iate the central message of any of the successive
revelations of God. Today, with the immense opportunities and horrific
dangers that physical unification of the planet has brought with it,
commitment to the requirements of unity becomes the touchstone of all
professions of devotion to the will of God or, for that matter, to the
well-being of humankind.

"Everything in its history has equipped the Baha'i..."

Everything in its history has equipped the Baha'i Cause to address the
challenge facing it. Even at this relatively early stage of its
development--and relatively limited as its resources presently are--the
Baha'i enterprise is fully deserving of the respect it is winning. An
onlooker need not accept its claims to Divine origin in order to
appreciate what is being accomplished. Taken simply as this-worldly
phenomena, the nature and achievements of the Baha'i community are their
own justification for attention on the part of anyone seriously concerned
with the crisis of civilization, because they are evidence that the
world's peoples, in all their diversity, can learn to live and work and
find fulfilment as a single race, in a single global homeland.

This fact underlines, if further emphasis were needed, the urgency of the
successive Plans devised by the Universal House of Justice for the
expansion and consolidation of the Faith. The rest of humanity has every
right to expect that a body of people genuinely committed to the vision of
unity embodied in the writings of Baha'u'llah will be an increasingly
vigorous contributor to programmes of social betterment that depend for
their success precisely on the force of unity. Responding to the
expectation will require the Baha'i community to grow at an
ever-accelerating pace, greatly multiplying the human and material
resources invested in its work and diversifying still further the range of
talents that equip it to be a useful partner with like-minded
organizations. Along with the social objectives of the effort must go an
appreciation of the longing of millions of equally sincere people, as yet
unaware of Baha'u'llah's mission but inspired by many of its ideals, for
an opportunity to find lives of service that will have enduring meaning.

The culture of systematic growth taking root in the Baha'i community would
seem, therefore, by far the most effective response the friends can make
to the challenge discussed in these pages. The experience of an intense
and