h contemptible professions, and
such wretched conduct? Every robber, every worker of iniquity, hath, in
the days prior to My Revelation, uttered these same words, and performed
these same deeds.

Verily I say: Incline your ears to My sweet voice, and sanctify yourselves
from the defilement of your evil passions and corrupt desires. They who
dwell within the tabernacle of God, and are established upon the seats of
everlasting glory, will refuse, though they be dying of hunger, to stretch
their hands and seize unlawfully the property of their neighbor, however
vile and worthless he may be.

The purpose of the one true God in manifesting Himself is to summon all
mankind to truthfulness and sincerity, to piety and trustworthiness, to
resignation and submissiveness to the Will of God, to forbearance and
kindliness, to uprightness and wisdom. His object is to array every man
with the mantle of a saintly character, and to adorn him with the ornament
of holy and goodly deeds.

Say: Have mercy on yourselves and on your fellowmen, and suffer not the
Cause of God--a Cause which is immeasurably exalted above the inmost
essence of sanctity--to be sullied with the stain of your idle fancies,
your unseemly and corrupt imaginations.

CXXXVIII: THOU SEEST, O GOD OF MERCY, THOU...

Thou seest, O God of Mercy, Thou Whose power pervadeth all created things,
these servants of Thine, Thy thralls, who, according to the good-pleasure
of Thy Will, observe in the daytime the fast prescribed by Thee, who
arise, at the earliest dawn of day, to make mention of Thy Name, and to
celebrate Thy praise, in the hope of obtaining their share of the goodly
things that are treasured up within the treasuries of Thy grace and
bounty. I beseech Thee, O Thou that holdest in Thine hands the reins of
the entire creation, in Whose grasp is the whole kingdom of Thy names and
of Thine attributes, not to deprive, in Thy Day, Thy servants from the
showers pouring from the clouds of Thy mercy, nor to hinder them from
taking their portion of the ocean of Thy good-pleasure.

All the atoms of the earth bear witness, O my Lord, to the greatness of
Thy power and of Thy sovereignty; and all the signs of the universe attest
the glory of Thy majesty and of Thy might. Have mercy, then, O Thou Who
art the sovereign Lord of all, Who art the King of everlasting days, and
Ruler of all nations, upon these Thy servants, who have clung to the cord
of Thy commandments,