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Members Of The Human Race! Hold Ye Fast

Sources: Gleanings From The Writings Of Baha'u'llah

Members of the human race! Hold ye fast by the Cord which no man can

sever. This will, indeed, profit you all the days of your life, for its

strength is of God, the Lord of all worlds. Cleave ye to justice and

fairness, and turn away from the whisperings of the foolish, them that are

estranged from God, that have decked their heads with the ornament of the

learned, and have condemned to death Him Who is the Fountain of wisdom. My
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name hath uplifted them to lofty grades, and yet, no sooner did I reveal

Myself to their eyes than they, with manifest injustice, pronounced the

sentence of My death. Thus hath Our Pen revealed the truth, and yet the

people are sunk in heedlessness.



Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the

limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the

guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted

by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to

overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth

you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will

prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept

within the restraints of moderation. Meditate on this, O people, and be

not of them that wander distraught in the wilderness of error. The day is

approaching when its flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of

Grandeur will proclaim: "The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the

All-Praised!"



All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation. Render

thanks unto thy Lord Who hath remembered thee in this wondrous Tablet.

All-Praise be to God, the Lord of the glorious throne.



Were any man to ponder in his heart that which the Pen of the Most High

hath revealed and to taste of its sweetness, he would, of a certainty,

find himself emptied and delivered from his own desires, and utterly

subservient to the Will of the Almighty. Happy is the man that hath

attained so high a station, and hath not deprived himself of so bountiful

a grace.



In this Day, We can neither approve the conduct of the fearful that

seeketh to dissemble his faith, nor sanction the behavior of the avowed

believer that clamorously asserteth his allegiance to this Cause. Both

should observe the dictates of wisdom, and strive diligently to serve the

best interests of the Faith.



Let every man observe and meditate on the conduct of this wronged One. We

have, ever since the dawn of this Revelation until the present time,

refused either to hide Ourself from Our enemies, or to withdraw from the

companionship of Our friends. Though encompassed with a myriad griefs and

afflictions, We have, with mighty confidence, summoned the peoples of the

earth to the Day Spring of Glory. The Pen of the Most High is disinclined

to recount, in this connection, the woes it hath suffered. To reveal them

would, no doubt, plunge into sorrow the favored among the faithful, they

that truly uphold the unity of God and are wholly devoted to His Cause.

He, verily, speaketh the truth, and is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.

Our life hath, for the most part, been spent in the midst of Our enemies.

Witness how We are, at present, living in a nest of serpents.



This Holy Land hath been mentioned and extolled in all the sacred

Scriptures. In it have appeared the Prophets of God and His chosen Ones.

This is the wilderness in which all the Messengers of God have wandered,

from which their cry, "Here am I, here am I, O my God" was raised. This is

the promised Land in which He Who is the Revelation of God was destined to

be made manifest. This is the Vale of God's unsearchable decree, the

snow-white Spot, the Land of unfading splendor. Whatever hath come to pass

in this Day hath been foretold in the Scriptures of old. These same

Scriptures, however, unanimously condemn the people that inhabit this

land. They have, at one time, been stigmatized as the "generation of

vipers." Behold how this wronged One is now, whilst surrounded by a

"generation of vipers," calling aloud and summoning all men to Him Who is

the world's Ultimate Desire, the Summit and Day Spring of Glory. Happy is

the man that hath hearkened to the voice of Him Who is the Lord of the

Kingdom of Utterance, and woe betide the heedless, they that have strayed

far from His truth.



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