The Dispensation of Baha'u'llah

To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the

West.

Fellow-laborers in the Divine Vineyard:

On the 23rd of May of this auspicious year the Baha'i world will celebrate

the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. We, who

at this hour find ourselves standing on the threshold of the last decade

of the first century of the Baha'i era, might well pause to reflect upon

the mysterious dispensations of so august, so momentous a Revelation. How

vast, how entrancing the panorama which the revolution of four score years

and ten unrolls before our eyes! Its towering grandeur well-nigh

overwhelms us. To merely contemplate this unique spectacle, to visualize,

however dimly, the circumstances attending the birth and gradual

unfoldment of this supreme Theophany, to recall even in their barest

outline the woeful struggles that proclaimed its rise and accelerated its

march, will suffice to convince every unbiased observer of those eternal

truths that motivate its life and which must continue to impel it forward

until it achieves its destined ascendancy.

Dominating the entire range of this fascinating spectacle towers the

incomparable figure of Baha'u'llah, transcendental in His majesty, serene,

awe-inspiring, unapproachably glorious. Allied, though subordinate in

rank, and invested with the authority of presiding with Him over the

destinies of this supreme Dispensation, there shines upon this mental

picture the youthful glory of the Bab, infinite in His tenderness,

irresistible in His charm, unsurpassed in His heroism, matchless in the

dramatic circumstances of His short yet eventful life. And finally there

emerges, though on a plane of its own and in a category entirely apart

from the one occupied by the twin Figures that preceded Him, the vibrant,

the magnetic personality of 'Abdu'l-Baha, reflecting to a degree that no

man, however exalted his station, can hope to rival, the glory and power

with which They who are the Manifestations of God are alone endowed.

With 'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension, and more particularly with the passing of

His well-beloved and illustrious sister the Most Exalted Leaf--the last

survivor of a glorious and heroic age--there draws to a close the first and

most moving chapter of Baha'i history, marking the conclusion of the

Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. It was

'Abdu'l-Baha Who, through the provisions of His weighty Will and

Testament, has forged the vital link which must for ever connect the age

that has just expired with the one we now live in--the Transitional and

Formative period of the Faith--a stage that must in the fullness of time

reach its blossom and yield its fruit in the exploits and triumphs that

are to herald the Golden Age of the Revelation of Baha'u'llah.

Dearly-beloved friends! The onrushing forces so miraculously released

through the agency of two independent and swiftly successive

Manifestations are now under our very eyes and through the care of the

chosen stewards of a far-flung Faith being gradually mustered and

disciplined. They are slowly crystallizing into institutions that will

come to be regarded as the hall-mark and glory of the age we are called

upon to establish and by our deeds immortalize. For upon our present-day

efforts, and above all upon the extent to which we strive to remodel our

lives after the pattern of sublime heroism associated with those gone

before us, must depend the efficacy of the instruments we now

fashion--instruments that must erect the structure of that blissful

Commonwealth which must signalize the Golden Age of our Faith.

It is not my purpose, as I look back upon these crowded years of heroic

deeds, to attempt even a cursory review of the mighty events that have

transpired since 1844 until the present day. Nor have I any intention to

undertake an analysis of the forces that have precipitated them, or to

evaluate their influence upon peoples and institutions in almost every

continent of the globe. The authentic record of the lives of the first

believers of the primitive period of our Faith, together with the

assiduous research which competent Baha'i historians will in the future

undertake, will combine to transmit to posterity such masterly exposition

of the history of that age as my own efforts can never hope to accomplish.

My chief concern at this challenging period of Baha'i history is rather to

call the attention of those who are destined to be the champion-builders

of the Administrative Order of Baha'u'llah to certain fundamental verities

the elucidation of which must tremendously assist them in the effective

prosecution of their mighty enterprise.

The international status which the Religion of God has thus far achieved,

moreover, imperatively demands that its root principles be now definitely

clarified. The unprecedented impetus which the illustrious deeds of the

American believers have lent to the onward march of the Faith; the intense

interest which the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West is fast

awakening among divers races and nations; the rise and steady

consolidation of Baha'i institutions in no less than forty of the most

advanced countries of the world; the dissemination of Baha'i literature in

no fewer than twenty-five of the most widely-spoken languages; the success

that has recently attended the nation-wide efforts of the Persian

believers in the preliminary steps they have taken for the establishment,

in the outskirts of the capital-city of their native land, of the third

Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world; the measures that are being

taken for the immediate formation of their first National Spiritual

Assembly representing the interests of the overwhelming majority of Baha'i

adherents; the projected erection of yet another pillar of the Universal

House of Justice, the first of its kind, in the Southern Hemisphere; the

testimonies, both verbal and written, that a struggling Faith has obtained

from Royalty, from governmental institutions, international tribunals, and

ecclesiastical dignitaries; the publicity it has received from the charges

which unrelenting enemies, both new and old, have hurled against it; the

formal enfranchisement of a section of its followers from the fetters of

Muslim orthodoxy in a country that may be regarded as the most enlightened

among Islamic nations--these afford ample proof of the growing momentum

with which the invincible community of the Most Great Name is marching

forward to ultimate victory.

Dearly-beloved friends! I feel it incumbent upon me, by virtue of the

obligations and responsibilities which as Guardian of the Faith of

Baha'u'llah I am called upon to discharge, to lay special stress, at a

time when the light of publicity is being increasingly focussed upon us,

upon certain truths which lie at the basis of our Faith and the integrity

of which it is our first duty to safeguard. These verities, if valiantly

upheld and properly assimilated, will, I am convinced, powerfully

reinforce the vigor of our spiritual life and greatly assist in

counteracting the machinations of an implacable and vigilant enemy.

To strive to obtain a more adequate understanding of the significance of

Baha'u'llah's stupendous Revelation must, it is my unalterable conviction,

remain the first obligation and the object of the constant endeavor of

each one of its loyal adherents. An exact and thorough comprehension of so

vast a system, so sublime a revelation, so sacred a trust, is for obvious

reasons beyond the reach and ken of our finite minds. We can, however, and

it is our bounden duty to seek to derive fresh inspiration and added

sustenance as we labor for the propagation of His Faith through a clearer

apprehension of the truths it enshrines and the principles on which it is

based.

In a communication addressed to the American believers I have in the

course of my explanation of the station of the Bab made a passing

reference to the incomparable greatness of the Revelation of which He

considered Himself to be the humble Precursor. He Whom Baha'u'llah has

acclaimed in the Kitab-i-Iqan as that promised Qa'im Who has manifested no

less than twenty-five out of the twenty-seven letters which all the

Prophets were destined to reveal--so great a Revealer has Himself testified

to the preeminence of that superior Revelation that was soon to supersede

His own. "The germ," the Bab asserts in the Persian Bayan, "that holds

within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is to come is

endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of all those who

follow me." "Of all the tributes," He again affirms, "I have paid to Him

Who is to come after Me, the greatest is this, My written confession, that

no words of Mine can adequately describe Him, nor can any reference to Him

in My Book, the Bayan, do justice to His Cause." "The Bayan," He in that

same Book categorically declares, "and whosoever is therein revolve round

the saying of 'Him Whom God shall make manifest,' even as the Alif (the

Gospel) and whosoever was therein revolved round the saying of Muhammad,

the Apostle of God." "A thousand perusals of the Bayan," He further

remarks, "cannot equal the perusal of a single verse to be revealed by

'Him Whom God shall make manifest.'... Today the Bayan is in the stage of

seed; at the beginning of the manifestation of 'Him Whom God shall make

manifest' its ultimate perfection will become apparent.... The Bayan and

such as are believers therein yearn more ardently after Him than the

yearning of any lover after his beloved.... The Bayan deriveth all its

glory from 'Him Whom God shall make manifest.' All blessing be upon him

who believeth in Him and woe betide him that rejecteth His truth."

Addressing Siyyid Yahyay-i-Darabi surnamed Vahid, the most learned, the

most eloquent and influential among His followers, the Bab utters this

warning: "By the righteousness of Him Whose power causeth the seed to

germinate and Who breatheth the spirit of life into all things, were I to

be assured that in the day of His manifestation thou wilt deny Him, I

would unhesitatingly disown thee and repudiate thy faith.... If, on the

other hand, I be told that a Christian, who beareth no allegiance to My

Faith, will believe in Him, the same will I regard as the apple of Mine

Eye."

In one of His prayers He thus communes with Baha'u'llah: "Exalted art

Thou, O my Lord the Omnipotent! How puny and contemptible my word and all

that pertaineth unto me appear unless they be related to Thy great glory.

Grant that through the assistance of Thy grace whatsoever pertaineth unto

me may be acceptable in Thy sight."

In the Qayyumu'l-Asma--the Bab's commentary on the Surih of

Joseph--characterized by the Author of the Iqan as "the first, the greatest

and mightiest" of the books revealed by the Bab, we read the following

references to Baha'u'llah: "Out of utter nothingness, O great and

omnipotent Master, Thou hast, through the celestial potency of Thy might,

brought me forth and raised me up to proclaim this Revelation. I have made

none other but Thee my trust; I have clung to no will but Thy will... O

Thou Remnant of God! I have sacrificed myself wholly for Thee: I have

accepted curses for Thy sake, and have yearned for naught but martyrdom in

the path of Thy love. Sufficient witness unto me is God, the Exalted, the

Protector, the Ancient of Days." "And when the appointed hour hath

struck," He again addresses Baha'u'llah in that same commentary, "do Thou,

by the leave of God, the All-Wise, reveal from the heights of the Most

Lofty and Mystic Mount a faint, an infinitesimal glimmer of Thy

impenetrable Mystery, that they who have recognized the radiance of the

Sinaic Splendor may faint away and die as they catch a lightening glimpse

of the fierce and crimson Light that envelops Thy Revelation."

As a further testimony to the greatness of the Revelation identified with

Baha'u'llah may be cited the following extracts from a Tablet addressed by

'Abdu'l-Baha to an eminent Zoroastrian follower of the Faith: "Thou hadst

written that in the sacred books of the followers of Zoroaster it is

written that in the latter days, in three separate Dispensations, the sun

must needs be brought to a standstill. In the first Dispensation, it is

predicted, the sun will remain motionless for ten days; in the second for

twice that time; in the third for no less than one whole month. The

interpretation of this prophecy is this: the first Dispensation to which

it refers is the Muhammadan Dispensation during which the Sun of Truth

stood still for ten days. Each day is reckoned as one century. The

Muhammadan Dispensation must have, therefore, lasted no less than one

thousand years, which is precisely the period that has elapsed from the

setting of the Star of the Imamate to the advent of the Dispensation

proclaimed by the Bab. The second Dispensation referred to in this

prophecy is the one inaugurated by the Bab Himself, which began in the

year 1260 A.H. and was brought to a close in the year 1280 A.H. As to the

third Dispensation--the Revelation proclaimed by Baha'u'llah--inasmuch as

the Sun of Truth when attaining that station shineth in the plenitude of

its meridian splendor its duration hath been fixed for a period of one

whole month, which is the maximum time taken by the sun to pass through a

sign of the Zodiac. From this thou canst imagine the magnitude of the

Baha'i cycle--a cycle that must extend over a period of at least five

hundred thousand years."

From the text of this explicit and authoritative interpretation of so

ancient a prophecy it is evident how necessary it is for every faithful

follower of the Faith to accept the divine origin and uphold the

independent status of the Muhammadan Dispensation. The validity of the

Imamate is, moreover, implicitly recognized in these same passages--that

divinely-appointed institution of whose most distinguished member the Bab

Himself was a lineal descendant, and which continued for a period of no

less than two hundred and sixty years to be the chosen recipient of the

guidance of the Almighty and the repository of one of the two most

precious legacies of Islam.

This same prophecy, we must furthermore recognize, attests the independent

character of the Babi Dispensation and corroborates indirectly the truth

that in accordance with the principle of progressive revelation every

Manifestation of God must needs vouchsafe to the peoples of His day a

measure of divine guidance ampler than any which a preceding and less

receptive age could have received or appreciated. For this reason, and not

for any superior merit which the Baha'i Faith may be said to inherently

possess, does this prophecy bear witness to the unrivaled power and glory

with which the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah has been invested--a

Dispensation the potentialities of which we are but beginning to perceive

and the full range of which we can never determine.

The Faith of Baha'u'llah should indeed be regarded, if we wish to be

faithful to the tremendous implications of its message, as the culmination

of a cycle, the final stage in a series of successive, of preliminary and

progressive revelations. These, beginning with Adam and ending with the

Bab, have paved the way and anticipated with an ever-increasing emphasis

the advent of that Day of Days in which He Who is the Promise of All Ages

should be made manifest.

To this truth the utterances of Baha'u'llah abundantly testify. A mere

reference to the claims which, in vehement language and with compelling

power, He Himself has repeatedly advanced cannot but fully demonstrate the

character of the Revelation of which He was the chosen bearer. To the

words that have streamed from His pen--the fountainhead of so impetuous a

Revelation--we should, therefore, direct our attention if we wish to obtain

a clearer understanding of its importance and meaning. Whether in His

assertion of the unprecedented claim He has advanced, or in His allusions

to the mysterious forces He has released, whether in such passages as

extol the glories of His long-awaited Day, or magnify the station which

they who have recognized its hidden virtues will attain, Baha'u'llah and,

to an almost equal extent, the Bab and 'Abdu'l-Baha, have bequeathed to

posterity mines of such inestimable wealth as none of us who belong to

this generation can befittingly estimate. Such testimonies bearing on this

theme are impregnated with such power and reveal such beauty as only those

who are versed in the languages in which they were originally revealed can

claim to have sufficiently appreciated. So numerous are these testimonies

that a whole volume would be required to be written in order to compile

the most outstanding among them. All I can venture to attempt at present

is to share with you only such passages as I have been able to glean from

His voluminous writings.

"I testify before God," proclaims Baha'u'llah, "to the greatness, the

inconceivable greatness of this Revelation. Again and again have We in

most of Our Tablets borne witness to this truth, that mankind may be

roused from its heedlessness." "In this most mighty Revelation," He

unequivocally announces, "all the Dispensations of the past have attained

their highest, their final consummation." "That which hath been made

manifest in this preeminent, this most exalted Revelation, stands

unparalleled in the annals of the past, nor will future ages witness its

like." "He it is," referring to Himself He further proclaims, "Who in the

Old Testament hath been named Jehovah, Who in the Gospel hath been

designated as the Spirit of Truth, and in the Qur'an acclaimed as the

Great Announcement." "But for Him no Divine Messenger would have been

invested with the robe of prophethood, nor would any of the sacred

scriptures have been revealed. To this bear witness all created things."

"The word which the one true God uttereth in this day, though that word be

the most familiar and commonplace of terms, is invested with supreme, with

unique distinction." "The generality of mankind is still immature. Had it

acquired sufficient capacity We would have bestowed upon it so great a

measure of Our knowledge that all who dwell on earth and in heaven would

have found themselves, by virtue of the grace streaming from Our pen,

completely independent of all knowledge save the knowledge of God, and

would have been securely established upon the throne of abiding

tranquillity." "The Pen of Holiness, I solemnly affirm before God, hath

writ upon My snow-white brow and in characters of effulgent glory these

glowing, these musk-scented and holy words: 'Behold ye that dwell on

earth, and ye denizens of heaven, bear witness, He in truth is your

Well-Beloved. He it is Whose like the world of creation hath not seen, He

Whose ravishing beauty hath delighted the eye of God, the Ordainer, the

All-Powerful, the Incomparable!'"

"Followers of the Gospel," Baha'u'llah addressing the whole of Christendom

exclaims, "behold the gates of heaven are flung open. He that had ascended

unto it is now come. Give ear to His voice calling aloud over land and

sea, announcing to all mankind the advent of this Revelation--a Revelation

through the agency of which the Tongue of Grandeur is now proclaiming:

'Lo, the sacred Pledge hath been fulfilled, for He, the Promised One, is

come!'" "The voice of the Son of Man is calling aloud from the sacred

vale: 'Here am I, here am I, O God my God!' ... whilst from the Burning

Bush breaketh forth the cry: 'Lo, the Desire of the world is made manifest

in His transcendent glory!' The Father hath come. That which ye were

promised in the Kingdom of God is fulfilled. This is the Word which the

Son veiled when He said to those around Him that at that time they could

not bear it... Verily the Spirit of Truth is come to guide you unto all

truth... He is the One Who glorified the Son and exalted His Cause..."

"The Comforter Whose advent all the scriptures have promised is now come

that He may reveal unto you all knowledge and wisdom. Seek Him over the

entire surface of the earth, haply ye may find Him."

"Call out to Zion, O Carmel," writes Baha'u'llah, "and announce the joyful

tidings: 'He that was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His all-conquering

sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing splendor is revealed...

Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that hath descended from

heaven--the celestial Kaaba round which have circled in adoration the

favored of God, the pure in heart and the company of the most exalted

angels.'" "I am the One," He in another connection affirms, "Whom the

tongue of Isaiah hath extolled, the One with Whose name both the Torah and

the Evangel were adorned." "The glory of Sinai hath hastened to circle

round the Day-Spring of this Revelation, while from the heights of the

Kingdom the voice of the Son of God is heard proclaiming: 'Bestir

yourselves, ye proud ones of the earth, and hasten ye towards Him.' Carmel

hath in this day hastened in longing adoration to attain His court, whilst

from the heart of Zion there cometh the cry: 'The promise of all ages is

now fulfilled. That which had been announced in the holy writ of God, the

Beloved, the Most High, is made manifest.'" "Hijaz is astir by the breeze

announcing the tidings of joyous reunion. 'Praise be to Thee,' We hear her

exclaim, 'O my Lord, the Most High. I was dead through my separation from

Thee; the breeze laden with the fragrance of Thy presence hath brought me

back to life. Happy is he that turneth unto Thee, and woe betide the

erring.'" "By the one true God, Elijah hath hastened unto My court and

hath circumambulated in the day-time and in the night-season My throne of

glory." "Solomon in all his majesty circles in adoration around Me in this

day, uttering this most exalted word: 'I have turned my face towards Thy

face, O Thou omnipotent Ruler of the world! I am wholly detached from all

things pertaining unto me, and yearn for that which Thou dost possess.'"

"Had Muhammad, the Apostle of God, attained this Day," Baha'u'llah writes

in a Tablet revealed on the eve of His banishment to the penal colony of

Akka, "He would have exclaimed: 'I have truly recognized Thee, O Thou the

Desire of the Divine Messengers!' Had Abraham attained it, He too, falling

prostrate upon the ground, and in the utmost lowliness before the Lord thy

God, would have cried: 'Mine heart is filled with peace, O Thou Lord of

all that is in heaven and on earth! I testify that Thou hast unveiled

before mine eyes all the glory of Thy power and the full majesty of Thy

law!'... Had Moses Himself attained it, He, likewise, would have raised

His voice saying: 'All praise be to Thee for having lifted upon me the

light of Thy countenance and enrolled me among them that have been

privileged to behold Thy face!'" "North and South both vibrate to the call

announcing the advent of our Revelation. We can hear the voice of Mecca

acclaiming: 'All praise be to Thee, O Lord my God, the All-Glorious, for

having wafted over me the breath redolent with the fragrance of Thy

presence!' Jerusalem, likewise, is calling aloud: 'Lauded and magnified

art Thou, O Beloved of earth and heaven, for having turned the agony of my

separation from Thee into the joy of a life-giving reunion!'"

"By the righteousness of God," Baha'u'llah wishing to reveal the full

potency of His invincible power asserts, "should a man, all alone, arise

in the name of Baha and put on the armor of His love, him will the

Almighty cause to be victorious, though the forces of earth and heaven be

arrayed against him." "By God besides Whom is none other God! Should any

one arise for the triumph of our Cause, him will God render victorious

though tens of thousands of enemies be leagued against him. And if his

love for Me wax stronger, God will establish his ascendancy over all the

powers of earth and heaven. Thus have We breathed the spirit of power into

all regions."

"This is the King of Days," He thus extols the age that has witnessed the

advent of His Revelation, "the Day that hath seen the coming of the

Best-beloved, Him Who through all eternity hath been acclaimed the Desire

of the World." "The world of being shineth in this Day with the

resplendency of this Divine Revelation. All created things extol its

saving grace and sing its praises. The universe is wrapt in an ecstasy of

joy and gladness. The Scriptures of past Dispensations celebrate the great

jubilee that must needs greet this most great Day of God. Well is it with

him that hath lived to see this Day and hath recognized its station."

"Were mankind to give heed in a befitting manner to no more than one word

of such a praise it would be so filled with delight as to be overpowered

and lost in wonder. Entranced, it would then shine forth resplendent above

the horizon of true understanding."

"Be fair, ye peoples of the world;" He thus appeals to mankind, "is it

meet and seemly for you to question the authority of one Whose presence

'He Who conversed with God' (Moses) hath longed to attain, the beauty of

Whose countenance 'God's Well-beloved' (Muhammad) had yearned to behold,

through the potency of Whose love the 'Spirit of God' (Jesus) ascended to

heaven, for Whose sake the 'Primal Point' (the Bab) offered up His life?"

"Seize your chance," He admonishes His followers, "inasmuch as a fleeting

moment in this Day excelleth centuries of a bygone age... Neither sun nor

moon hath witnessed a day such as this... It is evident that every age in

which a Manifestation of God hath lived is divinely ordained and may, in a

sense, be characterized as God's appointed Day. This Day, however, is

unique and is to be distinguished from those that have preceded it. The

designation 'Seal of the Prophets' fully reveals and demonstrates its high

station."

Expatiating on the forces latent in His Revelation Baha'u'llah reveals the

following: "Through the movement of Our Pen of glory We have, at the

bidding of the omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every human

frame and instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things

proclaim the evidences of this world-wide regeneration." "This is," He

adds, "the most great, the most joyful tidings imparted by the pen of this

wronged One to mankind." "How great," He in another passage exclaims, "is

the Cause! How staggering the weight of its message! This is the Day of

which it hath been said: 'O my son! verily God will bring everything to

light though it were but the weight of a grain of mustard seed, and hidden

in a rock, or in the heavens or in the earth; for God is subtile, informed

of all.'" "By the righteousness of the one true God! If one speck of a

jewel be lost and buried beneath a mountain of stones, and lie hidden

beyond the seven seas, the Hand of Omnipotence will assuredly reveal it in

this day, pure and cleansed from dross." "He that partaketh of the waters

of My Revelation will taste all the incorruptible delights ordained by God

from the beginning that hath no beginning to the end that hath no end."

"Every single letter proceeding from Our mouth is endowed with such

regenerative power as to enable it to bring into existence a new

creation--a creation the magnitude of which is inscrutable to all save God.

He verily hath knowledge of all things." "It is in Our power, should We

wish it, to enable a speck of floating dust to generate, in less than the

twinkling of an eye, suns of infinite, of unimaginable splendor, to cause

a dewdrop to develop into vast and numberless oceans, to infuse into every

letter such a force as to empower it to unfold all the knowledge of past

and future ages." "We are possessed of such power which, if brought to

light, will transmute the most deadly of poisons into a panacea of

unfailing efficacy."

Estimating the station of the true believer He remarks: "By the sorrows

which afflict the beauty of the All-Glorious! Such is the station ordained

for the true believer that if to an extent smaller than a needle's eye the

glory of that station were to be unveiled to mankind, every beholder would

be consumed away in his longing to attain it. For this reason it hath been

decreed that in this earthly life the full measure of the glory of his own

station should remain concealed from the eyes of such a believer." "If the

veil be lifted," He similarly affirms, "and the full glory of the station

of those who have turned wholly towards God, and in their love for Him

renounced the world, be made manifest, the entire creation would be

dumbfounded."

Stressing the superlative character of His Revelation as compared with the

Dispensation preceding it, Baha'u'llah makes the following affirmation:

"If all the peoples of the world be invested with the powers and

attributes destined for the Letters of the Living, the Bab's chosen

disciples, whose station is ten thousand times more glorious than any

which the apostles of old have attained, and if they, one and all, should,

swift as the twinkling of an eye, hesitate to recognize the light of My

Revelation, their faith shall be of no avail and they shall be accounted

among the infidels." "So tremendous is the outpouring of Divine grace in

this Dispensation that if mortal hands could be swift enough to record

them, within the space of a single day and night there would stream verses

of such number as to be equivalent to the whole of the Persian Bayan."

"Give heed to my warning, ye people of Persia," He thus addresses His

countrymen, "If I be slain at your hands, God will assuredly raise up one

who will fill the seat made vacant through my death; for such is God's

method carried into effect of old, and no change can ye find in God's mode

of dealing." "Should they attempt to conceal His light on the continent,

He will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and,

raising His voice, proclaim: 'I am the lifegiver of the world!'... And if

they cast Him into a darksome pit, they will find Him seated on earth's

loftiest heights calling aloud to all mankind: 'Lo, the Desire of the

world is come in His majesty, His sovereignty, His transcendent dominion!'

And if He be buried beneath the depths of the earth, His Spirit soaring to

the apex of heaven shall peal the summons: 'Behold ye the coming of the

Glory; witness ye the Kingdom of God, the most Holy, the Gracious, the

All-Powerful!'" "Within the throat of this Youth," is yet another

astounding statement, "there lie prisoned accents which, if revealed to

mankind to an extent smaller than a needle's eye, would suffice to cause

every mountain to crumble, the leaves of the trees to be discolored and

their fruits to fall; would compel every head to bow down in worship and

every face to turn in adoration towards this omnipotent Ruler Who, at

sundry times and in diverse manners, appeareth as a devouring flame, as a

billowing ocean, as a radiant light, as the tree which, rooted in the soil

of holiness, lifteth its branches and spreadeth out its limbs as far as

and beyond the throne of deathless glory."

Anticipating the System which the irresistible power of His Law was

destined to unfold in a later age, He writes: "The world's equilibrium

hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this

new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through

the agency of this unique, this wondrous System--the like of which mortal

eyes have never witnessed." "The Hand of Omnipotence hath established His

Revelation upon an unassailable, an enduring foundation. Storms of human

strife are powerless to undermine its basis, nor will men's fanciful

theories succeed in damaging its structure."

In the Suratu'l-Haykal, one of the most challenging works of Baha'u'llah,

the following verses, each of which testifies to the resistless power

infused into the Revelation proclaimed by its Author, have been recorded:

"Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but

His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self,

and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His

Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised.

There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could

be seen but God." "The Holy Spirit Itself hath been generated through the

agency of a single letter revealed by this Most Great Spirit, if ye be of

them that comprehend."... "Within the treasury of Our Wisdom there lies

unrevealed a knowledge, one word of which, if we chose to divulge it to

mankind, would cause every human being to recognize the Manifestation of

God and to acknowledge His omniscience, would enable every one to discover

the secrets of all the sciences, and to attain so high a station as to

find himself wholly independent of all past and future learning. Other

knowledges We do as well possess, not a single letter of which We can

disclose, nor do We find humanity able to hear even the barest reference

to their meaning. Thus have We informed you of the knowledge of God, the

All-Knowing, the All-Wise." "The day is approaching when God will have, by

an act of His Will, raised up a race of men the nature of which is

inscrutable to all save God, the All-Powerful, the Self-Subsisting." "He

will, ere long, out of the Bosom of Power draw forth the Hands of

Ascendancy and Might--Hands who will arise to win victory for this Youth

and who will purge mankind from the defilement of the outcast and the

ungodly. These Hands will gird up their loins to champion the Faith of

God, and will, in My name the self-subsistent, the mighty, subdue the

peoples and kindreds of the earth. They will enter the cities and will

inspire with fear the hearts of all their inhabitants. Such are the

evidences of the might of God; how fearful, how vehement is His might!"

Such is, dearly-beloved friends, Baha'u'llah's own written testimony to

the nature of His Revelation. To the affirmations of the Bab, each of

which reinforces the strength, and confirms the truth, of these remarkable

statements, I have already referred. What remains for me to consider in

this connection are such passages in the writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the

appointed Interpreter of these same utterances, as throw further light

upon and amplify various features of this enthralling theme. The tone of

His language is indeed as emphatic and His tribute no less glowing than

that of either Baha'u'llah or the Bab.

"Centuries, nay ages, must pass away," He affirms in one of His earliest

Tablets, "ere the Day-Star of Truth shineth again in its mid-summer

splendor, or appeareth once more in the radiance of its vernal glory...

How thankful must we be for having been made in this Day the recipients of

so overwhelming a favor! Would that we had ten thousand lives that we

might lay them down in thanksgiving for so rare a privilege, so high an

attainment, so priceless a bounty!" "The mere contemplation," He adds, "of

the Dispensation inaugurated by the Blessed Beauty would have sufficed to

overwhelm the saints of bygone ages--saints who longed to partake for one

moment of its great glory." "The holy ones of past ages and centuries

have, each and all, yearned with tearful eyes to live, though for one

moment, in the Day of God. Their longings unsatisfied, they repaired to

the Great Beyond. How great, therefore, is the bounty of the Abha Beauty

Who, notwithstanding our utter unworthiness, hath through His grace and

mercy breathed into us in this divinely-illumined century the spirit of

life, hath gathered us beneath the standard of the Beloved of the world,

and chosen to confer upon us a bounty for which the mighty ones of bygone

ages had craved in vain." "The souls of the well-favored among the

concourse on high," He likewise affirms, "the sacred dwellers of the most

exalted Paradise, are in this day filled with burning desire to return

unto this world, that they may render such service as lieth in their power

to the threshold of the Abha Beauty."

"The effulgence of God's splendrous mercy," He, in a passage alluding to

the growth and future development of the Faith, declares, "hath enveloped

the peoples and kindreds of the earth, and the whole world is bathed in

its shining glory... The day will soon come when the light of Divine unity

will have so permeated the East and the West that no man dare any longer

ignore it." "Now in the world of being the Hand of divine power hath

firmly laid the foundations of this all-highest bounty and this wondrous

gift. Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy cycle shall

gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning of its

growth and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs. Ere the close of

this century and of this age, it shall be made clear and evident how

wondrous was that springtide and how heavenly was that gift!"

In confirmation of the exalted rank of the true believer, referred to by

Baha'u'llah, He reveals the following: "The station which he who hath

truly recognized this Revelation will attain is the same as the one

ordained for such prophets of the house of Israel as are not regarded as

Manifestations 'endowed with constancy.'"

In connection with the Manifestations destined to follow the Revelation of

Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha makes this definite and weighty declaration:

"Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in the future 'in the

shadows of the clouds,' know verily that in so far as their relation to

the source of their inspiration is concerned they are under the shadow of

the Ancient Beauty. In their relation, however, to the age in which they

appear, each and every one of them 'doeth whatsoever He willeth.'"

"O my friend!" He thus addresses in one of His Tablets a man of recognized

authority and standing, "The undying Fire which the Lord of the Kingdom

hath kindled in the midst of the holy Tree is burning fiercely in the

midmost heart of the world. The conflagration it will provoke will envelop

the whole earth. Its blazing flames will illuminate its peoples and

kindreds. All the signs have been revealed; every prophetic allusion hath

been manifested. Whatever hath been enshrined in all the Scriptures of the

past hath been made evident. To doubt or hesitate is no more possible...

Time is pressing. The Divine Charger is impatient, and can tarry no

longer. Ours is the duty to rush forward and, ere it is too late, win the

victory." And finally, is this most stirring passage which He, in one of

His moments of exultation, was moved to address to one of His most trusted

and eminent followers in the earliest days of His ministry: "What more

shall I say? What else can my pen recount? So loud is the call that

reverberates from the Abha Kingdom that mortal ears are well-nigh deafened

with its vibrations. The whole creation, methinks, is being disrupted and

is bursting asunder through the shattering influence of the Divine summons

issued from the throne of glory. More than this I cannot write."

Dearly-beloved friends! Enough has been said, and the quoted excerpts from

the writings of the Bab, of Baha'u'llah and of 'Abdu'l-Baha are

sufficiently numerous and varied, to convince the conscientious reader of

the sublimity of this unique cycle in the world's religious history. It

would be utterly impossible to over-exaggerate its significance or to

overrate the influence it has exerted and which it must increasingly exert

as its great system unfolds itself amidst the welter of a collapsing

civilization.

To whoever may read these pages a word of warning seems, however,

advisable before I proceed further with the development of my argument.

Let no one meditating, in the light of the afore-quoted passages, on the

nature of the Revelation of Baha'u'llah, mistake its character or

misconstrue the intent of its Author. The divinity attributed to so great

a Being and the complete incarnation of the names and attributes of God in

so exalted a Person should, under no circumstances, be misconceived or

misinterpreted. The human temple that has been made the vehicle of so

overpowering a Revelation must, if we be faithful to the tenets of our

Faith, ever remain entirely distinguished from that "innermost Spirit of

Spirits" and "eternal Essence of Essences"--that invisible yet rational God

Who, however much we extol the divinity of His Manifestations on earth,

can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible

and all-embracing Reality in the concrete and limited frame of a mortal

being. Indeed, the God Who could so incarnate His own reality would, in

the light of the teachings of Baha'u'llah, cease immediately to be God. So

crude and fantastic a theory of Divine incarnation is as removed from, and

incompatible with, the essentials of Baha'i belief as are the no less

inadmissible pantheistic and anthropomorphic conceptions of God-- both of

which the utterances of Baha'u'llah emphatically repudiate and the fallacy

of which they expose.

He Who in unnumbered passages claimed His utterance to be the "Voice of

Divinity, the Call of God Himself" thus solemnly affirms in the

Kitab-i-Iqan: "To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that

God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immeasurably exalted

beyond every human attribute such as corporeal existence, ascent and

descent, egress and regress... He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the

ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality

everlastingly hidden from the sight of men... He standeth exalted beyond

and above all separation and union, all proximity and remoteness... 'God

was alone; there was none else beside Him' is a sure testimony of this

truth."

"From time immemorial," Baha'u'llah, speaking of God, explains, "He, the

Divine Being, hath been veiled in the ineffable sanctity of His exalted

Self, and will everlasting continue to be wrapt in the impenetrable

mystery of His unknowable Essence... Ten thousand Prophets, each a Moses,

are thunderstruck upon the Sinai of their search at God's forbidding

voice, 'Thou shalt never behold Me!'; whilst a myriad Messengers, each as

great as Jesus, stand dismayed upon their heavenly thrones by the

interdiction 'Mine Essence thou shalt never apprehend!'" "How bewildering

to me, insignificant as I am," Baha'u'llah in His communion with God

affirms, "is the attempt to fathom the sacred depths of Thy knowledge! How

futile my efforts to visualize the magnitude of the power inherent in

Thine handiwork--the revelation of Thy creative power!" "When I

contemplate, O my God, the relationship that bindeth me to Thee," He, in

yet another prayer revealed in His own handwriting, testifies, "I am moved

to proclaim to all created things 'verily I am God!'; and when I consider

my own self, lo, I find it coarser than clay!"

"The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days," Baha'u'llah further

states in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "being thus closed in the face of all beings,

He, the Source of infinite grace ... hath caused those luminous Gems of

Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of

the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart

unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being and tell of the

subtleties of His imperishable Essence... All the Prophets of God, His

well-favored, His holy and chosen Messengers are, without exception, the

bearers of His names and the embodiments of His attributes... These

Tabernacles of Holiness, these primal Mirrors which reflect the Light of

unfading glory, are but expressions of Him Who is the Invisible of the

Invisibles."

That Baha'u'llah should, notwithstanding the overwhelming intensity of His

Revelation, be regarded as essentially one of these Manifestations of God,

never to be identified with that invisible Reality, the Essence of

Divinity itself, is one of the major beliefs of our Faith--a belief which

should never be obscured and the integrity of which no one of its

followers should allow to be compromised.

Nor does the Baha'i Revelation, claiming as it does to be the culmination

of a prophetic cycle and the fulfillment of the promise of all ages,

attempt, under any circumstances, to invalidate those first and

everlasting principles that animate and underlie the religions that have

preceded it. The God-given authority, vested in each one of them, it

admits and establishes as its firmest and ultimate basis. It regards them

in no other light except as different stages in the eternal history and

constant evolution of one religion, Divine and indivisible, of which it

itself forms but an integral part. It neither seeks to obscure their

Divine origin, nor to dwarf the admitted magnitude of their colossal

achievements. It can countenance no attempt that seeks to distort their

features or to stultify the truths which they instill. Its teachings do

not deviate a hairbreadth from the verities they enshrine, nor does the

weight of its message detract one jot or one tittle from the influence

they exert or the loyalty they inspire. Far from aiming at the overthrow

of the spiritual foundation of the world's religious systems, its avowed,

its unalterable purpose is to widen their basis, to restate their

fundamentals, to reconcile their aims, to reinvigorate their life, to

demonstrate their oneness, to restore the pristine purity of their

teachings, to coeordinate their functions and to assist in the realization

of their highest aspirations. These divinely-revealed religions, as a

close observer has graphically expressed it, "are doomed not to die, but

to be reborn... 'Does not the child succumb in the youth and the youth in

the man; yet neither child nor youth perishes?'"

"They Who are the Luminaries of Truth and the Mirrors reflecting the light

of Divine Unity," Baha'u'llah explains in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "in whatever

age and cycle they are sent down from their invisible habitations of

ancient glory unto this world to educate the souls of men and endue with

grace all created things, are invariably endowed with an all-compelling

power and invested with invincible sovereignty... These sanctified

Mirrors, these Day-Springs of ancient glory are one and all the exponents

on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its essence and

ultimate purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is

derived their sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a

reflection of His image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless

glory... Through them is transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them

is revealed the light that can never fade... Human tongue can never

befittingly sing their praise, and human speech can never unfold their

mystery." "Inasmuch as these Birds of the celestial Throne," He adds, "are

all sent down from the heaven of the Will of God, and as they all arise to

proclaim His irresistible Faith, they therefore are regarded as one soul

and the same person... They all abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the

same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and

proclaim the same Faith... They only differ in the intensity of their

revelation and the comparative potency of their light... That a certain

attribute of God hath not been outwardly manifested by these Essences of

Detachment doth in no wise imply that they Who are the Day-Springs of

God's attributes and the Treasuries of His holy names did not actually

possess it."

It should also be borne in mind that, great as is the power manifested by

this Revelation and however vast the range of the Dispensation its Author

has inaugurated, it emphatically repudiates the claim to be regarded as

the final revelation of God's will and purpose for mankind. To hold such a

conception of its character and functions would be tantamount to a

betrayal of its cause and a denial of its truth. It must necessarily

conflict with the fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of

Baha'i belief, the principle that religious truth is not absolute but

relative, that Divine Revelation is orderly, continuous and progressive

and not spasmodic or final. Indeed, the categorical rejection by the

followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah of the claim to finality which any

religious system inaugurated by the Prophets of the past may advance is as

clear and emphatic as their own refusal to claim that same finality for

the Revelation with which they stand identified. "To believe that all

revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed, that

from the daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again, that the

ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out of the

tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be made

manifest" must constitute in the eyes of every follower of the Faith a

grave, an inexcusable departure from one of its most cherished and

fundamental principles.

A reference to some of the already quoted utterances of Baha'u'llah and

'Abdu'l-Baha will surely suffice to establish, beyond the shadow of a

doubt, the truth of this cardinal principle. Might not the following

passage of the Hidden Words be, likewise, construed as an allegorical

allusion to the progressiveness of Divine Revelation and an admission by

its Author that the Message with which He has been entrusted is not the

final and ultimate expression of the will and guidance of the Almighty? "O

Son of Justice! In the night-season the beauty of the immortal Being hath

repaired from the emerald height of fidelity unto the Sadratu'l-Muntaha,

and wept with such a weeping that the concourse on high and the dwellers

of the realms above wailed at His lamenting. Whereupon there was asked,

Why the wailing and weeping? He made reply: As bidden I waited expectant

upon the hill of faithfulness, yet inhaled not from them that dwell on

earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then summoned to return I beheld, and lo!

certain doves of holiness were sore tried within the claws of the dogs of

earth. Thereupon the Maid of heaven hastened forth unveiled and

resplendent from Her mystic mansion, and asked of their names, and all

were told but one. And when urged, the first letter thereof was uttered,

whereupon the dwellers of the celestial chambers rushed forth out of their

habitation of glory. And whilst the second letter was pronounced they fell

down, one and all, upon the dust. At that moment a voice was heard from

the inmost shrine: 'Thus far and no farther.' Verily We bear witness to

that which they have done and now are doing."

In a more explicit language Baha'u'llah testifies to this truth in one of

His Tablets revealed in Adrianople: "Know verily that the veil hiding Our

countenance hath not been completely lifted. We have revealed Our Self to

a degree corresponding to the capacity of the people of Our age. Should

the Ancient Beauty be unveiled in the fullness of His glory mortal eyes

would be blinded by the dazzling intensity of His revelation."

In the Suriy-i-Sabr, revealed as far back as the year 1863, on the very

first day of His arrival in the garden of Ridvan, He thus affirms: "God

hath sent down His Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will

continue to do so till 'the end that hath no end'; so that His grace may,

from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continually vouchsafed to mankind."

"I am not apprehensive for My own self," Baha'u'llah still more explicitly

declares, "My fears are for Him Who will be sent down unto you after

Me--Him Who will be invested with great sovereignty and mighty dominion."

And again He writes in the Suratu'l-Haykal: "By those words which I have

revealed, Myself is not intended, but rather He Who will come after Me. To

it is witness God, the All-Knowing." "Deal not with Him," He adds, "as ye

have dealt with Me."

In a more circumstantial passage the Bab upholds the same truth in His

writings. "It is clear and evident," He writes in the Persian Bayan, "that

the object of all preceding Dispensations hath been to pave the way for

the advent of Muhammad, the Apostle of God. These, including the

Muhammadan Dispensation, have had, in their turn, as their objective the

Revelation proclaimed by the Qa'im. The purpose underlying this

Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like manner, been

to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest.

And this Faith--the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest--in its turn,

together with all the Revelations gone before it, have as their object the

Manifestation destined to succeed it. And the latter, no less than all the

Revelations preceding it, prepare the way for the Revelation which is yet

to follow. The process of the rise and setting of the Sun of Truth will

thus indefinitely continue--a process that hath had no beginning and will

have no end."

"Know of a certainty," Baha'u'llah explains in this connection, "that in

every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation hath been vouchsafed to

men in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun.

How feeble its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How

gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith,

enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing

intensity of its light. How steadily it declineth until it reacheth its

setting point. Were it all of a sudden to manifest the energies latent

within it, it would no doubt cause injury to all created things... In like

manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest

stages of its manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the

providence of the Almighty hath bestowed upon it, the earth of human

understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would

neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror

forth the radiance of its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would

cease to exist."

In the light of these clear and conclusive statements it is our clear duty

to make it indubitably evident to every seeker after truth that from "the

beginning that hath no beginning" the Prophets of the one, the unknowable

God, including Baha'u'llah Himself, have all, as the channels of God's

grace, as the exponents of His unity, as the mirrors of His light and the

revealers of His purpose, been commissioned to unfold to mankind an

ever-increasing measure of His truth, of His inscrutable will and Divine

guidance, and will continue to "the end that hath no end" to vouchsafe

still fuller and mightier revelations of His limitless power and glory.

We might well ponder in our hearts the following passages from a prayer

revealed by Baha'u'llah which strikingly affirm, and are a further

evidence of, the reality of the great and essential truth lying at the

very core of His Message to mankind: "Praise be to Thee, O Lord my God,

for the wondrous revelations of Thine inscrutable decree and the manifold

woes and trials Thou hast destined for myself. At one time Thou didst

deliver me into the hands of Nimrod; at another Thou hast allowed

Pharaoh's rod to persecute me. Thou alone canst estimate, through Thine

all-encompassing knowledge and the operation of Thy Will, the incalculable

afflictions I have suffered at their hands. Again Thou didst cast me into

the prison-cell of the ungodly for no reason except that I was moved to

whisper into the ears of the well-favored denizens of Thy kingdom an

intimation of the vision with which Thou hadst, through Thy knowledge,

inspired me and revealed to me its meaning through the potency of Thy

might. And again Thou didst decree that I be beheaded by the sword of the

infidel. Again I was crucified for having unveiled to men's eyes the

hidden gems of Thy glorious unity, for having revealed to them the

wondrous signs of Thy sovereign and everlasting power. How bitter the

humiliations heaped upon me, in a subsequent age, on the plain of Karbila!

How lonely did I feel amidst Thy people; to what state of helplessness I

was reduced in that land! Unsatisfied with such indignities, my

persecutors decapitated me and carrying aloft my head from land to land

paraded it before the gaze of the unbelieving multitude and deposited it

on the seats of the perverse and faithless. In a later age I was suspended

and my breast was made a target to the darts of the malicious cruelty of

my foes. My limbs were riddled with bullets and my body was torn asunder.

Finally, behold how in this day my treacherous enemies have leagued

themselves against me, and are continually plotting to instill the venom

of hate and malice into the souls of Thy servants. With all their might

they are scheming to accomplish their purpose... Grievous as is my plight,

O God, my Well-beloved, I render thanks unto Thee, and my spirit is

grateful for whatsoever hath befallen me in the path of Thy good-pleasure.

I am well pleased with that which Thou didst ordain for me, and welcome,

however calamitous, the pains and sorrows I am made to suffer."