On Fire with the Love of the Kingdom
bahaistories.com archive · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Washington, D.C. (today: Washington, D.C., USA)
Stanwood Cobb, a Bahá’í educator, recalled his last interview with the Master in the United States. His heart was so full he could scarcely recall what was said. He knew he was embraced and three times ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “Be on fire with the love of the Kingdom!” A little mystified by what these words actually meant, Mr Cobb knew that these nine precious words summed up the essence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Teachings.
In his own recollections Cobb wrote that this last interview took place in Washington, and he reflected on the Master’s words:
“What is this ‘love of the Kingdom’? That is what humanity must henceforward spend a few thousand years to discover and apply to life. Did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá mean the love for the Kingdom or the kind of love that prevails in the Higher Kingdom? Or did He mean both these loves?
“Here in these nine words ‘Abdu’l-Bahá summed up the gist of all His teaching; which was that love applied by means of the Holy Spirit is the one thing that will solve all problems of man, both as an individual and as a collective society.”
Source: Annamarie Honnold, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 163; Stanwood Cobb, Memories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Avalon Press; reprinted from Bahá’í News, July and August 1962), pp. 15–16.
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: love).
Cite this story
Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/love
Record yourself reading this story
Recording stays on this device only. Nothing is uploaded.
Related stories
Stanwood Cobb's Most Important Interview
In Paris in 1913 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked the teacher Stanwood Cobb what he taught, then asked, "Do you teach the spiritual things?" Cobb counted it his most important interview with the Master.
A Lesson in Listening
Stanwood Cobb took his elderly father to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Boston and was shocked when his father spent the interview expounding his own spiritual views. The Master smiled and listened, and the father came away feeling he had had a wonderful interview.
Love Is the Foundation of Everything
On pilgrimage in 1909, Ethel Rosenberg asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá how the friends could increase their numbers. He answered that they should love each other very much, for love is the foundation of everything.
Talk to People About the Love of God
As Mrs C prepared to leave the household of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká, He came to bid her farewell and asked her, when she returned to New York, to talk to people about the love of God.