Consider events in the Balkans today where a great conflagration of war is
furiously raging and so much blood is being shed. Virtually the whole
world of humanity is mourning and lamenting because of the revival of
these calamitous conditions. Governments are in the process of change and
transformation. The sovereignty of oriental nations is tottering; outcomes
are wrapped in the greatest uncertainty. I desire, therefore, to speak to
you upon this subject.
I will call your attention more especially to the aspects of this war
which Baha'u'llah prophesied forty years ago fully and completely. During
His exile and while under surveillance in the prison of Akka He addressed
a letter to the Sultan of Turkey. He, likewise, sent Epistles to Napoleon
III and to the _Sh_ah of Persia. All His letters to the kings and rulers
of the earth were compiled in a book published thirty-five years ago in
Bombay, India. There were several editions of this book.
I have with me a copy of an edition published twenty-two years ago. In
1891 Professor E. G. Browne of Cambridge University, England, wrote a book
detailing his visit to Akka. This was followed by a second volume in which
he quoted extracts from Baha'u'llah's Epistles to the kings and rulers.
There are also translations of some of these Epistles in your libraries.
When you get them, you will read the remarkable statements made by
Baha'u'llah.
I will read to you from the Arabic text the very words written by
Baha'u'llah in His Epistle to the Sultan of Turkey. They will be
translated to you as I read. "O King! Thou hast committed that by reason
of which Muhammad, the Prophet of God, lamenteth in the highest heaven.
Verily, the world hath made thee proud so that thou hast turned away from
the face of Him by Whose light the people of the supreme assembly are
illuminated, and erelong thou shalt find thyself in manifest loss. Thou
hast united with the Persian chief in opposition to Me after I came unto
you from the rising place of greatness and might with a matter which has
consoled the eyes of those near unto God. Verily, this is a day wherein
the Fire speaketh through all things, declaring that the Beloved of the
two worlds hath come, and on the part of everything an Interlocutor of the
matter hath sprung up to listen unto the Word of thy Lord, the Precious,
the Knowing. Dost thou imagine that thou canst quench the fire which God
hath kindled in the horizons? No! By Himself, the True One, wert thou of
those who know. Rather, by that which thou hast done its burning is
increased and its blaze augmented; and it shall encompass the earth and
whosoever is thereupon. Thus the matter hath been decreed, and whosoever
is in the heavens and upon the earth could not withstand His command.
"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. Was Pharaoh able to hinder God by exercising his
dominion when he rebelled upon the earth and was of the disobedient? We
have indeed manifested the Interlocutor [Moses] from his house in spite of
his will; verily, we were able to do this. And remember when Nimrod
kindled the fire of polytheism whereby he would burn the Friend of God
[Abraham]. Verily, we extinguished the fire by the truth and brought upon
Nimrod manifest grief. Verily, the oppressor [King of Persia] slew the
Beloved of the Worlds [the Bab] that he might thereby extinguish the light
of God among His creatures and deprive mankind of the pure water of life
in the days of his Lord, the Mighty, the Kind. We have made the matter
manifest in the country and elevated His mention among the unitarians.
Verily, the Servant hath assuredly come to vivify the world and bring to
union whosoever is upon the surface of the whole earth. That which God
willeth shall overcome, and thou shalt see the earth as the garden of
Abha. Thus hath it been written by the pen of command in an irrevocable
Tablet."
There are many other prophecies in this book, especially in the Epistle to
the _Sh_ah of Persia, all of which prophecies have come to pass. As they
are lengthy, we will not have time to quote them.
The purpose of these quotations is to show that Baha'u'llah's great
endeavor in the East was to unify mankind, to cause them to agree and
become reconciled, thereby manifesting the oneness of the world of
humanity, preparing the way for international peace and establishing the
foundations of happiness and welfare. But the nations have not hearkened
to His summons and message. The Persian and Turkish governments arose
against His Cause, and the result is that both these governments have been
disintegrated and broken. Had they been attentive to His commands and
received His admonitions, they would have been protected. They would have
enjoyed happiness and prosperity. They would have been bound together in
ties of fellowship and brotherhood, availing themselves of the wonderful
bounties of love and unity and dwelling in the delectable paradise of the
divine Kingdom. But, alas, the commands and guidance of the Blessed One
have been neglected and ignored. Day by day they have followed their own
devices and imaginations, until now this fire of war is raging most
furiously.
7 November 1912
Talk at Home of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Parsons
1700 Eighteenth Street, NW, Washington, D. C.