eat
government--may her glory increase! --and was sent to this land, taking up
its abode directly in the home of one of the plaintiffs. The parties who
joined in compiling the report and who were co-partners of my brother were
sent for and questioned regarding the truth of the report. They amplified
the contents of the report, explained them, confirmed them and above all
added to them. They were the plaintiffs, the witnesses and the judge. Now
that body hath returned to the Capital and every day terrible and
frightful news is received.

But Abdul-Baha--praise be to God!--is in perfect peace, composure and rest.
He is not even disturbed through this calumny and fiction, but rather hath
referred all affairs to the pre-ordained decree and in perfect joy and
happiness is ready to give up his life, expecting every ordeal.

Praise be to God!--the kind friends of God are also in a state of
resignation and submissiveness. All are happy, thankful, joyful, and
content. But the center of violation presumed that after the shedding of
the blood of this oppressed one, or the throwing of him into the
Mediterranean Sea, he will become nameless, traceless and forgotten, and
that he [himself] would find an arena to gallop in and could win, with the
spear of suspicions and fictions, the object of his hopes and desire. In
vain! In vain! If there be no permanence to the fragrance of the musk of
faithfulness, will any one be attracted by the vile odor of jealousy? If
the deer of God be torn asunder by dogs and wolves, no one will run after
the blood-thirsty wolf. If the nightingale of significances end his days,
no one will listen to the croaking of the raven, nor to the cawing of the
crow. what vain imagination is this, and what an ignorant display! Their
actions are like unto a mirage in the desert, which the thirsty imagines
to be water, but when he reaches it, finds it to be nothing.

In sooth, O ye friends of God, make firm your feet and heart, make perfect
resolve through the power of confirmation of the Blessed Beauty; engage in
the service of the Cause of God and withstand the nations and the peoples
with the firmness, the solidity and and the steadfastness of the people of
Baha'. Thus may others wonder how these hearts are fountains of trust and
mines of the love of His Majesty, the Merciful One. Thus may ye remain
unshaken by the painful occurrences in the Holy Land, and may remain firm
through the disastrous events. If all the fr