# Abdu'l-Baha in New York

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Hussein Ahdieh, Abdu'l-Baha in New York, Hong Kong: Juxta Publishing Co., 2012, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in New York
> Centenary of His Visit to America
> 
> By
> Hussein Ahdieh and Hillary Chapman
> 
> Cover: Childe Hassam: Flags on the Waldorf, 1916
> 
> Copyright © 2012 by Hussein Ahdieh. All Rights Reserved.
> Preface
> Of all the historical, religious and cultural events in the history of the United States, the
> arrival of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1912 was, for his devotees, the most important event of all. Many
> people--from all parts of society--had the honor to meet him, attend his talks, benefit from
> his wisdom and witness his benevolence and humility. For many of these individuals, their
> encounter with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was life-altering: he touched the depths of their souls and
> awakened them spiritually.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was, according to his devotees, the ‘Mystery of God’, the expounder and the
> Center of the Covenant of a new Faith, the Bahá’í Faith, inaugurated by his father,
> Bahá’u’lláh who announced that the dawn of a unique chapter in the religious history of the
> world had broken. “Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch”, announced
> Bahá’u’lláh to all nations and the whole mankind, particularly to those who were steeped in
> their own prejudices and bigotry. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came to America to expound on the precepts
> of the new Faith inaugurated by his father. He came here to show us by the force of
> example, the true meaning of being a Bahá’í: humility, steadfastness, equity and kindness
> toward everybody regardless of his race, creed and place of birth. He showed people how to
> be a true follower of Bahá’u’lláh.
> 
> This book recounts his days in the city of New York. The authors hope that this account will
> help the reader to:
> 
> 1) Gain a deeper understanding of the spiritual concepts and social principles of the
> Bahá’í Faith as explained by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
> 2) Understand about the social context of the people of New York whom ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá met and their beliefs and concerns,
> 3) Learn about the lives of early Bahá’ís, their personal stories, beliefs and
> aspirations, the struggles and successes they had in building communities, and
> the development of their understanding of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
> 
> The authors hope that this re-telling of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s days in New York City will be both
> inspiring and illuminating and bring the reader closer to this unique figure in spiritual history
> whose life will serve as a model of the true spiritual and ethical life for centuries to come.
> 
> The authors deeply appreciates the invaluable assistance in preparing this book of many
> friends including Dr. Tahereh Ahdieh, Dr. Iraj Ayman, Anita Chapman, Bob Harris, Robert
> Hanevold, Kathryn Jewett Hogenson, Tatiana Azad Jordan, Rosann Velnich, Dr. Iraj
> Misaghi, Prof. Michael L. Penn, Dr. Anne Perry, Mike Relph, Pieter Ruiter, Dr. Hooshmand
> Shehberadaran, Mouhebat Soubhani, Dr. Robert Stockman, Prof. Christopher White.
> 
> Hussein Ahdieh, Hillary Chapman
> Drawing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Khalil Gibran
> 
> My name is `Abdu'l-Bahá [literally, Servant of Baha]. My
> qualification is `Abdu'l Bahá. My reality is `Abdu'l-Bahá. My praise
> is `Abdu'l-Bahá. Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection [Bahá'u'lláh] is
> my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human race
> my perpetual religion… No name, no title, no mention, no
> commendation have I, nor will ever have, except `Abdu'l-Bahá. This is
> my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is
> my everlasting glory.”
> Table of Contents
> Chapter 1: The Arrival ~ The Ansonia Hotel ........................................ 1
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples ....................... 5
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message ........... 14
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty ..................... 21
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk ........................... 36
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor ............................ 47
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant” ............................................................. 57
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey ............................................ 66
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America ....................................... 74
> Endnotes .................................................................................................... 86
> Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká
> 
> Chapter 1: The Arrival ~ The Ansonia Hotel
> Out on the plain of ‘Akká in Palestine, Bahá’u’lláh, who claimed to be Presence of God on
> earth, the Manifestation of God for this Day, ascended a few hours after midnight on May
> 29, 1892. That same day, His body was buried next to the mansion at Bahji where He lived
> His last years.
> 
> Nine days later, in front of witnesses and a large group of Bahá’ís, Bahá’u’lláh’s Will and
> Testament, the Book of the Covenant, was read aloud for the first time. The Book of the
> Covenant instructed all the believers--to “turn, one and all, unto the Most Great Branch”. As
> everyone knew, this title applied to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s beloved son.
> 
> For the first time in recorded history, the Manifestation of God had left behind an explicit
> Will and Testament designating a successor. Bahá’u’lláh had placed in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the
> unique authority to interpret the Sacred Texts. All Bahá’ís would now turn to him alone as
> their source of authority.
> 
> So it was that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became the living embodiment of the Covenant which
> Bahá’u’lláh had established with His followers. Guidance and consolation flowed out from
> him. He sent teachers to carry the Glad Tidings to other parts of the world including the
> United States. He fed the poor and cared for the sick.
> 
> In 1909, the Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, who ruled Palestine, was overthrown. ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá, who had been a prisoner and an exile almost his entire life, was now free to leave.
> 
> When American believers learned the news that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could now travel, they
> implored him to come to the United States. But they had struggled to be unified among
> themselves.
> 
> Chapter 1: The Arrival ~ The Ansonia Hotel                                                 1
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote back to them:
> 
> “[…] In view of the differences among the friends and the lack of unity […] how can
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá hasten to those parts? […] If the friends […] long for the visit of
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá they must immediately remove from their midst differences of opinion
> and be engaged in the practice of infinite love and unity […] Under such a condition,
> how can they arise to guide the people of the world and establish union and
> harmony between the nations of the earth? […] Verily, verily, I say unto you, were it
> not for this difference amongst you, the inhabitants of America in all those regions
> would have, by now, been attracted to the Kingdom of God, and would have
> constituted themselves your helpers and assisters […] I beg of God to confirm you
> in union and concord that you may become the cause of the oneness of the kingdom
> of humanity.” 1
> 
> By 1912, the time had come to make the long and arduous journey to the United States
> despite the physical frailty of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá caused by years of harsh living conditions as an
> exile and a prisoner and of managing a large extended family and a group of followers in
> exile. On March 25th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá boarded the large steamer, the S.S. Cedric, bound for the
> West.
> 
> On March 30th, after the Cedric passed the Rock of Gibraltar into the open Atlantic, ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá remarked:
> 
> “In past ages crossing the ocean was not as easy as it is now. Up to the present time
> no one has traveled, with a purpose like ours, from Persia to America. Some have
> made the journey but it was for their personal gain or for trivial motives. Ours may
> be said to be the first voyage of Easterners to America. I have strong hopes of divine
> assistance - that He will open the doors of victory and conquest on all sides. Today,
> all the nations of the world are vanquished, and victory and glory revolve around the
> servants of the Blessed Perfection. All aims will come to naught except this mighty
> aim. Hardship and debasement in this path are, therefore, comfort and honor, and
> affliction a blessing.” 2
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá blessed the children on board. Passengers sought him out. Their admiration
> for him grew with each day;; soon, they took their hats off as they passed him on deck. He
> taught anyone who would listen about Bahá’u’lláh and the needs of the day. He received
> telegrams from Bahá’í groups all over the States.
> 
> The Cedric crossed the ocean which had calmed down, day by day approaching the
> continent:
> 
> “I am going to America at the invitation of peace congresses, as the fundamental
> principles of this Cause are universal peace, the oneness of the world of humanity
> and the equality of the rights of men. As this age is the age of lights and the century
> 
> Chapter 1: The Arrival ~ The Ansonia Hotel                                                       2
> of mysteries, this lofty purpose is sure to be universally acknowledged and this Most
> Mighty Cause is certain to embrace the East and the West.” 3
> 
> The huge boat carrying the Master soon came into view:
> 
> “We shall be at sea for another day. Steam power is truly a wonderful thing. If there
> were no such power, how would the vast oceans have been crossed? What wonderful
> means God has supplied and what confirmations the Blessed Beauty has conferred.
> Otherwise, how could we be here? What have we in common with these places?” 4
> 
> In the evening of April 10th, the large black hull of the S.S. Cedric moved through the dark
> swells outside of New York Harbor.
> 
> The next morning, Irish dockworkers looked out over the water and saw a tug boat pulling
> the SS Cedric across the harbor. Mist rolled in.
> 
> KKK
> 
> Several reporters had ridden on the tug boat to the quarantine station where they could
> board the Cedric. Once on board, they sought out ‘Abdu’l-Bahá who was on the upper deck.
> They were astonished at the profound joy in his expression. He greeted the reporters:
> 
> “The pages of swiftly appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world […]
> But it behooveth the editors of the newspapers to be sanctified from the prejudice of
> egotism and desire, and to be adorned with the ornament of equity and justice." 5
> 
> Passing the Statue of Liberty, he held out his arms towards it:
> 
> “There is the new world's symbol of liberty and freedom. After being forty years a
> prisoner I can tell you that freedom is not a matter of place. It is a condition. Unless
> one accept dire vicissitudes he will not attain. When one is released from the prison
> of self, that is indeed a release." 6
> 
> Reporters asked him about the purpose of his coming to America:
> 
> “Our object is universal peace and the unity of humankind.” 7
> 
> “Its realization is through the attraction and support of world public opinion. Today
> universal peace is the panacea for all human life.” 8
> 
> “One of these ills is the people's restlessness and discontent under the yoke of the
> war expenditures of the world's governments. What the people earn through hard
> labor is extorted from them by the governments and spent for purposes of war. And
> every day they increase these expenditures. Thus the burden on men becomes more
> 
> Chapter 1: The Arrival ~ The Ansonia Hotel                                                    3
> and more unbearable and the tribulations of the people become more and more
> severe. This is one of the great ills of the day.” 9
> 
> “If all would lay down their arms, they would be freed from all difficulties and every
> misery would be changed into relief. However, this cannot be brought about except
> through education and the development of people's thoughts and ideas.” 10
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words touched on their hopes and fears. The reporters took notes as ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá spoke. They were all keenly aware of the delicate balance of powers between the
> European states and how easily it could disintegrate into all-out warfare.
> 
> The SS Cedric reached the dock. There was a great festive mood at the arrival of the great
> ship. People shouted greetings from the deck to the dock and back. The crew rushed about
> calling out instructions and setting up the disembarkation. A deep horn bellowed.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá requested that Edward Kinney--whom he had named ‘Saffa’--come aboard.
> Edward ‘Saffa’ Kinney and his wife, Vafa, had been to the Holy Land on pilgrimage.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá instructed him to tell the other Bahá’ís who waited below to proceed to the
> Kinney home and await his arrival. 11
> 
> Mr. Kinney went out to give ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s instructions to the waiting believers. Mist came
> over the pier. 12 The Master stepped off the gangplank onto the ground of the United States
> like a benediction.
> 
> KKK
> 
> Juliet Thompson waited with her two friends Marjorie Morton and Rhoda Nichols, who was
> holding a long box of lillies. 13 Juliet lived in a brownstone on 10th St. in Greenwich Village
> which had become a haven for free thinkers and artists such as herself. She painted and
> wrote and read the manuscripts of her neighbor, Khalil Gibran, the famous Lebanese poet.
> She was honest and trusting to a fault and completely open to spirit of the age. 14 She had
> also seen the vision of the future in the Bahá’í teachings and had become profoundly
> devoted to the figure of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to whom she had already made several pilgrimages.
> 
> The three women waited over by the entrance to the pier, pressed against the window.
> Though others had left following the instructions, Marjorie refused to leave before she had
> seen him. The car of Mountfort Mills, a local Bahá’í, rolled up to the entrance. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> stepped forward to climb into it. As he did so, he turned his head in the direction of Juliet
> and smiled. 15
> 
> Chapter 1: The Arrival ~ The Ansonia Hotel                                                   4
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples
> Edward Kinney had been born during the civil war in New York City. A talented musician,
> he had studied with the famous Czech composer Anton Dvorak and subsequently worked as
> a choirmaster, church organist, composer
> and voice teacher. His wife, Carrie Kinney,
> had been born into a wealthy New York
> family. She had dreamed of becoming a
> doctor to which her parents objected,
> instead presenting her with a series of
> socially appropriate suitors whom she all
> rejected. In 1893, a year after the passing of
> Bahá’u’lláh, she met Edward and, over the
> objections of her parents, they married two
> years later.
> 
> One day, Edward’s old friend, Howard
> MacNutt, had invited him to the house to
> hear “some glorious news”. The Kinneys
> took a horsecab up to the Bronx and that
> evening learned of the claims of Bahá’u’lláh.
> As the couple rode home in the dark, it was Abdu’l-Bahá with Edward & Carrie
> Kinney and children
> clear that Edward had been touched by this
> powerful announcement while Carrie was
> disturbed by the news though she later became a believer. That night, Edward wrote to
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for confirmation. One month later, he received a reply from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> written in red ink which read: “You have been chosen”.
> 
> Since that time, the Kinneys had made two pilgrimages to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and served in Egypt
> for a year following the Master’s request to found a hospital for tuberculosis patients. When
> they returned to New York City, they opened their spacious home at 780 West End Ave. for
> Bahá’í gatherings. 16
> 
> Now on April 11th, 1912, they prepared their home for a great blessing: a visit from ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá.
> 
> KKK
> 
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                      5
> After leaving the pier, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, accompanied by Howard MacNutt and Mountfort
> Mills, had been driven to the Hotel Ansonia at 73rd and Broadway. His suite was on the
> seventh floor of the seventeen-floor building and consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom,
> and a drawing room. 17 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá always insisted on paying the way for himself and his
> companions and never accepted the financial assistance offered to him by the Bahá’ís.
> 
> Among those who visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that morning at the Ansonia was John Bosch who
> had traveled day and night by train from California to see the Master. Bosch, who had
> immigrated from Switzerland in 1879, had been trained as a winemaker and worked for a
> prosperous winery in Sonoma County. One evening, he saw a friend on the train traveling
> home from San Francisco. She was reading Myron Phelps’s Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi.
> The two talked about spiritual matters---Bosch was actively seeking at the time;; his friend
> invited him to meetings at the home of Mrs. Cooper in Oakland. Over the next months,
> Bosch attended the meetings though he sometimes had difficulty deciding whether to go to
> his Masonic Lodge--where he had been a longtime member--, the saloons of San Francisco,
> or the Oakland Bahá’í meetings. He developed a friendship with Thornton Chase which
> included staying in nearby hotels when they were in San Francisco at the same time;; they
> would talk for a long time about the Faith and John would offer to walk Chase back to his
> hotel but when they got there, they kept talking about the Faith for such a long time that
> Chase would offer to walk Bosch back to his hotel. Bosch became a Bahá’í. He wrote to
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “[…] may my name be entered in the Great Book of this Universal Life[…]
> My watch word will be “Justice.””. 18
> 
> On this cold April day, Bosch rode in the first of three cars rolling towards the Kinney
> home. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rested his head on Bosch’s shoulder and closed his eyes and let himself
> nap in the sway of the automobile. John tried to stay absolutely still so as not to wake the
> Master. 19
> 
> At the Kinneys, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was greeted by many joyful faces. He was seated in the middle
> of the dining room. Juliet Thompson and Marjorie Morten sat on the floor close to him.
> Rows and circles of people spread out from him with all the doors of the large rooms
> opening into each other. He turned his head slowly looking with compassion upon person
> after person. 20
> 
> When he began speaking, a great spiritual power flowed out:
> 
> “I am greatly pleased with the city of New York. Its harbor entrance, its piers,
> buildings and broad avenues are magnificent and beautiful. Truly, it is a wonderful
> city. As New York has made such progress in material civilization, I hope that it may
> also advance spiritually in the Kingdom and Covenant of God so that the friends
> here may become the cause of the illumination of America, that this city may become
> the city of love and that the fragrances of God may be spread from this place to all
> parts of the world. I have come for this. I pray that you may be manifestations of the
> love of Bahá’u’lláh, that each one of you may become like a clear lamp of crystal
> 
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                      6
> from which the rays of the bounties of the Blessed Perfection may shine forth to all
> nations and peoples. This is my highest aspiration.” 21
> 
> After the Master had finished, he offered to greet people individually. Many pressed in
> around him and asked him for prayers of assistance and touched his light colored cloak as he
> left. 22
> 
> In the back of the crowd, Howard Colby Ives looked eagerly towards ‘Abdu’l-Bahá but
> could not reach him. Ives had been educated as a Unitarian minister and had served in
> several small parishes in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
> New Jersey. He had begun an informal ‘brotherhood’ of
> men devoted to the Holy Spirit who met once a week in a
> Masonic Lodge so as to include a broader range of people
> than a denominational church. One of the Board
> members of that group, Clarence Moore, a humble and
> kindly man, told Ives about his interest “in a world-wide
> movement which seems to have great spiritual and social
> significance”. Though skeptical, Ives read through the
> notes Clarence had taken after hearing about this
> ‘movement’ and was intrigued. He received an invitation a
> few days later to a Bahá’í meeting and went because of his
> love for his friend Clarence. Though he went
> begrudgingly and remembered nothing of it, it was there
> that he met Mountfort Mills. Mills taught Ives about the
> Bahá’í Faith over the next few weeks. Ives was much
> tormented by what he read and heard and, most
> especially, with the difficulty he had with offering
> personal prayer. 23 Soon it was the spring of 1912, and he
> Howard Colby Ives
> looked to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit for answers. Though Ives
> was not able to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that afternoon at the
> Kinneys, his life was on the verge of being completely changed.
> 
> KKK
> 
> Howard Colby Ives had to get up very early the morning of Friday, April 12th, to make it in
> to the Hotel Ansonia from his home in New Jersey to try to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. By the time
> he arrived a little before 9 a.m., the waiting room in the Ansonia was already full with those
> who wished to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. 24
> 
> There were reporters there who wanted to know who ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was exactly--“I am not a
> prophet;; I am a servant of God”--and why had he come to the United States--“I have come
> to visit the peace societies of America because the fundamental principles of our Cause are
> universal peace and the promotion of the basic doctrine of the oneness and truth of all
> divine religions”. There were phone calls from believers inquiring about him and letters to
> be written to Bahá’í assemblies in the country. 25
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                         7
> Ives was in a very emotional state so he walked away from the others to a window with a
> view of Broadway wondering what he was doing there with no appointment while so many
> others waited. Then a door opened from across the room, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came out and
> said farewell to the people with whom he had been speaking. The morning sun gathered all
> around his cloak, he adjusted his fez which had tilted slightly on his head, and looked directly
> at Ives. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá beckoned him. Ives saw no one else near him to whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> could have been gesturing. Amazed, he walked towards the Master who led him into the
> private room and dismissed everyone else within it, including the interpreter who seemed
> surprised at this.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá walked with Ives over to two chairs near the window. He grasped Ives’s hand
> even more tightly and said softly in English: “You are my very dear son.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> looked at him intently. The Master’s very being was taking him in. Howard felt as though
> this was the first time another person had ever truly seen him. The turmoil that had agitated
> Ives’s soul was released in tears of joy. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wiped these tears away while exhorting
> him to be happy. A long and full silence passed between them. A great peace came over
> Howard. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rose up, laughed heartily, took him in his arms with a powerful hug
> and led him to the door. A new life had begun for Howard Colby Ives.
> 
> KKK
> 
> During these days, newspapers covered events such as, “President Taft forms the US
> Chamber of Commerce”;; “the Titanic, largest boat in the world, leaves port for NYC”;; “new
> Packard automobile company in Long Island City”;; “NY Highlanders have become the NY
> Yankees and will start the new season in their new pinstripe uniforms”. 1
> 
> They also printed photos of the Master. The New York Times headline read: "ABDUL
> BAHA HERE”:
> 
> "[…]he and his father, Ben Ullah [Bahá'u'lláh] were exiled by the Turkish
> Government fifty years ago. “Abdul Baha comes to us on a mission of peace and will
> deliver one of his principle addresses before the Peace Conference at Lake Mohonk.
> […]" 26
> 
> The New York City Evening Sun announced: "AN APOSTLE OF PEACE. […] The
> keynote of Abdul Baha's philosophy is that men serve God best by serving their kind. […]” 27
> 
> These are made up headlines based on actual events during the Spring/ Summer of 1912.
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                         8
> The New York City Sun had this article:
> 
> "DISCIPLES HERE HAIL ABDUL BAHA "[…] [He] was welcomed reverently by
> more than three hundred of his American disciples yesterday. […] Catholics,
> Protestants, Jews and Mohammedans joined in the reception. […]” 28
> 
> While traditional Protestants, such as Episcopalians and Presbyterians, had made up the
> powerful families of New York, now the Irish Catholics were in political ascendancy. Jews,
> while numerous, were still a society apart. They had begun, though, to create aid societies
> and would soon make a great mark on New York City.
> 
> The New York City Evening World emphasized another aspect of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s teaching:
> 
> "ABDUL BAHA ABBAS, HEAD OF NEWEST RELIGION, BELIEVES IN
> WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND DIVORCE. […] members of the sect were known
> originally as Babists, after The Bab, but they are now called Bahais, after the Bahas,
> father and son. […] Of course nobody could be named Baha without having a beard.
> […] He has brought a suite of five very Oriental gentlemen. […] Abdul Baha is really
> a delightful prophet. He says he isn't a prophet, by the way, but 'only a servant of the
> servants of God.'” 29
> 
> Though New York City teemed with immigrant women who worked constantly in homes
> and factories for low or no wages, the right to vote would not be given to any women for
> another eight years.
> 
> KKK
> 
> Howard MacNutt and his wife, Mary, were taught about the Bahá’í Faith from a Syrian
> doctor, Ibrahim Kheiralla, who was the first person to teach the Faith in the United States.
> Kheiralla appointed MacNutt as the Bahá’í
> ‘teacher’ of New York City. The MacNutts used
> their home at 731 St. Nicholas Ave. for Bahá’í
> gatherings as well as the second home they
> bought at 935 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn in
> 1902. 30 They were most likely the first to hold
> Bahá’í feasts in their home in the United States
> after returning from their pilgrimage in 1905. 31
> Howard soon began to study Persian and Arabic
> which allowed him to assist Ali Kuli Khan, a
> young Persian believer who lived in the United
> States, in translating the Book of Certitude, the
> Kitab-i-Iqan. 32                                                Howard MacNutt
> 
> Howard spent much of his Bahá’í life serving on administrative bodies. On December 7th,
> 1900, he was elected to the first Board of Counsel of New York City. He represented the
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                        9
> Bahá’ís of New York at the 1909 ‘Bahá’í Temple Unity Convention’, the first Bahá’í National
> Convention of any kind. 33 He also took a great interest in the development of the Bahá’í
> School at Green Acre, Maine. 34
> 
> The Bahá’í group of New York City, though, struggled to be unified. The Syrian doctor who
> had taught many of them had turned against ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and taught his own version of the
> Bahá’í Faith. Also, two of the main members of the New York group—Howard MacNutt
> and Arthur P. Dodge—had conflict with one another. Arthur P. Dodge was a popularizer of
> the Faith who wanted to reach the masses by producing a magazine with spiritual guidance;;
> MacNutt was more of an aristocrat and thinker. The two men had very different
> understandings of the station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Dodge believed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to be the
> returned Christ, a Manifestation of God, but MacNutt thought ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was a man who
> had attained his station through his service and spiritual virtues. 35
> 
> The New York Bahá’ís met in privates homes so different groups formed around these
> different home meetings. Each home meeting had a somewhat different understanding of
> the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. The Brooklyn Bahá’ís tended to meet on their own.
> Howard MacNutt founded a Board of Counsel for the Bahá’ís living in Brooklyn after he
> was not elected to the New York Board, which met in Manhattan. 36 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, informed
> of the tensions within the New York group, wrote to it, to tell it to expand the number of
> believers serving on the board to twenty seven. Later he told Juliet Thompson that he had
> done this so that all the different parties, including MacNutt, would be included;; he told the
> New York Board that women should be allowed to serve. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed the Board
> as the “Spiritual Assembly” so this became the new title. 37
> 
> Howard MacNutt had only a partial understanding of the Bahá’í Faith--like many Bahá’ís of
> his time--because very few of the Bahá’í Writings had been translated. Believers learned
> more about Bahá’í beliefs and practice from the returning pilgrims who had visited ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá. The pilgrims had seen how the Master lived his life and had taken notes on his
> explanations of the teachings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit in 1912 helped enormously in educating
> the believers about Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings. Most Bahá’ís blended personal interests and
> previous beliefs into their knowledge of the teachings of the Faith. For example, Howard
> MacNutt had been very interested in a form of Hinduism which taught that God was ‘in
> everything’, pantheism, and believed that the unity of religions taught by Bahá’u’lláh meant
> the ‘blending’ of religions. Other Bahá’ís held onto popular beliefs and practices such as
> telepathy. When individuals insisted on such beliefs there was real friction between the
> Bahá’ís.
> 
> One thing was certain about Howard Macnutt--after meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on pilgrimage in
> 1905, he believed that the power of love could bind people and communities together.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had told him to tell the Bahá’ís in New York, “My love is my face;; take it to
> them;; tell them to see me in their love for each other.” 38
> 
> On the afternoon of April 12th, the MacNutts were privileged to open their home in
> Brooklyn to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and give the opportunity to many guests to experience his love.
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                       10
> At the MacNutt home, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá emphasized that unity was the purpose of Divine
> Revelation--which many Bahá’ís did not realize---and that love was the means of creating
> this unity. He contrasted this fundamental spiritual teaching with the wars that had broken
> out in other parts of the world:
> 
> “The purpose of the creation of man is the attainment of the supreme virtues of
> humanity through descent of the heavenly bestowals. … It is so, likewise, in the
> spiritual world. That world is the Kingdom of complete attraction and affinity. It is
> the Kingdom of the One Divine Spirit, the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the affinity
> and love manifest in this meeting, the divine susceptibilities witnessed here are not of
> this world but of the world of the Kingdom. … Through His (Christ) death and
> teachings we have entered into His Kingdom. His essential teaching was the unity of
> mankind and the attainment of supreme human virtues through love. … Can you
> find in His words any justification for discord and enmity? … If you should
> announce that Italy was a barbarous nation and not Christian, this would be
> vehemently denied. But would Christ sanction what they are doing in Tripoli? …
> Whenever discord prevails instead of unity, wherever hatred and antagonism take the
> place of love and spiritual fellowship, Antichrist reigns instead of Christ. … We have
> been brought together here by the power of His Word—you from America, I from
> Persia—all in love and unity of spirit. Was this possible in former centuries? If it is
> possible now after fifty years of sacrifice and teaching, what shall we expect in the
> wonderful centuries coming?” 39
> 
> Later on that day, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at Miss Phillip’s studio on 39 West 67th St.. The large
> room was lit from above and cast shadows on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s face such that it looked very
> rugged and even more powerful. 40 To this audience, he again emphasized love and that the
> expression of love is service to others. He also tried to awaken in the listeners a sense of the
> importance of the time in which they lived:
> 
> “Therefore, order your lives in accordance with the first principle of the divine
> teaching, which is love. Service to humanity is service to God. … Do you appreciate
> the Day in which you live? … These are the days of seed sowing. … This is the
> springtime of Bahá’u’lláh. The verdure and foliage of spiritual growth are appearing
> in great abundance in the gardens of human hearts. Know ye the value of these
> passing days and vanishing nights. Strive to attain a station of absolute love one
> toward another.” 41
> 
> The following morning, Saturday, April 13th, clerics came to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the
> Ansonia. He pointedly told them that the “ministers of religion” were partly responsible for
> the spiritual apathy into which people had sunk. Religion, though, must go hand in hand
> with reason and science and, as a result, it had become imitation so they must relate religion
> to scientific knowledge. 42
> 
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                        11
> Rev. Bixby, who had written an inaccurate article on the Faith for the North American
> Review, was one of the ministers who interviewed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that morning. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> presented to him a view of religions which allowed one to see their common foundation
> without being confused by theological dogma or cultural variety.
> 
> Bixby: “What is understood to be the relation between the manifestation in
> Baha’o’llah and the manifestations in Moses, Jesus and others?”
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “It is one basis, one foundation. Abraham proclaimed the Truth,
> Moses raised the standard of Truth. Jesus established the Truth. …”
> 
> Bixby: “By what authority is BAHA'O'LLAH placed with Abraham, Moses and
> Jesus?”
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Today we believe BAHA'O'LLAH to be an educator of humanity, as
> Abraham, Moses and Jesus were educators. … What is the function of a teacher and
> educator of humanity? By what evidence shall we recognize him? … For the aim and
> function of an Educator is to train the children of humanity. This is His greatest
> power;; -- that He has power to uplift humanity. Bahá’u’lláh either taught higher
> lessons or did not. If He did, He has fulfilled His claim. …”
> 
> Bixby: “Has Bahá’u’lláh done this?”
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Yes! In Persia especially He has accomplished this miracle of training
> and education. …”
> 
> Bixby: “How can we receive more from the Teachings of Baha’o’llah than from the
> Words of Jesus?”
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Jesus and the former Prophets laid the foundation of the Cause of
> God, -- the Heavenly Kingdom. But their followers forget and overlook the
> foundation. Christ said, "Ye must be born again of water and spirit." "As children
> from the womb, so must ye be born again of Spirit." The essence of His meaning
> was that His real followers would become free from worldly imperfections;; … These
> are the real Christians. … Now Baha’ullah came and brought a new life into the
> hearts of mankind. … Under the influence of Bahá’u’lláh’s words, he (Mírzá Abul
> Fazl, a prominent Bahá’í) arose to serve this Cause. He was thrown into prison two
> years;; … Under all conditions of distress and suffering, he was thankful and filled
> with happiness, … This is the strongest proof that the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh have
> within them the same power to mould and influence human lives as the Teachings of
> Jesus. …” 43
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá concluded the interview by placing a large number of white roses into the
> Reverend’s arms as an expression of the “love and fragrance of the Bahá’í Spirit”. 44
> 
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                     12
> In the afternoon, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá approached the theme again of the common source of all
> religions and the continuing and progressive nature of Revelation, when he spoke at the
> home of Mrs. Morten. This time he described it in organic and naturalistic terms:
> 
> “The spiritual world is like unto the phenomenal world. They are the exact
> counterpart of each other. … When we look upon the phenomenal world, we
> perceive that it is divided into four seasons;; … When the season of spring appears in
> the arena of existence, the whole world is rejuvenated and finds new life. … The
> appearances of the Manifestations of God are the divine springtime. When Christ
> appeared in this world, it was like the vernal bounty;; the outpouring descended;; the
> effulgences of the Merciful encircled all things;; the human world found new life.
> Even the physical world partook of it. The divine perfections were upraised;; souls
> were trained in the school of heaven so that all grades of human existence received
> life and light. … the season of winter came upon the world;; the beauties of spring
> vanished;; the excellences and perfections passed away;; the lights and quickening
> were no longer evident;; the phenomenal world and its materialities conquered
> everything;; the spiritualities of life were lost;; … Bahá’u’lláh has come into this world.
> He has renewed that springtime. …” 45
> 
> He spoke while standing on the stairs because the audience was so large. At one point in his
> description of the seasons he said, “Va tábistán”, then there was silence. He looked over at
> his excellent translator, Ahmad, who uncharacteristically could not find the word. ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá, realizing this, smiled and said: “Summer”.
> 
> When he was finished, over a hundred people came up to shake his hand, to ask for a
> blessing, to present their children, or to show him a tablet which he had written to them.
> Exhausted, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá began to make his way upstairs but they pleaded for him to stay a
> little longer. 46 A taxi driver asked what message he should take back to his friends, and
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered: "Tell them to come into the Kingdom of God. There they will find
> plenty of land and there are no taxes on it." 47
> 
> Later that evening, the Master was lying down from fatigue. He received a visit from Juliet
> Thompson and her mother. Earlier that day, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had inquired about her mother
> and Juliet answered that her mother grieved because her son was marrying a woman who did
> not want to know their family. So ‘Abdu’l-Bahá invited Juliet to bring her mother to him.
> Juliet, knowing her mother’s opposition to her involvement in the Faith and because there
> was a thunderstorm that day, didn’t think her mother would accept but she did. Once in
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s room, Juliet’s mother approached him shyly and got down on her knees next
> to his bedside. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá welcomed her and comforted her by praising Juliet and
> exhorting her to trust in God. She expressed her love for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá who assured her that
> his heart knew that. The next day, her mother’s bitterness was gone. 48
> 
> Chapter 2: First Days ~ In the Homes of the Disciples                                          13
> Chapter 3:
> Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message
> Juliet Thompson was in love with Rev. Percy Grant, the rector of the Church of the
> Ascension, a large church down the street from her
> home. This Church was founded in 1827 as an
> evangelical church and had remained active in social
> causes. A new, gothic style building was built
> because the congregation had grown much larger
> and a fire had burned down the first building. Rev.
> Grant had been appointed its rector in 1893 49 and
> had come to know Juliet because she was one of the
> congregants. Their friendship had grown but Juliet
> was unsure about marrying him.
> 
> Rev. Grant had spoken out against the Faith from
> his pulpit but, after learning that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was
> coming to the States, he seemed to have a change of
> heart and wrote to Juliet:
> Juliet Thompson
> “If his friends in this city would feel any
> value or assistance in having him speak at
> the eleven o'clock service in the Church of the Ascension, in place of my sermon, I
> shall be more than happy to invite him to the Ascension pulpit in my place. I should
> like to show so important and splendid a person, and those who love him, whatever
> hospitality and goodwill can be expressed in this town, by such a plan.” 50
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arrived in the rectory at ten-thirty Sunday morning, April 14th, and was taken to
> an upper room as the Sunday school classes were going on downstairs. There, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> waited with Edward Getsinger, Juliet Thompson, and the Persian believers who
> accompanied the Master. Rev. Grant came in to greet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. As the group waited,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá teased Juliet lovingly and inquired after the wellbeing of her mother. She, in
> turn, asked after the health of Ruha Khanum, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s daughter, to which he
> 
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                 14
> answered: “I have put her in the hands of the Blessed Perfection," said our Lord, "and now I
> don't worry at all.” 51
> 
> By the beginning of the service, the Church of the Ascension was filled to capacity. The altar
> was wreathed with calla lilies. Dr. Grant began the
> morning with a reading of prophecy from the Old
> Testament related to this appointed Day of fulfillment.
> Next he chose the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians
> from the apostle Paul:
> 
> “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but
> do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or
> a clanging cymbal. … Love never fails. But where
> there are prophecies, they will cease;; where there
> are tongues, they will be stilled;; where there is
> knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part
> and we prophesy in part, but when completeness
> comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a
> child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I
> reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put
> the ways of childhood behind me. For now we                Rev. Percy Grant
> see only a reflection as in a mirror;; then we shall
> see face to face. Now I know in part;; then I shall
> know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and
> love. But the greatest of these is love.” 52
> 
> The choir then burst into “Jesus lives”. Dr. Grant stepped into the vestry and walked out
> hand in hand with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. They stood for a moment by the altar under a mural
> showing the Resurrection. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was seated in the chair near the altar reserved for a
> bishop, the representative of Christ who had the church’s teaching authority for the City and
> oversaw all churches in a region. Over the chair hung a Greek-style wreath symbolizing the
> victory of Christ through His Suffering. 53
> 
> Dr. Grant introduced the Master who then rose and walked over to the steps of the altar. He
> looked out lovingly over the packed church. As he spoke, he asserted that unity was the
> purpose of religion and the way to peace in the world:
> 
> “Today the world of humanity is in need of international unity and conciliation. To
> establish these great fundamental principles a propelling power is needed. It is selfevident that the unity of the human world and the Most Great Peace cannot be
> accomplished through material means. They cannot be established through political
> power, for the political interests of nations are various and the policies of peoples are
> divergent and conflicting. They cannot be founded through racial or patriotic power,
> for these are human powers, selfish and weak. The very nature of racial differences
> and patriotic prejudices prevents the realization of this unity and agreement.
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                   15
> Therefore, it is evidenced that the promotion of the oneness of the kingdom of
> humanity, which is the essence of the teachings of all the Manifestations of God, is
> impossible except through the divine power and breaths of the Holy Spirit.” 54
> 
> He praised Jesus Christ again, describing the Manifestation of God in terms of being an
> ‘educator’:
> 
> “Jesus Christ came to teach the people of the world this heavenly civilization and not
> material civilization. He breathed the breath of the Holy Spirit into the body of the
> world and established an illumined civilization. Among the principles of divine
> civilization He came to proclaim is the Most Great Peace of mankind.” 55
> 
> He also warned of the spiritual danger lurking in materialism:
> 
> “The world of humanity is submerged in a sea of materialism. The rays of the Sun of
> Reality are seen but dimly and darkly through opaque glasses. The penetrative power
> of the divine bounty is not fully manifest.” 56
> 
> These ideas may well have resonated with this devout big city audience aware of the very
> delicate balance of power between the great nations of Europe and mindful in their day to
> day lives of the many social problems of the poor and needy in their burgeoning city.
> 
> When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had concluded he raised his palms upward and offering a prayer near
> the altar, “… Verily, this congregation is seeking Thy path, searching for Thy mystery, …”. 57
> Dr. Grant and other clerics bowed their heads as they listened. The service broke up with
> the recessional hymn “Christ our Lord has risen again”. 58
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was taken back into the Rectory. Groups of parishioners moved forward to
> greet him and seek his blessing. Bahá’ís sang “Allah-u-Abha”. One woman cried as she held
> the hem of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s robe. He calmed her with his loving kindness. 59
> 
> The Master asked to see Dr. Grant, but he had been detained in the Church. Mountfort
> Mills walked out with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the car. Dr. Grant’s mother then ran into the room
> looking side to side for the Master. She wanted his blessing. She made her way out to the
> black car in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sat. When she got to the car, she knelt in the street. The
> Master placed his hands on her head. 60
> 
> Juliet Thompson went back in to the empty church to thank Dr. Grant. This had been a day
> of days for her. For years she had struggled with her attendance at this church and her
> relationship with Dr. Grant. This had been a day of fulfillment in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
> presence in this church had proclaimed the Resurrection—that this time was the appointed
> Day. She wanted to thank Dr. Grant who had been so dynamic during the service. The last
> parishioner had left. She walked up to him. They clasped hands. He smiled and called her,
> “My darling”. Instead of the spiritual energy she had seen during the service, Juliet now saw
> 
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                 16
> in his face a strange falseness which snapped her out of her feelings for him. She turned
> away. 61
> 
> KKK
> 
> That afternoon, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at the Union Meeting of Advanced Thought Centers in
> the Carnegie Hall building on 57th St. Using the imagery of sun and mirrors, he related the
> oneness of God to the goal of the oneness of humanity and the need for love to accomplish
> this.
> 
> God’s Revelation, like the sun’s light and warmth, is for everyone:
> 
> “The world of creation, the world of humanity may be likened to the earth itself and
> the divine power to the sun. This Sun has shone upon all mankind. In the endless
> variety of its reflections the divine Will is manifested. Consider how all are recipients
> of the bounty of the same Sun. At most the difference between them is that of
> degree, for the effulgence is one effulgence, the one light emanating from the Sun.
> This will express the oneness of the world of humanity.” 62
> 
> To receive the Holy Spirit--God’s light--individuals must cleanse themselves of this world:
> 
> “The most important thing is to polish the mirrors of hearts in order that they may
> become illumined and receptive of the divine light.” 63
> 
> The more human beings do this, the more the world will be unified and illumined:
> 
> “This means the oneness of the world of humanity. That is to say, when this human
> body politic reaches a state of absolute unity, the effulgence of the eternal Sun will
> make its fullest light and heat manifest.” 64
> 
> Love is the quality which God bestows to unify people. Jesus Christ and Bahá’u’lláh caused
> love to appear in the hearts of their followers:
> 
> “All the Prophets have striven to make love manifest in the hearts of men. Jesus
> Christ sought to create this love in the hearts. He suffered all difficulties and ordeals
> that perchance the human heart might become the fountain source of love.” 65
> 
> “About sixty years ago Bahá’u’lláh appeared upon the eastern horizon. He caused
> love and unity to become manifest among these antagonistic peoples. He united
> them with the bond of love;; …” 66
> 
> KKK
> 
> Among the many visitors who came to speak with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the next morning, Monday,
> April 15th, was Mr. Hudson Maxim, an inventor and scientist who was an expert in
> 
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                    17
> explosives. Hudson was very interested in issues related to the prevention of international
> war through the build-up of armaments. In the course of the interview, he attempted to
> counter and challenge ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
> 
> “Maxim: “I understand you are a messenger of peace to this country. What is your
> opinion about modern war? …”
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Everything that prevents war is good.”
> 
> “Maxim: “Evolution has now reached a period in the life of nations where
> commerce takes the place of warfare. Business is war, cruel, merciless.”
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “True! War is not limited to one cause. There are many kinds of war
> and conflict going on … this is the very civilization of war.”
> 
> “Maxim: “Do you consider the next great major war necessary?”
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “I hope your efforts may be able to prevent it. Why not try peace for
> a while? If we find war is better, it will not be difficult to fight again;; …”
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “In ancient times when nations fought against nation, probably onethousand would be killed in battle, … but in modern times the science of war has
> reached such a stage of perfection that in twenty-four hours one-hundred thousand
> could be sacrificed, …”
> 
> “Maxim: “Fewer are killed in modern engagements that in battles of ancient times;;
> the range is longer and the action less deadly.”
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “… In modern warfare there are bombs which kill men like stripping
> leaves from a tree. …”
> 
> “Maxim: “The effect of a bomb is not so great as expected. Most of its force is
> expended upward in the air. …”
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “The greatest intelligence of man is being expended in the direction
> of killing his fellow-man. … You are a celebrated inventor and scientific expert
> whose energies and faculties are employed in the production of means for human
> destruction. … You must expend your energies and intelligence in a contrary
> direction. You must discover the means of peace;; … Then it will be said by the
> people of the world, this is Mr. Maxim, inventor of the guns of war, … who has put
> an end to the strife of nations and uprooted the tree of war. …” 67
> 
> From the great issues of war and peace, the Master went on to give some paternal and
> personal advice to Juliet Thompson regarding Dr. Grant. He asked her to convey to him his
> deep appreciation for his assistance at Sunday’s program and that the day would be
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                  18
> remembered for centuries to come. He said he loved Dr. Grant but that Juliet must keep her
> relationship with him, “absolutely formal”. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that the rectorship of the
> church was in the way of his becoming a believer. 68
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent the afternoon speaking to guests at the
> home of Mountfort Mills. Mountfort was an international
> lawyer who had become a Bahá’í in 1906 and made two
> pilgrimages to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Holy Land before 1909.
> He had begun what would be a distinguished life of service.
> He would serve as the first Chairman of the National
> Spiritual Assembly of the U.S. and Canada, preparing the
> Declaration of Trust and By-Laws adopted by the National
> Assembly in 1927, and a trustee of Bahá’í Temple Unity—
> the body coordinating the building of the Temple. Acting
> on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, he would appeal the case of
> the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad to the League of
> Nations, which took him twice to Baghdad where he would
> have an audience with the King, and be the victim of a
> brutal physical assault which affected him the rest of his
> life. The League of Nations rendered a favorable verdict.                Mountfort Mills
> Shoghi Effendi would write about Mills: “He has truly
> acquitted himself in this most sacred task with exemplary distinction and proved himself
> worthy of so noble a mission. I request you to join me in my prayers for him …” 69
> 
> At the Mills home, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of man’s reality in relation to nature and God.
> Nature was bound by its own laws:
> 
> “The phenomenal world is entirely subject to the rule and control of natural law.
> These myriad suns, satellites and heavenly bodies throughout endless space are all
> captives of nature.” 70
> 
> Man is physical but also has another reality which allows him to go beyond nature:
> 
> “All live within the bounds of natural law, and nature is the ruler of all except man.
> Man is not the captive of nature, for although according to natural law he is a being
> of the earth, yet he guides ships over the ocean, flies through the air in airplanes,
> descends in submarines;; therefore, he has overcome natural law and made it
> subservient to his wishes.” 71
> 
> Man is a part of nature but has spiritual qualities not found in the whole of nature:
> 
> “If we accept the supposition that man is but a part of nature, we are confronted by
> an illogical statement, for this is equivalent to claiming that a part may be endowed
> with qualities which are absent in the whole. For man who is a part of nature has
> 
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                   19
> perception, intelligence, memory, conscious reflection and susceptibility, while nature
> itself is quite bereft of them.” 72
> 
> God has given man these capacities:
> 
> “The truth is that God has given to man certain powers which are supernatural.” 73
> 
> The spiritual faculty connects man to God and generates the love which can bind the hearts
> of people together:
> 
> “I am very happy and hopeful … that the oneness of human world-power, the love
> of God, may enkindle the hearts, and that international peace may hoist its standards,
> influencing all other regions and countries from here.” 74
> 
> Chapter 3: Church of the Ascension ~ Bahá'u'lláh's Message                                  20
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty
> The following morning, Tuesday, April 16th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá agreed to speak to the homeless
> men at the Bowery Station on the coming Friday. This opportunity was the result of efforts
> made by Juliet Thompson.
> 
> Juliet had been asked several times by Dr. Hallimond to come to this Mission which served
> homeless men and speak to the men about the Faith. Her
> mother had forbidden her from going to that part of town.
> But Juliet agreed after the third request and used the pretext
> of going to have dinner with a friend as a way of getting out
> of the house to go to the Bowery. That night, sleet came
> down through a bitter cold. The Mission was packed with
> homeless men trying to find warmth. Among the men, was
> John Good, who had been in and out of prison his whole
> life and had just gotten out of his latest stint at Sing Sing
> prison. He had been hung by his thumbs in Sing Sing for
> his violent behavior and had come out filled with hate and
> believing in nothing. When she spoke, Juliet explained that
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been in prison for years and had come
> out filled with love. At the end of her talk, Dr. Hallimond
> requested a visit from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá when he came to New
> York City and invited those men who wished to come to a
> regular Wednesday night study of 1 Corinthians 13. Thirty       Bowery Mission today
> men expressed interest, including John Good and his
> friend, an Irishman named Hannegan who struggled with alcoholism. Juliet later admitted to
> her mother where she had been, but her mother was so moved by the story that she
> supported her efforts after that.
> 
> So on this Tuesday morning, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave Juliet and Edward Getsinger each a
> thousand franc note and instructed them to change it into quarters and bring them to the
> Mission when he spoke there. He said that he loved the poor and wished to give them some
> money. 75
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                     21
> That afternoon, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke with a group of Bahá’ís from New Jersey. He predicted
> that in the future, people would think of themselves as having a global rather than national
> identity:
> 
> “The people of the future will not say, “I belong to the nation of England, France or
> Persia”;; for all of them will be citizens of a universal nationality—the one family, the
> one country, the one world of humanity—and then these wars, hatreds and strifes
> will pass away.” 76
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh’s Message had helped to create unity between Persians of different religious
> backgrounds:
> 
> “Bahá’u’lláh appeared in a country which was the center of prejudice. … They
> considered the killing of others who did not agree with them in religious belief an act
> of worship. Bahá’u’lláh established such unity and agreement between these various
> communities that the greatest love and amity are now witnessed among them.” 77
> 
> This unity, this oneness, was the remedy for the world’s ills, the grace of Bahá’u’lláh was its
> cause, and love, its agent:
> 
> “The body of the human world is sick. Its remedy and healing will be the oneness of
> the kingdom of humanity. … Its illumination and quickening is love. … It is my wish
> and hope that in the bounties and favors of the Blessed Perfection we may find a
> new life, acquire a new power and attain to a wonderful and supreme source of
> energy so that the Most Great Peace of divine intention shall be established upon the
> foundations of the unity of the world of men with God. May the love of God be
> spread from this city, from this meeting to all the surrounding countries. …” 78
> 
> He hoped that America would be the country to send this love throughout the world.
> 
> KKK
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in a moment of rest, again gave Juliet Thompson personal guidance. As he lay
> back on a pillow with May Maxwell’s infant child moving on him, he expressed his love and
> appreciation for Dr. Grant. Juliet responded that she thought her heart was now “severed”
> from him but could not be sure of this—only God could change a love so deep. ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá asked her if she could transfer that love to God, and she assured him she could.
> Laughing, he said: “That will be enough! I shall try to make no more marriages, when you
> have really given up, he will come after you. I love Dr Grant very, very much, but I want to
> protect you.”
> 
> KKK
> 
> In describing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to the Church of the Ascension, the New York Herald
> brought up a controversy which reflected the small mindedness of a few churchmen:
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                           22
> “Some of the congregation … and members of other Episcopal churches expressed
> astonishment that a religious leader not professing Christianity should have been
> invited to preach and permitted to offer prayer within the chancel at a regular
> Episcopal service. … It was said that Canon Nineteen of the Episcopal Church
> forbids any one not episcopally ordained from preaching in an Episcopal pulpit
> without consent of the bishop. There is no provision against a non-ordained person
> offering prayer within the chancel, it was said, because no such contingency was
> anticipated.” 79
> 
> The biggest story in the newspapers, though, was the unbelievable one about the sinking of
> the largest ship ever built, the Titanic. Who could have imagined such a thing?
> 
> KKK
> 
> On Wednesday, April 17th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to people at the Hotel Ansonia about the
> nature of human knowledge. He asserted that, “All human standards of judgment are faulty,
> finite”. We ‘know’ through sense perception, reason, traditions, and inspiration, and that all
> of these ways of knowing are subject to their own limitations. The senses can be easily
> mistaken such as when one sees a mirage. Reason has produced many conflicting opinions
> throughout history and the discoveries and theories of one era are disproved or updated in a
> future time. Traditions are based on human interpretation of Scripture but the human mind
> cannot encompass the Divine and, therefore, this interpretation will always be faulty.
> Inspiration can be caused by evil as well as good desires. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá concluded:
> 
> “What then remains? How shall we attain the reality of knowledge? By the breaths
> and promptings of the Holy Spirit, which is light and knowledge itself. Through it
> the human mind is quickened and fortified into true conclusions and perfect
> knowledge.” 80
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had invited believers to the Kinneys later that same day for a supper which he
> would serve personally. He had expressed the hope that both white and black people would
> come. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wanted to demonstrate the teaching of unity in action through his own
> loving, service-oriented behavior;; he wanted to show that this Teaching of Bahá’u’lláh was a
> standard by which the devotion of a Bahá’í group could be measured and a goal toward
> which all Bahá’ís could strive in their interactions with others.
> 
> Unity had to become a reality for the world to become illumined by the “Sun of Truth” but
> this outcome depended on individual efforts:
> 
> “The world has become a new world. … Therefore, it is requisite that we must
> develop capacity and divine susceptibility in order that the merciful bounty of the
> Sun of Truth intended for this age and time in which we are living may reflect from
> us as light from pure crystals.” 81
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                          23
> “The bounties of the Blessed Perfection are infinite. We must endeavor to increase
> our capacity daily, to strengthen and enlarge our capabilities for receiving them, to
> become as perfect mirrors. The more polished and clean the mirror, the more
> effulgent is its reflection of the lights of the Sun of Truth.” 82
> 
> Human beings have different capacities but this must not be cause for disunity because
> diversity was more pleasing than uniformity:
> 
> “As difference in degree of capacity exists among human souls, as difference in
> capability is found, therefore, individualities will differ one from another. But in
> reality this is a reason for unity and not for discord and enmity. If the flowers of a
> garden were all of one color, the effect would be monotonous to the eye;; but if the
> colors are variegated, it is most pleasing and wonderful.” 83
> 
> On the following day, 84 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave a presentation on the life of Bahá’u’lláh for the
> first time in the United States at the Emery home on W. 90th St.;; Marshall Emery and his
> brother were architects, and Henry had designed the front of the Bowery Mission. 85 In his
> account of Bahá’u’lláh’s life, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá described a life that would have sounded familiar
> to those who had read about the life of Jesus in the Bible. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of
> Bahá’u’lláh’s innate knowledge;; the boy Jesus, without schooling, had amazed those in the
> synagogue with his understanding of Jewish Scripture. Bahá’u’lláh had been high born in
> society but renounced the world to serve the poor;; the Gospel of Luke is an account of
> Jesus’s life filled with stories of his renunciation of the material world and concern for the
> downtrodden. Bahá’u’lláh spent a period of seclusion in the wilderness;; Jesus was tested
> spiritually for forty days in the wilderness.
> 
> In his overview, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá dwelt for awhile on another theme that would have been
> familiar to Christians: God’s Will triumphing over the seemingly superior forces of the
> world. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of Bahá’u’lláh’s Proclamation to the Rulers of the world and of
> the inexorable rise of His Faith despite His Captivity. He finished by emphasizing that
> Bahá’u’lláh had born all of that suffering:
> 
> “… in order that our hearts might become enkindled and radiant, our spirits be
> glorified, our faults become virtues, our ignorance be transformed into knowledge;; in
> order that we might attain the real fruits of humanity and acquire heavenly graces;; in
> order that, although pilgrims upon earth, we should travel the road of the heavenly
> Kingdom, and, although needy and poor, we might receive the treasures of eternal
> life.” 86
> 
> KKK
> 
> Juliet Thompson was born in Washington DC, in 1873, of Irish descent. Early on she
> showed a talent for painting and was able to make money as a teenager selling her pastel
> portraits. The money became necessary because her father died when she was twelve, and he
> had left the family with little money. While living in New York City, she had become ill with
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                          24
> dyptheria and overheard the doctor telling her mother that she would not survive. In a
> dream, Juliet saw the face of a “most wonderful-looking man” 87 who reassured her that she
> would get better. Some years later, while studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, Juliet saw a
> photograph of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and recognized him as the man from her dream. She became a
> Bahá’í there in 1901. In Paris, she met many believers such as May Bolles, the first Bahá’í to
> live in Europe, Lua Getsinger, Thomas Breakwell, the first English believer, and Hippolyte
> Dreyfus, the first French believer. Juliet had the great fortune to be educated in the Faith by
> one of its foremost teachers and scholars, Mírzá Abu’l Fadl. She was able to make a
> pilgrimage to the Holy Land to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with her friends the Kinneys in 1909, and
> a trip to Europe to see the Master again in 1911. 88
> 
> When she moved to New York City, she made her home in Greenwich Village, on W. 10th
> St. near Fifth Ave.. This neighborhood had become a haven for artists and writers, and she
> fit right in. Washington Square Park, a few blocks south, was the heart of the village and
> reflected the changing nature of the area. On the north side were the large homes of wealthy
> business families. These were shuttered during the summer as the families left for their
> country homes. When they returned and the social season began, one would see well
> dressed, affluent New Yorkers stepping out of the doors of expensive automobiles opened
> by men dressed in livery clothes and then onto red velvet carpets protected by canvas
> canopies raised overhead.
> 
> Washington Square bustled with life--much of it contrasting to the lives of these wealthy
> families. In the evenings, one could listen to a young man preaching fervently about the
> equality of men and women on the northeast corner of the square. The sounds of a cornet
> could be heard inviting people to a movie on the corner of Thompson St. and the Square.
> Children gathered around men who were grinding hand organs. A band of musicians hired
> by the City would be entertaining people in the Square. A sidewalk cart sold warm chestnuts.
> Men and women down on their luck slept on some of the benches and were regularly
> awoken and moved along by the policemen who patrolled the streets from each corner. In
> the fall, an old white horse pulled a cart around the Square while men dressed in brown
> uniforms tossed in the piles of leaves. As the weather turned cold, the fountains in the
> Square were wrapped in straw.
> 
> Artists and writers had gradually moved into the dilapidated buildings, cottages and frame
> houses south of the Square. An artist who was new to the area would have to first make a
> stop at Pepe’s real estate office who knew every room in the area and how to make studio
> space out of the holes in the wall in old factory buildings. Pepe would send the new young
> struggling artist out on the street with a list of places for rent. Every building was constantly
> in transition from its former uses. One local writer lived in a garret of a one hundred year
> old building which had begun as a tool house for undertakers, then become the home of a
> Governor, then a stage-house for stage coaches waiting to carry the mail, then a roadhouse
> for people, then a saloon and then an inn. Washington Square itself had originally been a
> potter’s field. This area had been home to the pamphleteer Thomas Paine, and writers Edgar
> Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, and O. Henry, among many others. Its
> cheap rents, bustling atmosphere of small restaurants, shops and tiny obscure theaters--
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                            25
> described by one writer as being for, “people who cannot act, who have no originality in any
> direction, who are amateur playwrights, gather together, rent rooms some where … and play
> theatre”--were all attractions for artist and writers. 89
> 
> This was an age when more people were searching outside of mainstream churches for
> alternatives or broader belief systems, possibly sensing that the times were changing. Among
> these alternatives were spiritualism, the belief that God is transcendent and cannot be
> described in anthropomorphic terms and that spirits can contact us from the next world,
> theosophical societies, which taught that God was everywhere, that human nature was
> ultimately Divine and that sickness could be healed through ‘right thinking’, and Hinduism
> and Buddhism which were only taught or understood in fragments. These movements
> tended to have a more universal view of God and salvation than traditional churches, and
> people were more willing to discard or go beyond long accepted church doctrines. Many of
> these seekers continued to be Christian in terms of its social and spiritual teachings and
> some involvement in a church. For some, the Bahá’í Faith appeared to be one of these
> ‘alternatives’, with a charismatic rather than formal community structure, and, as far as
> people knew, with general spiritual teachings such as the unity of the human race and the
> promotion of world peace which echoed what many people regarded as the needs of the day
> and which did not challenge their already held opinions on other subjects. In this sense, the
> pre-World War I ‘spirit of the age’ reflected some aspects of Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings.
> 
> Greenwich Village was also home to free thinkers who had political leanings, most notably,
> anarchists, who saw governments as oppressive and emphasized personal freedom, and
> communists, who believed in a classless egalitarian society where government controlled the
> means of production to ensure social and economic equality. These kinds of political views
> had grown in response to the terrible conditions of workers in industrialized societies. There
> were also many trade unionists who advocated for workers’ rights. In his talks in the United
> States, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would bring a broader spiritual perspective to each of these issues by
> explaining the need for a Divine Educator, the nature of true spirituality, the necessity of
> both social justice and social order, and the meaning of true equality, among others.
> 
> Juliet Thompson chose to live in this powerful mix of new ideas and changing culture when
> she moved to W. 10th St. This house would also be home to other artists and writers during
> her many years there. The residents of the house often shared their work with each other.
> Salons sponsored by a patron where artist writers and thinkers could gather to discuss
> current topics of interest in art, spirituality and politics took place regularly in this part of the
> city. 90 Juliet was a painter and a writer and had profound spiritual sensibilities. While she did
> attend the Church of the Ascension off and on, she trusted her personal experience when it
> came to matters of faith which helped her to respond to the Bahá’í message. Among Juliet’s
> closest friends was a well-known writer and artist and a fellow seeker: Khalil Gibran.
> 
> Gibran lived across the street from Juliet in 51 W. 10th St.. He had been born in northern
> Lebanon, then a part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. His mother’s family included a
> bishop in the Syrian Church. Too poor to go to school, he was educated in the Scriptures by
> local priests. As a young person, Gibran dreamed of creating unity and understanding
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                                26
> between the two great faiths which dominated his homeland, Islam and Christianity, and had
> been in violent conflict a few years before his birth. His mother left Lebanon for the United
> States after his father was imprisoned for embezzlement. To develop his obvious artistic
> talents in drawing and painting, he studied in Beirut, Boston and Paris, under Auguste
> Rodin. Throughout his life he maintained an intense feeling for the figure of Jesus Christ
> whom he re-imagined in his writing in different ways than that of traditional churches.
> 
> Like many people of this time, Gibran’s spiritual beliefs tended towards the theosophical,
> and he wasn’t sure if a Divine Manifestation was necessary and that, instead, individuals
> could perfect themselves and come into contact with God. 91 Juliet visited his studio and
> praised his work as did Marjorie Morten, a patron of the arts, who was also a Bahá’í. Gibran
> became such close friends with Juliet that he often let her read his drafts. 92
> 
> Juliet introduced the Bahá’í Faith to Gibran by giving him Bahá’u’lláh’s “Hidden Words” in
> Arabic. Profoundly moved, he described them as “stupendous literature”. 93 Gibran also met
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through Juliet. The Master’s powerful spiritual presence greatly influenced his
> work, especially his 1928 book, Jesus Son of Man. Gibran’s The Prophet, written a few years
> earlier, would go on to influence generations of people who hungered for spiritual
> inspiration. 94
> 
> Gibran spent the winter of 1912 as a recluse;; he was so absorbed in his work that he would
> hardly eat, instead drinking strong Turkish coffee and smoking. But as spring of 1912
> arrived, he began to rejoin the social world. He came to adore ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In explaining
> why ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was such an inspiration for his book on Jesus, he said, “For the first time I
> saw form noble enough to be a receptacle for the Holy Spirit.” 95
> 
> Very early on the morning of April 19th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sat for a portrait painted by Gibran.
> They had met three times previously about the portrait;; Gibran had also acted on those
> occasions as an interpreter. The night before he hadn’t been able to sleep. After an hour of
> painting, the twenty-five onlookers in the room began exclaiming that he had captured the
> soul of the Master in his portrait. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said to him in Arabic: “Those who work with
> the Spirit work well. You have the power of Alláh in you," and, quoting Mohammed, said:
> "Prophets and poets see with the light of God". Gibran recorded that in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's
> smile, "there was the mystery of Syria and Arabia and Persia.” In the days and weeks that
> followed this sitting, Gibran felt a new surge of energy and spirit flowing through him. 96
> 
> KKK
> 
> After his portrait was painted, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went to speak at Columbia University’s Earl
> Hall. Columbia University dated back to the mid-1700’s and became one of the nation’s
> earliest centers for graduate education. Over the decades, the University distinguished itself
> for its schools of law, which produced two Supreme Court Justices, its school of journalism,
> and its school of international relations. It contributed enormously to different fields of
> science: modern anthropology founder Franz Boaz, modern genetics pioneered by Thomas
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                         27
> Hunt Morgan, an integrated approach in medicine developed at Columbia-Presbyterian, and
> important advances made in psychology.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent much of his talk explaining that while man was a part of nature, he also
> transcended it through the use of his intellectual capacity for scientific investigation. Man,
> therefore, was “the most noble part of creation, the governor of nature”. 97 But, as ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá always did, he now brought in the other dimension of man’s life—the spirit:
> 
> “As material knowledge is illuminating those within the walls of this great temple of
> learning, so also may the light of the spirit, the inner and divine light of the real
> philosophy glorify this institution.” 98
> 
> And the main principle of this “Divine philosophy” was the oneness of humanity which was
> brought about by love, in the same way that the Manifestations of God were all one who
> proclaimed peace to the world. The purpose of religion was not the negation of reason and
> science nor the establishment of competing doctrines and sects:
> 
> “The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement and
> should love one another.” 99
> 
> ‘Abdul-Bahá exhorted the students, professors and others to the promotion of religion, “and
> the religion of God is absolute love and unity”. 100
> 
> KKK
> 
> Back at the Ansonia, one of the many people who had come to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was a
> reporter from the New York Tribune, Mary Williams, who went by the pen name, “Kate
> Carew”. Raised part of her childhood in the mining camps of the California Sierras, she had
> studied art at the San Francisco School of Design and had become an illustrator for the San
> Francisco Examiner. After she moved to New York City, Joseph Pulitzer hired her to work at
> the New York World where she specialized in illustrated interviews. 101 Pulitzer had been
> engaged in an intense rivalry with William Randolph Hearst, who owned the New York
> Journal and whose mother was a follower of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Pulitzer and Hearst developed a
> sensationalist form of journalism called “yellow journalism” which sent newspaper sales
> rocketing;; the circulation of the World, for example, increased 4,000%. 102 Several times while
> in the United States, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá admonished journalists to be fair and accurate in their
> reporting
> 
> Over her career she would interview many of the famous people of the age such as actress
> Sarah Bernhardt, the writers Mark Twain and Jack London, the poet W. B. Yeats, the artist
> Pablo Picasso, the political leaders Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt, the
> filmmaker D. W. Griffith, the banker J. P. Morgan, and the inventors the Wright brothers. 103
> She approached her work of interviewing and drawing caricatures of famous people with
> dark humor:
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                           28
> “One broiled live celebrity per week was the diet prescribed and rigorously enforced
> by my uncompromising editor, and he organized a staff of one, whose duty it was to
> hunt down the designated victims. The staff would make an appointment, and I
> would follow with the instruments of torture, consisting of an inquiring eye and a
> stub of pencil.” 104
> 
> Including her boss, Joseph Pulitzer--“Joseph Pulitzer is pre-eminently a publicist in
> journalism” 105
> 
> Politicians--“most of the victims were politicians and statesmen--unless it be true, as I am
> prepared to believe, that a statesman is only a politician who happens to be dead.” 106
> 
> And, of course, lawyers –
> 
> “the history of most of my interviews has been a frantic effort to penetrate beneath
> the crust of the politician in search of the man. In this process I have discovered
> many public men to have something almost human about them, and only when they
> are lawyers do they object to having it known.” 107
> 
> Now, she brought her breezy cynicism and caustic eye to her interview with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
> 
> “On my way to the more rarefied atmosphere of the upper floors I found myself
> hoping that the Baha would tell me I had a lovely soul. They say he finds out the
> strangest things about you. […] I felt all sorts of mystic possibilities awaited me the
> other side of the door. […] At my finger's pressure on the bell the door flew open
> with a most unholy speed. No fumes of incense, no tinkling bells, no prostrate
> figures and whispered benedictions. […]” 108
> 
> After she had waited awhile in the anteroom, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came in. Her cynicism began to
> ebb in the Master’s presence:
> 
> “He is scarcely above medium height, but so extraordinary is the dignity of his
> majestic carriage that he seemed more than the average stature. […] While slowly
> making the round of the room his soft, penetrating, faded eyes studied us all, without
> seeming to do so.” 109
> 
> The translator related to Mary how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wept during the play he had just seen, The
> Terrible Meek. She became aware of the power of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sincerity and heartfelt,
> unencumbered directness:
> 
> “I can imagine repeating his phrases to some of my clever friends, who would be
> sure to say: "Why, that's as old as the hills. I don't see anything to make a fuss about
> in that." But the time honored words, even repeated by an interpreter, are so fraught
> with the Baha's wonderful personality that they seem never to have been uttered
> before. His meaning is not couched in any esoteric phrases. Again and again he has
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                           29
> disclaimed the possession of hidden lore. Again and again he has placed the
> attainments of the heart and soul above those of the mind.” 110
> 
> Then it was her turn to have a private interview, and she was invited into ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
> chamber. Now, she was able to observe the Master close-up, and she sensed the depth of his
> wisdom, the result of his close connection to the kingdom of God:
> 
> “His beautiful voice, like a golden echo, follows close the termination of each
> sentence. The master looks very spirituelle. He is in a relaxed attitude. […] So much
> more akin to the spirit world than this does he seem that I find myself often
> addressing Dr. Fareed personally, referring to him in the third person. "Do you think
> our luxury degenerate," I ask, "as in this great hotel?" Abdul Baha strokes his long
> white beard. "Luxury has a limit. Beyond that limit it is not commendable. There is
> such a thing as moderation. Men must be temperate in all things." 111
> 
> She moved through her questions and soon it was time to go:
> 
> “I noticed a trembling of the eyelids and that the gestures of arranging his turban and
> stroking his beard were more nervously frequent. Dr. Fareed answered to my inquiry,
> "Shall I go now?" "He has been giving of himself to every one since 7 o'clock this
> morning. I am a perfect physical wreck, but he is willing to go on indefinitely." Abdul
> Baha opened the half-closed eyelids to say: "I am going to the poor in the Bowery
> now. I love them." 112
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and friends made their way down the hall with the Master holding the urbane
> reporter’s hand:
> 
> “I was invited to accompany them […] Can you picture your Aunt Kate and Abdul
> Baha going to it, hand in hand, through the Ansonia corridors? Perhaps the guests
> didn't gurgle and gasp! Perhaps! I did feel rather conspicuous, but I braced myself
> with the thought of the universal brotherhood and really got along fairly well.” 113
> 
> They got into the car of Mountfort Mills, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reminded Mary about service,
> truthfulness--and the press:
> 
> "Remember, you press people are the servants of the public. You interpret our
> words and acts to them. With you is a great responsibility. Please remember and
> please treat us seriously." 114
> 
> KKK
> 
> The car of Mountfort Mills drove south down the avenues of New York City past Park Ave.
> and Fifth Ave. mansions of wealthy old American families from the novels of Edith
> Wharton who summered on their upstate estates, to the teeming tenements of the Bowery
> on Manhattan’s lower east side where hundreds of men awaited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s arrival.
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                         30
> The energy of this great port city came from the constant flow of immigrants who arrived by
> the hundreds of thousands from countries where economic opportunity had been hard to
> come by and where persecution had been plentiful. Huge boats disgorged Italians, Greeks,
> Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks Bohemians, Russians, and Russian and Polish Jews, into
> tenements which often had unhealthy living conditions and towards jobs with often even
> more hazardous working conditions.
> 
> The plight of the city’s lower classes had been brought to light by Jacob Riis’s How the other
> half lives a book of shocking photographs documenting the lives of the poor. This set in
> motion studies, inspections and laws to improve living conditions in the tenements which
> were home to two thirds of the population of the city in 1900. 115 The Tenement House Law
> of 1901 mandated better sanitary conditions, fire escapes, private toilets and access to light.
> By 1909, there had been progress in improving conditions and stopping the spread of
> cholera, typhus, and small pox, which resulted in a very high infant mortality. Still, in 1909,
> there were 96,000 rooms for rent in the city with no windows. 116
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had commented on the possible ill-effects of living in such crowded
> conditions:
> 
> “America will make rapid progress in the future but I am fearful of the effects of
> these high buildings and such densely populated cities;; these are not for the public
> health.” 117
> 
> Tenements were three to seven story buildings whose insides had been subdivided multiple
> times. What made them tenements was their location in undesirable neighborhoods near
> where the immigrants worked in factories, docks, slaughterhouses, and power stations, and
> by the number of years the immigrants had lived in the United States. In other parts of the
> city, these dwellings were called apartments. The use of the word tenement reflected the
> economic realities of those who lived in them. It derived from the Latin “ternere”--to
> hold—to pack in as many people as possible for economic reasons. The word ‘apartment’
> derived from the Latin word ‘partare’--to divide--so that individual families could have
> privacy and greater comfort.
> 
> The tenants of the tenements worked ceaselessly to build new lives and keep their homes as
> clean as they could under such crowded conditions. Laundry flapped in the wind across the
> streets and courtyards. The delicious smell of foods from all over Europe mingled in the
> halls. In the kitchens people bathed in the sink or portable tubs with water heated on the
> stove. In larger buildings, a widow had the job of cleaning the halls and sweeping the
> sidewalk out front in return for living there rent free. Everyone did their best to battle the
> mice, rats and roaches that scurried about by the hundreds of thousands in the dark recesses
> of the building—it hadn’t been that long ago that pigs roamed the streets. In the evenings,
> the streets were lively with the tenants preferring to be outside rather than inside their hot
> rooms.
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                             31
> Another constant bustle in these neighborhoods was that of families moving as much as one
> to six times a year as they sought to go from ‘tenements’ to ‘apartments’ and, if they were
> fortunate, to New Jersey or Long Island;; some less fortunate were going in the other
> direction--from tenements to less desirable tenements, to rooms, to the street. 118
> 
> The Bowery was a neighborhood which held the promise of immigrant life as well as the
> reality of its poverty. For two generations, the Bowery had experienced a great rise in crime
> and homelessness. So, when the Rev. Albert Gleason Ruliffson was looking in 1879 for a
> mission field where he could carry out the social mission of rescuing the poor in imitation of
> Christ, he chose the Bowery rather than go to faraway countries. 119
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had spent his whole life in near eastern societies that had no health inspectors,
> no codes that could be enforced, no governments who responded to the needs of those they
> governed, no system for improving the common good, no soup kitchens, no homeless
> shelters, no independent judiciaries. These societies had long allowed the initial civilizing and
> humanizing influence of Islam to become degraded. If you were poor, sick, homeless, alone,
> and you lived in ‘Akká, Palestine, you were on your own, unless ‘Abdu’l-Bahá knew you, in
> which case, you would be visited and provided succor by his own hand.
> 
> Now, on this evening in downtown New York City, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá walked towards the
> Bowery Mission in the same spirit as those who had founded it—to follow God’s Will in
> serving those in need.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá approached the Bowery still holding the hand of Mary Williams. Young ladies
> and members of higher society were there to greet him with gifts of flowers. Several hundred
> men who made their homes on benches, alleys, church steps and cardboard boxes went into
> the Mission chapel next to the eating area. 120
> 
> Juliet Thompson and Edward Kinney met them inside the chapel with large bags of quarters.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was invited to sit on the platform and the other Bahá’ís sat behind him,
> including Howard MacNutt, Mountfort Mills, Mr. Grundy, Mr. Hutchinson and the Persian
> believers. Dr. Hallimond, who had taught classes with Juliet Thompson to the homeless
> men, asked her--to her dismay--to introduce ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. 121
> 
> So it was that the son of the returned Christ stood before these destitute men and
> introduced himself as a family member:
> 
> “I consider you my relatives, my companions;; …” 122
> 
> He then called them his “comrades”, a term that would often be used in the turbulent times
> of the early 20th century to refer to a fellow revolutionary. The revolution to which ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá called people was one of the transformation of the human heart through the love of
> God which would cause a person’s heart to perceive the world in a way which went well
> beyond convention, sophistication, reason, and calculation. All that was weak, was strong, all
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                            32
> that was poor, was rich, all that was broken, was whole, all that was scarred, was beautiful, all
> that was forgotten, was remembered, all that was as nothing was Divine:
> 
> “You must be thankful to God that you are poor, for Jesus Christ has said, “Blessed
> are the poor.” 123
> 
> “Therefore, you must be thankful to God that although in this world you are
> indigent, yet the treasures of God are within your reach;; and although in the material
> realm you are poor, yet in the Kingdom of God you are precious. Jesus Himself was
> poor. He did not belong to the rich.” 124
> 
> “Therefore, you are the disciples of Jesus Christ;; you are His comrades, for He
> outwardly was poor, not rich. Even this earth’s happiness does not depend upon
> wealth.” 125
> 
> “Our hope is in the mercy of God, and there is no doubt that the divine compassion
> is bestowed upon the poor. Jesus Christ said so;; Bahá’u’lláh said so. While
> Bahá’u’lláh was in Baghdád, still in possession of great wealth, He left all He had and
> went alone from the city, living two years among the poor. They were His
> comrades.” 126
> 
> “Therefore, we will thank God that we have been so blessed with real riches.” 127
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá finished by invoking the highest station to which a person could attain:
> 
> “I ask you to accept ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as your servant.” 128
> 
> The men filed out into the night. As each man passed the Master, he greeted him and gave
> him a coin. One of these men was John Good. John said later that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave more
> to those who were more destitute. Each man had money to pay for a bed that night. 129
> 
> Mary Williams’s “last view of Abdul-Baha was as he stood at the head of the Bowery
> Mission line, a dozen or more derelicts before him, giving to each a bit of silver and a word
> of blessing.” 130 By the end of the evening she, a caricaturist and interviewer steeped in
> sophistication had grown, “… a little tired of mere words, dealing in them the way I do, but
> that demonstration of Abdul Baha's creed did more to convince me of the absolute sincerity
> of the man than anything else that had happened.” 131
> 
> This evening, Hannegan, a local man who struggled with his alcoholism, had gotten drunk
> again and slept through ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit which he had very much wanted to attend. He
> was known in the Bowery as a ‘tough’. He heard that ‘Abdu’-Baha would be speaking in
> Flatbush, Brooklyn, in the coming days. When the day came, he had no money. So he
> walked from the Bowery all the miles out to Flatbush and heard ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Around
> midnight later that night, John Good, his friend, found him in his room inebriated. John
> asked him about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Hannegan answered, “He is the Light of the World.” 132
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                            33
> The Master was driven back that night up Broadway to the Ansonia, accompanied by Juliet
> Thompson, Valíyu’lláh Khán and Ahmad. Seeing all the bright lights, he remembered his
> Father’s desire that there should be light.
> 
> Juliet exclaimed, "It is marvelous to be driving through all this light by the side of the Light
> of lights."
> 
> The Master answered: "This is nothing. This is only the beginning. We will be together in all
> the worlds of God. You cannot realize here what that means. You cannot imagine it. You
> can form no conception here in this elemental world of what it is to be with Me in the
> Eternal Worlds."
> 
> Juliet cried, "Oh, with such a future before me how could my heart cling to any earthly
> object?"
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá turned to her suddenly, "Will you do this thing? Will you take your heart from
> this other and give it wholly to God?"
> 
> "Oh, I will try!" She answered.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laughed heartily at this, "First you say you will and then that you will try!"
> 
> "That is because I have learned my own weakness. What can I do with my heart?" Juliet
> responded.
> 
> The Master spoke seriously: "I am very much pleased with that answer, Juliet." 133
> 
> At the Ansonia he served dinner to those who had been with him at the Bowery. He spoke
> of the play The Terrible Meek, about the Crucifixion of Jesus, which he had seen. With great
> power and in the light of a big round lamp overhead, the Master spoke of the life of Christ,
> its symbolic inner meanings, His Suffering, and His Crucifixion. When he had finished, no
> one moved. Juliet had not touched her dinner. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said to her “Eat, Juliet”. 134
> 
> After dinner, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá made his way to his suite, a maid walked past who had earlier
> described the Master as a great saint. There were some coins left over from the Mission trip.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked the maid to hold out her apron and then poured all of the coins into her
> apron. After the Master had gone in, Mr. Grunday explained to her where they had all been
> and of the works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the poor. She responded that she would give every
> cent to charity.
> 
> Inside, someone asked the Master if charity was advisable, to which he responded,
> “Assuredly, give to the poor. If you give them only words, when they put their hands into
> their pockets after you have gone, they will find themselves none the richer for you!” 135
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                           34
> As he said this, there was a light tapping on the door. The maid came and approached the
> Master and said tearfully: “I wanted to say goodbye, Sir,” – ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was leaving the
> next day for Washington DC – “and to thank you for all your goodness to me--I never
> expected such goodness--and to ask You … to pray for me”. 136
> 
> Chapter 4: The Bowery Mission ~ Wealth and Poverty                                    35
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk
> Two years after 1912, Europe descended into hell.
> World War I caused the deaths of 8,528,831 soldiers, wounded 21,189,154, and resulted in
> the disappearance of 7,750,919 more. 137 Roughly 6,800,000 civilians died because of famines
> in Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and
> Africa, and the Armenian genocide. 138
> The War helped set off the Russian
> civil war which resulted in about two
> million combat deaths, five million
> due to starvation, two million lives
> swept away in epidemics.
> 
> One in two young men who set foot
> on the battlefields of World War I
> perished.
> 
> An entire generation of Europeans
> devoured itself.
> British soldier in trenches, WWI
> People believed this war had such
> promise. Hundreds of thousands of young men signed up for a chance at glory and to travel
> to foreign lands. It was going to be a “Great”, and short, war. Once it began, though,
> Europe spiraled out of control with each means of killing having to be topped by an even
> more destructive means.
> 
> At the second Battle of Ypres on April 22, 1915, the French soldiers who were holding the
> line could see a yellow-green gas cloud rolling towards them. They thought it was a trick with
> the Germans behind the cloud. They held the line. The cloud of chlorine gas engulfed them
> and when the soldiers breathed in, the chlorine entered their airwaves and destroyed their
> respiratory system. 139
> 
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                              36
> So the other side responded by developing its own use of chlorine gas. But with chlorine, the
> coughing it caused did not allow the gas to enter the soldier’s lungs quickly enough so
> Phosgene was used which did not make the soldier cough, and, therefore, he inhaled more
> and died sooner. Then mustard gas came into use which caused severe internal and external
> blistering. 140
> 
> The Great War started off fast. But hundreds of miles of deep trenches were built with a ‘no
> man’s land’ between them, and the Great War became an endless, violent slog. ‘Life’ in the
> trenches meant … rainwater turning the ground into mud which caused ‘trench foot’--
> gangrene brought on by the soldiers’ permanently wet feet, followed by the amputation of
> their legs … millions of brown rats running across the men’s faces at night, gnawing at the
> corpses … the never ending lice causing ‘trench fever’ which could only be cured by leaving
> the trench for twelve weeks … relieving the ‘stand to’ at dawn with the ‘morning hate’ when
> the soldiers discharged intense machine gunfire at the opponent on the other side of no
> man’s land … the novice, who can’t control his curiosity, raising his head above the trench
> to look around and then is shot by a sniper 141…
> 
> Shells fell constantly, giving soldiers in the trenches ‘shell shock’—a term used to describe
> extreme trauma resulting in corresponding physiological reactions: snipers losing their site,
> soldiers who had used bayonets in others faces developing severe facial tics, those who had
> knifed the enemy soldier in the abdomen developing extreme stomach cramps,
> uncontrollable diarrhea, constant, extreme anxiety … many symptoms only beginning after
> the war had ended. 142
> 
> The hidden costs of war included broken lives, constant nightmares, abandoned families,
> inability to sleep and eat regularly, to be ‘normal’. Studies began to proliferate about what
> caused shell shock. What had happened to these men--was it their nerves, their psyches?
> Were they abnormal? Or too normal? Why couldn’t a man plunge a bayonet into his fellow
> man while looking into his eyes and hearing the blood gurgle out of his throat and then
> return to normal life and read his evening newspaper, smoke a cigarette and be at work on
> time?
> 
> Wilfred Owen entered World War I as a shy, sensitive and deeply religious English boy, who
> sought to understand God’s Will and live life in imitation of Christ. He set his memories of
> the War down in poems. He was remembering being in the trenches, shells dropping
> constantly when he wrote “The Sentry”, a poem about coming across an injured sentry in a
> trench:
> 
> “There we herded from the blast
> Of whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last, Buffeting eyes and breath, snuffing
> the candles,
> And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping
> `      And sploshing in the flood, deluging muck -
> The sentry's body;; then his rifle, handles
> Of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                             37
> We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined
> 'O sir, my eyes - I'm blind, - I'm blind, I'm blind!'
> Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids
> And said if he could see the least blurred light
> He was not blind;; in time he'd get all right.
> 'I can't' he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids',
> Watch my dreams still;; but I forgot him there
> In posting Next for duty, and sending a scout
> To beg a stretcher somewhere, and flound'ring about
> To other posts under the shrieking air.” 143
> 
> Combat shell shocked Wilfred Owens. He was taken to a hospital to recover and then
> returned to the front. Back in combat, he was no longer the sensitive boy with a heart that
> aspired but a hardened soldier who had let go of Jesus in no man’s land. In Shrewsbury,
> England, on November 11th, 1918, the doorbell rang at the Owens home;; a telegram arrived
> informing his parents that their son Wilfred had been killed. On November 4th, one week
> before the end of the war, German machine gun fire found him. He was twenty-five years
> old. 144
> 
> So when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá returned to New York City from Washington DC and spoke about
> peace, he wasn’t the grandfather speaking in reassuring tones to his little granddaughter, the
> teacher admonishing children in the playground about getting along, the benevolent
> patriarch offering the vague promise of salvation. He spoke on behalf of every young man
> who would breathe in mustard gas which turned his insides and outsides into blisters, who
> would die in a trench and whose body would be gnawed by rats, who was so terrified at the
> moment of being attacked and, clutching his rosary, could turn nowhere for help … He
> spoke for the woman who would wake up frightened in the night wondering why her
> husband kept jumping up and screaming, failing at everything, leaving their children,
> wandering the streets, disappearing … who lived out her years as an embittered lonely
> widow taking tickets on the streets of Paris so a person could use the public lavatory …
> 
> Or, as the Master put it:
> 
> “What shall atone for the sufferings and grief of mothers who have so tenderly cared
> for their sons? What sleepless nights they have spent, and what days of devotion and
> love they have given to bring their children to maturity! Yet the savagery of these
> warring rulers causes great numbers of their victims to be torn and mutilated in a
> day. What ignorance and degradation, yea even greater than the ferocious beasts
> themselves!” 145
> 
> In the days after his return from Washington DC, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá focused on peace as the
> most urgent issue facing the world.
> 
> In these talks, he gave people a broader worldview than the ones to which they had been
> accustomed and a framework in which all could work harmoniously towards peace. The
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                              38
> cornerstone of this worldview was that God is one and reality is one. The more people
> investigate reality and free themselves from man-made traditions, the greater will be the
> unity between them and war will give way to peace. The Manifestations of God had all
> taught reality and these Teachings were the source of unity and progress.
> 
> At the Unity Church in Montclair, New Jersey, on May 12th, the Master spoke on the
> oneness of God and His Revelations:
> 
> “… the human is finite while the essence of Divinity is infinite. Whatever comes
> within the sphere of human comprehension must be limited and finite. As the
> essence of Divinity transcends the comprehension of man, therefore God brings
> forth certain Manifestations of the divine Reality upon Whom He bestows heavenly
> effulgences in order that They may be intermediaries between humanity and Himself.
> These holy Manifestations or Prophets of God are as mirrors which have acquired
> illumination from the Sun of Truth, …” 146
> 
> “The Sun of Divinity and of Reality has revealed itself in various mirrors. Though
> these mirrors are many, yet the Sun is one. … Consider how one and the same light
> has reflected itself in the different mirrors or manifestations of it. There are certain
> souls who are lovers of the Sun;; they perceive the effulgence of the Sun from every
> mirror … those who adore the mirror and are attached to it become deprived of
> witnessing the light of the Sun when it shines forth from another mirror.” 147
> 
> “As this is the radiant century, it is my hope that the Sun of Truth may illumine all
> humanity. … may souls become resuscitated and consort together in the utmost
> harmony as recipients of the same light. … May the light of love shine forth and
> illumine hearts, and may human lives be cemented and connected until all of us may
> find agreement and tranquility beneath the same tabernacle and with the standard of
> the Most Great Peace above us move steadily onward.” 148
> 
> In the guest book of the church, he wrote this prayer:
> 
> “… Even in this Church we have raised our voice to Thy Kingdom like unto Elijah.
> O God! Attract the members of this Church to thy Beauty, …” 149
> 
> Later that day, the Master spoke at a meeting of the International Peace Forum, held in the
> Grace Methodist Episcopal on W. 104th St.. The International Peace Forum would go on to
> publish speeches on peace by President William Howard Taft (1909-1913). President Taft--
> later named the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court--believed that world peace
> could most effectively come about through international arbitration. 150 After the cataclysm
> of World War I, he pushed for a strong League of Nations to prevent war.
> 
> When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at the International Peace Forum, he brought the spiritual
> perspective of the human reality: religion was one because it dealt with reality but people had
> created imaginary distinctions which then led to conflict:
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                               39
> “Inasmuch as all are founded upon one reality which is love and unity, the wars and
> dissensions which have characterized the history of religion have been due to
> imitations and superstitions which arise afterward. …” 151
> 
> “Other wars are caused by purely imaginary racial differences;; for humanity is one
> kind, one race and progeny, inhabiting the same globe. In the creative plan there is
> no racial distinction and separation … Therefore, false distinctions of race and native
> land, which are factors and causes of warfare, must be abandoned. …” 152
> 
> Religions were “founded upon one reality which is love and unity”, and existed for peace.
> Bahá’u’lláh had come to bring about “the Most Great Peace and international arbitration”.
> He …
> 
> “…wrote to all the kings and rulers, encouraging, advising and admonishing them in
> regard to the establishment of peace, making it evident by conclusive proofs that the
> happiness and glory of humanity can only be assured through disarmament and
> arbitration.”
> 
> It was the Divine Intention that human beings love one another and that the Divine
> Intention surely must be superior to that of the human being:
> 
> “If God did not love all, He would not have created, trained and provided for all.
> Loving-kindness is the divine policy. Shall we consider human policy and attitude
> superior to the wisdom and policy of God?” 153
> 
> The following day, May 13th, at his talk before the New York Peace Society in the Astor
> Hotel, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá elaborated on these points:
> 
> “From the prison of ‘Akká He (Bahá’u’lláh) addressed the kings and rulers of the
> earth in lengthy letters, summoning them to international agreement and explicitly
> stating that the standard of the Most Great Peace would surely be upraised in the
> world. … This has come to pass. The powers of earth cannot withstand the
> privileges and bestowals which God has ordained for this great and glorious century.
> … Man can withstand anything except that which is divinely intended and indicated
> for the age and its requirements. …” 154
> 
> The age which Bahá’u’lláh’s life had ushered in would be characterized by peace and unity
> and no human power could stop this. The Master praised the ‘human power’ of the
> peacemakers as Jesus had done in the Beatitudes:
> 
> “Now—praise be to God!—in all countries of the world, lovers of peace are to be
> found, and these principles are being spread among mankind, especially in this
> country. …” 155
> 
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                              40
> The individuals who introduced ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the New York Peace Society Meeting all
> reflected an ecumenical spirit and willingness on the part of the ‘peacemakers’ of that time to
> work together. Each echoed ideas which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had set forth in his talks. The Rabbi
> Dr. Wise hoped that they--people of different faiths--were “meeting not at all in the spirit of
> tolerance and toleration, but in the spirit of fellowship” 156 and that “religion and war are
> incompatible terms”. 157 Mrs. Anna Spencer, a member of the Ethical Society, an
> organization which stressed human potential, individual responsibility, and dialogue for the
> betterment of the world, noted that the causes of war were racial and religious prejudice and
> the desire of one group for domination over another. Dr. Percy Grant of the Church of the
> Ascension, said “we must get down below our discussion of Christian, Hebrew, Ethical
> Culture, whatever the discussion may be, to the spirit of life and of brotherhood”. 158 Prof.
> William Jackson from Columbia University, who had been to the site of the Báb’s execution
> in Tabriz, asserted that “he (the Báb) was a martyr to Peace and Love” 159 and that “his
> Successor (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) comes to us from the Orient to assure us that this Message of
> Peace is still being sounded and that we in the West and they in the East are really one in
> heart”. 160
> 
> The New York Peace Society had itself been one of the groups of “lovers of peace”. It was
> the oldest Peace Society in the United States having been in existence in several incarnations
> since 1815, and, in the years before World War I, had gotten the backing of the very wealthy
> industrialist, Andrew Carnegie. 161 While essentially pacifist in nature, it was not passive—it
> pushed for courts of arbitration within which nations could resolve their disputes and
> supported President Taft’s view that international arbitration was the path to international
> peace and calling for the establishment of a “Supreme Court for International Justice” 162
> through a Congressional resolution. While non-denominational in affiliation, its mission was
> couched in terms of ‘true religion’ and the ‘spirit of Christianity’. Its parent group, the
> American Peace Society, launched a petition which resulted in the Hague Convention of
> 1907, an international meeting convened to draw up guidelines and resolutions for an
> internal structure for arbitration between nations.
> 
> KKK
> 
> On May 14th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left New York City to participate in the most important public
> event he would attend in the United States: the Peace Conference at Lake Mohonk,
> organized by the International Peace Society. He took the train up to the town of New Paltz,
> New York, where he and his entourage were picked up by landaus sent by the Conference
> organizers. 163 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was overjoyed as they rolled through the mountainous
> countryside:
> 
> “…he was so exhilarated by the beauty of nature, charming sceneries of mountains,
> valleys, plains and the verdant forest of trees and wild flowers that he [`Abdu'l-Bahá]
> burst into songs of happiness commanding others also to sing. Lua and Fareed
> Fareed sang some Persian songs written by Abdul Baha, then Mr. Mills being a good
> singer was asked to sing. All through the seven miles [sic] drive the party of four sung
> in whole and in turn while Abdul Baha out of the sheer joy applauded them. It was a
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                               41
> never [sic] memorable incident which has seldom happened in the life of the Master
> and Doctor Fareed could not remember throughout all his service and travel with
> Abdul Baha of a similar occasion.” 164
> 
> The property on Lake Mohonk where the Conference was being held had been purchased by
> Albert and Alfred Smiley in 1869 165 with the
> money that Albert and his wife had saved.
> Alfred, who had run a farm in upstate New
> York, helped him develop it. The brothers
> worked on the property with an eye for
> conservation and beauty. They kept much of
> the wilderness and also added gardens and
> hiking paths dotted with gazebos where
> visitors could take in the views. 166 The hotel
> built by the lake consisted of nine buildings of
> eclectic architecture from castles to chalets
> which were surrounded by rolling hills, forest
> and gardens. 167 Their intention was to develop  Lake Mohonk Conference Center today
> a spiritual retreat which could serve as a place
> to cultivate progressive ideas which could be
> used for the betterment of the world.
> 
> The impetus for organizing the Peace Conferences came from the Quakerism of the Smiley
> brothers. Quakerism was a form of Christianity that had its roots in middle 17th century
> England. It taught the possibility of an authentic personal relationship with God and the
> importance of living a life which testified to the truth of that relationship. While Quakers did
> not have a specific creed, they were intensely Christian in their devotion to Scripture. 168 To
> testify to the presence of God within them, the “Inner Light”, Quakers worked for the
> abolition of slavery--excluding anyone from membership after 1776 who did not free their
> slaves--, 169 the advancement of the rights of women, prison reform, 170 better treatment of
> patients in asylums, the rights of Indians, and the alleviation of poverty, and they worked
> against war of all kinds. 171
> 
> The International Peace Society, also known as the Society for the Promotion of Universal
> and Permanent Peace or the London Peace Society, was founded in 1816 by Albert K.
> Smiley who was a philanthropist, had served as the Secretary of the Interior of the United
> States, and had run a Friends School. 172 The Society organized the Lake Mohonk
> Conferences on International Arbitration which were held every year since 1895 to gather
> like minded ‘peacemakers’ together and “for the purpose of creating and directing public
> sentiment in favor of international arbitration, arbitration treaties and an international
> court”. 173 It had brought hundreds of important leaders from different walks of life including
> William Howard Taft and Andrew Carnegie, who founded the Carnegie Endowment for
> Peace through his contact with the Smiley brothers. This Conference had played an
> important role in bringing about major peace efforts such as the Hague Conference, the
> World Peace Foundation and the League to Enforce Peace. 174
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                                42
> Prior to this visit by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, several Bahá’ís had been in regular contact with the
> Smiley brothers and the organizers of the Lake Mohonk Conference. Mason Remey had
> written to Albert Smiley on April 25th, 1911, and introduced the Bahá’í Faith to him as a
> ‘peace movement along religious lines”. 175 He included with the letter an essay on the Faith
> entitled “The Esperanto of Religions” in which he boldly asserted that, “Its (the Bahá’í
> Faith) unique object and mission is establishing a universal religion embracing all peoples,
> religions and races, thus forming the spiritual basis of the great universal civilization which is
> so rapidly approaching”. 176 Mírzá ‘Alí Kuli Khán who lived in Washington DC for his job as
> the Charge d’Affaires at the Persian Embassy and who helped with much of the
> correspondence between ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Bahá’ís in the Untied States, was invited to
> speak at the 1911 conference as a part of the international section of the program. He did
> not mention the Bahá’í Faith but his talk echoed the statements of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He praised
> the American nation for promoting “international comity” 177 and “human solidarity”, 178
> encouraged the peace movement to educate the people of the world in such principles,
> advocated for a greater concern for poorer nations by richer nations, and defended the
> potential of Persia by enumerating many of the progressive steps which were being made in
> Persia at that time and asserting that Persia had a very distinguished history. 179
> 
> The main contact for the invitation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Lake Mohonk Conference was
> Mírzá Ahmad Sohrab. Sohrab, a Bahá’í living in
> Washington DC, was the treasurer of the Persian American
> Educational Society, an organization founded to “bring
> these two countries together in ties of mutual interests:
> commercial, educational, moral and intellectual”. 180 On
> September 1st, 2011, he forwarded two tablets by ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá for Mr. Smiley, dated August 22nd, 2011, which
> Sohrab had translated. In the cover letter, Sohrab states
> that, “having written to Him (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) about the Lake
> Mohonk Conference and its objects and the courtesy you
> extended to me, he writes you these wonderful
> “Tablets”.” 181 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in these tablets expressed his
> great respect for the efforts the Conference had made in
> the cause of peace, and how Bahá’u’lláh had established the
> principle of the oneness of humanity in this century and the
> need for universal peace. 182
> 
> Around this same time, ‘Alí Kuli Khán had received from        Lua Getsinger & Sohrab
> Mr. Phillips, the secretary of the Lake Mohonk Conference,
> the compilation of talks--which included his--from the
> previous year’s Conference, and Khan wrote back that he would forward this book of talks
> on peace to the Persian government, and to some of the “leaders of public opinion” 183 in
> Persia. 184
> 
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                                  43
> Sohrab acted as the coordinator between ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Conference organizers;; 2 he
> distributed autographed photographs of the Master and prepared a statement on his visit
> under the heading of the Persian American Educational Society. This statement described
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as the “head and center of the Bahai Movement”, Bahá’u’lláh as an “Advocate
> for Peace”, and the Bahá’í Faith as a movement for religious unity and world peace with
> followers in the “millions”. 185 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá cabled Mr. Phillips on May 4th that he would
> speak on, “The oneness of the reality of human kind”. 186
> 
> ‘Alí Kuli Khán wrote Mr. Phillips that he would not be able to attend the conference due to
> his embassy duties. 187 A circular went out from Mr. Phillips to the newspapers announcing
> the Conference and described it in terms of creating interest and curiosity in the
> “approaching Third Hague Conference, the proposed international court of arbitral justice,
> and arbitration treaties, general and particular.” One of the major goals of these Hague
> Conferences was to create an international court of arbitration within which nations would
> resolve their disputes instead of resorting to warfare;; as the circular went around, an
> arbitration treaty was being written between France and England which was supported by
> President Taft. 188
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presentation took place in the evening of Wednesday, May 15th, as a part of
> the international section of the Conference. 189 Some two-hundred and fifty guests were
> present for the address. 190 The Master extolled the new century:
> 
> “This is the century of light and of bounty. In the past, the unity of patriotism, the
> unity of nations and religions was established;; hence this century is greater than the
> past.” 191
> 
> The Master then introduced the figure of Bahá’u’lláh:
> 
> “At such a time as this (a time of turmoil and war), His Holiness, Baha'u'llah
> appeared. He proclaimed the oneness of the world of humanity and the greatest
> peace (Most Great Peace). He wrote to all the kings and addressed epistles to all the
> religionists of Persia, and all the souls who accepted His platform and emulated
> and followed His teachings--whether Christians, Mohammedans, Jews or
> Zoroastrians--were united and attained the greatest amity and unity.” 192
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá followed this universal declaration of a new day by listing eight principles of
> Bahá’u’lláh, including the investigation of reality for oneself, the oneness of humanity, the
> equality of men and women, the agreement of science and true religion, the eradication of all
> 
> In November, 2011, Sohrab wrote to Mr. Phillips that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in London and that he was going to
> meet him in Paris as a part of his work with the Persian American Educational Society. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would be
> visiting the United States, and Sohrab offered that he might be able to persuade ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to come to the
> Lake Mohonk Peace Conference if Mr. Smiley invited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá directly. A reply came quickly from Mr.
> Phillips expressing interest in having ‘Abdu’l-Bahá come to the 1912 Conference. Sohrab wrote back from
> Paris to Mr. Phillips that he would be returning to the United States in January with a letter of acceptance and
> an autographed photograph from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. (Swarthmore College Peace Collection)
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                                               44
> forms of prejudice, the appearance of social justice through the moderation of wealth and
> poverty, religion and the necessity of the Holy Spirit in changing human society. 193 In fifteen
> minutes or less, the Master had made the Great Announcement directly and fully to this
> distinguished audience of people who were working towards the common goal of world
> peace.
> 
> Sohrab sent a telegram later at night to Agnes Parsons, a Bahá’í in Washington DC, that
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence and words had “fired the hearts” 194 of the attendees because the talk
> had been like a “conflagration” 195 which was met with the longest applause of the evening.
> The audience would have wanted the Master to speak longer but he was fatigued. Many
> sought to shake his hand, and Mr. Smiley praised ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and spoke reverently about
> the new teachings. Mrs. Smiley presented ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a pendant from the
> conference. 196 Later on that summer, a prominent Reverend from New York would
> remember the talk as the “most remarkable” 197 one he had ever heard.
> 
> The Master received the kind words with graciousness and equanimity. But what he wanted
> was action. To Dr. Zia Baghdadi, who was with him at Mohonk, he said:
> 
> “Once I wrote to the friends in Persia with regard to peace congresses and
> conferences, that if the members of the conferences do not succeed in practicing what
> they say, they may be compared to those who hold a meeting to discuss and form firm
> resolutions about the sinfulness and harmfulness of liquors, but, after having the
> meeting, occupy themselves in selling liquors... Now we must not only think and talk
> peace but we must develop the power to practice peace so that... peace may permeate
> the whole world.” 198
> 
> The Master stayed at the scenic resort for another day. Photographs of him were taken, he
> blessed many with kind words, smiles, and solicitous advice. He told Dr. Bahgdadi that he
> wished he had a Persian rug to give Mr. Smiley as a gift. Baghdadi rushed back to the City by
> train that very night, picked up the rug at their apartment in the pre-dawn hours, made it
> back to the Mohonk area by train and arrived at the Conference center--after hitching a ride
> on the mailman’s wagon--just as the Master was shaking Mr. Smiley’s hand. And then the
> Master departed for New York City.
> 
> The Lake Mohonk Conference came and went but the Third Hague Conference never took
> place as the violent eruption of World War I could not be stopped by human agency.
> 
> While the Hague Conferences did not succeed in their goals, they prefigured the
> international institutions which would develop later in the century, and the development of a
> body of international law which would allow nations to come to agreement in a wide variety
> of areas from peace-keeping to the environment, from world trade to the oceans and outer
> space, from economic development to the rights of children.
> 
> And while the Lake Mohonk Peace Conferences didn’t stop the catastrophe of World War I
> the determined efforts by the peacemakers of the world, did change history.
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                                45
> x   In the first decade of the 20th century there were wars of many kinds. In the last
> decade of the 20th century most wars would be intra-state wars—civil wars, and nonstate conflict (terrorism), not inter-state conflicts of which there are about four in
> 2012 (US/Afghanistan, N. Korea/S. Korea (a ‘cold’ conflict), India/Pakistan, and
> Congo/neighboring states)
> x   In gross estimates, there was a 75% drop in war-related deaths between the first and
> second half of the 20th century;; most of the deaths in the second half of the 20th
> century were civilian deaths. 199
> x   After the Second World War, major international institutions came into being
> providing legally recognized forums for the prosecution of war criminals, the
> arbitration of disputes between nations, the development of international trade
> agreements and associations, the disbursement of international aid, the coordination
> of the eradication of diseases, and the maintenance and use of peace-keeping forces,
> among other areas.
> 
> One hundred years after 1912, these developments are astonishing in that war between
> nations has become unacceptable by international law and by the demands of the
> interdependent world market economy. References to an ‘international community’ have
> become the norm, and, several times this ‘community’ has worked together to prevent
> conflict or the slaughter of civilians.
> 
> Many people, especially women, still suffer greatly because of civil war, insurgencies and
> terrorism. But one can reasonably say that by the early 21st century, peace between nations
> has broken out.
> 
> Chapter 5: Groundwork for Peace ~ Lake Mohonk                                             46
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor
> In the weeks after the Lake Mohonk Conference,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in depth about the working
> of the spiritual world—the Nature of God and
> the Manifestations of God, the Reality of Man,
> and the Holy Spirit’s movement through the
> world.
> 
> In these talks ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of ‘reality’, only
> rarely using the word ‘truth’. ‘Reality’ is simply
> what it is and, as people look into reality, they find
> that the underlying ‘reality’ is one. So as people
> study reality, they move closer to realizing their
> oneness as physical and spiritual beings: “…
> reality must be investigated;; for reality is one, and
> by investigating it all will find love and unity”. 200
> 
> God is the transcendent and unknowable reality
> from which all existence flows:
> 
> “The Fatherhood of God, His lovingkindness and beneficence are apparent to
> all. In His mercy He provides fully and
> amply for His creatures, and if any soul       Portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Juliet Thompson
> sins, He does not suspend His bounty. All
> created things are visible manifestations of
> His Fatherhood, mercy and heavenly bestowals.” 201
> (Talk at the reception at the Metropolitan Temple, May 28th)
> 
> “God is eternal and ancient—not a new God. … The sovereignty, power, names and
> attributes of God are eternal, ancient. His names presuppose creation and predicate
> His existence and will. We say God is Creator. This name Creator appears when we
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                            47
> connote creation. We say God is the Provider. This name presupposes and proves
> the existence of the provided. God is Love.” 202
> (Talk at the Theosophical Lodge, May 30th)
> 
> Human beings are limited and dependent compared to the Divine Reality which is unlimited
> and independent. 203 So God Manifests Himself in human form--the person of the
> Manifestation of God--in whom all the Divine Attributes are reflected. This Manifestation of
> God is like a perfect mirror reflecting the Sun which is God;; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sometimes
> described God as the “Sun of Reality”.
> 
> Of Jesus, who was a Manifestation of God, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote:
> 
> “Consider the statement recorded in the first chapter of the book of John: “In the
> beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
> This statement is brief but replete with the greatest meanings. … Heretofore the
> doctors of theology have not expounded it but have restricted it to Jesus as “the
> Word made flesh,” the separation of Jesus from God, the Father, and His descent
> upon the earth. In this way the individualized separation of the godhead came to be
> taught. The essential oneness of Father, Son and Spirit has many meanings and
> constitutes the foundation of Christianity. Today we will merely give a synopsis of
> explanation. Why was Jesus the Word? In the universe of creation all phenomenal
> beings are as letters. Letters in themselves are meaningless and express nothing of
> thought or ideal—as, for instance, a, b, etc. Likewise, all phenomenal beings are
> without independent meaning. But a word is composed of letters and has
> independent sense and meaning. Therefore, as Christ conveyed the perfect meaning
> of divine reality and embodied independent significance, He was the Word. He was
> as the station of reality compared to the station of metaphor. There is no intrinsic
> meaning in the leaves of a book, but the thought they convey leads you to reflect
> upon reality. The reality of Jesus was the perfect meaning, the Christhood in Him
> which in the Holy Books is symbolized as the Word.”
> 
> “The Word was with God.” The Christhood means not the body of Jesus but the
> perfection of divine virtues manifest in Him. Therefore, it is written, “He is God.”
> This does not imply separation from God, even as it is not possible to separate the
> rays of the sun from the sun. The reality of Christ was the embodiment of divine
> virtues and attributes of God. For in Divinity there is no duality. …” 204
> (Talk at the Kinney home, May 29th)
> 
> A person comes nearer to God by striving to develop spiritual qualities:
> 
> “Nearness to God is dependent upon purity of the heart and exhilaration of the
> spirit through the glad tidings of the Kingdom. Consider how a pure, well-polished
> mirror fully reflects the effulgence of the sun, no matter how distant the sun may be.
> As soon as the mirror is cleaned and purified, the sun will manifest itself. The more
> 
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                             48
> pure and sanctified the heart of man becomes, the nearer it draws to God, and the
> light of the Sun of Reality is revealed within it.” 205
> 
> “Therefore, we learn that nearness to God is possible through devotion to Him,
> through entrance into the Kingdom and service to humanity;; it is attained by unity
> with mankind and through loving-kindness to all;; it is dependent upon investigation
> of truth, acquisition of praiseworthy virtues, service in the cause of universal peace
> and personal sanctification. In a word, nearness to God necessitates sacrifice of self,
> severance and the giving up of all to Him. Nearness is likeness.” 206
> (Talk at the Mount Morris Baptist Church, May 26th)
> 
> Without developing these spiritual capacities, the human being remains in the dark:
> 
> “Behold how the sun shines upon all creation, but only surfaces that are pure and
> polished can reflect its glory and light. The darkened soul has no portion of the
> revelation of the glorious effulgence of reality;; and the soil of self, unable to take
> advantage of that light, does not produce growth. The eyes of the blind cannot
> behold the rays of the sun;; only pure eyes with sound and perfect sight can receive
> them.” 207      (Talk at the Mount Morris Baptist Church, May 26th)
> 
> “…we must ever strive for capacity and seek readiness. As long as we lack
> susceptibility, the beauties and bounties of God cannot penetrate. Christ spoke a
> parable in which He said His words were like the seeds of the sower;; some fall upon
> stony ground, some upon sterile soil, some are choked by thorns and thistles, but
> some fall upon the ready, receptive and fertile ground of human hearts. When seeds
> are cast upon sterile soil, no growth follows. Those cast upon stony ground will grow
> a short time, but lacking deep roots will wither away. Thorns and thistles destroy
> others completely, but the seed cast in good ground brings forth harvest and
> fruitage. In the same way, the words I speak to you here tonight may produce no
> effect whatever.” 208
> (Talk at the Mount Morris Baptist Church, May 26th)
> 
> The Manifestations of God have all been the perfect reflections of the Divine Reality and,
> since Reality is One, have all been united in purpose:
> 
> “The divine Manifestations since the day of Adam have striven to unite humanity so
> that all may be accounted as one soul. The function and purpose of a shepherd is to
> gather and not disperse his flock. The Prophets of God have been divine Shepherds
> of humanity. They have established a bond of love and unity among mankind, made
> scattered peoples one nation and wandering tribes a mighty kingdom. They have laid
> the foundation of the oneness of God and summoned all to universal peace. All
> these holy, divine Manifestations are one. They have served one God, promulgated
> the same truth, founded the same institutions and reflected the same light. Their
> appearances have been successive and correlated;; each One has announced and
> extolled the One Who was to follow, and all laid the foundation of reality.” 209
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                                49
> (Talk at the reception at the Metropolitan Temple, May 28th)
> 
> Religious forms are man’s living response to the Manifestation of God but attachment to a
> particular form of religion brings about imitation and man-made traditions and obscures the
> light of reality:
> 
> “Imitation destroys the foundation of religion, extinguishes the spirituality of the
> human world, transforms heavenly illumination into darkness and deprives man of
> the knowledge of God. It is the cause of the victory of materialism and infidelity
> over religion;; it is the denial of Divinity and the law of revelation;; it refuses
> Prophethood and rejects the Kingdom of God.” 210
> (Talk at Town Hall, Fanwood, NJ, May 31st)
> 
> “Likewise, the divine religions of the holy Manifestations of God are in reality one,
> though in name and nomenclature they differ. Man must be a lover of the light, no
> matter from what dayspring it may appear. He must be a lover of the rose, no matter
> in what soil it may be growing. He must be a seeker of the truth, no matter from
> what source it come. Attachment to the lantern is not loving the light.” 211
> (Talk at the reception at the Metropolitan Temple, May 28th)
> 
> Religion has two aspects:
> 
> “The first is essential. It concerns morality and development of the virtues of the
> human world. This aspect is common to all. It is fundamental;; it is one;; there is no
> difference, no variation in it. As regards the inculcation of morality and the
> development of human virtues, there is no difference whatsoever between the
> teachings of Zoroaster, Jesus and Bahá’u’lláh. In this they agree;; they are one. The
> second aspect of the divine religions is nonessential. It concerns human needs and
> undergoes change in every cycle according to the exigency of the time.” 212
> (Talk at the Church of the Ascension, June 2nd)
> 
> While buildings such as churches and synagogues are centers where people can gather, the
> “…real Collective Centers are the Manifestations of God … the real divine temple and
> Collective Center of which the outer church is but a symbol” 213 and that, “Today Bahá’u’lláh
> is the Collective Center of unity for all mankind”. 214
> 
> While there are many different religions in outward form, “Bahá’u’lláh taught that reality is
> one and not multiple, that it underlies all precepts and that the foundations of the religions
> are, therefore, the same”. 215
> 
> But the seeker must differentiate between the lamp and the light, tradition and truth, and
> would have to “investigate reality” where he would find that “the foundation of the divine
> religions is reality;; were there no reality, there would be no religions”. 216 The seeker would
> then see that the multiplicity of religions is an illusion created by traditions, prejudice and
> blind imitation. At his talk at the Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn on June 16th,
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                               50
> he illustrated this point by explaining that in the Qur’an Muhammad asserts the Truth of
> Jesus’s Mission and scolds His own followers for not having been followers of Jesus. 217
> 
> Religion was also more than the salvation of individuals, it was the salvation of the world:
> 
> “The time has come when all mankind shall be united, when all races shall be loyal to
> one fatherland, all religions become one religion, and racial and religious bias pass
> away. It is a day in which the oneness of humankind shall uplift its standard and
> international peace, like the true morning, flood the world with its light.” 218
> (Talk at the Theosophical Lodge, May 30th)
> 
> “Tonight I am very happy in the realization that our aims and purposes are the same,
> our desires and longings are one. This is a reflection and evidence of the oneness of
> the world of humanity and the intention toward accomplishment of the Most Great
> Peace. … In the world of existence there are no greater questions than these.” 219
> (Talk at the Theosophical Lodge, May 30th)
> 
> “…we must lay aside all prejudice—whether it be religious, racial, political or
> patriotic;; we must become the cause of the unification of the human race. Strive for
> universal peace, seek the means of love, and destroy the basis of disagreement so
> that this material world may become divine, the world of matter become the realm of
> the Kingdom and humanity attain to the world of perfection.” 220
> (Talk at Town Hall, Fanwood, NJ, May 31st)
> 
> Bringing this peace, this great unification about would require “knowledge, volition and
> action” 221 on the part of individuals aided by the Power of God circulating throughout
> creation:
> 
> “In the same manner the bestowals of God are moving and circulating throughout
> all created things. This illimitable divine bounty has no beginning and will have no
> ending. It is moving, circulating and becomes effective wherever capacity is
> developed to receive it. In every station there is a specialized capacity. Therefore, we
> must be hopeful that through the bounty and favor of God this spirit of life infusing
> all created beings shall quicken humanity, and from its bestowals the human world
> shall become a divine world, …” 222
> (Talk at the Theosophical Lodge, May 30th)
> 
> “Consider how nothing but a spiritual power can bring about this unification, for
> material conditions and mental aspects are so widely different that agreement and
> unity are not possible through outer means. It is possible, however, for all to become
> unified through one spirit, just as all may receive light from one sun. Therefore,
> assisted by the collective and divine center which is the law of God and the reality of
> His Manifestation, we can overcome these conditions until they pass away entirely
> and the races advance.” 223
> (Talk at the Church of the Ascension, June 2nd)
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                              51
> The Manifestations of God, having both a human and a Divine Reality, know what humanity
> needs:
> 
> “The world of humanity may be likened to the individual man himself;; it has its
> illness and ailments. A patient must be diagnosed by a skillful physician. The
> Prophets of God are the real Physicians. In whatever age or time They appear They
> prescribe for human conditions. They know the sicknesses;; They discover the hidden
> sources of disease and indicate the necessary remedy. … In this present age the
> world of humanity is afflicted with severe sicknesses and grave disorders which
> threaten death. Therefore, Bahá’u’lláh has appeared.” 224
> (Talk at Kinney home, June 17th)
> 
> The ailment afflicting humanity in this day is “lack of love and absence of altruism”. 225 This
> would be healed if “… the friends of God must adhere to the power which will create this
> love and unity in the hearts of the sons of men …” 226 because “… the spiritual teachings of
> the Religion of God can alone create this love, unity and accord in human hearts”. 227
> 
> In these talks of May/June 1912 and others, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid out an entirely new vision of
> religion, one which freed the Divine Teachings from the man-made forms in which they had
> become trapped. He acknowledged the religious forms of the past while challenging the
> listener with the claim that these outward forms were transitory and that a new Divine
> Revelation had appeared—that God was alive and that His Spirit was moving in the world.
> This can be seen in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of the Divine Reality of Jesus which allowed
> the Christian to hold on to the Divinity of Jesus while being able to consider that the Christ-
> Spirit had returned in the human figure of Bahá’u’lláh. And while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá challenged
> Christians and others, he never belittled the value of the work of their churches and
> organizations.
> 
> As a teacher, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in a straightforward manner using simple metaphors and
> analogies to explain deeper truths. He used different approaches depending on the audience
> to which he spoke and used these approaches as bridges over which the listeners could cross
> into a deeper understanding of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. When he spoke at the Brotherhood
> Church in Jersey City, NJ, a non-denominational church organized by Howard Colby Ives
> who was a Unitarian minister, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá focused on the meaning of true brotherhood
> and then used that to show how Bahá’u’lláh had caused true brotherhood between His
> followers and the importance of spiritual over material bonds. To the Theosophical Society,
> which believed that humans were parts of a spiritual whole and could improve through
> conscious awareness, he spoke of the ability of people to advance spiritually through
> “knowledge, volition, and action” 228 when aided by the Divine Power. At the Church of the
> Ascension on June 2nd, he began by speaking about the church building as a center for unity,
> and then he compared this kind of center of unity to the person of the Manifestation of God
> who was the collective center for the unification of the whole human race.
> 
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                           52
> In these weeks after the Lake Mohonk Conference, the Master also made important
> predictions and statements about the future. During a rare question and answer session at
> the Church of the Ascension on June 2nd, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá suggested that “the United States
> may be held up as the example of future government—that is to say, each province will be
> independent in itself, but there will be federal union protecting the interests of the various
> independent states”, 229 and that “to cast aside centralization which promotes despotism is
> the exigency of the time”;; 230 despotism had been the history of the Kingdoms of the Near
> East including Persia--in the early 1900’s the verb ‘to elect’ did not even exist in the Persian
> language. 231 He also asserted emphatically that woman’s suffrage was key to the
> establishment of international peace. 232 The movement for woman’s suffrage paralleled the
> lifespan of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: the women’s movement began officially at the Seneca Falls
> Convention in 1848 and the constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to
> vote was passed in 1920, not long before the ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. At this same
> question and answer session, someone asked the extraordinary question, “What will be the
> food of the united people?” 233 The Master answered that in time people would eat less meat
> and more grain as this is what human bodies had been designed to do. 234 On the evening of
> June 11th at 309 West 78th St., while stressing the primary importance of the spiritual life,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also emphasized the moral necessity and value of work:
> 
> “In this great Cause the light of guidance is shining and radiant. Bahá’u’lláh has even
> said that occupation and labor are devotion. All humanity must obtain a livelihood
> by sweat of the brow and bodily exertion, at the same time seeking to lift the burden
> of others, striving to be the source of comfort to souls and facilitating the means of
> living. This in itself is devotion to God. Bahá’u’lláh has thereby encouraged action
> and stimulated service. But the energies of the heart must not be attached to these
> things;; the soul must not be completely occupied with them. Though the mind is
> busy, the heart must be attracted toward the Kingdom of God in order that the
> virtues of humanity may be attained from every direction and source.” 235
> (Talk at 309 West Seventy-Eighth Street, New York, June 11th)
> 
> Issues concerning labor--safety, pay, hours, working conditions, child labor--were very
> important social issues in the early 1900’s, especially in a place like New York City with its
> millions of workers, many of them unskilled.
> 
> KKK
> 
> All of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s talks were for both the general public and the Bahá’ís;; the Master made
> no distinction when teaching. At the same time, there was a core of believers who made up
> the ‘Bahá’í community’, who were trying to organize themselves to spread the Bahá’í
> teachings.
> 
> The organization of the Bahá’í community in New York City began in 1900 with the arrival
> of the first Persian Bahá’í teacher to come to the United States, ‘Abdu’l-Karím-i-Tihrání. He
> was sent by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to North America for the purposes of “spreading unison and
> agreement”. 236 The Faith had originally been brought to the United States by Ibrahim
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                            53
> Kheiralla but this teacher had been spreading his own ideas mixed in with Bahá’í teachings.
> He eventually disobeyed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá outright, which led to a fracturing of the American
> Bahá’í community with many leaving the Faith altogether. Tihrání, with the help of Howard
> MacNutt and Anton Haddad, drafted a set of “rules and laws” for the governance of the
> community which were then sent to the Master for approval. 237
> 
> A Board of Counsel was elected on December 7th, 1900. The Bahá’ís chose as members
> Arthur P. Dodge, Hooper Harris, William H. Hoar, Andrew Hutchinson, Howard MacNutt,
> Frank E. Osborne, Edwin A. Putnam, Charles E. Sprague, and Orosco C. Woolson. All the
> members were male because of a misunderstanding of the passages in Bahá’u’lláh’s Book of
> Laws referring to the membership of the House of Justice. 238 For a whole decade, the Board
> lacked unity due to personality conflicts 3 and varying understandings of the Bahá’í teachings.
> This disunity rendered it much less effective than the Bahá’í administrative body in Chicago
> called the ‘House of Spirituality’. The Board did manage to hold regular meetings but how
> the community grew and how it was consolidated are unknown due to a lack of records, a
> result of the disagreements among the men. The members of the Board in New York City
> were highly educated making it harder for them to give up their own ideas. After the
> resignation of Arthur P. Dodge, one of its most prominent members, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote to
> him:
> 
> “There can be no greater harm for the Cause of God today than disunion, however
> small it may be! Consequently exert yourself to the utmost to gladden the hearts and
> to be the channel of fragrance and joy to mankind … [show] to the whole human
> race the utmost kindness;; then how much more you must be kind to the spiritual
> friends [Bahá’ís]!” 239
> 
> Though women did not serve on the Board, Gertrude Harris, the wife of Hooper Harris,
> helped organize the women into a ‘Bahá’í Unity League for Ladies’ 240 Women such as
> Gertrude Harris, Juliet Thompon, Isabella Brittingham, Marjorie Morten, Lua Getsinger,
> among many others, played a very active role in the development of the community.
> 
> Still, the Bahá’ís met and the community’s life developed. Feasts were also held regularly and
> included friends of the Faith. 241 The Bahá’ís celebrated a Holy Day in honor of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> called the “Feast of the Master”, the Day of the Covenant. 242 They gathered for worship on
> Sundays:
> 
> “… as I entered the Assembly singing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’, a song I always
> loved. It is stirring and inspires hope and courage. Here I was impressed by the
> wonderful love among the believers. What a contrast to the world of strife and
> commotion without!” 243
> 
> Circular letters went out to community members of which it is estimated there were about
> one-hundred. 244 The Board and two other small groups of believers in the City published
> 
> See p. 10 above
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                              54
> materials on the Faith early on, and there were funds and experienced writers and publishers
> in the community but the disunity hampered the publishing effort. 245 The New York
> Community even decided to write to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in March of 1908, for permission to
> begin a Temple fund to raise “funds for the purchase of a suitable headquarters for our
> assembly in the city of New York”, 246 to which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá replied that, “In the future,
> God Willing, there will be erected throughout all the regions of America--and, in particular,
> in New York--temples of outstanding beauty and dignity … . For the present, however, be
> ye content with a rented property”. 247
> 
> The disunity which affected the New York Baha’is continued, such that by 1909 a younger
> group of believers was actively seeking to change the membership of the Board of Counsel.
> The believers had no knowledge or guidance on how to conduct Bahá’í elections. Several
> active believers who were not re-elected, such as Howard McNutt, started a Board of
> Counsel in Brooklyn, the Borough in which they lived. The 1910 elections saw another great
> turnover in membership. To try to unify the believers, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote to them and told
> them to expand the membership of the Board to twenty-seven members. The Master wanted
> all the different factions in the community to be included thereby helping them resolve their
> differences. This time, He instructed them to include women;; Isabella Brittingham was
> elected the secretary, and she wrote to the Master to let him know that the elections had
> been harmonious. At this time, the Board changed its title to reflect the Master’s use of
> ‘mahfil-i-rawhání’ when referring to consultative bodies. The Board would now be called:
> ‘Spiritual Assembly’.
> 
> On the evening of June 12th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá met with the Assembly 4. Juliet Thompson
> described Board meetings as “deadly”. 248 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá provided them with the metaphor of
> the telegraph by which the members could guide the spirit of their consultations. Knowing
> that the illness of the believers in New York City was disunity, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá prescribed the
> remedy which was unity achieved through the investigation of reality coupled with an
> individual commitment to love of God over love of self:
> 
> “It is my hope that the meetings of the Bahá’í Assembly in New York shall become
> like meetings of the Supreme Concourse. When you assemble, you must reflect the
> lights of the heavenly Kingdom. Let your hearts be as mirrors in which the radiance
> of the Sun of Reality is visible. Each bosom must be a telegraph station—one
> terminus of the wire attached to the soul, the other fixed in the Supreme
> Concourse—so that inspiration may descend from the Kingdom of Abhá and
> questions of reality be discussed. Then opinions will coincide with truth;; day by day
> there will be progression, and the meetings will become more radiant and spiritual.
> This attainment is conditioned upon unity and agreement. The more perfect the love
> and agreement, the more the divine confirmations and assistance of the Blessed
> Perfection will descend. May this prove to be a divine meeting, and may boundless
> bestowals come down upon you. Strive with all your hearts and with the very power
> 
> In the Promulgation of Universal Peace, the Board of Counsel is referenced as the ‘Open committee’. The
> title ‘Spiritual Assembly’ was also now in use. These three titles refer to the same thing at this time.
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                                     55
> of life that unity and love may continually increase. In discussions look toward the
> reality without being self-opinionated. Let no one assert and insist upon his own
> mere opinion;; nay, rather, let each investigate reality with the greatest love and
> fellowship. Consult upon every matter, and when one presents the point of view of
> reality itself, that shall be acceptable to all. Then will spiritual unity increase among
> you, individual illumination will be greater, happiness will be more abundant, and
> you will draw nearer and nearer to the Kingdom of God.” 249
> 
> Chapter 6: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Teacher, Sage and Pastor                                              56
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”
> Many of the early American Bahá’ís were steeped in Christianity;; the first teaching of the
> Faith in the 1890’s had been about the Faith as
> fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. It was not unusual
> for Bahá’ís to continue to be involved in their
> churches. Hymns were a regular part of any
> worship. By the 1900’s American Bahá’ís generally
> approached the Faith in two different ways. One
> group understood sacred scripture to be the
> absolute and only standard for knowing and
> understanding truth. The other group--especially
> prominent in the case of New York City--were
> people who tended to have highly developed
> personal ideas regarding society, spiritual truth, and
> politics, and who emphasized their own personal
> experience as a guide to belief rather than scripture
> or church. The New York Bahá’ís were made up of
> successful businessmen, artists, and writers, who
> tended to have confidence in their own views.
> These Bahá’ís held numerous beliefs that were
> Center of the Covenant
> ‘alternatives’ to church teaching, Biblical teaching,
> and the Bahá’í Writings, with which many were not yet familiar since few Writings were
> actually available to them. 250
> 
> Among these beliefs was reincarnation, which had been taught by Ibrahim Kheiralla and
> which interested other believers who had studied Hinduism on their own. Thornton Chase,
> the first American Bahá’í, had believed in reincarnation prior to being corrected by ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá;; Chase was very obedient to the Master and was able to let this belief go. Chase’s
> letters, though, show that many other Bahá’ís continued to believe in reincarnation. 251
> Howard MacNutt had been very interested in Hindusim and, even after becoming a Bahá’í,
> he tended to combine his understandings of Hinduism with the Bahá’í teachings. For
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                            57
> example, he taught that Bahá’u’lláh would bring unity in the world by blending religions
> together and, in his book, Unity Through Love, he put forth pantheistic beliefs that God is in
> nature and imminent in humanity, meaning the Divine Will would appear in the human
> soul. 252 As a result of this inaccurate description of the Bahá’í Teachings, few of his talks
> were recorded or printed. Over time, there were fewer requests for him to speak publicly
> about the Faith. Of course, MacNutt was expressing his own understanding and meant no
> malice, nor did he intend to distort the teachings of the Faith which he believed in deeply. 253
> 
> In another example of alternative beliefs among Bahá’ís, Charles Mason Remey remembered
> an active Bahá’í in New York City who told people that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was sending her
> tablets by telepathy;; this continued until ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arrived in New York City and told her
> to stop. 254 Percy Woodcock, one of the most active New York Bahá’ís, was fascinated by
> astrology, asceticism, and Egyptian pyramids;; he believed that the building of a House of
> Worship would attract the ancient power of the pyramids. This presented a challenge to the
> Board especially as Percy was a well-liked teacher of the Faith. 255 Isabella Brittingham had to
> give a talk multiple times around 1905 entitled “The Phenomenal World” to counter
> prevalent beliefs in psychics among Bahá’ís. She taught that psychic powers existed but were
> different from the spiritual perceptions which lead one nearer to God, and that spiritual
> growth came from knowledge of Bahá’u’lláh as the Manifestation of God, obedience to the
> Divine Laws, and service to others, exactly as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had taught. 256
> 
> Believers like Isabella Brittingham helped the Bahá’ís gain a truer understanding of the Faith.
> She descended from an old American family that included a signer of the Declaration of
> Independence. Deeply rooted in Biblical prophecy, she became a Bahá’í in 1898, after
> coming to believe that the Bible had predicted the coming of Bahá’u’lláh in symbolic terms.
> She made a first pilgrimage to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká in September, 1904, after the Master
> had been incarcerated again in the ‘Akká prison, and a second in 1909. She became an ardent
> teacher of the Faith and traveled with the support of her husband James, also a devout
> Bahá’í. Beginning in March of 1910, she served on the Unity Band whose members were to
> correspond with Women’s Assemblies of the Orient. Dr. Susan Moody, a believer whom
> Isabella had deepened, and her niece, Elizabeth Stewart, moved to Iran where they founded
> a medical practice for the poor. 257 Isabella wrote an essay, “The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh”,
> that contained accurate descriptions of the Bahá’í Teachings, including the Station of
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She described the station of the Master as being the Center of the Covenant,
> “He who knows no station save that of servitude, humility, and lowliness to the Beloved of
> El-Baha”. 258
> 
> The station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the central point about which Bahá’ís in New York City
> were unclear. Even a believer as experienced as Edward Getsinger, who had been to ‘Akká
> three times for a total of six months and who had listened to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá numerous times
> as well as having studied with numerous Persian teachers, continued to equate ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> as “The Christ of this generation to the Gentiles, and not what He in His humility chooses
> to claim for Himself – a servant”. 259
> 
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                               58
> Arthur P. Dodge’s main orientation was as someone who was anti-church;; he saw the
> churches and Christian beliefs as hopelessly corrupted. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, for him, was the
> returned Christ who would re-infuse religion with a true spirit. Dodge was a man with a wide
> array of talents despite his limited education. Early in life he had been a drummer boy in his
> father’s Union regiment in the Civil War. He had become a reporter at the age of sixteen, a
> self-taught lawyer, a publisher who dreamed of publishing a national magazine to educate the
> masses, and a mechanical engineer who designed engines and built a company with valuable
> patents. He married Elizabeth Day with whom he had six children. He first heard of the
> Faith through his father in 1895 who had been told of it by Dr. Sarah J. Burgess. His father
> was in deep grief over the loss of his daughter, Anna, and was very receptive to the teachings
> which helped him weather his bereavement. Dodge and his wife took Kheiralla’s entire series
> of lessons when they were given in New York City, and he became a devoted lifelong
> teacher of the Faith. He was elected the first ‘president of the New York Bahá’ís in 1898,
> went on pilgrimage to ‘Akká with his wife and two sons in 1900, and, in 1901, he wrote and
> published the first introductory book on the Bahá’í Faith by a Western believer, The Truth of
> It: The Inseparable Oneness of Common Sense—Science—Religion. Much of this book, however, was
> an attack on the clergy, the corruption of organized religion, and scientists. 260 When there
> were personality clashes with Dodge among the Bahá’ís in New York City, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> wrote to them:
> 
> "This personage is a believer and assured;; he is attracted, enkindled and of the
> utmost sincerity. The believers of God must have the utmost consideration toward
> him;; they must not avoid him;; they must seek his companionship in a cheerful
> manner. . . . The point is this: the believers must associate with Mr. Dodge with joy
> and love." 261
> 
> Dodge later served as a delegate in 1912 and 1913 to the Bahá’í Temple Unity Conventions.
> In his later years he moved to Long Island and helped found the community of Hempstead.
> His faith helped to reduce his anger towards the churches. 262
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Karim Tihrání, a Persian teacher, had a book published in 1900 that contained his
> talks in Chicago, Kenosha and New York City, Addresses by Abdel Karim Effendi Teherani:
> Delivered before the New York and Chicago Assemblies. The talks focused on the importance of
> obedience to the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, and he calls ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the ‘Center of the
> Covenant’ fifty-four times in these talks. All of this was to counter the problems that had
> arisen from the false teachings of Kheiralla and his disobedience to the Master. This
> publication was the first time American Bahá’ís were hearing the term and concept of a
> ‘Covenant breaker’. 263
> 
> Though Tihrání had not spent much time in New York City, the City was a transit point for
> pilgrims going to and from ‘Akká who, on their return, told the believers what they had
> heard directly from the Master. These talks and notes by pilgrims were a rich source for
> understanding the Faith though, in time, they would not be considered authoritative. In the
> Autumn of 1900, the Getsingers, the Dodges, and the Hoars made a pilgrimage to ‘Akká.
> There, they learned directly from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the true Bahá’í teachings, dispelling
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                             59
> erroneous notions spread by Kheiralla—most shockingly, that Bahá’u’lláh did not teach the
> reincarnation of souls. When the pilgrims returned, Dodge published a compilation of Bahá’í
> Writings and tablets they had received from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets from Abdul Beha Abbas to
> Some American Believers in the year 1900. 264 His sons, William Copeland Dodge and Wendell
> Phillips Dodge published in 1901, Utterances of Abdul Beha Abbas to two young men, American
> pilgrims in Acre, 1901. 265
> 
> After the pilgrims had returned, two Persian teachers Mírzá Asadu’lláh and Hájí Hasan-i-
> Khurásání and two translators arrived to deepen believers in November, 1900. Asadu’lláh
> was one of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s most trusted assistants—he had been given the sacred task of
> transporting the remains of the Báb from Iran to the Holy Land. These Persian teachers
> were instrumental in helping the New York Bahá’ís form the Board of Counsel, though they
> were not able to stay long enough to correct the ideas left by Kheiralla’s false teachings. 266
> 
> Another Persian teacher who introduced more of the Bahá’í Teachings to American
> believers was Anton Haddad. During 1901 and 1902, he wrote and published several works.
> In The Maxim of Bahaism, he explained the necessity for a new Manifestation, and he made a
> fifty three point summary of the Laws contained in Bahá’u’lláh’s Book of Laws. In The Station
> of the Manifestation and the Greatness of this Day, he showed that the coming of Bahá’u’lláh was
> the cause of the many advances in their time and that science was inherently in agreement
> with religion. Lastly, in Divine Revelation the Basis of All Civilization, he endeavored to show that
> Divine Revelation was the source and motive power of human and social progress, and he
> quoted directly from Bahá’u’lláh’s Book of Laws and His “Words of Wisdom”. 267
> 
> In 1901, the finest scholar in the Bahá’í world, Mírzá Abu’l-Fazl, arrived in the United States.
> He was fifty-seven by then, frail of health, and found himself in cold climates for the first
> time;; he had left behind in Egypt his library, students, and scholarly resources. Abu’l-Fazl
> wrote a book for the American believers, The Bahá’í Proofs. In this profound work, he
> included biographies of the Central Figures of the Faith, a summary of the history of the
> Faith to 1900, detailed comparisons between the Bahá’í Faith and the Abrahamic Faiths, an
> explanation of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings in terms of God’s relationship to man, man’s
> relationship to himself, and God’s relationship to society. He also made a short list of
> Bahá’u’lláh’s social principles, and wrote introductions of four other religions asked for by
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Abu’l Fazl spent most his time in the United States in Washington DC. The
> Bahá’í Proofs was a highly sophisticated, closely reasoned source, the likes of which Americans
> had not read before. Most likely, the Americans were not able to appreciate its depths;; Abu’l-
> Fazl used his extensive knowledge of Bahá’í Scripture, Aristotelian logic, Arabic, Persian, and
> Islamic theology and history, while Americans were asking him to interpret their dreams.
> Over the course of the 20th century, it was the only book from the early part of the century
> to be reprinted. 268
> 
> Even with these explanations of the Station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, there continued to be
> differences on this subject among the believers. In 1907, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote to the
> Consultative Assembly of New York and both clarified the Station of Bahá’u’lláh and the
> Báb as being that of the Returned Christ and elevated Servitude to the Highest Station:
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                                    60
> “You have written that there is a difference among the believers concerning the
> ‘Second Coming of Christ’. Gracious God! Time and again this question hath
> arisen, and its answer hath emanated in a clear and irrefutable statement from the
> pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that what is meant in the prophecies by the ‘Lord of Hosts’
> and the ‘Promised Christ’ is the Blessed Perfection [Bahá’u’lláh] and His Holiness
> the Exalted One [the Báb]. This clear and irrefutable statement must provide, for
> all, the foundation of their belief. My name is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. My qualification is
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. My reality is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. My praise is ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. Thraldom to
> the Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the
> human race my perpetual religion […] No name, no title, no mention, no
> commendation have I, nor will ever have, except ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. This is my longing.
> This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is my everlasting glory […]
> O Friends of God! ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is not the return of Christ, but the very
> embodiment of servitude.” 269
> 
> It is hundreds of Tablets like this that provided the American believers with their greatest
> source of knowledge concerning the true Bahá’í Teachings and for understanding what it
> meant to live a Bahá’í life. The tablets were translated, typed, and mailed to Bahá’í
> communities and exchanged between communities and individuals so that they provided a
> steady source of infallible guidance. It is important for posterity to remember that these
> tablets were written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in response to specific questions asked by the
> believers, so the subjects of the Tablets represented the interests of the questioners. These
> tablets do not represent an effort by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to give a systematic theology of
> Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation;; much of the Master’s guidance was pastoral--how people could
> live together in communities or which virtues were important, for example--as he sought to
> instruct the believers in how to live a Bahá’í life both individually and collectively. These
> tablets should be understood in this context.
> 
> In a July, 1912, edition of the Star of the West, a bi-monthly publication about the Faith,
> Charles Mason Remey explained the Station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the readers:
> 
> “‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s life of service is the Center of the life of the Kingdom which is the
> Bahá’í Cause. His servitude to God and service to mankind is the heart from which
> the life force of the Kingdom is flowing to all the members of that growing spiritual
> body. He is the interpreter and the expounder of Holy Writ. BAHA’O’LLAH
> commanded all to turn to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who is the Greatest Branch – branched
> from the Pre-existent Root – the Center of the Covenant of God.” 270
> 
> That same edition of Star of the West included a tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Mason Remey
> on the subject of the Covenant:
> 
> “Likewise with the trace of the Supreme Pen He (Bahá’u’lláh) has taken a Great
> Covenant and Testament after His Departure they must obey the Center of the
> Covenant and must not deviate one hair’s breadth from obedience to him. He has
> commanded in the most explicit terms in two instances in the Book of Akdas and
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                               61
> He has appointed most unmistakably the interpreter of the Book. In all Tablets,
> especially the chapter of “Branch,” whose meanings are all ‘Abdu’l-Bahá– that is,
> “the Servant of Baha” – everything that is necessary is revealed from the Supreme
> Pen. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the interpreter of the Book, he says that the chapter of
> “Branch” means ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and nothing else.” 271
> 
> That summer, The Bahá’í Proofs, an essay by Abu’l Fazl, was published in the United States. In
> it, he explained ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s station in clear and direct terms grounded in the Bahá’í
> Writings:
> 
> “To the people of Faith, the clear appointment of the Center of the Cause, after the
> Departure [Death] of the Manifestation [Baha’o’llah], is considered the most important
> point in religious matters, as it is the greatest channel which connects the servants of
> God with the Holy Divine Truth. They are all sure and convinced that the CENTER
> OF THE COVENANT is no other than His Holiness, ‘‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ;; for, apart
> from the Divine signs that are manifest in Him, BAHA’O’LLAH clearly and
> implicitly, verbally and in writing, directed all of His servants to the blessed Person
> of ‘‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, and, under all circumstances, clearly showed that He was far
> distinguished above others, in order that all the servants should look unto Him
> alone, and follow His Commands. For it is only through His explanation and
> decision that all discord is removed. … He prior to His Departure, revealed the
> Kitab-el-A’hd [Book of the Covenant, the Will of BAHA’O’LLAH]. This He wrote
> with His own blessed Hand and Seal, … . In this Book (His Covenant) He clearly
> indicated that the purpose of the “Branch extended from the Ancient Root,”
> revealed in the blessed Verse of Akdas, was the Center of the Circle of Names, the
> Exalted Branch of the Blessed Tree of ABHA, His Holiness ABDUL-BAHA. Then
> He, for the second time, enjoined, through an unchangeable and irrefutable
> command, all His “branches,” “twigs,” (relatives) and the Bahá’ís without exception,
> to look unto that Dawning-Place of Divine Light, and to know Him as the Source
> and Origin of the commands and prohibitions of the Heavenly Religion.” 272
> 
> At the time, the Star of the West printed this encouragement by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá concerning
> this work by Abu’l-Fazl:
> 
> “In reality, this treatise is the Sharp and Brilliant Proof which has emanated from the
> breath of the pen of servitude to the Blessed Perfection.” 273
> 
> In the same November edition of Star of the West, a talk by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was reprinted:
> 
> “His Holiness BAHA’O’LLAH covenanted, not that I (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) am the
> Promised One, but that Abdul-Baha is the expounder of the Book and the
> CENTRE OF HIS COVENANT, and that the Promised One of BAHA’O’LLAH
> will appear after one thousand or thousands of years. … In case of difference,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá must be consulted. … After ‘‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whenever the Universal House of
> Justice is organized it will ward off differences. …” 274
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                              62
> That edition also printed Bahá’u’lláh’s Book of the Covenant, which was Bahá’u’lláh’s ‘Will and
> Testament’:
> 
> “He hath forbidden dispute and strife with an absolute prohibition in the book (Kitab
> el-Akdas). … “This is the TESTAMENT OF GOD, that the Branches (Aghsan), Twigs
> (Afnan), and Relations (Muntessabeen), must each and every one look to the Greatest Branch
> (Ghusn Azam). …” 275
> 
> KKK
> 
> Mrs. Gibbons, a Bahá’í, had written the Master before his coming to the United States,
> requesting that her own daughter be allowed to paint his portrait. In his reply he consented
> to this request and added, according to Mrs. Gibbons, that Juliet Thompson would paint a
> portrait of him. Juliet Thompson had long dreamed that she would paint the face of
> Christ. 276
> 
> During the month of June, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá allowed Juliet Thompson to paint his portrait
> telling her to paint his “Servitude to God”. She completed it over the course of six sittings
> which took place over multiple days in different rooms. Juliet remembered that fourth sitting
> on June 19th because of an extraordinary experience she and Lua Getsinger had on that day.
> As the Master prepared to sit for the portrait, he turned to Lua Getsinger who was also in
> the room and told her in Persian that these sittings made him sleepy. He sat down and
> closed his eyes. Juliet studied him but found that she could not begin painting because
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s countenance reflected the dignity and peace of the Divine Realm. 277
> 
> Then, as though awakened by the Holy Spirit, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá opened his eyes and with great
> power said:
> 
> "I appoint you, Lua, the Herald of the Covenant. And I AM THE COVENANT,
> appointed by Bahá'u'lláh. And no one can refute His Word. This is the Testament of
> Bahá'u'lláh. You will find it in the Holy Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, 'This
> is THE COVENANT OF GOD in your midst.'" 278
> 
> A great joy seemed to fill Lua while Juliet wept at witnessing this extraordinary moment of
> spiritual force flowing through the Master. Then ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became quiet again. The Holy
> Spirit receded, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the man re-emerged. He smiled at Juliet and told her that
> she must stop crying since she would not be able to paint through tears. 279
> 
> In the afternoon of that same day He sent Lua Getsinger downstairs to speak about the
> Covenant to the visitors waiting there. 280 When he went down later, 5 he read from
> Bahá’u’lláh’s ‘Tablet of the Branch’ and spoke with great power on the Covenant. 281
> 
> In Mahmoud’s Diary, Mahmoud states that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke about the ‘Tablet of the Branch’ at a “public
> meeting” but this meeting was not recorded in Promulgation of Universal Peace. Juliet Thomspon’s diary does not
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                                             63
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá designated New York City, the ‘City of the Covenant’. 282
> 
> KKK
> 
> Differences of understanding about the Station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would continue despite the
> numerous Tablets, notes from returning pilgrims, articles, reprints of talks, and translations
> of the Book of the Covenant and the Tablet of the branch in the Star of the West, until 1934,
> the year Shoghi Effendi wrote The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh. The Dispensation gave definitive
> explanations to Bahá’ís regarding the Natures and Stations of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Also, by the 1930’s enough of a distinctive ‘Baha’i way of life’ had appeared so
> that the points in the Dispensation could be fully appreciated and would replace the personal
> opinions of believers.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi explained that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was not an ordinary man nor was he the
> Manifestation of God:
> 
> “For wide as is the gulf that separates ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from Him Who is the Source of
> an independent Revelation, it can never be regarded as commensurate with the
> greater distance that stands between Him Who is the Center of the Covenant and
> His ministers who are to carry on His work, whatever be their name, their rank, their
> functions or their future achievements.” 283
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the ‘Mystery of God’ who functioned as the Center of the Covenant and
> perfect Exemplar, a guide for all believers:
> 
> “He is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the Center and
> Pivot of Bahá’u’lláh’s peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His most exalted
> handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings,
> the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Bahá’í ideal, the
> incarnation of every Bahá’í virtue, the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient
> Root, the Limb of the Law of God, the Being “round Whom all names revolve,” the
> Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the
> Moon of the Central Orb of this most holy Dispensation—styles and titles that are
> implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest expression in the magic name
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He is, above and beyond these appellations, the “Mystery of God”—
> an expression by which Bahá’u’lláh Himself has chosen to designate Him, and which,
> while it does not by any means justify us to assign to Him the station of
> Prophethood, indicates how in the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the incompatible
> 
> record ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s talk to the visitors that day either. She writes “In the afternoon of that same day He sent
> Lua down to the waiting people to "proclaim the Covenant";; then a little later followed her and spoke Himself
> on the station of the Centre of the Covenant, but not as He had done to Lua and me. The blazing Reality of it
> He had revealed in His own Person to us. To them He spoke guardedly, even deleting afterwards from our
> notes some of the things He had said.” These notes have not been preserved.
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                                               64
> characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and perfection have
> been blended and are completely harmonized.” 284
> 
> Chapter 7: “I am the Covenant”                                                          65
> Unity Feast in New Jersey
> 
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey
> Newspapers and visitors often described ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with words such as “dignified”,
> “Christ-like”, “Divine”;; those who were able to spend more time with him personally also
> experienced his emotional expressiveness and affection, his naturalness and spontaneity and
> his practical approach to living.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá readily expressed his emotions from the welcoming smile with which he
> greeted people to laughter and, even, tears. For example, one Friday afternoon in July, Dr.
> Percy Grant came to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Grant was in a combative mood possibly due to his
> jealousy over the devotion Juliet had to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The Master greeted him with a warm
> welcome. As they spoke, Grant kept questioning and debating ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at one point
> making a very emphatic point with, according to Juliet Thompson, the air of a victor. Rather
> than be offended or reactive, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá burst out laughing and offered another point of
> view. Gradually, Grant’s combativeness lessened when confronted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s humble
> good humor. 285 One afternoon in Montclair, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá retold the story of the martyrdom
> of ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb-i-Shírází. As he remembered the suffering of this young martyr, the
> Master’s entire countenance became ecstatic, and he began singing the “Martyr’s song”. 286
> He felt sorrow keenly as well, especially when he thought of his Father. When the hotel
> manager asked him in early July if he would like a tour of the rest of the large hotel, he
> declined telling the believers:
> 
> “When I see magnificent buildings and beautiful scenery, I contrast them with
> memories of the prison and of the persecutions suffered by the Blessed Beauty and
> my heart is deeply moved and I seek to avoid such sightseeing excursions.” 287
> 
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                  66
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was so genuinely affectionate that he was able to pierce through the barriers of
> social convention and touch people’s hearts. When Howard Colby Ives began to shed tears
> during their first encounter, the master wiped these tears away with his own fingers. After
> Kate Carew, the hardened reporter, had finished her interview with him, he led her down the
> hall through the lobby while holding her hand--much to her astonishment. When Juliet
> Thompson’s maid, Mamie, wanted her little boy, George, to be blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the
> Master picked up the little boy and without ceremony placed him on his knee and caressed
> and played with him;; this boy went on to practice medicine.
> 
> The Master responded to people with open-hearted friendliness--the race, appearance,
> disposition, class or gender of a person made no difference whatever. He met two African
> American youth in early July and encouraged them in their spiritual lives, giving them
> Persian names--‘Mubárak’, for the man, ‘Khush Ghadam’, for the woman. Though the
> United States during these years was steeped in racial segregation, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá disregarded
> these social conventions completely and actively set an example of inter-racial fellowship
> during his visit to Washington DC. 288 Another day in early July, he went out for a stroll and a
> Greek man came up to him and brought over his friends as well. The Master spoke to them
> about Greek philosophers and encouraged their own moral improvement. 289 On an
> especially hot July day, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had consented to visit the Natural History Museum.
> After the visit, he sat under a birch tree in an area where people were not supposed to sit.
> The elderly Jewish watchman who had let the Master’s party in earlier approached and said
> he would like to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá because he seemed like a great man. As the watchman
> approached him, the Master turned around, smiled and invited the elderly man to sit next to
> him. He replied that he couldn’t because of the rules but that the Master could. So as to be
> able to speak with the elderly watchman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stood up and turned to him. 290 In
> another incident, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was walking on the sidewalk towards the home of the
> Harrises on 95th St.. Many children were playing, jumping rope and hula hooping outside.
> When they saw ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pass by, they all followed him with his powerful stride and long
> white robe and beard. Once the Master had gone into the building, the children all waited
> around the stoop, and Juliet Thompson spoke to them. Her friend Rhoda Nichols went
> inside to let ‘Abdu’l-Bahá know what was happening out front. She returned with an
> invitation for the children to come the following night to the Kinneys for dinner. 291
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá moved according to the spirit, and this made him very spontaneous. Edward
> Getsinger had to plan many of the Master’s appointments, an exhausting job. Edward wrote
> to Agnes Parsons, a Bahá’í in Washington DC:
> 
> “Now one more important thing: -
> We have tried to have ‘Abdu’l-Bahá say that he would for certain be your
> guest, but without avail. He said “I cannot be bound in any place or arrangement
> before the day arrives. The spirit arranges to set the contingencies.” I said “then if
> you might want an apt. by yourself, it is best I write to have one found. He said “very
> well, but do not engage it, if I like it when I see it, I will choose it, if not, then I don’t
> want it”. 292
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                           67
> And, in regards to a press conference in DC, Edward wrote:
> 
> “I wrote the Turkish Ambassador before I left, leaving the presentation in abeyance,
> pending his arrival. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said “that if my presentation to the Press includes
> also my declaration of citizenship of any country, then I will decline, as I am a citizen
> of the world.” 293
> 
> Often, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá enjoyed going to Riverside Park near his living quarters to simply lie
> down in the grass for a rest. 294 When a Greek friend asked him to come meet his friends in a
> park, they took the subway together, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sat down in the grass and spoke to
> the friends as they approached him. 295 Though the Master was always polite, he was never
> mannered or pretentious. His comments and responses were always natural, truthful and
> heartfelt. When he met Admiral Peary on May 5th, at the Union League in Brooklyn, he
> offered this wonderfully nuanced praise according to Juliet Thompson:
> 
> “`for a very long time the world had been much concerned about the North Pole,
> where it was and what was to be found there. Now he, Admiral Peary, had discovered
> it and that nothing was to [be] found there;; and so, in forever relieving the public
> mind, he had rendered a great service.'” 296
> 
> As well as the sincere exhortation he gave him directly:
> 
> “`I hope that you will raise the standard of universal peace.'” 297
> 
> The Master also took a very hands-on approach to daily life. He met with group after group,
> and privately with many individuals, getting to know people, their questions and concerns
> personally. He spent countless hours on letter writing. In June, he spoke of this to some
> Bahá’ís in Montclair, NJ:
> 
> “After the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh I did everything within my power to promote
> the Cause of God. I clung to spiritual methods and rendered such servitude at the
> Threshold of God so that the divine Cause might advance throughout the world.
> And my correspondence was so heavy that, at the time of the death of an American
> maidservant of God, my letters to her were counted and numbered sixty-seven;; so
> you can imagine the situation!”
> 
> In late June, he moved to a house in Montclair, NJ, a suburb of New York City, to escape
> the city heat. He invited guests there and bought the food for them himself in the market,
> supervised its preparation and served it himself. 298
> 
> Before leaving for New Jersey, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had invited the Bahá’ís in New York City for a
> unity feast to be held on June 29th at Roy Wilhelm’s family home in West Englewood, NJ:
> 
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                      68
> “I am about to leave the city for a few days rest at Montclair. When I return, it is my
> wish to give a large feast of unity. … It must be outdoors under the trees, in some
> location away from city noise—like a Persian garden. The food will be Persian food.
> When the place is arranged, all will be informed, and we will have a general meeting
> in which hearts will be bound together, spirits blended and a new foundation for
> unity established. All the friends will come. They will be my guests. They will be as
> the parts and members of one body. The spirit of life manifest in that body will be
> one spirit. The foundation of that temple of unity will be one foundation. Each will
> be a stone in that foundation, solid and interdependent. Each will be as a leaf,
> blossom or fruit upon one tree. For the sake of fellowship and unity I desire this
> feast and spiritual gathering.” 299
> 
> The town of West Englewood later became Teaneck which gained the distinction of being
> the first town in the nation where a white majority voted for school integration. 300 Roy and
> his father lived in West Englewood and commuted daily to their coffee company’s offices in
> the City.
> 
> Roy Wilhelm was born in Ohio, the Christian heartland of the United States. His
> grandmother, mother, and father were all seekers. They wanted to go beyond church
> doctrine and learn about new philosophies and religious thought. His grandmother especially
> sensed that they were living in a New Day, a ‘Promised Day’. Roy’s mother befriended a lady
> who lived nearby, Laura Jones, who was also on a spiritual search. When Jones moved to
> Chicago, she came into contact with Bahá’ís and sent Bahá’í pamphlets to Mrs. Wilhelm who
> straightaway became a believer after reading them. Roy was skeptical about his mother’s
> conversion as she had been interested in many new religious ideas. While he continued his
> profession as a traveling salesmen for his father’s coffee company, he also attended Bahá’í
> meetings in New York City. When the Dodges returned from a nine-day pilgrimage to
> ‘Akká, they rented a home to which they invited seekers. Going to these gatherings, Roy
> became very attracted to the Faith though he knew only a little bit about its teachings. In
> 1907, he and his mother made a pilgrimage to ‘Akká where they stayed in the prison with
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for six days. Roy remembers:
> 
> “During our last meal ‘Abdu’l-Bahá always broke a quantity of bread into His bowl;;
> then asking for the plates of the pilgrims. He gave to each of us a portion. When the
> meal was finished, He said: I have given you to eat from My bowl – now distribute
> My Bread among the people.” 301
> 
> Roy became a confirmed believer. He would go on to serve on the National Spiritual
> Assembly, on the editorial Board of Star of the West, and as a traveling teacher who also
> underwrote the efforts of others such as Martha Root. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá placed great trust in
> Roy, writing to him, “The sight of your portrait brought joy to My heart, because it is
> luminous and celestial …” 302 The Master directed much mail for other believers to Roy.
> When Shoghi Effendi suddenly became the head of the Faith, he invited Roy, among other
> believers, to come to Haifa and consult with him about the Bahá’í world. He praised him for
> his “saintliness, indomitable faith, outstanding services …” 303
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                     69
> The day of the unity feast came. Chairs for the guests had been set up in a circle under the
> evergreen trees. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who that morning had ridden four trains in the June heat to
> get to West Englewood, entered the circle. A carpet of flowers covered the lawn. The air was
> pure, a breeze picked up. 304 The Master painted a magnificent panorama of the future that
> would be possible if the believers were united, joyous, grateful, and selfless:
> 
> “ … Since the desire of all is unity and agreement, it is certain that this meeting will
> be productive of great results. … This is a new Day, and this hour is a new Hour in
> which we have come together. Surely the Sun of Reality with its full effulgence will
> illumine us, and the darkness of disagreements will disappear. … Such gatherings as
> this have no equal or likeness in the world of mankind, where people are drawn
> together by physical motives or in furtherance of material interests, for this meeting
> is a prototype of that inner and complete spiritual association in the eternal world of
> being.
> True Bahá’í meetings are the mirrors of the Kingdom wherein images of the
> Supreme Concourse are reflected. In them the lights of the most great guidance are
> visible. … Hundreds of thousands of meetings shall be held to commemorate this
> occasion, and the very words I speak to you today shall be repeated in them for ages
> to come. …
> 
> Rejoice, for the heavenly table is prepared for you.
> Rejoice, for the angels of heaven are your assistants and helpers.
> Rejoice, for the glance of the Blessed Beauty, Bahá’u’lláh, is directed upon you.
> Rejoice, for Bahá’u’lláh is your Protector.
> Rejoice, for the everlasting glory is destined for you.
> Rejoice, for the eternal life is awaiting you.
> How many blessed souls have longed for this radiant century, their utmost hopes
> and desires centered upon the happiness and joy of one such day as this. … God has
> favored you in this century and has specialized you for the realization of its blessings
> …
> First, you must become united and agreed among yourselves. … In the path of God
> one must forget himself entirely. … It is my hope that you may become like this” 305
> 
> The Master anointed each guest with attar of rose. 306 When he finished, the sound of
> thunder could be heard and dark clouds were gathering. Juliet Thompson remembers
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at that point walking a little way down the road with a few of the Persian men
> and seating himself in a chair which had been left there, then raising his face to the sky. A
> strong wind blew and parted the rain filled clouds, and the feast could continue. 307 The
> guests ate Persian pilaf, sherbet and sweet. 308
> 
> Many guests lingered late into the evening. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sat in a chair on the top step of the
> porch surrounded by Juliet Thompson, Lua Getsinger, May Maxwell, Marjorie Morten, Silvia
> Gannett, and a young man, Neval Thomas. Out in front of him sat many guests holding long
> thin candles which sparkled in the gathering dusk--“like great moths and the burning tips of
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                      70
> the tapers they waved like fireflies darting about” 309--seekers who by their nature could not
> pull themselves away from the presence of the Master.
> 
> KKK
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent the night is West Englewood. The following day, Sunday, June 30th, he
> was invited to the home of the Persian Consul General, Mr. Topakyan, in Morristown, NJ. 310
> 
> The irony of this invitation was that in Persia itself, Bahá’ís were being actively persecuted.
> The machinations of clerics, government leaders, and Covenant breakers had caused the
> banishment and imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh and His family and decades of suffering for
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Persecutions of Bahá’ís were increasing again as a result of the breakdown of
> the authority of the Qajar dynasty that ruled Persia.
> 
> Mr. Topakyan had met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá before at the May 13th meeting of the New York Peace
> Society. On that evening he had extolled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s position with respect to Persia, the
> land that had persecuted him:
> 
> “Our guest of honor has stood as a Prophet of enlightenment and peace for the
> Persian Empire, and a well-wisher of Persia may well honor him. … I am happy to
> say that Abdu’l-Baha is the Glory of Persia today.” 311
> 
> At this lunch, Mr. Topakyan showed great deference to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and had invited several
> prominent public people, reporters, and photographers.
> 
> During ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s time in New York City, creative people and activists wanted to meet
> him. Louis Potter, a nationally known sculptor, was an active seeker in his spiritual life and
> came to visit in May. He had traveled for his art as far as Africa and Alaska where he
> sculpted the Tlingit Eskimos in 1905. 312 He also made a medallion with the image of ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá. 313 Potter was greatly moved by meeting the Master, but he chose to continue his
> spiritual search and went out to the West Coast where he met a ‘Chinese mystic’ and
> herbalist who gave him extract from a peach tree root which killed him. 314
> 
> At a reception in the home of Mrs. Tatum in May, Sarah Graham Mulhall sought out the
> presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Her father and brother had been deeply involved in researching
> the effects of drugs on the human body and had died, possibly as a result of their dangerous
> work. The Master strongly encouraged her to continue in this line of work. She went on to
> become the first Narcotics Commissioner for the City of New York, appointed by Gov. Al
> Smith. She personally led a drug raid on wealthy men, some of whom were great supporters
> of St. John’s and St. Patrick’s Cathedrals. The men were all brought to trial, though the
> Commissioner’s office was eventually abolished under pressure from the Bishop. 315
> 
> Khán Báhádúr Alláh-Bakhsh, the Governor of Lahore, Pakistan, had become interested in
> meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá after learning of the Faith from Juliet Thompson. The elderly
> governor spent a long time with the Master and later wrote Juliet that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                     71
> “Divine Light of today”. 316 The Master had responded to this governor’s spiritual interests.
> Otherwise, he might not have agreed to meet with politicians as they often just wanted to
> bolster their own image. For instance, he did not accept the Mayor of New York City’s
> request that he be his guest in the reviewing stand for the City’s Fourth of July parade,
> sending representatives instead. 317
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá always gave of his time and energy when it was to create unity among the
> believers. For example, he participated in the July wedding of Harlan and Grace Ober.
> Harlan Ober had been asked in 1907, after having been a Bahá’í for only a few months, to
> go with Hooper Harris on a teaching trip to India and Burma. India and Burma were, after
> Persia and the United States, the third area in the world with a significant concentration of
> Bahá’ís, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was eager to have Western believers go there as a way of uniting
> East and West. 318
> 
> The Master was not averse to using different means to publicize his visit as this would create
> greater awareness of the Faith. Soon after he arrived in New York City, a moving picture
> company asked permission to film him. Some Bahá’ís were against this as the Master’s image
> would be shown in theaters, but he readily approved. In the footage, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> approaches the camera while exhorting Bahá’u’lláh to bless this effort as a means of
> spreading the Faith. 319
> 
> KKK
> 
> Hearst’s Magazine wrote of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
> 
> “One distinguishable and peculiar thing about Abdul-Baha is that he does not make
> war upon, or even criticize, any other religious faith. … No man of recent times has
> shown such a magnificent affirmative spirit as this man Abdul-Baha. … He listens
> with much appreciation and sympathy and when he speaks it is slowly, distinctly, and
> most impressively. He knows what he is saying. His heart is full and his emotions are
> brimming, although kept well under control. … He is reverential, respectful, filled
> with great and holy zeal. And this zeal takes the form of a message of unification to
> the world.” 320
> 
> Though an editorial in the Independent, gave a more cynical description:
> 
> “Bahaism is not to be classed with the freak or fake religions which arise among us
> or are brought to us from abroad. Perhaps there are among its American disciples
> some of the class who take up with bahaism because bridge is going out. …” 321
> 
> “His message, coming from the most turbulent and dissentious country of the globe,
> is an appeal for love, peace and unity. He shows how strife and enmity defeat the
> aims of humanity in every field. … A strange offshoot from Mohammedanism in
> these latter days–this religion of universal peace, mutual toleration and equal rights.
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                    72
> Tho its lessons may be most needed in Islam, yet they are far from being superfluous
> to Christendom.” 322
> 
> Harper’s Weekly published an article with a broader view titled, “A Ray from the East”, :
> 
> ““Inasmuch,” says Abdul-Baha Abbas, “as the reality of religions is one, and the
> difference is one of imitations, but religion essentially is one, the existing religions
> must give up the imitations in order that the Reality may enlighten them all, may
> unite humanity. … God has created all humanity;; He has provided for all;; He
> preserves all, and all are submerged in the ocean of his mercy. … It must have
> become quite clear long ago to readers that we have here exactly the same thoughts,
> expressed in almost exactly the same words, as have made the material of religious
> urging and teaching for hundreds of years. Paul said, at Athens, before the sixtieth
> year of our era, exactly what Abbas Effendi repeats, in Chicago, at the beginning of
> the twentieth century.” 323
> 
> The July 1st edition of the New York Times announced that Woodrow Wilson had been
> nominated to be the candidate of his party. As President, Wilson would push for an
> international organization to help bring about and maintain international peace. Shoghi
> Effendi would write of Wilson:
> 
> “To [America’s] President, the immortal Woodrow Wilson, must be ascribed the
> unique honor, among the statesmen of any nation, whether of the East or of the
> West, of having voiced sentiments so akin to the principles animating the Cause of
> Bahá’u'lláh, and of having more than any other world leader, contributed to the
> creation of the League of Nations—achievements which the pen of the Center of
> God’s Covenant acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great Peace, …” 324
> 
> Chapter 8: The Unity Feast ~ New Jersey                                                      73
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America
> After his stay in New Jersey, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent the first two weeks of July in New York
> City before embarking on a cross-country
> rail trip. He spoke most days to seekers at
> the Champney home at 309 West 78th St.
> which he had rented.
> 
> On July 1st, the Master spoke about wealth
> distribution, a topic which was on the minds
> of the many people who were attracted to
> the socialist and communist ideals of social
> leveling and the sharing of wealth. The 20th
> century would see social leveling in Russia
> and China resulting in extraordinary levels
> of state-sponsored famine, torture, and
> executions, with death estimates which are
> incomprehensible. The answer was the
> individual’s adherence to spiritual reality:
> 
> “When a rich man believes and
> follows the Manifestation of God, it
> is a proof that his wealth is not an
> obstacle and does not prevent him
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Leaving the U.S.
> from attaining the pathway of
> salvation. After he has been tested
> and tried, it will be seen whether his possessions are a hindrance in his religious life.
> But the poor are especially beloved of God. Their lives are full of difficulties, their
> trials continual, their hopes are in God alone. Therefore, you must assist the poor as
> much as possible, even by sacrifice of yourself.” 325
> 
> Distribution of wealth was a responsibility of governments and individuals:
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                    74
> “The greatest means for prevention is that whereby the laws of the community will
> be so framed and enacted that it will not be possible for a few to be millionaires and
> many destitute.” 326
> 
> Each person had a place and a role:
> 
> “Each in his station in the social fabric must be competent—each in his function
> according to ability but with justness of opportunity for all.” 327
> 
> Social leveling was completely contrary to the natural order of human life;; justice was the
> operating principle at every level of human society.
> 
> In the next series of talks, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá presented Bahá’u’lláh as the source of authority
> whose Word determined reality:
> 
> “Bahá’u’lláh says, “The universe hath neither beginning nor ending.” He has set aside
> the elaborate theories and exhaustive opinions of scientists and material philosophers
> by the simple statement, “There is no beginning, no ending.” 328
> 
> “In this century when the beneficent results of unity and the ill effects of discord are
> so clearly apparent, the means for the attainment and accomplishment of human
> fellowship have appeared in the world. Bahá’u’lláh has proclaimed and provided the
> way by which hostility and dissension may be removed from the human world. He
> has left no ground or possibility for strife and disagreement.” 329
> 
> “The teachings specialized in Bahá’u’lláh are addressed to humanity. He says, “Ye are
> all the leaves of one tree.” He does not say, “Ye are the leaves of two trees: one
> divine, the other satanic.” He has declared that each individual member of the
> human family is a leaf or branch upon the Adamic tree;; …” 330
> 
> “Bahá’u’lláh declared that religion is in complete harmony with science and reason. If
> religious belief and doctrine is at variance with reason, it proceeds from the limited
> mind of man and not from God;; therefore, it is unworthy of belief and not deserving
> of attention;; … Reason is the first faculty of man, and the religion of God is in
> harmony with it. Bahá’u’lláh has removed this form of dissension and discord from
> among mankind and reconciled science with religion by revealing the pure teachings
> of the divine reality. This accomplishment is specialized to Him in this Day.” 331
> 
> “Bahá’u’lláh said that God has sent religion for the purpose of establishing
> fellowship among humankind and not to create strife and discord, for all religion is
> founded upon the love of humanity.” 332
> 
> “Other sources of human dissension are political, racial and patriotic prejudices.
> These have been removed by Bahá’u’lláh. He has said, and has guarded His
> statement by rational proofs from the Holy Books, that the world of humanity is one
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                  75
> race, the surface of the earth one place of residence and that these imaginary racial
> barriers and political boundaries are without right or foundation.” 333
> 
> “Diversity of languages has been a fruitful cause of discord. … Sixty years ago
> Bahá’u’lláh advocated one language as the greatest means of unity and the basis of
> international conference. He wrote to the kings and rulers of the various nations,
> recommending that one language should be sanctioned and adopted by all
> governments. According to this each nation should acquire the universal language in
> addition to its native tongue.” 334
> 
> “Lack of equality between man and woman is, likewise, a cause of human dissension.
> Bahá’u’lláh has named this as an important factor of discord and separation, for so
> long as humankind remains unequally divided in right and importance between male
> and female, no unity can be established.” 335
> 
> The day after the Master made most of these comments at the All Souls Unitarian Church at
> Fourth Ave. and Twentieth St., he spoke on thankfulness at the home of Dr. Florian Krug
> and Mrs. Grace Krug. The Bahá’í women met weekly at the Krug home. 336 The Krugs would
> be present in ‘Akká the evening ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed away in November, 1921;; Dr. Krug
> took photos of the funeral. 337 Grace remembers the evening of the passing of the Master:
> 
> “We retired as usual, but Dr. Krug had a premonition that he would be called to the
> Master's bedside before morning. About one fifteen o'clock we were awakened by
> screams from the Master's house, "Come Dr. Krug, the Master, the Master!" Like a
> flash, the Doctor was up, dressed, out of the room and across the garden into the
> house. You see, friends, had we not occupied Abdu'l-Baha's room over the garage,
> Dr. Krug could not have reached the Master so quickly. I stood absolutely petrified
> with fear. Finally I was able to slip a one piece dress over my night robe and rushed
> after the Doctor. Friends, how can I describe that scene in the Master's bedroom!
> Dr. Krug stood in the center, his hand raised, saying: "Silence, our Beloved Master
> has ascended." I ran to His bedside and there He lay in the majesty of death. His
> lovely eyes were still open, but the light of love and understanding that had for so
> many years cheered the souls of men was gone! My, first thought was, my Adored
> One is freed from our endless questions, freed from His life of servitude and
> headaches. I turned and knelt at the feet of His sister, the Greatest Holy Leaf, put
> my head in her lap and in that agonized moment, she stroked my head and tried to
> comfort me. Friends, not one thought of herself! God has never created a more
> glorious woman than she!" 338
> 
> After the visit to the Krug home, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left New York City for four months on a trip
> that would take him to the West coast and back. During these months, war broke out in
> Europe, just as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had warned. The First Balkan War pitted the Bulgarians,
> Greeks, Albanians and Montenegrans, against the Ottoman Empire over control of the
> Ottoman’s European provinces. It was this same part of the world which lit the fuse that
> became the conflagration of World War One in 1914. The war may have raised the prejudice
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                76
> among Americans towards Turks as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Persian believers were turned
> down at some hotels because the staff thought they were Turks. 339
> 
> KKK
> 
> When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá returned to New York City in mid-November after his cross-country
> teaching trip, he rented the Champney house at 309 West 78th St.. The house was near
> Riverside Park which ran for four miles along the Hudson River. This park was designed by
> Frederick Law Olmsted, a genius who had no college education but became the
> superintendent of Central Park in New York City and head of the organization that later
> became the American Red Cross. He was also passionate about preserving nature for the
> public good and worked on the preservation of Yosemite Valley and Niagara Falls. His firm
> worked on over five hundred projects, including college campuses and the grounds of the
> Capitol Building in Washington DC. The true impact of his life’s work was only realized
> later. Near the end of his life, he had a complete mental breakdown and died in an asylum.
> 
> The beauty of Olmsted’s Riverside Park was much appreciated by the Master. When he
> needed a break from the constant interaction with people, he liked to go to the Park and be
> refreshed by nature. Sometimes he lay down in the grass, other times he sat on a bench or
> walked.
> 
> On November 12th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá granted a private meeting to one of the most influential of
> all Americans: Andrew Carnegie. Born in Scotland, Carnegie grew up poor because his
> father, a weaver, was made redundant by new steam-powered looms which put many
> weavers out of work. The knowledge that his father had to beg for work deeply affected
> him, and his mother decided to move the family to Pittsburg, PA, to try making a better life.
> Carnegie worked his way up the Pennsylvania Railroad and then moved into the iron and
> steel business where he showed his genius for seeing where things were going in the world.
> By 1900, his company was producing more steel than Great Britain. While he had the drive
> and talent for making money, Andrew was also deeply interested in the rights of workers,
> though the Homestead Strike in 1892 in which his workers were killed, damaged his image,
> and in international peace—he was one of the first prominent citizens to call for the League
> of Nations. He endowed the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, which today houses
> the World Court. 340 He sold his steel company for $480 million to J.P. Morgan, another titan
> of American industry, who, by his sixties, may well have been the richest man in the world. 341
> He was determined to contribute his money to the betterment of society and went on to give
> away $350 million by building thousands of libraries--an employer’s small library which he
> had used to educate himself had been available to him as a teenager--and endowing
> institutions of higher learning (Carnegie Mellon University), cultural institutions (Carnegie
> Hall, NYC), think tanks (Carnegie Endowment for Peace), research institutions (Carnegie
> Institute of Washington for scientific research), trusts to directly assist people (Carnegie
> Dunfermline Trust to assist the residents of Dunfermline Scotland where Carnegie was
> born), among many others. 342
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                  77
> Carnegie’s interest in the rights of workers, international peace and the betterment of society,
> may well have led him to seek an interview with the Master. After this private interview, the
> two corresponded and one of these letters was the basis of an article published in the New
> York Times in 1915, though it was written just a year and a half before World War One
> exploded:
> 
> “To the noble personage, his Excellency Mr. Andrew Carnegie:
> May God assist him!
> 
> … All the leaders and statesmen of Europe are thinking on the plane of war and the
> annihilation of the mansion of humanity, but thou (Carnegie) art thinking on the
> plane of peace and love and the strengthening and reinforcement of the basis of the
> superstructure of the human world. They are the heralds of death, thou art the
> harbinger of life. The foundations of their palaces are unstable and wavering and the
> turrets of their mansions are tottering and crumbling, but the basis of thy structure is
> firm and unmovable …
> 
> …Today the most important object of the kingdom of God is the promulgation of
> the cause of universal peace and the principle of the oneness of the world of
> humanity. Whosoever arises in the accomplishment of this preeminent service the
> confirmations of the holy spirit will descend upon him …
> 
> … Therefore, before long a vast and unlimited field will be opened before your view
> for the display of your powers and energies. You must promote this glorious
> intention with the heavenly power and the confirmation of the holy spirit. I am
> praying in thy behalf that thou mayest erect a pavilion and unfurl a flag in the world
> of peace, love, and eternal life …” 343
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also blessed J.P. Morgan, the leading American industrialist and a
> benefactor of schools, hospitals and museums, when he visited the Morgan Library,
> which housed Morgan’s art and book collection, on E. 36th St.. He wrote the following in
> the guest book, translated by Dr. Amin Farid:
> 
> “O, Thou Generous Lord, verily this famous personage has done considerable
> philanthropy, render him great and dear in Thy Kingdom, make him happy and
> joyous in both worlds, and confirm him in serving the world of humanity, and
> submerge him in the sea of Thy Favors.” 344
> 
> KKK
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá made great efforts to unify believers in the United States by counseling and
> guiding them both in person and in writing with a spirit of loving affection, and hosting
> them in gatherings to promote unity.
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                   78
> Individuals often struggled to put into practice the spiritual teaching the Master gave them,
> especially when it came to unity. Juliette Thompson had been engaged to Mason Remey but
> then broke it off. They made every effort to avoid each other. Then she resolved to go to
> him and recommend that they visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá together and say that they were reconciled
> and would be brothers and sisters in the Cause. Before this happened, another believer told
> her that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wished for Juliet to marry Remey. Juliet went directly to the Master
> who told her the believer had misunderstood;; according to Juliet he answered, “I never
> interfere. Mrs. Hopper came and told me that she wanted to unite you and Mr. Remey. I said
> 'Very well, try.' But it is just as I wrote you long ago. Unless there is perfect agreement--
> perfect harmony--love, these things are not good”. 345 Juliet interpreted this statement just in
> terms of her and Remey, not any deeper than that for she resolved after this never to see
> Remey again. 346
> 
> He always counseled individuals lovingly but, when it came to Covenant breaking, he took a
> more severe, corrective approach. Dr. Ibrahim Kheiralla had been the original teacher of the
> Faith in the United States, and many people had become interested in the Faith through him
> so when he returned from pilgrimage and broke the Covenant by turning against the Master,
> many became estranged from the Faith. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá characterized Covenant-breaking as a
> spiritual poison. Bahá’ís must absolutely shun the Covenant-breaker to prevent the
> contagion from spreading. The Covenant was the pivot around which the Bahá’í community
> was united, so breaking the Covenant fragmented it and could, if allowed, cause conflict on a
> much larger scale impairing the very mission of the Faith.
> 
> When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came to the United States, he commissioned Howard MacNutt to go to
> Chicago where Kheiralla’s Covenant-breaking had done the most damage and tell the
> believers in clear and certain terms that they must have no interaction with the Covenantbreakers and to warn them of the consequences of this poison. This may have been a
> difficult task for MacNutt whose spirituality was focused on the idea of ‘unity through love’
> and who had been appointed by Kheiralla as the ‘teacher’ of New York City. When he
> returned, it was clear that MacNutt had not carried out the task fully. On November 15th,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá showed MacNutt a letter recently written by MacNutt to a Dr. Nutt who
> continued his friendship with Kheiralla, and the Master had to warn him that continuing
> contact like this placed MacNutt in danger. 347 MacNutt had also written to Dr. Zia Baghdadi
> that he had found the wavering believers in Chicago to be “angels”. 348
> 
> MacNutt’s lack of firmness must have saddened ‘Abdu’l-Bahá;; he had told Juliet Thompson
> that he measured the love of the believers by their degree of obedience. So in the evening of
> November 19th, MacNutt came to meet the Master again at the Kinney home and went into
> a private audience with him on the second floor. An eager crowd had gathered below to hear
> the Master. As the two emerged, Juliet Thompson heard ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tell MacNutt to go
> downstairs and say to the crowd “I was like Saul. Now I am Paul, for I see”, to which
> MacNutt astonishingly replied, “But I don’t see”. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá then commanded him to
> follow through with this, and MacNutt went downstairs and spoke those words to the
> assemblage. As he spoke, somewhat hesitatingly, the Master was listening from upstairs and
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                   79
> closed his eyes as if in prayer. When MacNutt came back upstairs the Master embraced
> him. 349
> 
> But it seems that MacNutt continued to waver. In a cable to Ali Kuli Khan April 16th, 1913,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote, "MACNUTT REPENTED FROM VIOLATION OF COVENANT
> BUT WAS NOT AWAKENED." It would take several more months of correspondence
> for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to be satisfied with MacNutt’s convictions and recognize him as a Baha’i
> again. MacNutt would continue his life of service. When he retired to Miami, he actively
> taught the Faith to African-Americans, having finally overcome his feelings of racism. 350
> 
> On the 18th, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had dinner with the poet Frank K. Moxey and his wife. The
> following year in July, while he was in Port Said, Egypt, he received a packet of Mr. Moxey’s
> poems. He asked that the titles be read to him and then that the poem on the Báb be
> translated. The Master was moved by the poem and expressed the hope that Moxey would
> continue to write such poetry as America needed a Bahá’í poet while there were many in
> Persia. 351
> 
> KKK
> 
> During these last two weeks in New York City, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá continued to instruct the
> believers, but he turned down most offers to speak publicly. At the home of Juliet
> Thompson on November 15th, he gave an uncharacteristically long talk on the life of
> Bahá’u’lláh and enumerated some of the fundamental principles taught by Bahá’u’lláh. The
> following day, he explained the purpose of the Manifestation of God which must have
> radically changed the perceptions of his audience about religion because he asserted that the
> Manifestations of God had come to ‘train’ and ‘educate’ the souls of people not raise up new
> buildings:
> 
> “The purpose of the appearance of the Manifestations of God is the training of the
> people. That is the only result of Their mission, the real outcome. The outcome of
> the whole life of Jesus was the training of eleven disciples and two women. Why did
> He suffer troubles, ordeals and calamities? For the training of these few followers.
> That was the result of His life. The product of the life of Christ was not the churches
> but the illumined souls of those who believed in Him. Afterward, they spread His
> teachings.” 352
> 
> At the Moxey home on the 18th, he continued with this theme challenging people’s standard
> conception of religion:
> 
> “The supreme and most important happening in the human world is the
> Manifestation of God and the descent of the law of God. The holy, divine
> Manifestations did not reveal themselves for the purpose of founding a nation, sect
> or faction. They did not appear in order that a certain number might acknowledge
> Their Prophethood. They did not declare Their heavenly mission and message in
> order to lay the foundation for a religious belief. Even Christ did not become
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                 80
> manifest that we should merely believe in Him as the Christ, follow Him and adore
> His mention. All these are limited in scope and requirement, whereas the reality of
> Christ is an unlimited essence.” 353
> 
> At the home of the Kinneys, the Master exhorted believers to develop the Divine virtues,
> challenging them with the standard of a true Bahá’í:
> 
> “You must manifest complete love and affection toward all mankind. Do not exalt
> yourselves above others, but consider all as your equals, … Never speak
> disparagingly of others, but praise without distinction. … Recognize your enemies as
> friends, and consider those who wish you evil as the wishers of good. … Act in such
> a way that your heart may be free from hatred. … Do not complain of others.
> Refrain from reprimanding them, and if you wish to give admonition or advice, let it
> be offered in such a way that it will not burden the bearer. … Beware! Beware! lest ye
> offend any heart. … Be the source of consolation to every sad one, assist every weak
> one, be helpful to every indigent one, care for every sick one, be the cause of
> glorification to every lowly one, and shelter those who are overshadowed by fear.
> 
> In brief, let each one of you be as a lamp shining forth with the light of the virtues of
> the world of humanity. Be trustworthy, sincere, affectionate and replete with chastity.
> Be illumined, be spiritual, be divine, be glorious, be quickened of God, be a
> Bahá’í.” 354
> 
> When the believers tried to give him gifts, he told them that the greatest gift they could give
> him was their unity.
> 
> At the Kinney home on December 2nd, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá again gave a talk in which he set forth
> the principles brought by Bahá’u’lláh as well as re-emphasizing the need for a Covenant and
> its unique place in the history of religion:
> 
> “As to the most great characteristic of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, a specific
> teaching not given by any of the Prophets of the past: It is the ordination and
> appointment of the Center of the Covenant. … To ensure unity and agreement He
> has entered into a Covenant with all the people of the world, including the
> interpreter and explainer of His teachings, so that no one may interpret or explain
> the religion of God according to his own view or opinion and thus create a sect
> founded upon his individual understanding of the divine Words. The Book of the
> Covenant or Testament of Bahá’u’lláh is the means of preventing such a possibility,
> … There are some people of self-will and desire who do not communicate their
> intentions to you in clear language. … Yet there are some who for the sake of
> personal interest and prestige will attempt to sow the seeds of sedition and disloyalty
> among you. To protect and safeguard the religion of God from this and all other
> attack, the Center of the Covenant has been named and appointed by Bahá’u’lláh.” 355
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                   81
> He gave only three talks in public forums during these last weeks. The first took place on
> November 17th, at the Genealogical Hall. The New York Genealogical and Biographical
> Society was founded in 1869, the purpose of which was "to discover, procure, preserve and
> perpetuate whatever may relate to Genealogy and Biography, and more particularly to the
> genealogies and biographies of families, persons and citizens associated and identified with
> the State of New York", 356 and it had grown rapidly such that by 1912 it was purchasing
> another building. 357 Possibly because of the name of the hall, the Master spoke there about
> the development of society and how the human race had reached its stage of maturity.
> 
> Another public talk was given at the Theosophical Society on December 4th. The Society had
> been founded in 1875 as a center for the application of teachings of an extraordinary
> woman, Helena Petrovan Blavatsky. She was born in Russia, married the governor of an
> Armenian province, traveled constantly to many parts of the world, became an accomplished
> musician, writer, self-proclaimed psychic and mystic, lived for awhile in Tibet and founded
> the Theosophical Society based on her spiritual ideas. She met an Indian guru in London and
> accepted him as her spiritual teacher and master because she had seen him in her childhood
> dreams. 358 The Theosophical Society taught that all existence was an interdependent whole,
> that this Reality which flowed through all things was transcendent, and that each human
> being had unique value. As a result, theosophists emphasized the equality and brotherhood
> of all people, the value of all religious traditions and the importance of altruism in human
> behavior. So, during his visit to the Theosophical Society, the Master touched on these
> subjects and spoke of the nature of reality and of Divinity, the common purpose of the
> Manifestations of God, and the spiritual reality of man. 359
> 
> The most significant public appearance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in those final weeks was the public
> celebration of the Day of the Covenant on November 23rd. A banquet was organized by the
> believers at the Great Northern Hotel at 118 W. 57th Street. This hotel would soon be one
> of the few in the City to welcome unaccompanied women travelers without making them
> adhere to strict rules. It advertised itself as “Quiet hotel;; patronized by women traveling
> alone” where one could get a single room for $2. 360 But, in 1912, the hotel did not admit
> African-Americans. The Baha’is tried to convince the management to allow them to invite
> their African-American friends but the hotel vehemently refused citing business concerns
> that if they allowed African-Americans in, “no respectable person will ever set foot in it, and
> my business will go to the winds”. 361
> 
> Chandeliers dangled from the ceiling of the banquet hall over two long rectangular tables at
> which sat the guests. To the side, several other round tables were arranged behind large
> pillars for additional guests. The attire was formal. Flowers and crystal festooned the cloth
> covered tables. Light from electric bulbs sparkled in the glasses. At the front of the room the
> honored guests from Persia sat at a long table in front of flags of the United States and
> Persia, including Mr. Topakyan, the Persian consul general. 362
> 
> When the Master walked in, all stood up and cried out, “Alláh’u’Abhá”!
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                  82
> “The effect of such an assembly as this is conducive to divine fellowship and
> strengthening of the bond which cements and unifies hearts. This is the
> indestructible bond of spirit which conjoins the East and West. By it the very
> foundations of race prejudice are uprooted and destroyed, the banner of spiritual
> democracy is hoisted aloft, the world of religion is purified from superannuated
> beliefs and hereditary imitations of forms, and the oneness of the reality underlying
> all religions is revealed and disclosed. … Every limiting and restricting movement or
> meeting of mere personal interest is human in nature. Every universal movement
> unlimited in scope and purpose is divine. The Cause of God is advanced whenever
> and wherever a universal meeting is established among mankind.” 363
> 
> He exhorted the attendees to:
> 
> “…endeavor that your attitudes and intentions here tonight be universal and
> altruistic in nature. Consecrate and devote yourselves to the betterment and service
> of all the human race. Let no barrier of ill feeling or personal prejudice exist between
> these souls, for when your motives are universal and your intentions heavenly in
> character, when your aspirations are centered in the Kingdom, there is no doubt
> whatever that you will become the recipients of the bounty and good pleasure of
> God.” 364
> 
> After he had spoken, the Master walked around the room and blessed each guest with a drop
> of attar of rose--the extract from the petals of roses--from his own hands;; Juliet Thompson
> felt her whole being “wake and sparkle” 365 when the drop of rose water touched her. The
> guests then sang a hymn in praise of the Master as he sat down.
> 
> To make up for the shameful exclusion of the African-American believers and friends from
> the hotel banquet, a feast was held for them at the Kinney home the next day. The white
> Bahá’í women believers served the food. Of this occasion, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said:
> 
> “Today you have carried out the laws of the Blessed Beauty and have truly acted
> according to the teachings of the Supreme Pen. Behold what an influence and effect
> the words of Bahá’u’lláh have had upon the hearts, that hating and shunning have
> been forgotten and that prejudices have been obliterated to such an extent that you
> arose to serve one another with great sincerity.” 366
> 
> KKK
> 
> A Tribune article of the 24th, titled “ABDUL-BAHA GOING AWAY”, announced the
> Master’s departure:
> 
> “Abdul-Baha, Abbas Effendi, the Persian Prophet and center of the Bahai
> movement, received assurances of unswerving loyalty last night from members of
> the Bahai assembly of New York City, who gathered at a farewell dinner in his honor
> at the Great Northern Hotel.” 367
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                  83
> KKK
> 
> The day of departure came. Several Bahá’ís accompanied him from the Emery home to the
> ship. Once there, more Bahá’ís arrived and walked up with him into a large cabin room. He
> stood up and spoke to them one last time, challenging them:
> 
> “This is my last meeting with you, for now I am on the ship ready to sail away. These
> are my final words of exhortation. I have repeatedly summoned you to the cause of
> the unity of the world of humanity, announcing that all mankind are the servants of
> the same God, that God is the creator of all;; … Your eyes have been illumined, your
> ears are attentive, your hearts knowing. You must be free from prejudice and
> fanaticism, beholding no differences between the races and religions. You must look
> to God, for He is the real Shepherd, and all humanity are His sheep. … Consider
> how the Prophets Who have been sent, the great souls who have appeared and the
> sages who have arisen in the world have exhorted mankind to unity and love. This
> has been the essence of their mission and teaching. … You must, therefore, look
> toward each other and then toward mankind with the utmost love and kindness. You
> have no excuse to bring before God if you fail to live according to His command,
> for you are informed of that which constitutes the good pleasure of God. You have
> heard His commandments and precepts. … It is my hope that you may become
> successful in this high calling so that like brilliant lamps you may cast light upon the
> world of humanity and quicken and stir the body of existence like unto a spirit of
> life. This is eternal glory. This is everlasting felicity. This is immortal life. This is
> heavenly attainment. This is being created in the image and likeness of God. And
> unto this I call you, praying to God to strengthen and bless you.” 368
> 
> He sat back down in the corner of the large cabin room. Bahá’ís came up and crowded
> around him. Off to the side, Juliet Thompson wept quietly.
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had gone across the American continent and back, spoken with people from
> the highest positions to the humblest positions in American society, exemplified in every
> aspect of his behavior the unity of the human race and, most of all, explained the Teachings
> of His Father.
> 
> The words he had spoken during these months would be memorialized in writing, and they
> would be a source of inspiration to people long after he had passed away.
> 
> The waves slapped the hull of the Celtic. The wind blew hats off some of the onlookers. The
> Master’s light colored cloak and fez and long white beard contrasted with the grey
> background of the boat as he stood on the ship’s deck. He looked out over the crowd below
> and raised his hand like a benediction.
> 
> He had done all he could do. Now, it was up to the believers whose feet remained on the
> ground.
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                   84
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Riverside Park
> 
> “Bless Thou, O King of Kings, the city of New York! Cause the friends
> there to be kind to one another. Purify their souls and make their hearts
> to be free and detached. Illumine the world of their consciousness.
> Exhilarate their spirits and bestow celestial power and confirmation
> upon them. Establish there a heavenly realm, so that the City of Bahá
> may prosper and New York be favoured with blessings from the Abhá
> Kingdom, that this region may become like the all-highest Paradise, may
> develop into a vineyard of God and be transformed into a heavenly
> orchard and a spiritual rose garden.”
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, NewYork City, 1912
> 
> Chapter 9: Last Days ~ Farewell to America                                                85
> Endnotes
> Allan L. Ward, 236 Days: Abdu’l-Bahá’s Journey in America, (Wilmette Il: Baha’i
> Publishing Trust 1979) 4-5
> Mahmud Zarqani, Mahmud’s Diary, Trans. by Mohi Sobhani with Shirley Marcias, (Oxford
> UK: George Ronald 1998) 28
> Ibid 30
> Wendell Phillips Dodge, quoted in Ward, 236 Days: Abdu’l-Bahá’s Journey in America, 13
> Ibid 14
> Zarqani 35
> Ibid, 35-36
> Robert H. Stockman, The Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, (Oxford,
> UK: George Ronald 1995) 337-339
> Juliet Thompson, Diary of Juliet Thompson, June 2002, viewed: September 20th, 2011,
> http://bahai-library.com/books/thompson/2.html Chapter 3
> Ibid, Chapter 4
> Marzieh Gail, “At 48 West 10th St”, viewed: August 3rd, 2011
> http://bahai-library.com/books/thompson/2.html
> Thompson Chapter 4
> Whitehead, O.Z, Some early Baha’is of the West, (Oxford UK: George Ronald 1976) 44-
> Zarqani, 38
> Marzieh Gail, Dawn over Mount Hira and other essays, (Oxford UK: George Ronald
> 1976) 203-204
> Ibid 208
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Trust
> 1982) 3
> Zarqani, 38
> Ives, Howard Colby, Portals to Freedom, (Oxford UK: George Ronald 1990) 22-27
> Ibid 29
> Zarqani, 38-39
> Ward 17
> Ibid 18
> Whitehead, 35-36
> Robert Stockman, “MacNutt, Howard”, viewed: June 10th, 2011
> http://bahai-library.com/stockman_macnutt
> Endnotes                                                                             86
> Stockman, The Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, 233
> Ibid 308
> Whitehead, 36
> Stockman, 206-209
> Ibid 206-209
> Whitehead, 38
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 4-7
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 8-9
> Zarqani, 40
> Gertrude Buikema, Albert Windust, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, editors, Star of the West, Vol.
> III Chicago (Aug 1, 1912) No. 8, 5
> Ibid 8
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 9
> Zarqani, 41
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> No author given, “Parish history”, August 13th, 2011, viewed: August 13th, 2011,
> http://ascensionnyc.org/history/
> Thompson, Chapter 3
> Ibid Chapter 4
> New International version, “1 Corinthians 1”, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/
> Viewed: December 11th, 2011
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 11-12
> Ibid 12
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Zarqani, 43
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 14
> Ibid 14
> Star of the West, Vol. III, No. 7, 5, 10-11
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and Canada, the Baha’i
> World: A Biennial International Record, Vol. XI, (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing
> Committee, 1952) 509-510
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 17
> Endnotes                                                                               87
> Ibid 17
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 19
> Ibid 19
> Ward, 23
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 22
> Ibid 23
> The sources differ on the events of April 18th and 19th, 1912:
> 
> x   Juliet Thompson records ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s talk at the Bowery Mission and attendance
> at the play, “The Terrible Meek”, as being on April 19th. She doesn’t mention the
> Earl Hall talk.
> x   Mahmoud Zarqani lists the Bowery Mission visit and the talk at the Emery home as
> being on the 18th. He doesn’t mention “The Terrible Meek”.
> x   In the “Promulgation of Universal Peace”, the talk at the Emery home is on the 18th
> and Earl Hall and the Bowery Mission are on the 19th.
> x   Allen Ward has “The Terrible Meek” and the Bowery Mission on the 18th and Earl
> Hall on the 19th.
> x   Kate Carew, the newspaper reporter, gives an account of her visit with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> which has Earl Hall (“that day”), “The Terrible Meek” (“theater today”) and the
> Bowery Mission on the same day.
> 
> The key points in establishing the sequence of events are below:
> 
> x   The two first-hand witnesses, Juliet Thompson and Kate Carew state that ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá went to see the “Terrible Meek” on the same day as the visit to the Bowery
> Mission.
> x   There is agreement in the sources which mention it that Earl Hall was on the 19th.
> x   The talks at the Emery home and the Bowery Mission must have been in the
> evenings because ‘Abdu’l-Bahá begins them with “Tonight…”. So they could only
> have been on the 18th and 19th respectively as there are no other nights available.
> 
> As a result of these conclusions, the authors have made the following reconstruction of
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s schedule:
> 
> 1. Thursday, April 18th:
> a. Interviews at the Hotel Ansonia during the day
> Endnotes                                                                                 88
> b. Talk at the Emery home in the evening
> 
> 2. Friday, April 19
> a. Portrait by Khalil Gibran
> b. Earl Hall
> c. The Terrible Meek
> d. The Bowery Mission
> Joyce Mendelsohn, The Lower East Side remembered and revisited: a history and guide
> to a legendary New York neighborhood, (NY, NY: Columbia University Press
> September 11th, 2009)
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 28
> Juliet Thompson quoted in Whitehead, 76.
> Whitehead, 76-77
> Guido Bruno, “Fragments from Greenwich Village”, December 19th, 2010, viewed: July
> 19th, 2011
> http://www.bohemianlit.com/full_text/bruno/fragments.htm
> No author given, “Ephemeral New York”, January, 2008, viewed: July 23rd, 2011,
> http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/greenwich-village-in-the1910s/
> Marzieh Gail, “Juliet remembers Gibran as told to Marzieh”, WORLD ORDER: A
> Bahá'í Magazine, vol. 12, Number 4 (Summer 1978) 29-31, July 1st, 2011, viewed:
> July 1st, 2011
> http://bahai-library.com/histories/juliet.gibran.html
> Marzieh Gail, “Juliet remembers Gibran as told to Marzieh”, 29-31
> Kahlil Gibran quoted in Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins, Kahlil Gibran: Man and Poet,
> (Oxford: Oneworld, 1998), 123-126
> Ibid 123-126
> 123-126
> 123-126
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 30
> Ibid 31
> Barbara Schmidt, “Kate Carew, “The only woman caricaturist””, April 9th, 1997, viewed:
> August 3rd, 2011
> http://www.twainquotes.com/interviews/confessions.html
> Brian, Denis, Pulitzer: A Life, (NY, NY: John Wiley and Sons 2001), 129
> Schmidt (no page number on web site)
> Schmidt
> Schmidt
> Schmidt
> Schmidt
> Ward 27
> Ibid 28
> Endnotes                                                                               89
> No     author given, “Tenements”, July 15th, 2011, viewed: July 15th, 2011,
> http://www.history.com/topics/tenements
> Maggie Blanck, “New York City, Tenement life”, May, 2010, viewed: August 2nd, 2011,
> http://maggieblanck.com/NewYork/Life.html
> Zarqani, 41
> Blanck
> No author given, “Our history in brief”, viewed: July 7th, 2011,
> http://www.bowery.org/about-us/history/#1890s
> Ward, 33
> Thompson, Chapter 4. She does not list the names of the “Persian believers”.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 32
> Ibid 32
> 32-33
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ward, 35
> Ibid 34
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> Chapter 4
> Chapter 4
> Chapter 4. According to “Mahmoud’s Dairy” ( Zarqani 47) “..some money was left over;;
> which was given to other destitute people and children outside the Bowery.”
> US Department of Justice, “WW I casualties and death tables”, viewed: July 30th, 2011
> http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/resources/casdeath_pop.html
> Michael Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts - A Statistical Reference to Casualty and
> Other Figures, 1500–2000 2nd Ed., (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company 2002)
> Michael Duffy, “Weapons of war – Poison gas”, August 22, 2009, viewed August 10th,
> 2011
> http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/gas.htm
> Duffy, “Weapons of war – Poison gas”
> Michael Duffy, “Life in the Trenches”, August 22, 2009, viewed August 10th, 2011
> http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm
> Prof. Joanna Bourke, “Shell Shock during World War One”, last updated March 10th,
> 2011, viewed: August 11th, 2011
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/shellshock_01.shtml
> 
> Endnotes                                                                                  90
> No author given, “Wilfred Owen, The Sentry”, 2006, viewed: July 20th, 2011,
> http://www.englishverse.com/poems/the_sentry
> Saxon books, “Wilfred Owen”, 1999, viewed: July 20th, 2011,
> http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owena.htm
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 119
> Ibid 114
> 115-116
> Zarqani 91
> Paolo Enrico Coletta, Presidency of William Howard Taft, (Kansas: University of Kansas
> Press 1973) ch. 9
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 117-118
> Ibid 118
> Star of the West, Vol. III, No. 8, 11
> Ibid 11
> 12-13
> No author given, “New York Peace Records, 1815-1940”, viewed: August 13th, 2011
> http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&ti
> tleCode=SR632&type=4&id=D3575
> Advocate for Peace, Vol. LXXII, #5 Boston May, 1910, American Peace Society,
> publisher
> Zarqani, 100
> Ahmad Sohrab to Agnes Parsons, May 15, 1912, Agnes Parsons Papers, quoted in Robert
> Stockman, ‘Abdu’l-Baha in America, (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Trust 2012)
> Sheperd, “Mohonk Mountain House”
> Janet Ruhe-Schoen, “Who Will Bell the Cat?”, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá'í at Lake Mohonk, (not yet
> published)
> Ibid
> No author given, “What do Quakers believe?”, July 7th, 2011, viewed: July 7th, 2011
> http://www.quakerinfo.org/quakerism/beliefs
> Sok Hon Ham, "Friends", New Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 26, 15th ed., (Chicago IL:
> Encyclopaedia Britannica publisher 1985) 255
> Sok Hon Ham, Malssum/Quaker Sampaeknyon [The Messages & Friends for 300 Years;;
> The History of Quakers], (Seoul: Hankilsa, 1988) 275
> http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/T&QNotes.htm
> Sok Hon Ham, Malssum/Quaker Sampaeknyon
> International Peace Society, “International Peace Society Records, 1917-1948”, viewed:
> August 28th, 2011
> http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/CDGB/intpeacesociety.htm
> Endnotes                                                                                91
> Ruhe-Schoen
> Sheperd, “Mohonk Mountain House”
> Letter of Charles Mason Remey to Albert K Smiley, April 25th, 1911, Records of the Lake
> Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, 1895-1937 (bulk 1895-1918)
> Collection: DG 054, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore, PA
> Ibid
> Mírzá ‘Alí Kuli Khán, “The conditions of universal peace”, May 24th, 1911
> Swarthmore College Peace Collection
> Ibid
> Ibid
> “Persian American Educational Society”, Swarthmore College Peace Collection
> Ahmad Sohrab to Mr. Phillips, letter dated September 1st, 2011, Swarthmore College
> Peace Collection
> Abdul Baha Abbas to Mr. Phillips, secretary fo the Lake Mohonk Peace Conference,
> translated by Ahmad Sohrab, August 22nd, 1911. In a letter dated September 28th,
> 1911, from Mr. Phillips to Mr. Smiley, Mr. Phillips notes that, “Abdul Baha Abbas is
> evidently a person of considerable not and Mr. Sohrab obviously considers the
> document one of great value.” Swarthmore College Peace Collection
> ‘Alí Kuli Khán to Mr. H. C Phillips, letter dated October 17th, 1911, Swarthmore College
> Peace Collection
> Ibid
> Persian American Educational Society, “An advanced statement concerning Abdul Baha’s
> approaching visit to the United States”, Swarthmore College Peace Collection
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá telegram to Mr. H. C. Phillips, May 4th, Swarthmore College Peace
> Collection
> Mírzá ‘Alí Kuli Khán to Mr. H. C. Phillips, May 13th, 1911
> Anderson, Judith Icke, William Howard Taft, and intimate portrait, (NY, NY: WW
> Norton and Co 1981) 276
> “General Program”, Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, Eighteenth
> Annual Conference May 15-17, 1912
> Stockman
> “Second Session”, Report of the Eighteenth Annual Lake Mohonk Conference on
> International Arbitration, May 15th, 16th, and 17th, 1912,” 42
> Ibid 43
> 42-44
> Telegram from Ahmad Sohrab to Agnes Parsons, quoted in Stockman
> Ibid
> Zarandí, 101
> Rev. Frederick Lynch, at the Metropolitan Temple in New York “Address at
> Metropolitan Temple Reception,” Star of the West, vol. 3, no. 7 (July 13, 1912), 15,
> quoted in Stockman
> To Zia Baghdadi, quoted in Ruhe-Schoen
> In the wars of the twentieth century about 120 million people were slaughtered. At the
> beginning of the century 90 percent of those war casualties were soldiers. As the
> Endnotes                                                                                  92
> century ended over 90 percent of war casualties were civilians. Modern war is a direct
> assault on the innocents . . .” Norman Etherington quoted in Douglas Mattern,
> “Humanity’s Juncture”, The Humanist, 60:9, 2000, quoted in “Making Peace”, edited
> by Barry Hindess and Margaret Jolly, 2001, viewed: October 10th, 2011
> http://www.imaginarymuseum.org/MHV/PZImhv/HindessThinkingPeace.html
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 127
> Ibid 150
> 158-9
> 172-3
> 154-5
> 147-8
> Stockman, The Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, 18
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 167
> Ibid 170
> 170-171
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá quoted in Stockman, The Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900
> 1912, 17
> Ibid 17
> Endnotes                                                                                    93
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 183
> Stockman, The Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, 126-7
> Ibid 32
> Howard MacNutt, Unity through Love, 9, quoted in Stockman, Baha’i Faith in America:
> Early expansion, 1900-1912, 241
> Ibid 240-241
> Whitehead, 131-135
> Isabella Brittingham, The Revelation of Bahá-ulláh, quoted in Whitehead, 132
> Edward Getsinger to the North Hudson Board of Council in May 1903, quoted in
> Stockman, Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, 407
> Robert H. Stockman, “Dodge, Arthur Pillsbury”, Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project, August
> 15th, 2008, viewed: December 11th, 2011
> http://www.bahai-encyclopedia-project.org
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a letter to Ahmad Sohrab in Washington DC, June 16th, 1907, quoted in
> Stockman, Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, 209-210
> Robert H. Stockman, “Dodge, Arthur Pillsbury”
> http://www.bahai-encyclopedia-project.org
> Stockman, Baha’i Faith in America: Early expansion, 1900-1912, 21-22
> Ibid 31-33
> 36-37
> 87-91
> 80-86
> Star of the West v. III, # 7, July 13, 1912, 9
> Ibid 16-17
> Star of the West v. III, # 14 Nov. 23, 1912, 5
> Star of the West v. III #11, September 27th, 1912, 2
> Star of the West v. III #14, November 23rd, 1912, 10
> Ibid 7
> Endnotes                                                                              94
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> Chapter 4
> Chapter 4
> Chapter 4
> Zarqani, 137. Mahmoud has this happening on the wrong day, Tuesday, June 18th, 1912.
> Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust 1979) 288. The
> talk which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave later that day of the sitting with Juliet Thompson
> described in this section is not recorded in any of the sources. Shoghi Effendi tells us
> that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá named New York City, the City of the Covenant.
> Shoghi Effendi, “The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh”, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh,
> (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust 1979) 132
> Ibid 134
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Zarqani 141-142
> Ibid 155
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> Velda Piff Metalmann, Lua Getsinger, Herald of the Covenant, (Oxford, UK: George
> Ronald 1997) 151
> Ibid 151
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Zarqani 159
> Thompson 272-273?
> Zarqani 65
> Ibid 142
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 206-207
> No author given, “Decades of Pride Shattered", The New York Times, April 12, 1990,
> viewed: September 30, 2009,
> http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/12/nyregion/decades-of-pride-shattered.html
> Roy Wilhelm quoted in Baha’i World, vol. IX, 807, quoted in Whitehead, 89-80
> Whitehead, 98
> Ibid 99
> Zarqani 148-149.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 213-215
> Zarqani 150
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Zarqani 151
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Zarqani 152-3
> Star of the West, vol. III, #8, August 1, 1912, 13
> No author given, “Biography of Louis Potter”, viewed September 18th, 2011,
> Endnotes                                                                                      95
> http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=2
> 6516
> Samuel Pennington, “One American Art Medal Series”, viewed September 15th, 2011
> http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/medals/medalscolumn2.htm
> No author given, “Peach poison killed Potter”, New York Times, September 1st, 1912
> http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archivefree/pdf?res=F70B1EF83D5417738DDDA80894D1405B828DF1D3
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> Zarqani 156
> Stockman, 266-271
> Star of the West vol. III, 9/8, #10
> Hubbard, “A Modern Prophet”, Hearst’s Magazine, July, 1912, quoted in Ward, 105-107
> Ibid 112-113
> 115-116
> Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust 1980) 36
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 216
> Ibid 216
> 231-2
> Zarqani 387
> Editor, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, “Dr. Florian
> Krug”, viewed: September 20th, 2011
> http://centenary.bahai.us/photo/dr-florian-krug-d-1924
> Grace Krug, "Accounts of the Passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha", quoted in World Order vol. 7,
> No. 2, by Florian & Grace Krug, 38-41, quoted in “Dr. Florian Krug d. 19124”,
> viewed: October 2nd, 1912
> http://centenary.bahai.us/photo/dr-florian-krug-d-1924
> Zarqani 387
> No author given, “Andrew Carnegie”, viewed: October 3rd, 2011
> http://www.vredespaleis.nl/
> No author given, “Andrew Carnegie”, viewed: October 4th, 2011
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande01.html
> No author given, “Andrew Carnegie’s legacy”, viewed: Ocotber 4th, 2001
> http://carnegie.org/about-us/foundation-history/about-andrew-carnegie/carnegiefor-kids/andrew-carnegie-legacy/
> Endnotes                                                                               96
> Star of the West, vol. VI, no 11, September 27 1915,
> 
> And: No author given, “Carnegie exalted by Bahaist leader”, New York Times, September
> 5th, 1915
> http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archivefree/pdf?res=9E06E5DC1731E733A05756C0A96F9C946496D6CF
> Ward 186-7
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Ibid Chapter 4
> Robert Stockman, “MacNutt, Howard”
> Thompson, Chapter 4 369-372
> Chapter 4 369-372
> Robert Stockman, “MacNutt, Howard”
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Mírzá Ahmad Sohrab, “Abdul-Baha in Egypt”, (NY, NY: J.H. Sears and
> Company Inc. 1929) 51
> http://bahai-library.com/sohrab_abdulbaha_egypt#51
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 437
> Ibid 442-443
> 455-6
> No author given, “History of the NYG and B”, viewed: October 5th, 2011
> http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/history-nygbs
> Ibid
> Adapted from Boris de Zirkoff, “Biographical article on H. P. Blavatsky”, Theosophia,
> (LA, CA), Summer 1968, 3-8
> http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/longseal.htm
> No author given, “The Emily Sellon Memorial Library”, viewed: October 5th, 2011
> http://www.theosophy-ny.org/836.html
> Fremont Rider, New York and vicinity, including Newark, Yonkers, and Jersey City, (NY,
> NY: Henry Holt and Company 1916) 12
> http://www.archive.org/stream/ridersnewyorkcit00riderich/ridersnewyorkcit00rider
> ich_djvu.txt
> Zarqani 407
> Ibid 405
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 447-448
> Ibid 448
> Thompson, Chapter 4
> Zarqani 407
> Ward 188
> Ibid 468-470
> 
> Endnotes                                                                               97
>
> — *Abdu'l-Baha in New York (Used by permission of the curator)*