Almighty, the All-Powerful. They that heard Him,
however, could apprehend His purpose only to the extent of their station
and spiritual capacity. He, in like manner, uncovered the Face of Wisdom
in proportion to their ability to sustain the burden of His Message. No
sooner had mankind attained the stage of maturity, than the Word revealed
to men's eyes the latent energies with which it had been endowed--energies
which manifested themselves in the plenitude of their glory when the
Ancient Beauty appeared, in the year sixty, in the person of
'Ali-Muhammad, the Bab."

'Abdu'l-Baha, elucidating this fundamental verity, has written: "All
created things have their degree or stage of maturity. The period of
maturity in the life of a tree is the time of its fruit-bearing... The
animal attains a stage of full growth and completeness, and in the human
kingdom man reaches his maturity when the light of his intelligence
attains its greatest power and development... Similarly there are periods
and stages in the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing
through its stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it
has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which
are everywhere apparent... That which was applicable to human needs during
the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of
this day, this period of newness and consummation. Humanity has emerged
from its former state of limitation and preliminary training. Man must now
become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new
capacities. New bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already
descending upon him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth,
although timely and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now
incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity."

The Process of Integration

Such a unique and momentous crisis in the life of organized mankind may,
moreover, be likened to the culminating stage in the political evolution
of the great American Republic--the stage which marked the emergence of a
unified community of federated states. The stirring of a new national
consciousness, and the birth of a new type of civilization, infinitely
richer and nobler than any which its component parts could have severally
hoped to achieve, may be said to have proclaimed the coming of age of the
American people. Within the territorial limits of this nation, th