ng point. Were it, all
of a sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no
doubt, cause injury to all created things.... In like manner, if the Sun
of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its
manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of
the Almighty has bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would
waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the
intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of
its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist."

It is for this reason, and this reason only, that those who have
recognized the Light of God in this age, claim no finality for the
Revelation with which they stand identified, nor arrogate to the Faith
they have embraced powers and attributes intrinsically superior to, or
essentially different from, those which have characterized any of the
religious systems that preceded it.

Does not Baha'u'llah Himself allude to the progressiveness of Divine
Revelation and to the limitations which an inscrutable Wisdom has chosen
to impose upon Him? What else can this passage of the Hidden Words imply,
if not that He Who revealed it disclaimed finality for the Revelation
entrusted to Him by the Almighty? "O Son of Justice! In the night-season
the beauty of the immortal Being hath repaired from the emerald height of
fidelity unto the Sadratu'l-Muntaha, and wept with such a weeping that the
concourse on high and the dwellers of the realms above wailed at His
lamenting. Whereupon there was asked, Why the wailing and weeping? He made
reply: As bidden I waited expectant upon the hill of faithfulness, yet
inhaled not from them that dwell on earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then
summoned to return I beheld, and lo! certain doves of holiness were sore
tried within the claws of the dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of Heaven
hastened forth, unveiled, and resplendent, from Her mystic mansion, and
asked of their names, and all were told but one. And when urged, the first
Letter thereof was uttered, whereupon the dwellers of the celestial
chambers rushed forth out of their habitation of glory. And whilst the
second letter was pronounced they fell down, one and all, upon the dust.
At that moment a Voice was heard from the inmost shrine: 'Thus far and no
farther.' Verily we bear witness to that which they have done and now are
doing."

"The Revelation of which I am the