f the country. And if delivering the Message should be the cause of
disturbance, let them then be engaged in encouraging and educating the
friends, in order that those souls receive spiritual attraction and
rejoice, seek delight and ecstasy, acquire new life and through the
fragrances of sanctity gain vivacity and freshness.

The object is this, that in the time of peace and safety this work of
delivering the Message should be carried on with the utmost fervor. But
when there is no peace and safety, extreme wisdom should be exercised,
though no complete cessation of effort is permissible, for in that case
the divine assistance shall be entirely cut off.

With regard to the formation of benevolent associations, surely this
subject should be given due attention. The disciples of His Holiness
Christ--may my life be a sacrifice unto Him!--were only eleven persons and
they had established a benevolent fund. So the establishment of the fund
had that degree of importance.

"O ye sincere ones! O ye favored ones! O ye beseeching..."

O ye(177) sincere ones! O ye favored ones! O ye beseeching ones! O ye
supplicating ones!

Verily, I set my forehead on the dust and turn my face toward the Lord of
Lords and invoke my Lord with intense fervor and attraction, that He may
look upon you with the glances of the eye of His providence, watch over
you with the gaze of His protection, unite your hearts, dilate your
breasts, harmonize your souls, rejoice you with gladness, exhilarate you
with the chalices of salvation, make you steadfast in the divine Cause and
that He may enable you to cling to the hem of the Almighty, to hasten
toward the place of sacrifice and to be sheltered under the shadow of the
Blessed Tree whose roots are planted firm and whose branches are extended
to heaven:

O my Lord! O my Lord! These are the chosen ones whose faces are illumined
with the light of guidance, who found the heavenly table pleasing to their
tastes, who submitted willingly to every matter which happened in the land
and sought help from the hosts of the Supreme Concourse. Their feet are
indeed made firm, their banners hoisted, their deeds righteous and their
actions just. O Lord! Make them fragrant plants of Thy paradise, flowers
of the garden of nearness, verses of Thy glorious book, words of Thy
"Published tablet" unto the people of the world and as falcons soaring on
the loftiest summit. Verily Thou art the Beneficent, the Merciful, th