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 coeoperation, 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 Baha'u'llah, 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 Baha'u'llah'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.