17: ... Praise be to God that thou hast attained!... Thou hast come to see
a...
... Praise be to God that thou hast attained!... Thou hast come to see a
prisoner and an exile.... We desire but the good of the world and
happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and
sedition worthy of bondage and banishment.... That all nations should
become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection
and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity
of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled--what harm is
there in this?... Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these
ruinous wars shall pass away, and the "Most Great Peace" shall come.... Do
not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that which Christ
foretold?... Yet do we see your kings and rulers lavishing their treasures
more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that
which would conduce to the happiness of mankind.... These strifes and this
bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one
family.... Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him
rather glory in this, that he loves his kind....
(Words spoken to E. G. Browne, from his pen portrait of Baha'u'llah, J. E.
Esslemont, "Baha'u'llah and the New Era", 5th rev. ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i
Publishing Trust, 1987), pp. 39-40) [17]