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This Age of Transition |
It is not my purpose to call to mind, much less to attempt a detailed
analysis of, the spiritual struggles that have ensued, or to
note the victories that have redounded to the glory of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh since the day of its foundation. My chief concern is not
with the happenings that have distinguished the First, the Apostolic
Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, but rather with the outstanding
events that are transpiring in, and the tendencies which characterize,
the formative period of its development, this Age of Transition,
whose tribulations are the precursors of that Era of blissful felicity
which is to incarnate God’s ultimate purpose for all mankind.
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To the catastrophic fall of mighty kingdoms and empires, on the
eve of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s departure, Whose passing may be said to have
ushered in the opening phase of the Age of Transition in which
we now live, I have, in a previous communication, briefly alluded.
The dissolution of the German Empire, the humiliating defeat inflicted
upon its ruler, the successor and lineal descendant of the
Prussian King and Emperor to whom Bahá’u’lláh had addressed
His solemn and historic warning, together with the extinction of
the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the remnant of the once-great
Holy Roman Empire, were both precipitated by a war whose outbreak
signalized the opening of the Age of Frustration destined to
precede the establishment of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Both
of these momentous events may be viewed as the earliest occurrences
of that turbulent Age, into the outer fringes of whose darkest phase
we are now beginning to enter.
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To the Conqueror of Napoleon III, the Author of our Faith
had, on the morrow of the King’s victory, addressed, in His Most
Holy Book, this clear and ominous warning: “O King of Berlin!
…Take heed lest pride debar thee from recognizing the Day-Spring
of Divine Revelation, lest earthly desires shut thee out, as by
a veil, from the Lord of the Throne above and of the earth below.
Thus counseleth thee the Pen of the Most High. He, verily, is the
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Most Gracious, the All-Bountiful. Do thou remember the one whose
power transcended thy power (Napoleon III), and whose station
excelled thy station. Where is he? Whither are gone the things he
possessed? Take warning, and be not of them that are fast asleep.
He it was who cast the Tablet of God behind him, when We made
known unto him what the hosts of tyranny had caused Us to suffer.
Wherefore, disgrace assailed him from all sides, and he went down
to dust in great loss. Think deeply, O King, concerning him, and
concerning them who, like unto thee, have conquered cities and ruled
over men. The All-Merciful brought them down from their palaces
to their graves. Be warned, be of them who reflect.”
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“O banks of the Rhine!” Bahá’u’lláh, in another passage of that
same Book, prophesies, “We have seen you covered with gore, inasmuch
as the swords of retribution were drawn against you; and so
you shall have another turn. And We hear the lamentations of Berlin,
though she be today in conspicuous glory.”
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