the
pathway of God. Their bright star shone out in the skies of ancient glory,
and the handed-down memories of all the ages are the proof of what I say.

Wherefore, rest ye neither day nor night and seek no ease. Tell ye the
secrets of servitude, follow the pathway of service, till ye attain the
promised succour that cometh from the realms of God.

O friends! Black clouds have shrouded all this earth, and the darkness of
hatred and malice, of cruelty and aggression and defilement is spreading
far and wide. The people, one and all, live out their lives in a heedless
stupor and the chief virtues of man are held to be his rapacity and his
thirst for blood. Out of all the mass of humankind God hath chosen the
friends, and He hath favoured them with His guidance and boundless grace.
His purpose is this, that we, all of us, should strive with our whole
hearts to offer ourselves up, guide others to His path, and train the
souls of men--until these frenzied beasts change to gazelles in the meadows
of oneness, and these wolves to lambs of God, and these brutish creatures
to angelic hosts; till the fires of hatred are quenched, and the flame
coming out of the sheltered vale of the Holy Shrine doth shed its
splendours; till the foul odour of the tyrant's dunghill is blown away,
and yieldeth to the pure, sweet scents that stream from the rosebeds of
faith and trust. On that day will the weak of intellect draw on the bounty
of the divine, Universal Mind, and they whose life is but abomination will
seek out these cleansing, holy breaths.

But there needs must be souls who will manifest such bestowals, there
needs must be husbandmen to till these fields, gardeners for these
gardens, there needs must be fish to swim in this sea, stars to gleam in
these heavens. These ailing ones must be tended by spiritual physicians,
these who are the lost need gentle guides--so that from such souls the
bereft may receive their portion, and the deprived obtain their share, and
the poor discover in such as they unmeasured wealth, and the seekers hear
from them unanswerable proofs.

O my Lord, my Defender, my Help in peril! Lowly do I entreat Thee, ailing
do I come unto Thee to be healed, humbly do I cry out to Thee with my
tongue, my soul, my spirit:

O God, my God! The gloom of night hath shrouded every region, and all the
earth is shut away behind thick clouds. The peoples of the world are sunk
in the black depths of vain illusions, while their