# The Call of Mt. Carmel

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Maude Holbach, The Call of Mt. Carmel, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> The Call of Mt. Carmel
> 
> Maude Holbach
> published in Bible Ways in Bible Lands: An Impression of Palestine pp. 5, 6, 8, 9, 16
> 
> London: Kegan Paul, 1912
> 
> 1. Text
> 
> [page 1]
> 
> I FIRST saw "Holy Land" from the deck of
> the Dunottar Castle at anchor in the Bay
> of Haifa. It was a cloudless spring morning,
> and in the clear air of Syria the houses on
> the shore, though really a mile distant,
> seemed close by. I have an impression of
> white houses with flat roofs backed by green
> hills — a description which would fit many
> a town in the East — yet Haifa does not look
> wholly Eastern; it lacks the many minarets
> of Oriental towns where Islam is paramount.
> I felt before I landed that this was indeed
> "the Holy Land!" I knew that though we
> 
> [page 2]
> 
> have no record that our Master [i.e., Jesus. -J.W.] ever walked
> upon the seashore that lay between me and
> the little town, or trod the streets of "Khof,"
> or "Khafah" (referred to in the Book of
> Judges as the "haven by the sea"), He
> certainly wandered over the hills, then dotted
> with prosperous towns and villages that lie
> between here and the Lake of Galilee; for
> His lowly home at Nazareth was only fifteen
> miles away.
> 
> If I were going to live anywhere in
> Palestine I should certainly choose Haifa, as
> the cleanest town and the one most
> beautifully situated in the whole country! It lies
> between the mountains and the sea at the foot
> of Mount Carmel, which is not, as I always
> imagined before visiting it, a single mountain
> but an extensive range, triangular in form.1
> 
> Some happy day when I revisit Palestine
> I hope to pitch my camp upon the sacred
> mountain, to explore its hills and valleys,
> 
> The eastern side from the apex of the triangle is thirteen
> miles in length, the western twelve, and the base, which runs
> parallel with the sea, nine.
> 
> [page 3]
> 
> wooded glens and wild gorges, and penetrate into the hidden caves which were such
> secure hiding-places in Bible days, that they
> are mentioned in the Book of Amos as an
> illustration of the secrecy that God alone
> could lay bare.
> 
> In those far-off times the mountain was
> covered with a dense forest, now it is
> covered in spring with flowers, and when I
> visited it the slopes nearest to Haifa, which
> are crowned by the world famous Carmelite
> monastery, were aflame with the scarlet
> anemone which is the "lily of the field"
> of our authorised version, and to which
> Solomon's royal robes were likened.
> 
> There is a charming legend about the
> flower which may have been known to our
> Lord, according to which Hiram King of
> Tyre sent, with the cedar wood for the
> building of the temple, a present to King
> Solomon of a splendid scarlet robe, dyed
> with the famous Tyrian dyes (which, by the
> way, were made from a little shell-fish that
> may still be picked up by hundreds on the
> 
> [page 4]
> 
> beach). The gorgeous colour delighted
> Solomon's heart, till one day a child
> brought him a bunch of the blossoms of
> the scarlet anemone, and he saw that his
> treasured garment looked but dull beside
> the shining blossoms, and pointed out to
> his courtiers how the work of men's hands
> paled before God's handiwork.
> 
> Alas! I did but touch the fringe of Carmel!
> It is still almost an unexplored country,
> and wild life abounds — leopards, hyenas, wild
> boar, and gazelle roam over its hills and
> valleys — tourists who sleep at Haifa are
> generally content to walk or drive to the
> monastery and hasten on to the famous sites
> of New Testament history at Nazareth and
> Galilee — so the animals have the mountain
> solitude to themselves.
> 
> Is it only coincidence that another school
> of the "Sons of the Prophets" has established
> itself upon Mount Carmel — that young men
> are coming there from all over the Eastern
> world to sit at the feet of the teacher who
> believes it his divine mission to reform not
> 
> [page 5]
> 
> Islam alone, but the religions of the world?
> I believe that portion of the western world
> that has heard of the Persian teacher
> "Abbas Effendi" (and it is an ever-increasing
> portion, for his recent brief visit to England
> drew the attention of our Press), with a few
> exceptions of advanced thinkers who have
> taken the trouble to study his doctrines,
> looks upon him as the founder of a "new
> religion." As such he was described to us by
> an Englishman living in Palestine and
> knowing him personally, but investigation since has
> shown me the description was misleading.
> 
> If the author of "Life and Teachings of
> Abbas Effendi,"1 who spent a month at Acre
> to investigate the teaching of Bahaism at
> the fountain head in December 1902, did
> not view this remarkable religious movement
> in too favourable a light it must inevitably
> increase the spirituality of all who come
> within its influence, whether Christian or
> Moslem, for he tells us in his introductory
> chapter: "It recognises every other religion
> 
> Myron H. Phelps of the New York Bar.
> 
> [page 6]
> 
> as equally divine in origin with itself. It
> professes only to renew the message formerly
> given by the Divine Messengers who
> founded those religions ... no man is
> asked to desert his own faith: but only to
> look back to its fountain-head and discern,
> through the mists and accumulations of
> time, the true spirit of its founders." Is
> not this the crying need of the world to-day,
> that we all act up to the faith we profess?
> What a wide step towards universal brotherhood to "recognise every other religion as
> equally divine!"
> 
> Abbas Effendi once said in answer to an
> enquirer, "The Spirit is the same
> everywhere! Under whatsoever name men
> address Him, He will respond to their call."
> In other words, his mission is "not to
> destroy but to fulfil," not to tell men that
> they have prayed amiss, but to urge them
> to live "more nearly as they pray." Abbas
> Effendi is in line with the great spiritual
> movement which has arisen in the West,
> and found expression in Christian Science
> 
> [page 7]
> 
> and New Thought in the importance he
> attaches to the power of thought. "Every
> deed of life," he says, "is a thought expressing itself in action; it is the actual mirror
> of the man within."
> 
> He is in line with our most advanced
> thinkers, philosophers, and students of human
> nature in the importance he attaches to
> character building. "Therefore," he says,
> "we must be active — we must be up and
> doing. Our deeds build up our characters,
> and the building of our characters is our
> task. Life in this world is for this purpose.
> . . . If heredity has not given us the
> qualities of character necessary for our
> high moral and spiritual advancement, we
> must labour to build up a new structure
> within ourselves which will be adequate to
> that aim. Each man must look to himself
> and within himself to find his errors and
> weaknesses."
> 
> This is not the dreamy mysticism we
> are apt to associate with an Eastern sage
> — it is a philosophy of life calculated to
> 
> [page 8]
> 
> "strengthen the feeble knees," and make
> us ashamed of pleading our environment
> or ancestry as an excuse for our laziness —
> it will not permit us to "put our ain burdens
> on the Lord's back!"
> 
> And the teacher lives the life he preaches,
> taking but four hours' rest in the twenty-four, and but one meal a day after his
> cup of tea that follows his prayers at
> sunrise. He labours incessantly — teaching,
> distributing alms to the poor, and carrying
> on a vast correspondence. An interesting
> comparison may be drawn between Abbas
> Effendi's life of rigid self-denial and work,
> and that of the leader of a great religious
> movement in the Western world. General
> Booth, who likewise is, as all the world
> knows, able to reduce his bodily needs to a
> minimum, and yet has a capacity for work
> far exceeding that of the average man of
> far younger years.
> 
> Self-denying, however, as is Abbas
> Effendi's life, he does not believe in the
> rigid asceticism that cuts itself off from
> 
> [page 9]
> 
> mankind. He has left for a time his home
> on the slopes of Carmel to come to the
> Western world. When I was at Acre, he
> was at Alexandria — that battle-ground of
> the Church and the Philosophic Schools
> in the first centuries of Christianity — now
> he has come to the throbbing heart of our
> own London, which needs his message
> hardly less than his native Persia.
> 
> I must beg my readers pardon if I have
> digressed too much from the beaten path
> to dwell on the Sage of Haifa who in God's
> Providence was so wonderfully brought as
> a prisoner to Acre, and led to make his
> home and teach his followers so near to the
> Galilean Lake, which was the scene of our
> Lord's earthly ministry.
> 
> The Sacred Mountain drew to it yet
> another reformer who founded a colony
> which has exerted an enormous influence for
> good on the surrounding Arab population.
> Just beyond the little town of Haifa, at
> the foot of Mount Carmel, you come to a
> suburb of attractive little homes; each in a
> 
> [page 10]
> 
> well-kept garden, surrounded by highly
> cultivated cornfields and vineyards that are
> an object lesson in the fertility of the soil
> of Palestine when properly cultivated.
> 
> This is the German colony founded late in
> the sixties by Professor Hoffman of Wurtemberg,
> a University professor and minister of
> the Lutheran Church. Professor Hoffman
> was a reformer, and the fate of most reformers
> was his; indeed, there is a certain likeness
> in his story and that of the founder of the
> Bahá'ís, Ali Mohammed. Both aimed to
> reform the state religion of their country,
> and both came into collision with the
> ecclesiastical authorities. The Persian
> reformer, in a semi-barbarous land, paid for
> his opinions with his life; the German,
> belonging to a civilised nation, was merely
> expelled by the Lutheran Church, just as
> its founder Luther had been from that of
> Rome.
> 
> That Dr Hoffman, like Mohammed Ali,
> had a large following, is proved by the
> petition signed with twelve thousand names
> 
> [page 11]
> 
> he presented at the Diet of Frankfurt
> praying for church reform. Perhaps if the crown
> of martyrdom had been his, they would have
> increased like the Bahá'ís; as it is they
> are represented only by three colonies in
> Palestine, originally composed of those who
> followed their revered leader into exile, but
> though small in numbers, the influence of
> the three hundred German colonists at Haifa
> on the surrounding Arab population has
> been very great.
> 
> By the simplicity and sincerity of their
> religion, the scrupulous honesty in their
> dealings, and the industry and harmony of their
> lives, this little band of men and women
> have held high the standard of Christianity,
> and commended their faith to the world.
> 
> Nor is the moral benefit of a business
> and industrial community setting a living
> example of practical Christianity all the
> advantage that Haifa has denied from
> the German colonists. Their industry has
> been the corner stone on which the trade
> of the port has been built up, till it has
> 
> [page 12]
> 
> become one of the most prosperous towns
> on the coast. The Arabs have imitated the
> improved methods of agriculture of the
> German farmers, and land has increased
> in value enormously. Before their coming
> carts were unknown, and all inland transport
> had to be carried on by means of beasts of
> burden laden with pack saddles, as it is
> in Morocco to-day.
> 
> The road from Haifa to Nazareth, one of
> the first in Northern Palestine, was made by
> the colonists at their own expense, and did
> much to reconcile the local government to
> the new comers, whom they at first treated
> with marked hostility. Life was far from
> a bed of roses for the Germans in the early
> days of the colony, for though none of them
> possessed much means, they were taxed three
> and four times as much as the natives by
> the unscrupulous Turkish officials.
> 
> The faith that the second advent of the
> Messiah (which their leader's Bible studies had
> brought him to the conclusion was approaching)
> would occur in Palestine, sustained the
> 
> [page 13]
> 
> colonists in their struggle, and now, firmly
> established with "their lamps burning," they
> wait the coming of their Lord.
> 
> Strange and sad it is that even in religion
> there should be rivalry; that all good
> men working for the spiritual progress
> of the world cannot join hands as brothers.
> The monks of the Carmelite monastery
> (which claims direct succession from the
> School of Sons of the Prophets) overlook
> from the lofty site of their beautiful
> monastery the modest homes and smiling
> fields of the German farmers, whose lands
> join their own. Many good and noble men
> there have been among the fathers, notably
> that brave friar who, sustained by faith in
> God, begged throughout Europe to raise
> the money to rebuild the convent after its
> destruction by the French, but local report
> says they held aloof from, if they were
> not "covertly hostile" to, the Protestant
> Germans in their early struggles; and there
> is a painful episode related by a modern
> writer of something like a battle royal over
> 
> [page 14]
> 
> the boundaries, when the townspeople, aided
> by the Germans, tried to pull down the wall
> by which, they claimed, the monastery had
> enclosed town lands, and the monks, "armed
> only with spiritual weapons," held aloft a cross
> and evoked a curse in German and Arabic on
> those who intruded on their "sacred" ground!
> 
> The point at issue was, of course, whether
> the documents by which the monks claimed
> the land were legal, but that did not lessen
> the pity of the quarrel between two "religious
> communities," though such strife is, alas, too
> common in Palestine.
> 
> Travellers are always warmly welcomed
> at the monastery, in conformity with the old
> time traditions of hospitality, and it is a
> delightful place to stay a few days, being
> perched 500 feet above the sea on a spur
> of the mountains. No bill will be given
> to you when you go, but universal custom
> sanctions an offering in accordance with
> your means.
> 
> Among the mystics who have been drawn
> from their own land to Mount Carmel, the
> 
> [page 15]
> 
> brilliant gifted writer Laurence Oliphant,
> and his high-born, delicately-nurtured, lovely
> wife, who was content to labour at lowly
> household work varied with kindly
> ministrations to her humble neighbours for five long
> years, will never be forgotten.
> 
> The story of the Oliphants' life at Haifa
> is sympathetically told in the "Memoirs"
> written by Margaret Oliphant. After his
> strange meteoric career (in which place and
> power as a statesman and leader of all that
> was best in social life were sacrificed to a
> religious principle which bade him go and
> work as the meanest labourer in an obscure
> community in America and consent to years
> of separation from his devoted mother, Lady
> Oliphant, and his adored wife), the happiest
> years of Laurence Oliphant's life were
> spent at Haifa in a house in the German
> colony which is still pointed out. When
> you see it, reflect that "the whole soul of
> the two to whom the house belonged was
> bent upon leavening the world with a
> knowledge of the love of God . . . their
> 
> [page 16]
> 
> main object was to live a life like that
> of Christ in the world!" By birth, petted
> children of fortune, by early association,
> accustomed to the intellectual life of London
> and Paris, they were content with the society
> of the homely, kindly Germans and the love
> of "a little floating circle of friends and
> disciples who circled around them." Not
> a few travellers with names famous in
> Europe, made a détour to visit that idyllic
> home where the Oliphants lived the life
> that they believed was the manifestation of
> the highest truth, loving each other and
> all the world, and "going about doing good."
> Laurence Oliphant's first visit to Palestine
> was to report on sites for the Jewish
> Colonies, then about to be founded. During
> his residence there, he was ever ready to
> hold out the hand of friendship to the
> poor wandering Jews who landed forlorn
> strangers in the land of their fathers; but
> his biographer says it was "more what
> we call chance than any deliberate choice
> that directed them towards Haifa, a small
> 
> [page 17]
> 
> bright Syrian town lying on the western
> edge of the Bay of Acre, with a beautiful
> view across the bay of that historic fortress
> and the noble background of the hills of
> Galilee." Was it chance? Was it not rather
> the Divine Leader the Oliphants followed
> so unswervingly that not even the disillusion
> of finding the earthly leader they had half
> deified had feet of clay, could shake their
> faith, that led them to Mount Carmel?
> 
> All that was earthly of Alice Oliphant
> rests in the German cemetery at the foot of
> the sacred mountain, and men and women of
> diverse tongues and creeds have shed tears
> beside her grave.
> 
> Her death followed a trip to Tiberias,
> which she describes in the letters as "the
> happiest fortnight in my life," and was put
> down to the fever-laden air of the low
> ground by the lake where they camped.
> Almost it seems as if that sweet spirit
> had attained as near perfection as mortals
> can in this world and so passed on.
> 
> She breathed her last on the heights
> 
> [page 18]
> 
> of Mount Carmel, which had been her
> summer home, and the grief of the people
> of the adjacent Druse villages was intense.
> "If five of our best sheiks die village not
> so sorry!" they said, and when bearers
> were wanted to carry the corpse down the
> mountains to the road where carriages could
> meet the funeral cortege, fifty men vied for
> the honour, where only eight were needed.
> Two miles from the colony, all the principal
> men of the German colony, and all the
> foreign consuls and their dragoman and
> cavasses met the bier with many Arabs
> and a Moslem guard of honour sent by
> the Governor. "Had she been a queen,"
> her sister wrote, "she could not have been
> received with more respectful homage — and
> it was all a spontaneous expression of love
> — personal love for her."
> 
> Does it not link modern life most wonderfully with Bible times, that the Mount of
> Elijah has ever been, and still is in these
> latter days, the home of saints and mystics
> who count the world well lost for God.
> 
> 2. Image scans
> 
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> — *The Call of Mt. Carmel (Used by permission of the curator)*