The waves of dire tribulation that violently battered at the Faith, and
eventually engulfed, in rapid succession, the ablest, the dearest and most
trusted disciples of the Bab, plunged Him, as already observed, into
unutterable sorrow. For no less than six months the Prisoner of _Ch_ihriq,
His chronicler has recorded, was unable to either write or dictate.
Crushed with grief by the evil tidings that came so fast upon Him, of the
endless trials that beset His ablest lieutenants, by the agonies suffered
by the besieged and the shameless betrayal of the survivors, by the woeful
afflictions endured by the captives and the abominable butchery of men,
women and children, as well as the foul indignities heaped on their
corpses, He, for nine days, His amanuensis has affirmed, refused to meet
any of His friends, and was reluctant to touch the meat and drink that was
offered Him. Tears rained continually from His eyes, and profuse
expressions of anguish poured forth from His wounded heart, as He
languished, for no less than five months, solitary and disconsolate, in
His prison.
The pillars of His infant Faith had, for the most part, been hurled down
at the first onset of the hurricane that had been loosed upon it. Quddus,
immortalized by Him as Ismu'llahi'l-A_kh_ir (the Last Name of God); on
whom Baha'u'llah's Tablet of Kullu't-Ta'am later conferred the sublime
appellation of Nuqtiy-i-U_kh_ra (the Last Point); whom He elevated, in
another Tablet, to a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His
Revelation; whom He identifies, in still another Tablet, with one of the
"Messengers charged with imposture" mentioned in the Qur'an; whom the
Persian Bayan extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round whom mirrors to the
number of eight Vahids revolve; on whose "detachment and the sincerity of
whose devotion to God's will God prideth Himself amidst the Concourse on
high;" whom 'Abdu'l-Baha designated as the "Moon of Guidance;" and whose
appearance the Revelation of St. John the Divine anticipated as one of the
two "Witnesses" into whom, ere the "second woe is past," the "spirit of
life from God" must enter--such a man had, in the full bloom of his youth,
suffered, in the Sabzih-Maydan of Barfuru_sh_, a death which even Jesus
Christ, as attested by Baha'u'llah, had not faced in the hour of His
greatest agony. Mulla Husayn, the first Letter of the Living, surnamed the
Babu'l-Bab (the Gate of the Gate); designated as the "Primal Mirror;" on
whom eulogies, prayers and visiting Tablets of a number equivalent to
thrice the volume of the Qur'an had been lavished by the pen of the Bab;
referred to in these eulogies as "beloved of My Heart;" the dust of whose
grave, that same Pen had declared, was so potent as to cheer the sorrowful
and heal the sick; whom "the creatures, raised in the beginning and in the
end" of the Babi Dispensation, envy, and will continue to envy till the
"Day of Judgment;" whom the Kitab-i-Iqan acclaimed as the one but for whom
"God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor
ascended the throne of eternal glory;" to whom Siyyid Kazim had paid such
tribute that his disciples suspected that the recipient of such praise
might well be the promised One Himself--such a one had likewise, in the
prime of his manhood, died a martyr's death at Tabarsi. Vahid, pronounced
in the Kitab-i-Iqan to be the "unique and peerless figure of his age," a
man of immense erudition and the most preeminent figure to enlist under
the banner of the new Faith, to whose "talents and saintliness," to whose
"high attainments in the realm of science and philosophy" the Bab had
testified in His Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs), had already, under
similar circumstances, been swept into the maelstrom of another upheaval,
and was soon to quaff in his turn the cup drained by the heroic martyrs of
Mazindaran. Hujjat, another champion of conspicuous audacity, of
unsubduable will, of remarkable originality and vehement zeal, was being,
swiftly and inevitably, drawn into the fiery furnace whose flames had
already enveloped Zanjan and its environs. The Bab's maternal uncle, the
only father He had known since His childhood, His shield and support and
the trusted guardian of both His mother and His wife, had, moreover, been
sundered from Him by the axe of the executioner in Tihran. No less than
half of His chosen disciples, the Letters of the Living, had already
preceded Him in the field of martyrdom. Tahirih, though still alive, was
courageously pursuing a course that was to lead her inevitably to her
doom.
A fast ebbing life, so crowded with the accumulated anxieties,
disappointments, treacheries and sorrows of a tragic ministry, now moved
swiftly towards its climax. The most turbulent period of the Heroic Age of
the new Dispensation was rapidly attaining its culmination. The cup of
bitter woes which the Herald of that Dispensation had tasted was now full
to overflowing. Indeed, He Himself had already foreshadowed His own
approaching death. In the Kitab-i-Panj-_Sh_a'n, one of His last works, He
had alluded to the fact that the sixth Naw-Ruz after the declaration of
His mission would be the last He was destined to celebrate on earth. In
His interpretation of the letter Ha, He had voiced His craving for
martyrdom, while in the Qayyumu'l-Asma He had actually prophesied the
inevitability of such a consummation of His glorious career. Forty days
before His final departure from _Ch_ihriq He had even collected all the
documents in His possession, and placed them, together with His pen-case,
His seals and His rings, in the hands of Mulla Baqir, a Letter of the
Living, whom He instructed to entrust them to Mulla
'Abdu'l-Karim-i-Qazvini, surnamed Mirza Ahmad, who was to deliver them to
Baha'u'llah in Tihran.
While the convulsions of Mazindaran and Nayriz were pursuing their bloody
course the Grand Vizir of Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah, anxiously pondering the
significance of these dire happenings, and apprehensive of their
repercussions on his countrymen, his government and his sovereign, was
feverishly revolving in his mind that fateful decision which was not only
destined to leave its indelible imprint on the fortunes of his country,
but was to be fraught with such incalculable consequences for the
destinies of the whole of mankind. The repressive measures taken against
the followers of the Bab, he was by now fully convinced, had but served to
inflame their zeal, steel their resolution and confirm their loyalty to
their persecuted Faith. The Bab's isolation and captivity had produced the
opposite effect to that which the Amir-Nizam had confidently anticipated.
Gravely perturbed, he bitterly condemned the disastrous leniency of his
predecessor, Haji Mirza Aqasi, which had brought matters to such a pass. A
more drastic and still more exemplary punishment, he felt, must now be
administered to what he regarded as an abomination of heresy which was
polluting the civil and ecclesiastical institutions of the realm. Nothing
short, he believed, of the extinction of the life of Him Who was the
fountain-head of so odious a doctrine and the driving force behind so
dynamic a movement could stem the tide that had wrought such havoc
throughout the land.
The siege of Zanjan was still in progress when he, dispensing with an
explicit order from his sovereign, and acting independently of his
counsellors and fellow-ministers, dispatched his order to Prince Hamzih
Mirza, the Hi_sh_matu'd-Dawlih, the governor of A_dh_irbayjan, instructing
him to execute the Bab. Fearing lest the infliction of such condign
punishment in the capital of the realm would set in motion forces he might
be powerless to control, he ordered that his Captive be taken to Tabriz,
and there be done to death. Confronted with a flat refusal by the
indignant Prince to perform what he regarded as a flagitious crime, the
Amir-Nizam commissioned his own brother, Mirza Hasan _Kh_an, to execute
his orders. The usual formalities designed to secure the necessary
authorization from the leading mujtahids of Tabriz were hastily and easily
completed. Neither Mulla Muhammad-i-Mamaqani, however, who had penned the
Bab's death-warrant on the very day of His examination in Tabriz, nor Haji
Mirza Baqir, nor Mulla Murtada-Quli, to whose houses their Victim was
ignominiously led by the farra_sh_-ba_sh_i, by order of the Grand Vizir,
condescended to meet face to face their dreaded Opponent.
Immediately before and soon after this humiliating treatment meted out to
the Bab two highly significant incidents occurred, incidents that cast an
illuminating light on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the opening
phase of His martyrdom. The farra_sh_-ba_sh_i had abruptly interrupted the
last conversation which the Bab was confidentially having in one of the
rooms of the barracks with His amanuensis Siyyid Husayn, and was drawing
the latter aside, and severely rebuking him, when he was thus addressed by
his Prisoner: "Not until I have said to him all those things that I wish
to say can any earthly power silence Me. Though all the world be armed
against Me, yet shall it be powerless to deter Me from fulfilling, to the
last word, My intention." To the Christian Sam _Kh_an--the colonel of the
Armenian regiment ordered to carry out the execution--who, seized with fear
lest his act should provoke the wrath of God, had begged to be released
from the duty imposed upon him, the Bab gave the following assurance:
"Follow your instructions, and if your intention be sincere, the Almighty
is surely able to relieve you of your perplexity."
Sam _Kh_an accordingly set out to discharge his duty. A spike was driven
into a pillar which separated two rooms of the barracks facing the square.
Two ropes were fastened to it from which the Bab and one of his disciples,
the youthful and devout Mirza Muhammad-'Ali-i-Zunuzi, surnamed Anis, who
had previously flung himself at the feet of his Master and implored that
under no circumstances he be sent away from Him, were separately
suspended. The firing squad ranged itself in three files, each of two
hundred and fifty men. Each file in turn opened fire until the whole
detachment had discharged its bullets. So dense was the smoke from the
seven hundred and fifty rifles that the sky was darkened. As soon as the
smoke had cleared away the astounded multitude of about ten thousand
souls, who had crowded onto the roof of the barracks, as well as the tops
of the adjoining houses, beheld a scene which their eyes could scarcely
believe.
The Bab had vanished from their sight! Only his companion remained, alive
and unscathed, standing beside the wall on which they had been suspended.
The ropes by which they had been hung alone were severed. "The
Siyyid-i-Bab has gone from our sight!" cried out the bewildered
spectators. A frenzied search immediately ensued. He was found, unhurt and
unruffled, in the very room He had occupied the night before, engaged in
completing His interrupted conversation with His amanuensis. "I have
finished My conversation with Siyyid Husayn" were the words with which the
Prisoner, so providentially preserved, greeted the appearance of the
farra_sh_-ba_sh_i, "Now you may proceed to fulfill your intention."
Recalling the bold assertion his Prisoner had previously made, and shaken
by so stunning a revelation, the farra_sh_-ba_sh_i quitted instantly the
scene, and resigned his post.
Sam _Kh_an, likewise, remembering, with feelings of awe and wonder, the
reassuring words addressed to him by the Bab, ordered his men to leave the
barracks immediately, and swore, as he left the courtyard, never again,
even at the cost of his life, to repeat that act. Aqa Jan-i-_Kh_amsih,
colonel of the body-guard, volunteered to replace him. On the same wall
and in the same manner the Bab and His companion were again suspended,
while the new regiment formed in line and opened fire upon them. This
time, however, their breasts were riddled with bullets, and their bodies
completely dissected, with the exception of their faces which were but
little marred. "O wayward generation!" were the last words of the Bab to
the gazing multitude, as the regiment prepared to fire its volley, "Had
you believed in Me every one of you would have followed the example of
this youth, who stood in rank above most of you, and would have willingly
sacrificed himself in My path. The day will come when you will have
recognized Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with you."
Nor was this all. The very moment the shots were fired a gale of
exceptional violence arose and swept over the city. From noon till night a
whirlwind of dust obscured the light of the sun, and blinded the eyes of
the people. In _Sh_iraz an "earthquake," foreshadowed in no less weighty a
Book than the Revelation of St. John, occurred in 1268 A.H. which threw
the whole city into turmoil and wrought havoc amongst its people, a havoc
that was greatly aggravated by the outbreak of cholera, by famine and
other afflictions. In that same year no less than two hundred and fifty of
the firing squad, that had replaced Sam _Kh_an's regiment, met their
death, together with their officers, in a terrible earthquake, while the
remaining five hundred suffered, three years later, as a punishment for
their mutiny, the same fate as that which their hands had inflicted upon
the Bab. To insure that none of them had survived, they were riddled with
a second volley, after which their bodies, pierced with spears and lances,
were exposed to the gaze of the people of Tabriz. The prime instigator of
the Bab's death, the implacable Amir-Nizam, together with his brother, his
chief accomplice, met their death within two years of that savage act.
On the evening of the very day of the Bab's execution, which fell on the
ninth of July 1850 (28th of _Sh_a'ban 1266 A.H.), during the thirty-first
year of His age and the seventh of His ministry, the mangled bodies were
transferred from the courtyard of the barracks to the edge of the moat
outside the gate of the city. Four companies, each consisting of ten
sentinels, were ordered to keep watch in turn over them. On the following
morning the Russian Consul in Tabriz visited the spot, and ordered the
artist who had accompanied him to make a drawing of the remains as they
lay beside the moat. In the middle of the following night a follower of
the Bab, Haji Sulayman _Kh_an, succeeded, through the instrumentality of a
certain Haji Allah-Yar, in removing the bodies to the silk factory owned
by one of the believers of Milan, and laid them, the next day, in a
specially made wooden casket, which he later transferred to a place of
safety. Meanwhile the mullas were boastfully proclaiming from the pulpits
that, whereas the holy body of the Immaculate Imam would be preserved from
beasts of prey and from all creeping things, this man's body had been
devoured by wild animals. No sooner had the news of the transfer of the
remains of the Bab and of His fellow-sufferer been communicated to
Baha'u'llah than He ordered that same Sulayman _Kh_an to bring them to
Tihran, where they were taken to the Imam-Zadih-Hasan, from whence they
were removed to different places, until the time when, in pursuance of
'Abdu'l-Baha's instructions, they were transferred to the Holy Land, and
were permanently and ceremoniously laid to rest by Him in a specially
erected mausoleum on the slopes of Mt. Carmel.
Thus ended a life which posterity will recognize as standing at the
confluence of two universal prophetic cycles, the Adamic Cycle stretching
back as far as the first dawnings of the world's recorded religious
history and the Baha'i Cycle destined to propel itself across the unborn
reaches of time for a period of no less than five thousand centuries. The
apotheosis in which such a life attained its consummation marks, as
already observed, the culmination of the most heroic phase of the Heroic
Age of the Baha'i Dispensation. It can, moreover, be regarded in no other
light except as the most dramatic, the most tragic event transpiring
within the entire range of the first Baha'i century. Indeed it can be
rightly acclaimed as unparalleled in the annals of the lives of all the
Founders of the world's existing religious systems.
So momentous an event could hardly fail to arouse widespread and keen
interest even beyond the confines of the land in which it had occurred.
"C'est un des plus magnifiques exemples de courage qu'il ait ete donne a
l'humanite de contempler," is the testimony recorded by a Christian
scholar and government official, who had lived in Persia and had
familiarized himself with the life and teachings of the Bab, "et c'est
aussi une admirable preuve de l'amour que notre heros portait a ses
concitoyens. Il s'est sacrifie pour l'humanite: pour elle il a donne son
corps et son ame, pour elle il a subi les privations, les affronts, les
injures, la torture et le martyre. Il a scelle de son sang le pacte de la
fraternite universelle, et comme Jesus il a paye de sa vie l'annonce du
regne de la concorde, de l'equite et de l'amour du prochain." "Un fait
etrange, unique dans les annales de l'humanite," is a further testimony
from the pen of that same scholar commenting on the circumstances
attending the Bab's martyrdom. "A veritable miracle," is the pronouncement
made by a noted French Orientalist. "A true God-man," is the verdict of a
famous British traveler and writer. "The finest product of his country,"
is the tribute paid Him by a noted French publicist. "That Jesus of the
age ... a prophet, and more than a prophet," is the judgment passed by a
distinguished English divine. "The most important religious movement since
the foundation of Christianity," is the possibility that was envisaged for
the Faith the Bab had established by that far-famed Oxford scholar, the
late Master of Balliol.
"Many persons from all parts of the world," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's written
assertion, "set out for Persia and began to investigate wholeheartedly the
matter." The Czar of Russia, a contemporary chronicler has written, had
even, shortly before the Bab's martyrdom, instructed the Russian Consul in
Tabriz to fully inquire into, and report the circumstances of so startling
a Movement, a commission that could not be carried out in view of the
Bab's execution. In countries as remote as those of Western Europe an
interest no less profound was kindled, and spread with great rapidity to
literary, artistic, diplomatic and intellectual circles. "All Europe,"
attests the above-mentioned French publicist, "was stirred to pity and
indignation... Among the litterateurs of my generation, in the Paris of
1890, the martyrdom of the Bab was still as fresh a topic as had been the
first news of His death. We wrote poems about Him. Sarah Bernhardt
entreated Catulle Mendes for a play on the theme of this historic
tragedy." A Russian poetess, member of the Philosophic, Oriental and
Bibliological Societies of St. Petersburg, published in 1903 a drama
entitled "The Bab," which a year later was played in one of the principal
theatres of that city, was subsequently given publicity in London, was
translated into French in Paris, and into German by the poet Fiedler, was
presented again, soon after the Russian Revolution, in the Folk Theatre in
Leningrad, and succeeded in arousing the genuine sympathy and interest of
the renowned Tolstoy, whose eulogy of the poem was later published in the
Russian press.
It would indeed be no exaggeration to say that nowhere in the whole
compass of the world's religious literature, except in the Gospels, do we
find any record relating to the death of any of the religion-founders of
the past comparable to the martyrdom suffered by the Prophet of _Sh_iraz.
So strange, so inexplicable a phenomenon, attested by eye-witnesses,
corroborated by men of recognized standing, and acknowledged by government
as well as unofficial historians among the people who had sworn undying
hostility to the Babi Faith, may be truly regarded as the most marvelous
manifestation of the unique potentialities with which a Dispensation
promised by all the Dispensations of the past had been endowed. The
passion of Jesus Christ, and indeed His whole public ministry, alone offer
a parallel to the Mission and death of the Bab, a parallel which no
student of comparative religion can fail to perceive or ignore. In the
youthfulness and meekness of the Inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation; in
the extreme brevity and turbulence of His public ministry; in the dramatic
swiftness with which that ministry moved towards its climax; in the
apostolic order which He instituted, and the primacy which He conferred on
one of its members; in the boldness of His challenge to the time-honored
conventions, rites and laws which had been woven into the fabric of the
religion He Himself had been born into; in the role which an officially
recognized and firmly entrenched religious hierarchy played as chief
instigator of the outrages which He was made to suffer; in the indignities
heaped upon Him; in the suddenness of His arrest; in the interrogation to
which He was subjected; in the derision poured, and the scourging
inflicted, upon Him; in the public affront He sustained; and, finally, in
His ignominious suspension before the gaze of a hostile multitude--in all
these we cannot fail to discern a remarkable similarity to the
distinguishing features of the career of Jesus Christ.
It should be remembered, however, that apart from the miracle associated
with the Bab's execution, He, unlike the Founder of the Christian
religion, is not only to be regarded as the independent Author of a
divinely revealed Dispensation, but must also be recognized as the Herald
of a new Era and the Inaugurator of a great universal prophetic cycle. Nor
should the important fact be overlooked that, whereas the chief
adversaries of Jesus Christ, in His lifetime, were the Jewish rabbis and
their associates, the forces arrayed against the Bab represented the
combined civil and ecclesiastical powers of Persia, which, from the moment
of His declaration to the hour of His death, persisted, unitedly and by
every means at their disposal, in conspiring against the upholders and in
vilifying the tenets of His Revelation.
The Bab, acclaimed by Baha'u'llah as the "Essence of Essences," the "Sea
of Seas," the "Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and
Messengers revolve," "from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge
of all that was and shall be," Whose "rank excelleth that of all the
Prophets," and Whose "Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and
understanding of all their chosen ones," had delivered His Message and
discharged His mission. He Who was, in the words of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the
"Morn of Truth" and "Harbinger of the Most Great Light," Whose advent at
once signalized the termination of the "Prophetic Cycle" and the inception
of the "Cycle of Fulfillment," had simultaneously through His Revelation
banished the shades of night that had descended upon His country, and
proclaimed the impending rise of that Incomparable Orb Whose radiance was
to envelop the whole of mankind. He, as affirmed by Himself, "the Primal
Point from which have been generated all created things," "one of the
sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of God," the "Mystic Fane," the
"Great Announcement," the "Flame of that supernal Light that glowed upon
Sinai," the "Remembrance of God" concerning Whom "a separate Covenant hath
been established with each and every Prophet" had, through His advent, at
once fulfilled the promise of all ages and ushered in the consummation of
all Revelations. He the "Qa'im" (He Who ariseth) promised to the
_Sh_i'ahs, the "Mihdi" (One Who is guided) awaited by the Sunnis, the
"Return of John the Baptist" expected by the Christians, the
"U_sh_idar-Mah" referred to in the Zoroastrian scriptures, the "Return of
Elijah" anticipated by the Jews, Whose Revelation was to show forth "the
signs and tokens of all the Prophets", Who was to "manifest the perfection
of Moses, the radiance of Jesus and the patience of Job" had appeared,
proclaimed His Cause, been mercilessly persecuted and died gloriously. The
"Second Woe," spoken of in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, had, at
long last, appeared, and the first of the two "Messengers," Whose
appearance had been prophesied in the Qur'an, had been sent down. The
first "Trumpet-Blast", destined to smite the earth with extermination,
announced in the latter Book, had finally been sounded. "The Inevitable,"
"The Catastrophe," "The Resurrection," "The Earthquake of the Last Hour,"
foretold by that same Book, had all come to pass. The "clear tokens" had
been "sent down," and the "Spirit" had "breathed," and the "souls" had
"waked up," and the "heaven" had been "cleft," and the "angels" had
"ranged in order," and the "stars" had been "blotted out," and the "earth"
had "cast forth her burden," and "Paradise" had been "brought near," and
"hell" had been "made to blaze," and the "Book" had been "set," and the
"Bridge" had been "laid out," and the "Balance" had been "set up," and the
"mountains scattered in dust." The "cleansing of the Sanctuary,"
prophesied by Daniel and confirmed by Jesus Christ in His reference to
"the abomination of desolation," had been accomplished. The "day whose
length shall be a thousand years," foretold by the Apostle of God in His
Book, had terminated. The "forty and two months," during which the "Holy
City," as predicted by St. John the Divine, would be trodden under foot,
had elapsed. The "time of the end" had been ushered in, and the first of
the "two Witnesses" into Whom, "after three days and a half the Spirit of
Life from God" would enter, had arisen and had "ascended up to heaven in a
cloud." The "remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest,"
according to Islamic tradition, out of the "twenty and seven letters" of
which Knowledge has been declared to consist, had been revealed. The "Man
Child," mentioned in the Book of Revelation, destined to "rule all nations
with a rod of iron," had released, through His coming, the creative
energies which, reinforced by the effusions of a swiftly succeeding and
infinitely mightier Revelation, were to instill into the entire human race
the capacity to achieve its organic unification, attain maturity and
thereby reach the final stage in its age-long evolution. The clarion-call
addressed to the "concourse of kings and of the sons of kings," marking
the inception of a process which, accelerated by Baha'u'llah's subsequent
warnings to the entire company of the monarchs of East and West, was to
produce so widespread a revolution in the fortunes of royalty, had been
raised in the Qayyumu'l-Asma. The "Order," whose foundation the Promised
One was to establish in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and the features of which the
Center of the Covenant was to delineate in His Testament, and whose
administrative framework the entire body of His followers are now
erecting, had been categorically announced in the Persian Bayan. The laws
which were designed, on the one hand, to abolish at a stroke the
privileges and ceremonials, the ordinances and institutions of a
superannuated Dispensation, and to bridge, on the other, the gap between
an obsolete system and the institutions of a world-encompassing Order
destined to supersede it, had been clearly formulated and proclaimed. The
Covenant which, despite the determined assaults launched against it,
succeeded, unlike all previous Dispensations, in preserving the integrity
of the Faith of its Author, and in paving the way for the advent of the
One Who was to be its Center and Object, had been firmly and irrevocably
established. The light which, throughout successive periods, was to
propagate itself gradually from its cradle as far as Vancouver in the West
and the China Sea in the East, and to diffuse its radiance as far as
Iceland in the North and the Tasman Sea in the South, had broken. The
forces of darkness, at first confined to the concerted hostility of the
civil and ecclesiastical powers of _Sh_i'ah Persia, gathering momentum, at
a later stage, through the avowed and persistent opposition of the Caliph
of Islam and the Sunni hierarchy in Turkey, and destined to culminate in
the fierce antagonism of the sacerdotal orders associated with other and
still more powerful religious systems, had launched their initial assault.
The nucleus of the divinely ordained, world-embracing Community--a
Community whose infant strength had already plucked asunder the fetters of
_Sh_i'ah orthodoxy, and which was, with every expansion in the range of
its fellowship, to seek and obtain a wider and still more significant
recognition of its claims to be the world religion of the future, had been
formed and was slowly crystallizing. And, lastly, the seed, endowed by the
Hand of Omnipotence with such vast potentialities, though rudely trampled
under foot and seemingly perished from the face of the earth, had, through
this very process, been vouchsafed the opportunity to germinate and
remanifest itself, in the shape of a still more compelling Revelation--a
Revelation destined to blossom forth, in a later period into the
flourishing institutions of a world-wide administrative System, and to
ripen, in the Golden Age as yet unborn, into mighty agencies functioning
in consonance with the principles of a world-unifying, world-redeeming
Order.