The following is a verbatim quotation from Thief in the Night, pp. 87‒89.
2. The remarkable parallel. I began searching the libraries for all the available documents. You can imagine my feelings of awe and wonder when I uncovered the following facts. The death of this young man [the Báb] occurred in July 1850. He was slain publicly because of his words and his teaching. Everything I learned about his life reminded me of Christ. In fact, after carefully searching into his background, I could find but one parallel in all recorded history to his brief, turbulent career; only the moving story of the passion of Jesus Christ himself. As part of my record of ‘findings’, I here set down the remarkable similarity in the story of their lives:
1 They were both youthful.
2 They were both known for their meekness and loving kindness.
3 They both performed healing miracles.
4 The period of their ministry was very brief in each case, and moved with dramatic swiftness to its climax.
5 Both of them boldly challenged the time-honoured conventions, laws and rites of the religions into which they had been born.
6 They courageously condemned the unbridled graft and corruption that they saw on every side, both religious and secular.
7 The purity of their own lives shamed the people among whom they taught.
8 Their chief enemies were among the religious leaders of the land. These officials were the instigators of the outrages they were made to suffer.
9 They both had indignities heaped upon them.
10 They were both forcibly brought before the government authorities and were subject to public interrogation.
11 They were both scourged following this interrogation.
12 They both went, first in triumph then in suffering, through the streets of the city where they were to be slain.
13 They were both paraded publicly, and heaped with humiliation, on the way to their place of martyrdom.
14 They both spoke words of hope and promise to the one who was to die with them; in fact, almost the exact same words: ‘Thou shalt be with me in paradise.’
15 They were both martyred publicly before the hostile gaze of the onlookers who crowded the scene.
16 A darkness covered the land following their slaying, in each case beginning at noon
17 Their bodies were both lacerated by soldiers at the time of their slaying.
18 They both remained in ignominious suspension before the eyes of an unfriendly multitude.
19 Their bodies came finally into the hands of their loving followers.
20 When their bodies, in each case, had vanished from the spot where they had been placed, the religious leaders explained away the fact.
21 Only a handful of their followers were with them at the times of their deaths.
22 In each case, one of their chief disciples denied knowing them. This same disciple, in each case, later became a hero.
23 Each of them had an outstanding woman follower who played a dramatic part in making the disciples turn their faces from the past, and look toward the future.
24 Confusion, bewilderment and despair seized their followers in each case, following their martyrdom.
25 Through their disciples (the Peters and Pauls of each age) their Faiths were carried to all parts of the world.
26 They both replied with the same exact words to the question: Are you the Promised One?
27 Each of them addressed their disciples, charging them to carry their messages to the ends of the earth.