ow not for Myself, however. By God! Mine head yearneth for the
spear out of love for its Lord. I never passed a tree, but Mine heart
addressed it saying: "O would that thou wert cut down in My name, and My
body crucified upon thee, in the path of My Lord!", for I see the people
wandering distraught and unconscious in their drunken stupor. They have
raised on high their passions and set down their God. Methinks they have
taken His Cause for a mockery and regard it as a play and pastime,
believing all the while that they do well, and that they dwell securely in
the citadel of safety. Howbeit the matter is not as they fondly imagine:
tomorrow shall they behold that which today they are wont to deny!

267 Erelong shall the exponents of wealth and power banish Us from the
land of Adrianople to the city of 'Akka. According to what they say, it is
the most desolate of the cities of the world, the most unsightly of them
in appearance, the most detestable in climate, and the foulest in water.
It is as though it were the metropolis of the owl, within whose precincts
naught can be heard save the echo of its cry. Therein have they resolved
to imprison this Youth, to shut against our faces the doors of ease and
comfort, and to deprive us of every worldly benefit throughout the
remainder of our days.

268 By God! Though weariness lay Me low, and hunger consume Me, and the
bare rock be My bed, and My fellows the beasts of the field, I will not
complain, but will endure patiently as those endued with constancy and
firmness have endured patiently, through the power of God, the Eternal
King and Creator of the nations, and will render thanks unto God under all
conditions. We pray that, out of His bounty--exalted be He--He may release,
through this imprisonment, the necks of men from chains and fetters, and
cause them to turn, with sincere faces, towards His face, Who is the
Mighty, the Bounteous. Ready is He to answer whosoever calleth upon Him,
and nigh is He unto such as commune with Him. We further beseech Him to
make of this darksome tribulation a shield for the Temple of His Cause,
and to protect it from the assault of sharpened swords and pointed
daggers. Adversity hath ever given rise to the exaltation of His Cause and
the glorification of His Name. Such hath been God's method carried into
effect in centuries and ages past. That which the people now fail to
apprehend they shall erelong discover, on that day when their steeds shall