rs ago, so still it must be said 'the judgements of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether'."(48) That era, however, was swiftly drawing to
a close. In the upheavals that followed the Second World War, even so
influential a figure as Mohandas Gandhi proved unable to mobilize the
spiritual power of Hinduism in support of his efforts to extinguish
sectarian violence on the Indian subcontinent. Nor were leaders of the
Islamic community any more effective in this respect. As prefigured in the
Qur'an's metaphorical vision of "The Day that We roll up the heavens like
a scroll",(49) the once unchallengeable authority of the traditional
religions had ceased to direct humanity's social relations.

It is in this context that one begins to appreciate Baha'u'llah's choice
of imagery about the will of God for a new age: "Think not that We have
revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the
choice Wine with the fingers of might and power."(50) Through His
revelation, the principles required for the collective coming of age of
the human race have been invested with the one power capable of
penetrating to the roots of human motivation and of altering behaviour.
For those who have recognized Him, equality of men and women is not a
sociological postulate, but revealed truth about human nature, with
implications for every aspect of human relations. The same is true of His
teaching of the principle of racial oneness. Universal education, freedom
of thought, the protection of human rights, recognition of the earth's
vast resources as a trust for the whole of humankind, society's
responsibility for the well-being of its citizenry, the promotion of
scientific research, even so practical a principle as an international
auxiliary language that will advance integration of the earth's
peoples--for all who respond to Baha'u'llah's revelation, these and similar
precepts carry the same compelling authority as do the injunctions of
scripture against idolatry, theft and false witness. While intimations of
some can be perceived in earlier sacred writings, their definition and
prescription had necessarily to wait until the planet's heterogeneous
populations could set out together on the discovery of their nature as a
single human race. Through spiritual empowerment brought by Baha'u'llah's
revelation the Divine standards can be appreciated, not as isolated
principles and laws, but as facets of a single, all-embracing vision o