aha, "yearn, in
this day, in the Most Exalted Paradise, to return unto this world, so that
they may be aided to render some service to the threshold of the Abha
Beauty, and arise to demonstrate their servitude to His sacred Threshold."

A world, dimmed by the steadily dying-out light of religion, heaving with
the explosive forces of a blind and triumphant nationalism; scorched with
the fires of pitiless persecution, whether racial or religious; deluded by
the false theories and doctrines that threaten to supplant the worship of
God and the sanctification of His laws; enervated by a rampant and brutal
materialism; disintegrating through the corrosive influence of moral and
spiritual decadence; and enmeshed in the coils of economic anarchy and
strife--such is the spectacle presented to men's eyes, as a result of the
sweeping changes which this revolutionizing Force, as yet in the initial
stage of its operation, is now producing in the life of the entire planet.

So sad and moving a spectacle, bewildering as it must be to every observer
unaware of the purposes, the prophecies, and promises of Baha'u'llah, far
from casting dismay into the hearts of His followers, or paralyzing their
efforts, cannot but deepen their faith, and excite their enthusiastic
eagerness to arise and display, in the vast field traced for them by the
pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha, their capacity to play their part in the work of
universal redemption proclaimed by Baha'u'llah. Every instrument in the
administrative machinery which, in the course of several years, they have
so laboriously erected must be fully utilized, and subordinated to the end
for which it was created. The Temple, that proud embodiment of so rare a
spirit of self-sacrifice, must likewise be made to play its part, and
contribute its share to the teaching campaign designed to embrace the
entire Western Hemisphere.

The opportunities which the turmoil of the present age presents, with all
the sorrows which it evokes, the fears which it excites, the
disillusionment which it produces, the perplexities which it creates, the
indignation which it arouses, the revolt which it provokes, the grievances
it engenders, the spirit of restless search which it awakens, must, in
like manner, be exploited for the purpose of spreading far and wide the
knowledge of the redemptive power of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, and for
enlisting fresh recruits in the ever-swelling army of His followers. So
precious an opportu