increase a thousandfold. Summon the people
in these countries, capitals, islands, assemblies and churches to enter
the Abha Kingdom. The scope of your exertions must needs be extended. The
wider its range, the more striking will be the evidences of Divine
assistance... Oh! that I could travel, even though on foot and in the
utmost poverty, to these regions and, raising the call of Ya Baha'u'l-Abha
in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the Divine
teachings! This, alas, I cannot do! How intensely I deplore it! Please
God, ye may achieve it." And finally, as if to crown all His previous
utterances, is this solemn affirmation embodying His Vision of America's
spiritual destiny: "The moment this Divine Message is carried forward by
the American believers from the shores of America and is propagated
through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia,
and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself
securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion. Then will
all the peoples of the world witness that this community is spiritually
illumined and divinely guided. Then will the whole earth resound with the
praises of its majesty and greatness."

It is in the light of these above-quoted words of 'Abdu'l-Baha that every
thoughtful and conscientious believer should ponder the significance of
this momentous utterance of Baha'u'llah: "In the East the light of His
Revelation hath broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His
dominion. Ponder this in your hearts, O people, and be not of those who
have turned a deaf ear to the admonitions of Him Who is the Almighty, the
All-Praised... Should they attempt to conceal its light on the continent,
it will assuredly rear its head in the midmost heart of the ocean, and,
raising its voice, proclaim: 'I am the life-giver of the world!'"

Dearly-beloved friends! Can our eyes be so dim as to fail to recognize in
the anguish and turmoil which, greater than in any other country and in a
manner unprecedented in its history, are now afflicting the American
nation, evidences of the beginnings of that spiritual renaissance which
these pregnant words of 'Abdu'l-Baha so clearly foreshadow? The throes and
twinges of agony which the soul of a nation in travail is now beginning to
experience abundantly proclaim it. Contrast the sad plight of the nations
of the earth, and in particular this great Republic of the West, with th