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O army of God! A letter signed jointly by all of you hath been received. It was most eloquent and full of flavour, and reading it was a delight.
Ye had written of the fasting month. Fortunate are ye to have obeyed the commandment of God, and kept this fast during the holy season. For this material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self, taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.
Your letter also betokened your unity and the closeness of your hearts. It is my hope that the west, through the boundless grace that God is pouring down in this new era, will become the east, the dawning-point of the Sun of Truth, and western believers the daysprings of light, and manifestors of the signs of God; that they will be guarded from the doubts of the heedless and will stay firm and unmoveable in the Covenant and Testament; that they will toil by day and by night until they awaken those who sleep, and make mindful those who are unaware, and bring in the outcast to be intimates of the inner circle, and bestow upon the destitute their portion of eternal grace. Let them be heralds of the Kingdom, and call out to the denizens of this nether world, and summon them to enter the realm on high.
O army of God! Today, in this world, every people is wandering astray in its own desert, moving here and there according to the dictates of its fancies and whims, pursuing its own particular caprice. Amongst all the teeming masses of the earth, only this community of the Most Great Name is free and clear of human schemes and hath no selfish purpose to promote. Alone amongst them all, this people hath arisen with aims purified of self, following the Teachings of God, most eagerly toiling and striving toward a single goal: to turn this nether dust into high heaven, to make of this world a mirror for the Kingdom, to change this world into a different world, and cause all humankind to adopt the ways of righteousness and a new manner of life.
O army of God! Through the protection and help
vouchsafed by the Blessed Beauty--may my life be a
sacrifice to His loved ones--ye must conduct yourselves
in such a manner that ye may stand out distinguished and
brilliant as the sun among other souls. Should any one of
you enter a city, he should become a centre of attraction
by reason of his sincerity, his faithfulness and love, his
honesty and fidelity, his truthfulness and loving-kindness
towards all the peoples of the world, so that the people of
that city may cry out and say: `This man is unquestionably
a
O army of God! The time hath come for the effects and
perfections of the Most Great Name to be made manifest in
this excellent age, so as to establish, beyond any doubt, that
this era is the era of
O army of God! Whensoever ye behold a person whose entire attention is directed toward the Cause of God; whose only aim is this, to make the Word of God to take effect; who, day and night, with pure intent, is rendering service to the Cause; from whose behaviour not the slightest trace of egotism or private motives is discerned--who, rather, wandereth distracted in the wilderness of the love of God, and drinketh only from the cup of the knowledge of God, and is utterly engrossed in spreading the sweet savours of God, and is enamoured of the holy verses of the Kingdom of God--know ye for a certainty that this individual will be supported and reinforced by heaven; that like unto the morning star, he will forever gleam brightly out of the skies of eternal grace. But if he show the slightest taint of selfish desires and self love, his efforts will lead to nothing and he will be destroyed and left hopeless at the last.
O army of God! Praise be to God,
O army of God! Make ye a mighty effort: perchance ye
can flood this earth with light, that this mud hut, the world,
may become the
O army of God! The Exalted One, the
O army of God! Beware lest ye harm any soul, or make any heart to sorrow; lest ye wound any man with your words, be he known to you or a stranger, be he friend or foe. Pray ye for all; ask ye that all be blessed, all be forgiven. Beware, beware, lest any of you seek vengeance, even against one who is thirsting for your blood. Beware, beware, lest ye offend the feelings of another, even though he be an evil-doer, and he wish you ill. Look ye not upon the creatures, turn ye to their Creator. See ye not the never-yielding people, see but the Lord of Hosts. Gaze ye not down upon the dust, gaze upward at the shining sun, which hath caused every patch of darksome earth to glow with light.
O army of God! When calamity striketh, be ye patient and composed. However afflictive your sufferings may be, stay ye undisturbed, and with perfect confidence in the abounding grace of God, brave ye the tempest of tribulations and fiery ordeals.
Last year a number of the unfaithful, both from within
and from without, both known to us and strangers, took
before the
Then it came about that the accusers themselves, those
who had made the defamatory charges against us, joined
with the members of the Commission to investigate the
accusations, so that plaintiffs, witnesses and judge were all
one and the same, and the conclusion was foregone. Nevertheless,
to be fair, it must be stated that up to now His
Majesty the
O Thou Provider! Thou hast breathed over the friends in the West the sweet fragrance of the Holy Spirit, and with the light of divine guidance Thou hast lit up the western sky. Thou hast made those who were once remote to draw near unto Thyself; Thou hast turned strangers into loving friends; Thou hast awakened those who slept; Thou hast made the heedless mindful.
O Thou Provider! Assist Thou these noble friends to win
Thy good pleasure, and make them well wishers of stranger
and friend alike. Bring them into the world that abideth
forever; grant them a portion of heavenly grace; cause
them to be true
O Thou Provider! The dearest wish of this servant of Thy Threshold is to behold the friends of east and west in close embrace; to see all the members of human society gathered with love in a single great assemblage, even as individual drops of water collected in one mighty sea; to behold them all as birds in one garden of roses, as pearls of one ocean, as leaves of one tree, as rays of one sun.
Thou art the Mighty, the Powerful, and Thou art the God of strength, the Omnipotent, the All-Seeing.
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