al peace may hoist its
standards, influencing all other regions and countries from here. This is
my hope.

16 April 1912
Talk at Hotel Ansonia to Baha'i Friends of New Jersey
Broadway and Seventy-third Street, New York

Notes by Ahmad Sohrab

Souls from the East and West have been brought together here through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Such a gathering as this would be impossible
through material means. A meeting of this kind has never been established
in New York, for here tonight we find people from remote regions of the
earth, associated with the people of America in the utmost love and
spiritual unity. This is only possible through the power of God. Christ
appeared in this world nineteen hundred years ago to establish ties of
unity and bonds of love between the various nations and different
communities. He cemented together the sciences of Rome and the splendors
of the civilization of Greece. He also accomplished affiliation between
the Assyrian kingdom and the power of Egypt. The blending of these nations
in unity, love and agreement had been impossible, but Christ through
divine power established this condition among the children of men.

A much greater difficulty confronts us today when we endeavor to establish
unity between the Orient and the Occident. Baha'u'llah through the power
of heaven has brought the East and the West together. Erelong we shall
know that they have been cemented by the power of God. The oneness of the
kingdom of humanity will supplant the banner of conquest, and all
communities of the earth will gather under its protection. No nation with
separate and restricted boundaries--such as Persia, for instance--will
exist. The United States of America will be known only as a name. Germany,
France, England, Turkey, Arabia--all these various nations will be welded
together in unity. When the people of the future are asked, "To which
nationality do you belong?" the answer will be, "To the nationality of
humanity. I am living under the shadow of Baha'u'llah. I am the servant of
Baha'u'llah. I belong to the army of the Most Great Peace." The people of
the future will not say, "I belong to the nation of England, France or
Persia"; for all of them will be citizens of a universal nationality--the
one family, the one country, the one world of humanity--and then these
wars, hatreds and strifes will pass away.

Baha'u'llah appeared in a country which was the center of prejudice. In
that cou