habit. So, for those who are firm in the
Covenant, it is a thing reprobated by the reason and by tradition, the
renouncement of which giveth gradual repose and tranquility, permitteth
one to have stainless hands and a clean mouth, and hair which is not
pervaded by a bad odor.

Without any doubt, the friends of God on receiving this epistle will
renounce this injurious habit by all means, even if it be necessary to do
so by degrees. This is my hope.

As to the question of opium, disgusting and execrated, I resign myself to
God for its punishment. The formal text of the Kitab-i-Aqdas forbids and
reproves it and, according to reason, its use leads to madness. Experience
hath shown that he who giveth himself up to it is completely excluded from
the world of humanity. Let us take refuge in God against the perpetration
of so shameful a thing, which is the destruction of the foundations of
humanity and which causeth a perpetual unhappiness. It taketh possession
of the soul of man, killeth the reason, weakeneth the intelligence, maketh
a living man dead and extinguisheth the natural heat. It is impossible to
imagine anything more pernicious. Happy is he who never mentioneth the
word opium! But what is the fate of those who make use of it!

O friends of God! Force and violence, constraint and oppression are
condemned in this divine cycle, but to prevent the use of opium, all means
must be employed, so that the human species may be delivered and freed
from this great calamity. Otherwise, alas! for all the negligent before
God.

O Lord! Give to the people of Baha cleanliness and holiness in all
conditions, purify and free them from all defilement, deliver them from
the use of all that is execrated, liberate them from the chains of habits,
so that they may be pure and free, clean and spotless, that they may be
worthy servants of the Sacred Threshold and may deserve to enter into
relation with God. Deliver them from alcohol and tobacco, and save them
from opium, the purveyor of madness! Make them companions of the holy
breezes, in order that they may know the pleasures of the wine of the love
of God, and that they may attain to the joy and the happiness of
attraction to the Kingdom of Abha!

Hast Thou not said, "All that thou hast in thy cellar will not appease the
thirst of my love--bring me, O cup-bearer of the wine of the spirit, a cup
full as the sea!"

O friends of God! Experience hath shown how much the renouncing of
to