But as, time and again, experience has shown, in every age they have only seen verified the Blessed Beauty’s assurance that calamity’s rushing rain is the greening of His planted field, and afflictions are the oil that feeds and adds to the radiance of the lamp of God. And then, as the days go by, and they see with their own eyes the Day-Star in its noonday splendour, witness the bewildering richness of the fields that God has sown, behold His great and all-pervading Cause—then the fires of hatred and envy flame out of the hell of their natures; they can contain themselves no longer, and the truth of the holy words is proved, that God will not bring down a people from their station unless they have corrupted their good qualities themselves, and it becomes clearly shown that God brings on the downfall of the heedless little by little and in ways that they know not. During occurrences of this kind, it is incumbent upon the believers in other countries to immediately adopt prudent and reasonable measures, that through wise methods such fires may be put out. Let them not allow the claws of ravening wolves to be reddened with their brothers’ blood; let them defend God’s lambs from the hungry leopard’s knife-sharp teeth; let them guard the members of the one and single Bahá’í family from the poisoned sting of scorpions and snakes. This is the unique obligation of the Bahá’ís of the world. Addressing the believers, Baha’u’llah says: ‘Be ye as the fingers of one hand, the members of one body.’ This means that just as each member safeguards the rest, warding off any threatened harm, so too must the individual Bahá’ís do, whether in the East or the West. At this time it is urgently needful, and it is the request of this grieving servant, that the assembly of the believers in that area act at once, and take the case to the ambassador of the Iranian government. Let them tell him, ‘The holy Cause of Bahá’u’lláh has so unified us who are His world-wide followers, and has brought us so close together, that we have become like a single body. If the foot of a Bahá’í, in the farthest Eastern land, is so much as scratched by a thorn, it is even as if we Bahá’ís here in the West had suffered the same. We have now received word from Írán that in _Sh_íráz, in Sulṭánábád, in Hamadán, in Ká_sh_án, even in Ṭihrán, and in other places as well, the fanaticism of the ignorant and heedless has been fanned into flame, and that agitators are stirring up the populace—with the result that our brothers and sisters, who are but well-wishers of all humankind and are indeed the world’s only hope for peace, and are obedient and helpful citizens of Iran and her government, find themselves under attack and pushed into the heart of the fire.