umber of people gather lovingly together, with absolute
purity and sanctity, with their hearts free of the world, experiencing the
emotions of the Kingdom and the powerful magnetic forces of the Divine,
and being at one in their happy fellowship, that gathering will exert its
influence over all the earth. The nature of that band of people, the words
they speak, the deeds they do, will unleash the bestowals of Heaven, and
provide a foretaste of eternal bliss. The hosts of the Company on high
will defend them, and the angels of the Abha Paradise, in continuous
succession, will come down to their aid.

The meaning of 'angels' is the confirmations of God and His celestial
powers. Likewise angels are blessed beings who have severed all ties with
this nether world, have been released from the chains of self and the
desires of the flesh, and anchored their hearts to the heavenly realms of
the Lord. These are of the Kingdom, heavenly; these are of God, spiritual;
these are revealers of God's abounding grace; these are dawning-points of
His spiritual bestowals.

O handmaid of God! Praise be to Him, thy dear husband hath perceived the
sweet scents that blow from the gardens of heaven. Now, as day followeth
day, must thou, through the love of God, and thine own good actions, draw
him ever closer to the Faith.

Those were indeed dire events in San Francisco.(29) Disasters of this kind
should serve to awaken the people, and diminish the love of their hearts
for this inconstant world. It is in this nether world that such tragic
things take place: this is the cup that yieldeth bitter wine.

40: O YE WHOM 'ABDU'L-BAHA LOVETH! I HAVE READ YOUR ...

O ye whom 'Abdu'l-Baha loveth! I have read your reports with great joy;
they are of a nature to cheer and refresh the heart and gladden the soul.
If this Assembly, through the holy breathings of the All-Merciful and His
divine confirmations, endure and remain fixed and firm, it shall produce
notable results and it shall succeed in enterprises of great moment.

The Spiritual Assemblies to be established in this Age of God, this holy
century, have, it is indisputable, had neither peer nor likeness in the
cycles gone before. For those assemblages that wielded power were based on
the support of mighty leaders of men, while these Assemblies are based on
the support of the Beauty of Abha. The defenders and patrons of those
other assemblages were either a prince, or a king, or a chief