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The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
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Pages 16-17
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Distinguishing Features of Bahá'í World Order
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I feel it, however, incumbent upon me by virtue of the responsibility
attached to the Guardianship of the Faith, to dwell more fully
upon the essential character and the distinguishing features of that
world order as conceived and proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh. I feel impelled,
at the present stage of the evolution of the Bahá'í Revelation,
to state candidly and without any reservation, whatever I regard may
tend to insure the preservation of the integrity of the nascent institutions
of the Faith. I strongly feel the urge to elucidate certain
facts, which would at once reveal to every fair-minded observer the
unique character of that Divine Civilization the foundations of
which the unerring hand of Bahá'u'lláh has laid, and the essential elements
of which the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá has disclosed.
I consider it my duty to warn every beginner in the Faith that
the promised glories of the Sovereignty which the Bahá'í teachings
foreshadow, can be revealed only in the fullness of time, that the
implications of the Aqdas and the Will of `Abdu'l-Bahá, as the twin
repositories of the constituent elements of that Sovereignty, are too
far-reaching for this generation to grasp and fully appreciate. I
cannot refrain from appealing to them who stand identified with the
Faith to disregard the prevailing notions and the fleeting fashions
of the day, and to realize as never before that the exploded theories
and the tottering institutions of present-day civilization must needs
appear in sharp contrast with those God-given institutions which are
destined to arise upon their ruin. I pray that they may realize with
all their heart and soul the ineffable glory of their calling, the overwhelming
responsibility of their mission, and the astounding immensity
of their task.
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For let every earnest upholder of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh
realize that the storms which this struggling Faith of God must
needs encounter, as the process of the disintegration of society advances,
shall be fiercer than any which it has already experienced.
Let him be aware that so soon as the full measure of the stupendous
claim of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh comes to be recognized by those
time-honored and powerful strongholds of orthodoxy, whose deliberate
aim is to maintain their stranglehold over the thoughts and
consciences of men, this infant Faith will have to contend with enemies
more powerful and more insidious than the cruellest torture-mongers
and the most fanatical clerics who have afflicted it in the
past. What foes may not in the course of the convulsions that shall
seize a dying civilization be brought into existence, who will reinforce
the indignities which have already been heaped upon it!
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