A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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2 May 1912 |
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When we look upon the kingdoms of creation below man, we find
three forms or planes of existence which await education and development.
For instance, the function of a gardener is to till the soil
of the mineral kingdom and plant a tree which under his training
and cultivation will attain perfection of growth. If it be wild and
fruitless, it may be made fruitful and prolific by grafting. If small
and unsightly, it will become lofty, beautiful and verdant under the
gardener’s training, whereas a tree bereft of his cultivation retrogresses
daily, its fruit grows acrid and bitter as the trees of the
jungle, or it may become entirely barren and bereft of its fruitage.
Likewise, we observe that animals which have undergone training
in their sphere of limitation will progress and advance unmistakably,
become more beautiful in appearance and increase in intelligence.
For instance, how intelligent and knowing the Arabian
horse has become through training, even how polite this horse has
become through education. As to the human world: It is more in
need of guidance and education than the lower creatures. Reflect
upon the vast difference between the inhabitants of Africa and
those of America. Here the people have been civilized and uplifted;
there they are in the utmost and abject state of savagery.
What is the cause of their savagery and the reason of your civilization?
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It is evident that this difference is due to education and the
lack of education. Consider, then, the effectiveness of education in
the human kingdom. It makes the ignorant wise, the tyrant merciful,
the blind seeing, the deaf attentive, even the imbecile intelligent.
How vast this difference. How wide the chasm which separates
the educated man from the man who lacks teaching and
training. This is the effect when the teacher is merely an ordinary
teacher.
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But—praise be to God!—your Teacher and Instructor is
Bahá’u’lláh. He is the Educator of the Orient and Occident. He is
the Teacher of the very world of divinity and spirituality, the Sun
of Truth, the Word of God. The lights of His education are radiating
even as the sun. See what it has accomplished, how it is developing
all humanity so that I, a Persian, have come to this meeting of revered
souls upon the American continent and am standing here expounding
to you in the greatest love. This is through the training of
Bahá’u’lláh, which can unite and has united these hearts. In this
way it has enlightened the world. Even so it has breathed the spirit
of God into men. Even so it has resuscitated the hearts of men.
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