Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 225
225 All these views could have been easily guessed by an intelligent person, but the most wonderful proposal comes from the Sanatan Dharm quarter of the Hindu religion. But for the org-an of conservative Hinduism, the Akhbar-i-Am, this valuable mystery could never have been revealed to the world. Tne plague, we are told, is in consequence of the suffering of cow, and the only measure which can ensure its extirpation is a prohibition against cow-slaughter. The same newspaper goes on to assure the public that a person heard a cow speaking that all this evil and affliction which distressed the country was on its account. However superstitious this last statement may, appear all of them are equal in one respect viz*, that they are all assertions without any arguments to establish their truth, each the belief of a different religious sect, and therefore not acceptable to the public at large. If at this critical hour a person were required to sit as a judge over all these various beliefs, he would probably himself pass away before he could pass a judgment over the truth of anyone of them. This is not the time for the solution of the intricate problems of belief but we need some decisive measure, more easily comprehensible, and accompanied with evidence of the clearest and most conclusive type. It is with this object that I now appear before the public. Four years ago I published a prophecy that the Punjab was about to be visited with severe plague. I then wrote that I had seen in a vision black trees of plague planted in the villages and towns of this province, but that if people repented, the disease would have run its course in two winters only. Vulgar abuses and denunciations were, however, hurled at ray head in response to this call of warning, and the result is the destructive state of the plague in the Punjab as witnessed to-day. God revealed to