Friends and fellow-heirs of the Kingdom of Baha'u'llah:
A tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course,
catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its
ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth. Its
driving power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its
cleansing force, however much undetected, is increasing with every passing
day. Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is
smitten by the evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive
its origin, nor probe its significance, nor discern its outcome.
Bewildered, agonized and helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind
of God invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its
foundations, deranging its equilibrium, sundering its nations, disrupting
the homes of its peoples, wasting its cities, driving into exile its
kings, pulling down its bulwarks, uprooting its institutions, dimming its
light, and harrowing up the souls of its inhabitants.
"The time for the destruction of the world and its people," Baha'u'llah's
prophetic pen has proclaimed, "hath arrived." "The hour is approaching,"
He specifically affirms, "when the most great convulsion will have
appeared." "The promised day is come, the day when tormenting trials will
have surged above your heads, and beneath your feet, saying: 'Taste ye
what your hands have wrought!'" "Soon shall the blasts of His chastisement
beat upon you, and the dust of hell enshroud you." And again: "And when
the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall
cause the limbs of mankind to quake." "The day is approaching when its
[civilization's] flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur
will proclaim: 'The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the All-Praised!'"
"The day will soon come," He, referring to the foolish ones of the earth,
has written, "whereon they will cry out for help and receive no answer."
"The day is approaching," He moreover has prophesied, "when the wrathful
anger of the Almighty will have taken hold of them. He, verily, is the
Omnipotent, the All-Subduing, the Most Powerful. He shall cleanse the
earth from the defilement of their corruption, and shall give it for an
heritage unto such of His servants as are nigh unto Him."
"As to those who deny Him Who is the Sublime Gate of God," the Bab, for
His part, has affirmed in the Qayyum-i-Asma, "for them We have prepared,
as justly decreed by God, a sore torment. And He, God, is the Mighty, the
Wise." And further, "O peoples of the earth! I swear by your Lord! Ye
shall act as former generations have acted. Warn ye, then, yourselves of
the terrible, the most grievous vengeance of God. For God is, verily,
potent over all things." And again: "By My glory! I will make the infidels
to taste, with the hands of My power, retributions unknown of anyone
except Me, and will waft over the faithful those musk-scented breaths
which I have nursed in the midmost heart of My throne."
Dear friends! The powerful operations of this titanic upheaval are
comprehensible to none except such as have recognized the claims of both
Baha'u'llah and the Bab. Their followers know full well whence it comes,
and what it will ultimately lead to. Though ignorant of how far it will
reach, they clearly recognize its genesis, are aware of its direction,
acknowledge its necessity, observe confidently its mysterious processes,
ardently pray for the mitigation of its severity, intelligently labor to
assuage its fury, and anticipate, with undimmed vision, the consummation
of the fears and the hopes it must necessarily engender.