is consummating its divinely appointed
mission, be able to fulfill the unspeakably glorious destiny ordained for
it by the Almighty, and immortally enshrined in the writings of
'Abdu'l-Baha. Then, and only then, will the American nation accomplish
"that which will adorn the pages of history," "become the envy of the
world and be blest in both the East and the West."

(25 December 1938, published in "The Advent of Divine Justice" (Wilmette:
Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1984), pp. 90-91) [49]

50: The world is, in truth, moving on towards its destiny. The...

The world is, in truth, moving on towards its destiny. The interdependence
of the peoples and nations of the earth, whatever the leaders of the
divisive forces of the world may say or do, is already an accomplished
fact. Its unity in the economic sphere is now understood and recognized.
The welfare of the part means the welfare of the whole, and the distress
of the part brings distress to the whole. The Revelation of Baha'u'llah
has, in His own words, "lent a fresh impulse and set a new direction" to
this vast process now operating in the world. The fires lit by this great
ordeal are the consequences of men's failure to recognize it. They are,
moreover, hastening its consummation. Adversity, prolonged, world wide,
afflictive, allied to chaos and universal destruction, must needs convulse
the nations, stir the conscience of the world, disillusion the masses,
precipitate a radical change in the very conception of society, and
coalesce ultimately the disjointed, the bleeding limbs of mankind into one
body, single, organically united, and indivisible.

...

To the general character, the implications and features of this world
commonwealth, destined to emerge, sooner or later, out of the carnage,
agony, and havoc of this great world convulsion, I have already referred
in my previous communications. Suffice it to say that this consummation
will, by its very nature, be a gradual process, and must, as Baha'u'llah
has Himself anticipated, lead at first to the establishment of that Lesser
Peace which the nations of the earth, as yet unconscious of His Revelation
and yet unwittingly enforcing the general principles which He has
enunciated, will themselves establish. This momentous and historic step,
involving the reconstruction of mankind, as the result of the universal
recognition of its oneness and wholeness, will bring in its wake the
spiritualization of the masses,