e, or that
human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery."(9) The instrumentality
through which the Creator of all things interacts with the ever-evolving
creation He has brought into being is the appearance of prophetic Figures
who manifest the attributes of an inaccessible Divinity: "The door of the
knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all
beings, the Source of infinite grace ... hath caused those luminous Gems
of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of
the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart
unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the
subtleties of His imperishable Essence."(10)

To presume to judge among the Messengers of God, exalting one above the
other, would be to give in to the delusion that the Eternal and
All-Embracing is subject to the vagaries of human preference. "It is clear
and evident to thee", are Baha'u'llah's precise words, "that all the
Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in
divers attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt
behold Them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same
heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech, and
proclaiming the same Faith."(11) To imagine, further, that the nature of
these unique Figures can be--or needs to be--encompassed within theories
borrowed from physical experience is equally presumptuous. What is meant
by "knowledge of God", Baha'u'llah explains, is knowledge of the
Manifestations Who reveal His will and attributes, and it is here that the
soul comes into intimate association with a Creator Who is otherwise
beyond both language and apprehension: "I bear witness", is Baha'u'llah's
assertion about the station of the Manifestation of God, "...that through
Thy beauty the beauty of the Adored One hath been unveiled, and through
Thy face the face of the Desired One hath shone forth...."(12)

Religion, thus conceived, awakens the soul to potentialities that are
otherwise unimaginable. To the extent that an individual learns to benefit
from the influence of the revelation of God for his age, his nature
becomes progressively imbued with the attributes of the Divine world:
"Through the Teachings of this Day Star of Truth", Baha'u'llah explains,
"every man will advance and develop until he ... can manifest all the
potential forces with which his inmost true self h