Christ.' Gracious God! Time and
again this question hath arisen, and its answer hath emanated in a clear
and irrefutable statement from the pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha, that what is meant
in the prophecies by the 'Lord of Hosts' and the 'Promised Christ' is the
Blessed Perfection (Baha'u'llah) and His holiness the Exalted One (the
Bab). My name is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My qualification is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My
reality is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My praise is 'Abdu'l-Baha. Thraldom to the
Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to
all the human race my perpetual religion... No name, no title, no mention,
no commendation have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Baha. This is
my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is
my everlasting glory."

The Administrative Order

Dearly-beloved brethren in 'Abdu'l-Baha! With the ascension of Baha'u'llah
the Day-Star of Divine guidance which, as foretold by _Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad and
Siyyid Kazim, had risen in _Sh_iraz, and, while pursuing its westward
course, had mounted its zenith in Adrianople, had finally sunk below the
horizon of Akka, never to rise again ere the complete revolution of one
thousand years. The setting of so effulgent an Orb brought to a definite
termination the period of Divine Revelation--the initial and most
vitalizing stage in the Baha'i era. Inaugurated by the Bab, culminating in
Baha'u'llah, anticipated and extolled by the entire company of the
Prophets of this great prophetic cycle, this period has, except for the
short interval between the Bab's martyrdom and Baha'u'llah's shaking
experiences in the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran, been characterized by almost
fifty years of continuous and progressive Revelation--a period which by its
duration and fecundity must be regarded as unparalleled in the entire
field of the world's spiritual history.

The passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, on the other hand, marks the closing of the
Heroic and Apostolic Age of this same Dispensation--that primitive period
of our Faith the splendors of which can never be rivaled, much less be
eclipsed, by the magnificence that must needs distinguish the future
victories of Baha'u'llah's Revelation. For neither the achievements of the
champion-builders of the present-day institutions of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah, nor the tumultuous triumphs which the heroes of its Golden
Age will in the coming days succeed in winning, can measure with, or be
included within the same cat