has prepared this
for you. You must appreciate the value of this bounty and engage your time
in mentioning and thanking the True One. You must live in the utmost
happiness. If any trouble or vicissitude comes into your lives, if your
heart is depressed on account of health, livelihood or vocation, let not
these things affect you. They should not cause unhappiness, for
Baha'u'llah has brought you divine happiness. He has prepared heavenly
food for you; He has destined eternal bounty for you; He has bestowed
everlasting glory upon you. Therefore, these glad tidings should cause you
to soar in the atmosphere of joy forever and ever. Render continual thanks
unto God so that the confirmations of God may encircle you all.

15 June 1912
Talk at 309 West Seventy-eighth Street, New York

Notes by Howard MacNutt

I have made you wait awhile, but as I was tired, I slept. While I was
sleeping, I was conversing with you as though speaking at the top of my
voice. Then through the effect of my own voice I awoke. As I awoke, one
word was upon my lips--the word imtiyaz ("distinction"). So I will speak to
you upon that subject this morning.

When we look upon the world of existence, we realize that all material
things have a common bond; and yet, on the other hand, there are certain
points of distinction between them. For instance, all earthly objects have
common bodily ties. The minerals, vegetables and animals have elemental
bodies in common with each other. Likewise, they have place in the order
of creation. This is the common tie or point of contact between them. All
of them pass through the process of composition and decomposition; this is
a natural law to which all are subject. This law is ruling throughout
creation and constitutes a bond of connection among created things. But at
the same time there are certain distinguishing features between these
objects. For instance, between the mineral and vegetable, the vegetable
and animal, the animal and human, points of distinction exist which are
unmistakable and significant. Likewise, there are distinctions between
kinds and species of each kingdom. When we consider the mineral kingdom in
detail, we observe not only points of similarity between objects but
points of distinction as well. Some are immovable bodies, some hard and
solid; some have the power of expansion and contraction; some are liquid,
some gaseous; some have weight; others, like fire and electricity, have
not