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Dearly-beloved brethren in 'Abdu'l-Baha! With the ascension of Baha'u'llah the Day-Star of Divine guidance which, as foretold by Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim, had risen in Shiraz, and, while pursuing its westward course, had mounted its zenith in Adrianople, had finally sunk below the horizon of 'Akka, never to rise again ere the complete revolution of one thousand years. The setting of so effulgent an Orb brought to a definite termination the period of Divine Revelation - the initial and most vitalizing stage in the Baha'i era. Inaugurated by the Bab, culminating in Baha'u'llah, anticipated and extolled by the entire company of the Prophets of this great prophetic cycle, this period has, except for the short interval between the Bab's martyrdom and Baha'u'llah's shaking experiences in the Siyah-Chal of Tihran, been characterized by almost fifty years of continuous and progressive Revelation - a period which by its duration and fecundity must be regarded as unparalleled in the entire field of the world's spiritual history.
(143:1)
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