The Bible commands the practice of peace and justice. God
desires love. In the gospel we find the golden statement that man should be
expressive of love even unto his enemy; he should be expressive of love to his
ill-wishers; he should be expressive of love to all his fellow men. He must
have an eye to pardon; he must have an eye to benevolence. All the divine books
invite men to these teachings. All the divine prophets suffered that man might
realize these teachings. Consider what His Holiness Christ endured, how many
vicissitudes he underwent, every day tasting a new poison, finally sacrificing
his own life, so that the tent of love and concord might be raised over the
world of humanity so that this dark world might be invested with divine light.
Alas! that all the travail of these holy souls and sanctified prophets should
be wasted. The world of humanity is in a stupor of sleep and it cannot grasp
the realities. The horizons of the minds are still beclouded and the hearts are
occupied with phantasmal longings. We seem never to think of the reason of
creation; never to strive to proclaim those principles which enlighten
humanity. In the sea of materialism we are sinking and of the Kingdom of God we
know nothing. We are not living in accord with those precious teachings of God.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, January 16, 1913, Clifton, England; Star of the
West, vol. 4, no. 1, March 21, 1913)
