rld--to refine and train and
educate the human race. He watered the tree of the Faith, He sheltered it
from the whirlwind and the lightning bolt, He protected God's holy Cause,
He guarded the divine law, He defeated its adversaries, He frustrated the
hopes of those who wished it ill.

All His life long, that quintessence of eternal glory, that subtle and
mysterious Being, was subjected to trials and ordeals. He was the target
of every calumny, of every false accusation, from enemies both without and
within. To be a victim of oppression was His lot in this world's life, and
all He knew of it was toil and pain. In the dark of the night, He would
sigh out His grief, and as He chanted His prayers at the hour of dawn,
that wondrous voice of His would rise up to the inmates of Heaven.

Under such conditions, He trained and with His own hand fostered a number
of souls who would stand as a mighty fortress protecting the Cause, and as
armour-plate for the Ark of the Covenant. With awesome power, these would
scatter the forces of illusion, and with heavy blows, strike down the
false rumours of the people of doubt. God be praised, that labour bore
fruit, and the meaning of those toilsome efforts became plain. Those
blessed souls rose up in all their loyalty, and with their steadfastness
and long-suffering they served as shining examples for the children of
salvation.

His bounties, His favours to the people of Baha were made perfect, and
extended to every class and kind. And as at the beginning, so at the end:
His final bestowal of all, a crowning adornment, was His Will and
Testament. Here, to Baha'is of every degree, in the clearest, most
complete, most unmistakable of utterances, He described the obligation of
each one, explicitly appointed, irrefutably and in writing, the Centre of
the Faith, designating the Guardian of the Cause and the interpreter of
the Holy Book, His Eminence Shoghi Effendi, appointing him, the Chosen
Branch, as the one toward whom all must turn. Thus He closed for all time
the doors of contention and strife, and in the best of ways and in a most
perfect method He pointed out the path that leads aright.

Thus by its very roots He pulled out the tree of mischief and dissension.
He razed the structure of violation to the ground. He left no margin for
error, no room for doubts. And thus He crowned the first of all His
loving-kindnesses with this last of them. Let us praise and thank God for
this supreme gi