O ye whom 'Abdu'l-Baha loveth! I have read your reports with great joy;
they are of a nature to cheer and refresh the heart and gladden the soul.
If this Assembly, through the holy breathings of the All-Merciful and His
divine confirmations, endure and remain fixed and firm, it shall produce
notable results and it shall succeed in enterprises of great moment.
The Spiritual Assemblies to be established in this Age of God, this holy
century, have, it is indisputable, had neither peer nor likeness in the
cycles gone before. For those assemblages that wielded power were based on
the support of mighty leaders of men, while these Assemblies are based on
the support of the Beauty of Abha. The defenders and patrons of those
other assemblages were either a prince, or a king, or a chief priest, or
the mass of the people. But these Spiritual Assemblies have for their
defender, their supporter, their helper, their inspirer, the omnipotent
Lord.
Look ye not upon the present, fix your gaze upon the times to come. In the
beginning, how small is the seed, yet in the end it is a mighty tree. Look
ye not upon the seed, look ye upon the tree, and its blossoms, and its
leaves and its fruits. Consider the days of Christ, when none but a small
band followed Him; then observe what a mighty tree that seed became,
behold ye its fruitage. And now shall come to pass even greater things
than these, for this is the summons of the Lord of Hosts, this is the
trumpet-call of the living Lord, this is the anthem of world peace, this
is the standard of righteousness and trust and understanding raised up
among all the variegated peoples of the globe; this is the splendour of
the Sun of Truth, this is the holiness of the spirit of God Himself. This
most powerful of dispensations will encompass all the earth, and beneath
its banner will all peoples gather and be sheltered together. Know then
the vital import of this tiny seed that the true Husbandman hath, with the
hands of His mercy, sown in the ploughed fields of the Lord, and watered
with the rain of bestowals and bounties and is now nurturing in the heat
and light of the Day-Star of Truth.
Wherefore, O ye loved ones of God, offer up thanks unto Him, since He hath
made you the object of such bounties, and the recipients of such gifts.
Blessed are ye, glad tidings to you, for this abounding grace.