If the bounties of God should cease existence itself would cease. The darkness of non-existence would then become universal, even as the phenomenal world would perish if the sun that shines upon all phenomena were for one moment to cease shining. If it were reasonable or possible as a hypothesis to suppose that there ever had been a time when the sun had existed without its rays and heat, we should be forced to the conclusion that the sun had never existed, for the essential requirement of the sun is continuous outpouring of light and heat. Likewise, if we assume that there ever had been a time when the bounties of God had had a beginning, we must perforce believe that at one time there had been no divinity; or, if we assume that a time may come when the bounties of God will cease, we must conclude that divinity will sometime cease to exist. But this is impossible, because the essential requirement of divinity is continuous outpouring of bounties, and for the bounties of God there is neither beginning nor ending. God is eternal and his bounties are everlasting.
Notwithstanding this, some imperfect minds imagine that there was a time when the bounty of God was not, when God was not the Creator because he had no creation, when God was not the Provider because he had none for whom to provide. And there are some who say that a time will come when God will no longer create, when provision will cease, and when the world will come to an end. Such suppositions are great errors, for they attribute imperfection to divinity. This would mean the cessation of divinity, the cessation of the bounty of God, which is everlasting. These are suppositions of immature or ignorant minds, for anyone who has the least perception knows that the sovereignty of God is eternal. Sovereignty requires subjects. Sovereignty requires a country. Sovereignty requires princes, officials, an army. Could there be a king without a country, without subjects, without a treasury, or without courtiers? Were a king to be without these requirements of sovereignty it would be obvious that his dominion did not exist.
Therefore, to attain unto the knowledge of God's mysteries, man must know God as a real king, everlastingly possessed of subjects, hosts, dominion and power. Otherwise man will remain a captive of nature -- which is the station of the animal, not of man -- and will deprive himself of the great bestowals of God whereby the spirit of man is destined to become illumined. (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, excerpt from a Talk at Theosophical Society, San Francisco, October 11, 1912; Unpublished Manuscript of Ella Cooper) (To read the entire talk please visit Talks of ‘Abdu’l-Baha)
