nfine
thee, or slay thee, or drive thee out; and they plotted, and God plotted;
and God is the best of plotters.'(39) So likewise He saith: 'And if their
aversion be grievous unto thee, then, if thou art able to seek out a hole
down into the earth, or a ladder up into the sky, that thou mayest show
them a sign--[do so]: but if God pleased He would assuredly bring them all
to the true guidance: be not therefore one of the ignorant.'(40) By God,
the hearts of those near [unto God] are scorched at the purport of these
two blessed verses; but the like of these matters certainly transmitted
[to Us] are blotted out of sight, and [men] have not reflected, neither do
reflect, what was the reason of the turning aside of [God's] servants at
the appearance of the daysprings of divine lights.

"So, too, before the Seal of the Prophets, consider Jesus the Son of Mary.
After the appearance of that Manifestation of the Merciful One all the
doctors charged that Quintessence of Faith with misbelief and
rebelliousness; until at length, with the consent of Annas, who was the
chief of the doctors of that age, and likewise Caiaphas,(41) who was the
most learned of the judges, they wrought upon that Holy One that which the
pen is ashamed and unable to repeat. The earth with its amplitude was too
strait for Him, until God took Him up into the heaven. But were a detailed
account of the prophets to be submitted it is feared that weariness might
result.

"O would that thou mightest permit, O King, that We should send unto Thy
Majesty that whereby eyes would be refreshed, souls tranquilized, and
every just person assured that with Him [i.e., Baha'u'llah] is knowledge
of the Book. Were it not for the turning aside of the ignorant and the
willful blindness of the doctors, verily I would utter a discourse whereat
hearts would be glad and would fly unto the air from the murmur of whose
winds is heard, 'There is no God but He.' But now, because the time
admitteth it not, the tongue is withheld from utterance, and the vessel of
declaration is sealed until God shall unclose it by His power: verily He
is the Potent, the Powerful.

"Glory be to Thee, O God! O My God, I ask of Thee in Thy Name, whereby
Thou hast subdued whomsoever is in the heavens and the earth, that Thou
wilt keep the lamp of Thy religion with the glass of Thy power and Thy
favors, so that the winds of denial pass not by it from the region of
those who are heedless of the mysteries of