Ridvan Appreciation

A Bahá'í woman in Britain asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá for a letter to read during a
celebration of the Day of Ridván; the following is his response: 

O ye beloved, and ye handmaids of the Merciful! This is the day when the Day-
Star of Truth rose over the horizon of life, and its glory spread, and its brightness
shone out with such power that it clove the dense and high-piled clouds and
mounted the skies of the world in all its splendour. Hence do ye witness a new
stirring throughout all created things. 

 
See how, in this day, the scope of sciences and arts hath widened out, and what
wondrous technical advances have been made, and to what a high degree the
mind’s powers have increased, and what stupendous inventions have appeared. 

 
This age is indeed as a hundred other ages: should ye gather the yield of a
hundred ages, and set that against the accumulated product of our times, the yield
of this one era will prove greater than that of a hundred gone before. Take ye, for an
example, the sum total of all the books that were ever written in ages past, and
compare that with the books and treatises that our era hath produced: these books,
112 written in our day alone, far and away exceed the total number of volumes that
have been written down the ages. See how powerful is the influence exerted by the
Day-Star of the world upon the inner essence of all created things! 

 
But alas, a thousand times alas! The eyes see it not, the ears are deaf, and the
hearts and minds are oblivious of this supreme bestowal. Strive ye then, with all your
hearts and souls, to awaken those who slumber, to cause the blind to see, and the
dead to rise. 

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 111)