Religion," He affirms, "is verily the chief
instrument for the establishment of order in the world, and of tranquility
amongst its peoples.... The greater the decline of religion, the more
grievous the waywardness of the ungodly. This cannot but lead in the end
to chaos and confusion." And again: "Religion is a radiant light and an
impregnable stronghold for the protection and welfare of the peoples of
the world." "As the body of man," He, in another connection, has written,
"needeth a garment to clothe it, so the body of mankind must needs be
adorned with the mantle of justice and wisdom. Its robe is the Revelation
vouchsafed unto it by God."

THE THREE FALSE GODS

This vital force is dying out, this mighty agency has been scorned, this
radiant light obscured, this impregnable stronghold abandoned, this
beauteous robe discarded. God Himself has indeed been dethroned from the
hearts of men, and an idolatrous world passionately and clamorously hails
and worships the false gods which its own idle fancies have fatuously
created, and its misguided hands so impiously exalted. The chief idols in
the desecrated temple of mankind are none other than the triple gods of
Nationalism, Racialism and Communism, at whose altars governments and
peoples, whether democratic or totalitarian, at peace or at war, of the
East or of the West, Christian or Islamic, are, in various forms and in
different degrees, now worshiping. Their high priests are the politicians
and the worldly-wise, the so-called sages of the age; their sacrifice, the
flesh and blood of the slaughtered multitudes; their incantations outworn
shibboleths and insidious and irreverent formulas; their incense, the
smoke of anguish that ascends from the lacerated hearts of the bereaved,
the maimed, and the homeless.

The theories and policies, so unsound, so pernicious, which deify the
state and exalt the nation above mankind, which seek to subordinate the
sister races of the world to one single race, which discriminate between
the black and the white, and which tolerate the dominance of one
privileged class over all others--these are the dark, the false, and
crooked doctrines for which any man or people who believes in them, or
acts upon them, must, sooner or later, incur the wrath and chastisement of
God.

"Movements," is the warning sounded by 'Abdu'l-Baha, "newly born and
worldwide in their range, will exert their utmost effort for the
advancement of their des