s which, undeserving as I may be, God hath pleased to bestow upon Me
be not plain and manifest, this much at least will be clear and apparent,
that He, in His surpassing mercy and infinite grace, hath not deprived
Mine heart of the ornament of reason. The passage that was referred to
concerning the meaning of "rendering assistance unto God" is as follows:

_He is God, exalted be His glory!_

210 It is clear and evident that the one true God--glorified be His
mention!--is sanctified above the world and all that is therein. By
"rendering assistance unto God", then, it is not meant that any
soul should fight or contend with another. That Sovereign Lord Who
doeth whatsoever He pleaseth hath entrusted the kingdom of
creation, its lands and its seas, into the hands of the kings, for
they are, each according to his degree, the manifestations of His
divine power. Should they enter beneath the shadow of the True
One, they will be accounted of God, and if not, thy Lord, verily,
knoweth and observeth all things.

211 That which God--glorified be His Name!--hath desired for Himself
is the hearts of His servants, which are the treasuries of His
love and remembrance and the repositories of His knowledge and
wisdom. It hath ever been the wish of the Eternal King to cleanse
the hearts of His servants from the things of the world and all
that pertaineth thereunto, that they may be made worthy recipients
of the effulgent splendours of Him Who is the King of all names
and attributes. Wherefore must no stranger be allowed in the city
of the heart, that the incomparable Friend may enter His abode. By
this is meant the effulgence of His names and attributes, and not
His exalted Essence, inasmuch as that peerless King hath ever
been, and shall eternally remain, sanctified above ascent and
descent.

212 It followeth, therefore, that rendering assistance unto God,
in this day, doth not and shall never consist in contending or
disputing with any soul; nay rather, what is preferable in the
sight of God is that the cities of men's hearts, which are ruled
by the hosts of self and passion, should be subdued by the sword
of utterance, of wisdom and of understanding. Thus, whoso seeketh
to assist God must, before all else, conquer, with the sword of
inner meaning and explanation, the city of his own heart