rd, their power was turned
into weakness, their glory into shame, their courage into fear. Thou dost
witness to what a pass they have come. Behold, how they have joined
partners with Him Who is the Focal-Point of Divine unity. Behold how their
evil doings have hindered them from recognizing, in the Day of
Resurrection, the Word of Truth, exalted be His glory. We cherish the hope
that this people will henceforth shield themselves from vain hopes and
idle fancies, and will attain to a true understanding of the meaning of
Divine unity.

The Person of the Manifestation hath ever been the representative and
mouthpiece of God. He, in truth, is the Day Spring of God's most excellent
Titles, and the Dawning-Place of His exalted Attributes. If any be set up
by His side as peers, if they be regarded as identical with His Person,
how can it, then, be maintained that the Divine Being is One and
Incomparable, that His Essence is indivisible and peerless? Meditate on
that which We have, through the power of truth, revealed unto thee, and be
thou of them that comprehend its meaning.

XXIX: THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN CREATING MAN HATH...

The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and will ever be, to enable
him to know his Creator and to attain His Presence. To this most excellent
aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly Books and the
divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally bear witness. Whoso
hath recognized the Day Spring of Divine guidance and entered His holy
court hath drawn nigh unto God and attained His Presence, a Presence which
is the real Paradise, and of which the loftiest mansions of heaven are but
a symbol. Such a man hath attained the knowledge of the station of Him Who
is "at the distance of two bows," Who standeth beyond the
Sadratu'l-Muntaha. Whoso hath failed to recognize Him will have condemned
himself to the misery of remoteness, a remoteness which is naught but
utter nothingness and the essence of the nethermost fire. Such will be his
fate, though to outward seeming he may occupy the earth's loftiest seats
and be established upon its most exalted throne.

He Who is the Day Spring of Truth is, no doubt, fully capable of rescuing
from such remoteness wayward souls and of causing them to draw nigh unto
His court and attain His Presence. "If God had pleased He had surely made
all men one people." His purpose, however, is to enable the pure in spirit
and the detached in heart to ascend, b