eeminent,
this most exalted Revelation, standeth unparalleled in the annals of the
past, nor will future ages witness its like."

'Abdu'l-Baha's authentic pronouncements should, likewise, be recalled as
confirming, in no less emphatic manner, the unexampled vastness of the
Baha'i Dispensation. "Centuries," He affirms in one of His Tablets, "nay,
countless ages, must pass away ere the Day-Star of Truth shineth again in
its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once more in the radiance of its
vernal glory... The mere contemplation 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."
"Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in the future 'in the
shadows of the clouds,'" He, in a still more definite language, affirms,
"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.'" "This holy
Dispensation," He, alluding to the Revelation of Baha'u'llah, explains,
"is illumined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most
exalted station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and
glory."

Pangs of Death and Birth

Dearly-beloved friends: Though the Revelation of Baha'u'llah has been
delivered, the World Order which such a Revelation must needs beget is as
yet unborn. Though the Heroic Age of His Faith is passed, the creative
energies which that Age has released have not as yet crystallized into
that world society which, in the fullness of time, is to mirror forth the
brightness of His glory. Though the framework of His Administrative Order
has been erected, and the Formative Period of the Baha'i Era has begun,
yet the promised Kingdom into which the seed of His institutions must
ripen remains as yet uninaugurated. Though His Voice has been raised, and
the ensigns of His Faith have been lifted up in no less than forty
countries of both the East and the West, yet the wholeness of the human
race is as yet unrecognized, its unity unproclaimed, and the standard of
its Most Great Peace unhoisted.

"The heights," Baha'u'llah Himself testifies, "which, through the most
gracious favor of God, mortal man can attain in this Day are as yet
unrevealed to his sight. The wo