the four Gospels.

This wronged One will cite but one of these instances, thus conferring
upon mankind, for the sake of God, such bounties as are yet concealed
within the treasury of the hidden and sacred Tree, that haply mortal men
may not remain deprived of their share of the immortal fruit, and attain
to a dewdrop of the waters of everlasting life which, from Baghdad, the
"Abode of Peace," are being vouchsafed unto all mankind. We ask for
neither meed nor reward. "We nourish your souls for the sake of God; we
seek from you neither recompense nor thanks."(16) This is the food that
conferreth everlasting life upon the pure in heart and the illumined in
spirit. This is the bread of which it is said: "Lord, send down upon us
Thy bread from heaven."(17) This bread shall never be withheld from them
that deserve it, nor can it ever be exhausted. It groweth everlastingly
from the tree of grace; it descendeth at all seasons from the heavens of
justice and mercy. Even as He saith: "Seest thou not to what God likeneth
a good word? To a good tree; its root firmly fixed, and its branches
reaching unto heaven: yielding its fruit in all seasons."(18)

O the pity! that man should deprive himself of this goodly gift, this
imperishable bounty, this everlasting life. It behooveth him to prize this
food that cometh from heaven, that perchance, through the wondrous favours
of the Sun of Truth, the dead may be brought to life, and withered souls
be quickened by the infinite Spirit. Make haste, O my brother, that while
there is yet time our lips may taste of the immortal draught, for the
breeze of life, now blowing from the city of the Well-Beloved, cannot
last, and the streaming river of holy utterance must needs be stilled, and
the portals of the Ridvan cannot for ever remain open. The day will surely
come when the Nightingale of Paradise will have winged its flight away
from its earthly abode unto its heavenly nest. Then will its melody be
heard no more, and the beauty of the rose cease to shine. Seize the time,
therefore, ere the glory of the divine springtime hath spent itself, and
the Bird of Eternity ceased to warble its melody, that thy inner hearing
may not be deprived of hearkening unto its call. This is My counsel unto
thee and unto the beloved of God. Whosoever wisheth, let him turn
thereunto; whosoever wisheth, let him turn away. God, verily, is
independent of him and of that which he may see and witness.

These are the melod