Erelong the wicked-doers in that land will arise to heap
denunciations upon the true believers, and vent their spite upon the company of
the faithful. Each day they will inflict a galling wound, each hour a stunning
blow. Rebuking the friends for the love they bear Bahá'u'lláh and ‘Abdu'l-Bahá,
they will consider justified their denunciations, their scorn and malice, and
spare no effort to do the friends whatever injury it lieth within their power
to inflict. Such conduct is at one with the modes and practices of the people
aforetime: in bygone centuries, in the days of the appearance of the holy
Manifestations, the people acted in just this manner; and now, in these days,
it is inevitable that they will repeat such actions, nay, act with greater
perversity than before... Hence it is certain that thou wilt be afflicted with
adversities, tests and injuries for the sake of the Blessed Beauty; yet these
afflictions shall be the purest bounties and bestowals, and a token of thy
acceptance at the Divine Threshold.
(‘Abdu'l-Bahá,
from a Tablet — translated from the Persian; The Compilation of Compilations,
vol. 1, Crisis and Victory)
