an's acts shall be
acceptable, in this Day, unless he forsaketh mankind and all that men
possess, and setteth his face towards the Omnipotent One."

It is not, however, with either of these two Faiths that we are primarily
concerned. It is to Islam and, to a lesser extent, to Christianity that my
theme is directly related. Islam, from which the Faith of Baha'u'llah has
sprung, even as did Christianity from Judaism, is the religion within
whose pale that Faith first rose and developed, from whose ranks the great
mass of Baha'i adherents have been recruited, and by whose leaders they
have been, and indeed are still being, persecuted. Christianity, on the
other hand, is the religion to which the vast majority of Baha'is of
non-Islamic extraction belong, within whose spiritual domain the
Administrative Order of the Faith of God is rapidly advancing, and by
whose ecclesiastical exponents that Order is being increasingly assailed.
Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and even Zoroastrianism which, in the
main, are still unaware of the potentialities of the Cause of God, and
whose response to its Message is as yet negligible, the Muhammadan and
Christian Faiths may be regarded as the two religious systems which are
sustaining, at this formative stage in its evolution, the full impact of
so tremendous a Revelation.

Let us, then, consider what the Founders of the Baha'i Faith have
addressed to, or written about, the recognized leaders of Islam and
Christianity. We have already considered the passages with reference to
the kings of Islam, whether as Caliphs reigning in Constantinople, or as
_Sh_ahs of Persia who ruled the kingdom as temporary trustees for the
expected Imam. We have also noted the Tablet which Baha'u'llah
specifically revealed for the Roman Pontiff, and the more general message
in the Suriy-i-Muluk directed to the kings of Christendom. No less
challenging and ominous is the Voice that has warned and called to account
the Muhammadan divines and the Christian clergy.

"Leaders of religion," is Baha'u'llah's clear and universal censure
pronounced in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "in every age, have hindered their people
from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held the
reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership,
others through want of knowledge and understanding, have been the cause of
the deprivation of the people. By their sanction and authority, every
Prophet of God hath