Regarding the use of opium they appear to be worse. It seems to be a common habit among them. See pages 499, 500, 505, 520, 524, 525, 540. Of certain dinners Professor Browne says, "All present were Babis (Bahais) and we sat sipping our tea and whiffing opium." "We sat talking late and smoking opium." "The wildest ascriptions of Deity to Baha were made when intoxicated with wine and opium: then they praised the 'Beloved.'" "The poor lad, the son of the telegrapher whom I had seen smoking opium, was dead." "A Bahai dervish was engaged in smoking an opium pipe." The Prince secretary, an Azali Babi, "was a confirmed opium smoker." Browne even joined the Bahais in the use of opium and almost became a victim of the habit. On one occasion[490] they secretly filled his pipe with hashish (Bhang). He recognized the taste and refused it. Why did they do so? Would they possibly have shown him visions with the hope of persuading him of the truth of Bahaism? Maybe some such incidents are the basis of the Moslem accusations against the Bahais of using hashish on neophytes. The point of the above citations is plain. Bahaism does not exercise the transforming power that is claimed for it. The Persian Bahais are yet in the bonds of iniquity. The boasts of Bahais are ungrounded. What of Abul Fazl's question,[491] "Have you ever heard of a Bahai accused[492] of drinking wine?[493] None are accused of evil deeds or bad morals." Again Sprague says, "The conditions of the Millennium are already visible among these people," and Thornton Chase declares, "It brings men to a higher conception of duty and life than has been the heritage of the churches." How blind to facts is such faith! FOOTNOTES: [478] Page 112. [479] Yet Phelps, p. 158, and Chase themselves inveigh against orthodox Christianity with bitterness and scorn. [480] "New Hist.," pp. 320 f, 281, 289. [481] "_Ibid._, pp. xvii. and 354. [482] "Mirza Jani," pp. 131-132. [483] "New Hist.," p. 352. [484] _Jour. Roy. As. Soc._, 1892, p. 271. [485] Pages 173-190. [486] Pages 4-5, written 1880. [487] "Martyrs of 1903," p. 3. [488] "Visiting Tablets," p. 12, N. Y. Bahai Board of Counsel. [489] Pages 436, 517, 524, 540. [490] Pages 520-521. [491] "Bahai Proofs," p. 79. [492] The testimony of Mr. Getsinger that he saw the son of Baha Ullah under the influence of liquor is given in Chapter XI.