s ascendancy over all the
peoples and kindreds of the earth, and claim Himself to be the goal of all
creation,--even as He hath said: "But for Thee, I would not have created
all that are in heaven and on earth,"--and yet be subject to such trivial
things? You must undoubtedly have been informed of the tribulations, the
poverty, the ills, and the degradation that have befallen every Prophet of
God and His companions. You must have heard how the heads of their
followers were sent as presents unto different cities, how grievously they
were hindered from that whereunto they were commanded. Each and every one
of them fell a prey to the hands of the enemies of His Cause, and had to
suffer whatsoever they decreed.

It is evident that the 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
dayspring 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 Kawthar of the
knowledge of God. Such men, when acquainted with these circumstances,
become so veiled that without the least question, they pronounce the
Manifestation of God an 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 behooveth us, therefore, to make the utmost endeavour, 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. And
should we ask for a testimony of His truth, we should content ourselves
with one, and only one; that there