It was in such dramatic circumstances, recalling the
experience of Moses when face to face with the Burning Bush in the wilderness
of Sinai, the successive visions of Zoroaster, the opening of the heavens and
the descent of the Dove upon Christ in the Jordan, the cry of Gabriel heard by
Muhammad in the Cave of Hira, and the dream of the Báb, in which the blood of the
Imam Husayn touched and sanctified His lips, that Bahá'u'lláh, He "around
Whom the Point of the Bayan hath revolved," and the Vehicle of the
greatest Revelation the world has yet seen, received the first intimation of
His sublime Mission, and that a ministry which, alike in its duration and
fecundity, is unsurpassed in the religious history of mankind, was inaugurated.
It was on that occasion that the "Most Great Spirit," as designated
by Bahá'u'lláh Himself, revealed itself to Him, in the form of a "Maiden,"
and bade Him "lift up" His "voice between earth and heaven"
-- that same Spirit which, in the Zoroastrian, the Mosaic, the Christian, and
Muhammadan Dispensations, had been respectively symbolized by the "Sacred
Fire," the "Burning Bush," the "Dove," and the
"Angel Gabriel."
- Shoghi Effendi (Messages to America)
