for ...

(182) You have offered up thanks to the Lord for appointing the Centre of
His Cause and the Guardian of His Covenant, and have voiced your gratitude
and expressed your spiritual sentiments, for this favour and grace.

It is true, in all the world there could be no mercy greater than this, no
bounty more abundant.

'Abdu'l-Baha, may our lives be sacrificed for His sacred dust, has
bestowed on us a wondrous gift, a most great favour. He has clearly shown
us the highway of guidance and explicitly designated the Centre toward
whom all the people of Baha must turn, and with His own bounteous pen has
written down for us what will ensure prosperity and progress, and
salvation and bliss, for evermore.

Now is the time to arise and serve with all our powers, that we may grow
happier day by day, and fill our hearts with warmth and joy.

57: The Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name, ...

(183) The Ancient Beauty, the Most Great Name, has, through the splendours
of His grace in this most glorious of all ages, made this world of dust to
radiate light. The loving counsels of 'Abdu'l-Baha have turned the beloved
of the Lord into signs and tokens of humility and lowliness. He has taught
them selflessness, and freedom from material things, and detachment from
the world, and has enabled them to understand the verities of Heaven.

In that supernal realm we are all but motes; in the court of the Lord
God's majesty we are but helpless shadows. He is the Shelter for all; He
is the Protector of all; He is the Helper of all; He is the Preserver of
all. Whensoever we look upon ourselves, we, one and all, despair; but He,
with all His grace, His bestowals, His bounties, is the close Companion of
each one.

It is certain that tests and trials are inseparable from this life and a
vital requirement thereof, especially for the human race and above all for
those who claim to have faith and love. Only through trials can the
genuine be known from the worthless, and purity from pollution, and the
real from the false. The meaning of the sacred verse: 'Do men think when
they say 'We believe' they shall be let alone and not be put to
proof?'(184) prevails at all times and is applicable at every breath, and
fire will only bring out the brightness of the gold.

So it is my hope that with lowliness and a contrite heart, with
supplications and prayers, with good intentions and faithfulness, with
purity of heart and adherence to the t