ous children of men, if they were not to sink altogether
into the ape condition.--Frederick the Great, Book I, Chap. I.

Compared with the eighteenth century the present time is as the dawn after
darkness, or as the spring after winter. The world is stirring with new
life, thrilling with new ideals and hopes. Things that but a few years ago
seemed impossible dreams are now accomplished facts. Others that seemed
centuries ahead of us have already become matters of "practical politics."
We fly in the air and make voyages under the sea. We send messages around
the world with the speed of lightning. Within a few decades we have seen
miracles too numerous to mention.

The Sun of Righteousness

What is the cause of this sudden awakening throughout the world? Baha'is
believe that it is due to a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit through
the Prophet Baha'u'llah, Who was born in Persia in 1817 and passed away in
the Holy Land in 1892.

Baha'u'llah taught that the Prophet, or "Manifestation of God," is the
Light-bringer of the spiritual world, as the sun is the light-bringer of
the natural world. Just as the material sun shines over the earth and
causes the growth and development of material organisms, so also, through
the Divine Manifestation, the Sun of Truth shines upon the world of heart
and soul, and educates the thoughts, morals and characters of men. And
just as the rays of the natural sun have an influence which penetrates
into the darkest and shadiest corners of the world, giving warmth and life
even to creatures that have never seen the sun itself, so also, the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Manifestation of God influences
the lives of all, and inspires receptive minds even in places and among
peoples where the name of the Prophet is quite unknown. The advent of the
Manifestation is like the coming of the Spring. It is a day of
Resurrection in which the spiritually dead are raised to new life, in
which the Reality of the Divine Religions is renewed and reestablished, in
which appear "new heavens and a new earth."

But, in the world of nature, the Spring brings about not only the growth
and awakening of new life but also the destruction and removal of the old
and effete; for the same sun, that makes the flowers to spring and the
trees to bud, causes also the decay and disintegration of what is dead and
useless; it loosens the ice and melts the snow of winter, and sets free
the flood and the