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What a vision of holiness the Lord gave us in these simple but powerful words! If we, His lowly servants, could attain even a crumb of the sustenance contained in these blessed exhortations, we would never hunger. Yet, however exalted these exhortations are, and however much of a bounty they are to His children, Christ has provided the even greater supreme example of how to live them. Forsaking this world, His Ministry was crowned with those selfless deeds born of God that only the Promised One can manifest: (149:1) The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Matthew 8:20 (149:2) O people! My food is the grass of the field, wherewith I satisfy my hunger. My bed is the dust, my lamp in the night the light of the moon, and my steed my own feet. Behold, who on earth is richer than I? The Kitab-i-iqan, pp. 130-131 (149:3) Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17 (149:4) Throughout Christ's proclamation of a holy life in this world as preparation for an eternal life in the next, He heralded the advent of the kingdom of heaven , the kingdom of God. To this wondrous theme He referred on a multitude of occasions. Continuously throughout His ministry, Christ proclaimed its greatness, its virtue, its life giving bounty: (149:5) Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: (149:6) Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Matthew 13:31-32 (149:7) Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. Matthew 13:52
(149:8)
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