at distinguishes the
Manifestation, in His human personality, from other men is the
completeness of His self-abnegation as well as the perfection of His
powers. Under all circumstances He is able to say, as did Jesus in the
Garden of Gethsemane, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Thus
in His epistle to the _Sh_ah, Baha'u'llah says:--

O king! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when
lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and
taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not
from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade
Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven, and for this there
befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of understanding
to flow. The learning current amongst men I studied not; their
schools I entered not.... This is but a leaf which the winds of
the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised have stirred.
Can it be still when the tempestuous winds are blowing? Nay, by
Him Who is the Lord of all Names and Attributes! They move it as
they list. The evanescent is as nothing before Him Who is the
Ever-Abiding. His all-compelling summons hath reached Me, and
caused Me to speak His praise amidst all people. I was indeed as
one dead when His behest was uttered. The hand of the will of thy
Lord, the Compassionate, the Merciful, transformed Me. Can any one
speak forth of his own accord that for which all men, both high
and low, will protest against him? Nay, by Him Who taught the Pen
the eternal mysteries, save him whom the grace of the Almighty,
the All-Powerful, hath strengthened.--Lawh-i-Sultan (Tablet to the
King of Persia), as quoted in The Promised Day Is Come, pp. 40-41.

As Jesus washed His disciples' feet, so Baha'u'llah used sometimes to cook
food and perform other lowly offices for His followers. He was a servant
of the servants, and gloried only in servitude, content to sleep on a bare
floor if need be, to live on bread and water, or even, at times, on what
He called "the divine nourishment, that is to say, hunger!" His perfect
humility was seen in His profound reverence for nature, for human nature,
and especially for the saints, prophets and martyrs. To Him, all things
spoke of God, from the meanest to the greatest.

His human personality had been chosen by God to become the Divine
Mouthpiece and Pen. It was not o