You Were Earthly, We Wanted You Heavenly

One day in London the Master gave His listeners an unusual, imaginative, yet realistic dialogue between the Prophets and men: ‘Always, man has confronted the Prophets with this: “We were enjoying ourselves, and living according to our own opinions and desires. We ate; we slept; we sang; we danced. We had no fear of God, no hope of Heaven; we liked what we were doing, we had our own way. And then you came. You took away our pleasures. You told us now of the wrath of God, again of the fear of punishment and the hope of reward. You upset our good way of life.” ‘The Prophets of God have always replied: “You were content to stay in the animal world, We wanted to make you human beings. You were dark, We wanted you illumined; you were dead, We wanted you alive. You were earthly, We wanted you heavenly.”’

Source: Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 141

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: tests).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/tests