He Who communicated the original impulse to so incalculable
a Movement was none other than the promised Qá’im (He who ariseth), the
Sáhibu’z-Zamán (the Lord of the Age), Who assumed the exclusive right of
annulling the whole Qur’ánic Dispensation, Who styled Himself “the Primal Point
from which have been generated all created things … the Countenance of God
Whose splendor can never be obscured, the Light of God Whose radiance can never
fade.” 
We behold, as we survey the episodes of this first act of a
sublime drama, the figure of its Master Hero, the Báb, arise meteor-like above
the horizon of Shíráz, traverse the sombre sky of Persia from south to north, decline
with tragic swiftness, and perish in a blaze of glory. We see His satellites, a
galaxy of God-intoxicated heroes, mount above that same horizon, irradiate that
same incandescent light, burn themselves out with that self-same swiftness, and
impart in their turn an added impetus to the steadily gathering momentum of
God’s nascent Faith. 
In sheer dramatic power, in the rapidity with which events
of momentous importance succeeded each other, in the holocaust which baptized
its birth, in the miraculous circumstances attending the martyrdom of the One
Who had ushered it in, in the potentialities with which it had been from the
outset so thoroughly impregnated, in the forces to which it eventually gave
birth, this nine-year period may well rank as unique in the whole range of
man’s religious experience. 
Little wonder that the immortal chronicler of the events
associated with the birth and rise of the Bahá’í Revelation has seen fit to
devote no less than half of his moving narrative to the description of those
happenings that have during such a brief space of time so greatly enriched,
through their tragedy and heroism, the religious annals of mankind. 
May 23, 1844, signalizes the commencement of the most
turbulent period of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Era, an age which marks the
opening of the most glorious epoch in the greatest cycle which the spiritual
history of mankind has yet witnessed. No more than a span of nine short years
marks the duration of this most spectacular, this most tragic, this most
eventful period of the first Bahá’í century. It was ushered in by the birth of
a Revelation whose Bearer posterity will acclaim as the “Point round Whom the
realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve,” and terminated with the
first stirrings of a still more potent Revelation, “whose day,” Bahá’u’lláh
Himself affirms, “every Prophet hath announced,” for which “the soul of every
Divine Messenger hath thirsted,” and through which “God hath proved the hearts
of the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets.” 
…we can even bear witness to the marked improvement in the
conditions surrounding the pilgrimages performed by its devoted adherents to
its consecrated shrines at its world center—pilgrimages originally arduous,
perilous, tediously long, often made on foot, at times ending in
disappointment, and confined to a handful of harassed Oriental followers,
gradually attracting, under steadily improving circumstances of security and
comfort, an ever swelling number of new converts converging from the four
corners of the globe, and culminating in the widely publicized yet sadly
frustrated visit of a noble Queen, who, at the very threshold of the city of
her heart’s desire, was compelled, according to her own written testimony, to
divert her steps, and forego the privilege of so priceless a benefit. 
We can likewise discern a no less appreciable advance in the
rise of its institutions, whether as administrative centers or places of
worship—institutions, clandestine and subterrene in their earliest beginnings,
emerging imperceptibly into the broad daylight of public recognition, legally
protected, enriched by pious endowments, ennobled at first by the erection of
the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of ‘Ishqábád, the first Bahá’í House of Worship, and more
recently immortalized, through the rise in the heart of the North American
continent of the Mother Temple of the West, the forerunner of a divine, a
slowly maturing civilization. 
We can discover a no less distinct gradation in the
character of the opposition it has had to encounter—an opposition, at first
kindled in the bosom of Shi‘ah Islám, which, at a later stage, gathered momentum
with the banishment of Bahá’u’lláh to the domains of the Turkish Sulṭán and the
consequent hostility of the more powerful Sunní hierarchy and its Caliph, the
head of the vast majority of the followers of Muhammad—an opposition which,
now, through the rise of a divinely appointed Order in the Christian West, and
its initial impact on civil and ecclesiastical institutions, bids fair to
include among its supporters established governments and systems associated
with the most ancient, the most deeply entrenched sacerdotal hierarchies in
Christendom. We can, at the same time, recognize, through the haze of an
ever-widening hostility, the progress, painful yet persistent, of certain
communities within its pale through the stages of obscurity, of proscription,
of emancipation, and of recognition—stages that must needs culminate in the
course of succeeding centuries, in the establishment of the Faith, and the
founding, in the plenitude of its power and authority, of the world-embracing
Bahá’í Commonwealth. 
We perceive a no less apparent evolution in the scope of its
teachings, at first designedly rigid, complex and severe, subsequently recast,
expanded, and liberalized under the succeeding Dispensation, later expounded,
reaffirmed and amplified by an appointed Interpreter, and lastly systematized
and universally applied to both individuals and institutions. 
We notice a similar development in the extent of its
literature—a literature which, restricted at first to the narrow range of
hurriedly transcribed, often corrupted, secretly circulated, manuscripts, so
furtively perused, so frequently effaced, and at times even eaten by the
terrorized members of a proscribed sect, has, within the space of a century,
swelled into innumerable editions, comprising tens of thousands of printed
volumes, in diverse scripts, and in no less than forty languages, some
elaborately reproduced, others profusely illustrated, all methodically and
vigorously disseminated through the agency of world-wide, properly constituted
and specially organized committees and Assemblies. 
We witness a corresponding increase in the diversity of the
elements within its fellowship, which from being confined, in the first period
of its history, to an obscure body of followers chiefly recruited from the
ranks of the masses in Shi‘ah Persia, has expanded into a fraternity
representative of the leading religious systems of the world, of almost every
caste and color, from the humblest worker and peasant to royalty itself. 
We watch, through these periods, the infant light of the
Faith diffuse itself from its cradle, eastward to India and the Far East,
westward to the neighboring territories of ‘Iráq, of Turkey, of Russia, and of
Egypt, travel as far as the North American continent, illuminate subsequently
the major countries of Europe, envelop with its radiance, at a later stage, the
Antipodes, brighten the fringes of the Arctic, and finally set aglow the
Central and South American horizons. 
We observe how the Báb, the Forerunner, announced the
impending inception of a divinely-conceived Order, how Bahá’u’lláh, the
Promised One, formulated its laws and ordinances, how ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, the appointed Center, delineated its features, and how the
present generation of their followers have commenced to erect the framework of
its institutions.