f pilgrims and of
Tablets to Baha'i communities of both East and West stimulated an
expansion in the teaching work and a deepening of the friends'
understanding of the implications of the Faith's message.

Nothing perhaps illustrated so dramatically the spiritual triumph the
Master had won at the World Centre of the Faith than the events in Haifa
that occurred immediately after His ascension in the early hours of 28
November 1921. The following day a vast concourse of thousands of people,
representing the variegated races and sects of the region, followed the
funeral cortege up the slopes of Mount Carmel in a state of unaffected
grief such as the city had never before witnessed. It was led by
representatives of the British government, members of the diplomatic
community, and the heads of all of the religious bodies in the area,
several of whom participated in the service at the Shrine of the Bab. So
unrestrained and unified an outburst of mourning reflected a sudden
awareness of the loss of a Figure whose example had served as a focal
centre of unity in an angry and divided land. In itself, it served for all
with eyes to see as a compelling vindication of the truth of the oneness
of humankind which the Master had tirelessly proclaimed.

IV

With the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the Apostolic Age of the Cause reached
its end. The Divine intervention that had begun seventy-seven years
earlier on the night the Bab declared His mission to Mulla Husayn--and
'Abdu'l-Baha Himself was born--had completed its work. It had been, in the
words of Shoghi Effendi, "a period whose splendours no victories in this
or any future age, however brilliant, can rival...."(50) Ahead lay the
thousand or thousands of years in which the potentialities that this
creative force has planted in human consciousness will gradually unfold.

Contemplation of so great a juncture in the history of civilization brings
into sharp focus the Figure whose nature and role have been unique in this
six-thousand-year process. Baha'u'llah has called 'Abdu'l-Baha "the
Mystery of God". Shoghi Effendi has described Him as "the Centre and
Pivot" of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, the "perfect Exemplar" of the teachings
of the Revelation of God for the age of human maturity, and "the
Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity". No phenomenon in any way
comparable to His appearance had accompanied any of the Divine Revelations
that had given birth to the other great religious