Unceasing grace: living within an enduring bounty

Never lose thy trust in God. Be thou ever hopeful, for the bounties of God never cease to flow upon man. If viewed from one perspective they seem to decrease, but from another they are full and complete. Man is under all conditions immersed in a sea of God's blessings. Therefore, be thou not hopeless under any circumstances, but rather be firm in thy hope.

The blessings of Baha'u'llah are a shoreless sea, and even life everlasting is only a dewdrop therefrom. The waves of that sea are continually lapping against the hearts of the friends, and from those waves there come intimations of the spirit and ardent pulsings of the soul, until the heart giveth way, and willing or not, turneth humbly in prayer unto the Kingdom of the Lord. Wherefore do all ye can to disengage your inner selves, that ye may at every moment reflect new splendours from the Sun of Truth.

I can have no doubt that should the holy breaths of Thy loving-kindness and the breeze of Thy bountiful favour cease, for less than the twinkling of an eye, to breathe over all created things, the entire creation would perish, and all that are in heaven and on earth would be reduced to utter nothingness.

Can one of sane mind ever seriously imagine that, in view of certain words the meaning of which he cannot comprehend, the portal of God's infinite guidance can ever be closed in the face of men? … There can be no doubt whatever that if for one moment the tide of His mercy and grace were to be withheld from the world, it would completely perish. For this reason, from the beginning that hath no beginning the portals of Divine mercy have been flung open to the face of all created things, and the clouds of Truth will continue to the end that hath no end to rain on the soil of human capacity, reality and personality their favors and bounties. Such hath been God's method continued from everlasting to everlasting.

A sprinkling from the unfathomed deep of His sovereign and all-pervasive Will hath, out of utter nothingness, called into being a creation which is infinite in its range and deathless in its duration. The wonders of His bounty can never cease, and the stream of His merciful grace can never be arrested. The process of His creation hath had no beginning, and can have no end.

The Creator has ever had a creation, and the rays have ever emanated and shone forth from the Sun of Truth, for a lightless sun would be impenetrable darkness.

These names and attributes of Divinity are eternal and not accidental. … Their existence is proved and necessitated by the appearance of phenomena. … Therefore, the divine names and attributes presuppose the existence of phenomena implied by those names and attributes.

… If we try to conceive of a time when creation was nonexistent, when there were no subjects or creatures under divine dominion and control, Divinity itself would disappear; there would be a cessation of the bounty of God, just as the kingship and favor of an earthly monarch would disappear if his kingdom did not exist.

Therefore, the requirements of the attributes of God do not admit of cessation or interruption, for the names of God are actually and forever existing and not potential. … That is to say, the divine names emanate from the eternal attributes of Divinity.

If we determine a beginning and an end for creation, it is as if we determine a beginning and an end for God. There can be no creator without a creation.

God has no beginning and his creation has no ending, for the bestowal of God is never failing. The effulgence of God cannot be suspended. The sovereignty of God cannot be interrupted.

As the divine entity is eternal, the divine attributes are coexistent, coeternal. The divine bestowals are, therefore, without beginning, without end.

… God Who breathed the breath of the Holy Spirit upon His servants will breathe it upon them now and hereafter. There is no cessation to His bounty. The Divine Spirit is penetrating from eternity to eternity, for it is the bounty of God, and the bounty of God is eternal.

If it were reasonable or possible as a hypothesis to suppose that there ever had been a time when the sun had existed without its rays and heat, we should be forced to the conclusion that the sun had never existed, for the essential requirement of the sun is continuous outpouring of light and heat. Likewise, if we assume that there ever had been a time when the bounties of God had had a beginning, we must perforce believe that at one time there had been no divinity; or, if we assume that a time may come when the bounties of God will cease, we must conclude that divinity will sometime cease to exist. But this is impossible, because the essential requirement of divinity is continuous outpouring of bounties, and for the bounties of God there is neither beginning nor ending. God is eternal and his bounties are everlasting.

The power of God is eternal and there have always been beings to manifest it; that is why we say that the worlds of God are infinite - there has never been a time when they did not exist.

… Creation is like the sunlight; God is the sun. This light comes forth from the sun; that does not mean that the sun has become the light. The light emanates from the sun.

O thou who yearnest to discover the subtleties of divine mystery!

The mighty sun is the source of all physical light and the growth and development of all things depend upon its munificent heat, its radiant emanations. Likewise, spiritual bounty too requires a mighty source, an ancient and eternal origin.

Helping grace is from that state which is eternal. This grace flows continuously to the temporal. If it should fail, that which is temporal would perish. Therefore the grace of the perfections of God flows forth continuously to the beings of the visible world.

For instance, the rays of the sun are continuous, the heat of the sun emanates from it without cessation; no discontinuance of it is conceivable. Even so, the bestowal of God is descending upon the world of humanity, never ceasing, continuous, forever. If we say that the bestowal of existence ceases or falters, it is equivalent to saying that the sun can exist with cessation of its effulgence. Is this possible? Therefore, the effulgences of existence are ever present and continuous.

This ray and this heat are permanent. There is no cessation in the effulgence. As long as the sun exists, the heat and light will exist, and inasmuch as eternality is a property of Divinity, this emanation is everlasting. There is no cessation in its outpouring.

If we are of those who perceive, we realize that the bounties of God manifest themselves continuously, even as the rays of the sun unceasingly emanate from the solar center.

For this would mean the cessation of the divine bounty, and the divine bounty by its very nature is continuous and ceaseless. Its sun is ever shining; its cloud is ever producing rain; its breezes are ever blowing; its bestowals are all-comprehending; its gifts are ever perfect.

The hidden divine bounty, however, is everlasting and unchanging, never to be altered or transformed, for it is the eternal outpouring of God and the perpetual gift of the Lord.

However, the eternal bounty and merciful manifestation from the All-Glorious One in the contingent world is constant and continuous.

Consider the sun: The Sun of Reality is like the physical sun, but this rising and setting pertains to the world of creation, not to God, for the Sun of Reality has eternally been sanctified in its own center of holiness from rising and setting. Its lights are ever-shining, its dawning continuous, and its bounties unceasing.

Every one of them is a mirror of God, reflecting naught else but His Self, His Beauty, His Might and Glory, if ye will understand. All else besides them are to be regarded as mirrors capable of reflecting the glory of these Manifestations Who are themselves the Primary Mirrors of the Divine Being, if ye be not devoid of understanding. … These Mirrors will everlastingly succeed each other, and will continue to reflect the light of the Ancient of Days. They that reflect their glory will, in like manner, continue to exist forevermore, for the Grace of God can never cease from flowing.

The third station is that of divine manifestation and heavenly splendour, which is the Word of God, the everlasting Grace, and the Holy Spirit. This station has neither beginning nor end; for firstness and lastness pertain to the contingent world and not to the world of God.

Among the bounties of God is revelation. Hence revelation is progressive and continuous. It never ceases. It is necessary that the reality of Divinity with all its perfections and attributes should become resplendent in the human world. The reality of Divinity is like an endless ocean. Revelation may be likened to the rain. Can you imagine the cessation of rain? Ever on the face of the earth somewhere rain is pouring down. Briefly, the world of existence is progressive. It is subject to development and growth. Consider how great has been the progress in this radiant century.

Some souls imagine that there is a cessation to the bounties of God, as if at one time the divine bestowals are poured out, at another time withheld from mankind and ceasing. If we carefully reflect upon this matter, we find that such a statement is in fact a denial of Divinity, for the reality of Divinity is evidenced by virtue of its outpourings or bestowals.

… From time immemorial the divine teachings have been successively revealed, and the bounties of the Holy Spirit have ever been emanating.

To maintain that the testimony of Providence was incomplete, that it hath therefore been the cause of the denial of the people, is but open blasphemy. … Nay, the manifold bounties of the Lord of all beings have, at all times, through the Manifestations of His divine Essence, encompassed the earth and all that dwell therein. Not for a moment hath His grace been withheld, nor have the showers of His loving-kindness ceased to rain upon mankind.

Never hath the outpouring from the source of My bounty been cut off, nor hath grace from the treasury of My favor been withheld. The hand of My mercy is vastly outstretched and encompassing, and within My grasp of power all things are held captive. Yet this infinite grace and beginningless bounty can only be received by those who enter beneath the shadow of the education of Him in Whose hand lies the Kingdom of all things, and who dwell in the spiritual realm of "His mercy precedeth all things."

There is no beginning nor end for the Divine Sovereignty.

The purpose is this; that if the physical food be withheld from the body, it causes death. Likewise if the Divine Manifestations come to an end, and the Heavenly Table becomes finished, what then will take place? It is certain that existence will be entirely dispersed.

If the rays of the light of the sun cease from the earth for one hour, It will be ruined.

O thou who hast fixed thy gaze upon the Kingdom of Glory! The splendour of the Beauty of the world illumined the whole earth, conferring heavenly grace upon all created things. The Beloved of the world shone forth, captivating His lovers with His charm. And now, though that Sun hath set, He still shineth resplendent from the unseen Kingdom, continuing to bestow eternal grace upon all regions.

O namesake of the Lord God! That Kind Friend manifested Himself to contingent existence and illumined the horizons with His eternal bounty, then ascended to the realm of placelessness. Yet His outpourings are everlasting and His effulgences eternal.

O believer in God! The dawning of the Sun of Truth from the horizon of oneness was for the illumination of the horizons of the human world, not for temporal dominion. … Therefore His bounty is everlasting and His shower is abundant.

The Apostles were even as Letters, and Christ was the essence of the Word Itself; and the meaning of the Word, which is grace everlasting, cast a splendor on those Letters.

Know thou for a certainty that thou wilt succeed in this, for the confirmations of the Holy Spirit are continually descending, and the power of the Word will exert such an influence that the Letter shall become the mirror in which the splendid Sun--the Word Itself--will be reflected, and the grace and glory of the Word will illumine the whole earth.

Glory be to God! They desire to prevent the waves of bounty from the ocean of grace, and seek to stop the life-giving breeze from blowing. How far from possible, how far! The cloud of invisible mercy shall not cease its outpouring of grace, and the most luminous Sun shall not be prevented from shining upon land and sea. There is no end to the fruits of the blessed Tree of Tuba, and no cessation to the rustling of the divine Lote-Tree.

Glory be to God! The rain-clouds of the All-Glorious pour forth their bounties at every moment, and the fruits of the divine Lote-Tree appear manifest before all faces.

O Morvarid! The April rain has fallen, and mountain, plain and sea have beheld a new bounty. The rain of mercy bestows life upon all created things, even unto the pearls within the seashells of the sea which are connected to this boundless grace.

O pure and sanctified leaf! The favors of God, like a boundless ocean, surge over His servants and handmaidens, and like the clouds of winter, quicken and refresh the flower garden and meadow of the hearts of those who are attracted to Him.

For example we observe that the Divine Grace like the rain pours down upon the Earth - Now if this rain falls upon brackish ground nothing will grow for the soil lacks the power of producing vegetation - as long as there is not the capacity in the soil no matter how much the rain may fall on it, it will yield no result - On the other hand there is a piece of land which is good and free from blemish and as soon as the rain falls flowers and hyacinths will spring up from it.

… For His Grace is all-encircling; His Clouds are pouring, and the rays of His Sun are descending.

The outpourings of the All-Merciful descend successively upon all created things, yet each being receiveth according to its capacity and ability.

The process of His creation hath had no beginning, and can have no end, otherwise it would necessitate the cessation of his celestial grace.

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Oh, trust in God! for His Bounty is everlasting, and in His Blessings, for they are superb. Oh! put your faith in the Almighty, for He faileth not and His goodness endureth for ever! His Sun giveth Light continually, and the Clouds of His Mercy are full of the Waters of Compassion with which He waters the hearts of all who trust in Him. His refreshing Breeze ever carries healing in its wings to the parched souls of men!

Catalogue reference: ABU0276 · passage alignment is approximate; supplied wording retained.