Recite ye the verses of God every morning and evening. Whoso
reciteth them not hath truly failed to fulfil his pledge to the Covenant of God
and His Testament, and whoso in this day turneth away therefrom hath indeed
turned away from God since time immemorial. Fear ye God, O concourse of My
servants! (Baha’u’llah, ‘Kitáb-i-Aqdas’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol.
I, The Importance of Deepening our Knowledge of the Faith)
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Say: Beware, O people of Baha, lest ye walk in the ways of them whose words differ from their deeds. Strive that ye may be enabled to manifest to the peoples of the earth the signs of God, and to mirror forth His commandments. Let your acts be a guide unto all mankind, for the professions of most men, be they high or low, differ from their conduct. It is through your deeds that ye can distinguish yourselves from others. Through them the brightness of your light can be shed upon the whole earth. Happy is the man that heedeth My counsel, and keepeth the precepts prescribed by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. (Baha’u’llah, ‘Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh’; The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. I, Excellence in All Things)
From ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
O ye peoples of the Kingdom! How many a soul expended all
its span of life in worship, endured the mortification of the flesh, longed to
gain an entry into the Kingdom, and yet failed, while ye, with neither toil nor
pain nor self-denial, have won the prize and entered in.
It is even as in the time of the Messiah, when the Pharisees and the pious were left without a portion, while Peter, John and Andrew, given neither to pious worship nor ascetic practice, won the day. Wherefore, thank ye God for setting upon your heads the crown of glory everlasting, for granting unto you this immeasurable grace.
The time hath come when, as a thank-offering for this bestowal, ye should grow in faith and constancy as day followeth day, and should draw ever nearer to the Lord, your God, becoming magnetized to such a degree, and so aflame, that your holy melodies in praise of the Beloved will reach upward to the Company on high; and that each one of you, even as a nightingale in this rose garden of God, will glorify the Lord of Hosts, and become the teacher of all who dwell on earth. (‘Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Baha)
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… know ye of a certainty that ye will be assisted by the help of the Kingdom of Abhá and confirmed in the service in the Realm of Truth, for through the power of the Word of God and the breaths of the Holy Spirit the universal forces of the angels of heaven are drawn in battle array on the plain of the Supreme Apex and are expecting to assist and make victorious that soul who is hastening toward the field of the Kingdom. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, From a Tablet; Star of the West, vol. 1, no. 6 June 24, 1910)