O noble friends and seekers for the Kingdom of God! About
sixty years ago in the time when the fire of war was blazing among the nations
of the world, and bloodshed was considered an honour to mankind; in a time when
the carnage of thousands stained the earth; when children were rendered
fatherless; when fathers were without sons and mothers were spent with weeping;
when the darkness of inter-racial hatred and animosity seemed to envelope
mankind and blot out the divine light; when the wafting of the holy breath of
God seemed to be cut off — in that time Bahá’u’lláh rose like a shining star
from the horizon of Persia, inspired with the message of Peace and of
Brotherhood among men.
He brought the light of guidance to the world; He kindled
the fire of love and revealed the great reality of the True Beloved. He sought
to destroy the foundations of religious and racial prejudice and of political
rivalry.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a talk, October 1911, London; ‘Abdu’l-Baha in
London’)
