|
All that lives, and this includes the religions, have a springtime, a time of maturity, of harvest and a winter-time. Then religion becomes barren, a lifeless adherence to the letter uninformed by the spirit, and man's spiritual life declines. When we look at religious history, we see that God has spoken to men precisely at times when thy have reached the nadir of their degradation and cultural decadence. Moses came to Israel when it was languishing under the Pharaoh's yoke, Christ appeared at a time when the Jewish Faith had lost its power and the culture of antiquity was in its death throes. Muhammad came to a people who lived in barbaric ignorance at the lowest level of culture and into a world in which the former religions had strayed far away from their origins and nearly lost their identity. The Bab addressed Himself to a people who had irretrievably lost their former grandeur and who found themselves in a state of hopeless decadence. Baha'u'llah came to a humanity which was approaching the most critical phase of its history. (24:2) 'Abdul-Baha writes: "God leaves not His children comfortless, but, when the darkness of winter overshadows them, then again He sends His Messengers, the Prophets, with a renewal of the blessed spring. The Sun of Truth appears again on the horizon of the world shining into the eyes of those who sleep, awakening them to behold the glory of a new dawn. Then again will the tree o humanity blossom and bring forth the fruit of righteousness for the healing of the nations." (Pt).
(24:3)
|