e 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 m