that lies at the heart of the phenomenon of God's
Revelation of His Will:

I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping
wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.(104)

This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty,
the All-Praised, have stirred. Can it be still when the tempestuous winds
are blowing? Nay, by Him Who is the Lord of all Names and Attributes! They
move it as they list....(105)

THE COVENANT OF GOD WITH HUMANKIND

In June 1877, Baha'u'llah at last emerged from the strict confinement of
the prison-city of Akka, and moved with His family to "Mazra'ih", a small
estate a few miles north of the city.(106) As had been predicted in His
statement to the Turkish government, Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz had been
overthrown and assassinated in a palace coup, and gusts from the winds of
political change sweeping the world were beginning to invade even the
shuttered precincts of the Ottoman imperial system. After a brief two-year
stay at Mazra'ih, Baha'u'llah moved to "Bahji", a large mansion surrounded
by gardens, which His son 'Abdu'l-Baha had rented for Him and the members
of His extended family.(107) The remaining twelve years of His life were
devoted to His writings on a wide range of spiritual and social issues,
and to receiving a stream of Baha'i pilgrims who made their way, with
great difficulty, from Persia and other lands.

Throughout the Near and Middle East the nucleus of a community life was
beginning to take shape among those who had accepted His message. For its
guidance, Baha'u'llah had revealed a system of laws and institutions
designed to give practical effect to the principles in His writings.(108)
Authority was vested in councils democratically elected by the whole
community, provisions were made to exclude the possibility of a clerical
elite arising, and principles of consultation and group decision making
were established.

At the heart of this system was what Baha'u'llah termed a "new Covenant"
between God and humankind. The distinguishing feature of humanity's coming
of age is that, for the first time in its history, the entire human race
is consciously involved, however dimly, in the awareness of its own
oneness and of the earth as a single homeland. This awakening opens the
way to a new relationship between God and humankind. As the peoples of the
world embrace the spiritual authority inherent in the guidance of the
Rev