the Last Judgment those who win a place on the right hand of the King are those whose lives have been dedicated to the service of others: in Paul’s theology those who are saved are those who believe that Jesus Christ died for them. There is not so much as a germ of likeness in the two ideas, and still it is the teaching of Paul that triumphed in the church: but it was the teaching of Jesus that refusing to die lifted up here and there through the pages of history those mountain-peaks of light that reflected His true meaning to a wistful world. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” It is the living Christ that lures the soul. This moribund figure of theology no longer intrigues even the mind.
Peter, with his tenacious grip on orthodoxy, attempting to substitute new dogmas for old; Paul's intolerance of old practices for a new age; the historic conflict that made a continent too small to contain them both; Paul’s retirement with his strange assortment of influences from the Greek mysteries, Alexandrian philosophy, Indian belief, Mediterranean cult practice, welding them all with one superb effort of the imagination into an instrument that would conform to Hebraic interpretation ; and then with the irresistible power of a gigantic personality making his followers believe that even if an angel from heaven should say that “my” gospel is not correct they were to place no credence in it. . . . Neither Peter nor Paul near enough to the spirit of their Lord to make it important which won, carrying on a conflict itself utterly contrary to the direct command of Jesus.
The spirit of those disciples, marvelous as it was, was not flame-like enough to melt the solid rocks of men’s hearts and minds into the fire of the love of God. And so God had to lift up stones to serve Him.
To be sure the great purpose for which Jesus came is accomplished. God’s Word does not return void unto Him. But though the Spirit of Freedom has been liberated in the Christian era, with it walks hand in hand rapacity, the barbarous ethics of poverty, crime, corruption, war. If God had had spirits instead of stones to perform His orders what might the world have been today!
There is an irony about such contemplation that strengthens the will and prospers our purposes. Almighty God! grant that in this day no thought, however vague, may obtrude itself beyond the shining dedication of Thy servants, who have beheld Thy Glory and partaken of Thy Power, to cleave the mountains of selfishness, roll back the seas of confusion and doubt, pluck up the isles of division and separateness, and according to Thy mighty prophecy, destroy as with fire all the barriers of the earth; that mankind may be fused through the consuming flame of Thy love, into one kindred and one soul.
There stand, beside this quiet shore the Christian church and the Muḥammadan mosque: the gates of hell have prevailed against both in the centuries that separate them from their Founders. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá walked here to efface the footsteps of those forces and tendencies in life that lead men astray. Only in a church built upon the solidarity and sympathy of the human heart can we adequately worship Him. Let us build forthwith in our harmony, unity and understanding the Temple of the Living God.
Now they are calling me to start upon the homeward journey. But I have written nothing about Tiberias! The Son of Man passed down that road. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the Beloved of the world, walked this way! What else matters?