“The blessing of the Eternal One be with you in all its richness, that each soul according to his measure may take freely of Him.”

As these words echo now once more in human hearts, so penetrating, so inspiring to our noblest ideals, so quickening to our mutual spiritual faith, so gracious, yet so challenging, there is no need for me, I am sure, to assert to this audience the fact that the Bahá’í Cause seeks no competitive victory among the world’s religions; and lays no additional frontiers among those innumerable boundaries that already divide the body of humanity into different organized creeds.

After eighty years of existence, the particular genius inspiring the Bahá’í Cause, clearly expressed by its Founder and universally accepted by all its adherents, is the ideal of unity consciously binding the hearts of men.

Both as a spiritual doctrine and as a living movement rooted in well-nigh incredible sacrifice and heroism, the Bahá’í Cause can best be presented in the light of the gradual working out of that ideal.

The origin of the Cause itself coincided in point of time with the beginnings of what all thoughtful people discern to be a new era in the development of mankind. Here in the West, the new era manifested itself most visibly through the abrupt industrial revolution produced by the influence of scientific discovery; in the East, less visibly, the same ferment and universal spirit of change also had its effects in the realm of feeling and thought.

It was in that country of the Orient least touched by Western influence—that country, Persia, least known to the people of the West and least significant to them politically, economically or morally—that country most firmly bound to its own separate tradition and to all appearances most incapable of throwing off the fetters of the dead past—that Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Cause, arose with a message instinct with the enthusiasm of a New Day.

History, that greatest of romancers, surely never played a drama of human destiny upon a stage so completely in contrast with the players or with the theme! All the machinery of daily life in Persia at that time was devised to resist change; external assistance or accidental reinforcement for the purpose of Bahá’u’lláh there was none; the idea of progress even in the economic aspects of life did not exist; arts, crafts, professions, education, creed and custom all combined to sanctify the excellence of what had been; available only to this pure spirit was the innate influence of His unswerving faith, indomitable courage, singleness of purpose, willingness to sacrifice ease, comfort, honor and life itself upon the path, and a mind able to impress other minds with the integrity of new principles and ideals.

But for the message of Bahá’u’lláh due preparation, in fact, had already been made.

Between May 23rd, 1844, and July 9th, 1850, occurred that remarkable series of events known to history as the “Episode of the Báb.” Within the brief compass of six years a single youth had succeeded in shattering the age-long inertia of the country and animating thousands of people with an intense, all-encompassing expectation of an imminent fulfillment of their profoundest religious belief. The teaching had been quietly spread even before the appearance of the Báb that the time had come for a new spiritual leader—one who should restore the foundations of faith and open the gates to an expression of universal truth. A survey of the religious experience of other peoples would reveal the working of the same influence here and there both in the East and the West at that time.