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Completing His Western tours, 'Abdul-Baha, after nine months' ceaseless lecturing in the United States and Canada, reluctantly announced the imminent outbreak of the First World War and then went by Europe back to His home in Haifa. He had, however, published translations of a number of Baha'i Scriptures in America; organized Baha'i communities in that country on a firm foundation; laid the foundation stone of a Baha'i Temple in Wilmette on a site purchased at His direction. His efforts, however, to spread the Glad Tidings of the new Day far and wide found all too little response. After the outbreak of the First World War He tried to take the fullest advantage of the horror of war which the carnage had aroused by writing in and after 1916, a stirring summons to all Baha'is to arouse themselves and go forth through the length and breadth of the world to call all nations to the Kingdom of God. Once more He quoted the wonderful examples of the Apostles of Christ as a challenge to self-sacrifice. Fourteen of these letters constitute 'Abdul-Baha's Divine Plan in which He detailed a vigorous and forthright programme for the carrying of the message of the New Day throughout the continents and the islands of the sea.. No great response was aroused among the Baha'is by this appeal, a fact which caused 'Abdul-Baha poignant sorrow, compelling Him to realize how deep the suffering of the world would be which all His efforts had not been able to mitigate.
(96:4)
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