eal, inner
man in each of our neighbors that we must direct our thought and love.
When he awakens into activity, the outer man will be transformed and
renewed.

The Sin-covering Eye

On no subject are the Baha'i teaching more imperative and uncompromising
than on the requirement to abstain from faultfinding. Christ spoke very
strongly on the same subject, but it has now become usual to regard the
Sermon on the Mount as embodying "Counsels of Perfection" which the
ordinary Christian cannot be expected to live up to. Both Baha'u'llah and
'Abdu'l-Baha are at great pains to make it clear that on this subject They
mean all They say. We read in the Hidden Words:--

O Son of Man!

Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a
sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst
thou be, and to this I bear witness.

O Son of Being!

Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed
to thee, and say not that which thou doest not. This is My command
unto thee, do thou observe it.

'Abdu'l-Baha tells us:--

To be silent concerning the faults of others, to pray for them,
and to help them, through kindness, to correct their faults.

To look always at the good and not at the bad. If a man has ten
good qualities and one bad one, to look at the ten and forget the
one; and if a man has ten bad qualities and one good one, to look
at the one and forget the ten.

Never to allow ourselves to speak one unkind word about another,
even though that other be our enemy.

To an American friend He writes:--

The worst human quality and the most great sin is backbiting, more
especially when it emanates from the tongues of the believers of
God. If some means were devised so that the doors of backbiting
could be shut eternally, and each one of the believers of God
unsealed his lips in praise of others, then the teachings of His
Holiness Baha'u'llah would be spread, the hearts illumined, the
spirits glorified, and the human world would attain to everlasting
felicity.

Humility

While we are commanded to overlook the faults of others, and see their
virtues, we are commanded, on the other hand, to find out our own faults
and take no account of our virtues. Baha'u'llah says in the Hidden Words:--

O Son of Being!

How couldst thou forge thine own faul