divine Lote-Tree and himself, was a bond
so strong as to defy description, nor can the mind encompass that exalted
state. That secret is a secret well-concealed, a treasured mystery
unplumbed, and to a plane such as this, the minds of the believers can
never find their way. On this account the Guardian's anguish at being
parted from that bright and comely denizen of Heaven is beyond our
conceiving.

She who was a sparkling light of God, she who was so full of grace--that
widespread ray of Heaven's splendour, that sign of God's mercy--was made to
appear with all perfections, all goodly attributes, all blessed ways; and
never had the world's eye gazed upon such a welling spring of tender love,
of pity and compassion, and never will it behold again such a gem of
loving-kindness, such a fount of God's munificence.

How many a night did she whom the world wronged spend as a prisoner, worn
with care, tormented, banished from her home. How many a day did she live
through as an exile and a captive! There was no venom of affliction, at
the hands of this Faith's foes, that was not given her to drink, no arrow
of cruelty but struck her holy breast. Yet in spite of the endless
tribulations and disasters, she who was a spirit of holiness and a
songster of Heaven, would even in the midst of dire ordeals, her face
aglow, bloom like a rose.

The Guardian sends messages of consolation to you and all the friends in
this bereavement, and he says that in this calamitous time all must bow
down their heads and be acquiescent, arise in faithful service to His
Cause, and model themselves upon that most exalted, sacred and resplendent
presence.

16: The Guardian's anguish, because of this ...

(90) The Guardian's anguish, because of this tragic occurrence, is such
that it can neither be plumbed nor described in words. That sublime and
gloried Leaf, that precious jewel of the Kingdom, was the one great solace
of his life; she was his glorious companion, and her disappearance, and
the separation from her, and her ascending into the heavenly presence and
court of her Lord was the direst ordeal to be visited upon the people of
Baha. Alas for any future time that might produce such a calamity, when
the world's eye might see its like.

That sacred treasure, that jewel of Heaven, was the very sign and token of
spiritual attributes and qualities and perfections, the very model of high
honour and nobility and heavenly ways. The sufferings