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.

"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."

No less enthralling is the vision of Isaiah, the greatest of the Hebrew
Prophets, predicting, as far back as twenty five hundred ye