of the Messiah to save all the peoples of the earth.
Then all the idolatrous nations as well as the Jews rose up in their might
to kill the Divine fire that had been lit in the lamp of Jerusalem. "Fain
would they put out God's light with their mouths: but God hath willed to
perfect His light, albeit the infidels abhor it."(29) Under the fiercest
tortures, they did every one of these holy souls to death; with butchers'
cleavers, they chopped the pure and undefiled bodies of some of them to
pieces and burned them in furnaces, and they stretched some of the
followers on the rack and then buried them alive. In spite of this
agonizing requital, the Christians continued to teach the Cause of God,
and they never drew a sword from its scabbard or even so much as grazed a
cheek. Then in the end the Faith of Christ encompassed the whole earth, so
that in Europe and America no traces of other religions were left, and
today in Asia and Africa and Oceania, large masses of people are living
within the sanctuary of the Four Gospels.

It has now by the above irrefutable proofs been fully established that the
Faith of God must be propagated through human perfections, through
qualities that are excellent and pleasing, and spiritual behavior. If a
soul of his own accord advances toward God he will be accepted at the
Threshold of Oneness, for such a one is free of personal considerations,
of greed and selfish interests, and he has taken refuge within the
sheltering protection of his Lord. He will become known among men as
trustworthy and truthful, temperate and scrupulous, high-minded and loyal,
incorruptible and God-fearing. In this way the primary purpose in
revealing the Divine Law--which is to bring about happiness in the after
life and civilization and the refinement of character in this--will be
realized. As for the sword, it will only produce a man who is outwardly a
believer, and inwardly a traitor and apostate.

We shall here relate a story that will serve as an example to all. The
Arabian chronicles tell how, at a time prior to the advent of Muhammad,
Nu'man son of Mun_dh_ir the Lakhmite --an Arab king in the Days of
Ignorance, whose seat of government was the city of Hirih--had one day
returned so often to his wine-cup that his mind clouded over and his
reason deserted him. In this drunken and insensible condition he gave
orders that his two boon companions, his close and much-loved friends,
_Kh_alid son of Mudallil and 'Amr so