e
battered down. They have truthfulness and honest dealing and friendship
for their goal, and kindness even toward a vicious foe; until at last they
change this prison of treachery, the world, into a mansion of utmost
trust, and turn this gaol-house of hatred and malevolence and spite, into
God's Paradise.

O ye loving friends! Strive ye with heart and soul to make this world the
mirror-image of the Kingdom, that this nether world may teem with the
blessings of the world of God, that the voices of the Company on high may
be raised in acclamation, and signs and tokens of the bounties and
bestowals of Baha'u'llah may encompass all the earth.

Jinab-i-'Amin hath expressed the greatest admiration for you honoured men
and enlightened women, naming and commending you each by each, telling at
length of the firmness and constancy ye all have shown, saying that, God
be praised, in all Persia the men and women are standing together,
straight, strong, unmoveable--a mighty edifice solidly raised up; and that
ye are engaged with love and joy in spreading abroad the sweet savours of
the Lord.

These were tidings of great joy, especially as they have reached me in
these days of extreme peril. For the dearest wish of this wronged one is
that the friends be spiritual of heart and illumined of mind, and once
this grace is granted me, calamity, however afflictive, is but bounty
pouring down upon me, like copious rain.

O God, my God! Thou seest me plunged in an ocean of anguish, held fast to
the fires of tyranny, and weeping in the darkness of the night. Sleepless
I toss and turn upon my bed, mine eyes straining to behold the morning
light of faithfulness and trust. I agonize even as a fish, its inward
parts afire as it leapeth about in terror upon the sand, yet I ever look
for Thy bestowals to appear from every side.

O God, my God! Make thou the believers in other lands to partake of Thine
abounding grace, deliver Thou, by Thine unfailing help and bounty, whoso
among Thy loved ones in the farthermost climes sigheth over the bitter
cruelty of his foe. O Lord, they are the captives of Thy love, the
prisoners taken by Thy troops. They are the birds that fly in the heavens
of Thy guidance, the whales that swim in the ocean of Thy bestowals, the
stars that sparkle on the horizon of Thy gifts. They are the defenders of
the fortress of Thy law. They are the banners of Thy remembrance amongst
men. They are the deep wells of Thy divine comp