“Purity and chastity”: - “the most great ornaments for the handmaidens of God”

“Purity and chastity,” He particularly admonishes, “have been, and still are, the most great ornaments for the handmaidens of God. God is My Witness! The brightness of the light of chastity sheddeth its illumination upon the worlds of the spirit, and its fragrance is wafted even unto the Most Exalted Paradise.” “God,” He again affirms, “hath verily made chastity to be a crown for the heads of His handmaidens. Great is the blessedness of that handmaiden that hath attained unto this great station.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

Not to follow “the things of the flesh”

“They that follow their lusts and corrupt inclinations,” is yet another warning, “have erred and dissipated their efforts. They indeed are of the lost.” “It behooveth the people of Bahá,” He also has written, “to die to the world and all that is therein, to be so detached from all earthly things that the inmates of Paradise may inhale from their garment the sweet smelling savor of sanctity.… They that have tarnished the fair name of the Cause of God by following the things of the flesh—these are in palpable error!” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

Who Bahá’u’lláh considers to be His “true follower”

“Say,” He proclaims, “He is not to be numbered with the people of Bahá who followeth his mundane desires, or fixeth his heart on things of the earth. He is My true follower who, if he come to a valley of pure gold will pass straight through it aloof as a cloud, and will neither turn back, nor pause. Such a man is assuredly of Me. From his garment the Concourse on high can inhale the fragrance of sanctity.… And if he met the fairest and most comely of women, he would not feel his heart seduced by the least shadow of desire for her beauty. Such an one indeed is the creation of spotless chastity. Thus instructeth you the Pen of the Ancient of Days, as bidden by your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

The need to “sanctify” one’s “heart” “from every defilement”

“He hath chosen out of the whole world the hearts of His servants,” He explains, “and made them each a seat for the revelation of His glory. Wherefore, sanctify them from every defilement, that the things for which they were created may be engraven upon them. This indeed is a token of God’s bountiful favor.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

“If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil”

“The civilization,” is His grave warning, “so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men.… If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

"A race of men incomparable in character, shall be raised up”

“A race of men,” is His written promise, “incomparable in character, shall be raised up which, with the feet of detachment, will tread under all who are in heaven and on earth, and will cast the sleeve of holiness over all that hath been created from water and clay.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

“Disencumber yourselves of all attachment to this world and the vanities thereof”

“Disencumber yourselves,” He thus commands them, “of all attachment to this world and the vanities thereof. Beware that ye approach them not, inasmuch as they prompt you to walk after your own lusts and covetous desires, and hinder you from entering the straight and glorious Path.” “Eschew all manner of wickedness,” is His commandment, “for such things are forbidden unto you in the Book which none touch except such as God hath cleansed from every taint of guilt, and numbered among the purified.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

“advance into the vast immensity of the realm of God, and abide ye in the meads of sanctity and of detachment”

“O ye My loved ones!” He thus exhorts His followers, “Suffer not the hem of My sacred vesture to be smirched and mired with the things of this world, and follow not the promptings of your evil and corrupt desires.” And again, “O ye the beloved of the one true God! Pass beyond the narrow retreats of your evil and corrupt desires, and advance into the vast immensity of the realm of God, and abide ye in the meads of sanctity and of detachment, that the fragrance of your deeds may lead the whole of mankind to the ocean of God’s unfading glory.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

“Wash yourselves thoroughly, O people of Bahá, from the defilement of the world”

“By the righteousness of God!” writes Bahá’u’lláh, “The world, its vanities and its glory, and whatever delights it can offer, are all, in the sight of God, as worthless as, nay even more contemptible than, dust and ashes. Would that the hearts of men could comprehend it. Wash yourselves thoroughly, O people of Bahá, from the defilement of the world, and of all that pertaineth unto it. God Himself beareth Me witness! The things of the earth ill beseem you. Cast them away unto such as may desire them, and fasten your eyes upon this most holy and effulgent Vision.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Quoting Baháu’lláh in ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)

Applications of “a chaste and holy life with its implications of modesty, purity, temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness”

Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of modesty, purity, temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness, 

• involves no less than the exercise of moderation in all that pertains to dress, language, amusements, and all artistic and literary avocations. 
• It demands daily vigilance in the control of one’s carnal desires and corrupt inclinations. 
• It calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures. 
• It requires total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from opium, and from similar habit-forming drugs. 
• It condemns the prostitution of art and of literature, the practices of nudism and of companionate marriage, infidelity in marital relationships, and all manner of promiscuity, of easy familiarity, and of sexual vices. 
• It can tolerate no compromise with the theories, the standards, the habits, and the excesses of a decadent age. 

Nay rather it seeks to demonstrate, through the dynamic force of its example, the pernicious character of such theories, the falsity of such standards, the hollowness of such claims, the perversity of such habits, and the sacrilegious character of such excesses. 

-Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)