Nor will it be my intention to ignore, whilst surveying the
panorama which the revolution of a hundred years spreads before our gaze, the
swift interweaving of seeming reverses with evident victories, out of which the
hand of an inscrutable Providence has chosen to form the pattern of the Faith
from its earliest days, or to minimize those disasters that have so often
proved themselves to be the prelude to fresh triumphs which have, in turn,
stimulated its growth and consolidated its past achievements. Indeed, the
history of the first hundred years of its evolution resolves itself into a
series of internal and external crises, of varying severity, devastating in
their immediate effects, but each mysteriously releasing a corresponding measure
of divine power, lending thereby a fresh impulse to its unfoldment, this
further unfoldment engendering in its turn a still graver calamity, followed by
a still more liberal effusion of celestial grace enabling its upholders to
accelerate still further its march and win in its service still more compelling
victories.
- Shoghi Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)