g forth from Iran, bring immortality to all on
earth. May she raise on the highest summits the banner of public order, of
purest spirituality, of universal peace.

O ye loved ones of God! In this, the Baha'i dispensation, God's Cause is
spirit unalloyed. His Cause belongeth not to the material world. It cometh
neither for strife nor war, nor for acts of mischief or of shame; it is
neither for quarrelling with other Faiths, nor for conflicts with the
nations. Its only army is the love of God, its only joy the clear wine of
His knowledge, its only battle the expounding of the Truth; its one
crusade is against the insistent self, the evil promptings of the human
heart. Its victory is to submit and yield, and to be selfless is its
everlasting glory. In brief, it is spirit upon spirit:

Unless ye must,

Bruise not the serpent in the dust,

How much less wound a man.

And if ye can,

No ant should ye alarm,

Much less a brother harm.

Let all your striving be for this, to become the source of life and
immortality, and peace and comfort and joy, to every human soul, whether
one known to you or a stranger, one opposed to you or on your side. Look
ye not upon the purity or impurity of his nature: look ye upon the
all-embracing mercy of the Lord, the light of Whose grace hath embosomed
the whole earth and all who dwell thereon, and in the plenitude of Whose
bounty are immersed both the wise and the ignorant. Stranger and friend
alike are seated at the table of His favour. Even as the believer, the
denier who turneth away from God doth at the same time cup his hands and
drink from the sea of His bestowals.

It behoveth the loved ones of the Lord to be the signs and tokens of His
universal mercy and the embodiments of His own excelling grace. Like the
sun, let them cast their rays upon garden and rubbish heap alike, and even
as clouds in spring, let them shed down their rain upon flower and thorn.
Let them seek but love and faithfulness, let them not follow the ways of
unkindness, let their talk be confined to the secrets of friendship and of
peace. Such are the attributes of the righteous, such is the
distinguishing mark of those who serve His Threshold.

The Abha Beauty endured the most afflictive of calamities. He bore
countless agonies and ills. He enjoyed not a moment's peace, drew not an
easeful breath. He wandered, homeless, over desert sands and mountain
slopes; He was shut in a fortress, and a prison cell. But