he changes brought about in every Dispensation
constitute the dark clouds that intervene between the eye of man's
understanding and the Divine Luminary which shineth forth from the day
spring of the Divine Essence. Consider how men for generations have been
blindly imitating their fathers, and have been trained according to such
ways and manners as have been laid down by the dictates of their Faith.
Were these men, therefore, to discover suddenly that a Man, Who hath been
living in their midst, Who, with respect to every human limitation hath
been their equal, had risen to abolish every established principle imposed
by their Faith--principles by which for centuries they have been
disciplined, and every opposer and denier of which they have come to
regard as infidel, profligate and wicked,--they would of a certainty be
veiled and hindered from acknowledging His truth. Such things are as
"clouds" that veil the eyes of those whose inner being hath not tasted the
Salsabil of detachment, nor drunk from the Kaw_th_ar of the knowledge of
God. Such men, when acquainted with those circumstances, become so veiled
that, without the least question, they pronounce the Manifestation of God
as infidel, and sentence Him to death. You must have heard of such things
taking place all down the ages, and are now observing them in these days.

It behoveth us, therefore, to make the utmost endeavor, that, by God's
invisible assistance, these dark veils, these clouds of Heaven-sent
trials, may not hinder us from beholding the beauty of His shining
Countenance, and that we may recognize Him only by His own Self.

XIV: THE DIVINE SPRINGTIME IS COME, O MOST EXALTED...

The Divine Springtime is come, O Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the
All-Merciful is fast approaching. Bestir thyself, and magnify, before the
entire creation, the name of God, and celebrate His praise, in such wise
that all created things may be regenerated and made new. Speak, and hold
not thy peace. The day star of blissfulness shineth above the horizon of
Our name, the Blissful, inasmuch as the kingdom of the name of God hath
been adorned with the ornament of the name of thy Lord, the Creator of the
heavens. Arise before the nations of the earth, and arm thyself with the
power of this Most Great Name, and be not of those who tarry.

Methinks that thou hast halted and movest not upon My Tablet. Could the
brightness of the Divine Countenance have bewildered thee,