a'u'llah, "so often vaunted by the learned
exponents of arts and sciences will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of
moderation, bring great evil upon men... If carried to excess,
civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of
goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation... The day is
approaching when its flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of
Grandeur will proclaim: 'The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the
All-Praised!'" "From the moment the Suriy-i-Ra'is (Tablet to Ra'is) was
revealed," He further explains, "until the present day, neither hath the
world been tranquillized, nor have the hearts of its peoples been at
rest... Its sickness is approaching the stage of utter hopelessness,
inasmuch as the true Physician is debarred from administering the remedy,
whilst unskilled practitioners are regarded with favor, and are accorded
full freedom to act. The dust of sedition hath clouded the hearts of men,
and blinded their eyes. Erelong they will perceive the consequences of
what their hands have wrought in the Day of God." "This is the Day," He
again has written, "whereon the earth shall tell out her tidings. The
workers of iniquity are her burdens... The Crier hath cried out, and men
have been torn away, so great hath been the fury of His wrath. The people
of the left hand sigh and bemoan. The people of the right abide in noble
habitations: they quaff the Wine that is life indeed from the hands of the
All-Merciful, and are, verily, the blissful."

Community of the Most Great Name

Who else can be the blissful if not the community of the Most Great Name,
whose world-embracing, continually consolidating activities constitute the
one integrating process in a world whose institutions, secular as well as
religious, are for the most part dissolving? They indeed are "the people
of the right," whose "noble habitation" is fixed on the foundations of the
World Order of Baha'u'llah--the Ark of everlasting salvation in this most
grievous Day. Of all the kindreds of the earth they alone can recognize,
amidst the welter of a tempestuous age, the Hand of the Divine Redeemer
that traces its course and controls its destinies. They alone are aware of
the silent growth of that orderly world polity whose fabric they
themselves are weaving.

Conscious of their high calling, confident in the society-building power
which their Faith possesses, they press forward, undeterred and
undismayed, i