“the work of universal redemption proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh”

So sad and moving a spectacle, bewildering as it must be to every observer unaware of the purposes, the prophecies, and promises of Bahá’u’lláh, far from casting dismay into the hearts of His followers, or paralyzing their efforts, cannot but deepen their faith, and excite their enthusiastic eagerness to arise and display, in the vast field traced for them by the pen of ‘Abdu’l Bahá, their capacity to play their part in the work of universal redemption proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Every instrument in the administrative machinery which, in the course of several years, they have so laboriously erected must be fully utilized, and subordinated to the end for which it was created. The Temple, that proud embodiment of so rare a spirit of self-sacrifice, must likewise be made to play its part, and contribute its share to the teaching campaign designed to embrace the entire Western Hemisphere. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

 

The “sweeping changes” to the world brought about by that “God-borne” “revolutionizing Force”

A world,

• dimmed by the steadily dying-out light of religion,
• heaving with the explosive forces of a blind and triumphant nationalism;
• scorched with the fires of pitiless persecution, whether racial or religious;
• deluded by the false theories and doctrines that threaten to supplant the worship of God and the sanctification of His laws;
• enervated by a rampant and brutal materialism;
• disintegrating through the corrosive influence of moral and spiritual decadence;
• and enmeshed in the coils of economic anarchy and strife—

such is the spectacle presented to men’s eyes, as a result of the sweeping changes which this revolutionizing Force, as yet in the initial stage of its operation, is now producing in the life of the entire planet. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

The desire of “the Concourse on high” “to return unto this world” and “render some service to the threshold of the Abhá Beauty”

The undreamt-of opportunities offered through the operation of this Force—the American believers must now rise, and fully and courageously exploit them. “The holy realities of the Concourse on high,” writes ‘Abdu’l Bahá, “yearn, in this day, in the Most Exalted Paradise, to return unto this world, so that they may be aided to render some service to the threshold of the Abhá Beauty, and arise to demonstrate their servitude to His sacred Threshold.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

The operation of “a two-edged sword” and its effect on the world

That God-born Force, irresistible in its sweeping power, incalculable in its potency, unpredictable in its course, mysterious in its workings, and awe-inspiring in its manifestations—a Force which, as the Báb has written, “vibrates within the innermost being of all created things,” and which, according to Bahá’u’lláh, has through its “vibrating influence,” “upset the equilibrium of the world and revolutionized its ordered life”—such a Force, acting even as a two-edged sword, is, under our very eyes, sundering, on the one hand, the age-old ties which for centuries have held together the fabric of civilized society, and is unloosing, on the other, the bonds that still fetter the infant and as yet unemancipated Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

No Baha’i “can afford a moment’s hesitation”

The field is indeed so immense, the period so critical, the Cause so great, the workers so few, the time so short, the privilege so priceless, that no follower of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, worthy to bear His name, can afford a moment’s hesitation. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

The unbelievable capacity released by the Báb

“The Báb,” ‘Abdu’l Bahá, moreover, has written, “hath said: ‘Should a tiny ant desire, in this day, to be possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest and most bewildering passages of the Qur’án, its wish will no doubt be fulfilled, inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the innermost being of all created things.’ If so helpless a creature can be endowed with so subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious must be the power released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Bahá’u’lláh!” 

- Shoghi Effendi (Quoting ‘Abdu’l-Baha in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

An example of the transformative power of the Manifestation of God: - Peter, the chief disciple of Christ

“Peter,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has testified, “according to the history of the Church, was also incapable of keeping count of the days of the week. Whenever he decided to go fishing, he would tie up his weekly food into seven parcels, and every day he would eat one of them, and when he had reached the seventh, he would know that the Sabbath had arrived, and thereupon would observe it.” If the Son of Man was capable of infusing into apparently so crude and helpless an instrument such potency as to cause, in the words of Bahá’u’lláh, “the mysteries of wisdom and of utterance to flow out of his mouth,” and to exalt him above the rest of His disciples, and render him fit to become His successor and the founder of His Church, how much more can the Father, Who is Bahá’u’lláh, empower the most puny and insignificant among His followers to achieve, for the execution of His purpose, such wonders as would dwarf the mightiest achievements of even the first apostle of Jesus Christ! 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)