hat has often been regarded as referring to
Christ, and must of it may quite fairly be thus applied, but a little
examination will show how much more fully and aptly it applies to
Baha'u'llah. Christ has, indeed, been a light-bringer and Savior, but for
nearly two thousand years since His advent the great majority of the
people of the earth have continued to walk in darkness, and the children
of Israel and many other of God's children have continued to groan under
the rod of the oppressor. On the other hand, during the first few decades
of the Baha'i era, the light of truth has illumined the East and the West,
the gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man has been
carried into all countries of the world, the great military autocracies
have been overthrown, and a consciousness of world unity has been born
which brings hope of eventual relief to all the downtrodden and oppressed
nationalities of the world. The great war which from 1914 to 1918
convulsed the world, with its unprecedented use of firearms, liquid fire,
incendiary bombs and fuel for engines, has indeed been "with burning and
fuel of fire."(39) Baha'u'llah, by dealing at great length in His Writings
with questions of government and administration, and showing how they may
best be solved, has "taken the government upon His shoulders" in a way
that Christ never did. With regard to the titles "everlasting Father,"
"Prince of Peace," Baha'u'llah repeatedly refers to Himself as the
manifestation of the Father, of whom Christ and Isaiah spoke, whereas
Christ always referred to Himself as the Son; and Baha'u'llah declares
that His mission is to establish peace on earth, while Christ said: "I
came not to send peace but a sword," and as a matter of fact during the
whole of the Christian era wars and sectarian strifes have abounded.

The Glory of God

The title "Baha'u'llah" is the Arabic for "Glory of God," and this very
title is frequently used by the Hebrew prophets for the Promised One Who
is to appear in the last days. Thus in the 40th chapter of Isaiah we
read:--

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that
crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway fo