Old World and is plunging into
consternation the Great Republic of the West, as well as the peoples of
Central and South America. The New World as well as the Old is
experiencing the terrific impact of this disruptive force. Even the
peoples of the Antipodes are trembling before the approaching tempest that
threatens to burst on their heads.

The races of the world, Nordic, Slavonic, Mongolian, Arab and African, are
alike subjected to its consuming violence. The world's religious systems
are no less affected by the universal paralysis which is creeping over the
minds and souls of men. The persecution of world Jewry, the rapid
deterioration of Christian institutions, the intestine division and
disorders of Islam, are but manifestations of the fear and trembling that
has seized humanity in its hour of unprecedented turmoil and peril. On the
high seas, in the air, on land, in the forefront of battle, in the palaces
of kings and the cottages of peasants, in the most hallowed sanctuaries,
whether secular or religious, the evidences of God's retributive act and
mysterious discipline are manifest. Its heavy toll is steadily mounting--a
holocaust sparing neither prince nor peasant, neither man nor woman,
neither young nor old.

The Faith of Baha'u'llah--that priceless gem of Divine Revelation
enshrining the Spirit of God and incarnating His Purpose for mankind in
this age--can neither aspire nor expect to escape unhurt amid the hurricane
of human disasters that blows around it. By most men unnoticed, scorned
and ridiculed by some, feared and challenged by others, this world
redemptive Faith, for whose precious sake the world is undergoing such
agonies, finds its virgin strength assailed, and its infant institutions
hemmed in, by the dark forces which a godless civilization has unloosed
over the face of the planet. In the Old World, whether in Europe, Asia or
Africa, it is being buffeted about, ostracized, arraigned and repressed.
In certain countries its community life is being extinguished, in others a
ban is severely imposed on its propagation, in still others its members
are denied all intercourse with its World Center. Dangers, grave and
unsuspected, confront its cradle and surround its very heart.

Not so, however, with the countries of the Western Hemisphere. The call of
Baha'u'llah summons, at this challenging hour, the peoples of the New
World, and its leaders to redress the balance of the old. "O Rulers of
America,"