"Nineteen-day Feasts"
Sunday Evening, 1 August 1920 — Green Acre, Eliot, Maine
These feasts are to bring unity amongst the people. We must glorify these days because in this cycle all the darkness will vanish, all the rancor amongst nations will pass away, religious fanaticism will vanish, all sorts of prejudices will pass by, for the soul of international love and fraternity has been created among mankind. Now let us know why we hold these nineteen day feasts. We hold these nineteen day meetings in commemoration of those nineteen heralds who hastened to the call of Bahá'u'lláh. Before every manifestation the separate stars illumine the horizon of the world. These heralds and early harbingers of the manifestations of God give the glad tidings for the rising of the sun of reality, and they prepare the people for receiving the manifestation of God. As in the time of His Holiness, Christ, John the Baptist heralded his coming. Before the manifestation of His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh there were many heralds proclaiming the coming of His Holiness. Those first people who heralded Bahá'u'lláh were nineteen in number, and the greatest of those nineteen was His Holiness, the Báb. His Holiness, the Báb was likened in the horizon of God as unto the moon, and the other heralds were just like great glowing stars. They all gave the glad tidings that the sun of reality was at hand. They traveled from one place to another and they went all over the world. They underwent all sorts of trouble and persecutions, because the people were submerged in superstition and prejudices. These people went all around the world and called out to the people: "Oh ye people of the world, glad tidings, that the sun of reality will rise, the glorious sun of God will shine, the last day will become manifested, all the darkness will be dispelled. It is the day of God, it is the day of love and universal unity. Oh, ye people of the world! Come out from your graves of ignorance and superstitions while it is the day of resurrection. It is the resurrection of the spirit. It is a day that all the dead bodies should come out from their graves and receive a new life". These nineteen people admonished and exhorted the people wherever they went and prepared the souls of the people for the meeting of God. All these were the most important and eminent people of their time; they have edited numerous books containing the prophesies of God. Every one of these nineteen people were one after the other martyred in the path of his Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh. They sacrificed their lives for the welfare and good of mankind and for the manifestation of His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh. They bestowed talents upon the people, capacity upon the people, because the people were far away from these new teachings; they were far from these teachings and they did not understand them at all. The people were submerged in superstitions, but the teachings of His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh are to free the people from prejudices. However, the people were submerged in superstition and religious prejudices. Another principle of His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh is that science should accord with religion. The people were surrounded with superstition, rancor and hatred and malignity, but the teachings of His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh is to love everybody and to be sympathetic to everybody. His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh states to the whole world, "Oh ye people of mankind! Ye are the leaves of the same tree. Ye are just like the drops of the same ocean. Ye are all the same kind. What are these national differences, what are these religious differences? These are not from God at all. These are from yourselves. All the prophets of God have come for the sake of love. They came to bring unity, they came to bring peace and amity amongst mankind. Now ye have made so much difference between yourselves, and there is so much bloodshed and confusion that it is time to stop all this. The day has come when you should know that you are created for love and amity. You are created for unity". Anyway, these nineteen people created such a power in the people that they received the commands of Bahá'u'lláh and they sacrificed their lives. His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh commands the Bahá'ís that they should keep the nineteen day feast in commemoration of those nineteen people. His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh, commands that each Bahá'í individual should hold a nineteen day feast each month. The wisdom for this, His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh says is that God wishes to bring unity amongst us and unify the hearts. These meetings and these associations are for bringing unity and love amongst the people. God wishes to unify our hearts, whether by heavenly means or earthly means. His Holiness, Bahá'u'lláh says that there should be such unity among us as there is between the members of the same body. That all mankind should form the same body, the same way that our limbs and members are joined together, so the community of man should do the same thing. There is one soul ruling our body, and that soul is ruling over the movements of our body, so there should be one soul over the whole of humanity ruling all its movements. We wish that this love of humanity should be so among all the nations of the world, and we hope that we will see in our lifetime that amity has encompassed the whole world and all the differences of long standing should be removed and dispelled.
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