Dearly beloved friends: Who, contemplating the helplessness, the fears and
miseries of humanity in this day, can any longer question the necessity
for a fresh revelation of the quickening power of God's redemptive love
and guidance? Who, witnessing on one hand the stupendous advance achieved
in the realm of human knowledge, of power, of skill and inventiveness, and
viewing on the other the unprecedented character of the sufferings that
afflict, and the dangers that beset, present-day society, can be so blind
as to doubt that the hour has at last struck for the advent of a new
Revelation, for a re-statement of the Divine Purpose, and for the
consequent revival of those spiritual forces that have, at fixed
intervals, rehabilitated the fortunes of human society? Does not the very
operation of the world-unifying forces that are at work in this age
necessitate that He Who is the Bearer of the Message of God in this day
should not only reaffirm that self-same exalted standard of individual
conduct inculcated by the Prophets gone before Him, but embody in His
appeal, to all governments and peoples, the essentials of that social
code, that Divine Economy, which must guide humanity's concerted efforts
in establishing that all-embracing federation which is to signalize the
advent of the Kingdom of God on this earth?
May we not, therefore, recognizing as we do the necessity for such a
revelation of God's redeeming power, meditate upon the supreme grandeur of
the System unfolded by the hand of Baha'u'llah in this day? May we not
pause, pressed though we be by the daily preoccupations which the
ever-widening range of the administrative activities of His Faith must
involve, to reflect upon the sanctity of the responsibilities it is our
privilege to shoulder?