veries and enterprises come from the exercised
intelligence of the rational soul. There was a time when they were
unknown, preserved mysteries and hidden secrets; the rational soul
gradually discovered them and brought them out from the plane of the
invisible and the hidden into the realm of the visible. This is the
greatest power of perception in the world of nature, which in its highest
flight and soaring comprehends the realities, the properties and the
effects of the contingent beings.

But the universal divine mind, which is beyond nature, is the bounty of
the Preexistent Power. This universal mind is divine; it embraces existing
realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God. It is a
conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research. The
intellectual power of the world of nature is a power of investigation, and
by its researches it discovers the realities of beings and the properties
of existences; but the heavenly intellectual power, which is beyond
nature, embraces things and is cognizant of things, knows them,
understands them, is aware of mysteries, realities and divine
significations, and is the discoverer of the concealed verities of the
Kingdom. This divine intellectual power is the special attribute of the
Holy Manifestations and the Dawning-places of prophethood; a ray of this
light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, and a portion
and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations.

The Holy Manifestations have three conditions: one, the physical
condition; one, that of the rational soul; and one, that of the
manifestation of perfection and of the lordly splendor. The body
comprehends things according to the degree of its ability in the physical
world; therefore, in certain cases it shows physical weakness. For
example: "I was sleeping and unconscious; the breeze of God passed over Me
and awoke Me, and commanded Me to proclaim the Word"; or when Christ in
His thirtieth year was baptized, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him;
before this the Holy Spirit did not manifest itself in Him. All these
things refer to the bodily condition of the Manifestations; but Their
heavenly condition embraces all things, knows all mysteries, discovers all
signs, and rules over all things; before as well as after Their mission,
it is the same. That is why Christ has said: "I am Alpha and Omega, the
first and the last"(151)--that is to say, there has never be