II

II

In this stern battle of life the members of this oppressed community,²⁰ aided by the power of the Kingdom and fortified by heavenly determination, by divinely imparted hopes and by glad-tidings from on high, are standing ready and alert to face any commotion or calamity. Unrelenting tribulations and increasing obstacles shall not make them flinch, nor cause them dismay or grief. They know with full certitude that as the horizons of the world grow darker, as its agitation becomes more severe and the prevailing chaos and confusion more widespread, the dawn of the Promised Day will correspondingly draw nearer, and the means for the splendours of His light to be shed abroad will be more readily provided.

However, the fulfilment of glad-tidings, so glorious and heart-uplifting, must needs be heralded by awesome and distressing events, inasmuch as the realization of these irrevocable and divinely ordained promises depends on the awakening and stirring of the conscience of the entire human race, while this cannot be achieved save through the occurrence of unnumbered afflictions, manifold convulsions, and growing adversities. And it is precisely for this reason that the people of Bahá are nourished from the draught of certitude and are alive and active through the spirit of hope. They strive diligently, are alert and watchful, steadfast and vigilant. With heart and soul they exert their efforts. They will not allow the pressure of calamities gradually to impair the foundation of the Cause of God or vitiate the essence of its divinely revealed principles, nor will they permit the wickedness and the prevalence of crime to nullify or eclipse the radiance of the cardinal laws of their Faith, or the aggressive hands of the opponents and the machinations of the ungodly to inflict harm upon this holy Revelation, or the confused theories and ideologies that prevail in these days to create the least deviation from the straight path of God…