sting of the adder. Be thou grateful
to God, that We have refused to divulge unto thee the secrets of those
unsearchable decrees that have been sent down unto Us from the heaven of
the Will of thy Lord, the Most Powerful, the Almighty.

By the righteousness of God! Every morning I arose from My bed, I
discovered the hosts of countless afflictions massed behind My door; and
every night when I lay down, lo! My heart was torn with agony at what it
had suffered from the fiendish cruelty of its foes. With every piece of
bread the Ancient Beauty breaketh is coupled the assault of a fresh
affliction, and with every drop He drinketh is mixed the bitterness of the
most woeful of trials. He is preceded in every step He taketh by an army
of unforeseen calamities, while in His rear follow legions of agonizing
sorrows.

Such is My plight, wert thou to ponder it in thine heart. Let not,
however, thy soul grieve over that which God hath rained down upon Us.
Merge thy will in His pleasure, for We have, at no time, desired anything
whatsoever except His Will, and have welcomed each one of His irrevocable
decrees. Let thine heart be patient, and be thou not dismayed. Follow not
in the way of them that are sorely agitated.

LXIII: O THOU WHOSE FACE IS TURNED TOWARDS ME!...

O thou whose face is turned towards Me! As soon as thine eyes behold from
afar My native city (Tihran), stand thou and say: I am come to thee out of
the Prison, O Land of Ta, with tidings from God, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting. I announce unto thee, O mother of the world and fountain
of light unto all its peoples, the tender mercies of thy Lord, and greet
thee in the name of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, the Knower of things
unseen. I testify that within thee He Who is the Hidden Name was revealed,
and the Unseen Treasure uncovered. Through thee the secret of all things,
be they of the past or of the future, hath been unfolded.

O Land of Ta! He Who is the Lord of Names remembereth thee in His glorious
station. Thou wert the Day Spring of the Cause of God, the fountain of His
Revelation, the manifestation of His Most Great Name--a Name that hath
caused the hearts and souls of men to tremble. How vast the number of
those men and women, those victims of tyranny, that have, within thy
walls, laid down their lives in the path of God, and been buried beneath
thy dust with such cruelty as to cause every honored servant of God to
bemoan their plight.