enviable country, "the nest of all the Prophets of God,"
"the Vale of God's unsearchable Decree, the snow-white Spot, the Land of
unfading splendor" was the Exile of Ba_gh_dad, of Constantinople and
Adrianople condemned to spend no less than a third of the allotted span of
His life, and over half of the total period of His Mission. "It is
difficult," declares 'Abdu'l-Baha, "to understand how Baha'u'llah could
have been obliged to leave Persia, and to pitch His tent in this Holy
Land, but for the persecution of His enemies, His banishment and exile."

Indeed such a consummation, He assures us, had been actually prophesied
"through the tongue of the Prophets two or three thousand years before."
God, "faithful to His promise," had, "to some of the Prophets" "revealed
and given the good news that the 'Lord of Hosts should be manifested in
the Holy Land.'" Isaiah had, in this connection, announced in his Book:
"Get thee up into the high mountain, O Zion that bringest good tidings;
lift up thy voice with strength, O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings.
Lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah: 'Behold your God!
Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for
Him.'" David, in his Psalms, had predicted: "Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the
King of Glory." "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence." Amos had, likewise,
foretold His coming: "The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice
from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the
top of Carmel shall wither."

Akka, itself, flanked by the "glory of Lebanon," and lying in full view of
the "splendor of Carmel," at the foot of the hills which enclose the home
of Jesus Christ Himself, had been described by David as "the Strong City,"
designated by Hosea as "a door of hope," and alluded to by Ezekiel as "the
gate that looketh towards the East," whereunto "the glory of the God of
Israel came from the way of the East," His voice "like a noise of many
waters." To it the Arabian Prophet had referred as "a city in Syria to
which God hath shown His special mercy," situated "betwixt two mountains
... in the middle of a meadow," "by the shore of the sea ... suspended
beneath the Throne," "white, whose whiteness is pleasing unto G