trace of difference be removed. For universality is of God and all limitations earthly. Hence man must strive to show forth such virtues and perfections as may illumine all mankind. The light of the sun shineth upon all the world and the merciful showers of Providence fall upon all peoples. The life-giving breeze reviveth every soul and all living creatures obtain their share and portion at His heavenly board. In like manner the affections and loving kindness of the servants of the One True God must be bountifully and universally extended to all mankind. Regarding this, restrictions and limitations are in no wise permitted.
Wherefore, O my loving friends! Consort with all the peoples and kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and friendliness; that all the world of being may be filled with the holy ecstasy of the grace of Bahá, that ignorance, enmity, hate and malice may vanish from the world and the darkness of estrangement amidst the peoples and kindreds of the world may be turned into the light of unity. Should other peoples and nations be unfaithful show fidelity unto them, should they be unjust be just unto them, should they avoid you attract them, should they show enmity be friendly, should they poison you sweeten their lives, should they inflict a wound upon you be a salve to their sores. Such are the attributes of the sincere! Such are the attributes of the truthful!. . .
The disciples of Christ forgot themselves and all earthly things, forsook all their cares and belongings, purged themselves of self and passion, and with absolute detachment scattered far and wide, and engaged in calling the peoples of the world to the light of Guidance, till at last they made the world another world, illumined the surface of the earth, and even to their last hour proved self-sacrificing in the pathway of that beloved One of God. Finally in various lands, they suffered glorious martyrdom. Let them that are men of action follow in their footsteps! (The Will and Testament: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.)
A STATEMENT ON PRESENT DAY ADMINISTRATION OF THE BAHÁ’Í CAUSE
By Horace Holley
IT has been the general characteristic of religion that organization marks the interruption of the true spiritual influence and serves to prevent the original impulse from being carried into the world. The organization has invariably become a substitute for religion rather than a method or an instrument used to give the religion effect. The separation of peoples into different traditions unbridged by any peaceful or constructive intercourse has made this inevitable. Up to the present time in fact, no founder of a revealed religion has explicitly laid down the principles that should guide the administrative machinery of the Faith He has established.
In the Bahá’í Cause, the principles of world administration were expressed by Bahá’u’lláh, and these principles were developed in the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, more especially in his Will and Testament.
The purpose of this organization is to make possible a true and lasting unity among people of different