are dependent and are
captive to the laws of Nature.

Man alone, by his spiritual power, has been able to free himself, to soar
above the world of matter and to make it his servant.

Without the help of God man is even as the beasts that perish, but God has
bestowed such wonderful power upon him that he might ever look upward, and
receive, among other gifts, healing from His divine Bounty.

But alas! man is not grateful for this supreme good, but sleeps the sleep
of negligence, being careless of the great mercy which God has shown
towards him, turning his face away from the light and going on his way in
darkness.

It is my earnest prayer, that ye be not like unto this, but rather that ye
keep your faces steadfastly turned to the light, so that ye may be as
lighted torches in the dark places of life.

THE NEED FOR UNION BETWEEN THE PEOPLES OF THE EAST AND WEST

Friday, October 20th

'Abdu'l-Baha said:

In the past, as in the present, the Spiritual Sun of Truth has always
shone from the horizon of the East.

Abraham appeared in the East. In the East Moses arose to lead and teach
the people. On the Eastern horizon arose the Lord Christ. Muhammad was
sent to an Eastern nation. The Bab arose in the Eastern land of Persia.
Baha'u'llah lived and taught in the East. All the great Spiritual Teachers
arose in the Eastern world. But although the Sun of Christ dawned in the
East the radiance thereof was apparent in the West, where the effulgence
of its glory was more clearly seen. The divine light of His Teaching shone
with a greater force in the Western world, where it has made a more rapid
headway than in the land of its birth.

In these days the East is in need of material progress and the West is in
want of a spiritual idea. It would be well for the West to turn to the
East for illumination, and to give in exchange its scientific knowledge.
There must be this interchange of gifts.

The East and the West must unite to give to each other what is lacking.
This union will bring about a true civilization, where the spiritual is
expressed and carried out in the material.

Receiving thus the one from the other the greatest harmony will prevail,
all people will be united, a state of great perfection will be attained,
there will be a firm cementing, and this world will become a shining
mirror for the reflection of the attributes of God.

We all, the Eastern with the Western nations, must strive day and night
with