decisions to reverse the process which
is urging so tragically the decline of human society and its institutions.

And yet, though their influence be at the present hour indecisive and
their divinely-conferred authority unrecognized, the role they can play in
both alleviating the hardships that afflict their brethren and in
attenuating the ills that torment mankind is none the less considerable
and far-reaching. By the range and liberality of their contributions to
mitigate the distress of the bereaved, the exiled and the imprisoned; by
the persistent, the wise and judicious intervention of their elected
representatives through the authorities concerned; by a clear and
convincing exposition, whenever circumstances are propitious, of the
issues involved; by a vigorous defence of the rights and liberties denied;
by an accurate and dignified presentation of the events that have
transpired; by every manner of encouragement which their sympathies may
suggest, or their means permit, or their consciences dictate, to succor
the outcast and the impoverished; and above all by their tenacious
adherence to, and wide proclamation of, those principles, laws, ideals,
and institutions which their disabled fellow-believers are unable to
affirm or publicly espouse; and lastly, by the energetic prosecution of
those tasks which their oppressed fellow-workers are forbidden to initiate
or conduct, the privileged community of the American Baha'is can play a
conspicuous part in the great drama involving so large a company of their
unemancipated brethren in the Asiatic, European and African continents.

Their duties towards mankind in general are no less distinct and vital.
Their impotence to stem the tide of onrushing calamities, their seeming
helplessness in face of those cataclysmic forces that are to convulse
human society, do not in the least detract from the urgency of their
unique mission, nor exonerate them from those weighty responsibilities
which they alone can and must assume. Humanity, heedless and impenitent,
is admittedly hovering on the edge of an awful abyss, ready to precipitate
itself into that titanic struggle, that crucible whose chastening fires
alone can and will weld its antagonistic elements of race, class, religion
and nation into one coherent system, one world commonwealth. "The hour is
approaching" is Baha'u'llah's own testimony, "when the most great
convulsion will have appeared... I swear by God! The promised day is