, even he who turns away and backslides. It came to the imagination of
some children that they are able to abolish this Covenant, the like of
which was not known in the early centuries and the heavenly ages of the
past; and they shall see themselves in evident loss!

But as to you, O ye firm and steadfast, be straightforward in the Cause of
God, let your feet be firm in the Religion of God, and arise with every
effort within your power to render victorious the Covenant of God. By God,
the Truth, you will be assisted by a numerous army, and re-inforced by a
cohort of the angels of God. Pay not the slightest attention to that which
is said by these children, for their statements and sayings are nothing
but confused dreams.

The Star of the Covenant shall shine intensely upon all horizons and
regions, and the violators will be as bats hiding themselves in dark
holes! It is enough humiliation and abasement to them that they have
violated the Covenant of God and contradicted the Appointed Center, and
desired to demolish this solid edifice--which, alas, could not be! By God,
they did not demolish but their own edifice, did not shake but their own
foundations, and did not scatter but their own union, and to them shall
come the news of what they have done!

But as to you, O ye beloved of God, strengthen yourselves by every effort
and arise to serve the Cause of God, for verily the Holy Spirit will
confirm you by the breaths of the True One in all cases and under all
circumstances!

"O thou who art firm in the Covenant!..."

O thou(150) who art firm in the Covenant!

***The prison is like a paradise to Abdul-Baha, the depth of the well is
as the height of the moon--such is my desire in the Path of the Blessed
Beauty! Were it not for the chain, sword and affliction, how should the
people of faithfulness be distinguished from the people of hatred? Nay,
otherwise, they would seem as one. This wound cannot be remedied save by a
host of calamities, and this illness cannot be cured except by the cup of
affliction.

I ask God that I may not repose for a moment, but that, night and day, in
the love of the Blessed Beauty(151)--may my spirit be a sacrifice to Him!--I
may drink from the rosy cup of the blood of the heart.

With every breath do I desire to perceive thousands of afflictions
approaching me from every inhuman one; at one time, to rest in the bottom
of a dungeon; at another, to repose on the chain; and, ultimate