imself where
he could ply some trade incognito, he succeeded in obtaining from Him a
sum of money with which he purchased several bales of cotton and then
proceeded, in the garb of an Arab, by way of Mandalij to Ba_gh_dad. He
established himself there in the street of the Charcoal Dealers, situated
in a dilapidated quarter of the city, and placing a turban upon his head,
and assuming the name of Haji 'Aliy-i-Las-Furu_sh_, embarked on his
newly-chosen occupation. Siyyid Muhammad had meanwhile settled in Karbila,
and was busily engaged, with Mirza Yahya as his lever, in kindling
dissensions and in deranging the life of the exiles and of the community
that had gathered about them.

Little wonder that from the pen of Baha'u'llah, Who was as yet unable to
divulge the Secret that stirred within His bosom, these words of warning,
of counsel and of assurance should, at a time when the shadows were
beginning to deepen around Him, have proceeded: "The days of tests are now
come. Oceans of dissension and tribulation are surging, and the Banners of
Doubt are, in every nook and corner, occupied in stirring up mischief and
in leading men to perdition. ...Suffer not the voice of some of the
soldiers of negation to cast doubt into your midst, neither allow
yourselves to become heedless of Him Who is the Truth, inasmuch as in
every Dispensation such contentions have been raised. God, however, will
establish His Faith, and manifest His light albeit the stirrers of
sedition abhor it. ...Watch ye every day for the Cause of God.... All are
held captive in His grasp. No place is there for any one to flee to. Think
not the Cause of God to be a thing lightly taken, in which any one can
gratify his whims. In various quarters a number of souls have, at the
present time, advanced this same claim. The time is approaching when ...
every one of them will have perished and been lost, nay will have come to
naught and become a thing unremembered, even as the dust itself."

To Mirza Aqa Jan, "the first to believe" in Him, designated later as
_Kh_adimu'-llah (Servant of God)--a Babi youth, aflame with devotion, who,
under the influence of a dream he had of the Bab, and as a result of the
perusal of certain writings of Baha'u'llah, had precipitately forsaken his
home in Ka_sh_an and traveled to 'Iraq, in the hope of attaining His
presence, and who from then on served Him assiduously for a period of
forty years in his triple function of amanuensis, compani