and for the execution of a mighty purpose. Through the
agency of Baha'u'llah's Covenant I, as the ploughman, have been called
upon since the beginning of my ministry to turn up and break its ground.
The mighty confirmations that have, in the opening days of your career,
rained upon you have prepared and invigorated its soil. The tribulations
you subsequently were made to suffer have driven deep furrows into the
field which my hands had prepared. The seeds with which I have been
entrusted I have now scattered far and wide before you. Under your loving
care, by your ceaseless exertions, every one of these seeds must
germinate, every one must yield its destined fruit. A winter of
unprecedented severity will soon be upon you. Its storm-clouds are fast
gathering on the horizon. Tempestuous winds will assail you from every
side. The Light of the Covenant will be obscured through my departure.
These mighty blasts, this wintry desolation, shall however pass away. The
dormant seed will burst into fresh activity. It shall put forth its buds,
shall reveal, in mighty institutions, its leaves and blossoms. The vernal
showers which the tender mercies of my heavenly Father will cause to
descend upon you will enable this tender plant to spread out its branches
to regions far beyond the confines of your native land. And finally the
steadily mounting sun of His Revelation, shining in its meridian splendor,
will enable this mighty Tree of His Faith to yield, in the fullness of
time and on your soil, its golden fruit.

The implications of such a parting message could not long remain
unrevealed to 'Abdu'l-Baha's initiated disciples. No sooner had He
concluded His long and arduous journey across the American and European
continents than the tremendous happenings to which He had alluded began to
be made manifest. A conflict, such as He had predicted, severed for a time
all means of communication with those on whom He had come to place such
implicit trust and from whom He was expecting so much in return. The
wintry desolation, with all its havoc and carnage, pursued during four
years its relentless course, while He, repairing to the quiet solitude of
His residence in the close neighborhood of Baha'u'llah's hallowed shrine,
continued to communicate His thoughts and wishes to those whom He had left
behind and on whom He had conferred the unique tokens of His favor. In the
immortal Tablets which, in the long hours of His communion with His
dearly-