Over sixty years ago, in His Tablet to Queen Victoria, Baha'u'llah,
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 Baha'u'llah 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 Baha'u'llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the
fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.
"The Tabernacle of Unity," Baha'u'llah 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."