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Selections From the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá
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Pages 103-106
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68: O ye who are firm in the Covenant and the Testament! ...
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O ye who are firm in the Covenant and the Testament! Your letter was received and your blessed names
were one by one perused. The contents of the letter were
divine inspirations and manifest bounties because they were
indicative of the union of the friends and the harmony of
all hearts.
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Today the most remarkable favour of God centereth
around union and harmony among the friends; so that this
unity and concord may be the cause of the promulgation of
the oneness of the world of humanity, may emancipate the
world from this intense darkness of enmity and rancour,
and that the Sun of Truth may shine in full and perfect
effulgence.
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Today, all the peoples of the world are indulging in self-interest
and exert the utmost effort and endeavour to
promote their own material interests. They are worshipping
themselves and not the divine reality, nor the world of
mankind. They seek diligently their own benefit and not
the common weal. This is because they are captives of the
world of nature and unaware of the divine teachings, of the
bounty of the Kingdom and of the Sun of Truth. But ye,
praise be to God, are at present especially favoured with
this bounty, have become of the chosen, have been informed
of the heavenly instructions, have gained admittance into
the Kingdom of God, have become the recipients of unbounded
blessings and have been baptized with the Water
of Life, with the fire of the love of God and with the Holy
Spirit.
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Strive, therefore, with heart and soul that ye become
ignited candles in the assemblage of the world, glittering
stars on the horizon of Truth and may become the cause of
the propagation of the light of the Kingdom; in order that
the world of humanity may be converted into a divine
realm, the nether world may become the world on high,
the love of God and the mercy of the Lord may raise their
canopy upon the apex of the world, human souls may
become the waves of the ocean of truth, the world of
humanity may grow into one blessed tree, the verses of
oneness may be chanted and the melodies of sanctity may
reach the Supreme Concourse.
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Day and night I entreat and supplicate to the Kingdom of
God and beg for you infinite assistance and confirmation.
Do not take into consideration your own aptitudes and
capacities, but fix your gaze on the consummate bounty,
the divine bestowal and the power of the Holy Spirit--the
power that converteth the drop into a sea and the star into
a sun.
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Praise be to God, the hosts of the Supreme Concourse
secure the victory and the power of the Kingdom is ready
to assist and to support. Should ye at every instant unloosen
the tongue in thanksgiving and gratitude, ye would not be
able to discharge yourselves of the obligation of gratitude
for these bestowals.
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Consider: eminent personages whose fame hath spread
all over the world shall, erelong, fade into utter nothingness
as the result of their deprivation of this heavenly
bounty; no name and no fame shall they leave behind, and
of them no fruit and trace shall survive. But as the effulgences
of the Sun of Truth have dawned forth upon you
and ye have attained everlasting life, ye shall shine and
sparkle forevermore from the horizon of existence.
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Peter was a fisherman and Mary Magdalene a peasant,
but as they were specially favoured with the blessings of
Christ, the horizon of their faith became illumined, and
down to the present day they are shining from the horizon
of everlasting glory. In this station, merit and capacity are
not to be considered; nay rather, the resplendent rays of the
Sun of Truth, which have illumined these mirrors, must be
taken into account.
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Ye are inviting me to America. I am likewise longing to
gaze upon those illumined faces and converse and associate
with those true friends. But the magnetic power which
shall draw me to those shores is the union and harmony of
the friends, their behaviour and conduct in accordance with
the teachings of God and the firmness of all in the Covenant
and the Testament.
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O Divine Providence! This assemblage is composed
of Thy friends who are attracted to Thy beauty and are
set ablaze by the fire of Thy love. Turn these souls into
heavenly angels, resuscitate them through the breath of
Thy Holy Spirit, grant them eloquent tongues and
resolute hearts, bestow upon them heavenly power and
merciful susceptibilities, cause them to become the promulgators
of the oneness of mankind and the cause of
love and concord in the world of humanity, so that the
perilous darkness of ignorant prejudice may vanish
through the light of the Sun of Truth, this dreary world
may become illumined, this material realm may absorb
the rays of the world of spirit, these different colours may
merge into one colour and the melody of praise may rise
to the kingdom of Thy sanctity.
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Verily, Thou art the Omnipotent and the Almighty!
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