Bahá'u'lláh and the New EraEsslemont, J. E. (John Ebenezer)
Religion
Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era
Esslemont, J. E. (John Ebenezer)
Bahai Faith; Bahá'u'lláh, 1817-1892
Bahá’u’lláh taught that the Prophet, or “Manifestation of God,” is the
Light-bringer of the spiritual world, as the sun is the light-bringer of
the natural world. Just as the material sun shines over the earth and
causes the growth and development of material organisms, so also, through
the Divine Manifestation, the Sun of Truth shines upon the world of heart
and soul, and educates the thoughts, morals and characters of men. And
just as the rays of the natural sun have an influence which penetrates
into the darkest and shadiest corners of the world, giving warmth and life
even to creatures that have never seen the sun itself, so also, the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Manifestation of God influences
the lives of all, and inspires receptive minds even in places and among
peoples where the name of the Prophet is quite unknown. The advent of the
Manifestation is like the coming of the Spring. It is a day of
Resurrection in which the spiritually dead are raised to new life, in
which the Reality of the Divine Religions is renewed and reestablished, in
which appear “new heavens and a new earth.”
But, in the world of nature, the Spring brings about not only the growth
and awakening of new life but also the destruction and removal of the old
and effete; for the same sun, that makes the flowers to spring and the
trees to bud, causes also the decay and disintegration of what is dead and
useless; it loosens the ice and melts the snow of winter, and sets free
the flood and the storm that cleanse and purify the earth. So is it also
in the spiritual world. The spiritual sunshine causes similar commotion
and change. Thus the Day of Resurrection is also the Day of Judgment, in
which corruptions and imitations of the truth and outworn ideas and
customs are discarded and destroyed, in which the ice and snow of
prejudice and superstition, which accumulated during the season of winter,
are melted and transformed, and energies long frozen and pent up are
released to flood and renovate the world.
The Mission of Bahá’u’lláh
Bahá’u’lláh declared, plainly and repeatedly, that He was the
long-expected educator and teacher of all peoples, the channel of a
wondrous Grace that would transcend all previous outpourings, in which all
previous forms of religion would become merged, as rivers merge in the
ocean. He laid a foundation which affords a firm basis for Unity
throughout the whole world and the inauguration of that glorious age of
peace on earth, goodwill among men, of which prophets have told and poets
sung.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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