October 14

Praise be to God! that through the Bounty and Favor of the Most Great Name -- May my life be a sacrifice to His believers! -- the Voice of the Cause of God is raised in all countries and the Fame and Melody of the Word of God is spread in every region. In these days the Cause of God is progressing and advancing in America, and in Asia there is the clamor of Turk and Tajik. The Bahais have founded an English newspaper in the capital of Japan, which is edited and circulated by his honor, the learned Professor Barakatullah, of India. Some of the American believers are expecting to make a trip to China and Manchuria so that they may raise the Voice of the Kingdom in those parts, and in Europe and Asia the Trumpet of the Supreme Concourse is heard.

God be praised! Notwithstanding this divine, Majestic Cause, the promotion of the Word of God and the diffusion of the Fragrances of God, a few impotent ones, who are less than the flies, desire to break the Covenant and violate the Testament. How fruitless and weak is their endeavor! The screech of the owl is discordant before the Melody of the Kingdom and the cawing of the crow is drowned before the harmony of the  Nightingale of Significance; the weak bat with its shattered broken wing cannot soar with the white-winged Gabriel, and the darkness of humiliation and remorse cannot cover the rays of the Sun of Truth. Were there any justice they would all testify that this Pen is not moving the East and the West except through the Confirmation of the Blessed Perfection, and this Melody is not imparting rejoicing and delight to the world except through the assistance of the Most Great Name. When the blind souls deny the existence of the sun, they think they have accomplished a great feat, while heedless of the fact that they have proved more than anything else their own ignorance. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, extract from a Tablet to the friends in Khorasan, Persia;  Star of the West, vol. II, no. 3, April 28, 1911)