u'llah is the sun of this "day" in which we live. The suns of former
days have warmed and vivified the world, and had those suns not shone, the
earth would not be cold and dead, but it is the sunshine of today that
alone can ripen the fruits which the suns of former days have kissed into
life.

Devotion to God

In order to attain to the Baha'i life in all its fullness, conscious and
direct relations with Baha'u'llah are as necessary as is sunshine for the
unfolding of the lily or the rose. The Baha'i worships not the human
personality of Baha'u'llah, but the Glory of God manifest through that
personality. He reverences Christ and Muhammad and all God's former
Messengers to mankind, but he recognizes Baha'u'llah as the bearer of
God's Message for the new age in which we live, as the Great World teacher
Who has come to carry on and consummate the work of His predecessors.

Intellectual assent to a creed does not make a man a Baha'i, nor does
outward rectitude of conduct. Baha'u'llah requires of His followers
wholehearted and complete devotion. God alone has the right to make such a
demand, but Baha'u'llah speaks as the Manifestation of God, and the
Revealer of His Will. Previous Manifestations have been equally clear on
this point. Christ said: "If any man come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same
shall save it." In different words, all the Divine Manifestations have
made this same demand from Their followers, and the history of religion
shows clearly that as long as the demand has been frankly recognized and
accepted, religion has flourished, despite all earthly opposition, despite
affliction, persecution and martyrdom of the believers. On the other hand,
whenever compromise has crept in, and "respectability" has taken the place
of complete consecration, then religion has decayed. It has become
fashionable, but it has lost its power to save and transform, its power to
work miracles. True religion has never yet been fashionable. God grant
that one day it may become so; but it is still true, as in the days of
Christ, that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it." The gateway of spiritual birth,
like the gateway of natural birth, admits men only one by one, and without
encumbrances. If, in the future, more people succ