On Fire with the Love of the Kingdom

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.

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In his own recollections Cobb wrote that this last interview took place in Washington, and he reflected on the Master’s words:

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“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?

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“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.”

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