Baha'i would be one who is convinced that Baha'u'llah was a world-teacher
and a Messenger of God bearing to mankind a great Message, and would
therefore be ready to accept all that Baha'u'llah has said and the same is
true of the Master whom we believe to have been the great propounder of
the Baha'i teachings and the one through whom the Covenant of God was
firmly established in the world.

With regard to the differentiation between Baha'i and Baha'i friend. This
differentiation was not one which Baha'u'llah and the Master firmly
established but because there are so many people who are attracted to the
Baha'i Cause just as they are attracted to some society and people who
have not developed spiritually to look at the world and the spiritual
elements of life in the proper light that a Baha'i would look at it, it
has become a habit of differentiating between what you might call
beginners in the Baha'i Movement and those who have studied the Movement
thoroughly and who know its teachings exactly and who understand the real
spirit that is back of it all. You should not think, however, that a
Baha'i is one who is superior to a Baha'i friend, but only that he has
studied the Movement better and realizes well the great and divine spirit
that is at the root of all Baha'i teachings.

I hope that in spite of the briefness that has been necessary in answering
your interesting questions, I have been able to explain to you properly
the meaning of each answer. It is always through questioning and mature
thought that we can arrive at the root of everything and in the teachings
of Baha'u'llah there are so many things which though at present seemingly
unnecessary will be of great necessity in the future development of
mankind.

LETTER OF 4 NOVEMBER 1926

4 November 1926

The wine mentioned in the Tablets has undoubtedly a spiritual meaning for
in the book of Aqdas we are definitely forbidden to take not only wine,
but every thing that deranges the mind. In poetry as a whole wine is taken
to have a different connotation than the ordinary intoxicating liquid. We
see it thus used by the Persian Poets such as Sa'di and Umar _Kh_ayam and
Hafiz to mean that element which nears man to his divine beloved, which
makes him forget his material self so as better to seek his spiritual
desires. It is very necessary to tell the children what this wine means so
that they may not confuse it with the ordinary wine.

The books of laws or