e as healing balm, a medicine for the conscience of
man. They clear the head, so that a man can breathe them in and delight in
their sweet fragrance. They waken those who sleep. They bring awareness to
the unheeding, and a portion to the outcast, and to the hopeless, hope.

If in this day a soul shall act according to the precepts and the counsels
of God, he will serve as a divine physician to mankind, and like the trump
of Israfil,(16) he will call the dead of this contingent world to life;
for the confirmations of the Abha Realm are never interrupted, and such a
virtuous soul hath, to befriend him, the unfailing help of the Company on
high. Thus shall a sorry gnat become an eagle in the fulness of his
strength, and a feeble sparrow change to a royal falcon in the heights of
ancient glory.

Wherefore, look not on the degree of your capacity, ask not if you are
worthy of the task: rest ye your hopes on the help and loving-kindness,
the favours and bestowals of Baha'u'llah--may my soul be offered up for His
friends! Urge on the steed of high endeavour over the field of sacrifice,
and carry away from this wide arena the prize of divine grace.

O ye handmaids of the merciful Lord! How many queens of this world laid
down their heads on a pillow of dust and disappeared. No fruit was left of
them, no trace, no sign, not even their names. For them, no more granting
of bestowals; for them, no more living at all. Not so the handmaids who
ministered at the Threshold of God; these have shone forth like glittering
stars in the skies of ancient glory, shedding their splendours across all
the reaches of time. These have fulfilled their dearest hopes in the Abha
Paradise; they have tasted the honey of reunion in the congregation of the
Lord. Such souls as these profited from their existence here on earth:
they plucked the fruit of life. As for the rest, 'There surely came upon
them a time when they were a thing not spoken of.'

O ye lovers of this wronged one! Cleanse ye your eyes, so that ye behold
no man as different from yourselves. See ye no strangers; rather see all
men as friends, for love and unity come hard when ye fix your gaze on
otherness. And in this new and wondrous age, the Holy Writings say that we
must be at one with every people; that we must see neither harshness nor
injustice, neither malevolence, nor hostility, nor hate, but rather turn
our eyes toward the heaven of ancient glory. For each of the creatures is
a s