aised God and thanked Him for having come to your aid and enabled you to
serve Him in His widespreading vineyard.

Erelong shall your faces be bright with the radiance of your supplications
and your worship of God, your prayers unto Him, and your humility and
selflessness in the presence of the friends. He will make of your
assemblage a magnet that will draw unto you the bright rays of divine
confirmations that shine out from His kingdom of glory.

It is incumbent upon you to ponder in your hearts and meditate upon His
words, and humbly to call upon Him, and to put away self in His heavenly
Cause. These are the things that will make of you signs of guidance unto
all mankind, and brilliant stars shining down from the all-highest
horizon, and towering trees in the Abha Paradise.

Know ye that 'Abdu'l-Baha dwelleth in continual delight. To have been
lodged in this faraway prison is for me exceeding joy. By the life of
Baha! This prison is my supernal paradise; it is my cherished goal, the
comfort of my bosom, the bliss of my heart; it is my refuge, my shelter,
my asylum, my safe haven, and within it do I exult amid the hosts of
heaven and the Company on high.

Rejoice in my bondage, O ye friends of God, for it soweth the seeds of
freedom; rejoice at my imprisonment, for it is the well-spring of
salvation; be ye glad on account of my travail, for it leadeth to eternal
ease. By the Lord God! I would not exchange this prison for the throne of
the whole world, nor give up this confinement for pleasures and pastimes
in all the fair gardens on earth. My hope is that out of the Lord's
abundant grace, His munificence and loving-kindness, I may, in His
pathway, be hanged against the sky, that my heart may become the target
for a thousand bullets, or that I may be cast into the depths of the sea,
or be left to perish on desert sands. This is what I long for most; this
is my supreme desire; it refresheth my soul, it is balm for my breast, it
is the very solace of mine eyes.

As for you, O ye lovers of God, make firm your steps in His Cause, with
such resolve that ye shall not be shaken though the direst of calamities
assail the world. By nothing, under no conditions, be ye perturbed. Be ye
anchored fast as the high mountains, be stars that dawn over the horizon
of life, be bright lamps in the gatherings of unity, be souls humble and
lowly in the presence of the friends, be innocent in heart. Be ye symbols
of guidance and lights o