Ebb

The great and mighty ocean is powerless to change the ebb and flow of its tides -- nothing can stand against nature's laws but man!

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 122

Bahá’u’lláh wrote, many, many years ago: "The vitality of men's belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it?" This is the ebb of the tide. The Bahá’ís know that the tide will turn and come in, after mankind has suffered, with mighty waves of faith and devotion. The people will enter the Cause of God in troops, and the whole condition will change. The Bahá’ís see this new condition which will take place, as one on the mountain-top sees the first glimpse of the dawn, before others are aware of it; and it is toward that that the Bahá’ís must work.

Shoghi Effendi, Japan Will Turn Ablaze, p. 102

The champion builders of Bahá’u’lláh's rising World Order must scale nobler heights of heroism as humanity plunges into greater depths of despair, degradation, dissension and distress. Let them forge ahead into the future serenely confident that the hour of their mightiest exertions and the supreme opportunity for their greatest exploits must coincide with the apocalyptic upheaval marking the lowest ebb in mankind's fast-declining fortunes.

Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 58

As the turmoil of an agitated world surges about them the supporters of Bahá’u’lláh's majestically rising faith must, as the beloved Guardian so clearly indicated scale nobler heights of heroism, serenely confident that the hour of their mightiest exertions must coincide with the lowest ebb of mankind's fast declining fortunes.

Universal House of Justice, Quickeners of Mankind, p. 36