World Unity -- the Goal                (highlighting and paragraph reformation added for readability)

     "Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching.  Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established.  World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving.  Nation-building has come to an end.  The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life."

     "A new life," Baha'u'llah proclaims, "is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause, or perceived its motive."  "O ye children of men," He thus addresses His generation, "the fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race...  This is the straight path, the fixed and immovable foundation.  Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure."

"The well-being of mankind," He declares, "its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established."

"So powerful is the light of unity," is His further testimony, "that it can illuminate the whole earth.  The one true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself testifieth to the truth of these words...  This goal excelleth every other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of all aspirations."

"He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful," He, moreover, has written, "cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body.  Haste ye to win your share of God's good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth all other created days."
 

World Unity -- The Vision
 
    "The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha'u'llah, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.

This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples.

A world executive, backed by an international Force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth.

A world tribunal will adjudicate and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes that may arise between the various elements constituting this universal system.  A mechanism of world inter-communication will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity.

A world metropolis will act as the nerve center of a world civilization, the focus towards which the unifying forces of life will converge and from which its energizing influences will radiate.

A world language will either be invented or chosen from among the existing languages and will be taught in the schools of all the federated nations as an auxiliary to their mother tongue.

A world script, a world literature, a uniform and universal system of currency, of weights and measures, will simplify and facilitate intercourse and understanding among the nations and races of mankind.

In such a world society, science and religion, the two most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled, will cooperate, and will harmoniously develop.

The press will, under such a system, while giving full scope to the expression of the diversified views and convictions of mankind, cease to be mischievously manipulated by vested interests, whether private or public, and will be liberated from the influence of contending governments and peoples.

The economic resources of the world will be organized, its sources of raw materials will be tapped and fully utilized, its markets will be coordinated and developed, and the distribution of its products will be equitably regulated.

     National rivalries, hatreds, and intrigues will cease, and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity, understanding and cooperation.

The causes of religious strife will be permanently removed, economic barriers and restrictions will be completely abolished, and the inordinate distinction between classes will be obliterated.

Destitution on the one hand, and gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear.

The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political, will be consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and technical development, to the increase of the productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpening and refinement of the human brain, to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected resources of the planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of the entire human race.

     A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East and the West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of all the available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation - such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving."

Ere the close of this century

     "One of the great events," affirms Abdu'l-Baha, "which is to occur in the Day of the manifestation of that incomparable Branch is the hoisting of the Standard of God among all nations.  By this is meant that all nations and kindreds will be gathered together under the shadow of this Divine Banner, which is no other than the Lordly Branch itself, and will become a single nation.  Religious and sectarian antagonism, the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be eliminated.  All men will adhere to one religion, will have one common faith, will be blended into one race and become a single people.  All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself."  "Now, in the world of being," He has moreover explained, "the Hand of Divine power hath firmly laid the foundations of this all-highest bounty, and this wondrous gift.  Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy Cycle shall gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning of its growth, and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs. Ere the close of this century and of this age, it shall be made clear and evident how wondrous was that spring-tide, and how heavenly was that gift."
 (Shoghi Effendi:  World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, Pages: 202-205)
 

Pattern for Future Society

    For Baha'u'llah, we should readily recognize, has not only imbued mankind with a new and regenerating Spirit.  He has not merely enunciated certain universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however potent, sound and universal these may be.  In addition to these He, as well as Abdu'l-Baha after Him, has, unlike the Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy.  These are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice upon the earth.  Not only have they revealed all the directions required for the practical realization of those ideals which the Prophets of God have visualized, and which from time immemorial have inflamed the imagination of seers and poets in every age.  They have also, in unequivocal and emphatic language, appointed those twin institutions of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship as their chosen Successors, destined to apply the principles, promulgate the laws, protect the institutions, adapt loyally and intelligently the Faith to the requirements of progressive society, and consummate the incorruptible inheritance which the Founders of the Faith have bequeathed to the world.
     Should we look back upon the past, were we to search out the Gospel and the Qur'an, we will readily recognize that neither the Christian nor the Islamic Dispensations can offer a parallel either to the system of Divine Economy so thoroughly established by Baha'u'llah, or to the safeguards which He has provided for its preservation and advancement. . . .

 (Shoghi Effendi:  World Order of Baha'u'llah, Pages: 19-20)

Death Pangs and Birth Pangs:  A Dual Phenomenon

"We are indeed living in an age which, if we would correctly appraise it, should be regarded as one which is witnessing a dual phenomenon. The first signalizes the death pangs of an order, effete and godless, that has stubbornly refused, despite the signs and portents of a century-old Revelation, to attune its processes to the precepts and ideals which that Heaven-sent Faith proffered it.  The second proclaims the birth pangs of an Order, divine and redemptive, that will inevitably supplant the former, and within Whose administrative structure an embryonic civilization, incomparable and world-embracing, is imperceptibly maturing.  The one is being rolled up, and is crashing in oppression, bloodshed, and ruin.  The other opens up vistas of a justice, a unity, a peace, a culture, such as no age has ever seen.  The former has spent its force, demonstrated its falsity and barrenness, lost irretrievably its opportunity, and is hurrying to its doom.  The latter, virile and unconquerable, is plucking asunder its chains, and is vindicating its title to be the one refuge within which a sore-tried humanity, purged from its dross, can attain its destiny." --  (Shoghi Effendi:  The Promised Day is Come, Pages: 17-18)

“Deep as is the gloom that already encircles the world, the afflictive ordeals which that world is to suffer are still in preparation, nor can their blackness be as yet imagined. We stand on the threshold of an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new. Through the generating influence of the Faith announced by Baha'u'llah this New World Order may be said to have been conceived. We can, at the present moment, experience its stirrings in the womb of a travailing agean age waiting for the appointed hour at which it can cast its burden and yield its fairest fruit.”  [Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah (1938), p. 169]

This Judgment of God

"This judgment of God, as viewed by those who have recognized Baha'u'llah as His Mouthpiece and His greatest Messenger on earth, is both a retributory calamity and an act of holy and supreme discipline.  It is at once a visitation from God and a cleansing process for all mankind. Its fires punish the perversity of the human race, and weld its component parts into one organic, indivisible, world-embracing community.  Mankind, in these fateful years, which at once signalize the passing of the first century of the Baha'i Era and proclaim the opening of a new one, is, as ordained by Him Who is both the Judge and the Redeemer of the human race, being simultaneously called upon to give account of its past actions, and is being purged and prepared for its future mission.  It can neither escape the responsibilities of the past, nor shirk those of the future.  God, the Vigilant, the Just, the Loving, the All-Wise Ordainer, can, in this supreme Dispensation, neither allow the sins of an unregenerate humanity, whether of omission or of commission, to go unpunished, nor will He be willing to abandon His children to their fate, and refuse them that culminating and blissful stage in their long, their slow and painful evolution throughout the ages, which is at once their inalienable right and their true destiny."
     "Bestir yourselves, O people," is, on the one hand, the ominous warning sounded by Baha'u'llah Himself, "in anticipation of the days of Divine Justice, for the promised hour is now come."  "Abandon that which ye possess, and seize that which God, Who layeth low the necks of men, hath brought.  Know ye of a certainty that if ye turn not back from that which ye have committed, chastisement will overtake you on every side, and ye shall behold things more grievous than that which ye beheld aforetime."  And again:  "We have fixed a time for you, O people!  If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every direction.  How severe indeed is the chastisement with which your Lord will then chastise you!"  And again:  "God assuredly dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their doings.  He will most certainly lay hold on them for their sins.  He, verily, is the fiercest of Avengers."  And finally:  "O ye peoples of the world!  Know verily that an unforeseen calamity is following you and that grievous retribution awaiteth you.  Think not the deeds ye have committed have been blotted from My sight.  By My Beauty!  All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of chrysolite."

The Earth is in a State of Pregnancy

     "The whole earth," Baha'u'llah, on the other hand, forecasting the bright future in store for a world now wrapt in darkness, emphatically asserts, "is now in a state of pregnancy.  The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings." "The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its burden.  Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen!"  "These great oppressions," He, moreover, foreshadowing humanity's golden age, has written, "are preparing it for the advent of the Most Great Justice."  This Most Great Justice is indeed the Justice upon which the structure of the Most Great Peace can alone, and must eventually, rest, while the Most Great Peace will, in turn, usher in that Most Great, that World Civilization which shall remain forever associated with Him Who beareth the Most Great Name.
     Beloved friends!  Well nigh a hundred years have elapsed since the Revelation of Baha'u'llah dawned upon the world -- a Revelation, the nature of which, as affirmed by Himself, "none among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed degree, hath ever completely apprehended."  For a whole century God has respited mankind, that it might acknowledge the Founder of such a Revelation, espouse His Cause, proclaim His greatness, and establish His Order.  In a hundred volumes, the repositories of priceless precepts, mighty laws, unique principles, impassioned exhortations, reiterated warnings, amazing prophecies, sublime invocations, and weighty commentaries, the Bearer of such a Message has proclaimed, as no Prophet before Him has done, the Mission with which God had entrusted Him.  To emperors, kings, princes and potentates, to rulers, governments, clergy and peoples, whether of the East or of the West, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Zoroastrian, He addressed, for well-nigh fifty years, and in the most tragic circumstances, these priceless pearls of knowledge and wisdom that lay hid within the ocean of His matchless utterance. Forsaking fame and fortune, accepting imprisonment and exile, careless of ostracism and obloquy, submitting to physical indignities and cruel deprivations, He, the Vicegerent of God on earth, suffered Himself to be banished from place to place and from country to country, till at length He, in the Most Great Prison, offered up His martyred son as a ransom for the redemption and unification of all mankind.  "We verily," He Himself has testified, "have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God, the Almighty, the All-Praised.  Had they hearkened unto Me, they would have beheld the earth another earth."  And again:  "Is there any excuse left for anyone in this Revelation?  No, by God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne!  My signs have encompassed the earth, and My power enveloped all mankind, and yet the people are wrapped in a strange sleep!"
 (Shoghi Effendi:  The Promised Day is Come, Pages: 4-6)


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