,
whether of omission or of commission, to go unpunished, nor will He be
willing to abandon His children to their fate, and refuse them that
culminating and blissful stage in their long, their slow and painful
evolution throughout the ages, which is at once their inalienable right
and their true destiny.

"Bestir yourselves, O people," is, on the one hand, the ominous warning
sounded by Baha'u'llah Himself, "in anticipation of the days of Divine
Justice, for the promised hour is now come." "Abandon that which ye
possess, and seize that which God, Who layeth low the necks of men, hath
brought. Know ye of a certainty that if ye turn not back from that which
ye have committed, chastisement will overtake you on every side, and ye
shall behold things more grievous than that which ye beheld aforetime."
And again: "We have fixed a time for you, O people! If ye fail, at the
appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on
you, and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every
direction. How severe indeed is the chastisement with which your Lord will
then chastise you!" And again: "God assuredly 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."
And finally: "O ye peoples of the world! Know verily that an unforeseen
calamity is following you and that grievous retribution awaiteth you.
Think not the deeds ye have committed have been blotted from My sight. By
My Beauty! All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon
tablets of chrysolite."

"The whole earth," Baha'u'llah, on the other hand, forecasting the bright
future in store for a world now wrapt in darkness, emphatically asserts,
"is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have
yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the
loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly
blessings." "The time is approaching when every created thing will have
cast its burden. Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that
encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen!" "These great
oppressions," He, moreover, foreshadowing humanity's golden age, has
written, "are preparing it for the advent of the Most Great Justice." This
Most Great Justice is indeed the Justice upon which the structure of the
Most Great Peace can alone, and must eventually, rest,