On This Grand Design: Can you hear Him now?

"Can you hear me now?" Detail of the "whispering ceiling" in the registry room at Ellis Island. Designed by the same person who designed the ceiling of Grand Central Station. It is possible to stand on opposite sides of the balcony and have a whispered conversation thanks to its acoustical properties. Uploaded on October 4, 2006 by Ed Karjala on flickr.

Architecture offers many examples of "grand designs." The man responsible for the design of the ceiling brickwork of the picture to the left created such a grand design. From Ruhi Book 6 comes this quotation for memorization which references God's grand design. -gw

Now is the time, O ye beloved of the Lord, for ardent endeavor. Struggle ye, and strive. And since the Ancient Beauty was exposed by day and night on the field of martyrdom, let us in our turn labor hard, and hear and ponder the counsels of God; let us fling away our lives, and renounce our brief and numbered days. Let us turn our eyes away from empty fantasies of this world's divergent forms, and serve instead this pre-eminent purpose, this grand design. Let us not, because of our own imaginings, cut down this tree that the hand of heavenly grace hath planted; let us not, with the dark clouds of our illusions, our selfish interests, blot out the glory that streameth from the Abhá Realm. Let us not be as barriers that wall out the rolling ocean of Almighty God. Let us not prevent the pure, sweet scents from the garden of the All-Glorious Beauty from blowing far and wide. Let us not, on this day of reunion, shut out the vernal downpour of blessings from on high. Let us not consent that the splendors of the Sun of Truth should ever fade and disappear. These are the admonitions of God, as set forth in His Holy Books, His Scriptures, His Tablets that tell out His counsellings to the sincere. "The glory rest upon you, and God's mercy, and God's blessings."

‘Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 263-264