he Heroic Age of the Baha'i
Dispensation, in which He had participated since its inception, and played
so unique a role, had drawn to a close. He had suffered as no disciple of
the Faith, who had drained the cup of martyrdom, had suffered, He had
labored as none of its greatest heroes had labored. He had witnessed
triumphs such as neither the Herald of the Faith nor its Author had ever
witnessed.

At the close of His strenuous Western tours, which had called forth the
last ounce of His ebbing strength, He had written: "Friends, the time is
coming when I shall be no longer with you. I have done all that could be
done. I have served the Cause of Baha'u'llah to the utmost of My ability.
I have labored night and day all the years of My life. O how I long to see
the believers shouldering the responsibilities of the Cause!... My days
are numbered, and save this there remains none other joy for me." Several
years before He had thus alluded to His passing: "O ye My faithful loved
ones! Should at any time afflicting events come to pass in the Holy Land,
never feel disturbed or agitated. Fear not, neither grieve. For whatsoever
thing happeneth will cause the Word of God to be exalted, and His Divine
fragrances to be diffused." And again: "Remember, whether or not I be on
earth, My presence will be with you always." "Regard not the person of
'Abdu'l-Baha," He thus counselled His friends in one of His last Tablets,
"for He will eventually take His leave of you all; nay, fix your gaze upon
the Word of God... The loved ones of God must arise with such
steadfastness that should, in one moment, hundreds of souls even as
'Abdu'l-Baha Himself be made a target for the darts of woe, nothing
whatsoever shall affect or lessen their ... service to the Cause of God."

In a Tablet addressed to the American believers, a few days before He
passed away, He thus vented His pent-up longing to depart from this world:
"I have renounced the world and the people thereof... In the cage of this
world I flutter even as a frightened bird, and yearn every day to take My
flight unto Thy Kingdom. Ya Baha'u'l-Abha! Make Me drink of the cup of
sacrifice, and set Me free." He revealed a prayer less than six months
before His ascension in honor of a kinsman of the Bab, and in it wrote:
"'O Lord! My bones are weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten on My head ...
and I have now reached old age, failing in My powers.'... No strength is
there left in Me wherewith to ari