Well nigh half a century
had passed since the inception of the Faith. Cradled in adversity, deprived in
its infancy of its Herald and Leader, it had been raised from the dust, in
which a hostile despot had thrown it, by its second and greatest Luminary Who,
despite successive banishments, had, in less than half a century, succeeded in
rehabilitating its fortunes, in proclaiming its Message, in enacting its laws
and ordinances, in formulating its principles and in ordaining its
institutions, and it had just begun to enjoy the sunshine of a prosperity never
previously experienced, when suddenly it was robbed of its Author by the Hand
of Destiny, its followers were plunged into sorrow and consternation, its
repudiators found their declining hopes revive, and its adversaries, political
as well as ecclesiastical, began to take heart again.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God
Passes By’)
