ies, sung by Jesus, Son of Mary, in accents of majestic
power in the Ridvan of the Gospel, revealing those signs that must needs
herald the advent of the Manifestation after Him. In the first Gospel
according to Matthew it is recorded: And when they asked Jesus concerning
the signs of His coming, He said unto them: "Immediately after the
oppression(19) of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the earth shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of
man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a
trumpet."(20) Rendered into the Persian tongue,(21) the purport of these
words is as follows: When the oppression and afflictions that are to
befall mankind will have come to pass, then shall the sun be withheld from
shining, the moon from giving light, the stars of heaven shall fall upon
the earth, and the pillars of the earth shall quake. At that time, the
signs of the Son of man shall appear in heaven, that is, the promised
Beauty and Substance of life shall, when these signs have appeared, step
forth out of the realm of the invisible into the visible world. And He
saith: at that time, all the peoples and kindreds that dwell on earth
shall bewail and lament, and they shall see that divine Beauty coming from
heaven, riding upon the clouds with power, grandeur, and magnificence,
sending His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. Similarly, in the
three other Gospels, according to Luke, Mark, and John, the same
statements are recorded. As We have referred at length to these in Our
Tablets revealed in the Arabic tongue, We have made no mention of them in
these pages, and have confined Ourselves to but one reference.

Inasmuch as the Christian divines have failed to apprehend the meaning of
these words, and did not recognize their object and purpose, and have
clung to the literal interpretation of the words of Jesus, they therefore
became deprived of the streaming grace of the Muhammadan Revelation and
its showering bounties. The ignorant among the Christian community,
following the example of the leaders of their faith, were likewise
prevented from beholding the beauty of the King of glory, inasmuch as
those signs which were to accompany the dawn of the sun of th