. If we had never seen a lily in bloom, never gazed on its matchless
grace of foliage and flower, how could we know the reality contained in
that bulb? We might dissect it most carefully and examine it most
minutely, but we should never discover the dormant beauty which the
gardener knows how to awaken. So until we have seen the Glory of God
revealed in the Manifestation, we can have no idea of the spiritual beauty
latent in our own nature and in that of our fellows. By knowing and loving
the Manifestation of God and following His teachings we are enabled,
little by little, to realize the potential perfections within ourselves;
then, and not till then, does the meaning and purpose of life and of the
universe become apparent to us.

Love of God

To know the Manifestation of God means also to love Him. One is impossible
without the other. According to Baha'u'llah, the purpose of man's creation
is that he may know God and adore Him. He says in one of His Tablets:--

The cause of the creation of all contingent beings has been love,
as it is said in the well-known tradition, "I was a hidden
treasure and I loved to be known. Therefore I created the creation
in order to be known."

And in the Hidden Words He says:--

O Son of Being!

Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can
in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

O Son of the Wondrous Vision!

I have breathed within thee a breath of My own Spirit, that thou
mayest be My lover. Why hast thou forsaken Me and sought a beloved
other than Me?

To be God's lover! That is the sole object of life for the Baha'i. To have
God as his closest companion and most intimate friend, his Peerless
Beloved, in Whose Presence is fullness of joy! And to love God means to
love everything and everybody, for all are of God. The real Baha'i will be
the perfect lover. He will love everyone with a pure heart, fervently. He
will hate no one. He will despise no one, for he will have learned to see
the Face of the Beloved in every face, and to find His traces everywhere.
His love will know no limit of sect, nation, class or race. Baha'u'llah
says:--"Of old it hath been revealed: 'Love of one's country is an element
of the Faith of God.' The Tongue of Grandeur hath ... in the day of His
manifestation proclaimed: 'It is not his to boast who loveth his country,
but it is his who loveth the world.'"--Table