iet Union of Josef Stalin--so wilful an
abandonment of reason on the part of a considerable segment of the
intellectual leadership of society demands an accounting to posterity. If
undertaken dispassionately, such an evaluation must, sooner or later,
focus attention on a truth that runs like a central strand through the
Scriptures of all of humanity's religions. In the words of Baha'u'llah:

Upon the reality of man ... He hath focused the radiance of all of His
names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self.... These
energies ... lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden
within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in the
lamp.... Neither the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own
unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself
from its dross.(81)

The consequence of humanity's infatuation with the ideologies its own mind
had conceived was to produce a terrifying acceleration of the process of
disintegration that was dissolving the fabric of social life and
cultivating the basest impulses of human nature. The brutalization that
the first world war had engendered now became an omnipresent feature of
social life throughout much of the planet. "Thus have We gathered together
the workers of iniquity", Baha'u'llah warned over a century earlier. "We
see them rushing on towards their idol.... They hasten forward to Hell
Fire, and mistake it for light."(82)

VI

With the administrative structure of the Cause taking shape, Shoghi
Effendi turned his attention to the task he had been compelled to delay
for so long, the implementation of the Master's Divine Plan. In Persia,
the development was already well advanced. Directed first by Baha'u'llah
and subsequently by 'Abdu'l-Baha, a corps of especially designated
teachers--_muballi__gh__in_--stimulated the work at the local level
throughout the country, and the existence of a vibrant community life
assisted in the relatively rapid integration of new declarants.
Huququ'llah funds, supplemented by the practice of deputization, which was
already an established feature of Persian Baha'i consciousness, provided
material support for this teaching activity.

In the West, inspiration for the promotion of the Faith had been provided
by the response to the Master's appeals by such outstanding individuals as
Lua Getsinger, May Maxwell and Martha Root. Merely to mention these names
is to hig