With hearts set aglow by the fire of the love of God and
spirits refreshed by the food of the heavenly spirit you must go forth as the
disciples nineteen hundred years ago, quickening the hearts of men by the call
of glad tidings, the light of God in your faces, severed from everything save
God. Therefore, order your lives in accordance with the first principle of the
divine teaching, which is love. Service to humanity is service to God. Let the
love and light of the Kingdom radiate through you until all who look upon you
shall be illumined by its reflection. Be as stars, brilliant and sparkling in
the loftiness of their heavenly station. Do you appreciate the Day in which you
live?
This is the century of the Blessed Perfection!
This is the cycle of the light of His beauty!
This is the consummate day of all the Prophets!
These are the days of seed sowing. These are the days of
tree planting. The bountiful bestowals of God are successive. He who sows a
seed in this day will behold his reward in the fruits and harvest of the
heavenly Kingdom. This timely seed, when planted in the hearts of the beloved
of God, will be watered by showers of divine mercy and warmed by the sunshine
of divine love. Its fruitage and flower shall be the solidarity of mankind, the
perfection of justice and the praiseworthy attributes of heaven manifest in
humanity. All who sow such a seed and plant such a tree according to the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh shall surely witness this divine outcome in the
degrees of its perfection and will attain unto the good pleasure of the
Merciful One. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a talk given in New York, 12 April 1912; ‘The
Promulgation of Universal Peace’)
