136 Say:  O concourse of monks!  Seclude not yourselves in your churches and cloisters.  Come ye out of them by My leave, and busy, then, yourselves with what will profit you and others.  Thus commandeth you He Who is the Lord of the Day of Reckoning.  Seclude yourselves in the stronghold of My love.  This, truly, is the seclusion that befitteth you, could ye but know it.  He that secludeth himself in his house is indeed as one dead.  It behoveth man to show forth that which will benefit mankind.  He that bringeth forth no fruit is fit for the fire.  Thus admonisheth you your Lord; He, verily, is the Mighty, the Bountiful.  Enter ye into wedlock, that after you another may arise in your stead.  We, verily, have forbidden you lechery, and not that which is conducive to fidelity.  Have ye clung unto the promptings of your nature, and cast behind your backs the statutes of God?  Fear ye God, and be not of the foolish.  But for man, who, on My earth, would remember Me, and how could My attributes and My names be revealed?  Reflect, and be not of them that have shut themselves out as by a veil from Him, and were of those that are fast asleep.  He that married not could find no place wherein to abide, nor where to lay His head, by reason of what the hands of the treacherous had wrought.  His holiness consisted not in the things ye have believed and imagined, but rather in the things which belong unto Us.  Ask, that ye may be made aware of His station which hath been exalted above the vain imaginings of all the peoples of the earth.  Blessed are they that understand.

137 O King!  We heard the words thou didst utter in answer to the Czar of Russia, concerning the decision made regarding the war.(15) Thy Lord, verily, knoweth, is informed of all.  Thou didst say:  “I lay asleep upon my couch, when the cry of the oppressed, who were drowned in the Black Sea, wakened me.”  This is what We heard thee say, and, verily, thy Lord is witness unto what I say.  We testify that that which wakened thee was not their cry but the promptings of thine own passions, for We tested thee, and found thee wanting.  Comprehend the meaning of My words, and be thou of the discerning.  It is not Our wish to address thee words of condemnation, out of regard for the dignity We conferred upon thee in this mortal life.  We, verily, have chosen courtesy, and made it the true mark of such as are nigh unto Him.  Courtesy is, in truth, a raiment which fitteth all men, whether young or old.  Well is it with him that adorneth his temple therewith, and woe unto him who is deprived of this great bounty.  Hadst thou been sincere in thy words, thou wouldst have not cast behind thy back the Book of God, when it was sent unto thee by Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Wise.  We have proved thee through it, and found thee other than that which thou didst profess.  Arise, and make amends for that which escaped thee.  Erelong the world and all that thou possessest will perish, and the kingdom will remain unto God, thy Lord and the Lord of thy fathers of old.  It behoveth thee not to conduct thine affairs according to the dictates of thy desires.  Fear the sighs of this Wronged One, and shield Him from the darts of such as act unjustly.