ith of
Jesus Christ. This glowing tribute which Baha'u'llah Himself has been
moved to pay to the Author of the Christian Religion stands as sufficient
testimony to the truth of this central principle of Baha'i belief:--"Know
thou that when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to God, the whole
creation wept with a great weeping. By sacrificing Himself, however, a
fresh capacity was infused into all created things. Its evidences, as
witnessed in all the peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee.
The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning
which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have
produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers, are but
manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His
all-pervasive and resplendent Spirit. We testify that when He came into
the world, He shed the splendor of His glory upon all created things.
Through Him the leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and
ignorance. Through Him the unchaste and wayward were healed. Through His
power, born of Almighty God, the eyes of the blind were opened, and the
soul of the sinner sanctified... He it is Who purified the world. Blessed
is the man who, with a face beaming with light, hath turned towards Him."

Signs of Moral Downfall

No more, I believe, need be said of the decline of religious institutions,
the disintegration of which constitutes so important an aspect of the
Formative Period of the Baha'i Era. Islam had both as a result of the
rising tide of secularism and in direct consequence of its declared and
persistent hostility to the Faith of Baha'u'llah sunk to a depth of
abasement rarely attained in its history. Christianity had, likewise,
owing to causes not wholly dissimilar to those operating in the case of
its sister Faith, steadily weakened, and was contributing, in an
increasing measure, its share to the process of general disintegration--a
process that must necessarily precede the fundamental reconstruction of
human society.

The signs of moral downfall, as distinct from the evidences of decay in
religious institutions, would appear to be no less noticeable and
significant. The decline that has set in in the fortunes of Islamic and
Christian institutions may be said to have had its counterpart in the life
and conduct of the individuals that compose them. In whichever direction
we turn our gaze, no matter how cursory our observ