Baha'u'llah & the New Era 2006 - J. Esslemont
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Page 9 of  180

In the eighteenth century it was different. Then the spiritual and moral gloom that enshrouded the world was relieved by hardly a ray of light. It was like the darkest hour before the dawn, when the few lamps and candles that remain alight do little more than make the darkness visible. Carlyle in his Frederick the Great writes of the eighteenth century thus: - (9:2)

A century which has no history and can have little or none. A century so opulent in accumulated falsities .. as never century before was! Which had no longer the consciousness of being false, so false had it grown; and was so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with it to the very bone, that - in fact the measure of the things was full, and a French Revolution had to end it... A very fit termination, as I thankfully feel, for such a century... For there was need once more of a Divine Revelation to the torpid, frivolous children of men, if they were not to sink altogether into the ape condition. - Frederick the Great, Book I, Chap. 1 (9:3)

Compared with the eighteenth century the present time is as the dawn after darkness, or as the spring after winter. The world is stirring with new life, thrilling with new ideals and hopes. Things that but a few years ago seemed impossible dreams are now accomplished facts. Others that seemed centuries ahead of us have already become matters of "practical politics." We fly in the air and make voyages under the sea. We send messages around the world with the speed of lightning. Within a few decades we have seen miracles too numerous to mention (9:4)

The Sun of Righteousness
What is the cause of this sudden awakening throughout the world? Baha'is believe that it is due to a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Prophet Baha'u'llah, Who was born in Persia in 1817 and passed away in the Holy Land in 1892 (9:5)

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