Haifa
May 15, 1910
Commemoration of the
Declaration of the Báb
There are different gatherings and various meetings held in the world which
apparently are in the utmost degree of arrangement and order; in the palaces of
the kings many feasts and banquets are held which are incomparable and
peerless; also, in the castles of the opulent ones great entertainments are
presented and various kinds of foods and victuals are served; the singing of
melodious tunes and playing of musical instruments exhilarate and deeply affect
the concourse. Associations for political affairs are formed and convivial
banquets for pleasure and gratification are offered: assemblages for exhibition
of arts and sciences, literature and acquirements are established: meetings for
the promotion of industry and commercial matters are being held; extraordinary
conventions and religious congresses are arranged.
But all these assemblages and different gatherings are not
to be compared with and equal to this, our meeting. Although from those
gatherings and conferences certain results and effects are produced which
render great service to the human world and make mankind progress and develop
on the plane of civilization, promulgate the attributes and virtues of the
world of humanity; yet the results are limited, the fruits thereof are finite
and the signs are bounded; whereas the traces, the lights and the results of
this gathering are unlimited, boundless and infinite, for it is held on the Supreme
Spot (the Tomb of the Báb) and under the shadow of the Blessed Beauty.
Once His Holiness Christ gathered the disciples together, and having offered to them the Lord's Supper, He advised them, admonished them and uttered certain teachings to them, and then He said this was 'The Lord's Supper.' Now, as this meeting is held under the shadow of the Blessed Beauty, it should be called 'The Lord's Sustenance,' and as the consequences of 'The Lord's Supper' continued until the present time, so we hope that the results and effects of this 'Lord's Sustenance' may also become permanent and perpetual. In fact, there is no meeting better than this, for it is held in the vicinity of the Supreme Spot and the faces are so brilliant and radiant! What is there superior to this?"
~ 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words of 'Abdu'l-Baha while personally serving Baha’is from various religious backgrounds at the commemoration of the Declaration of the Báb; Star of the West, vol. 1, no. 8, August 1, 1910)
