Tuesday, December 13, 2022

"By the righteousness of the one true God! If ye reject this Revelation, all the nations of the earth will laugh you to scorn and mock you ..."

 
"SAY
: O ye that envy Me and seek My hurt! The fury of your wrath against Me confound you! Lo, the Daystar of Glory hath risen above the horizon of My Revelation, and enveloped with its radiance the whole of mankind. And yet, behold how ye have shut out yourselves from its splendor and are sunk in utter heedlessness. Have mercy upon yourselves, and repudiate not the claim of Him Whose truth ye have already recognized, and be not of them that transgress.


By the righteousness of the one true God! If ye reject this Revelation, all the nations of the earth will laugh you to scorn and mock you, for it is you that have produced, before their eyes, and for the purpose of vindicating the truth of your Cause, the testimonies of God, the Sovereign Protector, the Most Powerful, the All-Glorious, the All-Knowing. And yet, no sooner was His subsequent Revelation, clothed with the glory of an all-compelling sovereignty, sent down unto you, than ye cast it behind your backs, O ye that are numbered with the heedless ones!"


(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXXI, part 1)
www.bahai.org/r/730376259

"We behold it, in this day, at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they cannot discern clearly their own best advantage, much less recognize a Revelation so bewildering and challenging as this."

 
© 2022 Chuck Egerton
"O YE 
the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully. Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires, and have erred grievously. And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.


We behold it, in this day, at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they cannot discern clearly their own best advantage, much less recognize a Revelation so bewildering and challenging as this. And whenever any one of them hath striven to improve its condition, his motive hath been his own gain, whether confessedly so or not; and the unworthiness of this motive hath limited his power to heal or cure.
That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error."


(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXX)
www.bahai.org/r/727412649

Monday, December 12, 2022

"Now that ye have refused the Most Great Peace, hold ye fast unto this, the Lesser Peace ..."


"O kings of the earth! We see you increasing every year your expenditures, and laying the burden thereof on your subjects. This, verily, is wholly and grossly unjust. Fear the sighs and tears of this wronged One, and lay not excessive burdens on your peoples. Do not rob them to rear palaces for yourselves; nay rather choose for them that which ye choose for yourselves. Thus We unfold to your eyes that which profiteth you, if ye but perceive. Your people are your treasures. Beware lest your rule violate the commandments of God, and ye deliver your wards to the hands of the robber. By them ye rule, by their means ye subsist, by their aid ye conquer. Yet, how disdainfully ye look upon them! How strange, how very strange!


Now that ye have refused the Most Great Peace, hold ye fast unto this, the Lesser Peace, that haply ye may in some degree better your own condition and that of your dependents.


O rulers of the earth! Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. Beware lest ye disregard the counsel of the All-Knowing, the Faithful.


Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should anyone among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice."


(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXIX, part 2)
www.bahai.org/r/519298395

Sunday, December 11, 2022

"We beseech God to assist the kings of the earth to establish peace on earth."

 
© 2022 Chuck Egerton

"YE 
rulers of the earth! Wherefore have ye clouded the radiance of the Sun, and caused it to cease from shining? Hearken unto the counsel given you by the Pen of the Most High, that haply both ye and the poor may attain unto tranquillity and peace. We beseech God to assist the kings of the earth to establish peace on earth. He, verily, doth what He willeth."


(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXIX, part 1)
www.bahai.org/r/258559989

Saturday, December 10, 2022

"Nay! By Him Who holdeth in His grasp the kingdom of the entire creation!"

© 2022 Chuck Egerton
"Nay! By Him Who holdeth in His grasp the kingdom of the entire creation! Nowhere doth your true and abiding glory reside except in your firm adherence unto the precepts of God, your wholehearted observance of His laws, your resolution to see that they do not remain unenforced, and to pursue steadfastly the right course."

(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXVIII, part 4)
www.bahai.org/r/458354514

Friday, December 9, 2022

"Train your children from their earliest days to be infinitely tender and loving to animals."


Laika,  photo by TG
"Therefore is it essential that ye show forth the utmost consideration to the animal, and that ye be even kinder to him than to your fellow man.


Train your children from their earliest days to be infinitely tender and loving to animals. If an animal be sick, let the children try to heal it, if it be hungry, let them feed it, if thirsty, let them quench its thirst, if weary, let them see that it rests."


– Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 158.

"If ye stay not the hand of the oppressor, if ye fail to safeguard the rights of the downtrodden, what right have ye then to vaunt yourselves among men?"

 
photo by TG
"If ye pay no heed unto the counsels which, in peerless and unequivocal language, We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement shall assail you from every direction, and the sentence of His justice shall be pronounced against you. On that day ye shall have no power to resist Him, and shall recognize your own impotence. Have mercy on yourselves and on those beneath you. Judge ye between them according to the precepts prescribed by God in His most holy and exalted Tablet, a Tablet wherein He hath assigned to each and every thing its settled measure, in which He hath given, with distinctness, an explanation of all things, and which is in itself a monition unto them that believe in Him.


Examine Our Cause, inquire into the things that have befallen Us, and decide justly between Us and Our enemies, and be ye of them that act equitably towards their neighbor. If ye stay not the hand of the oppressor, if ye fail to safeguard the rights of the downtrodden, what right have ye then to vaunt yourselves among men? What is it of which ye can rightly boast? Is it on your food and your drink that ye pride yourselves, on the riches ye lay up in your treasuries, on the diversity and the cost of the ornaments with which ye deck yourselves? If true glory were to consist in the possession of such perishable things, then the earth on which ye walk must needs vaunt itself over you, because it supplieth you, and bestoweth upon you, these very things, by the decree of the Almighty. In its bowels are contained, according to what God hath ordained, all that ye possess. From it, as a sign of His mercy, ye derive your riches. Behold then your state, the thing in which ye glory! Would that ye could perceive it!"


(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXVIII, part 3)
www.bahai.org/r/620241848