ath been endowed."(13)
As humanity's purpose includes the carrying forward of "an ever-advancing
civilization",(14) not the least of the extraordinary powers that religion
possesses has been its ability to free those who believe from the
limitations of time itself, eliciting from them sacrifices on behalf of
generations centuries into the future. Indeed, because the soul is
immortal, its awakening to its true nature empowers it, not only in this
world but even more directly in those worlds that lie beyond, to serve the
evolutionary process: "The light which these souls radiate", Baha'u'llah
asserts, "is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement
of its peoples.... All things must needs have a cause, a motive power, an
animating principle. These souls and symbols of detachment have provided,
and will continue to provide, the supreme moving impulse in the world of
being."(15)

Belief is thus a necessary and inextinguishable urge of the species that
has been described by an influential modern thinker as "evolution become
conscious of itself".(16) If, as the events of the twentieth century
provide sad and compelling evidence, the natural expression of faith is
artificially blocked, it will invent objects of worship however
unworthy--or even debased--that may in some measure appease the yearning for
certitude. It is an impulse that will not be denied.

In short, through the ongoing process of revelation, the One Who is the
Source of the system of knowledge we call religion demonstrates that
system's integrity and its freedom from the contradictions imposed by
sectarian ambitions. The work of each Manifestation of God has an autonomy
and an authority that transcend appraisal; it is also a stage in the
limitless unfolding of a single Reality. Because the purpose of the
successive revelations of God is the awakening of humankind to its
capacities and responsibilities as the trustee of creation, the process is
not simply repetitive, but progressive, and is fully appreciated only when
perceived in this context.

In no sense can Baha'is profess to have grasped at this early hour more
than a minute portion of the truths inherent in the revelation on which
their Faith is based. With reference, for example, to the evolution of the
Cause, the Guardian said, "All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to
strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that
must, in the fullness of time, chase