May 15, 1910
Mount Carmel, Haifa
[On the day of the annual celebration of the Declaration of
the Báb, held on Mount Carmel, when Baha’is from various backgrounds such as
Jewish, Zoroastrian, Christian and Muslim were seated around the table and
‘Abdu’l-Baha was serving them all personally:]
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.