Selections from Writings of Shoghi Effendi (vegetarian): “The Promised Day Is Come,” Part 2 of 2

“‘Bestir yourselves, O people,’ is, on the one hand, the ominous warning sounded by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, ‘in anticipation of the days of Divine Justice, for the promised hour is now come.’ ‘Abandon that which ye possess, and seize that which God, Who layeth low the necks of men, hath brought. Know ye of a certainty that if ye turn not back from that which ye have committed, chastisement will overtake you on every side, and ye shall behold things more grievous than that which ye beheld aforetime.’ And again: ‘We have fixed a time for you, O people! If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay hold on you.’ And again: ‘God assuredly dominates the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their doings. He will most certainly lay hold on them for their sins.’ And finally: ‘O ye peoples of the world! Know verily that an unforeseen calamity is following you and that grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not the deeds ye have committed have been blotted from My sight. By My Beauty! All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of golden stone.’ ‘The whole Earth,’ Bahá’u’lláh, on the other hand, forecasting the bright future in store for a world now wrapt in darkness, emphatically asserts, ‘is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings.’ ‘The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its burden. Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that encompasses all things, whether seen or unseen!’ ‘These great oppressions,’ He, moreover, foreshadowing humanity’s Golden Age, has written, ‘are preparing it for the advent of the Most Great Justice.’ This Most Great Justice is indeed the Justice upon which the structure of the Most Great Peace can alone, and must eventually, rest, while the Most Great Peace will, in turn, usher in that Most Great, that World Civilization which shall remain forever associated with Him Who beareth the Most Great Name.” “‘We verily,’ He Himself has testified, ‘have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God, the Almighty, the All-Praised. Had they hearkened unto Me, they would have beheld the earth another earth.’ And again: ‘Is there any excuse left for anyone in this Revelation? No, by God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne! My signs have encompassed the earth, and My power enveloped all mankind, and yet the people are wrapped in a strange sleep!’”