I wish to train you until you have no other thought, no other motive, no other wish than service in the Cause of Baha’u’llah.
The Divine Educators who have brought the Light of Guidance to this world found neither rest nor comfort by day or night. Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Baha’u’llah - all the Heavenly Messengers suffered the utmost privation and underwent extreme hardships in the Pathway of God. They were exiled from their native land, imprisoned, driven from city to city; they were homeless, hungry and found no rest; they lived in the fields and hid in caves among the mountains; the sky was their canopy, the hard earth their bed. But all these difficulties and hardships served only to increase their power and accomplishment. Through these privations and persecutions they were severed from the world. Although they walked upon the earth, they lived in Heaven. Deprived of material food they partook of the eternal fruits of Paradise. Homeless and forsaken in this world, they rested upon the Divine Couch of Nearness. Day and night they were unceasingly proclaiming the Call of the Kingdom and establishing the foundations of the Most Great Peace.
It was so likewise with their disciples and followers. All of them walked in the Pathway of God and drank the cup of martyrdom with thanksgiving. They sought no rest but service and hastened to the Supreme Concourse in the utmost joy and ecstasy.
Through my training you must become so fitted to spread the Glad-Tidings of the Abha Kingdom that you will follow in the footsteps of these blessed ones in gladness.
In Persia there is a wonderful breed of horses which are trained to run long distances at very great speed. They are most carefully trained at first. They are taken out into the fields and made to run a short course. At the commencement of their training they are not able to run far. The distance is gradually increased. They become thinner and thinner, wiry, and lean, but their strength increases. Finally, after months of rigid training, their swiftness and endurance become wonderful. They are able to run at full speed across rough country many parasangs of distance. At first this would have been impossible. Not until they become trained, thin and wiry, can they endure this severe test.
In this way I shall train you. "Kam-kam," "kam-kam" (little by little, little, by little), until your powers of endurance become so increased that you will serve the Cause of God continually, without other motive, without other thought or wish. This is my desire.
(Words of Abdul-Baha delivered during his sojourn in America; Star of the West, vol. 4, no. 6, June 1913)
