|  | 146: O thou handmaid afire with the love of God!  I ... | 
	| 1 | O thou handmaid afire with the love of God!  I have considered thine excellent letter, and thanked God for 
thy safe arrival in that great city.  I beg of Him, through His 
unfailing aid, to cause this return of thine to exert a powerful 
effect.  Such a thing can only come about if thou dost 
divest thyself of all attachment to this world, and dost put 
on the vesture of holiness; if thou dost limit all thy thoughts 
and all thy words to the remembrance of God and His 
 
 
praise; to spreading His sweet savours abroad, and performing 
righteous acts; and if thou dost devote thyself to 
awakening the heedless and restoring sight to the blind, 
hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and through the 
power of the spirit, giving life to the dead. | 
	| 2 | For even as Christ said of them in the Gospel, the people 
are blind, they are deaf, they are dumb; and He said:  `I will 
heal them.' | 
	| 3 | Be thou kind and compassionate to thine enfeebled 
mother, and speak to her of the Kingdom, that her heart 
may rejoice. | 
	| 4 | Give thou my greetings to Miss Ford.  Convey to her the 
glad tidings that these are the days of the Kingdom of God.  
Say unto her:  Blessed art thou for thy noble aims, blessed 
art thou for thy goodly deeds, blessed art thou for thy 
spiritual nature.  Verily do I love thee on account of these 
thine aims and qualities and deeds.  Tell her further:  
Remember the Messiah, and His days on earth, and His 
abasement, and His tribulations, and how the people paid 
Him no mind.  Remember how the Jews would hold Him 
up to ridicule, and mock at Him, and address Him with:  
`Peace be upon thee, King of the Jews!  Peace be upon thee, 
King of Kings!'  How they would say that He was mad, and 
would ask how the Cause of that crucified One could ever 
spread out to the easts of the world and the wests thereof.  
None followed Him then, save only a few souls who were 
fishermen, carpenters, and other plain folk.  Alas, alas, for 
such delusions! | 
	| 5 | And see what happened then:  how their mighty banners 
were reversed, and in their place His most exalted standard 
lifted up; how all the bright stars in that heaven of honour 
and pride did set; how they sank in the west of all that 
vanisheth--while His brilliant Orb still shineth down out of 
 
skies of undying glory, as the centuries and the ages roll by.  
Be ye then admonished, ye that have eyes to see!  Erelong 
shall ye behold even greater things than this. | 
	| 6 | Know thou that all the powers combined have not the 
power to establish universal peace, nor to withstand the 
overmastering dominion, at every time and season, of these 
endless wars.  Erelong, however, shall the power of heaven, 
the dominion of the Holy Spirit, hoist on the high summits 
the banners of love and peace, and there above the castles of 
majesty and might shall those banners wave in the rushing 
winds that blow out of the tender mercy of God. | 
	| 7 | Convey thou my greetings to Mrs. Florence, and tell her:  
The diverse congregations have given up the ground of 
their belief, and adopted doctrines that are of no account in 
the sight of God.  They are even as the Pharisees who both 
prayed and fasted, and then did sentence Jesus Christ to 
death.  By the life of God!  This thing is passing strange! | 
	| 8 | As to thee, O handmaid of God, softly recite thou this 
commune to thy Lord, and say unto Him: | 
	| 9 | O God, my God!  Fill up for me the cup of detachment 
from all things, and in the assembly of Thy 
splendours and bestowals, rejoice me with the wine of 
loving Thee.  Free me from the assaults of passion and 
desire, break off from me the shackles of this nether 
world, draw me with rapture unto Thy supernal realm, 
and refresh me amongst the handmaids with the breathings 
of Thy holiness. | 
	| 10 | O Lord, brighten Thou my face with the lights of 
Thy bestowals, light Thou mine eyes with beholding the 
signs of Thine all-subduing might; delight my heart 
with the glory of Thy knowledge that encompasseth all 
things, gladden Thou my soul with Thy soul-reviving 
 
tidings of great joy, O Thou King of this world and the 
Kingdom above, O Thou Lord of dominion and might, 
that I may spread abroad Thy signs and tokens, and 
proclaim Thy Cause, and promote Thy Teachings, and 
serve Thy Law, and exalt Thy Word. | 
	| 11 | Thou art verily the Powerful, the Ever-Giving, the 
Able, the Omnipotent. | 
	| 12 | As to the fundamentals of teaching the Faith:  know thou 
that delivering the Message can be accomplished only 
through goodly deeds and spiritual attributes, an utterance 
that is crystal clear and the happiness reflected from the face 
of that one who is expounding the Teachings.  It is essential 
that the deeds of the teacher should attest the truth of his 
words.  Such is the state of whoso doth spread abroad the 
sweet savours of God and the quality of him who is sincere 
in his faith. | 
	| 13 | Once the Lord hath enabled thee to attain this condition, 
be thou assured that He will inspire thee with words of 
truth, and will cause thee to speak through the breathings of 
the Holy Spirit. |