he initial stages in the establishment of
its administrative institutions--institutions which must be regarded as the
nucleus and herald of that World Order that must incarnate the soul,
execute the laws, and fulfill the purpose of the Faith of God in this day.

Nor will it be my intention to ignore, whilst surveying the panorama which
the revolution of a hundred years spreads before our gaze, the swift
interweaving of seeming reverses with evident victories, out of which the
hand of an inscrutable Providence has chosen to form the pattern of the
Faith from its earliest days, or to minimize those disasters that have so
often proved themselves to be the prelude to fresh triumphs which have, in
turn, stimulated its growth and consolidated its past achievements.
Indeed, the history of the first hundred years of its evolution resolves
itself into a series of internal and external crises, of varying severity,
devastating in their immediate effects, but each mysteriously releasing a
corresponding measure of divine power, lending thereby a fresh impulse to
its unfoldment, this further unfoldment engendering in its turn a still
graver calamity, followed by a still more liberal effusion of celestial
grace enabling its upholders to accelerate still further its march and win
in its service still more compelling victories.

In its broadest outline the first century of the Baha'i Era may be said to
comprise the Heroic, the Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah, and also the initial stages of the Formative, the
Transitional, the Iron Age which is to witness the crystallization and
shaping of the creative energies released by His Revelation. The first
eighty years of this century may roughly be said to have covered the
entire period of the first age, while the last two decades may be regarded
as having witnessed the beginnings of the second. The former commences
with the Declaration of the Bab, includes the mission of Baha'u'llah, and
terminates with the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha. The latter is ushered in by
His Will and Testament, which defines its character and establishes its
foundation.

The century under our review may therefore be considered as falling into
four distinct periods, of unequal duration, each of specific import and of
tremendous and indeed unappraisable significance. These four periods are
closely interrelated, and constitute successive acts of one, indivisible,
stupendous and sublime drama, whose