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 Baha'u'llah 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 Baha'u'llah
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-Baha 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 Baha'u'llah--a World Order that shall reflect, however
dimly, upon this earthly plane, the ineffable splendors of the Abha
Kingdom.
One word more in conclusion. The proclamation of the Oneness of
Mankind--the head corner-stone of Baha'u'llah'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 Baha'u'llah 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.