ever,
praised be God, 'Abdu'l-Baha remaineth composed and unperturbed. To none
do I bear ill will because of this defamation. I have made all my affairs
conditioned upon His irresistible Will and I am waiting, indeed in perfect
happiness, to offer my life and prepared for whatever dire affliction may
be in store. Praise be to God, the loving believers also accept and remain
submissive to God's Will, content with it, radiantly acquiescent, offering
thanks.

The Centre of Sedition hath imagined that once the blood of this wronged
one is spilled out, once I have been cast away on the wide desert sands or
drowned in the Mediterranean Sea--nameless, gone without trace, with none
to tell of me--then would he at last have a field where he could urge his
steed ahead, and with his mallet of lies and doubts, hit hard at the polo
ball of his ambitions, and carry off the prize.

Far from it! For even if the sweet musk-scent of faithfulness should pass,
and leave no trace behind, who would be drawn by the stench of perfidy?
And even if some gazelle of heaven were to be ripped apart by dogs and
wolves, who would go running to seek out a ravening wolf? Even should the
day of the Mystic Nightingale draw to its close, who would ever lend his
ear to the raven's croak, or the cawing of the crow? What an empty
supposition is his! What a foolish presumption! 'Their works are like the
vapour in a desert which the thirsty dreameth to be water, until when he
cometh unto it, he findeth nothing.'(57)

O ye loved ones of God! Be ye firm of foot, and fixed of heart, and
through the power of the Blessed Beauty's help, stand ye committed to your
purpose. Serve ye the Cause of God. Face ye all nations of the world with
the constancy and the endurance of the people of Baha, that all men may be
astounded and ask how this could be, that your hearts are as well-springs
of confidence and faith, and as mines so rich in the love of God. Be ye
so, that ye shall neither fail nor falter on account of these tragedies in
the Holy Land; let not these dread events make you despondent. And if all
the believers be put to the sword, and only one be left, let that one cry
out in the name of the Lord and tell the joyous tidings; let that one rise
up and confront all the peoples of the earth.

Gaze ye not upon the dire happenings at this Illumined Spot. The Holy Land
is in danger at all times, and here, the tide of calamities is ever at the
flood; for this upraised c