imaginations which, in the days of the Manifestations of the Unity of God
and the Day Springs of His everlasting glory, hath intervened, and will
continue to intervene, between them and the rest of mankind. For in those
days, He Who is the Eternal Truth manifesteth Himself in conformity with
that which He Himself hath purposed, and not according to the desires and
expectations of men. Even as He hath revealed: “So oft, then, as an
Apostle cometh to you with that which your souls desire not, do ye swell
with pride, and treat some as impostors, and slay others.”

There can be no doubt whatever that had these Apostles appeared, in bygone
ages and cycles, in accordance with the vain imaginations which the hearts
of men had devised, no one would have repudiated the truth of these
sanctified Beings. Though such men have been, night and day, remembering
the one true God, and have been devoutly engaged in the exercise of their
devotions, yet they failed in the end to recognize, and partake of the
grace of, the Day Springs of the signs of God and the Manifestations of
His irrefutable evidences. To this the Scriptures bear witness. Thou hast,
no doubt, heard about it.

Consider the Dispensation of Jesus Christ. Behold, how all the learned men
of that generation, though eagerly anticipating the coming of the Promised
One, have nevertheless denied Him. Both Annas, the most learned among the
divines of His day, and Caiaphas, the high priest, denounced Him and
pronounced the sentence of His death.

In like manner, when Muḥammad, the Prophet of God—may all men be a
sacrifice unto Him—appeared, the learned men of Mecca and Medina arose, in
the early days of His Revelation, against Him and rejected His Message,
while they who were destitute of all learning recognized and embraced His
Faith. Ponder a while. Consider how Balál, the Ethiopian, unlettered