Truth About the Split — Page 279
279 conformity to my views. But they also made the request that the lecture should be general in its purport. The reason they gave was that Khwaja Sahib had made great success with his lectures there and it was not desirable that my lecture should fail to achieve similar success and thus make me compare unfavourably with Khwaja Sahib. I, however, did not accept their advice and delivered lectures on the subject of Ahmadiyyat. The audience was always small but I had the satisfaction of discharging my duty. It is surprising that when at the death of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra , the Jama'at at Lucknow, who at the time were opposed to my views entered into my Bai‘at , the Jama'at at Benares who at the time professed agreement with my views held back. May be it was a punishment for the worldliness which they betrayed on the occasion. In short, people of the Jama'at in those days were undergoing a peculiar probation. On the one hand, in their heart of hearts they were aware that if they persisted in this policy of avoiding an open mention of the Promised Messiah as , then the Movement would soon come to an end. On the other hand, after their experience of the practical success which attended the methods of Khwaja Kamaluddin, they felt afraid that the people would refuse to attend any lectures bearing