means to educate both sexes,
male and female; girls like boys; there is no difference whatsoever
between them. The ignorance of both is blameworthy, and negligence in both
cases is reprovable. "Are they who know and they who do not know equal?"
(Koran)

The command is decisive concerning both. If it be considered through the
eye of reality, the training and culture of daughters is more necessary
than that of sons, for these girls will come to the station of motherhood
and will mould the lives of the children. The first trainer of the child
is the mother. The babe, like unto a green and tender branch, will grow
according to the way it is trained. If the training be right, it will grow
right, and if crooked, the growth likewise, and unto the end of life it
will conduct itself accordingly.

Hence, it is firmly established that an untrained and uneducated daughter,
on becoming a mother, will be the prime factor in the deprivation,
ignorance, negligence and the lack of training of many children.

O ye beloved of God and the maid-servants of the Merciful! Teaching and
learning, according to the decisive texts of the Blessed Beauty
(Baha'o'llah), is a duty. Whosover is indifferent therein depriveth
himself of the great bounty.

Beware! Beware! that ye fail not in this matter. Endeavor with heart, with
life, to train your children, especially the daughters. No excuse is
acceptable in this matter.

Thus may eternal glory and everlasting supremacy, like unto the mid-day
sun, shine forth in the assemblage of the people of Baha', and the heart
of Abdul-Baha become happy and thankful.

"O pure friends of God!..."

O pure friends of God!

Cleanliness and sanctity in all conditions are the characteristics of pure
beings and necessities of free souls. The first perfection consists in
cleanliness and sanctity and in purity from every defect. When man in all
conditions is pure and immaculate, he will become the center of the
reflection of the manifest Light. In all his actions and conduct there
must first be purity, then beauty and independence. The channel must be
cleansed before it is filled with sweet water. The pure eye comprehendeth
the sight and the meeting of God; the pure nostril inhaleth the perfumes
of the rose-garden of bounty; the pure heart becometh the mirror of the
beauty of truth. This is why, in the heavenly Books, the divine counsels
and commands have been compared to water. So, in the Koran it is said,