sweet-scented, airy streams that blow out of the
Abha gardens ever be perceived by those that dwell on the Verdant Isle?
How else could the pledges of the Prophets, the joyous tidings of the holy
Seers of old, the stirring promises given unto this Sacred Place by the
Manifestations of God, ever have been fulfilled?

How else could the Tree of Anisa have been planted here, the flag of the
Testament be flown, the intoxicating cup of the Covenant be lifted to
these lips? All these blessings and bestowals, the very means of
proclaiming the Faith, have come about through the scorn of the ignorant,
the opposition of the foolish, the stubbornness of the dull-witted, the
violence of the aggressor. Had it not been for these things, the news of
the Bab's advent would not, to this day, have reached even into lands hard
by. Wherefore we should never grieve over the blindness of the unwitting,
the attacks of the foolish, the hostility of the low and base, the
heedlessness of the divines, the charges of infidelity brought against us
by the empty of mind. Such too was their way in ages past, nor would it be
thus if they were of those who know; but they are benighted, and they come
not close to understanding what is told them.(61)

Wherefore doth it befit thyself, an offshoot of the Holy Tree of God,
branched out from that mighty Trunk--and it behoveth ourselves as well--so
to burn, through the sustaining grace of the Ancient Beauty--may my life be
offered up for His Most Holy Shrine--with this kindled flame out of heaven,
that we will light the fire of God's love from pole to pole. Let us take
for our example the great and sacred Tree of the exalted Bab--may my life
be offered up for Him. Like Him let us bare our breasts to the shafts of
agony, like Him make our hearts to be targets for the spears decreed by
God. Let us, like candles, burn away; as moths, let us scorch our wings;
as the field larks, vent our plaintive cries; as the nightingales, burst
forth in lamentations.

Even as the clouds let us shed down tears, and as the lightning flashes
let us laugh at our coursings through east and west. By day, by night, let
us think but of spreading the sweet savours of God. Let us not keep on
forever with our fancies and illusions, with our analysing and
interpreting and circulating of complex dubieties. Let us put aside all
thoughts of self; let us close our eyes to all on earth, let us neither
make known our sufferings nor complain of