These four periods are to be regarded not only as the component,
the inseparable parts of one stupendous whole, but as progressive stages in a
single evolutionary process, vast, steady and irresistible. For as we survey
the entire range which the operation of a century-old Faith has unfolded before
us, we cannot escape the conclusion that from whatever angle we view this
colossal scene, the events associated with these periods present to us
unmistakable evidences of a slowly maturing process, of an orderly development,
of internal consolidation, of external expansion, of a gradual emancipation
from the fetters of religious orthodoxy, and of a corresponding diminution of
civil disabilities and restrictions.Viewing these periods of Bahá’í history as the constituents of a single entity, we note the chain of events proclaiming successfully the rise of a Forerunner, the Mission of One Whose advent that Forerunner had promised, the establishment of a Covenant generated through the direct authority of the Promised One Himself, and lastly the birth of a System which is the child sprung from both the Author of the Covenant and its appointed Center.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to God Passes
By’)