vel of negotiation and compromise. Addressing the "elected
representatives of the people in every land", Baha'u'llah wrote:

That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest
instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its
peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith.(161)

It is not, therefore, in providing support, nor encouragement, nor even
example that the work of the Cause chiefly lies. The Baha'i community will
go on contributing in every way possible to efforts toward global
unification and social betterment, but such contributions are secondary to
its purpose. Its purpose is to assist the people of the world to open
their minds and hearts to the one Power that can fulfil their ultimate
longing. There are none, except those who have themselves awakened to the
Revelation of God, who can bring this help. There are none who can offer
credible testimony to a coming world of peace and justice but those who
understand, however dimly, the words with which the Voice of God summoned
Baha'u'llah to arise and undertake His mission:

Canst thou discover any one but Me, O Pen, in this Day? What hath become
of the creation and the manifestations thereof? What of the names and
their kingdom? Whither are gone all created things, whether seen or
unseen? What of the hidden secrets of the universe and its revelations?
Lo, the entire creation hath passed away! Nothing remaineth except My
Face, the Ever-Abiding, the Resplendent, the All-Glorious.

This is the Day whereon naught can be seen except the splendors of the
Light that shineth from the face of Thy Lord, the Gracious, the Most
Bountiful. Verily, We have caused every soul to expire by virtue of Our
irresistible and all-subduing sovereignty. We have, then, called into
being a new creation, as a token of Our grace unto men. I am, verily, the
All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days.(162)

FOOTNOTES

1 Shoghi Effendi, _Advent of Divine Justice_ (Wilmette: Baha'i
Publishing Trust, 1990), p. 81.

2 Shoghi Effendi, _The Promised Day is Come_ (Wilmette: Baha'i
Publishing Trust, 1996), p. 1.

3 Eric Hobsbawm, _Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century,
1914-1991_ (London: Abacus, 1995), p. 584.

4 Leopold II, King of the Belgians, operated the colony as a private
preserve for some three decades (1877-1908). The atrocities carried
out under his misrule aroused international pr