n of seven visions; of Jesus when coming out of the waters of the
Jordan He saw the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descend like a dove
and light upon Him; of Muhammad when in the Cave of Hira, outside of the
holy city of Mecca, the voice of Gabriel bade Him "cry in the name of Thy
Lord"; and of the Bab when in a dream He approached the bleeding head of
the Imam Husayn, and, quaffing the blood that dripped from his lacerated
throat, awoke to find Himself the chosen recipient of the outpouring grace
of the Almighty.

What, we may well inquire at this juncture, were the nature and
implications of that Revelation which, manifesting itself so soon after
the Declaration of the Bab, abolished, at one stroke, the Dispensation
which that Faith had so newly proclaimed, and upheld, with such vehemence
and force, the Divine authority of its Author? What, we may well pause to
consider, were the claims of Him Who, Himself a disciple of the Bab, had,
at such an early stage, regarded Himself as empowered to abrogate the Law
identified with His beloved Master? What, we may further reflect, could be
the relationship between the religious Systems established before Him and
His own Revelation--a Revelation which, flowing out, in that extremely
perilous hour, from His travailing soul, pierced the gloom that had
settled upon that pestilential pit, and, bursting through its walls, and
propagating itself as far as the ends of the earth, infused into the
entire body of mankind its boundless potentialities, and is now under our
very eyes, shaping the course of human society?

He Who in such dramatic circumstances was made to sustain the overpowering
weight of so glorious a Mission was none other than the One Whom posterity
will acclaim, and Whom innumerable followers already recognize, as the
Judge, the Lawgiver and Redeemer of all mankind, as the Organizer of the
entire planet, as the Unifier of the children of men, as the Inaugurator
of the long-awaited millennium, as the Originator of a new "Universal
Cycle," as the Establisher of the Most Great Peace, as the Fountain of the
Most Great Justice, as the Proclaimer of the coming of age of the entire
human race, as the Creator of a new World Order, and as the Inspirer and
Founder of a world civilization.

To Israel He was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the
"Everlasting Father," the "Lord of Hosts" come down "with ten thousands of
saints"; to Christendom Christ returned "in the