ld tell,
No bounds my pen would know;
My work would swell,
My book will grow,
For tons of scroll
Would bear my woe.

For over a period of thirty years, always increasing their efforts, they
inflicted extreme anguish on 'Abdu'l-Baha; and they did not, in all this
span, ever take one step nor draw a single breath to help the Faith. They
spent their entire time in attempts to wean to beloved of God away from
obedience to the Centre of the Covenant, and to undermine their
convictions, making them waver in their faith, and turning them cold; and
because of what they did, thousands of souls were veiled from the holy
Cause, and prevented from embracing it.

Such then is a glimpse of their aims and actions, which made them to be
cut off from the Holy Tree, and excluded them from glory and joy
everlasting. They lost out, both here and hereafter, and 'this verily is
utter perdition'.(154)

O you men who stand fast and firm, you women who are steadfast and firm in
you faith! Whensoever I visit the Holy Shrines, I think of you, and in all
lowliness at His Threshold, I entreat the Almighty to send down upon you
all His invisible confirmations, and to let His endless bounties enwrap
each one of you--so that through the efforts of those chosen ones of God,
the lights of loyalty and sincerity and truth, and staunchness in the
divine Covenant, will be shed upon that town;(155) that it may be
delivered from the consequences of ill-omened disaffection and violation,
and that instead, a fortunate star may rise there out of the concealing
depths and mount upward to the heavens; that no scrolls of doubt, and of
calumnies against the divine Covenant, may remain therein; and that every
name there may be written down in the heavenly register of those who have
kept the faith.

O Lord, set their feet firm in Thy Covenant; let them hold fast to the
cord of steadfastness in Thy Cause. Protect them from the hosts of discord
and calumny, and cause them to come under the sheltering banner of Thy
Testament, that is raised high on the summits of the earth.

Light up then in their hearts the flame of severance from everything
except Thy love, and help them by Thine overwhelming might to labour for
Thy Teachings.

Verily Thou art the Generous. Verily Thou art He Whose bounty embraceth
all things.

May the lights and the splendours be shed upon all of you.

34: To the doves of faithfulness, ever since ...

(156) To the doves of faithf