“We ask Him to make this dark calamity a buckler for the temple of His command, and to protect it thereby from sharp swords and piercing blades. Through affliction hath His light shone and His praise been bright unceasingly; this hath been His method through past ages and bygone times. . . . Did the people but know what is beyond the end of this life, the pure wine of the Mercy of their Lord, the Mighty, the All-knowing, they would certainly cast aside reproach and seek to be satisfied by this Servant. But now they have veiled Me with the veil of darkness which they have woven with the hands of doubts and fancies. The White Hand shall cleave an opening to this somber night, and God will open into His City a gate. On that day men shall enter into it in crowds . . . .

“We ask God to sanctify the hearts of certain of the theologians from rancor and hatred that they may regard things with eyes which closure overcometh not; and to raise them unto a station where the world and the lordship thereof shall not turn them aside from looking toward the Supreme Horizon, and where anxiety for gaining a livelihood and providing household goods shall not divert them from the thought of that day whereon the mountains shall be made like carpets. Though they rejoice at that which hath befallen us of calamity there shall come a day whereon they shall wail and weep. By my Lord, were I given the choice between the glory and opulence, the wealth and dignity, the ease and luxury wherein they are, and the distress and affliction wherein I am, I would certainly choose that wherein I am today, and I would not now exchange one atom of these afflictions for all that hath been created in the kingdom of production! Were it not for affliction in the way of God my continuance would have no sweetness for me, nor would my life profit me. Let it not be hidden from the discerning and such as look toward the Most Great Outlook that I, during the greater part of my days, was a servant sitting beneath a sword suspended by a single hair, who knoweth not when it shall descend upon him, whether it shall descend instantly or after a while. And in all this We give thanks to God, the Lord of the worlds, and We praise Him under all circumstances—verily, He is a witness unto all things.”

“O thou personage, who considerest thyself the greatest of all men, while looking upon the Divine Youth (believing Him to be) the lowest of men, although through Him the eye of the Supreme Concourse is brightened and illumined! This Youth hath never made nor ever will He make a request of thee. . . According to thy opinion this Quickener of the world and its Peacemaker is culpable and seditious. What crime have the women, children and suffering babes committed, to merit thy wrath, oppression and hate? In every religion and community the children are considered innocent, nor does the Pen of Divine Command hold them responsible, yet the reign of thy tyranny and despotism hath surrounded them. If thou art the follower of any religion or sect, read thou the Heavenly Books, the inspired epistles and the Divine writings, so that thou mayest realize the irresponsibility of children. On the other hand, even those people who do not believe in God have never committed such crimes. . . .