ion as a delectable
paradise, and count annoyance and hostility as the torment of hell-fire.
Exert with your soul; seek no rest in body; supplicate and beseech with
your heart and search for divine assistance and favor, in order that ye
may make this world the Paradise of ABHA and this terrestrial globe the
arena of the Supreme Kingdom. If ye make an effort, it is certain that
these lights will shine, this cloud of mercy shall rain, this
soul-nourishing breeze shall waft, and the scent of this most fragrant
musk be diffused.

O ye friends of God! Be ye not concerned with the events transpiring at
this Blessed Spot, and give no thought thereto. Whatever may happen is
good, for calamities are bestowal itself, hardship is the reality of
mercy, discomposure is but composure of mind, and sacrifice of life is a
manifest gift. Whatever may happen is a bounty from God, the Most High. Be
ye engaged in your own affairs; be employed in guiding the people; train
the souls in the qualities and nature of Abdul-Baha, and convey the
glad-tidings of the Kingdom of ABHA to the people. Do not seek rest during
night and day and sit not tranquil for a minute. Bring these glad-tidings
to the hearing of mankind with the utmost exertion, and accept every
calamity and affliction in your love for God and reliance on Abdul-Baha.
Endure the censure of enemies and bear the reproaches of the people of
oppression with patience. Follow the example of Abdul-Baha and at every
moment wish to offer yourselves in the path of the Beauty of ABHA. Shine
ye like unto the sun and roar and move like unto the sea; impart life to
mountain and desert like unto clouds, and similar to the vernal breeze,
bestow freshness, grace and elegance on the trees of human temples.

"O ye children of the Kingdom!..."

O ye(33) children of the Kingdom!

It is New Year; that is to say, the rounding of the cycle of the year. A
year is the expression of a cycle (of the sun); but now is the beginning
of a cycle of Realty, a New Cycle, a New Age, a New Century, a New Time
and a New Year. Therefore it is very blessed.

I wish this blessing to appear and become manifest in the faces and
characteristics of the believers, so that they, too, may become a new
people, and having found new life and been baptized with fire and spirit,
may make the world a new world, to the end that the old earth may
disappear and the new earth appear; old ideas depart and new thoughts
come; old ga