In this age every face must turn to God, so that spiritual enlightenment will go hand in hand with material education. Material education alone cannot make the world happy. Spiritual civilization must assist the material civilization. The men of science and philosophy are the founders of the material education, but His Holiness Christ was the founder of the spiritual, divine civilization. Material civilization serves the world of men, but the spiritual civilization founds the world of morals. These two kinds of civilization must go hand in hand. The material civilization is like the lamp, but the spiritual civilization is like the light in the lamp. This lamp without the light is a useless thing. Therefore, in our day philosophy and science must go hand in hand with the spiritual civilization. The material civilization is like the body; the spiritual civilization is like the spirit which is the life to the body. So long as the spirit gives life to the body, we behold a living thing, but a body without spirit is dead. It is my desire that ye all may reach the state of spiritual civilization. Like as ye have made great progress in material science, so may ye also progress in the spiritual world. Then the light of the Kingdom of God will shine through all the world. May the Sun of Reality illumine the East and the West."
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, 3 April 1913, Stuttgart, Germany; Star of the West, vol. 4, no. 4, 17 May, 1913)