To the general character, the implications and features of this world
commonwealth, destined to emerge, sooner or later, out of the carnage,
agony, and havoc of this great world convulsion, I have already referred
in my previous communications. Suffice it to say that this consummation
will, by its very nature, be a gradual process, and must, as Baha'u'llah
has Himself anticipated, lead at first to the establishment of that Lesser
Peace which the nations of the earth, as yet unconscious of His Revelation
and yet unwittingly enforcing the general principles which He has
enunciated, will themselves establish. This momentous and historic step,
involving the reconstruction of mankind, as the result of the universal
recognition of its oneness and wholeness, will bring in its wake the
spiritualization of the masses, consequent to the recognition of the
character, and the acknowledgment of the claims, of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah--the essential condition to that ultimate fusion of all races,
creeds, classes, and nations which must signalize the emergence of His New
World Order.
Then will the coming of age of the entire human race be proclaimed and
celebrated by all the peoples and nations of the earth. Then will the
banner of the Most Great Peace be hoisted. Then will the worldwide
sovereignty of Baha'u'llah--the Establisher of the Kingdom of the Father
foretold by the Son, and anticipated by the Prophets of God before Him and
after Him--be recognized, acclaimed, and firmly established. Then will a
world civilization be born, flourish, and perpetuate itself, a
civilization with a fullness of life such as the world has never seen nor
can as yet conceive. Then will the Everlasting Covenant be fulfilled in
its completeness. Then will the promise enshrined in all the Books of God
be redeemed, and all the prophecies uttered by the Prophets of old come to
pass, and the vision of seers and poets be realized. Then will the planet,
galvanized through the universal belief of its dwellers in one God, and
their allegiance to one common Revelation, mirror, within the limitations
imposed upon it, the effulgent glories of the sovereignty of Baha'u'llah,
shining in the plenitude of its splendor in the Abha Paradise, and be made
the footstool of His Throne on high, and acclaimed as the earthly heaven,
capable of fulfilling that ineffable destiny fixed for it, from time
immemorial, by the love and wisdom of its Creator.
Not ours, puny mortals that we are, to attempt, at so critical a stage in
the long and checkered history of mankind, to arrive at a precise and
satisfactory understanding of the steps which must successively lead a
bleeding humanity, wretchedly oblivious of its God, and careless of
Baha'u'llah, from its calvary to its ultimate resurrection. Not ours, the
living witnesses of the all-subduing potency of His Faith, to question,
for a moment, and however dark the misery that enshrouds the world, the
ability of Baha'u'llah to forge, with the hammer of His Will, and through
the fire of tribulation, upon the anvil of this travailing age, and in the
particular shape His mind has envisioned, these scattered and mutually
destructive fragments into which a perverse world has fallen, into one
single unit, solid and indivisible, able to execute His design for the
children of men.
Ours rather the duty, however confused the scene, however dismal the
present outlook, however circumscribed the resources we dispose of, to
labor serenely, confidently, and unremittingly to lend our share of
assistance, in whichever way circumstances may enable us, to the operation
of the forces which, as marshaled and directed by Baha'u'llah, are leading
humanity out of the valley of misery and shame to the loftiest summits of
power and glory.