To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the
West.
Friends and fellow-heirs of the grace of Baha'u'llah:
As your co-sharer in the building up of the New World Order which the mind
of Baha'u'llah has visioned, and whose features the pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
its perfect Architect, has delineated, I pause to contemplate with you the
scene which the revolution of well-nigh fifteen years after His passing
unfolds before us.
The contrast between the accumulating evidences of steady consolidation
that accompany the rise of the Administrative Order of the Faith of God,
and the forces of disintegration which batter at the fabric of a
travailing society, is as clear as it is arresting. Both within and
outside the Baha'i world the signs and tokens which, in a mysterious
manner, are heralding the birth of that World Order, the establishment of
which must signalize the Golden Age of the Cause of God, are growing and
multiplying day by day. No fair-minded observer can any longer fail to
discern them. He cannot be misled by the painful slowness characterizing
the unfoldment of the civilization which the followers of Baha'u'llah are
laboring to establish. Nor can he be deluded by the ephemeral
manifestations of returning prosperity which at times appear to be capable
of checking the disruptive influence of the chronic ills afflicting the
institutions of a decaying age. The signs of the times are too numerous
and compelling to allow him to mistake their character or to belittle
their significance. He can, if he be fair in his judgment, recognize in
the chain of events which proclaim on the one hand the irresistible march
of the institutions directly associated with the Revelation of Baha'u'llah
and foreshadow on the other the downfall of those powers and
principalities that have either ignored or opposed it--he can recognize in
them all evidences of the operation of God's all-pervasive Will, the
shaping of His perfectly ordered and world-embracing Plan.
"Soon," Baha'u'llah's own words proclaim it, "will the present day Order
be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord
speaketh the truth and is the Knower of things unseen." "By Myself," He
solemnly asserts, "the day is approaching when We will have rolled up the
world and all that is therein, and spread out a new Order in its stead.
He, verily, is powerful over all things." "The world's equilibrium," He
explains, "hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this Most
Great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been
revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System,
the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed." "The signs of
impending convulsions and chaos," He warns the peoples of the world, "can
now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing Order appeareth to be
lamentably defective."
Dearly-beloved friends! This New World Order, whose promise is enshrined
in the Revelation of Baha'u'llah, whose fundamental principles have been
enunciated in the writings of the Center of His Covenant, involves no less
than the complete unification of the entire human race. This unification
should conform to such principles as would directly harmonize with the
spirit that animates, and the laws that govern the operation of, the
institutions that already constitute the structural basis of the
Administrative Order of His Faith.
No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the Baha'i
Revelation, and at variance with the sublime pattern ordained in His
teachings, which the collective efforts of mankind may yet devise can ever
hope to achieve anything above or beyond that "Lesser Peace" to which the
Author of our Faith has Himself alluded in His writings. "Now that ye have
refused the Most Great Peace," He, admonishing the kings and rulers of the
earth, has written, "hold ye fast unto this the Lesser Peace, that haply
ye may in some degree better your own condition and that of your
dependents." Expatiating on this Lesser Peace, He thus addresses in that
same Tablet the rulers of the earth: "Be reconciled among yourselves, that
ye may need no more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your
territories and dominions... Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby
will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find
rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take up
arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but
manifest justice."
The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by Baha'u'llah--a
peace that must inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the
spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races, creeds,
classes and nations--can rest on no other basis, and can be preserved
through no other agency, except the divinely appointed ordinances that are
implicit in the World Order that stands associated with His Holy Name. In
His Tablet, revealed almost seventy years ago to Queen Victoria,
Baha'u'llah, alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: "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... Consider
these days in which the Ancient Beauty, He Who is the Most Great Name,
hath been sent down to regenerate and unify mankind. Behold how with drawn
swords they rose against Him, and committed that which caused the Faithful
Spirit to tremble. And whenever We said unto them: 'Lo, the World Reformer
is come,' they made reply: 'He, in truth, is one of the stirrers of
mischief.'" "It beseemeth all men in this Day," He, in another Tablet,
asserts, "to take firm hold on the Most Great Name, and to establish the
unity of all mankind. There is no place to flee to, no refuge that any one
can seek, except Him."