l are the creatures of God. They are always
dependent on Him. They are not independent and can never be so. While they
are needful of God, the more they supplicate, the richer they become. What
is their merchandise, their wealth? In the other world what is help and
assistance? It is intercession. Undeveloped souls must gain progress at
first through the supplications of the spiritually rich; afterwards they
can progress through their own supplications."

Again He says:--"Those who have ascended have different attributes from
those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.

"In prayer there is a mingling of station, a mingling of condition. Pray
for them as they pray for you!"--'Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 97.

Asked whether it was possible through faith and love to bring the New
Revelation to the knowledge of those who have departed from this life
without hearing of it, 'Abdu'l-Baha replied:--"Yes, surely! since sincere
prayer always has its effect, and it has a great influence in the other
world. We are never cut off from those who are there. The real and genuine
influence is not in this world but in that other."--Notes of Mary Hanford
Ford: Paris, 1911.

On the other hand, Baha'u'llah writes:--

He who lives according to what is ordained for him--the Celestial
Concourse, and the people of the Supreme Paradise, and those who
are dwelling in the Dome of Greatness will pray for him, by a
Command from God, the Dearest and the praiseworthy. (Tablet
translated by 'Ali Kuli _Kh_an).

When 'Abdu'l-Baha was asked how it was that the heart often turns with
instinctive appeal to some friend who has passed into the next life, He
answered:--"It is a law of God's creation that the weak should lean upon
the strong. Those to whom you turn may be mediators of God's power to you,
even as when on earth. But it is the One Holy Spirit that strengthens all
men."--'Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 98.

The Nonexistence of Evil

According to Baha'i philosophy it follows from the doctrine of the unity
of God that there can be no such thing as positive evil. There can only be
one Infinite. If there were any other power in the universe outside of or
opposed to the One, then the One would not be infinite. Just as darkness
is but the absence or lesser degree of light, so evil is but the absence
or lesser degree of good--the undeveloped state. A bad man is a man with
the higher side of his nature still