Now is the time, O ye beloved of the Lord, for ardent
endeavour. Struggle ye, and strive. And since the Ancient Beauty was exposed by
day and night on the field of martyrdom, let us in our turn labour hard, and
hear and ponder the counsels of God; let us fling away our lives, and renounce
our brief and numbered days. Let us turn our eyes away from empty fantasies of
this world’s divergent forms, and serve instead this pre-eminent purpose, this grand
design. Let us not, because of our own imaginings, cut down this tree that the
hand of heavenly grace hath planted; let us not, with the dark clouds of our
illusions, our selfish interests, blot out the glory that streameth from the
Abhá Realm. Let us not be as barriers that wall out the rolling ocean of
Almighty God. Let us not prevent the pure, sweet scents from the garden of the
All-Glorious Beauty from blowing far and wide. Let us not, on this day of
reunion, shut out the vernal downpour of blessings from on high. Let us not
consent that the splendours of the Sun of Truth should ever fade and disappear.
These are the admonitions of God, as set forth in His Holy Books, His
Scriptures, His Tablets that tell out His counsellings to the sincere.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
