Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day
for a year."

This prophesies the duration of the Dispensation of Islam when Jerusalem
was trodden under foot, which means that it lost its glory--but the Holy of
Holies was preserved, guarded and respected--until the year 1260. This
twelve hundred and sixty years is a prophecy of the manifestation of the
Bab, the "Gate" of Baha'u'llah, which took place in the year 1260 of the
Hejira of Muhammad, and as the period of twelve hundred and sixty years
has expired, Jerusalem, the Holy City, is now beginning to become
prosperous, populous and flourishing. Anyone who saw Jerusalem sixty years
ago, and who sees it now, will recognize how populous and flourishing it
has become, and how it is again honored.

This is the outward meaning of these verses of the Revelation of St. John;
but they have another explanation and a symbolic sense, which is as
follows: the Law of God is divided into two parts. One is the fundamental
basis which comprises all spiritual things--that is to say, it refers to
the spiritual virtues and divine qualities; this does not change nor
alter: it is the Holy of Holies, which is the essence of the Law of Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muhammad, the Bab, and Baha'u'llah, and
which lasts and is established in all the prophetic cycles. It will never
be abrogated, for it is spiritual and not material truth; it is faith,
knowledge, certitude, justice, piety, righteousness, trustworthiness, love
of God, benevolence, purity, detachment, humility, meekness, patience and
constancy. It shows mercy to the poor, defends the oppressed, gives to the
wretched and uplifts the fallen.

These divine qualities, these eternal commandments, will never be
abolished; nay, they will last and remain established for ever and ever.
These virtues of humanity will be renewed in each of the different cycles;
for at the end of every cycle the spiritual Law of God--that is to say, the
human virtues--disappears, and only the form subsists.

Thus among the Jews, at the end of the cycle of Moses, which coincides
with the Christian manifestation, the Law of God disappeared, only a form
without spirit remaining. The Holy of Holies departed from among them, but
the outer court of Jerusalem--which is the expression used for the form of
the religion--fell into the hands of the Gentiles. In the same way, the
fundamental principles of the religion of Christ, which are the greatest
virtues of