|
SPIRITUAL Crusade to be Launched in Europe- To the fourth, and by far the most momentous, the most arduous, the most challenging task to be carried Out under the Second Seven Year Plan - the systematic launching of a crusade in a mighty, a tormented, a spiritually famished continent, a continent drawn, in recent years through political developments as well as through improvement in the means of transportation, so close to the great republic of the West, and constituting a stepping-stone on the road leading to the redemption of the Old World - I must now direct the attention of my readers. (20:1) This as yet unfought and unbelievably potent crusade, embarked upon in the opening decade of the second century of the Baha'i Era, signalizing the commencement of the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah, and marking the first stage in the propulsion of a divinely conceived Plan across the borders of the Western Hemisphere, must, as its pace augments, reveal the first signs and tokens Which, as anticipated by the Author of the Plan Himself, must accompany the carrying of His Father's Message across the ocean, at the hands of His "apostles," from the shores of their homeland to the European continent. "The moment," is His powerfully sustaining, gloriously inspiring promise, "this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the shores of America, and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion. Then will all the peoples of the world witness that this community is spiritually illumined and divinely guided. Then will the whole earth resound with the praises of its majesty and greatness." (20:2) The first stage in this transatlantic field of service Which those crusading for the Cause of Baha'u'llah in the Western Hemisphere are now entering is a step fraught with possibilities such as no mind Can adequately envisage. Its challenge is overwhelming and its Potentialities unfathomable. Its hazards, rigors and pitfalls are numerous, its field immense, the number of its promoters as yet utterly inadequate, the resources required for its effective prosecution barely tapped. The races, nations and classes included within its orbit are numerous and highly diversified, and the prizes to be won by its victors incalculably great. The hatreds that inflame, the rivalries that agitate, the controversies that confuse, the miseries that afflict, these races, nations and classes are bitter and of long standing. The influence and fanaticism, whether ecclesiastical or political, of potentially hostile organizations, firmly entrenched within their ancestral strongholds, are formidable.
(20:3)
|