nifest." "All that
hath been revealed in the Bayan is but a ring upon My hand, and I Myself
am, verily, but a ring upon the hand of Him Whom God shall make
manifest... He turneth it as He pleaseth, for whatsoever He pleaseth, and
through whatsoever He pleaseth. He, verily, is the Help in Peril, the Most
High." "Certitude itself," He, in reply to Vahid and to one of the Letters
of the Living who had inquired regarding the promised One, had declared,
"is ashamed to be called upon to certify His truth ... and Testimony
itself is ashamed to testify unto Him." Addressing this same Vahid, He
moreover had stated: "Were I to be assured that in the day of His
manifestation thou wilt deny Him, I would unhesitatingly disown thee...
If, on the other hand, I be told that a Christian, who beareth no
allegiance to My Faith, will believe in Him, the same will I regard as the
apple of My eye."

And finally is this, His moving invocation to God: "Bear Thou witness
that, through this Book, I have covenanted with all created things
concerning the mission of Him Whom Thou shalt make manifest, ere the
covenant concerning My own mission had been established. Sufficient
witness art Thou and they that have believed in Thy signs." "I, verily,
have not fallen short of My duty to admonish that people," is yet another
testimony from His pen, "...If on the day of His Revelation all that are
on earth bear Him allegiance, Mine inmost being will rejoice, inasmuch as
all will have attained the summit of their existence.... If not, My soul
will be saddened. I truly have nurtured all things for this purpose. How,
then, can any one be veiled from Him?"

The last three and most eventful years of the Bab's ministry had, as we
have observed in the preceding pages, witnessed not only the formal and
public declaration of His mission, but also an unprecedented effusion of
His inspired writings, including both the revelation of the fundamental
laws of His Dispensation and also the establishment of that Lesser
Covenant which was to safeguard the unity of His followers and pave the
way for the advent of an incomparably mightier Revelation. It was during
this same period, in the early days of His incarceration in the fortress
of _Ch_ihriq, that the independence of the new-born Faith was openly
recognized and asserted by His disciples. The laws underlying the new
Dispensation had been revealed by its Author in a prison-fortress in the
mountains of A_dh_irbayjan, whi