For the revelation of so great a favor a period of intense turmoil and wide-spread suffering would seem to be indispensable. Resplendent as has been the Age that has witnessed the inception of the Mission with which Baha"u"llah has been entrusted, the interval which must elapse ere that Age yields its choicest fruit must, it is becoming increasingly apparent, be overshadowed by such moral and social gloom as can alone prepare an unrepentant humanity for the prize she is destined to inherit.
Into such a period we are now steadily and irresistibly moving. Amidst the shadows which are increasingly gathering about us we can faintly discern the glimmerings of Baha"u"llah"s unearthly sovereignty appearing fitfully on the horizon of history. To us, the "generation of the half-light,"
living at a time which may be designated as the period of the incubation of the World Commonwealth envisaged by Baha"u"llah, has been a.s.signed a task whose high privilege we can never sufficiently appreciate, and the arduousness of which we can as yet but dimly recognize. We may well believe, we who are called upon to experience the operation of the dark forces destined to unloose a flood of agonizing afflictions, that the darkest hour that must precede the dawn of the Golden Age of our Faith has not yet struck. Deep as is the gloom that already encircles the world, the afflictive ordeals which that world is to suffer are still in preparation, nor can their blackness be as yet imagined. We stand on the threshold of an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new. Through the generating influence of the Faith announced by Baha"u"llah this New World Order may be said to have been conceived. We can, at the present moment, experience its stirrings in the womb of a travailing age-an age waiting for the appointed hour at which it can cast its burden and yield its fairest fruit.
"The whole earth," writes Baha"u"llah, "is now in a state of pregnancy.
The day is approaching when it will have yielded its n.o.blest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings. Immeasurably exalted is the breeze that wafteth from the garment of thy Lord, the Glorified! For lo, it hath breathed its fragrance and made all things new! Well is it with them that comprehend." "The onrushing winds of the grace of G.o.d," He, in the Suratu"l-Haykal, proclaims, "have pa.s.sed over all things. Every creature hath been endowed with all the potentialities it can carry. And yet the peoples of the world have denied this grace! Every tree hath been endowed with the choicest fruits, every ocean enriched with the most luminous gems. Man, himself, hath been invested with the gifts of understanding and knowledge. The whole creation hath been made the recipient of the revelation of the All-Merciful, and the earth the repository of things inscrutable to all except G.o.d, the Truth, the Knower of things unseen. The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its burden.
Glorified be G.o.d Who hath vouchsafed this grace that encompa.s.seth all things, whether seen or unseen!"
"The Call of G.o.d," "Abdu"l-Baha has written, "when raised, breathed a new life into the body of mankind, and infused a new spirit into the whole creation. It is for this reason that the world hath been moved to its depths, and the hearts and consciences of men been quickened. Erelong the evidences of this regeneration will be revealed, and the fast asleep will be awakened."
Universal Fermentation
As we view the world around us, we are compelled to observe the manifold evidences of that universal fermentation which, in every continent of the globe and in every department of human life, be it religious, social, economic or political, is purging and reshaping humanity in antic.i.p.ation of the Day when the wholeness of the human race will have been recognized and its unity established. A twofold process, however, can be distinguished, each tending, in its own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet. The first is essentially an integrating process, while the second is fundamentally disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds a System which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which a strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the latter, as its disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down, with increasing violence, the antiquated barriers that seek to block humanity"s progress towards its destined goal. The constructive process stands a.s.sociated with the nascent Faith of Baha"u"llah, and is the harbinger of the New World Order that Faith must erelong establish. The destructive forces that characterize the other should be identified with a civilization that has refused to answer to the expectation of a new age, and is consequently falling into chaos and decline.
A t.i.tanic, a spiritual struggle, unparalleled in its magnitude yet unspeakably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is being waged as a result of these opposing tendencies, in this age of transition through which the organized community of the followers of Baha"u"llah and mankind as a whole are pa.s.sing.
The Spirit that has incarnated itself in the inst.i.tutions of a rising Faith has, in the course of its onward march for the redemption of the world, encountered and is now battling with such forces as are, in most instances, the very negation of that Spirit, and whose continued existence must inevitably hinder it from achieving its purpose. The hollow and outworn inst.i.tutions, the obsolescent doctrines and beliefs, the effete and discredited traditions which these forces represent, it should be observed, have, in certain instances, been undermined by virtue of their senility, the loss of their cohesive power, and their own inherent corruption. A few have been swept away by the onrushing forces which the Baha"i Faith has, at the hour of its birth, so mysteriously released.
Others, as a direct result of a vain and feeble resistance to its rise in the initial stages of its development, have died out and been utterly discredited. Still others, fearful of the pervasive influence of the inst.i.tutions in which that same Spirit had, at a later stage, been embodied, had mobilized their forces and launched their attack, destined to sustain, in their turn, after a brief and illusory success, an ignominious defeat.
This Age of Transition
It is not my purpose to call to mind, much less to attempt a detailed a.n.a.lysis of, the spiritual struggles that have ensued, or to note the victories that have redounded to the glory of the Faith of Baha"u"llah since the day of its foundation. My chief concern is not with the happenings that have distinguished the First, the Apostolic Age of the Baha"i Dispensation, but rather with the outstanding events that are transpiring in, and the tendencies which characterize, the formative period of its development, this Age of Transition, whose tribulations are the precursors of that Era of blissful felicity which is to incarnate G.o.d"s ultimate purpose for all mankind.
To the catastrophic fall of mighty kingdoms and empires, on the eve of "Abdu"l-Baha"s departure, Whose pa.s.sing may be said to have ushered in the opening phase of the Age of Transition in which we now live, I have, in a previous communication, briefly alluded. The dissolution of the German Empire, the humiliating defeat inflicted upon its ruler, the successor and lineal descendant of the Prussian King and Emperor to whom Baha"u"llah had addressed His solemn and historic warning, together with the extinction of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the remnant of the once-great Holy Roman Empire, were both precipitated by a war whose outbreak signalized the opening of the Age of Frustration destined to precede the establishment of the World Order of Baha"u"llah. Both of these momentous events may be viewed as the earliest occurrences of that turbulent Age, into the outer fringes of whose darkest phase we are now beginning to enter.
To the Conqueror of Napoleon III, the Author of our Faith had, on the morrow of the King"s victory, addressed, in His Most Holy Book, this clear and ominous warning: "O King of Berlin! ...Take heed lest pride debar thee from recognizing the Day-Spring of Divine Revelation, lest earthly desires shut thee out, as by a veil, from the Lord of the Throne above and of the earth below. Thus counseleth thee the Pen of the Most High. He, verily, is the Most Gracious, the All-Bountiful. Do thou remember the one whose power transcended thy power (Napoleon III), and whose station excelled thy station. Where is he? Whither are gone the things he possessed? Take warning, and be not of them that are fast asleep. He it was who cast the Tablet of G.o.d behind him, when We made known unto him what the hosts of tyranny had caused Us to suffer. Wherefore, disgrace a.s.sailed him from all sides, and he went down to dust in great loss. Think deeply, O King, concerning him, and concerning them who, like unto thee, have conquered cities and ruled over men. The All-Merciful brought them down from their palaces to their graves. Be warned, be of them who reflect."
"O banks of the Rhine!" Baha"u"llah, in another pa.s.sage of that same Book, prophesies, "We have seen you covered with gore, inasmuch as the swords of retribution were drawn against you; and so you shall have another turn.
And We hear the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in conspicuous glory."
Collapse of Islam
The collapse of the power of the _Sh_i"ih hierarchy, in a land which had for centuries been one of the impregnable strongholds of Muslim fanaticism, was the inevitable consequence of that wave of secularization which, at a later time, was to invade some of the most powerful and conservative ecclesiastical inst.i.tutions in both the European and American continents. Though not the direct outcome of the last war, this sudden trembling which had seized this. .h.i.therto immovable pillar of Islamic orthodoxy accentuated the problems and deepened the restlessness with which a war-weary world was being afflicted. _Sh_i"ih Islam had lost once for all, in Baha"u"llah"s native land and as the direct consequence of its implacable hostility to His Faith, its combative power, had forfeited its rights and privileges, had been degraded and demoralized, and was being condemned to hopeless obscurity and ultimate extinction. No less than twenty thousand martyrs, however, had to sacrifice their lives ere the Cause for which they had stood and died could register this initial victory over those who were the first to repudiate its claims and mow down its gallant warriors. "Vileness and poverty were stamped upon them, and they returned with wrath from G.o.d."
"Behold," writes Baha"u"llah, commenting on the decline of a fallen people, "how the sayings and doings of _Sh_i"ih Islam have dulled the joy and fervor of its early days, and tarnished the pristine brilliancy of its light. In its primitive days, whilst they still adhered to the precepts a.s.sociated with the name of their Prophet, the Lord of mankind, their career was marked by an unbroken chain of victories and triumphs. As they gradually strayed from the path of their Ideal Leader and Master, as they turned away from the light of G.o.d and corrupted the principle of His Divine unity, and as they increasingly centered their attention upon them who were only the revealers of the potency of His Word, their power was turned into weakness, their glory into shame, their courage into fear.
Thou dost witness to what a pa.s.s they have come."
The downfall of the Qajar Dynasty, the avowed defender and the willing instrument of a decaying clergy, almost synchronized with the humiliation which the _Sh_i"ih ecclesiastical leaders had suffered. From Mu?ammad _Sh_ah down to the last and feeble monarch of that dynasty, the Faith of Baha"u"llah was denied the impartial consideration, the disinterested and fair treatment which its cause had rightly demanded. It had, on the contrary, been atrociously hara.s.sed, consistently betrayed and prosecuted.
The martyrdom of the Bab; the banishment of Baha"u"llah; the confiscation of His earthly possessions; His incarceration in Mazindaran; the reign of terror that confined Him in the most pestilential of dungeons; the intrigues, the protests, and calumnies which thrice renewed His exile and led to His ultimate imprisonment in the most desolate of cities; the shameful sentences pa.s.sed, with the connivance of the judicial and ecclesiastical authorities, against the person, the property, and the honor of His innocent followers-these stand out as among the blackest acts for which posterity will hold this blood-stained dynasty responsible. One more barrier that had sought to obstruct the forward march of the Faith was now removed.
Though Baha"u"llah had been banished from His native land, the tide of calamity which had swept with such fury over Him and over the followers of the Bab, was by no means receding. Under the jurisdiction of the Sul?an of Turkey, the arch-enemy of His Cause, a new chapter in the history of His ever-recurring trials had opened. The overthrow of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the twin pillars of Sunni Islam, can be regarded in no other light except as the inevitable consequence of the fierce, the sustained and deliberate persecution which the monarchs of the tottering House of U_th_man, the recognized successors of the Prophet Mu?ammad, had launched against it. From the city of Constantinople, the traditional seat of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the rulers of Turkey had, for a period covering almost three quarters of a century, striven, with unabated zeal, to stem the tide of a Faith they feared and abhorred. From the time Baha"u"llah set foot on Turkish soil and was made a virtual prisoner of the most powerful potentate of Islam to the year of the Holy Land"s liberation from Turkish yoke, successive Caliphs, and in particular the Sul?ans "Abdu"l-"Aziz and "Abdu"l-?amid, had, in the full exercise of the spiritual and temporal authority which their exalted office had conferred upon them, afflicted both the Founder of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant with such pain and tribulation as no mind can fathom nor pen or tongue describe. They alone could have measured or borne them.
To these afflictive trials Baha"u"llah has repeatedly testified: "By the righteousness of the Almighty! Were I to recount to thee the tale of the things that have befallen Me, the souls and minds of men would be incapable of sustaining its weight. G.o.d Himself beareth Me witness."
"Twenty years have pa.s.sed," He, addressing the kings of Christendom, has written, "during which We have, each day, tasted the agony of a fresh tribulation. No one of them that were before Us hath endured the things We have endured. Would that ye could perceive it! They that rose up against us have put us to death, have shed our blood, have plundered our property, and violated our honor." "Recall to mind My sorrows," He, in another connection, has revealed, "My cares and anxieties, My woes and trials, the state of My captivity, the tears that I have shed, the bitterness of Mine anguish, and now Mine imprisonment in this far-off land... Couldst thou be told what hath befallen the Ancient Beauty, thou wouldst flee into the wilderness, and weep with a great weeping... Every morning I arose from my bed, I discovered the hosts of countless afflictions ma.s.sed behind My door; and every night when I lay down, lo, My heart was torn with agony at what it had suffered from the fiendish cruelty of its foes."
The orders which these foes issued, the banishments they decreed, the indignities they inflicted, the plans they devised, the investigations they conducted, the threats they p.r.o.nounced, the atrocities they were prepared to commit, the intrigues and baseness to which they, their ministers, their governors, and military chieftains had stooped, const.i.tute a record which can hardly find a parallel in the history of any revealed religion. The mere recital of the most salient features of that sinister theme would suffice to fill a volume. They knew full well that the spiritual and administrative Center of the Cause they had striven to eradicate had now shifted to their dominion, that its leaders were Turkish citizens, and that whatever resources these could command were at their mercy. That for a period of almost three score years and ten, while still in the plenitude of its unquestioned authority, while reinforced by the endless machinations of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of a neighboring nation, and a.s.sured of the support of those of Baha"u"llah"s kindred who had rebelled against, and seceded from, His Cause, this despotism should have failed in the end to extirpate a mere handful of its condemned subjects must, to every unbelieving observer, remain one of the most intriguing and mysterious episodes of contemporary history.
The Cause of which Baha"u"llah was still the visible leader had, despite the calculations of a short-sighted enemy, undeniably triumphed. No unbiased mind, penetrating the surface of conditions surrounding the Prisoner of Akka, could any longer mistake or deny it. Though the tension which had been relaxed was, for a time, heightened after Baha"u"llah"s ascension and the perils of a still unsettled situation were revived, it was becoming increasingly evident that the insidious forces of decay, which for many a long year were eating into the vitals of a diseased nation, were now moving towards a climax. A series of internal convulsions, each more devastating than the previous one, had already been unchained, destined to bring in their wake one of the most catastrophic occurrences of modern times. The murder of that arrogant despot in the year 1876; the Russo-Turkish conflict that soon followed in its wake; the wars of liberation which succeeded it; the rise of the Young Turk movement; the Turkish Revolution of 1909 that precipitated the downfall of "Abdu"l-?amid; the Balkan wars with their calamitous consequences; the liberation of Palestine enshrining within its bosom the cities of Akka and Haifa, the world center of an emanc.i.p.ated Faith; the further dismemberment decreed by the Treaty of Versailles; the abolition of the Sultanate and the downfall of the House of U_th_man; the extinction of the Caliphate; the disestablishment of the State Religion; the annulment of the _Sh_ari"ah Law and the promulgation of a universal Civil Code; the suppression of various orders, beliefs, traditions and ceremonials believed to be inextricably interwoven with the fabric of the Muslim Faith-these followed with an ease and swiftness that no man had dared envisage. In these devastating blows, administered by friend and foe alike, by Christian nations and professing Muslims, every follower of the persecuted Faith of Baha"u"llah recognized evidences of the directing Hand of the departed Founder of his religion, Who, from the invisible Realm, was unloosing a flood of well-deserved calamities upon a rebellious religion and nation.
Compare the evidences of Divine visitation which befell the persecutors of Jesus Christ with these historic retributions which, in the latter part of the first century of the Baha"i Era, have hurled to dust the chief adversary of the religion of Baha"u"llah. Had not the Roman Emperor, in the second half of the first century of the Christian Era, after a distressful siege of Jerusalem, laid waste the Holy City, destroyed the Temple, desecrated and robbed the Holy of Holies of its treasures, and transported them to Rome, reared a pagan colony on the mount of Zion, ma.s.sacred the Jews, and exiled and dispersed the survivors?
Compare, moreover, these words which the persecuted Christ, as witnessed by the Gospel, addressed to Jerusalem, with Baha"u"llah"s apostrophe to Constantinople, revealed while He lay in His far-off Prison, and recorded in His Most Holy Book: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings!" And again, as He wept over the city: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compa.s.s thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."
"O Spot that art situate on the sh.o.r.es of the two seas!" Baha"u"llah thus apostrophizes the City of Constantinople, "The throne of tyranny hath, verily, been established upon thee, and the flame of hatred hath been kindled within thy bosom, in such wise that the Concourse on high and they who circle around the Exalted Throne have wailed and lamented. We behold in thee the foolish ruling over the wise, and darkness vaunting itself against the light. Thou art indeed filled with manifest pride. Hath thine outward splendor made thee vainglorious? By Him Who is the Lord of mankind! It shall soon perish, and thy daughters and thy widows and all the kindreds that dwell within thee shall lament. Thus informeth thee the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."
To Sul?an "Abdu"l-"Aziz, the monarch who decreed each of Baha"u"llah"s three banishments, the Founder of our Faith, while a prisoner in the Sul?an"s capital, addressed these words: "Hearken, O king, to the speech of Him that speaketh the truth, Him that doth not ask thee to recompense Him with the things G.o.d hath chosen to bestow upon thee, Him Who unerringly treadeth the Straight Path ...Set before thine eyes G.o.d"s unerring Balance and, as one standing in His presence, weigh in that Balance thine actions every day, every moment of thy life. Bring thyself to account ere thou art summoned to a reckoning, on the day when no man shall have strength to stand for fear of G.o.d, the day when the hearts of the heedless ones shall be made to tremble."
To the Ministers of the Turkish State, He, in that same Tablet, revealed: "It behooveth you, O Ministers of State, to keep the precepts of G.o.d, and to forsake your own laws and regulations, and to be of them who are guided aright... Ye shall, erelong, discover the consequences of that which ye shall have done in this vain life, and shall be repaid for them... How great the number of those who, in bygone ages, have committed the things ye have committed, and who, though superior to you in rank, have, in the end, returned unto dust, and been consigned to their inevitable doom!...
Ye shall follow in their wake, and shall be made to enter a habitation wherein none shall be found to befriend or help you... The days of your life shall roll away, and all the things with which ye are occupied, and of which ye boast yourselves, shall perish, and ye shall, most certainly, be summoned by a company of His angels to appear at the spot where the limbs of the entire creation shall be made to tremble, and the flesh of every oppressor to creep... This is the day that shall inevitably come upon you, the hour that none can put back."
To the inhabitants of Constantinople, while He lived the life of an exile in their midst, Baha"u"llah, in that same Tablet, addressed these words: "Fear G.o.d, ye inhabitants of the City, and sow not the seeds of dissension amongst men... Your days shall pa.s.s away as have the days of them who were before you. To dust shall ye return, even as your fathers of old did return." "We found," He, moreover, remarks, "upon Our arrival in the City its governors and elders as children gathered about and disporting themselves with clay... Our inner eye wept sore over them, and over their transgressions and their total disregard of the thing for which they were created... The day is approaching when G.o.d will have raised up a people who will call to remembrance Our days, who will tell the tale of Our trials, who will demand the rest.i.tution of Our rights from them that, without a t.i.ttle of evidence, have treated Us with manifest injustice. G.o.d a.s.suredly dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their doings. He will, most certainly, lay hold on them for their sins.
He, verily, is the fiercest of avengers." "Wherefore," He graciously exhorteth them, "hearken ye unto My speech, and return ye to G.o.d and repent, that He, through His grace, may have mercy upon you, may wash away your sins, and forgive your trespa.s.ses. The greatness of His mercy surpa.s.seth the fury of His wrath, and His grace encompa.s.seth all who have been called into being and been clothed with the robe of life, be they of the past or of the future."
And, finally, in the Law?-i-Ra"is we find these prophetic words recorded: "Hearken, O Chief ... to the Voice of G.o.d, the Sovereign, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting... Thou hast, O Chief, committed that which hath made Mu?ammad, the Apostle of G.o.d, groan in the Most Exalted Paradise. The world hath made thee proud, so much so that thou hast turned away from the Face through Whose brightness the Concourse on high hath been illumined. Soon thou shalt find thyself in evident loss... The day is approaching when the Land of Mystery (Adrianople) and what is beside it shall be changed, and shall pa.s.s out of the hands of the King, and commotions shall appear, and the voice of lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences of mischief shall be revealed on all sides, and confusion shall spread by reason of that which hath befallen these captives at the hands of the hosts of oppression. The course of things shall be altered, and conditions shall wax so grievous, that the very sands on the desolate hills will moan, and the trees on the mountain will weep, and blood will flow out of all things. Then wilt thou behold the people in sore distress."
Thirteen hundred years had to elapse from the death of the Prophet Mu?ammad ere the illegitimacy of the inst.i.tution of the Caliphate, the founders of which had usurped the authority of the lawful successors of the Apostle of G.o.d, would be fully and publicly demonstrated. An inst.i.tution which in its inception had trampled upon so sacred a right and unchained the forces of so distressful a schism, an inst.i.tution which, in the latter days, had dealt so grievous a blow to a Faith Whose Forerunner was Himself a descendant of the very Imams whose authority that inst.i.tution had repudiated, deserved full well the chastis.e.m.e.nt that had sealed its fate.
The text of certain Mu?ammadan traditions, the authenticity of which Muslims themselves recognize, and which have been extensively quoted by eminent Oriental Baha"i scholars and authors, will serve to corroborate the argument and illuminate the theme I have attempted to expound: "In the latter days a grievous calamity shall befall My people at the hands of their ruler, a calamity such as no man ever heard to surpa.s.s it. So fierce will it be that none can find a shelter. G.o.d will then send down One of My descendants, One sprung from My family, Who will fill the earth with equity and justice, even as it hath been filled with injustice and tyranny." And, again: "A day shall be witnessed by My people whereon there will have remained of Islam naught but a name, and of the Qur"an naught but a mere appearance. The doctors of that age shall be the most evil the world hath ever seen. Mischief hath proceeded from them, and on them will it recoil." And, again: "At that hour His malediction shall descend upon you, and your curse shall afflict you, and your religion shall remain an empty word on your tongues. And when these signs appear amongst you, antic.i.p.ate the day when the red-hot wind will have swept over you, or the day when ye will have been disfigured, or when stones will have rained upon you."
"O people of the Qur"an," Baha"u"llah, addressing the combined forces of Sunni and _Sh_i"ih Islam, significantly affirms, "Verily, the Prophet of G.o.d, Mu?ammad, sheddeth tears at the sight of your cruelty. Ye have a.s.suredly followed your evil and corrupt desires, and turned away your face from the light of guidance. Erelong will ye witness the result of your deeds; for the Lord, My G.o.d, lieth in wait and is watchful of your behavior... O concourse of Muslim divines! By your deeds the exalted station of the people hath been abased, the standard of Islam hath been reversed, and its mighty throne hath fallen."
Deterioration of Christian Inst.i.tutions
So much for Islam and the crippling blows its leaders and inst.i.tutions have received-and may yet receive-in this, the first century of the Baha"i Era. If I have dwelt too long on this theme, if I have, to a disproportionate degree, quoted from the sacred writings in support of my argument, it is solely because of my firm conviction that these retributive calamities that have rained down upon the foremost oppressor of the Faith of Baha"u"llah should rank not only among the stirring occurrences of this Age of Transition, but as some of the most startling and significant events of contemporary history.
Both Sunni and _Sh_i"ih Islam had, through the convulsions that had seized them, contributed to the acceleration of the disruptive process to which I have previously referred-a process which, by its very nature, is to pave the way for that complete reorganization and unification which the world, in every aspect of its life, must achieve. What of Christianity and of the denominations with which it stands identified? Can it be said that this process of deterioration that has attacked the fabric of the Religion of Mu?ammad has failed to exert its baneful influence on the inst.i.tutions a.s.sociated with the Faith of Jesus Christ? Have these inst.i.tutions already experienced the impact of these menacing forces? Are their foundations so secure and their vitality so great as to enable them to resist this onslaught? Will they, as the confusion of a chaotic world spreads and deepens, fall in turn a prey to their violence? Have the more orthodox among them already arisen, and, if not, will they arise, to repel the onset of a Cause which, having pulled down the barriers of Muslim orthodoxy, is now advancing into the heart of Christendom, in both the European and American continents? Would such a resistance sow the seeds of further dissension and confusion, and consequently serve indirectly to hasten the advent of the promised Day?
To these queries we can but partly answer. Time alone can reveal the nature of the role which the inst.i.tutions directly a.s.sociated with the Christian Faith are destined to a.s.sume in this, the Formative Period of the Baha"i Era, this dark age of transition through which humanity as a whole is pa.s.sing. Such events as have already transpired, however, are of such a nature as can indicate the direction in which these inst.i.tutions are moving. We can, in some degree, appraise the probable effect which the forces operating both within the Baha"i Faith and outside it will exert upon them.
That the forces of irreligion, of a purely materialistic philosophy, of unconcealed paganism have been unloosed, are now spreading, and, by consolidating themselves, are beginning to invade some of the most powerful Christian inst.i.tutions of the western world, no unbiased observer can fail to admit. That these inst.i.tutions are becoming increasingly restive, that a few among them are already dimly aware of the pervasive influence of the Cause of Baha"u"llah, that they will, as their inherent strength deteriorates and their discipline relaxes, regard with deepening dismay the rise of His New World Order, and will gradually determine to a.s.sail it, that such an opposition will in turn accelerate their decline, few, if any, among those who are attentively watching the progress of His Faith would be inclined to question.
"The vitality of men"s belief in G.o.d," Baha"u"llah has testified, "is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of unG.o.dliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it?" "The world is in travail," He has further written, "and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly."