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Nor can the revolutionary changes in the great world which that ministry has witnessed be allowed to pass unnoticed-- most of them flowing directly from the warnings which were uttered by the Bab, in the first chapter of His Qayyumu'l- Asma', on the very night of the Declaration of His Mission in Shiraz, and which were later reinforced by the pregnant passages addressed by Baha'u'llah to the kings of the earth and the world's religious leaders, in both the Suriy- i- Muluk and the Kitab- i- Aqdas. The conversion of the Portuguese monarchy and the Chinese empire into republics; the collapse of the Russian, the German and Austrian empires, and the ignominious fate which befell their rulers; the assassination of Nasiri'd- Din Shah, the fall of Sultan Abdu'l- Hamid-- these may be said to have marked further stages in the operation of that catastrophic process the inception of which was signalized in the lifetime of Baha'u'llah by the murder of Sultan Abdu'l- 'Aziz, by the dramatic downfall of Napoleon III, and the extinction of the Third Empire, and by the self- imposed imprisonment and virtual termination of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope himself. Later, after Abdu'l- Baha's passing, the same process was to be accelerated by the demise of the Qajar dynasty in Persia, by the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy, by the collapse of both the Sultanate and the Caliphate in Turkey, by a swift decline in the fortunes of Shi'ah Islam and of the Christian Missions in the East, and by the cruel fate that is now overtaking so many of the crowned heads of Europe. (316:1) Nor can this subject be dismissed without special reference to the names of those men of eminence and learning who were moved, at various stages of Abdu'l- Baha's ministry, to pay tribute not only to Abdu'l- Baha Himself but also to the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Such names as Count Leo Tolstoy, Prof. Arminius Vambery, Prof. Auguste Forel, Dr. David Starr Jordan, the Venerable Archdeacon Wilberforce, Prof. Jowett of Balliol, Dr. T. K. Cheyne, Dr. Estlin Carpenter of Oxford University, Viscount Samuel of Carmel, Lord Lamington, Sir Valentine Chirol, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Prince Muhammad- 'Ali of Egypt, Shaykh Muhammad Abdu, Midhat Pasha, and Khurshid Pasha attest, by virtue of the tributes associated with them, the great progress made by the Faith of Baha'u'llah under the brilliant leadership of His exalted Son-- tributes whose impressiveness was, in later years, to be heightened by the historic, the repeated and written testimonies which a famous Queen, a grand- daughter of Queen Victoria, was impelled to bequeath to posterity as a witness of her recognition of the prophetic mission of Baha'u'llah.
(316:2)
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