ve girded themselves to reconstruct the world. Their
hosts are the hosts of goodly deeds, and their arms the arms of
upright conduct, and their commander the fear of God. Blessed that
one that judgeth with fairness. By the righteousness of God! Such
hath been the patience, the calm, the resignation of contentment
of this people that they have become the exponents of justice, and
so great hath been their forbearance, that they have suffered
themselves to be killed rather than kill, and this notwithstanding
that these whom the world hath wronged have endured tribulations
the like of which the history of the world hath never recorded,
nor the eyes of any nation witnessed. What is it that could have
induced them to reconcile themselves to these grievous trials, and
to refuse to put forth a hand to repel them? What could have
caused such resignation and serenity? The true cause is to be
found in the band which the Pen of Glory hath, day and night,
chosen to impose, and in Our assumption of the reins of authority,
through the power and might of Him Who is the Lord of all
mankind.--Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 74-75.

The soundness of Baha'u'llah's nonresistance policy has already been
proved by results. For every believer martyred in Persia, the Baha'i faith
has received a hundred new believers into its fold, and the glad and
dauntless way in which these martyrs cast the crowns of their lives at the
feet of their Lord has furnished to the world the clearest proof that they
had found a new life for which death has no terrors, a life of ineffable
fullness and joy, compared with which the pleasures of earth are but as
dust in the balance, and the most fiendish physical tortures but trifles
light as air.

Righteous Warfare

Although Baha'u'llah, like Christ, counsels His follows as individuals and
as a religious body to adopt an attitude of nonresistance and forgiveness
toward their enemies, He teaches that it is the duty of the community to
prevent injustice and oppression. If individuals are persecuted and
injured it is wrong for a community to allow pillage and murder to
continue unchecked within its borders. It is the duty of a good government
to prevent wrongdoing and to punish offenders.(32) So also with the
community of nations. If one nation oppresses or injures another, it is
the duty of all other nations to unite to prevent such oppre