Pregnant indeed are the years looming ahead of us all. The twin processes
of internal disintegration and external chaos are being accelerated and
every day are inexorably moving towards a climax. The rumblings that
must precede the eruption of those forces that must cause "the limbs of
humanity to quake" can already be heard. "The time of the end," "the latter
years," as foretold in the Scriptures, are at long last upon us. The Pen of
Bahá'u'lláh, the voice of `Abdu'l-Bahá, have time and again, insistently and
in terms unmistakable, warned an unheeding humanity of impending disaster.
The Community of the Most Great Name, the leaven that must
leaven the lump, the chosen remnant that must survive the rolling up of
the old, discredited, tottering order, and assist in the unfoldment of a new
one in its stead, is standing ready, alert, clear-visioned, and resolute. The
American believers, standard-bearers of this world-wide community and
torch-bearers of an as yet unborn civilization, have girt up their loins,
unfurled their banners and stepped into the arena of service. Their Plan has
been formulated. Their forces are mobilized. They are steadfastly marching
towards their goal. The hosts of the Abhá Kingdom are rushing forth, as
promised, to direct their steps and reinforce their power. Through their
initial victories they have provided the impulse that must now surge and, with
relentless force sweep over their sister-communities and eventually overpower
the entire human race. The generality of mankind, blind and enslaved, is
wholly unaware of the healing power with which this community has been
endowed, nor can it as yet suspect the role which this same community is
destined to play in its redemption. Fierce and manifold will be the assaults
with which governments, races, classes and religions, jealous of its rising
prestige and fearful of its consolidating strength, will seek to silence its
voice and sap its foundations. Unmoved by the relative obscurity that
surrounds it at the present time, and undaunted by the forces that will be
arrayed against it in the future, this community, I cannot but feel confident,
will, no matter how afflictive the agonies of a travailing age, pursue its
destiny, undeflected in its course, undimmed in its serenity, unyielding in
its resolve, unshaken in its convictions.
July 5, 1938