Many and divers are the setbacks and reverses which this nation, extolled
so highly by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and occupying at present so unique a position
among its fellow nations, must, alas, suffer. The road leading to its
destiny is long, thorny and tortuous. The impact of various forces upon
the structure and polity of that nation will be tremendous. Tribulations,
on a scale unprecedented in its history, and calculated to purge its
institutions, to purify the hearts of its people, to fuse its constituent
elements, and to weld it into one entity with its sister nations in both
hemispheres, are inevitable.
In one of the most remarkable Tablets revealed by 'Abdu'l-Baha, passages
of which have already been quoted on previous occasions, written in the
evening of His life, soon after the termination of the first World War, He
anticipates, in succinct and ominous sentences, the successive ebullitions
which must afflict humanity, and whose full force the American nation
must, if her destiny is to be accomplished, inevitably experience. "The
ills from which the world now suffers," He wrote, "will multiply; the
gloom which envelops it will deepen. The Balkans will remain discontented.
Its restlessness will increase. The vanquished powers will continue to
agitate. They will resort to every measure that may rekindle the flame of
war. Movements, newly born and world-wide in their range, will exert their
utmost effort for the advancement of their designs. The Movement of the
Left will acquire great importance. Its influence will spread."
The agitation in the Balkan Peninsula; the feverish activity in which
Germany and Italy played a disastrous role, culminating in the outbreak of
the second World War; the rise of the Fascist and Nazi movements, which
spread their ramifications to distant parts of the globe; the spread of
communism which, as a result of the victory of Soviet Russia in that same
war, has been greatly accelerated--all these happenings, some
unequivocally, others in veiled language, have been forecast in this
Tablet, the full force of whose implications are as yet undisclosed, and
which, we may well anticipate, the American nation, as yet insufficiently
schooled by adversity, must sooner or later experience.