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The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
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Pages 157-163
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The Unfoldment of World Civilization
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To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
the West.
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Friends and fellow-heirs of the grace of Bahá'u'lláh:
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As your co-sharer in the building up of the New World Order
which the mind of Bahá'u'lláh has visioned, and whose features the
pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá, 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.
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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 Bahá'í 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 Bahá'u'lláh 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
Bahá'u'lláh 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.
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"Soon," Bahá'u'lláh'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."
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Dearly-beloved friends! This New World Order, whose promise
is enshrined in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, 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.
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No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the
Bahá'í 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."
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The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by
Bahá'u'lláh--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, Bahá'u'lláh, 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."
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