they have clung to the ways of the divines of the
age in which they lived, and blindly imitated them
in accepting or denying these Essences of Detachment,
these holy and divine Beings. These leaders,
owing to their immersion in selfish desires, and
their pursuit of transitory and sordid things, have
regarded these divine Luminaries as being opposed
to the standards of their knowledge and understanding,
and the opponents of their ways and
judgments. As they have literally interpreted the
Word of God, and the sayings and traditions of
the Letters of Unity, and expounded them according
to their own deficient understanding, they have
therefore deprived themselves and all their people
of the bountiful showers of the grace and mercies
of God. And yet they bear witness to this well-known
tradition: "Verily Our Word is abstruse,
bewilderingly abstruse." In another instance, it is
said: "Our Cause is sorely trying, highly perplexing;
none can bear it except a favorite of heaven,
or an inspired Prophet, or he whose faith God
hath tested." These leaders of religion admit that
none of these three specified conditions is applicable
to them. The first two conditions are manifestly
beyond their reach; as to the third, it is evident
that at no time have they been proof against
