Beware that ye swell not with pride before God, and disdainfully
reject His loved ones. Defer ye humbly to the faithful, they that have believed
in God and in His signs, whose hearts witness to His unity, whose tongues
proclaim His oneness, and who speak not except by His leave. Thus do We exhort
you with justice, and warn you with truth, that perchance ye may be awakened. 
Respect ye the divines and learned amongst you, they whose
conduct accords with their professions, who transgress not the bounds which God
hath fixed, whose judgments are in conformity with His behests as revealed in
His Book. Know ye that they are the lamps of guidance unto them that are in the
heavens and on the earth. They who disregard and neglect the divines and
learned that live amongst them—these have truly changed the favor with which
God hath favored them.
Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be
laid upon you, and desire not for any one the things ye would not desire for
yourselves. This is My best counsel unto you, did ye but observe it.
The day is approaching when God will have raised up a people
who will call to remembrance Our days, who will tell the tale of Our trials,
who will demand the restitution of Our rights from them that, without a tittle
of evidence, have treated Us with manifest injustice. God, assuredly,
dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their
doings. He will, most certainly, lay hold on them for their sins. He, verily,
is the fiercest of avengers.
O Son of Being! Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My
descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation.
O Son of Man! The temple of being is My throne; cleanse it
of all things, that there I may be established and there I may abide.
O Shaykh! [1] Seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean,
and enter, then, the Crimson Ark which God hath ordained in the Qayyúm-i-Asmá
for the people of Bahá. Verily, it passeth over land and sea. He that entereth
therein is saved, and he that turneth aside perisheth.
The eyes of this Wronged One are turned towards naught save
trustworthiness, truthfulness, purity, and all that profiteth men.
The Cause of God hath come as a token of His grace. Happy
are they who act; happy are they who understand; happy the man that hath clung
unto the truth, detached from all that is in the heavens and all that is on
earth.
O people of the world! When the Mystic Dove will have winged
its flight from its Sanctuary of Praise and sought its far-off goal, its hidden
habitation, refer ye whatsoever ye understand not in the Book to Him ['Abdu'l-Baha] Who hath
branched from this mighty Stock.
Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His
[‘Abdu’l-Baha’s] footsteps have trodden, the eye that hath been cheered by the
beauty of His countenance, the ear that hath been honoured by hearkening to His
call, the heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast that
hath dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the
scroll that hath borne the testimony of His writings.
The Will of the divine Testator is this: It is incumbent
upon the Aghsan, the Afnan and My Kindred to turn, one and all, their faces
towards the Most Mighty Branch. Consider that which We have revealed in Our
Most Holy Book: 'When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My
Revelation is ended, turn your faces toward Him Whom God hath purposed, Who
hath branched from this Ancient Root.' The object of this sacred verse is none
other except the Most Mighty Branch [Abdu'l-Bahá]. Thus have We graciously
revealed unto you Our potent Will, and I am verily the Gracious, the All-Powerful.
O my brother! A divine Mine only can yield the gems of
divine knowledge, and the fragrance of the mystic Flower can be inhaled only in
the ideal Garden, and the lilies of ancient wisdom can blossom nowhere except
in the city of a stainless heart. “In a rich soil, its plants spring forth
abundantly by permission of its Lord, and in that soil which is bad, they
spring forth but scantily.” (Qur’an 7:57)
All this generation could offer Us were wounds from its
darts, and the only cup it proffered to Our lips was the cup of its venom. On
our neck We still bear the scar of chains, and upon Our body are imprinted the
evidences of an unyielding cruelty.
We have consumed this densest of all veils, with the fire of
the love of the Beloved—the veil referred to in the saying: “The most grievous
of all veils is the veil of knowledge.” Upon its ashes, We have reared the
tabernacle of divine knowledge. We have, praise be to God, burned the “veils of
glory” with the fire of the beauty of the Best-Beloved. We have driven from the
human heart all else but Him Who is the Desire of the world, and glory therein.
We cleave to no knowledge but His Knowledge, and set our hearts on naught save
the effulgent glories of His light.
… these Essences of being [Manifestations of God] are
immensely exalted above… and… immeasurably glorified beyond all… vain sayings
and above the comprehension of every understanding heart.
…it behooveth no man to interpret the holy words according
to his own imperfect understanding, nor, having found them to be contrary to
his inclination and desires, to reject and repudiate their truth.
By the righteousness of God! Every morning I arose from My
bed, I discovered the hosts of countless afflictions massed behind My door; and
every night when I lay down, lo! My heart was torn with agony at what it had
suffered from the fiendish cruelty of its foes. With every piece of bread the
Ancient Beauty breaketh is coupled the assault of a fresh affliction, and with
every drop He drinketh is mixed the bitterness of the most woeful of trials. He
is preceded in every step He taketh by an army of unforeseen calamities, while
in His rear follow legions of agonizing sorrows.
Eschew all manner of wickedness, for such things are
forbidden unto you in the Book which none touch except such as God hath
cleansed from every taint of guilt, and numbered among the purified.”
The civilization so often vaunted by the learned exponents
of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation,
bring great evil upon men.... If carried to excess, civilization will prove as
prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the
restraints of moderation.