ed Master, and is abundantly
proved to us all by its heroic past and turbulent history. And yet, if it
is the lot of the chosen ones of God, the people of Baha, to face
adversity and suffer tribulation before achieving ultimate victory, are we
to believe that whatever befalls us is divinely ordained, and in no wise
the result of our faint-heartedness and negligence?

Surely now, if ever, is the time to turn our eyes inwardly, to bestir
ourselves, to invoke the Most Great Name, and standing together, summon to
our aid and support all the faith, the strength, and the courage that we
shall need to meet our pressing obligations and discharge our trust.

The Plight of Mankind

The plight of mankind, the condition and circumstances under which we live
and labor are truly disheartening, and the darkness of prejudice and
ill-will enough to chill the stoutest heart. Disillusion and dismay are
invading the hearts of peoples and nations, and the hope and vision of a
united and regenerated humanity is growing dimmer and dimmer every day.
Time-honored institutions, cherished ideals, and sacred traditions are
suffering in these days of bewildering change, from the effects of the
gravest onslaught, and the precious fruit of centuries of patient and
earnest labor is faced with peril. Passions, supposed to have been curbed
and subdued, are now burning fiercer than ever before, and the voice of
peace and good-will seems drowned amid unceasing convulsions and turmoil.
What, let us ask ourselves, should be our attitude as we stand under the
all-seeing eye of our vigilant Master, gazing at a sad spectacle so
utterly remote from the spirit which He breathed into the world? Are we to
follow in the wake of the wayward and the despairing? Are we to allow our
vision of so unique, so enduring, so precious a Cause to be clouded by the
stain and dust of worldly happenings, which, no matter how glittering and
far-reaching in their immediate effects, are but the fleeting shadows of
an imperfect world? Are we to be carried away by the flood of hollow and
conflicting ideas, or are we to stand, unsubdued and unblemished, upon the
everlasting rock of God's Divine Instructions? Shall we not equip
ourselves with a clear and full understanding of their purpose and
implications for the age we live in, and with an unconquerable resolve
arise to utilize them, intelligently and with scrupulous fidelity, for the
enlightenment and the promotion of the go