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 melodies, sung by Jesus, Son of Mary, in accents of majestic power in the Ridvan of the Gospel, revealing those signs that must needs herald the advent of the Manifestation after Him.  In the first Gospel according to Matthew it is recorded:  And when they asked Jesus concerning the signs of His coming, He said unto them:  “Immediately after the oppression(19) of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the earth shall be shaken:  and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:  and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet."(20) Rendered into the Persian tongue,(21) the purport of these words is as follows:  When the oppression and afflictions that are to befall mankind will have come to pass, then shall the sun be withheld from shining, the moon from giving light, the stars of heaven shall fall upon the earth, and the pillars of the earth shall quake.  At that time, the signs of the Son of man shall appear in heaven, that is, the promised Beauty and Substance of life shall, when these signs have appeared, step forth out of the realm of the invisible into the visible world.  And He saith:  at that time, all the peoples and kindreds that dwell on earth shall bewail and lament, and they shall see that divine Beauty coming from heaven, riding upon the clouds with power, grandeur, and magnificence, sending His angels with a great sound of a trumpet.  Similarly, in the three other Gospels, according to Luke, Mark, and John, the same statements are recorded.  As We have referred at length to these in Our Tablets revealed in the Arabic tongue, We have made no mention of them in these pages, and have confined Ourselves to but one reference.