This horde of degraded priests, stigmatized by Baha'u'llah as "doctors of
doubt," as the "abject manifestations of the Prince of Darkness," as
"wolves" and "pharaohs," as "focal centers of hellish fire," as "voracious
beasts preying upon the carrion of the souls of men," and, as testified by
their own traditions, as both the sources and victims of mischief, have
joined the various swarms of _sh_ah-zadihs, of emirs, and princelings of
fallen dynasties--a witness and a warning unto all nations of what must,
sooner or later, befall those wielders of earthly dominion, be it royal or
ecclesiastic, who might dare to challenge or persecute the appointed
Channels and Embodiments of Divine authority and power.
Islam, at once the progenitor and persecutor of the Faith of Baha'u'llah,
is, if we read aright the signs of the times, only beginning to sustain
the impact of this invincible and triumphant Faith. We need only recall
the nineteen hundred years of abject misery and dispersion which they, who
only for the short space of three years persecuted the Son of God, have
had to endure, and are still enduring. We may well ask ourselves, with
mingled feelings of dread and awe, how severe must be the tribulations of
those who, during no less than fifty years, have, "at every moment
tormented with a fresh torment" Him Who is the Father, and who have, in
addition, made His Herald--Himself a Manifestation of God--to quaff, in such
tragic circumstances, the cup of martyrdom.
I have, in the pages immediately preceding, quoted certain passages
addressed collectively to the members of the ecclesiastical order, both
Islamic and Christian, and have then recorded a number of specific
addresses and references to Muslim divines, both _Sh_i'ih and Sunni, after
which I proceeded to describe the calamities that afflicted these
Muhammadan hierarchies, their heads, their members, their properties,
their ceremonials, and institutions. Let us now consider the addresses
specifically made to the members of the Christian clerical order who, for
the most part, have ignored the Faith of Baha'u'llah, whilst a few among
them have, as its Administrative Order gained in stature and spread its
ramifications over Christian countries, arisen to check its progress, to
belittle its influence, and obscure its purpose.