Then modes of life which have persisted from the dawn of history up till now will be quickly, irrevocably, altered, and humanity enter on a new phase of life as different from the old as the butterfly is different from the caterpillar, or the bird from the egg.

Mankind as a whole, in the light of new Revelation, will attain to a new vision of truth; as a whole country is illumined when the sun rises, so that all men see clearly, where but an hour before everything was dark and dim.

"This is a new cycle of human power," says 'Abdu'l-Baha.

"All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed as a rose garden and a paradise." The analogies of nature are all in favor of such a view; the Prophets of old have with one accord foretold the advent of such a glorious day; the signs of the times show clearly that profound and revolutionary changes in human ideas and institutions are even now in progress.

What could be more futile and baseless therefore, than the pessimistic argument that, although all things else change, human nature cannot change?
First Steps Toward Unity As a means of promoting religious unity Baha'u'llah advocates the utmost charity and tolerance, and calls on His followers to "consort with the people of all religions with joy and gladness." In His last Will and Testament He says:-- Contention and conflict hath He strictly forbidding in His book (Kitab-i-Aqdas); such is the command of the Lord in this all-highest Revelation--a command which He hath exempted from all annulment and arrayed with the adorning of His confirmation.
O ye people of the world! The Religion of God is for the sake of love and union; make it not the cause of enmity and conflict....
The hope is cherished, that the people of Baha shall ever turn unto the Hallowed Word: "Lo! All things are of God."-- the All-Glorious Word that, like unto water, quencheth the fire of hate and rancor which doth smoulder in hearts and breasts.