ly is
confirmed. I hope from the bounties of His Highness the Incomparable One
that under all circumstances and conditions ye may become assisted in the
service of the Kingdom of God.

Ye have written regarding the erection of the Temple and the purchase of
the ground, or the finding of a place to be as a home for the gathering of
the believers. At this moment that Abdul-Baha is immersed in the ocean of
calamities, this news caused him joy and happiness, that--praise be to
God!--the friends and the maid-servants of the Merciful are thinking to
serve the Kingdom of God.

O ye sanctified souls! It is the time of firmness and steadfastness and
the period of arising in the service of the Word of God, for the Blessed
City(201) is environed from all directions with the tempestuous waves of
tests and trials and the sweeping hurricanes of persecutions and hardships
are blowing and roaring high. The joy and happiness of the heart of
Abdul-Baha depends upon the stability and constancy of the believers. For
they must live and act in accord with the divine advices and exhortations
and show forth to each other the power of the perfection of love with
infinite accord and unity, so that they may become the embodiment of one
existence, the waves of ones sea, the myrtles of one rose-garden, the rays
of one sun, the stars of one horizon, the fruits of one tree and the birds
of one meadow.

Likewise, they must treat with and behave toward all the governments,
nations, communities, kings and subjects with the utmost sincerity,
trustworthiness, straightforwardness, love and kindness. Even they must
make hopeful a bloodthirsty enemy, show sympathy with the utmost
faithfulness and honor to the perfidious unjust, know the ill-wisher as
the well-wisher and torment not the sinner with reproaches. Should they
become the targets of a thousand arrows of persecution, they must
challenge it with love and friendship and treat every one with purity of
purpose and kindness.

O ye friends of God! Show ye an endeavor that all the nations and
communities of the world, even the enemies, put their trust, assurance and
hope in you; that if a person falls into errors for a hundred-thousand
times he may yet turn his face to you, hopeful that you will forgive his
sins; for he must not become hopeless, neither grieved nor despondent.
This is the conduct and the manner of the people of Baha'. This is the
foundation of the most high pathway! Ye should conform y