4/14/21

To Professor Cheyne

O thou, my spiritual philosopher!

Thy letter was received. In reality its contents were eloquent, for it was an evidence of thy literary fairness and of thy investigation of Reality… There were many Doctors amongst the Jews, but they were all earthly, but St. Paul became heavenly because he could fly upwards. In his own time no one duly recognized him; nay, rather, he spent his days amidst difficulties and contempt. Afterwards it became known that he was not an earthly bird, he was a celestial one; he was not a natural philosopher, but a divine philosopher.

It is likewise my hope that in the future the East and the West may become conscious that thou wert a divine philosopher and a herald to the Kingdom…

Thy respected wife in reality deserves the utmost consideration… Praise be to God that she is also thy co-worker and co-partner in the perfection of the Kingdom.

(Signed) ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas  (Star of the West, vol. 4, no.17, January 19, 1914)