery that will insure,
amid the storm and stress of a struggling civilization, the unity of
the Faith, the preservation of its identity, and the protection of
its interests? To repudiate the validity of the assemblies of the
elected ministers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
would be to reject those countless Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wherein They have extolled the
station of the “trustees of the Merciful,” enumerated
their privileges and duties, emphasized the glory of their mission,
revealed the immensity of their task, and warned them of the attacks
they must needs expect from the unwisdom of their friends as well as
from the malice of their enemies. It is surely for those to whose
hands so priceless a heritage has been committed to prayerfully watch
lest the tool should supersede the Faith itself, lest undue concern
for the minute details arising from the administration of the Cause
obscure the vision of its promoters, lest partiality, ambition, and
worldliness tend in the course of time to becloud the radiance, stain
the purity, and impair the effectiveness of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

Situation in Egypt

I have already referred in my previous communications of
January 10, 1926, and February 12, 1927, to the perplexing yet highly
significant situation that has arisen in Egypt as a result of the
final judgment of the Muslim ecclesiastical court in that country
pronounced against our Egyptian brethren, denouncing them as
heretics, expelling them from their midst, and refusing them the
application and benefits of the Muslim Law. I have also acquainted
you with the difficulties with which they are faced, and the plans
which they have conceived, in order to obtain from the Egyptian civil
authorities a recognition of the independent status of their Faith.
It must be explained, however, that in the Muslim countries of the
Near and Middle East, with the exception of Turkey which has lately
abolished all ecclesiastical courts under its rule, every recognized
religious community has, in matters of personal status such as
marriage, divorce and inheritance, its own ecclesiastical court,
totally independent of the civil and criminal tribunals, there being
in such instances no civil code promulgated by the government and
embracing all the different religious communities. Hitherto regarded
as a sect of Islám, the Bahá’ís of Egypt,
who for the most part are of Muslim origin, and unable therefore to
refer for purposes of marriage and divorce to the recognized
religious tribunals of any other denomination, find themselves in
consequence in a delicate and anomalous position. They have naturally
resolved to refer their case to the Egyptian Government, and have
prepared for this purpose a petition to be addressed to the head of
the Egyptian Cabinet. In this document they have set forth the
motives compelling them to seek recognition from their rulers, have
asserted their readiness and their qualifications to exercise the
functions of an independent Bahá’í court, have
assured them of their implicit obedience and loyalty to the State,
and of their abstinence from interference in the politics of their
country. They have also decided to accompany the text of their
petition with a copy of the judgment of the Court, with selections
from Bahá’í writings, and with the document that
sets forth the principles of their national constitution which, with
few exceptions, is identical with the Declaration and By-laws
promulgated by your Assembly.

I have insisted that the provisions of their
constitution should, in all its details, conform to the text of the
Declaration of Trust and By-laws which you have established,
endeavoring thereby to preserve the uniformity which I feel is
essential in all Bahá’í National Constitutions. I
would like, therefore, in this connection to request of you what I
have already intimated to them, that whatever amendments you may
decide to introduce in the text of the Declaration and By-laws should
be duly communicated to me, that I may take the necessary steps for
the introduction of similar changes in the text of all other National
Bahá’í Constitutions.

It will be readily admitted that in view of the peculiar
privileges granted to recognized religious Communities in the Islamic
countries of the Near and Middle East, the request which is to be
submitted by the Bahá’í Egyptian National
Assembly to the Government of Egypt is more substantial and
far-reaching than what has already been granted by the Federal
Authorities to your Assembly. For their petition is chiefly concerned
with a formal request for recognition by the highest civil
authorities in Egypt of the Egyptian National Spiritual Assembly as a
recognized and independent Bahá’í court, free and
able to execute and apply in all matters of personal status such laws
and ordinances as have been promulgated by Bahá’u’lláh
in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.

I have asked them to approach informally the authorities
concerned, and to make the fullest possible inquiry as a preliminary
measure to the formal presentation of their historic petition. Any
assistance which your Assembly, after careful deliberation, may find
it advisable to offer to the valiant promoters of the Faith in that
land will be deeply appreciated, and will serve to confirm the
solidarity that characterizes the Bahá’í
Communities of East and West. Whatever the outcome of this mighty
issue—and none can fail to appreciate the incalculable
possibilities of the present situation—we can rest assured that
the guiding Hand that has released these forces will, in His
inscrutable wisdom and by His omnipotent power, continue to shape and
direct their course for the glory, the ultimate emancipation, and the
unqualified recognition of His Faith.

Your true brother,
Shoghi.

Haifa, Palestine.
February 27, 1929.

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh:
Further Considerations

To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the
Merciful throughout the West.

Dearly-beloved co-workers:

Amid the reports that have of late reached the Holy
Land, most of which witness to the triumphant march of the Cause, a
few seem to betray a certain apprehension regarding the validity of
the institutions which stand inseparably associated with the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh. These expressed misgivings
appear to be actuated by certain whisperings which have emanated from
quarters which are either wholly misinformed regarding the
fundamentals of the Bahá’í Revelation, or which
deliberately contrive to sow the seeds of dissension in the hearts of
the faithful.

A Blessing in Disguise

Viewed in the light of past experience, the inevitable
result of such futile attempts, however persistent and malicious they
may be, is to contribute to a wider and deeper recognition by
believers and unbelievers alike of the distinguishing features of the
Faith proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. These
challenging criticisms, whether or not dictated by malice, cannot but
serve to galvanize the souls of its ardent supporters, and to
consolidate the ranks of its faithful promoters. They will purge the
Faith from those pernicious elements whose continued association with
the believers tends to discredit the fair name of the Cause, and to
tarnish the purity of its spirit. We should welcome, therefore, not
only the open attacks which its avowed enemies persistently launch
against it, but should also view as a blessing in disguise every
storm of mischief with which they who apostatize their faith or claim
to be its faithful exponents assail it from time to time. Instead of
undermining the Faith, such assaults, both from within and from
without, reinforce its foundations, and excite the intensity of its
flame. Designed to becloud its radiance, they proclaim to all the
world the exalted character of its precepts, the completeness of its
unity, the uniqueness of its position, and the pervasiveness of its
influence.

I do not feel for one moment that such clamor, mostly
attributable to impotent rage against the resistless march of the
Cause of God, can ever distress the valiant warriors of the Faith.
For these heroic souls, whether they be contending in America’s
impregnable stronghold, or struggling in the heart of Europe, and
across the seas as far as the continent of Australasia, have already
abundantly demonstrated the tenacity of their Faith and the abiding
value of their conviction.

Distinguishing Features of Bahá’í
World Order

I feel it, however, incumbent upon me by virtue of the
responsibility attached to the Guardianship of the Faith, to dwell
more fully upon the essential character and the distinguishing
features of that world order as conceived and proclaimed by
Bahá’u’lláh. I feel impelled, at the
present stage of the evolution of the Bahá’í
Revelation, to state candidly and without any reservation, whatever I
regard may tend to insure the preservation of the integrity of the
nascent institutions of the Faith. I strongly feel the urge to
elucidate certain facts, which would at once reveal to every
fair-minded observer the unique character of that Divine Civilization
the foundations of which the unerring hand of Bahá’u’lláh
has laid, and the essential elements of which the Will and Testament
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has disclosed. I consider it my
duty to warn every beginner in the Faith that the promised glories of
the Sovereignty which the Bahá’í teachings
foreshadow, can be revealed only in the fullness of time, that the
implications of the Aqdas and the Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
as the twin repositories of the constituent elements of that
Sovereignty, are too far-reaching for this generation to grasp and
fully appreciate. I cannot refrain from appealing to them who stand
identified with the Faith to disregard the prevailing notions and the
fleeting fashions of the day, and to realize as never before that the
exploded theories and the tottering institutions of present-day
civilization must needs appear in sharp contrast with those God-given
institutions which are destined to arise upon their ruin. I pray that
they may realize with all their heart and soul the ineffable glory of
their calling, the overwhelming responsibility of their mission, and
the astounding immensity of their task.

For let every earnest upholder of the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh realize that the storms which
this struggling Faith of God must needs encounter, as the process of
the disintegration of society advances, shall be fiercer than any
which it has already experienced. Let him be aware that so soon as
the full measure of the stupendous claim of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
comes to be recognized by those time-honored and powerful strongholds
of orthodoxy, whose deliberate aim is to maintain their stranglehold
over the thoughts and consciences of men, this infant Faith will have
to contend with enemies more powerful and more insidious than the
cruellest torture-mongers and the most fanatical clerics who have
afflicted it in the past. What foes may not in the course of the
convulsions that shall seize a dying civilization be brought into
existence, who will reinforce the indignities which have already been
heaped upon it!

The Onslaught of All Peoples and
Kindreds

We have only to refer to the warnings uttered by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in order to realize the extent and
character of the forces that are destined to contest with God’s
holy Faith. In the darkest moments of His life, under ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd’s
régime, when He stood ready to be deported to the most
inhospitable regions of Northern Africa, and at a time when the
auspicious light of the Bahá’í Revelation had
only begun to break upon the West, He, in His parting message to the
cousin of the Báb, uttered these prophetic and ominous words:
“How great, how very great is the Cause! How very fierce the
onslaught of all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Ere long
shall the clamor of the multitude throughout Africa, throughout
America, the cry of the European and of the Turk, the groaning of
India and China, be heard from far and near. One and all, they shall
arise with all their power to resist His Cause. Then shall the
knights of the Lord, assisted by His grace from on high, strengthened
by faith, aided by the power of understanding, and reinforced by the
legions of the Covenant, arise and make manifest the truth of the
verse: ‘Behold the confusion that hath befallen the tribes of
the defeated!’”

Stupendous as is the struggle which His words
foreshadow, they also testify to the complete victory which the
upholders of the Greatest Name are destined eventually to achieve.
Peoples, nations, adherents of divers faiths, will jointly and
successively arise to shatter its unity, to sap its force, and to
degrade its holy name. They will assail not only the spirit which it
inculcates, but the administration which is the channel, the
instrument, the embodiment of that spirit. For as the authority with
which Bahá’u’lláh has invested the future
Bahá’í Commonwealth becomes more and more
apparent, the fiercer shall be the challenge which from every quarter
will be thrown at the verities it enshrines.

Difference Between Bahá’í
Faith and Ecclesiastical Organizations

It behooves us, dear friends, to endeavor not only to
familiarize ourselves with the essential features of this supreme
Handiwork of Bahá’u’lláh, but also to grasp
the fundamental difference existing between this world-embracing,
divinely-appointed Order and the chief ecclesiastical organizations
of the world, whether they pertain to the Church of Christ, or to the
ordinances of the Muḥammadan Dispensation.

For those whose priceless privilege is to guard over,
administer the affairs, and advance the interests of these Bahá’í
institutions will have, sooner or later, to face this searching
question: “Where and how does this Order established by
Bahá’u’lláh, which to outward seeming is
but a replica of the institutions established in Christianity and
Islám, differ from them? Are not the twin institutions of the
House of Justice and of the Guardianship, the institution of the
Hands of the Cause of God, the institution of the national and local
Assemblies, the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,
but different names for the institutions of the Papacy and the
Caliphate, with all their attending ecclesiastical orders which the
Christians and Moslems uphold and advocate? What can possibly be the
agency that can safeguard these Bahá’í
institutions, so strikingly resemblant, in some of their features, to
those which have been reared by the Fathers of the Church and the
Apostles of Muḥammad, from witnessing the deterioration in
character, the breach of unity, and the extinction of influence,
which have befallen all organized religious hierarchies? Why should
they not eventually suffer the self-same fate that has overtaken the
institutions which the successors of Christ and Muḥammad have
reared?”

Upon the answer given to these challenging questions
will, in a great measure, depend the success of the efforts which
believers in every land are now exerting for the establishment of
God’s kingdom upon the earth. Few will fail to recognize that
the Spirit breathed by Bahá’u’lláh upon the
world, and which is manifesting itself with varying degrees of
intensity through the efforts consciously displayed by His avowed
supporters and indirectly through certain humanitarian organizations,
can never permeate and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind
unless and until it incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would
bear His name, wholly identify itself with His principles, and
function in conformity with His laws. That Bahá’u’lláh
in His Book of Aqdas, and later ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in
His Will—a document which confirms, supplements, and correlates
the provisions of the Aqdas—have set forth in their entirety
those essential elements for the constitution of the world Bahá’í
Commonwealth, no one who has read them will deny. According to these
divinely-ordained administrative principles, the Dispensation of
Bahá’u’lláh—the Ark of human
salvation—must needs be modeled. From them, all future
blessings must flow, and upon them its inviolable authority must
ultimately rest.

For Bahá’u’lláh, we should
readily recognize, has not only imbued mankind with a new and
regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain universal
principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however potent,
sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He, as well as
‘Abdu’l-Bahá after Him, has, unlike the
Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set
of Laws, established definite institutions, and provided for the
essentials of a Divine Economy. These are destined to be a pattern
for future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the
Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the
world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice
upon the earth. Not only have they revealed all the directions
required for the practical realization of those ideals which the
Prophets of God have visualized, and which from time immemorial have
inflamed the imagination of seers and poets in every age. They have
also, in unequivocal and emphatic language, appointed those twin
institutions of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship as their
chosen Successors, destined to apply the principles, promulgate the
laws, protect the institutions, adapt loyally and intelligently the
Faith to the requirements of progressive society, and consummate the
incorruptible inheritance which the Founders of the Faith have
bequeathed to the world.

Should we look back upon the past, were we to search out
the Gospel and the Qur’án, we will readily recognize
that neither the Christian nor the Islamic Dispensations can offer a
parallel either to the system of Divine Economy so thoroughly
established by Bahá’u’lláh, or to the
safeguards which He has provided for its preservation and
advancement. Therein, I am profoundly convinced, lies the answer to
those questions to which I have already referred.

None, I feel, will question the fact that the
fundamental reason why the unity of the Church of Christ was
irretrievably shattered, and its influence was in the course of time
undermined, was that the Edifice which the Fathers of the Church
reared after the passing of His First Apostle was an Edifice that
rested in nowise upon the explicit directions of Christ Himself. The
authority and features of their administration were wholly inferred,
and indirectly derived, with more or less justification, from certain
vague and fragmentary references which they found scattered amongst
His utterances as recorded in the Gospel. Not one of the sacraments
of the Church; not one of the rites and ceremonies which the
Christian Fathers have elaborately devised and ostentatiously
observed; not one of the elements of the severe discipline they
rigorously imposed upon the primitive Christians; none of these
reposed on the direct authority of Christ, or emanated from His
specific utterances. Not one of these did Christ conceive, none did
He specifically invest with sufficient authority to either interpret
His Word, or to add to what He had not specifically enjoined.

For this reason, in later generations, voices were
raised in protest against the self-appointed Authority which
arrogated to itself privileges and powers which did not emanate from
the clear text of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and which constituted a
grave departure from the spirit which that Gospel did inculcate. They
argued with force and justification that the canons promulgated by
the Councils of the Church were not divinely-appointed laws, but were
merely human devices which did not even rest upon the actual
utterances of Jesus. Their contention centered around the fact that
the vague and inconclusive words, addressed by Christ to Peter, “Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,” could
never justify the extreme measures, the elaborate ceremonials, the
fettering creeds and dogmas, with which His successors have gradually
burdened and obscured His Faith. Had it been possible for the Church
Fathers, whose unwarranted authority was thus fiercely assailed from
every side, to refute the denunciations heaped upon them by quoting
specific utterances of Christ regarding the future administration of
His Church, or the nature of the authority of His Successors, they
would surely have been capable of quenching the flame of controversy,
and preserving the unity of Christendom. The Gospel, however, the
only repository of the utterances of Christ, afforded no such shelter
to these harassed leaders of the Church, who found themselves
helpless in the face of the pitiless onslaught of their enemy, and
who eventually had to submit to the forces of schism which invaded
their ranks.

In the Muḥammadan Revelation, however, although
His Faith as compared with that of Christ was, so far as the
administration of His Dispensation is concerned, more complete and
more specific in its provisions, yet in the matter of succession, it
gave no written, no binding and conclusive instructions to those
whose mission was to propagate His Cause. For the text of the Qur’án,
the ordinances of which regarding prayer, fasting, marriage, divorce,
inheritance, pilgrimage, and the like, have after the revolution of
thirteen hundred years remained intact and operative, gives no
definite guidance regarding the Law of Succession, the source of all
the dissensions, the controversies, and schisms which have
dismembered and discredited Islám.

Not so with the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.
Unlike the Dispensation of Christ, unlike the Dispensation of
Muḥammad, unlike all the Dispensations of the past, the
apostles of Bahá’u’lláh in every land,
wherever they labor and toil, have before them in clear, in
unequivocal and emphatic language, all the laws, the regulations, the
principles, the institutions, the guidance, they require for the
prosecution and consummation of their task. Both in the
administrative provisions of the Bahá’í
Dispensation, and in the matter of succession, as embodied in the
twin institutions of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship,
the followers of Bahá’u’lláh can summon to
their aid such irrefutable evidences of Divine Guidance that none can
resist, that none can belittle or ignore. Therein lies the
distinguishing feature of the Bahá’í Revelation.
Therein lies the strength of the unity of the Faith, of the validity
of a Revelation that claims not to destroy or belittle previous
Revelations, but to connect, unify, and fulfill them. This is the
reason why Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
have both revealed and even insisted upon certain details in
connection with the Divine Economy which they have bequeathed to us,
their followers. This is why such an emphasis has been placed in
their Will and Testament upon the powers and prerogatives of the
ministers of their Faith.

For nothing short of the explicit directions of their
Book, and the surprisingly emphatic language with which they have
clothed the provisions of their Will, could possibly safeguard the
Faith for which they have both so gloriously labored all their lives.
Nothing short of this could protect it from the heresies and
calumnies with which denominations, peoples, and governments have
endeavored, and will, with increasing vigor, endeavor to assail it in
future.

We should also bear in mind that the distinguishing
character of the Bahá’í Revelation does not
solely consist in the completeness and unquestionable validity of the
Dispensation which the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have established. Its excellence
lies also in the fact that those elements which in past Dispensations
have, without the least authority from their Founders, been a source
of corruption and of incalculable harm to the Faith of God, have been
strictly excluded by the clear text of Bahá’u’lláh’s
writings. Those unwarranted practices, in connection with the
sacrament of baptism, of communion, of confession of sins, of
asceticism, of priestly domination, of elaborate ceremonials, of holy
war and of polygamy, have one and all been rigidly suppressed by the
Pen of Bahá’u’lláh; whilst the rigidity and
rigor of certain observances, such as fasting, which are necessary to
the devotional life of the individual, have been considerably abated.

A Living Organism

It should also be borne in mind that the machinery of
the Cause has been so fashioned, that whatever is deemed necessary to
incorporate into it in order to keep it in the forefront of all
progressive movements, can, according to the provisions made by
Bahá’u’lláh, be safely embodied therein. To
this testify the words of Bahá’u’lláh, as
recorded in the Eighth Leaf of the exalted Paradise: “It is
incumbent upon the Trustees of the House of Justice to take counsel
together regarding those things which have not outwardly been
revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to them.
God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He,
verily, is the Provider, the Omniscient.” Not only has the
House of Justice been invested by Bahá’u’lláh
with the authority to legislate whatsoever has not been explicitly
and outwardly recorded in His holy Writ, upon it has also been
conferred by the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
the right and power to abrogate, according to the changes and
requirements of the time, whatever has been already enacted and
enforced by a preceding House of Justice. In this connection, He
revealed the following in His Will: “And inasmuch as the House
of Justice hath power to enact laws that are not expressly recorded
in the Book and bear upon daily transactions, so also it hath power
to repeal the same. Thus for example, the House of Justice enacteth
today a certain law and enforceth it, and a hundred years hence,
circumstances having profoundly changed and the conditions having
altered, another House of Justice will then have power, according to
the exigencies of the time, to alter that law. This it can do because
that law formeth no part of the divine explicit text. The House of
Justice is both the initiator and the abrogator of its own laws.”
Such is the immutability of His revealed Word. Such is the elasticity
which characterizes the functions of His appointed ministers. The
first preserves the identity of His Faith, and guards the integrity
of His law. The second enables it, even as a living organism, to
expand and adapt itself to the needs and requirements of an
ever-changing society.

Dear friends! Feeble though our Faith may now appear in
the eyes of men, who either denounce it as an offshoot of Islám,
or contemptuously ignore it as one more of those obscure sects that
abound in the West, this priceless gem of Divine Revelation, now
still in its embryonic state, shall evolve within the shell of His
law, and shall forge ahead, undivided and unimpaired, till it
embraces the whole of mankind. Only those who have already recognized
the supreme station of Bahá’u’lláh, only
those whose hearts have been touched by His love, and have become
familiar with the potency of His spirit, can adequately appreciate
the value of this Divine Economy—His inestimable gift to
mankind.

Leaders of religion, exponents of political theories,
governors of human institutions, who at present are witnessing with
perplexity and dismay the bankruptcy of their ideas, and the
disintegration of their handiwork, would do well to turn their gaze
to the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, and to
meditate upon the World Order which, lying enshrined in His
teachings, is slowly and imperceptibly rising amid the welter and
chaos of present-day civilization. They need have no doubt or anxiety
regarding the nature, the origin or validity of the institutions
which the adherents of the Faith are building up throughout the
world. For these lie embedded in the teachings themselves,
unadulterated and unobscured by unwarrantable inferences, or
unauthorized interpretations of His Word.

How pressing and sacred the responsibility that now
weighs upon those who are already acquainted with these teachings!
How glorious the task of those who are called upon to vindicate their
truth, and demonstrate their practicability to an unbelieving world!
Nothing short of an immovable conviction in their divine origin, and
their uniqueness in the annals of religion; nothing short of an
unwavering purpose to execute and apply them to the administrative
machinery of the Cause, can be sufficient to establish their reality,
and insure their success. How vast is the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh!
How great the magnitude of His blessings showered upon humanity in
this day! And yet, how poor, how inadequate our conception of their
significance and glory! This generation stands too close to so
colossal a Revelation to appreciate, in their full measure, the
infinite possibilities of His Faith, the unprecedented character of
His Cause, and the mysterious dispensations of His Providence.

In the Íqán, Bahá’u’lláh,
wishing to emphasize the transcendent character of this new Day of
God, reinforces the strength of His argument by His reference to the
text of a correct and authorized tradition, which reveals the
following: “Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All that the
Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath
known more than these two letters. But when the Qá’im
shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and five letters to
be made manifest.” And then immediately follow these confirming
and illuminating words of Bahá’u’lláh:
“Consider: He hath declared knowledge to consist of twenty and
seven letters, and regarded all the prophets, from Adam even unto
Muḥammad, the ‘seal,’ as expounders of only two
letters thereof. He also saith that the Qá’im will
reveal all the remaining twenty and five letters. Behold from this
utterance how great and lofty is His station! His rank excelleth that
of all the prophets, and His revelation transcendeth the
comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones. A
revelation, of which the prophets of God, His saints and chosen ones
have either not been informed or which, in pursuance of God’s
inscrutable decree, they have not disclosed—such a revelation,
these vile and villainous people have sought to measure with their
own deficient minds, their own deficient learning and understanding.”

In another passage of the same Book, Bahá’u’lláh,
referring to the transformation effected by every Revelation in the
ways, thoughts and manners of the people, reveals these words: “Is
not the object of every Revelation to effect a transformation in the
whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest
itself, both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner
life and external conditions? For if the character of mankind be not
changed, the futility of God’s universal Manifestations would
be apparent.”

Did not Christ Himself, addressing His disciples, utter
these words: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come,
He will guide you into all truth”?

From the text of this recognized tradition, as well as
from the words of Christ, as attested by the Gospel, every
unprejudiced observer will readily apprehend the magnitude of the
Faith which Bahá’u’lláh has revealed, and
recognize the staggering weight of the claim He has advanced. No
wonder if ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has portrayed in such lurid
colors the fierceness of the agitation that shall center in the days
to come round the nascent institutions of the Faith. We can now but
faintly discern the beginnings of that turmoil which the rise and
ascendancy of the Cause of God is destined to cast in the world.

The Greatest Drama of the World’s
Spiritual History

Whether in the ferocious and insidious campaign of
repression and cruelty which the rulers of Russia have launched
against the upholders of the Faith under their rule; whether in the
unyielding animosity with which the Shiites of Islám are
trampling upon the sacred rights of the adherents of the Cause in
connection with Bahá’u’lláh’s house
in Baghdád; whether in the impotent rage which has
impelled the ecclesiastical leaders of the Sunnite sect of Islám
to expel our Egyptian brethren from their midst—in all of these
we can perceive the manifestations of the relentless hate which
peoples, religions, and governments entertain for so pure, so
innocent, so glorious a Faith.

Ours is the duty to ponder these things in our heart, to
strive to widen our vision, and to deepen our comprehension of this
Cause, and to arise, resolutely and unreservedly, to play our part,
however small, in this greatest drama of the world’s spiritual
history.

Your brother and co-worker,
Shoghi.

Haifa, Palestine,
March 21, 1930.

The Goal of a New World Order

Fellow-believers in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh:

The inexorable march of recent events has carried
humanity so near to the goal foreshadowed by Bahá’u’lláh
that no responsible follower of His Faith, viewing on all sides the
distressing evidences of the world’s travail, can remain
unmoved at the thought of its approaching deliverance.

It would not seem inappropriate, at a time when we are
commemorating the world over the termination of the first decade
since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sudden removal from our
midst, to ponder, in the light of the teachings bequeathed by Him to
the world, such events as have tended to hasten the gradual emergence
of the World Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh.

Ten years ago, this very day, there flashed upon the
world the news of the passing of Him Who alone, through the ennobling
influence of His love, strength and wisdom, could have proved its
stay and solace in the many afflictions it was destined to suffer.

How well we, the little band of His avowed supporters
who lay claim to have recognized the Light that shone within Him, can
still remember His repeated allusions, in the evening of His earthly
life, to the tribulation and turmoil with which an unregenerate
humanity was to be increasingly afflicted. How poignantly some of us
can recall His pregnant remarks, in the presence of the pilgrims and
visitors who thronged His doors on the morrow of the jubilant
celebrations that greeted the termination of the World War—a
war, which by the horrors it evoked, the losses it entailed and the
complications it engendered, was destined to exert so far-reaching an
influence on the fortunes of mankind. How serenely, yet how
powerfully, He stressed the cruel deception which a Pact, hailed by
peoples and nations as the embodiment of triumphant justice and the
unfailing instrument of an abiding peace, held in store for an
unrepented humanity. Peace, Peace, how often we heard Him remark, the
lips of potentates and peoples unceasingly proclaim, whereas the fire
of unquenched hatreds still smoulders in their hearts. How often we
heard Him raise His voice, whilst the tumult of triumphant enthusiasm
was still at its height and long before the faintest misgivings could
have been felt or expressed, confidently declaring that the Document,
extolled as the Charter of a liberated humanity, contained within
itself seeds of such bitter deception as would further enslave the
world. How abundant are now the evidences that attest the
perspicacity of His unerring judgment!

Ten years of unceasing turmoil, so laden with anguish,
so fraught with incalculable consequences to the future of
civilization, have brought the world to the verge of a calamity too
awful to contemplate. Sad indeed is the contrast between the
manifestations of confident enthusiasm in which the Plenipotentiaries
at Versailles so freely indulged and the cry of unconcealed distress
which victors and vanquished alike are now raising in the hour of
bitter delusion.

A War-Weary World

Neither the force which the framers and guarantors of
the Peace Treaties have mustered, nor the lofty ideals which
originally animated the author of the Covenant of the League of
Nations, have proved a sufficient bulwark against the forces of
internal disruption with which a structure so laboriously contrived
had been consistently assailed. Neither the provisions of the
so-called Settlement which the victorious Powers have sought to
impose, nor the machinery of an institution which America’s
illustrious and far-seeing President had conceived, have proved,
either in conception or practice, adequate instruments to ensure the
integrity of the Order they had striven to establish. “The ills
from which the world now suffers,” wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
in January, 1920, “will multiply; the gloom which envelops it
will deepen. The Balkans will remain discontented. Its restlessness
will increase. The vanquished Powers will continue to agitate. They
will resort to every measure that may rekindle the flame of war.
Movements, newly-born and world-wide in their range, will exert their
utmost effort for the advancement of their designs. The Movement of
the Left will acquire great importance. Its influence will spread.”

Economic distress, since those words were written,
together with political confusion, financial upheavals, religious
restlessness and racial animosities, seem to have conspired to add
immeasurably to the burdens under which an impoverished, a war-weary
world is groaning. Such has been the cumulative effect of these
successive crises, following one another with such bewildering
rapidity, that the very foundations of society are trembling. The
world, to whichever continent we turn our gaze, to however remote a
region our survey may extend, is everywhere assailed by forces it can
neither explain nor control.

Europe, hitherto regarded as the cradle of a
highly-vaunted civilization, as the torch-bearer of liberty and the
mainspring of the forces of world industry and commerce, stands
bewildered and paralyzed at the sight of so tremendous an upheaval.
Long-cherished ideals in the political no less than in the economic
sphere of human activity are being severely tested under the pressure
of reactionary forces on one hand and of an insidious and persistent
radicalism on the other. From the heart of Asia distant rumblings,
ominous and insistent, portend the steady onslaught of a creed which,
by its negation of God, His Laws and Principles, threatens to disrupt
the foundations of human society. The clamor of a nascent
nationalism, coupled with a recrudescence of skepticism and unbelief,
come as added misfortunes to a continent hitherto regarded as the
symbol of age-long stability and undisturbed resignation. From
darkest Africa the first stirrings of a conscious and determined
revolt against the aims and methods of political and economic
imperialism can be increasingly discerned, adding their share to the
growing vicissitudes of a troubled age. Not even America, which until
very recently prided itself on its traditional policy of aloofness
and the self-contained character of its economy, the invulnerability
of its institutions and the evidences of its growing prosperity and
prestige, has been able to resist the impelling forces that have
swept her into the vortex of an economic hurricane that now threatens
to impair the basis of her own industrial and economic life. Even
far-away Australia, which, owing to its remoteness from the
storm-centers of Europe, would have been expected to be immune from
the trials and torments of an ailing continent, has been caught in
this whirlpool of passion and strife, impotent to extricate herself
from their ensnaring influence.

The Signs of Impending Chaos

Never indeed have there been such widespread and basic
upheavals, whether in the social, economic or political spheres of
human activity as those now going on in different parts of the world.
Never have there been so many and varied sources of danger as those
that now threaten the structure of society. The following words of
Bahá’u’lláh are indeed significant as we
pause to reflect upon the present state of a strangely disordered
world: “How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How
long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to
reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society?
The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the
strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily increasing.
The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned,
inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective.”

The disquieting influence of over thirty million souls
living under minority conditions throughout the continent of Europe;
the vast and ever-swelling army of the unemployed with its crushing
burden and demoralizing influence on governments and peoples; the
wicked, unbridled race of armaments swallowing an ever-increasing
share of the substance of already impoverished nations; the utter
demoralization from which the international financial markets are now
increasingly suffering; the onslaught of secularism invading what has
hitherto been regarded as the impregnable strongholds of Christian
and Muslim orthodoxy—these stand out as the gravest symptoms
that bode ill for the future stability of the structure of modern
civilization. Little wonder if one of Europe’s préeminent
thinkers, honored for his wisdom and restraint, should have been
forced to make so bold an assertion: “The world is passing
through the gravest crisis in the history of civilization.” “We
stand,” writes another, “before either a world
catastrophe, or perhaps before the dawn of a greater era of truth and
wisdom.” “It is in such times,” he adds, “that
religions have perished and are born.”

Might we not already discern, as we scan the political
horizon, the alignment of those forces that are dividing afresh the
continent of Europe into camps of potential combatants, determined
upon a contest that may mark, unlike the last war, the end of an
epoch, a vast epoch, in the history of human evolution? Are we, the
privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a
cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as
beneficent as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in
the West? Might it not happen—every vigilant adherent of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh might well pause to
reflect—that out of this world eruption there may stream forces
of such spiritual energy as shall recall, nay eclipse, the splendor
of those signs and wonders that accompanied the establishment of the
Faith of Jesus Christ? Might there not emerge out of the agony of a
shaken world a religious revival of such scope and power as to even
transcend the potency of those world-directing forces with which the
Religions of the Past have, at fixed intervals and according to an
inscrutable Wisdom, revived the fortunes of declining ages and
peoples? Might not the bankruptcy of this present, this
highly-vaunted materialistic civilization, in itself clear away the
choking weeds that now hinder the unfoldment and future efflorescence
of God’s struggling Faith?

Let Bahá’u’lláh Himself shed
the illumination of His words upon our path as we steer our course
amid the pitfalls and miseries of this troubled age. More than fifty
years ago, in a world far removed from the ills and trials that now
torment it, there flowed from His Pen these prophetic words: “The
world is in travail and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is
turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight
that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity
will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall
suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake.
Then and only then will the Divine Standard be unfurled and the
Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody.”

The Impotence of Statesmanship

Dearly-beloved friends! Humanity, whether viewed in the
light of man’s individual conduct or in the existing
relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas,
strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed
through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers
and statesmen—however disinterested their motives, however
concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion
to its cause. No scheme which the calculations of the highest
statesmanship may yet devise; no doctrine which the most
distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; no
principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to inculcate,
can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the
future of a distracted world can be built. No appeal for mutual
tolerance which the worldly-wise might raise, however compelling and
insistent, can calm its passions or help restore its vigor. Nor would
any general scheme of mere organized international cöoperation,
in whatever sphere of human activity, however ingenious in
conception, or extensive in scope, succeed in removing the root cause
of the evil that has so rudely upset the equilibrium of present-day
society. Not even, I venture to assert, would the very act of
devising the machinery required for the political and economic
unification of the world—a principle that has been increasingly
advocated in recent times—provide in itself the antidote
against the poison that is steadily undermining the vigor of
organized peoples and nations. What else, might we not confidently
affirm, but the unreserved acceptance of the Divine Program
enunciated, with such simplicity and force as far back as sixty years
ago, by Bahá’u’lláh, embodying in its
essentials God’s divinely appointed scheme for the unification
of mankind in this age, coupled with an indomitable conviction in the
unfailing efficacy of each and all of its provisions, is eventually
capable of withstanding the forces of internal disintegration which,
if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into the vitals of a
despairing society. It is towards this goal—the goal of a new
World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in
principle, challenging in its features—that a harassed humanity
must strive.

To claim to have grasped all the implications of
Bahá’u’lláh’s prodigious scheme for
world-wide human solidarity, or to have fathomed its import, would be
presumptuous on the part of even the declared supporters of His
Faith. To attempt to visualize it in all its possibilities, to
estimate its future benefits, to picture its glory, would be
premature at even so advanced a stage in the evolution of mankind.

The Guiding Principles of World
Order

All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to
obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must,
in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled
humanity. All we can do is to point out, in their broadest outlines,
what appear to us to be the guiding principles underlying the World
Order of Bahá’u’lláh, as amplified and
enunciated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of His
Covenant with all mankind and the appointed Interpreter and Expounder
of His Word.

That the unrest and suffering afflicting the mass of
mankind are in no small measure the direct consequences of the World
War and are attributable to the unwisdom and shortsightedness of the
framers of the Peace Treaties only a biased mind can refuse to admit.
That the financial obligations contracted in the course of the war,
as well as the imposition of a staggering burden of reparations upon
the vanquished, have, to a very great extent, been responsible for
the maldistribution and consequent shortage of the world’s
monetary gold supply, which in turn has, to a very great measure,
accentuated the phenomenal fall in prices and thereby relentlessly
increased the burdens of impoverished countries, no impartial mind
would question. That inter-governmental debts have imposed a severe
strain on the masses of the people in Europe, have upset the
equilibrium of national budgets, have crippled national industries,
and led to an increase in the number of the unemployed, is no less
apparent to an unprejudiced observer. That the spirit of
vindictiveness, of suspicion, of fear and rivalry, engendered by the
war, and which the provisions of the Peace Treaties have served to
perpetuate and foster, has led to an enormous increase of national
competitive armaments, involving during the last year the aggregate
expenditure of no less than a thousand million pounds, which in turn
has accentuated the effects of the world-wide depression, is a truth
that even the most superficial observer will readily admit. That a
narrow and brutal nationalism, which the post-war theory of
self-determination has served to reinforce, has been chiefly
responsible for the policy of high and prohibitive tariffs, so
injurious to the healthy flow of international trade and to the
mechanism of international finance, is a fact which few would venture
to dispute.

It would be idle, however, to contend that the war, with
all the losses it involved, the passions it aroused and the
grievances it left behind, has solely been responsible for the
unprecedented confusion into which almost every section of the
civilized world is plunged at present. Is it not a fact—and
this is the central idea I desire to emphasize—that the
fundamental cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much
to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be regarded
as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing
world, but rather to the failure of those into whose hands the
immediate destinies of peoples and nations have been committed, to
adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the
imperative needs of a rapidly evolving age? Are not these
intermittent crises that convulse present-day society due primarily
to the lamentable inability of the world’s recognized leaders
to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once for all
of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the
machinery of their respective governments according to those
standards that are implicit in Bahá’u’lláh’s
supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind—the chief and
distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed? For the principle
of the Oneness of Mankind, the cornerstone of Bahá’u’lláh’s
world-embracing dominion, implies nothing more nor less than the
enforcement of His scheme for the unification of the world—the
scheme to which we have already referred. “In every
Dispensation,” writes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the
light of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one central theme….
In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of
the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is the
consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind.”

How pathetic indeed are the efforts of those leaders of
human institutions who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age,
are striving to adjust national processes, suited to the ancient days
of self-contained nations, to an age which must either achieve the
unity of the world, as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh,
or perish. At so critical an hour in the history of civilization it
behooves the leaders of all the nations of the world, great and
small, whether in the East or in the West, whether victors or
vanquished, to give heed to the clarion call of Bahá’u’lláh
and, thoroughly imbued with a sense of world solidarity, the sine quà
non of loyalty to His Cause, arise manfully to carry out in its
entirety the one remedial scheme He, the Divine Physician, has
prescribed for an ailing humanity. Let them discard, once for all,
every preconceived idea, every national prejudice, and give heed to
the sublime counsel of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the
authorized Expounder of His teachings. You can best serve your
country, was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s rejoinder to a
high official in the service of the federal government of the United
States of America, who had questioned Him as to the best manner in
which he could promote the interests of his government and people, if
you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in
the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying
the government of your own country to the relationships now existing
between the peoples and nations of the world.

In The Secret of Divine Civilization (The Mysterious
Forces of Civilization), ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
outstanding contribution to the future reorganization of the world,
we read the following:

“True civilization will unfurl its banner in the
midmost heart of the world whenever a certain number of its
distinguished and high-minded sovereigns—the shining exemplars
of devotion and determination—shall, for the good and happiness
of all mankind, arise, with firm resolve and clear vision, to
establish the Cause of Universal Peace. They must make the Cause of
Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in
their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They
must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the
provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They
must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for it the sanction of
all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking—the real
source of the peace and well-being of all the world—should be
regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of
humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of
this Most Great Covenant. In this all-embracing Pact the limits and
frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the
principles underlying the relations of governments towards one
another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and
obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of
every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations
for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to
increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental
principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any
government later violate any one of its provisions, all the
governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission,
nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its
disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all
remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly
recover from its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.”

“A few,” He further adds, “unaware of
the power latent in human endeavor, consider this matter as highly
impracticable, nay even beyond the scope of man’s utmost
efforts. Such is not the case, however. On the contrary, thanks to
the unfailing grace of God, the loving-kindness of His favored ones,
the unrivaled endeavors of wise and capable souls, and the thoughts
and ideas of the peerless leaders of this age, nothing whatsoever can
be regarded as unattainable. Endeavor, ceaseless endeavor, is
required. Nothing short of an indomitable determination can possibly
achieve it. Many a cause which past ages have regarded as purely
visionary, yet in this day has become most easy and practicable. Why
should this most great and lofty Cause—the day-star of the
firmament of true civilization and the cause of the glory, the
advancement, the well-being and the success of all humanity—be
regarded as impossible of achievement? Surely the day will come when
its beauteous light shall shed illumination upon the assemblage of
man.”

Seven Lights of Unity

In one of His Tablets ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
elucidating further His noble theme, reveals the following:

“In cycles gone by, though harmony was
established, yet, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all
mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely
divided, nay even among the peoples of one and the same continent
association and interchange of thought were well nigh impossible.
Consequently intercourse, understanding and unity amongst all the
peoples and kindreds of the earth were unattainable. In this day,
however, means of communication have multiplied, and the five
continents of the earth have virtually merged into one…. In like
manner all the members of the human family, whether peoples or
governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly
interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible,
inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the
bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being
strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this
day be achieved. Verily this is none other but one of the wonders of
this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this past ages have been
deprived, for this century—the century of light—has been
endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination.
Hence the miraculous unfolding of a fresh marvel every day.
Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn in the
assemblage of man.

“Behold how its light is now dawning upon the
world’s darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the
political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned.
The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the
consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third candle is
unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is
unity in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself,
and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendor.
The fifth candle is the unity of nations—a unity which in this
century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the
world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The
sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth
peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of
language, i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples
will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will
inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God
will aid and assist in their realization.”

A World Super-State

Over sixty years ago, in His Tablet to Queen Victoria,
Bahá’u’lláh, addressing “the
concourse of the rulers of the earth,” revealed the following:

“Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be
only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition
thereof…. Regard the world as the human body which, though created
whole and perfect, has been afflicted, through divers causes, with
grave ills and maladies. Not for one day did it rest, nay its
sicknesses waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of
unskilled physicians who have spurred on the steed of their worldly
desires and have erred grievously. And if at one time, through the
care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest
remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise…. That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign
remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is
the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common
Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a
skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This verily is the
truth, and all else naught but error.”

In a further passage Bahá’u’lláh
adds these words: “We see you adding every year unto your
expenditures and laying the burden thereof on the people whom ye
rule; this verily is naught but grievous injustice. Fear the sighs
and tears of this Wronged One, and burden not your peoples beyond
that which they can endure…. Be reconciled among yourselves, that
ye may need armaments no more save in a measure to safeguard your
territories and dominions. Be united, O concourse of the sovereigns
of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled
amongst you and your peoples find rest. Should any one among you take
up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught
but manifest justice.”

What else could these weighty words signify if they did
not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national
sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the
future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world? Some form of a
world super-state must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the
nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make
war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain
armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within
their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within
its orbit an international executive adequate to enforce supreme and
unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the
commonwealth; a world parliament whose members shall be elected by
the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be
confirmed by their respective governments; and a supreme tribunal
whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where
the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case
to its consideration. A world community in which all economic
barriers will have been permanently demolished and the
interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized; in which
the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever
stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been
finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the
product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated
representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and
coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units;
and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and
militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding
consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its
broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh,
an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a
slowly maturing age.

“The Tabernacle of Unity,” Bahá’u’lláh
proclaims in His message to all mankind, “has been raised;
regard ye not one another as strangers…. Of one tree are all ye the
fruit and of one bough the leaves…. The world is but one country
and mankind its citizens…. Let not a man glory in that he loves his
country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.”

Unity in Diversity

Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose
of the world-wide Law of Bahá’u’lláh. Far
from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society,
it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner
consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict
with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential
loyalties. Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane and
intelligent patriotism in men’s hearts, nor to abolish the
system of national autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive
centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it
attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate,
of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that
differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a
wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the
human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses
and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It
repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all
attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in
diversity such as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself has
explained:

“Consider the flowers of a garden. Though
differing in kind, color, form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are
refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one
wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth
their charm and addeth unto their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye
if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit,
the branches and the trees of that garden were all of the same shape
and color! Diversity of hues, form and shape enricheth and adorneth
the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. In like manner, when
divers shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought
together under the power and influence of one central agency, the
beauty and glory of human perfection will be revealed and made
manifest. Naught but the celestial potency of the Word of God, which
ruleth and transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of
harmonizing the divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas and convictions
of the children of men.”

The call of Bahá’u’lláh is
primarily directed against all forms of provincialism, all
insularities and prejudices. If long-cherished ideals and
time-honored institutions, if certain social assumptions and
religious formulae have ceased to promote the welfare of the
generality of mankind, if they no longer minister to the needs of a
continually evolving humanity, let them be swept away and relegated
to the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten doctrines. Why should
these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay,
be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human
institution? For legal standards, political and economic theories are
solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole,
and not humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the
integrity of any particular law or doctrine.

The Principle of Oneness

Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of
Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh
revolve —is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an
expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely
identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and
good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of
harmonious cöoperation among individual peoples and nations. Its
implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the
Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable
not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the
nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states
and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute
merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated
with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its
validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change
in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world
has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and
universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds
that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of
events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new
gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to,
what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the
reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized
world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects
of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its
trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the
diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution—an
evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family
life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal
solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state,
and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign
nations.

The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed
by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and
no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage
in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable,
that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a
power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.

So marvellous a conception finds its earliest
manifestations in the efforts consciously exerted and the modest
beginnings already achieved by the declared adherents of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh who, conscious of the sublimity
of their calling and initiated into the ennobling principles of His
Administration, are forging ahead to establish His Kingdom on this
earth. It has its indirect manifestations in the gradual diffusion of
the spirit of world solidarity which is spontaneously arising out of
the welter of a disorganized society.

It would be stimulating to follow the history of the
growth and development of this lofty conception which must
increasingly engage the attention of the responsible custodians of
the destinies of peoples and nations. To the states and
principalities just emerging from the welter of the great Napoleonic
upheaval, whose chief preoccupation was either to recover their
rights to an independent existence or to achieve their national
unity, the conception of world solidarity seemed not only remote but
inconceivable. It was not until the forces of nationalism had
succeeded in overthrowing the foundations of the Holy Alliance that
had sought to curb their rising power, that the possibility of a
world order, transcending in its range the political institutions
these nations had established, came to be seriously entertained. It
was not until after the World War that these exponents of arrogant
nationalism came to regard such an order as the object of a
pernicious doctrine tending to sap that essential loyalty upon which
the continued existence of their national life depended. With a vigor
that recalled the energy with which the members of the Holy Alliance
sought to stifle the spirit of a rising nationalism among the peoples
liberated from the Napoleonic yoke, these champions of an unfettered
national sovereignty, in their turn, have labored and are still
laboring to discredit principles upon which their own salvation must
ultimately depend.

The fierce opposition which greeted the abortive scheme
of the Geneva Protocol; the ridicule poured upon the proposal for a
United States of Europe which was subsequently advanced, and the
failure of the general scheme for the economic union of Europe, may
appear as setbacks to the efforts which a handful of foresighted
people are earnestly exerting to advance this noble ideal. And yet,
are we not justified in deriving fresh encouragement when we observe
that the very consideration of such proposals is in itself an
evidence of their steady growth in the minds and hearts of men? In
the organized attempts that are being made to discredit so exalted a
conception are we not witnessing the repetition, on a larger scale,
of those stirring struggles and fierce controversies that preceded
the birth, and assisted in the reconstruction, of the unified nations
of the West?

The Federation of Mankind

To take but one instance. How confident were the
assertions made in the days preceding the unification of the states
of the North American continent regarding the insuperable barriers
that stood in the way of their ultimate federation! Was it not widely
and emphatically declared that the conflicting interests, the mutual
distrust, the differences of government and habit that divided the
states were such as no force, whether spiritual or temporal, could
ever hope to harmonize or control? And yet how different were the
conditions prevailing a hundred and fifty years ago from those that
characterize present-day society! It would indeed be no exaggeration
to say that the absence of those facilities which modern scientific
progress has placed at the service of humanity in our time made of
the problem of welding the American states into a single federation,
similar though they were in certain traditions, a task infinitely
more complex than that which confronts a divided humanity in its
efforts to achieve the unification of all mankind.

Who knows that for so exalted a conception to take shape
a suffering more intense than any it has yet experienced will have to
be inflicted upon humanity? Could anything less than the fire of a
civil war with all its violence and vicissitudes—a war that
nearly rent the great American Republic—have welded the states,
not only into a Union of independent units, but into a Nation, in
spite of all the ethnic differences that characterized its component
parts? That so fundamental a revolution, involving such far-reaching
changes in the structure of society, can be achieved through the
ordinary processes of diplomacy and education seems highly
improbable. We have but to turn our gaze to humanity’s
blood-stained history to realize that nothing short of intense mental
as well as physical agony has been able to precipitate those
epoch-making changes that constitute the greatest landmarks in the
history of human civilization.

The Fire of Ordeal

Great and far-reaching as have been those changes in the
past, they cannot appear, when viewed in their proper perspective,
except as subsidiary adjustments preluding that transformation of
unparalleled majesty and scope which humanity is in this age bound to
undergo. That the forces of a world catastrophe can alone precipitate
such a new phase of human thought is, alas, becoming increasingly
apparent. That nothing short of the fire of a severe ordeal,
unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld the discordant
entities that constitute the elements of present-day civilization,
into the integral components of the world commonwealth of the future,
is a truth which future events will increasingly demonstrate.

The prophetic voice of Bahá’u’lláh
warning, in the concluding passages of the Hidden Words, “the
peoples of the world” that “an unforeseen calamity is
following them and that grievous retribution awaiteth them”
throws indeed a lurid light upon the immediate fortunes of sorrowing
humanity. Nothing but a fiery ordeal, out of which humanity will
emerge, chastened and prepared, can succeed in implanting that sense
of responsibility which the leaders of a new-born age must arise to
shoulder.

I would again direct your attention to those ominous
words of Bahá’u’lláh which I have already
quoted: “And when the appointed hour is come, there shall
suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to
quake.”

Has not ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself asserted
in unequivocal language that “another war, fiercer than the
last, will assuredly break out”?

Upon the consummation of this colossal, this unspeakably
glorious enterprise—an enterprise that baffled the resources of
Roman statesmanship and which Napoleon’s desperate efforts
failed to achieve—will depend the ultimate realization of that
millennium of which poets of all ages have sung and seers have long
dreamed. Upon it will depend the fulfillment of the prophecies
uttered by the Prophets of old when swords shall be beaten into
ploughshares and the lion and the lamb lie down together. It alone
can usher in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father as anticipated by the
Faith of Jesus Christ. It alone can lay the foundation for the New
World Order visualized by Bahá’u’lláh—a
World Order that shall reflect, however dimly, upon this earthly
plane, the ineffable splendors of the Abhá Kingdom.

One word more in conclusion. The proclamation of the
Oneness of Mankind—the head corner-stone of Bahá’u’lláh’s
all-embracing dominion—can under no circumstances be compared
with such expressions of pious hope as have been uttered in the past.
His is not merely a call which He raised, alone and unaided, in the
face of the relentless and combined opposition of two of the most
powerful Oriental potentates of His day—while Himself an exile
and prisoner in their hands. It implies at once a warning and a
promise—a warning that in it lies the sole means for the
salvation of a greatly suffering world, a promise that its
realization is at hand.

Uttered at a time when its possibility had not yet been
seriously envisaged in any part of the world, it has, by virtue of
that celestial potency which the Spirit of Bahá’u’lláh
has breathed into it, come at last to be regarded, by an increasing
number of thoughtful men, not only as an approaching possibility, but
as the necessary outcome of the forces now operating in the world.

The Mouthpiece of God

Surely the world, contracted and transformed into a
single highly complex organism by the marvellous progress achieved in
the realm of physical science, by the world-wide expansion of
commerce and industry, and struggling, under the pressure of world
economic forces, amidst the pitfalls of a materialistic civilization,
stands in dire need of a restatement of the Truth underlying all the
Revelations of the past in a language suited to its essential
requirements. And what voice other than that of Bahá’u’lláh—the
Mouthpiece of God for this age—is capable of effecting a
transformation of society as radical as that which He has already
accomplished in the hearts of those men and women, so diversified and
seemingly irreconcilable, who constitute the body of His declared
followers throughout the world?

That such a mighty conception is fast budding out in the
minds of men, that voices are being raised in its support, that its
salient features must fast crystallize in the consciousness of those
who are in authority, few indeed can doubt. That its modest
beginnings have already taken shape in the world-wide Administration
with which the adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
stand associated only those whose hearts are tainted by prejudice can
fail to perceive.

Ours, dearly-beloved co-workers, is the paramount duty
to continue, with undimmed vision and unabated zeal, to assist in the
final erection of that Edifice the foundations of which Bahá’u’lláh
has laid in our hearts, to derive added hope and strength from the
general trend of recent events, however dark their immediate effects,
and to pray with unremitting fervor that He may hasten the approach
of the realization of that Wondrous Vision which constitutes the
brightest emanation of His Mind and the fairest fruit of the fairest
civilization the world has yet seen.

Might not the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration
of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh mark the
inauguration of so vast an era in human history?

Your true brother,
SHOGHI

Haifa, Palestine,
November 28, 1931

The Golden Age of the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh

To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful
throughout the United States and Canada.

Friends and fellow-defenders of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh:

Significant as have been the changes that have lately
overtaken a swiftly awakening humanity at this transitional phase of
its checkered history, the steady consolidation of the institutions
which the administrators of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
are, in every land, toiling to establish should appear no less
remarkable to even those who are as yet imperfectly acquainted with
the obstacles they have had to surmount or the meagre resources on
which they could rely.

That a Faith which, ten years ago, was severely shaken
by the sudden removal of an incomparable Master should have, in the
face of tremendous obstacles, maintained its unity, resisted the
malignant onslaught of its ill-wishers, silenced its calumniators,
broadened the basis of its far-flung administration, and raised upon
it institutions symbolizing its ideals of worship and service, should
be deemed sufficient evidence of the invincible power with which the
Almighty has chosen to invest it from the moment of its inception.

That the Cause associated with the name of Bahá’u’lláh
feeds itself upon those hidden springs of celestial strength which no
force of human personality, whatever its glamour, can replace; that
its reliance is solely upon that mystic Source with which no worldly
advantage, be it wealth, fame, or learning can compare; that it
propagates itself by ways mysterious and utterly at variance with the
standards accepted by the generality of mankind, will, if not already
apparent, become increasingly manifest as it forges ahead towards
fresh conquests in its struggle for the spiritual regeneration of
mankind.

Indeed, how could it, unsupported as it has ever been by
the counsels and the resources of the wise, the rich, and the learned
in the land of its birth, have succeeded in breaking asunder the
shackles that weighed upon it at the hour of its birth, in emerging
unscathed from the storms that agitated its infancy, had not its
animating breath been quickened by that spirit which is born of God,
and on which all success, wherever and however it be sought, must
ultimately depend?

It is not necessary for me to recall, even in their
briefest outline, the heart-rending details of that appalling tragedy
which marked the birth-pangs of our beloved Faith, enacted in a land
notorious for its unrestrained fanaticisms, its crass ignorance, its
unbridled cruelty. Nor do I need to expatiate on the valor, the
sublime fortitude, that defied the cruel torture-mongers of that
race, or stress the number, or emphasize the purity of the lives, of
those who died willingly that their Cause might live and prosper. Nor
is it necessary to dwell upon the indignation which those atrocities
evoked, and the feelings of unqualified admiration that surged, in
the breasts of countless men and women, in regions remote from the
scene of those indescribable cruelties. Suffice it to say that upon
these heroes of Bahá’u’lláh’s native
land was bestowed the inestimable privilege of sealing with their
life-blood the early triumphs of their cherished Faith, and of paving
the way for its approaching victory. In the blood of the unnumbered
martyrs of Persia lay the seed of the Divinely-appointed
Administration which, though transplanted from its native soil, is
now budding out, under your loving care, into a new order, destined
to overshadow all mankind.

America’s Contribution to the
Cause

For great as have been the attainments and unforgettable
the services of the pioneers of the heroic age of the Cause in
Persia, the contribution which their spiritual descendants, the
American believers, the champion-builders of the organic structure of
the Cause, are now making towards the fulfillment of the Plan which
must usher in the golden age of the Cause is no less meritorious in
this strenuous period of its history. Few, if any, I venture to
assert, among these privileged framers and custodians of the
constitution of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
are even dimly aware of the preponderating rôle which the North
American continent is destined to play in the future orientation of
their world-embracing Cause. Nor does any appreciable number among
them seem sufficiently conscious of the decisive influence which they
already exercise in the direction and management of its affairs.

“The continent of America,” wrote
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in February, 1917, “is, in the
eyes of the one true God, the land wherein the splendors of His light
shall be revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be
unveiled, where the righteous will abide, and the free assemble.”

That the supporters of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh,
throughout the United States and Canada, are increasingly
demonstrating the truth of this solemn affirmation is evident to even
a casual observer of the record of their manifold services, whether
in their individual capacities or through their concerted endeavors.
The manifestations of spontaneous loyalty which marked their response
to the expressed wishes of a departed Master; the generosity with
which they have, on more than one occasion, arisen to lend a helping
hand to the needy and harassed among their brethren in Persia; the
vigor with which they have resisted the shameless attacks which
unrelenting enemies, both from within and without, have, with
increasing frequency, launched against them; the example which the
body of their national representatives have set to their sister
Assemblies in fashioning the instruments essential to the effective
discharge of their collective duties; their successful intervention
on behalf of their persecuted fellow-workers in Russia; the moral
support they have extended to their Egyptian fellow-disciples at a
most critical stage in their struggle for emancipation from the
fetters of Islamic orthodoxy; the historic services rendered by those
intrepid pioneers who, faithful to the call of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
forsook their homes to plant, in the uttermost corners of the globe,
the standard of His Faith; and, last but not least, the magnificence
of their self-sacrifice, culminating in the completion of the
super-structure of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—these
stand out each as an eloquent testimony to the indomitable character
of the faith Bahá’u’lláh has kindled in
their hearts.

Who, contemplating so splendid a record of service, can
doubt that these faithful stewards of the redeeming grace of God have
preserved, undivided and unimpaired, the priceless heritage entrusted
to their charge? Have they not, one might well reflect, in ways which
only future historians will indicate, approached the high standard
that characterized those deeds of imperishable renown accomplished by
those that have gone before them?

Not by the material resources which the members of this
infant community can now summon to their aid; not by the numerical
strength of its present-day supporters; nor by any direct tangible
benefits its votaries can as yet confer upon the multitude of the
needy and the disconsolate among their countrymen, should its
potentialities be tested or its worth determined. Nowhere but in the
purity of its precepts, the sublimity of its standards, the integrity
of its laws, the reasonableness of its claims, the comprehensiveness
of its scope, the universality of its program, the flexibility of its
institutions, the lives of its founders, the heroism of its martyrs,
and the transforming power of its influence, should the unprejudiced
observer seek to obtain the true criterion that can enable him to
fathom its mysteries or to estimate its virtue.

Decline of Mortal Dominion

How unfair, how irrelevant, to venture any comparison
between the slow and gradual consolidation of the Faith proclaimed by
Bahá’u’lláh and those man-created movements
which, having their origin in human desires and with their hopes
centered on mortal dominion, must inevitably decline and perish!
Springing from a finite mind, begotten of human fancy, and oftentimes
the product of ill-conceived designs, such movements succeed, by
reason of their novelty, their appeal to man’s baser instincts
and their dependence upon the resources of a sordid world, in
dazzling for a time the eyes of men, only to plunge finally from the
heights of their meteoric career into the darkness of oblivion,
dissolved by the very forces that had assisted in their creation.

Not so with the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.
Born in an environment of appalling degradation, springing from a
soil steeped in age-long corruptions, hatreds and prejudice,
inculcating principles irreconcilable with the accepted standards of
the times, and faced from the beginning with the relentless enmity of
government, church and people, this nascent Faith of God has, by
virtue of the celestial potency with which it has been endowed,
succeeded, in less than four score years and ten, in emancipating
itself from the galling chains of Islamic domination, in proclaiming
the self-sufficiency of its ideals and the independent integrity of
its laws, in planting its banner in no less than forty of the most
advanced countries of the world, in establishing its outposts in
lands beyond the farthest seas, in consecrating its religious
edifices in the midmost heart of the Asiatic and American continents,
in inducing two of the most powerful governments of the West to
ratify the instruments essential to its administrative activities, in
obtaining from royalty befitting tributes to the excellence of its
teachings, and, finally, in forcing its grievances upon the attention
of the representatives of the highest Tribunal in the civilized
world, and in securing from its members written affirmations that are
tantamount to a tacit recognition of its religious status and to an
express declaration of the justice of its cause.

Circumscribed though its power as a social force may as
yet appear, and however obvious may seem the present ineffectiveness
of its world-embracing program, we, who stand identified with its
blessed name, cannot but marvel at the measure of its achievements if
we but compare them with the modest accomplishments that have marked
the rise of the Dispensations of the past. Where else, if not in the
Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, can the unbiased
student of comparative religion cite instances of a claim as
stupendous as that which the Author of that Faith advanced, foes as
relentless as those which He faced, a devotion more sublime than that
which He kindled, a life as eventful and as enthralling as that which
He led? Has Christianity or Islám, has any Dispensation that
preceded them, offered instances of such combinations of courage and
restraint, of magnanimity and power, of broad-mindedness and loyalty,
as those which characterized the conduct of the heroes of the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh? Where else do we find
evidences of a transformation as swift, as complete, and as sudden,
as those effected in the lives of the apostles of the Báb?
Few, indeed, are the instances recorded in any of the authenticated
annals of the religions of the past of a self-abnegation as complete,
a constancy as firm, a magnanimity as sublime, a loyalty as
uncompromising, as those which bore witness to the character of that
immortal band which stands identified with this Divine
Revelation—this latest and most compelling manifestation of the
love and the omnipotence of the Almighty!

Contrast with Religions of the Past

We may vainly search in the records of the earliest
beginnings of any of the recognized religions of the past for
episodes as thrilling in their details, or as far-reaching in their
consequences, as those that illumine the pages of the history of this
Faith. The almost incredible circumstances attending the martyrdom of
that youthful Prince of Glory; the forces of barbaric repression
which this tragedy subsequently released; the manifestations of
unsurpassed heroism to which it gave rise; the exhortations and
warnings which have streamed from the pen of the Divine Prisoner in
His Epistles to the potentates of the Church and the monarchs and
rulers of the world; the undaunted loyalty with which our brethren
are battling in Muslim countries with the forces of religious
orthodoxy—these may be reckoned as the most outstanding
features of what the world will come to recognize as the greatest
drama in the world’s spiritual history.

I need not recall, in this connection, the unfortunate
episodes that have, admittedly, and to a very great extent, marred
the early history of both Judaism and Islám. Nor is it
necessary to stress the damaging effect of the excesses, the
rivalries and divisions, the fanatical outbursts and acts of
ingratitude that are associated with the early development of the
people of Israel and with the militant career of the ruthless
pioneers of the Faith of Muḥammad.

It would be sufficient for my purpose to call attention
to the great number of those who, in the first two centuries of the
Christian era, “purchased an ignominious life by betraying the
holy Scriptures into the hands of the infidels,” the scandalous
conduct of those bishops who were thereby branded as traitors, the
discord of the African Church, the gradual infiltration into
Christian doctrine of the principles of the Mithraic cult, of the
Alexandrian school of thought, of the precepts of Zoroastrianism and
of Grecian philosophy, and the adoption by the churches of Greece and
of Asia of the institutions of provincial synods of a model which
they borrowed from the representative councils of their respective
countries.

How great was the obstinacy with which the Jewish
converts among the early Christians adhered to the ceremonies of
their ancestors, and how fervent their eagerness to impose them on
the Gentiles! Were not the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem all
circumcised Jews, and had not the congregation over which they
presided united the laws of Moses with the doctrine of Christ? Is it
not a fact that no more than a twentieth part of the subjects of the
Roman Empire had enlisted themselves under the standard of Christ
before the conversion of Constantine? Was not the ruin of the Temple,
in the city of Jerusalem, and of the public religion of the Jews,
severely felt by the so-called Nazarenes, who persevered, above a
century, in the practice of the Mosaic Law?

How striking the contrast when we remember, in the light
of the afore-mentioned facts, the number of those followers of
Bahá’u’lláh who, in Persia and the
adjoining countries, had enlisted at the time of His Ascension as the
convinced supporters of His Faith! How encouraging to observe the
undeviating loyalty with which His valiant followers are guarding the
purity and integrity of His clear and unequivocal teachings! How
edifying the spectacle of those who are battling with the forces of a
firmly intrenched orthodoxy in their struggle to emancipate
themselves from the fetters of an outworn creed! How inspiring the
conduct of those Muslim followers of Bahá’u’lláh
who view, not with regret or apathy, but with feelings of unconcealed
satisfaction, the deserved chastisement which the Almighty has
inflicted upon those twin institutions of the Sultanate and the
Caliphate, those engines of despotism and sworn enemies of the Cause
of God!

Fundamental Principle of Religious
Truth

Let no one, however, mistake my purpose. The Revelation,
of which Bahá’u’lláh is the source and
center, abrogates none of the religions that have preceded it, nor
does it attempt, in the slightest degree, to distort their features
or to belittle their value. It disclaims any intention of dwarfing
any of the Prophets of the past, or of whittling down the eternal
verity of their teachings. It can, in no wise, conflict with the
spirit that animates their claims, nor does it seek to undermine the
basis of any man’s allegiance to their cause. Its declared, its
primary purpose is to enable every adherent of these Faiths to obtain
a fuller understanding of the religion with which he stands
identified, and to acquire a clearer apprehension of its purpose. It
is neither eclectic in the presentation of its truths, nor arrogant
in the affirmation of its claims. Its teachings revolve around the
fundamental principle that religious truth is not absolute but
relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final.
Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all
established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their
aims, complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose,
indispensable in their value to mankind.

“All the Prophets of God,” asserts
Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Íqán,
“abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are
seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the
same Faith.” From the “beginning that hath no beginning,”
these Exponents of the Unity of God and Channels of His incessant
utterance have shed the light of the invisible Beauty upon mankind,
and will continue, to the “end that hath no end,” to
vouchsafe fresh revelations of His might and additional experiences
of His inconceivable glory. To contend that any particular religion
is final, that “all Revelation is ended, that the portals of
Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness
no sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is
forever stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient glory the
Messengers of God have ceased to be made manifest” would indeed
be nothing less than sheer blasphemy.

“They differ,” explains Bahá’u’lláh
in that same epistle, “only in the intensity of their
revelation and the comparative potency of their light.” And
this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of any one of them to
reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message with which He has
been entrusted, but rather because of the immaturity and
unpreparedness of the age He lived in to apprehend and absorb the
full potentialities latent in that Faith.

“Know of a certainty,” explains Bahá’u’lláh,
“that in every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation has
been vouchsafed to men in direct proportion to their spiritual
capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appears
above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as
it approaches its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to
adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light. How steadily
it declines until it reaches its setting point. Were it, all of a
sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no
doubt, cause injury to all created things…. In like manner, if the
Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its
manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence
of the Almighty has bestowed upon it, the earth of human
understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men’s
hearts would neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be
able to mirror forth the radiance of its light. Dismayed and
overpowered, they would cease to exist.”

It is for this reason, and this reason only, that those
who have recognized the Light of God in this age, claim no finality
for the Revelation with which they stand identified, nor arrogate to
the Faith they have embraced powers and attributes intrinsically
superior to, or essentially different from, those which have
characterized any of the religious systems that preceded it.

Does not Bahá’u’lláh Himself
allude to the progressiveness of Divine Revelation and to the
limitations which an inscrutable Wisdom has chosen to impose upon
Him? What else can this passage of the Hidden Words imply, if not
that He Who revealed it disclaimed finality for the Revelation
entrusted to Him by the Almighty? “O Son of Justice! In the
night-season the beauty of the immortal Being hath repaired from the
emerald height of fidelity unto the Sadratu’l-Muntahá,
and wept with such a weeping that the concourse on high and the
dwellers of the realms above wailed at His lamenting. Whereupon there
was asked, Why the wailing and weeping? He made reply: As bidden I
waited expectant upon the hill of faithfulness, yet inhaled not from
them that dwell on earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then summoned to
return I beheld, and lo! certain doves of holiness were sore tried
within the claws of the dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of Heaven
hastened forth, unveiled, and resplendent, from Her mystic mansion,
and asked of their names, and all were told but one. And when urged,
the first Letter thereof was uttered, whereupon the dwellers of the
celestial chambers rushed forth out of their habitation of glory. And
whilst the second letter was pronounced they fell down, one and all,
upon the dust. At that moment a Voice was heard from the inmost
shrine: ‘Thus far and no farther.’ Verily we bear witness
to that which they have done and now are doing.”

“The Revelation of which I am the bearer,”
Bahá’u’lláh explicitly declares, “is
adapted to humanity’s spiritual receptiveness and capacity;
otherwise, the Light that shines within me can neither wax nor wane.
Whatever I manifest is nothing more or less than the measure of the
Divine glory which God has bidden me reveal.”

If the Light that is now streaming forth upon an
increasingly responsive humanity with a radiance that bids fair to
eclipse the splendor of such triumphs as the forces of religion have
achieved in days past; if the signs and tokens which proclaimed its
advent have been, in many respects, unique in the annals of past
Revelations; if its votaries have evinced traits and qualities
unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind; these should be
attributed not to a superior merit which the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
as a Revelation isolated and alien from any previous Dispensation,
might possess, but rather should be viewed and explained as the
inevitable outcome of the forces that have made of this present age
an age infinitely more advanced, more receptive, and more insistent
to receive an ampler measure of Divine Guidance than has hitherto
been vouchsafed to mankind.

Necessity for a Fresh Revelation

Dearly beloved friends: Who, contemplating the
helplessness, the fears and miseries of humanity in this day, can any
longer question the necessity for a fresh revelation of the
quickening power of God’s redemptive love and guidance? Who,
witnessing on one hand the stupendous advance achieved in the realm
of human knowledge, of power, of skill and inventiveness, and viewing
on the other the unprecedented character of the sufferings that
afflict, and the dangers that beset, present-day society, can be so
blind as to doubt that the hour has at last struck for the advent of
a new Revelation, for a re-statement of the Divine Purpose, and for
the consequent revival of those spiritual forces that have, at fixed
intervals, rehabilitated the fortunes of human society? Does not the
very operation of the world-unifying forces that are at work in this
age necessitate that He Who is the Bearer of the Message of God in
this day should not only reaffirm that self-same exalted standard of
individual conduct inculcated by the Prophets gone before Him, but
embody in His appeal, to all governments and peoples, the essentials
of that social code, that Divine Economy, which must guide humanity’s
concerted efforts in establishing that all-embracing federation which
is to signalize the advent of the Kingdom of God on this earth?

May we not, therefore, recognizing as we do the
necessity for such a revelation of God’s redeeming power,
meditate upon the supreme grandeur of the System unfolded by the hand
of Bahá’u’lláh in this day? May we not
pause, pressed though we be by the daily preoccupations which the
ever-widening range of the administrative activities of His Faith
must involve, to reflect upon the sanctity of the responsibilities it
is our privilege to shoulder?

The Station of the Báb

Not only in the character of the revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh, however stupendous be His
claim, does the greatness of this Dispensation reside. For among the
distinguishing features of His Faith ranks, as a further evidence of
its uniqueness, the fundamental truth that in the person of its
Forerunner, the Báb, every follower of Bahá’u’lláh
recognizes not merely an inspired annunciator but a direct
Manifestation of God. It is their firm belief that, no matter how
short the duration of His Dispensation, and however brief the period
of the operation of His laws, the Báb had been endowed with a
potency such as no founder of any of the past religions was, in the
providence of the Almighty, allowed to possess. That He was not
merely the precursor of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,
that He was more than a divinely-inspired personage, that His was the
station of an independent, self-sufficient Manifestation of God, is
abundantly demonstrated by Himself, is affirmed in unmistakable terms
by Bahá’u’lláh, and is finally attested by
the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Nowhere but in the Kitáb-i-Íqán,
Bahá’u’lláh’s masterly exposition of
the one unifying truth underlying all the Revelations of the past,
can we obtain a clearer apprehension of the potency of those forces
inherent in that Preliminary Manifestation with which His own Faith
stands indissolubly associated. Expatiating upon the unfathomed
import of the signs and tokens that have accompanied the Revelation
proclaimed by the Báb, the promised Qá’im, He
recalls these prophetic words: “Knowledge is twenty and seven
letters. All that the Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof.
No man thus far hath known more than these two letters. But when the
Qá’im shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty
and five letters to be made manifest.” “Behold,”
adds Bahá’u’lláh, “how great and
lofty is His station!” “Of His Revelation,” He
further adds, “the Prophets of God, His saints and chosen ones,
have either not been informed, or in pursuance of God’s
inscrutable Decree, they have not disclosed.”

And yet, immeasurably exalted as is the station of the
Báb, and marvellous as have been the happenings that have
signalized the advent of His Cause, so wondrous a Revelation cannot
but pale before the effulgence of that Orb of unsurpassed splendor
Whose rise He foretold and whose superiority He readily acknowledged.
We have but to turn to the writings of the Báb Himself in
order to estimate the significance of that Quintessence of Light of
which He, with all the majesty of His power, was but its humble and
chosen Precursor.

Again and again the Báb admits, in glowing and
unequivocal language, the préeminent character of a Faith
destined to be made manifest after Him and to supersede His Cause.
“The germ,” He asserts in the Persian Bayán, the
chief and best-preserved repository of His laws, “that holds
within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is to come is
endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of all those
who follow me.” “Of all the tributes,” the Báb
repeatedly proclaims in His writings, “I have paid to Him Who
is to come after Me, the greatest is this, My written confession,
that no words of Mine can adequately describe Him, nor can any
reference to Him in my Book, the Bayán, do justice to His
Cause.” Addressing Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Darábí,
surnamed Vahíd, the most learned and influential among his
followers, He says: “By the righteousness of Him Whose power
causeth the seed to germinate and Who breatheth the spirit of life
into all things, were I to be assured that in the day of His
Manifestation thou wilt deny Him, I would unhesitatingly disown thee
and repudiate thy faith…. If, on the other hand, I be told that a
Christian, who beareth no allegiance to My Faith, will believe in
Him, the same will I regard as the apple of Mine eye.”

The Outpouring of Divine Grace

“If all the peoples of the world,”
Bahá’u’lláh Himself affirms, “be
invested with the powers and attributes destined for the Letters of
the Living, the chosen disciples of the Báb, whose station is
ten thousand times more glorious than any which the apostles of old
have attained, and if they, one and all, should, swift as the
twinkling of an eye, hesitate to recognize the Light of my
Revelation, their faith shall be of no avail, and they shall be
accounted among the infidels.” “So tremendous,” He
writes, “is the outpouring of Divine grace in this Dispensation
that if mortal hands could be swift enough to record them, within the
space of a single day and night, there would stream verses of such
number as to be equivalent to the whole of the Persian Bayán.”

Such, dearly-beloved friends, is the effusion of
celestial grace vouchsafed by the Almighty to this age, this most
illumined century! We stand too close to so colossal a Revelation to
expect in this, the first century of its era, to arrive at a just
estimate of its towering grandeur, its infinite possibilities, its
transcendent beauty. Small though our present numbers may be, however
limited our capacities, or circumscribed our influence, we, into
whose hands so pure, so tender, so precious a heritage has been
entrusted, should at all times strive, with unrelaxing vigilance, to
abstain from any thoughts, words, or deeds, that might tend to dim
its brilliance, or injure its growth. How tremendous our
responsibility; how delicate and laborious our task!

Dear friends: Clear and emphatic as are the instructions
which our departed Master has reiterated in countless Tablets
bequeathed by Him to His followers throughout the world, a few, owing
to the restricted influence of the Cause in the West, have been
purposely withheld from the body of His occidental disciples, who,
despite their numerical inferiority, are now exercising such a
preponderating influence in the direction and administration of its
affairs. I feel it, therefore, incumbent upon me to stress, now that
the time is ripe, the importance of an instruction which, at the
present stage of the evolution of our Faith, should be increasingly
emphasized, irrespective of its application to the East or to the
West. And this principle is no other than that which involves the
non-participation by the adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
whether in their individual capacities or collectively as local or
national Assemblies, in any form of activity that might be
interpreted, either directly or indirectly, as an interference in the
political affairs of any particular government. Whether it be in the
publications which they initiate and supervise; or in their official
and public deliberations; or in the posts they occupy and the
services they render; or in the communications they address to their
fellow-disciples; or in their dealings with men of eminence and
authority; or in their affiliations with kindred societies and
organizations, it is, I am firmly convinced, their first and sacred
obligation to abstain from any word or deed that might be construed
as a violation of this vital principle. Theirs is the duty to
demonstrate, on one hand, the nonpolitical character of their Faith,
and to assert, on the other, their unqualified loyalty and obedience
to whatever is the considered judgment of their respective
governments.

The Divine Polity

Let them refrain from associating themselves, whether by
word or by deed, with the political pursuits of their respective
nations, with the policies of their governments and the schemes and
programs of parties and factions. In such controversies they should
assign no blame, take no side, further no design, and identify
themselves with no system prejudicial to the best interests of that
world-wide Fellowship which it is their aim to guard and foster. Let
them beware lest they allow themselves to become the tools of
unscrupulous politicians, or to be entrapped by the treacherous
devices of the plotters and the perfidious among their countrymen.
Let them so shape their lives and regulate their conduct that no
charge of secrecy, of fraud, of bribery or of intimidation may,
however ill-founded, be brought against them. Let them rise above all
particularism and partisanship, above the vain disputes, the petty
calculations, the transient passions that agitate the face, and
engage the attention, of a changing world. It is their duty to strive
to distinguish, as clearly as they possibly can, and if needed with
the aid of their elected representatives, such posts and functions as
are either diplomatic or political from those that are purely
administrative in character, and which under no circumstances are
affected by the changes and chances that political activities and
party government, in every land, must necessarily involve. Let them
affirm their unyielding determination to stand, firmly and
unreservedly, for the way of Bahá’u’lláh,
to avoid the entanglements and bickerings inseparable from the
pursuits of the politician, and to become worthy agencies of that
Divine Polity which incarnates God’s immutable Purpose for all
men.

It should be made unmistakably clear that such an
attitude implies neither the slightest indifference to the cause and
interests of their own country, nor involves any insubordination on
their part to the authority of recognized and established
governments. Nor does it constitute a repudiation of their sacred
obligation to promote, in the most effective manner, the best
interests of their government and people. It indicates the desire
cherished by every true and loyal follower of Bahá’u’lláh
to serve, in an unselfish, unostentatious and patriotic fashion, the
highest interests of the country to which he belongs, and in a way
that would entail no departure from the high standards of integrity
and truthfulness associated with the teachings of his Faith.

As the number of the Bahá’í
communities in various parts of the world multiplies and their power,
as a social force, becomes increasingly apparent, they will no doubt
find themselves increasingly subjected to the pressure which men of
authority and influence, in the political domain, will exercise in
the hope of obtaining the support they require for the advancement of
their aims. These communities will, moreover, feel a growing need of
the good-will and the assistance of their respective governments in
their efforts to widen the scope, and to consolidate the foundations,
of the institutions committed to their charge. Let them beware lest,
in their eagerness to further the aims of their beloved Cause, they
should be led unwittingly to bargain with their Faith, to compromise
with their essential principles, or to sacrifice, in return for any
material advantage which their institutions may derive, the integrity
of their spiritual ideals. Let them proclaim that in whatever country
they reside, and however advanced their institutions, or profound
their desire to enforce the laws, and apply the principles,
enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh, they will,
unhesitatingly, subordinate the operation of such laws and the
application of such principles to the requirements and legal
enactments of their respective governments. Theirs is not the
purpose, while endeavoring to conduct and perfect the administrative
affairs of their Faith, to violate, under any circumstances, the
provisions of their country’s constitution, much less to allow
the machinery of their administration to supersede the government of
their respective countries.

It should also be borne in mind that the very extension
of the activities in which we are engaged, and the variety of the
communities which labor under divers forms of government, so
essentially different in their standards, policies, and methods, make
it absolutely essential for all those who are the declared members of
any one of these communities to avoid any action that might, by
arousing the suspicion or exciting the antagonism of any one
government, involve their brethren in fresh persecutions or
complicate the nature of their task. How else, might I ask, could
such a far-flung Faith, which transcends political and social
boundaries, which includes within its pale so great a variety of
races and nations, which will have to rely increasingly, as it forges
ahead, on the good-will and support of the diversified and contending
governments of the earth—how else could such a Faith succeed in
preserving its unity, in safeguarding its interests, and in ensuring
the steady and peaceful development of its institutions?

Such an attitude, however, is not dictated by
considerations of selfish expediency, but is actuated, first and
foremost, by the broad principle that the followers of Bahá’u’lláh
will, under no circumstances, suffer themselves to be involved,
whether as individuals or in their collective capacities, in matters
that would entail the slightest departure from the fundamental
verities and ideals of their Faith. Neither the charges which the
uninformed and the malicious may be led to bring against them, nor
the allurements of honors and rewards, will ever induce them to
surrender their trust or to deviate from their path. Let their words
proclaim, and their conduct testify, that they who follow
Bahá’u’lláh, in whatever land they reside,
are actuated by no selfish ambition, that they neither thirst for
power, nor mind any wave of unpopularity, of distrust or criticism,
which a strict adherence to their standards might provoke.

Difficult and delicate though be our task, the
sustaining power of Bahá’u’lláh and of His
Divine guidance will assuredly assist us if we follow steadfastly in
His way, and strive to uphold the integrity of His laws. The light of
His redeeming grace, which no earthly power can obscure, will if we
persevere, illuminate our path, as we steer our course amid the
snares and pitfalls of a troubled age, and will enable us to
discharge our duties in a manner that would redound to the glory and
the honor of His blessed Name.

Our Beloved Temple

And finally, dearly-beloved brethren, let me once more
direct your attention to the pressing claims of the
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, our beloved Temple.
Need I remind you of the imperative necessity of carrying out to a
successful conclusion, while there is yet time, the great enterprise
to which, before the eyes of a watching world, we stand committed?
Need I stress the great damage which further delay in the prosecution
of this divinely-appointed task must, even in these critical and
unforeseen circumstances, inflict upon the prestige of our beloved
Cause? I am, I can assure you, acutely conscious of the stringency of
the circumstances with which you are faced, the embarrassments under
which you labor, the cares with which you are burdened, the pressing
urgency of the demands that are being incessantly made upon your
depleted resources. I am, however, still more profoundly aware of the
unprecedented character of the opportunity which it is your privilege
to seize and utilize. I am aware of the incalculable blessings that
must await the termination of a collective enterprise which, by the
range and quality of the sacrifices it entailed, deserves to be
ranked among the most outstanding examples of Bahá’í
solidarity ever since those deeds of brilliant heroism immortalized
the memory of the heroes of Nayríz, of Zanján, and of
Tabarsí. I appeal to you, therefore, friends and
fellow-disciples of Bahá’u’lláh, for a more
abundant measure of self-sacrifice, for a higher standard of
concerted effort, for a still more compelling evidence of the reality
of the faith that glows within you.

And in this fervent plea, my voice is once more
reinforced by the passionate, and perhaps, the last, entreaty, of the
Greatest Holy Leaf, whose spirit, now hovering on the edge of the
Great Beyond, longs to carry on its flight to the Abhá
Kingdom, and into the presence of a Divine, an almighty Father, an
assurance of the joyous consummation of an enterprise, the progress
of which has so greatly brightened the closing days of her earthly
life. That the American believers, those stout-hearted pioneers of
the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, will unanimously
respond, with that same spontaneous generosity, that same measure of
self-sacrifice, as have characterized their response to her appeals
in the past, no one who is familiar with the vitality of their faith
can possibly question.

Would to God that by the end of the spring of the year
1933 the multitudes who, from the remote corners of the globe, will
throng the grounds of the Great Fair to be held in the neighborhood
of that hallowed shrine may, as a result of your sustained spirit of
self-sacrifice, be privileged to gaze on the arrayed splendor of its
dome—a dome that shall stand as a flaming beacon and a symbol
of hope amidst the gloom of a despairing world.

Your true brother,
SHOGHI

Haifa, Palestine,
March 21, 1932

America and the Most Great Peace

To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the
Merciful throughout the United States and Canada.

Friends and fellow-promoters of the Faith of God:

Forty years will have elapsed ere the close of this
coming summer since the name of Bahá’u’lláh
was first mentioned on the American continent. Strange indeed must
appear to every observer, pondering in his heart the significance of
so great a landmark in the spiritual history of the great American
Republic, the circumstances which have attended this first public
reference to the Author of our beloved Faith. Stranger still must
seem the associations which the brief words uttered on that historic
occasion must have evoked in the minds of those who heard them.

Of pomp and circumstance, of any manifestations of
public rejoicing or of popular applause, there were none to greet
this first intimation1
to America’s citizens of the existence and purpose of the
Revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Nor
did he who was its chosen instrument profess himself a believer in
the indwelling potency of the tidings he conveyed, or suspect the
magnitude of the forces which so cursory a mention was destined to
release.

Announced through the mouth of an avowed supporter of
that narrow ecclesiasticism which the Faith itself has challenged and
seeks to extirpate, characterized at the moment of its birth as an
obscure offshoot of a contemptible creed, the Message of the Most
Great Name, fed by streams of unceasing trial and warmed by the
sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s tender care, has
succeeded in driving its roots deep into America’s genial soil,
has in less than half a century sent out its shoots and tendrils as
far as the remotest corners of the globe, and now stands, clothed in
the majesty of the consecrated Edifice it has reared in the heart of
that continent, determined to proclaim its right and vindicate its
capacity to redeem a stricken people. Unsupported by any of the
advantages which talent, rank and riches can confer, the community of
the American believers, despite its tender age, its numerical
strength, its limited experience, has by virtue of the inspired
wisdom, the united will, the incorruptible loyalty of its
administrators and teachers achieved the distinction of an undisputed
leadership among its sister communities of East and West in hastening
the advent of the Golden Age anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh.

And yet how grave the crises which this infant, this
blessed, community has weathered in the course of its checkered
history! How slow and painful the process that gradually brought it
forth from the obscurity of unmitigated neglect to the broad daylight
of public recognition! How severe the shocks which the ranks of its
devoted adherents have sustained through the defection of the faint
in heart, the malice of the mischief-maker, the treachery of the
proud and the ambitious! What storms of ridicule, of abuse and of
calumny its representatives have had to face in their staunch support
of the integrity, and their valiant defense of the fair name, of the
Faith they had espoused! How persistent the vicissitudes and
disconcerting the reverses with which its privileged members, young
and old alike, individually and collectively, have had to contend in
their heroic endeavors to scale the heights which a loving Master had
summoned them to attain!

Many and powerful have been its enemies who, as soon as
they discovered the evidences of the growing ascendancy of its
declared supporters, have vied with one another in hurling at its
face the vilest imputations and in pouring out upon the Object of its
devotion the vials of their fiercest wrath. How often have these
sneered at the scantiness of its resources and the seeming stagnation
of its life! How bitterly they ridiculed its origins and,
misconceiving its purpose, dismissed it as a useless appendage of an
expiring creed! Have they not in their written attacks stigmatized
the heroic person of the Forerunner of so holy a Revelation as a
coward recanter, a perverted apostate, and denounced the entire range
of His voluminous writings as the idle chatter of a thoughtless man?
Have they not chosen to ascribe to its divine Founder the basest
motives which an unscrupulous plotter and usurper can conceive, and
regarded the Center of His Covenant as the embodiment of ruthless
tyranny, a stirrer of mischief, and a notorious exponent of
expediency and fraud? Its world-unifying principles these impotent
enemies of a steadily-rising Faith have time and again denounced as
fundamentally defective, have pronounced its all-embracing program as
utterly fantastic, and regarded its vision of the future as
chimerical and positively deceitful. The fundamental verities that
constitute its doctrine its foolish ill-wishers have represented as a
cloak of idle dogma, its administrative machinery they have refused
to differentiate from the soul of the Faith itself, and the mysteries
it reveres and upholds they have identified with sheer superstition.
The principle of unification which it advocates and with which it
stands identified they have misconceived as a shallow attempt at
uniformity, its repeated assertions of the reality of supernatural
agencies they have condemned as a vain belief in magic, and the glory
of its idealism they have rejected as mere utopia. Every process of
purification whereby an inscrutable Wisdom chose from time to time to
purge the body of His chosen followers of the defilement of the
undesirable and the unworthy, these victims of an unrelenting
jealousy have hailed as a symptom of the invading forces of schism
which were soon to sap its strength, vitiate its vitality, and
complete its ruin.

Dearly-beloved friends! It is not for me, nor does it
seem within the competence of any one of the present generation, to
trace the exact and full history of the rise and gradual
consolidation of this invincible arm, this mighty organ, of a
continually advancing Cause. It would be premature at this early
stage of its evolution, to attempt an exhaustive analysis, or to
arrive at a just estimate, of the impelling forces that have urged it
forward to occupy so exalted a place among the various instruments
which the Hand of Omnipotence has fashioned, and is now perfecting,
for the execution of His divine Purpose. Future historians of this
mighty Revelation, endowed with pens abler than any which its
present-day supporters can claim to possess, will no doubt transmit
to posterity a masterly exposition of the origins of those forces
which, through a remarkable swing of the pendulum, have caused the
administrative center of the Faith to gravitate, away from its
cradle, to the shores of the American continent and towards its very
heart—the present mainspring and chief bulwark of its fast
evolving institutions. On them will devolve the task of recording the
history, and of estimating the significance, of so radical a
revolution in the fortunes of a slowly maturing Faith. Theirs will be
the opportunity to extol the virtues and to immortalize the memory of
those men and women who have participated in its accomplishment.
Theirs will be the privilege of evaluating the share which each of
these champion-builders of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh
has had in ushering in that golden Millennium, the promise of which
lies enshrined in His teachings.

Does not the history of primitive Christianity and of
the rise of Islám, each in its own way, offer a striking
parallel to this strange phenomenon the beginnings of which we are
now witnessing in this, the first century of the Bahá’í
Era? Has not the Divine Impulse which gave birth to each of these
great religious systems been driven, through the operation of those
forces which the irresistible growth of the Faith itself had
released, to seek away from the land of its birth and in more
propitious climes a ready field and a more adequate medium for the
incarnation of its spirit and the propagation of its cause? Have not
the Asiatic churches of Jerusalem, of Antioch and of Alexandria,
consisting chiefly of those Jewish converts, whose character and
temperament inclined them to sympathize with the traditional
ceremonies of the Mosaic Dispensation, been forced as they steadily
declined to recognize the growing ascendancy of their Greek and Roman
brethren? Have they not been compelled to acknowledge the superior
valor and the trained efficiency which have enabled these
standard-bearers of the Cause of Jesus Christ to erect the symbols of
His world-wide dominion on the ruins of a collapsing Empire? Has not
the animating spirit of Islám been constrained, under the
pressure of similar circumstances, to abandon the inhospitable wastes
of its Arabian Home, the theatre of its greatest sufferings and
exploits, to yield in a distant land the fairest fruit of its slowly
maturing civilization?

“From the beginning of time until the present
day,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself affirms, “the
light of Divine Revelation hath risen in the East and shed its
radiance upon the West. The illumination thus shed hath, however,
acquired in the West an extraordinary brilliancy. Consider the Faith
proclaimed by Jesus. Though it first appeared in the East, yet not
until its light had been shed upon the West did the full measure of
its potentialities become manifest.” “The day is
approaching,” He, in another passage, assures us, “when
ye shall witness how, through the splendor of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh, the West will have replaced
the East, radiating the light of Divine Guidance.” “In
the books of the Prophets,” He again asserts, “certain
glad-tidings are recorded which are absolutely true and free from
doubt. The East hath ever been the dawning-place of the Sun of Truth.
In the East all the Prophets of God have appeared …The West hath
acquired illumination from the East but in some respects the
reflection of the light hath been greater in the Occident. This is
specially true of Christianity. Jesus Christ appeared in Palestine
and His teachings were founded in that country. Although the doors of
the Kingdom were first opened in that land and the bestowals of God
were spread broadcast from its center, the people of the West have
embraced and promulgated Christianity more fully than the people of
the East.”

Little wonder that from the same unerring pen there
should have flowed, after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
memorable visit to the West, these often-quoted words, the
significance of which it would be impossible for me to overrate: “The
continent of America,” He announced in a Tablet unveiling His
Divine Plan to the believers residing in the North-Eastern States of
the American Republic, “is in the eyes of the one true God the
land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will
abide and the free assemble.” “May this American
democracy,” He Himself, while in America, was heard to remark,
“be the first nation to establish the foundation of
international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the
unity of mankind. May it be the first to unfurl the standard of the
‘Most Great Peace’… The American people are indeed
worthy of being the first to build the tabernacle of the great peace
and proclaim the oneness of mankind… May America become the
distributing center of spiritual enlightenment and all the world
receive this heavenly blessing. For America has developed powers and
capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations… May the
inhabitants of this country become like angels of heaven with faces
turned continually toward God. May all of them become servants of the
omnipotent One. May they rise from their present material attainments
to such a height that heavenly illumination may stream from this
center to all the peoples of the world… This American nation is
equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages
of history, to become the envy of the world and be blest in both the
East and the West for the triumph of its people… The American
continent gives signs and evidences of very great advancement. Its
future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are
far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually.”

Would it seem extravagant, in the light of so sublime an
utterance, to expect that in the midst of so enviable a region of the
earth and out of the agony and wreckage of an unprecedented crisis
there should burst forth a spiritual renaissance which, as it
propagates itself through the instrumentality of the American
believers, will rehabilitate the fortunes of a decadent age? It was
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, His most intimate associates
testify, Who, on more than one occasion, intimated that the
establishment of His Father’s Faith in the North American
continent ranked as the most outstanding among the threefold aims
which, as He conceived it, constituted the principal objective of His
ministry. It was He Who, in the heyday of His life and almost
immediately after His Father’s ascension, conceived the idea of
inaugurating His mission by enlisting the inhabitants of so promising
a country under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh.
He it was Who in His unerring wisdom and out of the abundance of His
heart chose to bestow on His favored disciples, to the very last day
of His life, the tokens of His unfailing solicitude and to overwhelm
them with the marks of His special favor. It was He Who, in His
declining years, as soon as delivered from the shackles of a long and
cruel incarceration, decided to visit the land which had remained for
so many years the object of His infinite care and love. It was He
Who, through the power of His presence and the charm of His
utterance, infused into the entire body of His followers those
sentiments and principles which could alone sustain them amidst the
trials which the very prosecution of their task would inevitably
engender. Was He not, through the several functions which He
exercised whilst He dwelt amongst them, whether in the laying of the
corner-stone of their House of Worship, or in the Feast which He
offered them and at which He chose to serve them in person, or in the
emphasis which He on a more solemn occasion placed on the
implications of His spiritual station—was He not, thereby,
deliberately bequeathing to them all the essentials of that spiritual
heritage which He knew they would ably safeguard and by their deeds
continually enrich? And finally who can doubt that in the Divine Plan
which, in the evening of His life, He unveiled to their eyes He was
investing them with that spiritual primacy on which they could rely
in the fulfillment of their high destiny?

“O ye apostles of Bahá’u’lláh!”
He thus addresses them in one of His Tablets, “May my life be
sacrificed for you!… Behold the portals which Bahá’u’lláh
hath opened before you! Consider how exalted and lofty is the station
you are destined to attain; how unique the favors with which you have
been endowed.” “My thoughts,” He tells them in
another passage, “are turned towards you, and my heart leaps
within me at your mention. Could ye know how my soul glows with your
love, so great a happiness would flood your hearts as to cause you to
become enamored with each other.” “The full measure of
your success,” He declares in another Tablet, “is as yet
unrevealed, its significance still unapprehended. Ere long ye will,
with your own eyes, witness how brilliantly every one of you, even as
a shining star, will radiate in the firmament of your country the
light of Divine Guidance and will bestow upon its people the glory of
an everlasting life.” “The range of your future
achievements,” He once more affirms, “still remains
undisclosed. I fervently hope that in the near future the whole earth
may be stirred and shaken by the results of your achievements.”
“The Almighty,” He assures them, “will no doubt
grant you the help of His grace, will invest you with the tokens of
His might, and will endue your souls with the sustaining power of His
holy Spirit.” “Be not concerned,” He admonishes
them, “with the smallness of your numbers, neither be oppressed
by the multitude of an unbelieving world… Exert yourselves; your
mission is unspeakably glorious. Should success crown your
enterprise, America will assuredly evolve into a center from which
waves of spiritual power will emanate, and the throne of the Kingdom
of God will, in the plentitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly
established.”

“The hope which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
cherishes for you,” He thus urges them, “is that the same
success which has attended your efforts in America may crown your
endeavors in other parts of the world, that through you the fame of
the Cause of God may be diffused throughout the East and the West and
the advent of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts be proclaimed in all
the five continents of the globe… Thus far ye have been untiring in
your labors. Let your exertions, henceforth, increase a thousandfold.
Summon the people in these countries, capitals, islands, assemblies
and churches to enter the Abhá Kingdom. The scope of your
exertions must needs be extended. The wider its range, the more
striking will be the evidences of Divine assistance… Oh! that I
could travel, even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these
regions and, raising the call of Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá
in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the
Divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do! How intensely I deplore
it! Please God, ye may achieve it.” And finally, as if to crown
all His previous utterances, is this solemn affirmation embodying His
Vision of America’s spiritual destiny: “The moment this
Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the
shores of America and is propagated through the continents of Europe,
of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of
the Pacific, this community will find itself securely established
upon the throne of an everlasting dominion. Then will all the peoples
of the world witness that this community is spiritually illumined and
divinely guided. Then will the whole earth resound with the praises
of its majesty and greatness.”

It is in the light of these above-quoted words of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá that every thoughtful and
conscientious believer should ponder the significance of this
momentous utterance of Bahá’u’lláh: “In
the East the light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West have
appeared the signs of His dominion. Ponder this in your hearts, O
people, and be not of those who have turned a deaf ear to the
admonitions of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Praised… Should
they attempt to conceal its light on the continent, it will assuredly
rear its head in the midmost heart of the ocean, and, raising its
voice, proclaim: ‘I am the life-giver of the world!’”

Dearly-beloved friends! Can our eyes be so dim as to
fail to recognize in the anguish and turmoil which, greater than in
any other country and in a manner unprecedented in its history, are
now afflicting the American nation, evidences of the beginnings of
that spiritual renaissance which these pregnant words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
so clearly foreshadow? The throes and twinges of agony which the soul
of a nation in travail is now beginning to experience abundantly
proclaim it. Contrast the sad plight of the nations of the earth, and
in particular this great Republic of the West, with the rising
fortunes of that handful of its citizens, whose mission, if they be
faithful to their trust, is to heal its wounds, restore its
confidence and revive its shattered hopes. Contrast the dreadful
convulsions, the internecine conflicts, the petty disputes, the
outworn controversies, the interminable revolutions that agitate the
masses, with the calm new light of Peace and of Truth which envelops,
guides and sustains those valiant inheritors of the law and love of
Bahá’u’lláh. Compare the disintegrating
institutions, the discredited statesmanship, the exploded theories,
the appalling degradation, the follies and furies, the shifts, shams
and compromises that characterize the present age, with the steady
consolidation, the holy discipline, the unity and cohesiveness, the
assured conviction, the uncompromising loyalty, the heroic
self-sacrifice that constitute the hallmark of these faithful
stewards and harbingers of the golden age of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh.

Small wonder that these prophetic words should have been
revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “The East,”
He assures us, “hath verily been illumined with the light of
the Kingdom. Ere long will this same light shed a still greater
illumination upon the West. Then will the hearts of its people be
vivified through the potency of the teachings of God and their souls
be set aglow by the undying fire of His love.” “The
prestige of the Faith of God,” He asserts, “has immensely
increased. Its greatness is now manifest. The day is approaching when
it will have cast a tremendous tumult in men’s hearts. Rejoice,
therefore, O denizens of America, rejoice with exceeding gladness!”

Most prized and best-beloved brethren! As we look back
upon the forty years which have passed since the auspicious rays of
the Bahá’í Revelation first warmed and
illuminated the American continent we find that they may well fall
into four distinct periods, each culminating in an event of such
significance as to constitute a milestone along the road leading the
American believers towards their promised victory. The first of these
four decades (1893–1903), characterized by a process of slow
and steady fermentation, may be said to have culminated in the
historic pilgrimages undertaken by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
American disciples to the shrine of Bahá’u’lláh.
The ten years which followed (1903–1913), so full of the tests
and trials which agitated, cleansed and energized the body of the
earliest pioneers of the Faith in that land, had as their happy
climax ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s memorable visit to
America. The third period (1913–1923), a period of quiet and
uninterrupted consolidation, had as its inevitable result the birth
of that divinely-appointed Administration, the foundations of which
the Will of a departed Master had unmistakably established. The
remaining ten years (1923–1933), distinguished throughout by
further internal development, as well as by a notable expansion of
the international activities of a growing community, witnessed the
completion of the superstructure of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—the
Administration’s mighty bulwark, the symbol of its strength and
the sign of its future glory.

Each of these successive periods would seem to have
contributed its distinct share in enriching the spiritual life of
that community, and in preparing its members for the discharge of the
tremendous responsibilities of their unique mission. The pilgrimages
which its foremost representatives were moved to undertake in that
earliest period of its history fired the souls of its members with a
love and zeal which no amount of adversity could quench. The tests
and tribulations it subsequently suffered enabled those who survived
them to obtain a grasp of the implications of their faith that no
opposition, however determined and well-organized, could ever hope to
weaken. The institutions which its tried and tested adherents later
on established furnished their promoters with that poise and
stability which the increase of their numbers and the ceaseless
extension of their activities urgently demanded. And finally the
Temple which the exponents of an already firmly established
Administration were inspired to erect gave them the vision which
neither the storms of internal disorder nor the whirlwinds of
international commotion could possibly obscure.

It would take me too long to attempt even a brief
description of the first stirrings which the introduction of the
Bahá’í Revelation into the New World, as
conceived, initiated and directed by our beloved Master, immediately
created. Nor does space permit me to narrate the circumstances
attending the epoch-making visit of the first American pilgrims to
Bahá’u’lláh’s hallowed shrine, to
relate the deeds which signalized the return of these bearers of a
new-born Gospel to their native country, or to assess the immediate
consequences of their achievements. No word of mine would suffice to
express how instantly the revelation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
hopes, expectations and purpose for an awakened continent,
electrified the minds and hearts of those who were privileged to hear
Him, who were made the recipients of His inestimable blessings and
the chosen repositories of His confidence and trust. I can never hope
to interpret adequately the feelings that surged within those heroic
hearts as they sat at their Master’s feet, beneath the shelter
of His prison-house, eager to absorb and intent to preserve the
effusions of His divine Wisdom. I can never pay sufficient tribute to
that spirit of unyielding determination which the impact of a
magnetic personality and the spell of a mighty utterance kindled in
the entire company of these returning pilgrims, these consecrated
heralds of the Covenant of God, at so decisive an epoch of their
history. The memory of such names as Lua, Chase, MacNutt, Dealy,
Goodall, Dodge, Farmer and Brittingham—to mention only a few of
that immortal galaxy now gathered to the glory of Bahá’u’lláh—will
for ever remain associated with the rise and establishment of His
Faith in the American continent, and will continue to shed on its
annals a lustre that time can never dim.

It was through these pilgrimages, as they succeeded one
another in the years immediately following the ascension of
Bahá’u’lláh, that the splendor of the
Covenant, beclouded for a time by the apparent ascendancy of its
Arch-Breaker, emerged triumphant amidst the vicissitudes which had
afflicted it. It was through the arrival of these pilgrims, and these
alone, that the gloom which had enveloped the disconsolate members of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family was finally dispelled.
Through the agency of these successive visitors the Greatest Holy
Leaf, who alone with her Brother among the members of her Father’s
household had to confront the rebellion of almost the entire company
of her relatives and associates, found that consolation which so
powerfully sustained her till the very close of her life. By the
forces which this little band of returning pilgrims was able to
release in the heart of that continent the death-knell of every
scheme initiated by the would-be wrecker of the Cause of God was
sounded.

The Tablets which were subsequently revealed by the
untiring pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, embodying in
passionate and unequivocal language His instructions and counsels,
His appeals and comments, His hopes and wishes, His fears and
warnings, soon began to be translated, published and circulated
throughout the length and breadth of the North American continent,
providing the ever-widening circle of the first believers with that
spiritual sustenance which could alone enable them to survive the
severe trials they were soon to experience.

The hour of an unprecedented crisis was, however,
inexorably approaching. Evidences of dissension, actuated by pride
and ambition, were beginning to obscure the radiance and retard the
growth of the newly-born community which the apostolic teachers of
that continent had labored to establish. He who had been instrumental
in inaugurating so splendid an era in the history of the Faith, on
whom the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant had conferred the titles of “Bahá’s
Peter,” of the “Shepherd of God’s Flocks,” of
the “Conqueror of America,” upon whom had been bestowed
the unique privilege of helping ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lay
the foundation-stone of the Báb’s Mausoleum on Mt.
Carmel—such a man, blinded by his extraordinary success and
aspiring after an uncontrolled domination over the beliefs and
activities of his fellow-disciples, insolently raised the standard of
revolt. Seceding from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and allying
himself with the Arch-Enemy of the Faith of God, this deluded
apostate sought, by perverting the teachings and directing a campaign
of unrelenting vilification against the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
to undermine the faith of those believers whom he had during no less
than eight years, so strenuously toiled to convert. By the tracts he
published, through the active collaboration of the emissaries of his
chief Ally, and reinforced by the efforts which the Christian
ecclesiastical enemies of the Bahá’í Revelation
were beginning to exert, he succeeded in dealing the nascent Faith of
God a blow from which it could only slowly and painfully recover.

I need not dwell on the immediate effects of this
serious yet transitory cleavage in the ranks of the American
adherents of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. Nor
do I need to expatiate on the character of the defamatory writings
that poured upon them. Nor does it seem necessary to recount the
measures to which an ever-vigilant Master resorted in order to
assuage and eventually to dissipate their apprehensions. It is for
the future historian to appraise the value of the mission of each of
the four chosen messengers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá who, in
rapid succession, were dispatched by Him to pacify and reinvigorate
that troubled community. His will be the task of tracing, in the work
which these deputies of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were
commissioned to undertake, the beginnings of that vast
Administration, the corner-stone of which these messengers were
instructed to lay—an Administration whose symbolic Edifice He,
at a later time, was to found in person and whose basis and scope the
provisions of His Will were destined to widen.

Suffice it to say that at this stage of its evolution
the activities of an invincible Faith had assumed such dimensions as
to force on the one hand its enemies to devise fresh weapons for
their projected assaults, and on the other to encourage its supreme
Promoter to instruct its followers, through qualified representatives
and teachers, in the rudiments of an Administration which, as it
evolved, would at once incarnate, safeguard and foster its spirit.
The works of such stubborn assailants as those of Vatralsky, Wilson,
Jessup and Richardson vie with one another in their futile attempts
to stain its purity, to arrest its march and compel its surrender. To
the charges of Nihilism, of heresy, of Muḥammadan Gnosticism,
of immorality, of Occultism and Communism so freely leveled against
them, the undismayed victims of such outrageous denunciations, acting
under the instructions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, retorted
by initiating a series of activities which by their very nature were
to be the precursors of permanent, officially recognized
administrative institutions. The inauguration of Chicago’s
first House of Spirituality designated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
as that city’s “House of Justice”; the
establishment of the Bahá’í Publishing Society;
the founding of the Green Acre Fellowship; the publication of the
Star of the West; the holding of the first Bahá’í
National Convention, synchronizing with the transference of the
sacred remains of the Báb to its final resting-place on Mt.
Carmel; the incorporation of the Bahá’í Temple
Unity and the formation of the Executive Committee of the
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—these stand out as
the most conspicuous accomplishments of the American believers which
have immortalized the memory of the most turbulent period of their
history. Launched through these very acts into the troublesome seas
of ceaseless tribulation, piloted by the mighty arm of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
and manned by the bold initiative and abundant vitality of a band of
sorely-tried disciples, the Ark of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant has, ever since those days, been steadily pursuing its
course contemptuous of the storms of bitter misfortune that have
raged, and which must continue to assail it, as it forges ahead
towards the promised haven of undisturbed security and peace.

Unsatisfied with the achievements which crowned the
concerted efforts of their elected representatives within the
American continent, and emboldened by the initial success of their
pioneer teachers, beyond its confines, in Great Britain, France and
Germany, the community of the American believers resolved to win in
distant climes fresh recruits to the advancing army of Bahá’u’lláh.
Setting out from the western shores of their native land and impelled
by the indomitable energy of a new-born faith, these itinerant
teachers of the Gospel of Bahá’u’lláh
pushed on towards the islands of the Pacific, and as far as China and
Japan, determined to establish beyond the farthest seas the outposts
of their beloved Faith. Both at home and abroad this community had by
that time demonstrated its capacity to widen the range and
consolidate the foundations of its vast endeavors. The angry voices
that had been raised in protest against its rise were being drowned
amid the acclamations with which the East greeted its recent
victories. Those ugly features that had loomed so threateningly were
gradually receding into the distance, furnishing a still wider field
to these noble warriors for the exercise of their latent energies.

The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in
the continent of America had indeed been resuscitated. Phoenix-like
it had risen in all its freshness, vigor and beauty and was now,
through the voice of its triumphant exponents, insistingly calling to
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, imploring Him to undertake a journey
to its shores. The first fruits of the mission entrusted to its
worthy upholders had lent such poignancy to their call that
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who had just been delivered from the
fetters of a galling tyranny, found Himself unable to resist. His
great, His incomparable, love for His own favored children impelled
Him to respond. Their passionate entreaty had, moreover, been
reinforced by the numerous invitations which representatives of
various interested organizations, whether religious, educational or
humanitarian, had extended to Him, expressing their eagerness to
receive from His own mouth an exposition of His Father’s
teachings.

Though bent with age, though suffering from ailments
resulting from the accumulated cares of fifty years of exile and
captivity, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá set out on His memorable
journey across the seas to the land where He might bless by His
presence, and sanctify through His deeds, the mighty acts His spirit
had led His disciples to perform. The circumstances that have
attended His triumphal progress through the chief cities of the
United States and Canada my pen is utterly incapable of describing.
The joys which the announcement of His arrival evoked, the publicity
which His activities created, the forces which His utterances
released, the opposition which the implications of His teachings
excited, the significant episodes to which His words and deeds
continually gave rise—these future generations will, no doubt,
minutely and befittingly register. They will carefully delineate
their features, will cherish and preserve their memory, and will
transmit unimpaired the record of their minutest details to their
descendants. It would indeed be presumptuous on our part to attempt,
at the present time, to sketch even the bare outline of so vast, so
enthralling a theme. Contemplating after the lapse of above twenty
years this notable landmark in America’s spiritual history we
still find ourselves compelled to confess our inability to grasp its
import or to fathom its mystery. I have alluded in the preceding
pages to a few of the more salient features of that
never-to-be-forgotten visit. These incidents, as we look back upon
them, eloquently proclaim ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
specific purpose to confer through these symbolic functions upon the
first-born of the communities of the West that spiritual primacy
which was to be the birthright of the American believers.

The seeds which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
ceaseless activities so lavishly scattered had endowed the United
States and Canada, nay the entire continent, with potentialities such
as it had never known in its history. On the small band of His
trained and beloved disciples, and through them on their descendants,
He, through that visit, had bequeathed a priceless heritage—a
heritage which carried with it the sacred and primary obligation to
arise and carry on in that fertile field the work He had so
gloriously initiated. We can dimly picture to ourselves the wishes
that must have welled from His eager heart as He bade His last
farewell to that promising country. An inscrutable Wisdom, we can
well imagine Him remark to His disciples on the eve of His departure,
has, in His infinite bounty singled out your native land for the
execution of a mighty purpose. Through the agency of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant I, as the ploughman, have been called upon since the
beginning of my ministry to turn up and break its ground. The mighty
confirmations that have, in the opening days of your career, rained
upon you have prepared and invigorated its soil. The tribulations you
subsequently were made to suffer have driven deep furrows into the
field which my hands had prepared. The seeds with which I have been
entrusted I have now scattered far and wide before you. Under your
loving care, by your ceaseless exertions, every one of these seeds
must germinate, every one must yield its destined fruit. A winter of
unprecedented severity will soon be upon you. Its storm-clouds are
fast gathering on the horizon. Tempestuous winds will assail you from
every side. The Light of the Covenant will be obscured through my
departure. These mighty blasts, this wintry desolation, shall however
pass away. The dormant seed will burst into fresh activity. It shall
put forth its buds, shall reveal, in mighty institutions, its leaves
and blossoms. The vernal showers which the tender mercies of my
heavenly Father will cause to descend upon you will enable this
tender plant to spread out its branches to regions far beyond the
confines of your native land. And finally the steadily mounting sun
of His Revelation, shining in its meridian splendor, will enable this
mighty Tree of His Faith to yield, in the fullness of time and on
your soil, its golden fruit.

The implications of such a parting message could not
long remain unrevealed to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
initiated disciples. No sooner had He concluded His long and arduous
journey across the American and European continents than the
tremendous happenings to which He had alluded began to be made
manifest. A conflict, such as He had predicted, severed for a time
all means of communication with those on whom He had come to place
such implicit trust and from whom He was expecting so much in return.
The wintry desolation, with all its havoc and carnage, pursued during
four years its relentless course, while He, repairing to the quiet
solitude of His residence in the close neighborhood of Bahá’u’lláh’s
hallowed shrine, continued to communicate His thoughts and wishes to
those whom He had left behind and on whom He had conferred the unique
tokens of His favor. In the immortal Tablets which, in the long hours
of His communion with His dearly-beloved friends He was moved to
reveal, He unfolded to their eyes His conception of their spiritual
destiny, His Plan for the mission He wished them to undertake. The
seeds His hands had sown He was now watering with that same care,
that same love and patience, which had characterized His previous
endeavors whilst He was laboring in their midst.

The clarion call which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
had raised was the signal for an outburst of renewed activity which,
alike in the motives it inspired and the forces it set in motion,
America had scarcely experienced. Lending an unprecedented impetus to
the work which the enterprising ambassadors of the Message of
Bahá’u’lláh had initiated in distant lands,
this mighty movement has continued to spread until the present day,
has gathered momentum as it extended its ramifications over the
surface of the globe, and will continue to accelerate its march until
the last wishes of its original Promoter are completely fulfilled.

Forsaking home, kindred, friends and position a handful
of men and women, fired with a zeal and confidence which no human
agency can kindle, arose to carry out the mandate which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
had issued. Sailing northward as far as Alaska, pushing on to the
West Indies, penetrating the South American continent to the banks of
the Amazon and across the Andes to the southernmost ends of the
Argentine Republic, pressing on westward into the island of Tahiti
and beyond it to the Australian continent and still beyond it as far
as New Zealand and Tasmania, these intrepid heralds of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh have succeeded by their very
acts in setting to the present generation of their fellow-believers
throughout the East an example which they may well emulate. Headed by
their illustrious representative, who ever since the call of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá was raised has been twice round the
world and is still, with marvellous courage and fortitude, enriching
the matchless record of her services, these men and women have been
instrumental in extending, to a degree as yet unsurpassed in Bahá’í
history, the sway of Bahá’u’lláh’s
universal dominion. In the face of almost insurmountable obstacles
they have succeeded in most of the countries through which they have
passed or in which they have resided, in proclaiming the teachings of
their Faith, in circulating its literature, in defending its cause,
in laying the basis of its institutions and in reinforcing the number
of its declared supporters. It would be impossible for me to unfold
in this short compass the tale of such heroic actions. Nor can any
tribute of mine do justice to the spirit which has enabled these
standard-bearers of the Religion of God to win such laurels and to
confer such distinction on the generation to which they belong.

The Cause of Bahá’u’lláh had
by that time encircled the globe. Its light, born in darkest Persia,
had been carried successively to the European, the African and the
American continents, and was now penetrating the heart of Australia,
encompassing thereby the whole earth with a girdle of shining glory.
The share which such worthy, such stout-hearted, disciples have had
in brightening the last days of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
earthly life He alone has truly recognized and can sufficiently
estimate. The unique and eternal significance of such accomplishments
the labors of the rising generation will assuredly reveal, their
memory its works will befittingly preserve and extol. How deep a
satisfaction ‘Abdu’l-Bahá must have felt, while
conscious of the approaching hour of His departure, as He witnessed
the first fruits of the international services of these heroes of His
Father’s Faith! To their keeping He had committed a great and
goodly heritage. In the twilight of His earthly life He could rest
content in the serene assurance that such able hands could be relied
upon to preserve its integrity and exalt its virtue.

The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, so
sudden in the circumstances which caused it, so dramatic in its
consequences, could neither impede the operation of such a dynamic
force nor obscure its purpose. Those fervid appeals, embodied in the
Will and Testament of a departed Master, could not but confirm its
aim, define its character and reinforce the promise of its ultimate
success.

Out of the pangs of anguish which His bereaved followers
have suffered, amid the heat and dust which the attacks launched by a
sleepless enemy had precipitated, the Administration of Bahá’u’lláh’s
invincible Faith was born. The potent energies released through the
ascension of the Center of His Covenant crystallized into this
supreme, this infallible Organ for the accomplishment of a Divine
Purpose. The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
unveiled its character, reaffirmed its basis, supplemented its
principles, asserted its indispensability, and enumerated its chief
institutions. With that self-same spontaneity which had characterized
her response to the Message proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh
America had now arisen to espouse the cause of the Administration
which the Will and Testament of His Son had unmistakably established.
It was given to her, and to her alone, in the turbulent years
following the revelation of so momentous a Document, to become the
fearless champion of that Administration, the pivot of its new-born
institutions and the leading promoter of its influence. To their
Persian brethren, who in the heroic age of the Faith had won the
crown of martyrdom, the American believers, forerunners of its golden
age, were now worthily succeeding, bearing in their turn the palm of
a hard-won victory. The unbroken record of their illustrious deeds
had established beyond the shadow of a doubt their preponderating
share in shaping the destinies of their Faith. In a world writhing
with pain and declining into chaos this community—the vanguard
of the liberating forces of Bahá’u’lláh—succeeded
in the years following ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
passing in raising high above the institutions established by its
sister communities in East and West what may well constitute the
chief pillar of that future House—a House which posterity will
regard as the last refuge of a tottering civilization.

In the prosecution of their task neither the whisperings
of the treacherous nor the virulent attacks of their avowed enemies
were allowed to deflect them from their high purpose or to undermine
their faith in the sublimity of their calling. The agitation provoked
by him who in his incessant and sordid pursuit of earthly riches
would have, but for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s warning,
sullied the fair name of their Faith, had left them in the main
undisturbed. Schooled by tribulation and secure within the stronghold
of their fast evolving institutions they scorned his insinuations and
by their unswerving loyalty were able to shatter his hopes. They
refused to allow any consideration of the admitted prestige and past
services of his father and of his associates to weaken their
determination to ignore entirely the person whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
had so emphatically condemned. The veiled attacks with which a
handful of deluded enthusiasts subsequently sought in the pages of
their periodical to check the growth and blight the prospects of an
infant Administration had likewise failed to achieve their purpose.
The attitude which a besotted woman later on assumed, her ludicrous
assertions, her boldness in flouting the Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
and in challenging its authenticity and her attempts to subvert its
principles were again powerless to produce the slightest breach in
the ranks of its valiant upholders. The treacherous schemes which the
ambition of a perfidious and still more recent enemy has devised and
through which he is still striving to deface ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
noble handiwork and corrupt its administrative principles are being
once more completely frustrated. These intermittent and abortive
attempts on the part of its assailants to force the surrender of the
newly built stronghold of the Faith its defenders have from the very
beginning utterly disdained. No matter how fierce the assaults of the
enemy or skillful his stratagem they have refused to yield one jot or
one tittle of their cherished convictions. His insinuations and
clamor they have consistently ignored. The motives which animated his
actions, the methods he steadily pursued, the precarious privileges
he seemed momentarily to enjoy they could not but despise. Thriving
for a time through the devices which their scheming minds had
conceived and supported by the ephemeral advantages which fame,
ability or fortune can confer these notorious exponents of corruption
and heresy have succeeded in protruding for a time their ugly
features only to sink, as rapidly as they had risen, into the mire of
an ignominious end.

From the midst of these afflictive trials, reminiscent
in some of their aspects of the violent storm that had accompanied
the birth of the Faith in their native land, the American believers
had again triumphantly emerged, their course undeflected, their fame
unsullied, their heritage unimpaired. A series of magnificent
accomplishments, each more significant than the previous, were to
shed increasing lustre on an already illustrious record. In the dark
years immediately following ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
ascension their deeds shone with a radiance that made them the object
of the envy and the admiration of the less privileged among their
brethren. The entire community, untrammeled and supremely confident,
was rising to a great and glorious opportunity. The forces that had
motivated its birth, that had assisted in its rise, were now
accelerating its growth, in a manner and with such rapidity that
neither the pangs of a world-wide sorrow nor the unceasing
convulsions of a distracted age could paralyze its efforts or retard
its march.

Internally the community had embarked in a number of
enterprises that were to enable it on the one hand to extend still
further the scope of its spiritual jurisdiction and on the other to
fashion the essential instruments for the creation and consolidation
of the institutions which such an extension imperatively demanded.
Externally its undertakings were inspired by the twofold objective of
prosecuting, even more intensely than before, the admirable work
which in each of the five continents its international teachers had
initiated, and of assuming an increasing share in the handling and
solution of the delicate and complex problems with which a
newly-emancipated Faith was being confronted. The birth of the
Administration in that continent had signalized these praiseworthy
exertions. Its gradual consolidation was destined to insure their
continuance and to accentuate their effectiveness.

To enumerate only the most outstanding accomplishments
which, in their own country and beyond its confines, have so greatly
enhanced the prestige of the American believers and have redounded to
the glory and honor of the Most Great Name is all I can presently
undertake, leaving to future generations the task of explaining their
import and of affixing a fitting estimate to their value. To the body
of their elected representatives must be attributed the honor of
having been the first among their sister Assemblies of East and West
to devise, promulgate and legalize the essential instruments for the
effective discharge of their collective duties—instruments
which every properly constituted Bahá’í community
must regard as a pattern worthy to be adopted and copied. To their
efforts must likewise be ascribed the historic achievement of
establishing their national endowments upon a permanent and
unassailable basis and of creating the necessary agency for the
formation of those subsidiary organs whose function is to administer
on behalf of their trustees such possessions as these may acquire
beyond the limits of their immediate jurisdiction. By the weight of
their moral support so freely extended to their Egyptian brethren
they were able to remove some of the most formidable obstacles which
the Faith had to surmount in its struggle to enfranchise itself from
the fetters of Muslim orthodoxy. Through the effective and timely
intervention of these same elected representatives they were able to
avert the woes and dangers which had menaced their persecuted
fellow-workers in the Soviet Republics, and to ward off the rage
which had threatened with immediate ruin one of the most precious and
noblest of Bahá’í institutions. Nothing short of
the whole-hearted assistance, whether moral or financial which the
American believers, individually and collectively, were moved to
extend on several occasions to the needy and harassed among their
brethren in Persia could have saved these hapless victims of the
consequences of the calamities that had visited them in the years
following ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension. It was
the publicity which the efforts of their American brethren had
created, the protests they were led to make, the appeals and
petitions they had submitted, which mitigated these sufferings and
curbed the violence of the worst and most tyrannical opponents of the
Faith in that land. Who else, if not one of their most distinguished
representatives, has risen to force upon the attention of the highest
Tribunal the world has yet seen the grievances which a Faith, robbed
of one of its holiest sanctuaries, had suffered at the hand of the
usurper? Who else has succeeded in securing, through patient and
persistent effort, those written affirmations which proclaim the
justice of a persecuted cause and tacitly recognize its right to an
independent religious status? “The Commission,” is the
resolution passed by the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League
of Nations, “recommends that the Council should ask the British
Government to make representations to the Iráqí
Government with a view to the immediate redress of the denial of
justice from which the petitioners (the Bahá’í
Spiritual Assembly of Baghdád) have suffered.”
Has any one else except an American believer been led to obtain from
royalty such remarkable and repeated testimonies to the regenerating
power of the Faith of God, such striking references to the
universality of its teachings and the sublimity of its mission. “The
Bahá’í teaching,” such is the Queen’s
written testimony, “brings peace and understanding. It is like
a wide embrace gathering together all those who have long searched
for words of hope. It accepts all great Prophets gone before, it
destroys no other creeds and leaves all doors open. Saddened by the
continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and wearied of
their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in the Bahá’í
teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and misunderstood:
Unity instead of strife, Hope instead of condemnation, Love instead
of hate, and a great reassurance for all men.” Have not the
American adherents of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
through the courage displayed by one of the most brilliant members of
their community, been instrumental in paving the way for the removal
of those barriers which have, for well-nigh a century, hampered the
growth and crippled the energy of their fellow-believers in Persia?
Is it not America who, ever mindful of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
passionate entreaty, has sent out to the ends of the earth a steadily
increasing number of its most consecrated citizens—men and
women the one wish of whose lives is to consolidate the foundations
of Bahá’u’lláh’s world-embracing
dominion? In the northernmost capitals of Europe, in most of its
central states, throughout the Balkan Peninsula, along the shores of
the African, the Asiatic and South American continents are to be
found this day a small band of women pioneers who, single-handed and
with scanty resources, are toiling for the advent of the Day
‘Abdu’l-Bahá has foretold. Did not the attitude of
the Greatest Holy Leaf, as she approached the close of her life, bear
eloquent testimony to the incomparable share which her steadfast and
self-sacrificing lovers in that continent have had in lightening the
burden which had weighed so long and so heavily on her heart? And
finally who can be so bold as to deny that the completion of the
superstructure of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—the
crowning glory of America’s past and present achievements—has
forged that mystic chain which is to link, more firmly than ever, the
hearts of its champion-builders with Him Who is the Source and Center
of their Faith and the Object of their truest adoration?

Fellow-believers in the American continent! Great indeed
have been your past and present achievements! Immeasurably greater
are the wonders which the future has in store for you! The Edifice
your sacrifices have raised still remains to be clothed. The House
which must needs be supported by the highest administrative
institution your hands have reared, is as yet unbuilt. The provisions
of the chief Repository of those laws that must govern its operation
are thus far mostly undisclosed. The Standard which, if
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s wishes are to be fulfilled,
must be raised in your own country has yet to be unfurled. The Unity
of which that standard is to be the symbol is far from being yet
established. The machinery which must needs incarnate and preserve
that unity is not even created. Will it be America, will it be one of
the countries of Europe, who will arise to assume the leadership
essential to the shaping of the destinies of this troubled age? Will
America allow any of her sister communities in East or West to
achieve such ascendancy as shall deprive her of that spiritual
primacy with which she has been invested and which she has thus far
so nobly retained? Will she not rather contribute, by a still further
revelation of those inherent powers that motivate her life, to
enhance the priceless heritage which the love and wisdom of a
departed Master have conferred upon her?

Her past has been a testimony to the inexhaustible
vitality of her faith. May not her future confirm it?

Your true brother,
SHOGHI.

Haifa, Palestine,
April 21, 1933.

The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh

To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful
throughout the West.

Fellow-laborers in the Divine Vineyard:

On the 23rd of May of this auspicious year the Bahá’í
world will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. We, who at this hour
find ourselves standing on the threshold of the last decade of the
first century of the Bahá’í era, might well pause
to reflect upon the mysterious dispensations of so august, so
momentous a Revelation. How vast, how entrancing the panorama which
the revolution of four score years and ten unrolls before our eyes!
Its towering grandeur well-nigh overwhelms us. To merely contemplate
this unique spectacle, to visualize, however dimly, the circumstances
attending the birth and gradual unfoldment of this supreme Theophany,
to recall even in their barest outline the woeful struggles that
proclaimed its rise and accelerated its march, will suffice to
convince every unbiased observer of those eternal truths that
motivate its life and which must continue to impel it forward until
it achieves its destined ascendancy.

Dominating the entire range of this fascinating
spectacle towers the incomparable figure of Bahá’u’lláh,
transcendental in His majesty, serene, awe-inspiring, unapproachably
glorious. Allied, though subordinate in rank, and invested with the
authority of presiding with Him over the destinies of this supreme
Dispensation, there shines upon this mental picture the youthful
glory of the Báb, infinite in His tenderness, irresistible in
His charm, unsurpassed in His heroism, matchless in the dramatic
circumstances of His short yet eventful life. And finally there
emerges, though on a plane of its own and in a category entirely
apart from the one occupied by the twin Figures that preceded Him,
the vibrant, the magnetic personality of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
reflecting to a degree that no man, however exalted his station, can
hope to rival, the glory and power with which They who are the
Manifestations of God are alone endowed.

With ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension,
and more particularly with the passing of His well-beloved and
illustrious sister the Most Exalted Leaf—the last survivor of a
glorious and heroic age—there draws to a close the first and
most moving chapter of Bahá’í history, marking
the conclusion of the Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh. It was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Who, through the provisions of His weighty Will and Testament, has
forged the vital link which must for ever connect the age that has
just expired with the one we now live in—the Transitional and
Formative period of the Faith—a stage that must in the fullness
of time reach its blossom and yield its fruit in the exploits and
triumphs that are to herald the Golden Age of the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh.

Dearly-beloved friends! The onrushing forces so
miraculously released through the agency of two independent and
swiftly successive Manifestations are now under our very eyes and
through the care of the chosen stewards of a far-flung Faith being
gradually mustered and disciplined. They are slowly crystallizing
into institutions that will come to be regarded as the hall-mark and
glory of the age we are called upon to establish and by our deeds
immortalize. For upon our present-day efforts, and above all upon the
extent to which we strive to remodel our lives after the pattern of
sublime heroism associated with those gone before us, must depend the
efficacy of the instruments we now fashion—instruments that
must erect the structure of that blissful Commonwealth which must
signalize the Golden Age of our Faith.

It is not my purpose, as I look back upon these crowded
years of heroic deeds, to attempt even a cursory review of the mighty
events that have transpired since 1844 until the present day. Nor
have I any intention to undertake an analysis of the forces that have
precipitated them, or to evaluate their influence upon peoples and
institutions in almost every continent of the globe. The authentic
record of the lives of the first believers of the primitive period of
our Faith, together with the assiduous research which competent
Bahá’í historians will in the future undertake,
will combine to transmit to posterity such masterly exposition of the
history of that age as my own efforts can never hope to accomplish.
My chief concern at this challenging period of Bahá’í
history is rather to call the attention of those who are destined to
be the champion-builders of the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh
to certain fundamental verities the elucidation of which must
tremendously assist them in the effective prosecution of their mighty
enterprise.

The international status which the Religion of God has
thus far achieved, moreover, imperatively demands that its root
principles be now definitely clarified. The unprecedented impetus
which the illustrious deeds of the American believers have lent to
the onward march of the Faith; the intense interest which the first
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West is fast
awakening among divers races and nations; the rise and steady
consolidation of Bahá’í institutions in no less
than forty of the most advanced countries of the world; the
dissemination of Bahá’í literature in no fewer
than twenty-five of the most widely-spoken languages; the success
that has recently attended the nation-wide efforts of the Persian
believers in the preliminary steps they have taken for the
establishment, in the outskirts of the capital-city of their native
land, of the third Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of
the Bahá’í world; the measures that are being
taken for the immediate formation of their first National Spiritual
Assembly representing the interests of the overwhelming majority of
Bahá’í adherents; the projected erection of yet
another pillar of the Universal House of Justice, the first of its
kind, in the Southern Hemisphere; the testimonies, both verbal and
written, that a struggling Faith has obtained from Royalty, from
governmental institutions, international tribunals, and
ecclesiastical dignitaries; the publicity it has received from the
charges which unrelenting enemies, both new and old, have hurled
against it; the formal enfranchisement of a section of its followers
from the fetters of Muslim orthodoxy in a country that may be
regarded as the most enlightened among Islamic nations—these
afford ample proof of the growing momentum with which the invincible
community of the Most Great Name is marching forward to ultimate
victory.

Dearly-beloved friends! I feel it incumbent upon me, by
virtue of the obligations and responsibilities which as Guardian of
the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh I am called upon
to discharge, to lay special stress, at a time when the light of
publicity is being increasingly focussed upon us, upon certain truths
which lie at the basis of our Faith and the integrity of which it is
our first duty to safeguard. These verities, if valiantly upheld and
properly assimilated, will, I am convinced, powerfully reinforce the
vigor of our spiritual life and greatly assist in counteracting the
machinations of an implacable and vigilant enemy.

To strive to obtain a more adequate understanding of the
significance of Bahá’u’lláh’s
stupendous Revelation must, it is my unalterable conviction, remain
the first obligation and the object of the constant endeavor of each
one of its loyal adherents. An exact and thorough comprehension of so
vast a system, so sublime a revelation, so sacred a trust, is for
obvious reasons beyond the reach and ken of our finite minds. We can,
however, and it is our bounden duty to seek to derive fresh
inspiration and added sustenance as we labor for the propagation of
His Faith through a clearer apprehension of the truths it enshrines
and the principles on which it is based.

In a communication addressed to the American believers I
have in the course of my explanation of the station of the Báb
made a passing reference to the incomparable greatness of the
Revelation of which He considered Himself to be the humble Precursor.
He Whom Bahá’u’lláh has acclaimed in the
Kitáb-i-Íqán as that promised Qá’im
Who has manifested no less than twenty-five out of the twenty-seven
letters which all the Prophets were destined to reveal—so great
a Revealer has Himself testified to the préeminence of that
superior Revelation that was soon to supersede His own. “The
germ,” the Báb asserts in the Persian Bayán,
“that holds within itself the potentialities of the Revelation
that is to come is endowed with a potency superior to the combined
forces of all those who follow me.” “Of all the
tributes,” He again affirms, “I have paid to Him Who is
to come after Me, the greatest is this, My written confession, that
no words of Mine can adequately describe Him, nor can any reference
to Him in My Book, the Bayán, do justice to His Cause.”
“The Bayán,” He in that same Book categorically
declares, “and whosoever is therein revolve round the saying of
‘Him Whom God shall make manifest,’ even as the Alif (the
Gospel) and whosoever was therein revolved round the saying of
Muḥammad, the Apostle of God.” “A thousand perusals
of the Bayán,” He further remarks, “cannot equal
the perusal of a single verse to be revealed by ‘Him Whom God
shall make manifest.’… Today the Bayán is in the stage
of seed; at the beginning of the manifestation of ‘Him Whom God
shall make manifest’ its ultimate perfection will become
apparent…. The Bayán and such as are believers therein yearn
more ardently after Him than the yearning of any lover after his
beloved…. The Bayán deriveth all its glory from ‘Him
Whom God shall make manifest.’ All blessing be upon him who
believeth in Him and woe betide him that rejecteth His truth.”

Addressing Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Darábí
surnamed Vahíd, the most learned, the most eloquent and
influential among His followers, the Báb utters this warning:
“By the righteousness of Him Whose power causeth the seed to
germinate and Who breatheth the spirit of life into all things, were
I to be assured that in the day of His manifestation thou wilt deny
Him, I would unhesitatingly disown thee and repudiate thy faith….
If, on the other hand, I be told that a Christian, who beareth no
allegiance to My Faith, will believe in Him, the same will I regard
as the apple of Mine Eye.”

In one of His prayers He thus communes with Bahá’u’lláh:
“Exalted art Thou, O my Lord the Omnipotent! How puny and
contemptible my word and all that pertaineth unto me appear unless
they be related to Thy great glory. Grant that through the assistance
of Thy grace whatsoever pertaineth unto me may be acceptable in Thy
sight.”

In the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá—the
Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of
Joseph—characterized by the Author of the Íqán as
“the first, the greatest and mightiest” of the books
revealed by the Báb, we read the following references to
Bahá’u’lláh: “Out of utter
nothingness, O great and omnipotent Master, Thou hast, through the
celestial potency of Thy might, brought me forth and raised me up to
proclaim this Revelation. I have made none other but Thee my trust; I
have clung to no will but Thy will… O Thou Remnant of God! I have
sacrificed myself wholly for Thee: I have accepted curses for Thy
sake, and have yearned for naught but martyrdom in the path of Thy
love. Sufficient witness unto me is God, the Exalted, the Protector,
the Ancient of Days.” “And when the appointed hour hath
struck,” He again addresses Bahá’u’lláh
in that same commentary, “do Thou, by the leave of God, the
All-Wise, reveal from the heights of the Most Lofty and Mystic Mount
a faint, an infinitesimal glimmer of Thy impenetrable Mystery, that
they who have recognized the radiance of the Sinaic Splendor may
faint away and die as they catch a lightening glimpse of the fierce
and crimson Light that envelops Thy Revelation.”

As a further testimony to the greatness of the
Revelation identified with Bahá’u’lláh may
be cited the following extracts from a Tablet addressed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá to an eminent Zoroastrian follower of
the Faith: “Thou hadst written that in the sacred books of the
followers of Zoroaster it is written that in the latter days, in
three separate Dispensations, the sun must needs be brought to a
standstill. In the first Dispensation, it is predicted, the sun will
remain motionless for ten days; in the second for twice that time; in
the third for no less than one whole month. The interpretation of
this prophecy is this: the first Dispensation to which it refers is
the Muḥammadan Dispensation during which the Sun of Truth stood
still for ten days. Each day is reckoned as one century. The
Muḥammadan Dispensation must have, therefore, lasted no less
than one thousand years, which is precisely the period that has
elapsed from the setting of the Star of the Imamate to the advent of
the Dispensation proclaimed by the Báb. The second
Dispensation referred to in this prophecy is the one inaugurated by
the Báb Himself, which began in the year 1260 A.H. and was
brought to a close in the year 1280 A.H. As to the third
Dispensation—the Revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh—inasmuch
as the Sun of Truth when attaining that station shineth in the
plenitude of its meridian splendor its duration hath been fixed for a
period of one whole month, which is the maximum time taken by the sun
to pass through a sign of the Zodiac. From this thou canst imagine
the magnitude of the Bahá’í cycle—a cycle
that must extend over a period of at least five hundred thousand
years.”

From the text of this explicit and authoritative
interpretation of so ancient a prophecy it is evident how necessary
it is for every faithful follower of the Faith to accept the divine
origin and uphold the independent status of the Muḥammadan
Dispensation. The validity of the Imamate is, moreover, implicitly
recognized in these same passages—that divinely-appointed
institution of whose most distinguished member the Báb Himself
was a lineal descendant, and which continued for a period of no less
than two hundred and sixty years to be the chosen recipient of the
guidance of the Almighty and the repository of one of the two most
precious legacies of Islám.

This same prophecy, we must furthermore recognize,
attests the independent character of the Bábí
Dispensation and corroborates indirectly the truth that in accordance
with the principle of progressive revelation every Manifestation of
God must needs vouchsafe to the peoples of His day a measure of
divine guidance ampler than any which a preceding and less receptive
age could have received or appreciated. For this reason, and not for
any superior merit which the Bahá’í Faith may be
said to inherently possess, does this prophecy bear witness to the
unrivaled power and glory with which the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh
has been invested—a Dispensation the potentialities of which we
are but beginning to perceive and the full range of which we can
never determine.

The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
should indeed be regarded, if we wish to be faithful to the
tremendous implications of its message, as the culmination of a
cycle, the final stage in a series of successive, of preliminary and
progressive revelations. These, beginning with Adam and ending with
the Báb, have paved the way and anticipated with an
ever-increasing emphasis the advent of that Day of Days in which He
Who is the Promise of All Ages should be made manifest.

To this truth the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh
abundantly testify. A mere reference to the claims which, in vehement
language and with compelling power, He Himself has repeatedly
advanced cannot but fully demonstrate the character of the Revelation
of which He was the chosen bearer. To the words that have streamed
from His pen—the fountainhead of so impetuous a Revelation—we
should, therefore, direct our attention if we wish to obtain a
clearer understanding of its importance and meaning. Whether in His
assertion of the unprecedented claim He has advanced, or in His
allusions to the mysterious forces He has released, whether in such
passages as extol the glories of His long-awaited Day, or magnify the
station which they who have recognized its hidden virtues will
attain, Bahá’u’lláh and, to an almost equal
extent, the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have
bequeathed to posterity mines of such inestimable wealth as none of
us who belong to this generation can befittingly estimate. Such
testimonies bearing on this theme are impregnated with such power and
reveal such beauty as only those who are versed in the languages in
which they were originally revealed can claim to have sufficiently
appreciated. So numerous are these testimonies that a whole volume
would be required to be written in order to compile the most
outstanding among them. All I can venture to attempt at present is to
share with you only such passages as I have been able to glean from
His voluminous writings.

“I testify before God,” proclaims
Bahá’u’lláh, “to the greatness, the
inconceivable greatness of this Revelation. Again and again have We
in most of Our Tablets borne witness to this truth, that mankind may
be roused from its heedlessness.” “In this most mighty
Revelation,” He unequivocally announces, “all the
Dispensations of the past have attained their highest, their final
consummation.” “That which hath been made manifest in
this préeminent, this most exalted Revelation, stands
unparalleled in the annals of the past, nor will future ages witness
its like.” “He it is,” referring to Himself He
further proclaims, “Who in the Old Testament hath been named
Jehovah, Who in the Gospel hath been designated as the Spirit of
Truth, and in the Qur’án acclaimed as the Great
Announcement.” “But for Him no Divine Messenger would
have been invested with the robe of prophethood, nor would any of the
sacred scriptures have been revealed. To this bear witness all
created things.” “The word which the one true God
uttereth in this day, though that word be the most familiar and
commonplace of terms, is invested with supreme, with unique
distinction.” “The generality of mankind is still
immature. Had it acquired sufficient capacity We would have bestowed
upon it so great a measure of Our knowledge that all who dwell on
earth and in heaven would have found themselves, by virtue of the
grace streaming from Our pen, completely independent of all knowledge
save the knowledge of God, and would have been securely established
upon the throne of abiding tranquillity.” “The Pen of
Holiness, I solemnly affirm before God, hath writ upon My snow-white
brow and in characters of effulgent glory these glowing, these
musk-scented and holy words: ‘Behold ye that dwell on earth,
and ye denizens of heaven, bear witness, He in truth is your
Well-Beloved. He it is Whose like the world of creation hath not
seen, He Whose ravishing beauty hath delighted the eye of God, the
Ordainer, the All-Powerful, the Incomparable!’”

“Followers of the Gospel,” Bahá’u’lláh
addressing the whole of Christendom exclaims, “behold the gates
of heaven are flung open. He that had ascended unto it is now come.
Give ear to His voice calling aloud over land and sea, announcing to
all mankind the advent of this Revelation—a Revelation through
the agency of which the Tongue of Grandeur is now proclaiming: ‘Lo,
the sacred Pledge hath been fulfilled, for He, the Promised One, is
come!’” “The voice of the Son of Man is calling
aloud from the sacred vale: ‘Here am I, here am I, O God my
God!’ … whilst from the Burning Bush breaketh forth the cry:
‘Lo, the Desire of the world is made manifest in His
transcendent glory!’ The Father hath come. That which ye were
promised in the Kingdom of God is fulfilled. This is the Word which
the Son veiled when He said to those around Him that at that time
they could not bear it… Verily the Spirit of Truth is come to guide
you unto all truth… He is the One Who glorified the Son and exalted
His Cause…” “The Comforter Whose advent all the
scriptures have promised is now come that He may reveal unto you all
knowledge and wisdom. Seek Him over the entire surface of the earth,
haply ye may find Him.”

“Call out to Zion, O Carmel,” writes
Bahá’u’lláh, “and announce the joyful
tidings: ‘He that was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His
all-conquering sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing splendor
is revealed… Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that
hath descended from heaven—the celestial Kaaba round which have
circled in adoration the favored of God, the pure in heart and the
company of the most exalted angels.’” “I am the
One,” He in another connection affirms, “Whom the tongue
of Isaiah hath extolled, the One with Whose name both the Torah and
the Evangel were adorned.” “The glory of Sinai hath
hastened to circle round the Day-Spring of this Revelation, while
from the heights of the Kingdom the voice of the Son of God is heard
proclaiming: ‘Bestir yourselves, ye proud ones of the earth,
and hasten ye towards Him.’ Carmel hath in this day hastened in
longing adoration to attain His court, whilst from the heart of Zion
there cometh the cry: ‘The promise of all ages is now
fulfilled. That which had been announced in the holy writ of God, the
Beloved, the Most High, is made manifest.’” “Ḥijáz
is astir by the breeze announcing the tidings of joyous reunion.
‘Praise be to Thee,’ We hear her exclaim, ‘O my
Lord, the Most High. I was dead through my separation from Thee; the
breeze laden with the fragrance of Thy presence hath brought me back
to life. Happy is he that turneth unto Thee, and woe betide the
erring.’” “By the one true God, Elijah hath
hastened unto My court and hath circumambulated in the day-time and
in the night-season My throne of glory.” “Solomon in all
his majesty circles in adoration around Me in this day, uttering this
most exalted word: ‘I have turned my face towards Thy face, O
Thou omnipotent Ruler of the world! I am wholly detached from all
things pertaining unto me, and yearn for that which Thou dost
possess.’” “Had Muḥammad, the Apostle of God,
attained this Day,” Bahá’u’lláh
writes in a Tablet revealed on the eve of His banishment to the penal
colony of Akká, “He would have exclaimed: ‘I have
truly recognized Thee, O Thou the Desire of the Divine Messengers!’
Had Abraham attained it, He too, falling prostrate upon the ground,
and in the utmost lowliness before the Lord thy God, would have
cried: ‘Mine heart is filled with peace, O Thou Lord of all
that is in heaven and on earth! I testify that Thou hast unveiled
before mine eyes all the glory of Thy power and the full majesty of
Thy law!’… Had Moses Himself attained it, He, likewise, would
have raised His voice saying: ‘All praise be to Thee for having
lifted upon me the light of Thy countenance and enrolled me among
them that have been privileged to behold Thy face!’”
“North and South both vibrate to the call announcing the advent
of our Revelation. We can hear the voice of Mecca acclaiming: ‘All
praise be to Thee, O Lord my God, the All-Glorious, for having wafted
over me the breath redolent with the fragrance of Thy presence!’
Jerusalem, likewise, is calling aloud: ‘Lauded and magnified
art Thou, O Beloved of earth and heaven, for having turned the agony
of my separation from Thee into the joy of a life-giving reunion!’”

“By the righteousness of God,” Bahá’u’lláh
wishing to reveal the full potency of His invincible power asserts,
“should a man, all alone, arise in the name of Bahá and
put on the armor of His love, him will the Almighty cause to be
victorious, though the forces of earth and heaven be arrayed against
him.” “By God besides Whom is none other God! Should any
one arise for the triumph of our Cause, him will God render
victorious though tens of thousands of enemies be leagued against
him. And if his love for Me wax stronger, God will establish his
ascendancy over all the powers of earth and heaven. Thus have We
breathed the spirit of power into all regions.”

“This is the King of Days,” He thus extols
the age that has witnessed the advent of His Revelation, “the
Day that hath seen the coming of the Best-beloved, Him Who through
all eternity hath been acclaimed the Desire of the World.” “The
world of being shineth in this Day with the resplendency of this
Divine Revelation. All created things extol its saving grace and sing
its praises. The universe is wrapt in an ecstasy of joy and gladness.
The Scriptures of past Dispensations celebrate the great jubilee that
must needs greet this most great Day of God. Well is it with him that
hath lived to see this Day and hath recognized its station.”
“Were mankind to give heed in a befitting manner to no more
than one word of such a praise it would be so filled with delight as
to be overpowered and lost in wonder. Entranced, it would then shine
forth resplendent above the horizon of true understanding.”

“Be fair, ye peoples of the world;” He thus
appeals to mankind, “is it meet and seemly for you to question
the authority of one Whose presence ‘He Who conversed with God’
(Moses) hath longed to attain, the beauty of Whose countenance ‘God’s
Well-beloved’ (Muḥammad) had yearned to behold, through
the potency of Whose love the ‘Spirit of God’ (Jesus)
ascended to heaven, for Whose sake the ‘Primal Point’
(the Báb) offered up His life?” “Seize your
chance,” He admonishes His followers, “inasmuch as a
fleeting moment in this Day excelleth centuries of a bygone age…
Neither sun nor moon hath witnessed a day such as this… It is
evident that every age in which a Manifestation of God hath lived is
divinely ordained and may, in a sense, be characterized as God’s
appointed Day. This Day, however, is unique and is to be
distinguished from those that have preceded it. The designation ‘Seal
of the Prophets’ fully reveals and demonstrates its high
station.”

Expatiating on the forces latent in His Revelation
Bahá’u’lláh reveals the following: “Through
the movement of Our Pen of glory We have, at the bidding of the
omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every human frame and
instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things
proclaim the evidences of this world-wide regeneration.” “This
is,” He adds, “the most great, the most joyful tidings
imparted by the pen of this wronged One to mankind.” “How
great,” He in another passage exclaims, “is the Cause!
How staggering the weight of its message! This is the Day of which it
hath been said: ‘O my son! verily God will bring everything to
light though it were but the weight of a grain of mustard seed, and
hidden in a rock, or in the heavens or in the earth; for God is
subtile, informed of all.’” “By the righteousness
of the one true God! If one speck of a jewel be lost and buried
beneath a mountain of stones, and lie hidden beyond the seven seas,
the Hand of Omnipotence will assuredly reveal it in this day, pure
and cleansed from dross.” “He that partaketh of the
waters of My Revelation will taste all the incorruptible delights
ordained by God from the beginning that hath no beginning to the end
that hath no end.” “Every single letter proceeding from
Our mouth is endowed with such regenerative power as to enable it to
bring into existence a new creation—a creation the magnitude of
which is inscrutable to all save God. He verily hath knowledge of all
things.” “It is in Our power, should We wish it, to
enable a speck of floating dust to generate, in less than the
twinkling of an eye, suns of infinite, of unimaginable splendor, to
cause a dewdrop to develop into vast and numberless oceans, to infuse
into every letter such a force as to empower it to unfold all the
knowledge of past and future ages.” “We are possessed of
such power which, if brought to light, will transmute the most deadly
of poisons into a panacea of unfailing efficacy.”

Estimating the station of the true believer He remarks:
“By the sorrows which afflict the beauty of the All-Glorious!
Such is the station ordained for the true believer that if to an
extent smaller than a needle’s eye the glory of that station
were to be unveiled to mankind, every beholder would be consumed away
in his longing to attain it. For this reason it hath been decreed
that in this earthly life the full measure of the glory of his own
station should remain concealed from the eyes of such a believer.”
“If the veil be lifted,” He similarly affirms, “and
the full glory of the station of those who have turned wholly towards
God, and in their love for Him renounced the world, be made manifest,
the entire creation would be dumbfounded.”

Stressing the superlative character of His Revelation as
compared with the Dispensation preceding it, Bahá’u’lláh
makes the following affirmation: “If all the peoples of the
world be invested with the powers and attributes destined for the
Letters of the Living, the Báb’s chosen disciples, whose
station is ten thousand times more glorious than any which the
apostles of old have attained, and if they, one and all, should,
swift as the twinkling of an eye, hesitate to recognize the light of
My Revelation, their faith shall be of no avail and they shall be
accounted among the infidels.” “So tremendous is the
outpouring of Divine grace in this Dispensation that if mortal hands
could be swift enough to record them, within the space of a single
day and night there would stream verses of such number as to be
equivalent to the whole of the Persian Bayán.”

“Give heed to my warning, ye people of Persia,”
He thus addresses His countrymen, “If I be slain at your hands,
God will assuredly raise up one who will fill the seat made vacant
through my death; for such is God’s method carried into effect
of old, and no change can ye find in God’s mode of dealing.”
“Should they attempt to conceal His light on the continent, He
will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and,
raising His voice, proclaim: ‘I am the lifegiver of the
world!’… And if they cast Him into a darksome pit, they will
find Him seated on earth’s loftiest heights calling aloud to
all mankind: ‘Lo, the Desire of the world is come in His
majesty, His sovereignty, His transcendent dominion!’ And if He
be buried beneath the depths of the earth, His Spirit soaring to the
apex of heaven shall peal the summons: ‘Behold ye the coming of
the Glory; witness ye the Kingdom of God, the most Holy, the
Gracious, the All-Powerful!’” “Within the throat of
this Youth,” is yet another astounding statement, “there
lie prisoned accents which, if revealed to mankind to an extent
smaller than a needle’s eye, would suffice to cause every
mountain to crumble, the leaves of the trees to be discolored and
their fruits to fall; would compel every head to bow down in worship
and every face to turn in adoration towards this omnipotent Ruler
Who, at sundry times and in diverse manners, appeareth as a devouring
flame, as a billowing ocean, as a radiant light, as the tree which,
rooted in the soil of holiness, lifteth its branches and spreadeth
out its limbs as far as and beyond the throne of deathless glory.”

Anticipating the System which the irresistible power of
His Law was destined to unfold in a later age, He writes: “The
world’s equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating
influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind’s
ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this
unique, this wondrous System—the like of which mortal eyes have
never witnessed.” “The Hand of Omnipotence hath
established His Revelation upon an unassailable, an enduring
foundation. Storms of human strife are powerless to undermine its
basis, nor will men’s fanciful theories succeed in damaging its
structure.”

In the Súratu’l-Haykal, one of the most
challenging works of Bahá’u’lláh, the
following verses, each of which testifies to the resistless power
infused into the Revelation proclaimed by its Author, have been
recorded: “Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God,
and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and
in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in
My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the
Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the
Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God.” “The
Holy Spirit Itself hath been generated through the agency of a single
letter revealed by this Most Great Spirit, if ye be of them that
comprehend.”… “Within the treasury of Our Wisdom there
lies unrevealed a knowledge, one word of which, if we chose to
divulge it to mankind, would cause every human being to recognize the
Manifestation of God and to acknowledge His omniscience, would enable
every one to discover the secrets of all the sciences, and to attain
so high a station as to find himself wholly independent of all past
and future learning. Other knowledges We do as well possess, not a
single letter of which We can disclose, nor do We find humanity able
to hear even the barest reference to their meaning. Thus have We
informed you of the knowledge of God, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.”
“The day is approaching when God will have, by an act of His
Will, raised up a race of men the nature of which is inscrutable to
all save God, the All-Powerful, the Self-Subsisting.” “He
will, ere long, out of the Bosom of Power draw forth the Hands of
Ascendancy and Might—Hands who will arise to win victory for
this Youth and who will purge mankind from the defilement of the
outcast and the ungodly. These Hands will gird up their loins to
champion the Faith of God, and will, in My name the self-subsistent,
the mighty, subdue the peoples and kindreds of the earth. They will
enter the cities and will inspire with fear the hearts of all their
inhabitants. Such are the evidences of the might of God; how fearful,
how vehement is His might!”

Such is, dearly-beloved friends, Bahá’u’lláh’s
own written testimony to the nature of His Revelation. To the
affirmations of the Báb, each of which reinforces the
strength, and confirms the truth, of these remarkable statements, I
have already referred. What remains for me to consider in this
connection are such passages in the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
the appointed Interpreter of these same utterances, as throw further
light upon and amplify various features of this enthralling theme.
The tone of His language is indeed as emphatic and His tribute no
less glowing than that of either Bahá’u’lláh
or the Báb.

“Centuries, nay ages, must pass away,” He
affirms in one of His earliest Tablets, “ere the Day-Star of
Truth shineth again in its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once
more in the radiance of its vernal glory… How thankful must we be
for having been made in this Day the recipients of so overwhelming a
favor! Would that we had ten thousand lives that we might lay them
down in thanksgiving for so rare a privilege, so high an attainment,
so priceless a bounty!” “The mere contemplation,”
He adds, “of the Dispensation inaugurated by the Blessed Beauty
would have sufficed to overwhelm the saints of bygone ages—saints
who longed to partake for one moment of its great glory.” “The
holy ones of past ages and centuries have, each and all, yearned with
tearful eyes to live, though for one moment, in the Day of God. Their
longings unsatisfied, they repaired to the Great Beyond. How great,
therefore, is the bounty of the Abhá Beauty Who,
notwithstanding our utter unworthiness, hath through His grace and
mercy breathed into us in this divinely-illumined century the spirit
of life, hath gathered us beneath the standard of the Beloved of the
world, and chosen to confer upon us a bounty for which the mighty
ones of bygone ages had craved in vain.” “The souls of
the well-favored among the concourse on high,” He likewise
affirms, “the sacred dwellers of the most exalted Paradise, are
in this day filled with burning desire to return unto this world,
that they may render such service as lieth in their power to the
threshold of the Abhá Beauty.”

“The effulgence of God’s splendrous mercy,”
He, in a passage alluding to the growth and future development of the
Faith, declares, “hath enveloped the peoples and kindreds of
the earth, and the whole world is bathed in its shining glory… The
day will soon come when the light of Divine unity will have so
permeated the East and the West that no man dare any longer ignore
it.” “Now in the world of being the Hand of divine power
hath firmly laid the foundations of this all-highest bounty and this
wondrous gift. Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy
cycle shall gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the
beginning of its growth and the dayspring of the revelation of its
signs. Ere the close of this century and of this age, it shall be
made clear and evident how wondrous was that springtide and how
heavenly was that gift!”

In confirmation of the exalted rank of the true
believer, referred to by Bahá’u’lláh, He
reveals the following: “The station which he who hath truly
recognized this Revelation will attain is the same as the one
ordained for such prophets of the house of Israel as are not regarded
as Manifestations ‘endowed with constancy.’”

In connection with the Manifestations destined to follow
the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
makes this definite and weighty declaration: “Concerning the
Manifestations that will come down in the future ‘in the
shadows of the clouds,’ know verily that in so far as their
relation to the source of their inspiration is concerned they are
under the shadow of the Ancient Beauty. In their relation, however,
to the age in which they appear, each and every one of them ‘doeth
whatsoever He willeth.’”

“O my friend!” He thus addresses in one of
His Tablets a man of recognized authority and standing, “The
undying Fire which the Lord of the Kingdom hath kindled in the midst
of the holy Tree is burning fiercely in the midmost heart of the
world. The conflagration it will provoke will envelop the whole
earth. Its blazing flames will illuminate its peoples and kindreds.
All the signs have been revealed; every prophetic allusion hath been
manifested. Whatever hath been enshrined in all the Scriptures of the
past hath been made evident. To doubt or hesitate is no more
possible… Time is pressing. The Divine Charger is impatient, and
can tarry no longer. Ours is the duty to rush forward and, ere it is
too late, win the victory.” And finally, is this most stirring
passage which He, in one of His moments of exultation, was moved to
address to one of His most trusted and eminent followers in the
earliest days of His ministry: “What more shall I say? What
else can my pen recount? So loud is the call that reverberates from
the Abhá Kingdom that mortal ears are well-nigh deafened with
its vibrations. The whole creation, methinks, is being disrupted and
is bursting asunder through the shattering influence of the Divine
summons issued from the throne of glory. More than this I cannot
write.”

Dearly-beloved friends! Enough has been said, and the
quoted excerpts from the writings of the Báb, of Bahá’u’lláh
and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are sufficiently numerous and
varied, to convince the conscientious reader of the sublimity of this
unique cycle in the world’s religious history. It would be
utterly impossible to over-exaggerate its significance or to overrate
the influence it has exerted and which it must increasingly exert as
its great system unfolds itself amidst the welter of a collapsing
civilization.

To whoever may read these pages a word of warning seems,
however, advisable before I proceed further with the development of
my argument. Let no one meditating, in the light of the afore-quoted
passages, on the nature of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,
mistake its character or misconstrue the intent of its Author. The
divinity attributed to so great a Being and the complete incarnation
of the names and attributes of God in so exalted a Person should,
under no circumstances, be misconceived or misinterpreted. The human
temple that has been made the vehicle of so overpowering a Revelation
must, if we be faithful to the tenets of our Faith, ever remain
entirely distinguished from that “innermost Spirit of Spirits”
and “eternal Essence of Essences”—that invisible
yet rational God Who, however much we extol the divinity of His
Manifestations on earth, can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His
unknowable, His incorruptible and all-embracing Reality in the
concrete and limited frame of a mortal being. Indeed, the God Who
could so incarnate His own reality would, in the light of the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, cease immediately
to be God. So crude and fantastic a theory of Divine incarnation is
as removed from, and incompatible with, the essentials of Bahá’í
belief as are the no less inadmissible pantheistic and
anthropomorphic conceptions of God— both of which the
utterances of Bahá’u’lláh emphatically
repudiate and the fallacy of which they expose.

He Who in unnumbered passages claimed His utterance to
be the “Voice of Divinity, the Call of God Himself” thus
solemnly affirms in the Kitáb-i-Íqán: “To
every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the
unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immeasurably exalted beyond
every human attribute such as corporeal existence, ascent and
descent, egress and regress… He is, and hath ever been, veiled in
the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality
everlastingly hidden from the sight of men… He standeth exalted
beyond and above all separation and union, all proximity and
remoteness… ‘God was alone; there was none else beside Him’
is a sure testimony of this truth.”

“From time immemorial,” Bahá’u’lláh,
speaking of God, explains, “He, the Divine Being, hath been
veiled in the ineffable sanctity of His exalted Self, and will
everlasting continue to be wrapt in the impenetrable mystery of His
unknowable Essence… Ten thousand Prophets, each a Moses, are
thunderstruck upon the Sinai of their search at God’s
forbidding voice, ‘Thou shalt never behold Me!’; whilst a
myriad Messengers, each as great as Jesus, stand dismayed upon their
heavenly thrones by the interdiction ‘Mine Essence thou shalt
never apprehend!’” “How bewildering to me,
insignificant as I am,” Bahá’u’lláh
in His communion with God affirms, “is the attempt to fathom
the sacred depths of Thy knowledge! How futile my efforts to
visualize the magnitude of the power inherent in Thine handiwork—the
revelation of Thy creative power!” “When I contemplate, O
my God, the relationship that bindeth me to Thee,” He, in yet
another prayer revealed in His own handwriting, testifies, “I
am moved to proclaim to all created things ‘verily I am God!’;
and when I consider my own self, lo, I find it coarser than clay!”

“The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of
Days,” Bahá’u’lláh further states in
the Kitáb-i-Íqán, “being thus closed in
the face of all beings, He, the Source of infinite grace … hath
caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of
the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made
manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the
mysteries of the unchangeable Being and tell of the subtleties of His
imperishable Essence… All the Prophets of God, His well-favored,
His holy and chosen Messengers are, without exception, the bearers of
His names and the embodiments of His attributes… These Tabernacles
of Holiness, these primal Mirrors which reflect the Light of unfading
glory, are but expressions of Him Who is the Invisible of the
Invisibles.”

That Bahá’u’lláh should,
notwithstanding the overwhelming intensity of His Revelation, be
regarded as essentially one of these Manifestations of God, never to
be identified with that invisible Reality, the Essence of Divinity
itself, is one of the major beliefs of our Faith—a belief which
should never be obscured and the integrity of which no one of its
followers should allow to be compromised.

Nor does the Bahá’í Revelation,
claiming as it does to be the culmination of a prophetic cycle and
the fulfillment of the promise of all ages, attempt, under any
circumstances, to invalidate those first and everlasting principles
that animate and underlie the religions that have preceded it. The
God-given authority, vested in each one of them, it admits and
establishes as its firmest and ultimate basis. It regards them in no
other light except as different stages in the eternal history and
constant evolution of one religion, Divine and indivisible, of which
it itself forms but an integral part. It neither seeks to obscure
their Divine origin, nor to dwarf the admitted magnitude of their
colossal achievements. It can countenance no attempt that seeks to
distort their features or to stultify the truths which they instill.
Its teachings do not deviate a hairbreadth from the verities they
enshrine, nor does the weight of its message detract one jot or one
tittle from the influence they exert or the loyalty they inspire. Far
from aiming at the overthrow of the spiritual foundation of the
world’s religious systems, its avowed, its unalterable purpose
is to widen their basis, to restate their fundamentals, to reconcile
their aims, to reinvigorate their life, to demonstrate their oneness,
to restore the pristine purity of their teachings, to cöordinate
their functions and to assist in the realization of their highest
aspirations. These divinely-revealed religions, as a close observer
has graphically expressed it, “are doomed not to die, but to be
reborn… ‘Does not the child succumb in the youth and the
youth in the man; yet neither child nor youth perishes?’”

“They Who are the Luminaries of Truth and the
Mirrors reflecting the light of Divine Unity,” Bahá’u’lláh
explains in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, “in whatever
age and cycle they are sent down from their invisible habitations of
ancient glory unto this world to educate the souls of men and endue
with grace all created things, are invariably endowed with an
all-compelling power and invested with invincible sovereignty…
These sanctified Mirrors, these Day-Springs of ancient glory are one
and all the exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the
universe, its essence and ultimate purpose. From Him proceed their
knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty. The
beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His image, and
their revelation a sign of His deathless glory… Through them is
transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them is revealed the
light that can never fade… Human tongue can never befittingly sing
their praise, and human speech can never unfold their mystery.”
“Inasmuch as these Birds of the celestial Throne,” He
adds, “are all sent down from the heaven of the Will of God,
and as they all arise to proclaim His irresistible Faith, they
therefore are regarded as one soul and the same person… They all
abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated
upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the same
Faith… They only differ in the intensity of their revelation and
the comparative potency of their light… That a certain attribute of
God hath not been outwardly manifested by these Essences of
Detachment doth in no wise imply that they Who are the Day-Springs of
God’s attributes and the Treasuries of His holy names did not
actually possess it.”

It should also be borne in mind that, great as is the
power manifested by this Revelation and however vast the range of the
Dispensation its Author has inaugurated, it emphatically repudiates
the claim to be regarded as the final revelation of God’s will
and purpose for mankind. To hold such a conception of its character
and functions would be tantamount to a betrayal of its cause and a
denial of its truth. It must necessarily conflict with the
fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of Bahá’í
belief, the principle that religious truth is not absolute but
relative, that Divine Revelation is orderly, continuous and
progressive and not spasmodic or final. Indeed, the categorical
rejection by the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
of the claim to finality which any religious system inaugurated by
the Prophets of the past may advance is as clear and emphatic as
their own refusal to claim that same finality for the Revelation with
which they stand identified. “To believe that all revelation is
ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed, that from the
daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again, that the
ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out of the
tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be
made manifest” must constitute in the eyes of every follower of
the Faith a grave, an inexcusable departure from one of its most
cherished and fundamental principles.

A reference to some of the already quoted utterances of
Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
will surely suffice to establish, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the
truth of this cardinal principle. Might not the following passage of
the Hidden Words be, likewise, construed as an allegorical allusion
to the progressiveness of Divine Revelation and an admission by its
Author that the Message with which He has been entrusted is not the
final and ultimate expression of the will and guidance of the
Almighty? “O Son of Justice! In the night-season the beauty of
the immortal Being hath repaired from the emerald height of fidelity
unto the Sadratu’l-Muntahá, and wept with such a weeping
that the concourse on high and the dwellers of the realms above
wailed at His lamenting. Whereupon there was asked, Why the wailing
and weeping? He made reply: As bidden I waited expectant upon the
hill of faithfulness, yet inhaled not from them that dwell on earth
the fragrance of fidelity. Then summoned to return I beheld, and lo!
certain doves of holiness were sore tried within the claws of the
dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of heaven hastened forth unveiled
and resplendent from Her mystic mansion, and asked of their names,
and all were told but one. And when urged, the first letter thereof
was uttered, whereupon the dwellers of the celestial chambers rushed
forth out of their habitation of glory. And whilst the second letter
was pronounced they fell down, one and all, upon the dust. At that
moment a voice was heard from the inmost shrine: ‘Thus far and
no farther.’ Verily We bear witness to that which they have
done and now are doing.”

In a more explicit language Bahá’u’lláh
testifies to this truth in one of His Tablets revealed in Adrianople:
“Know verily that the veil hiding Our countenance hath not been
completely lifted. We have revealed Our Self to a degree
corresponding to the capacity of the people of Our age. Should the
Ancient Beauty be unveiled in the fullness of His glory mortal eyes
would be blinded by the dazzling intensity of His revelation.”

In the Súriy-i-Sabr, revealed as far back as the
year 1863, on the very first day of His arrival in the garden of
Ridván, He thus affirms: “God hath sent down His
Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do
so till ‘the end that hath no end’; so that His grace
may, from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continually vouchsafed to
mankind.”

“I am not apprehensive for My own self,”
Bahá’u’lláh still more explicitly declares,
“My fears are for Him Who will be sent down unto you after
Me—Him Who will be invested with great sovereignty and mighty
dominion.” And again He writes in the Súratu’l-Haykal:
“By those words which I have revealed, Myself is not intended,
but rather He Who will come after Me. To it is witness God, the
All-Knowing.” “Deal not with Him,” He adds, “as
ye have dealt with Me.”

In a more circumstantial passage the Báb upholds
the same truth in His writings. “It is clear and evident,”
He writes in the Persian Bayán, “that the object of all
preceding Dispensations hath been to pave the way for the advent of
Muḥammad, the Apostle of God. These, including the Muḥammadan
Dispensation, have had, in their turn, as their objective the
Revelation proclaimed by the Qá’im. The purpose
underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has,
in like manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom
God will make manifest. And this Faith—the Faith of Him Whom
God will make manifest—in its turn, together with all the
Revelations gone before it, have as their object the Manifestation
destined to succeed it. And the latter, no less than all the
Revelations preceding it, prepare the way for the Revelation which is
yet to follow. The process of the rise and setting of the Sun of
Truth will thus indefinitely continue—a process that hath had
no beginning and will have no end.”

“Know of a certainty,” Bahá’u’lláh
explains in this connection, “that in every Dispensation the
light of Divine Revelation hath been vouchsafed to men in direct
proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble
its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How gradually its
warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith, enabling
meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing
intensity of its light. How steadily it declineth until it reacheth
its setting point. Were it all of a sudden to manifest the energies
latent within it, it would no doubt cause injury to all created
things… In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to
reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full measure
of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty hath bestowed
upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste away and be
consumed; for men’s hearts would neither sustain the intensity
of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of its
light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist.”

In the light of these clear and conclusive statements it
is our clear duty to make it indubitably evident to every seeker
after truth that from “the beginning that hath no beginning”
the Prophets of the one, the unknowable God, including Bahá’u’lláh
Himself, have all, as the channels of God’s grace, as the
exponents of His unity, as the mirrors of His light and the revealers
of His purpose, been commissioned to unfold to mankind an
ever-increasing measure of His truth, of His inscrutable will and
Divine guidance, and will continue to “the end that hath no
end” to vouchsafe still fuller and mightier revelations of His
limitless power and glory.

We might well ponder in our hearts the following
passages from a prayer revealed by Bahá’u’lláh
which strikingly affirm, and are a further evidence of, the reality
of the great and essential truth lying at the very core of His
Message to mankind: “Praise be to Thee, O Lord my God, for the
wondrous revelations of Thine inscrutable decree and the manifold
woes and trials Thou hast destined for myself. At one time Thou didst
deliver me into the hands of Nimrod; at another Thou hast allowed
Pharaoh’s rod to persecute me. Thou alone canst estimate,
through Thine all-encompassing knowledge and the operation of Thy
Will, the incalculable afflictions I have suffered at their hands.
Again Thou didst cast me into the prison-cell of the ungodly for no
reason except that I was moved to whisper into the ears of the
well-favored denizens of Thy kingdom an intimation of the vision with
which Thou hadst, through Thy knowledge, inspired me and revealed to
me its meaning through the potency of Thy might. And again Thou didst
decree that I be beheaded by the sword of the infidel. Again I was
crucified for having unveiled to men’s eyes the hidden gems of
Thy glorious unity, for having revealed to them the wondrous signs of
Thy sovereign and everlasting power. How bitter the humiliations
heaped upon me, in a subsequent age, on the plain of Karbilá!
How lonely did I feel amidst Thy people; to what state of
helplessness I was reduced in that land! Unsatisfied with such
indignities, my persecutors decapitated me and carrying aloft my head
from land to land paraded it before the gaze of the unbelieving
multitude and deposited it on the seats of the perverse and
faithless. In a later age I was suspended and my breast was made a
target to the darts of the malicious cruelty of my foes. My limbs
were riddled with bullets and my body was torn asunder. Finally,
behold how in this day my treacherous enemies have leagued themselves
against me, and are continually plotting to instill the venom of hate
and malice into the souls of Thy servants. With all their might they
are scheming to accomplish their purpose… Grievous as is my plight,
O God, my Well-beloved, I render thanks unto Thee, and my spirit is
grateful for whatsoever hath befallen me in the path of Thy
good-pleasure. I am well pleased with that which Thou didst ordain
for me, and welcome, however calamitous, the pains and sorrows I am
made to suffer.”

The Báb

Dearly-beloved friends! That the Báb, the
inaugurator of the Bábí Dispensation, is fully entitled
to rank as one of the self-sufficient Manifestations of God, that He
has been invested with sovereign power and authority, and exercises
all the rights and prerogatives of independent Prophethood, is yet
another fundamental verity which the Message of Bahá’u’lláh
insistently proclaims and which its followers must uncompromisingly
uphold. That He is not to be regarded merely as an inspired Precursor
of the Bahá’í Revelation, that in His person, as
He Himself bears witness in the Persian Bayán, the object of
all the Prophets gone before Him has been fulfilled, is a truth which
I feel it my duty to demonstrate and emphasize. We would assuredly be
failing in our duty to the Faith we profess and would be violating
one of its basic and sacred principles if in our words or by our
conduct we hesitate to recognize the implications of this root
principle of Bahá’í belief, or refuse to uphold
unreservedly its integrity and demonstrate its truth. Indeed the
chief motive actuating me to undertake the task of editing and
translating Nabíl’s immortal Narrative has been to
enable every follower of the Faith in the West to better understand
and more readily grasp the tremendous implications of His exalted
station and to more ardently admire and love Him.

There can be no doubt that the claim to the twofold
station ordained for the Báb by the Almighty, a claim which He
Himself has so boldly advanced, which Bahá’u’lláh
has repeatedly affirmed, and to which the Will and Testament of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá has finally given the sanction of its
testimony, constitutes the most distinctive feature of the Bahá’í
Dispensation. It is a further evidence of its uniqueness, a
tremendous accession to the strength, to the mysterious power and
authority with which this holy cycle has been invested. Indeed the
greatness of the Báb consists primarily, not in His being the
divinely-appointed Forerunner of so transcendent a Revelation, but
rather in His having been invested with the powers inherent in the
inaugurator of a separate religious Dispensation, and in His
wielding, to a degree unrivaled by the Messengers gone before Him,
the scepter of independent Prophethood.

The short duration of His Dispensation, the restricted
range within which His laws and ordinances have been made to operate,
supply no criterion whatever wherewith to judge its Divine origin and
to evaluate the potency of its message. “That so brief a span,”
Bahá’u’lláh Himself explains, “should
have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own
previous Manifestation, is a secret that no man can unravel and a
mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had been
foreordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless and
until he be informed of the contents of My Hidden Book.”
“Behold,” Bahá’u’lláh further
explains in the Kitáb-i-Badí’, one of His works
refuting the arguments of the people of the Bayán, “behold,
how immediately upon the completion of the ninth year of this
wondrous, this most holy and merciful Dispensation, the requisite
number of pure, of wholly consecrated and sanctified souls had been
most secretly consummated.”

The marvelous happenings that have heralded the advent
of the Founder of the Bábí Dispensation, the dramatic
circumstances of His own eventful life, the miraculous tragedy of His
martyrdom, the magic of His influence exerted on the most eminent and
powerful among His countrymen, to all of which every chapter of
Nabíl’s stirring narrative testifies, should in
themselves be regarded as sufficient evidence of the validity of His
claim to so exalted a station among the Prophets.

However graphic the record which the eminent chronicler
of His life has transmitted to posterity, so luminous a narrative
must pale before the glowing tribute paid to the Báb by the
pen of Bahá’u’lláh. This tribute the Báb
Himself has, by the clear assertion of His claim, abundantly
supported, while the written testimonies of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
have powerfully reinforced its character and elucidated its meaning.

Where else if not in the Kitáb-i-Íqán
can the student of the Bábí Dispensation seek to find
those affirmations that unmistakably attest the power and spirit
which no man, except he be a Manifestation of God, can manifest?
“Could such a thing,” exclaims Bahá’u’lláh,
“be made manifest except through the power of a Divine
Revelation and the potency of God’s invincible Will? By the
righteousness of God! Were any one to entertain so great a Revelation
in his heart the thought of such a declaration would alone confound
him! Were the hearts of all men to be crowded into his heart, he
would still hesitate to venture upon so awful an enterprise.”
“No eye,” He in another passage affirms, “hath
beheld so great an outpouring of bounty, nor hath any ear heard of
such a Revelation of loving-kindness… The Prophets ‘endowed
with constancy,’ whose loftiness and glory shine as the sun,
were each honored with a Book which all have seen, and the verses of
which have been duly ascertained. Whereas the verses which have
rained from this Cloud of divine mercy have been so abundant that
none hath yet been able to estimate their number… How can they
belittle this Revelation? Hath any age witnessed such momentous
happenings?”

Commenting on the character and influence of those
heroes and martyrs whom the spirit of the Báb had so magically
transformed Bahá’u’lláh reveals the
following: “If these companions be not the true strivers after
God, who else could be called by this name?… If these companions,
with all their marvelous testimonies and wondrous works, be false,
who then is worthy to claim for himself the truth?… Has the world
since the days of Adam witnessed such tumult, such violent
commotion?… Methinks, patience was revealed only by virtue of their
fortitude, and faithfulness itself was begotten only by their deeds.”

Wishing to stress the sublimity of the Báb’s
exalted station as compared with that of the Prophets of the past,
Bahá’u’lláh in that same epistle asserts:
“No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor
can any knowledge comprehend the full measure of His Faith.” He
then quotes, in confirmation of His argument, these prophetic words:
“Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All that the Prophets
have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath known
more than these two letters. But when the Qá’im shall
arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and five letters to be made
manifest.” “Behold,” He adds, “how great and
lofty is His station! His rank excelleth that of all the Prophets and
His Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of
all their chosen ones.” “Of His Revelation,” He
further adds, “the Prophets of God, His saints and chosen ones,
have either not been informed, or, in pursuance of God’s
inscrutable decree, they have not disclosed.”

Of all the tributes which Bahá’u’lláh’s
unerring pen has chosen to pay to the memory of the Báb, His
“Best-Beloved,” the most memorable and touching is this
brief, yet eloquent passage which so greatly enhances the value of
the concluding passages of that same epistle. “Amidst them
all,” He writes, referring to the afflictive trials and dangers
besetting Him in the city of Baghdád, “We stand
life in hand wholly resigned to His Will, that perchance through
God’s loving kindness and grace, this revealed and manifest
Letter (Bahá’u’lláh) may lay down His life
as a sacrifice in the path of the Primal Point, the most exalted Word
(the Báb). By Him, at Whose bidding the Spirit hath spoken,
but for this yearning of Our soul, We would not, for one moment, have
tarried any longer in this city.”

Dearly-beloved friends! So resounding a praise, so bold
an assertion issued by the pen of Bahá’u’lláh
in so weighty a work, are fully re-echoed in the language in which
the Source of the Bábí Revelation has chosen to clothe
the claims He Himself has advanced. “I am the Mystic Fane,”
the Báb thus proclaims His station in the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá,
“which the Hand of Omnipotence hath reared. I am the Lamp which
the Finger of God hath lit within its niche and caused to shine with
deathless splendor. I am the Flame of that supernal Light that glowed
upon Sinai in the gladsome Spot, and lay concealed in the midst of
the Burning Bush.” “O Qurratu’l-‘Ayn!”
He, addressing Himself in that same commentary, exclaims, “I
recognize in Thee none other except the ‘Great
Announcement’—the Announcement voiced by the Concourse on
high. By this name, I bear witness, they that circle the Throne of
Glory have ever known Thee.” “With each and every
Prophet, Whom We have sent down in the past,” He further adds,
“We have established a separate Covenant concerning the
‘Remembrance of God’ and His Day. Manifest, in the realm
of glory and through the power of truth, are the ‘Remembrance
of God’ and His Day before the eyes of the angels that circle
His mercy-seat.” “Should it be Our wish,” He again
affirms, “it is in Our power to compel, through the agency of
but one letter of Our Revelation, the world and all that is therein
to recognize, in less than the twinkling of an eye, the truth of Our
Cause.”

“I am the Primal Point,” the Báb thus
addresses Muḥammad Sháh from the prison-fortress
of Máh-Kú, “from which have been generated all
created things… I am the Countenance of God Whose splendor can
never be obscured, the light of God whose radiance can never fade…
All the keys of heaven God hath chosen to place on My right hand, and
all the keys of hell on My left… I am one of the sustaining pillars
of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognized Me, hath known
all that is true and right, and hath attained all that is good and
seemly… The substance wherewith God hath created Me is not the clay
out of which others have been formed. He hath conferred upon Me that
which the worldly-wise can never comprehend, nor the faithful
discover.” “Should a tiny ant,” the Báb,
wishing to stress the limitless potentialities latent in His
Dispensation, characteristically affirms, “desire in this day
to be possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest
and most bewildering passages of the Qur’án, its wish
will no doubt be fulfilled, inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might
vibrates within the innermost being of all created things.” “If
so helpless a creature,” is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
comment on so startling an affirmation, “can be endowed with so
subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious must be the power
released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Bahá’u’lláh!”

To these authoritative assertions and solemn
declarations made by Bahá’u’lláh and the
Báb must be added ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own
incontrovertible testimony. He, the appointed interpreter of the
utterances of both Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb,
corroborates, not by implication but in clear and categorical
language, both in His Tablets and in His Testament, the truth of the
statements to which I have already referred.

In a Tablet addressed to a Bahá’í in
Mázindarán, in which He unfolds the meaning of a
misinterpreted statement attributed to Him regarding the rise of the
Sun of Truth in this century, He sets forth, briefly but
conclusively, what should remain for all time our true conception of
the relationship between the two Manifestations associated with the
Bahá’í Dispensation. “In making such a
statement,” He explains, “I had in mind no one else
except the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, the
character of whose Revelations it had been my purpose to elucidate.
The Revelation of the Báb may be likened to the sun, its
station corresponding to the first sign of the Zodiac—the sign
Aries—which the sun enters at the Vernal Equinox. The station
of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, on the
other hand, is represented by the sign Leo, the sun’s
mid-summer and highest station. By this is meant that this holy
Dispensation is illumined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining
from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its
resplendency, its heat and glory.”

“The Báb, the Exalted One,”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá more specifically affirms in another
Tablet, “is the Morn of Truth, the splendor of Whose light
shineth throughout all regions. He is also the Harbinger of the Most
Great Light, the Abhá Luminary. The Blessed Beauty is the One
promised by the sacred books of the past, the revelation of the
Source of light that shone upon Mount Sinai, Whose fire glowed in the
midst of the Burning Bush. We are, one and all, servants of their
threshold, and stand each as a lowly keeper at their door.”
“Every proof and prophecy,” is His still more emphatic
warning, “every manner of evidence, whether based on reason or
on the text of the scriptures and traditions, are to be regarded as
centered in the persons of Bahá’u’lláh and
the Báb. In them is to be found their complete fulfillment.”

And finally, in His Will and Testament, the repository
of His last wishes and parting instructions, He in the following
passage, specifically designed to set forth the guiding principles of
Bahá’í belief, sets the seal of His testimony on
the Báb’s dual and exalted station: “The
foundation of the belief of the people of Bahá (may my life be
offered up for them) is this: His holiness the exalted One (the Báb)
is the Manifestation of the unity and oneness of God and the
Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh).
His holiness, the Abhá Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh)
(may my life be offered up as a sacrifice for His steadfast friends)
is the supreme Manifestation of God and the Day-Spring of His most
divine Essence.” “All others,” He significantly
adds, “are servants unto Him and do His bidding.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Dearly-beloved friends! I have in the foregoing pages
ventured to attempt an exposition of such truths as I firmly believe
are implicit in the claim of Him Who is the Fountain-Head of the
Bahá’í Revelation. I have moreover endeavored to
dissipate such misapprehensions as may naturally arise in the mind of
any one contemplating so superhuman a manifestation of the glory of
God. I have striven to explain the meaning of the divinity with which
He Who is the vehicle of so mysterious an energy must needs be
invested. That the Message which so great a Being has, in this age,
been commissioned by God to deliver to mankind recognizes the divine
origin and upholds the first principles of every Dispensation
inaugurated by the prophets of the past, and stands inextricably
interwoven with each one of them, I have also to the best of my
ability undertaken to demonstrate. That the Author of such a Faith,
Who repudiates the claim to finality which leaders of various
denominations uphold has, despite the vastness of His Revelation,
disclaimed it for Himself I have, likewise, felt it necessary to
prove and emphasize. That the Báb, notwithstanding the
duration of His Dispensation, should be regarded primarily, not as
the chosen Precursor of the Bahá’í Faith, but as
One invested with the undivided authority assumed by each of the
independent Prophets of the past, seemed to me yet another basic
principle the elucidation of which would be extremely desirable at
the present stage of the evolution of our Cause.

An attempt I strongly feel should now be made to clarify
our minds regarding the station occupied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
and the significance of His position in this holy Dispensation. It
would be indeed difficult for us, who stand so close to such a
tremendous figure and are drawn by the mysterious power of so
magnetic a personality, to obtain a clear and exact understanding of
the rôle and character of One Who, not only in the Dispensation
of Bahá’u’lláh but in the entire field of
religious history, fulfills a unique function. Though moving in a
sphere of His own and holding a rank radically different from that of
the Author and the Forerunner of the Bahá’í
Revelation, He, by virtue of the station ordained for Him through the
Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, forms together
with them what may be termed the Three Central Figures of a Faith
that stands unapproached in the world’s spiritual history. He
towers, in conjunction with them, above the destinies of this infant
Faith of God from a level to which no individual or body ministering
to its needs after Him, and for no less a period than a full thousand
years, can ever hope to rise. To degrade His lofty rank by
identifying His station with or by regarding it as roughly equivalent
to, the position of those on whom the mantle of His authority has
fallen would be an act of impiety as grave as the no less heretical
belief that inclines to exalt Him to a state of absolute equality
with either the central Figure or Forerunner of our Faith. For wide
as is the gulf that separates ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from
Him Who is the Source of an independent Revelation, it can never be
regarded as commensurate with the greater distance that stands
between Him Who is the Center of the Covenant and His ministers who
are to carry on His work, whatever be their name, their rank, their
functions or their future achievements. Let those who have known
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who through their contact with His
magnetic personality have come to cherish for Him so fervent an
admiration, reflect, in the light of this statement, on the greatness
of One Who is so far above Him in station.

That ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is not a
Manifestation of God, that, though the successor of His Father, He
does not occupy a cognate station, that no one else except the Báb
and Bahá’u’lláh can ever lay claim to such
a station before the expiration of a full thousand years—are
verities which lie embedded in the specific utterances of both the
Founder of our Faith and the Interpreter of His teachings.

“Whoso layeth claim to a Revelation direct from
God,” is the express warning uttered in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
“ere the expiration of a full thousand years, such a man is
assuredly a lying imposter. We pray God that He may graciously assist
him to retract and repudiate such claim. Should he repent, God will
no doubt forgive him. If, however, he persists in his error, God will
assuredly send down one who will deal mercilessly with him. Terrible
indeed is God in punishing!” “Whosoever,” He adds
as a further emphasis, “interpreteth this verse otherwise than
its obvious meaning is deprived of the Spirit of God and of His mercy
which encompasseth all created things.” “Should a man
appear,” is yet another conclusive statement, “ere the
lapse of a full thousand years—each year consisting of twelve
months according to the Qur’án, and of nineteen months
of nineteen days each, according to the Bayán—and if
such a man reveal to your eyes all the signs of God, unhesitatingly
reject him!”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own statements,
in confirmation of this warning, are no less emphatic and binding:
“This is,” He declares, “my firm, my unshakable
conviction, the essence of my unconcealed and explicit belief—a
conviction and belief which the denizens of the Abhá Kingdom
fully share: The Blessed Beauty is the Sun of Truth, and His light
the light of truth. The Báb is likewise the Sun of Truth, and
His light the light of truth… My station is the station of
servitude—a servitude which is complete, pure and real, firmly
established, enduring, obvious, explicitly revealed and subject to no
interpretation whatever… I am the Interpreter of the Word of God;
such is my interpretation.”

Does not ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His own
Will—in a tone and language that might well confound the most
inveterate among the breakers of His Father’s Covenant—rob
of their chief weapon those who so long and so persistently had
striven to impute to Him the charge of having tacitly claimed a
station equal, if not superior, to that of Bahá’u’lláh?
“The foundation of the belief of the people of Bahá is
this,” thus proclaims one of the weightiest passages of that
last document left to voice in perpetuity the directions and wishes
of a departed Master, “His Holiness the Exalted One (the Báb)
is the Manifestation of the unity and oneness of God and the
Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty. His Holiness the Abhá Beauty
(Bahá’u’lláh) (may my life be a sacrifice
for His steadfast friends) is the supreme Manifestation of God and
the Day-Spring of His most divine Essence. All others are servants
unto Him and do His bidding.”

From such clear and formally laid down statements,
incompatible as they are with any assertion of a claim to
Prophethood, we should not by any means infer that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
is merely one of the servants of the Blessed Beauty, or at best one
whose function is to be confined to that of an authorized interpreter
of His Father’s teachings. Far be it from me to entertain such
a notion or to wish to instill such sentiments. To regard Him in such
a light is a manifest betrayal of the priceless heritage bequeathed
by Bahá’u’lláh to mankind. Immeasurably
exalted is the station conferred upon Him by the Supreme Pen above
and beyond the implications of these, His own written statements.
Whether in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the most weighty and sacred of
all the works of Bahá’u’lláh, or in the
Kitáb-i-‘Ahd, the Book of His Covenant, or in the
Súriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the Branch), such references
as have been recorded by the pen of Bahá’u’lláh—references
which the Tablets of His Father addressed to Him mightily
reinforce—invest ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a power,
and surround Him with a halo, which the present generation can never
adequately appreciate.

He is, and should for all time be regarded, first and
foremost, as the Center and Pivot of Bahá’u’lláh’s
peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His most exalted handiwork, the
stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings,
the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Bahá’í
ideal, the incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue,
the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the
Law of God, the Being “round Whom all names revolve,” the
Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great
Peace, the Moon of the Central Orb of this most holy
Dispensation—styles and titles that are implicit and find their
truest, their highest and fairest expression in the magic name
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He is, above and beyond these
appellations, the “Mystery of God”—an expression by
which Bahá’u’lláh Himself has chosen to
designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means justify us
to assign to Him the station of Prophethood, indicates how in the
person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the incompatible
characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and
perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized.

“When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the
Book of My Revelation is ended,” proclaims the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
“turn your faces towards Him Whom God hath purposed, Who hath
branched from this Ancient Root.” And again, “When the
Mystic Dove will have winged its flight from its Sanctuary of Praise
and sought its far-off goal, its hidden habitation, refer ye
whatsoever ye understand not in the Book to Him Who hath branched
from this mighty Stock.”

In the Kitáb-i-‘Ahd, moreover, Bahá’u’lláh
solemnly and explicitly declares: “It is incumbent upon the
Aghsán, the Afnán and My kindred to turn, one
and all, their faces towards the Most Mighty Branch. Consider that
which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book: ‘When the ocean
of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is ended,
turn your faces toward Him Whom God hath purposed, Who hath branched
from this Ancient Root.’ The object of this sacred verse is
none other except the Most Mighty Branch (‘Abdu’l-Bahá).
Thus have We graciously revealed unto you our potent Will, and I am
verily the Gracious, the All-Powerful.”

In the Súriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the
Branch) the following verses have been recorded: “There hath
branched from the Sadratu’l-Muntahá this sacred and
glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that
hath sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the
Limb of the Law of God hath sprung forth from this Root which God
hath firmly implanted in the Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch
hath been so uplifted as to encompass the whole of creation.
Magnified be He, therefore, for this sublime, this blessed, this
mighty, this exalted Handiwork!… A Word hath, as a token of Our
grace, gone forth from the Most Great Tablet—a Word which God
hath adorned with the ornament of His own Self, and made it sovereign
over the earth and all that is therein, and a sign of His greatness
and power among its people …Render thanks unto God, O people, for
His appearance; for verily He is the most great Favor unto you, the
most perfect bounty upon you; and through Him every mouldering bone
is quickened. Whoso turneth towards Him hath turned towards God, and
whoso turneth away from Him hath turned away from My beauty, hath
repudiated My Proof, and transgressed against Me. He is the Trust of
God amongst you, His charge within you, His manifestation unto you
and His appearance among His favored servants… We have sent Him
down in the form of a human temple. Blest and sanctified be God Who
createth whatsoever He willeth through His inviolable, His infallible
decree. They who deprive themselves of the shadow of the Branch, are
lost in the wilderness of error, are consumed by the heat of worldly
desires, and are of those who will assuredly perish.”

“O Thou Who art the apple of Mine eye!”
Bahá’u’lláh, in His own handwriting, thus
addresses ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “My glory, the ocean
of My loving-kindness, the sun of My bounty, the heaven of My mercy
rest upon Thee. We pray God to illumine the world through Thy
knowledge and wisdom, to ordain for Thee that which will gladden
Thine heart and impart consolation to Thine eyes.” “The
glory of God rest upon Thee,” He writes in another Tablet, “and
upon whosoever serveth Thee and circleth around Thee. Woe, great woe,
betide him that opposeth and injureth Thee. Well is it with him that
sweareth fealty to Thee; the fire of hell torment him who is Thine
enemy.” “We have made Thee a shelter for all mankind,”
He, in yet another Tablet, affirms, “a shield unto all who are
in heaven and on earth, a stronghold for whosoever hath believed in
God, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. God grant that through Thee
He may protect them, may enrich and sustain them, that He may inspire
Thee with that which shall be a wellspring of wealth unto all created
things, an ocean of bounty unto all men, and the dayspring of mercy
unto all peoples.”

“Thou knowest, O my God,” Bahá’u’lláh,
in a prayer revealed in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
honor, supplicates, “that I desire for Him naught except that
which Thou didst desire, and have chosen Him for no purpose save that
which Thou hadst intended for Him. Render Him victorious, therefore,
through Thy hosts of earth and heaven… Ordain, I beseech Thee, by
the ardor of My love for Thee and My yearning to manifest Thy Cause,
for Him, as well as for them that love Him, that which Thou hast
destined for Thy Messengers and the Trustees of Thy Revelation.
Verily, Thou art the Almighty, the All-Powerful.”

In a letter dictated by Bahá’u’lláh
and addressed by Mírzá Áqá Ján,
His amanuensis, to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá while the latter
was on a visit to Beirut, we read the following: “Praise be to
Him Who hath honored the Land of Bá (Beirut) through the
presence of Him round Whom all names revolve. All the atoms of the
earth have announced unto all created things that from behind the
gate of the Prison-city there hath appeared and above its horizon
there hath shone forth the Orb of the beauty of the great, the Most
Mighty Branch of God—His ancient and immutable
Mystery—proceeding on its way to another land. Sorrow, thereby,
hath enveloped this Prison-city, whilst another land rejoiceth…
Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His footsteps have
trodden, the eye that hath been cheered by the beauty of His
countenance, the ear that hath been honored by hearkening to His
call, the heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the
breast that hath dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath
voiced His praise, the scroll that hath borne the testimony of His
writings.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, writing in confirmation
of the authority conferred upon Him by Bahá’u’lláh,
makes the following statement: “In accordance with the explicit
text of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá’u’lláh
hath made the Center of the Covenant the Interpreter of His Word—a
Covenant so firm and mighty that from the beginning of time until the
present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like.”

Exalted as is the rank of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
and however profuse the praises with which in these sacred Books and
Tablets Bahá’u’lláh has glorified His son,
so unique a distinction must never be construed as conferring upon
its recipient a station identical with, or equivalent to, that of His
Father, the Manifestation Himself. To give such an interpretation to
any of these quoted passages would at once, and for obvious reasons,
bring it into conflict with the no less clear and authentic
assertions and warnings to which I have already referred. Indeed, as
I have already stated, those who overestimate ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
station are just as reprehensible and have done just as much harm as
those who underestimate it. And this for no other reason except that
by insisting upon an altogether unwarranted inference from
Bahá’u’lláh’s writings they are
inadvertently justifying and continuously furnishing the enemy with
proofs for his false accusations and misleading statements.

I feel it necessary, therefore, to state without any
equivocation or hesitation that neither in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas
nor in the Book of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant, nor even in the Tablet of the Branch, nor in any other
Tablet, whether revealed by Bahá’u’lláh or
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is there any authority whatever for
the opinion that inclines to uphold the so-called “mystic
unity” of Bahá’u’lláh and
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, or to establish the identity of the
latter with His Father or with any preceding Manifestation. This
erroneous conception may, in part, be ascribed to an altogether
extravagant interpretation of certain terms and passages in the
Tablet of the Branch, to the introduction into its English
translation of certain words that are either non-existent,
misleading, or ambiguous in their connotation. It is, no doubt,
chiefly based upon an altogether unjustified inference from the
opening passages of a Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh,
extracts of which, as reproduced in the Bahá’í
Scriptures, immediately precede, but form no part of, the said Tablet
of the Branch. It should be made clear to every one reading those
extracts that by the phrase “the Tongue of the Ancient”
no one else is meant but God, and that the term “the Greatest
Name” is an obvious reference to Bahá’u’lláh,
and that “the Covenant” referred to is not the specific
Covenant of which Bahá’u’lláh is the
immediate Author and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the Center but
that general Covenant which, as inculcated by the Bahá’í
teaching, God Himself invariably establishes with mankind when He
inaugurates a new Dispensation. “The Tongue” that
“gives,” as stated in those extracts, the “glad-tidings”
is none other than the Voice of God referring to Bahá’u’lláh,
and not Bahá’u’lláh referring to
‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Moreover, to maintain that the assertion “He is
Myself,” instead of denoting the mystic unity of God and His
Manifestations, as explained in the Kitáb-i-Íqán,
establishes the identity of Bahá’u’lláh
with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, would constitute a direct
violation of the oft-repeated principle of the oneness of God’s
Manifestations—a principle which the Author of these same
extracts is seeking by implication to emphasize.

It would also amount to a reversion to those irrational
and superstitious beliefs which have insensibly crept, in the first
century of the Christian era, into the teachings of Jesus Christ, and
by crystallizing into accepted dogmas have impaired the effectiveness
and obscured the purpose of the Christian Faith.

“I affirm,” is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
own written comment on the Tablet of the Branch, “that the true
meaning, the real significance, the innermost secret of these verses,
of these very words, is my own servitude to the sacred Threshold of
the Abhá Beauty, my complete self-effacement, my utter
nothingness before Him. This is my resplendent crown, my most
precious adorning. On this I pride myself in the kingdom of earth and
heaven. Therein I glory among the company of the well-favored!”
“No one is permitted,” He warns us in the passage which
immediately follows, “to give these verses any other
interpretation.” “I am,” He, in this same
connection, affirms, “according to the explicit texts of the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the Kitáb-i-‘Ahd the manifest
Interpreter of the Word of God… Whoso deviates from my
interpretation is a victim of his own fancy.”

Furthermore, the inescapable inference from the belief
in the identity of the Author of our Faith with Him Who is the Center
of His Covenant would be to place ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in
a position superior to that of the Báb, the reverse of which
is the fundamental, though not as yet universally recognized,
principle of this Revelation. It would also justify the charge with
which, all throughout ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
ministry, the Covenant-Breakers have striven to poison the minds and
pervert the understanding of Bahá’u’lláh’s
loyal followers.

It would be more correct, and in consonance with the
established principles of Bahá’u’lláh and
the Báb, if instead of maintaining this fictitious identity
with reference to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, we regard the
Forerunner and the Founder of our Faith as identical in reality—a
truth which the text of the Súratu’l-Haykal unmistakably
affirms. “Had the Primal Point (the Báb) been someone
else beside Me as ye claim,” is Bahá’u’lláh’s
explicit statement, “and had attained My presence, verily He
would have never allowed Himself to be separated from Me, but rather
We would have had mutual delights with each other in My Days.”
“He Who now voiceth the Word of God,” Bahá’u’lláh
again affirms, “is none other except the Primal Point Who hath
once again been made manifest.” “He is,” He thus
refers to Himself in a Tablet addressed to one of the Letters of the
Living, “the same as the One Who appeared in the year sixty
(1260 A.H.). This verily is one of His mighty signs.” “Who,”
He pleads in the Súriy-i-Damm, “will arise to secure the
triumph of the Primal Beauty (the Báb) revealed in the
countenance of His succeeding Manifestation?” Referring to the
Revelation proclaimed by the Báb He conversely characterizes
it as “My own previous Manifestation.”

That ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is not a
Manifestation of God, that He gets His light, His inspiration and
sustenance direct from the Fountain-head of the Bahá’í
Revelation; that He reflects even as a clear and perfect Mirror the
rays of Bahá’u’lláh’s glory, and does
not inherently possess that indefinable yet all-pervading reality the
exclusive possession of which is the hallmark of Prophethood; that
His words are not equal in rank, though they possess an equal
validity with the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh;
that He is not to be acclaimed as the return of Jesus Christ, the Son
Who will come “in the glory of the Father”—these
truths find added justification, and are further reinforced, by the
following statement of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, addressed to
some believers in America, with which I may well conclude this
section: “You have written that there is a difference among the
believers concerning the ‘Second Coming of Christ.’
Gracious God! Time and again this question hath arisen, and its
answer hath emanated in a clear and irrefutable statement from the
pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that what is meant in the
prophecies by the ‘Lord of Hosts’ and the ‘Promised
Christ’ is the Blessed Perfection (Bahá’u’lláh)
and His holiness the Exalted One (the Báb). My name is
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. My qualification is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
My reality is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. My praise is
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection
is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human
race my perpetual religion… No name, no title, no mention, no
commendation have I, nor will ever have, except ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
This is my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal
life. This is my everlasting glory.”

The Administrative Order

Dearly-beloved brethren in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá!
With the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh the
Day-Star of Divine guidance which, as foretold by Shaykh
Aḥmad and Siyyid Kázim, had risen in Shíráz,
and, while pursuing its westward course, had mounted its zenith in
Adrianople, had finally sunk below the horizon of Akká, never
to rise again ere the complete revolution of one thousand years. The
setting of so effulgent an Orb brought to a definite termination the
period of Divine Revelation—the initial and most vitalizing
stage in the Bahá’í era. Inaugurated by the Báb,
culminating in Bahá’u’lláh, anticipated and
extolled by the entire company of the Prophets of this great
prophetic cycle, this period has, except for the short interval
between the Báb’s martyrdom and Bahá’u’lláh’s
shaking experiences in the Síyáh-Chál of
Ṭihrán, been characterized by almost fifty years of
continuous and progressive Revelation—a period which by its
duration and fecundity must be regarded as unparalleled in the entire
field of the world’s spiritual history.

The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, on the
other hand, marks the closing of the Heroic and Apostolic Age of this
same Dispensation—that primitive period of our Faith the
splendors of which can never be rivaled, much less be eclipsed, by
the magnificence that must needs distinguish the future victories of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. For neither
the achievements of the champion-builders of the present-day
institutions of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
nor the tumultuous triumphs which the heroes of its Golden Age will
in the coming days succeed in winning, can measure with, or be
included within the same category as, the wondrous works associated
with the names of those who have generated its very life and laid its
pristine foundations. That first and creative age of the Bahá’í
era must, by its very nature, stand above and apart from the
formative period into which we have entered and the golden age
destined to succeed it.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who incarnates an
institution for which we can find no parallel whatsoever in any of
the world’s recognized religious systems, may be said to have
closed the Age to which He Himself belonged and opened the one in
which we are now laboring. His Will and Testament should thus be
regarded as the perpetual, the indissoluble link which the mind of
Him Who is the Mystery of God has conceived in order to insure the
continuity of the three ages that constitute the component parts of
the Bahá’í Dispensation. The period in which the
seed of the Faith had been slowly germinating is thus intertwined
both with the one which must witness its efflorescence and the
subsequent age in which that seed will have finally yielded its
golden fruit.

The creative energies released by the Law of
Bahá’u’lláh, permeating and evolving within
the mind of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have, by their very
impact and close interaction, given birth to an Instrument which may
be viewed as the Charter of the New World Order which is at once the
glory and the promise of this most great Dispensation. The Will may
thus be acclaimed as the inevitable offspring resulting from that
mystic intercourse between Him Who communicated the generating
influence of His divine Purpose and the One Who was its vehicle and
chosen recipient. Being the Child of the Covenant—the Heir of
both the Originator and the Interpreter of the Law of God—the
Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá can no more be
divorced from Him Who supplied the original and motivating impulse
than from the One Who ultimately conceived it. Bahá’u’lláh’s
inscrutable purpose, we must ever bear in mind, has been so
thoroughly infused into the conduct of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
and their motives have been so closely wedded together, that the mere
attempt to dissociate the teachings of the former from any system
which the ideal Exemplar of those same teachings has established
would amount to a repudiation of one of the most sacred and basic
truths of the Faith.

The Administrative Order, which ever since
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension has evolved and is
taking shape under our very eyes in no fewer than forty countries of
the world, may be considered as the framework of the Will itself, the
inviolable stronghold wherein this new-born child is being nurtured
and developed. This Administrative Order, as it expands and
consolidates itself, will no doubt manifest the potentialities and
reveal the full implications of this momentous Document—this
most remarkable expression of the Will of One of the most remarkable
Figures of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.
It will, as its component parts, its organic institutions, begin to
function with efficiency and vigor, assert its claim and demonstrate
its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the very
pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of
time the whole of mankind.

It should be noted in this connection that this
Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that
any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá’u’lláh
has Himself revealed its principles, established its institutions,
appointed the person to interpret His Word and conferred the
necessary authority on the body designed to supplement and apply His
legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its strength, its
fundamental distinction, and the guarantee against disintegration and
schism. Nowhere in the sacred scriptures of any of the world’s
religious systems, nor even in the writings of the Inaugurator of the
Bábí Dispensation, do we find any provisions
establishing a covenant or providing for an administrative order that
can compare in scope and authority with those that lie at the very
basis of the Bahá’í Dispensation. Has either
Christianity or Islám, to take as an instance two of the most
widely diffused and outstanding among the world’s recognized
religions, anything to offer that can measure with, or be regarded as
equivalent to, either the Book of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant or to the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?
Does the text of either the Gospel or the Qur’án confer
sufficient authority upon those leaders and councils that have
claimed the right and assumed the function of interpreting the
provisions of their sacred scriptures and of administering the
affairs of their respective communities? Could Peter, the admitted
chief of the Apostles, or the Imám ‘Alí, the
cousin and legitimate successor of the Prophet, produce in support of
the primacy with which both had been invested written and explicit
affirmations from Christ and Muḥammad that could have silenced
those who either among their contemporaries or in a later age have
repudiated their authority and, by their action, precipitated the
schisms that persist until the present day? Where, we may confidently
ask, in the recorded sayings of Jesus Christ, whether in the matter
of succession or in the provision of a set of specific laws and
clearly defined administrative ordinances, as distinguished from
purely spiritual principles, can we find anything approaching the
detailed injunctions, laws and warnings that abound in the
authenticated utterances of both Bahá’u’lláh
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá? Can any passage of the Qur’án,
which in respect to its legal code, its administrative and devotional
ordinances marks already a notable advance over previous and more
corrupted Revelations, be construed as placing upon an unassailable
basis the undoubted authority with which Muḥammad had, verbally
and on several occasions, invested His successor? Can the Author of
the Bábí Dispensation however much He may have
succeeded through the provisions of the Persian Bayán in
averting a schism as permanent and catastrophic as those that
afflicted Christianity and Islám—can He be said to have
produced instruments for the safeguarding of His Faith as definite
and efficacious as those which must for all time preserve the unity
of the organized followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh?

Alone of all the Revelations gone before it this Faith
has, through the explicit directions, the repeated warnings, the
authenticated safeguards incorporated and elaborated in its
teachings, succeeded in raising a structure which the bewildered
followers of bankrupt and broken creeds might well approach and
critically examine, and seek, ere it is too late, the invulnerable
security of its world-embracing shelter.

No wonder that He Who through the operation of His Will
has inaugurated so vast and unique an Order and Who is the Center of
so mighty a Covenant should have written these words: “So firm
and mighty is this Covenant that from the beginning of time until the
present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like.”
“Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy cycle,”
He wrote during the darkest and most dangerous days of His ministry,
“shall gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but
the beginning of its growth and the dayspring of the revelation of
its signs.” “Fear not,” are His reassuring words
foreshadowing the rise of the Administrative Order established by His
Will, “fear not if this Branch be severed from this material
world and cast aside its leaves; nay, the leaves thereof shall
flourish, for this Branch will grow after it is cut off from this
world below, it shall reach the loftiest pinnacles of glory, and it
shall bear such fruits as will perfume the world with their
fragrance.”

To what else if not to the power and majesty which this
Administrative Order—the rudiments of the future all-enfolding
Bahá’í Commonwealth—is destined to
manifest, can these utterances of Bahá’u’lláh
allude: “The world’s equilibrium hath been upset through
the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order.
Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the
agency of this unique, this wondrous System—the like of which
mortal eyes have never witnessed.”

The Báb Himself, in the course of His references
to “Him Whom God will make manifest” anticipates the
System and glorifies the World Order which the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh is destined to unfold. “Well
is it with him,” is His remarkable statement in the third
chapter of the Persian Bayán, “who fixeth his gaze upon
the Order of Bahá’u’lláh and rendereth
thanks unto his Lord! For He will assuredly be made manifest. God
hath indeed irrevocably ordained it in the Bayán.”

In the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh
where the institutions of the International and Local Houses of
Justice are specifically designated and formally established; in the
institution of the Hands of the Cause of God which first Bahá’u’lláh
and then ‘Abdu’l-Bahá brought into being; in the
institution of both local and national Assemblies which in their
embryonic stage were already functioning in the days preceding
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension; in the authority
with which the Author of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant
have in their Tablets chosen to confer upon them; in the institution
of the Local Fund which operated according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
specific injunctions addressed to certain Assemblies in Persia; in
the verses of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas the implications of which
clearly anticipate the institution of the Guardianship; in the
explanation which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in one of His
Tablets, has given to, and the emphasis He has placed upon, the
hereditary principle and the law of primogeniture as having been
upheld by the Prophets of the past—in these we can discern the
faint glimmerings and discover the earliest intimation of the nature
and working of the Administrative Order which the Will of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá was at a later time destined to
proclaim and formally establish.

An attempt, I feel, should at the present juncture be
made to explain the character and functions of the twin pillars that
support this mighty Administrative Structure—the institutions
of the Guardianship and of the Universal House of Justice. To
describe in their entirety the diverse elements that function in
conjunction with these institutions is beyond the scope and purpose
of this general exposition of the fundamental verities of the Faith.
To define with accuracy and minuteness the features, and to analyze
exhaustively the nature of the relationships which, on the one hand,
bind together these two fundamental organs of the Will of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and connect, on the other, each of
them to the Author of the Faith and the Center of His Covenant is a
task which future generations will no doubt adequately fulfill. My
present intention is to elaborate certain salient features of this
scheme which, however close we may stand to its colossal structure,
are already so clearly defined that we find it inexcusable to either
misconceive or ignore.

It should be stated, at the very outset, in clear and
unambiguous language, that these twin institutions of the
Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh should
be regarded as divine in origin, essential in their functions and
complementary in their aim and purpose. Their common, their
fundamental object is to insure the continuity of that
divinely-appointed authority which flows from the Source of our
Faith, to safeguard the unity of its followers and to maintain the
integrity and flexibility of its teachings. Acting in conjunction
with each other these two inseparable institutions administer its
affairs, cöordinate its activities, promote its interests,
execute its laws and defend its subsidiary institutions. Severally,
each operates within a clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction; each
is equipped with its own attendant institutions—instruments
designed for the effective discharge of its particular
responsibilities and duties. Each exercises, within the limitations
imposed upon it, its powers, its authority, its rights and
prerogatives. These are neither contradictory, nor detract in the
slightest degree from the position which each of these institutions
occupies. Far from being incompatible or mutually destructive, they
supplement each other’s authority and functions, and are
permanently and fundamentally united in their aims.

Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the
World Order of Bahá’u’lláh would be
mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle
which, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has written, has been
invariably upheld by the Law of God. “In all the Divine
Dispensations,” He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower
of the Faith in Persia, “the eldest son hath been given
extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been
his birthright.” Without such an institution the integrity of
the Faith would be imperiled, and the stability of the entire fabric
would be gravely endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means
required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a
series of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary
guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of its
elected representatives would be totally withdrawn.

Severed from the no less essential institution of the
Universal House of Justice this same System of the Will of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá would be paralyzed in its action and
would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author of the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His
legislative and administrative ordinances.

“He is the Interpreter of the Word of God,”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, referring to the functions of the
Guardian of the Faith, asserts, using in His Will the very term which
He Himself had chosen when refuting the argument of the
Covenant-breakers who had challenged His right to interpret the
utterances of Bahá’u’lláh. “After
him,” He adds, “will succeed the first-born of his lineal
descendants.” “The mighty stronghold,” He further
explains, “shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience
to him who is the Guardian of the Cause of God.” “It is
incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice, upon all the
Aghsán, the Afnán, the Hands of the Cause of
God, to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto
the Guardian of the Cause of God.”

“It is incumbent upon the members of the House of
Justice,” Bahá’u’lláh, on the other
hand, declares in the Eighth Leaf of the Exalted Paradise, “to
take counsel together regarding those things which have not outwardly
been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to
them. God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He
verily is the Provider, the Omniscient.” “Unto the Most
Holy Book” (the Kitáb-i-Aqdas), ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
states in His Will, “every one must turn, and all that is not
expressly recorded therein must be referred to the Universal House of
Justice. That which this body, whether unanimously or by a majority
doth carry, that is verily the truth and the purpose of God Himself.
Whoso doth deviate therefrom is verily of them that love discord,
hath shown forth malice, and turned away from the Lord of the
Covenant.”

Not only does ‘Abdu’l-Bahá confirm in
His Will Bahá’u’lláh’s above-quoted
statement, but invests this body with the additional right and power
to abrogate, according to the exigencies of time, its own enactments,
as well as those of a preceding House of Justice. “Inasmuch as
the House of Justice,” is His explicit statement in His Will,
“hath power to enact laws that are not expressly recorded in
the Book and bear upon daily transactions, so also it hath power to
repeal the same… This it can do because these laws form no part of
the divine explicit text.”

Referring to both the Guardian and the Universal House
of Justice we read these emphatic words: “The sacred and
youthful Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, as well as the
Universal House of Justice to be universally elected and established,
are both under the care and protection of the Abhá Beauty,
under the shelter and unerring guidance of the Exalted One (the Báb)
(may my life be offered up for them both). Whatsoever they decide is
of God.”

From these statements it is made indubitably clear and
evident that the Guardian of the Faith has been made the Interpreter
of the Word and that the Universal House of Justice has been invested
with the function of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in
the teachings. The interpretation of the Guardian, functioning within
his own sphere, is as authoritative and binding as the enactments of
the International House of Justice, whose exclusive right and
prerogative is to pronounce upon and deliver the final judgment on
such laws and ordinances as Bahá’u’lláh has
not expressly revealed. Neither can, nor will ever, infringe upon the
sacred and prescribed domain of the other. Neither will seek to
curtail the specific and undoubted authority with which both have
been divinely invested.

Though the Guardian of the Faith has been made the
permanent head of so august a body he can never, even temporarily,
assume the right of exclusive legislation. He cannot override the
decision of the majority of his fellow-members, but is bound to
insist upon a reconsideration by them of any enactment he
conscientiously believes to conflict with the meaning and to depart
from the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s
revealed utterances. He interprets what has been specifically
revealed, and cannot legislate except in his capacity as member of
the Universal House of Justice. He is debarred from laying down
independently the constitution that must govern the organized
activities of his fellow-members, and from exercising his influence
in a manner that would encroach upon the liberty of those whose
sacred right is to elect the body of his collaborators.

It should be borne in mind that the institution of the
Guardianship has been anticipated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
in an allusion He made in a Tablet addressed, long before His own
ascension, to three of His friends in Persia. To their question as to
whether there would be any person to whom all the Bahá’ís
would be called upon to turn after His ascension He made the
following reply: “As to the question ye have asked me, know
verily that this is a well-guarded secret. It is even as a gem
concealed within its shell. That it will be revealed is predestined.
The time will come when its light will appear, when its evidences
will be made manifest, and its secrets unraveled.”

Dearly-beloved friends! Exalted as is the position and
vital as is the function of the institution of the Guardianship in
the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh,
and staggering as must be the weight of responsibility which it
carries, its importance must, whatever be the language of the Will,
be in no wise over-emphasized. The Guardian of the Faith must not
under any circumstances, and whatever his merits or his achievements,
be exalted to the rank that will make him a co-sharer with
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the unique position which the
Center of the Covenant occupies—much less to the station
exclusively ordained for the Manifestation of God. So grave a
departure from the established tenets of our Faith is nothing short
of open blasphemy. As I have already stated, in the course of my
references to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s station,
however great the gulf that separates Him from the Author of a Divine
Revelation it can never measure with the distance that stands between
Him Who is the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant and the Guardians who are its chosen ministers. There is a
far, far greater distance separating the Guardian from the Center of
the Covenant than there is between the Center of the Covenant and its
Author.

No Guardian of the Faith, I feel it my solemn duty to
place on record, can ever claim to be the perfect exemplar of the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh or the stainless
mirror that reflects His light. Though overshadowed by the unfailing,
the unerring protection of Bahá’u’lláh and
of the Báb, and however much he may share with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
the right and obligation to interpret the Bahá’í
teachings, he remains essentially human and cannot, if he wishes to
remain faithful to his trust, arrogate to himself, under any pretense
whatsoever, the rights, the privileges and prerogatives which
Bahá’u’lláh has chosen to confer upon His
Son. In the light of this truth to pray to the Guardian of the Faith,
to address him as lord and master, to designate him as his holiness,
to seek his benediction, to celebrate his birthday, or to commemorate
any event associated with his life would be tantamount to a departure
from those established truths that are enshrined within our beloved
Faith. The fact that the Guardian has been specifically endowed with
such power as he may need to reveal the purport and disclose the
implications of the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh
and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá does not necessarily confer
upon him a station co-equal with those Whose words he is called upon
to interpret. He can exercise that right and discharge this
obligation and yet remain infinitely inferior to both of them in rank
and different in nature.

To the integrity of this cardinal principle of our Faith
the words, the deeds of its present and future Guardians must
abundantly testify. By their conduct and example they must needs
establish its truth upon an unassailable foundation and transmit to
future generations unimpeachable evidences of its reality.

For my own part to hesitate in recognizing so vital a
truth or to vacillate in proclaiming so firm a conviction must
constitute a shameless betrayal of the confidence reposed in me by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and an unpardonable usurpation of the
authority with which He Himself has been invested.

A word should now be said regarding the theory on which
this Administrative Order is based and the principle that must govern
the operation of its chief institutions. It would be utterly
misleading to attempt a comparison between this unique, this
divinely-conceived Order and any of the diverse systems which the
minds of men, at various periods of their history, have contrived for
the government of human institutions. Such an attempt would in itself
betray a lack of complete appreciation of the excellence of the
handiwork of its great Author. How could it be otherwise when we
remember that this Order constitutes the very pattern of that divine
civilization which the almighty Law of Bahá’u’lláh
is designed to establish upon earth? The divers and ever-shifting
systems of human polity, whether past or present, whether originating
in the East or in the West, offer no adequate criterion wherewith to
estimate the potency of its hidden virtues or to appraise the
solidity of its foundations.

The Bahá’í Commonwealth of the
future, of which this vast Administrative Order is the sole
framework, is, both in theory and practice, not only unique in the
entire history of political institutions, but can find no parallel in
the annals of any of the world’s recognized religious systems.
No form of democratic government; no system of autocracy or of
dictatorship, whether monarchical or republican; no intermediary
scheme of a purely aristocratic order; nor even any of the recognized
types of theocracy, whether it be the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the
various Christian ecclesiastical organizations, or the Imamate or the
Caliphate in Islám—none of these can be identified or be
said to conform with the Administrative Order which the master-hand
of its perfect Architect has fashioned.

This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within
its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the
three recognized forms of secular government, without being in any
sense a mere replica of any one of them, and without introducing
within its machinery any of the objectionable features which they
inherently possess. It blends and harmonizes, as no government
fashioned by mortal hands has as yet accomplished, the salutary
truths which each of these systems undoubtedly contains without
vitiating the integrity of those God-given verities on which it is
ultimately founded.

The Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
must in no wise be regarded as purely democratic in character
inasmuch as the basic assumption which requires all democracies to
depend fundamentally upon getting their mandate from the people is
altogether lacking in this Dispensation. In the conduct of the
administrative affairs of the Faith, in the enactment of the
legislation necessary to supplement the laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
the members of the Universal House of Justice, it should be borne in
mind, are not, as Bahá’u’lláh’s
utterances clearly imply, responsible to those whom they represent,
nor are they allowed to be governed by the feelings, the general
opinion, and even the convictions of the mass of the faithful, or of
those who directly elect them. They are to follow, in a prayerful
attitude, the dictates and promptings of their conscience. They may,
indeed they must, acquaint themselves with the conditions prevailing
among the community, must weigh dispassionately in their minds the
merits of any case presented for their consideration, but must
reserve for themselves the right of an unfettered decision. “God
will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth,” is
Bahá’u’lláh’s incontrovertible
assurance. They, and not the body of those who either directly or
indirectly elect them, have thus been made the recipients of the
divine guidance which is at once the life-blood and ultimate
safeguard of this Revelation. Moreover, he who symbolizes the
hereditary principle in this Dispensation has been made the
interpreter of the words of its Author, and ceases consequently, by
virtue of the actual authority vested in him, to be the figurehead
invariably associated with the prevailing systems of constitutional
monarchies.

Nor can the Bahá’í Administrative
Order be dismissed as a hard and rigid system of unmitigated
autocracy or as an idle imitation of any form of absolutistic
ecclesiastical government, whether it be the Papacy, the Imamate or
any other similar institution, for the obvious reason that upon the
international elected representatives of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh
has been conferred the exclusive right of legislating on matters not
expressly revealed in the Bahá’í writings.
Neither the Guardian of the Faith nor any institution apart from the
International House of Justice can ever usurp this vital and
essential power or encroach upon that sacred right. The abolition of
professional priesthood with its accompanying sacraments of baptism,
of communion and of confession of sins, the laws requiring the
election by universal suffrage of all local, national, and
international Houses of Justice, the total absence of episcopal
authority with its attendant privileges, corruptions and bureaucratic
tendencies, are further evidences of the non-autocratic character of
the Bahá’í Administrative Order and of its
inclination to democratic methods in the administration of its
affairs.

Nor is this Order identified with the name of
Bahá’u’lláh to be confused with any system
of purely aristocratic government in view of the fact that it
upholds, on the one hand, the hereditary principle and entrusts the
Guardian of the Faith with the obligation of interpreting its
teachings, and provides, on the other, for the free and direct
election from among the mass of the faithful of the body that
constitutes its highest legislative organ.

Whereas this Administrative Order cannot be said to have
been modeled after any of these recognized systems of government, it
nevertheless embodies, reconciles and assimilates within its
framework such wholesome elements as are to be found in each one of
them. The hereditary authority which the Guardian is called upon to
exercise, the vital and essential functions which the Universal House
of Justice discharges, the specific provisions requiring its
democratic election by the representatives of the faithful—these
combine to demonstrate the truth that this divinely revealed Order,
which can never be identified with any of the standard types of
government referred to by Aristotle in his works, embodies and blends
with the spiritual verities on which it is based the beneficent
elements which are to be found in each one of them. The admitted
evils inherent in each of these systems being rigidly and permanently
excluded, this unique Order, however long it may endure and however
extensive its ramifications, cannot ever degenerate into any form of
despotism, of oligarchy, or of demagogy which must sooner or later
corrupt the machinery of all man-made and essentially defective
political institutions.

Dearly-beloved friends! Significant as are the origins
of this mighty administrative structure, and however unique its
features, the happenings that may be said to have heralded its birth
and signalized the initial stage of its evolution seem no less
remarkable. How striking, how edifying the contrast between the
process of slow and steady consolidation that characterizes the
growth of its infant strength and the devastating onrush of the
forces of disintegration that are assailing the outworn institutions,
both religious and secular, of present-day society!

The vitality which the organic institutions of this
great, this ever-expanding Order so strongly exhibit; the obstacles
which the high courage, the undaunted resolution of its
administrators have already surmounted; the fire of an unquenchable
enthusiasm that glows with undiminished fervor in the hearts of its
itinerant teachers; the heights of self-sacrifice which its
champion-builders are now attaining; the breadth of vision, the
confident hope, the creative joy, the inward peace, the
uncompromising integrity, the exemplary discipline, the unyielding
unity and solidarity which its stalwart defenders manifest; the
degree to which its moving Spirit has shown itself capable of
assimilating the diversified elements within its pale, of cleansing
them of all forms of prejudice and of fusing them with its own
structure—these are evidences of a power which a disillusioned
and sadly shaken society can ill afford to ignore.

Compare these splendid manifestations of the spirit
animating this vibrant body of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
with the cries and agony, the follies and vanities, the bitterness
and prejudices, the wickedness and divisions of an ailing and chaotic
world. Witness the fear that torments its leaders and paralyzes the
action of its blind and bewildered statesmen. How fierce the hatreds,
how false the ambitions, how petty the pursuits, how deep-rooted the
suspicions of its peoples! How disquieting the lawlessness, the
corruption, the unbelief that are eating into the vitals of a
tottering civilization!

Might not this process of steady deterioration which is
insidiously invading so many departments of human activity and
thought be regarded as a necessary accompaniment to the rise of this
almighty Arm of Bahá’u’lláh? Might we not
look upon the momentous happenings which, in the course of the past
twenty years, have so deeply agitated every continent of the earth,
as ominous signs simultaneously proclaiming the agonies of a
disintegrating civilization and the birthpangs of that World
Order—that Ark of human salvation—that must needs arise
upon its ruins?

The catastrophic fall of mighty monarchies and empires
in the European continent, allusions to some of which may be found in
the prophecies of Bahá’u’lláh; the decline
that has set in, and is still continuing, in the fortunes of the
Shí’ih hierarchy in His own native land; the fall
of the Qájár dynasty, the traditional enemy of His
Faith; the overthrow of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the
sustaining pillars of Sunní Islám, to which the
destruction of Jerusalem in the latter part of the first century of
the Christian era offers a striking parallel; the wave of
secularization which is invading the Muḥammadan ecclesiastical
institutions in Egypt and sapping the loyalty of its staunchest
supporters; the humiliating blows that have afflicted some of the
most powerful Churches of Christendom in Russia, in Western Europe
and Central America; the dissemination of those subversive doctrines
that are undermining the foundations and overthrowing the structure
of seemingly impregnable strongholds in the political and social
spheres of human activity; the signs of an impending catastrophe,
strangely reminiscent of the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West,
which threatens to engulf the whole structure of present-day
civilization—all witness to the tumult which the birth of this
mighty Organ of the Religion of Bahá’u’lláh
has cast into the world—a tumult which will grow in scope and
in intensity as the implications of this constantly evolving Scheme
are more fully understood and its ramifications more widely extended
over the surface of the globe.

A word more in conclusion. The rise and establishment of
this Administrative Order—the shell that shields and enshrines
so precious a gem—constitutes the hall-mark of this second and
formative age of the Bahá’í era. It will come to
be regarded, as it recedes farther and farther from our eyes, as the
chief agency empowered to usher in the concluding phase, the
consummation of this glorious Dispensation.

Let no one, while this System is still in its infancy,
misconceive its character, belittle its significance or misrepresent
its purpose. The bedrock on which this Administrative Order is
founded is God’s immutable Purpose for mankind in this day. The
Source from which it derives its inspiration is no one less than
Bahá’u’lláh Himself. Its shield and
defender are the embattled hosts of the Abhá Kingdom. Its seed
is the blood of no less than twenty thousand martyrs who have offered
up their lives that it may be born and flourish. The axis round which
its institutions revolve are the authentic provisions of the Will and
Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Its guiding principles
are the truths which He Who is the unerring Interpreter of the
teachings of our Faith has so clearly enunciated in His public
addresses throughout the West. The laws that govern its operation and
limit its functions are those which have been expressly ordained in
the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. The seat round which its spiritual, its
humanitarian and administrative activities will cluster are the
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár and its Dependencies.
The pillars that sustain its authority and buttress its structure are
the twin institutions of the Guardianship and of the Universal House
of Justice. The central, the underlying aim which animates it is the
establishment of the New World Order as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh.
The methods it employs, the standard it inculcates, incline it to
neither East nor West, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor
poor, neither white nor colored. Its watchword is the unification of
the human race; its standard the “Most Great Peace”; its
consummation the advent of that golden millennium—the Day when
the kingdoms of this world shall have become the Kingdom of God
Himself, the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh.

SHOGHI.

Haifa, Palestine,
February 8, 1934.

The Unfoldment of World Civilization

To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful
throughout the West.

Friends and fellow-heirs of the grace of Bahá’u’lláh:

As your co-sharer in the building up of the New World
Order which the mind of Bahá’u’lláh has
visioned, and whose features the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
its perfect Architect, has delineated, I pause to contemplate with
you the scene which the revolution of well-nigh fifteen years after
His passing unfolds before us.

The contrast between the accumulating evidences of
steady consolidation that accompany the rise of the Administrative
Order of the Faith of God, and the forces of disintegration which
batter at the fabric of a travailing society, is as clear as it is
arresting. Both within and outside the Bahá’í
world the signs and tokens which, in a mysterious manner, are
heralding the birth of that World Order, the establishment of which
must signalize the Golden Age of the Cause of God, are growing and
multiplying day by day. No fair-minded observer can any longer fail
to discern them. He cannot be misled by the painful slowness
characterizing the unfoldment of the civilization which the followers
of Bahá’u’lláh are laboring to establish.
Nor can he be deluded by the ephemeral manifestations of returning
prosperity which at times appear to be capable of checking the
disruptive influence of the chronic ills afflicting the institutions
of a decaying age. The signs of the times are too numerous and
compelling to allow him to mistake their character or to belittle
their significance. He can, if he be fair in his judgment, recognize
in the chain of events which proclaim on the one hand the
irresistible march of the institutions directly associated with the
Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and foreshadow on
the other the downfall of those powers and principalities that have
either ignored or opposed it—he can recognize in them all
evidences of the operation of God’s all-pervasive Will, the
shaping of His perfectly ordered and world-embracing Plan.

“Soon,” Bahá’u’lláh’s
own words proclaim it, “will the present day Order be rolled
up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh
the truth and is the Knower of things unseen.” “By
Myself,” He solemnly asserts, “the day is approaching
when We will have rolled up the world and all that is therein, and
spread out a new Order in its stead. He, verily, is powerful over all
things.” “The world’s equilibrium,” He
explains, “hath been upset through the vibrating influence of
this Most Great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life
hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this
wondrous System, the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.”
“The signs of impending convulsions and chaos,” He warns
the peoples of the world, “can now be discerned, inasmuch as
the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably defective.”

Dearly-beloved friends! This New World Order, whose
promise is enshrined in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,
whose fundamental principles have been enunciated in the writings of
the Center of His Covenant, involves no less than the complete
unification of the entire human race. This unification should conform
to such principles as would directly harmonize with the spirit that
animates, and the laws that govern the operation of, the institutions
that already constitute the structural basis of the Administrative
Order of His Faith.

No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by
the Bahá’í Revelation, and at variance with the
sublime pattern ordained in His teachings, which the collective
efforts of mankind may yet devise can ever hope to achieve anything
above or beyond that “Lesser Peace” to which the Author
of our Faith has Himself alluded in His writings. “Now that ye
have refused the Most Great Peace,” He, admonishing the kings
and rulers of the earth, has written, “hold ye fast unto this
the Lesser Peace, that haply ye may in some degree better your own
condition and that of your dependents.” Expatiating on this
Lesser Peace, He thus addresses in that same Tablet the rulers of the
earth: “Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no
more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your territories and
dominions… Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby will the
tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find
rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take
up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught
but manifest justice.”

The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by
Bahá’u’lláh—a peace that must
inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the
spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races,
creeds, classes and nations—can rest on no other basis, and can
be preserved through no other agency, except the divinely appointed
ordinances that are implicit in the World Order that stands
associated with His Holy Name. In His Tablet, revealed almost seventy
years ago to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh,
alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: “That which
the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest
instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its
peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise
be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful
and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else
naught but error… Consider these days in which the Ancient Beauty,
He Who is the Most Great Name, hath been sent down to regenerate and
unify mankind. Behold how with drawn swords they rose against Him,
and committed that which caused the Faithful Spirit to tremble. And
whenever We said unto them: ‘Lo, the World Reformer is come,’
they made reply: ‘He, in truth, is one of the stirrers of
mischief.’” “It beseemeth all men in this Day,”
He, in another Tablet, asserts, “to take firm hold on the Most
Great Name, and to establish the unity of all mankind. There is no
place to flee to, no refuge that any one can seek, except Him.”

Humanity’s Coming of Age

The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,
whose supreme mission is none other but the achievement of this
organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of nations, should, if
we be faithful to its implications, be regarded as signalizing
through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race. It
should be viewed not merely as yet another spiritual revival in the
ever-changing fortunes of mankind, not only as a further stage in a
chain of progressive Revelations, nor even as the culmination of one
of a series of recurrent prophetic cycles, but rather as marking the
last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man’s
collective life on this planet. The emergence of a world community,
the consciousness of world citizenship, the founding of a world
civilization and culture—all of which must synchronize with the
initial stages in the unfoldment of the Golden Age of the Bahá’í
Era—should, by their very nature, be regarded, as far as this
planetary life is concerned, as the furthermost limits in the
organization of human society, though man, as an individual, will,
nay must indeed as a result of such a consummation, continue
indefinitely to progress and develop.

That mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change,
which we associate with the stage of maturity inevitable in the life
of the individual and the development of the fruit must, if we would
correctly apprehend the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh,
have its counterpart in the evolution of the organization of human
society. A similar stage must sooner or later be attained in the
collective life of mankind, producing an even more striking
phenomenon in world relations, and endowing the whole human race with
such potentialities of well-being as shall provide, throughout the
succeeding ages, the chief incentive required for the eventual
fulfillment of its high destiny. Such a stage of maturity in the
process of human government must, for all time, if we would
faithfully recognize the tremendous claim advanced by Bahá’u’lláh,
remain identified with the Revelation of which He was the Bearer.

In one of the most characteristic passages He Himself
has revealed, He testifies in a language that none can mistake to the
truth of this distinguishing principle of Bahá’í
belief: “It hath been decreed by Us that the Word of God and
all the potentialities thereof shall be manifested unto men in strict
conformity with such conditions as have been foreordained by Him Who
is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise… Should the Word be allowed to
release suddenly all the energies latent within it, no man could
sustain the weight of so mighty a revelation… Consider that which
hath been sent down unto Muḥammad, the Apostle of God. The
measure of the Revelation of which He was the Bearer had been clearly
foreordained by Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Powerful. They that
heard Him, however, could apprehend His purpose only to the extent of
their station and spiritual capacity. He, in like manner, uncovered
the Face of Wisdom in proportion to their ability to sustain the
burden of His Message. No sooner had mankind attained the stage of
maturity, than the Word revealed to men’s eyes the latent
energies with which it had been endowed—energies which
manifested themselves in the plenitude of their glory when the
Ancient Beauty appeared, in the year sixty, in the person of
‘Alí-Muḥammad, the Báb.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, elucidating this
fundamental verity, has written: “All created things have their
degree or stage of maturity. The period of maturity in the life of a
tree is the time of its fruit-bearing… The animal attains a stage
of full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom man reaches
his maturity when the light of his intelligence attains its greatest
power and development… Similarly there are periods and stages in
the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through
its stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it
has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of
which are everywhere apparent… That which was applicable to human
needs during the early history of the race can neither meet nor
satisfy the demands of this day, this period of newness and
consummation. Humanity has emerged from its former state of
limitation and preliminary training. Man must now become imbued with
new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities. New
bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already descending upon
him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely
and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now incapable
of meeting the requirements of its maturity.”

The Process of Integration

Such a unique and momentous crisis in the life of
organized mankind may, moreover, be likened to the culminating stage
in the political evolution of the great American Republic—the
stage which marked the emergence of a unified community of federated
states. The stirring of a new national consciousness, and the birth
of a new type of civilization, infinitely richer and nobler than any
which its component parts could have severally hoped to achieve, may
be said to have proclaimed the coming of age of the American people.
Within the territorial limits of this nation, this consummation may
be viewed as the culmination of the process of human government. The
diversified and loosely related elements of a divided community were
brought together, unified and incorporated into one coherent system.
Though this entity may continue gaining in cohesive power, though the
unity already achieved may be further consolidated, though the
civilization to which that unity could alone have given birth may
expand and flourish, yet the machinery essential to such an
unfoldment may be said to have been, in its essential structure,
erected, and the impulse required to guide and sustain it may be
regarded as having been fundamentally imparted. No stage above and
beyond this consummation of national unity can, within the
geographical limits of that nation, be imagined, though the highest
destiny of its people, as a constituent element in a still larger
entity that will embrace the whole of mankind, may still remain
unfulfilled. Considered as an isolated unit, however, this process of
integration may be said to have reached its highest and final
consummation.

Such is the stage to which an evolving humanity is
collectively approaching. The Revelation entrusted by the Almighty
Ordainer to Bahá’u’lláh, His followers
firmly believe, has been endowed with such potentialities as are
commensurate with the maturity of the human race—the crowning
and most momentous stage in its evolution from infancy to manhood.

The successive Founders of all past Religions Who, from
time immemorial, have shed, with ever-increasing intensity, the
splendor of one common Revelation at the various stages which have
marked the advance of mankind towards maturity may thus, in a sense,
be regarded as preliminary Manifestations, anticipating and paving
the way for the advent of that Day of Days when the whole earth will
have fructified and the tree of humanity will have yielded its
destined fruit.

Incontrovertible as is this truth, its challenging
character should never be allowed to obscure the purpose, or distort
the principle, underlying the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh—utterances
that have established for all time the absolute oneness of all the
Prophets, Himself included, whether belonging to the past or to the
future. Though the mission of the Prophets preceding Bahá’u’lláh
may be viewed in that light, though the measure of Divine Revelation
with which each has been entrusted must, as a result of this process
of evolution, necessarily differ, their common origin, their
essential unity, their identity of purpose, should at no time and
under no circumstances be misapprehended or denied. That all the
Messengers of God should be regarded as “abiding in the same
Tabernacle, soaring in the same Heaven, seated upon the same Throne,
uttering the same Speech, and proclaiming the same Faith” must,
however much we may extol the measure of Divine Revelation vouchsafed
to mankind at this crowning stage of its evolution, remain the
unalterable foundation and central tenet of Bahá’í
belief. Any variations in the splendor which each of these
Manifestations of the Light of God has shed upon the world should be
ascribed not to any inherent superiority involved in the essential
character of any one of them, but rather to the progressive capacity,
the ever-increasing spiritual receptiveness, which mankind, in its
progress towards maturity, has invariably manifested.

The Final Consummation

Only those who are willing to associate the Revelation
proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh with the
consummation of so stupendous an evolution in the collective life of
the whole human race can grasp the significance of the words which
He, while alluding to the glories of this promised Day and to the
duration of the Bahá’í Era, has deemed fit to
utter. “This is the King of Days,” He exclaims, “the
Day that hath seen the coming of the Best-Beloved, Him Who, through
all eternity, hath been acclaimed the Desire of the World.”
“The Scriptures of past Dispensations,” He further
asserts, “celebrate the great jubilee that must needs greet
this most great Day of God. Well is it with him that hath lived to
see this Day and hath recognized its station.” “It is
evident,” He, in another passage explains, “that every
age in which a Manifestation of God hath lived is divinely-ordained,
and may, in a sense, be characterized as God’s appointed Day.
This Day, however, is unique, and is to be distinguished from those
that have preceded it. The designation ‘Seal of the Prophets’
fully revealeth its high station. The Prophetic Cycle hath verily
ended. The Eternal Truth is now come. He hath lifted up the ensign of
power, and is now shedding upon the world the unclouded splendor of
His Revelation.” “In this most mighty Revelation,”
He, in categorical language, declares, “all the Dispensations
of the past have attained their highest, their final consummation.
That which hath been made manifest in this préeminent, this
most exalted Revelation, standeth unparalleled in the annals of the
past, nor will future ages witness its like.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s authentic
pronouncements should, likewise, be recalled as confirming, in no
less emphatic manner, the unexampled vastness of the Bahá’í
Dispensation. “Centuries,” He affirms in one of His
Tablets, “nay, countless ages, must pass away ere the Day-Star
of Truth shineth again in its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once
more in the radiance of its vernal glory… The mere contemplation of
the Dispensation inaugurated by the Blessed Beauty would have
sufficed to overwhelm the saints of bygone ages—saints who
longed to partake, for one moment, of its great glory.”
“Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in the
future ‘in the shadows of the clouds,’” He, in a
still more definite language, affirms, “know, verily, that in
so far as their relation to the Source of their inspiration is
concerned, they are under the shadow of the Ancient Beauty. In their
relation, however, to the age in which they appear, each and every
one of them ‘doeth whatsoever He willeth.’” “This
holy Dispensation,” He, alluding to the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh, explains, “is illumined
with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted
station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and
glory.”

Pangs of Death and Birth

Dearly-beloved friends: Though the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh has been delivered, the World
Order which such a Revelation must needs beget is as yet unborn.
Though the Heroic Age of His Faith is passed, the creative energies
which that Age has released have not as yet crystallized into that
world society which, in the fullness of time, is to mirror forth the
brightness of His glory. Though the framework of His Administrative
Order has been erected, and the Formative Period of the Bahá’í
Era has begun, yet the promised Kingdom into which the seed of His
institutions must ripen remains as yet uninaugurated. Though His
Voice has been raised, and the ensigns of His Faith have been lifted
up in no less than forty countries of both the East and the West, yet
the wholeness of the human race is as yet unrecognized, its unity
unproclaimed, and the standard of its Most Great Peace unhoisted.

“The heights,” Bahá’u’lláh
Himself testifies, “which, through the most gracious favor of
God, mortal man can attain in this Day are as yet unrevealed to his
sight. The world of being hath never had, nor doth it yet possess,
the capacity for such a revelation. The day, however, is approaching
when the potentialities of so great a favor will, by virtue of His
behest, be manifested unto men.”

For the revelation of so great a favor a period of
intense turmoil and wide-spread suffering would seem to be
indispensable. Resplendent as has been the Age that has witnessed the
inception of the Mission with which Bahá’u’lláh
has been entrusted, the interval which must elapse ere that Age
yields its choicest fruit must, it is becoming increasingly apparent,
be overshadowed by such moral and social gloom as can alone prepare
an unrepentant humanity for the prize she is destined to inherit.

Into such a period we are now steadily and irresistibly
moving. Amidst the shadows which are increasingly gathering about us
we can faintly discern the glimmerings of Bahá’u’lláh’s
unearthly sovereignty appearing fitfully on the horizon of history.
To us, the “generation of the half-light,” living at a
time which may be designated as the period of the incubation of the
World Commonwealth envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh,
has been assigned a task whose high privilege we can never
sufficiently appreciate, and the arduousness of which we can as yet
but dimly recognize. We may well believe, we who are called upon to
experience the operation of the dark forces destined to unloose a
flood of agonizing afflictions, that the darkest hour that must
precede the dawn of the Golden Age of our Faith has not yet struck.
Deep as is the gloom that already encircles the world, the afflictive
ordeals which that world is to suffer are still in preparation, nor
can their blackness be as yet imagined. We stand on the threshold of
an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of the old
order and the birth-pangs of the new. Through the generating
influence of the Faith announced by Bahá’u’lláh
this New World Order may be said to have been conceived. We can, at
the present moment, experience its stirrings in the womb of a
travailing age—an age waiting for the appointed hour at which
it can cast its burden and yield its fairest fruit.

“The whole earth,” writes Bahá’u’lláh,
“is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it
will have yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung
forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most
heavenly blessings. Immeasurably exalted is the breeze that wafteth
from the garment of thy Lord, the Glorified! For lo, it hath breathed
its fragrance and made all things new! Well is it with them that
comprehend.” “The onrushing winds of the grace of God,”
He, in the Súratu’l-Haykal, proclaims, “have
passed over all things. Every creature hath been endowed with all the
potentialities it can carry. And yet the peoples of the world have
denied this grace! Every tree hath been endowed with the choicest
fruits, every ocean enriched with the most luminous gems. Man,
himself, hath been invested with the gifts of understanding and
knowledge. The whole creation hath been made the recipient of the
revelation of the All-Merciful, and the earth the repository of
things inscrutable to all except God, the Truth, the Knower of things
unseen. The time is approaching when every created thing will have
cast its burden. Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that
encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen!”

“The Call of God,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
has written, “when raised, breathed a new life into the body of
mankind, and infused a new spirit into the whole creation. It is for
this reason that the world hath been moved to its depths, and the
hearts and consciences of men been quickened. Erelong the evidences
of this regeneration will be revealed, and the fast asleep will be
awakened.”

Universal Fermentation

As we view the world around us, we are compelled to
observe the manifold evidences of that universal fermentation which,
in every continent of the globe and in every department of human
life, be it religious, social, economic or political, is purging and
reshaping humanity in anticipation of the Day when the wholeness of
the human race will have been recognized and its unity established. A
twofold process, however, can be distinguished, each tending, in its
own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the
forces that are transforming the face of our planet. The first is
essentially an integrating process, while the second is fundamentally
disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds a System
which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which
a strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the
latter, as its disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down,
with increasing violence, the antiquated barriers that seek to block
humanity’s progress towards its destined goal. The constructive
process stands associated with the nascent Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
and is the harbinger of the New World Order that Faith must erelong
establish. The destructive forces that characterize the other should
be identified with a civilization that has refused to answer to the
expectation of a new age, and is consequently falling into chaos and
decline.

A titanic, a spiritual struggle, unparalleled in its
magnitude yet unspeakably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is
being waged as a result of these opposing tendencies, in this age of
transition through which the organized community of the followers of
Bahá’u’lláh and mankind as a whole are
passing.

The Spirit that has incarnated itself in the
institutions of a rising Faith has, in the course of its onward march
for the redemption of the world, encountered and is now battling with
such forces as are, in most instances, the very negation of that
Spirit, and whose continued existence must inevitably hinder it from
achieving its purpose. The hollow and outworn institutions, the
obsolescent doctrines and beliefs, the effete and discredited
traditions which these forces represent, it should be observed, have,
in certain instances, been undermined by virtue of their senility,
the loss of their cohesive power, and their own inherent corruption.
A few have been swept away by the onrushing forces which the Bahá’í
Faith has, at the hour of its birth, so mysteriously released.
Others, as a direct result of a vain and feeble resistance to its
rise in the initial stages of its development, have died out and been
utterly discredited. Still others, fearful of the pervasive influence
of the institutions in which that same Spirit had, at a later stage,
been embodied, had mobilized their forces and launched their attack,
destined to sustain, in their turn, after a brief and illusory
success, an ignominious defeat.

This Age of Transition

It is not my purpose to call to mind, much less to
attempt a detailed analysis of, the spiritual struggles that have
ensued, or to note the victories that have redounded to the glory of
the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh since the day of
its foundation. My chief concern is not with the happenings that have
distinguished the First, the Apostolic Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation, but rather with the outstanding events that are
transpiring in, and the tendencies which characterize, the formative
period of its development, this Age of Transition, whose tribulations
are the precursors of that Era of blissful felicity which is to
incarnate God’s ultimate purpose for all mankind.

To the catastrophic fall of mighty kingdoms and empires,
on the eve of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s departure,
Whose passing may be said to have ushered in the opening phase of the
Age of Transition in which we now live, I have, in a previous
communication, briefly alluded. The dissolution of the German Empire,
the humiliating defeat inflicted upon its ruler, the successor and
lineal descendant of the Prussian King and Emperor to whom
Bahá’u’lláh had addressed His solemn and
historic warning, together with the extinction of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the remnant of the once-great Holy Roman
Empire, were both precipitated by a war whose outbreak signalized the
opening of the Age of Frustration destined to precede the
establishment of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
Both of these momentous events may be viewed as the earliest
occurrences of that turbulent Age, into the outer fringes of whose
darkest phase we are now beginning to enter.

To the Conqueror of Napoleon III, the Author of our
Faith had, on the morrow of the King’s victory, addressed, in
His Most Holy Book, this clear and ominous warning: “O King of
Berlin! …Take heed lest pride debar thee from recognizing the
Day-Spring of Divine Revelation, lest earthly desires shut thee out,
as by a veil, from the Lord of the Throne above and of the earth
below. Thus counseleth thee the Pen of the Most High. He, verily, is
the Most Gracious, the All-Bountiful. Do thou remember the one whose
power transcended thy power (Napoleon III), and whose station
excelled thy station. Where is he? Whither are gone the things he
possessed? Take warning, and be not of them that are fast asleep. He
it was who cast the Tablet of God behind him, when We made known unto
him what the hosts of tyranny had caused Us to suffer. Wherefore,
disgrace assailed him from all sides, and he went down to dust in
great loss. Think deeply, O King, concerning him, and concerning them
who, like unto thee, have conquered cities and ruled over men. The
All-Merciful brought them down from their palaces to their graves. Be
warned, be of them who reflect.”

“O banks of the Rhine!” Bahá’u’lláh,
in another passage of that same Book, prophesies, “We have seen
you covered with gore, inasmuch as the swords of retribution were
drawn against you; and so you shall have another turn. And We hear
the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in conspicuous
glory.”

Collapse of Islám

The collapse of the power of the Shí’ih
hierarchy, in a land which had for centuries been one of the
impregnable strongholds of Muslim fanaticism, was the inevitable
consequence of that wave of secularization which, at a later time,
was to invade some of the most powerful and conservative
ecclesiastical institutions in both the European and American
continents. Though not the direct outcome of the last war, this
sudden trembling which had seized this hitherto immovable pillar of
Islamic orthodoxy accentuated the problems and deepened the
restlessness with which a war-weary world was being afflicted. Shí’ih
Islám had lost once for all, in Bahá’u’lláh’s
native land and as the direct consequence of its implacable hostility
to His Faith, its combative power, had forfeited its rights and
privileges, had been degraded and demoralized, and was being
condemned to hopeless obscurity and ultimate extinction. No less than
twenty thousand martyrs, however, had to sacrifice their lives ere
the Cause for which they had stood and died could register this
initial victory over those who were the first to repudiate its claims
and mow down its gallant warriors. “Vileness and poverty were
stamped upon them, and they returned with wrath from God.”

“Behold,” writes Bahá’u’lláh,
commenting on the decline of a fallen people, “how the sayings
and doings of Shí’ih Islám have dulled the
joy and fervor of its early days, and tarnished the pristine
brilliancy of its light. In its primitive days, whilst they still
adhered to the precepts associated with the name of their Prophet,
the Lord of mankind, their career was marked by an unbroken chain of
victories and triumphs. As they gradually strayed from the path of
their Ideal Leader and Master, as they turned away from the light of
God and corrupted the principle of His Divine unity, and as they
increasingly centered their attention upon them who were only the
revealers of the potency of His Word, their power was turned into
weakness, their glory into shame, their courage into fear. Thou dost
witness to what a pass they have come.”

The downfall of the Qájár Dynasty, the
avowed defender and the willing instrument of a decaying clergy,
almost synchronized with the humiliation which the Shí’ih
ecclesiastical leaders had suffered. From Muḥammad Sháh
down to the last and feeble monarch of that dynasty, the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh was denied the impartial
consideration, the disinterested and fair treatment which its cause
had rightly demanded. It had, on the contrary, been atrociously
harassed, consistently betrayed and prosecuted. The martyrdom of the
Báb; the banishment of Bahá’u’lláh;
the confiscation of His earthly possessions; His incarceration in
Mázindarán; the reign of terror that confined Him in
the most pestilential of dungeons; the intrigues, the protests, and
calumnies which thrice renewed His exile and led to His ultimate
imprisonment in the most desolate of cities; the shameful sentences
passed, with the connivance of the judicial and ecclesiastical
authorities, against the person, the property, and the honor of His
innocent followers—these stand out as among the blackest acts
for which posterity will hold this blood-stained dynasty responsible.
One more barrier that had sought to obstruct the forward march of the
Faith was now removed.

Though Bahá’u’lláh had been
banished from His native land, the tide of calamity which had swept
with such fury over Him and over the followers of the Báb, was
by no means receding. Under the jurisdiction of the Sulṭán
of Turkey, the arch-enemy of His Cause, a new chapter in the history
of His ever-recurring trials had opened. The overthrow of the
Sultanate and the Caliphate, the twin pillars of Sunní Islám,
can be regarded in no other light except as the inevitable
consequence of the fierce, the sustained and deliberate persecution
which the monarchs of the tottering House of Uthmán,
the recognized successors of the Prophet Muḥammad, had launched
against it. From the city of Constantinople, the traditional seat of
both the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the rulers of Turkey had, for a
period covering almost three quarters of a century, striven, with
unabated zeal, to stem the tide of a Faith they feared and abhorred.
From the time Bahá’u’lláh set foot on
Turkish soil and was made a virtual prisoner of the most powerful
potentate of Islám to the year of the Holy Land’s
liberation from Turkish yoke, successive Caliphs, and in particular
the Sulṭáns ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz and
‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd, had, in the full exercise of
the spiritual and temporal authority which their exalted office had
conferred upon them, afflicted both the Founder of our Faith and the
Center of His Covenant with such pain and tribulation as no mind can
fathom nor pen or tongue describe. They alone could have measured or
borne them.

To these afflictive trials Bahá’u’lláh
has repeatedly testified: “By the righteousness of the
Almighty! Were I to recount to thee the tale of the things that have
befallen Me, the souls and minds of men would be incapable of
sustaining its weight. God Himself beareth Me witness.” “Twenty
years have passed,” He, addressing the kings of Christendom,
has written, “during which We have, each day, tasted the agony
of a fresh tribulation. No one of them that were before Us hath
endured the things We have endured. Would that ye could perceive it!
They that rose up against us have put us to death, have shed our
blood, have plundered our property, and violated our honor.”
“Recall to mind My sorrows,” He, in another connection,
has revealed, “My cares and anxieties, My woes and trials, the
state of My captivity, the tears that I have shed, the bitterness of
Mine anguish, and now Mine imprisonment in this far-off land…
Couldst thou be told what hath befallen the Ancient Beauty, thou
wouldst flee into the wilderness, and weep with a great weeping…
Every morning I arose from my bed, I discovered the hosts of
countless afflictions massed behind My door; and every night when I
lay down, lo, My heart was torn with agony at what it had suffered
from the fiendish cruelty of its foes.”

The orders which these foes issued, the banishments they
decreed, the indignities they inflicted, the plans they devised, the
investigations they conducted, the threats they pronounced, the
atrocities they were prepared to commit, the intrigues and baseness
to which they, their ministers, their governors, and military
chieftains had stooped, constitute a record which can hardly find a
parallel in the history of any revealed religion. The mere recital of
the most salient features of that sinister theme would suffice to
fill a volume. They knew full well that the spiritual and
administrative Center of the Cause they had striven to eradicate had
now shifted to their dominion, that its leaders were Turkish
citizens, and that whatever resources these could command were at
their mercy. That for a period of almost three score years and ten,
while still in the plenitude of its unquestioned authority, while
reinforced by the endless machinations of the civil and
ecclesiastical authorities of a neighboring nation, and assured of
the support of those of Bahá’u’lláh’s
kindred who had rebelled against, and seceded from, His Cause, this
despotism should have failed in the end to extirpate a mere handful
of its condemned subjects must, to every unbelieving observer, remain
one of the most intriguing and mysterious episodes of contemporary
history.

The Cause of which Bahá’u’lláh
was still the visible leader had, despite the calculations of a
short-sighted enemy, undeniably triumphed. No unbiased mind,
penetrating the surface of conditions surrounding the Prisoner of
Akká, could any longer mistake or deny it. Though the tension
which had been relaxed was, for a time, heightened after
Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension and the
perils of a still unsettled situation were revived, it was becoming
increasingly evident that the insidious forces of decay, which for
many a long year were eating into the vitals of a diseased nation,
were now moving towards a climax. A series of internal convulsions,
each more devastating than the previous one, had already been
unchained, destined to bring in their wake one of the most
catastrophic occurrences of modern times. The murder of that arrogant
despot in the year 1876; the Russo-Turkish conflict that soon
followed in its wake; the wars of liberation which succeeded it; the
rise of the Young Turk movement; the Turkish Revolution of 1909 that
precipitated the downfall of ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd;
the Balkan wars with their calamitous consequences; the liberation of
Palestine enshrining within its bosom the cities of Akká and
Haifa, the world center of an emancipated Faith; the further
dismemberment decreed by the Treaty of Versailles; the abolition of
the Sultanate and the downfall of the House of Uthmán;
the extinction of the Caliphate; the disestablishment of the State
Religion; the annulment of the Sharí’ah Law and
the promulgation of a universal Civil Code; the suppression of
various orders, beliefs, traditions and ceremonials believed to be
inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the Muslim Faith—these
followed with an ease and swiftness that no man had dared envisage.
In these devastating blows, administered by friend and foe alike, by
Christian nations and professing Muslims, every follower of the
persecuted Faith of Bahá’u’lláh recognized
evidences of the directing Hand of the departed Founder of his
religion, Who, from the invisible Realm, was unloosing a flood of
well-deserved calamities upon a rebellious religion and nation.

Compare the evidences of Divine visitation which befell
the persecutors of Jesus Christ with these historic retributions
which, in the latter part of the first century of the Bahá’í
Era, have hurled to dust the chief adversary of the religion of
Bahá’u’lláh. Had not the Roman Emperor, in
the second half of the first century of the Christian Era, after a
distressful siege of Jerusalem, laid waste the Holy City, destroyed
the Temple, desecrated and robbed the Holy of Holies of its
treasures, and transported them to Rome, reared a pagan colony on the
mount of Zion, massacred the Jews, and exiled and dispersed the
survivors?

Compare, moreover, these words which the persecuted
Christ, as witnessed by the Gospel, addressed to Jerusalem, with
Bahá’u’lláh’s apostrophe to
Constantinople, revealed while He lay in His far-off Prison, and
recorded in His Most Holy Book: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings!” And again, as He wept
over the city: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they
are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that
thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round,
and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the
ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in
thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation.”

“O Spot that art situate on the shores of the two
seas!” Bahá’u’lláh thus apostrophizes
the City of Constantinople, “The throne of tyranny hath,
verily, been established upon thee, and the flame of hatred hath been
kindled within thy bosom, in such wise that the Concourse on high and
they who circle around the Exalted Throne have wailed and lamented.
We behold in thee the foolish ruling over the wise, and darkness
vaunting itself against the light. Thou art indeed filled with
manifest pride. Hath thine outward splendor made thee vainglorious?
By Him Who is the Lord of mankind! It shall soon perish, and thy
daughters and thy widows and all the kindreds that dwell within thee
shall lament. Thus informeth thee the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.”

To Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz,
the monarch who decreed each of Bahá’u’lláh’s
three banishments, the Founder of our Faith, while a prisoner in the
Sulṭán’s capital, addressed these words: “Hearken,
O king, to the speech of Him that speaketh the truth, Him that doth
not ask thee to recompense Him with the things God hath chosen to
bestow upon thee, Him Who unerringly treadeth the Straight Path
…Set before thine eyes God’s unerring Balance and, as one
standing in His presence, weigh in that Balance thine actions every
day, every moment of thy life. Bring thyself to account ere thou art
summoned to a reckoning, on the day when no man shall have strength
to stand for fear of God, the day when the hearts of the heedless
ones shall be made to tremble.”

To the Ministers of the Turkish State, He, in that same
Tablet, revealed: “It behooveth you, O Ministers of State, to
keep the precepts of God, and to forsake your own laws and
regulations, and to be of them who are guided aright… Ye shall,
erelong, discover the consequences of that which ye shall have done
in this vain life, and shall be repaid for them… How great the
number of those who, in bygone ages, have committed the things ye
have committed, and who, though superior to you in rank, have, in the
end, returned unto dust, and been consigned to their inevitable
doom!… Ye shall follow in their wake, and shall be made to enter a
habitation wherein none shall be found to befriend or help you… The
days of your life shall roll away, and all the things with which ye
are occupied, and of which ye boast yourselves, shall perish, and ye
shall, most certainly, be summoned by a company of His angels to
appear at the spot where the limbs of the entire creation shall be
made to tremble, and the flesh of every oppressor to creep… This is
the day that shall inevitably come upon you, the hour that none can
put back.”

To the inhabitants of Constantinople, while He lived the
life of an exile in their midst, Bahá’u’lláh,
in that same Tablet, addressed these words: “Fear God, ye
inhabitants of the City, and sow not the seeds of dissension amongst
men… Your days shall pass away as have the days of them who were
before you. To dust shall ye return, even as your fathers of old did
return.” “We found,” He, moreover, remarks, “upon
Our arrival in the City its governors and elders as children gathered
about and disporting themselves with clay… Our inner eye wept sore
over them, and over their transgressions and their total disregard of
the thing for which they were created… The day is approaching when
God will have raised up a people who will call to remembrance Our
days, who will tell the tale of Our trials, who will demand the
restitution of Our rights from them that, without a tittle of
evidence, have treated Us with manifest injustice. God assuredly
dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of
their doings. He will, most certainly, lay hold on them for their
sins. He, verily, is the fiercest of avengers.” “Wherefore,”
He graciously exhorteth them, “hearken ye unto My speech, and
return ye to God and repent, that He, through His grace, may have
mercy upon you, may wash away your sins, and forgive your trespasses.
The greatness of His mercy surpasseth the fury of His wrath, and His
grace encompasseth all who have been called into being and been
clothed with the robe of life, be they of the past or of the future.”

And, finally, in the Lawḥ-i-Ra’ís we
find these prophetic words recorded: “Hearken, O Chief … to
the Voice of God, the Sovereign, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting… Thou hast, O Chief, committed that which hath made
Muḥammad, the Apostle of God, groan in the Most Exalted
Paradise. The world hath made thee proud, so much so that thou hast
turned away from the Face through Whose brightness the Concourse on
high hath been illumined. Soon thou shalt find thyself in evident
loss… The day is approaching when the Land of Mystery (Adrianople)
and what is beside it shall be changed, and shall pass out of the
hands of the King, and commotions shall appear, and the voice of
lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences of mischief shall be
revealed on all sides, and confusion shall spread by reason of that
which hath befallen these captives at the hands of the hosts of
oppression. The course of things shall be altered, and conditions
shall wax so grievous, that the very sands on the desolate hills will
moan, and the trees on the mountain will weep, and blood will flow
out of all things. Then wilt thou behold the people in sore
distress.”

Thirteen hundred years had to elapse from the death of
the Prophet Muḥammad ere the illegitimacy of the institution of
the Caliphate, the founders of which had usurped the authority of the
lawful successors of the Apostle of God, would be fully and publicly
demonstrated. An institution which in its inception had trampled upon
so sacred a right and unchained the forces of so distressful a
schism, an institution which, in the latter days, had dealt so
grievous a blow to a Faith Whose Forerunner was Himself a descendant
of the very Imáms whose authority that institution had
repudiated, deserved full well the chastisement that had sealed its
fate.

The text of certain Muḥammadan traditions, the
authenticity of which Muslims themselves recognize, and which have
been extensively quoted by eminent Oriental Bahá’í
scholars and authors, will serve to corroborate the argument and
illuminate the theme I have attempted to expound: “In the
latter days a grievous calamity shall befall My people at the hands
of their ruler, a calamity such as no man ever heard to surpass it.
So fierce will it be that none can find a shelter. God will then send
down One of My descendants, One sprung from My family, Who will fill
the earth with equity and justice, even as it hath been filled with
injustice and tyranny.” And, again: “A day shall be
witnessed by My people whereon there will have remained of Islám
naught but a name, and of the Qur’án naught but a mere
appearance. The doctors of that age shall be the most evil the world
hath ever seen. Mischief hath proceeded from them, and on them will
it recoil.” And, again: “At that hour His malediction
shall descend upon you, and your curse shall afflict you, and your
religion shall remain an empty word on your tongues. And when these
signs appear amongst you, anticipate the day when the red-hot wind
will have swept over you, or the day when ye will have been
disfigured, or when stones will have rained upon you.”

“O people of the Qur’án,”
Bahá’u’lláh, addressing the combined forces
of Sunní and Shí’ih Islám,
significantly affirms, “Verily, the Prophet of God, Muḥammad,
sheddeth tears at the sight of your cruelty. Ye have assuredly
followed your evil and corrupt desires, and turned away your face
from the light of guidance. Erelong will ye witness the result of
your deeds; for the Lord, My God, lieth in wait and is watchful of
your behavior… O concourse of Muslim divines! By your deeds the
exalted station of the people hath been abased, the standard of Islám
hath been reversed, and its mighty throne hath fallen.”

Deterioration of Christian
Institutions

So much for Islám and the crippling blows its
leaders and institutions have received—and may yet receive—in
this, the first century of the Bahá’í Era. If I
have dwelt too long on this theme, if I have, to a disproportionate
degree, quoted from the sacred writings in support of my argument, it
is solely because of my firm conviction that these retributive
calamities that have rained down upon the foremost oppressor of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh should rank not only
among the stirring occurrences of this Age of Transition, but as some
of the most startling and significant events of contemporary history.

Both Sunní and Shí’ih Islám
had, through the convulsions that had seized them, contributed to the
acceleration of the disruptive process to which I have previously
referred—a process which, by its very nature, is to pave the
way for that complete reorganization and unification which the world,
in every aspect of its life, must achieve. What of Christianity and
of the denominations with which it stands identified? Can it be said
that this process of deterioration that has attacked the fabric of
the Religion of Muḥammad has failed to exert its baneful
influence on the institutions associated with the Faith of Jesus
Christ? Have these institutions already experienced the impact of
these menacing forces? Are their foundations so secure and their
vitality so great as to enable them to resist this onslaught? Will
they, as the confusion of a chaotic world spreads and deepens, fall
in turn a prey to their violence? Have the more orthodox among them
already arisen, and, if not, will they arise, to repel the onset of a
Cause which, having pulled down the barriers of Muslim orthodoxy, is
now advancing into the heart of Christendom, in both the European and
American continents? Would such a resistance sow the seeds of further
dissension and confusion, and consequently serve indirectly to hasten
the advent of the promised Day?

To these queries we can but partly answer. Time alone
can reveal the nature of the rôle which the institutions
directly associated with the Christian Faith are destined to assume
in this, the Formative Period of the Bahá’í Era,
this dark age of transition through which humanity as a whole is
passing. Such events as have already transpired, however, are of such
a nature as can indicate the direction in which these institutions
are moving. We can, in some degree, appraise the probable effect
which the forces operating both within the Bahá’í
Faith and outside it will exert upon them.

That the forces of irreligion, of a purely materialistic
philosophy, of unconcealed paganism have been unloosed, are now
spreading, and, by consolidating themselves, are beginning to invade
some of the most powerful Christian institutions of the western
world, no unbiased observer can fail to admit. That these
institutions are becoming increasingly restive, that a few among them
are already dimly aware of the pervasive influence of the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh, that they will, as their
inherent strength deteriorates and their discipline relaxes, regard
with deepening dismay the rise of His New World Order, and will
gradually determine to assail it, that such an opposition will in
turn accelerate their decline, few, if any, among those who are
attentively watching the progress of His Faith would be inclined to
question.

“The vitality of men’s belief in God,”
Bahá’u’lláh has testified, “is dying
out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever
restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of
human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can
cleanse and revive it?” “The world is in travail,”
He has further written, “and its agitation waxeth day by day.
Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be
its plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly.”

This menace of secularism that has attacked Islám
and is undermining its remaining institutions, that has invaded
Persia, has penetrated into India, and raised its triumphant head in
Turkey, has already manifested itself in both Europe and America, and
is, in varying degrees, and under various forms and designations,
challenging the basis of every established religion, and in
particular the institutions and communities identified with the Faith
of Jesus Christ. It would be no exaggeration to say that we are
moving into a period which the future historian will regard as one of
the most critical in the history of Christianity.

Already a few among the protagonists of the Christian
Religion admit the gravity of the situation that confronts them. “A
wave of materialism is sweeping round the world”; is the
testimony of its missionaries, as witnessed by the text of their
official reports, “the drive and pressure of modern
industrialism, which are penetrating even the forests of Central
Africa and the plains of Central Asia, make men everywhere dependent
on, and preoccupied with, material things. At home the Church has
talked, perhaps too glibly, in pulpit or on platform of the menace of
secularism; though even in England we can catch more than a glimpse
of its meaning. But to the Church overseas these things are grim
realities, enemies with which it is at grips… The Church has a new
danger to face in land after land—determined and hostile
attack. From Soviet Russia a definitely anti-religious Communism is
pushing west into Europe and America, East into Persia, India, China
and Japan. It is an economic theory, definitely harnessed to
disbelief in God. It is a religious irreligion… It has a passionate
sense of mission, and is carrying on its anti-God campaign at the
Church’s base at home, as well as launching its offensive
against its front-line in non-Christian lands. Such a conscious,
avowed, organized attack against religion in general and Christianity
in particular is something new in history. Equally deliberate in some
lands in its determined hostility to Christianity is another form of
social and political faith—nationalism. But the nationalist
attack on Christianity, unlike Communism, is often bound up with some
form of national religion—with Islám in Persia and
Egypt, with Buddhism in Ceylon, while the struggle for communal
rights in India is allied with a revival both of Hinduism and Islám.”

I need not attempt in this connection an exposition of
the origin and character of those economic theories and political
philosophies of the post-war period, that have directly and
indirectly exerted, and are still exerting, their pernicious
influence on the institutions and beliefs connected with one of the
most widely-spread and best organized religious systems of the world.
It is with their influence rather than with their origin that I am
chiefly concerned. The excessive growth of industrialism and its
attendant evils—as the aforementioned quotation bears
witness—the aggressive policies initiated and the persistent
efforts exerted by the inspirers and organizers of the Communist
movement; the intensification of a militant nationalism, associated
in certain countries with a systematized work of defamation against
all forms of ecclesiastical influence, have no doubt contributed to
the de-Christianization of the masses, and been responsible for a
notable decline in the authority, the prestige and power of the
Church. “The whole conception of God,” the persecutors of
the Christian Religion have insistently proclaimed, “is a
conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a
conception quite unworthy of free men.” “Religion,”
one of their leaders has asserted, “is an opiate of the
people.” “Religion,” declares the text of their
official publications, “is a brutalization of the people.
Education must be so directed as to efface from the people’s
minds this humiliation and this idiocy.”

The Hegelian philosophy which, in other countries, has,
in the form of an intolerant and militant nationalism, insisted on
deifying the state, has inculcated the war-spirit, and incited to
racial animosity, has, likewise, led to a marked weakening of the
Church and to a grave diminution of its spiritual influence. Unlike
the bold offensive which an avowedly atheistic movement had chosen to
launch against it, both within the Soviet union and beyond its
confines, this nationalistic philosophy, which Christian rulers and
governments have upheld, is an attack directed against the Church by
those who were previously its professed adherents, a betrayal of its
cause by its own kith and kin. It was being stabbed by an alien and
militant atheism from without, and by the preachers of a heretical
doctrine from within. Both of these forces, each operating in its own
sphere and using its own weapons and methods, have moreover been
greatly assisted and encouraged by the prevailing spirit of
modernism, with its emphasis on a purely materialistic philosophy,
which, as it diffuses itself, tends increasingly to divorce religion
from man’s daily life.

The combined effect of these strange and corrupt
doctrines, these dangerous and treacherous philosophies, has, as was
natural, been severely felt by those whose tenets inculcated an
opposite and wholly irreconcilable spirit and principle. The
consequences of the clash that inevitably ensued between these
contending interests, were, in some cases, disastrous, and the damage
that has been wrought irreparable. The disestablishment and
dismemberment of the Greek Orthodox Church in Russia, following upon
the blow which the Church of Rome had sustained as a result of the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; the commotion that
subsequently seized the Catholic Church and culminated in its
separation from the State in Spain; the persecution of the same
Church in Mexico; the perquisitions, arrests, intimidation and
terrorization to which Catholics and Lutherans alike are being
subjected in the heart of Europe; the turmoil into which another
branch of the Church has been thrown as a result of the military
campaign in Africa; the decline that has set in the fortunes of
Christian Missions, both Anglican and Presbyterian, in Persia,
Turkey, and the Far East; the ominous signs that foreshadow serious
complications in the equivocal and precarious relationships now
existing between the Holy See and certain nations in the continent of
Europe—these stand out as the most striking features of the
reverses which, in almost every part of the world, the members and
leaders of Christian ecclesiastical institutions have suffered.

That the solidarity of some of these institutions has
been irretrievably shattered is too apparent for any intelligent
observer to mistake or deny. The cleavage between the fundamentalists
and the liberals among their adherents is continually widening. Their
creeds and dogmas have been watered down, and in certain instances
ignored and discarded. Their hold upon human conduct is loosening,
and the personnel of their ministries is dwindling in number and in
influence. The timidity and insincerity of their preachers are, in
several instances, being exposed. Their endowments have, in some
countries, disappeared, and the force of their religious training has
declined. Their temples have been partly deserted and destroyed, and
an oblivion of God, of His teachings and of His Purpose, has
enfeebled and heaped humiliation upon them.

Might not this disintegrating tendency, from which Sunní
and Shí’ih Islám have so conspicuously
suffered, unloose, as it reaches its climax, still further calamities
upon the various denominations of the Christian Church? In what
manner and how rapidly this process, which has already set in, will
develop the future alone can reveal. Nor can it, at the present time,
be estimated to what extent will the attacks which a still powerful
clergy may yet launch against the strongholds of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh in the West accentuate this
decline and widen the range of inescapable disasters.

If Christianity wishes and expects to serve the world in
the present crisis, writes a minister of the Presbyterian Church in
America, it must “cut back through Christianity to Christ, back
through the centuries-old religion about Jesus to the original
religion of Jesus.” Otherwise, he significantly adds, “the
spirit of Christ will live in institutions other than our own.”

So marked a decline in the strength and cohesion of the
elements constituting Christian society has led, in its turn, as we
might well anticipate, to the emergence of an increasing number of
obscure cults, of strange and new worships, of ineffective
philosophies, whose sophisticated doctrines have intensified the
confusion of a troubled age. In their tenets and pursuits they may be
said to reflect and bear witness to the revolt, the discontent, and
the confused aspirations of the disillusioned masses that have
deserted the cause of the Christian churches and seceded from their
membership.

A parallel might almost be drawn between these confused
and confusing systems of thought that are the direct outcome of the
helplessness and confusion afflicting the Christian Faith and the
great variety of popular cults, of fashionable and evasive
philosophies which flourished in the opening centuries of the
Christian Era, and which attempted to absorb and pervert the state
religion of that Roman people. The pagan worshipers who constituted,
at that time, the bulk of the population of the Western Roman Empire,
found themselves surrounded, and in certain instances menaced, by the
prevailing sect of the Neo-Platonists, by the followers of nature
religions, by Gnostic philosophers, by Philonism, Mithraism, the
adherents of the Alexandrian cult, and a multitude of kindred sects
and beliefs, in much the same way as the defenders of the Christian
Faith, the preponderating religion of the western world, are
realizing, in the first century of the Bahá’í
Era, how their influence is being undermined by a flood of
conflicting beliefs, practices and tendencies which their own
bankruptcy had helped to create. It was, however, this same Christian
Religion, which has now fallen into such a state of impotence, that
eventually proved itself capable of sweeping away the institutions of
paganism and of swamping and suppressing the cults that had
flourished in that age.

Such institutions as have strayed far from the spirit
and teachings of Jesus Christ must of necessity, as the embryonic
World Order of Bahá’u’lláh takes shape and
unfolds, recede into the background, and make way for the progress of
the divinely-ordained institutions that stand inextricably interwoven
with His teachings. The indwelling Spirit of God which, in the
Apostolic Age of the Church, animated its members, the pristine
purity of its teachings, the primitive brilliancy of its light, will,
no doubt, be reborn and revived as the inevitable consequence of this
redefinition of its fundamental verities, and the clarification of
its original purpose.

For the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—if
we would faithfully appraise it—can never, and in no aspect of
its teachings, be at variance, much less conflict, with the purpose
animating, or the authority invested in, the Faith of Jesus Christ.
This glowing tribute which Bahá’u’lláh
Himself has been moved to pay to the Author of the Christian Religion
stands as sufficient testimony to the truth of this central principle
of Bahá’í belief:—“Know thou that
when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to God, the whole creation
wept with a great weeping. By sacrificing Himself, however, a fresh
capacity was infused into all created things. Its evidences, as
witnessed in all the peoples of the earth, are now manifest before
thee. The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the
profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the
ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent
of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening power released by
His transcendent, His all-pervasive and resplendent Spirit. We
testify that when He came into the world, He shed the splendor of His
glory upon all created things. Through Him the leper recovered from
the leprosy of perversity and ignorance. Through Him the unchaste and
wayward were healed. Through His power, born of Almighty God, the
eyes of the blind were opened, and the soul of the sinner
sanctified… He it is Who purified the world. Blessed is the man
who, with a face beaming with light, hath turned towards Him.”

Signs of Moral Downfall

No more, I believe, need be said of the decline of
religious institutions, the disintegration of which constitutes so
important an aspect of the Formative Period of the Bahá’í
Era. Islám had both as a result of the rising tide of
secularism and in direct consequence of its declared and persistent
hostility to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh sunk
to a depth of abasement rarely attained in its history. Christianity
had, likewise, owing to causes not wholly dissimilar to those
operating in the case of its sister Faith, steadily weakened, and was
contributing, in an increasing measure, its share to the process of
general disintegration—a process that must necessarily precede
the fundamental reconstruction of human society.

The signs of moral downfall, as distinct from the
evidences of decay in religious institutions, would appear to be no
less noticeable and significant. The decline that has set in in the
fortunes of Islamic and Christian institutions may be said to have
had its counterpart in the life and conduct of the individuals that
compose them. In whichever direction we turn our gaze, no matter how
cursory our observation of the doings and sayings of the present
generation, we can not fail to be struck by the evidences of moral
decadence which, in their individual lives no less than in their
collective capacity, men and women around us exhibit.

There can be no doubt that the decline of religion as a
social force, of which the deterioration of religious institutions is
but an external phenomenon, is chiefly responsible for so grave, so
conspicuous an evil. “Religion,” writes Bahá’u’lláh,
“is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in
the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.
The weakening of the pillars of religion hath strengthened the hands
of the ignorant and made them bold and arrogant. Verily I say,
whatsoever hath lowered the lofty station of religion hath increased
the waywardness of the wicked, and the result cannot be but anarchy.”
“Religion,” He, in another Tablet, has stated, “is
a radiant light and an impregnable stronghold for the protection and
welfare of the peoples of the world, for the fear of God impelleth
man to hold fast to that which is good, and shun all evil. Should the
lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the
lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to
shine.” “Know thou,” He, in yet another connection,
has written, “that they who are truly wise have likened the
world unto the human temple. As the body of man needeth a garment to
clothe it, so the body of mankind must needs be adorned with the
mantle of justice and wisdom. Its robe is the Revelation vouchsafed
unto it by God.”

No wonder, therefore, that when, as a result of human
perversity, the light of religion is quenched in men’s hearts,
and the divinely appointed Robe, designed to adorn the human temple,
is deliberately discarded, a deplorable decline in the fortunes of
humanity immediately sets in, bringing in its wake all the evils
which a wayward soul is capable of revealing. The perversion of human
nature, the degradation of human conduct, the corruption and
dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such
circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human
character is debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline
are relaxed, the voice of human conscience is stilled, the sense of
decency and shame is obscured, conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of
reciprocity and loyalty are distorted, and the very feeling of
peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished.

Such, we might well admit, is the state which
individuals and institutions alike are approaching. “No two
men,” Bahá’u’lláh, lamenting the
plight of an erring humanity, has written, “can be found who
may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united. The evidences of
discord and malice are apparent everywhere, though all were made for
harmony and union.” “How long,” He, in the same
Tablet, exclaims, “will humanity persist in its waywardness?
How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to
reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society?
The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the
strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily
increasing.”

The recrudescence of religious intolerance, of racial
animosity, and of patriotic arrogance; the increasing evidences of
selfishness, of suspicion, of fear and of fraud; the spread of
terrorism, of lawlessness, of drunkenness and of crime; the
unquenchable thirst for, and the feverish pursuit after, earthly
vanities, riches and pleasures; the weakening of family solidarity;
the laxity in parental control; the lapse into luxurious indulgence;
the irresponsible attitude towards marriage and the consequent rising
tide of divorce; the degeneracy of art and music, the infection of
literature, and the corruption of the press; the extension of the
influence and activities of those “prophets of decadence”
who advocate companionate marriage, who preach the philosophy of
nudism, who call modesty an intellectual fiction, who refuse to
regard the procreation of children as the sacred and primary purpose
of marriage, who denounce religion as an opiate of the people, who
would, if given free rein, lead back the human race to barbarism,
chaos, and ultimate extinction—these appear as the outstanding
characteristics of a decadent society, a society that must either be
reborn or perish.

Breakdown of Political and Economic
Structure

Politically a similar decline, a no less noticeable
evidence of disintegration and confusion, can be discovered in the
age we live in—the age which a future historian might well
recognize to have been the preamble to the Great Age, whose golden
days we can as yet but dimly visualize.

The passionate and violent happenings that have, in
recent years, strained to almost the point of complete breakdown the
political and economic structure of society are too numerous and
complex to attempt, within the limitations of this general survey, to
arrive at an adequate estimate of their character. Nor have these
tribulations, grievous as they have been, seemed to have reached
their climax, and exerted the full force of their destructive power.
The whole world, wherever and however we survey it, offers us the sad
and pitiful spectacle of a vast, an enfeebled, and moribund organism,
which is being torn politically and strangulated economically by
forces it has ceased to either control or comprehend. The Great
Depression, the aftermath of the severest ordeals humanity had ever
experienced, the disintegration of the Versailles system, the
recrudescence of militarism in its most menacing aspects, the failure
of vast experiments and new-born institutions to safeguard the peace
and tranquillity of peoples, classes and nations, have bitterly
disillusioned humanity and prostrated its spirits. Its hopes are, for
the most part, shattered, its vitality is ebbing, its life strangely
disordered, its unity severely compromised.

On the continent of Europe inveterate hatreds and
increasing rivalries are once more aligning its ill-fated peoples and
nations into combinations destined to precipitate the most awful and
implacable tribulations that mankind throughout its long record of
martyrdom has suffered. On the North American continent economic
distress, industrial disorganization, widespread discontent at the
abortive experiments designed to readjust an ill-balanced economy,
and restlessness and fear inspired by the possibility of political
entanglements in both Europe and Asia, portend the approach of what
may well prove to be one of the most critical phases of the history
of the American Republic. Asia, still to a great extent in the grip
of one of the severest trials she has, in her recent history,
experienced, finds herself menaced on her eastern confines by the
onset of forces that threaten to intensify the struggles which the
growing nationalism and industrialization of her emancipated races
must ultimately engender. In the heart of Africa, there blazes the
fire of an atrocious and bloody war—a war which, whatever its
outcome, is destined to exert, through its world-wide repercussions,
a most disturbing influence on the races and colored nations of
mankind.

With no less than ten million people under arms, drilled
and instructed in the use of the most abominable engines of
destruction that science has devised; with thrice that number chafing
and fretting at the rule of alien races and governments; with an
equally vast army of embittered citizens impotent to procure for
themselves the material goods and necessities which others are
deliberately destroying; with a still greater mass of human beings
groaning under the burden of ever-mounting armaments, and
impoverished by the virtual collapse of international trade—with
evils such as these, humanity would seem to be definitely entering
the outer fringes of the most agonizing phase of its existence.

Is it to be wondered at, that in the course of a recent
statement made by one of the outstanding Ministers in Europe this
warning should have been deliberately uttered: “If war should
break out again on a major scale in Europe, it must bring the
collapse of civilization as we know it in its wake. In the words of
the late Lord Bryce, ‘If you don’t end war, war will end
you.’” “Poor Europe is in a state of
neurasthenia…”, is the testimony of one of the most
outstanding figures among its present-day dictators. “It has
lost its recuperative power, the vital force of cohesion, of
synthesis. Another war would destroy us.” “It is likely,”
writes one of the most eminent and learned dignitaries of the
Christian Church, “there will have to be one more great
conflict in Europe to definitely establish once and for all an
international authority. This conflict will be the most horrible of
horribles, and possibly this generation will be called on to
sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives.”

The disastrous failure of both the Disarmament and
Economic Conferences; the obstacles confronting the negotiations for
the limitation of Naval armaments; the withdrawal of two of the most
powerful and heavily armed nations of the world from the activities
and membership of the League of Nations; the ineptitude of the
parliamentary system of government as witnessed by recent
developments in Europe and America; the inability of the leaders and
exponents of the Communist movement to vindicate the much-vaunted
principle of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat; the perils and
privations to which the rulers of the Totalitarian states have, in
recent years, exposed their subjects—all these demonstrate,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, the impotence of present-day
institutions to avert the calamities with which human society is
being increasingly threatened. What else remains, a bewildered
generation may well ask, that can repair the cleavage that is
constantly widening, and which may, at any time, engulf it?

Beset on every side by the cumulative evidences of
disintegration, of turmoil and of bankruptcy, serious-minded men and
women, in almost every walk of life, are beginning to doubt whether
society, as it is now organized, can, through its unaided efforts,
extricate itself from the slough into which it is steadily sinking.
Every system, short of the unification of the human race, has been
tried, repeatedly tried, and been found wanting. Wars again and again
have been fought, and conferences without number have met and
deliberated. Treaties, pacts and covenants have been painstakingly
negotiated, concluded and revised. Systems of government have been
patiently tested, have been continually recast and superseded.
Economic plans of reconstruction have been carefully devised, and
meticulously executed. And yet crisis has succeeded crisis, and the
rapidity with which a perilously unstable world is declining has been
correspondingly accelerated. A yawning gulf threatens to involve in
one common disaster both the satisfied and dissatisfied nations,
democracies and dictatorships, capitalists and wage-earners,
Europeans and Asiatics, Jew and Gentile, white and colored. An angry
Providence, the cynic might well observe, has abandoned a hapless
planet to its fate, and fixed irrevocably its doom. Sore-tried and
disillusioned, humanity has no doubt lost its orientation, and would
seem to have lost as well its faith and hope. It is hovering,
unshepherded and visionless, on the brink of disaster. A sense of
fatality seems to pervade it. An ever-deepening gloom is settling on
its fortunes as she recedes further and further from the outer
fringes of the darkest zone of its agitated life and penetrates its
very heart.

And yet while the shadows are continually deepening,
might we not claim that gleams of hope, flashing intermittently on
the international horizon, appear at times to relieve the darkness
that encircles humanity? Would it be untrue to maintain that in a
world of unsettled faith and disturbed thought, a world of steadily
mounting armaments, of unquenchable hatreds and rivalries, the
progress, however fitful, of the forces working in harmony with the
spirit of the age can already be discerned? Though the great outcry
raised by post-war nationalism is growing louder and more insistent
every day, the League of Nations is as yet in its embryonic state,
and the storm clouds that are gathering may for a time totally
eclipse its powers and obliterate its machinery, yet the direction in
which the institution itself is operating is most significant. The
voices that have been raised ever since its inception, the efforts
that have been exerted, the work that has already been accomplished,
foreshadow the triumphs which this presently constituted institution,
or any other body that may supersede it, is destined to achieve.

Bahá’u’lláh’s
Principle of Collective Security

A general Pact on security has been the central purpose
towards which these efforts have, ever since the League was born,
tended to converge. The Treaty of Guarantee which, in the initial
stages of its development, its members had considered and discussed;
the debate on the Geneva Protocol, the discussion of which, at a
later period, aroused among the nations, both within the League and
outside it, such fierce controversy; the subsequent proposal for a
United States of Europe and for the economic unification of that
continent; and last but not least the policy of sanctions initiated
by its members, may be regarded as the most significant landmarks in
its checkered history. That no less than fifty nations of the world,
all members of the League of Nations, should have, after mature
deliberation, recognized and been led to pronounce their verdict
against an act of aggression which in their judgment has been
deliberately committed by one of their fellow-members, one of the
foremost Powers of Europe; that they should have, for the most part,
agreed to impose collectively sanctions on the condemned aggressor,
and should have succeeded in carrying out, to a very great measure,
their decision, is no doubt an event without parallel in human
history. For the first time in the history of humanity the system of
collective security, foreshadowed by Bahá’u’lláh
and explained by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has been seriously
envisaged, discussed and tested. For the first time in history it has
been officially recognized and publicly stated that for this system
of collective security to be effectively established strength and
elasticity are both essential—strength involving the use of an
adequate force to ensure the efficacy of the proposed system, and
elasticity to enable the machinery that has been devised to meet the
legitimate needs and aspirations of its aggrieved upholders. For the
first time in human history tentative efforts have been exerted by
the nations of the world to assume collective responsibility, and to
supplement their verbal pledges by actual preparation for collective
action. And again, for the first time in history, a movement of
public opinion has manifested itself in support of the verdict which
the leaders and representatives of nations have pronounced, and for
securing collective action in pursuance of such a decision.

How clear, how prophetic, must sound the words uttered
by Bahá’u’lláh in the light of recent
international developments:—“Be united, O concourse of
the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord
be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find rest. Should any one
among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for
this is naught but manifest justice.” “The time must
come,” He, foreshadowing the tentative efforts that are now
being made, has written, “when the imperative necessity for the
holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be
universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs
attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider
such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s
Great Peace among men… Should any king take up arms against
another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him.”

“The sovereigns of the world,” writes
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in elaboration of this theme, “must
conclude a binding treaty, and establish a covenant, the provisions
of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must proclaim
it to all the world, and obtain for it the sanction of all the human
race… All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to insure the
stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant… The
fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed
that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all
the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter
submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with every
power at its disposal, to destroy that government.”

There can be no doubt whatever that what has already
been accomplished, significant and unexampled though it is in the
history of mankind, still immeasurably falls short of the essential
requirements of the system which these words foreshadow. The League
of Nations, its opponents will observe, still lacks the universality
which is the prerequisite of abiding success in the efficacious
settlement of international disputes. The United States of America,
its begetter, has repudiated it, and is still holding aloof, while
Germany and Japan, who ranked among its most powerful supporters,
have abandoned its cause and withdrawn from its membership. The
decisions arrived at and the action thus far taken, others will
maintain, should be regarded as no more than a magnificent gesture,
rather than a conclusive evidence of international solidarity. Still
others may contend that though such a verdict has been pronounced,
and such pledges been given, collective action must, in the end, fail
in its ultimate purpose, and that the League itself will perish and
be submerged by the flood of tribulations destined to overtake the
whole race. Be that as it may, the significance of the steps already
taken cannot be ignored. Whatever the present status of the League or
the outcome of its historic verdict, whatever the trials and reverses
which, in the immediate future, it may have to face and sustain, the
fact must be recognized that so important a decision marks one of the
most distinctive milestones on the long and arduous road that must
lead it to its goal, the stage at which the oneness of the whole body
of nations will be made the ruling principle of international life.

This historic step, however, is but a faint glimmer in
the darkness that envelops an agitated humanity. It may well prove to
be no more than a mere flash, a fugitive gleam, in the midst of an
ever-deepening confusion. The process of disintegration must
inexorably continue, and its corrosive influence must penetrate
deeper and deeper into the very core of a crumbling age. Much
suffering will still be required ere the contending nations, creeds,
classes and races of mankind are fused in the crucible of universal
affliction, and are forged by the fires of a fierce ordeal into one
organic commonwealth, one vast, unified, and harmoniously functioning
system. Adversities unimaginably appalling, undreamed of crises and
upheavals, war, famine, and pestilence, might well combine to engrave
in the soul of an unheeding generation those truths and principles
which it has disdained to recognize and follow. A paralysis more
painful than any it has yet experienced must creep over and further
afflict the fabric of a broken society ere it can be rebuilt and
regenerated.

“The civilization,” writes Bahá’u’lláh,
“so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences
will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great
evil upon men… If carried to excess, civilization will prove as
prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within
the restraints of moderation… The day is approaching when its flame
will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur will proclaim:
‘The Kingdom is God’s, the Almighty, the All-Praised!’”
“From the moment the Súriy-i-Ra’ís (Tablet
to Ra’ís) was revealed,” He further explains,
“until the present day, neither hath the world been
tranquillized, nor have the hearts of its peoples been at rest… Its
sickness is approaching the stage of utter hopelessness, inasmuch as
the true Physician is debarred from administering the remedy, whilst
unskilled practitioners are regarded with favor, and are accorded
full freedom to act. The dust of sedition hath clouded the hearts of
men, and blinded their eyes. Erelong they will perceive the
consequences of what their hands have wrought in the Day of God.”
“This is the Day,” He again has written, “whereon
the earth shall tell out her tidings. The workers of iniquity are her
burdens… The Crier hath cried out, and men have been torn away, so
great hath been the fury of His wrath. The people of the left hand
sigh and bemoan. The people of the right abide in noble habitations:
they quaff the Wine that is life indeed from the hands of the
All-Merciful, and are, verily, the blissful.”

Community of the Most Great Name

Who else can be the blissful if not the community of the
Most Great Name, whose world-embracing, continually consolidating
activities constitute the one integrating process in a world whose
institutions, secular as well as religious, are for the most part
dissolving? They indeed are “the people of the right,”
whose “noble habitation” is fixed on the foundations of
the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh—the
Ark of everlasting salvation in this most grievous Day. Of all the
kindreds of the earth they alone can recognize, amidst the welter of
a tempestuous age, the Hand of the Divine Redeemer that traces its
course and controls its destinies. They alone are aware of the silent
growth of that orderly world polity whose fabric they themselves are
weaving.

Conscious of their high calling, confident in the
society-building power which their Faith possesses, they press
forward, undeterred and undismayed, in their efforts to fashion and
perfect the necessary instruments wherein the embryonic World Order
of Bahá’u’lláh can mature and develop. It
is this building process, slow and unobtrusive, to which the life of
the world-wide Bahá’í Community is wholly
consecrated, that constitutes the one hope of a stricken society. For
this process is actuated by the generating influence of God’s
changeless Purpose, and is evolving within the framework of the
Administrative Order of His Faith.

In a world the structure of whose political and social
institutions is impaired, whose vision is befogged, whose conscience
is bewildered, whose religious systems have become anemic and lost
their virtue, this healing Agency, this leavening Power, this
cementing Force, intensely alive and all-pervasive, has been taking
shape, is crystallizing into institutions, is mobilizing its forces,
and is preparing for the spiritual conquest and the complete
redemption of mankind. Though the society which incarnates its ideals
be small, and its direct and tangible benefits as yet inconsiderable,
yet the potentialities with which it has been endowed, and through
which it is destined to regenerate the individual and rebuild a
broken world, are incalculable.

For well nigh a century it has, amid the noise and
tumult of a distracted age, and despite the incessant persecutions to
which its leaders, institutions, and followers have been subjected,
succeeded in preserving its identity, in reinforcing its stability
and strength, in maintaining its organic unity, in preserving the
integrity of its laws and its principles, in erecting its defenses,
and in extending and consolidating its institutions. Numerous and
powerful have been the forces that have schemed, both from within and
from without, in lands both far and near, to quench its light and
abolish its holy name. Some have apostatized from its principles, and
betrayed ignominiously its cause. Others have hurled against it the
fiercest anathemas which the embittered leaders of any ecclesiastical
institution are able to pronounce. Still others have heaped upon it
the afflictions and humiliations which sovereign authority can alone,
in the plenitude of its power, inflict.

The utmost its avowed and secret enemies could hope to
achieve was to retard its growth and obscure momentarily its purpose.
What they actually accomplished was to purge and purify its life, to
stir it to still greater depths, to galvanize its soul, to prune its
institutions, and cement its unity. A schism, a permanent cleavage in
the vast body of its adherents, they could never create.

They who betrayed its cause, its lukewarm and
faint-hearted supporters, withered away and dropped as dead leaves,
powerless to cloud its radiance or to imperil its structure. Its most
implacable adversaries, they who assailed it from without, were
hurled from power, and, in the most astonishing fashion, met their
doom. Persia had been the first to repress and oppose it. Its
monarchs had miserably fallen, their dynasty had collapsed, their
name was execrated, the hierarchy that had been their ally and had
propped their declining state, had been utterly discredited. Turkey,
which had thrice banished its Founder and inflicted on Him cruel and
life-long imprisonment, had passed through one of the severest
ordeals and far-reaching revolutions that its history has recorded,
had shrunk from one of the most powerful empires to a tiny Asiatic
republic, its Sultanate obliterated, its dynasty overthrown, its
Caliphate, the mightiest institution of Islám, abolished.

Meanwhile the Faith that had been the object of such
monstrous betrayals, and the target for such woeful assaults, was
going from strength to strength, was forging ahead, undaunted and
undivided by the injuries it had received. In the midst of trials it
had inspired its loyal followers with a resolution that no obstacle,
however formidable, could undermine. It had lighted in their hearts a
faith that no misfortune, however black, could quench. It had infused
into their hearts a hope that no force, however determined, could
shatter.

A World Religion

Ceasing to designate to itself a movement, a fellowship
and the like—designations that did grave injustice to its
ever-unfolding system—dissociating itself from such
appellations as Bábí sect, Asiatic cult, and offshoot
of Shí’ih Islám, with which the ignorant
and the malicious were wont to describe it, refusing to be labeled as
a mere philosophy of life, or as an eclectic code of ethical conduct,
or even as a new religion, the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
is now visibly succeeding in demonstrating its claim and title to be
regarded as a World Religion, destined to attain, in the fullness of
time, the status of a world-embracing Commonwealth, which would be at
once the instrument and the guardian of the Most Great Peace
announced by its Author. Far from wishing to add to the number of the
religious systems, whose conflicting loyalties have for so many
generations disturbed the peace of mankind, this Faith is instilling
into each of its adherents a new love for, and a genuine appreciation
of the unity underlying, the various religions represented within its
pale.

“It is like a wide embrace,” such is the
testimony of Royalty to its claim and position, “gathering
together all those who have long searched for words of hope. It
accepts all great Prophets gone before it, destroys no other creeds,
and leaves all doors open.” “The Bahá’í
teaching,” she has further written, “brings peace to the
soul and hope to the heart. To those in search of assurance the words
of the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.”
“Their writings,” she, in another statement referring to
Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
has testified, “are a great cry toward peace, reaching beyond
all limits of frontiers, above all dissension about rites and
dogmas… It is a wondrous message that Bahá’u’lláh
and His son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have given us. They have
not set it up aggressively knowing that the germ of eternal truth
which lies at its core cannot but take root and spread.” “If
ever the name of Bahá’u’lláh or
‘Abdu’l-Bahá,” is her concluding plea,
“comes to your attention, do not put their writings from you.
Search out their Books, and let their glorious, peace-bringing,
love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have
into mine.”

The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh has
assimilated, by virtue of its creative, its regulative and ennobling
energies, the varied races, nationalities, creeds and classes that
have sought its shadow, and have pledged unswerving fealty to its
cause. It has changed the hearts of its adherents, burned away their
prejudices, stilled their passions, exalted their conceptions,
ennobled their motives, cöordinated their efforts, and
transformed their outlook. While preserving their patriotism and
safeguarding their lesser loyalties, it has made them lovers of
mankind, and the determined upholders of its best and truest
interests. While maintaining intact their belief in the Divine origin
of their respective religions, it has enabled them to visualize the
underlying purpose of these religions, to discover their merits, to
recognize their sequence, their interdependence, their wholeness and
unity, and to acknowledge the bond that vitally links them to itself.
This universal, this transcending love which the followers of the
Bahá’í Faith feel for their fellow-men, of
whatever race, creed, class or nation, is neither mysterious nor can
it be said to have been artificially stimulated. It is both
spontaneous and genuine. They whose hearts are warmed by the
energizing influence of God’s creative love cherish His
creatures for His sake, and recognize in every human face a sign of
His reflected glory.

Of such men and women it may be truly said that to them
“every foreign land is a fatherland, and every fatherland a
foreign land.” For their citizenship, it must be remembered, is
in the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh. Though
willing to share to the utmost the temporal benefits and the fleeting
joys which this earthly life can confer, though eager to participate
in whatever activity that conduces to the richness, the happiness and
peace of that life, they can, at no time, forget that it constitutes
no more than a transient, a very brief stage of their existence, that
they who live it are but pilgrims and wayfarers whose goal is the
Celestial City, and whose home the Country of never-failing joy and
brightness.

Though loyal to their respective governments, though
profoundly interested in anything that affects their security and
welfare, though anxious to share in whatever promotes their best
interests, the Faith with which the followers of Bahá’u’lláh
stand identified is one which they firmly believe God has raised high
above the storms, the divisions, and controversies of the political
arena. Their Faith they conceive to be essentially non-political,
supra-national in character, rigidly non-partisan, and entirely
dissociated from nationalistic ambitions, pursuits, and purposes.
Such a Faith knows no division of class or of party. It subordinates,
without hesitation or equivocation, every particularistic interest,
be it personal, regional, or national, to the paramount interests of
humanity, firmly convinced that in a world of inter-dependent peoples
and nations the advantage of the part is best to be reached by the
advantage of the whole, and that no abiding benefit can be conferred
upon the component parts if the general interests of the entity
itself are ignored or neglected.

Small wonder if by the Pen of Bahá’u’lláh
these pregnant words, written in anticipation of the present state of
mankind, should have been revealed: “It is not for him to pride
himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the
whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”
And again, “That one indeed is a man who today dedicateth
himself to the service of the entire human race.” “Through
the power released by these exalted words,” He explains, “He
hath lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of
men’s hearts, and hath obliterated every trace of restriction
and limitation from God’s Holy Book.”

Their Faith, Bahá’ís firmly believe,
is moreover undenominational, non-sectarian, and wholly divorced from
every ecclesiastical system, whatever its form, origin, or
activities. No ecclesiastical organization, with its creeds, its
traditions, its limitations, and exclusive outlook, can be said (as
is the case with all existing political factions, parties, systems
and programs) to conform, in all its aspects, to the cardinal tenets
of Bahá’í belief. To some of the principles and
ideals animating political and ecclesiastical institutions every
conscientious follower of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
can, no doubt, readily subscribe. With none of these institutions,
however, can he identify himself, nor can he unreservedly endorse the
creeds, the principles and programs on which they are based.

How can a Faith, it should moreover be borne in mind,
whose divinely-ordained institutions have been established within the
jurisdiction of no less than forty different countries, the policies
and interests of whose governments are continually clashing and
growing more complex and confused every day—how can such a
Faith, by allowing its adherents, whether individually or through its
organized councils, to meddle in political activities, succeed in
preserving the integrity of its teachings and in safeguarding the
unity of its followers? How can it insure the vigorous, the
uninterrupted and peaceful development of its expanding institutions?
How can a Faith, whose ramifications have brought it into contact
with mutually incompatible religious systems, sects and confessions,
be in a position, if it permits its adherents to subscribe to
obsolescent observances and doctrines, to claim the unconditional
allegiance of those whom it is striving to incorporate into its
divinely-appointed system? How can it avoid the constant friction,
the misunderstandings and controversies which formal affiliation, as
distinct from association, must inevitably engender?

These directing and regulating principles of Bahá’í
belief the upholders of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh
feel bound, as their Administrative Order expands and consolidates
itself, to assert and vigilantly apply. The exigencies of a slowly
crystallizing Faith impose upon them a duty which they cannot shirk,
a responsibility they cannot evade.

Nor are they unmindful of the imperative necessity of
upholding and of executing the laws, as distinguished from the
principles, ordained by Bahá’u’lláh, both
of which constitute the warp and woof of the institutions upon which
the structure of His World Order must ultimately rest. To demonstrate
their usefulness and efficacy, to carry out and apply them, to
safeguard their integrity, to grasp their implications, and to
facilitate their propagation Bahá’í communities
in the East, and recently in the West, are displaying the utmost
effort and are willing, if necessary, to make whatever sacrifices may
be demanded. The day may not be far distant when in certain countries
of the East, in which religious communities exercise jurisdiction in
matters of personal status, Bahá’í Assemblies may
be called upon to assume the duties and responsibilities devolving
upon officially constituted Bahá’í courts. They
will be empowered, in such matters as marriage, divorce, and
inheritance, to execute and apply, within their respective
jurisdictions, and with the sanction of civil authorities, such laws
and ordinances as have been expressly provided in their Most Holy
Book.

The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh has,
in addition to these tendencies and activities which its evolution is
now revealing, demonstrated, in other spheres, and wherever the
illumination of its light has penetrated, the force of its cohesive
strength, of its integrating power, of its invincible spirit. In the
erection and consecration of its House of Worship in the heart of the
North American continent; in the construction and multiplication of
its administrative headquarters in the land of its birth and in
neighboring countries; in the fashioning of the legal instruments
designed to safeguard and regulate the corporate life of its
institutions; in the accumulation of adequate resources, material as
well as cultural, in every continent of the globe; in the endowments
which it has created for itself in the immediate surroundings of its
Shrines at its world center; in the efforts that are being made for
the collection, the verification, and the systematization of the
writings of its Founders; in the measures that are being taken for
the acquisition of such historical sites as are associated with the
lives of its Forerunner and its Author, its heroes and martyrs; in
the foundations that are being laid for the gradual formation and
establishment of its educational, its cultural and humanitarian
institutions; in the vigorous efforts that are being exerted to
safeguard the character, stimulate the initiative and coordinate the
world-wide activities of its youth; in the extraordinary vitality
with which its valiant defenders, its elected representatives, its
itinerant teachers and pioneer administrators are pleading its cause,
extending its boundaries, enriching its literature, and strengthening
the basis of its spiritual conquests and triumphs; in the recognition
which civil authorities have, in certain instances, been induced to
grant to the body of its local and national representatives, enabling
them to incorporate their councils, establish their subsidiary
institutions, and safeguard their endowments; in the facilities which
these same authorities have consented to accord to its shrines, its
consecrated edifices, and educational institutions; in the enthusiasm
and determination with which certain communities that had been
severely tested and harassed are resuming their activities; in the
spontaneous tributes paid by royalty, princes, statesmen and scholars
to the sublimity of its cause and the station of its Founders—in
these, as in many others, the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
is proving beyond doubt its virility and capacity to counteract the
disintegrating influences to which religious systems, moral
standards, and political and social institutions are being subjected.

From Iceland to Tasmania, from Vancouver to the China
Sea spreads the radiance and extend the ramifications of this
world-enfolding System, this many-hued and firmly-knit Fraternity,
infusing into every man and woman it has won to its cause a faith, a
hope, and a vigor that a wayward generation has long lost, and is
powerless to recover. They who preside over the immediate destinies
of this troubled world, they who are responsible for its chaotic
state, its fears, its doubts, its miseries will do well, in their
bewilderment, to fix their gaze and ponder in their hearts upon the
evidences of this saving grace of the Almighty that lies within their
reach—a grace that can ease their burden, resolve their
perplexities, and illuminate their path.

Divine Retribution

The whole of mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to
unity, and to terminate its age-long martyrdom. And yet it stubbornly
refuses to embrace the light and acknowledge the sovereign authority
of the one Power that can extricate it from its entanglements, and
avert the woeful calamity that threatens to engulf it.

Ominous indeed is the voice of Bahá’u’lláh
that rings through these prophetic words: “O ye peoples of the
world! Know, verily, that an unforeseen calamity followeth you, and
grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not that which ye have
committed hath been effaced in My sight.” And again: “We
have a fixed time for you, O peoples. If ye fail, at the appointed
hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you,
and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every
direction. How severe, indeed, is the chastisement with which your
Lord will then chastise you!”

Must humanity, tormented as she now is, be afflicted
with still severer tribulations ere their purifying influence can
prepare her to enter the heavenly Kingdom destined to be established
upon earth? Must the inauguration of so vast, so unique, so illumined
an era in human history be ushered in by so great a catastrophe in
human affairs as to recall, nay surpass, the appalling collapse of
Roman civilization in the first centuries of the Christian Era? Must
a series of profound convulsions stir and rock the human race ere
Bahá’u’lláh can be enthroned in the hearts
and consciences of the masses, ere His undisputed ascendancy is
universally recognized, and the noble edifice of His World Order is
reared and established?

The long ages of infancy and childhood, through which
the human race had to pass, have receded into the background.
Humanity is now experiencing the commotions invariably associated
with the most turbulent stage of its evolution, the stage of
adolescence, when the impetuosity of youth and its vehemence reach
their climax, and must gradually be superseded by the calmness, the
wisdom, and the maturity that characterize the stage of manhood. Then
will the human race reach that stature of ripeness which will enable
it to acquire all the powers and capacities upon which its ultimate
development must depend.

World Unity the Goal

Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of
the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of
tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and
fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed
humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy
inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world,
growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness
and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the
machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its
life.

“A new life,” Bahá’u’lláh
proclaims, “is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of
the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause, or perceived its
motive.” “O ye children of men,” He thus addresses
His generation, “the fundamental purpose animating the Faith of
God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the
unity of the human race… This is the straight path, the fixed and
immovable foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the
changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor
will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure.”
“The well-being of mankind,” He declares, “its
peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is
firmly established.” “So powerful is the light of unity,”
is His further testimony, “that it can illuminate the whole
earth. The one true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself
testifieth to the truth of these words… This goal excelleth every
other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of all aspirations.”
“He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful,” He, moreover,
has written, “cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding
the entire human race as one soul and one body. Haste ye to win your
share of God’s good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth
all other created days.”

The unity of the human race, as envisaged by
Bahá’u’lláh, implies the establishment of a
world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes
are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its
state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the
individuals that compose them are definitely and completely
safeguarded. This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it,
consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees
of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of
all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be
required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the
relationships of all races and peoples. A world executive, backed by
an international Force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and
apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will safeguard
the organic unity of the whole commonwealth. A world tribunal will
adjudicate and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in all and
any disputes that may arise between the various elements constituting
this universal system. A mechanism of world inter-communication will
be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national
hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvellous
swiftness and perfect regularity. A world metropolis will act as the
nerve center of a world civilization, the focus towards which the
unifying forces of life will converge and from which its energizing
influences will radiate. A world language will either be invented or
chosen from among the existing languages and will be taught in the
schools of all the federated nations as an auxiliary to their mother
tongue. A world script, a world literature, a uniform and universal
system of currency, of weights and measures, will simplify and
facilitate intercourse and understanding among the nations and races
of mankind. In such a world society, science and religion, the two
most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled, will cöoperate,
and will harmoniously develop. The press will, under such a system,
while giving full scope to the expression of the diversified views
and convictions of mankind, cease to be mischievously manipulated by
vested interests, whether private or public, and will be liberated
from the influence of contending governments and peoples. The
economic resources of the world will be organized, its sources of raw
materials will be tapped and fully utilized, its markets will be
cöordinated and developed, and the distribution of its products
will be equitably regulated.

National rivalries, hatreds, and intrigues will cease,
and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity,
understanding and cöoperation. The causes of religious strife
will be permanently removed, economic barriers and restrictions will
be completely abolished, and the inordinate distinction between
classes will be obliterated. Destitution on the one hand, and gross
accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear. The enormous
energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political,
will be consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human
inventions and technical development, to the increase of the
productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the
extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of
physical health, to the sharpening and refinement of the human brain,
to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected resources of the
planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the furtherance of
any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral, and
spiritual life of the entire human race.

A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and
exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast
resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East and the
West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on
the exploitation of all the available sources of energy on the
surface of the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of
Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one
God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation—such is the
goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life,
is moving.

“One of the great events,” affirms
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “which is to occur in the Day
of the manifestation of that incomparable Branch is the hoisting of
the Standard of God among all nations. By this is meant that all
nations and kindreds will be gathered together under the shadow of
this Divine Banner, which is no other than the Lordly Branch itself,
and will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian antagonism,
the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations,
will be eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will have
one common faith, will be blended into one race and become a single
people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet
itself.” “Now, in the world of being,” He has
moreover explained, “the Hand of Divine power hath firmly laid
the foundations of this all-highest bounty, and this wondrous gift.
Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy Cycle shall
gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning
of its growth, and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs. Ere
the close of this century and of this age, it shall be made clear and
evident how wondrous was that spring-tide, and how heavenly was that
gift.”

No less enthralling is the vision of Isaiah, the
greatest of the Hebrew Prophets, predicting, as far back as twenty
five hundred years ago, the destiny which mankind must, at its stage
of maturity, achieve: “And He (the Lord) shall judge among the
nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more …And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots… And he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of
his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together… And
the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall
not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

The writer of the Apocalypse, prefiguring the millenial
glory which a redeemed, a jubilant humanity must witness, has
similarly testified: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there
was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be
their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away.’”