nscending love which the followers of
the Baha'i Faith feel for their fellow-men, of whatever race, creed, class
or nation, is neither mysterious nor can it be said to have been
artificially stimulated. It is both spontaneous and genuine. They whose
hearts are warmed by the energizing influence of God's creative love
cherish His creatures for His sake, and recognize in every human face a
sign of His reflected glory.

Of such men and women it may be truly said that to them "every foreign
land is a fatherland, and every fatherland a foreign land." For their
citizenship, it must be remembered, is in the Kingdom of Baha'u'llah.
Though willing to share to the utmost the temporal benefits and the
fleeting joys which this earthly life can confer, though eager to
participate in whatever activity that conduces to the richness, the
happiness and peace of that life, they can, at no time, forget that it
constitutes no more than a transient, a very brief stage of their
existence, that they who live it are but pilgrims and wayfarers whose goal
is the Celestial City, and whose home the Country of never-failing joy and
brightness.

Though loyal to their respective governments, though profoundly interested
in anything that affects their security and welfare, though anxious to
share in whatever promotes their best interests, the Faith with which the
followers of Baha'u'llah stand identified is one which they firmly believe
God has raised high above the storms, the divisions, and controversies of
the political arena. Their Faith they conceive to be essentially
non-political, supra-national in character, rigidly non-partisan, and
entirely dissociated from nationalistic ambitions, pursuits, and purposes.
Such a Faith knows no division of class or of party. It subordinates,
without hesitation or equivocation, every particularistic interest, be it
personal, regional, or national, to the paramount interests of humanity,
firmly convinced that in a world of inter-dependent peoples and nations
the advantage of the part is best to be reached by the advantage of the
whole, and that no abiding benefit can be conferred upon the component
parts if the general interests of the entity itself are ignored or
neglected.

Small wonder if by the Pen of Baha'u'llah these pregnant words, written in
anticipation of the present state of mankind, should have been revealed:
"It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather
for him who l