# The Diary of Juliet Thompson

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> The Diary of Juliet Thompson
> with a preface by Marzieh Gail
> 
>  
> 
> At 48 West Tenth 
>  by Marzieh Gail
> 
> Whether or not General Tom Thumb (Barnum's midget, and at the start
> of his career twenty-five inches long, weighing in at fifteen
> pounds) ever owned the Greenwich Village brownstone where Juliet
> and Daisy (Marguerite Pumpelly Smyth) lived so many years, we do
> not know. At the time when we knew the place, Daisy was renting it
> from Romeyne Benjamin, brother of Dorothy Benjamin who married
> Enrico Caruso.
> 
> Like its fellows in the row, it was narrow and high, with black
> railings to either side of the front steps, other steps leading
> down to a long basement room, and a strip of garden in back.
> Inside, up from the front hall, narrow stairs hugged the wall on
> your right.
> 
> The old house, painted light blue when we last saw it, long after
> the inmates loved by us were gone, might well have been the wealthy
> midget's, as Juliet was inclined to believe: it was just such a
> place.
> 
> When Daisy asked 'Abdu'l-Baha how to live, He said, "Be kind to
> everyone," and Daisy was. The house was a haven for a motley crowd.
> Here, Daisy's brother Raphael told me he had once, during the
> Depression, left his bed briefly in the night, and returned to find
> a sailor in it, complete with live parrot. Here, at one given time,
> in an upstairs room Dimitri Marianoff, Einstein's former
> son-in-law, who had become a Baha'i, was writing a book on Tahirih,
> while Juliet was revising her I, Mary Magdalene on a lower floor
> and I, at ground level, refugeeing from the family apartment
> uptown, was finishing Persia and the Victorians. Here Daisy, like
> Juliet a fine artist, sat among their many guests at the firesides.
> Usually inaccessibly vague, Daisy would from time to time utter a
> great truth. Once when her cat unsheathed its claws and raked
> delicate upholstery, Daisy spoke: "Cats are more fun than
> furniture," she said.
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha had been all over the house. His living presence had
> blessed it all. In a dark corner of Juliet's whispering old studio
> stood a fragile armchair of black oak--it would later be willed by
> her to Vincent Pleasant--surprisingly small, with a cord across it,
> none ever to sit in it again, the chair of 'Abdu'l-Baha. He loved
> her studio room. He said it was eclectic, part oriental, part
> occidental, and that He would like to build a similar one.
> 
> Here, Juliet had read in manuscript the books of her friend and
> neighbour Kahlil Gibran. Here she had struggled with her love for
> Percy Grant. Here, by my time, we talked a little about the land
> in Chiriqui which (such is my memory of it) Lincoln had helped her
> father, Ambrose White Thompson, his close friend, to acquire. A
> rich tract of land in northern Panama it was, and Juliet believed
> that somewhere in Colombia, which then owned the area, a government
> building had burned down, and all the relevant documents about the
> property had gone up in flames.
> 
> After her father's death, Juliet and her mother were poor. Juliet
> could, of course, have married money. Many men sought, as they used
> to say, her hand. Two prominent Baha'is who proposed to her were
> John Bosch and Roy Wilhelm. Come to that, Mason, Admiral Remey's
> son, whom 'Abdu'l-Baha wished her to marry, was not a poor man.
> Juliet told me that in those days Mason had grown a red beard, and
> as they sat together he would talk of the children they would have,
> and Juliet would visualize, floating in the air about her, the
> Remey babies, each with a small red beard.
> 
> Mostly, we discussed the progress or lack thereof of our Baha'i
> community in New York and the nation at large, and one day we
> decided that what our Faith most needed in America was the
> qualities of George Townshend. Immediately, we determined to cable
> the Guardian and ask him to send us George Townshend--a pre-eminent
> Baha'i who was the former Canon of St. Patrick's cathedral in
> Dublin and Archdeacon of Clonfert--to travel nation-wide and teach.
> Far from ignoring our doubtless brash suggestion, the Guardian at
> once replied, with a radiogram received 19 February 1948:
> 
> JULIET MARZIA 48 WEST 10TH STREET NEW YORK
> REGRET TOWNSHEND'S EFFORTS DUBLIN VITALLY NEEDED
> SIX YEAR PLAN LOVE SHOGHI.
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha teaches that we must never "belittle the thought of
> another" (Baha'i Administration, p. 22), and although Shoghi
> Effendi was carrying the whole Baha'i world on his back, he did not
> belittle ours, and he took the time to answer.
> 
> Once, when the powers that be were making life difficult for me in
> another city, Juliet wrote them a letter in my favour. To this,
> there was no reply. What status did Juliet have? She was only one,
> the Master said, that future queens would envy, only one who would
> be remembered long after the rest of us were gone and forgotten.
> 
> She was always a rebel. She did not hesitate to speak well of the
> Germans during World War I, and to exhibit the Kaiser's picture on
> her living room table. Something like setting up a statue of Herod
> in a cathedral, at the time. In later years, she decided to rewrite
> I, Mary Magdalen and make Judas a certain leading individual who
> afterward lived on to receive great honours in our Faith.
> 
> Juliet was a Celt, from a long line of early bards, and she was kin
> to Edward Fitzgerald, of the Rubaiyat. Her Irishness did not,
> apparently, extend to that country's religion. She told me that
> when her father was dying, he was by chance in the hands of the
> nuns, and they moved about, seeing to it that Extreme Unction (as
> it was then called) was duly administered, while her non-Catholic
> mother wrung her hands. Reassuring, the moribund raised his head
> and said: "Never mind, Celeste, it doesn't amount to a damn."
> 
> Rebels are valuable, but they are not always right. Once, contrary
> to everyone's advice, Juliet's strong feelings about an individual
> led her and Daisy astray. She made us all come to the man's talks,
> or rather talk, which was always about love. We got so we hated
> love. "No wonder he advocates love," was Harold Gail's comment,
> "look what it's done for him." It had certainly given him Juliet
> and Daisy, and only later on did they see the light--the light
> being that his main interest seemed to be Daisy's bank account.
> 
> As the Guardian once commented, our World Order is founded on
> justice, not love. Our governing institutions are Houses of
> justice, not love.
> 
> The man did bring many to hear about love at Juliet's, which used
> to remind me of Romeyne Benjamin's gloomy prophecy, that the
> ceilings would fall in.
> 
> It was the unconventional, rebel quality in Juliet--this, plus her
> sympathy and true love--that attracted so many to her, particularly
> the young. All ages, sexes, skin colours, and degrees of wealth and
> servitude, used to foregather at 48 West Tenth. Her name was,
> incidentally, in the New York Social Register, along with her
> brother's--"but I am only there as a junior," she laughed.
> 
> This unconventional quality of hers, frightening to any
> establishment, appealed to the Guardian, as it had to the Master
> before him. We remember writing to the Guardian once, about a town
> where the activity was barely detectable, and he replied that the
> situation was due to "the lethargy and conservatism of certain
> elements in the community."
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha praised Juliet repeatedly for her absolute
> truthfulness. On her second pilgrimage, when the Guardian asked
> her, "Do you like the (Wilmette) Temple?" She answered: "No, it
> looks like a wedding cake." She added, relaying the conversation
> to me: "We used to call it 'Mrs True's church.'" (Mrs Corinne True,
> later a Hand of the Faith, was known as "the Mother of the
> Temple.") She said Mason Remey withdrew his design, in favour of
> Louis Bourgeois', although each received the same number of votes.
> 
> Needless to add, the ethereal, lacy, floating House of Worship at
> Wilmette does not look like a wedding cake, but Juliet had an
> opinion and she voiced it. "Let us remember," the Text says, "that
> at the very root of the Cause lies the principle of the undoubted
> right of the individual to self-expression, his freedom to declare
> his conscience and set forth his views." (Baha'i Administration,
> p. 54).
> 
> We read in her diary of the Master's telling Juliet "a thing so
> wonderful" that she could not repeat it. In after years she
> confided to Baha'i pioneer Bill Smits what that thing was. "You are
> nearer to me than anyone here," 'Abdu'l-Baha had said, "because you
> have told me the truth." Asked what He meant by " here," she said,
> "Oh, New York, the United States--I don't know."
> 
> This diary we have here is not the original, longhand one. She
> destroyed that. She was essentially a private person and all those
> secrets have blown away. This diary is the core of the original:
> she kept whatever she wanted posterity to have, sat up in bed with
> the portable on her knees and typed it herself. I was one of
> (necessarily) few to receive a carbon, and mine has some of her own
> hand-written notes in the margin. Some years afterward I had the
> carbon professionally typed for the National Spiritual Assembly,
> but years later it could not be discovered in their files. Also,
> Philip Sprague mimeographed parts of it, but where that material
> is, we do not know.
> 
> Still more years later, when Harold and I were back from Europe and
> living in New Hampshire, I became aware that with so few copies in
> the world it might be lost forever, and consulting with fellow
> Baha'is we had xeroxes made, so it would stay safe. Meanwhile
> someone--was it Daisy?--had brought out a handsome booklet, printed
> by the Roycrofters, East Aurora, New York, and titled
> 'Abdu'l-Baha's First Days in America, From the Diary of Juliet
> Thompson. It bears no date or copyright, is forty pages long and
> contains only excerpts: a teaser, as it were.
> 
> The truth seems to be that during her lifetime the Baha'is in
> charge of publishing did not cotton to the dairy. "Too personal,"
> they said. They probably meant that there was too much love in it.
> We understand this, but we note that the mass of the believers were
> always eager for it. Here was a woman blessed as perhaps no other
> occidental Baha'i was blessed. Not only was she received by
> 'Abdu'l-Baha in the Holy Land, in Switzerland and the eastern
> United States, but she had an artist's eye and a writer's pen, and
> thus, better perhaps than any, she was able to evoke those so often
> irretrievable days and hours.
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha prophesied of her that: "In the time to come, queens
> will wish they had been the maid of Juliet." Certainly she received
> priceless opportunities, and proved adequate to her good fortune.
> 
> Love is not blind, it is "quick-eyed," George Herbert said.
> 'Abdu'l-Baha likened Juliet to Mary Magdalene because she loved,
> and saw, so much. She had that same storied love that Mary
> had--that love which after all is the only thing that holds the
> Baha'is together, or for that matter holds the Lord to His
> creatures, or keeps the stars in their courses.
> 
> She says here that one early morning (on that breathless, ecstatic,
> tear-drenched pilgrimage) she gave up her will, made over her
> desires and her life to the Will of God, and saw how, when we are
> able to do that, "the design takes perfect shape." Then peace
> comes, she says, and "beauty undreamed of blossoms upon our days."
> 
> Again she tells how the Master once gathered the American pilgrims
> together--they being symbols of all--and said He hoped that a great
> and ever-growing love would be established among them. He knew that
> their one main desire was to live in His presence, and He told them
> how this could be done.
> 
> "The more," He said, "you love one another, the nearer you get to
> me. I go away from this world, but Love stays always."
> 
> Juliet's death notice in the New York Times says that she was born
> in New York, but the jacket to her book, I, Mary Magdalene,
> undoubtedly more to be trusted, has her a Virginian by birth, and
> brought up in Washington, D.C.
> 
> She was a cult figure. People became possessive about her, regarded
> her as theirs and only grudgingly doled her out. This was
> particularly true of Helen James, who came from the Caribbean area
> and was a long-time companion. I can remember Helen angrily barring
> the door to me one day, when Juliet was sick. It did not bother me
> too much--I knew from mythology that dragons guard treasures. Then
> there was another time when I had prevailed on a man to come over
> to the Village all the way from Brooklyn, and record Juliet's voice
> as she read from her diary. (On wire, it was. The business was new
> then.) And Helen tried, in the midst of it, to break in from the
> other room and let in even more noise, besides what was already
> being reproduced from the traffic on West Tenth.
> 
> You can say for Helen that she was a true friend to Juliet, and
> faithful. One mid-day, years after all this, as Juliet lay in her
> bed, it seems that she looked up at Helen and asked, "Do you want
> to come with me, and be with 'Abdu'l-Baha?"
> 
> "No," Helen told her, "I am not ready yet."
> 
> And then, as she watched, she saw Juliet die. It was 4 December
> 1956. They had moved by then, the Times said, to 129 East Tenth.
> I was glad that she did not die at number 48.
> 
> The Guardian's cable, received by Daisy Smyth on December 7, said
> "DEEPLY GRIEVED" and "HER REWARD ASSURED." To the National
> Spiritual Assembly he cabled, "DEPLORE LOSS," and he directed that
> a memorial gathering be held for her in the House of Worship. In
> this cable among other praises he referred to her "IMPERISHABLE
> MEMORY," said that she was "FIRED WITH ... CONSUMING DEVOTION" to
> the Centre of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, and called her "MUCH LOVED,
> GREATLY ADMIRED ... OUT-STANDING EXEMPLARY HANDMAID [OF]
> 'ABDU'L-BAHa."
> 
> __________
> 
> 48 West Tenth Street was a house dedicated to 'Abdu'l-Baha. Often
> when you were let in the front door, you heard His voice--the
> recorded, spontaneous chant made in 1912--loudly reverberating
> through the rooms.
> 
> One day Juliet took Robert Gulick and me up the street to the
> corner of Fifth Avenue, and we entered the beautiful Church of the
> Ascension that had once been Percy Grant's pride before his ruin,
> and she showed us exactly where 'Abdu'l-Baha stood, delivering His
> first American public address on 14 April 1912.
> 
> He came out of the vestry on the right, just as the choir burst
> into "Jesus lives." He sat in the Bishop's chair--which broke the
> nineteenth canon of the Church, for the unbaptized may not go
> behind the chancel rail. The red plush chair with its high back was
> still there, just as it had been that other day, although no flame
> burned on the altar then. When He spoke as you looked past the low
> steps to the altar, He was on the right, and He stood on the fifth
> flagstone.
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha had told Juliet she must either break with Percy Grant
> or marry him. She had broken with him. Percy had arranged this
> meeting for the Master as a peace offering to Juliet. From this
> very pulpit, to win Juliet away from her Faith, he had often
> inveighed against the decadent East, had even denounced "the Baha'i
> sect," but today he had filled the church with lilies and arranged
> for One from the East, and Head of the Baha'is, to speak.
> 
> Juliet said that she used, in her story of Mary Magdalene (whom,
> as 'Abdu'l-Baha remarked in the diary, she even physically
> resembled) many things she learned from the Master himself. This
> book has inclined many a heart toward our Faith, and Stanwood Cobb
> considered it "one of the most graphic and lofty delineations of
> Christ ever made in literature."
> 
> She illustrated her story with portraits, three of them: one
> haloed, of the Master's face; Mary wears Juliet's face, they being
> look-alikes; and the handsome lover, Novatus, wears the face of
> Percy Grant. She was a serious artist, frequently exhibited, and
> a member of the National Arts Club. She had studied at the Corcoran
> Art School, then at Julien's in Paris, and with Kenneth Hayes
> Miller in New York.
> 
> During the Coolidge era, Juliet's beauty and social background,
> along with her artistic gifts, carried her into the White House.
> (It is interesting to note how many Baha'is have been received at
> the White House, all the way from 'Ali Quli Khan and Florence, and
> Laura Barney, in the early days to moderns like Robert Hayden and
> Dizzie Gillespie). Juliet was there to make a portrait of Mrs
> Coolidge, incidentally one of the most popular of First Ladies.
> 
> "The President came in to watch," said Juliet, "chewing on an
> apple, and I told Mrs Coolidge I could not put up with that."
> 
> The portrait she did of 'Abdu'l-Baha, described here in the diary,
> no longer exists, except in a photograph.
> 
> Time-damaged, it had to be restored, and Juliet felt the original
> was gone forever. The Kinneys maintained that He did like it
> because He said it made Him look old. 'Abdu'l-Baha greatly
> encouraged her art, and told her it was the same as worship, but
> toward the end she no longer cared to go on with it, nor even cared
> for her once-loved New York as it had become, and all she wanted
> to do was teach the Faith.
> 
> Sometimes Juliet and Marjorie would recline at the top of Juliet's
> large bed, while Daisy and I would sit on chairs at the foot. The
> sooty warm spring air would blow in from the little back garden,
> down where Rebecca--a statue picked up by Romeyn Benjamin--stood
> scanning the horizon, endlessly waiting on her pedestal, left hand
> to brow. It was one such time when the conversation centred on
> Percy Grant, that dramatic preacher who, in our view, certainly
> merits a biographer, not only for his small role in our Faith but
> because he represents so much of New York history at the century's
> turn.
> 
> "Poor Julie. How long did you love him?" I asked.
> 
> "Seventeen years, darn it." (In those days it went without saying
> that the love was Platonic.)
> 
> And that is how, reinforced by Marjorie, Juliet told me how things
> turned out for Percy Grant. Significantly, his end is relegated in
> the dairy to a footnote. The story of it goes like this:
> 
> Grant was--as 'Abdu'l-Baha remarked to 'Ali Quli Khan, comparing
> the popular society clergyman to his disadvantage with the fine
> Unitarian minister, Howard Ives--a womanizer. (Here, 'Abdu'l-Baha
> used a graphic Persian word.) His remark was prompted by the fact
> that, as they were leaving the church by a side door, they
> accidentally encountered the rector with a woman in his embrace.
> Later the Master, father to daughter, even more graphically but in
> other words, warned Juliet to the same effect. And in the long run,
> it is of note that finally a woman toppled Grant down.
> 
> She was a Cuban--descended beauty of great wealth, whose luxurious
> car would be seen outside Grant's rectory by day and night. She had
> a dead-white face with bright, red-painted lips, and was a given
> to wearing evening gowns which did not hide the fact one breast had
> been completely removed, while the other remained without flaw. No
> intellectual, she was what Marjorie called "eruditized" by her
> association with famous artists and scholars.
> 
> Wherever Percy Grant went, she went, gazing up at him as he towered
> over her, and calling him "Little Rector." Without his knowledge,
> she spent $60,000 redoing his house. When she had their engagement
> announced in the Paris Herald, his only comment for the press was:
> No comment.
> 
> Next, she sensed that Percy was unfaithful--it was his chambermaid
> this time-put detectives on his trail, and turned over their
> findings to the vestrymen (the Episcopal administrative body) of
> his church. On a given Sunday, when Grant was scheduled to preach,
> they forced him to resign, and took down his name.
> 
> He was also required to pay back the $60,000, which wiped him out,
> and at that time Juliet went about among the parishioners,
> collecting funds to help. Most of the press, except for the Times,
> was brutal, she said. No church but one, Guthrie's, St. Mark's in
> the Bowery, would let him preach. In any case, the words would not
> come any more.
> 
> As to the woman, she lived on, constantly under the surgeon's
> knife, constantly giving sumptuous dinner parties at which all she
> herself could eat was a little rice from a silver bowl--meanwhile
> assuring the guests that this was simply the best way of
> maintaining her (slim and lovely) shape.
> 
> At the very last meeting Percy and Juliet ever had--it was in a
> drug store, and the conversation languished--she asked herself how
> she could ever have loved him.
> 
> __________
> 
> With her final moments in the presence of 'Abdu'l-Baha, Juliet
> brings her diary to a close.
> 
> On 5 December 1912, the ship sailed away, taking the Master out of
> this hemisphere for always. Physically, He would be unobtainable
> now. That was the last, sad day when He uttered His final spoken
> words to America, words in time to be read by millions, then heard
> by only a few. Florence Khanum remembered only four automobiles
> coming to the pier, she and 'Ali Quli Khan being in the second one.
> These two believers, as well as Juliet, although they could not
> know it that day, would never look upon His earthly face again.
> 
> Juliet tells how, aboard the Celtic, more and more Baha'is crowded
> into the Master's cabin, and how they all went above to a spacious
> lounge. There, 'Ali Quli Khan translating (as the Star of the West
> reports, giving his Baha'i name, Ishti'al), the Master paced up and
> down as He spoke:
> 
> "The earth is ... one home, and all mankind are the children of one
> father. ... Therefore ... we should live together in ... joy. ...
> God is loving and kind to all men, and yet they show the utmost
> enmity and hatred toward one another. ... You have no excuse to
> bring before God if you fail to live according to His command,
> 
> [Photograph of Juliet Thompson in later years]
> 
> for you are informed of ... the good-pleasure of God. ... It is my
> hope that you may ... stir the body of existence like unto a spirit
> of life."
> 
> Then the visitors slowly left the ship, and Juliet described
> 'Abdu'l-Baha's final look "as He bade His immature children
> farewell." That loving anguish, those weary, prescient eyes gazing
> from His thin, ravaged face, are clearly seen in a photograph taken
> by Underwood and Underwood at the last moment--and Life Magazine
> (11 December 1950) reproduces it, but with less clarity: the
> Master's look, from the rail of the ship, at the upturned faces of
> the American Baha'is. Somehow, with Juliet, we were able in after
> years to have three full-sized copies made from the old
> photographic plate, and only just in time, for it broke then, as
> a messenger carried it across New York.
> 
> __________
> 
> They still return to haunt the mind, those vanished days and nights
> at Juliet's. I know the steps of those long gone still echo there.
> I know the powerful chant of 'Abdu'l-Baha: "Glad tidings! Glad
> tidings!" rebounds from wall to wall. Surely all is still there as
> it was before: the spidery old chairs, the creaky, uncertain floor,
> canvases looming down in the dark, coals in the grate. Juliet in
> gold brocade and purple velvet: blonded, fluffy hair, smiling blue
> eyes, a man on either side.
> 
> "You are not beautiful," her mother had told her. "You are not
> handsome. You are lovely."
> 
> "There is a magic in Juliet's eyes," Dimitri Marianoff said.
> 
> Marzieh Gail San Francisco
> 
> Diary of Juliet Thompson: Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Chapter 3
> 
> The 'Akka Diary
> 
> 19 June to 27 August 1909
> 
> Naples
> 
> 19 June 1909
> 
> In Naples. In an old palace on the bay--the Via Partenope. Palaces
> around us, ruined palaces on the hills. Vesuvius to our left, Capri
> before us. This is the view from our window, Alice Beede's and
> mine. Yet all the rich beauty of Italy is as fantasy to me. The
> Reality of the Master[1] glows beyond. It is to the Master's heart
> I would fly! And we are going to fly there! We arrived this noon
> and sail tomorrow night for Egypt.
> 
> 26 June 1909
> 
> As I write I look out on Mount Carmel, the flat-roofed white houses
> of the East with their bright blue blinds in immediate view.
> 
> What can I say? I am speechless.
> 
> Jesus from the ground suspires. This line has been singing and
> singing in my head all morning. And yet, it is more--oh, far
> more--than that. The Spirit of the Living Redeemer is breathing its
> peace into the air. As I sat side by side with Alice this morning
> in our high whitewashed room, gazing and gazing toward Carmel
> looming up in its great bare grandeur just before our eyes,
> suddenly I felt that heart-consuming Spirit and melted into tears.
> 
> 28 June 1909
> 
> (We are still here in the hotel at Haifa, Nassar's hotel. I am
> sitting in the hall, looking through the wide window at the end,
> across twelve miles of the bay to the Holy City. 'Akka, dreamed of
> for nine long years--the Mecca of my prayers--is before my bodily
> eyes! I am absolutely inarticulate. What I have felt, what I have
> seen, is too vast to be expressed in human language. I can find no
> words great enough to convey the impressions of these last three
> days--or two days, I lose track of time! And as yet, I have not see
> 'Akka! In His infinite mercy and wisdom and love the Master is
> preparing us; in his gentleness. Yet even the preparation has been
> almost too much for the human heart.
> 
> That first sight of Carmel, with its Mystery, the Holy Mountain,
> "the Mountain of the Lord," broke me down. I am still overpowered
> when I look at it, and as I grow more sensitized I will surely feel
> it more and more. Here the Divine Spirit breathes and reveals
> itself. I know now. Ah, the poor human hearts to whom that Spirit
> is not revealed, to whom the material is everything, who cannot
> know of the Spiritual Kingdom surrounding them, who have not rent
> the veil! Will they believe me when I return to testify? I would
> "ascend to the cross" for them! To breathe this Truth into the
> world I would give my own last breath with joy. I can now
> understand the ecstasy of the martyrs. I pray to be one of them,
> to be worthy of their destiny. I know now what the Master means by
> the Holy Fragrances. I have come to the centre of their emanation.
> The air is laden with the Divine Incense--verily, the Breath of
> God. It is almost unbearable. I am immersed, lost in it. My prayers
> used to grope through space. Now I am conscious of a close
> communion with a heart-consuming Spirit of Love, a Spirit more
> intensely real than the earth and all the stars put together, than
> the essence of all human love, even than mother-love.
> 
> Later
> 
> 28 June 1909
> 
> I have been sitting close to the window--my window into Heaven!--my
> eyes fixed on 'Akka. The phenomenal world has faded away. This is
> indeed, indeed the Reality. That City in the distance, white in the
> sunlight, has been drawing the very soul out of me. I have been
> feeling the Power of the Magnet there.
> 
> Although we were to go to 'Akka today with the Holy Mother and the
> Holy Leaves,[2] dear Carrie's[3] illness, which began last night,
> has prevented it. (It is hard to write; the two little boys, Sandy
> and Howard Kinney, are playing around me.) Carrie will surely be
> well in a few days and in this illness of hers some meaning must
> be hidden. We are all drawing closer through it. An intensely
> devoted, united group will enter the Presence of our Lord. Now I
> shall try--only try--to tell you of what I have seen. These
> privileged eyes ...
> 
> Friday afternoon, the day we came, Amin[4] and 'Inayatu'llah[5]
> took us to the latter's house on Mount Carmel, just below the Tomb
> of the Bab. A simple house, flat roofed, square, white, its doorway
> an arch above rough stone steps; at each side of the arch a cypress
> tree.
> 
> Two women were standing in the arch waiting to greet us. One seemed
> to be a young girl. She wore a straight white gown, and a white
> veil half covered her heavy dark hair with its two thick braids
> hanging forward down her breast. Set in the midst of that frame of
> hair was a little pale drooping face with eyes too big for it. This
> was Khanum Diya, daughter of martyrs, the wife of 'Inayatu'llah.
> The other was a tiny old lady. Her gown
> 
> was blue and her veil draped close, like a nun's, around her
> withered aquiline face, which was the colour of old parchment. I
> seemed to be back in the days of Jesus. Both received us with real
> love.
> 
> Soon Mirza Asadu'llah[6] came in: a frail old man, his eyes so
> luminous that they lighted his whole face and made him appear like
> a spirit. His smile was full of humour. Then his wife entered. She
> approached us with a glowing love and took each one of us into her
> arms. Her dear little daughter, Farah-Angiz, served us with tea:
> honey-coloured tea in delicate glasses. Then Mirza Asadu'llah, in
> his turban and his long black 'aba, sitting by a grated window with
> a stone water jar on its sill, taught us in simple words pearls of
> wisdom. And I thought of what Percy Grant[7] had said to me: "It
> is not what the Master will say, not even His life, which will
> influence you, but His personality." For it was not the words, not
> the wisdom, but a great sanctity emanating from them all that
> overwhelmed me--a tangible strong holiness, a heavy perfume of
> Spirit in the air pressing down upon my senses. I cannot express
> it.
> 
> As well as I can remember, these were the words of Mirza
> Asadu'llah, interpreted by Amin: "Your work is the work of the
> disciples. You are the educators in America. And you must not be
> discouraged that you have not yet seen results. It is like the work
> of the parents who give the best years of their lives to their
> children and perhaps die before the children are grown.
> 
> An ignorant person would say: 'How foolish are these parents to
> give their best years to their children rather than to themselves
> and their pleasures.' Likewise an ignorant bystander, watching a
> farmer sowing in his field--let us say almond seed--might think:
> 'What a foolish man to take this almond, which he could eat and
> enjoy, and bury it beneath the ground, where it will only
> disintegrate.' Yet one who has knowledge of seed sowing would at
> once see that the farmer is sowing one almond to reap
> one-hundred-fold.
> 
> "The most effective teaching is that which is accomplished by
> deeds, not the intellectual teaching. Words have their station, but
> the station of deeds is higher. The effect of good deeds is certain
> to appear in life. It may not be perceptible at first, but will be
> so at the appointed time. As a famous poet has said: 'Achieve good
> deeds and cast them into the River Euphrates. Some day their
> effects will bloom in the Sahara of Arabia.'"
> 
> Then spoke the wife of Mirza Asadu'llah, her strong face glowing,
> her eyes full of tears: "I know from my own case that this is true.
> Did I not forsake my whole family in Persia, to be richly rewarded
> now in this kinship with you from the West? For each dear one I
> gave up in Persia I have found many in America, more precious to
> me now even than my own kin, since the true relationship is of the
> Spirit. In Persia my little son was stoned: and see, Mr Kinney,
> what a father he found in America--in you!"
> 
> "Love," she added, 'is the basis of life."
> 
> Her intense emotion as she spoke penetrated into the core of our
> beings. We wept. I rose, bent over her and kissed her and she
> clasped me in her arms and held me close. Then something within me
> opened. A fire of love never before experienced in my superficial
> existence was kindled in my heart from that flame, her heart. By
> the light of these saints, these torches of God, I see how, even
> in my deepest moments, my life has been but a shallow stream.
> 
> Mr Kinney asked a question: "Although a life of good deeds is
> certainly pleasing to God, is not a life given to the Cause of
> greater value?"
> 
> Mirza Asadu'llah smiled and answered: "These are synonymous."
> 
> "The divine qualities," he continued, "should be real and innate.
> They should well up spontaneously from the heart. One cannot prove
> brotherhood by intellectual proofs. Is a man your brother because
> Isaiah or Ezekiel said so? Two brothers do not need to prove that
> they are brothers. So all you have to do is to truly love one
> another. That love will accomplish all things."
> 
> From this blessed household we went to the Holy Household to visit
> the Holy Leaves. I shall never forget that little procession as
> they entered the room with the dignity of queens, led by the
> Greatest Holy Leaf.[8] She was all in white: the Greatest Holy
> Leaf, the daughter of the Blessed Perfection.[9] Her face had the
> look of one who had passed through crucifixion and was resurrected
> in another world. In it shone great blue eyes, eyes that had looked
> upon many sorrows and now were ineffably tender. Behind her came
> Tuba Khanum, Munavvar Khanum, [10] and Edna Ballora.
> 
> [Photograph: The Greatest Holy Leaf with the Ladies of the
> household. Haifa, early 1900s.]
> 
> Ah, what can I say? Nothing but this: As a bud that was little and
> hard opens in the sunlight, so my heart opened to a wealth of love
> inconceivable to the human mind.
> 
> That night we went again to see the Holy Leaves. They are staying
> in the house that Madame Jackson[11] built. We sat on the broad
> marble steps, Mount Carmel looming, a dark mass, above us. Above
> the mountain hung the moon. Down in the village the little white
> dice-like houses, each with its pointed black cypress tree, were
> a pale blue in the moonlight. The bay to our right splashed its
> waves on the beach.
> 
> I whispered to Munavvar Khanum: "What is that--it cannot be
> imagination--what is that breathing from Mount Carmel? It is too
> strong for me. It is unbearable!"
> 
> I covered my face with my hands. Munavvar pressed close to me.
> 
> "Ah, you feel it too?" she whispered back.
> 
> I have not yet spoken of Ruha Khanum, the youngest daughter of our
> Lord: beautiful, like a strong Madonna--with a great outgoing
> warmth--and so human. Next day we had tea in her house. The high,
> airy room in which we were received is painted white. A
> linen-covered divan runs around the walls. There are no
> decorations--no furniture even--just white simplicity. The Greatest
> Holy Leaf was there, Tuba and Munavvar Khanum, and two little women
> in blue with blue veils on their heads, relatives of the Bab.
> 
> We had already had tea at 'Inayatu'llah's with Asadu'llah and his
> family. Mr Kinney had asked a question the answer to which I must
> keep. "Some of the Theosophists claim that Christ was taught by the
> Sufis. How are we to reply?"
> 
> Mirza Asadu'llah smiled. "Could the sun be lighted from a lamp? If
> such knowledge originated with Sufis, why is it that they did not
> manifest it as Christ did? The churches, the hospitals, the
> illumined souls that sprang up from the seeds of Christ's
> teachings, why is it that these effects did not appear from the
> teachings of the Sufis, if Christ's teachings were born of theirs?"
> 
> After these blessed visits, Amin took Alice and me to an olive
> grove on Mount Carmel where our Lord often walks. Elijah, too, had
> walked in that same grove and among those very trees, so ancient
> are they. The sun was setting behind the mountain. The sky was
> opal. Flocks of sheep and of goats driven by singing shepherds
> passed us on the road. Men in flowing dress and the circleted
> kaffiyyih approached and passed us. A woman rode by on a donkey,
> a long blue veil on her head, in her arms a baby.
> 
> That evening the ladies of the Holy Household came to see us and
> we had a heavenly hour with them. Later in the night Carrie
> developed a serious illness. The doctors (called in the next day),
> Amin and a doctor from the British Hospital, said that it was
> typhoid fever. There were unmistakable symptoms.
> 
> Carrie had been taken ill on Sunday night. On Monday we were to
> have driven to 'Akka with the Holy Family. Early Monday morning I
> hurried to their house to tell them of Carrie's illness and that,
> of course, we could not go with them now. Immediately Tuba and
> Munavvar returned to the hotel with me and we all went up into
> Carrie's room, where she lay tossing on her bed with a terrifically
> high fever. Munavvar and Tuba, standing by the bed, bent over it
> with the tenderest love. "We will all pray for you, Carrie," they
> said. "Our Lord will pray for you. His prayers are always
> answered."
> 
> As Tuba bade me goodbye at the door of Nassar's hotel, she said,
> "Tonight this will pass."
> 
> Munavvar too whispered, "Tonight."
> 
> At midnight it "passed". I was with Carrie when she woke up free
> from fever. Tomorrow we leave for 'Akka.
> 
> But I have been very happy just staying here--perhaps too happy.
> I have been afraid to meet my Lord. I long to see Him but feel
> unutterably shy. How unworthy I am to stand in His Presence I
> realize with my whole being. I remember a dream I had once in which
> I was standing in Percy Grant's house and heard that the Master was
> coming there soon--and I hid that His holy eyes might not see me.
> That is the way I feel now. 'Akka
> 
> 2 July 1909
> 
> I know I can only write brokenly, here in this Palace of the King.
> 
> We came here (can it be?) day before yesterday only.
> 
> My life is overturned by a cataclysm of the soul. Love for the Face
> of my Lord fills my breast. This is REALITY, all else--a dream!
> 
> At sunrise of the day we came I climbed with Amin to the Tomb of
> the Bab.
> 
> When we entered the Tomb the mystery of the Holy Mountain revealed
> itself to me. Here was an essence, a concentration of holiness
> diffused from this Secret Spot like rays shining from a veiled sun.
> Yet, is the sun wholly veiled? I have never been able to look long
> at the Tomb. It dazzles some inner sense in me.
> 
> After I returned: a knock on my door--and the voice of X! She had
> just arrived, a complete surprise, from Egypt. How often I had
> prayed that she might be with me in the healing Presence of our
> Lord--and here she was in answer to my prayers! As she had come
> without the required permission, we were obliged to leave her in
> Haifa waiting for word from the Master. But He sent for her almost
> at once, and now she is in 'Akka.
> 
> Never shall I forget that afternoon's journey. I was dazed, numb,
> unable to realize--yet, afraid. For one thing I did realize--and
> that was my own unworthiness. But the scenes through which we
> passed should have helped me to realize, to sense, some of the
> divine joy toward which we were travelling.
> 
> We were in the Holy Land. We were in a bygone age. We drove along
> a wide white beach, so close to the sea that its little waves
> curled over our carriage wheels. To our right, a long line of palm
> trees. Before us, its domes and flat roofs dazzling white beneath
> the deep blue sky: 'Akka, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. Camels
> approached us on the sand, driven by white-cloaked Bedouins, their
> veils bound by circlets; or sheep, led by shepherds in tunics and
> carrying crooks, striped head-cloths framing their faces. And once
> there came a family, the woman riding a donkey, a child in her
> arms, while a man walked beside her. The woman was wrapped in a
> dark blue veil.
> 
> We forded the river Kishon, then Hebron, and at last reached the
> walls of the Holy City, the City of Peace. Walls: walls within
> walls, menacing walls. Tall, prison-like, chalk-white houses,
> leaning together as they rose toward a rift of sky, slits of barred
> windows set here and there in their forbidding fronts. Streets so
> narrow that our carriage wheels grazed the buildings on either
> side, streets sometimes bridged over by houses that met in an arch
> at their second stories.
> 
> Suddenly a wide expanse before us. A garden. The seawall. The sea.
> Our carriage stopped. I knew we were at the door of the Master. My
> heart almost ceased to beat. I felt we had arrived too soon, too
> suddenly, that I was too unprepared.
> 
> The curtains of the carriage were raised. In front of a great stone
> house, very picturesque and rambling, stood a group of men in
> turbans, long white robes, and dark 'abas (cloaks) with faces
> miraculously pure--shining, smiling--whose hearts seemed to welcome
> us. Then one with a very tender face: Siyyid Asadu'llah, an old
> man, led us through an arch to a great inner courtyard open to the
> sky, where two giant palm trees stood in the midst of flower beds.
> Two stairways of old worn stone, one on either side of the
> courtyard and diagonally opposite each other, led directly to the
> third floor, on which the Holy Household lived. The railing of the
> stair leading to the Master's room was vine covered.
> 
> As I entered the court, a great spasm of feeling convulsed me. My
> unworthiness overwhelmed me. The light of the inner court was too
> strong. I sobbed and bowed my head.
> 
> The Kinneys and Alice had gone ahead of me. I followed them up the
> stairs with the vines, across a small open court with low white
> walls, to a room next to the Master's. This room I was to share
> with Alice.
> 
> Soon Edna Ballora came in. She took me to the window. Outside was
> a large square of bare ground, four trees in a row at a little
> distance; beyond these a street of tall houses, and to the right,
> at the foot of the double sea wall, a long, narrow garden.
> 
> [Photograph of Siyyid Asadu'llah]
> 
> "The Master is in the garden," said Edna.
> 
> He was in white, seated at the side of a wall in the centre of the
> garden, surrounded by guests.
> 
> My first thought as I saw that Figure was God Almighty!--such was
> the majesty and purity. I then thought: King of men! Lion of the
> tribe of Judah![12]
> 
> Soon He came into our room. He burst into it like the sun, with His
> joyous greeting, "Marhaba! Marhaba!" (Welcome! Welcome!) And His
> effulgence struck me blind.
> 
> Alice fell at His feet. I could not kneel. I could not do anything.
> At last, I knelt for a moment. Then He led us to the divan by the
> window and, speaking formally to me, placed me at a distance from
> Him; while to Alice, again at His feet, He spoke with smiling
> tenderness.
> 
> Sitting in the corner of the divan, now surer than ever of my
> unworthiness, I prayed: O God, remove this thing which separated
> me from my Lord!
> 
> Suddenly He changed His seat. "Biya!" (Come!) He called to me
> lovingly, drawing me close to His side.
> 
> He asked me many questions, answered by Alice, for still I could
> not speak. When the father of John saw the angel, he was struck
> dumb for days,[13] and I was in the Presence of the Lord of
> angels--of the long expected One, heralded for ages from the
> mountain of the Lord.
> 
> The great overwhelming Spirit in Him, the Divinity of His Being
> deprives one of all one's powers, even the power of sensation, for
> a time. Yet He makes Himself so simple: in the mercy of His Love,
> in His great God-tenderness, bends so close to us.
> 
> Suddenly my heart burst open to the outpouring from
> 
> His Heart, like a rose beneath strong sunbeams. A beam seemed to
> pierce my heart. At that instant He flashed a lightning glance at
> me. When He left the room, as He did almost at once, my breast
> dilated as if a bird were spreading wings in it. I went to the
> window. Just as I did so, Munavvar appeared in the doorway. "The
> Master is calling you, Juliet," she said, and she led me to His
> room.
> 
> That dear little room, wood panelled, with its white-canopied bed,
> its divan, its simple little dressing table, and on the windowsill
> two stone water jars: nothing more. He was sitting on the divan at
> the end nearest the door, and when I entered, He beckoned me to His
> side. As I passed Him to take my seat I wanted to kneel at his
> knees--my own knees almost drew me down. But, fearing to be
> insincere, I would not yield. He took my hand in His--His so
> mysterious Hand--so delicately made, so steely strong, currents of
> life streaming from it.
> 
> "Are you well? Are you happy?"
> 
> But my lips seemed to be locked. I was helpless to open them.
> 
> "Speak--speak to Me!" He said in English.
> 
> A sacred passion had been growing in my heart: my heart was almost
> breaking with it.
> 
> "Is not my heart speaking to Thee, my Lord?"
> 
> "Yes, your heart is speaking to Me and your spirit is speaking to
> Me. I hear, I know."
> 
> Then he inquired for the two believers I cared for least.
> 
> Of one I could honestly say when he returned from 'Akka he was on
> fire.
> 
> "And he remained but a few days," said our Lord. Then: "Do not
> think your services are unknown to Me. I have seen. I have been
> with you. I know them all. Do
> 
> not think I have not known. I have known all. For these you are
> accepted in the Kingdom."
> 
> My "services"--and He knew them all! He had "seen": seen their
> pitiful smallness and the lack of real love with which I had tried
> to serve. I bowed my head with shame.
> 
> "Forgive my failures."
> 
> "Be sure of this." After a moment He said again, "Be sure of this."
> Then He dismissed me.
> 
> As I passed Him the second time, my knees did draw me down; my
> heart drew me down to His feet.
> 
> Later that evening He came to our door, a blue door in the
> whitewashed wall, leading out into the open court. We knelt in the
> doorway, Alice and I.
> 
> "We are at home, Lord," I said, "at home, for the first time."
> 
> "Yes. Home, home. It is your home."
> 
> That night at dinner I sat on His left. Ah, the little dining room!
> It opens on the court, at right angles with the Master's door. It
> is simple and small and white and its two windows face the sea.
> 
> This is what He said at table, looking again and again toward the
> window, sometimes raising those wonderful eyes to the sky,
> sometimes closing them, waiting--communing with One Whom we could
> not see, then speaking.
> 
> Mr Kinney had said to the interpreter: "We have no questions to
> ask. We wish Him to fill our spiritual needs."
> 
> Then our Lord: "The most important thing is that which comes
> through the Spirit--the Breath of the Holy Spirit. The soul through
> the Spirit can realize the Kingdom. The soul can recognize and feel
> the Love of God. Distance cannot prevent the receiving of spiritual
> 
> bounties. Hills and mountains cannot check that! Why? Because of
> the chains and bonds of the Spirit. The sun is very far, in the
> highest position. There is a great distance between earth and sun,
> yet remoteness and distance cannot prevent its rays from shining
> on us.
> 
> "Without firmness there will be no result. Trees must be firm in
> the ground to give fruit. The foundation of a building must be very
> solid in order to support the building. If there be the slightest
> doubt in a believer, he will be without result. How often did
> Christ warn Peter to be steadfast! Therefore, consider how
> difficult it is to remain firm, especially in the time of trials.
> If man endure and overcome the trials, the more will he become firm
> and steadfast. When the tree is firmly rooted, the more the wind
> blows the more the tree will benefit; the more intense the wind the
> greater the benefit. But if weak, it will immediately fall.
> 
> "As Christ foretold, we will take the real food in the Kingdom with
> the Father. That is the real meeting. It has no limit, no end, no
> separation."
> 
> 1 July 1909
> 
> The next morning at six we were called to early tea.
> 
> I wish I could give you a picture of this dear old shabby,
> beautiful palace, become the most intimate of homes to me.
> 
> Opening from the little court, that chalk-white court, so glaring
> in the sun, a great grey hall with stone walls and a mosaic floor.
> A bare hall, except for the richness of the floor and two high
> perches, a macaw on each--splashes of scarlet and emerald and blue
> against the expanse of grey. Little birds hopping about on the
> floor like familiar spirits. Opening from the hall, to the right--a
> wall full of arched windows opposite its entrance--a very high
> whitewashed room with linen-covered divans lining its walls and a
> large straw mat on its stone floor. This was the room where every
> day we had prayers and early tea with our Lord.
> 
> That wonderful tea hour in the fresh morning! First there was the
> Persian chanting. Then tea was served. The Master always sat in the
> right-hand corner of the divan by one high window, correcting the
> Tablets dictated to His secretaries, the small, glazed,
> ivory-coloured leaf of parchment in His left hand. Around Him on
> the divan we sat with the Holy Family. Along the divan and on the
> floor sat the families of martyrs, a number of children among them,
> whom the Master had taken under His own care. The samovar stood on
> the floor at the entrance on a Persian tea-cloth, a beautiful
> happy-faced woman behind it serving the tea. She had deep dimples
> in her cheeks and her hair hung in thick black braids, a white veil
> partly covering it.
> 
> Her story was this: Years before in Persia, when she was a bride
> fifteen years old, she was with her mother-in-law in a room of
> their house on the ground floor when suddenly they heard a howling
> mob outside. And then a severed head was thrown through the window
> and rolled to the young bride's feet. It was the head of her
> husband, a boy of nineteen. The girl fainted, but the mother
> quietly rose, took the head of her son to the washstand and washed
> off the blood, then carried it to the window and threw it out to
> the mob. "What we have given to God," she said, "we do not ask
> back."
> 
> As we entered the tea-room the Master asked how we were. Were we
> happy? Had we slept well? "Here," He said, "you cannot be very
> comfortable. In New York it is better and more beautiful than
> here." He smiled and added, "There it is beautiful. You have parks
> and trees. But here the heart is good."
> 
> "You have all received letters from me," He said, continuing to
> correct a Tablet. Then, handing one to Munavvar Khanum, "This is
> a Tablet to an American believer which I have just corrected."
> 
> In the Tablet He had said, "Thank God you are all helpers." And I
> had just been thinking: Never can we hope to help this All-Powerful
> Being. He had spoken of the Word of God as having created unity
> among Muslims, Jews, and Christians and said that through the power
> of the Blessed Perfection we had all been made as one soul in many
> bodies, one light in many lamps; therefore we should strive to
> spread and increase this unity and love.
> 
> Then He began to speak to us: "Thank God that He has gathered us
> all together here. Before this Cause was established the East and
> the West never met. But now, since the Cause is established in
> Persia and America, the East and West are united, happy, and in
> perfect love with one another. It is only a great Power that can
> accomplish this. Formerly in Persia it was impossible for
> Christians, Muslims, and Jews to be friends and to meet lovingly;
> but now, in this same Persia, all creeds come together in perfect
> love. I hope all will make an effort that this love and union may
> progress." Then, turning away and gazing out of the window as
> though He were looking into the future: "That all religions may
> become one; all people be of one creed; all nations as one; that
> all differences may be removed. And this is what I hope."
> 
> 1 July 1909
> 
> At luncheon Our Lord asked for news of Mr MacNutt.[14] Mr Kinney
> spoke of the unity in New York.
> 
> Our Lord said: "You have been the bearers of such good news that
> I want to make you very happy. Good news indicates good deeds.
> Unity is the result of good deeds and action. At the present time
> there are good believers in America--sincere and firm in the
> Covenant.
> 
> "Man first is like a pupil. He becomes learned. Then he becomes a
> teacher. First he is a patient. He must attain perfect health.
> Having attained it, he may become a doctor. At first you are
> children. You become mature. Now you must be like fathers and
> mothers." Each time He made a point He smiled His marvellous smile,
> looking at one or another of us.
> 
> "I desire that each of you become so great that each may guide a
> nation. Now the friends must endeavour to attain such stations so
> as to teach the people of America. Divine qualities are unlimited.
> For this reason you must not be satisfied with one quality, but
> must try to attain all. Each of us must improve himself, that he
> may attain nothing short of the best. When one stops, he descends.
> A bird, when it is flying, soars; but as soon as it stops, it
> falls. While man is directed upward, he develops. As soon as he
> stops, he descends. Therefore I wish the beloved of God always to
> ascend and develop.
> 
> "There exist in man two powers. One power uplifts him. This is
> divine attraction, which causes man's elevation. In all grades of
> existence he will develop through this power. This belongs to the
> spirit. The other power causes man to descend. This is the animal
> nature. The first attracts man to the Kingdom. The second brings
> him down to the contingent world. Now we must consider which of
> these will gain more power. If the heavenly power overcome, man
> will become heavenly, enlightened, merciful; but if the worldly
> power overcome, he will be dark, satanic, and like the animal.
> Therefore he must develop continually. As long as the heavenly
> power is the great force, man will ascend.
> 
> "I have met many of the beloved of God this year. Therefore I am
> very happy."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote added in Brumana, Syria, where I was copying my rough
> notes: I think of Him often as sitting there at the table. I see
> Him there often. But I cannot write of it. I found it impossible
> at first to raise my eyes to the Splendour of His Face. But later
> I had many marvellous glimpses.
> 
> 2 July 1909
> 
> Early morning tea
> 
> After those first dear fatherly questions--Were we well? Were we
> happy? Had we slept well?--He said: "Our real happiness is of the
> Kingdom. Here we seek no happiness, because in this world happiness
> does not exist. If you consider, you will see that people are all
> in trouble. The majority of people whom you question have nothing
> to tell you but of their troubles! Their hearts are not at rest.
> And they cannot have this rest of heart but through the Love of
> God. Therefore we must know that happiness exists in the other
> world and not in this."
> 
> Still correcting the Tablets, He said: "There are many letters I
> should write, because I have to communicate with the East and
> West."
> 
> Handing a Tablet to Munavvar Khanum: "This is the Tablet in regard
> to events that have happened in Persia."
> 
> He asked me not to take it down. It referred to political
> conditions in Persia and prophesied that unless these changed and
> union was effected between the opposing sides, foreign powers would
> step in and divide the country.[15] After this, He said lovingly:
> "It is very nice to see you here--that you have at last reached
> here. Tomorrow I am going to take you, Myself, to the Tomb of
> Baha'u'llah. I was going to take you today, but as I am busy and
> have to take the Governor out, I cannot do so."
> 
> 2 July 1909
> 
> Later in the morning
> 
> He sent for me. My self-consciousness, my shyness had made me feel
> shut out from Him, but my heart had been continually crying out,
> with ever-increasing love, to Him. When I entered His little room
> and knelt at His feet and looked up into eyes of Love which I
> suddenly found I could meet, He put out His hand and said, "Now;
> now!"
> 
> I laid my head on His knee. The tears came. He lifted my face and
> wiped them away. "God shall wipe away all tears."[16] Ah, this
> blessed Day!
> 
> I cannot remember exactly what happened, only that Love
> immeasurable flowed out from Him and was reflected in my poor
> heart. One thing I do remember. When He lifted my face, while He
> was wiping away my tears, He said in a voice of infinite sweetness,
> like the sighing of the wind which "bloweth where it listeth and
> we know not whence it cometh or whither it goeth":[17] "Speak.
> Speak to Me!"
> 
> His words in English sink into your very soul. What I lose by not
> understanding Persian!
> 
> "O my Lord, may my life speak to you!" I cried.
> 
> Then I presented Him with the petitions:
> 
> First I gave Him Lua's[18] and read Him a portion of one of her
> letters, speaking of her tests and difficulties.
> 
> "You love Lua?" He asked in that voice of heart-piercing sweetness,
> that voice which is indeed the calling of the Spirit, the
> instrument of Divine Love. "She is dear to you? Your friend?"
> 
> "She is my mother. I love her with my whole soul. Thy Love," I
> said, "has united so many hearts in eternal bonds." I spoke of my
> love for May Maxwell.
> 
> "Your sister?" He asked.
> 
> "My sister and my mother too."
> 
> "Your mother." He said it was this that made Him happy: to see that
> the sisters loved one another.
> 
> "Help me to love all," I begged. "In this I have failed."
> 
> "This is what I wish for you: that you will love all."
> 
> "With Thy help."
> 
> I gave Him the letter from Mr MacNutt. He smiled at the name. I
> mentioned Laura Barney's beautiful goodness to me and prayed for
> blessings for her.
> 
> "Khayli khub. Khayli khub," (Very good.) He said.
> 
> I gave Him Mother Beecher's[19] message.
> 
> Munavvar Khanum translated: "Our Lord will pray for her that she
> will attain to all she wishes."
> 
> I gave Him Mrs Parsons'[20] message, that she longed to establish
> a spiritual city on the Potomac, the inhabitants of which would
> live for the good of the whole rather than the one, and asked that
> the way might be opened for her to come to see Him; also whether
> she should come alone or bring her family.
> 
> "My lord, you know Mrs Parsons?"
> 
> "I know. I know." Then he said, "That city I hope will be a
> spiritual city and that the people of such a city will be perfectly
> united. In a physical city, of course, it is impossible to have
> everyone united. But in a spiritual city it is possible that all
> be united and in every way cemented. The spiritual city is like the
> sea, and the inhabitants of this city are like the waves of the
> sea. In every way they are connected and united. I hope she will
> be able to build such a city as this. I hope she will be able to
> do all the services she wishes and that the way will be opened for
> her to come."
> 
> His eyes were half closed as He gave this message. He seemed to be
> communing with her.
> 
> I read Him Bernard Ginzig's message, that "He had heard the voice
> of the Spirit in the realm of art; that he was a seeker of truth
> in the world of mysteries."
> 
> "Tell him: Give thanks to God that you are a seeker after the
> mysteries of existence and ask God that He reveal to you the
> Mystery of the Kingdom. Should you know all the mysteries of the
> world and know nothing of the Mystery of the Kingdom, it is
> useless. To know the mysteries of the world is very good when this
> knowledge is joined with the knowledge of the Mystery of the
> Kingdom."
> 
> He also said it was good for Bernard Ginzig to follow the art of
> designing.
> 
> In my hand, among the supplications with which I had been
> entrusted, was a letter from Barakatu'llah[21] to me. As he had not
> known, when he wrote, that I was going to 'Akka and as his letter
> therefore contained no message, it was just in remembrance of him
> that I had taken it to our Lord. In it he said he feared I had
> forgotten him. I did not read it to our Lord, only held it up,
> saying: "This is my last letter from Mr Barakatu'llah."
> 
> "You love Mr Barakatu'llah?"
> 
> "Oh yes, my Lord!"
> 
> He smiled.
> 
> "Write to him and say that you are in 'Akka and say that you wish
> very much to have him here too. Tell him you have not forgotten
> him!" (with a sudden captivating smile, tipping His head to one
> side, and looking at me very knowingly). "Tell him you have not
> forgotten him and that you wish he were here with you. Say that you
> mentioned his name in the Presence of 'Abdu'l-Baha and He gave you
> this message for him: that 'Abdu'l-Baha says He loves him very much
> and He will pray for him that he may be assisted to do some work
> in Japan. Until now the Word of God has not been raised in Japan.
> Perhaps he may become the cause of its being proclaimed there. In
> every country in which a new founder appears who will raise there
> the words of the Kingdom,
> 
> [Photograph: A group of New York Baha'is (c. 1912)]
> 
> that man will be greatly helped. Therefore 'Abdu'l-Baha hopes that
> he (Mr Barakatu'llah) will become wonderfully assisted."
> 
> I gave Him Claudia Coles' message.
> 
> "Give My salaams to Claudia Coles and say: I will pray for her that
> she may obtain all her desires and that everything, including
> herself, will be exactly as she wishes."
> 
> I read Him Mrs Ives'[22] long message.
> 
> "Say that she must continue to do to this man as she has been
> doing, she and Mother Beecher both. She must not change. She must
> try to be kind to him.
> 
> "First: herself. She must make every effort to enlighten her soul
> and to attain to such a condition where no sorrow or disappointment
> will have any effect upon her. The condition of entire and complete
> submission is the best one, for when one reaches this condition one
> is perfectly submissive to everything. And when she will be so, she
> will entirely forget her own will and ask nothing but the Will of
> God. Whatever is done in this world is the Will of God. And since
> one, when in this condition, has no will of his own, his will is
> the Will of God and whatever he does is the Will of God."
> 
> I supplicated that she might come and look upon His face.
> 
> "Khayli khub," He said. (Very good; very well.)
> 
> To Mary Little: "I will pray for her and ask help from the Kingdom
> for her and pray that she may become as she wishes."
> 
> To Bertie Warfield: "Give her my greetings and love. Tell her I
> have accepted her love."
> 
> "How do you like all these messages?" He said, smiling His smile
> of enchantment. "I give you such long messages because of the love
> in your heart. It is for this I love you--because you are so
> sincere and have a great love in your heart and love many of the
> believers. I see a great love in your heart. That is why I love
> you."
> 
> I said: "If I have any love, it is Thy gift to me. I pray for the
> universal love, that I may love all, my Lord."
> 
> "Insha'llah! That is what I desire for you: that you love each and
> all; that you love all the people of the world. This is My wish for
> you."
> 
> Just then X was announced. Our Lord asked Munavvar Khanum to bring
> her in.
> 
> Then Munavvar returned with X. We two had a sacred meeting with our
> Lord. She spoke so tenderly of me. He answered tenderly. He then
> sent for Alice Beede. As she entered the room He said, with His
> enchanting smile: "Friends? Friends?"
> 
> Alice spoke up in her impulsive way. "If people are your friends
> they are mine."
> 
> "All are My friends. Each; every one." (In English:) "My friends.
> My friends."
> 
> I was moved to take X's hand.
> 
> "She is mine?" I asked. "Mine forever?"
> 
> He smiled and said, "Yes. Yes."
> 
> Next He sent for Carrie. And when we were all at His feet, Munavvar
> interpreting for us. He said: "I hope a great love may be
> established among you and that day by day this love will increase.
> I have gathered you all together here that you may be gathered in
> the same way in the Kingdom of God, and that you may love one
> another very, very much. If you love one another as you should, it
> is just as though you had loved me as you should. The more you love
> one another, the nearer you get to Me. I go away from this world,
> but Love stays always. Therefore you should love one another very
> much. And I hope that you will become the cause of establishing
> great love among humankind and that, through the help and
> assistance of God, you will be able to establish in this world the
> Love of God. Baha'u'llah endured all these hardships and
> difficulties only for the sake of establishing Love in this world."
> 
> X said: "I wish I might be like this rose and exhale such
> fragrances."
> 
> Our Lord: "One could be much more beautiful than this rose. For the
> rose perishes. Its fragrance is just for a time. No winter has any
> effect upon such a Rose as Man."
> 
> "I wish," said Alice, "that when we go home we may be able to
> diffuse what we have received here."
> 
> Our Lord: "As I have said before: Man first is like a pupil. He
> becomes a learned man; then he becomes a teacher. First he is a
> patient. He must attain perfect health, and, having attained it,
> he can become a doctor. What I wish to say is that those who have
> attained the Kingdom of God will themselves become doctors. All the
> people of the world are patients, are ill. They are in great need
> of doctors, so that through the help of the doctors they may be
> cured of their spiritual diseases.
> 
> "The life of man will at last end in this world. We must all take
> out of this life some fruit. The tree of one's existence must bear
> fruit. If a tree has not fruit you must cut it down and burn it.
> It would be useless for other purposes. And what is the fruit of
> the human tree? It is the Love of God. It is love for humankind.
> It is to wish good for all the people of the earth. It is service
> to humanity. It is truthfulness and honesty. It is virtues and good
> morals. It is devotion to God. It is the education of souls. Such
> are the fruits of the human tree. Otherwise it is only wood,
> nothing else."
> 
> "Thou hast been so merciful, my Lord, to permit X to come while I
> am here."
> 
> "It is for your sake. You must be sure when you are with her to say
> only those things that will help her, for should she do anything
> wrong again it would not be good for the Cause."
> 
> "My Lord," I said, weeping, "I am so conscious of my own
> imperfections I can never feel hers are greater than mine."
> 
> "You must never think of your own imperfections, but of the Power
> of Baha'u'llah which can free you from all."
> 
> I was kneeling at His feet. Raising my hands I said: "Dear Lord,
> free me from this terrible self-consciousness." (For the fact,
> often proved, that he knew every thought in my mind had put me into
> a dreadful state. Thoughts I could never really have thought would
> come flying into my head like evil, fantastic birds--and I knew He
> read them!)
> 
> "I will pray for you that you may be freed from it."
> 
> Again the tears came to my eyes and again He wiped them away,
> smiling His divine smile.
> 
> "I supplicate for X, dear Lord. I love her with all my soul."
> 
> "I hope she may overcome and be exactly the opposite of what she
> has been in the past. I will pray for her."
> 
> 3 July 1909
> 
> Early morning tea
> 
> Our Lord: "I want to tell you that most of the nations and the
> majority of the people are in perfect ignorance.
> 
> They are trying night and day to do something to destroy the
> foundation of man. There are among them political fights and wars.
> There are conflicts and disturbances. Every day they are inventing
> new instruments for the destruction of human life. There are among
> them also religious disputes and conflicts and disputes of
> patriotism. You hardly find two men between whom there is real
> harmony and sympathy.
> 
> "Now you must do your best, so that you may be able to remove all
> these conflicts and disputes. You will change this darkness into
> light; you will change this hatred and menace into love and
> harmony, because your aim is a glorious one.
> 
> "It is sure you will have to endure many difficulties in this Cause
> and that great obstacles will come before you. You will have many
> hindrances. But you must confront all and you must endure all these
> difficulties.
> 
> "You must give up all differences among you--differences of
> opinion--and all work for the same aim. You must be qualified with
> divine attributes, so that the Word of God may assist you, so that
> the bounties of God may descend upon you. And know that without the
> help of the Holy Spirit you will not be able to do this. And the
> magnetism of the Word of God is sincerity of intention. And until
> you are entirely severed from yourself and emptied of yourself, you
> will never be sincere enough.
> 
> "You must entirely sacrifice yourself. You must close your eyes to
> all rest. You must give up even your happiness and your enjoyments
> so that you may be able to do this.
> 
> "It is true that you will be blamed very much and you will have
> some difficulties and troubles. It is sure that people will show
> enmity toward you, and it is possible your own relatives even will
> try to oppose you. But you must be firm. And if you will be firm
> and steadfast, be sure that you will become victorious. You will
> be the cause of the union of the world of humanity.
> 
> "As Christ said to a rich man: 'Go, and give all you have, and take
> up your cross and come and be My follower.'[23] This saying of
> Christ's indicates that unless one is free from everything, one
> cannot be a real follower of Christ."
> 
> 3 July 1909
> 
> Luncheon
> 
> Our Lord: "Jesus Christ said: 'Freely have ye received; freely must
> ye give.'[24] That is to say: Man has received the bounty of the
> Kingdom for nothing, so you must give it to others as you have
> received it. That is to say, not to wish for any reward or
> compensation from the people. You should ask your reward of God.
> 
> "But in this new Revelation many of the believers have attained the
> Kingdom of God with great difficulty. They gave much to obtain it.
> 
> "The Blessed Bab and Baha'u'llah were the Possessors of the
> Kingdom. They gave the Kingdom to the people. But they had many
> trials and difficulties. The Bab exposed His breast to thousands
> of bullets from the enemy. Baha'u'llah, too, spent all His life in
> the prisons. The beloved of God obtained the Kingdom by the
> sacrifice of their lives, under calamities and oppressions. Their
> houses were destroyed and their honour lost. All their properties
> were pillaged. Their families and children were taken as captives,
> and at last they themselves were martyred. Now consider how
> difficult it was for these people to obtain the Kingdom. Not
> withstanding this, the Kingdom is so great that still they received
> the Kingdom freely!
> 
> "Now the purpose is this: that you also should procure the Kingdom
> with so many sacrifices. It is possible you may have these
> calamities and difficulties. The people will accuse you, blame you
> and injure you, but you must show forth firmness and steadfastness.
> And should there be no trials, nothing will be accomplished. But
> when trials appear many will greatly develop. That is to say: those
> who are sincere believers, firm in the Cause, will develop and
> advance; but, on the contrary, those who are weak in their faith
> will escape. But My hope is that you will show forth firmness."
> 
> "Tell Miss Juliet Thompson," He said suddenly, laughing, "that I
> am going to strike her. Others are delicate, but she is strong and
> can stand it." He laughed again. "I am going to beat her."
> 
> "It has seldom happened in any age or cycle that women have been
> killed as martyrs, but in this great Revelation many women have
> been martyred. It happened many times that enemies among the women
> collected together, striking and beating a Baha'i woman. Still they
> could not appease their hostility, their rage, by striking. They
> bit with their teeth. And this was due to their great rage."
> 
> The Master laughed all through this, from the time He mentioned my
> name to the end, a strange laugh. I was sitting by His side at this
> meal.
> 
> 3 July 1909
> 
> Dinner
> 
> Our Lord: "All animals and birds sleep early. This is the creative
> law of God. The birds sleep early. The rule is to sleep very early.
> This is God's wish. Children wish to go to bed early. Gradually man
> acquires the habit of sleeping later. To sleep at sunset is the law
> of God. All children, birds and animals sleep involuntarily.
> 
> "His Holiness Christ manifested in these countries, but in the
> beginning His Cause was spread in Europe and it superseded all
> other religions, notwithstanding that in Asia there were many
> religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Judaism, the star-worshippers
> and idolaters, who are still existing in India. But in Europe and
> America His Cause overcame all others. Now it is our hope that
> although this Truth was revealed in this part of the world, it will
> be spread and promulgated throughout America and Europe.
> 
> "His Holiness Christ said: 'The Children of the Kingdom will go out
> from it, but from the uttermost parts of the earth many will come
> and enter into it.'[25]
> 
> Now the inhabitants of Syria are bereft, for they have no capacity,
> but you, who live in remote countries, have caught this Light. The
> people from around here are deprived, but you from such far
> countries have attained.
> 
> "A blind man, though he sit near the light, cannot see it; but a
> clear-sighted man can see from afar. A man afflicted with a cold,
> if he be in a rose garden, cannot inhale the fragrances, but one
> whose nostrils are pure can inhale from a long distance. The people
> who are in these cities are deaf and blind, but you, having an open
> eye and a pure nostril, can see the Light from afar and inhale the
> fragrances of this Rose Garden.
> 
> "Is this clear to you?"
> 
> 4 July 1909
> 
> Early morning tea
> 
> Munavvar Khanum chanted a prayer.
> 
> Our Lord: "In this prayer which we have just read, Baha'u'llah
> meant 'Abdu'l-Hamid, the Turkish Sultan who has lately been
> deposed,[26] and the verses are:
> 
> 'I implore Thee, O My God and the King of the nations, and ask Thee
> by the Greatest Name, to change the throne of tyranny into a centre
> of justice and the seat of pride and iniquity into the chair of
> humbleness and justice. Thou art free to do whatsoever Thou wishest
> and Thou art the All-Knowing, the Wise!'"
> 
> "A Power above the power of kings," I whispered to Munavvar.
> 
> "And still," she whispered back, "and still we ask for miracles."
> 
> __________
> 
> That day, the fourth of July, He took us Himself to the Holy
> Tomb[27] in the morning.
> 
> I realize now why the Gospels are written so simply. I find I am
> only able to state bare facts. But these surely are more eloquent
> than all human comment on them. Let me give them to you, then,
> simply:
> 
> First, with a father's tender care, He came to the carriage with
> us and watched us start. At the house in Bahji He joined us in a
> cool, whitewashed room, its door and window-trimmings painted blue,
> the usual linen-covered divan lining its walls, under three wide
> windows. Outside stood wonderful trees, like still sentinels
> guarding the Tomb. Sanctity hung in the air, a brooding spirit.
> Nowhere else in the world is the beauty of nature so impregnated
> with the soul of Beauty, a reflection from another world. In the
> air of 'Akka and Carmel is--Life.
> 
> On a table was [a] single photograph, Lua's. Our Lord called me to
> sit by His side, then, pointing to the photograph, said: "Your
> friend!"
> 
> I got it and placed it on a little table close to His elbow,
> between the couch where He sat and my own chair. As I did this His
> face lit up with a smile of heaven.
> 
> Tea was brought in--in the little clear glasses always used in
> 'Akka--and He served us with His own hands. Then, seating Himself
> again on the divan, He called the four children who were with us:
> two of his own little grandsons (Shoghi Effendi and Ruhi)[28] and
> the two Kinney boys, and with a lavish tenderness, a super
> abundance of overflowing love, such as could only have come from
> the very Centre and Source of Love, He drew all four to His knees,
> clasped them in His arms, which enclosed them all, gathered and
> pressed and crushed them to His Heart of hearts. Then He set them
> down on the floor and, rising, Himself brought their tea to them.
> 
> Words absolutely fail me when I try to express the divine picture
> I saw then. With the Christ-love radiating from Him with the
> intensest sweetness I have yet witnessed, He stooped to the floor
> Himself to serve the little children, the children of the East and
> the children of the West. He sat on the floor in their midst, He
> put sugar into their tea, stirred it and fed it to them, all the
> while smiling celestially, an infinite tenderness playing on the
> great Immortal Face like white light. I cannot express it! In a
> corner sat an old Persian believer, in a state of complete
> effacement before his Lord, his head bowed, his eyelids lowered,
> his hands crossed on his breast. Tears were pouring down his
> cheeks.
> 
> Then our Lord took a chair and, facing the windows, pointed out
> these beautiful trees to us. In His spread white robes, with His
> majesty of pose--a sudden overwhelming majesty, after that tender
> humility (in a way Michaelangelesque, only far transcending that),
> yet with the divine sweetness that is never absent, no matter how
> tremendous the Power displayed--He appeared at first glance as the
> King of kings to me; the next instant once more the Spirit of the
> Christ, the Son, flashed upon me. Then, the two aspects were one.
> 
> He said: "We cannot in this world realize the bounty of God, nor
> can we appreciate His Love, but in the next world we can do so.
> 
> "When man is in the world of the womb, God showers upon him all
> blessings. He gives him all the organs, eyes, ears, etc. But man
> cannot put this favour into use there; it is not manifest there.
> When the child is born from the world of the womb into this world,
> then all those blessings and gifts which God showered upon him in
> the world of the womb become manifest and useful. His gifts were
> not known in the world of the womb, though men did possess them
> there, but the world of the womb had not the capacity to receive
> the manifestation of these gifts. Similarly with the gifts and
> blessings which God showers upon man in this world. This world is
> not fit and has not the capacity for the manifestation of these
> gifts and blessings. But when man enters the
> 
> [Photograph: Baha'is visiting the Shrine of Baha'u'llah (c. 1900).]
> 
> World of the Kingdom, then those gifts will be manifested.
> 
> "For example, one of the gifts of God is to be able to pay a visit
> to the Holy Tomb, but man cannot fully realize it while in this
> world. But when he enters the World of the Kingdom, there the
> blessings and gifts will become evident and clear.
> 
> "Is this clear to you?"
> 
> Then, giving us each a handful of jasmine, He led us one by one to
> the jasmine-strewn threshold of the Holy Tomb. As He led me, His
> hand quickened me. Never can I forget its vital, tingling pressure.
> 
> We knelt at the Divine Threshold. Suddenly, He was beside us:
> luminous, silent. Bending, He anointed our foreheads with attar of
> rose. Then He lifted each of us to our feet. And then, in a voice
> which struck across my heart, causing my entire being to quiver,
> the memory of which even now pierces and wrings my heart, He
> chanted.
> 
> When He had finished He asked Mr Kinney to chant. I could scarcely
> bear the thought of a human voice following His. Yet Mr Kinney sang
> beautifully: "O Lord, make us pure and without desire." My whole
> being echoed this prayer.
> 
> Our Lord then requested us all to sing, and the hymn we chose was
> "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
> 
> While our Lord was chanting I could not look at Him, but during the
> singing that followed, I kept my face turned toward Him. I still
> see Him standing by the window, the translucence of that majestic
> profile, the grandeur of that luminous head, white turbaned against
> the white wall.
> 
> We left the Holy Tomb.
> 
> "Come and I will show you My garden," said our Lord. "Come, follow
> Me."
> 
> With the little children--Sandy pressed close to one side, Howard
> to the other--He led us. In folds indescribably graceful, His white
> robes blew about His Figure. Divineness breathed from it. That
> which He manifested then was the tender Love of the Good Shepherd.
> We followed in His Footsteps over the stony field: His garden?
> 
> "Other sheep have I that are not of this fold ... My sheep shall
> know My voice ... And there shall be one fold, one Shepherd."[29]
> As I followed, my heart chanted this.
> 
> Having gone about a quarter of a mile, He stopped and pointed out
> over the Mediterranean.
> 
> "Look," He said, "the sea, the sea!"
> 
> Mr Kinney said, "America lies beyond."
> 
> Then our Lord: "America and this land are one. The world is one--is
> one!" (in His ringing English). "America and this land are one. The
> five continents of the world are one. All the nations are one,
> through the Power of Baha'u'llah."
> 
> By "His garden" did He not mean the united world-to-be?
> 
> __________
> 
> In the morning we were all siting in our room (Alice Beede's and
> mine), Carrie and X with Alice and myself, and were discussing
> something and not agreeing and getting inharmonious, when there
> came a tap at the door. And there stood the Master, in white in the
> sunlight, His hands full of jasmine for us.
> 
> Later in the day, after our return from the Tomb, another sort of
> talk was going on in our room. Someone said something off-colour.
> It was carried on by someone else. Remembering our sacred morning,
> my soul rebelled against it. Again came the tap at the door. We
> were not dressed, not ready to receive our Lord, to open to Him.
> 
> That night He called us into His room--His small, dark,
> wood-panelled room, very dark now with only two candles burning in
> it, their little flames flickering as a breeze blew through the
> window. He looked so mysterious, so unearthly in the dim light. We
> seated ourselves at His feet.
> 
> "How are you?" He asked, "Are you happy? You should be happy after
> your visit to the Blessed Tomb today. Did you think of Lua?"
> 
> X and I told Him that we had. Carrie said she had thought of each
> and all the believers as they sat in the hall during the meetings.
> His face lit up with that marvellous smile with which He always
> blesses us when we speak of our love for others.
> 
> "Very good. Very good. That is what pleases God."
> 
> Alice said, "It is the Fourth of July, the day we Americans
> celebrate our independence."
> 
> Our Lord: "Yes, it is a good day in America, the day of your
> physical freedom. But today you celebrated your spiritual freedom.
> Physical freedom is a good thing, but spiritual freedom is of
> greater importance. Really the first thing is to have the soul
> free. And you must be very happy to have attained spiritual freedom
> on the same day when you attained physical freedom. I hope that as
> on this day you attained the physical freedom, in the same way you
> will be free from all passionate desires and human inclinations.
> 
> Then He went on: "The world is in prison and bondage through the
> leaders of religions who have taken the Spirit captive.
> 
> "The Jewish rabbis have always tried to convince the people that
> their religion is the true one, that they are the chosen nation by
> being descendants of Abraham, and that they are the only people who
> can enter the Kingdom.
> 
> "Likewise the Catholic priests. What they say to the people is
> this: that they possess the true religion, they are the accepted
> people of God and they alone can be saved.
> 
> "Likewise the Shaykhs.[30] They speak against the Christians and
> say: 'God had a Son and the people crucified this Son of God!' They
> say: 'What a foolish thing these Christians teach--that God could
> have a Son and He, the Son of God, was crucified by human hands!'
> 
> "You see how the heads of each of these religions have captured the
> souls of man and brought them under this narrow control.
> 
> "Now Baha'u'llah has come and given freedom to these captive souls
> and released them from their bondage."[31]
> 
> We talked of our walk behind Him--in His Footsteps--over the stones
> and thorns. I quoted: "My sheep shall hear My voice and there shall
> be one fold and one Shepherd." Then X referred to His serving the
> little
> 
> children. "Suffer the children to come unto Me."[32] I said it was
> a symbol of His serving us, who are His little children.
> 
> "They are My sons. You are My daughters, My descendants by the
> Spirit, which is the nearest relationship. This day you are
> spiritually free." Then He dismissed us, saying, "Go and rest."
> 
> As we were leaving the room I told Him it was my mother's birthday.
> 
> "God will bless her. God will bless her," He said. "I have a
> message for your mother. I will give it to you tomorrow."
> 
> Alas for the sin of disobedience! He had said "Go and rest." But
> we were so anxious to write down His words while they were fresh
> in our minds that we stayed in the dining room until late,
> and--shameful to confess after our day in Heaven!--began to argue
> about the New York Assembly: as to whether or not it was united!
> Mr Kinney declared that it was. I said it was not. I even went so
> far as to mention the breeder of the discord, to condemn her
> destructive work!
> 
> But when X and I crept off to the room we were temporarily
> occupying--crept through the black, vaulted halls and rooms, over
> the old stone floors, to the rear wing of the house--a feeling of
> guilt such as I could hardly bear consumed me.
> 
> Next morning when I met our Lord outside the dining room door, in
> the sunny little court I so love because it is associated with His
> footsteps, with the benediction of His Presence, looking with eyes
> that ... forgave? ... no, that understood ... deep, deep into my
> eyes, He put out His hand and took mine in a clasp of love.
> 
> On the night of 3 July, when I was on the housetop with Munavvar
> Khanum: a little miracle! One of countless miracles I experienced
> while in the Palace of the Divine Magician.
> 
> That housetop--roof of the House of the Lord--surely the place for
> the revelation of mysteries! I find I can scarcely speak of it. Yet
> I long to make a picture of it. To me it represents the summit of
> my existence.
> 
> When we first came to 'Akka, every night we would all go up to the
> housetop to walk or sit in the moonlight, Tuba and Munavvar Khanum,
> Edna Ballora, Carrie, Alice, X, Miss Gamblin the governess, and
> myself. Later this changed and I went up alone with Munavvar. On
> the stones of the roof was spread a Persian rug and on this we
> would lie together, Munavvar and I, and under the midnight sky,
> talk of deep things till our Lord appeared.
> 
> And indeed on that roof He was an Apparition. I can see Him now,
> pacing up and down, up and down, with that swift, free tread which
> is somehow like floating, His white garments blowing about Him in
> long, sweeping lines. His background: millions of stars.
> 
> On the night of that third of July, Munavvar and I were alone,
> sitting on a parapet, looking out beyond the strong double sea wall
> to the sea; to our right, in the moonlight, the dome and minaret
> of the mosque and a tall palm tree; to the left, the garden of the
> Master; behind us, the grim, square barracks, first prison in 'Akka
> of the Blessed Perfection and His Family.
> 
> "I have such a funny little message for our Lord from my mother,"
> I said. "I don't know how I shall ever give it to Him!"
> 
> "I wonder," Munavvar laughed, "if it is like the message of the
> mother of Laura Barney!"
> 
> "I shouldn't be surprised! It is about my art. She wants me to give
> up teaching in the Cause--my precious little mother!--and devote
> all my time to my art."
> 
> "Well, isn't that funny!" said Munavvar, "That is just what our
> Lord was saying to me yesterday. He said He had a message for your
> mother. That she did not understand your giving up everything for
> the Cause, neglecting your art to devote yourself to the Cause.
> Europeans, He said, did not understand these things. He was going
> to speak to you about it."[33]
> 
> 5 July 1909
> 
> Early morning tea
> 
> Our Lord to X, who was to leave that morning: "This is the third
> time you have been here. It has been a great pleasure for you to
> have been with your friends each time. Now a long trip is before
> you. If throughout this trip you are always sincere in your
> intentions you will enjoy it very much. This ought to be a
> spiritual and not a physical journey. You must always do your best
> to behave spiritually, not physically, so that everyone who meets
> you will know that your intention is to do good to mankind and your
> aim to serve the world of humanity.
> 
> Whatever you do, let the people know you are doing it for good, not
> only to earn you own living. By doing thus you will be able to
> serve every city to which you go. Now associate with good people.
> You must try to associate with those who will do you good and who
> will be the cause of your being more awakened, and not with those
> who will make you negligent of God. For example, if one goes into
> a garden and associates with flowers, one will surely inhale the
> beautiful fragrance, but if one goes to a place where there are
> bad-scented plants, it is sure he will inhale an unpleasant odour.
> In short, I mean that you will try to be with those who are
> purified and sanctified souls. Man must always associate with those
> from whom he can get light, or be with those to whom he can give
> light. He must either receive or give instructions. Otherwise,
> being with people without these two intentions, he is spending his
> time for nothing, and, by so doing, he is neither gaining nor
> causing others to gain.
> 
> "You must keep these words very well. This is the third time you
> have come here. Fruits must be the results of these visits.
> Patients go to a hospital. Some leave but slightly improved. Some
> leave more ill than when they entered. And some leave entirely
> cured. I hope you will be of those who are entirely cured. You must
> be very thankful that you have come."
> 
> In His room fifteen minutes later
> 
> To X: "You have made your third visit here. Know that We have been
> very kind to you and We love you very much here. It is rare that
> believers come here three times. You must appreciate and be very
> thankful for this. You must appreciate this great blessing and act
> as is worthy of a spiritual daughter, so that when I hear news of
> you I shall be happy.
> 
> "May God protect you under all circumstances."
> 
> 5 July 1909
> 
> He sent for me. Taking off my shoes, I entered the beloved room and
> sat in my place at His feet, on His left. My place. May I be there
> forevermore in spirit! It was always to this place He beckoned me.
> First I would kneel, then sit in the Oriental way. He would draw
> me close, would gather my hand into His, would sometimes press my
> head against His knee.
> 
> "I am going to give you a message to your mother today," He said
> with His smile of love. "Now, give Me her message. Speak. Say. Do
> not be afraid."
> 
> "She told me to give You her dearest love."
> 
> "Ah!" He smiled.
> 
> "And to tell You I was her dear, precious child ..."
> 
> "Ah, very good!" He pressed my hand, smiling.
> 
> "And to say ..."
> 
> "Speak. Go on."
> 
> "That she did not wish me to be a teacher in the Cause. She wished
> me to devote my time to my art, which was a gift from heaven. That
> I was not qualified to teach. That I was too sympathetic to enter
> into peoples' lives to the extent I did. That I let people make
> inroads into my home for the sake of what I thought my duty. That
> she wanted me to change all this and become devoted to my art."
> 
> "Is there anything else?" He asked.
> 
> "No; I think not."
> 
> "Give your mother My best love. Tell her you are her
> 
> dear child; you are her daughter. But though you are her physical
> child, you are My spiritual child, and I love you and you are
> dearer to Me than you are to her, and I am kinder to you than she
> is and I want your good more than she does and I think of you more
> than she does.
> 
> "As to your art: It is one of the Teachings of Baha'u'llah that art
> is identical with an act of worship. And you must go on with your
> art and improve in it. And through this very Cause you will be able
> to make great progress in your art, for you shall be helped from
> Above.
> 
> "But as to your being a teacher: In a short time your mother will
> be proud that you are a teacher. This is an eternal honour upon
> your family. Lately I have seen that God is looking upon your
> family with eyes of Providence. Though your mother does not realize
> it now, in the future she shall know that this is a cause of
> eternal honour to your family.
> 
> "You must do both. You must be a teacher and go on with your art.
> And give some time to your mother.
> 
> "What do you think of these messages to your mother?"
> 
> "What do I think of the rays of the Sun that give Life?"
> 
> "I am glad to see so much love in your heart."
> 
> "How is it that the Lord of mankind has drawn to Himself such a
> tiny atom, such a little piece of nothing?"
> 
> "My wish for you is that you make spiritual progress, more and
> more."
> 
> When He spoke of my art, He pressed the palms of my hands. When he
> spoke of my teaching, He pressed my head and shoulders.
> 
> To be so near, so near that great Dynamo of Love, to
> 
> have been lifted up out of the mass of God's needy creatures and
> drawn to the Heart of the Divine Magnet--may my life blood flow in
> gratitude!
> 
> 5 July 1909
> 
> Luncheon
> 
> Our Lord: "There are two kinds of changes and alterations. One
> causes descent and one ascent. The one which causes descent is not
> good, but on the contrary. The other change, which causes ascent,
> is acceptable.
> 
> "For example, a child from the time of being in the womb of its
> mother until it grows to maturity, changes in many stations, and
> this change is accepted and praiseworthy. For instance, 'Mr
> MacNutt'" (smiling toward little Howard Kinney, whom He always
> called "Mr MacNutt" after his godfather, Howard MacNutt, a very
> dignified man who looks something like George Washington) "after
> many years will grow up and pass through many changes and will get
> moustaches and a beard and will be a man!
> 
> "Consider the bread. It changes and changes until it gives power
> to the body--and then it becomes man. This change is acceptable,
> because it replaces what has been eliminated from the body. The
> mineral carbon changes in many stations until diamonds are produced
> from it.
> 
> "But the change which is hated in all cases is, for example, as
> follows: A man is faithful; he gives up his faith. A just man
> becomes cruel. A seer, a clear-sighted man, becomes blind. Or: to
> be alive and then to die; to be steadfast in the Covenant and, for
> some idea, to become the enemy, like Khayru'llah.[34] At first he
> was a very firm man and was in the utmost faith. Then he wavered.
> Such a change is hated.
> 
> "Many firm souls had the greatest capacity and were like the wick
> and fire. As soon as they came in contact with the fire they
> received light. By a single meeting they were so improved and
> converted that they were entirely changed. While others were for
> a long time My companions, yet never changed. You find a man will
> be wakened by a single call. Another is never quickened even if you
> discharge a cannon! As soon as the ray of the sun shines through
> crystal it will burn, but if the same ray fall on a stone, no
> effect is produced."
> 
> When He spoke of Khayru'llah I looked at my Lord, startled and
> anxious. Could He mean that I might prove weak? He smiled at
> me--oh, with such sweetness. My fears vanished before that sun!
> 
> He called Mr Kinney's attention to the rice.
> 
> "Rice. Rice," He said in English, "very good." Then looking at me
> and laughing: "She is smiling at My English!"
> 
> "I smile because Your voice makes me happier than anything in the
> world."
> 
> Soon, sensing my wish to speak to Him, only for the sake of
> speaking to Him: "Speak. Speak."
> 
> But I had really nothing to say! I brought forth this: "Even this
> physical food is the best in the world."
> 
> "That is because of your intense love. A poison given by a friend
> is like honey. A Persian poet says: 'The poison which comes from
> Thee to me is my antidote. A wound from Thee is remedy.' Certainly
> these physical dishes are tasteful to you because you have the
> greatest love."
> 
> I supplicated that He might give me poison and wound me in His
> Cause, that I might be found worthy of this.
> 
> "I will. When afflictions and bitter conditions taste sweet to man,
> this shows that he is favoured in the sight of God."
> 
> Mr Kinney said: "I am not eating now, but my Master is feeding me."
> 
> Our Lord: "I, Myself, am the Food."
> 
> As He spoke His head was bowed, His hands upturned, like cups, in
> His lap. He sat, the embodiment of Divine humility. A great Mystery
> flooded the room, and a tremendous Power.
> 
> "How like Jesus that sounds!" whispered Mr Kinney.
> 
> "Jesus," said our Lord, His head still bowed, "was the Bread that
> came down from Heaven, but I am the Food prepared by the Blessed
> Beauty, Baha'u'llah."
> 
> After a moment of dazzling silence, little Sandy said, "Why are you
> crying, mother?"
> 
> I could not cry. I seemed to be translated into the Spiritual
> Kingdom.
> 
> In few moments the Master turned to me and smiled. "Eat. Eat,
> Juliet."
> 
> Because He had told me to eat, I felt that I must. I did so;
> finished the food on my plate to the last morsel, though I could
> scarcely swallow it. For the time, I was of the Heavenly Kingdom,
> made of other elements. The physical food was like dust and ashes
> in my mouth. Coarse grained, too, it seemed.
> 
> Later I understood what He had really meant by "Eat, Juliet." He
> had invited me to partake of the Food prepared by the Blessed
> Beauty.
> 
> In the large tea room
> 
> 5 July 1909, 5 p.m. Afternoon tea.
> 
> Our Lord: "We ought to pray for Miss X, that she may become just
> as God wishes her to be. If she be so, it will be very good,
> because God always loves those who repent and are sorry for what
> they have done. Such people are ashamed before God and become very
> humble.
> 
> "Once a Pharisee and a Publican entered the Temple to pray. The
> Pharisee said: 'Thank God I am not as other men.' The other said:
> 'God have mercy upon me, a sinner!' Christ said of these two: 'The
> Pharisee is not acceptable in the Kingdom of God, but the other is
> acceptable, because the Pharisee is trusting in his own action, but
> the other is depending upon the forgiveness of God.'[35]
> 
> "But the only thing is this: One should remain firm in his
> repentance. I will pray for her."
> 
> In His room
> 
> 6 July 1909. Morning.
> 
> He sent for me, called me into His room this morning. Taking my
> hands in His Life-giving hands. He asked me those first dear
> questions: "Are you happy, Juliet?"
> 
> "So happy!"
> 
> "Are you well?"
> 
> "Thou knowest, my Lord."
> 
> He told me He was pleased with me. Then He asked me for the verbal
> messages. He forgets nothing.
> 
> I gave Him dear Sylvia Gannett's message.
> 
> "She is such a beautiful spirit," I said. "She is a peacemaker. She
> never criticizes anyone"
> 
> "It is a very good quality that she does not talk about others'
> faults, for many troubles are caused by speaking against one
> another. Because to talk badly behind the people is very bad."
> 
> I spoke of Herbert Rich and received a wonderful private message
> for him.
> 
> To Miss Colt (who had sent the humblest of supplications): "Give
> My kindest love to Miss Colt and say: You are worthy of everything.
> Tell her that if she were not a worthy soul she would not have been
> blessed with entering this Cause and she could not be able to
> follow the Word of God. She was not unable to hear the Words of the
> Kingdom. I will pray for her."
> 
> "What do you think of all these messages? I give them to you
> because of the love in your heart."
> 
> I spoke of May Maxwell and Mariam Haney and said they were
> beautiful.
> 
> "You are all beautiful," He replied. "And Mrs True?" He then asked.
> 
> "I don't know Mrs True, except through letters."
> 
> "I love Mrs True very much."
> 
> I spoke of Mr MacNutt and Mr Harris, and also mentioned Mr Hoar.
> "They have borne so beautifully," I said, "their ordeals of the
> past winter."[36]
> 
> He was silent for a moment, then asked: "Cannot you unite these two
> factions?"
> 
> "O my Lord!" I gasped. "I! I have longed for years to see them
> united."
> 
> "I know. That is why I love you so. You can do it because you have
> love."
> 
> "If it is Thy command, I can do it, for Thou wilt help me. I have
> not been able in the past because I had not enough love and was not
> patient enough with those who see less clearly than others." (I
> meant those who belittled His station, comparing Him with the
> apostle Peter.)
> 
> "You must become more patient. It would be well if some others
> would help you. For instance, Lua Getsinger, Miss Barney, Mrs
> Brittingham, Mrs Maxwell, also Mrs Kinney, and anyone else you
> think would promote harmony. If you could have feasts and meetings
> in your houses and bring together the chief speakers in the utmost
> love; and if, when you have the opportunity, you would speak to
> them on the importance of unity, it would be very well. You will
> be assisted in this."
> 
> "Why is it the Lord of mankind has been so bountiful to this atom?"
> 
> "If you all could know how I love you, you would fly away with
> joy!"
> 
> "Think of Me often," He said. "Think of the times you have spent
> here. I hope you will become the daughter of the Kingdom; that you
> will become the essence of purity and very heavenly; that you will
> become enlightened by the light of the Love of God and the cause
> of the enlightenment of other maidservants. Is there anything
> else?"
> 
> "There are three little things in my heart, my Lord."
> 
> "What are they?"
> 
> "I have a little godchild named for me, who was born under very
> unfortunate circumstances."
> 
> "I will pray for her that she will be blessed both in this world
> and in the spiritual world." The love and the understanding beaming
> from His face set my heart forever at rest for the little Juliet.
> 
> "My brother?"
> 
> His smile became brilliant. "Your brother!" (in His ringing
> English). Every one of His words in English burns into your soul.
> Oh, if I only knew Persian! "Well, what is it for your brother?
> Speak!"
> 
> "My Lord, he is like a beautiful rose bud: not yet opened."
> 
> Looking at me with divine loving kindness, He said: "I hope this
> bud will become a beautiful full-blown rose and exhale the sweetest
> fragrance. What else?"
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "I pray that Percy Grant may become a believer."
> 
> He pressed my hand two or three times and laughed, and smiled down
> at me.
> 
> "Do you want this very much?"
> 
> "Oh my Lord, yes! So much!"
> 
> "I will pray for this. I will pray for this. But," and He smiled
> again, indulgently, "you too must make an effort. You must help
> him. I will pray for him."
> 
> Then He dismissed me. Kissing the hem of His garment, I left Him.
> 
> 6 July 1909
> 
> Luncheon
> 
> Our Lord: "Afflictions and troubles are due to the state of not
> being content with what God has ordained for one. If one submits
> himself to God, he is always happy. A man asked another: 'In what
> station are you?' The other answered: 'In the utmost happiness.'
> 'Where does this happiness come from?' 'Because all existing things
> move according to my wish. I do not find anything contrary to my
> desire. Therefore I have no sorrow. There is no doubt that all the
> beings move by the Will of God, and I have given up my own will,
> desiring the Will of God. Thus my will became the Will of God, for
> there is nothing of myself. All are moving by His Will, yet they
> are moving by my own will. In this case, I am very happy.'
> 
> "When man surrenders himself, everything will move according to his
> wish."
> 
> __________
> 
> "Today I have answered the questions of all. Now you are left, Mr
> Kinney!"
> 
> Mr Kinney: "There is only one question in my soul. How can I love
> you more?"
> 
> Our Lord: "I will answer you later."
> 
> Mr Kinney: "The Board of Council[37] has met for three years past
> in my studio and I am very proud of it."
> 
> Our Lord: "It is indeed worthy to be proud of. I hope your home may
> always be the place of the gatherings; that the beloved of God may
> always come together there, be engaged in commemoration of God,
> have heavenly talks and speak through the confirmation of the Holy
> Spirit. Your home will be one of the heavenly constellations,
> Insha'llah, and the stars will gather there."
> 
> Mr Kinney: "What could I ask for more?"
> 
> Our Lord: "There is nothing superior to this."
> 
> 6 July 1909
> 
> Dinner
> 
> Our Lord (through an interpreter): "The spiritual food is the
> principal food, whereas the physical food is not so important. The
> effect of the spiritual food is eternal. Through the material food
> the body exists, but through the spiritual food the spirit will be
> nourished. The material food, that is, the food for the body, is
> simply water and bread, but the food for the intellect is knowledge
> and the food for the spirit is the significances of the Heavenly
> Words and the bounties of the Holy Spirit.
> 
> "If there were no love, nothing would be pleasing. Many come here
> and eat, but they do not appreciate it."
> 
> The Master had written a Tablet to the believers in Tihran that
> they should organize a meeting in which Baha'i women will teach and
> train others to teach the Cause. Now they have written the news to
> the Master that they have arranged this meeting and nineteen girls
> and women attend. This meeting will advance directly, and will be
> the cause of developing the girls in every way.
> 
> In our Lord's room
> 
> 7 July 1909. Morning.
> 
> While Munavvar Khanum, Carrie, Alice, and I were in the room of our
> Lord this morning, suddenly smiling at me, He said: "Do you think
> your mother will like My message to her?"
> 
> "Her heart is so pure she must love it, Lord." My hand was in His.
> 
> "She will like that part about your art," He said, with His witty
> smile.
> 
> "She said you would straighten out my life."
> 
> "Say to her: I have two arts: one physical, the other spiritual.
> The physical one is that I draw the images of men. My spiritual art
> is that I draw the images of the angels, and I hope that at last
> I shall be able to draw pictures of the Perfections of God. My
> physical art will at last end, but my spiritual art is everlasting.
> My physical art can be done by many, but my spiritual art is not
> the work of everyone. My physical art makes me dear to men, but my
> spiritual art makes me dear to God. Therefore I work to perfect
> both of them."
> 
> "Thou hast straightened out my life!"
> 
> With his smile of light He said: "I am the Heavenly Artist.
> Although I am sitting here, my pen is working in every part of the
> world, over the pages of the hearts."
> 
> 7 July 1909
> 
> At luncheon
> 
> At this meal I was sitting beside Him.
> 
> Our Lord (through an interpreter): "The Master's love for you is
> like an ocean and your love is like a drop. The distress and
> calamities which the Master has endured for your sake for many
> years, you could not endure for one day. And now, should anyone
> offer Him the entire existent world in exchange for one of you, He
> would not accept it. This means that one of you is dearer to Him
> than the whole world. If a thousand swords be used on the Master's
> neck, or against Him, He accepts that, but would not be content
> that one hair of your head should be taken away.
> 
> "About two years ago some spies came from Constantinople and it
> was a terrible day for the Master. He sent all the believers from
> 'Akka that none should be harmed but Himself. He sent them all away
> that no one should stay in 'Akka except Himself--that if there were
> any kind of calamity, it should be for Him alone.[38]
> 
> "You must realize by this expression how much He loves the
> believers."
> 
> The Master groaned, and left the table.
> 
> __________
> 
> Every afternoon Tuba and Munavvar Khanum, Carrie and Alice and I
> had tea in the room of our Lord. On this seventh of July we had a
> most heavenly talk. Returning to my room with a yearning heart,
> breaking under His Love, and with a devastating sense of my own
> unworthiness, I wrote Him a supplication. I told Him my heart was
> paralyzed by His bounties and it killed me to think that this
> heart, receiving so much, realized so little. I begged Him to open
> it wider and wider to the rays of His sacred Love.
> 
> Scarcely had I finished this pitiful little plea when I saw Him
> standing at my door. That Holy Figure in white in the sunlit court!
> I gave Him my supplication. He took it and, calling Munavvar
> Khanum, beckoned us both to follow Him to His room. Then He asked
> Munavvar to translate it. When she had done so, He simply said,
> "Khayli khub," (Very well) and dismissed me.
> 
> Later in the afternoon, the Master struck me the first blow! The
> beginning of the shattering of my earthly hopes. After this, He
> took from the inside pocket of His long, flowing cloak my
> supplication. Unfolding the paper and looking at me with grave
> sweetness, he
> 
> pointed to the last paragraph, "May my heart open wider and wider
> to the rays of Thy sacred Love." He then folded it again and put
> it back in His breast-pocket.
> 
> Still later in the afternoon
> 
> "My daughter! My dear! My soul! My spirit!"
> 
> "Lord, anything You send me I will bear."
> 
> "Yes. Yes."
> 
> I was on my knees. I looked up to see the Christ-Face yearning over
> me, His hands raised in blessing above my head. I shall never
> forget that Face. It was lifted as though in prayer, His eyes
> closed, His lips apart.
> 
> Then He held my head against His heart, and I heard the Heart of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha beat.
> 
> I went to my room. Standing, facing His room, I reached out my arms
> and my heart cried: I love You. But I made no sound. Almost
> instantly He appeared at my door. I knelt in the doorway. "I love
> You; I love You," I said. He looked at me with unearthly luminous
> eyes, then turned away. Once more I held out my arms. He looked
> back.
> 
> The night of the seventh of July we all sat on the roof. He was in
> His little room on the roof. He sent out His cloak to put around
> Carrie, who felt cold, and she shared it with me. My tears fell on
> His cloak. I had realized this: "With His stripes are we
> healed."[39]
> 
> 7 July 1909, 9 p.m.
> 
> At dinner
> 
> Our Lord: "Since the day you arrived you have daily progressed and
> you have almost changed.
> 
> "Some souls come here and return unaltered. It is precisely like
> one who comes to a fountain and, not being thirsty, returns exactly
> as he came. Or, like a blind man who goes into a rose garden: he
> perceives not, and, being questioned as to what he has seen in the
> rose garden, answers, 'Nothing.'
> 
> "But some souls who come here are resuscitated. They come dead;
> they return alive. They come frail or ill in body; they return
> healed. They come athirst; they return satisfied. They come
> sorrowing; they return joyous. They come deprived; they return
> having partaken of a share. They come athirst; they return
> satisfied!
> 
> "These souls have in reality done justice to their visit. Praise
> be to God, you are of these souls and you must be exceedingly
> happy.
> 
> "If a cow should go to a prosperous town, a city full of bounties
> and divine blessings, and should be asked as to what it had found
> in this town, it would say, 'Nothing but cucumber peels and melon
> rinds.' But if a nightingale should fly to a rose garden, when it
> returns the reply would be, 'Verily, I have scented delicious
> fragrances, seen most beautiful flowers, most delightful verdure,
> drunk most refreshing water from gushing fountains; and I have
> found new life!' Now the reply of a beetle would be, 'All you have
> heard concerning the rose garden is false. There is neither a
> delightful fragrance nor beauty of verdure, nor is it joyous. In
> fact, when I entered it, I was displeased. All you have heard is
> false. Had I not escaped, I should have died!'"
> 
> 8 July 1909
> 
> In the morning of 8 July, the Master rushed with tremendous energy
> into my room and placed me with His two hands on the divan, then,
> going down to the garden and into a little house below my window,
> He dictated Tablets all morning, every now and then coming to the
> window, standing in the sunlight and looking up at me. Never shall
> I forget the Face of my King at the window. Just before He left the
> house in the garden, once more He looked up. I was faithful at my
> post; in fact, I had not dared even to move.
> 
> In His room
> 
> Afternoon, 7 July 1909
> 
> Munavvar, Carrie, Alice, Juliet
> 
> "All this trouble and hardship is just for this end: that you may
> love one another as you should, so that you may be perfectly
> united."
> 
> To Carrie Kinney: "Let Me give you the good tidings that your
> family and your children will be greatly helped; and you must be
> very happy for this. I love your 'Mr MacNutt' very much. It is good
> that you have two Mr MacNutts! Others have one Mr MacNutt, but you
> have two! Of course you love Mr MacNutt, because he has been the
> cause of your spiritual life. The physical father is the cause of
> the material life, but Mr MacNutt was the cause of your spiritual
> life. Therefore you owe him much."
> 
> 8 July 1909
> 
> At Luncheon
> 
> The Master spoke of the many letters He had answered that morning
> and of the packages still unopened. Mr Kinney said: "I will write
> Your letters for You!"
> 
> Our Lord: "Very good; very good. Write a letter and answer it
> yourself. Look into your heart and see the answer. The answer is
> what is written on the tablet of your heart. That which is written
> upon paper is subject to corruption and various accidents, such as
> consumption by fire and moth, but that which is inscribed on the
> tablet of the heart is imperishable and everlasting. A day will
> come when all My communications upon paper--all My writing--will
> be effaced. But that which I have inscribed upon the hearts will
> not be effaced. There is no end to it. For I write the Word of the
> Love of God upon the hearts, and the Word of God is eternal."
> 
> The Master said He was exceedingly happy because of Mr Kinney's
> presence at the table (after a short illness), "for we are all
> assembled together."
> 
> "Just consider what the Bounty of Abha has achieved! Just observe
> in what a condition we are! Imagine not that if you were to
> sacrifice all upon earth, you could produce this attitude."
> 
> Little Howard (aged four) from his high chair: "Won't the Master
> come to New York?"
> 
> Our Lord: "Perhaps you do not know that I am always there with you,
> for though My body is absent, My heart is there; My Spirit is
> there."
> 
> Mr Kinney (to the interpreter): "Tell the Master He will always be
> an honoured Guest."
> 
> Our Lord: "I am the Host, not a guest. For to be a guest is to be
> there temporarily, whereas the Host stays forever."
> 
> __________
> 
> One day at lunch a huge dish of macaroni was put on the table. The
> Master, laughing, rose from His seat, took the platter in His own
> hands, brought it to little Howie's high chair and served him a
> very big helping. Then He told us that "Mr MacNutt" had come to His
> door that morning, had taken off his shoes and left them on the
> door step, then had run to Him, the Master, where He was sitting
> by the window, thrown his arms around the Master's neck and
> whispered in His ear: "My Lord, can't we have macaroni for lunch?"
> 
> "He is never allowed it at home," laughed Carrie.
> 
> In the Master's room
> 
> 8 July 1909
> 
> In the early afternoon He called us all into His room. Beckoning
> me to sit in my accustomed place and taking my hand in His, He
> began: "You are fortunate that during these few days I have not
> been very busy, for to some others it happened I had less time to
> give them.
> 
> "The desire of My heart is that each of you, when you return to
> America, will be just like a torch flaming with the Love of God,
> and that your speech will be wonderfully loosened, so that when you
> enter the meetings, you will enter them with full eloquence and
> with perfect courage. I kiss the mouth of Sandy so that he may have
> wonderful speech, especially for this purpose."
> 
> He then dictated messages to various believers. On our expressing
> regret at burdening Him with so many, He said: "Everything that is
> a sign of your love toward one another, though it take my time, yet
> it makes me happy. And if you will realize how much I love you all,
> you will know that even were I occupied day and night with your
> affairs, I would never tire. For My Love is not a physical one to
> make Me tired. My Love is purely spiritual and divine. Therefore
> I am never tired."
> 
> Through Carrie to Mrs Gibbons:[40] "You must always look forward
> to My will and desire. My will and desire are that you should
> honour and respect all humankind, especially the believers. Never
> try to be the cause of hurting anyone's feelings. On the contrary,
> make every effort to become the happiness of hearts. There is no
> greater sin than the breaking of hearts and there is no greater
> action than to be the cause of the happiness of hearts. If you want
> My happiness, try to be kind to Dr Fischer,"[41] (as I caught my
> breath in wonder at His knowledge, He smiled down at me) "and do
> something that no ill-feeling may exist any more between you."
> 
> Carrie asked for a message for Mrs MacNutt, "if it is not too
> much."
> 
> (To us:) "I love you all so much that the more I mention you the
> happier I become. Say to Mrs MacNutt: Though you stayed in 'Akka
> a short time, it is as though you had stayed one year, for in that
> short time the instructions and teachings of God were revealed to
> you and you have accepted them with a pure heart, for you had the
> capacity for receiving the divine bounties. Therefore, in a short
> time you have attained to a new spirit. I ask God that you make
> progress day by day and that you may have a greater portion of the
> bounties of Baha'u'llah."
> 
> Through Alice to Robert Rich: "Give My love to him and say: Mrs
> Beede mentioned you here and said good things about you. I know you
> have gone through sufferings in your life, but the sufferings and
> troubles in this world are the cause of awakening one. Therefore,
> you must be thankful for what sufferings you have and give thanks
> to God that you have not been shaken by your tests. For the tests
> are very great and sometimes will be the cause of one's being quite
> neglectful. But, thanks be to God, you have faced them firmly. I
> will pray for you, so you may obtain the desire of your heart."
> 
> Through me to Thorton Chase: "Give My greetings to Mr Chase and
> say: Miss Juliet mentioned you here with love and with a face full
> of light. And she mentioned your kindness to her. I am pleased with
> you. And for your endeavour and zeal in serving the Kingdom of God
> I am very happy. And I hope you will yourself become the embodiment
> of the instructions of Baha'u'llah, so that each one who sees you
> and knows your actions will know that the teachings of Baha'u'llah
> are manifesting through you."
> 
> To Mr Windust[42] through me: "Give Mr Windust My kindest love and
> say: Though physically I have not met you, in reality I have seen
> you often. Why? Because in Spirit and heart I am always with you.
> I am inseparable from you. And I know your desire is My
> good-pleasure. Therefore I am pleased with you."
> 
> Through me to Annie Boylan: "Your message was delivered and the
> good tidings of the union and harmony among the believers of New
> York caused a happiness in My heart. For each one in this world has
> a desire. But My desire is the realization of the perfect love in
> the world of humanity. The mention and thought of all the believers
> day and night, must be love, union, and brotherhood. This union
> will be the cause of their progress in all conditions."
> 
> Through Alice to Mason Remey: "Give My greatest love to Mr Remey
> and say: You are very dear to me. You are so dear that I think of
> you day and night. You are My real son. Therefore I have an idea
> for you. I hope it may come to pass."
> 
> He turned to me and, smiling, said: "Do you love Mr Remey?"
> 
> It crucified me, but I answered, "Yes." Again the Master smiled.
> 
> Later, while I dwelt in anguish on the significance of His
> words--while the pencil with which I was taking them down slipped
> from my hand--He turned to me smiling again and, pointing to my
> notebook, said: "Write; write!"
> 
> Soon He dismissed us.
> 
> __________
> 
> Near sunset we went to the Holy Tomb.
> 
> Just before we went He came to our room--Alice's and mine--and,
> seating Himself on the couch, while as usual I sat at His feet, He
> said: "Now I am sending you to the Tomb, and you should ask there
> all you wish and desire. And I will pray also, here, for what you
> pray. And there you will pray for everything you wish."
> 
> In that unutterably holy place I prayed for unity in New York. I
> prayed to be strengthened to fulfil His Will. I implored for
> strength to meet my great tests. I prayed for my father, mother,
> and brother and for every friend I could think of. Then I took from
> my heart the love of my life and gave it into the hand of
> Baha'u'llah. I asked but one thing: that this once-beloved of my
> heart might know His Beauty and might serve His Threshold.
> 
> 8 July 1909
> 
> Dinner, 9 p.m.
> 
> Our Lord, smiling: "Are you happy owing to your visit to the Tomb?
> Mrs B. [Beede]?
> 
> Alice, with a face all shadows and tragedy: "You must feel that I
> never was so happy."
> 
> Our Lord: "Although our assembly tonight numbers only ten
> outwardly, in reality it is representative of all the beloved of
> God. Why? Because it pictures the Baha'i community. The seed, no
> matter how small, in the estimation of the perceptive mind, is a
> veritable tree. The mind images the tree and the tree is revealed
> from the seed. Likewise, when I see you it is as though I were
> seeing all the beloved of God. The Teachings I give to you are the
> Teachings I would give to all the beloved of God.
> 
> "Today when you visited the Holy Tomb, I during that very time
> directed My attention to the Supreme Concourse of the Kingdom of
> Abha and supplicated confirmations in your favour.
> 
> "Praise be to God, your hearts are overflowing with the Love of God
> and you have no great attachment to this world. The thing which is
> necessary for you now is discourse. It is My hope that you will
> attain an eloquent discourse, for I have loved you exceedingly.
> Consequently I anticipate an eloquent, expressive, and excellent
> discourse on your part after your arrival in America. Rest assured
> in the fact that the breaths of the Holy Spirit will
> 
> aid you, provided no doubts obtain in your hearts. Is not this so,
> Juliet? Is not this so, Mrs B.?"
> 
> He helped each of us from His plate. To me He gave His bread. I was
> sitting beside Him.
> 
> "You will remember these nights very often. These nights are rare.
> They are not obtained always.
> 
> "I hope the party that has come, Mr and Mrs Kinney, Mrs B., and
> Juliet, will be real Baha'is and that your deeds and actions will
> manifest this when you return to New York. I have given you so many
> blessings. I hope you will be able to speak fluently and with great
> power in the meetings and share with the rest of the friends what
> you have received here."
> 
> That night (8 July) I went to the housetop alone with Munavvar
> Khanum.
> 
> "Dear," I said, "do you remember my supplication that Percy Grant
> might become a believer? I have had only one strong love in my
> life: for him. We both knew it the moment we met. Then a blow came,
> and I refused to see him any more. I even left New York for a time
> because, really providentially, only a day or two after that blow,
> I was called to Washington to paint a portrait. And in Washington,
> Munavvar, Ahmad showed me a Tablet just arrived from the Master to
> a friend of mine, who had mentioned Percy Grant in one of her
> supplications--merely mentioned his name in a prayer for him--a
> Tablet in which was a message to him and to myself:
> 
> 'Say to Percy Grant and Juliet Thompson: O ye intelligent ones,
> there is no rest or tranquillity in this world. There is no
> composure of mind. The world is in need of the Heavenly
> Glad-Tidings. Therefore, turn ye to the Kingdom of Abha and seek
> after spiritual attraction, for life without this is death and this
> evanescent world like the mirage in the desert.'
> 
> __________
> 
> "This is as well as I can remember it. And ever since then this
> spiritual attraction has been growing. But today I took this love
> out of my heart and returned it to God. And now I am ready to do
> the Master's Will."
> 
> "Why did you do this, dear?"
> 
> "Because I believed it to the be the Master's Will."
> 
> "What made you think that?"
> 
> "Don't you know?"
> 
> "Yes, dear, I think I do. Something He said this afternoon?"
> 
> "Yes, dear."
> 
> "Our Lord has asked me to speak about this to you, Juliet. He seems
> to wish it very much. He knows this other man too, but He thinks
> Mr Remey would be better. But He also wishes to know your own
> feelings."
> 
> "He knows my own feelings, Munavvar darling. There is no flinching
> in me that He does not know. But I have prayed to make any
> sacrifice and I could have no greater opportunity. I could make no
> greater sacrifice than in marrying a man I did not love. But for
> the Master's sake I would do it joyfully."
> 
> "But, dear, He would not wish you to go against your inner
> feelings. Tell me about it."
> 
> "Perhaps I am too much attracted by people of brilliant intellect.
> And this man I love has such a powerful one! But how can I think
> of my own preferences when the Master wishes something else for
> me?"
> 
> Suddenly our Lord appeared on the housetop. Walking
> 
> up and down like a king, He began to talk to us. I listened in
> breathless wonder. Most of what He said has escaped me. I can only
> write fragments.
> 
> He told me He wished me to have a great power of discourse. He
> spoke of love. He said I had a great capacity for love, that this
> was the promising sign in me. "Qurratu'l-'Ayn,"[43] He said, "had
> nothing but her love. This was her power."
> 
> I spoke of how deeply I felt my unworthiness.
> 
> "Capacity attracts," He answered. "The greater your capacity, the
> more you will be filled. When the child is hungry and cries for
> milk, the milk of the mother begins to flow rapidly."
> 
> I could scarcely speak after all He said. When His bounties are
> pouring upon me I always feel paralyzed. All my senses are numb,
> dead. It kills me to be so, beneath the outpourings of His
> generosity. To be in the Presence of the Lord and not aglow! I am
> filled with shame and the sense of my utter unworthiness. I
> murmured to Munavvar Khanum: "Say to our Lord for me: What matters
> the physical life now? I can do nothing for Him, for Whom I want
> to do everything, but follow His commands and wishes to the
> minutest detail."
> 
> He then came and sat on the rug beside us and began to speak of
> Mason Remey. Oh, to picture Him as He was then--no longer the Lord,
> the King, but the tender Father--a something eager (if I may use
> the word) in His manner and tone.
> 
> He told me He loved Mason Remey so much and He loved me so much
> that He wished us to marry. That was the meaning of His message to
> Mason. He said it would be a perfect union and good for the Cause.
> Then He asked me how I felt about it.
> 
> I answered: "I will gladly fulfil Thy wish."
> 
> "But what are your inner feelings?"
> 
> "Lord, Thou knowest my inner feelings."
> 
> "You love this other man? You love?"
> 
> "It is secondary now. My only desire is to fulfil Thy Will. Thou
> knowest best. My only desire is to give all I have for Thee--to
> give my dearest. I can do this now. This is my opportunity."
> 
> "But, my daughter, My wish is for your happiness. You must be frank
> with Me about it. The inner feelings cannot be forced. In speaking
> with you just now I was giving you spiritual commands. This is
> different; this is material, and, in regard to it, I am not
> commanding but suggesting. This union with Mr Remey is merely an
> idea, a suggestion of Mine."
> 
> "Thy suggestions and ideas come from the Infinite Wisdom."
> 
> "But--understand Me--I wish your happiness."
> 
> "I should rather follow Thy wish. I should be happier following Thy
> wish than in marrying the man I love."
> 
> "Well, is it possible for you to love Mr Remey as you do this other
> man?"
> 
> "Is it possible, Lord?"
> 
> "If it is possible to love Mr Remey equally well, for him to take
> the place of the other, then I should be glad." He paused a moment.
> "But your marrying the other is very good, if you can make him a
> believer. And you must pray for it. If you see that he has an
> inclination to become a believer, even before he does so, you can
> 
> marry him. If you can lead him to the Cause this is very, very
> good. Am I not a kind Father?" He asked.
> 
> I spoke brokenly of His Love.
> 
> "I am the Essence of Love."
> 
> I remember His saying later: "Appreciate this night. Many a soul,
> both now and throughout the ages, would give their lives for five
> moments of such a night on this roof with Me--and with Munavvar
> Khanum."
> 
> During the tender talk that followed, I asked: "May I come here
> again?"
> 
> "Yes; yes!" He replied. "You have permission to come whenever you
> find you can do so."
> 
> Ah, "many a soul, both now and throughout the ages, would give
> their lives for five moments of such a night on the roof with
> Him--and with Munavvar Khanum."
> 
> 9 July 1909
> 
> Morning
> 
> He called me to His little room. Tuba Khanum interpreted for me.
> What He said to me I cannot tell--only a tiny part.
> 
> "You have stood a very great test. I love you dearly. Your tests
> have been very, very great. And when they came you did not flinch"
> (raising His hand with a strong gesture) "but stood firm and met
> them bravely. And they were very great."
> 
> "My Lord, I have been grieving for not having met them more
> perfectly."
> 
> Then followed what I cannot tell. Only my Lord, Tuba and myself,
> and Beings in the Unseen World who live in the Presence of the
> Master, know what He said to me then. I wept at His feet.
> 
> "What I have told you is because of this," He said, "this condition
> of your heart."
> 
> "Be happy," He continued. "Think if you were at the feet of Christ
> in His time, His hand covering yours."
> 
> "I am so unworthy. I am so dead. Quicken me into Life!"
> 
> "I will. Be at rest, and I will. I will widen you. I love your
> love."
> 
> "Perhaps I feel so dead in order to realize that everything comes
> from Thee, that without Thee I am indeed dead. Without Thee I can
> do nothing."
> 
> At the end He said: "Go, and be My light in America."
> 
> Kissing the hem of His garment, I left Him.
> 
> A little later, still on the housetop, He pointed to the waning
> moon. "The moon ... the stars ... the East ... no! I am the Sun of
> the West!" He said.
> 
> "For us? Us Christians?"
> 
> "Yes. For you."
> 
> After an interval: "I am not worthy, Lord, that Thy Glory should
> be revealed to me yet?"
> 
> "No."
> 
> "But some day?"
> 
> "Yes."
> 
> There was a flash from His eyes. For an instant they were like
> brilliant stars before which the stars in heaven paled. Then He
> veiled them with His lids. Two more flashes, and they became as
> usual. Unworthy though He had found me, He, in His mercy and love,
> gave me three glimpses of His Glory.
> 
> "My Spirit loves your spirit. I love your heart." He touched my
> heart; and it leapt beneath His fingers.
> 
> "The strings of my heart vibrate," I said, "beneath the fingers of
> the Divine Musician."
> 
> He touched it again; and again it was strangely stirred. "Ahh!" I
> breathed.
> 
> "Why 'Ahh'?"
> 
> "This heart will sing for Thee forever!"
> 
> He covered my lips with His hand.
> 
> "Love," He said. For a moment he lifted His hand.
> 
> "Love," I repeated. His hand closed again on my lips.
> 
> "Love!" He said, lifting His hand.
> 
> "Love," I repeated. He made me repeat it many times.
> 
> He touched my eyes and my forehead.
> 
> "I am Thy new creation," I said. "Keep me unspotted from the
> world." I had been kneeling at His feet. I raised my face and
> looked up. That Face of Grandeur, the long grey hair blown about
> it, under the stars!
> 
> "My Lord!"
> 
> "Yes!" with incredible majesty.
> 
> "My King!"
> 
> "Yes!"
> 
> "O Christ!"
> 
> There was no answer.
> 
> "Word of God!"
> 
> "Yes!"
> 
> "King of the Seen and the Unseen!"
> 
> "Yes!"
> 
> "Prince of Peace!"
> 
> "Ah. Peace ..." He seemed to sigh the word: from that housetop,
> across the world. I shall never forget the heartbreak in the sigh.
> 
> Then, turning to me: "I am thy Father. Say: Thou art my Father."
> 
> "Thou art my Father."
> 
> "I am thy King. Say: Thou art my King."
> 
> "Thou art my King."
> 
> "I am thy Beloved."
> 
> "Thou art my Beloved!"
> 
> 9 July 1909
> 
> Luncheon, 12:30
> 
> Our Lord: "How spiritual are our meetings! In the utmost love are
> we set aglow! The hearts are all attracted to each other. It is
> just like being one soul, one body. Such a meeting as this is
> impossible and cannot be organized save through the Love of God.
> There is no material interest whatsoever. There is no worldly
> desire at all. In the utmost purity and holiness has the Force of
> Divinity assembled us. All, with perfect sincerity, are directing
> our attention to the Kingdom of Abha, and our greatest desire is
> His good-pleasure.
> 
> "New pilgrims have arrived from Persia. Souls firm in the Covenant
> have arrived. They have come in the utmost love. The Light of the
> Love of God is radiant in their countenances.
> 
> "Yesterday Mr Kinney asked me concerning music and I promised I
> would answer him today:
> 
> "Music is of the important arts. It has a great effect upon the
> human spirit. Musical melodies are a certain something which prove
> an accidental[44] upon ethereal vibrations. For voice is nothing
> but the expression of vibrations, charged therewith, which affect
> the nerves of the ear. Musical melodies are therefore those
> peculiar effects which are produced by vibrations. However, music
> has the keenest effect upon spirits. Although it is a material
> affair, its tremendous effect is spiritual and its greatest
> attachment is to the realm of the spirit.
> 
> "If a person desires to deliver a discourse, it would prove more
> effective after musical melodies. The ancient Greek philosophers,
> as well as the Persian, were in the habit of delivering their
> discourses in the following manner: First, there would be musical
> melodies, and when the audience had been influenced to a certain
> extent thereby, they would leave their instruments and begin their
> discourse.
> 
> "Among the most ancient musicians of Persia was one named Barbad.
> When a great question was asked at the court of the king and the
> ministers failed in persuading the king, the matter would be
> referred to Barbad. Whereupon Barbad would go with his instrument
> to the court and would play the most appropriate and touching
> music: and the end would at once be gained. Because the king would
> immediately be affected by the musical melodies. Certain feelings
> of generosity would swell in his heart, and he would give way.
> 
> "You may try this. If you have a great desire for something, if you
> wish earnestly to attain your end, try to attain it in a musical
> audience. But there are people who are like stones, and music
> cannot affect a stone.
> 
> "Now let us go back to the original subject: Music is an important
> means for the education and development of humanity. But the main
> cause for the development of humanity is the Teaching of God.
> 
> "Music is like this glass which is perfectly pure and polished. It
> is precisely like this clear chalice before us. And the Teachings
> and Utterances of God are like the water. When the chalice is in
> the utmost state of purity, absolutely clear and polished, and the
> water is perfectly fresh, then it will confer life. Wherefore, the
> Teachings of God, whether they be Utterances in the form of
> homilies, or prayers and communes, when they are melodiously
> chanted will proved most impressive. It is for this reason that His
> Holiness David sang the psalms with melody in the Holy of Holies
> at Jerusalem.
> 
> "In this Cause the art of music is of paramount importance. The
> Blessed Perfection, Baha'u'llah, when He first came to the barracks
> often repeated this statement: If among His immediate followers
> there were some who could play some musical instrument, for
> instance the flute or the harp, or who could sing, it would have
> charmed everyone.
> 
> "In short, musical melodies play an important role in the outward
> and inward qualities of man, for music is the inspirer and motive
> power of both the material and the spiritual susceptibilities. What
> a motive power it is in feelings of love! When man is attracted to
> the Love of God, music will have a great effect upon him."
> 
> The Master turned to the window and pointed to a ship on the sea.
> 
> "See: a ship!" He said to Alice, who was sitting beside Him at this
> meal.
> 
> "If we build the Temple quickly," she asked, "and send a ship for
> You, will you come to America?"
> 
> "I will come of My own volition to America if they build the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar quickly. But," (sadly and very gently) "they will
> not build it quickly."
> 
> I was sitting next to Edna Ballora. Taking her hand, I said to our
> Lord: "May Edna help me with the meetings in my studio when we
> return to New York?"
> 
> "Khayli khub. Khayli khub. You love Edna Ballora?" He asked, His
> eyes--so holy, so shining--fixed on me.
> 
> "Oh yes, my Lord!"
> 
> "Very much?"
> 
> "Oh so much!" The love already in my heart for Edna was fanned to
> an intense flame. It burned; it hurt me.
> 
> "Very, very much?"
> 
> The Master was still gazing at me, and now I could scarcely bear
> that flame in me, in which my heart itself seemed to be melting
> away. Tears rained down my cheeks.
> 
> "Edna," cried the Master, "behold your friend! It is possible for
> fathers and mothers to weep when their children are in trouble, but
> it is rare that they weep merely for love of their children, as
> Juliet has wept for love of you."
> 
> Oh, Heavenly Artist! For one brief moment he had created in me the
> Love of God; He had given me a foretaste of that
> Love--other-dimensional, superhuman --which with my whole soul I
> pray I may attain some day. For without this universal love how can
> we hope to work for the Kingdom of God, the oneness of man on
> earth?
> 
> And, in that mysterious moment, I understood that the universal
> love is not "impersonal". I loved not only Edna's soul, but all of
> her. I could have died for her.
> 
> 9 July 1909
> 
> Dinner, 9 p.m.
> 
> Our Lord: "Tonight Mr Sprague[45] is going to speak to you, because
> he has been to Persia and has spent a year in Tihran. Hence he
> shall speak."
> 
> Mr Sprague: "It is impossible to speak when our Lord is here."
> 
> On being further pressed by our Lord, he referred to a meeting
> where a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim were present and, remaining
> for the night, shared the same bed.
> 
> Our Lord: "Consider what the power of the Covenant has done! It was
> an impossibility for a Zoroastrian to unite with a Sid and a mulla
> with a Jew. And for these to assemble with a Christian was an
> absolute impossibility. But the power of the Covenant has even so
> gathered them that they are accounted as one spirit. Although the
> bodies are numerous, the spirit is one.
> 
> "About thirty or forty years ago, in the province of ... , the
> Muslims assaulted the Jewish colony and began a wholesale
> slaughter, and only those Jews who, narrowly escaping, could get
> to the mosque to confess were saved. The rest were subjected to
> wholesale murder. And those who apparently were converted are in
> reality, up to the present time, Jews. But many became Baha'is.
> 
> "Mirza 'Azizu'llah Khan whom you met: his father was martyred, and
> his brother at the age of twelve gave his life for the Cause."
> 
> At the table that night was a boy from India, brought to 'Akka by
> Sydney Sprague, who was taking the child to his own school in
> Turkey to educate him. The father of the boy had given his life for
> Mr Sprague. It happened in this way: Mr Sprague was then in India,
> teaching the Cause and, in his enthusiasm, he remained till too
> late in the summer in Calcutta. A plague broke out and the people
> died by hundreds. Every hospital was crowded, the doctors and
> nurses were all busy. Even the Baha'is had their hands too full.
> Mr Sprague came down with typhoid fever. One of the Baha'is wrote
> to another in a nearby town, to a shopkeeper named Kay-Khusraw,
> asking his help. Kay-Khusraw immediately closed his shop and made
> his will. Then he said goodbye to his family--forever in this
> mortal life--and went to Calcutta to nurse his American brother,
> whom he had never seen. Under his tender care, Mr Sprague
> recovered, but scarcely was he convalescent when the plague
> overtook Kay-Khusraw and within a day or two he died.
> 
> Mr Sprague told me the whole story. He knew that he must pay a
> visit to Kay-Khusraw's family, but he dreaded facing them, more
> than anything, he told me, that he had ever had to do. But when he
> entered their house, they greeted him with outstretched arms. "Do
> not feel sad," they said. "It was right that Kay-Khusraw should
> give his life for his brother. Besides, Mr Sprague, you are a great
> teacher and Kay-Khusraw was a humble shopkeeper. He could never
> have served the Cause as you can."
> 
> __________
> 
> A sweet picture of the Master: He had sent for us that afternoon
> to meet Mr Sprague and the Persian believers and, not being ready,
> I put on a dress I could slip into easily. As I passed the Master
> standing in His door: "I am afraid I am not dressed well enough,"
> I said.
> 
> He touched my arm, smiling with the utmost sweetness.
> 
> "The Persian believers do not look at the dress, My child. They
> look at the heart."
> 
> 10 July 1909
> 
> Morning
> 
> Our Lord has just called me into His room with Munavvar.
> 
> "I love you very dearly," He said. "That is the reason I am
> speaking so freely to you. To others I do not speak so freely. This
> is just for you.
> 
> "Do you know Miss __________? She came here and was full of love
> and aglow. Then she returned and married and her love for the
> Blessed Perfection grew cold. Now I want to tell you," (and He put
> His arms around me and held me close, and never shall I forget
> those protecting arms!) "I want to tell you not to marry this man
> until you have made him a believer. Because afterward it would be
> more difficult. First make him a believer. You can. Then he will
> be a good husband to you and will make you very happy. And he will
> be a good believer. I speak to you so freely because I love you so
> much. To others I say: 'Do as you like.' But to you I am more
> explicit and I say: Do not do this. You only see the beginning. I
> see the end. But do your best to make him a believer. You can. He
> will become one out of his love for you. He loves you now. The
> first love is very strong. After you were married it might not be
> so easy. Then he might influence you. I will pray for you and
> assist you and you will do this. But do not yield. Do not marry
> him, though it take years to make a believer."
> 
> Those strong arms of Love gathered me closer--my refuge, my
> shelter, my eternal protection. I know that whatever may come in
> the future I shall feel in the moment of test: those arms, those
> great tender, tender arms. No one knows what such a clasp is save
> those who have been in the arms of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
> 
> "It is because I love you so that I say this," He repeated. "When
> you return," He continued, "say to him: If you will go yourself to
> 'Akka, you will see that which is beyond conception. If you go you
> will find all your conceptions useless in comparison with the Real-
> 
> ity. If you go you will be given that for which you would not
> exchange all the kingdoms of the world."
> 
> "Shall I tell him this from Thee?"
> 
> "It is wiser not to--yet," with that wonderful witty smile. "If you
> see some softening you may."
> 
> "You know him?" I asked.
> 
> "I know everyone in the world."
> 
> "You love him?"
> 
> "Yes, I love him. As you are my daughter, I want him to be my son."
> 
> "Is he not the material martyrs are made of?"
> 
> "Make him so!" He smiled. "Am I not a kind Father, Juliet?"
> 
> "Thou art too kind. I am crushed beneath Thy love and generosity."
> 
> "You had a great test about this and you passed it well. Speak;
> speak," He said. "Tell Me all you wish to tell Me."
> 
> I began to speak of Percy Grant and of his lifework, carried on in
> the face of strong opposition and at the risk of his worldly
> career.[46] But I stopped very soon, feeling that words were so
> futile. My Lord knew all.
> 
> When I left Him I kissed the hem of His garment.
> 
> 10 July 1909
> 
> How can such a pen as mine write of superhuman things?
> 
> On the morning of 10 July, our Lord Himself took us to the room
> where are kept the pictures of the Bab and the Blessed Perfection,
> Baha'u'llah.
> 
> The room is very long and bare. At the further end of it stand
> three easels and on each easel a picture. We approached those
> Sacred Pictures from afar. To the left, as we approached, was a
> miniature of the Bab; to the right a miniature of the Blessed
> Perfection and, in the centre, a photograph of the Blessed
> Perfection.
> 
> The instant I saw that photograph I fell with my face to the
> ground, trembling and sobbing. It was as though the Picture were
> alive and Something had rushed from it and struck me a blow between
> the eyes. I cannot explain it. The power and the majesty were
> terrific.
> 
> Soon the Master touched me on the shoulder. (I had already risen
> to my knees and was staring at the photograph.) He drew my
> attention to the miniature of Baha'u'llah. "This is a painting.
> This will interest you, Juliet."
> 
> But my eyes were fastened on the photograph. I could not remove
> them, except for a brief moment, from that omnipotent Face.
> 
> Yet--dare I say it? I love the Face of 'Abdu'l-Baha more. When I
> ventured to tell Munavvar this, she answered, "But if you could
> have seen Baha'u'llah! That photograph is not good. If you could
> have seen His eyes!"
> 
> (Footnote. Brumana. Riyad Effendi has just told me a wonderful
> thing which explains this feeling of mine. He told it to me in
> answer to my guilty question: "Why do I love the Face of the Master
> more than the Face of Baha'u'llah?" In a hadith,[47] he said, there
> is a marvellous prophecy: that in the Latter Days God would reveal
> Himself as God; would come, announcing, "I am God." Then, when this
> proved too strong for the hearts of the people, He would change His
> Manifestation and appear once again in the Form of "The Servant",
> that all men might draw nearer to Him.)[48]
> 
> __________
> 
> Once I said to our Lord: "In a dream one night I saw Thy Face. And
> it was really Thy Face. I know now. And in my dream I thought: This
> is a Beauty to follow, leaving everything behind. It is a Beauty
> to die for."
> 
> He leaned forward and looked at me with great solemnity. "That was
> a true vision," He said, "and you will see it again."
> 
> 10 July 1909
> 
> Luncheon
> 
> Our Lord: "The Baha'i news from Persia is very good. I cannot tell
> it to you--it is not permissible; but it could not be better. The
> news of the country is bad, but that of the Cause is exceedingly
> good.[49] This is glad-tidings to be given to you.
> 
> "Today you had a visit to the Blessed Bab and the Blessed
> Perfection."
> 
> Mr Kinney: "I shall always see the Face of the Blessed Perfection."
> 
> Our Lord: "At the time of prayer one must hold in one's mind some
> object. Then he must turn his face and direct his mind to this
> picture. But whatever form is produced in the mind is imagination,
> that is, one's own conception. There is no connection between it
> and the Reality. Therefore people worship imagination. They think
> of an imaginary God. That of which they think is not God. God can
> never be comprehended. That which man thinks is comprehended by
> man, but God is comprehensive. All that comes under comprehension
> is outside God. The Reality of Divinity is holy, lofty, sacred
> beyond comprehension. All nations worship their images of a god and
> these imaginary gods are superstitious phantoms. Hence they are
> worshipers of superstitions.
> 
> "Therefore the Objective Point of all is the Manifestation of God.
> And whosoever directs his attention in prayer to that Focal Point
> has directed his attention, verily, to God.
> 
> "At the time of His Holiness Jesus Christ the Jews forsook Him,
> and would imagine a phantasmal god and would adore that!" (The
> Master laughed, continuing to laugh heartily.) "On a certain
> occasion the famous heroine of this Movement, Qurratu'l-'Ayn,
> chanced to meet a devout Muslim who was praying and questioned him
> thus: 'To whom art thou praying, may I ask?' 'I am praying to the
> very Essence of Mercy and the Reality of Divinity.' And she,
> smiling, said: 'Oh, away with your god! Away with him! Your god is
> an imagination! Come, and I will show you the God of today! It is
> the Bab! Your god is a phantom, while this is a certainty. Can the
> Sea be contained in a little glass?'"
> 
> In reply to a question asked by Alice regarding the personality of
> the Manifestation: "The Blessed Perfection does not mean His body.
> This body is now interred in the Holy Tomb. When we say the Blessed
> Perfection we mean the Reality, and the Reality of the Blessed
> Perfection is living and everlasting.
> 
> "Just as in the time of Christ: the disciples were agitated when
> they saw the body of Jesus crucified. Then Mary Magdalene came to
> them and said: 'Why are you agitated?' 'Because,' they replied,
> 'Jesus has been crucified.' 'Oh,' she said, 'that was the body of
> Jesus, but the Reality of Jesus is living and eternal. It is not
> subject to corruption.' And now so it is with the Blessed
> Perfection.
> 
> "When I pray I turn My thoughts and My face to the Blessed
> Perfection."
> 
> 10 July 1909
> 
> Afternoon
> 
> He sent for Alice and me to come to His room to have tea.
> 
> First He gave us a beautiful talk about devotion and love toward
> each other. "If you show this love toward one another," He said,
> "it is just as though you showed it toward Me." He spoke of the
> time of Christ, how no one paid any attention to Him while He was
> on earth; how He was even spit upon in the streets, yet now His
> disciples, and also the women who followed Him, are greatly
> glorified.
> 
> "In the time to come," He said, "queens will wish they had been the
> maid of Juliet."
> 
> Then He sent Alice away to dress for a visit to the Ridvan,[50]
> where, a little later, we were all going--but detained Munavvar and
> me.
> 
> "Remember, Juliet," He said, "one hair of Mason Remey's head, or
> any other believer's, is worth all the unbelievers in the world."
> 
> "Dear Lord," I replied, "I am ready at this moment to do what You
> spoke of the other night."
> 
> "No, it is not for that I say so; you have passed that. But I want
> you to remember that it is a fact. If all the kings and queens of
> the world were to come and stand outside My window and offer Me
> everything in exchange for you, I would say: 'I should rather keep
> Juliet.' You must be like that. A believer at first is like a lamp,
> then like a star, then like the moon. And in the Kingdom of God
> like the sun. An unbeliever is first like a lamp; then he becomes
> extinct! And that is the difference between them! But you will make
> the man you love a believer.
> 
> "Only," He added, "wait till you do."
> 
> He went out of the room. Munavvar and I remained, sitting on His
> bed, talking. Almost at once He returned to us.
> 
> "You must read Miss Barney's book[51] and Mirza Abu'l-Fadl's[52]
> a great deal, Juliet. I want you to progress spiritually and to be
> a real daughter of the Kingdom. I want you to be entirely severed
> from the world."
> 
> Later, after our heavenly evening in the Ridvan, He came to the
> door of my room, while I was talking with Munavvar Khanum. She told
> Him what I had been saying, that I longed to stay forever and ever,
> but knew that, even if I could, it would be selfish; but I felt
> like a crying baby when I thought of going away.
> 
> "If you should stay forever," He laughed, "what would you do with
> the one you left behind?"
> 
> "I forget many things in the Light of Thy Face! I am inconstant to
> the world here!"
> 
> "Yes, if you should remain, you would forget many things."
> 
> On the morning of 10 July, a blessed experience which I had
> forgotten to record. Our Lord called Carrie, Alice, and me
> separately to His room and gave us the priceless privilege of
> seeing Him dictate Tablets.
> 
> I sat on the divan, my eyes upon His white-robed figure--I could
> scarcely raise them to His Face--as He paced up and down that small
> room with His strong tread. Never had the room seemed so small;
> never had He appeared so mighty! A lion in a cage? Ah no! That room
> contain Him? Why? As I felt that great dominant Force, that Energy
> of God, I knew that the earth itself could not contain Him. Nor yet
> the universe. No! While the body, charged with a Power I have seen
> in no human being, restless with the Force that so animated it,
> strode up and down, up and down in that tiny room, pausing
> 
> sometimes before the window, below which the sea beat against the
> double seawall, I knew that the Spirit was free as the Essence
> itself, brooding over regions far distant, looking deep into hearts
> at the uttermost ends of the earth, consoling their secret sorrows,
> answering the whispers of far-off minds.
> 
> Often in that walk back and forth He would give me a long, grave
> glance. Once He smiled at me.
> 
> At last He called Alice and Carrie back and, taking a seat Himself
> on the divan while we gathered around Him on the floor--I in my
> place on His left, at His feet--He said: "Letters shower as rain
> on me. I write the answers and they are not finished!
> 
> "Many come that are difficult to read. Here is one that cannot be
> read at all. The man could not write. But he wished to supplicate
> to His Master, so he simply made marks."
> 
> Alice interrupted with: "May I pray to You?"
> 
> Our Lord: "To pray is to supplicate to God."
> 
> Dear Carrie had just had a cruel experience with her father, which,
> however, she had not mentioned to the Master. Taking a supplication
> in His hand, He began to dictate, saying: "This is the answer to
> the letter of a person whose father drove him out because he was
> a Baha'i. But God granted him a high position. His work has become
> very good. His father does not even speak to him, while the son is
> very kind to the father.
> 
> "This," the Master said to Carrie, "is for you too:
> 
> __________
> 
> "O thou who art firm in the Covenant!
> 
> "Though thy father was not kind to thee, praise be to God thou hast
> a Heavenly Father. If the earthly father forsook you, it was the
> cause of your obtaining the
> 
> mercy and kindness of the Spiritual Father. All that father can do
> is to be kind to you, but this Father confers upon you eternal
> life. That father will become angry for the slightest disobedience,
> but this Father forgives the sins, overlooks the faults and deals
> with Bounty and Favour. Thank thou God thou hast such a Heavenly
> Father. And I hope thou mayest attain, through the Divine Mercy,
> to the greatest Bounty.
> 
> "I remember thee; do not be sorrowful. And I am in communion with
> thee in every world; grieve not.
> 
> "I hope thou mayest become, through the Favour and Bounty of the
> Blessed Perfection, the means of guiding others, and in the
> community of the world light a candle whose effulgence shall be
> everlasting."
> 
> We all held our breath, for Carrie's father had driven her out
> because she was a Baha'i. Carrie's father would "not even speak to
> her".
> 
> 10 July 1909
> 
> Dinner
> 
> "It is very good to be able to meet Mr Sprague here, directly from
> Persia. He has been in Persia one year. He knows about the
> believers very well there. And he enjoyed it very much, because the
> believers there are very beautiful. They are in the utmost
> condition of sincerity. "Last night I did not eat at all. I only
> took a little bread and cheese. Therefore I could not sleep. So I
> passed the hours in prayer and communion, walking back and forth."
> 
> 11 July 1909
> 
> Munavvar, Carrie, and I were sitting in the Holy Mother's room. My
> thoughts had strayed to the Master's promise for Percy Grant.
> Suddenly the door opened, and His luminous Face appeared in the
> sunlight against the white wall. He turned upon me His eyes,
> overflowing with infinite sweetness, overflowing with the Holy Love
> of God. He kept His eyes fixed on me until I could bear no longer
> that Divine Love, and, to my shame, I glanced away. But I pray now
> that always, when my thoughts stray to earthly things, His Face
> will come to me--like this.
> 
> Later He sent for me. I sat close at His feet. Folding my hands in
> His, looking down with that smile of God, He said: "How many days
> have you been here?"
> 
> I knew what was coming!
> 
> "How many days have you been here? Nine is the utmost. How many
> days have you stayed?"
> 
> "Twelve, my Lord."
> 
> "Three more than the utmost!" Then He told me we must go tomorrow.
> 
> Struggling to keep back my tears, I said: "I shall never leave
> Thee!"
> 
> "No. I shall always be with you in spirit and in heart. You will
> always be present with Me. I want you to be happy."
> 
> "I can never be unhappy again."
> 
> "Those who come to 'Akka in the spirit never can be unhappy again."
> 
> "All I want is to serve Thee. Nothing could make me unhappy but to
> fail."
> 
> "You must never forget what you have heard here. You must never
> forget My words to you."
> 
> "Do you think I could, my Lord?"
> 
> "No, I know very well that you could not." (The divinity of His
> Face was almost more than my eyes could bear.) "I want you to live
> more and more for the Spirit. I want you to forget everything save
> God. Make your meetings as beautiful as you can. They are
> beautiful; they are warm, for you have love; but they must progress
> in spirit. Read the Tablets first. Read the recent Tablets and the
> news of 'Akka. Then speak, yourself, for the strangers who may be
> there. I want you to give strong, logical proofs. Read Miss
> Barney's book. It will help you. Others also can speak."
> 
> 11 July 1909
> 
> A strange thing had happened that morning. Alice has always
> insisted on calling our Lord "Jesus Christ", and gives the Message
> in this way, which is very bad for the Cause.[53] Some of the
> Persian believers had heard of this.
> 
> How it happened that they gathered in the Kinneys' room I don't
> know. All I know is that suddenly Carrie ran into our room, saying:
> "Come, girls, hurry, something important is going on."
> 
> We followed her into her room, to see Mirza Munir and his brother
> Amin and 'Inayatu'llah, a young Persian whose name I don't know,
> and Mr Kinney all sitting around looking very grave. As I took a
> seat, Mr Kinney whispered to me: "We want to thresh this thing
> out--about the Master's Station. These Persian brothers may
> convince Alice when we cannot."
> 
> "I don't believe," I whispered back, "that the Master would want
> us to do that. He will straighten it out Himself."
> 
> Scarcely had I spoken the words when our Lord sent for Alice. As
> far as I know He said nothing to her on the subject.
> 
> At luncheon He gave this surpassingly wonderful talk. His Power,
> as He spoke, I shall never forget. It flashed from Him. His
> translator could hardly keep up with Him. In the midst of His talk,
> He rose and paced the small room from door to barred window with
> that caged-lion motion, sometimes pausing at the window with its
> clear outlook of sea--ah, and its outlook to Him of Heaven and the
> hosts of Heaven!--then turning, resuming the strong, rapid stride,
> letting flow again the torrent of His utterance.
> 
> He wore a black 'aba that day with His flowing white robes and
> white turban. The picture is vivid to me still and will ever be:
> the strong, black-and-white-clad Figure, the luminous,
> ivory-coloured Face against the white wall.
> 
> "In the days of the former Manifestations of God no addresses were
> given for the kings and no clear warnings were given. If you read
> the whole of the Gospel you will be unable to find a single warning
> to a crowned head. No prophetic statements were made. No prophecies
> of the future were given except in a general way, as, for example,
> the prophecies you will find in Isaiah concerning the destruction
> of Babylon and the abomination of desolation in Jerusalem. However,
> there is not one of the kind addressed to an individual. But the
> Blessed Perfection addressed all the kings. When 'Abdu'l-'Aziz, the
> former sultan of Turkey, was at the climax of his sovereignty, He,
> Baha'u'llah, arraigned him severely and clearly foretold the
> upheaval of his kingdom on account of the oppression he had
> committed. So this was an address to a distinguished and well-known
> man. It is not an address to the general nation.
> 
> "Today the greatest nations of the world are Great Britain and
> America. It is easy for a man to prophesy that the British Empire
> may some day undergo a reverse change, that is to say, become
> disturbed, revolutionized, and utterly destroyed. This is also
> applicable to France, to Germany, to America--to any of the nations
> of the world. For every nation has its day of degradation. Consider
> how greatly developed was the Roman Empire and what became its
> final condition. Likewise Greece, how she rose and finally also
> was degraded.
> 
> "The purpose is this: there is no nation exempt from this natural
> condition. Namely, it shall have its rise and again it shall have
> its fall. It shall have its climax and again its abyss.
> 
> "The purport is this: A man can easily address a nation thus: 'O
> ye people, verily the day shall come when you shall find yourselves
> in degradation!' For example, in Isaiah there is a prophetic
> reference to Tyre, also to Babylon, saying: 'O thou Tyre! O thou
> Babylon! Boast ye not! The day will come when ye shall find
> yourselves abased, destroyed, and scattered.' His Holiness, Isaiah,
> prophesied this inspirationally. But any man can thus prophecy. For
> instance, a person can easily address Paris and say: 'O thou Paris!
> Be not proud of thy glory, for verily the day shall come when thou
> shalt be brought low.'
> 
> "These prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled two thousand years after
> they were uttered, but the Blessed Perfection addressed the very
> person of 'Abdu'l-'Aziz when he was in the utmost power. He
> likewise addressed Napoleon III in person. He said, 'I addressed
> thee and thou didst not accept. The Lord Almighty will take away
> thy sovereignty from thee.' And exactly as it was prophesied it
> happened.
> 
> "When the Blessed Perfection was a prisoner of 'Abdu'l-'Aziz, when
> He was in the dungeon of his majesty, He prophesied his downfall
> and arraigned him severely.
> 
> "The revolution now rampant in Persia was foretold by the Blessed
> Perfection forty years ago. Read the Book of the Kings. It is also
> to be found in the Book of Laws. And this prophecy was made when
> Tihran was in the utmost quietude and the government of
> Nasiri'd-Din Shah was well established. It is clearly stated thus:
> 'O Tihran! There will be a great upheaval in thee. The government
> will be affected and the disturbance will affect all Persia.' This
> was prophesied forty years ago. It was
> 
> printed thirty years ago and is to be found in the Book of Kings,
> the Suriy-i-Haykal and the Kitab-i-Aqdas.[54]
> 
> "This prophecy, so clearly and evidently stated, printed and
> published, is well-known among the people. Therefore, when the
> Constitution was granted in Persia, the mullas who took the
> Royalist side proclaimed from the pulpit that 'whosoever accepted
> the Constitution had necessarily accepted the Baha'i Religion,
> because the Head of this Religion, His Holiness Baha'u'llah, had
> prophesied this in His Book, and the Baha'is are agitators and
> promoters of Constitutionalism. They have brought about the
> Constitution in order to fulfil the prophecy made by their Chief.
> Therefore, beware, beware lest ye accept it!'
> 
> "But whatever I write is inspired by the Blessed Perfection, is the
> confirmation of the Blessed Perfection. Mr Sprague was in Tihran
> and knows; is informed. I have prophesied all these occurrences
> clearly, without need of interpretation, not in one letter or two,
> but in numerous letters. When the divines overcame the Shah, the
> Shah commanded the Prime Minister to go to Qum (?) and bring the
> mullas to Tihran. When the divines, with the Prime Minister,
> arrived in Tihran, the people showed them the highest respect and
> for three nights illuminated the whole city of Tihran as a welcome
> to them. They held the reins of the parliament in their hands. They
> began to disagree with the Shah. A member of the parliament threw
> a bomb at him. The
> 
> Shah was brought so low and made so powerless that he was incapable
> of governing the assembly. However, he summoned the agitators from
> among the divines. The 'Ulama refused to deliver the perpetrators
> of the act and said that they did not recognize the Shah.
> 
> "At that time I wrote letters to nearly all the cities of Persia,
> to Tihran, to Rasht, Tabriz, Qazvin, Khurasan, and many other
> cities. I clearly prophesied this condition. You may see the
> letters. Mr Sprague knows about them. He has seen them.
> 
> "The Muslim clergy had held the forces at work so completely that
> the Baha'is everywhere were extremely alarmed because of the
> apparent clerical supremacy. Notably the Baha'i teachers of Tihran,
> especially Mulla 'Ali-Akbar, sent me a letter which I have now, in
> which is this statement: 'When the clergy of Persia were
> dispossessed of any power or political influence they persecuted
> us unmercifully. Now that they have attained this apparent
> supremacy what will they do to us? How great will be our
> persecutions and ordeals!' In response I wrote: 'Know ye of a
> certainty that this seeming influence and power will vanish.' It
> was clearly stated in the most perspicuous terms, and Mr Sprague
> can testify to the validity of this. 'The result of this influence
> is the greatest degradation and loss. This supremacy will prove the
> greatest defeat.' In that very letter I played on these words
> 'stable' and 'ultimate,' which in Persian are the same, with the
> slight difference of a dot. 'They have held to this stable
> (stability?) but they have not seen the ultimate of things. They
> will become so defeated and conquered that their sighs, moans, and
> lamentations will reach the very heavens.
> 
> This is a summary. You may find it in detail in My letters. Even
> so it was that suddenly the page turned. Their foundation was
> razed.
> 
> "But I did not write this of Myself. Nay, the confirmation of
> Baha'u'llah wrote this! Of Myself I did not write it.
> 
> "Therefore the beloved of God must refer to Me only as
> 'Abdu'l-Baha. This is My glorious crown! This is My eternal
> sovereignty! This is My everlasting life! Whosoever questions Me
> concerning My Name, My answer is: 'ABDU'L-BAHa!
> 
> "And thus it ends!"
> 
> __________
> 
> I was struck dumb at this climax, the miracle of it, the glory and
> power of it. Forevermore shall I love the Name, 'Abdu'l-Baha. As
> He spoke it, it sounded so triumphant. Verily, it is our battle
> cry!
> 
> When our Lord had gone from the room--like lightning--Mr Sprague
> spoke. He said that when the Tablets came from 'Abdu'l-Baha it was
> a great test to some of the believers. They did not see how these
> Tablets could be fulfilled literally, because the Shah was so low
> that everyone laughed when he was mentioned. No one had any respect
> for him. And the mullas were so powerful and the Constitution so
> well established it seemed against all reason and absolutely
> impossible that the situation should be reversed.
> 
> 11 July 1909
> 
> Our Lord sent Tuba Khanum for me and together we entered the
> beloved room. Often as I paused outside to
> 
> take off my shoes, He would call: "Come, come, Juliet."
> 
> Tuba and I sat on the floor at His feet.
> 
> "You are going tomorrow?"
> 
> Struggling with my tears, conquering them, smiling at Him: "Yes,
> my Lord."
> 
> "This is your last day?"
> 
> "Yes, my Lord."
> 
> As I threw back my head to look up at His wondrous Face, my veil
> slipped off.
> 
> "I will fix it for you Myself," He said tenderly. "I will fix it
> nicely My daughter." And with His electrifying fingers He arranged
> it all around my face, crossed it at the throat and spread it on
> my shoulders.
> 
> My mind flashed back to a dream--I had it in Paris eight years ago.
> In this dream I stood in the air with 'Abdu'l-Baha, opposite Him
> in the air. His eyes were plunging LOVE through my eyes into my
> heart, the unimaginable Love of God, a new Revelation to my heart.
> Then He drew from the breast of His robe a white veil, laying it
> upon my head, arranging it around my face, crossing it on my
> shoulders with fingers that charged me with his life--just as He
> was doing now.
> 
> Now, sitting in His room in 'Akka, sitting on the floor at His
> feet, raising my eyes to that incomparable Face, so beautiful in
> age, I saw behind its lines the exact structure of the young
> Face--the never-to-be-forgotten Face of my dream, when I had met
> Him in the air.
> 
> "My Lord," I cried. "Once in a dream you put a white veil on my
> head."
> 
> "That I did long ago," He answered.
> 
> After a pause He said, so gently: "Tomorrow it will be goodbye."
> 
> "Yes, my Lord."
> 
> "When can you come again?" Ah, what a sudden sunbeam!
> 
> "My Lord, how can I tell? Thou knowest. And I should like to say
> this: though dear Laura Barney was Thine instrument, it was through
> Thee that the doors were opened for me to come home to Thee. So,
> when Thou wishest me to come again, I know that again Thou wilt
> open the doors for me."
> 
> Then happened something of which I must not speak, only--He opened
> the doors.[55]
> 
> "Come in the spring," He said. My King! "What do you want to ask?
> Speak."
> 
> "Only for the strength to serve Thee. I have realized the meaning
> of this prayer: 'Except Thy concealing veil cover us and Thy
> Preservation and Protection favour us, this weak soul has not
> enough power to employ herself in Thy service and this indigent one
> not enough wealth to present a rich appearance.'"
> 
> "I am glad you see this now."
> 
> "I pray that I may give my life--that I may suffer--and sacrifice
> everything in Thy Path."
> 
> "You are suffering now."
> 
> "But I pray to sacrifice all in Thy Path."
> 
> "You may."
> 
> "I would sacrifice everything for unity in New York."
> 
> "You will bring about unity in New York."
> 
> "Oh, how can I thank Thee, my Lord! I can do nothing for Thee
> without Thee!"
> 
> Then I begged that I might see His Face in vision.
> 
> "You may."
> 
> Once during this interview, as twice before, He had looked for a
> long, long time deep into my eyes, His face inscrutable.
> 
> He had said that I was suffering. I knew it. Never had I been so
> conscious that my body was a dark prison. My soul yearned toward
> Him and beat against bars. There He sat, overflowing with Divine
> Love, tender past all comprehension--past expressing in human
> language--the Centre, the Focus of that Love which holds all worlds
> in its mighty grasp. And I, an atom at His feet, the worthless
> recipient of such Love, not only was utterly impotent to return it
> (the word "return" is sacrilege!), but could not even realize That
> for which my poor heart was breaking with gratitude. Oh to be
> grateful enough! my soul cried.
> 
> To be blind in the Presence of the Sun; that is not what I mean.
> To be a blind beggar, loving my so munificent King to Whom I owed
> life, love, all--to whom I owed even this burning love for
> Him--that is nearer. No where could I find a gift for Him, for Whom
> my heart longed to expand its very lifeblood--nowhere could I find
> a gift for Him that He had not first given me!
> 
> "Think of Me often," He said. "Think often of what I have said to
> you. Appreciate these moments. Think! If you were living in the
> time of Christ, if you were Mary Magdalene at His feet."
> 
> Covered with shame, I made an effort to realize this. All I seemed
> able to realize was a consuming love for that wondrous Face. What
> it was my poor mind could not grasp.
> 
> "Some day I shall realize?"
> 
> "Yes."
> 
> "My Lord, I no longer look forward to life, but to service for a
> few years and to meeting my Lord in His Eternal Kingdom."
> 
> "This is as it should be. We will be together forever in the
> Spiritual World. But My Spirit will be with you here always--My
> daughter."
> 
> Lifting the hem of His garment, I pressed a long kiss upon it.
> 
> 11 July 1909, 9:30 p.m.
> 
> That night our Lord gave a feast for the Persian and the American
> believers. It was held in the rear wing of this great old house,
> in a beautiful long hall with many arched windows and many palms.
> 
> Seventy Persian believers had come, marching across the stony
> mountains--a procession of seventy, chanting as they marched. The
> had come on foot, had walked for three months, because to their
> reverent spirits there was no other way humble enough to approach
> the Presence of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Among them were Jewish Baha'is,
> Muslim Baha'is, Zoroastrian Baha'is, all united in the passionate
> belief that the Promised One of his own Sacred Book had at last
> appeared on earth.
> 
> And when all were seated at the long table, our Lord became our
> Servant. Passing the platters around the table, course after
> course, He manifested His Servitude, while the seventy pilgrims
> from Persia sat with bowed heads, silent in the most profound
> humility. In that Feast, it seemed to me, I was having a foretaste
> of the future, when all mankind will be one in devotion to the
> Greatest Name.
> 
> When it was over and all had partaken of the food served by the
> hand of the Servant of God, the aspect of the Master changed. Now
> He paced up and down the full length of the table, His tread the
> tread of a conquering King, His white robe, His white hair, His
> white turban in the soft candlelight enhancing His ethereally. Ah,
> like the Christ He was then! In that soft candlelight, His Face was
> eternally young. Serenity shone on the brow of the Prince of Peace.
> He was like silver!
> 
> "Tonight," He began, "is a beautiful night because, al-hamdul'illah
> (Praise be to God!), the believers of America and Persia are joined
> here at one table. This is one of the great fruits of the Word of
> God.
> 
> "In the future the East and the West shall become one. They shall
> be united. I have said in My letters that the East and the West
> will become as two lovers. That each is beloved of the other. That
> the East and the West will take one another in their arms will give
> one another their hands, each as the beloved of the other, each
> embracing the other.
> 
> "The unity of mankind will be the beginning of the radiation of
> this Light. Our gathering tonight around such a table is one of the
> evidences of the human unity. Generally speaking, such a gathering
> would have been impossible, that is, that Persian and Americans
> should sit around the same table. Praise be to God, such things
> have taken place through the power of the Word of God.
> 
> "Verily, since the early days of childhood I have devoted Myself
> to the Word of the Beauty of Baha'u'llah, and have forborne every
> difficulty and calamity, among these imprisonment for all My life,
> to lay the foundation of the oneness of mankind.
> 
> "All the different sects of the world hate and antagonize one
> another. Were it possible, they would kill one another. Each of
> these sects pretends that it is established and is acting according
> to the law of God. Exactly the opposite is the fact. All the Divine
> Words lead the people to unity, because they were spoken for life,
> not for death! And the Divine Teaching is a Power that attracts the
> hearts, through which all the different sects and nations will be
> attracted.
> 
> "You find that the different sects are in hatred toward one
> another. But you should be lovers of all sects and nations and all
> the different parties of people. You should love them and consider
> them as of your own families. Do not look upon them as separated
> from you. Baha'u'llah has said that all of you are as branches of
> one tree, leaves of one branch. That is, all the people are of one
> tree. Therefore, all things that cause opposition should be
> removed. Consider everyone, of every nation or sect, as one of your
> own family. Deal with them with love and harmony. Never be the
> cause of any sorrow to anyone, neither the cause of any
> embarrassment. Bear all sorrow, for yourselves and to please all
> hearts, even the hearts of your enemies. Be true to all the
> different parties or nations and act toward them with faithfulness.
> Take care of the properties of others more than you do of your own,
> and never do any harm to those who show animosity. If you do thus,
> you are a true Baha'i. Be submissive and try to control self.
> Follow the ordinances of God--do not follow your own desire--that
> ye may be ready always to be helped by God.
> 
> "Be sure that the different nations will curse you, blame you, bear
> animosity toward you and harm you.
> 
> They will even act in such a way as to shed your blood. Beware not
> to cause any sorrow to them, not even to injure the feelings of
> anyone with a word. Do nothing to cause any sorrow within any
> heart. These are the qualities of the Baha'i people."
> 
> He left the room. Our Sun set. Oh, how intensely, intensely I love
> Him! I can scarcely see for my tears at the memory of that silver,
> shining Figure! May my life be His sacrifice!
> 
> After His Words I cannot write the words of others! Dear Mirza
> Haydar-'Ali, "the Angel", spoke.[56] Then one of the Persian
> pilgrims recited a stirring chant which he and his companions had
> sung as they journeyed from Persia to 'Akka, the refrain of which
> ran thus:
> 
> Praise be to thee, powerful
> 
> Hand of 'Abdu'l-Baha!
> 
> May my life be a sacrifice to the mighty
> 
> Hand of 'Abdu'l-Baha!
> 
> Munavvar and I went to the housetop alone that night and, so tired
> were we, we slept under the stars till our Lord came and woke us.
> 
> To me He said: "Your heart is Mine. Your eyes are Mine. Your brow
> is Mine. Your lips are Mine, for speech. Today you are My new
> creation. Say: Thank God."
> 
> "Thank God."
> 
> "Say: Thank You."
> 
> "Thank You--'Abdu'l-Baha."
> 
> "Ah ... 'Abdu'l-Baha," He repeated.
> 
> He put a ruby ring on my finger.
> 
> 12 July 1909
> 
> She anguish of parting. Blind with tears, I kissed His door. No one
> saw me. Blind with tears, I descended the dear stairway, my ladder
> to God, the irregular steps of it worn by His feet. Each step in
> the beloved court, as I crossed it for the last time, was
> unspeakably precious to me.
> 
> In the passage leading from that Heavenly Shelter to the outer
> world, I met Mirza Haydar-'Ali.
> 
> "I shall await your call from America," he said.
> 
> My voiced was choked. I could scarcely answer. To dear Husayn Ruhi
> I could only nod.
> 
> My Lord was in His garden, but He left it, came forward, and
> hurriedly passing our carriage as He turned toward the house, said
> "Goodbye"--smiling in the sunlight. The pure profile, the grandeur
> of His head, a sweep of His shining robe--and He was gone!
> 
> I am glad I have written to the very end in this book. I am glad
> that no words will follow His, that no figure will pass through
> these pages after His Sacred Figure has so passed out.
> 
> When Mary had anointed the feet of her Lord with the precious
> ointment she broke the alabaster box.[57]
> 
> [Blank page]
> 
> Beirut, Syria
> 
> 7 August 1909
> 
> Permission that has just come from my Beloved, from my Lord and
> King to return to Haifa! This Tablet is in His own hand. We sail
> tomorrow!
> 
> Miss Juliet Thompson. Upon her be Baha'u'llah.
> 
> HE IS GOD!
> 
> "O thou who art attracted by the fragrances of the Love of God! I
> pray for thee and seek help and assistance from the favours of God.
> ... Come to Haifa. Go directly to the Household, or to Mirza
> 'Inayat'ullah's house ...
> 
> (signed) Abdul Baha Abbas
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 24 February 1922, 4:30 a.m. I remember, with intense
> yearning for those days of life, the afternoon when that Tablet
> came. In the morning I had said to Mr Kinney: "I couldn't endure
> it if I should have to return home without seeing our Lord once
> again." Then, in the late afternoon, the sudden appearance of
> 'Inayatu'llah. The Kinneys had gone to a party at the Manassehs'.
> I had lingered behind, longing to be alone that I might finish
> copying in this book notes I had taken in 'Akka. Just as I was
> writing those final words: "When Mary had anointed her Lord with
> the precious ointment she broke the alabaster box"--there was a
> knock at the door and 'Inayatu'llah looked in! "Our Lord has sent
> for you, Juliet," he said. "I have a carriage at the door.")
> 
> Haifa
> 
> 13 August 1909
> 
> Oh day of days! This morning I gave up my will; I silenced my
> heart's last murmur. Three days I had waited on the rack to hear
> from my Lord at 'Akka hoping--not daring to pray for it--yet
> longing unutterably to be summoned. But no word came. Then, after
> I had prayed at dawn, I felt a wonderful peace. When all things are
> left to His Will, I said to myself, the design takes perfect shape.
> Beauty undreamed of blossoms upon our days. So, at noon, while
> Farah-Angiz was reading English with me, suddenly Khanum Diya ran
> into the room crying: "Juliet, our Lord!"
> 
> I flew to the door and saw, at the door of Madame Jackson's house,
> where the Family lives in Haifa, the Master's carriage. With the
> Great Afnan, the only companion of the Bab now living, my Lord was
> entering the House.
> 
> I went to my, room and put on fresh clothes. Then I came out and
> sat on the steps, riveting my eyes on the House that enclosed Him.
> At least in my love I may be like Mary who sat at the feet of the
> Christ of her day; and the little house of 'Inayatu'llah, so
> associated with our Lord, might be the house in Bethany:
> flat-roofed, low, white, with its arched doorway and its two
> cypress trees. So I sat, looking, longing, loving, till He sent for
> me.
> 
> He was sitting in His cool, airy room, in a large chair. How He
> smiled as I entered and knelt! Taking my place at His feet, I
> kissed the hem of His garment. When I
> 
> looked up, once more, into His magical Face, I received a new
> revelation. Never had it looked so beautiful, beautiful to me! He
> gazed down at me with the smile of Divinity.
> 
> "How are you?"
> 
> "So happy. Oh, so happy! How can I ever thank Thee for Thy Love and
> Protection? May I pour out my life in servitude to Thee!"
> 
> "I have come from 'Akka," He said, "especially to see you." He
> talked smilingly for a while about my unexpected return. "No
> pilgrim," He said, "has come back after such a few days. But you
> have."
> 
> But again He said: "How long were you in Brumana?"
> 
> "Years, my Lord!"
> 
> And He answered: "Yes, that is true!"
> 
> "I learned much in Brumana, my Lord."
> 
> "And when you return to America you will see greater results of
> your visit. I knew you would not like it in Brumana." He continued,
> "I knew you would have some trouble there, but you had to go
> somewhere for the vacation and I knew that Haifa would not be
> well."
> 
> "Did you hear my heart crying to You, my Lord?"
> 
> "Yes, I heard. I knew."
> 
> It is impossible to imagine the consolation of those words, so
> often repeated: "I know; I knew."[58]
> 
> "When you go back to America, you must hide all that has happened.
> You must say nothing about it. Never speak of it to anyone."
> 
> "No; oh, no!"
> 
> He asked about Carrie Kinney, what she was doing in Brumana; and
> on my saying, "Many good works," 'Inayatu'llah explained, told our
> Lord of our helping Dr Manasseh with the poor and sick. We had
> nursed till she died a poor girl who had been fatally, horribly
> burned and had assisted the doctor at a number of operations
> performed without anaesthetics.
> 
> "Bravo! Bravo!" said our Lord.
> 
> He then spoke of X, said He had sent for me for my sake. Not that
> He did not forgive, for He always forgave. Not that He did not feel
> sorry for her. He would never have spoken of it but for my sake.
> He always forgave. But He wanted to save me from an ordeal. Then
> He told me of things she had done in Cairo, by which she had broken
> her promise to Him, and mentioned the unpaid bill of Nassar in
> Haifa.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "there is one thing I want to supplicate for.
> For the sake of the Cause, may I pay that bill?"
> 
> At first He refused to let me, but later consented. Then He looked
> at me with divine sweetness and said in a voice like a breeze from
> Heaven: "I love you."
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I cried, "make me good; make me good!"
> 
> Still looking me at with that sweetness, with that smile of magical
> charm, He answered: "I will make you good."
> 
> Then He sent for Ruha Khanum. She came in and sat on the floor
> beside me.
> 
> "Your sister," He said. "Your sister! Do you love her?"
> 
> When He called His own daughter my sister, tears sprang to my eyes.
> 
> "Do I love you, Ruha Khanum?" I asked.
> 
> He spoke much more about X, said when I saw her I must always be
> kind to her and give her money if I could, but that I must not
> travel with her or associate with her as a companion. I must only
> associate with those who would help me to become spiritual, who
> would help me to sever myself from everything save God.
> 
> "I was trying to run before I could walk!" I smiled. "I thought I
> could help her, when all the time I needed to be helped myself."
> 
> He laughed in that wonderful way, humorous beyond human humour,
> with a wealth of sweetness in it.
> 
> "Even Christ cannot help some people," He said. "How can you expect
> to?"
> 
> But He said He felt very sorry for X. He forgave her and He would
> pray for her.
> 
> "Did she say she was going to America?" He asked. "She cannot go
> to America! If it were not for you and for Mrs Maxwell, who got her
> out of America, she would have been arrested. And you might have
> gotten into trouble there, too, with the government--ah?--if it had
> not been for the protection of God. God protected you because your
> purpose was good. I know many things!"
> 
> Just at that moment someone came to the door. He told me to remain
> in the house and that He would send for me later. So I stayed in
> the great white hall with its slender columns, looking out toward
> the blue Bay of Haifa, though no longer did I need to look toward
> 'Akka, the casket that had lost its Pearl--its Pearl of great
> price. And at last He sent for me.
> 
> I went into His room to find Him on the divan, having tea with His
> sister, the Greatest Holy Leaf, His half sister, Furugh Khanum, and
> Ruha.
> 
> The majestic profile, touched with the Divine sweetness, which, as
> I sat on the floor at His left, I saw against the light of the
> window, is graven forever on my memory. The sweep of its line; the
> compassion in the forehead and lift of the brow; the wonderful
> pure, strong line of the large aquiline nose; the delicacy of the
> upper lip and mouth--that strong, strangely sweet mouth with the
> full, but straight lips; the sensitive modelling of cheek and
> temple; the perfect ear.[59]
> 
> Then began a play of humour.
> 
> "How much money did Miss X take from you?"
> 
> "Not very much, my Lord."
> 
> "How much? I know she took it, but I just wanted you to confess!
> How much?"
> 
> "Too little to mention. And through her I have received a great
> blessing--the greatest of all my joys--this day with You."
> 
> He laughed. "And now you are going to pay her debts! If you are as
> wealthy as that, why don't you pay My debts? That would be
> something to do!"
> 
> We all laughed at this.
> 
> "You cannot," He continued after a moment, "love May Maxwell
> enough, or Mrs Brittingham.
> 
> "Or," He added, "Mrs Kinney. For I love them, and to associate with
> them will cause you to advance spiritually."
> 
> 15 August 1909
> 
> That was a happy visit to Him--may my soul forever be His
> sacrifice! In the evening again He sent for me.
> 
> He was sitting on Ruha's balcony in the starlight. Ruha and I sat
> behind Him in the room on the window seat. As He spoke to us He
> turned His profile. Once He turned almost fully around and, with
> a kingly glance, said: "I love you."
> 
> "My Lord!" I said softly. Then in a moment, gaining courage,
> leaning through the window: "I love You. I love You, my Lord!"
> 
> The royal look changed to divine sweetness. He smiled.
> 
> With Ruha translating, he began to talk to me:
> 
> "As Christ said, the Word is like seed. Some seed falls upon barren
> ground and withers; some upon stony ground. This springs up, but
> as the soil is not deep, it too soon dies. Some upon ground full
> of weeds which choke it. These weeds are like the ideas that fill
> the minds of some men. They hear the Word, but their own ideas
> choke it. But some seed falls upon good ground and brings forth a
> hundred-fold.[60] I hope that the seed of My word will bring forth
> a hundred-fold in you. Now it is just beginning to sprout. This is
> just the beginning. Now I am blowing the Breath of Life into you.
> If you adhere to My Words, if you obey My Commands, you will become
> entirely illumined. Some visit 'Akka who have no depth, no
> capacity. They go back and deny, like ..."
> 
> "Thou alone knowest the hearts," I said, for a moment terribly
> afraid. "Could I ever be like her?"
> 
> "No, I did not mean to compare your heart with hers. Your heart and
> hers could not be compared. In yours is a great love. From the
> beginning she had no love. This is the balance: the Love of God.
> By this balance you may
> 
> know the people: if they love God." After a silence, "Look at Queen
> Victoria. She was the greatest woman in the world--and what do you
> hear of her now? But the maidservants of God are like stars in the
> horizon. This you cannot see today, but in the future it will
> become clear. Consider the disciples of Christ."
> 
> Looking up at the stars, far up into the heavens, He added, "The
> maidservants of God in the other world are like stars. They shine
> and radiate.
> 
> "Queen Victoria was a great woman, but what do you hear of her now,
> after these few years! But upon your head God has placed an eternal
> crown. He has bestowed upon you eternal sovereignty. He has given
> you eternal life!"
> 
> "Dear Lord, if I were to sink into oblivion, if I were to be
> forgotten like Victoria, still I should want to pour out my life
> as a sacrifice to Thee for love of Thee."
> 
> "It is not the name I meant. It is not for that. I know you do not
> want to serve for that. I meant the results. Queen Victoria has no
> results. But see the results of Christ's disciples!"
> 
> "The Kingdom of God," He continued, "is like a market. Some go home
> poor at the end of the day, having lost what they had. Others come
> and gain great wealth. Now you have come to the marketplace ..."
> 
> He was interrupted just then and, after the interruption, began
> another theme: "From what city are you? From what city are We? You
> are from the West; We are from the East; yet you are Our intimate
> friend. You are the sister of Ruha Khanum. I am kinder to you than
> your own father. You are dearer to me than a daughter. What greater
> proof do we need of the power of the Word of
> 
> God, that the East and the West are united in such a way?
> 
> "Now if you want to please Me," He said suddenly, "you must make
> Mrs B. happy. That is the next thing you have to do! You must do
> everything you can to please her. You must make her so pleased with
> you that she will write Me a letter about you! Try as hard to make
> her happy as you tried with Miss X," he laughed. "Your friendships
> must not be for personal reasons, but you must love the people
> because they are beloved my Me. But it is easier to please God than
> to please people! I must go now," He said. "Would you like to come
> and have supper with Me?"
> 
> I followed Him to Madame Jackson's house. There He called me into
> the reception room and motioned to me to sit beside Him.
> 
> Then, one by one, with bowed heads, with hands crossed on their
> breasts, the Persian believers entered. I was the only woman in the
> room. He invited each one of them to sit near Him, but their
> reverence would not allow it. I felt mortally ashamed of myself for
> my own temerity--and yet it had only been obedience--and I had left
> one chair between! They sat, their hands still crossed on their
> breasts and with lowered eyes, while our Lord, the majestic Centre
> of the Covenant, with His matchless simplicity, talked to
> them--laughing, smiling, evidently seeking to put them at their
> ease and make them more natural with Him--yet never for a moment
> losing His sublime majesty.
> 
> Ah, such a King the world has never seen! When He walks it is with
> the step of the Conqueror of the world. He seems treading earth in
> triumph, the whole earth
> 
> under His feet. Yes, "the earth is His footstool"--no more![61] The
> ring of His step I shall never forget. It will ring through my
> life!
> 
> That afternoon I had watched Him ascend Mount Carmel. As I stood
> in the arched doorway of the little Palestine house between the two
> cypress trees, watching His carriage start from His house filled
> with pilgrims, He, a Monarch, in the centre. He looked long and
> intently at me. Later, while I still stood gazing up the hillside
> toward the Tomb of the Bab, I saw Him appear at the door of the
> Tomb, luminous in His white robes with the sunlight full upon Him:
> like the resurrected Christ!
> 
> "How beautiful upon the Mountain are the feet of Him Who bringeth
> glad-tidings, Who publisheth Peace."[62]
> 
> __________
> 
> But to return to that blessed night when I had supper with our
> Lord: Once in the midst of His talk with the pilgrims, He turned
> to me and, smiling, said: "You know Persian?"
> 
> Though the others had not raised their eyes, my love (and my
> ignorance) had given me courage and I had been feasting mine on
> Him.
> 
> "I see!" was my presumptuous answer. Oh, I know I am crude and an
> infant in such things, or I too would have kept my eyes lowered.
> 
> At the table that night He talked to Miss Gamblin, a young
> Protestant ex-missionary who is acting as govern-
> 
> ess now to the children of the Holy Household--a poor girl
> resisting with all her little strength the great sweetness and
> wisdom and love of the Lord. It was wonderful to hear Him talk with
> her. There was something eager in His kindness, a beauty of
> compassion, which she could not see as compassion.
> 
> "Miss Gamblin! Which do you like better: Haifa or 'Akka?"
> 
> "Haifa, I think. I like Haifa for some things and 'Akka for
> others."
> 
> "For what reasons do you like Haifa more?"
> 
> "Because here we are free to go out. Here we have liberty."[63]
> 
> "But in 'Akka there is a beautiful Garden."
> 
> "I have never seen a garden in 'Akka."
> 
> "And here there is no Garden. In 'Akka the Water is very good."
> 
> "And here," said Miss Gamblin jeeringly, "there is no water!"
> 
> "In 'Akka," our Lord went on, "there is a Meadow. Here there is
> none." He spoke of the unbelief of the Jews when Christ came. With
> His consummate wisdom He made her say that they were veiled by the
> prophecies because they were waiting to see them literally
> fulfilled.
> 
> "Did not Christ say He would come like a thief in the night?" He
> asked.[64]
> 
> "Ah! But He also said 'every eye should see Him!'"[65]
> 
> There was quite a note of triumph in her voice!
> 
> "Every eye, yes," smiled the Master. "Those who do not see Him are
> spiritually blind. You love Christ?" (gently).
> 
> I had never before seen that cold little face light up.
> 
> "Oh, yes."
> 
> "So do I," said the Master gravely and with great tenderness. "No
> one in this world loves Christ so much as I."
> 
> "How do you think Christ will come?" He went on. "Have you studied
> the science of the skies? You know what clouds are composed of? How
> do you think Christ will come?"
> 
> "Oh, I don't think that Christ will come from a material heaven,
> but from that place--no one knows what it is--where the
> imperishable part of us goes."
> 
> "Bravo! Bravo!" said our Lord. "I am very much pleased with your
> answer."
> 
> After supper He went to call on the French Consul.
> 
> The next day our Lord was to leave us, to return to 'Akka. He had
> planned to take me with Him, but He changed this. He thought it
> wiser, Ruha explained to me, that I should remain in Haifa till
> the Kinneys came.
> 
> In the morning I rose with a bleeding heart--with a hunger and
> thirst to see our Lord, to crawl in the dust behind Him all day,
> kissing His every footprint if I might. Once He passed the house
> and went up the mountain little way. Ah, "beautiful upon the
> mountain, His feet"! I crept to the corner of the wall and gazed
> down the road into which He had turned. That day He was wearing a
> gold-brown camel's hair coat over His white flowing robe. His coats
> are the Persian 'aba, sweeping almost to the ground. And no 'aba
> hangs like the Master's. He was on His way to see a sick boy.
> 
> Later He sent for me. I found Him at Ruha's house. As He was tired,
> He said, would I excuse Him if He lay down? And He lay on the
> linen-covered divan, while Ruha and I sat at His feet.
> 
> Taking my hand in His, holding it close, pressing it with those
> vital fingers, He looked at me, smiling divinely. I burst into
> tears. I could not control them.
> 
> "What is it?" He tenderly asked.
> 
> "I love You so. I love You so. It kills me to separate from You."
> 
> "I am never separated from you. I am with you always, in every
> world."
> 
> "I know. But I want to see You. Oh why do You go away today?
> 
> I should have been sent from the room, but instead He answered me
> with the infinite patience of the Divine Love. "Because I am busy.
> Because I am busy. I am invited to something this evening.
> Otherwise I would not go. But I will come to see you again,
> Insha'llah."
> 
> Again I burst into a flood of tears. "His Love is too great. I
> cannot bear it," I said to Ruha Khanum. Quietly He rose and left
> us, but He told Ruha to follow with me.
> 
> First, however, she took me into the room of the Holy Mother, who
> had been ill. But there too I cried. I could not help it, though
> it distressed me terribly to be so inconsiderate.[66]
> 
> "Don't cry so much. You are not used to it," said the dear Holy
> Mother. "If you cry you will become like us, pale."
> 
> "If by crying I could become like you, I would cry till I died!"
> 
> Tears came to the Holy Mother's eyes. "I am weeping," she said, "at
> the thought of the great calamities for which I wept once."
> 
> Just then our Lord sent for me. He placed me at His feet and with
> those exquisite fingers wiped away my tears, looking down with the
> tenderness of God on me.
> 
> "Don't cry! Don't cry!" He said in English, in that voice of
> piercing sweetness, of heart-wringing Love. "If you cry, I cry!"
> 
> "Today I lunch with you," (smiling, trying to comfort me). "Don't
> cry! Don't cry! I love you."
> 
> "Ah, that is it!" I replied. "Your love is too strong for the human
> heart. My heart breaks under it."
> 
> Still trying to comfort me, He said: "Mariam Haney spoke much of
> you. She said you were beautiful, but I find you more so."
> 
> Little Maryam, His grandchild, came in. "I give you Maryam!" He
> smiled.
> 
> Oh wealth of Love--as I felt it, again my tears flowed.
> 
> "If you cry, I will slap you!" And He did! Then He held out His
> hand to me.
> 
> "Which will you have: slap, or fist?" (In English, laughing).
> "Which is better?"
> 
> "Whichever you give me."
> 
> He took my hand, held it, pressed it. He had risen from His chair
> and now began walking back and forth. Every moment or so He stopped
> beside me and with a strange gravity gazed into my upturned face.
> Never shall I forget the Christ-Face shining above me then, its
> celestial purity. The sunbeam of His smile had vanished. He was
> like a vision, like a star! Oh, ever-varying Face, manifesting all
> God's Beauties!
> 
> I lunched with Him, at His side. After lunch once more He called
> me.
> 
> "See how I love you!" He said. "I have sent for you three times
> today. Three times." He held up three fingers. "Now this is a
> secret. Go to My sister, Khanum, and ask her to supplicate that you
> may come to 'Akka. There is a wisdom in this."
> 
> I lifted my eyes to His, speechless, in ecstasy. "I had given it
> up!" I said at last. "When shall I ask Khanum?"
> 
> "Tomorrow."
> 
> Soon Khanum came in. As she sat on the floor near me, He said: "You
> love Khanum?"
> 
> To my shame, I began to cry--again!
> 
> "See! She cries from love," the Master said. "Of love. From love?"
> (in His dear English). "You very much love, Juliet. Khanum too
> loves you."
> 
> Then the others came to have tea with Him. And after this, He left
> for 'Akka.
> 
> When His carriage had gone, I climbed the mountain alone. I climbed
> very high and sat on a rock facing toward 'Akka, so that I could
> watch that blessed carriage moving along the crescent beach till
> it disappeared in the distance. And from my seat on the rock I
> spoke out loud to my Lord, Who by that time was miles away.
> 
> "In all things I submit to Thy Will, my Lord, for Thy Will is the
> Will of God. Thou art the Lord of Hosts. Thou art the Word of God."
> 
> __________
> 
> The Master denied the supplication of Khanum. When I heard this I
> wrote Him a brief line to say that I was content with His Will. I
> said nothing more, yet when His answer came, written in His own
> hand, He repeated the
> 
> very words I had spoken to Him from Mount Carmel--those words of
> recognition--when His carriage was miles away.
> 
> O thou who art attracted to the Kingdom of God!
> 
> Thy letter was received. Its contents proved firmness and
> steadfastness. Thank God that thou hast believed in the Lord of
> Hosts, were attracted to the Word of God and became the
> manifestation of Godly Favours. Realize these heavenly gifts and
> serve the Holy Spirit.
> 
> (signed) Abdul Baha Abbas
> 
> 18 August 1909.
> 
> It is weary waiting, this waiting to see my Lord.
> 
> 18 August 1909
> 
> Later
> 
> Day before yesterday, in the blessed company of Khanum and the Holy
> Mother, we climbed Mount Carmel to the Holy Tomb and the Carmelite
> monastery. We went into the chapel of the monastery. On the altar,
> surrounded by candles, sat the Madonna, a crudely carved wooden
> doll, life-size, with a scarlet spot painted on each cheek and
> draped in jewels and satin. From a rose-window high in the opposite
> wall--a window that faced 'Akka--rays streamed to a pool of light
> on the floor. Then, in marched the brown-robed monks and knelt in
> the pool of light, their backs turned to 'Akka, their bowed heads
> to the altar. The rays poured on their backs as they prayed to the
> wooden doll. My thoughts were running on this, condemning the
> monks, when Khanum slipped her arm through mine.
> 
> "It is good," she whispered, "to be here together in a place built
> for worship."
> 
> Later, in the Cave of Elijah, I saw her standing by the altar
> there, that wonderful face, second only to the Master's, raised to
> the crucifix; her eyes lowered once or twice to the image of the
> Virgin prostrate beneath it. Ah, well could she understand such
> suffering. My tears flowed as I watched her.
> 
> 21 August 1909, 6:30 a.m.
> 
> The King, with His court, come yesterday to stay in Haifa till we
> sail, for the Kinneys and Alice also came yesterday.
> 
> A king and his court? Faint comparison! What king ever moved with
> such majesty and glory? What court ever followed with such love and
> submission?
> 
> I am sitting on the steep, rough steps of 'Inayatu'llah's house,
> between the two cypresses, and on the steps of the beautiful House
> opposite--that white and stately House opposite--sits the King!
> With Him are Mirza Asadu'llah and 'Inayatu'llah.
> 
> Yesterday He came at sundown. He sent for us all. We found Him in
> the reception hall, surrounded by those wonderful Persian
> believers. Yunis Khan, Badi' Effendi, and Mirza Munir[67] sat by
> me. He gave us a heavenly talk which I shall have to include in my
> notes, for in this little book there is just room left for His
> words of love to myself, those tender and exquisite personal talks
> of which I would not lose one word.
> 
> One of these I had last night. I entered His room and sat at His
> feet.
> 
> "I hope you were not hurt, Juliet," He said, Ruha Khanum
> translating, "that I did not let you come to 'Akka. You must be
> happy because I am so unconstrained with you and feel that I can
> be frank."
> 
> "Every command of Yours, since it comes from You, is dear to me."
> 
> "That is the sign of true love. I know your heart!"
> 
> "I pray that my capacity may be widened so that I may appreciate
> more and love more."
> 
> A wonderful look came into His Face. He bent over mine and wiped
> my eyes. This is what He always does when I am yearning to love
> more, when my heart is bleeding because it cannot love enough. Even
> when my eyes are dry He does this. Is He--when my eyes are
> dry--wiping future tears away?
> 
> "I have been suffering," I said, "because I can give You nothing."
> 
> "You have given Me your heart."
> 
> "What is this heart to give! It is not pure enough. Dear Lord," I
> asked, "would it be good for the Cause if I should marry Mason
> Remey?"[68]
> 
> "It would be very good for the Cause," the Master answered me, "if
> you could do it from your heart."
> 
> "I will marry him gladly," I said--my heart as heavy as lead!
> 
> "You ought to want to love him, because he is so beloved by Me."
> 
> "Yes," I repeated, with a dead voice! "I will marry him gladly."
> 
> "Try to love him little by little. Little by little," (in English).
> 
> Then He dismissed me. As I was leaving, He went to His table and,
> taking a Persian sweetmeat from a box, put it into my hand.
> 
> "I give you sweets," He said.
> 
> He asked me to come back and dine with Him. "But don't tell Mrs B!
> Do everything you can," He said, "to make Mrs B. happy."
> 
> "I will."
> 
> Outside in the road, in the light of the crescent moon shining
> above Mount Carmel, I ate the sweets from His hand. "All that comes
> from Thy hand is sweet," I said aloud. "Lord, help me to love Mason
> Remey!"
> 
> The great figure of Percy Grant, with his strong beauty and
> magnetism and his distinguished mind, I resolutely put away from
> me. To give my body to one of His beloved: could I do more than
> this? I thought. Then I laughed at the thought. After all, what is
> this body? As He said once: "What does it matter what happens to
> the body?"
> 
> 22 August 1909
> 
> My heart is breaking. Today I must leave Him. The Kinneys have had
> some trouble with their money--their cheque from New York has been
> delayed--and having too little to travel with, they asked
> permission last night to stay on in Haifa till the cheque came.
> 
> At sea (after leaving Cairo for Naples, via Alexandria)
> 
> 27 August 1909
> 
> Just at that moment our Lord sent for me.
> 
> My heart is almost too full this morning to write. If I write
> brokenly, it will be but a truer expression of my heart--my
> life--as I journey away from my only Beloved into a future of
> suffering, of utter sacrifice, into the Valley of Death. Yet if I
> suffer, it is for Him. If I sacrifice all, the sacrifice is for
> Him. If my goal is the Valley of Death, I die but to live in Him.
> This morning I have felt those delicate, vital fingers wiping the
> tears from my eyes.
> 
> The thought of marriage with Mason Remey has been a torture to me.
> When, the other day, my Lord spoke once again of my marrying "His
> son", with a new note of significance which woke in me a sharp
> awareness of all that this implied, I writhed in agony. But in a
> moment I lifted my face to His and said, "Thy Will be done."
> 
> To give my body to be burned would be easier, when I think of the
> years and the years ... Yet I glory in the martyrdom. I desire no
> less. "My body is yearning to ascend the cross." I pray that it may
> come quickly. "A wound from Thee, Lord, is remedy and poison from
> Thy hand is honey." If only I could suppress these tears, or
> rather, rise above shedding them. On the death of her youngest son,
> the Mother of our Lord smiled.[69] She knelt
> 
> at the feet of Baha'u'llah and asked: "Is my sacrifice accepted?"
> Oh, to sacrifice in such a spirit!
> 
> I know now why my Lord called Ruha my sister. She was married in
> the same way. But why am I so weak? I am going forth to serve Him.
> Why should I think of myself? How can I think of myself at all? In
> the ages to come, if this pitiful record should remain, how my
> sisters of the Future will wonder that a thought of self should
> have entered my mind, that I could have wasted one thought on my
> human body. And since I am doing this thing to be freer to spread
> the Faith, for them too I am going through with it. I feel a great
> surge of love in my heart toward them.
> 
> Two Tablets I received last winter come back to me now, two that
> reached me together, in the same envelope. In the one I read first
> was this: "I hope that the utmost love may be realized between you
> and that person (Percy Grant) and that thou mayest be assisted to
> cause him to enter the Kingdom of God." And in the second: "I have
> supplicated and entreated at the Threshold of Oneness that thy
> utmost desire may become realized. The desire of the sanctified
> souls is always sacrifice in the Path of God ..."
> 
> May God strengthen me to face Percy Grant when I return to New
> York! May God strengthen me in my future relation with him! And as
> I recall that second Tablet I know that a fierce ordeal is before
> me. Surely this "utmost desire" of mine, this burning desire of my
> heart now--"sacrifice in the Path of God"--must be proven. God help
> me! Perhaps only through such a sacrifice could Percy Grant be
> brought to the Kingdom. So let me die for my Lord and His beloved
> ones.
> 
> __________
> 
> To return to the sweetest story ever told, the story of those
> incomparable days in the Presence of my Lord. I shall not begin
> where I left off but will go back a little.
> 
> On the morning of 21 August, I had waited long and hungrily, with
> a burning heart, for my Lord to send for me. Waited in the little
> doorway between the two cypress trees, my eyes fixed on the white
> House opposite, on the stately steps, watching for Him to appear
> upon them--on the long windows of His room. As the hours went by,
> the fire in my heart grew unendurable. My heart was scorched,
> seared: consumed. Suddenly, just at that instant when I felt I
> could bear it no longer, He came out and stood on the steps. He
> showed Himself only for a moment, but Khusraw at the same time ran
> to call me. I eagerly followed. When I reached the House the Master
> was in His room with Ruha and Munavvar Khanum.
> 
> "Did you hear my heart crying to You, my Lord?"
> 
> "Yes. That was why I sent for you. I should like you to be with Me
> every moment," He said. "I want you with Me all the time. If it
> were according to wisdom, I would have you here with Me always. But
> it is not wise. Otherwise, you should be always with Me. I want you
> to feel this."
> 
> He spoke much of Alice and His desire that I make her happy. He
> told me He wished me to be His real daughter, not a daughter in
> name but in very reality, so that if "His daughter in America" were
> mentioned, all would know that I was that daughter. Then: "In
> regard to Mr Remey," He said, "you need not do this thing. It is
> not
> 
> compulsory. No one has the right to force your feeling. I have not
> the right. But if you can do it from your heart, if you can love
> him, I wish it very much."
> 
> "I wanted to speak about this, my Lord. I have only loved deeply
> once and I could never give such a love again. But since I have
> seen Thy Face, I have learned the reality of Love. I have learned
> that the human love is unnecessary, that it is only a step to the
> Divine Love, so that I can put it aside. Now, on the other hand,
> there is this man I have loved, his feeling for me and my hope to
> make him a believer ..."
> 
> "It would be very difficult to make this man a believer and you
> know this," said the Master. "I am sorry," He added gently, "but
> I must say these things to you.
> 
> "And if I should marry Mr Remey," I asked, "it would mean a great
> opportunity to serve the Cause? It would be good for the Cause if
> I should marry him?"
> 
> "Most certainly," answered our Lord, "such a union would be
> productive of great good in the Cause. We will see," He continued,
> "how he feels about it, and if you and he both wish it, it is My
> wish. I love Mr Remey very much."
> 
> "I have always loved him," I said. "He did so much to bring me into
> the Cause."
> 
> "He has brought many into the Cause."
> 
> He kept me to lunch and all through the afternoon, and His
> daughters and I had tea with Him. After tea, He went up to the
> Tomb.
> 
> For a while I sat in the big white hall, facing the blue Bay of
> Haifa, talking with the Holy Mother and Ruha, Munavvar, and Diya
> Khanum. They mentioned Fu'ad, a nephew of the Holy Mother's who is
> ill, and who lives
> 
> near the top of the mountain with his beautiful sister,
> Ridvaniyyih.
> 
> "How is he?" I asked. Ruha and I had lately visited him.
> 
> "I haven't heard for the last few days," said Ruha.
> 
> "I believe I will go and see," I said.
> 
> "Will you go alone to the mountain?"
> 
> "Yes, unless you can come too."
> 
> She could not, so I went alone. To be alone with Mount Carmel is
> always a thrilling experience to me. As I approached Fu'ad's house,
> Ridvaniyyih ran out of the door to meet me, her veil and her braids
> flying, her face all aglow. "Our Lord is coming, Juliet!" she
> cried. I looked up and saw Him, His Persian disciples behind Him,
> coming through a grove of fig trees. How I had prayed to be with
> Him on Mount Carmel! With Ridvaniyyih, I went into Fu'ad's room and
> it was there the Master found me.
> 
> "You here, Juliet!" He exclaimed. Then He called me to sit beside
> Him. Fu'ad knelt at a little distance. Almost at once our Lord rose
> and crossed over to Fu'ad. He lifted the bandage from his eye, felt
> his pulse with a tender touch, looked at him long and lovingly. So
> I saw the Christ healing the sick.
> 
> Later He sat for some time on the broad stone terrace in front of
> the house: Ridvaniyyih, the Persians, and I grouped around Him. He
> sat silent, gazing toward the Bay. Then suddenly, up went His
> hand--high, His eyes rolling strangely upward with such a
> breathtaking, seeing look, as though He were greeting Someone in
> the sky!
> 
> At last He left us. Ridvaniyyih and I, our arms around each other,
> watched Him descending the mountain. Two
> 
> or three times He turned and waved to us. In the distance, in the
> sunset light burnishing His long white robes, He appeared like a
> "pillar of fire".
> 
> I soon followed Him. But before going home, I wanted to say goodbye
> to Nuru'llah Effendi's wife, who, because she has consumption,
> lives on the mountain alone, in a little house made of branches.
> But I lost my way and had to stop an Arab to ask if he could direct
> me. He was a wild-looking creature, in a short tunic and a long
> head-cloth, and with a sort of satyr's leer. He seized my hand and
> began to skip with me! I must say, he frightened me. Still I felt
> a lovely exhilaration as we skipped lightly along, the satyr and
> I, till he safely deposited me at the little house made of
> branches. The wife of Nuru'llah was radiant. Our Lord had just
> visited her, and the fragrance of His Presence lingered in her hut.
> 
> Going home in the dark, I met Mirza Hadi. "The Master," he told me,
> "has sent me to find you. He says you should not be alone on the
> mountain."
> 
> When I reached 'Inayatu'llah's house, the Master had just left it.
> 
> "He was here asking for you," said 'Inayatu'llah. "He paced up and
> down the garden, repeating: 'Juliet should not be alone on the
> mountain.'"
> 
> I went flying to Him to let Him know of my safe return, and of
> something else. One of the Persian believers had told me that if
> a group of Americans should stay here too long as guests of the
> Master, it might make trouble for Him with the still-watchful
> Turks. So the Kinneys' decision to wait in Haifa till their cheque
> came had worried me very much and I had thought of a plan which I
> wanted to speak of to our Lord.
> 
> But when I entered the reception room I found Mr Kinney there with
> Him, Mr Kinney kneeling and in tears, our Lord bending over him
> lovingly.
> 
> "I told you to go tomorrow only because you pressed me for a date,
> but stay. Stay. I want you to be happy" (with the sweetest glance).
> Then He dismissed Mr Kinney.
> 
> When I was alone with the Master and Shoghi Effendi--that beautiful
> boy--who was also in the room, translating, I spoke of the Kinneys'
> financial troubles and of some money I had--treasured up--for the
> most sacred purpose.[70] If my Lord approved, I said, I would lend
> this to the Kinneys.
> 
> "No," He replied, "they are waiting for a large sum of money, a
> very large sum: five thousand francs. You have been troubled about
> this." He rose and walked up and down, but soon seated Himself.
> "The Kinneys," He said, "may be here for a long time yet--for a
> month or two. Their money may not come very soon. Could you stay
> so long? Would you have to return to your affairs?"
> 
> "Oh no!" I said. "No, I shouldn't have to return. But I will do as
> you think best."
> 
> A month or two in Haifa--near His Presence!
> 
> "I want you to be happy," He said, "to do what makes you happy."
> 
> Just at that moment Munavvar came in and our Lord took us into His
> room. Again and again He questioned me. What did I want to do? Did
> I want to stay? Would it make me happy to stay? He wanted me to be
> happy.
> 
> "To do Your will makes me happy. I cannot express a
> 
> wish. I only wish what You wish, my Lord. I want to leave
> everything now in Your hands."
> 
> "Then I will tell you what I want you to do, and I want you to do
> this for Me very much. I want you to take Mrs B. home. Take the
> boat tomorrow night. Go to Cairo and then straight home. Take to
> the believers what you have received here." He gave me many
> instructions about Alice.
> 
> That night He kept me very late. First I had supper with Him.
> Afterwards Ruha, Munavvar, and I sat in His room.
> 
> "I wanted to keep you here all night, your last night. I wanted you
> to be with us. But there is no unoccupied room in the house."
> 
> "I have heard that once a believer stood all night outside Your
> door. I wish I might have that privilege," I said.
> 
> "It will be the same," He answered gently. "You will be watching
> with Me while you are at 'Inayatu'llah's house."
> 
> I shall never forget that last night. The candle burned dimly in
> the room. Ruha, Munavvar, and I sat on the floor at His feet. At
> times He was silent. At times He talked tenderly with us.
> 
> Though I should have remembered His words that I was "watching with
> Him", all night I tossed and turned, tortured by the thought of the
> marriage before me--tortured because I must leave my Lord so soon,
> so soon, must leave the protection and comfort of His Presence--the
> Heaven of His Presence--and go back into the world to face that
> marriage.
> 
> At six-thirty in the morning He sent for me. He met me with a grave
> face.
> 
> "How are you?" He asked. "Did you sleep well? You should have slept
> well. It is cooler at 'Inayatu'llah's than here." Then He waved His
> hand toward the House. "Find Munavvar Khanum."
> 
> When I found her, she said: "Our Lord called you just to see you,
> just to see how you were."
> 
> He left the House then and went to 'Inayatu'llah's. Pacing up and
> down my room, as 'Inayatu'llah told me later, He began to speak of
> me. He asked how to spell my first name and said it was a beautiful
> name. He spoke very beautifully of me, 'Inayatu'llah said.
> 
> "Is she happy and content in this simple room?" He asked.
> 
> I see now that in this room He was gathering up my thoughts of the
> night: registering my misery.
> 
> Soon He returned and invited some of us to tea--the Ladies of the
> Household and Edna and myself. First He spoke to me, then to Edna.
> 
> Oh, if only I had written down those last few talks, taken them
> down from His lips! The sufferings of the days since have blurred
> them in my mind. I had been thinking, during that last awful night
> at 'Inayatu'llah's, of my wonderful life in New York, a life of
> such thrilling interest mentally. I had thought how complete the
> sacrifice would be in having to return, the wife of Mason Remey,
> to the city I have always hated: Washington. Yet one ray of truth
> had dawned on me: Percy Grant, so gifted, so powerfully magnetic,
> so dominant, might, because of my weakness and humanness and the
> strength of my attachment to him, veil my heart from my Lord. This,
> Mason Remey, the angel, could never do. So, that last morning in
> Haifa, the Master answered these two thoughts. Physical things, He
> said, interfered with
> 
> spiritual development. Then: "When you travel you must shake from
> your shoes the dust of every city through which you pass."[71]
> 
> I shall never forget the surpassing sweetness of His smile that
> morning. He kept me in the House for hours. Later I went with Ruha
> to her house. While we were talking we heard His voice. "Our Lord!"
> cried Ruha. We sprang up to meet Him at the door and He led us to
> Ruha's living room.
> 
> Ah, infinitely tender He was that day, that last day! Brokenly I
> thanked Him for all His Bounties. "And for all Thou hast done to
> sever me. I want nothing now but Thy Will."
> 
> "Yes. I know," He said, bending over me, looking profoundly into
> my eyes. Grave, ineffably loving, sorrowful, that look. That He
> suffered for me, with me, was intolerably clear to me.
> 
> Oh, I must stop suffering! When our hearts bleed, the Divine Heart
> bleeds. It is true. I had one more evidence of this a little later.
> 
> While I was with Him at Ruha's house, the Master had invited me to
> lunch, and as soon as He left us, I hurried to 'Inayatu'llah's to
> change my dress. But people were in my bedroom, which is also the
> living room--a believer was calling on Khanum Diya--and I couldn't
> suggest to them to go! When at last they did, Khanum Diya assured
> me I had time to dress. But then, the devil got into me: I wanted
> to make myself as beautiful as I could! And everything went wrong;
> it was like a nightmare! I chose an elaborate white lace dress,
> fastened in the back with hooks-and-eyes and my fingers couldn't
> find the right
> 
> hooks. I tried to put on my veil, a rose-coloured one with a
> border, in the most becoming way, and couldn't arrange it
> becomingly enough! And before I was through adorning myself,
> Khusraw ran in with an appalling message: the Master and the Holy
> Household were already at the table!
> 
> By the time I reached the House and the dining room, the Master had
> risen from His seat and was washing His hands in a basin near the
> window. He asked me to please excuse Him for leaving so soon, He
> had only taken a little soup.
> 
> I sat stricken with an awful shame: speechless with shame, as I
> realized overwhelmingly the disrespect I had shown to our Lord in
> keeping Him waiting--and all because of my vanity!
> 
> He came back to the table and repeated: "Ask Juliet to excuse Me
> for leaving her so soon. I only took soup today." And while He
> spoke He looked at me, such grief in His eyes as I could hardly
> bear, such grief because He had to punish me. Then He turned and
> went out of the room, having had nothing to eat. To inflict that
> so necessary punishment He had sacrificed His midday meal.
> 
> The rest of the meal was, of course, pure agony to me. I could not
> hold up my head in the presence of the Family. Besides, a great
> geyser of tears kept rising in me and it was all I could do not to
> burst out crying. At last I escaped and returned to
> 'Inayatu'llah's.
> 
> But no sooner had I taken off my miserable finery than the Master
> again sent for me. I slipped on a simpler dress and rushed back to
> the beloved House, where Munavvar met me.
> 
> "Our Lord," she said, "just wanted to know where you were and
> wanted you here."
> 
> We had our afternoon rest, Munavvar and I, in the reception room.
> Suddenly the Master stood in the doorway, beckoning us to His room.
> 
> There, He led me to the mirror and standing close to my side, took
> my face in His hand and pressed my cheek against His, then told me
> to look in the mirror. So majestic He was, He appeared stern and
> His Face shone with a white glory beside my flushed, earthly face.
> Again He reminded me of a Star. So I saw myself in the clasp of the
> Good Shepherd, and, in that ineffable picture in the mirror, I saw
> my Lord's promise that He would be always protecting me, always
> watching over me.
> 
> Once, during the morning, while I was alone in the reception room,
> the Master came from His room into the hall and, standing in the
> shadow against the white wall, like a Spirit in His white garments,
> He looked at me long and steadfastly. Suddenly love welled up in
> me and I smiled. A smile of intensest sweetness, of heavenly
> brightness, broke over His Face; He tilted His head to one side
> with tenderest charm, as though He were playing with a child. Once
> more He came out, gazed gravely at me, gazed almost longer than I
> could bear--so frail is the human spirit before the Force of Divine
> Love--and then, like lightning, vanished.
> 
> __________
> 
> Early in the afternoon He called me into His room. "How are you,
> Juliet?"
> 
> "Happy," I answered, through tears!
> 
> He looked at me with questioning, smiling eyes.
> 
> Still, underlying my anguish, there was happiness, that my
> sacrifice had been accepted.
> 
> "I love you," He said gently. "I love you very much."
> 
> Then He began to talk to me, His aspect abruptly changing to one
> of great majesty. If only, only I had writ-
> 
> ten down those last instructions! All I can do now is to quote
> fragments of them.
> 
> "How many days were you in 'Akka?"
> 
> "Twelve, my Lord."
> 
> "How many days have you been in Haifa?"
> 
> "Twelve."
> 
> "Twelve. Always twelve. You have received in those twelve days that
> which was given by Abraham to the twelve tribes of Israel. You have
> received that which was given by Moses. You have received that
> which was given by Christ to the twelve apostles; that which was
> given by Muhammad to the twelve Imams. ... You have served me in
> America. Your house has been the centre for the believers. You have
> loved them and shown kindness to them. Now I want to give you some
> instructions.
> 
> "The time you devote to your art is your own; you are free to use
> it as you wish. But when you enter the meetings, I want you to
> concentrate upon spiritual things. Read the prayers, the Tablets,
> sing hymns, give the proofs. I want you to give strong, logical
> proofs. ... Never let anyone speak of another unkindly in your
> presence. Should anyone do so, stop them. Tell them it is against
> the commands of Baha'u'llah; that He has commanded: 'Love one
> another.' Never speak an unkind word, yourself, against anyone. If
> you see something wrong, let your silence be your only comment. ...
> Be firm and steadfast. Do not waste your time with light people."
> 
> There was more: much more. How could my memory serve me so cruelly?
> 
> Soon afterward Alice and Carrie arrived at the House. As Alice came
> in, our Lord continued: "Be firm and
> 
> steadfast, and if you are firm and steadfast, be sure that no one
> who really belongs in your life will be lost to you."
> 
> He then told Alice that He wished us to love each other. His words
> were so heavenly that Ruha, as she listened, wept.
> 
> Just before we drove to the ship Ruha called me, alone, to our
> Lord. I knelt at His feet.
> 
> "Don't let me cry! Don't let me cry!" I implored, catching hold of
> His 'aba.
> 
> He took both my hands, and God's Love gazed through His eyes into
> mine. "Remember My words to you, obey My commands," He said, "and
> you will marvel at the results."
> 
> I dare not attempt to quote Him; everything else He said has
> escaped me. All I can bring to my mind now is that Face of divine
> compassion looking down at me, the strong hands that clasped mine,
> the grief that consumed my heart.
> 
> "I have given you so much, Juliet," (this comes back to me)
> "because I have desired your spiritual progress. You can make
> spiritual progress. Now you need the power of discourse. When you
> begin to speak in the meetings, never think of your own weakness,
> but turn to Me."
> 
> "My only desire is to follow Thy Will. But there is one thing I
> long for, Lord. May I become worthy to always keep the vision of
> Thy Face?"
> 
> He bent over me with a look of profoundest love, and of assent.
> 
> "My mother and brother, Lord: protect them--under all
> circumstances."
> 
> Again that low bending over me, that assent. "I will pray."
> 
> "I am bound to Thee, Lord, with a cord that can never be cut."
> 
> And with this I broke down, and hiding my face on His knee, I wept.
> After a moment He lifted my face and, for the last time, wiped away
> my tears with His fingers.
> 
> When He dismissed me, I raised to my lips the hem of His robe and
> pressed a long, long kiss upon it.
> 
> He followed me to the door of His room. Taking my hand, He held it
> against His side. "Give My love to Lua," He said. "Tell her I am
> always with her in spirit."
> 
> To me He said: "I want you to return a new creation, so that all
> will see that you are another Juliet, with another attraction."
> 
> __________
> 
> That night on the boat, my eyes fixed on Mount Carmel--the lights
> of the Tomb glowing yellow through the moonlight, the fragrance of
> the Spirit of the Lord diffused from that Sacred Spot--I wept my
> heart out.
> 
> "Forevermore, my Lord, is my heart linked to Thee by this
> suffering. Forevermore," I cried, "am I chained to Thee!"
> 
> I remembered His words of a few days before: "I suffer. You must
> suffer with Me." And my suffering became my treasure of treasures.
> 
> Mary broke the alabaster jar and poured all her precious ointment
> over the feet of her Lord. And last Sunday I broke my heart over
> the feet of my Lord--poured out all the love it contained at His
> feet. No more love have I now to give. It is given--to Him.
> 
> He told me that He would strike me, and, as He said it, He laughed.
> So many I "endure the cross, despising the shame."
> 
> Diary of Juliet Thompson: Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Chapter 4
> 
> With 'Abdu'l-Baha in Thonon, Vevey, and Geneva
> 
> 23 July to 23 November 1911
> 
> 48 West Tenth Street, New York
> 
> 8 April 1936
> 
> "Love devastates every country where He plants His banner."
> 
> In 'Akka I had looked upon the Mystery of Love and of incarnate
> Sacrifice. I returned, this vision filling my eyes, blinding me to
> all lesser values. This, and the fact that I was so immature both
> spiritually and in worldly wisdom, caused me to become, myself, the
> instrument of the devastation. But I devastated not my country
> alone, but others. When, this winter, I read my diary of 1910, I
> was crushed with shame, and remained so for weeks, because of my
> blind, cruel blundering all through that awful year. Then came a
> flash of what I believe to be perception, and this has comforted
> me. My Lord, 'Abdu'l-Baha, Who "saw the end" where I saw "only the
> beginning" (and in Whose compassionate hands are the lives of all)
> had, in reality, offered me two choices: first, my own will; then,
> His Will--or what appeared to be His Will. Though I played my small
> part so miserably, at least I chose the Master's Will. When in my
> extremity I still clung desperately to His Will, He released me
> from my engagement to Mason Remey. As for "the other man": as I
> review the whole drama of my connection with his life, ending in
> tragedy, it is clear that at every crisis, something diviner than
> fate stood between us. 'Abdu'l-Baha, had another plan for me. And
> this, I believe, was His plan from the beginning.
> 
> [Blank page]
> 
> S. S. Lusitania. Atlantic Ocean!
> 
> Sunday, 23 July 1911
> 
> Nothing could have been further from my thought than that I should
> begin this volume somewhere off the coast of Ireland! I had
> expected to begin it in our new home: a small, very old house on
> Tenth Street, from the windows of which, if I lean out just a
> little way, I can see the tower of the Church of the Ascension, and
> even--the rectory!
> 
> But there came a Call ...
> 
> Ten days ago, on 13 July, I received a letter from Ahmad.[72] To
> my infinite surprise, for I had only just heard from the Master,
> I found it contained a Tablet. These are the words of the Tablet:
> 
> O Thou who art attracted by the Breath of the Holy Spirit!
> 
> When thou wert leaving to return to America and this made you sad
> and unhappy and you wept, I promised I would summon you again to
> My Presence. Now I fulfil that promise. If there is no hindrance
> and you can travel in perfect joy and fragrance, you have
> permission to be present. In this trip there is a consum-
> 
> mate wisdom and in it praiseworthy results are hidden.
> 
> Upon thee be Baha'u'l-Abha.
> 
> (signed) Abdul Baha Abbas
> 
> In Ahmad's letter was the amazing news that the Master was on His
> way to London to attend the Universal Races' Congress which was to
> open the following week and last for three days.
> 
> "If you can sail in a week," wrote Ahmad, "you will find our Lord
> in London."
> 
> I leapt over every "hindrance" (and three of them were high walls)
> and within the week, with Silvia Gannett, boarded the Lusitania.
> 
> Just before I left I broke the news to Percy Grant. He said
> something blasphemous--violently--then did something to break my
> heart.
> 
> Well, that is no "hindrance," I thought, I can leave him to her.
> 
> He spent the last evening before I sailed with me.
> 
> "Don't you want to send a message to the Master?" I asked.
> 
> A mocking look came into his face.
> 
> "He sent you one," I went on, "from 'Akka, when I was there. But
> I have never been able to tell you about it, because whenever I
> have mentioned the Master to you, Percy, you have answered in a
> flippant way. But I can't go back to Him now until I have delivered
> it.
> 
> "I spoke of your work to Him and He called you 'a great soul'. Then
> He invited you to visit Him. I can repeat His very words. 'When you
> return, say to Dr Grant: If you will go yourself to 'Akka, you will
> find that
> 
> which is beyond imagining. If you go, you will find all you had
> imagined useless in comparison with the Reality. If you go you will
> receive that for which you would not exchange all the kingdom of
> the world.'"
> 
> "That was a very whole-souled message," Percy replied. "Tell Him
> that if He comes to New York I will welcome Him gladly. Tell Him
> I think He would find New York a big enough field even for His
> great work!"
> 
> "I don't think that message will do," I said.
> 
> "Tell Him, judging by His fruits," (with a meaningful look at me)
> "His Teaching is the most beautiful spiritual force in the world."
> 
> "I shall certainly not tell Him that!"
> 
> "Tell Him I am very happy to have a share in those fruits--"
> 
> "No; nor that either."
> 
> "I can't suit you with a message! Well, tell Him I feel that what
> He is trying to do in the world is very beautiful and potent."
> 
> Then I gave up!
> 
> S. S. Lusitania
> 
> I should like to write of a dream I had two days before my Tablet
> came, for I think it is something that should be kept.
> 
> I had been praying at dawn. Afterwards, putting the Master's brown
> 'aba over my bed and hoping for a vision, I fell asleep.
> 
> I awoke in a vast, dim crypt, with many aisles branching away into
> utter darkness. I was standing, alone in the crypt, beside an
> enormous grey sarcophagus. Then in
> 
> the far, far distance, I saw two figures in white, in long robes
> and turbans, walking out of the shadows in my direction, and I
> recognized the Master and Mirza Haydar-'Ali, "the Angel of 'Akka".
> Something is going to happen; I shouldn't be here, I thought. But
> I can't escape now. There is nothing to do but hide. And I crouched
> behind the sarcophagus. The next picture in my dream is of the
> Master and Mirza Haydar-'Ali bending over the sarcophagus. Then
> they lifted its lid and dropped into it, drawing down the lid after
> them. Now I could make my escape! I tried to steal away on tiptoe,
> but before I had taken a dozen steps, my shoes creaked! At this,
> the Master rose from the centre of the sarcophagus, His face
> unsmiling--stern.
> 
> "You may stay," He said, "but keep perfectly still."
> 
> Once more I crouched, holding my breath.
> 
> First there was an awful silence; then, from within the
> sarcophagus, I heard the strains of a solemn chant; then groans,
> followed by blood-freezing screams. And I thought, What can the
> Master be doing to Mirza Haydar-'Ali?
> 
> But somebody else was in that sarcophagus. The end of it suddenly
> burst open and out of it dashed a figure racing up and down so fast
> that all I could see were flying garments and a shaven, bluish head
> with a black fez on it. At last, exhausted, he sank to his knees
> on the ground, shielding his face with one arm. Then he rose and
> crept back into his coffin.
> 
> Then, down every aisle of the crypt came armies on the march, a
> standard-bearer with a flag leading each regiment, so that soon all
> the flags of all the nations drooped above the sarcophagus as the
> armies gathered around it. And then I saw a lovely woman standing
> 
> among the flags. She wore a long white tunic, her hair was bright
> gold, and she radiated light.
> 
> While I watched this brilliant and formidable scene, wondering how
> 'Abdu'l-Baha could be concerned with a pageant, the figure with the
> bluish head and the fez again broke open the end of the
> sarcophagus. But now I saw: Satan himself! Now he was naked, fully
> exposed, with a white body and great dark bat's wings springing out
> from his shoulders--even with the orthodox tail and hoofs! And now
> he stole from his hiding place and, like a
> serpent--sinuously--wound his way in and out between all the
> standard-bearers, creeping under all the flags, wriggling his way
> among all the armies, all the national groups!
> 
> The dream changed. I was in New York, in the Peoples' Forum. Percy
> Grant was sitting on the platform in the Parish Hall and his
> mother, Sylvia Gannett, and I standing among the empty chairs just
> vacated, I knew, by a large audience. I bent to kiss Mrs Grant. She
> looked up, her eyes full of tears.
> 
> "I have seen Him," she said, "the Master. He spoke to me. Oh, there
> was never such a Face in the world!"
> 
> "You have seen Him!" I cried. "Where was He?"
> 
> "In here; a moment ago."
> 
> "But--a moment ago He was in the sarcophagus."
> 
> Then Percy rose and went out. London
> 
> Friday, 4 August 1911
> 
> I am still in London, waiting for the Master to come. He did not
> attend the Universal Races' Congress. They had asked Him to speak
> on philosophy and to make no
> 
> reference to religion, so He sent a representative,
> Tamaddunu'l-Mulk. (Tamaddunu'l-Mulk is about four feet high and his
> name means The Civilization of the Country.)
> 
> The three days' conference opened with an ode written by Alice
> Buckton. Here is one verse: They come! Who come? Listen! What
> thunderous tread of viewless feet From citied walls where waters
> meet, From isles of coral foam; From Western prairies red with
> corn, From sacred temples of the morn, They come!
> 
> True British idealism! The last session ended in a brawl. Annie
> Besant ("Pa, with Ma's bonnet on her head," as Mrs Standard called
> her) took the platform and hurled the monkey wrench.
> 
> "This talk is all very well. But what about India?"
> 
> Then--the uproar in crescendo till the very last minute!
> 
> When I hear that the Master was not to be at the Congress, I cabled
> to Him for instructions. The answer came: "Wait."
> 
> London
> 
> 9 August 1911
> 
> I have just had another cable from our Lord. It says: "Remain."
> 
> Here in London a little group is humbly preparing for His coming.
> Devoted hearts are waiting for Him. Every night we all gather at
> dear Miss Jack's and pray.
> 
> The English believers have been so kind to me: dear Miss Rosenberg,
> dear Mrs Knightley (who calls me "cousin", since we have an
> ancestor--Lord Edward Fitzgerald--in common), Mrs Stannard--the
> most fascinating woman, whom I met in Beirut two years ago and
> immediately loved; Lady Blomfield; the Jennens; Miss Faulkner; Miss
> Buckton; and others. And our own believers who are here: Maud
> Yandall, the Chicago friends with their warm hearts, my beloved
> Isabel Fraser, Miss Pomeroy, Rhoda Nichols, Albert Hall and
> Mountfort Mills. And, of course, little Tamaddunu'l-Mulk. Post
> Office Telegraphs: Thonon-les-Bains
> 
> 22 August 1911
> 
> THOMPSON, 5 SINCLAIR ROAD, LONDON.
> 
> COME HERE. HOTEL PARC.
> 
> (signed) Abdul Baha France
> 
> 23 August 1911
> 
> (We are on the way to the Master, Tamaddunu'l-Mulk and I, and
> though we are sitting up all night long in a second-class coach
> with a family of four Swiss peasants--oh, we are so happy!
> 
> Oh, tomorrow! But I cannot imagine tomorrow. Tomorrow I shall be
> with Him in Europe, in the mountains of Switzerland.
> 
> The "Sun of the West" moves toward the West, and, in this majestic
> advance, this thrilling moment in time and in eternity, when, in
> His actual Presence, He rises and shines on the West, He has
> blessed and honoured this humble child of His by calling her to His
> side. All day, as
> 
> [Photograph: A group of Baha'is in London (c. 1912).]
> 
> I travelled through France, I seemed to be hastening toward Him
> down a path of white radiance.
> 
> How strange! It was 13 July, two years ago, when I tore myself,
> weeping, from my Lord in 'Akka. It was on 22 August, that I said
> my heartbroken goodbye to Him in Haifa. This year, on 13 July, came
> His Tablet, "summoning" me again to Him; and this year on 22
> August--yesterday--the summons to Switzerland came.
> 
> Tamaddunu'l-Mulk is asleep. I shall spend the night in prayer.
> Wonderful night! More wonderful: the Daybreak! Hotel du Parc,
> Thonon, on Lake Geneva
> 
> 27 August 1911
> 
> A great white hotel. At its entrance, two oleander trees in bloom.
> Inside, high ceilings, white walls, glass doors, rose-coloured
> carpets, rose-coloured damask furniture. Beyond the green terrace
> with its marble balustrade, Lake Geneva. Behind the hotel, two
> mountains overhung with clouds. In the halls and strolling through
> the grounds: gay, artificial, dull-eyed people. Passing among these
> silently with His indescribable majesty, His strange Power and His
> holy sweetness, the Master--'Abdu'l-Baha--unrecognized but not
> unfelt. As He passes, the dull eyes follow Him, lit up for a moment
> with wonder.
> 
> I found my beloved Laura and her dear husband, Hippolyte
> Dreyfus-Barney, already here.
> 
> __________
> 
> (It was Laura who gave me the Message, bringing to me the greatest
> of gifts in earth and heaven and changing the whole direction of
> my life. It happened in this way: I
> 
> had been almost fatally ill and was slowly recovering in Washington
> when I said one day to my brother, "Coming so close to death makes
> you think. And I have been thinking lately that it is time for
> another Messenger of God." The very next day Laura burst in on me,
> taking me by complete surprise, for I had not heard of her return
> from Paris. "Yesterday, Juliet," she said, "I was in Bar Harbor.
> Tomorrow I sail from New York for Palestine. But I couldn't sail
> without first seeing you to tell you why I am making this
> pilgrimage. Juliet, the Christ-Spirit is again on earth, and--as
> before--He is in Palestine."
> 
> During my illness, the night of the crisis--months before Laura
> came to me--I actually saw 'Abdu'l-Baha. In the midst of physical
> anguish and with darkness closing down on me, I had felt a great
> pulsation of love from the head of my bed and thought that my
> mother must be sitting there. I turned and, instead, there sat a
> Figure built up of light, with a dazzling turban and hair like a
> flow of light to His shoulders, and with His hands cupped on His
> knees. Jesus is here, I thought peacefully and glided away into
> sleep. And when I awoke the crisis was passed. Later my mother said
> to me: "That night of the crisis while I was praying I saw a great
> Light shining beside your bed.")
> 
> __________
> 
> On the morning of 24 August, on my way to the door of my Lord, I
> met the last person on earth I would have looked for, Percy Grant's
> friend, Dickinson Miller.[73]
> 
> "You here!" I gasped. "I always wanted to tell you about this."
> 
> "Why didn't you?" he asked.
> 
> I left him in a moment, I could not wait, and flew up the long
> white hall (blessed hall where His voice and footsteps ring!) till
> I came to an open door. Tamaddunu'l-Mulk had already entered. I
> paused at the door. Then I saw ... saw once more after these years
> of unspeakable longing: my Father, my King, and my Beloved.
> 
> He was just moving forward in the room, His white robe, His black
> 'aba sweeping in lines of strange grace, dominated by that head of
> immortal majesty. In an instant I was at His feet.
> 
> I have no words to tell it. Can words paint Glory? The smiling Face
> that looked down on me then, as though from high heaven? One thing
> I know: God always smiles--smiles mysteriously.
> 
> "Are you happy, Juliet? Happy to be here? How many years since you
> were 'Akka?"
> 
> "A lifetime!"
> 
> He laughed.
> 
> "You had a long wait in London? When did you arrive? You were put
> to trouble to wait?"
> 
> "Oh no! Your Presence was with us in London. The friends were very
> kind to me. And if I was waiting, it was for You, my Lord."
> 
> "Or course the friends were kind. The believers must all serve one
> another. I want you to be the first handmaiden of God. I am the
> believers' first Servant. You know how I serve them."
> 
> I covered my face with my hands, for I realized our littleness and
> saw Him as the Word of God.
> 
> "How is your mother?" (in English) "Your mother? She is good--very
> good?"
> 
> "She is always good."
> 
> "She is pleased with you?"--looking at me archly, knowing quite
> well she was not!
> 
> "Not very, I'm afraid," I laughed.
> 
> "The day will come when she will be pleased with you, when she will
> be very proud that you have received such bounty and favour from
> Baha'u'llah."
> 
> "Will it come in her lifetime, Lord?"
> 
> "Insha'llah!" Then He nodded His head assuringly.
> 
> I had been exhausted when I came, after staying up all night long;
> I had not been able even to wash. But suddenly from His Presence
> I felt Life flowing, rushing toward me; I felt an electric current
> revivifying me, and when I went to my room and looked in the
> mirror--afraid of what I might see in it I found that I had a
> bright colour and my lips were brilliantly red.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. When we arrived at Geneva in the early morning a train
> for Thonon was just about to start. Not even to wash could I wait
> for the next train! There was no time to telephone or send a wire
> to the Hotel du Parc, so that, naturally, when we reached Thonon,
> no one was at the station to meet us. Nor was there a conveyance
> of any kind. Only a wheelbarrow! "All right, Mulk," I said, "we'll
> take the wheelbarrow. We'll put our luggage on it and walk behind."
> "Oh, we couldn't do that!" said the elegant little Persian. "I
> can," I replied. And we did--and arrived at the Hotel du Parc on
> foot behind the wheelbarrow!) Vevey, Switzerland
> 
> 28 August 1911
> 
> I am in Vevey with Edith Sanderson. My heavenly Visit is over. Yet
> I am not separated from Him.
> 
> "We will never be separated." He said to me. "I shall be with you
> always. You will go back to America and I may return to 'Akka, but
> we will be together." Geneva
> 
> 31 August 1911
> 
> I sailed from Vevey today down the Lake of Geneva. There was a
> heavy mist and the mountains loomed like phantoms through it. The
> lake, full of swans and white sails, gleamed. The Swiss shore was
> veiled to a tender green, its chalets and villages blurred like
> etchings on blotting paper.
> 
> From Lausanne I strained my eyes toward Thonon. Then, suddenly the
> boat turned and made straight for the French shore. My heart
> leaped. We were going to Thonon: Thonon, my Paradise!
> 
> Ah, there were the fishnets spread out in the sun; there the grove
> of trees at the landing with that brilliant foliage--such a
> polished green that it looks wet--and in the dark shade under the
> trees, the lily-bed; there, there His hotel, white against the
> mountains. I could even see the window of His room!
> 
> Eagerly I searched the faces at the landing. Surely little Mulk
> would be at the landing, to meet me and take me back to my Lord.
> It must have been for this that the boat had docked at Thonon.
> Hippolyte, Laura perhaps ... No. There was not one soul I knew.
> 
> With unspeakable desolation, with a sense of utter helplessness,
> I found myself carried away from Thonon. Heaven was behind me then!
> 
> The perspective of the mountains changed. The rowboats rocking on
> metal waves, the funicular railway, the grey old house with its
> shaggy brown roof which Laura
> 
> and I had found so interesting--all the familiar landmarks become
> in those four full days intensely intimate--receded and were
> blotted out by the mist. The hotel only remained, a "White Spot",
> seeming to grow with the distance miraculously whiter, flashing its
> message to me as long as it could; for, though at last the mist
> dimmed it, it was not till a physical object intervened, not till
> a ridge of the shore came between, that it vanished from sight.
> 
> Then came a frantic desire to communicate with Thonon. This cannot,
> must not be the last, I thought. I will telephone Hippolyte as soon
> as I reach Geneva.
> 
> In the Hotel de la Paix I went straight to the phone.
> 
> "Ah Juliet!" said Hippolyte's dear voice. "Do you know that the
> Master will be in Geneva tomorrow? He wished me to get into touch
> with you to tell you that He was coming. And He wishes Edith and
> her friend, Miss Hopkins, to join you at your hotel and spend
> tomorrow night with you. He will arrive with the Persians in the
> evening."
> 
> __________
> 
> To go back to that blissful day in His Presence, to that first
> lunch hour.
> 
> Mr Miller had been invited to lunch and the Master placed him, with
> me, at the head of the table, Himself sitting at the corner, I on
> His right. Our table was half closed in by big white columns. Mr
> Miller asked some questions, on work in and with the Christian
> Church, on the validity of mystical experiences, and, at my
> suggestion (with Percy Grant in my mind) on the economic problem.
> 
> The Master was specially vivid and vital that day, yet these words
> seem so poor, so human. I can think of Him
> 
> only in terms foreign to earth: "The Dawning-Point of Light," "The
> Dayspring" ...
> 
> From His radiant height of knowledge He gave us great answers, but
> to put these into my own language would spoil, would desecrate
> them. More than one phrase I repeated to Professor Miller out of
> sheer delight in its perfection. He would nod in response with a
> happy look.
> 
> In reply to the question about the church (most important to Mr
> Miller as he is considering resigning his chair at Columbia to
> enter the ministry) the Master said religion was one truth which
> the sectarians had divided; however, the Light can be found
> everywhere, and it was good to unite with the people, especially
> in work for humanity and when one's own motive was pure. He dwelt
> on the purity of the motive. All that tended to unite was good;
> whatever resulted in division was harmful. I am sorry to repeat
> only these broken fragments. His answers were so clear, so
> brilliant, so simple that you wondered at your own question. But
> the words themselves were elusive. Mortal lips could not frame such
> phrases, nor mortal ears register them.
> 
> As to mystical experiences: most assuredly the saints and mystics
> had real experiences. The proof of the experience was its fruit.
> If the result was spiritual we might know the experience was from
> God.
> 
> "Ask a question for me," I said to Professor Miller. "I know what
> the Master will say, but I want the answer for Dr Grant. He doesn't
> see the need for the Baha'i Teaching. He thinks it a sort of
> 'Quietism'. He says that to bring about social progress we must
> first work along practical lines."
> 
> Mr Miller put the question beautifully. "There are some who feel
> this way," he ended, "and one man in
> 
> particular feels it so strongly that he is making it his lifework."
> 
> "Such people," replied the Master, "are doing the work of true
> religion."
> 
> Then He went on to explain that a new order must come, but first
> a solid foundation must be laid for it, and no foundation was solid
> enough except religion, which was the Love of God. Such a basis as
> the Love of God, He said, would inevitably result in the rearing
> of a great Structure of social justice and individual love and
> justice.
> 
> "These are just the answers," said Professor Miller, "that Dr Grant
> would like."
> 
> The Master then told him of the Divine Plan for a House of Justice
> and of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> 
> After lunch we sat in the reception room: a large white room, all
> mirrors and glass doors (and rose-coloured furniture), looking out
> on the lake, the terrace and the stone balustrade.
> 
> In the morning, in the Master's room, I had mentioned my
> acquaintance with Professor Miller.
> 
> "I always wanted," I said, "to give him the Message."
> 
> "Now I have given him the Message," laughed the Master.
> 
> "Now I see why I did not!"
> 
> After lunch Mr Miller spoke of his friendship for me.
> 
> "Your love must increase from this day," said the Master. Whereupon
> the professor, who is very shy, blushed as red as the chair he was
> sitting on and looked really frightened. "You must become like
> brother and sister," our Lord hastily added, with one more lovely
> phrase on the future of our spiritual relationship. As Professor
> Miller took his leave, he seemed to be deeply moved.
> 
> "I shall never forget this day," he said.
> 
> The Master put His arms around him, then gave him a good strong
> slap on the back and bade him goodbye most lovingly.
> 
> When he had gone, the Master turned to me: "Now there is something
> for you to do, Juliet! I put him under your charge. There is a
> chance for you!"
> 
> All that day was heavenly. The Master was either in my room with
> Laura and Hippolyte, or we were in His, in the most charming
> informality. He gave us no spiritual teaching--in words--only
> talked gaily or tenderly with us. I had no private interviews: in
> fact, He took very little notice of me. But in spite of all this
> I saw something vaster than I had ever seen before; I felt His
> unearthly power, His divine sweetness even more than when I was
> with Him in 'Akka. Once as He stood on the stairway talking with
> Mirza Asadu'llah, the sweetness of His Love brought the tears to
> my eyes. It is useless to try to express it. But I said to myself
> as I looked on that celestial radiance: If He never gave me so much
> as a word, if he never glanced my way, just to see that sweetness
> shining before me, I would follow Him on my knees, crawling behind
> Him in the dust forever!
> 
> __________
> 
> That night (24 August) at dinner, He turned to me smiling and said:
> "Did you ever expect, Juliet, to be in Thonon with Me in such a
> gathering?"
> 
> "No indeed I did not! May we all be in just such a gathering with
> You in New York!"
> 
> "I have made a pact with the American friends. If they keep the
> pact I will come."
> 
> "The believers are much better friends than they were."
> 
> "I shall have to know that! Baha'u'llah," the Master
> 
> continued, "was bound with a chain no longer than the distance from
> here to that post." With a sudden terrific agitation He rose and
> pointed to a column close to the table. "He could scarcely move.
> Then He was exiled to Baghdad, to Adrianople, to Constantinople,
> to 'Akka--four times! He bore all these hardships that unity might
> be established among you. But if, among themselves, the believers
> cannot unite, how can they hope to unite the world? Christ said to
> His disciples: 'Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has
> lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?'"[74]
> 
> "It is not Juliet's fault," said Hippolyte.
> 
> "No, it is not Juliet's fault. If every one of the believers was
> like Juliet there would have been no trouble," said the
> Master--mercifully.
> 
> "If I had done my whole duty I might have accomplished more toward
> unity."
> 
> "I hope you will become perfect. Insha'llah, through the help of
> Baha'u'llah, you will be perfect. When you return to America,
> Juliet, I want you to do your best to bring about unity."
> 
> "I will do my utmost to carry out every suggestion you make to me,
> my Lord. I will work, not alone for the sake of the believers, but
> for the sake of others who would follow You if they could see You."
> 
> "Had it not been for these divisions," said our Lord, "the Cause
> would have made great progress by now in America."
> 
> __________
> 
> The next day, 25 August, was intensely interesting. Early in the
> morning He called me into His room, with Tamaddunu'l-Mulk as
> interpreter.
> 
> "Are you happy, Juliet?"
> 
> "So happy and so at rest. This is the happiness of the Kingdom."
> 
> He asked me about the election of the new Board in New York. I told
> Him what I could and that I had brought a letter explaining.
> 
> "Is Mr Hoar on the Board? Mr MacNutt?"
> 
> "I don't know, my Lord. I sailed before the election."
> 
> Then I spoke of how Mr MacNutt had been forced out of
> everything.[75] If he were not on this new Board, which had been
> organized by his friends, it was, I felt sure, by his own choice.
> He thinks of himself as a stumbling block to harmony and now keeps
> out of the way.
> 
> "I proposed this change Myself,"[76] said the Master, "in order
> that he might serve on the Board." Then He laughed, with that
> wonderful gleam of humour in His face. "All these Boards and
> committees: of what importance are they? The really important thing
> is to spread the Cause of God. I am not on any committee.
> Tamaddunu'l-Mulk and Mr Dreyfus," (for Hippolyte had just come in)
> "are not on any committee!"
> 
> "Speak to Me, Juliet."
> 
> My heart was too full. I could not. After a moment I said: "May I
> sit on the floor?"
> 
> "But you will be tired."
> 
> "Oh, no!"
> 
> I sat on the floor at His feet.
> 
> "This is like 'Akka," I said, looking up at that matchless Face.
> Then, to surprise Him, in Persian: "Man
> 
> Shuma ra khayli, khayli dust daram." (I love You very, very much.)
> 
> Taking my hand and pressing it, smiling down at me, He said
> something in Persian to Mulk.
> 
> "What is He saying?" I asked.
> 
> "He is praising you very much. He says that your heart is pure. He
> Himself bears witness to this. He is your witness. He proves your
> heart to be pure." (Mulk had already told me of all the slanderous
> letters about me received by the Master.) "If He says this it makes
> no difference what the people say."
> 
> The Master spoke again to Tamaddunu'l-Mulk.
> 
> "He says He sent for you out of pure affection. It was nothing but
> affection. There was no other motive in His sending for you." Mulk
> had told the Master how badly I felt about my broken engagement to
> Mason Remey. "He had promised to send for you again and He thought
> that while He was in Europe would be a good opportunity, that you
> could come to Europe more easily than to 'Akka."
> 
> "Beg Him to so fill me up with His Love that I may express my
> gratitude for this affection by true service in America."
> 
> "He says that you are already full of love for Him and when you
> return to America you will serve Him; that your attraction in this
> Cause and your devotion to it are in themselves service."
> 
> "I feel that I have failed in all I undertook to do when I last
> left Him. I have had great lessons in my own weakness."
> 
> "The Master says your weakness will be turned into strength."
> 
> "You will be strong--strong," said the Master directly
> 
> to me in English, "and when you go back this time you will have a
> greater power."
> 
> Letters were brought to Him and He talked of various things.
> Tamaddunu'l-Mulk handed Him a booklet of Warwick Castle, where, at
> the invitation of the Countess of Warwick, the members of the
> Races' Congress had spent a day--we with them, of course. The
> Master laughed, pushed the book away and gave Mulk a slap.
> 
> "What do I care about it?" He asked. "If a good believer lived in
> it, that would be different! Once, when I lived in Baghdad," He
> went on, "I was invited to the house of a poor thorn-picker. In
> Baghdad the heat is greater even than in Syria; and it was a very
> hot day. But I walked twelve miles to the thorn-picker's hut. Then
> his wife made a little cake out of some meal for Me and burnt it
> in cooking it, so that it was a black, hard lump. Still that was
> the best reception I ever attended."
> 
> I had two more private talks with our Lord that morning. In the
> second, something I said brought forth this answer: "The child does
> not realize the parents' love, but when it becomes mature it
> knows." He said this looking out of the window and His face was
> very sad.
> 
> "Can the creature," I asked, "ever know the Love of the Creator?"
> 
> "Yes. If not in this world, then in the next, as a sleeper wakens."
> 
> It was during my third visit to Him that I spoke of the Holy
> Household, spoke of each beloved one with tears in my eyes. His own
> kindled with the warmest love as He answered: "They too love you,
> Juliet, and always talk of you--especially Munavvar. It is always
> 'Juliet, Juliet.'"
> 
> "Oh, may I go and see them again?" I asked.
> 
> "Assuredly you will go and see them again."[77]
> 
> __________
> 
> At noon that day we had royalty to lunch! Bahram Mirza of Persia.
> Prince Bahram's father is Zillu's-Sultan, who, as the eldest son
> of Nasiri'd-Din Shah, would have succeeded to the throne but that
> his mother was not of royal blood. It was though the orders of
> Nasiri'd-Din Shah that the Bab was executed and thousands of Babis
> massacred, while through Zillu's-Sultan's orders those two great
> Baha'is, "The King of the Martyrs" and "The Beloved of the
> Martyrs", and at least a hundred others, met horrifying deaths. Now
> the whole royal family is in exile, Zillu's-Sultan and his sons in
> Geneva, while 'Abdu'l-Baha walks free in Thonon--so near!
> 
> The day before I arrived, Zillu's-Sultan came over to Thonon for
> a few hours, and straight to the Hotel du Parc.
> 
> Hippolyte Dreyfus, when he was in Persia, had met this Prince, had
> visited him in his tent while he--the prince--was on a hunting
> trip. And now he met him again on the terrace of the hotel. The
> Master too was on the terrace, pacing up and down at a little
> distance. Hippolyte was standing in the doorway when he saw
> Zillu's-Sultan coming up the steps. The prince approached and
> greeted him, then turned a startled look toward the Master.
> 
> "Who is that Persian nobleman?" he asked.
> 
> "That," answered Hippolyte, "is 'Abdu'l-Baha."
> 
> And now Zillu's-Sultan spoke very humbly.
> 
> "Take me to Him," he begged.
> 
> Hippolyte told me all about it: "If you could have seen the brute,
> Juliet, mumbling out his miserable excuses! But the Master took him
> in His arms and said: 'All those things are in the past. Never
> think of them again.' Then He invited Zillu's-Sultan two sons to
> spend a day with Him."
> 
> And so it was that Prince Bahram came to lunch.
> 
> A beautiful boy--Prince Bahram--like a Persian miniature. His skin
> is as smooth as ivory, his straight features finely chiselled, his
> eyebrows meet in a thin, black line across His nose. But being so
> young he is wholly unawakened spiritually, and he hasn't any
> manners at all! After lunch, assuming the privileges of a royal
> prince and Muslim, he stalked out of the room ahead of Laura and
> me--when the Master, in spite of our protests, had insisted on our
> preceding Him. However the Master said later: "Bahram Mirza bad
> nist," (Prince Bahram is not bad) so I can afford to be tolerant!
> 
> After lunch, returning to the white- and rose-coloured room, the
> Master placed me on His left and the prince on His right and we all
> had coffee. The coffee was served first to the prince. To my great
> surprise he rose and offered his cup to me. Too completely
> disarmed, I immediately "bent over backward", figuratively
> speaking.
> 
> "Won't you keep it?" I asked.
> 
> "No," he replied solemnly, "it has two lumps of sugar in it. I
> don't like two lumps of sugar."
> 
> Neither did I!
> 
> __________
> 
> At three o'clock, after bidding prince Bahram goodbye, we did the
> most amazing thing: the Master, Laura, Hippolyte, and I went for
> an automobile ride!
> 
> "Did you ever think, Juliet," said the Master, laughing, as we got
> into the car with Him, "that you and Laura would be riding in an
> automobile with Me in Europe?"
> 
> We drove to a country inn where a little later, after a walk, we
> were to have our tea. As the Master stepped down from the car,
> about fifteen peasant children with bunches of violets to sell
> closed in on Him, formed a half circle around Him, holding up the
> little purple bunches, raising their eyes to His Face with grave
> astonishment. They pressed so close that they hid Him below the
> waist, and the benediction in the look He bent on them I shall
> never forget. Of course He bought all the violets, drawing from His
> pocket handfuls of francs. But when He had given to each child
> bountifully, they held out their hands for more!
> 
> "Don't let them impose!" cried Laura.
> 
> "Tell them," said the Master very gently, "that they have taken."
> 
> He turned and walked into the forest, followed by Laura, Hippolyte,
> and me. Hippolyte had told Him of "the Devil's Bridge" deeper down
> in the forest, a place celebrated for its beauty, and the Master
> wanted to see it. His excitement over beauty is wonderful to watch
> and perfectly heartrending when you think of His long, long life
> in prison. He--our Lord--led us to the Devil's Bridge! I can see
> Him now, just ahead of us, the white robe, the black 'aba, the
> white turban, the beautiful sway of His walk among the trees.
> 
> "What is it," I said to Laura, "that makes that stride of the
> Master's so unique? Its absolute freedom?"
> 
> Laura found she couldn't walk as far as the Devil's Bridge, so I
> waited in the woods with her, both of us
> 
> seated on a rock, while Hippolyte followed our Lord.[78] When they
> returned, the Master sat down on another rock and beckoned me to
> His side. So close to Him, the fragrance of His Divinity enveloped
> me and I realized at least something of the moment's sacredness.
> Just in this way the disciples of nearly two thousand years ago
> must have sat with their Lord to rest. The sunlight through the
> trees made their leaves translucent, but even against that green
> glassiness, the Master's clear profile shone, like a lighted
> alabaster lamp.
> 
> We walked back to the inn through the woods, He leading us. As soon
> as He reappeared on the lawn of the inn the children again swarmed
> around Him, their hands still outstretched. Laura sternly ordered
> them off, for they were certainly imposing. "He would give away
> everything He has," she whispered to me. But the Master had
> discovered a tiny newcomer, a child much younger than the others,
> with a very sensitive face, who was looking wonderingly at Him.
> 
> "But," He said, "to this little one I have not given."
> 
> We went into the inn (after the Master had given to the "little
> one") and had tea on the porch, sitting at a rough pine table on
> a rough bench--two mountains, with evergreens climbing them,
> towering above us. The inn was in the cleft between. At another
> table sat a man who could not keep his eyes off the Master and at
> last ventured to speak to Him, opening the conversation by saying
> that he had lived in Persia. Our Lord called him over to sit with
> us--which he almost leaped to do--then invited him to come to
> Thonon.
> 
> Again, when we left the inn, the children swarmed around the Master
> and again Laura tried to save Him from their greediness.
> 
> "But here," said our Lord, "is a boy to whom I have not given."
> 
> "You gave to them all," said Laura.
> 
> "Call Hippolyte," ordered the Master. "I did not give to this boy,
> did I, Hippolyte?"
> 
> "I believe you did not."
> 
> Then the Master gave.
> 
> In the years to come they will tell stories along the Lake of
> Geneva of the visit of 'Abdu'l-Baha to Thonon. Then those little
> children, perhaps old men and women by that time, remembering a
> Face like a great dream at the dawn of their lives, may ask one
> another: "Was it He?"
> 
> __________
> 
> Driving home, we came to the most spectacular waterfall, foaming
> down a black precipice. The Master peremptorily stopped the car and
> with a sort of excitement got out of it; then walked to the very
> edge of the precipice. After standing there for some time, His eyes
> fixed on that long, shining torrent, which seemed to be shaking off
> diamonds in a fury, He seated Himself on a rock hanging over the
> deep abyss. I can still see that Figure of quiet Power perilously
> poised above the precipice, that still, rapt Face delighting in
> some secret way in the beauty of the waterfall. Tears came to
> Laura's eyes and mine.[79]
> 
> During the whole drive He was always discovering lovely things and
> with vivid animation pointing them out to us: the bright green of
> the fields and hills, the neat villages, a spire rising from a
> cluster of Swiss houses, or from some lonely spot on a mountain.
> A tiny village, high among the peaks, caught His eye.
> 
> "How can the people there stand the winter? It must," He said with
> the tenderest sympathy, "be too severely cold for them."
> 
> It was just after we left the waterfall that the Master turned,
> smiling, to me. "If I come to America, Juliet, will you invite Me
> to see such waterfalls?"
> 
> "I will invite You to Niagara if You will come to America! But
> surely, my Lord, Your coming doesn't depend on my invitation."
> 
> "My invitation to America will be the unity of the believers."
> 
> "Louise Stapfer asked me to give You her love and beg You to come
> and unite us. Otherwise, she said, we will never be united."
> 
> "No, you must do that yourselves. See in what perfect harmony we
> are now! You are not complaining of one another. But if I should
> go to America they would all be complaining of one another and ..."
> (He laughed and made a lively gesture with His hands) "I would fly
> away!"
> 
> Once, breaking a silence, He said: "There was no one in the world
> who loved trees and water and the country so much as Baha'u'llah."
> 
> So sad was His voice that it was like a sigh and I seemed to feel
> what He was thinking. He was free at last to travel about the world
> and see all the beauties of
> 
> nature, which He too loved, while the Blessed Beauty had lived for
> long years walled up in that treeless city, 'Akka, and died still
> a prisoner.
> 
> A little later I spoke: "If only, like the disciples of Christ, we
> could follow You everywhere, all through our lives."
> 
> The Master beamed brightly on me. "We are together now. Be happy
> in the present," He said.
> 
> I mentioned my dream about the crypt and asked if I might tell it
> to Him, but it sounded so awfully queer as I told it that Laura,
> Hippolyte, and I began to laugh; and the Master's own face twitched
> a little, I thought. However He said: "You must not laugh at this
> dream," and asked me to go on telling it.
> 
> But just as I came to the end, our car drew up at the gate of a
> ruined castle and we all got out and walked over to look at it.
> After this I was sure I would hear no more of my dream, but as soon
> as we were settled in the car again the Master reopened the
> subject.
> 
> "You must write down that dream, Juliet," He said.
> 
> "I have written it, my Lord."
> 
> "Ah, Khayli khub!" (Very good!)
> 
> Then He said something to Hippolyte, laughing, and with those vivid
> gestures of His, continued to talk for some time. What He said I
> couldn't catch--I know such a tiny bit of Persian--but Hippolyte
> told me afterward, rather reluctantly! that the Master was speaking
> about dreams. He had laughed at Hippolyte because he did not
> believe in them and had explained that there were three kinds of
> dreams: dreams that come from some bodily disorder, symbolic
> dreams, and those in which future events are clearly foretold. When
> the soul is in a state of
> 
> perfect purity it is able, He said, to receive a direct revelation
> from God. Otherwise, it sees in symbols.
> 
> Then He told us the story of a man, a Christian, who had visited
> Him in 'Akka and expressed his disbelief in dreams.
> 
> "But," said the Master, "your own Sacred Writings mention such
> things."
> 
> Still the man remained sceptical. A few months later, however, he
> reappeared in 'Akka, sought the presence of the Master, and
> immediately fell at His feet and attempted to kiss His hand, which
> the Master will never allow.
> 
> "In the Name of Baha'u'llah, let me kiss Your hand," pleaded the
> Christian. He then went on to confess that now he did believe in
> dreams. He had learned, he said, through a sorrowful experience
> that the Master had spoken the truth to him.
> 
> One night when he was away from home he had had an alarming dream
> of his little daughter. She had come to him, sat on his knee and
> complained that her head ached. Rapidly she grew worse. They sent
> for the doctor. The father knew in his dream that she was
> hopelessly ill and felt the most acute anguish. Then he saw her
> die.
> 
> The following night he returned to his home and his daughter came
> and sat on his knee. "Father," she said, "my head aches." Then
> followed her illness, her death.
> 
> "As the mind has the power when awake to think constructively or
> to dissipate its powers uselessly, so, when the body is asleep, it
> can either construct or dream meaningless dreams."
> 
> "When the body is asleep," I asked, remembering a theory, "can the
> mind construct at will?"
> 
> "No, no," said the Master.
> 
> As we drove toward Thonon, the sunset flooded the sky with glory.
> Behind the immortal head of the Master rose amethyst mountains,
> their summits hidden in rolling fiery clouds. But that Godlike head
> surpassed both clouds and mountains in grandeur.
> 
> Entering the town we passed a stone wall with an enormous sign
> painted on it--an advertisement for chocolate--the letters so big
> that the sign was a block long.
> 
> With one of His swift changes, the Master, rippling with amusement,
> pointed to the advertisement.
> 
> "What is that?" He asked.
> 
> When Hippolyte explained. He burst out laughing.
> 
> "Is chocolate so important in Thonon?"
> 
> __________
> 
> While I sat at His feet that evening He sang a song to me, looking
> down at me with eyes of glory. "Beloved Juliet! My heart! My soul!
> My Spirit! My heaven! Your heart for Me, your breast for Me! Always
> for Me, always for Me! Your eyes for me, your mind for Me, Always
> for Me! Your soul for Me, your spirit for Me, Always for Me, always
> for Me! Your blood for Me, your blood for Me, Your blood for Me!"
> 
> __________
> 
> What does He mean by my blood for Him? Am I to die for Him? I hope
> so!
> 
> The Master had made a lovely plan for the next day: we were all to
> go to Vevey with Him to visit Mrs Sander-
> 
> son and Edith,[80] but--we missed the boat! Although we were
> terribly disappointed, this was as nothing compared to the
> nightmare that followed. Annie Boylan[81] arrived from Lausanne
> about ten o'clock, completely surprising us, as we had no idea that
> she was in Europe.
> 
> She came into the Dreyfuses' room--where Hippolyte, Laura, and I
> were sitting--in a state of suppressed fury and almost immediately
> boiled over with the most revolting slander against Mr MacNutt.
> This, she said, she intended to lay before the Master to prove that
> Mr MacNutt was unfit to serve the Cause. She had made the trip to
> Thonon especially for this purpose!
> 
> But the Master did not appear, and I thought of His words the day
> before: "If I should go to America they would all be complaining
> of one another and I would fly away." He had flown!
> 
> Hours passed and still no word from the Master, till lunchtime.
> Then Mulk brought a message from Him asking us to excuse Him, He
> was not well enough to lunch with us but would see us later.
> 
> It was not until five o'clock that He came to the Dreyfuses' door.
> He looked very tired and worn. After greeting Annie Boylan
> lovingly, He took a seat by the window and told her He had a
> message for the believers in New York which He wished her to convey
> to them. I wrote His words down as He spoke them.
> 
> "In this Cause," He said, "hundreds of families have sacrificed
> themselves. There have been more than twenty thousand martyrs. The
> breast of His Highness the Bab
> 
> was riddled by dozens of bullets; Baha'u'llah suffered years and
> years in prison; and We have had all these difficulties and borne
> all these trials that the canopy of Oneness might be uplifted in
> the world of humanity, that Love and Unity might be established
> amongst mankind, until all countries become as one country, all
> religions be merged into one religion, all the continents be
> connected and between all hearts a perfect understanding and love
> may appear.
> 
> "The people of Baha must be the cause of uniting all the nations.
> They must dispel inharmony and dispute. So now we must consider
> deeply how the Baha'is must really be, what characteristics they
> must have and what actions they must perform.
> 
> "And if there is not this love and harmony among Baha'is how can
> they cause it to appear among the inhabitants of the earth? How can
> an ill man nurse others? How could a pauper give wealth to others?
> So the first thing the Baha'is must do is to feel love and unity
> in their hearts before they can spread it among others.
> 
> "Is it possible to conceive that all the troubles, all the trials
> of Baha'u'llah and the martyrs have been without result? Surely you
> will not have it so! If you would all act entirely in accordance
> with the Teachings of Baha'u'llah no discord would ever appear.
> Then all disagreements will vanish, and be certain that the
> pavilion of Unity will be hoisted in the world of man.
> 
> "Each nation, each people that has understood and felt the Love of
> God has progressed and developed, but where discord has sprung up
> in the midst of a nation, that nation has been dispersed.
> 
> "I know you would not have all these trials and dif-
> 
> ficulties produce nothing. Therefore I am waiting and expecting to
> hear that love and harmony have blossomed in the hearts of all the
> Baha'is in America.
> 
> "Now the Baha'is must be occupied in spreading the Cause of God and
> furthering the instructions of Baha'u'llah, and not spend their
> time in disputing with one another. If they do the first, all will
> be happy; they will be assisted by the Breath of the Holy Spirit
> and become the beloved of His Heart."
> 
> While the Master was speaking Annie Boylan continued to bristle,
> jarring the whole room as she seethed with her bottled-up "proof",
> which now of course she dare not "lay before the Master". She
> couldn't even mention Mr MacNutt! I saw her as an embodiment of the
> discord in New York, and those terrific vibrations, blasting into
> the Master's happy holiday (the first one in all His life), nearly
> killed me. I listened really in torture.
> 
> Suddenly the Master turned to me.
> 
> "What is the matter, Juliet? Are you not happy?"
> 
> I answered in Persian that I was unhappy.
> 
> "You must be happy," He said, "that you are going back to New York
> to serve Me."
> 
> When Annie Boylan had gone, the Master came into my room.
> Tamaddunu'l-Mulk was with me and we placed a chair for Him by the
> window, from which He could see the dark sweep of the mountains.
> I said it had torn me to pieces to hear the jangle of discord in
> His Presence.
> 
> "I know," He answered, "and that was the reason I told you to be
> happy, for you were returning to serve Me. I meant that you were
> returning to work for unity."
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I said, "wasn't it Abraham who prayed to the Lord to
> save Sodom and Gomorrah for the
> 
> sake of five righteous men?[82] Now," I laughed, "I am going to be
> like Abraham and beg You to come to America for the sake of just
> a few, for some will never understand."
> 
> The Master, too, laughed--such humour in His eyes.
> 
> "If it were not so long a trip: if it were a little trip, like
> Paris, or London, or Vienna, I would come for your sake," he said
> tenderly. "But when I come it must be for a long visit. I am going
> to Chicago, to Washington, and even to California, and I have not
> the time this year. But I will come--Inshallah!--when the moment
> arrives."
> 
> He spoke of Mr MacNutt. "The reason I suggested this new election,"
> He said, "was that Mr MacNutt might serve on the Board again. But
> do not tell anybody this; it would only stir up a quarrel. However,
> go directly to Mr MacNutt and tell him I said this. He is not on
> this Board, but next year something must be done so that he may be
> elected. I have," He concluded, " a very great affection for Mr
> MacNutt."
> 
> __________
> 
> Hippolyte told me that night that if the Master felt well enough
> we would go to Vevey on Sunday and that after he had waked the
> Master he would wake me at seven o'clock. But it was the Master who
> woke us all! At six came a rap at my door and I heard His dear
> voice.
> 
> "I want to go!" He said in English. Then I heard Him down the hall
> calling "Mademoiselle!" at the door of Tamaddunu'l-Mulk: little
> "Civilization of the Country", who has taken to corsets lately to
> improve his figure.
> 
> Oh, that day; that day!
> 
> We drove to the boat all together--nine of us--in a big
> 
> station wagon, the Master placing me opposite Him. At the landing
> is a dense grove of trees--I think I have already mentioned
> it--with polished-looking leaves and very dark shade under them;
> in the shade a bank of white lilies and close to the lilies a
> bench. The Master asked Laura and me to sit on the bench with Him.
> Soon, however, He rose and went off alone and for a while we lost
> sight of Him. When we saw Him again He was walking on the bench,
> behind fishnets hung out to dry.
> 
> Laura touched my hand. "See where He is, Juliet," she said.
> 
> "Yes: on the shore of a lake--behind fishnets. Oh, Laura!"
> 
> He walked slowly on, looking almost transparent in the
> early-morning sunlight, till He came to the edge of the grove.
> There He turned inland and walked among the trees. Through their
> leaves, the sun flecked His bronze 'aba with fiery spots dazzled
> on His turban and His long silver hair and drew a crystal line,
> like a halo, down His profile to His feet. A child, light as a
> fairy, glistening in her white dress, danced up a path to His left.
> Our Lord stopped for a moment to watch her. Then, mysteriously, He
> vanished! We saw the boat coming closer, closer, and looked around
> wildly for the Master. Where and how had He disappeared so quickly?
> 
> On the landing we found Him waiting for us, and followed Him to the
> gangplank. All the people on the landing stared at Him as He moved
> quietly forward with that strange power and that holy sweetness.
> Children raised their eyes to His face. He put out a tender hand
> and caressed their heads.
> 
> We gathered around Him on the boat, Laura, the Persians, and I, and
> for a while He sat silent and grave in our midst. Then suddenly He
> turned and smiled at me.
> 
> "You never dreamed, Juliet," He said, "that you would be with Me
> in a boat."
> 
> "I have often dreamed that I was with You in a boat!"
> 
> "But you never thought it would be fulfilled in this way!"
> 
> "No," I smiled. "I never did. I couldn't have imagined this!"
> 
> To be with Him in a boat on this lake so like the Sea of Galilee!
> He sat with His bronze 'aba around Him, His hands hidden in its
> full sleeves, so that the sleeves with their straight, massive
> folds looked like great wings. The mist-veiled Alps were His
> background and His Majesty so dominated them that they appeared as
> no more than a filmy drop-curtain. The mist thickened, almost
> blotting out the mountains, blending them into the lake, and I felt
> that we had left earth with Him and our boat was sailing through
> ether. Just as I was thinking this, He said: "Others are passing
> from an immortal to a mortal kingdom, but the Baha'is are
> journeying, in the Ark of the Covenant, from a mortal to an
> immortal world. The Jews once turned to the Kingdom, but when they
> looked backward to mortal things, they became dispersed. Then
> Christ led men to the Kingdom; their signs have remained. God be
> praised that now you are on a Ship bearing you to immortal worlds.
> Day by day your signs will become clearer."
> 
> Later the Persians brought Him tea and when He had finished I
> begged to "drink from His cup". Mirza Rafi', adding some water to
> the kettle, poured out a cup for me.
> 
> The Master turned and smiled at me; then He laughed. "The tea for
> Me, the water for Juliet!" He said.
> 
> I am sure the future will adore Him also for His humour. The joy
> of His spirit overflows in the most
> 
> delicious humour and gives Him a look of unconquerable youth.
> 
> "O Son of Delight!" I have just seen this phrase in the Hidden
> Words. The Master is all delight. Bay of Naples
> 
> 3 September 1911
> 
> On 3 September 1909 after leaving the Holy Presence in Haifa, I
> sailed from Naples. Here I am again on 3 September 1911. These
> strangely repetitious dates! Tonight, as I saw that great pile of
> beauty, Naples, rising, jewelled with lights, against the clear
> rose of the afterglow--as I heard the voices of singers in the
> distance--how vivid were my memories of 'Akka, Haifa; of the Master
> there! It is midnight now and I am too tired to write, but tomorrow
> I will tell they story of our day in Vevey.
> 
> 4 September 1911
> 
> We arrived at Vevey. Edith was waiting on the landing and we drove
> with her to the hotel. There, we went straight to the room reserved
> by her for the Master. To my joy He called me to sit beside Him.
> 
> Mrs Sanderson (Edith's mother) has never been attracted to the
> Cause. She has felt like my own dear mother about it, not caring
> at all for most of the believers! But she could not take her eyes
> from the Master's face. "His beautiful face!" she whispered to me.
> Two of Edith's friends came in, Miss Hopkins and Miss Norton.
> 
> Miss Hopkins is a Catholic, Miss Norton an agnostic. Miss Norton,
> when she saw the Master, seemed to be
> 
> strangely overcome. Her face trembled, her eyes widened, as though
> she were looking at a spirit. I thought that at any moment she
> would burst our crying.
> 
> She and Mrs Sanderson brought up the question of immortality (which
> Mrs Sanderson feels it is cowardly to believe in) and I wrote down
> the Master's answer as Mulk translated it. Here it is, though I
> hate to give it in Mulk's poor English. Edith understands Persian.
> "You cannot imagine," she said to me, "how ruinous the translation
> is. The Master puts life into every word. Translated, the words
> sound flat. Besides, the Persian is so rich and He has a way of
> saying the same thing over differently, in various poetic forms and
> with subtle shades of meaning. In the translation it is all alike."
> 
> ____________________
> 
> "Christ and all the Prophets have taught in their Holy Books the
> immortality of the soul.
> 
> "Jesus during His life had so many afflictions and no happiness or
> comfort and in the end He was crucified. If there were no
> immortality to follow, then nothing could be more useless than such
> a life.
> 
> "Take, for example, the life of Hannibal. In the world we would
> find none happier than he, for his life was one of pleasure and
> conquest and he triumphed wherever he desired. But Jesus had many
> afflictions. Were there no immortality we might say that Jesus was
> not even rational. But at the hour of His crucifixion, He knew He
> was leaving the mortal for the immortal life; He knew He was
> leaving the physical to ascend to the spiritual world. When they
> put on His head the crown of thorns, He thought of the crown of the
> Kingdom. While He was hanging on the cross He thought of the
> eternal throne.
> 
> "But now we come to the proofs. Those who do not believe in
> immortality have some proofs. For example,
> 
> one is this. They divide existence into two kinds; imaginary
> existence and that of the senses. They say that since the immortal
> kingdom is not of the senses there can be no such kingdom. This is
> their proof! By this proof they deny!
> 
> "But Jesus and Baha'u'llah answer the people who do not believe
> thus: Every rational man can see that the world has come out of
> non-existence into existence. Life progresses from the mineral
> kingdom to the vegetable kingdom, from the vegetable to the animal,
> and from thence to the human kingdom. Were there no spiritual
> kingdom, life would be useless.
> 
> "For example: We plant a tree, we water and care for it. From
> branches we see it advance to leaf and from leaf to fruit. Should
> the fruit be opened and found to contain nothing, all would be
> useless. So the people of common sense, studying the universe, see
> that creation must have a result.
> 
> "The people of the world say: 'Where is the immortal world? When
> we look about us we do not see it. We only see the world of
> elements.' Therefore the Prophet says: 'Those in the station below
> cannot see the station above.' We are in this room, we cannot see
> beyond the ceiling. We are downstairs, we cannot see upstairs.
> 
> "For example: The mineral kingdom has no knowledge of the vegetable
> kingdom. The vegetable kingdom knows nothing of the animal kingdom.
> Nor is it possible that it should know of the animal, because
> it--the vegetable--is of a lower grade; the animal is in the higher
> condition. If the vegetable kingdom deny the existence of the
> animal kingdom, does this disprove the animal kingdom's existence?
> No, the animal kingdom exists, but the vegetable kingdom cannot
> imagine the reality of it. The reason the vegetable kingdom cannot
> imagine the
> 
> animal kingdom is because it cannot comprehend it. But this does
> not disprove its existence.
> 
> "Now we come to the human kingdom. In the human kingdom is an
> intellectual power not possessed by the animal kingdom. The animal
> cannot imagine this power. A Spaniard discovered America. The
> animal could not understand this. The intellectual power is not
> disproved because it is not understood.
> 
> "As to the spiritual kingdom: An unborn child cannot understand
> this world. It cannot imagine a world beyond the womb. If we could
> tell an unborn child that there is another world, with mountains,
> villages, cities--so many beautiful things--could he understand?
> Never! Therefore Christ said one must be born a second time. As a
> child, by coming to this world, understands the conditions here,
> so we should go to the spiritual world to understand its
> conditions. The Prophets were born in the spiritual condition to
> understand the immortal world.
> 
> "For example: The unborn child would deny the existence of this
> world for the reason that he knows nothing of it and the best
> condition to him is the world of the womb, the best food his
> nourishment there. He could not visualize this world. But when he
> is born and arrives at understanding, he sees what a beautiful
> world this is.
> 
> "So with the spiritual kingdom. The people of this world cannot
> comprehend the conditions of that immortal world, but, when they
> reach it, they see that this, in comparison, is just like the world
> of the womb. The unborn child says: 'This is the best world. I am
> quite satisfied with it. I must not leave it.'"
> 
> __________
> 
> The Master turned suddenly to me. "Do you understand all this,
> Juliet? I want you to know these things very well when you return
> to America."
> 
> I had been saying to myself: Oh, Mrs Sanderson, look at the Master
> and see Immortality!
> 
> The next question--Mrs Sanderson's--was about divorce, if
> Baha'u'llah approved of it.
> 
> "Baha'u'llah,"--the Master smiled--"says that in this world there
> is nothing more absurd than divorce. If one has accepted another
> and is a good Baha'i he never likes to believe in divorce. But if
> there be a case of difference between husband and wife, where it
> is entirely impossible to recreate their love, where it is not
> possible for them to live any longer with one another, then both
> should go to the House of Justice and together, in perfect
> agreement, lay their case before it. And after this they should
> still wait a year, living apart but not permanently divorced, and
> their friends should give them good advice meanwhile. If, after one
> year, there is no possibility of becoming reunited, and no one is
> able to influence them, then this is the natural divorce.
> 
> "But between the real Baha'is there is no divorce. No one has ever
> heard of divorce between real Baha'is. The Baha'i husband and wife
> will not allow affairs to reach such a condition."
> 
> Luncheon was announced and Miss Hopkins and Miss Norton rose to go.
> As Miss Hopkins bade the Master goodbye He said: "I will pray for
> you."
> 
> "And I will pray for you too," she answered.
> 
> This gave me a shock. At the table Mrs Sanderson spoke of it,
> saying that her own feelings had been "outraged" by it.
> 
> "No," replied the Master, "do not feel that way. It came from the
> heart; therefore it was beautiful."
> 
> I shall never forget the way He said "beautiful".
> 
> The Master had asked me to sit by Him at lunch. He was on the right
> of Mrs Sanderson, who sat at the head
> 
> of the table. He talked with the gentlest love to her. Soon she
> brought up the name of Lua and then asked me: "Have you heard from
> Lua lately, Juliet?
> 
> "I love Lua," she added.
> 
> "My mother loves Lua too."
> 
> "Your mother," the Master turned to me, in His voice that ineffable
> tenderness with which He always mentions Mamma.
> 
> "I wish my mother were here with Edith's mother."
> 
> "I shall see your mother."
> 
> I tried to speak a little Persian to Him and He helped me to
> construct the phrases. He had told me a day or two before that I
> must be sure to study Persian. "You see," He had said, "I can talk
> with Laura."
> 
> __________
> 
> Lunch over, the Master went to His room to rest, after stopping in
> the hall for a moment to meet an old French lady, Madame Naber.
> Everyone scattered then and, finding myself alone, I slipped
> through a side door into the garden; and there on a stone bench sat
> Madame Naber and Mrs Sanderson, their white heads close together.
> They didn't see me at first.
> 
> "Il a l'air si bon, si simple," Madame Naber was saying.
> 
> "Oui, et les yeux de feu!" said Mrs Sanderson.[83]
> 
> Then they looked up and smiled at me and Mrs Sanderson said:
> "Wouldn't you like to see the view from the terrace, Juliet?"
> 
> I took the hint and walked over to the terrace, from which you can
> get the most marvellous view of the lake and the mountains on the
> further side.
> 
> Imagine my astonishment to find, sitting in the shade of a tree,
> Mrs Griscomb and Professor Mitchell of the Church of the Ascension!
> 
> Mr Griscomb and the Professor have been for some time vestrymen of
> the Church and have always actively opposed The Peoples' Forum,
> which is Percy Grant's chief interest. "My capitalists" Percy calls
> them. They are also Theosophists and have a very select group of
> their own, never mingling with the big ordinary group! But I was
> glad to see them just because they were from the church, and flew
> over to speak to Mrs Griscomb. She is a plump, pretty little woman
> with at least two professors and a husband at her feet. Professor
> Mitchell is sort of willowy and has a walrus moustache and, on his
> thin aloof nose, pince-nez with a wide black string.
> 
> "Why!" exclaimed Mrs Griscomb when she caught sight of me. "What
> are you doing here?"
> 
> "I have come from Thonon with 'Abdu'l-Baha to lunch with the
> Sandersons. Do you know Mrs Sanderson, Mrs Griscomb? Won't you let
> me introduce you?"
> 
> "I should prefer to talk with you."
> 
> A little surprised, afraid I had made some blunder, though I
> couldn't imagine what, I hastily explained. "I asked on the impulse
> of the moment because it would be such a joy to present you to
> 'Abdu'l-Baha."
> 
> "Thanks, I'm not at all crazy to meet 'Abdu'l-Baha."
> 
> The silly, insulting little answer went straight through my heart
> like a knife.
> 
> "I'm glad, however," she added, "if He gives you pleasure."
> 
> "Mrs Griscomb," I said, 'Abdu'l-Baha is creating unity all through
> the world among all races and religions, which is a far more
> important thing than giving anyone personal happiness."
> 
> "I am one of those who do not decry personal happiness; and really
> I don't want to meet 'Abdu'l-Baha."
> 
> "You will see Him," I said as I moved away, "and then you may
> regret refusing."
> 
> By that time the Master was up and receiving the friends in His
> room. I rushed to the refuge of His Holy Presence. I was tingling
> all over, actually suffering physically from the blow of Mrs
> Griscomb's flippant blasphemy. As I entered the Master's room He
> sent me a searching glance but said nothing. And of course I said
> nothing, till I had a chance to talk to Edith.
> 
> __________
> 
> A little later in the afternoon, Edith, her mother, Laura, and I
> sat on the terrace with the Master. Mrs Griscomb and the Professor
> were no longer there, but, Edith said, they were watching from
> their windows, Professor Hargrove standing beside them. Professor
> Hargrove, whom Percy calls "his mystic", is staying with the
> Griscombs in Vevey. They have a garden apartment in the hotel where
> they even eat their meals, associating with no one. It is
> understood they are very busy studying occultism and must not be
> interrupted in their search for Truth!
> 
> The whole thing is extraordinary. It was through Professor Mitchell
> that Dickinson Miller was brought to Percy Grant's church. Now both
> professors come to Switzerland and are drawn to the neighbourhood,
> even to the Presence, of "the Dawning-Point of Divine Knowledge."
> How different the reactions of the two! In Professor Miller, at
> least a timid response, a peeping out of the soul. In Professor
> Mitchell: a back turned superciliously!
> 
> Professor Mitchell, Professor Miller, and Percy Grant belonged
> about four years ago to a sort of club, where,
> 
> with other professors of Columbia University they met to discuss
> religion. Professor Mitchell, whose memory is very accurate, wrote
> reports of those meetings and published them in book form. The book
> is extremely interesting. All through it the note is sounded that
> a great new Light is shining upon the world.
> 
> It ends something like this: "The Mathematician, left alone after
> the departure of his guests, goes to the window. In his ears ring
> the words of the Clergyman: 'The rebirth of the Christ in the whole
> of humanity is close at hand.' The Mathematician looks up at the
> stars and the vision of John on Patmos occurs to him. 'Even so,'
> he whispers, 'come quickly, Lord Jesus.'"
> 
> "The Mathematician" is Professor Mitchell and "the Clergyman",
> Percy Grant. And if this is not tragic, then I don't know what is!
> 
> __________
> 
> Edith drove down to the landing with us to meet the boat, which was
> to take us back to Thonon. But, as we were early, the Master
> proposed our waiting in a nearby garden. There, on a bench under
> a tree, Laura, Edith, and I sat beside Him, while the Persians
> stood around us. One of them mentioned Barakatu'llah, whereupon the
> Master turned to me with such a funny look of accusation! His
> eyebrows went up and His eyes laughed. In my confusion I dropped
> my gloves and He stooped to pick them up, which completely
> humiliated me.
> 
> "Oh my Lord, don't!" I gasped.
> 
> At last the boat came. The Master stayed on deck for a short time,
> during which I kept very quiet, not wishing to speak; wishing only
> to fix in my mind that Godlike head with the Alps for its
> background. Then he went off to rest.
> 
> After He had gone, a man who was sitting close to us
> 
> spoke to Mirza Rafi'. "May I ask who that gentleman is?" he said.
> "I am very much attracted to His face."
> 
> "'Abdu'l-Baha a Persian exile," answered Mirza Rafi'--too
> reticently, it seemed to me.
> 
> "I thought He might be the sultan's brother, who, I hear is living
> in Geneva."
> 
> He evidently meant Zillu's-Sultan! As he continued to ask
> questions, Laura gave the Message very ably. Beside the man sat a
> boy of about sixteen, with fair, curly hair and the face of a
> Botticelli angel. He leaned forward and listened eagerly.
> 
> Later the Master came out from His cabin, but the man and the boy
> had left the boat at Eviens.
> 
> The Master called me to sit by Him, Mulk sitting on the other side.
> 
> "Are you tired?" I asked.
> 
> "No, I am never tired. I am very comfortable." He spoke in His
> sweet English.
> 
> Touching the beautiful bronze-coloured 'aba, I said: "The coat You
> wore when I was in Haifa, which You afterward gave to Edna, was
> like this in colour, and we shared it, Edna and I. She would be so
> sweet as to lend it to me; then I would return it to her; then she
> would lend it to me again. It was such a comfort to me, that coat.
> At night, or in the early morning, I would bury my face in its hem
> and pray. Then I would seem to be kneeling again at Your feet, my
> Lord."
> 
> He smiled very tenderly while I was telling Him this.
> 
> "Edna has become very dear to me. And she loves You very much."
> 
> "Ah, Khayli khub."
> 
> "I want to speak of a friend of Edna's and mine--a very dear
> friend--a girl who is very, very close to me,
> 
> whom I love with all my heart: M. M.[84] It is difficult for her
> to serve the Cause on account of her husband."
> 
> "She must serve in the Cause. Her husband must not prevent her.
> Neither the husband nor the wife should hinder the other's work in
> the Kingdom. She must not pay any attention to that but must serve
> firmly. Thus she will make great progress. She must try to give her
> husband the Message."
> 
> "She loves You very much. Her life has been one of great trial and
> sorrow."
> 
> "Bravo! Bravo!" said the Master. "It makes no difference that she
> has sorrows. These have been the cause of her development. Through
> sorrow the soul always advances. The greater the difficulty, the
> greater the progress of the soul. Now she must begin to serve
> firmly in the Cause. So, she will make great progress."
> 
> Soon, all too soon, we reached the shore.
> 
> As the crowd on the boat stood still while the gangplank was
> lowered, two children in front of the Master turned and lifted
> their eyes to His face, and their eyes seemed to say: Is this God?
> They were very little children; they came just about to His knees.
> With a strong, lingering touch, as though He were leaving something
> with them, He pressed and fondled their heads. Then the crowd
> surged forward; the children and the Father were separated ... for
> this life?
> 
> After our return, in the early evening, Laura and I were sitting
> in the Master's room. He began to speak in Persian, laughing, and
> I caught the words "Mrs Sanderson." Then He turned to me and, still
> laughing, repeated in English: "Mrs Sanderson thinks this world
> 
> is good enough. Very nice, this life!" And He laughed again.
> 
> Later, while Mulk was writing in my room, the Master came in and
> called us into His. "Now, have you anything secret to say to me?"
> He asked.
> 
> "I have a message for You from Dr Grant."
> 
> "Ah!" He smiled. "Tell me."
> 
> "I told him it wasn't a good enough message and that I would not
> give it to You."
> 
> "Give it just the same."
> 
> "He sent You his greetings and said he hoped You would come to New
> York. That if You came, he would welcome You gladly. That he felt
> the work You were doing in the world was very beautiful and
> potent."
> 
> "Convey My greetings to him. Say: 'I am entirely thinking of you
> for the sake of Juliet who has mentioned you to me. Say that at a
> later date I will come to New York.' Is there anything else you
> wish to say, Juliet?"
> 
> "There is not a desire in my heart, my Lord."
> 
> "This is as it should be. The daughters of the Kingdom should not
> have a desire."
> 
> "I should, like, however, to tell You a little of what has
> happened."
> 
> "Speak," said the Master.
> 
> "When I became engaged to Mason Remey," (The Master looked archly
> at me; I smiled, but penitently.
> 
> "Dr Grant was very unhappy and disturbed, so one day I sent for
> him. I told him I was marrying Mason because I wished to be freer
> to serve the Cause."
> 
> "That was a very wise answer. You did well," said the Master.
> 
> "But I gave him another reason. I said that the Cause
> 
> had spread in the East through sacrifice and I felt if this same
> spirit could be demonstrated in the West, this spirit of
> renunciation which was all-powerful, that the Cause might begin to
> spread there."
> 
> "I know!" said the Master, His eyes full of love.
> 
> Hiding my face on His coat sleeve, I said, half laughing--laughing,
> of course, at myself: "I was not strong enough--was I?--to drink
> the cup of martyrdom. I was a failure as a martyr."
> 
> How the Master laughed!
> 
> "I know better now than to ask--for that cup myself. I shall wait
> now for God to give it to me. I shall wait till he finds me ready
> to drink it."
> 
> "Insha'llah. Perhaps in another way God will give you that cup to
> drink, and the capacity for it."
> 
> "I hope so." After a pause I continued. "The following Sunday he
> preached on 'Renunciation'. This was his text. He said he had just
> had a new vision of the power of renunciation. He said that 'when
> a soul did the great thing first it inspired others to follow in
> the path of sacrifice.' And from that time on his life did change.
> He flung caution to the winds and with the utmost courage, in the
> face of the strongest opposition from within his church, championed
> the cause of the poor, of labour against capital; not in a way to
> encourage class hatred, but to promote mutual understanding. In the
> pulpit he says such things as these: 'A great new Light is breaking
> upon earth. The earth is being enriched and prepared for the birth
> of a new humanity. And in the face of this light of Democracy, of
> universal sympathy, of the ever-fuller disclosure through science
> of the Will of God through the Laws of God, what are you to do with
> your miserable little creeds? While humanity marches rapidly
> forward
> 
> to the Great Brotherhood, we find the Church lagging behind
> sociologically, allying itself through fear with the aristocratic
> classes. While science is marching on, the Church lags behind
> intellectually. And what are the certain consequences of this?
> Death for the Church. Something new, something living is coming.
> We feel it in the air.'
> 
> "One Sunday, my Lord, he even went so far as to mention Thy Name.
> 'The Bishop,' he said, 'has asked me to preach today on Church
> unity, but I wish to consider this subject from the point of view
> of the disintegration of the Church. The Church, which, had it
> fulfilled the hope of Jesus, would have set the example of
> brotherhood to the world, has split into fragments, while outside
> it we see great Movements for the Brotherhood of Man, such as the
> Baha'i Movement, centred around the Master in 'Akka. With this,
> though we may not agree with all it teaches, we must feel sympathy,
> since it is not trying to unite the souls on the basis of
> disputable facts, but on the basis of universal sympathy. For
> supposing the Church did unite, what then would we do with our
> brothers the Jews, our brothers the Muslims, our brothers the
> Hindus, and our brothers the atheists? Are these to be considered
> as outside our body? No! The day has come for the falling of all
> barriers: social, national, religious."'
> 
> "Good; very good," said the Master, who had been listening with
> keen attention. Then He closed His eyes, as He always does when He
> sends a message.
> 
> "Convey my greetings to him. Say: Miss Juliet has told me all about
> your preaching. What you have said lately is very good. It is
> exactly so.
> 
> "In the time of Jesus the Pharisees lit a lamp in opposition to the
> Light of Jesus. Only darkness resulted. But
> 
> the Lamp of the Teachings of Jesus afterward became a great flame.
> Then it became as a sun and brightened the whole world.
> 
> "Such teachings as the people of today have in their hands cannot
> stand against the Teachings of Baha'u'llah. Soon the East and the
> West will be ablaze with these lights.
> 
> "In the lifetime of Jesus eleven disciples became illumined. See
> what happened afterward! The whole world became illumined. But in
> the lifetime of Baha'u'llah half a million souls became illumined.
> From this you can see what will be the result in the future.
> 
> "The Teachings of Baha'u'llah no one can deny. If one comes to know
> the reality of the Teachings of Baha'u'llah it is impossible to
> deny.
> 
> "Up to the present time you have been building an edifice on a weak
> ground. Now I hope your foundation will be a strong rock, that it
> may become an eternal foundation.
> 
> "In the time of Jesus thousands of priests laid a foundation, but
> their foundation came to naught. But the foundation laid by Peter,
> under the Bounty of Jesus, is everlasting--though Peter was but a
> fisherman. Then do you lay the same foundation Peter laid, that it
> may last forever!"
> 
> Joy flooded my soul as He spoke. When He had ended I knelt at His
> feet, I kissed the hem of His robe. Divinely He smiled at me.
> 
> "I know," I said "Whose Voice is calling him."
> 
> "Insha'llah, you will make him a believer."
> 
> "Then I have not loved and suffered in vain?"
> 
> "Insha'llah, through you," the Master repeated, "he will become a
> believer."
> 
> Just before dinner Elizabeth Stewart and Lilian Kappes
> 
> (on their way to Persia to teach in Dr Moody's school) arrived at
> the hotel. The Master, of course, took them down to dinner, placing
> them opposite Him at the table and calling me to sit at His side.
> Several nations were represented at that table: Persia, America,
> France and Russia--for a Russian believer had also just arrived.
> And the Master said: "To the refreshing water of the Teachings of
> Baha'u'llah come many and various birds from many lands and at
> these cooling streams slake their thirst. When the lamp is ignited
> the butterflies flutter around the light."
> 
> "May we," said Lilian Kappes, "be ready to singe our wings at this
> Flame."
> 
> "Bravo!" said the Master. "I am very much pleased with your
> answer."[85]
> 
> In the evening the Master came to my door. Elizabeth and Lilian
> were in the room. I was off somewhere for a minute or two. He had
> in His hand three flowers. One spray with three blossoms He left
> for me. "This is for Juliet," He had said. Later He came back and
> brought me a chocolate which He put in my mouth with His own
> fingers, as a father might feed His little child. He often brought
> chocolates to me. Here is the spray from His hand. (I pressed it
> in my diary.)
> 
> On Monday, I went away.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1924. It all happened so suddenly, so bewilderingly.
> Looking back now, I see why. I was not mad enough with love in
> Thonon. I could be separated from Him.
> 
> Knowing that our whole party were His guests at the hotel and being
> in such a material condition that I worried about His pocketbook,
> I felt I must make some move to go. In 'Akka the Master Himself had
> always told us when to go, but being His guest in a very expensive
> hotel seemed to me a different situation. Edith had asked me to
> come to Vevey on Monday and stay overnight with her and I thought
> this might be a sign that my Heavenly Visit in Thonon was over. I
> was puzzled and didn't know what to do and decided to consult
> Laura. I met her by chance in the upstairs hall just outside the
> Master's door and at once plunged into the subject.
> 
> "Laura," I said, "the Master is under such heavy expense. Don't you
> think I ought to suggest leaving?" And Laura had barely finished
> replying, "Perhaps you should, Juliet," when the Master opened His
> door and came out.
> 
> "Chih miguyad?" (What did she say?) He asked.
> 
> Laura explained. And then--His answer fell like a blow, it was so
> curt and indifferent.
> 
> "Khayli khub." (Very well.) That was all.
> 
> But He said something later which, by mistake, was never translated
> to me. Edith was to spend Tuesday in Thonon and He said I must come
> back with her. Edith herself urged me to do so, but not knowing
> that the Master had invited me, I felt that I could not thrust
> myself on Him. I thought of several people who had come, unasked,
> to see Him at mealtime. I thought of the greedy little children
> selling violets and His gentle rebuke to them when they held out
> their hands for more francs: "Tell them that they have taken," and
> said to myself: I have taken too. So, though it desolated me to see
> Edith go without me, back to that Presence which was my Life, I
> wouldn't let myself be persuaded.
> 
> I sailed with Edith as far as Lausanne and there, in
> 
> Lausanne, made another fatal mistake. I bought my ticket for New
> York on a boat belonging to an independent line, which meant I
> couldn't change to any other line. I thought I had to do this as
> my money was running so low and this was the cheapest line and the
> first boat leaving Genoa.
> 
> Edith had asked me to stay with her one more night, so I went back
> to Vevey to wait for her. When she returned she said to me: "I have
> something to tell you, Juliet, that will nearly kill you, but you
> would rather know than not. The Master expected you today."
> 
> To return to Monday--when I went away.
> 
> __________
> 
> He sent for me early in the morning with Mulk to translate for me.
> 
> "Now will you give Me the messages, Juliet?"
> 
> I had many and I gave them all. When I mentioned Marion deKay He
> said: "Give her My affectionate greeting. She must be educated for
> a teacher. She must be taken great care of and treated very well.
> Taken great care of," He repeated.
> 
> I spoke of dear Silvia Gannett: "She asked me to tell You, my Lord,
> of a dream she had lately in which a voice said to her: 'I want you
> to serve Me in London.' She felt sure that it was Your voice. But
> she never mentioned this dream to me till one day she came to see
> me and found me crying, with Your Tablet in my hand and Ahmad's
> letter saying that You would be in London at the Races' Congress.
> Then, when I explained why I was crying--that Mamma wouldn't let
> me travel alone--she told me the dream and that now she saw the
> meaning of it: she must go to London with me. But she could only
> stay there a very short time, much as she longed to wait till You
> came. She had to return home to get married."
> 
> The Master, at this, smiled so funnily, for Silvia is seventy-two!
> Then He said: "It," (her dream, of course, and her obedience) "is
> a sign that she will make progress and that her work in the Cause
> will be very good. Tell her it is just as though she had seen Me.
> Her journey is accepted as a visit. It will be just as though she
> had seen Me, just the same."
> 
> In my hand I held a letter from Nancy Sholl with a message in it
> for Him.
> 
> "Here is something interesting," I said. "Years ago I read a book
> by Miss Sholl. It was called The Law of Life, which she proved in
> her story to be sacrifice. The book was so spiritual that I longed
> to give Miss Sholl the Message, but when I tried to find her I
> heard that she lived in Ithaca. Then one day she walked into my
> studio with some people who wanted to sublet it--she had moved from
> Ithaca to New York--and we have been dear friends ever since. In
> this letter she sends You 'the loving greetings of a sincere
> seeker.'"
> 
> Smiling, the Master seized the letter. "Give her My most
> affectionate and loving greeting. Tell her I took her letter away
> from you."
> 
> He spoke some tender words to me. "I shall see you again," He
> concluded. "When the time comes I will write for you."
> 
> I realized suddenly that I was going to leave Him. A great wave of
> sorrow swept over me. I strained my eyes to His Face: and oh the
> blinding Glory there! His Face was a sun and Divine Love blazed
> from His eyes. It seemed to me I saw God.
> 
> "Always?" He breathed.
> 
> "Always, my Lord."
> 
> That look was the last. Mulk was called out and this left me alone
> with the Master for a moment. I sat at His
> 
> feet in silence, my eyes downcast, feeling throughout my whole
> being His holy calm and the peace of His Presence.
> 
> Then Laura knocked at the door and came in, followed by Hippolyte,
> and together they talked of my plans, and, while they were talking,
> the Master rose from His chair by the window and with His swift
> step left the room.
> 
> __________
> 
> Still earlier that morning Zillu's-Sultan elder son[86] had come
> to visit the Master. After a long private talk with Him, the prince
> rushed into Mulk's room threw himself down on the couch and wept
> bitterly.
> 
> "If only I could be born again," he sobbed, "into any other family
> than mine! When I think that my own father has massacred so many
> Baha'is; that it was through my grandfather's orders that thousands
> of Babis were slaughtered and the Bab Himself executed, I cannot
> endure the blood that flows in my veins. If only I could be born
> again!"[87]
> 
> It was on Wednesday, after those two sweet days with Edith, that
> I sailed down the lake to Geneva. Oh Lake of Geneva! To me it is
> not earthly at all. Hemmed off from the world by mountains,
> ethereal in mist, hallowed by His Sacred Presence, it is like a
> vision descended from Heaven. I can scarcely think of it as
> permanent, but rather as a shining bit of the immortal world
> revealed for the time as His environment.
> 
> I have already told of that sail to Geneva: the docking
> 
> of the boat at Thonon, which seemed to me a sign that the Master
> was drawing me back to Him, since we had to cross the lake and go
> out of our course to dock there; how crushed I was when no one
> appeared at the landing to meet me; how desperate as the boat moved
> away from Thonon and I felt I had lost my last chance to be with
> my Lord again; my frantic desire to at least communicate with him
> driving me to call Hippolyte the minute I reached my hotel, and
> Hippolyte's breath-taking news: that the Master was coming the
> following night to Geneva and wished me to get in touch with Edith
> and ask her to join me there with Miss Hopkins.
> 
> Edith and Miss Hopkins arrived the next day a few hours earlier
> than the Master. Miss Hopkins is a very interesting girl: nun-like,
> really medieval. One thing she does beautifully is to illumine
> parchment cards, like the old missals. We had a happy hour
> together; then the two girls went off to rest and I to my balcony
> to pray.
> 
> Mount Blanc was rosy in the sunset. A diadem of lights encircled
> the lake. The mountains on the opposite shore--grizzled, almost
> barren, striped with whitish rock--made me think of Palestine.
> 
> While we were dining--Edith, Miss Hopkins, and I--at a table facing
> the window, we saw the Master's boat approaching. Edith and I
> rushed out, but were too late to meet Him on the pier. We met Him
> on the street, however, and that seemed so strange: to meet and be
> greeted by Him, on a European street. We walked with, or rather
> behind Him, to the Hotel de la Paix. His rooms, we found, were on
> the same floor as ours, the top floor.
> 
> The Master would not take the elevator, but walked up those four
> long flights of stairs; really, He floated up the stairs. That
> gliding ascent, majestic, of the most
> 
> astonishing ease, was almost like a spirit soaring. It made me
> think of what Ruha Khanum said to me once in Haifa, that even His
> body was different from ours, "of a different fibre," she said.
> 
> The Master went straight to His room and Edith and I stood outside
> in the hall with the Persians. It is a beautiful hall, square and
> white with slender columns and an enormous well down the centre
> where the staircase curves to the ground floor. Almost at once the
> proprietor came up and there was a little trouble about the rooms,
> Hippolyte not being there to arrange and Mulk and the others not
> understanding French very well. Edith and I were just moving
> forward to translate for them when the Master opened His door and
> stepped out into the hall. His mere appearance settled the matter.
> 
> "Who is that?" the proprietor asked with a startled look, then
> agreed to everything we asked.
> 
> I can see the Master now pacing up and down that hall, His hands
> behind His back in a way He has, His step firm and royal. I can see
> the turbaned head, the calm, noble profile luminous against the
> white wall.
> 
> After this, the Master went with us into Edith's room and waited
> there till His dinner was ready, talking to us tenderly. Suddenly
> He turned to me. "Could you go to London, Juliet? Miss Rosenberg
> has written inviting you to stay with her."
> 
> My heart leapt! Go to London with Him! Then, after all, this was
> not the end, this added bounty in Geneva, this merciful bounty
> granted to me in place of the lost day in Thonon. But, how could
> I prolong my trip? I had almost no money left.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "I should love above all things to go, but my
> steamer ticket is bought and I can't exchange
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Paris]
> 
> it, as it is on an independent line. And in order to catch the boat
> I must leave Geneva tomorrow on the early train. But I could stay
> till nine o'clock and try to make some kind of change."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1924. And here I made my third and most fatal
> mistake--always thinking about pocketbooks, even that of the
> all-powerful Lord instead of, with perfect trust, leaving
> everything in His hands.)
> 
> __________
> 
> "No," He answered, "it is not necessary. It was just that Miss
> Rosenberg wrote. Miss Rosenberg loves you very much. Everybody
> loves you and Edith," He added, smiling. Then He asked Edith to
> call Miss Hopkins in and this left me alone with Him for a moment.
> Looking at me with questioning eyes, He whispered, "Always?"
> 
> "Always!"
> 
> __________
> 
> Dinner over, He sent first for Edith, then for me, to come to His
> room. While Edith was with Him I prayed, standing on my balcony.
> By now it was dusk. The lights around the lake sparkled like strung
> stars. A purpose formed in my mind. Later I understood the real
> Source of this impulse.
> 
> As I took my place at His feet I said: "Dr Hakim has told me You
> weren't served well tonight; that You have eaten almost nothing.
> You are hungry I know. Let us go out--Tamaddunu'l-Mulk and I--and
> bring You some fruit with our own hands."
> 
> He is always thinking for others and to see His appreciation of our
> slightest thought for Him, the warm happy love that beams from His
> eyes at such times, is unbearably touching. But He would not let
> us get anything.
> 
> "No, no," He said. "No thank you. I was beautifully served. There
> was chicken, and many other things to come. I was too tired to
> eat--that was all."
> 
> "What have you to ask, Juliet?"
> 
> "That I may always see Thy Face. To see it will protect me from
> temptation."
> 
> "You must always see it. There must be no temptation." Then He,
> Himself introduced my next subject! "I do not," He said, "want to
> make you angry"--at which I looked up at Him laughing--"I do not
> want to hurt you, Juliet. But I must tell you something."
> 
> I knew what was coming. I pressed His hand.
> 
> "Don't think I am going to ask you to marry Mr Remey. Even if you
> wished to do so now, I would not wish it. But about Dr Grant ..."
> Then in a marvellous way He analyzed Percy Grant's character and
> the nature, even the history of our attachment, taking my breath
> away by His perfect knowledge of the whole thing.
> 
> "But, my Lord, isn't it true that he has other qualities--for
> example, his courage and his force--that would make him a wonderful
> servant of the Cause?"
> 
> "Ah, that is another affair," said the Master. "I am thinking now
> of your future."
> 
> "Some men," He went on, "are like this. They do not wish to marry
> and they love the love of women, and should you let this continue,
> it will go on forever in the same way until in the end he leaves
> you. Besides, meantime you may fall into difficulty. It is often
> by just such a thing that a black line is drawn across a girl's
> character. Now when you return to New York, Juliet, you must end
> this. Either you must marry him or separate yourself from him, cut
> yourself entirely from him. Understand, I
> 
> do not wish to separate you. I wish you to marry him. But I want
> the present state of things to end.
> 
> "I am speaking to you in this way because I love you so much. I
> love you very much; therefore I say these things to you.
> 
> "If you should marry him it may be good for the Cause--you may give
> him the Message--or, it may not be good. I do not care about this.
> I am thinking of your happiness."
> 
> "Ask the Master," I said to Tamaddunu'l-Mulk, "to tell me His Will
> and whatever it is I will do it, for I love His Will. I love
> following it. I intended to speak of this tonight. I intended to
> say: I am ready now to put Dr Grant out of my life."
> 
> "No, no," answered the Master. "You must understand that I do not
> want to separate you. I want you to marry him. It is My wish that
> you marry him. When you go back can you not say to him: 'We must
> end this in one of two ways. If you love me, marry me. There is no
> obstacle. If not, I must cut myself from you.'"
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I said, hiding my face on His knee, "how could I say
> that to him? I should be ashamed to."
> 
> I had never refused the Master anything before, but I quailed at
> the thought of proposing to Percy Grant!
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. I hate to copy these idiotic words: "I had never
> refused the Master anything before." And on top of all my
> protestations that I loved His Will! Who on earth was I to "refuse
> the Master?" The awful impudence of it! The unconscious complacency
> of that comment was much worse than what I did.
> 
> __________
> 
> "Then cannot your mother say it for you?"
> 
> "She won't even speak to him."
> 
> "Have you no friend who can take this message?"
> 
> "No. And besides: oh my Lord, how could I force him?"
> 
> "But you are not a child. And you must think of your future. Many
> men have wished to marry you."
> 
> "But, my Lord, I have no desire to marry."
> 
> "But I want you to marry, if not Dr Grant, then some other.
> Otherwise, when you are older you will fall into great misery. You
> can paint now; you are young, but you must think of your future,
> my daughter." His fatherly tenderness touched me to the heart.
> 
> "But it would be very difficult to marry a man I didn't love."
> 
> "That is the way with everyone," He said.
> 
> "My Lord," I asked, "mightn't I stay away from him--stop going to
> his church, refuse his invitations, refuse to see him when he
> comes?"
> 
> "Perhaps," and He made a laughing comment on human nature. "But,"
> returning to His first suggestions, (with anxiety, it seemed to me,
> for He glanced from side to side as though He, Himself, were
> looking for a messenger) "is there no one to take him this word:
> marriage or separation?"
> 
> "No, but if You wish, my Lord, I will do it myself."
> 
> "I leave that in your hands, only do something to make him realize
> ... See," He said, "how much I love you! I have come to Geneva to
> tell you this and have stayed up so late" (it was nearly midnight)
> "talk to you about it."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. I wish I could write everything He said that night. At
> times He was so comic about poor Percy's character that I couldn't
> help laughing with Him. When
> 
> you are in His Presence nothing really matters except the eternal
> things.)
> 
> __________
> 
> He looked very tired, and my heart smote me. How we accept His
> sacrifices, as if this immortal, universal King belonged just to
> us!
> 
> "Is there anything else you wish to ask, Juliet?"
> 
> "Only to say once more that I long to forever fix in my mind Thy
> Face. This will keep me firm and steadfast, desiring nothing but
> Thee."
> 
> "When your heart is perfectly pure and your love for Me increasing,
> then you shall see My Face."
> 
> "Come and knock at My door in the morning," He said.
> 
> "But I must leave so early. I must take the six-fifty train."
> 
> "Come whenever you are dressed. I shall be up."
> 
> __________
> 
> Edith woke me at dawn. The horizon was crimson, the lake in its rim
> of dark mountains, a crystal mirror.
> 
> I went to the Master alone. In His exquisite thoughtfulness He had
> left the door ajar. I knelt at His feet. A great flood of sorrow
> rose in me.
> 
> "Don't cry!" said His tender voice and I felt His delicate, vital
> fingers wiping the tears from my eyes. I felt my heart suddenly at
> peace, as though He had laid His Power upon it and checked that
> uprising storm of wild grief.
> 
> "Always?" He asked.
> 
> "Always!" After a moment I added in Persian: "I shall be with You
> always."
> 
> In English He replied, and none but the Comforter
> 
> Himself could speak in such a tone: "With Me--always." Off the
> coast of Spain
> 
> Here in my cabin alone on this queer little ship I am fortifying
> myself for what lies before me in New York. I stay all day in my
> cabin, to avoid the people, and pray and write. To none of these
> people could I give the Message, nor anything else, in fact.
> 
> Always I seek the Master's Face. Sometimes He dawns on me in
> immortal glory and sometimes He smiles at me. Only through service,
> only through prayer, only through obedience shall I climb to His
> Presence and live in it "always".
> 
> I went to Thonon, not to find Him there, but to find Him
> afterwards. I have not yet found Him, except for brief moments. In
> the anguish before me, in the deprivation, in the "Heaven of
> Poverty": there shall I find Him.
> 
> I have been curiously stripped on this journey. Through the
> chivalry of an idealist who offered to help me at the customs, I
> lost my trunk. In Naples I lost my fountain pen; somewhere, my
> prayer book--even my prayer book! I have just the clothes on my
> back, nothing else. This diary, with my book of Tablets (the
> Master's Tablets to me) and the 'Akka diary, I have been carrying
> in a little bag, and thank God these are safe.
> 
> There is the dinner bell. I must go and sit with these funny
> people, who ply their toothpicks so vigorously (which makes me
> horribly sick) and accuse me of "seeing angels".
> 
> "I no want you see angels," said a fiery musician to
> 
> me yesterday. "I want you" (pounding his chest) "to see me."
> 
> So I fly to my cabin and bolt my door.
> 
> 8 September 1911
> 
> My struggle began today. Peace went. Standing at the bow of the
> boat just now, the salt wind in my face, the sea rough with
> whitecaps, I realized many things.
> 
> I have been more anxious to lead Percy Grant to the Kingdom than
> to be led there myself. I have counted more on eternal union with
> him than on eternal union with God. I have never been able to
> disentangle my love for the Cause from my love for him, or from my
> hopes and desires for him and myself--my future with him.
> 
> Now I must cut these two loves apart. But how? Nearing New York
> 
> 15 September 1911. Morning.
> 
> A captive, fettered by mine own desire, Yet with a soul that panted
> to be free, Yet with a heart on fire For Him who freeth all
> captivity. Suppliant, I knelt before His Prison door. The latch is
> lifted and wide flung the door! Behold the amazing Glory of His
> Face! Veils, veils of Light, no more, These mortal eyes discern in
> His strange grace. I cry: "O Mystery, Grant that I see!"
> 
> With tender fingers quickening in their touch, Gently He wiped away
> mine unshed tears. "O thou," He breathed, "who lovest much, Await
> the sure unfolding of the years, The vision purified Through hope
> denied." The years unfolded, while a heavenly rain Of tears washed
> ever clearer my dim sight. Suppliant I knelt again, Unfettered now,
> before the Eternal Light. "Accept the heart I bring To Thee, O
> King!" I lift mine eyes to His Divinity, Eyes streaming now with
> tears of love alone. God! What is this I see? For veils of night
> and veils of Light are gone, Melted--torn--burned away In flaming
> Day. Haloed with rays, encircled as with fire, The clouds of earth
> rolled back, in ambient space, Eyes as two stars of living fire,
> Clearly I see the Christ--the Eternal Face-- The Father in the Son,
> The One--the ONE!
> 
> Nearer New York
> 
> 15 September 1911
> 
> "Always for Me, always for Me!" Ah, Whose the Voice that stirs the
> night In a chant sweeping in from Eternity Like the sighing wind
> o'er a boundless sea, "My heaven, My soul, My light! Thy heart for
> Me, thy breast for Me, Always for Me, always for Me! Thine eyes for
> Me, thy brow for Me, Always for Me! Thy soul for Me, thy spirit for
> Me, Always for Me, always for Me! Thy blood for Me--thy blood for
> Me, Thy blood for Me!" "Always for Thee, always for Thee," My heart
> to the Heavenly Wooer sings. "Sever my heart, my mind, mine eye
> From the mortal vanishing things! Lift me above the earth-desire,
> Higher and higher, higher and higher To the placeless pyre of
> undying fire, The love of the King of Kings! And on Thine earth
> where Thy footstep rings Pour out my blood in Thy hallowed Way,
> That mortals, the red sign following, May attain to the Fount of
> Day. Always for Thee, always for Thee! On through the worlds of
> Eternity To the endless end no eye can see, The bird of fire to the
> Burning Tree! On, on to the beat of tireless wings-- Always for
> Thee!"
> 
> This last little one I wrote after I left 'Akka, in 1909: O King
> of Kings, O King of Kings! My heart it is Thy quivering lyre. Thy
> vital fingers sweep its strings, Sweep its strings, sweep its
> strings. Its strings are set afire, my Lord, Its strings are set
> afire! Oh kindled by divine desire, For Thee it sings, for Thee it
> sings, Forevermore for Thee it sings, This heart that is Thy lyre,
> my Lord, This heart that is thy lyre!
> 
> 15 September 1911
> 
> I am approaching New York--and my ordeal. But, thank God, I have
> been gathering strength. This week has been one of such frightful
> storm that I haven't been able to write a word. But, through the
> storm, the more brightly shone His Face. 48 West Tenth Street
> 
> 2 October 1911
> 
> I love this dear little house. It is very simple and old-fashioned
> in an old-fashioned street. It looks like the homes of my
> childhood, only more simple and therefore more lovely. And yet, how
> it complicates the problem with which I have returned to live in
> it, since it is almost opposite the house of Percy Grant. Strange,
> to be moved so close to him by something outside my own
> 
> will at this of all moments, when I must separate myself from him.
> I say "outside my own will," for I didn't choose this house; it
> came as the result of prayer. We tried for weeks and weeks and
> couldn't find a house in a neighbourhood to suit Mamma. Then one
> morning I got on my knees and prayed and, just a little later in
> the morning, Marjorie and I, on our way to Greenwich Village, saw
> the sign "For Rent" on 48 West Tenth Street and Mamma approved of
> this neighbourhood!
> 
> 23 November 1911
> 
> O Handmaiden of God!
> 
> The news of your trouble and difficulty on the way caused Us great
> sorrows. In truth the trouble was very hard to bear. I hope you may
> receive a great reward for it. The cause of this trouble and
> difficulty was that for the love of seeing that unkind person you
> made great haste to go.
> 
> Remember My advices. Find a friend whose heart is yours, but not
> one who has a thousand hearts (affections). Think of God's Will,
> because God is the most kind.
> 
> Upon you be the Glory of God.
> 
> (signed) Abdul Baha Abbas
> 
> [P.S.] I send you a small sum of money.
> 
> I shall never forget the awful moment when I read this Tablet. "For
> the love of seeing that unkind person you made great haste to
> go."(!) Every morning after that I awoke with these words ringing
> in my ears: "You made great haste to go."
> 
> My first thought was: "How can it be true?" So unconscious are we
> of our own real condition. Then I looked deep into my heart. Yes,
> it was true. I was always saying to myself in Thonon: "When I
> return to New York I will tell Percy this, I will tell him that."
> I looked forward to that return with excitement for it meant
> beginning a new life in a new home opposite his. I started back
> happily, to be overtaken at Geneva by the Master and His stern
> command: "Marry Dr Grant, or leave him. Cut yourself entirely from
> him."
> 
> Oh that pause at Geneva! I can see the Master now, the unexpected
> Visitor, leading Edith and me up those four flights of stairs to
> the Upper Chamber. I can see Him floating before us, the Being from
> worlds above Who has lit upon earth for a brief time.
> 
> "You made great haste to go." How blind I have been and how I have
> lost through my blindness. But for my stubborn attachment I might
> have spent weeks in Europe with Him, in Paris and London. For the
> "small sum of money" was the most pointed of signs that I could
> easily have given up my passage on "the independent line." It was
> $120: exactly the cost of the ticket.
> 
> I had not written to the Master of my "difficulties" on the way.
> Only to Mulk had I mentioned these trifles--the seven days of
> storm, the temporary loss of my trunk--for I got it again after
> nine weeks. Yet in the midst of His great pressure of work He had
> hastened to write me, to express His tender sympathy for my little
> inconveniences, to open my eyes to their real cause, my so
> persistent attachment--and, at this insecure moment, as I begin my
> "new life" opposite the house of Percy Grant--to repeat His warning
> at Geneva. How vigilant is God's watchfulness over His least
> creature!
> 
> Diary of Juliet Thompson: Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Notes
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha in America
> 
> 25 March to 7 December 1912
> 
> To the attracted maid-servant of God, Juliet Thompson.
> 
> HE IS GOD!
> 
> O thou candle of the Love of God!
> 
> Thy numerous letters were received. According to the promise, by
> the Will of God, I shall embark on the boat 25 March and in the
> latter part reach Naples, where I shall stay a few days and from
> thence start for New York.
> 
> Verily, this is great glad tidings. Upon thee by Baha'u'l-Abha.
> (signed) Abdul Baha Abba. Translated in the Orient.
> 
> New York
> 
> Twelve o'clock, 25 March 1912
> 
> It is just midnight. TODAY the Master sails for America. I feel His
> Presence strongly.
> 
> __________
> 
> Received March 25:
> 
> The Church of the Ascension. 5 Avenue and 10th Street.
> 
> 23 March
> 
> My dear Juliet:
> 
> I understand that Abdul Baha is to arrive in New York 10
> April--that is, in Easter week,--so that the 14 April would be his
> first Sunday in New York.
> 
> 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.
> 
> If, however, his coming in the middle of the week means that he
> ought to get more quickly into public contact with the city, which
> may well be the case if his stay is brief, then I would offer the
> Church of the Ascension to the committee in charge of his affairs
> to
> 
> have any kind of service they please, in the daytime or evening,
> between his arrival, let us say 10 April--and the following Sunday.
> 
> That is to say I make one of two propositions: to offer him my
> pulpit Sunday, 14 April, at eleven a.m., or to offer the Church,
> unhampered by any form of service, between the tenth and the
> fourteenth.
> 
> Faithfully,
> 
> (signed) Percy S. Grant
> 
> __________
> 
> What will obedience bring forth, if half-obedience brings forth
> this? I have refused all winter to see Percy Grant.
> 
> I wrote thanking him and asking him to get in touch with the
> committee of arrangements, Mr Mills and Mr MacNutt.
> 
> __________
> 
> The Church of the Ascension. 5 Avenue and 10th Street.
> 
> 28 March 1912
> 
> My dear Juliet:
> 
> I thank you for your nice letter about Abdul Baha. Whatever may
> seem most agreeable to those having the matter in charge will be
> altogether satisfactory to me.
> 
> Whatever I can do I hope you will allow me to do, to honour such
> a distinguished visitor from the East--one so loved by my friends.
> 
> Believe me to be faithfully yours,
> 
> (signed) Percy S. Grant
> 
> 8 April 1912
> 
> Little did I dream when I began this diary what I would write in
> its closing pages! This morning I telephoned Percy.
> 
> "This is Juliet."
> 
> "Ah, Juliet."
> 
> "I want to tell you two things. First, 'Abdu'l-Baha is on the
> Cedric and will arrive Wednesday morning. And--is your time very
> full Thursday? For I think He will send for you almost at once."
> 
> "Wait. Let me get my card, Juliet. No, I have no engagements for
> Thursday, except in the evening, and could come any time during the
> day to see Him. I am very happy. I shall be very glad to see the
> Master, Juliet."
> 
> "As soon as He arrives, someone will let you know."
> 
> I then brought up the second thing.
> 
> "I'd like to explain something," I said. "Has Dr Guthrie got into
> touch with you?"
> 
> "No."
> 
> "Then I hardly need to explain. But it was this: Charles James had
> heard some rumour that the Master was to speak in your church. He
> mentioned this to Dr Guthrie, who immediately wanted to offer his
> church, too. This morning a letter came from Dr Guthrie inviting
> the Master to speak on the night of the fourteenth. I tell you all
> this really to say that it was not through me Dr Guthrie heard of
> your plans."
> 
> "I am a very easy person, Juliet, in misunderstandings."
> 
> "I know that."
> 
> "And I am glad Dr Guthrie has made the same offer that I have."
> 
> "No one has made the same offer you have."
> 
> It was then he repeated something he had said to Mr MacNutt; I
> can't remember just what.
> 
> "That was beautiful of you," I answered.
> 
> "No, it was not. And Juliet: I don't want you to feel that this is
> a favour. I want you to feel--to understand--that you have a
> proprietary interest in the church: a proprietary interest; that
> it is yours to give. The church is yours. The Parish House is
> yours. The Rectory is yours.[88] We will ask the Master to the
> Rectory and form little groups to meet Him. I don't want to bore
> you, Juliet," (oh imagine him boring me!) "but I want you to feel
> that it is yours, this house. Here it is, just at the end of the
> street. Ask anyone to the Rectory, anyone you wish. You may
> eliminate the Rector, if you would rather not have me here ..."
> This and much more. He contradicted that last statement once. "I
> want you," he said, with his appealing boyishness, "to come around
> me again, Juliet." His voice broke. He stammered a little and
> ended. "I am a tongue-tied person when it comes to strong feeling."
> 
> "I should like," I said, "to take you by the hand and lead you to
> the Master myself."
> 
> "I want you to, Juliet. I don't want to do it any other way. I want
> you to be there. I don't want to do it without you."
> 
> "Then we will meet on Thursday. We will see each other on Thursday
> in His Presence. I think it will be beautiful to meet there."
> 
> "It will be the north and the south in His Presence, Juliet."
> 
> "The Master has loved you a long time, Percy, for your work."
> 
> "Some people say they are loved for their enemies, Juliet. If I am
> loved, it is for my friends."
> 
> 10 April 1912. 11:15 p.m.
> 
> Tomorrow He comes! Who comes? "Who is this that cometh from
> Bozrah?"
> 
> This is a night of holy expectation. The air is charged with
> sanctity. I can almost hear the Gloria in Excelsis.
> 
> How close He is tonight! Is it His prayers I feel? Why has earth
> become suddenly divine?
> 
> Midnight
> 
> The Master comes TODAY!
> 
> 11 April 1912
> 
> Oh day of days!
> 
> I was wakened this morning while it was yet dark by something
> shining into my eyes. It was a ray from the moon, its waning
> crescent framed low in my windowpane.
> 
> Symbol of the Covenant, was my first thought. How perfectly
> beautiful to be wakened today by it! But at once I remembered
> another time when I had seen the
> 
> waning moon hanging, then, above palm trees. I was on the roof of
> the House in 'Akka with the Master and Munavvar Khanum. The Master
> was pointing to the moon. "The East. The moon. No!" He said. "I am
> the Sun of the West."
> 
> At dawn, kneeling at my window, I prayed in the swelling light for
> all this land, now sleeping, that it would wake to received its
> Lord; conscious, as I prayed, of an overshadowing Sacred Presence:
> a great, glorious, burning Presence--the Sun of Love rising. This
> fiery dawn was but a pale symbol of such a rising.
> 
> Between seven and eight I went to the pier with Marjorie Morten and
> Rhoda Nichols. The morning was crystal clear, sparkling. I had a
> sense of its being Easter: of lilies, almost seen, blooming at my
> feet.
> 
> All the believers of New York had gathered at the pier to meet the
> Master's ship. Marjorie and I had suggested to them that the Master
> might not want this public demonstration, but their eagerness was
> too great to be influenced by just two, and so we had gone along
> with them--only too glad to do so, to tell the truth.
> 
> During the morning the harbour misted over. At last, in the mist
> we saw: a phantom ship! And at that very moment some newsboys ran
> through the crowd, waving Extras. "The Pope is dead! The Pope is
> dead!" they shouted. The Pope was not dead. The Extras had been
> printed only on a rumour; but what a symbol, and how exactly timed!
> 
> Closer and closer, ever more substantial, came that historic ship,
> that epoch-making ship, till at last it swam out solid into the
> light, one of the Persians sitting in the bow in his long robes,
> 'aba, and turban. This was Siyyid
> 
> Asadu'llah, a marvellous, witty old man, who had come with the
> Master to prepare His meals.
> 
> He told us later that when the ship was approaching the harbour and
> the Master saw, as His first view of America, the Wall Street
> skyscrapers, He had laughed and said: "Those are the minarets of
> the West."[89] What divine irony!
> 
> The ship docked, but the Master did not appear. Suddenly I had a
> great glimpse. In the dim hall beyond the deck, striding to and fro
> near the door, was One with a step that shook you! Just that one
> stride, charged with power, the sweep of a robe, a majestic head,
> turban crowned--that was all I saw, but my heart stopped.
> 
> Marjorie's instinct and mine had been true. Mr Kinney was called
> for to come on board the ship. He returned with a disappointing
> message. The Master sent us His love but wanted us to disperse now.
> He would meet us all at the Kinneys' house at four.
> 
> Everyone obeyed at once except Marjorie, Rhoda, and myself!
> Marjorie, who loves the Teachings but has never wholly accepted
> them, said: "I can't leave till I've seen Him. I can't. I WON'T!"
> So, though we followed the crowd to the street, we slipped away
> there and looked around for some place to hide. Quite a distance
> below the big entrance to the pier we saw a fairly deep embrasure
> into which a window was set, with the stone wall jutting out from
> it. Here we flattened ourselves against the window, Rhoda (who is
> conspicuously tall) clasping a long white box of lilies which she
> had brought for the Master. Just in front of the entrance stood
> Mr.
> 
> Mills' car, his chauffeur in it. Suddenly it rolled forward and,
> to our utter dismay, parked directly in front of us. Now we were
> caught: certain to be discovered. But there was no help for it, for
> Marjorie still refused to budge till she had seen the Master.
> 
> Then, He came--through the entrance with Mr MacNutt and Mr Mills,
> and turned and walked swiftly toward the car. In a panic we waited.
> 
> A few nights ago Marjorie and I had a double dream. In her dream,
> I was out in space with her. In mine, we were in a room together
> and the Master had just entered it. He walked straight up to
> Marjorie, put His two hands on her shoulders and pressed and
> pressed till she sank to her knees. And while she was sinking, she
> lifted her face to His and everything in her seemed to be dying
> except her soul, which looked out through her raised eyes in a sort
> of agony of recognition.
> 
> Today, after one glance at the Master, this was just the way she
> looked.
> 
> "Now," she said, "I know."
> 
> As the Master was stepping into the car, He turned and--smiled at
> us.
> 
> __________
> 
> We met Him in the afternoon at the Kinneys'. When I arrived with
> Marjorie, He was sitting in the centre of the dining room near a
> table strewn with flowers. He wore a light pongee 'aba. At His
> knees stood the Kinney children, Sanford and Howard, and His arms
> were around them. He was very white and shining. No words could
> describe His ineffable peace. The people stood about in rows and
> circles: several hundred in the big rooms, which all open into each
> other. In the dining room many sat on the floor, Marjorie and I
> included. We
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha holding a child.]
> 
> made a dark background for His Glory. Only our tears reflected Him,
> and almost everyone there was weeping just at the sight of Him. For
> at last we saw divinity incarnate. Divinely He turned His head from
> one child to the other, one group to another. I wish I could
> picture that turn of the head--an oh, so tender turn, with that
> indescribable heavenly grace caught by Leonardo da Vinci in his
> Christ of the Last Supper (in the study for the head)--but in
> 'Abdu'l-Baha irradiated by smiles and a lifting of those eyes
> filled with glory, which even Leonardo, for all his mystery, could
> not have painted. The very essence of compassion, the most poignant
> tenderness is in that turn of the head.
> 
> The next morning early the Master telephoned me (that is, Ahmad[90]
> telephoned for Him) and nearly every morning after. Can you imagine
> the sweetness of that--to be wakened every morning by a word from
> Him? Sometimes He just inquired how I was, but often He called me
> to Him.
> 
> When I first went to see Him He asked me only one question. "How
> is your mother?"
> 
> "Not very well, my Lord."
> 
> "What is the matter?"
> 
> "She is grieving." And I told Him why. My brother is soon to be
> married to a quite beautiful, brilliant girl who, however, doesn't
> want to make friends with his family!
> 
> "Bring your mother to Me," He said. "I will comfort her."
> 
> He sent for her that very night. I was terribly afraid she wouldn't
> go--she has been so opposed to my work in the
> 
> Cause--and Ahmad called up in the midst of a thunderstorm! But when
> I took the message to her--that the Master wished her to come to
> Him now--she jumped up from her chair and began to scurry around.
> 
> "Just wait till I get my rubbers," she said.
> 
> We found Him exhausted, lying on His bed. He had seen hundreds of
> people that day, literally, at a big reception and in His own
> rooms. Mamma, who is very shy and undemonstrative, rushed to the
> bedside and fell on her knees.
> 
> "Welcome, welcome!" said the Master. "You are very welcome, Mrs
> Thompson.
> 
> "You must be very thankful for your daughter. Praise be to God, she
> is a daughter of the Kingdom. If she were an earthly daughter, of
> what use would she be to you? At best she could do you a little
> material good. But she is a heavenly daughter, a daughter of the
> Kingdom. Therefore she is the means of drawing your soul nearer to
> God. Her value to you is not apparent now. When one possesses a
> thing its value is not realized. But you will realize later. Mary
> Magdalene was but a villager; she was even scorned by the people,
> but now her name moves the whole earth, and in the Kingdom of God
> she is very near. Your daughter is kind to you. If your son is
> faithless, she is faithful. She will become dearer and dearer to
> you. She will take the place of your son. But in the end your son
> will be very good. This is only temporary.
> 
> "I became very grieved today when, upon inquiring for you, I heard
> of your sorrow. And now I want to comfort you. Trust in God. God
> is kind. God is faithful. God never forgets you. If others are
> unkind what difference does it make when God is kind? When God is
> on your
> 
> side it does not matter what men do to you. But your son will be
> good in the end.
> 
> "God is kind to you. And I am going to be kind to you. And I am
> faithful!"
> 
> Mamma, still on her knees, bent and kissed His hand. "Tell the
> Master," she said to Ahmad, "I have always loved Him. Lua knows
> that." (If Lua knew, I certainly didn't.)
> 
> "I have no need of a witness," the Master answered, so tenderly.
> "My heart knows."
> 
> The next day Mamma said to me: "All my bitterness has gone. The
> Master must be helping me."[91]
> 
> It was on Saturday, 13 April, that Mamma and I visited the Master.
> On Friday He had called me early, asking me to meet Him at the
> MacNutts'.
> 
> I shall never cease to see Him as He looked speaking from their
> stairway, standing below a stained glass window in a ray of
> sunlight, the powerful head, the figure in its flowing robes,
> outlined in light.
> 
> The Master has a strange quality of beautifying His environment,
> of throwing a glamour over it and blotting out the ugly. The
> MacNutts' house is ugly; the one redeem-
> 
> ing feature of that stairway, its window. All I saw as the Master
> stood there was Himself, the window, the ray of light. His words
> lifted my soul on wings!
> 
> In the evening Friday He spoke in Miss Phillips' studio. The
> enormous room was packed. At his dear invitation I sat [on] His
> right (I suppose because I had given Miss Phillips the Message);
> Marjorie at His left near Him. In the simple setting of that
> studio, its overhead light filling the deep forms of His face with
> shadow, He looked ruggedly, powerfully beautiful. His words I will
> not give. They have been kept.[92]
> 
> The very day He arrived, Thursday, the Master sent for Percy Grant,
> but He appointed Friday to see him, in the afternoon. I was not
> invited to the interview, so in spite of the happy arrangement
> Percy and I had made, I knew I should have to stay away. Nor was
> I told very much about it, only that the Master had planned with
> Dr Grant to accept his church for Sunday (the fourteenth) for His
> first address in New York, choosing the Church of the Ascension out
> of thirteen other--and some of the clergy had even wired to
> Gibraltar offering their pulpits for that date! And one other very
> little thing (Mr MacNutt himself gave me this scrap of news): as
> he was standing with Dr Grant at the elevator after leaving the
> Master's suite, Dr Grant said to him: "You can't help but love the
> old gentleman."
> 
> To me Percy put it more elegantly: "The Master compels one's love
> and esteem. What He radiates is peace and love."
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha in New York in the garden of Howard
> MacNutt, 1912.]
> 
> Saturday, 13 April, the Master spoke at Marjorie Morten's.[93]
> Again, because of the crowd, He spoke from the stairway, dominating
> all the beauty of Marjorie's long drawing room, with its rich
> colour and carvings and masterly paintings, by His superlative
> beauty.
> 
> His theme that day was the spiritual seasons, and in the midst of
> His talk a delicious thing happened which, slight though it was,
> I want to keep. In its very slightness it may draw the people of
> the future closer to the Master, just as it drew us.
> 
> These tender little touches of His humour and simplicity, bridging
> for the moment the infinite space between us and His pure
> Perfection, making His Divinity accessible: how precious, how
> heavenly sweet they are, of what unique value! The disciples of
> Christ, looking beyond that awful chasm of the crucifixion into the
> mystery of their days with Him, were, I suppose, awed into silence
> about the little things--the adorable little things. So the Man of
> sorrow has been just the Man of sorrow to us. We have never formed
> any conception of the Man of love and joy, great buoyant joy; a
> Christ whose Love overflowed into little tendernesses and Whose joy
> overflowed into fun and wit--a happy, smiling, laughing Christ. And
> yet I am sure He was that.
> 
> But now to tell of this small thing. With His celestial eloquence
> the Master had described the spiritual springtime.
> 
> "Va tabistan," He began and paused for Ahmad to translate.
> 
> Dead silence. Poor Ahmad had lost the English word.
> 
> But while he stood helpless, the Master supplied it Himself.
> 
> "Summer!" He laughed. Whereupon a little ripple of delight ran
> through the audience. His charm had captured them all.
> 
> After the meeting He went up to rest in Mr Morten's room. He had
> seen a hundred and forty people that morning and was so worn out
> at the end of His talk that He looked almost ill. His fatigue was
> apparent to everyone--and yet the people had no pity. When I
> returned from an errand to the kitchen, literally hundreds were
> streaming toward His room; a dozen were in the room; in the hall
> were many peering faces, and climbing up the stairs--a procession!
> 
> "Oh can't we shut the door?" I asked Dr Farid. But the Master heard
> me.
> 
> "Let them come now," He said gently.
> 
> A mother with a baby stood near the door. The Master took the baby
> from her and tenderly pressed it to His heart. "Beautiful baby!
> Little chicken!" He said in His dear English; then explained that
> "little chicken" was the Turkish pet name for child.
> 
> A young single-taxer[94] began to question Him. "What message shall
> I take to my friends?" he ended.
> 
> "Tell them," laughed the Master (that wonderful spicy humour in His
> face) "to come into the Kingdom of God. There they will find plenty
> of land and there are no taxes on it."
> 
> Sunday. Oh, Sunday!
> 
> At the Master's own invitation I met Him at the Rectory, a half
> hour before the service.
> 
> As Miss Barry was holding her Sunday school class downstairs, we
> were invited upstairs, to the back room on the second floor. There,
> with the Master and the Persians and Edward Getsinger, I waited in
> supreme happiness. Very soon Percy came in. Approaching the Master,
> he bent his head reverently.
> 
> "In New Testament language," he said, "this would be called an
> upper chamber."[95]
> 
> The Master smiled sweetly and took his hand.
> 
> After he left, the Master turned to me. "This is a dish you have
> cooked for Me, Juliet," He laughed.
> 
> "I hope it is cooked all the way through!"
> 
> "Insha'llah," smiled the Master.
> 
> "I have more dishes to serve to You when You are rested," I
> ventured.
> 
> "I hope they are light," He replied, "and will rest easily on My
> digestion. Most of these dishes are so heavy!"
> 
> I inquired for dear Ruha Khanum, who has been very ill.
> 
> "I have put her in the hands of the Blessed Perfection," said our
> Lord, "and now I don't worry at all."
> 
> He spoke of my mother very lovingly.
> 
> "Tell her to trust in God," He repeated. "Tell her that God is
> faithful. Read the Hidden Words to her."
> 
> The time came to go to the church. The Persians, Edward Getsinger,
> and I went first: marching in, as Percy had planned it, with the
> processional, bringing up the rear of the processional! For nearly
> a year I hadn't once entered the Church of the Ascension; and now,
> what a very surprising return!
> 
> The Master waited in the vestry-room.
> 
> When I try to express the perfection of that service--I mean, the
> arrangement of it--I can find no words. It was the conception of
> an artist, of a true poet. The altar and the whole chancel were
> banked with calla lilies. On the back of the Bishop's chair hung
> a victor's wreath, an exact reproduction of the Greek victor's
> wreath, classically simple: a small oval of laurel with its leaves
> free at the top. Its meaning went to my heart.
> 
> Dr Grant read first a prophecy from the Old Testament pointing
> directly to this Day, to Baha'u'llah; then the thirteenth Chapter
> of Corinthians. These were not the lessons for the day but
> specially chosen.
> 
> At the end of the Second Lesson, just as the choir began to sing
> in a great triumphant outburst "Jesus Lives!" 'Abdu'l-Baha with
> that step of His, which has been described as the walk of either
> a shepherd or a king, entered the chancel, "suddenly come to His
> Temple!" Percy Grant had quietly left his seat and gone into the
> vestry-room and had returned with the Master, holding His hand. For
> a moment they stood at the altar beneath that fine mural, The
> Resurrection by John La Farge; then with beautiful deference Percy
> led the Master to the Bishop's chair. (This broke the nineteenth
> canon of the Episcopal Church, which forbids the unbaptized to sit
> behind the altar rail!)
> 
> The prayers over, Dr Grant made a short introductory address,
> speaking not from the pulpit but the chancel steps. Never shall I
> forget what I saw then. Percy, strong and erect, with his
> magnificently set head ("like the head of some Viking" as Howard
> MacNutt says), giving, with a fire even greater than usual--with
> a strange, sparkling magnetism--the Baha'i Message to his congre-
> 
> gation; and behind him: a flashing Face, unlike the face of any
> mortal, haloed by the victor's wreath, visibly inspiring him. For
> with every flash from those eyes, which were fixed on Dr Grant,
> would appear a fresh charge of energy in him. There was something
> wonderfully rhythmic in this transmission of fire to the words and
> the delivery of the man speaking. Was it the sign of some
> susceptibility in this hitherto unyielding man to the power of
> 'ABDU'L-BAHa? Or was it just that Power: transcendent,
> irresistible, quickening whom it chose?
> 
> "May the Lord lift the light of His Countenance upon you." Ah, what
> happens when the Lord does!
> 
> How can I tell of that moment when the Master took the place of
> Percy Grant on the chancel steps? When, standing in His flowing
> robes there, He turned His unearthly Face to the people and
> said:[96] "Dr Grant has just read from the thirteenth Chapter of
> Corinthians that the day would come when you would see face to
> face."
> 
> It was too great to put into words; it was almost too great to
> bear. The pain of intense rapture pierced my heart. Could the
> people fail to recognize? Oh, had they recognized what would He not
> have revealed to them? But He could go no further. He swerved to
> another subject.
> 
> "I have come hither," He said, "to find that material civilization
> has progressed greatly, but the spiritual civilization has been
> left behind. The material civilization is likened unto the glass
> of a lamp chimney. The spiritual civilization is like the light in
> that chimney. The material civilization should go hand-in-hand with
> 
> the spiritual civilization. Material civilization may be likened
> unto a beautiful body, while spiritual civilization is the spirit
> that enters the body and gives to it life. With the propelling
> power of spiritual civilization the result will be greater.
> 
> "His Holiness Jesus Christ came to this world that the people might
> have through Him the civilization of Heaven, a spirit of oneness
> with God. He came to breathe the spirit into the body of the world.
> There must be oneness in the world of man. When this takes place
> we will have the Most Great Peace.
> 
> "Today the body politic needs the oneness of the world and
> universal peace. But to spread the feeling of peace and firmly
> implant it in the minds of men a certain propelling Power is
> required.
> 
> "It is self-evident that spiritual civilization cannot be
> accomplished through material means, for the interests of the
> various nations differ. It is self-evident that it cannot be
> accomplished through patriotism, for countries differ in their
> ideas of patriotism. It is impossible save through spiritual power.
> Compared with this all other means are too weak to bring about
> universal peace.
> 
> "Man has two wings: his material power and development, and his
> spiritual understanding and achievements. With one wing alone he
> cannot fly. Therefore, no matter how far material civilization
> advances, without the other, great things cannot be accomplished.
> ... Humanity, generally speaking, is immersed in a sea of
> materiality ..."
> 
> Dr Grant asked the Master to give the benediction. Apparently He
> gave no blessing but asked for one for us.
> 
> Against His high background of lilies He stood, His face uplifted
> in prayer, His eyes closed, the palms of His
> 
> hands uplifted. I seemed to feel streams of Life descending,
> filling those cupped hands. On either side of Him knelt the
> clergymen, facing the altar. Percy Grant's head was bowed low. It
> was a breathless moment. Then the Master raised His resonant voice
> and chanted.
> 
> The recessional hymn was "Christ our Lord has risen again."
> 
> How can words tell what I realized, or thought I realized, at that
> incomparable service?
> 
> This church had been my cross for years, from which I had never
> been able to escape--though twice I had made the attempt, twice
> wrenching myself away, only to be guided back by what seemed to me
> in each instance the clear Will of God, expressed through a
> striking miracle. Guided back to mortal pain. Was I seeing, this
> morning, divine results of this pain?
> 
> And not only had I suffered more vitally here than in any other
> place, prayed more passionately; not only had it been the scene of
> my deepest inner conflict, but the cause of all this had been
> dramatically enacted here. Here in this pulpit, with all his great
> force, his disturbing magnetism and the fire of his eloquence,
> Percy Grant had opposed my unshakeable belief, thundering
> denunciations of "the subtle", "the Machiavellian Oriental" (God
> forgive me for quoting this)--of the slumbering and superstitious
> Orient--the Orient that brought to the West "nothing but disease
> and death"--determined to conquer this Faith of mine which made me
> resistant to him. He had even gone so far as to openly name "the
> Baha'i sect" in his pulpit and to warn his flock against it.
> 
> And now, framing that matchless head of the Master, who sat there
> so still in His Glory, hung the victor's
> 
> wreath! Oh for words vivid and sublime enough to make you see Him
> sitting there, in the very spot where He had been so violently
> denied!
> 
> The Master took me back into the Rectory, into the big, dark front
> room. Percy rushed in for a moment, still in his surplice, his
> cheeks flushed, his eyes very bright and blue.
> 
> "Juliet," he called, looking in from the dining room, "ask if the
> Master wants anything: tea, coffee, water--anything; then tell
> Thomas" (the butler).
> 
> But the Master wanted nothing except to wait to see Dr Grant (who
> was being detained in the church) and He filled me with
> indescribable joy by inviting me to wait with Him, sitting beside
> Him.
> 
> I sat there, happier it seemed to me than I had ever been in my
> life. I was in the Presence of my Lord, and the one I loved best
> in all this human world had at last recognized Him. For what else
> had that exquisite service meant, with the Resurrection stressed
> all through it? Such a bold acknowledgement, such a daring action
> in the very church itself could not have been insincere. It never
> occurred to me to doubt it.
> 
> But time passed and Percy did not come back. A great crowd arrived
> before he did. Someone, using the private way from the church, had
> left the door open and the people began to surge in. And then
> (while my heart sank with disappointment) the Master made a swift
> exit.
> 
> Too late Mrs Grant, Percy's dear mother, entered the room. It was
> a dramatic entrance. She ran in, distractedly, glancing from side
> to side, obviously looking for the Master. Not seeing Him there,
> she exclaimed: "If only I could have had His blessing! That Figure
> makes me think of the plains of Judea."
> 
> At that very instant Mr Mills, who had gone out with
> 
> the Master, reappeared. "'Abdu'l-Baha," he said, "is asking for Mrs
> Grant."
> 
> I stood at the street door and watched. The Master was sitting in
> Mr Mills' car, just in front of the house. I saw Mrs Grant approach
> it, kneel in the street and bow her head. I saw Him place His hands
> on her head.
> 
> A year ago I had a dream. I was in the People's Forum, stooping and
> kissing Mrs Grant. She looked up through tears. "I have seen the
> Master," she said in my dream. "He spoke to me. Oh there was never
> such a Face in the world!"
> 
> Now, on the steps of the Rectory, as she returned from the car, she
> looked up through tears.
> 
> "I got my blessing, Juliet," she said, "and I didn't have to ask
> for it."
> 
> I went back to the church to thank Percy Grant and found him alone.
> His last parishioner had just gone. For a moment we stood with
> clasped hands.
> 
> "You made everything so beautiful. I can't find the right words to
> thank you."
> 
> "My darling," he said, "my darling--"
> 
> Something in his look--something false--woke me. Sick at heart, I
> turned away.[97]
> 
> That night how I hungered to see the Master. My heart burned to see
> Him. I went to the telephone. Ah, these days when just by a
> telephone call we can reach Him! One of the Persians answered my
> call.
> 
> "Is the Master well tonight? Is He resting?" I asked.
> 
> "He is in His room, reading Tablets."
> 
> __________
> 
> The next morning, through Ahmad, the Master telephoned me. He
> wanted to know how I was.
> 
> "Tell Him my heart is burning for Him just as it used to in Haifa."
> 
> "The Master says: come at once to Him."
> 
> And scarcely was I seated in His room when He began to speak of
> Percy Grant. He spoke with great love, with great appreciation of
> the service Percy had rendered, but told me to be very careful in
> my relations with him.
> 
> "You must keep your acquaintance, Juliet, absolutely formal."
> 
> Then He gave me this message: "Convey to Dr Grant My greetings.
> Say: I will not forget the services thou hast rendered yesterday.
> They are engraved on the book of My heart. I will mention thy name
> everywhere. And know thou this: This matter of yesterday will
> become most wonderful in the history of the world. The world of
> existence will not forget yesterday. Thousands of years hence the
> mention of yesterday will be heard and it will become history that
> you were the founder of this work.
> 
> "I ask of God for you all those things I have asked for Myself and
> they are: that thou mayest become a sincere servant of God and
> serve in the Kingdom of God and become sanctified and holy; that
> thou mayest find a pure and enlightened heart, an illumined face;
> become the cause that the lights of spiritual morals may illumine
> the hearts in this country and that they may be illumined in the
> world of the Kingdom; become the promoter of Truth and deliver the
> souls from ignorance and prejudice. I supplicate to the Kingdom of
> God for you, and I will never forget the love that was manifested
> yesterday.
> 
> "I hope," said the Master, turning to me, "that he will become a
> believer, but I do not know. The rectorship of that church is in
> the way. If he could give it up of his own volition, then he might
> become a believer."
> 
> He spoke of my dear mother: "Convey to thy mother the greetings of
> Abha. Say to her: Always remember My advices. It is my hope that
> thou mayest forget everything save God. Nothing in this world is
> sufficient for man. God alone is sufficient for him. God is the
> Protector of man. All the world will not protect the soul."
> 
> I sent Percy Grant the message and later he telephoned me.
> 
> "That was a wonderful, wonderful message," he said, his voice
> strangely upset.
> 
> __________
> 
> Early Sunday evening, the fourteenth, the Master spoke at the
> Carnegie Lyceum for the Union Meeting of Advanced Thought
> Centres.[98] I can give you no idea of His Glory that night. He was
> like a pillar of white fire.
> 
> I sat in a box with Bolton Hall, one of our fashionable
> intellectuals, a lean, elegant person with an Emersonian face.
> Turning to him for a moment, I asked: "What do you see?"
> 
> "Nothing, dear child, nothing."
> 
> 16 April 1912
> 
> This morning the Master agreed to speak at the Bowery Mission.
> 
> "I want to give them some money," He said to me. "I am in love with
> the poor. How many poor men go to the Mission?"
> 
> "About three hundred, my Lord."
> 
> "Take this bill to the bank, Juliet, and change it into quarters,"
> and He drew from His pocket a thousand-
> 
> franc note.[99] "Have them put the quarters in a bag. Keep the
> money and meet Me at the Mission with it."
> 
> He handed another thousand-franc note, with the same instructions,
> to Edward Getsinger.
> 
> As I left His room, lilies of valley in my hand, a young
> chambermaid stopped me. "Did He give you those?" she asked. "He
> gave me some flowers yesterday. Roses. I think He is a great
> Saint."
> 
> __________
> 
> Later, May Maxwell and I were together in the Master's room. He was
> lying back on His pillow, May's baby crawling over Him, feeding
> first the baby, then May and me with chocolates.[100] On the pillow
> beside Him was the victor's wreath, which He always kept near Him.
> Suddenly He brought up Percy's name.
> 
> "I love Dr Grant," he began. "He has rendered Me a great service.
> I love him very much, but I want you to be careful."
> 
> "My Lord, I believe my heart is severed," I said. "I don't know but
> I believe so."
> 
> He looked at me with arch incredulity: "No? Really?" He said.
> 
> May laughed.
> 
> "What do you know about it?" the Master asked.
> 
> "May knows everything about it."
> 
> "Well, has she helped you? How far has her help gone? Has it been
> sufficient for you?"
> 
> "She has helped me, but only God is sufficient when love has gone
> as deep as that."
> 
> "I know. Now, can you transfer this love to God?"
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha walking down Riverside Drive in New
> York, 1912]
> 
> "To God I can. To You."
> 
> "No. To God."
> 
> "Yes ... I can ... to God."
> 
> "That will be enough! I shall try to make no more marriages,"
> laughed the Master. "When you have really given up," He added, "he
> will come after you."[101]
> 
> "I love Dr Grant," He continued, "very, very much, but I want to
> protect you."
> 
> "May I ask a question?" said May. "If Juliet put the thought of Dr
> Grant forever out of her mind, would this be good?"
> 
> But the Master answered evasively: "If he would become a believer
> and marry Juliet it would please Me very much."
> 
> "Don't we tire You?" I asked a little later. "Oughtn't we to leave
> You now?"
> 
> "No, stay. You rest Me. You make Me laugh!" He answered.
> 
> 18 April 1912
> 
> I asked Mrs Wright if she would invite Percy to hear the Master
> speak at the Bowery Mission. His reply has just come through her.
> He said: "Give Juliet my love and my excuses. Tell her I prefer to
> be remembered by Him in the Church of the Ascension. Tell her this
> and she will understand."
> 
> __________
> 
> Before writing of the Master's visit to the Bowery I must explain
> how it came about. In February this year
> 
> Dr Hallimond asked me for the third time to give the Baha'i Message
> at the Mission. I had refused twice before because my dear mother
> wouldn't allow me to go there. But this third invitation I felt I
> must accept. So, for the first time in my life, I deceived Mamma!
> Silvia Gannett helped me out. (By the way her marriage has been
> postponed.) She invited me to dine, then went to the Mission with
> me. The only thing Mamma knew was that I was dining with Silvia.
> 
> The weather that night was terrible: snowing, sleeting, bitterly
> cold. The Mission was packed with homeless men, some of whom had
> been driven in by the cold and the storm and were there for no
> other reason. Among these, I learned afterward, was John Good--may
> he ever be blessed! Wonderfully named was John Good! He had been
> released from Sing Sing that very day: an enormous man with a head
> like a lion and a great shock of white hair. From his boyhood he
> had spent his life in one prison or another and now, in his old
> age, had behaved so rebelliously in Sing Sing that they would
> punish him in the most painful way, hanging him up by his thumbs!
> Full of hate he had come out of prison, and full of hate and
> without one grain of belief in anything, he sat among the derelicts
> in the Mission, forced in by the storm.
> 
> And that night (knowing nothing of John Good) I was moved to tell
> the men how 'Abdu'l-Baha came out of prison, full of love for the
> whole world, even His cruellest enemies.
> 
> After I had finished speaking, Dr Hallimond said: "We have heard
> from Juliet Thompson that 'Abdu'l-Baha will be here in April. How
> may of you would like to invite Him to speak at the Mission? Will
> those who wish it please stand?"
> 
> The whole three hundred rose to their feet.
> 
> "Now," added Dr Hallimond, taking me by surprise, "how many would
> like to study the thirteenth Chapter of Corinthians with Miss
> Thompson and myself?"
> 
> Thirty rose this time, including John Good and a poor alcoholic
> named Hannegan, a long, lanky, red-haired Irishman.
> 
> "Then we will meet every Wednesday at eight p.m. and learn
> something about this Love of which 'Abdu'l-Baha is our Great
> Example."
> 
> And every Wednesday evening after that John Good and Hannegan came,
> with the twenty-eight others.
> 
> Of course, in order to help Dr Hallimond on these nights, I had had
> to confess to Mamma this first visit to the Bowery, and she was so
> touched by the story that she gladly consented to my keeping up the
> work, especially as Dr Hallimond always came for me and brought me
> home.
> 
> __________
> 
> And now to return to the immediate present. Day before yesterday,
> 19 April, the Master spoke at the Bowery Mission.
> 
> I met Him in the chapel, dragging along with me the huge white bag
> of quarters. Edward also appeared with a bag of the same size and
> we sat behind the Master on the platform. Mr MacNutt, Mr Mills, Mr
> Grundy, and Mr Hutchinson, and of course all the Persians, were
> seated there too. The long hall was packed to the doors with those
> poor derelicts who sleep on park benches or doorsteps.
> 
> Dr Hallimond called upon me to introduce my Lord, which seemed so
> presumptuous I could scarcely do it.
> 
> Then the Master rose to speak. Here are His heavenly
> 
> words:[102] "Tonight I am very happy for I have come here to meet
> My friends. I consider you my relatives, My companions, and I am
> your comrade.
> 
> "You must be thankful to God that you are poor, for His Holiness
> Jesus Christ has said: 'Blessed are the poor.' He never said:
> blessed are the rich! He said too that the Kingdom is for the poor
> and that it is easier for a camel to enter the needle's eye than
> for a rich man to enter God's Kingdom. 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.
> 
> "His Holiness Jesus Himself was poor. He did not belong to the
> rich. He passed His time in the desert travelling among the poor
> and lived upon the herbs of the field. He had no place to lay His
> head--no home. He was exposed in the open to heat, cold, and frost.
> Yet He chose this rather than riches. If riches were considered a
> glory, the Prophet Moses would have chosen them; Jesus would have
> been rich.
> 
> "When Jesus appeared it was the poor who first accepted Him, not
> the rich. Therefore, you are His disciples, you are His comrades,
> for outwardly He was poor, not rich.
> 
> "Even this earth's happiness does not depend upon wealth. You will
> find many of the wealthy exposed to dangers and troubled by
> difficulties, and in their last moments upon the bed of death,
> there remains the regret that they must be separated from that to
> which their
> 
> hearts are so attached. They come into this world naked and they
> must go from it naked. All they possess they must leave behind and
> pass away solitary, alone. Often at the time of death their souls
> are filled with remorse and, worst of all, their hope in the mercy
> of God is less than ours.
> 
> "Praise be to God, our hope is in the mercy of God; and there is
> no doubt that the divine Compassion is bestowed upon the poor. His
> Holines Jesus Christ said so; His Holiness Baha'u'llah said so.
> 
> "While Baha'u'llah was in Baghdad, 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. He ate with them,
> slept with them, and gloried in being one of them. He chose for one
> of His names the title of 'The Poor One' and often in His Writings
> refers to Himself as 'Darvish,' which in Persian means poor. And
> of this title he was very proud. He admonished all that we must be
> the servants of the poor, helpers of the poor, remember the sorrows
> of the poor, associate with them, for thereby we may inherit the
> Kingdom of Heaven.
> 
> "God has not said that there are mansions prepared for us if we
> pass our time associating with the rich, but He has said there are
> many mansions prepared for the servants of the poor, for the poor
> are very dear to God. The mercies and bounties of God are with
> them. The rich are mostly negligent, inattentive, steeped in
> worldliness, depending upon their means, whereas the poor are
> dependent upon God and their reliance is upon Him, not upon
> themselves. Therefore the poor are nearer the Threshold of God and
> His Throne.
> 
> "Jesus was a poor man. One night when He was out in the fields the
> rain began to fall. He had no place to go for shelter, so He lifted
> His eyes toward Heaven, saying: 'O Father! For the birds of the air
> Thou hast created nests, for the sheep a fold, for the animals
> dens, for the fishes places of refuge, but for Me Thou hast
> provided no shelter; there is no place where I may lay My head. My
> bed is the cold ground, My lamps at night are the stars and My food
> is the grass of the field. Yet who upon earth is richer than I? For
> the greatest blessing Thou hast not given to the rich and mighty,
> but unto Me Thou hast given the poor. To Me Thou hast granted this
> blessing. They are Mine. Therefore I am the richest man on earth.'
> 
> "So, My comrades, you are following in the footsteps of Jesus
> Christ. Your lives are similar to His life, your attitude is like
> unto His, you resemble Him more than the rich resemble Him.
> Therefore we will thank God that we have been blest with the real
> riches. And, in conclusion, I ask you to accept 'Abdu'l-Baha as
> your Servant."
> 
> After the service, the Master and we who were with Him walked down
> the aisle to the door, while the men in the audience kept their
> seats. At the end of the aisle the Master paused, called to Edward
> and me and asked us to stand on each side of Him, with our bags.
> He was wearing His pongee 'aba and was very shining in white and
> ivory, His Face like a lighted lamp.
> 
> Then down the aisle streamed a sodden and grimy procession: three
> hundred men in single file. The "breadline". The failures. Broken
> forms. Blurred faces. How can I picture such a scene? That forlorn
> host out of the depths, out of the "mud and scum of things"--where
> nevertheless "something always, always sings". And the
> 
> Eternal Christ, reflected in the Mirror of "The Servant", receiving
> them all, like prodigal sons? stray sheep? No! Like His own beloved
> children, who "resembled Him more than the rich resembled Him."
> 
> Into each palm, as the Master clasped it, He pressed His little
> gift of silver: just a symbol and the price of a bed. Not a man was
> shelterless that night. And many, many, I could see, found a
> shelter in His Heart. I could see it in the faces raised to His and
> in His Face bent to theirs.
> 
> Those interchanged looks--what a bounty to have witnessed them--to
> have such a picture stamped on my mind forever!
> 
> As the men filed toward Him, the Master held out His hand to the
> first, grasped the man's hand and left something in it. Perhaps
> five or six quarters, for John Good told me afterward that the
> completely destitute ones received the most. The man glanced up
> surprised. His eyes met the Master's look, which seemed to be
> plunging deep into his heart with fathomless understanding. He,
> this poor derelict, must have known very little of even human love
> or understanding; and now, too suddenly, he stood face to face with
> Divine Love. He looked startled, incredulous--as though he couldn't
> believe what he saw; then his eyes strained toward the Master,
> something new burning in them, and the Master's eyes answered with
> a great flash, revealing a more mysterious, a profounder love. A
> drowning man rescued, or--taken up into heaven? I saw this repeated
> scores of times. Some of the men shuffled past, accepting their
> gift ungraciously, but most of them responded just as the first
> did.
> 
> Who can tell the effect of those immortal glances on
> 
> the lives and even, perhaps, at the death of each of these men? Who
> knows what the Master gave that night?
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. Months later John Good told me about Hannegan. Hannegan
> was a generous man. If he had a dime and somebody needed a nickel,
> he would split his dime. But, there was no doubt about it, he was
> also a Bowery tough and pretty nearly always drunk. He had been
> counting the days to the nineteenth of April but, unluckily lost
> count, and when the nineteenth came and with it the Master's visit
> to the Bowery, he was in one of his stupors. Waking up from it, he
> really sorrowed. Still, there was another chance. The Master was
> to speak in Flatbush the following Sunday and somehow Hannegan
> heard of this. Flatbush is a long way off and that Sunday he hadn't
> even a nickel. So he walked. At midnight John Good went to his room
> and found him in the usual state. "Why did you do it this time,
> Hannegan--and you straight from seeing the Master?" asked John.
> "That's just it," said Hannegan earnestly. "I'm straight from
> seeing Him. Why, John, He's Perfection. The Light of the world, He
> is, John. It's too much for a man, too discouraging."
> 
> John never told me this till after the death of Hanegan, or I would
> have taken him to the Master. But, after all, he--this Bowery
> tough--had seen the Reality.)
> 
> __________
> 
> That night the Master had a supper for all who had been with Him
> at the Mission. It was held in His suite at the Ansonia and He took
> me and two of the Persians, Valiyu'llah Khan and Ahmad, in His own
> taxi to the hotel.
> 
> As we drove up Broadway, glittering with its electric
> 
> signs, He spoke of them smiling, apparently much amused. Then He
> told us that Baha'u'llah had loved light. "He could never get
> enough light. He taught us," the Master said, "to economize in
> everything else but to use light freely."
> 
> "It is marvellous," I said, "to be driving through all this light
> by the side of the Light of lights."
> 
> "This is nothing," the Master answered. "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."
> 
> "Oh," I cried, "with such a future before me how could my heart
> cling to any earthly object?"
> 
> The Master turned suddenly to me. "Will you do this thing?" He
> asked. "Will you take your heart from this other and give it wholly
> to God?"
> 
> "Oh, I will try!"
> 
> He 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?"
> 
> And now the Master spoke gravely. "I am very much pleased with that
> answer, Juliet."
> 
> __________
> 
> That night I saw, as never before, the Glory of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
> 
> Nine of us were gathered at His table. He sat at the head, Mr Mills
> on His left, I on His right. Just above Him hung a big round lamp,
> so that He sat in a pool of strong light while the rest of us were
> in shadow. In His
> 
> ivory-coloured 'aba over the long white robe, His white hair spread
> out upon His shoulders, He was like some massive statue of a deity
> carved in alabaster.
> 
> For a while He was silent and we surrounded Him, silent. But after
> He had served the food He began to speak. He told us of the play
> The Terrible Meek which he had seen that afternoon. It is based on
> the Crucifixion.
> 
> "But such a representation should be complete," He said, and taken
> from its inception to its consummation. It should be an
> impersonation of the life of Jesus from the beginning to the end.
> 
> "For example: His baptism. The disciples of John the Baptist
> turning to Him, Jesus. The dawn of Christianity. Then the Christ
> in the Temple, well portrayed. The meeting of Jesus and Peter on
> the shore of Tiberias, where Jesus called Peter to follow Him that
> he might become a fisher of men. The gathering together of the
> Jews. Their accusations against Jesus. For they said: 'We are
> expecting certain conditions at the time of the appearance of the
> Messiah and unless these conditions are fulfilled it is impossible
> to believe. It is written that He will come from an unknown place.
> Thou are from Nazareth. We know Thee and Thy people. According to
> the explicit text of the Scriptures, the Messiah is to wield a
> sceptre, a sword. Thou hast not even a staff. The Messiah is to be
> established on the throne of David. But Thou--a throne! Thou hast
> not so much as a mat. The Messiah is to fulfil the Law of Moses,
> which will be spread throughout the world. Thou hast broken the
> Mosaic Law. The Jews, in the time of the Messiah, are to be the
> conquerors of the world and all men will become their subjects. In
> the Cycle of the Messiah justice is to
> 
> reign. It will be exercised even in the animal kingdom, so that
> wolf and lamb will quaff water at the same fountain, eagle and
> quail will dwell in the same nest, lion and deer pasture in the
> same meadow. But see the oppression and wrong rampant in Thy time!
> The Jews are the captives of the Romans. Rome has uprooted our
> foundations, pillaging and killing us. What manner of justice is
> this?'
> 
> "But His Holiness Jesus answered: 'These texts are symbolic. They
> have an inner meaning. I possess sovereignty, but it is of the
> eternal type. It is not an earthy empire. Mine is divine, heavenly,
> everlasting. And I conquer not by the sword. My conquests are by
> Love. I have a sword, but it is not of iron. My sword is My tongue,
> which divides Truth from falsehood.'
> 
> "Yet they persisted in rejecting Him. 'These are mere
> interpretations,' they said. 'We will not give up the letter for
> these.'
> 
> "Then they rose against Him, accusing and persecuting Him,
> inventing libels according to their superstitions.
> 
> "'He is a liar. He is the false Christ. Believe Him not. Beware
> lest ye listen. He will mislead you, will lure you from the
> religion of your fathers, and will create a turmoil amongst you.'
> 
> "Then the scribes and Pharisees consult together: 'Let us hold a
> conclave and conceive a plan. This man is a deceiver. We must do
> something. What?'" (The Master gaily mimicked their confusion.)
> "'Let us expel Him from the country. Let us imprison Him. Ah! Let
> us refer the matter to the government. Thus the religion of Moses
> shall be free of Him.'
> 
> "After this, the betrayal of Jesus, not by an enemy, not by an
> outsider, but by one of His own disciples. Dr
> 
> Farid! (I was startled by the sudden, peremptory call of that
> name.) "By one of His own disciples. Had you been there, Dr Farid.
> Had you been there, you would have seen that Mary of Magdala even
> looked like Juliet."[103]
> 
> "Then," continued the Master, "the government will summon Jesus,
> will bring Him before Pontius Pilate, and these scenes should be
> fully portrayed ..."
> 
> Here I ceased to take notes. I was stabbed to the heart. As He
> flashed each scene to us with His vivid words and gestures I felt
> that He was reliving it. When He came to that walk to Golgotha:
> Jesus, the Saviour, stumbling beneath the weight of His Cross while
> the mob capered about, bowing backward, mocking "the King of the
> Jews," I knew He was telling us of remembered anguish.
> 
> "And when all this is finished," He said, "then the Terrible Meek
> will be expressed."
> 
> The last scene centred around the disciples, united now and ablaze
> with the Pentecostal fire. The Master described them surrounded by
> multitudes, teaching with those "tongues of fire" that His Holiness
> Jesus had verily been a King--the King of spirits, His sword the
> Word of God and His reign in the hearts of men.
> 
> When the Master had ended we sat so silent that the falling of a
> rose leaf might have been heard. He broke the silence.
> 
> "The voice of Mary lamenting at the Cross today made me think of
> your voice, Juliet--and Lua's." And then He smiled at me. "Eat,
> Juliet," He said. For the food on my plate was untouched.
> 
> __________
> 
> In the upper hall, on our way to the Master's suite, we had met the
> little chambermaid who had told me the day
> 
> before that she thought Him a great Saint. In my bag were about
> eighty quarters left over from the Mission. The Master asked the
> girl to hold up her apron, took the bag from me, and emptied the
> whole of its contents into the apron. Then He walked quickly toward
> His suite, we following, all but Mr Grundy whom the maid stopped.
> 
> "Oh see what He has given me!" she said. And when Mr Grundy told
> her about the Mission and the Master's kindness to the men there,
> "I will do the same with this money. I will give away every cent
> of it."
> 
> Later, when the table was cleared and we were sitting with the
> Master in another room, talking of the scene at the Mission,
> someone asked Him if "charity were advisable."
> 
> He laughed and, still laughing, said: "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!"
> 
> And just at that moment we heard a light tap at the door. It opened
> and there stood the little maid. She came straight towards the
> Master, seeming not to see anyone else, and her eyes were full of
> tears.
> 
> "I wanted to say goodbye, Sir," she said (for the Master was
> leaving for Washington early the next morning), "and to thank You
> for all Your goodness to me--I never expected such goodness--and
> to ask You ... to pray for me." Her voice broke. She sobbed, hid
> her face in her apron and rushed from the room.
> 
> What an illustration to the Master's words, "assuredly give to the
> poor," and how wonderfully timed!
> 
> 22 April 1912
> 
> Oh, those mornings at the Ansonia in the Master's white sunny
> rooms, filled with spring flowers and roses!
> 
> People poured in to see Him in droves, sometimes a hundred and
> fifty in one morning. He would become exhausted and receive the
> latest arrivals in bed. Sitting in the outer room (though
> frequently called to Him), I would watch them go into His bedroom
> and come out changed, as though they had had a bath of Life, or
> like candles that had been lighted in that inner chamber.
> 
> Leonard Abbott came out with flushed cheeks and bright eyes. "That
> beautiful head against the pillows!" he said.
> 
> Charles Rand Kennedy, the playwright (author of The Terrible Meek)
> said: "I was in the Presence of God."
> 
> I, myself, took Nancy Sholl in. When we left, she whispered to me:
> "I could not have stood the vibrations in there one moment longer.
> Power encircles that bed!"
> 
> __________
> 
> Alas, New York has now lost the great overhanging aura of the
> Master. He is in Washington. But I am going there too, tomorrow,
> to stay with my dear Mrs Elkins.
> 
> Washington
> 
> 7 May 1912
> 
> Washington was beautiful, the banners of the spring floating out
> everywhere. Trees along the street in full leaf. Flowering bushes
> and tulip beds in the parks and in the grass plots in front of
> houses. The Japanese cherry
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in New York with His entourage, 1912]
> 
> trees behind the White House, a long row of coral-pink clouds.
> 
> The day I arrived, 23 April, I met the Master at luncheon at the
> Persian Embassy, where Khan is now acting as minister.[104] The
> table was strewn with rose petals, as the Master's table always is
> in 'Akka, and Persian dishes were served.
> 
> A coloured man, Louis Gregory, was present and the Master gave a
> wonderful talk on race prejudice which, however, I will not quote
> here since it has been kept.[105] And besides, I am longing to
> catch up with these days, when I am feeling with all my capacity
> for feeling, when the gates of my heart are flung wide open and
> fire sweeping through, burning up my heart, when I am seeing
> through tears the Manifest Glory of the Beloved. I really don't
> want to write about Washington. This heart was not awakened then.
> 
> But He said a lovely thing at Khan's table which I must keep. Mrs
> Parsons was at the luncheon. Before she became a Baha'i she had
> been a Christian Scientist, and now she brought up the question of
> mental suggestion as a cure for physical disease. The Master
> replied that some illnesses, such as consumption and insanity,
> developed from spiritual causes--grief, for example--and that these
> could be healed by the spirit. But Mrs Parsons persisted. Could not
> extreme physical cases, like broken bones, also be healed by the
> spirit?
> 
> A large bowl of salad had been placed before the Mas-
> 
> ter, Who sat at the head of the table, Florence Khanum[106] on His
> right.
> 
> "If all the spirits in the air," He laughed, "were to congregate
> together, they could not create a salad! Nevertheless, the spirit
> of man is powerful. For the spirit of man can soar in the firmament
> of knowledge, can discover realities, can confer life, can receive
> the Divine Glad-Tidings. Is not this greater," and He laughed
> again, "than making a salad?"
> 
> One more lovely thing. The servants were late bringing in the
> dessert and Florence apologized; whereupon little Rahim, standing
> beside her, spoke up.
> 
> "Even the King of Persia has to wait, doesn't He, mother?"
> 
> "Rahim dear," explained Florence, 'Abdu'l-Baha is King of the whole
> world."
> 
> "Oh," said Rahim, very much abashed, "I forgot."
> 
> __________
> 
> After the luncheon, Florence and Khan held a large reception, to
> which a number of very distinguished people came, among them Diya
> Pasha, the Turkish Minister, and his whole family, Duke Lita and
> his wife, Admiral Peary, and Alexander Graham Bell.
> 
> Between the end of lunch and this reception the Master went
> upstairs to rest and to give a few private interviews. When He
> reappeared among us, the two living rooms were already crowded. He
> walked quickly to the open folding doors and standing there at the
> centre, with a strikingly free and simple bearing, immediately
> began to speak. His words too were simple and of a captivating
> sweetness, a startling clarity.
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha with the children of 'Ali Quli Khan]
> 
> Diya Pasha stood next to me, his eyes riveted on the Master. When
> the Master had finished speaking, the old diplomat (who is a fierce
> Muslim) turned to me. "This is irrefutable. This is pure logic,"
> he said.
> 
> A few months before, at the request of his daughter-in-law, an
> American girl and a dear friend of mine, I had given Diya Pasha the
> Message. I had had to give it in French, as he doesn't understand
> English, and, my French being rusty by now, I'm afraid I didn't do
> it very well: he looked so sceptical, almost contemptuous the whole
> time I was speaking. But when I said that through the Baha'i
> Teaching I had become a Muslim, and convinced him of this by the
> reverent way I spoke of Muhammad, I really touched Diya Pasha. He
> rose from the table, where we were at lunch, left the room, and
> returned with a precious and very old volume of the Qur'an on
> illuminated parchment and with a hand-tooled cover. "No Christian
> eye but yours," he said, "has ever looked upon this."
> 
> __________
> 
> To return to the Persian Embassy. A delicious thing happened when
> the Master greeted Peary, who has just succeeded in publicly
> disgracing Captain Cook and proving himself, and not Captain Cook,
> the discoverer of the North Pole. At that moment, in the Embassy,
> he looked like a blown-up balloon.
> 
> I was standing beside the Master when Khan brought the Admiral over
> and introduced him.
> 
> The Master spoke charmingly to him and congratulated him on his
> discovery. Then, with the utmost sweetness, added these surprising
> words: 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 found there; and so, in forever relieving the public mind,
> he had rendered a great service.
> 
> I shall never forget Peary's nonplussed face. The balloon
> collapsed!
> 
> __________
> 
> Immediately after the Khan's reception, Mrs Parsons too had a large
> one for the Master, to which Diya Pasha came with Him. I saw them,
> to my great delight, enter the hall together hand in hand.
> 
> Mrs Parsons house has real distinction. It is Georgian in style and
> in it has a very long white ballroom with, at one end, an unusually
> high mantel--the mantel, as well as the ceiling and panelled walls,
> delicately carved with garlands. At the windows hang thin silk
> curtains the colour of jonquil leaves.
> 
> Here, after this first reception, the Master spoke daily in the
> afternoon and the whole fashionable world flocked to hear Him.
> Scientists too, and even politicians came!
> 
> In front of the mantel, a platform had been placed for the Master
> and every day it was banked with fresh roses, American Beauties.
> 
> Into this room of conventional elegance, packed with conventional
> people, imagine the Master striding with His free step: walking
> first to one of the many windows and, while He looked out into the
> light, talking with His matchless ease to the people. Turning from
> the window, striding back and forth with a step so vibrant it shook
> you. Piercing our souls with those strange eyes, uplifting them,
> glory streaming upon them. Talking, talking, moving to and fro
> incessantly. Pushing back His turban, revealing that Christ-like
> forehead; pushing it forward again almost down to His eyebrows,
> which gave Him a
> 
> peculiar majesty. Charging, filling the room with magnetic
> currents, with a mysterious energy. Once He burst in, a child on
> His shoulder. For a moment He held her, caressing her. Then He sat
> her down among the roses.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Thursday, 25 April, the Master dined at the Turkish Embassy and
> I was privileged to be there.
> 
> Never have I seen such a beautiful table. Hundreds of roses lay the
> whole length of it, piled, melting into each other, sweeping up
> from the head and the foot of the table to a great mound in the
> centre, where the Master sat, faced by Diya Pasha. Florence Khanum
> and Carey, Madame Diya Bey (Diya Pasha's daughter-in-law), the
> American wives of Oriental diplomats, were placed on either side
> of the Master and I sat next to Carey.
> 
> There are times when the Master looks colossal, when His Holiness
> shines like the sun. That night He wore the usual white, with a
> honey-coloured 'aba. Diya Pasha, opposite Him, watched Him with
> eyes full of tears, his keen old hawk's face strangely softened.
> 
> The Master gave a great address on the civilizations built on the
> basic Teachings of the Prophets; then He spoke of this dinner as
> "a wonderful occasion". "The East and the West," He said, "are met
> in perfect love tonight." There was something so poignant in His
> words, so flame-creating, that for a moment I was overcome.
> 
> Later He spoke of the deep significance of the international
> marriages represented there: Diya Bey's and Carey's, 'Ali-Quli
> Khan's and Florence's. Carey made me very happy by saying: "Juliet
> told me long ago of Your Teachings, when I was only fifteen years
> old." What fruit that seed had borne, sown in a child!
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with the Persian Consul-general for New
> York and his household, Morristown, New Jersey.]
> 
> Diya Pasha made a thrilling speech. Rising and turning a lover's
> face to the Master, he called Him "the Light of the world, the
> Unique One of the age, Who had come to spread His glory and
> perfection amongst us."
> 
> "I am not worthy of this," said the Master, very simply. Always a
> great power is released from the Master's divine humility.
> 
> As I bade Diya Pasha goodnight, looking at me through a mist of
> tears, he said: "Truly, He is a Saint."
> 
> __________
> 
> One day Mrs Elkins invited the Master to drive with us and we went
> to the Soldiers' Home. The Elkinses, because of Katharine's
> engagement to the Duke of the Abruzzi, have been terribly hounded
> by the newspapers, but this happened before the Master came. He
> couldn't have known about it through any outward means. Yet no
> sooner were we seated in the car than He said to Mrs Elkins: "How
> the newspapers here persecute one!"
> 
> It was such a sympathetic subject! At once Mrs Elkins opened her
> heart.
> 
> "Come away!" smiled the Master. "Elude these journalists! Come to
> Haifa where there is peace. Juliet will tell you there is peace in
> Haifa."
> 
> Then He spoke of how much I loved her and of her philanthropic
> deeds, which He prayed might increase. He captured her hand and
> kept it in His, while she hastily hid the sweet gesture under her
> cape.
> 
> "Nothing endures, Mrs Elkins," He said. "Nothing but the Love of
> God endures. Look at these trees in full blossom now." And in words
> which I will not try to repeat He described the turning of the
> seasons: the trees in summer flourishing green leaves; the
> inevitable autumn with the leaves lying, yellow, on the ground.
> 
> "This," He said, "is a symbol of human life."
> 
> "Remember Babylon." He drew a vivid picture of ancient Babylon, its
> towers, its stupendous art; then of Babylon today: a waste of
> rubble, "the hyena prowling among its crumbled stones." No other
> sign of life but the "voice of the owl by night" or "a lark singing
> at daybreak." "Remember Tyre. Here too was beauty and splendour and
> pomp. Think of Tyre now. I have been there. I have seen."
> 
> He spoke of my mother that day: "Juliet's mother is very good. Her
> heart is very pure. As soon as we met, her face became radiant."
> 
> When we reached home, Mrs Elkins said to me: "You can't hide a
> thing from Him. He sees everything that is in your heart."
> 
> The day Mrs Elkins first met the Master she mentioned her husband,
> the senator,[107] who died about a year ago. "I wish he were here
> now," she said, "to meet You."
> 
> "Insha'llah," replied the Master, "for his good deeds I shall meet
> him in the Kingdom of God."
> 
> One of the senator's good deeds had been to protect the Baha'is in
> 'Akka and Haifa while the Master was being tried for His life in
> 1907.
> 
> __________
> 
> I was so thankful to be in Washington. At those daily meetings in
> Mrs Parsons' house I would see many of my old friends, friends of
> my childhood. Mrs Elkins went with me every day to the meetings:
> sometimes, when all the chairs were taken, standing the whole
> afternoon, although she was far from well.
> 
> One day, however, she was not with me. That night she was giving
> a small diner and an opera party and she
> 
> had to rest for this. So, being free for an hour or so, I decided
> to stay at Mrs Parsons' and have a little visit with Edna.
> 
> While Edna and I were talking, the Master suddenly entered the
> room. "I am going out for a drive," He said, "but wait till I
> return, Edna, and you too, Juliet, wait. I will see you in a short
> time."
> 
> So I waited--waited and waited. Half-past six came. Seven. We were
> to dine at half-past seven and the Elkinses' house was a long way
> off, rather indirect on the car-line.
> 
> "Go, Juliet," urged Edna. "I will explain."
> 
> But how could I? My Lord had told me to stay.
> 
> And now I shall have to digress and tell what may seem, just at
> first, another story: When I was ten years old, (and I remember the
> time because that year we were living with my grandmother) a very
> presumptuous idea took possession of me. I began to dream of some
> day painting the Christ. I even prayed that I might. "O God," I
> would pray, "You know Christ didn't look like a woman, the way all
> the pictures of Him look. Please let me paint Him when I grow up
> as the King of Men." And I never lost hope of this till I saw the
> Master. Then I knew that no one could paint the Christ. Could the
> sun with the whole universe full of its radiations, or endless
> flashes of lightning be captured in paint?
> 
> Imagine my surprise and dismay, fear, joy and gratitude all mixed
> together, at the news given me by Mrs Gibbons when the Master first
> came to New York. The night before He landed she had received a
> Tablet in which He said: "On My arrival in America Miss Juliet
> Thompson shall paint a wonderful portrait of Me." This was in
> response to a supplication from Mrs Gibbons
> 
> asking that her daughter might paint Him, which she never did,
> though the Master graciously gave her permission, even more
> graciously adding those words about me.
> 
> It was a little after seven when the Master came back from His
> drive. Entering the room in which He had left me and where of
> course I was still waiting, He said: "Ah, Juliet! For your sake I
> returned. Mrs Hemmick[108] wanted to keep Me, but I had asked you
> to wait; therefore I returned." After a pause He added: "Would you
> like to come up and paint Me tomorrow?"
> 
> So I learned the reward of obedience. Such a reward for so small
> an act of obedience! Once in Haifa He said to me: "Keep My words,
> obey My commands and you will marvel at the results."
> 
> And, by a miracle, I wasn't late for dinner! The dinner, because
> of another guest, had been postponed a half hour.
> 
> The next morning I went very early to Mrs Parsons' house, taking
> my box of pastels; but though it was only eight o'clock, quite a
> crowd had already gathered and I felt that the morning was doomed
> to be a broken one. Not only that, but the light in the rooms
> upstairs, where I was supposed to paint, is very weak, and the
> delicate wallpaper, with tiny bunches of flowers all over it, I
> couldn't use as a background for His head. For a while I was in
> despair, for I dared not make the suggestion I had in mind. But in
> the end I did. Begging Him to forgive me if I were doing something
> wrong, I asked if He would pose in New York instead. To this he
> consented so freely and sweetly that I had no more qualms about it.
> 
> The following day I went to Mrs Parsons' to meet Lee McClung, the
> Treasurer of the United States. Lee McClung had been one of the
> idols of my early adolescence. He had seemed quite old to me then,
> though now he is only thirty-eight. When I saw him again last
> winter for the first time in about ten years, he had made all sorts
> of fun of me for my "conversion to Bahaism". "It made me laugh out
> of one eye and cry out of the other," he said. "What does your
> mother think about it? Have you converted her?"
> 
> But at Mrs Parsons' first meeting, to my great surprise, there he
> was in the audience! I couldn't wait to speak to him or to present
> him to the Master as Mrs Elkins was in a hurry that day, but in the
> evening he dined with us.
> 
> "How did you feel when you saw the Master?" I asked him.
> 
> A shy look came into his face, and Mr McClung is anything but shy.
> "Well, I felt as though I were in the presence of one of the great
> old Prophets: Elijah, Isaiah, Moses. No, it was more than that!
> Christ ... no, now I have it. He seemed to me my Divine Father."
> 
> Then he said he must leave us a little early, as he was going to
> Mr Bell's--Alexander Graham Bell's--to meet 'Abdu'l-Baha there.
> 
> Later I was told that the Master had made an address at Mr Bell's;
> then others were called on to speak. But when Lee McClung was
> called on he said: "After 'Abdu'l-Baha has spoken, I cannot."
> 
> At Mr McClung's request, I had made an appointment for him with the
> Master for a private interview and this was the reason I was here
> to meet him at Mrs Parsons'. I arrived a little ahead of time and
> while I was
> 
> waiting for Mr McClung, a door in the hall opened and there stood
> the Master, beckoning to me. He was alone, so we had to fall back
> on His English and my scant Persian.
> 
> "How is your mother?" He asked first. "How old is she?"
> 
> But I couldn't tell Him, Mamma having always concealed her age till
> I think even she doesn't know it now.
> 
> "About fifty?"
> 
> "I think so."
> 
> "How old are you?"
> 
> I confessed my age.
> 
> "In My eyes you are fifteen," He replied, so sweetly.
> 
> "In our eyes I am an infant?"
> 
> "Yes. Baby!"
> 
> Then the translator arrived.
> 
> "Tell Juliet," the Master began at once, "that she teaches well.
> I have met many people who have been affected by you, Juliet. You
> are not eloquent, you are not fluent, but your heart teaches. You
> speak with a feeling, an emotion which makes people ask: 'What is
> this she has?' Then they inquire; they seek and find. It is so too
> with Lua. You never find Lua speaking with dry eyes! You will be
> confirmed. A great bounty will descend upon you. You will become
> eloquent. Your tongue will be loosed. Teach, always teach. The
> confirmations of the Holy Spirit descend upon those who teach
> constantly. Never feel fear. The Holy Spirit will give you the
> words to say. Never fear You will grow stronger and stronger."
> 
> That erect head, that hand held high in command, the Power that
> eddied from Him as He spoke those words, how can I ever feel fear
> again when I have to mount the dreaded platform?
> 
> It was later that He said to me: "You have many friends. You have
> no enemies. Everybody is your friend. Do not think I am ignorant
> of conditions in New York. Both factions are pleased with you,
> Juliet, and have nothing but good to say of you, although they
> complain of others. Miss X is pleased with you! Mrs XX is pleased
> with you!" (laughing as He mentioned the two chief disturbers of
> the peace). "And you have accomplished this only through your
> sincerity. Others may do this through diplomatic action, but you
> have done it with your heart."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. I am destroying my diary in longhand and I can't bear
> to lose any of the Master's words to me, those dear words of
> encouragement. That is why I keep them.)
> 
> __________
> 
> Just then Lee McClung arrived and the Master took him
> upstairs.[109]
> 
> __________
> 
> New York
> 
> 11 May 1912
> 
> On Saturday, 11 May, just one month from the day of His landing,
> the Master returned to New York from Washington, Cleveland, and
> Chicago.
> 
> A few of us gathered in His rooms to prepare them for Him and fill
> them with flowers; then to wait for His arrival: May Maxwell, Lua
> Getsinger, Carrie Kinney, Kate Ives, Grace Robarts, and I. Mr Mills
> and Mr Woodcock were waiting too.
> 
> The Master has a new home, in the Hudson Apartment House,[110]
> overlooking the river. His flat is on one of the top stories, so
> that its windows frame the sky. Now the windows were all open and
> a fresh breeze blew in.
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with children and Persian entourage.]
> 
> About five o'clock He came. Oh the coming of that Presence! If only
> I could convey to the future the mighty commotion of it! The hearts
> almost suffocate with joy, the eyes burn with tears at the stir of
> that step! It is futile to try to express it. Sometimes when the
> sun breaks through clouds and spreads a great fiery glow, I get
> something of that feeling.
> 
> After greeting us all the Master took a seat by the window and
> began to talk to us, with supreme love and gladness, wittily,
> tenderly, eloquently, carrying us up as if on wings to the apex of
> sublime feeling, so that we wept; then turning our tears to sudden
> little ripples of laughter as an unexpected gleam of wit flashed
> out; then melting our hearts with His yearning affection.
> 
> He had been horrified in Washington by the prejudice against the
> Negroes. "What does it matter," He asked, "if the skin of a man is
> black, white, yellow, pink, or green? In this respect the animals
> show more intelligence than man. Black sheep and white sheep, white
> doves and blue do not quarrel because of difference of colour."
> 
> Lua, May, and I, for the first time together in the Glory of His
> Presence, sat on the floor in a corner, gazing through tears at Him
> and whenever we could wrench our eyes from the sorrowful beauty of
> His face, silhouetted against the sky, gazing at one another, still
> through tears.
> 
> Day after day I was with Him there. Lua and I had permission to be
> always with Him. I would go to His apartment in the early morning
> and stay through the whole day and again and again He would call
> me to His Presence.
> 
> "My Lord," I said once, "I really shouldn't take Your time. I don't
> want to take Your time. I am only too
> 
> thankful to be here, serving at a distance, somewhere in Your
> atmosphere."
> 
> "I know you are content with whatever I do, therefore I send for
> you, Juliet," He replied.
> 
> 13 May 1912
> 
> On the thirteenth of May (Percy Grant's birthday) a meeting of the
> Peace Conference took place at the Hotel Astor. It was an enormous
> meeting with thousands present. The Master was the Guest of Honour
> and the first speaker, Dr Grant and Rabbi Wise the other speakers.
> 
> The Master sat at the centre on the high stage, Dr Grant on His
> right, Rabbi Wise on His left. Oh, the symbolism of that: the
> Jewish rabbi, the Christian clergyman, with the Centre of the
> Covenant between, on the platform of the World Peace
> Conference.[111]
> 
> The Master was really too ill to have gone to this Conference. He
> had been in bed all morning, suffering from complete exhaustion,
> and had a high temperature. I was with Him all morning. While I was
> sitting beside Him I asked: "Must You go to the Hotel Astor when
> You are so ill?"
> 
> "I work by the confirmations of the Holy Spirit," He answered. "I
> do not work by hygienic laws. If I did," He laughed, "I would get
> nothing done."
> 
> After that meeting, the wonderful record of which has been kept,
> the Master shook hands with the whole audience, with every one of
> those thousands of people!
> 
> 14 May 1912
> 
> On Friday, the fourteenth of May, I had quite a distinguished
> visitor, Khan Bahadur Allah-Bakhsh, the Governor of Lahore. Mr
> Barakatu'llah had sent him to see me. I invited him to my meeting
> that night and he
> 
> came and seemed to fall in love with the Teachings. The next
> morning early he called on the Master at the Hudson Apartment
> House. Lua, May, and I were there at the time and I told him that
> May was one of my spiritual mothers and Lua my spiritual
> grandmother. Whereupon the old gentleman said that in that case I
> was his mother, May Maxwell his grandmother, and Lua his
> great-grandmother!
> 
> Very soon the Master sent for him and kept him a long time in His
> room. When the interview was over and Khan Bahadur Allah-Bakhsh had
> left, the Master called me to Him.
> 
> "You teach well, Juliet," He said. "You teach with ecstasy. You
> ignite the souls. A great bounty will descend upon you. I have
> perfect confidence in you as a teacher. Your heart is pure,
> absolutely pure."
> 
> My heart absolutely pure! I wept.
> 
> Then, for the second time, the Master gave me a picture of Himself.
> 
> Three days later I had a note from the Governor of Lahore. In it
> he said: "'Abdu'l-Baha is the Divine Light of today."
> 
> __________
> 
> One night I took Marjorie to the Master. She had in her hand an
> offering of tulips, grown in her own garden, and these He
> distributed among His visitors.
> 
> "Juliet's love for you is divine," He said, speaking to Marjorie,
> "and your love for each other must become so great that no stab
> will affect it." Then He told us that, in reality, our friendship
> was an "eternal" one.
> 
> Marion deKay went with me to Him.
> 
> "Your friend, Juliet? Ancient friend?" and He smiled at the child.
> "You must become a flame of love." ("Like Juliet," He said. I have
> to keep all His sweet words to
> 
> me.) "You must become as steadfast as a rock, firm! strong! so that
> when the storms break over you, when the thunder roars and the
> winds rage, you will not be shaken. You must become a teacher, a
> speaker."
> 
> On the fifteenth of May the Master went away for a few days. As
> soon as He returned Lua telephoned me. "The Master says: come up
> now if you wish. If not, you have permission to come to Him at any
> time and to stay as long as you are able. Only, don't displease
> your mother. He wants her to be happy, He says. This is His
> message, Julie."
> 
> 19 May 1912
> 
> On Sunday, 19 May, He spoke at the Church of the Divine
> Paternity.[112] This was unbearably beautiful. The church is
> Byzantine, making me think of the worship of the early Christians.
> The interior is of grey stone.
> 
> Oh the look of His that day! Then, more vividly than ever, He shone
> as the Good Shepherd, returned at last to His flocks. I wept
> through the whole service. At the end of the pew in front of me sat
> Lua, her eyes fixed on the master, rapt, adoring, her beauty
> immeasurably heightened by that recognition, that adoration.
> 
> Soon I caught a glimpse of another rapt face--a man's--my old
> friend, Mr Bailey's. Mr Bailey is the last person I could have
> hoped to see there. A very old gentleman, he had always seemed to
> me a hopelessly unconvertible atheist. At least he would never
> listen to a word from me about the Cause. And now, here he sat, and
> never have I seen a face more touched. His eyes were wistful, like
> a child's, shyly reverent and as limpid as though there were tears
> in them.
> 
> He met me that afternoon at the Master's apartment,
> 
> making his entrance with these words: "I have been thinking since
> this morning that the way to the attainment of greatness is through
> elimination."
> 
> "You felt," I ventured, "'Abdu'l-Baha's simplicity?"
> 
> "One would naturally feel,"--huffily--"the simplicity of Niagara."
> 
> "And the beauty of His Face?"
> 
> "The patriarchal grandeur of His face cannot be denied."
> 
> Later, how his eyes hung on that Face while the Master talked with
> him!
> 
> 21 May 1912
> 
> On 21 May, Mrs Tatum[113] had a reception for the Master. The
> people who were there were of the fashionable world, with a
> sprinkling of artists and writers. Mrs Sheridan was pouring tea.
> 
> Mrs Tatum's house is beautiful. The impression you get is of space
> and light. A white staircase winds up through a very wide hall,
> from which, on each side, rooms open--living rooms, dining room,
> library. All these were soon crowded.
> 
> The first friend I caught sight of was Louis Potter.[114] He
> 
> came running up to me, exclaiming: "Oh august Juliet!" and attached
> himself at once to Lua and me. Suddenly, there was a stir among the
> people, and 'Abdu'l-Baha was in our midst. He walked over to a
> yellow couch which curved along the big half-moon of the bay window
> and sat down on it.
> 
> I think I must tell you how He looked there. His surroundings were
> all white and yellow. Sunlight streamed in. The shadows on His face
> were transparent; His profile, against the blue sky through the
> polished glass of the windowpane, outlined in light.
> 
> "Come, Louis," I said to Louis Potter, "let's go to the Master."
> 
> Louis had never seen Him before, but he skipped forward like a
> buoyant faun, his head tipped to one side, his hands outstretched.
> 
> "Ah-h-h!" he said. It was a little cry from his soul, as though he
> were just coming home, and was so glad.
> 
> And the Master too said: "Ah-h-h!" His arms wide open, welcoming
> Louis home.
> 
> Percy Grant arrived. As soon as he appeared, big and imposing, in
> the room, the Master rose almost eagerly, smiling and holding out
> His hand.
> 
> "Ah! Dr Grant!" He said.
> 
> They stood for what seemed to me minutes, their hands clasped,
> Percy, with beautiful deference, bowing his head, a gentle, almost
> tender look on his face. One of the Persians translated the
> Master's greeting to him but spoke so low that I could not catch
> the words. Then Percy sat down on the curving window seat so that
> he faced the Master.
> 
> Soon there was another stir in the room. A small, rather plain
> middle-aged woman with the most astonishing eyes--very clear, very
> violet--stood in the
> 
> doorway, almost timidly, and the Master at once sent Dr Farid to
> her to ask her to come and sit by Him. This was Sarah Graham
> Mulhall.
> 
> He spoke a few words to her and she rose and went out, returning
> after some time with a tray and a pot of tea and two cups on it.
> The tray was placed on a stool between the Master and Miss Mulhall
> and they drank their tea together.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. Miss Mulhall's father and brother, who were
> physicians, had come to New York from England to study the effects
> of drugs on the body and mind. Both died mysteriously. Miss
> Mulhall's only training had been in music. She was a very gentle,
> retiring woman and knew nothing of the ways of business or
> organization or medicine, or anything that would have equipped her
> for the evidently dangerous work of her father and brother. But
> something inside her, against which she fought, urged her to
> continue it. She was in the midst of this inward conflict when Mrs
> Tatum telephoned her and asked her to come to meet the Master. At
> first Miss Mulhall declined, saying that she really couldn't go
> anywhere, she was too absorbed in her own problems, she couldn't
> face a crowd of people. But later she thought: Perhaps 'Abdu'l-Baha
> is a Prophet, as Mrs Tatum believes,[115] and He might help me in
> making my decision.
> 
> The Master, when He called her to Him in Mrs Tatum's house, asked
> if she would do something for Him. Would she brew some tea for Him
> with her own
> 
> hands and drink it with Him? And while they drank tea and talked,
> He Himself brought up her problem.
> 
> He told her she must do the work she had in mind; she would rise
> very high in it and become "a great Counsellor"; God would always
> protect her and all the Celestial Beings of the Supreme Concourse
> would rally to her assistance.
> 
> She did become a Great Counsellor. After years of wonderful work,
> Governor Smith, Al Smith, made her Adviser and First Commissioner
> of Narcotics for New York State. One night she herself led a raid
> against one of the chief centres of the drug ring--a ring of very
> rich, prominent men, some of them "pillars" of St. Patrick's, some
> "pillars" of St. John's Cathedral. Rounding them up in their
> centre, an apartment on Park Avenue, she, with the help of her
> squad of police, locked them in; then telephoned to the governor.
> He took the next train to New York and upheld Miss Mulhall's
> determination to bring them all to trial. Then he went to Cardinal
> Hayes and Bishop Manning. Cardinal Hayes said: "These men are the
> worst type of criminals. I agree with you that they must be
> punished." Bishop Manning said: "You can't touch my parishioners.
> They are the builders of St. John's Cathedral." He threatened Miss
> Mulhall. "If you ruin them, I will destroy your office." Which he
> did, ultimately, for of course every one of the men was found
> guilty and sent to Fort Leavenworth. After Lehman was elected
> Governor, the Narcotics Commission was abolished. But in the
> meantime Miss Mulhall had done a tremendous work. Her book, Opium,
> the Demon Flower, has become world famous.)
> 
> __________
> 
> Then I caught sight of little "Fergie". His real name I don't want
> to mention because of what I am going to
> 
> tell. He is a noted newspaper man who writes visionary books on
> economics. Percy Grant calls him "my prophet". His face is pale
> and pinched and suffering and he wears a thick chestnut wig. I went
> up to him and asked: "Wouldn't you like to meet the Master?" "I
> think not," he drawled, "I really have nothing to say to Him."
> 
> And now the Master began to speak to the whole roomful of people.
> 
> He was very happy, He said, to be with us. "Think of the contrast!"
> For years He had been imprisoned in a fortress, His associates
> criminals. Now He found Himself in spacious homes, "associating,"
> He said, "with you."
> 
> His talk gradually shaped itself to some definite point, which,
> however, He kept for the very end. I wondered what could be coming.
> When it came it was like a thunderclap.
> 
> "Think of it," He said. "Two kings were dethroned in order that I
> might be freed. This is naught but pure destiny."
> 
> I glanced at Percy Grant and saw that he was deeply stirred. He had
> been listening, still with that tender deference, his head slightly
> tipped to one side, but at these last startling words of the
> Master's, in a flash the placidity of his face broke up, something
> burned through and his eyes sparked.
> 
> "And now," ended the Master, suddenly rising to His feet, strong
> and incredibly majestic, "you here in America must work with Me for
> the peace of the world and the oneness of mankind."
> 
> And with this He left us, the room seeming strangely empty after
> He had gone.
> 
> The next morning early Howard MacNutt came to see me, looking so
> radiant that I knew he was bringing good news. Then he told me. He
> had just had breakfast with
> 
> Dr Grant, and the Master was to speak again at the Church of the
> Ascension--at the People's Forum this time, the night of 2 June.
> Bishop Burch had severely reprimanded Percy for inviting the Master
> to speak on 14 April and for seating Him in the Bishop's chair! But
> an idiotic thing like that would never stop Percy Grant--only make
> him more defiant.
> 
> He had talked very freely with Mr MacNutt about 'Abdu'l-Baha and
> His address of the day before with its great climax. "As I
> listened," he said, "I realized profoundly that this was a historic
> moment; that before me sat One Who, imprisoned for the sake of
> humankind, had been freed by the Power of God alone, through the
> dethroning of two kings."
> 
> Return to New York
> 
> On 22 May the Master left for Boston, returning the twenty-sixth.
> After His return He stayed with the Kinneys a day or so (till He
> moved to His new house), and then came my test! For two days He
> never even looked at me. My heart bled and burned. I could not
> endure the withdrawal of His nearness. The third day I went to the
> new house--309 West Seventy-Eighth Street--and there, in Lua's
> arms, I sobbed my heart out.
> 
> "I cry," I said, "only because I love Him," (which I fear was not
> exactly true) "because I have just realized how terrifically I love
> Him. This love burns my heart. It is beyond endurance."
> 
> Then He sent for me to come to Him.
> 
> __________
> 
> With tears rolling down my cheeks I entered His Presence. He was
> sitting on a couch writing and did not look up--still didn't look
> at me! But at last He said, going straight to the point, piercing
> to the real cause of my trouble: "I have not seen you lately,
> Juliet, because of
> 
> the multitude of the affairs. But I have not forgotten My promise
> to pose for you. Come on Saturday with your materials and I will
> sit."
> 
> I thanked Him; then falling on my knees, begged Him not to banish
> me from His Presence. I could not endure to be separated from Him.
> I loved, loved Him.
> 
> He rose, stood above me, took my hand and held it a long, long
> time. I still knelt at His feet, the hem of His garment pressed to
> my lips.
> 
> Lua joined her sweet voice to mine.
> 
> "Julie has had so much trouble this year. She wants to stay close
> to You now so that her heart may be healed."
> 
> "I want to stay close because I love You!"
> 
> He smiled and said something about another love.
> 
> "That is gone. Gone," I cried.
> 
> At these words of mine which I thought were true, the strangest
> thing happened. Always when the Master holds my hand I feel a flow
> of sparks from His palm to mine. Now this current of Life was
> suddenly cut off. Could I have lied to my Lord, and so, by
> unconscious self-deception, disconnected myself from the
> Fountainhead of pure Truth?
> 
> But His answer was merciful, reminding me of past sincerities. "I
> am pleased with you, Juliet. You are so truthful. You tell me
> everything. She said:" (He turned, laughing, to Lua) "'This is my
> heart. What can I do with it?'"
> 
> I laughed too, through my tears. But soon I began to cry again.
> 
> He went back to the couch and sat down and Lua and I followed Him
> and knelt together at His feet there.
> 
> "Don't cry!" (I wish the whole world could hear the
> 
> Master say "don't cry". Tears would soon cease to be.) "Don't cry!
> Unhappiness and the love of Baha'u'llah cannot exist in the same
> heart, for the love of Baha'u'llah is happiness."
> 
> "I cry for love of you, my Lord. My tears come from my heart. I
> can't help it."
> 
> "Your eyes and Lua's"--and He laughed again--"are two rivers of
> tears." "I love Juliet," He added, "for her truthfulness."
> 
> "I told Juliet," said Lua, putting her arms around me, as we still
> knelt together side by side, "of Your words to Mrs Kaufman: that
> these human loves were like waves of the sea rolling to the shore
> one behind the other, each wave receding."
> 
> "Balih," (yes) said the Master, "this is true. You will not find
> faithfulness in humanity. All humanity is unfaithful. Only God is
> faithful. Baha'u'llah spent fifty years in prison for the sake of
> humanity. There was faithfulness!"
> 
> "From this moment," cried Lua, "Juliet and I dedicate our lives to
> Thee and we beg to at last die in Thy Path--to drink the cup of
> martyrdom. Oh, it would be so good for the Cause if two Americans
> could do this! Take hold of His coat, Julie, and beseech."
> 
> I touched the hem of His garment.
> 
> "Say yes," implored Lua. "Oh Julie, beg Him to say yes."
> 
> But in Thonon I had told the Master that I would not ask for that
> cup again but would wait till God found me ready for it.
> 
> "I accept the dedication of your lives now. The rest will be
> decided later."
> 
> And it was clear what He meant. How we must amuse Him!
> 
> __________
> 
> I must go back a little. On Sunday, 26 May, the night of the
> Master's return from Boston, He spoke at Mr Ramsdell's (Baptist)
> church.[116]
> 
> My friend, Lawrence White, who lives in Utica, had come to New York
> to met the Master, and he, Silvia Gannett, and I went together to
> the church.
> 
> We entered, to see a breathtaking picture: That church suggests an
> old Jewish synagogue. Behind the chancel is a sweeping arch from
> which hangs a dark, massive curtain in folds straight as organ
> pipes. The chancel was empty that night except for the Master,
> sitting--almost lying--in a semicircular chair, His head thrown
> back, His luminous eyes uprolled. The sleeves of His
> bronze-coloured 'aba branched out from His shoulders like great
> spread wings, hiding His hands, so that I was conscious only of His
> head and those terribly alive eyes. There was an awful mystery
> about that dominance of the head. It seemed to obliterate the human
> form and reveal Him as the Face of God. The curtain behind Him
> might have concealed the Ark of the Covenant, which He, THE
> COVENANT, was guarding.
> 
> Later, when He rose to speak, the Manifestation of the Glory was
> entirely different. He diffused a softer radiance.
> 
> "Look at Him and see the Christ," whispered Lawrence White.
> 
> __________
> 
> Next, He spoke at the Church of the Open Door. Again the Shepherd.
> Again I watched Him through blinding tears.
> 
> 2 June 1912
> 
> On the second of June He spoke for Dr Grant's Forum.[117] And there
> He was simpler; He manifested less, or perhaps I should say
> manifested something different: a sort of brotherhood to the
> masses, still retaining His grandeur. And how He addressed Himself
> to that meeting and to the heart of Percy Grant!
> 
> The subject was: "What can the Orient bring to the Occident?"
> 
> That subject in that church!
> 
> Lua and I were in a front pew with Valiyu'llah Khan and Mirza
> Mahmud. Suddenly I was petrified to see Mason Remey coming in,
> through the door of the vestry-room. When he was last in the Church
> of the Ascension I was siting beside him, engaged to him, while
> Percy thundered at me from the pulpit. The text of the sermon that
> Sunday was the same as the text today: "What can the Orient bring
> to the Occident." "Nothing but disease and death," said Percy, his
> eyes on me, "and God wants us to live; He wants us to live."
> 
> But the Speaker this time was the Master. He said: "The Orient
> brings to the Occident the Manifestations of God."
> 
> Then He defined the Church as that Collective Centre which,
> attracting many diverse elements, united them
> 
> into one ordered system, adding that the Church was but a
> reflection of the real Collective Centre, the Shepherd, Who,
> whenever His sheep became scattered, reappeared to unite them. So
> the Church, established by God's Manifestation, was the Law of God,
> and when Christ said to Peter, "On thee will I build My Church,"
> He meant He would build His Law upon Peter. Upon him Christ built
> the Law of God by which all peoples and creeds were afterward
> unified.
> 
> The Master had said it again to Percy Grant: "Be thou like Peter,"
> for this was His message sent by me last summer.
> 
> When, at the end of the marvellous address, Percy stepped out into
> the chancel, it was another man I saw: a man touched by the Hand
> of God, shaken to the very roots of his being. As Marjorie said,
> he looked ill and strangely upset. He could scarcely articulate.
> 
> The questions followed; it is the custom of the Forum to ask
> questions. In the centre of the chancel sat the Master, Dr Grant
> on His right in a choirstall, Dr Farid behind Him. How at home the
> Master looked there! He pushed back His turban and smiled as He
> answered, often very wittily. Once He raised one finger high. I
> caught my breath then. He was like Jesus in the synagogue
> confronting the scribes and Pharisees, except that His audience
> weren't Pharisees.
> 
> 5 June 1912
> 
> The Master has begun to pose for me. He had said: "Can you paint
> Me in a half hour?"
> 
> "A half hour, my Lord?" I stammered, appalled. I can never finish
> a head in less than two weeks.
> 
> "Well, I will give you three half hours. You mustn't waste My time,
> Juliet."
> 
> He told me to come to Him Saturday morning, 1 June, at
> seven-thirty.
> 
> I went in a panic. He was waiting for me in the entrance hall, a
> small space in the English basement where the light--not much of
> it--comes from the south. In fact I found myself faced with every
> kind of handicap. I always paint standing, but now I was obliged
> to sit, jammed so close to the window (because of the lack of
> distance between the Master and me) that I couldn't even lean back.
> No light. No room. And I had brought a canvas for a life-size head.
> 
> The Master was seated in a dark corner, His black 'aba melting into
> the background; and again I saw Him as the Face of God, and
> quailed. How could I paint the Face of God?
> 
> "I want you," He said, "to paint My Servitude to God."
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I cried, "only the Holy Spirit could paint Your
> Servitude to God. No human hand could do it. Pray for me, or I am
> lost. I implore You, inspire me."
> 
> "I will pray," He answered, "and as you are doing this only for the
> sake of God, you will be inspired."
> 
> And then an amazing thing happened. All fear fell away from me and
> it was as though Someone Else saw through my eyes, worked through
> my hand.
> 
> All the points, all the planes in that matchless Face were so clear
> to me that my hand couldn't put them down quickly enough, couldn't
> keep pace with the clarity of my vision. I painted in ecstasy, free
> as I had never been before.
> 
> At the end of the half hour the foundation of the head was perfect.
> 
> On Monday again I went to the Master at seven-thirty. As I got off
> the bus at Seventy-Eighth Street and Riverside Drive I saw Him at
> the centre of a little group standing beside that strip of park
> that drops low to the river--the part we love to call "His garden",
> a forever hallowed spot to us, for there we sometimes walk with Him
> in the evenings, there He takes His daily exercise, or escapes from
> the house to rest and pray.
> 
> The people who were with Him this morning were Nancy Sholl and Ruth
> Berkeley, Mr MacNutt and Mr Mills, and, as I hurried to join them,
> I saw that the Master was anointing them from a vial of attar of
> rose.
> 
> Oh the heavenly perfume, the pale, early-morning sunshine and the
> Master, all in white glistening in it (no one else takes the
> sunlight as He does: He is like a polished mirror to the sun), the
> ecstatic, intoxicating love with which He rubbed our foreheads with
> His strong fingers dripping with that essence of a hundred roses!
> 
> Soon we saw Miss Buckton crossing the street toward us, bringing
> with her a tall young man with a remarkable face, very pure and
> serene, which seemed somehow familiar to me. The Master abruptly
> left us and met the two in the middle of the Drive. Then I saw Him
> open His arms wide and clasp the young man to His breast.
> 
> We all followed the Master to His house, where the young man was
> introduced to me, and then I knew why his face had seemed familiar.
> He was Walter Hempden. I had seen him in the theatre. I was in the
> audience, he on the stage playing the part of "the Servant" in The
> Servant in the House: Christ. And he played it so intensely, with
> such spiritual fervour, that I prayed with all my
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in His "garden" on Riverside Drive in
> New York, 1912.]
> 
> heart, there in the audience, that he might some day meet the real
> "Servant!"118
> 
> 12 June 1912
> 
> Yesterday morning I went up early to the Master's house, that house
> whose door is open at seven-thirty and kept wide open till
> midnight.
> 
> He had been away and I had not seen Him for three days. I had
> brought my pastels, thinking He might sit for me, but I found Him
> looking utterly spent. He was in the English basement, Ruth
> Berkeley and Valiyu'llah Khan with Him, lying back against the sofa
> cushions. But, in spite of His weariness, He looked up with
> brilliant eyes.
> 
> "What do you want of Us, Juliet?" He smiled.
> 
> I had hid my pastels. "Only to be near You."
> 
> "You must excuse Me from sitting for you today. I am not able
> today."
> 
> "I knew that, my Lord, as soon as I came in."
> 
> Then He talked to Ruth and me. He told us we were as babes nursing
> at the Divine Breast. "But babes," He said, "grow daily through the
> mother's milk."
> 
> I could not help but weep, for His was the Divine Breast.
> 
> Soon He went out alone to "the garden", leaving Ruth, Valiyu'llah
> Khan, and me together.
> 
> "It is wonderful," Ruth said as He went, "to see how the world is
> quickened today in all directions."
> 
> "And to know," I said, "that the Voice that is quickening it is the
> same tender Voice that spoke to us just now." And I wept again, for
> something about the Master that morning had utterly melted me.
> 
> Later He came back. The English basement was crowded by then and
> He talked for a long while to the people. But this I could see was
> pure sacrifice. His vitality seemed gone. At times He could
> scarcely bring forth the words, yet He gave and gave. When He had
> finished He hurriedly left the house and went again to "His
> garden".
> 
> On the way to the bus I met Him returning alone. He stopped me, put
> out His hand and took mine, with indescribable tenderness smiling
> at me. In the handclasp, the look, even in the tilt of the head was
> a Love so poignant as to give me pain.
> 
> "Come tomorrow and paint, Juliet," He said.
> 
> He appeared refreshed--better--but remembering His utter depletion
> of the morning I couldn't help answering, "If You are well." Then
> I thought I would speak in Persian to amuse Him, but instead of
> saying, "If Your health is good," I made a mistake and said, "Agar
> Shuma khub ast," (If You are good.) whereupon I was covered with
> confusion. I must have amused Him!
> 
> How stupidly we speak to Him! Imagine saying "if" to Him. That was
> even worse than my break in Persian.
> 
> __________
> 
> That night there was a meeting at the Kinneys', one of those deadly
> "Board meetings", but the Master came to it.
> 
> Striding up and down like a king, He spoke to us. In these
> meetings, He said, we should be in connection
> 
> with the Supreme Concourse. Between the Supreme Concourse and us
> there should be telegraphic communication, one end of the wire in
> the breast of each one here and the other in that Concourse on
> high, so that all we might say or do would be inspired.
> 
> __________
> 
> Today (12 June) I went up early to His house, but not early enough.
> As I turned into Seventy-Eighth Street from West End Avenue I saw
> Him a block away, hastening toward "His garden", His robes floating
> out as He walked.
> 
> Soon He came back to us. Miss Buckton had arrived by that time and
> a poor little waif of a girl, a Jewess. She was all in black and
> her small pale face was very careworn.
> 
> I had been in the kitchen with Lua. When I heard the voice of the
> Master I hurried into the hall, and there I saw them sitting at the
> window, the poor sad little girl at the Master's right, Alice
> Buckton at His left. Like a God, He dominated the scene. Sunlight
> streamed through the window, His white robes and turban shining in
> it, the strong carving of His Face thrown into high relief by
> masses of shadow.
> 
> The little Jewish girl was crying.
> 
> "Don't grieve now, don't grieve," He said. He was very, very still
> and I think He was calming her.
> 
> "But my brother has been in prison for three years, and it wasn't
> just to put him in prison. It wasn't his fault, what he did. He was
> weak and other people led him. He has to serve four more years. My
> father and mother are always depressed. My brother-in-law has just
> died, and he was the on who supported us. Now we haven't even
> that."
> 
> "You must trust in God," said the Master.
> 
> "But the more I trust the worse things become!" she sobbed.
> 
> "You have never trusted."
> 
> "But my mother is all the time reading psalms. She doesn't deserve
> to have God abandon her. I read the psalms myself, the ninety-first
> psalm and the twenty-third psalm, every night before I go to bed.
> I pray too."
> 
> "To pray is not to read psalms. To pray is to trust in God and to
> be submissive in all things to Him. Be submissive; then things will
> change for you. Put your parents and your brother in God's hands.
> Love God's Will. Strong ships are not conquered by the sea, they
> ride the waves! Now be a strong ship, not a battered one."
> 
> At noon I took Percy Grant to the Master. The Master had inquired
> for him and sent him a message by me, and Percy had responded
> instantly by himself suggesting this visit. But the Master was out
> when we reached the house and while we were waiting for Him I
> mentioned a very interesting thing He had said to Gifford
> Pinchot:[119] that the people were rising wave upon wave, like a
> great tide, and the capitalists, unless they realized this soon,
> would be driven out with violence; also, that in the future the
> labourer would not work on a wage basis but for an interest in the
> concern.
> 
> Just then Lua appeared at the door of the room opposite, went to
> the stairway and, with her beautiful reverence, leaned across the
> rail to look down.
> 
> "He is coming, Lua?"
> 
> "Yes, Julie, He is coming!"
> 
> He entered the room with both hands extended and in
> 
> a voice like a chime from His heart, said: "Oh-h, Dr Grant! Dr
> Grant!"
> 
> Then I slipped out.
> 
> When I returned at the Master's call, He was signing a photograph
> for Percy and writing a prayer on it. "And now," he said,
> presenting it, "you must give Me your photograph. I want your face.
> I have given you Mine. Now you must give Me yours."
> 
> "I will pray for you," He added as He bade Percy goodbye. "I will
> mention you daily in My prayers."
> 
> The Master detained me for a moment. As I rejoined Percy in the
> car, Valiyu'llah Khan was just going into the house.
> 
> "Do you see that handsome, distinguished-looking young man?" I
> said. "That is Valiyu'llah Khan, a descendant of two generations
> of martyrs and the brother of one very young martyr. His
> grandfather, Sulayman Khan, was a disciple of the Bab. He was
> Governor of Fars and a great prince, but that didn't save him. He
> suffered the most ghastly kind of martyrdom and with such ecstasy
> that he is one of the best beloved of the Babi martyrs.
> 
> "Just a few years ago Valiyu'llah's father, Varqa Khan, and his
> little brother, [Ruhu'llah] Varqa, went on a pilgrimage to 'Akka
> and had a wonderful visit with the Master. But on their way home
> they were both arrested and thrown into prison. Then one day some
> brutal men came into their cell, one with an axe. Varqa Khan was
> hacked into pieces alive, and the poor little boy forced to look
> on at that butchery. When it was over, one of the executioners
> turned to the child. I think I will tell the rest in Valiyu'llah
> Khan's own language, just as he told it to me.
> 
> "'The man said to my brother: "If you will deny Baha'u'llah, we
> will take you to the court of the Shah and honours and riches will
> be heaped upon you." But my brother answered: "I do not want such
> things." Then the man said to him: "If you refuse to deny, we will
> kill you worse than your father." "You may kill me a thousand times
> worse," my brother said. "Is my life of more value than my
> father's? To die for Baha'u'llah is my supreme desire." 'This so
> angered the executioners that they fell upon Varqa and choked him
> to death.' Varqa was only twelve years old.
> 
> "A day or two ago," I went on, "Valiyu'llah Khan asked me, 'How is
> the Master's portrait progressing?' and he added that, in a
> portrait, he thought 'one must paint the soul.' 'But who can paint
> the soul of 'Abdu'l-Baha I asked. And I wish you could have seen
> the fire in his eyes as he drew himself up and said: 'We can paint
> it with our blood!'"
> 
> 13 June 1912
> 
> The next day, 13 June, as usual I went very early to the Master's
> house--so early that no one was there--I mean, no visitors. Some
> of the Persians of course were with Him: Valiy'u'llah Khan, Ahmad
> and Mirza 'Ali-Akbar. I found them in the lower hall, the English
> basement. The Master was sitting in the big chair by the window.
> He called me to a seat opposite, then began to speak, smiling.
> 
> "Juliet is absolutely truthful. For this I love her very much. She
> conceals nothing from me."
> 
> "It would be useless, my Lord," I said, "to try to conceal anything
> from You. I could hide nothing."
> 
> "That is true," said the Master, raising one hand. "Nothing;
> nothing."
> 
> Soon He rose. "Stay here," He told me, and went out with Ahmad.
> 
> By the time He returned a crowd had gathered. He gave a few private
> interviews upstairs, then came down and, sitting by the window,
> talked to all the people. I think the strongest image in my mind
> is and will always be the holy figure of the Master sitting in the
> rays of the sun at that window.
> 
> The meeting over, a few of us went upstairs to say a healing prayer
> for Mrs Hinkle-Smith, but just before Lua began to chant, the
> Master looked in at the door and called: "Juliet," and I happily
> deserted Mrs Hinkle-Smith.
> 
> "Bring your things in here and paint," He said, pointing to the
> library.
> 
> Oh, these sittings: so wonderful, yet so humanly difficult! We move
> from room to room, from one kind of light to another. The Master
> has given me three half hours, each time in a different room, and
> each time people come in and watch me. But the miraculous thing is
> that nothing makes any difference. The minute I begin to work the
> same rapture takes possession of me. Someone Else looks through my
> eyes and sees clearly; Someone Else works through my hand with a
> sort of furious precision.
> 
> On this thirteenth of June, after Lua had chanted the prayer for
> Mrs Hinkle-Smith, she and May came into the library, crossed over
> to where I was sitting and stood behind me.
> 
> The Master looked up and smiled at May. "You have a kind heart, Mrs
> Maxwell." Then He turned to Lua. "You, Lua, have a tender heart.
> And what kind of heart
> 
> have you, Juliet?" He laughed. "What kind of a heart have you?"
> 
> "Oh, what kind of heart have I? You know, my Lord. I don't know."
> 
> "An emotional heart." He laughed again and rolled His hands one
> round the other in a sort of tempestuous gesture. "You will have
> a boiling heart, Juliet. Now," He continued, "if these three hearts
> were united into one heart--kind, tender and emotional--what a
> great heart that would be!"
> 
> 14 June 1912
> 
> The next morning, Thursday, though I went unusually early to the
> Master, He had already left the house. But Lua, Valiyu'llah Khan,
> and I had a wonderful morning. Valiyu'llah told us so many things.
> 
> "My father," he said, "spent much time with the Blessed Beauty. The
> Blessed Beauty Himself taught him.
> 
> "One time when my father was in His room, Baha'u'llah rose and
> strode back and forth till the very walls seemed to shake. And He
> told my father that once in an age the Mighty God sent a Soul to
> earth endowed with the power of the Great Ether, and that such a
> Soul had all power and was able to do anything. 'Even this walk of
> Mine' said Baha'u'llah, 'has an effect in the world.'
> 
> "Then He said that His Holiness Jesus Christ had also come with the
> power of the Great Ether, but the haughty priesthood of His day
> thought of Him as a poor, unlettered youth and believed that if
> they should crucify Him, His Teachings would soon be forgotten.
> Therefore they did crucify Him. But because His Holiness Jesus
> possessed the power of the Great Ether, He could not remain
> 
> underground. This ethereal power rose and conquered the whole
> earth. 'And now,' the Blessed Beauty said, 'look to the Master, for
> this same Power is His.'
> 
> "Baha'u'llah," added Valiyu'llah Khan, "taught my father much about
> Áqa. Áqa (the Master, you know) is one of the titles of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha and the Greatest Branch is another, and the Greatest
> Mystery of God another. By all these we call Him in Persian. The
> Blessed Perfection, Baha'u'llah, revealed the Station of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha to my father. And my father wrote many poems to the
> Master, though the Master would scold him and say: 'You must not
> write such things to Me.' But the heart of my father could not keep
> quiet. This is one poem he wrote:
> 
> __________
> 
> 'O Dawning-Point of the Beauty of God, I know Thee! Though Thou
> shroudest Thyself in a thousand veils, I know Thee! Though Thou
> shouldst assume the tatters of a beggar, still would I know Thee!'
> 
> __________
> 
> In the late afternoon I returned with my mother. The Master
> received us in His own room, which was full of roses and lilies and
> carnations.
> 
> "Ah-h! Mrs Thompson. Marhaba! Marhaba!" (Welcome! Welcome!)
> 
> The intonation of that "Marhaba" can never be described. It is a
> welcome from a heart which is a channel for God's heart.
> 
> He was very playful with Mamma. "Are you pleased
> 
> with Juliet? Pleased now, Mrs Thompson? The next time you have to
> complain of her, come and complain to Me and I will beat her!"
> 
> 15 June 1912
> 
> On Friday, 15 June, I was with the Master alone for a while, and
> I brought up the name of Percy Grant. "He didn't understand You the
> other day, my Lord. He thinks that You teach asceticism, that the
> spirit and the flesh are two separate things."
> 
> "That is not what I said," the Master replied. "I said that the
> spiritual man and the materialist were two different beings. The
> spirit is in the flesh."
> 
> 5 July 1912
> 
> The Beloved Master's portrait is finished. He sat for me six times,
> but I really did it in the three half hours He had promised me; for
> the sixth time, when He posed in His own room on the top floor, I
> didn't put on a single stroke. I was looking at the portrait
> wondering what I could find to do, when He suddenly rose from his
> chair and said: "It is finished." The fifth time He sat, Miss
> Souley-Campbell came in with a drawing she had done from a
> photograph to ask if He would sign it for her and if she might add
> a few touches from life. This meant that He had to change His pose,
> so of course I couldn't paint that day. And the fourth time (the
> nineteenth of June)--who could have painted then?
> 
> I had just begun to work, Lua in the room sitting on a couch
> nearby, when the Master smiled at me; then turning to Lua said in
> Persian: "This makes me sleepy. What shall I do?"
> 
> [Photograph: Portrait of 'Abdu'l-Baha painted by Juliet Thompson,
> 1912.]
> 
> "Tell the Master, Lua, that if He would like to take a nap, I can
> work while He sleeps."
> 
> But I found that I could not. What I saw then was too sacred, too
> formidable. He sat still as a statue, His eyes closed, infinite
> peace on that chiselled face, a God-like calm and grandeur in His
> erect head.
> 
> Suddenly, with a great flash like lightning He opened His eyes and
> the room seemed to rock like a ship in a storm with the Power
> released. The Master was blazing. "The veils of glory", "the
> thousand veils", had shrivelled away in that Flame and we were
> exposed to the Glory itself.
> 
> Lua and I sat shaking and sobbing.
> 
> Then He spoke to Lua. I caught the words, "Munadiy-i 'Ahd." (Herald
> of the Covenant.
> 
> Lua started forward, her hand to her breast.
> 
> "Man?" (I?) she exclaimed.
> 
> "Call one of the Persians. You must understand this."
> 
> Never shall I forget that moment, the flashing eyes of 'Abdu'l-Baha
> the reverberations of His Voice, the Power that still rocked the
> room. God of lightning and thunder! I thought.
> 
> "I appoint you, Lua, the Herald of the Covenant. And I AM THE
> COVENANT, appointed by Baha'u'llah. And no one can refute His Word.
> This is the Testament of Baha'u'llah. You will find it in the Holy
> Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, 'This is THE COVENANT OF GOD
> in your midst.'"
> 
> A great joy had lifted Lua up. Her eyes were full of light. She
> looked like a winged angel. "Oh recreate me," she cried, "that I
> may do this work for Thee!"
> 
> By now I was sobbing uncontrollably.
> 
> "Julie too," said Lua, not even in such a moment forgetful of me,
> "wants to be recreated."
> 
> But the Master had shrouded Himself with His veils again, the
> "thousand veils". He sat before us now in His dear humanity: very,
> very human, very simple.
> 
> "Don't cry, Juliet," He said. "This is no time for tears. Through
> tears you cannot see to paint."
> 
> I tried hard to hold back my tears and to work, but painting that
> day was at an end for me.
> 
> The Master smiled lovingly.
> 
> "Juliet is one of My favourites because she speaks the truth to me.
> See how I love the truth, Juliet. You spoke one word of truth to
> Me and see how I have praised it!"
> 
> I looked up to smile in answer, and in gratitude, then was
> overwhelmed again by that awful convulsive sobbing.
> 
> At this the Master began to laugh and, as He laughed and laughed,
> the strangest thing happened. It was as if at each outburst He
> wrapped Himself in more veils, so that now He looked completely
> human, without a trace left of His superhuman majesty. Never had
> I seen Him like this before and I never did afterward.
> 
> "I am going to tell you something funny," He said, adding in
> English, "a joke".
> 
> "Oh tell it!" we begged; and now I was in a sort of hysteria,
> laughing and crying at the same time.
> 
> "No. Not now. Paint."
> 
> But of course I couldn't paint.
> 
> Later, walking up and down, He laughed again.
> 
> "I am thinking of My joke," He explained.
> 
> "Tell it!" we pleaded.
> 
> "No, I cannot, for every time I try to tell it I laugh so I cannot
> speak."
> 
> We got down on our knees, able at last to enter into His play, and
> begged Him, "Please, please tell us." We were laughing on our
> knees.
> 
> "No. Not now. After lunch."
> 
> But, alas, after lunch He went upstairs to His room, and we never
> heard the Master's joke.
> 
> Perhaps, there wasn't any joke. Perhaps He had just found it
> necessary, after that mighty Declaration, to bring us down to earth
> again. He had revealed to us "The Apex of Immortality." He had
> lifted us to a height from which we could see it. Now He, our
> loving Shepherd, had carried us in His own arms back to our little
> valley and put us where we belonged.
> 
> __________
> 
> In the early morning of 19 June, before the Master had called me
> to paint Him, He had spoken to the people in the English basement.
> On His way down the stairs from His room He passed Lua and me,
> where we stood in the third-floor hall. We saw, and felt, as He
> walked down the upper flight, a peculiar power in His step--as
> though some terrific Force had possession of Him; a Force too
> strong to be caged in the body, sparking through, almost escaping
> His body, able to sunder it. I cannot begin to describe that
> indomitable step, its fearful majesty, or the strange flashing of
> His eyes. The sublime language of the Old Testament, words such as
> these: "Who is this that cometh from Bozrah ... that treadeth the
> wine-press in His fury?" faintly express what I saw as I watched
> the Master descending those stairs. Unsmiling, He passes Lua and
> me. Then He looked back, still unsmiling.
> 
> "Juliet is one of My favourites," He said.
> 
> __________
> 
> 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.
> 
> Still later that afternoon the Master had promised to sit for a
> photograph. I had made the appointment myself with Mrs Kasebier,
> a very wonderful photographer, to bring the Master to her studio,
> but some people prevented His getting off in time. When they left,
> He sent for me.
> 
> "I am ashamed," He said (while I nearly died at that word "ashamed"
> from Him), "but I will go tomorrow. I had planned to leave for
> Montclair tomorrow but I will stay until Friday for your sake."
> 
> "I can't bear, my Lord," I said, "to have You delay Your trip to
> the country for this."
> 
> "No, I wish it," He answered.
> 
> "I have a confession to make, my Lord," I said. "I have been to Dr
> Grant's house. It happened in this way: he asked if I would be the
> bearer of his photograph to You and would I stop at the Rectory for
> it on my way up to You. Then he invited me to come to breakfast.
> That invitation I declined, but I could think of no excuse for
> refusing to stop for the picture. So I did go. But I stayed only
> five or ten minutes and his mother was with us all the time."
> 
> "Good, good," said the Master. "Going to his house was not good,
> but since you have confessed it, Juliet, I am very much pleased.
> When I look into your heart," He added, smiling, "I find it just
> like that mirror--it is so pure."
> 
> (Oh, please understand me, when I repeat such things it is only
> because they are His words to me. I keep them just to remind myself
> of something potential He sees in me which I must grow up to. I am
> not reminding myself of His praise, for it really isn't praise but
> stimulation. If He had been blaming me, I would repeat His blame
> too.
> 
> He then spoke of my teaching. "Your breath is effective," He said.
> "You are now in the Kingdom of Abha with Me, as I wished you to
> be."
> 
> 20 June 1912
> 
> The next day, 20 June, we went to Mrs Kasebier's--Lua, Mrs
> Hinkle-Smith, and I--in the car with the Master.
> 
> I shall never forget the Master's beauty in the strange cold light
> of her studio, a green, underwater sort of light, in which He
> looked shining and chiselled, like the statue of a god. But the
> pictures are dark shadows of Him.
> 
> 21 June 1912
> 
> On 21 June, the Master left for Montclair to stay nine days. I was
> with Him all day till He went. I had lunched with Him nearly every
> day that week. Lua, Mrs Hinkle-Smith, Valiyu'llah Khan, and I bade
> Him goodbye on the steps of His house. Montclair
> 
> 23 June 1912
> 
> It had nearly killed Lua not to be taken to Montclair with Him. Two
> days later she said to me: "Let's go to see Him, Julie."
> 
> "How can we, Lua? He didn't invite us," I answered. "He bade us
> goodbye for nine days."
> 
> "Oh but you have an excuse, those proofs of Mrs Kasebier's
> pictures. You really should show them to Him, Julie."
> 
> And she whirled Georgie Ralston and me off to Montclair with her.
> 
> We were punished of course, and our first punishment was that lunch
> was unusually late (so that instead of arriving after, as we had
> planned, we arrived just in time for it). And this was agonizing,
> for there weren't enough seats at the table, and the Master
> wouldn't sit down to eat. One of us had to occupy His chair, while
> He Himself waited on us, carrying all the courses around and around
> that table. I couldn't get over my mortification.
> 
> At the end He came in with the fruit, a glass bowl full of golden
> peaches. Without turning His head--His face was set straight before
> Him--He sent a piercing glance from the corner of His eye toward
> Lua and me. Such a majestic, stern glance, like a sword-thrust.
> 
> After lunch, and this was our second punishment, He banished the
> three of us--Georgie, Lua, and me--leading us to a small back porch
> and abandoning us there. But before very long He returned and asked
> us to take a walk with Him.
> 
> We came back from our walk by way of the front porch. Some people
> were gathered there and Lua, Georgie, and I sat down with them
> while the Master went upstairs to rest. He joined us, however, very
> soon and, striding up and down, began to talk to us. As He walked
> His Power shook us; His intoxicating exhilaration, pouring into me,
> filled me up with new life.
> 
> His eyes--those eyes of light, which seem to be always looking into
> heaven and when for an instant they glance toward earth, veer away
> at once, back to heaven--were brilliantly restless. His whole Being
> was restless with the same strange Force I had felt on that
> memorable day, the nineteenth of June. It was as though
> 
> the lightning of His Spirit could scarcely endure to be harnessed
> to the body. He was almost out of the body. But soon He took a seat
> and rested quietly.
> 
> I showed Him the proofs of the pictures, then spoke of Mrs
> Kasebier--who had seen Him only once, when she photographed Him.
> "She said she would like to live near You, my Lord."
> 
> He laughed. "She doesn't want to live near Me. She only wants a
> good time!" Then He grew serious. "To live near Me," He said, "one
> must have My aims and objects. Do you remember the rich young man
> who wanted to live near Christ, and when he learned what it cost
> to live near Him--that it meant to give away all his possessions
> and take up a cross and follow Christ--then," the Master laughed,
> "he fled away!"[120]
> 
> "Among the disciples of the Bab," He continued, "were two: His
> amanuensis and a firm believer. On the eve of the Bab's martyrdom
> the firm believer prayed: 'Oh let me die with You!' The amanuensis
> said: 'What shall I do?'
> 
> "'What shall I do?'" mocked the Master. "'What do you want me to
> do?' The disciple died with the Bab, his head on the breast of the
> Bab, and their bodies were mingled in death. The other died in
> prison anyway, but think of the difference in their stations!
> 
> "There was another martyr," continued the Master after a moment,
> "Mirza 'Abdu'llah of Shiraz." Then He told us that Mirza 'Abdu'llah
> had been in the Presence of Baha'u'llah only once, "but he so loved
> the Blessed Beauty" that he could not resist following Him to
> 
> Tihran, though Baha'u'llah had commanded him to remain in Shiraz
> with his old parents. "Still," said the Master, His tone exultant,
> "he followed!"
> 
> Mirza 'Abdu'llah reached Tihran in the midst of that bloodiest of
> massacres resulting from the attempt on the Shah's life by two
> fanatical Babis. Baha'u'llah had been cast into a dungeon. There,
> in that foul cellar He sat, weighted down by "The Devil's Chain",
> eleven disciples sitting with Him, bound by the same chain. In it
> were set iron collars which were fastened around the neck by iron
> pins. Every day a disciple was slaughtered and none knew when his
> turn would come. The first intimation he had of his immediate death
> was when the jailer took out the iron pin from his collar.
> 
> Mirza 'Abdu'llah entered Tihran and inquired of the guard at the
> gate "where Baha'u'llah resided." "We will take you to Him," said
> the guard. And some men took 'Abdu'llah to the dungeon and chained
> him to Baha'u'llah.
> 
> "So," the Master said, "he found his Beloved again!"
> 
> One day the jailer came into the dungeon and took out the pin from
> Mirza 'Abdu'llah's collar.
> 
> "Then," said the Master, "Mirza 'Abdu'llah stepped joyfully
> forward. First, he kissed the feet of the Blessed Beauty, and then
> ..."
> 
> The Master's whole aspect suddenly changed. It was as though the
> spirit of the martyr had entered into Him. With that God-like head
> erect, snapping His fingers high in the air, beating out a
> drum-like rhythm with His foot till we could hardly endure the
> vibrations set up, He triumphantly sang "The Martyr's Song".
> 
> "I have come again, I have come again,
> 
> By way of Shiraz I have come again!
> 
> With the wine cup in My hand!
> 
> Such is the madness of Love!"
> 
> "And thus," ended 'Abdu'l-Baha, "singing and dancing he went to his
> death, and a hundred executioners fell on him! And later his
> parents came to Baha'u'llah, praising God that their son had given
> his life in the Path of God."
> 
> This was what the Cause meant then. This was what it meant to "live
> near Him"! Another realm opened to me, the realm of Divine Tragedy.
> 
> The Master sank back into His chair. Tears swelled in my eyes,
> blurring everything. When they cleared I saw a still stranger look
> on His face. His eyes were unmistakably fixed on the Invisible.
> They were filled with delight and as brilliant as jewels. A smile
> of exultation played on His lips. So low that it sounded like an
> echo He hummed the Martyr's Song.
> 
> "See," He exclaimed, "the effect that the death of a martyr has in
> the world. It has changed My condition." After a moment's silence,
> He asked: "What is it, Juliet, you are pondering so deeply?"
> 
> "I was thinking, my Lord, of the look on Your face when You said
> Your condition had been changed. And that I had seen a flash of the
> joy of God when someone dies happily for His Cause."
> 
> "There was one name," the Master answered, "that always brought joy
> to the face of Baha'u'llah. His expression would change at the
> mention of it. That name was Mary of Magdala."
> 
> West Englewood
> 
> 29 June 1912
> 
> Almost a week passed before we saw our Lord again. Then, on the
> twenty-ninth of June, we met Him at West Englewood. He was giving
> a feast for all the believers in the grounds around Roy Wilhelm's
> house, the "Feast of Unity" He called it.
> 
> I went with dear Silvia Gannett. We walked from the little station,
> past the grove where the tables were set--a grove of tall pine
> trees--and on to the house in which He was, He Whose Presence
> filled our eyes with light and without Whom our days had been very
> dim and lifeless.
> 
> Ah, there He was again! Sitting in a corner of the porch! I sped
> across the lawn, forgetting Silvia, forgetting everything. He
> looked down at me with grave eyes, and I saw a fathomless welcome
> in them.
> 
> For a while we sat with Him on the porch. Then He led us down into
> the grove. There He seated Himself on the ground at the foot of a
> pine tree and called two believers to His right and left. One was
> Mrs Krug in her very elegant clothes, the other a poor and shabby
> old woman. But both faces, the wrinkled one and the smooth, pretty
> one, were beautiful with the same radiance. I shall never forget
> that old woman's shining blue eyes.
> 
> The great words He spoke to us then have been preserved.[121] I
> will not repeat them. Besides I remember them too imperfectly. But
> He said one thing which woke my whole being: "This is a New Day;
> a New Hour."
> 
> By the time He had finished, the feast was ready, but just as it
> was announced a storm blew up--a strange, sudden storm, without
> warning. There was a tremen-
> 
> dous crash of thunder; through the treetops we could see black
> clouds boiling up, and big drops of rain splashed on the tables.
> 
> The Master rose calmly and, followed by the Persians, walked out
> to the road, then to the end of it where there is a crossroad. A
> single chair had been left there and, as I watched from a distance,
> I saw the Master take it and sit down, while the Persians ranged
> themselves behind Him. I saw Him lift His face to the sky. He had
> gone a long way from the house; thunder still crashed and the
> clouds rolled frighteningly low, but He continued to sit perfectly
> motionless, that sacred, powerful face upturned to the sky. Then
> came a strong, rushing wind; the clouds began to race away; blue
> patches appeared above and the sun shone out. And then the Master
> rose and walked back into the grove. This I witnessed.
> 
> Later, as we sat at the tables, two hundred and fifty of us, He
> anointed us all with attar of rose. I was not at a table but
> sitting under a tree with Marjorie Morten and Silvia. The Master
> swept toward us in His long white robes, forever the Divine
> Shepherd.
> 
> "Friends here?" He smiled, "Friends?"
> 
> In His voice was a thrilling joy. With a look that shook my heart,
> so full was it with the musk of His Love, He rubbed my face hard
> with the attar of rose.
> 
> He passed among all the tables with His little vial of perfume
> (which Grace Robarts swears was almost as full at the end as in the
> beginning) anointing the forehead of every one there, touching and
> caressing all our blind faces with His tingling fingers.
> 
> Then He disappeared for hours.
> 
> __________
> 
> Lua, too, went off alone, an exceedingly naughty purpose in her
> mind. The Master had just told her that she
> 
> must leave very soon for California. So now she deliberately walked
> in poison ivy, walked back and forth and back and forth till her
> feet were thoroughly poisoned. "Now, Julie," she said (when the
> deed was done) "He can't send me to California."
> 
> __________
> 
> To me the most beautiful scene of all came later, when the Master
> returned to us after dark. About fifty or sixty people had
> lingered, unable to tear themselves from Him. The Master sat in a
> chair on the top step of the porch, some of us surrounding
> Him--dear guilty Lua with her poisoned feet, May, Silvia, Marjorie,
> and I and a young coloured man, Neval Thomas. Below us, all over
> the lawn, on each side of the path, sat the others, the light
> summer skirts of the women spread out on the grass, tapers in their
> hands (to keep off mosquitoes). In the dark, in their filmy
> dresses, they looked like great moths and the burning tips of the
> tapers they waved like fireflies darting about.
> 
> Then the Master spoke again to us. I was standing behind Him, close
> to Him, and before He began He turned and gave me a long, profound
> look. His talk of that night has been recorded. It was a resounding
> Call to us to arise from the tomb of self in this Day of the Great
> Resurrection and unite around Him to vivify the world.
> 
> Before He had finished He rose from His chair and started down the
> path still talking, passing between the dim figures on the grass
> with their lighted tapers, talking till He reached the road, where
> He turned and we could no longer see Him. Even then His words
> floated back to us--the liquid Persian, 'Ali Quli Khan's beautiful,
> quivering translation, like the sound of a violin string.
> 
> "Peace be with you," this was the last we heard, "I will pray for
> you."
> 
> Oh that Voice that came back out of His invisibility when He had
> passed beyond our sight. May I always remember, and hear the Voice.
> New York
> 
> 30 June 1912
> 
> That night our Beloved Lord returned to New York. The next morning
> early I flew up to see Him, but He sent me at once to Lua, who was
> staying with Georgie Ralston in a hotel nearby.
> 
> She was in bed, her feet terribly swollen from the poison ivy.
> 
> "Look at me, Julie," she said. "Look at my feet. Oh, please go
> right back to the Master and tell Him about them and say: 'How can
> Lua travel now?'"
> 
> I did it, returned to the Master's house, found Him in His room and
> put Lua's question to Him. He laughed, then crossed the room to a
> table on which stood a bowl of fruit, and, selecting an apple and
> a pomegranate, gave them to me.
> 
> "Take these to Lua," He said. "Tell her to eat them and she will
> be cured. Spend the day with her, Juliet."
> 
> Oh precious Lua--strange mixture of disobedience and obedience--and
> all from love! I shall never forget her, seizing first the apple,
> then the pomegranate and gravely chewing them all the way through
> till not even a pomegranate seed was left: thoroughly eating her
> cure, which was certain to send her to California.
> 
> In the late afternoon we were happily surprised by a visit from the
> Master Himself. He drew back the sheet and looked at Lua's feet,
> which by that time were beautifully slim. Then He burst out
> laughing.
> 
> "See," He said, "I have cured Lua with an apple and a pomegranate."
> 
> But Lua revolted again. There was one more thing she could try, and
> she tried it. The Master had asked me to
> 
> paint her portrait and I had already had one sitting. The following
> day, at the Master's house, she drew me aside.
> 
> "Please, Julie, do something else for me. Go to the Master, now,
> and say: 'If Lua is in California, how can I paint her?'"
> 
> I went straight to His room with Valiyu'llah Khan to translate. "My
> Lord," I said, "You have commanded me to paint Lua. If she is in
> California and I here, how can I do it? The portrait is begun; how
> can I finish it?"
> 
> Again the Master burst out laughing, for this of course was too
> transparent.
> 
> "In a year," He said, "Lua will join Me in Egypt. She will stay in
> New York a few days on her way to Me and you can paint her then,
> Juliet."
> 
> So poor Lua had to go to California. There was no way out for
> her.[122]
> 
> 4 July 1912
> 
> On the fourth of July, yesterday, Mamma had her birthday dinner
> with the Master. He was so sweet to her. When we first arrived we
> found Him in the English basement and He led Mamma to the sofa and,
> with that wonderful freedom of His, drew her down beside Him.
> 
> Carrie Kinney, Georgie Ralston, and I were sitting across the room
> by the window and I'm afraid we did look solemn, for we sat in a
> row, perfectly silent.
> 
> "Look at them!" said Mamma, laughing. "They are jealous of me!"
> 
> "Then we will make them more jealous!" arid the
> 
> Master seized Mamma's hand and drew her still closer, at which she
> looked really scared!
> 
> Now I felt compelled to speak. "Three years ago, my Lord, on the
> fourth of July, Carrie, and I were with You in 'Akka and You took
> us to the Holy Shrine of Baha'u'llah. I never expected to keep that
> anniversary with You in New York."
> 
> At the table the Master joked with Mamma because she was eating so
> little. "I perceive that you are an angel, Mrs Thompson. Angels do
> not eat."
> 
> "The Master sees I am not an angel," I laughed, "for I eat every
> morsel He puts on my plate."
> 
> "I perceive that you are a very clever girl. Mrs Thompson," He
> continued, "is going home to a luscious supper and saving her
> appetite for that."
> 
> Passing me a dish with three very shrivelled dates on it, He said:
> "Here, Juliet, are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
> 
> And I ate them up!
> 
> A little later Mamma said, looking at the Master with her sweet
> shyness: "You are very kind to me."
> 
> "God knows the degrees of it," He sighed deeply.
> 
> __________
> 
> While we sat with Him after dinner, He spoke of tests. "Even the
> sword," He said, "is no test to the Persian believers. They are
> given a chance to recant; they cry out instead: 'Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!'
> Then the sword is raised,"--He shot up His arm as though
> brandishing a sword--"they cry out all the more 'Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!'
> But some of the people here are tested if I don't say 'How do you
> do?'"
> 
> 12 July 1912
> 
> I have almost no time to write these days, as I spend most of them
> with the Beloved Master and when I try to write after dinner, my
> darling little mother stops me too soon. Her room is at right
> angles with mine and at ten o'clock she calls through her window:
> "Put out your light, baby." But there are three or four lovely
> things that I must tell.
> 
> On Monday, 9 July, the Master invited me, with the Persians to go
> to the Natural History Museum. It was a broiling afternoon and I
> couldn't imagine why He should want to go to that Museum, and in
> the hottest part of the day. But wherever He went, there I wanted
> to be.
> 
> When we reached the Ninth Avenue corner of the Museum the Master,
> exhausted by that time, sank to a low stone ledge to rest. Between
> us and the main door on the Central Park corner stretched a long
> cross-town block in glaring sun, not a single tree on the sidewalk.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "let me try to find a nearer entrance for You."
> And I hurried along the grass, keeping close to the building,
> searching the basement for a door. The employees' entrance was
> locked. Just beyond stood a sign: "No Thoroughfare." I was rushing
> past this when a shrill whistle stopped me, and I turned to face
> the watchman of the grounds. He was a little bent old Jew with a
> very kind face.
> 
> "Oh excuse me," I said, "for breaking the rules, but I must find
> a nearer door than the main one. See Who is sitting on that ledge!
> I must find it for Him."
> 
> The watchman turned and looked at the Master, look-
> 
> ed and looked, at that Figure from the East, from the Past--the
> Days of the Old Testament--and his eyes became very soft. "Is He
> a Jew?" he asked.
> 
> "A descendant of Abraham."
> 
> "Come with me," said the watchman. "Ask Him to come with me."
> 
> I went over and spoke to the Master and He rose and followed with
> the Persians, I dropping back to walk with them. There was not a
> nearer entrance, but the watchman, taking a risk perhaps, led us
> across the grass, where at least it was cooler and the way shorter.
> 
> In the Museum we passed through a room in which a huge whale hung
> from the ceiling. The Master looked up at it, laughed and said: "He
> could hold seventy Jonahs!"
> 
> Then He took us straight to the Mexican exhibit, and this seemed
> to interest Him very much. In the great elaborately carved glyphs
> standing around the room He found traces of Persian art and pointed
> them out to me. He told us this sculpture resembled very closely
> the ancient sculpture of Egypt. "Only," He said, "this is better."
> Then He took me over to the cases where He showed me purely Persian
> bracelets.
> 
> "I have heard a tradition," I said, "that in the very distant past
> this country and Asia were connected."
> 
> "Assuredly," answered the Master, "before a great catastrophe there
> was such a connection between Asia and America."
> 
> After looking at everything in the Mexican rooms, He led us to the
> front door and out into the grounds again. Then, stepping from the
> stone walk to the grass, He seated Himself beneath a young birch
> tree, His back to us, while we stood behind Him on the flags. He
> sat there
> 
> a long time, silent. Was He waiting for someone? I wondered.
> 
> While He--waited?--the old Jewish watchman stole quietly up to me
> from the direction of the Museum.
> 
> "Is He tired?" he whispered. "Who is He? He looks like such a great
> man."
> 
> "He is 'Abdu'l-Baha of Persia," I said, "and He has been a great
> Sufferer because of His work for the real Brotherhood of Man, the
> uniting of all the races and nations."
> 
> "I should like to speak to Him," said the Jew. And I took him over
> to the tree under which the Master still sat with His back to us.
> 
> At the sound of our footsteps He turned and looked up at the
> watchman, His brilliant eyes full of sweetness. "Come and sit by
> Me," He said.
> 
> "Thank You, Sir, but I am not allowed."
> 
> "Is it against the rules for Me to sit on the grass?"
> 
> The old man's eyes, softly shining, were fixed on the Master. "No,
> You may sit there all day!"
> 
> But the Master rose and stood beneath the tree.
> 
> Such pictures as I see when the Master is in them could never be
> put upon canvas--not even into words, except by the sublimest
> poet--but I always want to try at least to leave a trace of their
> beauty. The Master, luminous in the sunlight, His white robe
> flowing to the grass, standing beside the white slender trunk of
> the birch tree, with its leafy canopy over His head. The Jew
> standing opposite Him--so bent, so old--his eyes, like a lover's,
> humbly raised to the face of his own Messiah! As yet unrecognized,
> his Messiah, yet his heart worshiped.
> 
> Eagerly he went on, offering all he could think of to this
> Mysterious One Who had touched him so deeply.
> 
> "You didn't see the whole of the Museum. Would You like to go back
> after You have rested? You didn't go up to the third floor."
> (Unseen by us he must have been following all the time.) "The
> fossils and the birds are up there. Wouldn't You like to see the
> birds?"
> 
> The Master answered very gently, smiling.
> 
> "I am tired of travelling and looking at the things of this world.
> I want to go above and travel and see in the spiritual worlds. What
> do you think about that?" He asked suddenly, beaming on the old
> watchman.
> 
> The watchman looked puzzled and scratched his head.
> 
> "Which would you rather posses," continued the Master, "the
> material or the spiritual world?"
> 
> Still the old man pondered. At last he brought forth: "Well, I
> guess the material. You know you have that, anyway."
> 
> "But you do not lose it when you have attained the spiritual world.
> When you go upstairs in a house, you don't leave the house. The
> lower floor is under you."
> 
> "Oh I see!" cried the watchman, his whole face lighting up, "I
> see!"
> 
> After we parted from the watchman, who walked with us all the way
> to the Ninth Avenue corner, leading us again across the grass, I
> began to blame myself for not inviting him to the Master's house,
> forgetting that the Master Himself had not done so. Every day I
> meant to return to the Museum to tell the old man where the Master
> lived, but I put off from day to day.
> 
> When, at the end of a week, I did run over to the Museum, I found
> a young watchman there, who seemed to know nothing of the one he
> had replaced.
> 
> Had our friend "gone upstairs?"
> 
> Why had the Master visited a Museum of Natural
> 
> History in the hottest hour of a blistering July day? Had He
> instead visited a soul whose need was crying out to Him, to open
> an old man's eyes so that he might see to climb the stairs, to take
> away the dread of death?[123]
> 
> __________
> 
> On the tenth of July, I went to the Master in the early morning
> with something in my heart to say, but already there were people
> with Him and I saw no chance of talking privately.
> 
> "Come, Juliet, sit by Me," He called as I entered the room. "Now,
> speak."
> 
> How could I, before those people? I hesitated.
> 
> "All your hopes and desires are destined to be fulfilled," He said,
> "in the Kingdom of God."
> 
> This was my cue.
> 
> "I came to tell You, my Lord, that now I have only one desire, to
> offer my heart for Your service."
> 
> "This you will also do, but all your desires will be fulfilled."
> 
> He kept me to lunch that day. While we were waiting in the English
> basement for the lunch to be announced, Valiyu'llah Khan and I
> alone with the Master, He spoke again of my "truthfulness".
> 
> "Oh," I prayed, "may I some day have all the virtues so that in
> every way I can make you happy."
> 
> "But he who possesses truthfulness possesses all the virtues," said
> the Master. Then He went on to tell us a story. "There was once a
> disciple of Muhammad who
> 
> asked of another disciple, 'What shall I do to please God?' And the
> other disciple replied: 'Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not covet,'
> etc., etc., etc. A great many 'do nots'." the Master laughed. "He
> asked still another, 'What shall I do to become nearer to God?' And
> this one said: 'You must supplicate and pray. You must be generous.
> You must be courageous,' etc., etc., etc. Then the disciple went
> to 'Ali. 'What do you say I should do in order to please God and
> to become nearer to Him?' 'One thing only: be truthful.'
> 
> "For," continued the Master, "if you are truthful, you cannot
> commit murder. You would have to confess it! Neither can you steal.
> You would have to confess it. So, if one is truthful, he possesses
> all the virtues.
> 
> "I may tell you this," He said to me, and He told me a thing so
> wonderful that, even to keep and cherish His words and read them
> over in the time to come, I cannot repeat it here.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "if ever I have told You an untruth it was
> because I deceived myself."
> 
> "There are degrees of truth," He answered, "but that word of yours
> which has so pleased Me was absolute, perfect, extraordinary
> truth."
> 
> __________
> 
> That night we walked with Him in "His garden"--Georgie Ralston,
> Mirza 'Ali Akbar, Valiyu'llah Khan, Ahmad, and I. Dear Lua, who has
> not yet left for California, was ill and unable to be with us.
> 
> He led us down a path sloping to the river, flanked by tall
> poplars. Sweeping on ahead in His gleaming white robes, He was like
> a spirit. The night was very dark, the river and the Jersey
> Palisades starred and glittering with lights and there were chains
> of lights close to the water.
> 
> With a wave of the hand towards them He said: "If only the souls
> of men could be thus illumined."
> 
> "It is You, my Lord," I said, as I followed close with Valiyu'llah
> Khan and Ahmad, "Who put a torch to our souls and light them."
> 
> Suddenly out from behind the bushes rushed a crowd of children,
> bursting upon us like little demons, capering around us and
> hooting. Some of them even picked up stones and threw them. Then
> they all began to sing: "Follow the Lord! The Lord leads on!"
> 
> Back to us floated the voice of the Master: "The people of the
> world are blind. You must have vision. The people of the world are
> heedless: see how heedless they are!" and He swept His hand toward
> the children, who immediately melted back into the shadows as if
> they had never really existed. "You must be aware. The people of
> the world are steeped in darkness. You must be immersed in a sea
> of light."
> 
> We went deep down in the park, close to the river; then turned,
> climbed a path, and came out upon the street. Here there was a
> stone wall, dividing the park from the sidewalk. The Master leaned
> wearily on the wall and gazed far below to the river. He seemed to
> be lost in meditation, His face profoundly sorrowful. I thought of
> a picture, a poster, which, in the early days of His visit, had
> been displayed on all the church doors: the Christ mourning over
> the city.
> 
> Soon He continued His walk. I turned to Valiyu'llah Khan.
> 
> "Oh," I said, "if only I could realize throughout the whole fibre
> of my being, feel with every nerve, every atom in me, His Divine
> Reality, if only while in His bodily Presence I could be fully
> aware of Who He is ..."
> 
> He turned and spoke and His face was ineffably gentle and holy and
> something in His voice pierced me to the heart. He couldn't have
> heard me with the outer ear--I had fallen too far behind and was
> whispering, and in English--but how He answered me!
> 
> "They laugh at Me, yet My dress is the dress of Jesus, just the
> same that He wore."
> 
> The people of the world: children! Had the Master Himself evoked
> those little demons and made a sort of moving picture of them, to
> show us what is to come as we "follow the Lord" in the dark night?
> 
> __________
> 
> But the very next day another picture, of very different children,
> was superimposed upon this.
> 
> I had been with the Master all morning. (Later I will write of the
> morning.) In the afternoon around three o'clock I returned with
> Rhoda Nichols only to meet Him just going out with the Persians.
> He smiled, then walked swiftly toward the river, but Ahmad,
> dropping behind, called to Rhoda and me: "Come along with us to the
> Harrises'." We should have known better than to go, for the Master
> had not invited us, but we couldn't resist the temptation. So we
> followed up Riverside Drive, then West End Avenue, till we came to
> Ninety-Fifth Street, where Mr and Mrs Harris live. A tenement house
> neighbourhood.
> 
> As we approached Ninety-Fifth Street, there we saw them: the
> different children. There must have been nearly a hundred of them,
> playing in the street with their hoops and balls. But, when the
> Master drew near, all shining white in His long flowing robes, they
> immediately stopped playing. It all happened instantaneously. The
> next moment they had fallen into formation and were marching down
> the street behind Him (we had
> 
> turned east toward Central Park), some of them still rolling their
> hoops. Without one word they followed, their little faces almost
> solemn. They made me think of a real and beautiful Children's
> Crusade.
> 
> We came to the house where the Harrises live and walked up five
> steep flights, but when Mrs Harris opened her apartment door and
> Rhoda and I saw a table inside set only for the Master and the
> Persians, we backed away terribly embarrassed and lost no time in
> getting downstairs. After all, we couldn't have foreseen a luncheon
> at three o'clock!
> 
> When we opened the street door, there were the children again,
> surrounding the house, silently looking up at it. A little
> yellow-haired girl came running up the stoop to me. She seemed to
> be the spokesman for the others. Breathlessly she asked: "Please,
> ma'am, tell us. Is He Christ?"
> 
> I sat down on the stoop while the whole crowd of children swarmed
> and pushed around me. "I will tell you all about Him," I said. Then
> I whispered to Rhoda: "Go upstairs again, dear, and let the Master
> know what is happening."
> 
> She returned with a wonderful message from the Master, an
> invitation to all the children to come to a feast to be given
> specially for them at the Kinneys' house next Sunday.
> 
> __________
> 
> And now just a word about the morning. Georgie Ralston and Mrs
> Brittingham, Lua, and I were together in the Master's room. As I
> sat there I felt something of the Mystery of His Divinity. The day
> was very hot and His sleeves were rolled up and I saw on His arms
> the scars of chains.
> 
> When the others left He kept me.
> 
> "I come to Your Presence, my Lord," I said, "to be cured of my
> spiritual ills."
> 
> "Your pure heart," the Master answered, "is a magnet for the Divine
> feelings."
> 
> He spoke of my mother and sent her some fruit. "Your mother," He
> said, "is very dear to me. You cannot imagine how I love your
> mother."
> 
> Then He laughed and asked: "How is Dr Grant?"
> 
> "I don't know, my Lord. I haven't seen him. I'm afraid I hurt him
> the last time we met."
> 
> "What did you do?"
> 
> "I refused to go into his house with him."
> 
> "How is he with Us?"
> 
> "I don't know."
> 
> "I want to see him. Is this possible?"
> 
> "Yes, I am sure. I will telephone to him."
> 
> "Tell him I am longing to see him, longing to see him," repeated
> the Master smiling.
> 
> I knelt and kissed His robe, looking up so happy, so grateful,
> while He looked down and laughed at me.
> 
> That night I telephoned to Percy. "I am the bearer of a message to
> you," I said, "from the Master. He asked this morning if I had seen
> you lately and said He wanted to see you. 'Tell Dr Grant I am
> longing to see him,' He said."
> 
> "That was very beautiful of Him. Give Him my cordial greetings.
> Tell him how happy I am that He thought of me. I can't tell you at
> this moment, Juliet, when I can go. I hope tomorrow afternoon. I
> have a wedding at half-past four. After that, perhaps."
> 
> "Well, I will give you the Master's telephone number and you can
> call His house about it, unless you prefer to have me arrange it."
> 
> "I should rather do it through you."
> 
> Saying he would let me know in the morning, he bade me goodbye;
> then, "I give you my loving salutations."
> 
> The next morning, however, when he called me up, he was in another
> state of mind. "Tell the Master," he said, "I have so many human
> engagements just now. I am going up to Greenwich after the wedding.
> (Greenwich is Alice Flagler's home.) "But I want to run in to see
> you this morning, if I may."
> 
> I went to my room and prayed. I was on my knees when he came. Not
> that he found me on them!
> 
> "To come straight to the point, Percy," I said, "I hope you will
> go to see the Master."
> 
> "I'm going to see the Master, only I can't today."
> 
> "Oh that is all right," I said, brightening. "I didn't understand."
> 
> We talked about other things and then Katherine Berwind dropped in.
> Percy spent the morning with us, leaving us for a little while to
> return with bottles of ginger ale and grape juice which he mixed
> into a drink for us. When he finally left about noon I followed him
> out of the studio.
> 
> "What message have you," I asked, "for the Master?"
> 
> He swore! It was a very mild swear, but he coupled the Master's
> name with it, so I can't repeat it.
> 
> "I believe you love Him," he said fiercely, "more than anything on
> earth."
> 
> "I do."
> 
> "More than your art," he added quickly.
> 
> "But of course."
> 
> "Well, you shouldn't. With your talent, Juliet, you could do
> immortal work. Do you never think of that?"
> 
> "I am thinking of His immortal work in us."
> 
> "He has done it, in you!"
> 
> "Not yet."
> 
> "Juliet, I have wanted to co-operate with Him. You know that. But
> I don't believe He can do this thing alone."
> 
> "I believe He is perfectly able to do it alone."
> 
> "You do?"
> 
> "He changes the hearts and nobody else can do that. Well, what
> message shall I take to Him?"
> 
> "Tell Him with my greeting that I will come up some time to see
> Him, but I am out of town a great deal, most of the time, and--"
> 
> "Can't you do any better than that?" I asked.
> 
> "I want to do something for His comfort and when Mr Flagler's yacht
> comes back I want to take Him up the Hudson. I will be in town
> Friday, Juliet."
> 
> "Then come up on Friday to see Him with me. Please come. You know
> I don't often persist, but this time--forgive me if I do."
> 
> "I think it is beautiful of you to persist in this instance,
> Juliet." With the face of a martyr he kissed my hand. "I will come
> Friday."
> 
> And, looking unspeakably miserable, he left me.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Friday in the afternoon he stopped for me. We were expecting the
> Master in the evening--He was to bless our house with a visit--and
> at the moment Percy arrived I was telephoning Marjorie, who had
> offered to bring some light refreshment. Percy, sitting in the
> living room, heard. But I couldn't invite him, for I knew it would
> spoil Mamma's evening with the Master--she mightn't even come into
> the room.
> 
> While I was putting on my gloves Percy produced a large and ornate
> pocketbook. "Juliet," he said, "here is an empty pocketbook which
> someone brought me from Italy. Will you accept it? I thought you
> might have in mind some Oriental person to whom you would like to
> give it."
> 
> When we started out he proposed going up in a cab, but I objected
> on the grounds that it would be slow and we were already half an
> hour late.
> 
> "I am bringing the Master down here at six and you would have no
> visit at all if we took a slow cab."
> 
> "Well, for the matter of that, Juliet"--and his upper lip grew very
> stiff--"any visit I might pay would be merely an expression of
> affection and courtesy. As for all you could get from a visit of
> this sort, where conversation must be through an interpreter and
> 'Abdu'l-Baha will go off into a monologue on some subject that
> interests Him--well, as I said, it is merely a mark of courtesy."
> 
> __________
> 
> I never saw his mouth so stubborn as when we entered the Master's
> house. The Master was waiting for us, sitting in the bay window of
> the English basement.
> 
> "Marhaba, Dr Grant! It is a long time since I have seen you, a long
> time."
> 
> But His welcome was more reserved than it had been before.
> 
> "Well, Dr Grant," He said, after a moment, "what is the very latest
> news, the very latest?"
> 
> Remembering Percy's remark, that the Master always indulged in
> monologue, I couldn't help smiling at this.
> 
> "The latest news," said Percy with a wicked look, as
> 
> obstinate, pugnacious and self-confident as I have ever seen, "is
> in the field of athletics."
> 
> "The Olympic games?" asked the Master.
> 
> "Yes," said Percy, surprised.
> 
> "You know," the Master went on, "that these games originated in
> ancient Greece and it was a necessity of that time to develop the
> body to its fullest strength, the nations being constantly at
> warfare and the men wearing armour and fighting hand to hand. Heavy
> swords had to be driven through coats of mail; bodies had to be
> strengthened to endure the mail."
> 
> "But explain to the Master," said Percy, very much de haut en bas,
> "that because of the people all centring in the cities and thus
> depleting their constitutions, the necessity for physical
> development is just as great now as it was then, though the basis
> is different."
> 
> The Master answered with the utmost sweetness: "We do not deprecate
> physical development, for the sound mind should work through a
> sound body, but We think that the people of the West are too much
> concerned with mere physical development. They forget the need of
> spiritual development."
> 
> But Percy was bent upon argument. The development of the spirit,
> he maintained, could not even begin till the body had first been
> built up; and he looked so absurdly condescending, so pompous, so
> sure of his power to defeat the Master, that I could scarcely
> control my mirth. The Master did not control His.
> 
> "Man thinks too much of perfecting the body," He smiled
> delightfully, "but of what use is it to him without the perfecting
> of the spirit? No matter how much he develops his muscles and
> sinews he will never
> 
> become as strong as the ox, as brave as the lion or as big as the
> elephant! Physically he is an animal, yet inferior to the animals,
> for animals acquire their sustenance with the greatest ease,
> whereas man has to toil incessantly, to labour with infinite pain,
> for a mere livelihood. So, in the physical realm, the beast is
> nobler than man. But man is distinguished from the beast by his
> spiritual gifts and these he should develop with the other, both
> together. There should be the perfect balance, the spiritual and
> the physical. A man whose ideal side only is developed is also
> imperfect. We do not deprecate comfort. If I could find a better
> house than this I would certainly move into it. But man should not
> think of comfort alone."
> 
> I looked at Percy. He was still like a fighting-cock, ready for
> another bout. He would never give in before me, I knew, so I
> slipped quietly into the kitchen. When I returned the whole
> atmosphere had changed. His face had softened, his stiff mouth
> relaxed. As I entered the room the Master was saying: "When one
> prays, one sometimes has divine glimpses. So, when one is
> spiritually developed, a sublimity of nature is obtained, a
> delicacy of vision such as could not otherwise be found. Not only
> this, but tranquillity and happiness are secured.
> 
> "Do you think if it had not been for spiritual assurance I could
> have been happy all those years in prison? Think of it, forty
> years! You have just been telling me, Dr Grant, that forty years
> is the average American life. I spent My American life in prison.
> Yet all that time I was on the heights of happiness. Many believers
> in Persia have been forced to give up
> 
> everything: their possessions, their families, and, in the end,
> their lives, but they never lost their happiness.
> 
> "Remember Christ, when they placed the crown of thorns on His head.
> At that very moment, as the thorns wounded His brow, He looked down
> the vista of the centuries and beheld innumerable kings bowing
> their jewelled crowns low before that crown of thorns. Do you think
> He did not know, that He could not foresee?" (Again I stole a
> glance at Percy. He looked utterly melted now and his eyes shone.)
> "When they spat in the face of Christ," the Master went on, "when
> they made a mock procession and carried Him around the streets, He
> felt no humiliation."
> 
> Just then I rose to go, first asking permission, with my eyes, of
> the Master, Percy was not inclined to go, even when we were on our
> feet. In spite of that momentary softening--perhaps partly because
> of it--he still wanted to stay and argue and I could hardly tear
> him away.
> 
> While we were standing, he swung the master's divine subject to a
> combative one, "the Occident versus the Orient": that was the
> substance of it. And if ever I saw the Occident embodied, it was
> at that moment in that man.
> 
> The Master leaned close to him and with the utmost gentleness and
> patience tried to appeal to him. The people of the East, He said,
> were content with less than the people here, so their hours of work
> were shorter. He touched too on the absence of suicide in the
> Orient.
> 
> When He spoke of suicide, and also while He described the
> humiliations heaped on Christ, which could not humiliate Him, I had
> a strange sense of impending tragedy for Percy Grant, of something
> dreadful to happen
> 
> in the future in which he would utterly "lose his happiness" and
> would feel humiliation, when perhaps these words of the Master
> would come back to him.[124]
> 
> On the way down in the cab the Master talked about economics. "The
> most important of the questions here," He said, "is the economic
> question. Until that is first solved nothing can be done. But if
> it should not be solved there will be riots."
> 
> Percy spoke of democracy.
> 
> "But your poor man," the Master replied, "cannot even think of
> economics; he is so overburdened."
> 
> I asked Percy to tell about his work and when he had done so, with
> some hesitation (for he seldom speaks of himself), the Master said
> sweetly: "May you make peace here. May you unite the classes."
> 
> Whereupon Percy's face beamed.
> 
> But he steeled himself again and at my door he turned to go, though
> I did invite him in, and the Master also said: "Are you not coming
> in?"
> 
> "No, no," and he hurried away, with a huffy look.
> 
> I can still see the Master on my steps, so in command.
> 
> "Au revoir, Dr Grant," He said.
> 
> Percy had mentioned the yacht trip to the Master and asked if He
> could make it the following Monday, but the
> 
> Master had several appointments Monday and could not accept for
> that day.
> 
> "I will try," said Percy, "to get the yacht for Tuesday."
> 
> The Master had planned to spend the whole evening with us and we
> were all to go for a walk, but the Persians had forgotten to
> announce at the Seventy-Eighth Street house that He would be absent
> Friday evening, so He felt He must return early.
> 
> __________
> 
> My Lord came into our house. The door was not locked. He opened it
> Himself and walked up the stairs. It was His house. Mamma almost
> ran to meet Him, her face suffused with joy, her eyes shy and
> tender. The MacNutts and the Goodalls had arrived and Ruth Berkeley
> and Marjorie, and were waiting in the second-floor living room. The
> Master went in and greeted them with His wonderful buoyant
> greeting; then I took Him to my room to rest and, after kneeling
> and kissing the hem of His garment, left Him lying on my couch.
> 
> While He was resting Kahlil Gibran came. He had a private talk with
> the Master in my room; then joined us upstairs in the studio, to
> which we had all gone by that time, and in a very few minutes the
> Master too joined us.
> 
> Mamma, with her own loving hands, had prepared the studio for His
> reception and it was very beautiful, full of laurel, white roses,
> and lighted white candles.
> 
> "What a good room," said the Master as He entered it. "It is like
> an Oriental room--so high. If I were to build a house here," He
> laughed, "I would build an eclectic house--partly Oriental, partly
> Occidental."
> 
> Then we passed the refreshments and our Beloved Lord "broke bread"
> with us.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. Of course I was terribly disappointed that the Master
> stayed such a short time that night. A few days later I began to
> see that this was no accident, that the changing of His plan for
> that evening had not been just a result of the Persians'
> forgetfulness, but that in it was a deep and subtle lesson for me.
> A lesson in perception--or intuition--which is truth itself. I had
> asked the Master whom I should invite to meet Him. "Anyone you
> think of," He answered. "Whatever name comes into your mind, invite
> that person." A few names came into my mind as if projected there
> from outside. Percy Grant. At once I rejected that name, on Mamma's
> account, as I have explained already. Mrs Krug. Oh no! Mamma wasn't
> fond of Mrs Krug. Mrs Kaufman. No. Then I selected my personal
> friends. Mrs Krug and Mrs Kaufman both were extremely hurt because
> I didn't invite them and what harmony there was between us was
> broken for the time being. As for Percy Grant ... !)
> 
> 16 July 1912
> 
> Tuesday, 16 July, the day proposed for the yacht trip up the
> Hudson, was a day of crushing disappointment. In the morning I
> awoke thinking: Today great things may happen for Percy; miracles
> may happen! Still, an instinct made me uneasy.
> 
> As soon as I reached the Master's house I asked if Dr Grant had
> been heard from. No word had come, Dr Farid told me, and really the
> Master ought to know in order to arrange His day's appointments.
> "You had better telephone, Juliet."
> 
> I went to the corner drugstore and called the Rectory,
> 
> only to learn that Percy was still in Greenwich. I called him in
> Greenwich.
> 
> "Oh, Juliet." He sounded bored. "I have been meaning to telephone
> you all morning, but one thing after another has prevented. No, I
> am sorry, tell 'Abdu'l-Baha how very sorry I am, but I cannot
> arrange the trip for today. Mrs Flagler was in town yesterday and
> it didn't agree with her and she isn't well enough to go today."
> 
> "I am very sorry," I murmured, so shocked I could scarcely speak.
> 
> "When does the Master leave New York?"
> 
> "On the twenty-second."
> 
> "On the twenty-second? I hope it can be arranged before them."
> 
> "I hope so."
> 
> "How did the supper go off the other night?"
> 
> "What supper?"
> 
> "The supper you had for the Master?"
> 
> "There was no supper."
> 
> "Why, I heard you talking about 'provisions' over the telephone
> with Mrs Morten."
> 
> "That was only fruit and a cool drink. The Master just paid us a
> visit. I asked you to come in."
> 
> "Well, I didn't feel that I could. I thought you were going to sit
> around a table and that all those Persians you had asked would fill
> it up, and that woman you invited at the Master's house. It makes
> me shudder, Juliet, to think of all the money you spent that day."
> 
> "That was nothing."
> 
> "Oh, money is nothing, I suppose!"
> 
> "Certainly nothing compared with a visit from the Master." And I
> said goodbye.
> 
> I went back to the house so ashamed I could hardly
> 
> hold up my head: miserably ashamed of Percy Grant, burning up with
> indignation at his deliberate insult to the Master, to Him Whose
> "dress was the same as the dress of Jesus", an insult levelled at
> the Master, the real intention of which was to hurt me. Just a
> petty revenge on me.
> 
> I gave Percy's wretched message to Dr Farid without any comment;
> then stole off alone and wept.
> 
> Soon my Lord sent for me. I longed to unburden my heart to Him, but
> Grace Krug and Louise were with Him and Grace was telling her own
> troubles, speaking of some unhappiness of the day before, so of
> course I could say nothing. I sat forcing back my tears, feeling
> that at any moment I might burst out crying and that I mustn't do
> that in His Presence for any other reason than love.
> 
> "And now," said the Master, still talking with Grace, "the sun is
> out again! The sun is shining. I am glad of that. I do not like
> clouds!"
> 
> Oh, what if I cry now, I thought.
> 
> "Winds from all directions: from the north, south, east, and
> west--great hurricanes--have beaten against My Ark, yet My Ark
> still floats." Smiling, He made an adorable gesture with His hands,
> swinging them like a rocking boat. "One single wave has submerged
> many a great ship, yet My Ark still floats!"
> 
> "Juliet," He said, turning suddenly to me, "is there anything you
> want to ask Me privately? Biya! (Come)."
> 
> He led me by the hand into the back room.
> 
> "Now speak. Your eyes are all speech!"
> 
> "I only want to say that I am deeply ashamed for Dr Grant. Deeply
> sorry. The friend to whose husband the yacht belongs is sick and
> he could not get it for today."
> 
> "It is better so," said the Master. "I was wondering
> 
> how I could do it, for I am not very well today and must be in
> Brooklyn this evening at eight o'clock. But I would have done it
> for his sake. It is better; better," He ended, with a strange sweet
> intonation, as He returned to the other room.
> 
> 18 July 1912
> 
> Each day I drink deeper of the cup of Love. Yesterday the draught
> I took was pure ecstasy. I saw Him for three brief moments only,
> but those three moments were charged.
> 
> First, I saw Him with a few others--Mrs Helen Goodall, Miss Wise,
> Ella Goodall Cooper--and He spoke to us of the kindness of God,
> holding in His hand my rosary, which He has carried for several
> days (the one Khanum gave me in Haifa). When we meet kindness in
> a human being He said, how happy it makes us. How much happier we
> will be when we realize the kindness of God.
> 
> Later He called to Him alone. I met Him as He came downstairs from
> His room to the library. He was all in white.
> 
> "Ah-h, Juliet," He said. He began to walk up and down the library.
> "Your mother sent me these things," (referring to some flowers and
> another little present). "These things came from your mother? I
> became very happy from them, but she should not have taken the
> trouble."
> 
> "It made her so happy to send that little offering."
> 
> "But she should not have taken the trouble." He continued to walk
> up and down. In a moment He said: "I am very much please with your
> truthfulness, Juliet.
> 
> That matter between us, your truthfulness on that occasion makes
> Me happy whenever I think of it."
> 
> "Everything in my heart is for You to see, my Lord. I only hope the
> day may come when You will see nothing in it except the Love of
> God."
> 
> He came very close and looked deep into my eyes with His brilliant
> eyes.
> 
> "I see your heart," He said. "I look into your face and your heart
> is perfectly clear to Me."
> 
> Again He paced up and down and it was then I knelt.
> 
> "Tell the Master," I said to Valiyu'llah Khan, "I pray that my
> heart may become entirely detached from this world."
> 
> "Your heart," said the Master, pausing before me and gazing at me
> with a face of glistening light, "will become entirely detached.
> You are now in the condition I desired for you." He walked to the
> window and stood, looking out. "I wish you to teach constantly.
> Therein lies your happiness, and My happiness."
> 
> He came back to me. I had risen.
> 
> "I wish you to be detached from the entire world of existence; to
> turn to the Kingdom of Abha with a pure heart; with a pure breath
> to teach the people. I desire for you," He continued, resuming His
> walk, "that which I desire for My own daughters, Tuba and Ruha."
> 
> With this He dismissed me.
> 
> __________
> 
> In the evening I returned to a wedding, Grace Robarts' and Harlan
> Ober's, where the Master, for me, as well as for the bride and
> bridegroom, turned the water of life into wine.
> 
> Grace and Harlan stood together, transfigured; they
> 
> seemed to be bathed in white light. Mr Ives, standing opposite,
> married them. Back in the shadow sat the Master. There were times
> when I, sitting at a little distance from Him, felt His lightning
> glance on me. At the end of the service He blessed the marriage.
> After this He went upstairs, to the front room on the third floor.
> 
> I soon followed him there, taking with me our coloured maid, Mamie,
> and her little adopted son, George, a child six years old. Mamie
> wanted to have the Master bless him.
> 
> On the way up in the bus I had (idiotically) asked: "Do you know
> who the Master is, George?"
> 
> "No, ma'am," very positively.
> 
> "Well, you will know some day, for by the time you grow up the
> whole world will know Who the Master is and then you will be so
> proud and happy to remember that He blessed you."
> 
> The blessing the Master gave George was not an obvious one, there
> was nothing ceremonial about it. He just took the child on His knee
> and talked playfully with him and caressed him. But how it
> impressed that little boy!
> 
> While we were going downtown in the bus, he rolled his big eyes up
> at me and out of a dead silence said: "I know now, ma'am."
> 
> And when Mamie's husband, Cornelius, opened the door for us, George
> rushed to him, crying out: "The Master blessed me, dearie, and I
> will show you just how."
> 
> Then he clattered down the basement stairs and I was spared the
> scene! I never did know how George demonstrated it--he couldn't
> have taken Cornelius on
> 
> his knee!--but the next day Mamie told me of something else.
> 
> "Dearie," George had asked, "is the Master that blessed me this
> evening the same Master that holds the moon in His hand and makes
> the sun shine?"
> 
> "Go to bed, child," said Cornelius.
> 
> "But," repeated George, "is the Master that same Lord that makes
> the sun shine and the rain come down?"
> 
> "The Lord that makes the sun shine," said Mamie, "is in the Master
> that blessed you this evening, George. It was the Holy Spirit that
> blessed you."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. Thirteen years later a handsome young man came to
> my door. At first I thought he was Syrian. "Do you remember
> George?" he asked. Almost at once he spoke of the Master. "I have
> had a rough life among my own people," he said, "but the blessing
> He gave me has lived like a fountain in my heart. It has protected
> me through all my sufferings. It has inspired me with the resolve
> to work for better conditions among my people. And," he went on,
> "that other time when He spoke at a big meeting on the first floor
> and you brought me up from the basement and stood me on a chair so
> that I could see Him plainly, I thought He was God then and was
> frightened." Then he described the Master to the minutest detail:
> the colour of His eyes, His skin, His hair, even the two tones of
> white in the turban He wore.
> 
> A few years ago, during the Second World War, I heard of George
> again from his real mother. He was in England, practising medicine
> and working with the wounded in the hospitals.)
> 
> 19 July 1912
> 
> This morning I went as usual to the Master's house but was stopped
> at the door by Alice Beede.
> 
> "Fly," she said, "after Mrs Goodall and Ella. They have your
> rosary. The Master just gave it to them."
> 
> My precious, precious coral rosary--given to me by the Greatest
> Holy Leaf! Given on a wonderful occasion, when a young carpenter
> living on Mount Carmel had been healed of typhoid fever. Ruha and
> I had climbed the mountain to see him and we were trying to help
> his mother when Khanum and the Holy Mother arrived with a doctor.
> The doctor went into the hut and the rest of us stayed outside,
> Khanum sitting on the ground under a tree, praying on this same
> rosary. It was dark by then, and very dark in that little garden.
> Khanum was all in shadowy white, from her veil to her feet. When
> she had finished praying, she glided like a spirit toward me and
> threw the coral chain over my head. A few days ago I took this
> great treasure to the Master. "This is the dearest thing I
> possess," I said, "except Your tablets and the ring You gave me.
> If You will use it, my Lord, it will be infinitely dearer."
> 
> I ran up the street after Mrs Goodall and Ella Cooper and when I
> overtook them said breathlessly: "Alice Beede has just told me that
> the Master gave you my rosary."
> 
> "Oh! Take it back," said Mrs Goodall.
> 
> But I had come to my senses.
> 
> "No, no," I answered. "If the Master gave it to you it is yours."
> 
> In the afternoon I went again to my Lord. He was sitting in the
> English basement, in His lap a tangled pile of rosaries. I sat
> between Ahmad and Edward Getsinger. The Master held up a rosary.
> 
> "To whom do I return this?" He inquired of Ahmad.
> 
> Edward leaned over to me and whispered: "That is the way your
> rosary went."
> 
> "Oh no, it isn't," I whispered back.
> 
> "What did Juliet say?" asked the Master.
> 
> "It was nothing, my Lord, nothing," I said.
> 
> He smiled and the subject was dropped.[125]
> 
> 25 July 1912
> 
> She Master is gone. Gone to Dublin, New Hampshire.
> 
> I shall never forget the day He left, day before yesterday. I went
> up early to His house--but oh, too late! On the street I met Mrs
> Hutchinson.
> 
> "The Master has gone!" she said, her eyes full of tears, her lips
> quivering.
> 
> "When?"
> 
> "Twenty minutes ago."
> 
> "I will go to the station."
> 
> I jumped on a subway train and reached the station in a few
> minutes. But nowhere did I see the Master and the Persians. I
> stopped a porter.
> 
> "Did a party of foreigners pass through here just now?"
> 
> "Egyptians?"
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Dublin, New Hampshire]
> 
> "Yes!" There wasn't a minute to explain.
> 
> "Yes. Go to track 19."
> 
> But track 19 was deserted except for the gateman.
> 
> "Has a party of foreigners passed this way?" I asked him.
> 
> "Turks?"
> 
> "Yes."
> 
> "They are on the train."
> 
> "I supposed I couldn't go through?"
> 
> "Yes, go through, but come right back."
> 
> Smiling my thanks, I dashed down the platform. At one of the
> windows in the train I saw a white turban.
> 
> "Could I get on the car?" I asked the conductor.
> 
> "Yes, get on. It's all right."
> 
> __________
> 
> "Ah-h, Juliet!"
> 
> "Goodbye, my Lord."
> 
> "Goodbye." He drew me down beside Him. "You should not have
> troubled to come here," He said.
> 
> "My heart wouldn't let me do otherwise."
> 
> "I will see you in a month.[126] Give My greetings to your mother,
> to all the friends; to Mrs Krug, Miss Boylan."
> 
> Closely, closely He pressed my hand, pouring the attar of rose of
> His Love upon me. Then once more He said goodbye and I left.
> 
> It had been too bold, yet even against the rules every door had
> opened to me.
> 
> __________
> 
> The last time I talked with the Master was the day before He left.
> Sure that He was to leave that morning,
> 
> the twenty-second, I went very early to His house, with eight
> palm-leaf fans in my hands. Mamma had sent them for the Master and
> the Persians to use on the hot journey.
> 
> The master was sitting in the English basement at the window. He
> called me to a chair opposite Him. "What are all those for?" He
> asked, laughing, waving His hand toward the fans.
> 
> I laughed too, for they did look funny. I explained their purpose
> and that they were from Mamma.
> 
> For a while I sat in silence before Him. Then suddenly I realized
> that He was about to leave us, that in just a few minutes He would
> be gone. I began to cry quietly.
> 
> "Tell Juliet," laughed the Master, "that I am not going today."
> 
> At this the sun came out! But soon by tears were flowing again,
> this time because His love was melting me.
> 
> "Why are you crying, Juliet? I am not going today!"
> 
> __________
> 
> In the afternoon He called me to Him and I had twenty minutes alone
> with Him and Valiyu'llah Khan. I sat with over-brimming eyes,
> drinking in the Glory of His Presence.
> 
> "Oh Valiyu'llah Khan," I said, "say to the Master for me that I
> know He is the Sun and I pray He will always encircle me with His
> rays."
> 
> "You are very near Me," He answered, "and while you speak the truth
> you will always be with Me. I pray that you may become the candle
> of New York, spreading the Light of Love all around you."
> 
> After this we sat silent in His Presence, silent for a long time.
> 
> Once again He saw me when Marjorie came. He told
> 
> her she was my child, my "little chicken" and said we must comfort
> each other after He has gone. Green Acre, Maine, 1947
> 
> If only I had written of Green Acre day by day while we were there
> with Him! There are unforgettable things, but so many details,
> precious details, have slipped away.
> 
> Mamma and I were in Bass Rocks when the Master's invitation reached
> us. Bass Rocks, on a cliff above the ocean, was Mamma's paradise
> and we could never afford more than two weeks of it. So, when
> Ahmad's postcard came, with word from the Master that He wished us
> to spend three days with Him in Green Acre, all she could think of
> at first was that three days would be lost from her paradise!
> 
> "I won't go," she said.
> 
> "Oh, Mamma, an invitation from a king is a command, and this is
> from the King of kings."
> 
> "Well, I'll go for just one night and no more. And I won't take a
> suitcase. Just a little Irish bundle, so that we can't stay more
> than one night."
> 
> So she packed our little Irish bundle: two night-gowns, two
> toothbrushes, our combs and brushes and a change of underwear.
> 
> When we arrived at the Green Acre Inn the Master met us at the door
> with His loving Marhaba; then He drew me into the dining room.
> 
> "She does not want?" He asked in English.
> 
> I couldn't tell the truth then, but of course He knew.
> 
> __________
> 
> Pictures come back to me. Mamma and I following Him down a path to
> the Eirenion, where He was to speak
> 
> to the believers. He was all in white in the dark. Mamma whispering
> to me: "It is like following a Spirit."
> 
> A tussle day after day to keep Mamma in Green Acre, in which dear
> Carrie Kinney helped me.
> 
> A night when a horrifying young man came to a meeting at the
> Kinneys' house. From head to foot he was covered with soot. His
> blue eyes stared out from a dark grey face. This was Fred
> Mortenson. He had spent half his boyhood and young manhood in a
> prison in Minneapolis. Our beloved Albert Hall, who was interested
> in prison work, had found him and taken him out on parole and given
> him the Baha'i Message. But Albert Hall was dead when the Master
> came to America.
> 
> Fred Mortenson, hearing that 'Abdu'l-Baha was in Green Acre, and
> having no money to make the trip, had ridden the bumpers [on
> freight trains] to His Presence.
> 
> He came into the meeting and sat down and was very unhappy when the
> Master, pacing back and forth as He talked, took no notice of him.
> "It must be that He knows I stole a ride," thought Fred (who told
> me all about it afterward). But no sooner was the meeting over and
> the Master upstairs in His room than He sent for Fred.
> 
> Fred had said nothing to anyone about his trip on the bumpers, but
> the minute he entered that upstairs room the Master asked smiling
> and with twinkling eyes: "How did you enjoy your ride?" then He
> took from Fred's hand his soot-covered cap and kissed it.
> 
> Years later, during the First World War, when the American
> believers sent ten thousand dollars for the relief of the starving
> Arabs, the messenger they chose to carry the money through the
> warring countries was: Fred Mortenson. The Master declined the ten
> thousand
> 
> dollars, relieving the Arabs Himself by His own hard labour. He
> went to His estate near Tiberius and Himself ploughed the fields
> there; then stored all the grain in the Shrine of the Bab.
> 
> For this He was knighted by Great Britain when British rule
> replaced Turkish in Palestine. It was meant as an honour, but to
> me it was like an insult. It nearly killed me after that to direct
> my supplications to Sir 'Abdu'l-Baha 'Abbas.
> 
> __________
> 
> But to return to Green Acre.
> 
> One day the Master, speaking from the porch of somebody's cottage,
> while the believers sat on the grass below, made this fascinating
> statement: "We are in affinity now because in pre-existence we were
> in affinity."
> 
> "Let's ask Him what He means by that," whispered Carrie to me.
> 
> So, in the evening, while the Master was in our room--Mamma's and
> mine--and Carrie sitting there with us, I put the question to Him.
> 
> "I will answer you later," He said.
> 
> But He never did, outwardly.
> 
> In a minute or so Mamma, with that funny boldness of hers which
> would sometimes burst through her timidity, said: "Master, I would
> like to see You without Your turban."
> 
> He smiled. "It is not our custom, Mrs Thompson, to take off our
> turbans before ladies, but for your sake I will do it."
> 
> And oh, the beauty we saw then! There was something in the silver
> hair flowing back from His high forehead, something in the shape
> of the head, which, in spite of His age, made me think of Christ.
> 
> There was another night, when Carrie, Mamma, and I and a few other
> believers were sitting in the second-floor hall. Suddenly, on the
> white wall of the floor above, at the head of the staircase, the
> Master's great shadow loomed. Mamma slipped over to the foot of the
> stairs and looking up with adoring eyes, called: "Master!"
> 
> And still another night. This was our third in Green Acre. Again
> we were sitting in the second-floor hall, but now the Master was
> in our midst.
> 
> "We must say goodbye tomorrow," Mamma said to Him.
> 
> "Oh no, Mrs Thompson," He laughed. "You are not going tomorrow. One
> more day." and He laughed again. "You see, I am leaving for Boston
> day after tomorrow and you are of My own family. Therefore you must
> travel with Me."
> 
> And Mamma submitted now with a satisfaction wonderful to see. She
> was proud as a peacock. "He said I was of His own family," she kept
> repeating to me.
> 
> Once He called Mamma and me into His room and among other things
> He said was this: "There are correspondences, Mrs Thompson, between
> heaven and earth and Juliet's correspondence in heaven is Mary of
> Magdala."
> 
> __________
> 
> (This diary, owing to the fact that it was written under
> difficulties, has large areas left out of it. I find that I have
> not spoken of what seemed then such a crucial thing--Lua's
> departure for California. But since she was not at our house when
> the Master visited us on 12 July, and my last account of being with
> her is dated the morning of 11 July, I'm sure she must have left
> the night of the eleventh.
> 
> I have just one story to tell of Lua, with the Master, in
> California. I want to tell it for two reasons. First: because of
> its value and also its humour; then because another version of it
> is still being told by the believers, less direct and much less
> like the Master. This is how I had it from Lua herself.
> 
> She and Georgie Ralston (who had gone with Lua to California) were
> driving one day with the Master, when He closed His eyes and
> apparently feel asleep. Lua and Georgie talked on, I imagine about
> their own concerns, for suddenly His eyes sprang open and He
> laughed.
> 
> "I, me, my, mine: words of the Devil!" He said.) New York
> 
> November 1912
> 
> The Master is here again!
> 
> I met Him at the boat last Monday, 11 November. I met Him alone.
> And this is how that happened. At noon on 11 November, Mirza
> 'Ali-Akbar arrived from Washington to find living quarters for the
> Masters and the Persians. I had had a wire from him earlier, asking
> me to meet him at the station and to house-hunt with him, which I
> did. The Master was to come at ten that night and we thought we had
> plenty of time to notify the friends so that they could meet His
> ferryboat, but later another wire came to our house, relayed to me
> through Mamma and Mr Mills at Mrs Champney's (and luckily catching
> me there), saying that the Master would arrive at eight. Through
> a series of accidents, Mr Mills' chauffeur landed us first
> somewhere in New Jersey and then at the Liberty Street station, and
> there was no time to telephone anybody.
> 
> "This will be very bad," said Mirza 'Ali-Akbar, but we couldn't
> help it.
> 
> We had accomplished everything else, had rented again the dear
> house on Seventy-Eighth Street (Mrs Champney's) and found extra
> rooms for some of the Persians.
> 
> Now, Mirza 'Ali-Akbar insisted on my taking Mr Mills' car and going
> at breakneck speed to the Twenty-Third Street station to try to
> meet the Master there, if He should come that way, while he himself
> waited at Liberty Street.
> 
> I reached Twenty-Third Street just in time. The ferryboat was
> approaching and very close to the dock. Standing at the end of the
> pier, I saw it with its chain of lights. I saw Dr Farid. Then the
> Master rose from a seat on the deck and entered the brightly lit
> cabin.
> 
> Soon He came toward me down the gangplank.
> 
> "Ah, Juliet," He said, taking my hand in His and drawing me along
> with Him, so that I walked beside Him. But He didn't invite me to
> drive to His house with Him. Instead, He sent me back after Mirza
> 'Ali-Akbar--Dr Baghdadi and Mirza Mahmud going with me. We returned
> all together to Seventy-Eighth Street.
> 
> Oh, to see Him in that house again, sitting in His old corner in
> the English basement, the corner in the bay window!
> 
> __________
> 
> I had been very naughty with Mamma that day and had grieved her.
> My precious mother was brought up in luxury, lived in luxury until
> Papa died. She cannot get over her sensitiveness about our
> too-apparent poverty and she simply won't have people to meals. I
> had begged her to make an exception of Mirza 'Ali-Akbar, who was
> arriving at such an awkward hour, and to let me bring him back for
> lunch. But she wouldn't hear of it.
> 
> Whereupon I flew into a temper, told her what I thought of her
> "false pride", and stamped out of the house.
> 
> Now, entering the Master's house with the three Persians, instead
> of a welcome, I received a blow. The Master didn't even look at me.
> 
> "How is your mother?" were His first words. "Is she happy?"
> 
> Then He told me to go straight back to her but to return the next
> day. I went back and comforted her with His rebuke to me.
> 
> __________
> 
> Early as I could on 12 November, I sought His Beloved Presence.
> Ruth and Lawrence White (who have lately been married) were with
> Him and Rhoda and Marjorie. It seems impossible sometimes for the
> physical ear, or the human mind, to retain His Divine Words. They
> moved me to tears.
> 
> "Don't cry! Don't cry!" said the Master, with His infinite
> tenderness.
> 
> The twelfth of November, the Birthday of Baha'u'llah, was the day
> of Mrs Krug's meeting and never, never shall I forget it.
> 
> There, at Mrs Krug's, the Master invoked Baha'u'llah. And as His
> cry, "Ya Baha'u'llah!" rang out, I hid my eyes, for it was as
> though He were calling Someone the same plane with Him, Someone
> Whom He saw, and Who would certainly come.
> 
> He came--the Blessed Beauty, the Lord of Hosts. A Power flashed
> into our midst, a great Sacred Power ... I can find no words.
> Burning tears poured down my cheeks. My heart shook.
> 
> After the meeting, the Master, Who was resting in another room,
> sent for me. I had supplicated through
> 
> Valiyu'llah Khan that He would come to the meeting at our house
> Friday.
> 
> "Tomorrow, Juliet," He said, "I will tell you about your meeting.
> Now go back to the house and wait till I come."
> 
> I did so and He soon came--came and sat in the corner of the window
> in the English basement just as He used to last summer. Carrie
> Kinney was there and Mr Hoar.
> 
> He had spoken so often in public and in private of an inevitable
> world war, warning America not to enter it, that I felt moved to
> mention it now.
> 
> "Will the present war in the Balkans," I asked, "terminate in the
> world war?"
> 
> "No, but within two years a spark will rise from the Balkans and
> set the whole world on fire."
> 
> Soon He rose and calling, "Come, Juliet," and beckoning to
> Valiyu'llah Khan, took us out to walk in "His garden", that narrow
> strip of park above the river. As we followed Him, Valiyu'llah Khan
> said: "How blessed to be walking in His footsteps!"
> 
> He led us to a bench and sat down between us, clasping my hand
> tightly. And then He began to ask me questions: question after
> question about the believers in New York, as to a certain condition
> among them, a lack of firmness in the Covenant, which I had never
> suspected--of which I was really ignorant. Of course, I did know
> that earlier there had been awful confusion--some teaching that
> 'Abdu'l-Baha was like Peter, others that He was Jesus Himself--but
> I thought that time was past.
> 
> "But I don't know, my Lord!" I said. "If I knew, I would tell you."
> 
> "I know you don't know," He laughed, "and I do
> 
> know. There are many things I know that you do not know. I was only
> testing you. I have loved you for your truthfulness, for the truth
> you spoke in a matter you remember. I wanted to see if your heart
> were in the same state of truthfulness." Then He said: "With those
> who are against the Centre of the Covenant you must not associate
> at all. When you find that a soul has turned away from the Covenant
> you must cut yourself off completely from him. You will know these
> people. You will see it in their faces." (How on earth, I thought,
> could I trust my judgement of the faces? He answered my unspoken
> thought at once.) "You will see a dimness on the faces, like the
> letting down of a veil."
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "I feel that I have failed in everything. I have
> failed You in all my pitiful efforts to bring about unity. And I
> know my failure has been due to lack of strict obedience."
> 
> "Obedience," said the Master, "is firmness in the Covenant. You
> must associate with the steadfast ones." He mentioned three people
> who, since His return--since I met His ferryboat alone--have
> wreaked their displeasure on me, one of whom had even "scandalized
> my name" (!) for several years; then added to the list--Mason
> Remey. This was bitter! "You must be a rock, as they are rocks."
> 
> "My Lord," I asked, with a sinking heart, "am I not firm in the
> Covenant?"
> 
> "You could be more firm," He laughed.
> 
> "Oh, my Lord!"
> 
> He rose and we began to walk.
> 
> "I had hoped," I said miserably, "that nobody loved You better than
> I."
> 
> "I know you love Me, Juliet," He answered, "but
> 
> there are degrees of love." Then He told me He carried a
> measuring-rod in His hand by which He measured the love of the
> people and that rod was obedience.
> 
> At the corner, at the entrance to the park, He paused. "You must
> love Me," He said, "for the sake of God."
> 
> "You are all I shall ever know of God!"
> 
> "I am the Servant of God. You must love Me for His sake and for the
> sake of Baha'u'llah. I am very kind to you Juliet," He added.
> 
> "I know, my Lord."
> 
> "Now go back to your mother, so that she may be pleased with you!"
> He laughed, and left me to wait for the bus.
> 
> But when He had crossed the street, when I saw Him stop for a
> moment to speak to Valiyu'llah Khan, I sank on the chain of the
> fence utterly broken-hearted.
> 
> Oh I am nothing, nothing, I thought. I have done nothing but fail
> Him. Which was just what He wanted me to see, I suppose.
> 
> But, could it be that I was not firm? I examined my character: Yes,
> it was unstable.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Wednesday, 14 November, I went very early to my Lord's house.
> He was on the point of going out, but He called me to Him.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, as He paced up and down His room, "I want to
> thank You for Your great mercy last night. I was asleep and You
> woke me."
> 
> "I pray you may ever be awake. There are a few souls in America,"
> He continued, "whom I have chosen to be teachers in this Cause. You
> are of those, Juliet. I wish you to have all the qualities of a
> teacher. That is all."
> 
> Then He asked me to wait till His return. I waited all
> 
> day. At five o'clock He came and called me to His room on the upper
> floor. With that exquisite courtesy of His, the sweetness of which
> almost breaks the heart, He--I can hardly write it--asked me to
> excuse Him for keeping me waiting.
> 
> "To wait for You, my Lord, is joy. Oh these blessed days when we
> can wait for You!"
> 
> He went on to tell me why He had been detained ...
> 
> __________
> 
> (The record of this last month must be sketchy. I cannot copy it
> all, as it concerns other people, and conditions that are past and
> best forgotten.
> 
> 28 November 1912
> 
> It is Thanksgiving Day, and I am thankful--thankful and happy.
> Everything that means my personal happiness, even every hope is
> lost. My Lord has entirely stripped my life. But I pray that He has
> freed my spirit.
> 
> On 15 November, the Master came to our house (48 West Tenth Street)
> and gave a most wonderful talk in the front room on the first floor
> to a great crowd of people who filled both the front and back rooms
> and the hall.[127] I brought George up from the basement and stood
> him on a chair, so that he could see the Master. He thought the
> Master was God and was frightened.
> 
> Driving down to us with Mrs Champney, our Lord had said: "The time
> has come for Me to throw bombs!" And He threw them in His talk that
> night.
> 
> "I have spoken," He said, "in the various Christian churches and
> in the synagogues, and in no assembly has
> 
> there been a dissenting voice. All have listened and all have
> conceded that the Teachings of Baha'u'llah are superlative in
> character, acknowledging that they constitute the very essence or
> spirit of this age and that there is no better pathway to the
> attainment of its ideals. Not a single voice has been raised in
> objection. At most there have been some who have refused to
> acknowledge the Mission of Baha'u'llah, although even these have
> admitted that He was a great teacher, a most powerful soul, a very
> great man. Some who could find no other pretext have said: 'These
> Teachings are not new; they are old and familiar; we have heard
> them before.' Therefore, I will speak to you upon the distinctive
> characteristics of the Manifestation of Baha'u'llah and prove that
> from every standpoint His Cause is distinguished from all others."
> 
> And in this address, which was one of His most powerful, the Master
> certainly proved it. The address was taken down and will be
> printed.
> 
> __________
> 
> On 18 November, at the Kinneys' house, the Master put Howard
> MacNutt through a severe ordeal, an inevitable ordeal.
> 
> Mr MacNutt had been one of the few who, when I first came to New
> York, had taught that the Master was "like Peter"--just a glorified
> disciple. But for years he had never mentioned this point of view,
> and I thought he had gotten over it.
> 
> In Chicago there are some so-called Baha'is who are still connected
> with Khayru'llah, the great Covenant-breaker, and last week the
> Master sent Mr MacNutt to Chicago to see them and try to persuade
> them to give up Khayru'llah; otherwise he was to cut them off from
> the
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with His Persian entourage in the garden
> of Howard MacNutt, New York, 1912.]
> 
> faithful believers. He--Mr MacNutt--wrote Diya Baghdadi that he had
> found these people "angels", and did nothing about the situation.
> 
> He had just returned to New York and was to meet the Master at the
> Kinneys' house that evening, 18 November, for the first time since
> his unfruitful trip. I was in the second-floor hall with the Master
> and Carrie Kinney when he arrived. The Master took him to His own
> room. After some time they came out together into the hall.
> 
> An immense crowd had gathered by then on the first floor, which is
> open the whole length of the house.
> 
> I heard the Master say to Mr MacNutt: "Go down and tell the people:
> 'I was like Saul. Now I am Paul, for I see."
> 
> "But I don't see," said poor Howard.
> 
> "Go down and say: 'I was like Saul.'"
> 
> I pulled his coattail. "For God's sake," I said, "go down."
> 
> "Let me alone," he replied in his misery.
> 
> "GO DOWN," commanded the Master.
> 
> Mr MacNutt turned and went down, and his back looked shrunken. The
> Master leaned over the stair rail, His head thrown far back, His
> eyes closed, in anguished prayer. I sat with Carrie on the top
> step, watching Him. This is like Christ in Gethsemane, I thought.
> 
> We could hear the voice of Howard MacNutt stumbling through his
> confession: "I was like Saul." But he seemed to be saying it by
> rote, dragging through it still unconvinced. Nevertheless when he
> came upstairs again, the Master deluged him with love.
> 
> By that time the Master was back in His room and as Mr MacNutt
> appeared at the door, He ran forward to meet him. Our Lord was all
> in white that night and as
> 
> He ran with His arms wide open He looked like a great flying bird.
> He enfolded Howard in a close embrace, kissed his face and neck,
> welcomed with ecstasy this broken man who, even though bewildered,
> had obeyed Him.
> 
> The next night while Mamma, Miss Annie Boylan[128] and I were
> together in the Master's Presence, Miss Annie Boylan brought up Mr
> MacNutt's name and spoke gloatingly of his chastisement.
> 
> The Master sighed. "I immersed Mr MacNutt in the fountain of Job
> last night," He said.
> 
> __________
> 
> The next morning, Sunday, 24 November, I hastened to the Master's
> house. I knew it would be full of people, friends from other towns
> who had come to attend the banquet and to be with the Master during
> His last days here. I knew Mason Remey was in New York and that I
> should have to meet him, perhaps this morning; and to face him
> before the Master and all the believers would be misery. Our
> engagement, in the eyes of the believers, had been the most ideal
> romance:[129] I had seen many moved to tears by it, and when the
> engagement was broken, every one of them had resented it, taking
> up cudgels for Mason and putting the entire blame on me. As for
> Mason, he had said: "I am an Indian. I never forgive."
> 
> For over a year Mason and I had avoided each other in perfectly
> absurd ways. When I had to go down to Washington, I had written
> him: "Please stay away from the meetings while I am there." (!)
> Then one day, in Washington, when I boarded a moving, rocking
> street
> 
> car, I fell backward on somebody's lap and turned to find myself
> sitting on Mason's knees! I haven't seen him since and now, as I
> approached the Master's house, knowing he would surely be
> inside--if not at that moment, very soon--I wanted to turn and run.
> 
> Suddenly I saw that all this was nonsense and should be overcome
> at once, before the Master's departure. An idea occurred to me. I
> stood on the doorstep a minute or two bracing myself to carry it
> out, to walk boldly up to Mason and say: "Let's go to the Master
> now and tell Him we are friends again and want to work together in
> the old way as a real brother and sister in the Cause." All at
> once, though still a little shy, I felt eager to do this, to put
> things right.
> 
> I opened the door, and there stood Marie Hopper, evidently waiting
> to waylay me. She looked very mysterious, important and excited.
> "Juliet," she said, "I must have a word with you. There is
> something I have to do."
> 
> Then she exhorted me to marry Mason. She told me she knew the
> Master wished it; she had "private information". The Master had
> said I would "suffer" until I did marry him
> 
> "If I have to suffer," I said, "I prefer a respectable martyrdom!
> I'd be nothing but a common prostitute if I married him. And I
> can't believe, Marie, that the Master really said this."
> 
> May Maxwell came up at that moment, very earnest and starry-eyed,
> to reinforce Marie.
> 
> "Very well," I said, "I will talk with the Master myself about it.
> He is just upstairs, thank God, no further away than the top floor
> of this house, and whatever He wants me to do, I will do."
> 
> I went up with Valiyu'llah Khan. But first I stopped on
> 
> the third floor and had a little private cry with Valiyu'llah.
> Percy Grant was to come the next day to the Master--this would be
> his last visit--and who could tell what would happen then; what
> miracle might not happen; what change might not take place in him?
> And now, Mason Remey looming up again!
> 
> We found the Master on the point of going out, standing in His
> room, holding a big, white, folded umbrella. I knelt and He pressed
> my head against His arm and took my hand in a tight clasp. "Speak,"
> He said.
> 
> "Tell the Master, Valiyu'llah Khan, that I know He will laugh at
> this, because I want to speak about marrying Mason. I have heard
> from Marie Hopper that the Master wishes it. If He really does wish
> it, I am ready."
> 
> "Na! Na!" (No! No!) said the Master. His eyes were twinkling and
> the corners of His mouth quivering as though He were trying not to
> smile. "It was this way," He said. "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."
> 
> I kissed His tender hand.
> 
> Needless to say, after this, I couldn't go near Mason Remey.
> 
> __________
> 
> On 20 November, the Master spent the morning in my little
> room.[130] Once more His Glory shone in my room; His Life was
> diffused in it. It is a sanctuary now to me, like a chapel in our
> house.
> 
> He had brought Mrs Champney with Him and Mr MacNutt and, during the
> morning, Mr MacNutt, who
> 
> was standing behind the Master very humbly, lifted the hem of His
> 'aba to his lips.
> 
> Mamma brought the Master some soup which she had prepared
> especially for Him.
> 
> "I was just wishing for soup," He said sweetly. "You, Mrs Thompson,
> have the reality of love."
> 
> Mamma then showed Him Papa's picture and He kissed it.
> 
> After a while He left us and was absent for some time. When He came
> back He said: "I have been in every room in your house."
> 
> And when He bade us goodbye, as He swung down the stairs with His
> powerful step, His voice rang out: "This house is blessed."
> 
> After He had gone I sat in the chair He had sat in and wrote an
> appeal to Percy Grant: "I tried to reach you by phone this morning
> to tell you the Master is soon returning to Haifa and that He
> wishes to take His portrait with Him." (Percy had been exhibiting
> it in the chapel of his Parish House.) "And to ask if some time
> tomorrow I could come for it. I want to thank you too for your
> hospitality to the Master's picture and for your beautiful
> reference to it last Sunday, of which I have heard.
> 
> "You have given to many an opportunity to see at least a portrayal,
> if a very weak one, of a dear face which I doubt if most of us will
> see again. He is going back into dangerous conditions. Dear Percy,
> will you let Him go without saying goodbye to Him? Only the other
> day he was speaking of you."
> 
> To this I received a very stiff answer, merely asking the date of
> the Master's sailing and His address.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Saturday, the twenty-third, the Master spent most of the day in
> Montclair. When I went to His Seventy-
> 
> Eighth Street house in the late afternoon I was met with joyous
> news. By staying over in Montclair He had missed reserving His
> passage on the Mauretania and His sailing was now delayed! Also I
> heard that Percy had telephoned and asked for permission to call
> Monday.
> 
> That night the Master gave a banquet at the Great Northern Hotel.
> 
> May Maxwell, Marie Hopper, Marjorie, Rhoda, Mamma, and I sat at the
> same table. Just before the food was served the Master rose from
> his seat, a vial of attar of rose in His hand, and passed among all
> the tables, anointing every one of His guests. As His wonderful
> hand, dripping perfume, touched my forehead, as He scattered on my
> hair the fragrant drops, my whole being seemed to wake and sparkle.
> 
> At the end of His talk[131] He said: "Such a banquet and such an
> assemblage command the sincere devotion of all present and invite
> the down-pouring of the blessings of God. Therefore be ye assured
> and confident that the confirmations of God are descending upon
> you, the assistance of God will be given unto you, the breaths of
> the Holy Spirit will quicken you with a new life, the Sun of
> Reality will shine gloriously upon you and the fragrant breeze of
> the rose gardens of Divine Mercy will waft through the windows of
> your souls. Be ye confident and steadfast ..."
> 
> __________
> 
> The following morning, 25 November, I spent with the Master. One
> heavenly thing He said was this: "I have searched throughout the
> length and breadth of this land for flames, I want the flames! The
> solid ones are no good." Then He told me I was a flame. And He
> spoke
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha in banquet at the Great Northern Hotel,
> 23 November 1912.]
> 
> beautifully of Mamma: "If I had a mother like yours, Juliet, I
> would never deviate, even by a hair's breadth, from her wishes."
> 
> That night Mamma went to see Him with me. He was looking utterly
> spent, but He insisted on keeping us--wouldn't let us go for at
> least an hour.
> 
> In the meantime, at five o'clock, Percy Grant had come. The Master
> was out but expected back any minute. He had had to address a
> Women's Club early in the afternoon and from there was to go to Mrs
> Cochran's. Through Valiyu'llah Khan, He had asked me to wait and
> detain Percy. While I was waiting in the English basement, Carrie
> and Mrs Champney with me, a taxicab stopped at the door; then in
> came Dr Grant, very big and rigid, his black clerical broadcloth
> and his white clerical collar firmly moulded around him.
> 
> Soon the Master returned. I can still see that Figure entering the
> room like a mighty Eastern king, in His long green 'aba, edged with
> white fur, His white turban; I can see His outstretched arms, His
> divinely sweet smile; can hear the music of His voice: that long
> "Oh-h! Oh-h!" of welcome. "Oh-h! Oh-h!, Dr Grant!" as though to
> meet Dr Grant were the most delectable thing on earth.
> 
> Then He took Percy's hand and held it, never letting it go while
> I saw them together, and began to talk smilingly to him.
> 
> "You must excuse me for keeping you waiting, Dr Grant. I am very,
> very sorry to have kept you waiting, very sorry. But I was captured
> by three hundred women this afternoon. Is it not a dreadful thing
> to be captured by so many women? (At this I felt wickedly amused.)
> "The women in America dominate the men," the Master continued.
> "Come upstairs with Me." And still
> 
> holding Percy by the hand, with the lightness of a spirit He led
> him up the first flight. I shall never cease to see those two
> figures. The King of the East--and the West--in the garments of an
> Eastern king, leading the way to an upper chamber; the resistant
> clergyman, hardened into his clerical clothes, stiffly following,
> pulled up the stairs by a too strong hand.
> 
> But when Percy came down, after a very long time, his whole face
> was changed. His eyes were like burning stars, his mouth softened,
> relaxed. He grasped my hand and pressed it. "May I take you home,
> Juliet?"
> 
> "Thanks, Percy, I am staying here for a while."
> 
> Soon after he left, Dr Farid rushed down the stairs to me.
> 
> "There is hope--great hope," he said. "He was a changed man today.
> Entirely different from last summer. He seemed deeply touched at
> the thought of the Master returning into danger and asked if we
> would cable him if any trouble should arise, so that he might do
> whatever he could. He asked also if, from time to time, the Master
> would send him news, 'through one of your humblest followers,' he
> said.
> 
> "When he spoke of danger the Master replied that He had never
> feared danger and told him the story of the Turkish Investigating
> Committee sent to 'Akka by 'Abdu'l-Hamid. How the verdict of this
> Committee was that He--'Abdu'l-Baha--must die; that He must either
> be crucified at the gate of 'Akka or sent alone to the desert of
> Fezan, where He would inevitably starve. How at that time the
> Italian consul, a friend, had arranged for a ship to be sent to
> Haifa, ostensibly with cargo, but really to help the Master escape.
> And how the Master had said: 'My Father, Baha'u'llah, never
> delivered Himself, though He had the opportunity. From this
> 
> Prison He spread His Teachings. I, therefore, will follow in His
> footsteps. I will not deliver Myself.'
> 
> "Then," Dr Farid went on, "the Master told Dr, Grant of the
> hastening of the Committee to Turkey to lay its verdict with all
> possible speed before the Sultan, but before they landed on Turkish
> soil, 'the cannon of God had boomed forth at the gates of the
> Sultan's palace.' 'Abdu'l-Hamid was deposed by the rising of the
> Young Turks and 'Abdu'l-Baha set free.
> 
> "'So,' ended the Master, 'God delivered Me.'"
> 
> The miracle had happened. Percy Grant was "a changed man!"
> 
> __________
> 
> Not long was I allowed to cherish my hope!
> 
> The next day, 26 November, while I was waiting in the Master's
> house, He sent Dr Baghdadi to bring me to His room. May Maxwell was
> with Him and Dr Baghdadi remained. I sat on the floor at my Lord's
> feet.
> 
> Smiling down on me, He said: "Why does Mrs Maxwell love you so,
> Juliet?"
> 
> "Because she is my spiritual mother."
> 
> "In Montreal, when I was staying with her, she was always
> mentioning your name and Lua's. 'Juliet, Lua. Juliet, Lua. Juliet,
> Lua,'" chanted the Master. "That was her song."
> 
> "May and Lua, May and Lua," I smiled, "are the two dearest names
> to my heart."
> 
> "This is well," said the Master.
> 
> May turned to Dr Baghdadi. "Ask the Master," she said, "if I may
> be allowed to speak of something to Him." And when she had received
> permission: "My heart is tortured at the thought of all the
> children who are starving for love in these days. So little is
> understood
> 
> [Photograph of Juliet Thompson and may Maxwell]
> 
> of the privileges of motherhood. The children are left to nurses
> and brought up in blighting environments. I want to ask His prayers
> for the mothers of America. Juliet," she whispered to me, "join in
> this supplication."
> 
> I put my best foot forward to support her: "I should like to join
> in May's supplication that the women may soon realize that
> motherhood is their first function." But, even as I spoke the words
> I saw how funny they were, coming from me--and that I had spread
> a snare for my own feet, which I suspect May wanted me to do!
> 
> The Master smiled broadly.
> 
> "What are you doing advocating this, Juliet? Where are your
> children? Mrs Maxwell has a child, but where are yours? If you had
> married, you too could have brought children to me, one to sit on
> each knee! A sterile woman is like a fruitless tree. Of course,"
> He added, smiling again and quoting my words of last summer, "of
> course you will say: 'What can I do with my heart.'"
> 
> "No, I won't say that any more," I answered. "You can do something
> with my heart if I cannot. You can make me a new heart. And now,
> since the Master has spoken of this," I said to Dr Baghdadi, "there
> is something I should like to ask Him. Last spring and summer He
> was indefinite with me about ... Dr Grant; perhaps, as I have been
> thinking lately, because I wasn't strong enough to bear the truth.
> But I believe I am stronger now and ready, at a word from Him, to
> renounce this hope. Is it not to be fulfilled?"
> 
> "No," said the Master. "Otherwise, I would have told you."
> 
> For a moment we sat in His Presence silent. In the fire of that
> Presence, in that little moment, my hope of twelve years melted
> away. As it vanished, a miracle happened. The Being sitting before
> me, now writing on a bit
> 
> of parchment held in the palm of His hand, changed from a body to
> a sun-like Spirit. I saw Him translucent, luminous, and depths of
> iridescence opened behind Him.
> 
> "Oh," I cried, tears coursing down my cheeks, "since that phantom
> of a hope went, I have entered the Presence of God."
> 
> The Master said nothing. He was still writing, writing
> mysteriously.
> 
> "May," I whispered, "do you remember that prayer: 'As the Pen moves
> over the pages of the Tablet by which the musk of significances in
> the world of creation is exhaled?'"
> 
> After a while the Master looked up. "I wish you to marry, Juliet,"
> He said. "I wish you to bring Me children to hold on My knees. God
> will send someone to you who will be agreeable to you."
> 
> What did it matter?
> 
> "May I ask one thing, my Lord? May I supplicate for Percy's soul,
> that in the end he will see the truth?"
> 
> "We must always pray for him," answered the Master.
> 
> Mrs Krug and Carrie came in then. I hated to cry before them, but
> I couldn't stop.
> 
> "Don't cry, don't cry," said the Master, as only He can say it.
> 
> "Oh, that Voice!" whispered May.
> 
> "No, no. Don't cry." This from Grace Krug, with a very disapproving
> look.
> 
> "I seem to be in flames, my Lord--the flames of Thy love, Thy
> Presence--and to be melting."
> 
> But He saw deeper. "Khayr," (no) He said slowly.
> 
> "NO!" echoed Mrs Krug.
> 
> "You must be happy," the Master ended, "because of this thing I
> have told you."
> 
> As I said, this happened in the afternoon of 26 November. The
> morning had been a tremendous one.
> 
> Knowing that my Lord would be at the Kinneys', I went directly
> there. On the way up in the bus a great wave of tears, like a tidal
> wave, rose from my heart (I didn't know why) and threatened at any
> moment to break over me.
> 
> I found the Master on the upper floor of the Kinneys' house with
> the Persians, Carrie and Ned, Nellie Lloyd, and Mr Mills. The
> Tablet of the Branch[132] was being translated under the
> supervision of the Master. Dr Baghdadi and Dr Farid were working
> on it, submitting it time after time to the Master before He was
> satisfied with their rendering. I shall never forget His sternness,
> His terrific majesty as He directed that translation.
> 
> The wave of tears did break as I listened and watched. I was shaken
> beyond all control. Mirza Mahmud and Valiyu'llah Khan tenderly
> tried to calm me.
> 
> 7 December 1912
> 
> 28 November, Thanksgiving Day, was to be a day of rest for our
> Beloved Lord. It had been given out that no one would be received
> at the house that day. So, when the telephone rang about noon and
> Ahmad, at the other end, asked me to come immediately to the
> Master, I felt so singled out and privileged! And to be alone with
> Him and the Persians--that would be something important, something
> wonderful.
> 
> But He met me with a grave, almost stern face. And
> 
> with a command which at once banished my complacent hope. Swiftly
> crossing His room to the door where I stood, He said, without even
> a greeting: "Mrs May Maxwell is sick. I want you to go with some
> medicine to her and to spend the afternoon taking care of her." He
> walked back to the window, beckoning me to follow Him. Then He
> picked up a glass from His table and a bottle of rosewater. "Give
> her this," He said. "Pour out so much," (He poured about an inch
> into the glass) "and so much water. Put in some sugar, the sugar
> of your love. Drink this yourself." He gave me the glass He had
> been preparing, for my cure, and, looking pointedly at me, began
> to pray.
> 
> "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!"
> 
> Feeling strangely numb, I said, as I drank the rosewater: "Ya
> Baha'u'l-Abha!"
> 
> He turned to the window and looked out.
> 
> "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!"
> 
> "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha," I echoed.
> 
> Again and again He repeated the Greatest Name and I repeated it
> after Him, praying with Him.
> 
> At last He said: "Now go to Mrs May Maxwell. Telephone your mother
> that I have sent you to her as she is sick, to spend the afternoon
> with her."
> 
> Then He bowed, still grave, and I left Him, the bottle of rosewater
> in my hand.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. Years later I was to see the meaning of this and
> that I had utterly failed in administering the "medicine". Mrs May
> Maxwell wouldn't drink it; she said I had put too much sugar in it.
> I loved her with a personal love. It never rose to the heights of
> an all-forgiving love, and so I
> 
> couldn't overcome that strange vein of cruelty in the love I think
> she felt for me. We were still divided when she died. This was one
> of my great failures.
> 
> Another significant thing: Nine years after that date, on 28
> November 1921, our Beloved Lord ascended. Could this have been the
> reason, with His pre-vision, that He spent that day in 1912 in
> solitude?)
> 
> __________
> 
> Within the next day or two, Mrs May Maxwell and I were together in
> His Presence. "Am I spiritually sick, my Lord?" she asked. "For I
> was not physically sick the day you sent me the rosewater."
> 
> "Yes," He answered gently, "you are spiritually sick. Had you been
> physically sick I would have sent you a doctor instead of Juliet."
> 
> __________
> 
> On 29 November, May Maxwell, Dorothea Spinney, and I were with the
> Master when Esther Foster came in. May, Miss Spinney, and I rose.
> 
> "All of you may stay," said the Master, "on the condition that
> Juliet doesn't cry."
> 
> I tried so hard after that to squeeze back the tears, but I
> couldn't. I wiped them away furtively as they trickled down one by
> one.
> 
> He kept us with Him an hour. Dorothea Spinney--an Englishwoman and
> a Theosophist--spoke of a vision she had had while meditating. She
> has seen a great globe of fire which she seemed to know was "the
> Centre of Peace".
> 
> "I should like to understand this," she said. "What, or Who is the
> Centre of Peace?"
> 
> The Master had been writing on a piece of parchment held in the
> palm of His hand. He continued to write, not looking up, leaving
> Miss Spinney's question in the air.
> 
> And all the time He glowed more and more, like the sun dispersing
> clouds, pulsing out with every breath intenser light.
> 
> "Look at His Face," I whispered to Miss Spinney, "and see the
> Centre of Peace."
> 
> By and by He spoke: "Excuse me for writing," He said, "it was very
> important. You asked me concerning visions. Sometimes the thought
> becomes abstracted, enters the World of Reality, and there makes
> discoveries."
> 
> Then He rose and began to pace up and down and discovered that I
> was crying.
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I cried, in a panic, "what are You going to do with
> me?"
> 
> "I am going to find a Mister for you," He laughed.
> 
> __________
> 
> Those last meetings in the Kinneys' house. Those divine talks of
> the Good Shepherd leaving His flock for a while: too tender, too
> sad for the heart to bear.[133]
> 
> One day, however, He was very stern. Holding the book of the Hidden
> Words in His hand, walking back and forth with that step which
> always makes me think of the prophecy, "Who is this that cometh
> from Bozrah, Who treadeth the wine-press in His fury?" lifting the
> Hidden Words high, He said: "Whosoever does not live up to these
> Words is not of Me."
> 
> __________
> 
> Mr Howard Colby Ives accepted the Cause in those days. Mrs Moore
> accepted. Touched to the core of their beings they would sit with
> streaming eyes in the meetings.
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with the Kinney family in their home in
> New York.]
> 
> At last came the day before He sailed.
> 
> "May I stay in some corner of this house all day," I asked, "that
> I may breathe the same air with You this last day?"
> 
> "What does your mother say about it?"--laughing.
> 
> "She said I might."
> 
> "Very well."
> 
> In the afternoon He called me. He kept me in the room a long, long
> time, seeing many others while I sat there. When He had dismissed
> them all, He came close to me and took my hand.
> 
> "There is a matter," He said, "about which I want to speak to you.
> The photographs of the portrait you painted of Me, you have offered
> them for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. I know your circumstances, Juliet.
> You have not complained to Me, you have said nothing, but I know
> them. I know your affairs are in confusion, that you have debts,
> that you have that house, that you have to take care of your
> mother. Now I want you to keep the money" (for the photographs)
> "for yourself. No, no; do not feel unhappy," (as I began to cry)
> "this is best. You must do exactly as I say. I will speak about
> this Myself to the believers. I will tell them," He laughed, "that
> is it My command."
> 
> I thanked Him brokenly.
> 
> I can see Him now, pacing up and down the room in front of the line
> of Persians, who stood with bowed heads and folded arms in the
> Glory of His Presence, deeply aware of its Divineness.
> 
> Then Valiyu'llah spoke: "Juliet wants to know if You are pleased
> with her, or not?"
> 
> (I had spoken out my troubled heart to dear Valiyu'llah.)
> 
> "I am very much pleased with the love of Juliet," answered the
> Master.
> 
> My Lord, I pray that my life may please You."
> 
> "Insha'llah." And that was all!
> 
> "And that my services may become acceptable to You. I know I have
> not begun to serve You yet."
> 
> The Master said nothing.
> 
> But that night He healed my broken heart, healed it by a tone in
> His voice as He spoke to my mother, which was the essence of God's
> tenderness, a tone unimaginable to those who have only heard the
> human voice.
> 
> As Mamma approached Him to bid Him goodbye, He said: "Ah, the
> mother of Juliet; the mother of Julie!" (Mamma's pet name for me.)
> 
> "I can't bear to say goodbye," said Mamma.
> 
> "Insha'llah, I shall meet you in 'Akka, Mrs Thompson, and there I
> shall greet you with 'Welcome! Welcome!'"
> 
> This was on the night of 4 December.
> 
> He asked me to come to the Emerys' (where He had been staying for
> a few days) the morning of 5 December, the day of His sailing; and
> I was there at eight o'clock. That last morning. I stood at the
> door of His room, gazing in, my eyes drinking their fill, if they
> ever could drink their fill, of the Divine Figure as He sat, or
> stood, or moved about the room.
> 
> He called me in twice. The second time He took my hand. "Remember,"
> He said, "I am with you always. Baha'u'llah will be with you
> always."
> 
> Carrie Kinney was there that morning and Ned, and 'Ali Quli Khan
> and Florence, Edna Ballora and her husband, Harriet Magee, Mrs
> Parsons, and Mrs Hannen. The Master had invited Mamma too, but she
> had not felt well enough to go.
> 
> "Rest assured," He said when I told Him, "that she will be healed."
> And He filled my arms with fruit for her.
> 
> We drove to the boat, then followed Him up to His cabin. Many
> believers were crowding the cabin. Later we all went upstairs and
> sat in a large room with Him. Very soon He rose, and, walking up
> and down, delivered to us His last spoken message.[134]
> 
> First He described heartbreakingly the war now raging in the
> Balkans. Then He said: "As to you: your efforts must be lofty.
> Exert yourselves with heart and soul that perchance through your
> efforts the light of Universal Peace may shine and this darkness
> of estrangement and enmity may be dispelled from amongst men ...
> 
> "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 ...
> 
> "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 God's image and likeness. And unto this I call you, praying to
> God to strengthen and bless you."
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha leaving America on the Celtic from New
> York City.]
> 
> He seated Himself again in a corner of the large cabin, all the
> believers flocked around Him. I sat opposite Him at a little
> distance, weeping quietly. A great fear had taken possession of me,
> a question risen in my mind which must be answered or I should have
> no peace--I should be left in a frantic state. I rose and walked
> over to Him and stood before Him.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "each time I have parted from You: in Haifa, in
> Europe, You have said You would call me again to You. Each time You
> gave me hope that I would see You again. But this time You gave me
> no hope. Won't I see You again, my Lord?"
> 
> "This is My hope," He replied.
> 
> "But still You don't tell me, my Lord, and it makes me feel
> hopeless."
> 
> "You must not feel hopeless."
> 
> This was all He said to me. It killed me. While I sat, weighed down
> with despair and grief, He drew from an inside pocket the purse Dr
> Grant had sent Him last summer, laid it on His knee and looked at
> me. To me it seemed a promise that He Himself would take care of
> Percy. And this was the very last.
> 
> It was death to leave that ship. I stood on the pier with May
> Maxwell, tears blurring my sight. Through them I could see the
> Master in the midst of the group of Persians waving a patient hand
> to us. It waved and waved, that beautiful patient hand, till the
> Figure was lost to sight.
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha--the last photo taken in America, 1912.]
> 
> (1947. Because of those blurring tears I could not see the look on
> His face, the look of profound agony, as though He were on the
> cross, as He bade His immature children farewell, foreseeing for
> us so many sorrows, so many failures, and a world gone to pieces
> because of our failures.
> 
> This look I have seen ever since in a photograph taken at that last
> moment.)
> 
> Diary of Juliet Thompson: Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Notes
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha in America
> 
> 25 March to 7 December 1912
> 
> To the attracted maid-servant of God, Juliet Thompson.
> 
> HE IS GOD!
> 
> O thou candle of the Love of God!
> 
> Thy numerous letters were received. According to the promise, by
> the Will of God, I shall embark on the boat 25 March and in the
> latter part reach Naples, where I shall stay a few days and from
> thence start for New York.
> 
> Verily, this is great glad tidings. Upon thee by Baha'u'l-Abha.
> (signed) Abdul Baha Abba. Translated in the Orient.
> 
> New York
> 
> Twelve o'clock, 25 March 1912
> 
> It is just midnight. TODAY the Master sails for America. I feel His
> Presence strongly.
> 
> __________
> 
> Received March 25:
> 
> The Church of the Ascension. 5 Avenue and 10th Street.
> 
> 23 March
> 
> My dear Juliet:
> 
> I understand that Abdul Baha is to arrive in New York 10
> April--that is, in Easter week,--so that the 14 April would be his
> first Sunday in New York.
> 
> 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.
> 
> If, however, his coming in the middle of the week means that he
> ought to get more quickly into public contact with the city, which
> may well be the case if his stay is brief, then I would offer the
> Church of the Ascension to the committee in charge of his affairs
> to
> 
> have any kind of service they please, in the daytime or evening,
> between his arrival, let us say 10 April--and the following Sunday.
> 
> That is to say I make one of two propositions: to offer him my
> pulpit Sunday, 14 April, at eleven a.m., or to offer the Church,
> unhampered by any form of service, between the tenth and the
> fourteenth.
> 
> Faithfully,
> 
> (signed) Percy S. Grant
> 
> __________
> 
> What will obedience bring forth, if half-obedience brings forth
> this? I have refused all winter to see Percy Grant.
> 
> I wrote thanking him and asking him to get in touch with the
> committee of arrangements, Mr Mills and Mr MacNutt.
> 
> __________
> 
> The Church of the Ascension. 5 Avenue and 10th Street.
> 
> 28 March 1912
> 
> My dear Juliet:
> 
> I thank you for your nice letter about Abdul Baha. Whatever may
> seem most agreeable to those having the matter in charge will be
> altogether satisfactory to me.
> 
> Whatever I can do I hope you will allow me to do, to honour such
> a distinguished visitor from the East--one so loved by my friends.
> 
> Believe me to be faithfully yours,
> 
> (signed) Percy S. Grant
> 
> 8 April 1912
> 
> Little did I dream when I began this diary what I would write in
> its closing pages! This morning I telephoned Percy.
> 
> "This is Juliet."
> 
> "Ah, Juliet."
> 
> "I want to tell you two things. First, 'Abdu'l-Baha is on the
> Cedric and will arrive Wednesday morning. And--is your time very
> full Thursday? For I think He will send for you almost at once."
> 
> "Wait. Let me get my card, Juliet. No, I have no engagements for
> Thursday, except in the evening, and could come any time during the
> day to see Him. I am very happy. I shall be very glad to see the
> Master, Juliet."
> 
> "As soon as He arrives, someone will let you know."
> 
> I then brought up the second thing.
> 
> "I'd like to explain something," I said. "Has Dr Guthrie got into
> touch with you?"
> 
> "No."
> 
> "Then I hardly need to explain. But it was this: Charles James had
> heard some rumour that the Master was to speak in your church. He
> mentioned this to Dr Guthrie, who immediately wanted to offer his
> church, too. This morning a letter came from Dr Guthrie inviting
> the Master to speak on the night of the fourteenth. I tell you all
> this really to say that it was not through me Dr Guthrie heard of
> your plans."
> 
> "I am a very easy person, Juliet, in misunderstandings."
> 
> "I know that."
> 
> "And I am glad Dr Guthrie has made the same offer that I have."
> 
> "No one has made the same offer you have."
> 
> It was then he repeated something he had said to Mr MacNutt; I
> can't remember just what.
> 
> "That was beautiful of you," I answered.
> 
> "No, it was not. And Juliet: I don't want you to feel that this is
> a favour. I want you to feel--to understand--that you have a
> proprietary interest in the church: a proprietary interest; that
> it is yours to give. The church is yours. The Parish House is
> yours. The Rectory is yours.[88] We will ask the Master to the
> Rectory and form little groups to meet Him. I don't want to bore
> you, Juliet," (oh imagine him boring me!) "but I want you to feel
> that it is yours, this house. Here it is, just at the end of the
> street. Ask anyone to the Rectory, anyone you wish. You may
> eliminate the Rector, if you would rather not have me here ..."
> This and much more. He contradicted that last statement once. "I
> want you," he said, with his appealing boyishness, "to come around
> me again, Juliet." His voice broke. He stammered a little and
> ended. "I am a tongue-tied person when it comes to strong feeling."
> 
> "I should like," I said, "to take you by the hand and lead you to
> the Master myself."
> 
> "I want you to, Juliet. I don't want to do it any other way. I want
> you to be there. I don't want to do it without you."
> 
> "Then we will meet on Thursday. We will see each other on Thursday
> in His Presence. I think it will be beautiful to meet there."
> 
> "It will be the north and the south in His Presence, Juliet."
> 
> "The Master has loved you a long time, Percy, for your work."
> 
> "Some people say they are loved for their enemies, Juliet. If I am
> loved, it is for my friends."
> 
> 10 April 1912. 11:15 p.m.
> 
> Tomorrow He comes! Who comes? "Who is this that cometh from
> Bozrah?"
> 
> This is a night of holy expectation. The air is charged with
> sanctity. I can almost hear the Gloria in Excelsis.
> 
> How close He is tonight! Is it His prayers I feel? Why has earth
> become suddenly divine?
> 
> Midnight
> 
> The Master comes TODAY!
> 
> 11 April 1912
> 
> Oh day of days!
> 
> I was wakened this morning while it was yet dark by something
> shining into my eyes. It was a ray from the moon, its waning
> crescent framed low in my windowpane.
> 
> Symbol of the Covenant, was my first thought. How perfectly
> beautiful to be wakened today by it! But at once I remembered
> another time when I had seen the
> 
> waning moon hanging, then, above palm trees. I was on the roof of
> the House in 'Akka with the Master and Munavvar Khanum. The Master
> was pointing to the moon. "The East. The moon. No!" He said. "I am
> the Sun of the West."
> 
> At dawn, kneeling at my window, I prayed in the swelling light for
> all this land, now sleeping, that it would wake to received its
> Lord; conscious, as I prayed, of an overshadowing Sacred Presence:
> a great, glorious, burning Presence--the Sun of Love rising. This
> fiery dawn was but a pale symbol of such a rising.
> 
> Between seven and eight I went to the pier with Marjorie Morten and
> Rhoda Nichols. The morning was crystal clear, sparkling. I had a
> sense of its being Easter: of lilies, almost seen, blooming at my
> feet.
> 
> All the believers of New York had gathered at the pier to meet the
> Master's ship. Marjorie and I had suggested to them that the Master
> might not want this public demonstration, but their eagerness was
> too great to be influenced by just two, and so we had gone along
> with them--only too glad to do so, to tell the truth.
> 
> During the morning the harbour misted over. At last, in the mist
> we saw: a phantom ship! And at that very moment some newsboys ran
> through the crowd, waving Extras. "The Pope is dead! The Pope is
> dead!" they shouted. The Pope was not dead. The Extras had been
> printed only on a rumour; but what a symbol, and how exactly timed!
> 
> Closer and closer, ever more substantial, came that historic ship,
> that epoch-making ship, till at last it swam out solid into the
> light, one of the Persians sitting in the bow in his long robes,
> 'aba, and turban. This was Siyyid
> 
> Asadu'llah, a marvellous, witty old man, who had come with the
> Master to prepare His meals.
> 
> He told us later that when the ship was approaching the harbour and
> the Master saw, as His first view of America, the Wall Street
> skyscrapers, He had laughed and said: "Those are the minarets of
> the West."[89] What divine irony!
> 
> The ship docked, but the Master did not appear. Suddenly I had a
> great glimpse. In the dim hall beyond the deck, striding to and fro
> near the door, was One with a step that shook you! Just that one
> stride, charged with power, the sweep of a robe, a majestic head,
> turban crowned--that was all I saw, but my heart stopped.
> 
> Marjorie's instinct and mine had been true. Mr Kinney was called
> for to come on board the ship. He returned with a disappointing
> message. The Master sent us His love but wanted us to disperse now.
> He would meet us all at the Kinneys' house at four.
> 
> Everyone obeyed at once except Marjorie, Rhoda, and myself!
> Marjorie, who loves the Teachings but has never wholly accepted
> them, said: "I can't leave till I've seen Him. I can't. I WON'T!"
> So, though we followed the crowd to the street, we slipped away
> there and looked around for some place to hide. Quite a distance
> below the big entrance to the pier we saw a fairly deep embrasure
> into which a window was set, with the stone wall jutting out from
> it. Here we flattened ourselves against the window, Rhoda (who is
> conspicuously tall) clasping a long white box of lilies which she
> had brought for the Master. Just in front of the entrance stood Mr.
> 
> Mills' car, his chauffeur in it. Suddenly it rolled forward and,
> to our utter dismay, parked directly in front of us. Now we were
> caught: certain to be discovered. But there was no help for it, for
> Marjorie still refused to budge till she had seen the Master.
> 
> Then, He came--through the entrance with Mr MacNutt and Mr Mills,
> and turned and walked swiftly toward the car. In a panic we waited.
> 
> A few nights ago Marjorie and I had a double dream. In her dream,
> I was out in space with her. In mine, we were in a room together
> and the Master had just entered it. He walked straight up to
> Marjorie, put His two hands on her shoulders and pressed and
> pressed till she sank to her knees. And while she was sinking, she
> lifted her face to His and everything in her seemed to be dying
> except her soul, which looked out through her raised eyes in a sort
> of agony of recognition.
> 
> Today, after one glance at the Master, this was just the way she
> looked.
> 
> "Now," she said, "I know."
> 
> As the Master was stepping into the car, He turned and--smiled at
> us.
> 
> __________
> 
> We met Him in the afternoon at the Kinneys'. When I arrived with
> Marjorie, He was sitting in the centre of the dining room near a
> table strewn with flowers. He wore a light pongee 'aba. At His
> knees stood the Kinney children, Sanford and Howard, and His arms
> were around them. He was very white and shining. No words could
> describe His ineffable peace. The people stood about in rows and
> circles: several hundred in the big rooms, which all open into each
> other. In the dining room many sat on the floor, Marjorie and I
> included. We
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha holding a child.]
> 
> made a dark background for His Glory. Only our tears reflected Him,
> and almost everyone there was weeping just at the sight of Him. For
> at last we saw divinity incarnate. Divinely He turned His head from
> one child to the other, one group to another. I wish I could
> picture that turn of the head--an oh, so tender turn, with that
> indescribable heavenly grace caught by Leonardo da Vinci in his
> Christ of the Last Supper (in the study for the head)--but in
> 'Abdu'l-Baha irradiated by smiles and a lifting of those eyes
> filled with glory, which even Leonardo, for all his mystery, could
> not have painted. The very essence of compassion, the most poignant
> tenderness is in that turn of the head.
> 
> The next morning early the Master telephoned me (that is, Ahmad[90]
> telephoned for Him) and nearly every morning after. Can you imagine
> the sweetness of that--to be wakened every morning by a word from
> Him? Sometimes He just inquired how I was, but often He called me
> to Him.
> 
> When I first went to see Him He asked me only one question. "How
> is your mother?"
> 
> "Not very well, my Lord."
> 
> "What is the matter?"
> 
> "She is grieving." And I told Him why. My brother is soon to be
> married to a quite beautiful, brilliant girl who, however, doesn't
> want to make friends with his family!
> 
> "Bring your mother to Me," He said. "I will comfort her."
> 
> He sent for her that very night. I was terribly afraid she wouldn't
> go--she has been so opposed to my work in the
> 
> Cause--and Ahmad called up in the midst of a thunderstorm! But when
> I took the message to her--that the Master wished her to come to
> Him now--she jumped up from her chair and began to scurry around.
> 
> "Just wait till I get my rubbers," she said.
> 
> We found Him exhausted, lying on His bed. He had seen hundreds of
> people that day, literally, at a big reception and in His own
> rooms. Mamma, who is very shy and undemonstrative, rushed to the
> bedside and fell on her knees.
> 
> "Welcome, welcome!" said the Master. "You are very welcome, Mrs
> Thompson.
> 
> "You must be very thankful for your daughter. Praise be to God, she
> is a daughter of the Kingdom. If she were an earthly daughter, of
> what use would she be to you? At best she could do you a little
> material good. But she is a heavenly daughter, a daughter of the
> Kingdom. Therefore she is the means of drawing your soul nearer to
> God. Her value to you is not apparent now. When one possesses a
> thing its value is not realized. But you will realize later. Mary
> Magdalene was but a villager; she was even scorned by the people,
> but now her name moves the whole earth, and in the Kingdom of God
> she is very near. Your daughter is kind to you. If your son is
> faithless, she is faithful. She will become dearer and dearer to
> you. She will take the place of your son. But in the end your son
> will be very good. This is only temporary.
> 
> "I became very grieved today when, upon inquiring for you, I heard
> of your sorrow. And now I want to comfort you. Trust in God. God
> is kind. God is faithful. God never forgets you. If others are
> unkind what difference does it make when God is kind? When God is
> on your
> 
> side it does not matter what men do to you. But your son will be
> good in the end.
> 
> "God is kind to you. And I am going to be kind to you. And I am
> faithful!"
> 
> Mamma, still on her knees, bent and kissed His hand. "Tell the
> Master," she said to Ahmad, "I have always loved Him. Lua knows
> that." (If Lua knew, I certainly didn't.)
> 
> "I have no need of a witness," the Master answered, so tenderly.
> "My heart knows."
> 
> The next day Mamma said to me: "All my bitterness has gone. The
> Master must be helping me."[91]
> 
> It was on Saturday, 13 April, that Mamma and I visited the Master.
> On Friday He had called me early, asking me to meet Him at the
> MacNutts'.
> 
> I shall never cease to see Him as He looked speaking from their
> stairway, standing below a stained glass window in a ray of
> sunlight, the powerful head, the figure in its flowing robes,
> outlined in light.
> 
> The Master has a strange quality of beautifying His environment,
> of throwing a glamour over it and blotting out the ugly. The
> MacNutts' house is ugly; the one redeem-
> 
> ing feature of that stairway, its window. All I saw as the Master
> stood there was Himself, the window, the ray of light. His words
> lifted my soul on wings!
> 
> In the evening Friday He spoke in Miss Phillips' studio. The
> enormous room was packed. At his dear invitation I sat [on] His
> right (I suppose because I had given Miss Phillips the Message);
> Marjorie at His left near Him. In the simple setting of that
> studio, its overhead light filling the deep forms of His face with
> shadow, He looked ruggedly, powerfully beautiful. His words I will
> not give. They have been kept.[92]
> 
> The very day He arrived, Thursday, the Master sent for Percy Grant,
> but He appointed Friday to see him, in the afternoon. I was not
> invited to the interview, so in spite of the happy arrangement
> Percy and I had made, I knew I should have to stay away. Nor was
> I told very much about it, only that the Master had planned with
> Dr Grant to accept his church for Sunday (the fourteenth) for His
> first address in New York, choosing the Church of the Ascension out
> of thirteen other--and some of the clergy had even wired to
> Gibraltar offering their pulpits for that date! And one other very
> little thing (Mr MacNutt himself gave me this scrap of news): as
> he was standing with Dr Grant at the elevator after leaving the
> Master's suite, Dr Grant said to him: "You can't help but love the
> old gentleman."
> 
> To me Percy put it more elegantly: "The Master compels one's love
> and esteem. What He radiates is peace and love."
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha in New York in the garden of Howard
> MacNutt, 1912.]
> 
> Saturday, 13 April, the Master spoke at Marjorie Morten's.[93]
> Again, because of the crowd, He spoke from the stairway, dominating
> all the beauty of Marjorie's long drawing room, with its rich
> colour and carvings and masterly paintings, by His superlative
> beauty.
> 
> His theme that day was the spiritual seasons, and in the midst of
> His talk a delicious thing happened which, slight though it was,
> I want to keep. In its very slightness it may draw the people of
> the future closer to the Master, just as it drew us.
> 
> These tender little touches of His humour and simplicity, bridging
> for the moment the infinite space between us and His pure
> Perfection, making His Divinity accessible: how precious, how
> heavenly sweet they are, of what unique value! The disciples of
> Christ, looking beyond that awful chasm of the crucifixion into the
> mystery of their days with Him, were, I suppose, awed into silence
> about the little things--the adorable little things. So the Man of
> sorrow has been just the Man of sorrow to us. We have never formed
> any conception of the Man of love and joy, great buoyant joy; a
> Christ whose Love overflowed into little tendernesses and Whose joy
> overflowed into fun and wit--a happy, smiling, laughing Christ. And
> yet I am sure He was that.
> 
> But now to tell of this small thing. With His celestial eloquence
> the Master had described the spiritual springtime.
> 
> "Va tabistan," He began and paused for Ahmad to translate.
> 
> Dead silence. Poor Ahmad had lost the English word.
> 
> But while he stood helpless, the Master supplied it Himself.
> 
> "Summer!" He laughed. Whereupon a little ripple of delight ran
> through the audience. His charm had captured them all.
> 
> After the meeting He went up to rest in Mr Morten's room. He had
> seen a hundred and forty people that morning and was so worn out
> at the end of His talk that He looked almost ill. His fatigue was
> apparent to everyone--and yet the people had no pity. When I
> returned from an errand to the kitchen, literally hundreds were
> streaming toward His room; a dozen were in the room; in the hall
> were many peering faces, and climbing up the stairs--a procession!
> 
> "Oh can't we shut the door?" I asked Dr Farid. But the Master heard
> me.
> 
> "Let them come now," He said gently.
> 
> A mother with a baby stood near the door. The Master took the baby
> from her and tenderly pressed it to His heart. "Beautiful baby!
> Little chicken!" He said in His dear English; then explained that
> "little chicken" was the Turkish pet name for child.
> 
> A young single-taxer[94] began to question Him. "What message shall
> I take to my friends?" he ended.
> 
> "Tell them," laughed the Master (that wonderful spicy humour in His
> face) "to come into the Kingdom of God. There they will find plenty
> of land and there are no taxes on it."
> 
> Sunday. Oh, Sunday!
> 
> At the Master's own invitation I met Him at the Rectory, a half
> hour before the service.
> 
> As Miss Barry was holding her Sunday school class downstairs, we
> were invited upstairs, to the back room on the second floor. There,
> with the Master and the Persians and Edward Getsinger, I waited in
> supreme happiness. Very soon Percy came in. Approaching the Master,
> he bent his head reverently.
> 
> "In New Testament language," he said, "this would be called an
> upper chamber."[95]
> 
> The Master smiled sweetly and took his hand.
> 
> After he left, the Master turned to me. "This is a dish you have
> cooked for Me, Juliet," He laughed.
> 
> "I hope it is cooked all the way through!"
> 
> "Insha'llah," smiled the Master.
> 
> "I have more dishes to serve to You when You are rested," I
> ventured.
> 
> "I hope they are light," He replied, "and will rest easily on My
> digestion. Most of these dishes are so heavy!"
> 
> I inquired for dear Ruha Khanum, who has been very ill.
> 
> "I have put her in the hands of the Blessed Perfection," said our
> Lord, "and now I don't worry at all."
> 
> He spoke of my mother very lovingly.
> 
> "Tell her to trust in God," He repeated. "Tell her that God is
> faithful. Read the Hidden Words to her."
> 
> The time came to go to the church. The Persians, Edward Getsinger,
> and I went first: marching in, as Percy had planned it, with the
> processional, bringing up the rear of the processional! For nearly
> a year I hadn't once entered the Church of the Ascension; and now,
> what a very surprising return!
> 
> The Master waited in the vestry-room.
> 
> When I try to express the perfection of that service--I mean, the
> arrangement of it--I can find no words. It was the conception of
> an artist, of a true poet. The altar and the whole chancel were
> banked with calla lilies. On the back of the Bishop's chair hung
> a victor's wreath, an exact reproduction of the Greek victor's
> wreath, classically simple: a small oval of laurel with its leaves
> free at the top. Its meaning went to my heart.
> 
> Dr Grant read first a prophecy from the Old Testament pointing
> directly to this Day, to Baha'u'llah; then the thirteenth Chapter
> of Corinthians. These were not the lessons for the day but
> specially chosen.
> 
> At the end of the Second Lesson, just as the choir began to sing
> in a great triumphant outburst "Jesus Lives!" 'Abdu'l-Baha with
> that step of His, which has been described as the walk of either
> a shepherd or a king, entered the chancel, "suddenly come to His
> Temple!" Percy Grant had quietly left his seat and gone into the
> vestry-room and had returned with the Master, holding His hand. For
> a moment they stood at the altar beneath that fine mural, The
> Resurrection by John La Farge; then with beautiful deference Percy
> led the Master to the Bishop's chair. (This broke the nineteenth
> canon of the Episcopal Church, which forbids the unbaptized to sit
> behind the altar rail!)
> 
> The prayers over, Dr Grant made a short introductory address,
> speaking not from the pulpit but the chancel steps. Never shall I
> forget what I saw then. Percy, strong and erect, with his
> magnificently set head ("like the head of some Viking" as Howard
> MacNutt says), giving, with a fire even greater than usual--with
> a strange, sparkling magnetism--the Baha'i Message to his congre-
> 
> gation; and behind him: a flashing Face, unlike the face of any
> mortal, haloed by the victor's wreath, visibly inspiring him. For
> with every flash from those eyes, which were fixed on Dr Grant,
> would appear a fresh charge of energy in him. There was something
> wonderfully rhythmic in this transmission of fire to the words and
> the delivery of the man speaking. Was it the sign of some
> susceptibility in this hitherto unyielding man to the power of
> 'ABDU'L-BAHa? Or was it just that Power: transcendent,
> irresistible, quickening whom it chose?
> 
> "May the Lord lift the light of His Countenance upon you." Ah, what
> happens when the Lord does!
> 
> How can I tell of that moment when the Master took the place of
> Percy Grant on the chancel steps? When, standing in His flowing
> robes there, He turned His unearthly Face to the people and
> said:[96] "Dr Grant has just read from the thirteenth Chapter of
> Corinthians that the day would come when you would see face to
> face."
> 
> It was too great to put into words; it was almost too great to
> bear. The pain of intense rapture pierced my heart. Could the
> people fail to recognize? Oh, had they recognized what would He not
> have revealed to them? But He could go no further. He swerved to
> another subject.
> 
> "I have come hither," He said, "to find that material civilization
> has progressed greatly, but the spiritual civilization has been
> left behind. The material civilization is likened unto the glass
> of a lamp chimney. The spiritual civilization is like the light in
> that chimney. The material civilization should go hand-in-hand with
> 
> the spiritual civilization. Material civilization may be likened
> unto a beautiful body, while spiritual civilization is the spirit
> that enters the body and gives to it life. With the propelling
> power of spiritual civilization the result will be greater.
> 
> "His Holiness Jesus Christ came to this world that the people might
> have through Him the civilization of Heaven, a spirit of oneness
> with God. He came to breathe the spirit into the body of the world.
> There must be oneness in the world of man. When this takes place
> we will have the Most Great Peace.
> 
> "Today the body politic needs the oneness of the world and
> universal peace. But to spread the feeling of peace and firmly
> implant it in the minds of men a certain propelling Power is
> required.
> 
> "It is self-evident that spiritual civilization cannot be
> accomplished through material means, for the interests of the
> various nations differ. It is self-evident that it cannot be
> accomplished through patriotism, for countries differ in their
> ideas of patriotism. It is impossible save through spiritual power.
> Compared with this all other means are too weak to bring about
> universal peace.
> 
> "Man has two wings: his material power and development, and his
> spiritual understanding and achievements. With one wing alone he
> cannot fly. Therefore, no matter how far material civilization
> advances, without the other, great things cannot be accomplished.
> ... Humanity, generally speaking, is immersed in a sea of
> materiality ..."
> 
> Dr Grant asked the Master to give the benediction. Apparently He
> gave no blessing but asked for one for us.
> 
> Against His high background of lilies He stood, His face uplifted
> in prayer, His eyes closed, the palms of His
> 
> hands uplifted. I seemed to feel streams of Life descending,
> filling those cupped hands. On either side of Him knelt the
> clergymen, facing the altar. Percy Grant's head was bowed low. It
> was a breathless moment. Then the Master raised His resonant voice
> and chanted.
> 
> The recessional hymn was "Christ our Lord has risen again."
> 
> How can words tell what I realized, or thought I realized, at that
> incomparable service?
> 
> This church had been my cross for years, from which I had never
> been able to escape--though twice I had made the attempt, twice
> wrenching myself away, only to be guided back by what seemed to me
> in each instance the clear Will of God, expressed through a
> striking miracle. Guided back to mortal pain. Was I seeing, this
> morning, divine results of this pain?
> 
> And not only had I suffered more vitally here than in any other
> place, prayed more passionately; not only had it been the scene of
> my deepest inner conflict, but the cause of all this had been
> dramatically enacted here. Here in this pulpit, with all his great
> force, his disturbing magnetism and the fire of his eloquence,
> Percy Grant had opposed my unshakeable belief, thundering
> denunciations of "the subtle", "the Machiavellian Oriental" (God
> forgive me for quoting this)--of the slumbering and superstitious
> Orient--the Orient that brought to the West "nothing but disease
> and death"--determined to conquer this Faith of mine which made me
> resistant to him. He had even gone so far as to openly name "the
> Baha'i sect" in his pulpit and to warn his flock against it.
> 
> And now, framing that matchless head of the Master, who sat there
> so still in His Glory, hung the victor's
> 
> wreath! Oh for words vivid and sublime enough to make you see Him
> sitting there, in the very spot where He had been so violently
> denied!
> 
> The Master took me back into the Rectory, into the big, dark front
> room. Percy rushed in for a moment, still in his surplice, his
> cheeks flushed, his eyes very bright and blue.
> 
> "Juliet," he called, looking in from the dining room, "ask if the
> Master wants anything: tea, coffee, water--anything; then tell
> Thomas" (the butler).
> 
> But the Master wanted nothing except to wait to see Dr Grant (who
> was being detained in the church) and He filled me with
> indescribable joy by inviting me to wait with Him, sitting beside
> Him.
> 
> I sat there, happier it seemed to me than I had ever been in my
> life. I was in the Presence of my Lord, and the one I loved best
> in all this human world had at last recognized Him. For what else
> had that exquisite service meant, with the Resurrection stressed
> all through it? Such a bold acknowledgement, such a daring action
> in the very church itself could not have been insincere. It never
> occurred to me to doubt it.
> 
> But time passed and Percy did not come back. A great crowd arrived
> before he did. Someone, using the private way from the church, had
> left the door open and the people began to surge in. And then
> (while my heart sank with disappointment) the Master made a swift
> exit.
> 
> Too late Mrs Grant, Percy's dear mother, entered the room. It was
> a dramatic entrance. She ran in, distractedly, glancing from side
> to side, obviously looking for the Master. Not seeing Him there,
> she exclaimed: "If only I could have had His blessing! That Figure
> makes me think of the plains of Judea."
> 
> At that very instant Mr Mills, who had gone out with
> 
> the Master, reappeared. "'Abdu'l-Baha," he said, "is asking for Mrs
> Grant."
> 
> I stood at the street door and watched. The Master was sitting in
> Mr Mills' car, just in front of the house. I saw Mrs Grant approach
> it, kneel in the street and bow her head. I saw Him place His hands
> on her head.
> 
> A year ago I had a dream. I was in the People's Forum, stooping and
> kissing Mrs Grant. She looked up through tears. "I have seen the
> Master," she said in my dream. "He spoke to me. Oh there was never
> such a Face in the world!"
> 
> Now, on the steps of the Rectory, as she returned from the car, she
> looked up through tears.
> 
> "I got my blessing, Juliet," she said, "and I didn't have to ask
> for it."
> 
> I went back to the church to thank Percy Grant and found him alone.
> His last parishioner had just gone. For a moment we stood with
> clasped hands.
> 
> "You made everything so beautiful. I can't find the right words to
> thank you."
> 
> "My darling," he said, "my darling--"
> 
> Something in his look--something false--woke me. Sick at heart, I
> turned away.[97]
> 
> That night how I hungered to see the Master. My heart burned to see
> Him. I went to the telephone. Ah, these days when just by a
> telephone call we can reach Him! One of the Persians answered my
> call.
> 
> "Is the Master well tonight? Is He resting?" I asked.
> 
> "He is in His room, reading Tablets."
> 
> __________
> 
> The next morning, through Ahmad, the Master telephoned me. He
> wanted to know how I was.
> 
> "Tell Him my heart is burning for Him just as it used to in Haifa."
> 
> "The Master says: come at once to Him."
> 
> And scarcely was I seated in His room when He began to speak of
> Percy Grant. He spoke with great love, with great appreciation of
> the service Percy had rendered, but told me to be very careful in
> my relations with him.
> 
> "You must keep your acquaintance, Juliet, absolutely formal."
> 
> Then He gave me this message: "Convey to Dr Grant My greetings.
> Say: I will not forget the services thou hast rendered yesterday.
> They are engraved on the book of My heart. I will mention thy name
> everywhere. And know thou this: This matter of yesterday will
> become most wonderful in the history of the world. The world of
> existence will not forget yesterday. Thousands of years hence the
> mention of yesterday will be heard and it will become history that
> you were the founder of this work.
> 
> "I ask of God for you all those things I have asked for Myself and
> they are: that thou mayest become a sincere servant of God and
> serve in the Kingdom of God and become sanctified and holy; that
> thou mayest find a pure and enlightened heart, an illumined face;
> become the cause that the lights of spiritual morals may illumine
> the hearts in this country and that they may be illumined in the
> world of the Kingdom; become the promoter of Truth and deliver the
> souls from ignorance and prejudice. I supplicate to the Kingdom of
> God for you, and I will never forget the love that was manifested
> yesterday.
> 
> "I hope," said the Master, turning to me, "that he will become a
> believer, but I do not know. The rectorship of that church is in
> the way. If he could give it up of his own volition, then he might
> become a believer."
> 
> He spoke of my dear mother: "Convey to thy mother the greetings of
> Abha. Say to her: Always remember My advices. It is my hope that
> thou mayest forget everything save God. Nothing in this world is
> sufficient for man. God alone is sufficient for him. God is the
> Protector of man. All the world will not protect the soul."
> 
> I sent Percy Grant the message and later he telephoned me.
> 
> "That was a wonderful, wonderful message," he said, his voice
> strangely upset.
> 
> __________
> 
> Early Sunday evening, the fourteenth, the Master spoke at the
> Carnegie Lyceum for the Union Meeting of Advanced Thought
> Centres.[98] I can give you no idea of His Glory that night. He was
> like a pillar of white fire.
> 
> I sat in a box with Bolton Hall, one of our fashionable
> intellectuals, a lean, elegant person with an Emersonian face.
> Turning to him for a moment, I asked: "What do you see?"
> 
> "Nothing, dear child, nothing."
> 
> 16 April 1912
> 
> This morning the Master agreed to speak at the Bowery Mission.
> 
> "I want to give them some money," He said to me. "I am in love with
> the poor. How many poor men go to the Mission?"
> 
> "About three hundred, my Lord."
> 
> "Take this bill to the bank, Juliet, and change it into quarters,"
> and He drew from His pocket a thousand-
> 
> franc note.[99] "Have them put the quarters in a bag. Keep the
> money and meet Me at the Mission with it."
> 
> He handed another thousand-franc note, with the same instructions,
> to Edward Getsinger.
> 
> As I left His room, lilies of valley in my hand, a young
> chambermaid stopped me. "Did He give you those?" she asked. "He
> gave me some flowers yesterday. Roses. I think He is a great
> Saint."
> 
> __________
> 
> Later, May Maxwell and I were together in the Master's room. He was
> lying back on His pillow, May's baby crawling over Him, feeding
> first the baby, then May and me with chocolates.[100] On the pillow
> beside Him was the victor's wreath, which He always kept near Him.
> Suddenly He brought up Percy's name.
> 
> "I love Dr Grant," he began. "He has rendered Me a great service.
> I love him very much, but I want you to be careful."
> 
> "My Lord, I believe my heart is severed," I said. "I don't know but
> I believe so."
> 
> He looked at me with arch incredulity: "No? Really?" He said.
> 
> May laughed.
> 
> "What do you know about it?" the Master asked.
> 
> "May knows everything about it."
> 
> "Well, has she helped you? How far has her help gone? Has it been
> sufficient for you?"
> 
> "She has helped me, but only God is sufficient when love has gone
> as deep as that."
> 
> "I know. Now, can you transfer this love to God?"
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha walking down Riverside Drive in New
> York, 1912]
> 
> "To God I can. To You."
> 
> "No. To God."
> 
> "Yes ... I can ... to God."
> 
> "That will be enough! I shall try to make no more marriages,"
> laughed the Master. "When you have really given up," He added, "he
> will come after you."[101]
> 
> "I love Dr Grant," He continued, "very, very much, but I want to
> protect you."
> 
> "May I ask a question?" said May. "If Juliet put the thought of Dr
> Grant forever out of her mind, would this be good?"
> 
> But the Master answered evasively: "If he would become a believer
> and marry Juliet it would please Me very much."
> 
> "Don't we tire You?" I asked a little later. "Oughtn't we to leave
> You now?"
> 
> "No, stay. You rest Me. You make Me laugh!" He answered.
> 
> 18 April 1912
> 
> I asked Mrs Wright if she would invite Percy to hear the Master
> speak at the Bowery Mission. His reply has just come through her.
> He said: "Give Juliet my love and my excuses. Tell her I prefer to
> be remembered by Him in the Church of the Ascension. Tell her this
> and she will understand."
> 
> __________
> 
> Before writing of the Master's visit to the Bowery I must explain
> how it came about. In February this year
> 
> Dr Hallimond asked me for the third time to give the Baha'i Message
> at the Mission. I had refused twice before because my dear mother
> wouldn't allow me to go there. But this third invitation I felt I
> must accept. So, for the first time in my life, I deceived Mamma!
> Silvia Gannett helped me out. (By the way her marriage has been
> postponed.) She invited me to dine, then went to the Mission with
> me. The only thing Mamma knew was that I was dining with Silvia.
> 
> The weather that night was terrible: snowing, sleeting, bitterly
> cold. The Mission was packed with homeless men, some of whom had
> been driven in by the cold and the storm and were there for no
> other reason. Among these, I learned afterward, was John Good--may
> he ever be blessed! Wonderfully named was John Good! He had been
> released from Sing Sing that very day: an enormous man with a head
> like a lion and a great shock of white hair. From his boyhood he
> had spent his life in one prison or another and now, in his old
> age, had behaved so rebelliously in Sing Sing that they would
> punish him in the most painful way, hanging him up by his thumbs!
> Full of hate he had come out of prison, and full of hate and
> without one grain of belief in anything, he sat among the derelicts
> in the Mission, forced in by the storm.
> 
> And that night (knowing nothing of John Good) I was moved to tell
> the men how 'Abdu'l-Baha came out of prison, full of love for the
> whole world, even His cruellest enemies.
> 
> After I had finished speaking, Dr Hallimond said: "We have heard
> from Juliet Thompson that 'Abdu'l-Baha will be here in April. How
> may of you would like to invite Him to speak at the Mission? Will
> those who wish it please stand?"
> 
> The whole three hundred rose to their feet.
> 
> "Now," added Dr Hallimond, taking me by surprise, "how many would
> like to study the thirteenth Chapter of Corinthians with Miss
> Thompson and myself?"
> 
> Thirty rose this time, including John Good and a poor alcoholic
> named Hannegan, a long, lanky, red-haired Irishman.
> 
> "Then we will meet every Wednesday at eight p.m. and learn
> something about this Love of which 'Abdu'l-Baha is our Great
> Example."
> 
> And every Wednesday evening after that John Good and Hannegan came,
> with the twenty-eight others.
> 
> Of course, in order to help Dr Hallimond on these nights, I had had
> to confess to Mamma this first visit to the Bowery, and she was so
> touched by the story that she gladly consented to my keeping up the
> work, especially as Dr Hallimond always came for me and brought me
> home.
> 
> __________
> 
> And now to return to the immediate present. Day before yesterday,
> 19 April, the Master spoke at the Bowery Mission.
> 
> I met Him in the chapel, dragging along with me the huge white bag
> of quarters. Edward also appeared with a bag of the same size and
> we sat behind the Master on the platform. Mr MacNutt, Mr Mills, Mr
> Grundy, and Mr Hutchinson, and of course all the Persians, were
> seated there too. The long hall was packed to the doors with those
> poor derelicts who sleep on park benches or doorsteps.
> 
> Dr Hallimond called upon me to introduce my Lord, which seemed so
> presumptuous I could scarcely do it.
> 
> Then the Master rose to speak. Here are His heavenly
> 
> words:[102] "Tonight I am very happy for I have come here to meet
> My friends. I consider you my relatives, My companions, and I am
> your comrade.
> 
> "You must be thankful to God that you are poor, for His Holiness
> Jesus Christ has said: 'Blessed are the poor.' He never said:
> blessed are the rich! He said too that the Kingdom is for the poor
> and that it is easier for a camel to enter the needle's eye than
> for a rich man to enter God's Kingdom. 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.
> 
> "His Holiness Jesus Himself was poor. He did not belong to the
> rich. He passed His time in the desert travelling among the poor
> and lived upon the herbs of the field. He had no place to lay His
> head--no home. He was exposed in the open to heat, cold, and frost.
> Yet He chose this rather than riches. If riches were considered a
> glory, the Prophet Moses would have chosen them; Jesus would have
> been rich.
> 
> "When Jesus appeared it was the poor who first accepted Him, not
> the rich. Therefore, you are His disciples, you are His comrades,
> for outwardly He was poor, not rich.
> 
> "Even this earth's happiness does not depend upon wealth. You will
> find many of the wealthy exposed to dangers and troubled by
> difficulties, and in their last moments upon the bed of death,
> there remains the regret that they must be separated from that to
> which their
> 
> hearts are so attached. They come into this world naked and they
> must go from it naked. All they possess they must leave behind and
> pass away solitary, alone. Often at the time of death their souls
> are filled with remorse and, worst of all, their hope in the mercy
> of God is less than ours.
> 
> "Praise be to God, our hope is in the mercy of God; and there is
> no doubt that the divine Compassion is bestowed upon the poor. His
> Holines Jesus Christ said so; His Holiness Baha'u'llah said so.
> 
> "While Baha'u'llah was in Baghdad, 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. He ate with them,
> slept with them, and gloried in being one of them. He chose for one
> of His names the title of 'The Poor One' and often in His Writings
> refers to Himself as 'Darvish,' which in Persian means poor. And
> of this title he was very proud. He admonished all that we must be
> the servants of the poor, helpers of the poor, remember the sorrows
> of the poor, associate with them, for thereby we may inherit the
> Kingdom of Heaven.
> 
> "God has not said that there are mansions prepared for us if we
> pass our time associating with the rich, but He has said there are
> many mansions prepared for the servants of the poor, for the poor
> are very dear to God. The mercies and bounties of God are with
> them. The rich are mostly negligent, inattentive, steeped in
> worldliness, depending upon their means, whereas the poor are
> dependent upon God and their reliance is upon Him, not upon
> themselves. Therefore the poor are nearer the Threshold of God and
> His Throne.
> 
> "Jesus was a poor man. One night when He was out in the fields the
> rain began to fall. He had no place to go for shelter, so He lifted
> His eyes toward Heaven, saying: 'O Father! For the birds of the air
> Thou hast created nests, for the sheep a fold, for the animals
> dens, for the fishes places of refuge, but for Me Thou hast
> provided no shelter; there is no place where I may lay My head. My
> bed is the cold ground, My lamps at night are the stars and My food
> is the grass of the field. Yet who upon earth is richer than I? For
> the greatest blessing Thou hast not given to the rich and mighty,
> but unto Me Thou hast given the poor. To Me Thou hast granted this
> blessing. They are Mine. Therefore I am the richest man on earth.'
> 
> "So, My comrades, you are following in the footsteps of Jesus
> Christ. Your lives are similar to His life, your attitude is like
> unto His, you resemble Him more than the rich resemble Him.
> Therefore we will thank God that we have been blest with the real
> riches. And, in conclusion, I ask you to accept 'Abdu'l-Baha as
> your Servant."
> 
> After the service, the Master and we who were with Him walked down
> the aisle to the door, while the men in the audience kept their
> seats. At the end of the aisle the Master paused, called to Edward
> and me and asked us to stand on each side of Him, with our bags.
> He was wearing His pongee 'aba and was very shining in white and
> ivory, His Face like a lighted lamp.
> 
> Then down the aisle streamed a sodden and grimy procession: three
> hundred men in single file. The "breadline". The failures. Broken
> forms. Blurred faces. How can I picture such a scene? That forlorn
> host out of the depths, out of the "mud and scum of things"--where
> nevertheless "something always, always sings". And the
> 
> Eternal Christ, reflected in the Mirror of "The Servant", receiving
> them all, like prodigal sons? stray sheep? No! Like His own beloved
> children, who "resembled Him more than the rich resembled Him."
> 
> Into each palm, as the Master clasped it, He pressed His little
> gift of silver: just a symbol and the price of a bed. Not a man was
> shelterless that night. And many, many, I could see, found a
> shelter in His Heart. I could see it in the faces raised to His and
> in His Face bent to theirs.
> 
> Those interchanged looks--what a bounty to have witnessed them--to
> have such a picture stamped on my mind forever!
> 
> As the men filed toward Him, the Master held out His hand to the
> first, grasped the man's hand and left something in it. Perhaps
> five or six quarters, for John Good told me afterward that the
> completely destitute ones received the most. The man glanced up
> surprised. His eyes met the Master's look, which seemed to be
> plunging deep into his heart with fathomless understanding. He,
> this poor derelict, must have known very little of even human love
> or understanding; and now, too suddenly, he stood face to face with
> Divine Love. He looked startled, incredulous--as though he couldn't
> believe what he saw; then his eyes strained toward the Master,
> something new burning in them, and the Master's eyes answered with
> a great flash, revealing a more mysterious, a profounder love. A
> drowning man rescued, or--taken up into heaven? I saw this repeated
> scores of times. Some of the men shuffled past, accepting their
> gift ungraciously, but most of them responded just as the first
> did.
> 
> Who can tell the effect of those immortal glances on
> 
> the lives and even, perhaps, at the death of each of these men? Who
> knows what the Master gave that night?
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. Months later John Good told me about Hannegan. Hannegan
> was a generous man. If he had a dime and somebody needed a nickel,
> he would split his dime. But, there was no doubt about it, he was
> also a Bowery tough and pretty nearly always drunk. He had been
> counting the days to the nineteenth of April but, unluckily lost
> count, and when the nineteenth came and with it the Master's visit
> to the Bowery, he was in one of his stupors. Waking up from it, he
> really sorrowed. Still, there was another chance. The Master was
> to speak in Flatbush the following Sunday and somehow Hannegan
> heard of this. Flatbush is a long way off and that Sunday he hadn't
> even a nickel. So he walked. At midnight John Good went to his room
> and found him in the usual state. "Why did you do it this time,
> Hannegan--and you straight from seeing the Master?" asked John.
> "That's just it," said Hannegan earnestly. "I'm straight from
> seeing Him. Why, John, He's Perfection. The Light of the world, He
> is, John. It's too much for a man, too discouraging."
> 
> John never told me this till after the death of Hanegan, or I would
> have taken him to the Master. But, after all, he--this Bowery
> tough--had seen the Reality.)
> 
> __________
> 
> That night the Master had a supper for all who had been with Him
> at the Mission. It was held in His suite at the Ansonia and He took
> me and two of the Persians, Valiyu'llah Khan and Ahmad, in His own
> taxi to the hotel.
> 
> As we drove up Broadway, glittering with its electric
> 
> signs, He spoke of them smiling, apparently much amused. Then He
> told us that Baha'u'llah had loved light. "He could never get
> enough light. He taught us," the Master said, "to economize in
> everything else but to use light freely."
> 
> "It is marvellous," I said, "to be driving through all this light
> by the side of the Light of lights."
> 
> "This is nothing," the Master answered. "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."
> 
> "Oh," I cried, "with such a future before me how could my heart
> cling to any earthly object?"
> 
> The Master turned suddenly to me. "Will you do this thing?" He
> asked. "Will you take your heart from this other and give it wholly
> to God?"
> 
> "Oh, I will try!"
> 
> He 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?"
> 
> And now the Master spoke gravely. "I am very much pleased with that
> answer, Juliet."
> 
> __________
> 
> That night I saw, as never before, the Glory of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
> 
> Nine of us were gathered at His table. He sat at the head, Mr Mills
> on His left, I on His right. Just above Him hung a big round lamp,
> so that He sat in a pool of strong light while the rest of us were
> in shadow. In His
> 
> ivory-coloured 'aba over the long white robe, His white hair spread
> out upon His shoulders, He was like some massive statue of a deity
> carved in alabaster.
> 
> For a while He was silent and we surrounded Him, silent. But after
> He had served the food He began to speak. He told us of the play
> The Terrible Meek which he had seen that afternoon. It is based on
> the Crucifixion.
> 
> "But such a representation should be complete," He said, and taken
> from its inception to its consummation. It should be an
> impersonation of the life of Jesus from the beginning to the end.
> 
> "For example: His baptism. The disciples of John the Baptist
> turning to Him, Jesus. The dawn of Christianity. Then the Christ
> in the Temple, well portrayed. The meeting of Jesus and Peter on
> the shore of Tiberias, where Jesus called Peter to follow Him that
> he might become a fisher of men. The gathering together of the
> Jews. Their accusations against Jesus. For they said: 'We are
> expecting certain conditions at the time of the appearance of the
> Messiah and unless these conditions are fulfilled it is impossible
> to believe. It is written that He will come from an unknown place.
> Thou are from Nazareth. We know Thee and Thy people. According to
> the explicit text of the Scriptures, the Messiah is to wield a
> sceptre, a sword. Thou hast not even a staff. The Messiah is to be
> established on the throne of David. But Thou--a throne! Thou hast
> not so much as a mat. The Messiah is to fulfil the Law of Moses,
> which will be spread throughout the world. Thou hast broken the
> Mosaic Law. The Jews, in the time of the Messiah, are to be the
> conquerors of the world and all men will become their subjects. In
> the Cycle of the Messiah justice is to
> 
> reign. It will be exercised even in the animal kingdom, so that
> wolf and lamb will quaff water at the same fountain, eagle and
> quail will dwell in the same nest, lion and deer pasture in the
> same meadow. But see the oppression and wrong rampant in Thy time!
> The Jews are the captives of the Romans. Rome has uprooted our
> foundations, pillaging and killing us. What manner of justice is
> this?'
> 
> "But His Holiness Jesus answered: 'These texts are symbolic. They
> have an inner meaning. I possess sovereignty, but it is of the
> eternal type. It is not an earthy empire. Mine is divine, heavenly,
> everlasting. And I conquer not by the sword. My conquests are by
> Love. I have a sword, but it is not of iron. My sword is My tongue,
> which divides Truth from falsehood.'
> 
> "Yet they persisted in rejecting Him. 'These are mere
> interpretations,' they said. 'We will not give up the letter for
> these.'
> 
> "Then they rose against Him, accusing and persecuting Him,
> inventing libels according to their superstitions.
> 
> "'He is a liar. He is the false Christ. Believe Him not. Beware
> lest ye listen. He will mislead you, will lure you from the
> religion of your fathers, and will create a turmoil amongst you.'
> 
> "Then the scribes and Pharisees consult together: 'Let us hold a
> conclave and conceive a plan. This man is a deceiver. We must do
> something. What?'" (The Master gaily mimicked their confusion.)
> "'Let us expel Him from the country. Let us imprison Him. Ah! Let
> us refer the matter to the government. Thus the religion of Moses
> shall be free of Him.'
> 
> "After this, the betrayal of Jesus, not by an enemy, not by an
> outsider, but by one of His own disciples. Dr
> 
> Farid! (I was startled by the sudden, peremptory call of that
> name.) "By one of His own disciples. Had you been there, Dr Farid.
> Had you been there, you would have seen that Mary of Magdala even
> looked like Juliet."[103]
> 
> "Then," continued the Master, "the government will summon Jesus,
> will bring Him before Pontius Pilate, and these scenes should be
> fully portrayed ..."
> 
> Here I ceased to take notes. I was stabbed to the heart. As He
> flashed each scene to us with His vivid words and gestures I felt
> that He was reliving it. When He came to that walk to Golgotha:
> Jesus, the Saviour, stumbling beneath the weight of His Cross while
> the mob capered about, bowing backward, mocking "the King of the
> Jews," I knew He was telling us of remembered anguish.
> 
> "And when all this is finished," He said, "then the Terrible Meek
> will be expressed."
> 
> The last scene centred around the disciples, united now and ablaze
> with the Pentecostal fire. The Master described them surrounded by
> multitudes, teaching with those "tongues of fire" that His Holiness
> Jesus had verily been a King--the King of spirits, His sword the
> Word of God and His reign in the hearts of men.
> 
> When the Master had ended we sat so silent that the falling of a
> rose leaf might have been heard. He broke the silence.
> 
> "The voice of Mary lamenting at the Cross today made me think of
> your voice, Juliet--and Lua's." And then He smiled at me. "Eat,
> Juliet," He said. For the food on my plate was untouched.
> 
> __________
> 
> In the upper hall, on our way to the Master's suite, we had met the
> little chambermaid who had told me the day
> 
> before that she thought Him a great Saint. In my bag were about
> eighty quarters left over from the Mission. The Master asked the
> girl to hold up her apron, took the bag from me, and emptied the
> whole of its contents into the apron. Then He walked quickly toward
> His suite, we following, all but Mr Grundy whom the maid stopped.
> 
> "Oh see what He has given me!" she said. And when Mr Grundy told
> her about the Mission and the Master's kindness to the men there,
> "I will do the same with this money. I will give away every cent
> of it."
> 
> Later, when the table was cleared and we were sitting with the
> Master in another room, talking of the scene at the Mission,
> someone asked Him if "charity were advisable."
> 
> He laughed and, still laughing, said: "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!"
> 
> And just at that moment we heard a light tap at the door. It opened
> and there stood the little maid. She came straight towards the
> Master, seeming not to see anyone else, and her eyes were full of
> tears.
> 
> "I wanted to say goodbye, Sir," she said (for the Master was
> leaving for Washington early the next morning), "and to thank You
> for all Your goodness to me--I never expected such goodness--and
> to ask You ... to pray for me." Her voice broke. She sobbed, hid
> her face in her apron and rushed from the room.
> 
> What an illustration to the Master's words, "assuredly give to the
> poor," and how wonderfully timed!
> 
> 22 April 1912
> 
> Oh, those mornings at the Ansonia in the Master's white sunny
> rooms, filled with spring flowers and roses!
> 
> People poured in to see Him in droves, sometimes a hundred and
> fifty in one morning. He would become exhausted and receive the
> latest arrivals in bed. Sitting in the outer room (though
> frequently called to Him), I would watch them go into His bedroom
> and come out changed, as though they had had a bath of Life, or
> like candles that had been lighted in that inner chamber.
> 
> Leonard Abbott came out with flushed cheeks and bright eyes. "That
> beautiful head against the pillows!" he said.
> 
> Charles Rand Kennedy, the playwright (author of The Terrible Meek)
> said: "I was in the Presence of God."
> 
> I, myself, took Nancy Sholl in. When we left, she whispered to me:
> "I could not have stood the vibrations in there one moment longer.
> Power encircles that bed!"
> 
> __________
> 
> Alas, New York has now lost the great overhanging aura of the
> Master. He is in Washington. But I am going there too, tomorrow,
> to stay with my dear Mrs Elkins.
> 
> Washington
> 
> 7 May 1912
> 
> Washington was beautiful, the banners of the spring floating out
> everywhere. Trees along the street in full leaf. Flowering bushes
> and tulip beds in the parks and in the grass plots in front of
> houses. The Japanese cherry
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in New York with His entourage, 1912]
> 
> trees behind the White House, a long row of coral-pink clouds.
> 
> The day I arrived, 23 April, I met the Master at luncheon at the
> Persian Embassy, where Khan is now acting as minister.[104] The
> table was strewn with rose petals, as the Master's table always is
> in 'Akka, and Persian dishes were served.
> 
> A coloured man, Louis Gregory, was present and the Master gave a
> wonderful talk on race prejudice which, however, I will not quote
> here since it has been kept.[105] And besides, I am longing to
> catch up with these days, when I am feeling with all my capacity
> for feeling, when the gates of my heart are flung wide open and
> fire sweeping through, burning up my heart, when I am seeing
> through tears the Manifest Glory of the Beloved. I really don't
> want to write about Washington. This heart was not awakened then.
> 
> But He said a lovely thing at Khan's table which I must keep. Mrs
> Parsons was at the luncheon. Before she became a Baha'i she had
> been a Christian Scientist, and now she brought up the question of
> mental suggestion as a cure for physical disease. The Master
> replied that some illnesses, such as consumption and insanity,
> developed from spiritual causes--grief, for example--and that these
> could be healed by the spirit. But Mrs Parsons persisted. Could not
> extreme physical cases, like broken bones, also be healed by the
> spirit?
> 
> A large bowl of salad had been placed before the Mas-
> 
> ter, Who sat at the head of the table, Florence Khanum[106] on His
> right.
> 
> "If all the spirits in the air," He laughed, "were to congregate
> together, they could not create a salad! Nevertheless, the spirit
> of man is powerful. For the spirit of man can soar in the firmament
> of knowledge, can discover realities, can confer life, can receive
> the Divine Glad-Tidings. Is not this greater," and He laughed
> again, "than making a salad?"
> 
> One more lovely thing. The servants were late bringing in the
> dessert and Florence apologized; whereupon little Rahim, standing
> beside her, spoke up.
> 
> "Even the King of Persia has to wait, doesn't He, mother?"
> 
> "Rahim dear," explained Florence, 'Abdu'l-Baha is King of the whole
> world."
> 
> "Oh," said Rahim, very much abashed, "I forgot."
> 
> __________
> 
> After the luncheon, Florence and Khan held a large reception, to
> which a number of very distinguished people came, among them Diya
> Pasha, the Turkish Minister, and his whole family, Duke Lita and
> his wife, Admiral Peary, and Alexander Graham Bell.
> 
> Between the end of lunch and this reception the Master went
> upstairs to rest and to give a few private interviews. When He
> reappeared among us, the two living rooms were already crowded. He
> walked quickly to the open folding doors and standing there at the
> centre, with a strikingly free and simple bearing, immediately
> began to speak. His words too were simple and of a captivating
> sweetness, a startling clarity.
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha with the children of 'Ali Quli Khan]
> 
> Diya Pasha stood next to me, his eyes riveted on the Master. When
> the Master had finished speaking, the old diplomat (who is a fierce
> Muslim) turned to me. "This is irrefutable. This is pure logic,"
> he said.
> 
> A few months before, at the request of his daughter-in-law, an
> American girl and a dear friend of mine, I had given Diya Pasha the
> Message. I had had to give it in French, as he doesn't understand
> English, and, my French being rusty by now, I'm afraid I didn't do
> it very well: he looked so sceptical, almost contemptuous the whole
> time I was speaking. But when I said that through the Baha'i
> Teaching I had become a Muslim, and convinced him of this by the
> reverent way I spoke of Muhammad, I really touched Diya Pasha. He
> rose from the table, where we were at lunch, left the room, and
> returned with a precious and very old volume of the Qur'an on
> illuminated parchment and with a hand-tooled cover. "No Christian
> eye but yours," he said, "has ever looked upon this."
> 
> __________
> 
> To return to the Persian Embassy. A delicious thing happened when
> the Master greeted Peary, who has just succeeded in publicly
> disgracing Captain Cook and proving himself, and not Captain Cook,
> the discoverer of the North Pole. At that moment, in the Embassy,
> he looked like a blown-up balloon.
> 
> I was standing beside the Master when Khan brought the Admiral over
> and introduced him.
> 
> The Master spoke charmingly to him and congratulated him on his
> discovery. Then, with the utmost sweetness, added these surprising
> words: 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 found there; and so, in forever relieving the public mind,
> he had rendered a great service.
> 
> I shall never forget Peary's nonplussed face. The balloon
> collapsed!
> 
> __________
> 
> Immediately after the Khan's reception, Mrs Parsons too had a large
> one for the Master, to which Diya Pasha came with Him. I saw them,
> to my great delight, enter the hall together hand in hand.
> 
> Mrs Parsons house has real distinction. It is Georgian in style and
> in it has a very long white ballroom with, at one end, an unusually
> high mantel--the mantel, as well as the ceiling and panelled walls,
> delicately carved with garlands. At the windows hang thin silk
> curtains the colour of jonquil leaves.
> 
> Here, after this first reception, the Master spoke daily in the
> afternoon and the whole fashionable world flocked to hear Him.
> Scientists too, and even politicians came!
> 
> In front of the mantel, a platform had been placed for the Master
> and every day it was banked with fresh roses, American Beauties.
> 
> Into this room of conventional elegance, packed with conventional
> people, imagine the Master striding with His free step: walking
> first to one of the many windows and, while He looked out into the
> light, talking with His matchless ease to the people. Turning from
> the window, striding back and forth with a step so vibrant it shook
> you. Piercing our souls with those strange eyes, uplifting them,
> glory streaming upon them. Talking, talking, moving to and fro
> incessantly. Pushing back His turban, revealing that Christ-like
> forehead; pushing it forward again almost down to His eyebrows,
> which gave Him a
> 
> peculiar majesty. Charging, filling the room with magnetic
> currents, with a mysterious energy. Once He burst in, a child on
> His shoulder. For a moment He held her, caressing her. Then He sat
> her down among the roses.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Thursday, 25 April, the Master dined at the Turkish Embassy and
> I was privileged to be there.
> 
> Never have I seen such a beautiful table. Hundreds of roses lay the
> whole length of it, piled, melting into each other, sweeping up
> from the head and the foot of the table to a great mound in the
> centre, where the Master sat, faced by Diya Pasha. Florence Khanum
> and Carey, Madame Diya Bey (Diya Pasha's daughter-in-law), the
> American wives of Oriental diplomats, were placed on either side
> of the Master and I sat next to Carey.
> 
> There are times when the Master looks colossal, when His Holiness
> shines like the sun. That night He wore the usual white, with a
> honey-coloured 'aba. Diya Pasha, opposite Him, watched Him with
> eyes full of tears, his keen old hawk's face strangely softened.
> 
> The Master gave a great address on the civilizations built on the
> basic Teachings of the Prophets; then He spoke of this dinner as
> "a wonderful occasion". "The East and the West," He said, "are met
> in perfect love tonight." There was something so poignant in His
> words, so flame-creating, that for a moment I was overcome.
> 
> Later He spoke of the deep significance of the international
> marriages represented there: Diya Bey's and Carey's, 'Ali-Quli
> Khan's and Florence's. Carey made me very happy by saying: "Juliet
> told me long ago of Your Teachings, when I was only fifteen years
> old." What fruit that seed had borne, sown in a child!
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with the Persian Consul-general for New
> York and his household, Morristown, New Jersey.]
> 
> Diya Pasha made a thrilling speech. Rising and turning a lover's
> face to the Master, he called Him "the Light of the world, the
> Unique One of the age, Who had come to spread His glory and
> perfection amongst us."
> 
> "I am not worthy of this," said the Master, very simply. Always a
> great power is released from the Master's divine humility.
> 
> As I bade Diya Pasha goodnight, looking at me through a mist of
> tears, he said: "Truly, He is a Saint."
> 
> __________
> 
> One day Mrs Elkins invited the Master to drive with us and we went
> to the Soldiers' Home. The Elkinses, because of Katharine's
> engagement to the Duke of the Abruzzi, have been terribly hounded
> by the newspapers, but this happened before the Master came. He
> couldn't have known about it through any outward means. Yet no
> sooner were we seated in the car than He said to Mrs Elkins: "How
> the newspapers here persecute one!"
> 
> It was such a sympathetic subject! At once Mrs Elkins opened her
> heart.
> 
> "Come away!" smiled the Master. "Elude these journalists! Come to
> Haifa where there is peace. Juliet will tell you there is peace in
> Haifa."
> 
> Then He spoke of how much I loved her and of her philanthropic
> deeds, which He prayed might increase. He captured her hand and
> kept it in His, while she hastily hid the sweet gesture under her
> cape.
> 
> "Nothing endures, Mrs Elkins," He said. "Nothing but the Love of
> God endures. Look at these trees in full blossom now." And in words
> which I will not try to repeat He described the turning of the
> seasons: the trees in summer flourishing green leaves; the
> inevitable autumn with the leaves lying, yellow, on the ground.
> 
> "This," He said, "is a symbol of human life."
> 
> "Remember Babylon." He drew a vivid picture of ancient Babylon, its
> towers, its stupendous art; then of Babylon today: a waste of
> rubble, "the hyena prowling among its crumbled stones." No other
> sign of life but the "voice of the owl by night" or "a lark singing
> at daybreak." "Remember Tyre. Here too was beauty and splendour and
> pomp. Think of Tyre now. I have been there. I have seen."
> 
> He spoke of my mother that day: "Juliet's mother is very good. Her
> heart is very pure. As soon as we met, her face became radiant."
> 
> When we reached home, Mrs Elkins said to me: "You can't hide a
> thing from Him. He sees everything that is in your heart."
> 
> The day Mrs Elkins first met the Master she mentioned her husband,
> the senator,[107] who died about a year ago. "I wish he were here
> now," she said, "to meet You."
> 
> "Insha'llah," replied the Master, "for his good deeds I shall meet
> him in the Kingdom of God."
> 
> One of the senator's good deeds had been to protect the Baha'is in
> 'Akka and Haifa while the Master was being tried for His life in
> 1907.
> 
> __________
> 
> I was so thankful to be in Washington. At those daily meetings in
> Mrs Parsons' house I would see many of my old friends, friends of
> my childhood. Mrs Elkins went with me every day to the meetings:
> sometimes, when all the chairs were taken, standing the whole
> afternoon, although she was far from well.
> 
> One day, however, she was not with me. That night she was giving
> a small diner and an opera party and she
> 
> had to rest for this. So, being free for an hour or so, I decided
> to stay at Mrs Parsons' and have a little visit with Edna.
> 
> While Edna and I were talking, the Master suddenly entered the
> room. "I am going out for a drive," He said, "but wait till I
> return, Edna, and you too, Juliet, wait. I will see you in a short
> time."
> 
> So I waited--waited and waited. Half-past six came. Seven. We were
> to dine at half-past seven and the Elkinses' house was a long way
> off, rather indirect on the car-line.
> 
> "Go, Juliet," urged Edna. "I will explain."
> 
> But how could I? My Lord had told me to stay.
> 
> And now I shall have to digress and tell what may seem, just at
> first, another story: When I was ten years old, (and I remember the
> time because that year we were living with my grandmother) a very
> presumptuous idea took possession of me. I began to dream of some
> day painting the Christ. I even prayed that I might. "O God," I
> would pray, "You know Christ didn't look like a woman, the way all
> the pictures of Him look. Please let me paint Him when I grow up
> as the King of Men." And I never lost hope of this till I saw the
> Master. Then I knew that no one could paint the Christ. Could the
> sun with the whole universe full of its radiations, or endless
> flashes of lightning be captured in paint?
> 
> Imagine my surprise and dismay, fear, joy and gratitude all mixed
> together, at the news given me by Mrs Gibbons when the Master first
> came to New York. The night before He landed she had received a
> Tablet in which He said: "On My arrival in America Miss Juliet
> Thompson shall paint a wonderful portrait of Me." This was in
> response to a supplication from Mrs Gibbons
> 
> asking that her daughter might paint Him, which she never did,
> though the Master graciously gave her permission, even more
> graciously adding those words about me.
> 
> It was a little after seven when the Master came back from His
> drive. Entering the room in which He had left me and where of
> course I was still waiting, He said: "Ah, Juliet! For your sake I
> returned. Mrs Hemmick[108] wanted to keep Me, but I had asked you
> to wait; therefore I returned." After a pause He added: "Would you
> like to come up and paint Me tomorrow?"
> 
> So I learned the reward of obedience. Such a reward for so small
> an act of obedience! Once in Haifa He said to me: "Keep My words,
> obey My commands and you will marvel at the results."
> 
> And, by a miracle, I wasn't late for dinner! The dinner, because
> of another guest, had been postponed a half hour.
> 
> The next morning I went very early to Mrs Parsons' house, taking
> my box of pastels; but though it was only eight o'clock, quite a
> crowd had already gathered and I felt that the morning was doomed
> to be a broken one. Not only that, but the light in the rooms
> upstairs, where I was supposed to paint, is very weak, and the
> delicate wallpaper, with tiny bunches of flowers all over it, I
> couldn't use as a background for His head. For a while I was in
> despair, for I dared not make the suggestion I had in mind. But in
> the end I did. Begging Him to forgive me if I were doing something
> wrong, I asked if He would pose in New York instead. To this he
> consented so freely and sweetly that I had no more qualms about it.
> 
> The following day I went to Mrs Parsons' to meet Lee McClung, the
> Treasurer of the United States. Lee McClung had been one of the
> idols of my early adolescence. He had seemed quite old to me then,
> though now he is only thirty-eight. When I saw him again last
> winter for the first time in about ten years, he had made all sorts
> of fun of me for my "conversion to Bahaism". "It made me laugh out
> of one eye and cry out of the other," he said. "What does your
> mother think about it? Have you converted her?"
> 
> But at Mrs Parsons' first meeting, to my great surprise, there he
> was in the audience! I couldn't wait to speak to him or to present
> him to the Master as Mrs Elkins was in a hurry that day, but in the
> evening he dined with us.
> 
> "How did you feel when you saw the Master?" I asked him.
> 
> A shy look came into his face, and Mr McClung is anything but shy.
> "Well, I felt as though I were in the presence of one of the great
> old Prophets: Elijah, Isaiah, Moses. No, it was more than that!
> Christ ... no, now I have it. He seemed to me my Divine Father."
> 
> Then he said he must leave us a little early, as he was going to
> Mr Bell's--Alexander Graham Bell's--to meet 'Abdu'l-Baha there.
> 
> Later I was told that the Master had made an address at Mr Bell's;
> then others were called on to speak. But when Lee McClung was
> called on he said: "After 'Abdu'l-Baha has spoken, I cannot."
> 
> At Mr McClung's request, I had made an appointment for him with the
> Master for a private interview and this was the reason I was here
> to meet him at Mrs Parsons'. I arrived a little ahead of time and
> while I was
> 
> waiting for Mr McClung, a door in the hall opened and there stood
> the Master, beckoning to me. He was alone, so we had to fall back
> on His English and my scant Persian.
> 
> "How is your mother?" He asked first. "How old is she?"
> 
> But I couldn't tell Him, Mamma having always concealed her age till
> I think even she doesn't know it now.
> 
> "About fifty?"
> 
> "I think so."
> 
> "How old are you?"
> 
> I confessed my age.
> 
> "In My eyes you are fifteen," He replied, so sweetly.
> 
> "In our eyes I am an infant?"
> 
> "Yes. Baby!"
> 
> Then the translator arrived.
> 
> "Tell Juliet," the Master began at once, "that she teaches well.
> I have met many people who have been affected by you, Juliet. You
> are not eloquent, you are not fluent, but your heart teaches. You
> speak with a feeling, an emotion which makes people ask: 'What is
> this she has?' Then they inquire; they seek and find. It is so too
> with Lua. You never find Lua speaking with dry eyes! You will be
> confirmed. A great bounty will descend upon you. You will become
> eloquent. Your tongue will be loosed. Teach, always teach. The
> confirmations of the Holy Spirit descend upon those who teach
> constantly. Never feel fear. The Holy Spirit will give you the
> words to say. Never fear You will grow stronger and stronger."
> 
> That erect head, that hand held high in command, the Power that
> eddied from Him as He spoke those words, how can I ever feel fear
> again when I have to mount the dreaded platform?
> 
> It was later that He said to me: "You have many friends. You have
> no enemies. Everybody is your friend. Do not think I am ignorant
> of conditions in New York. Both factions are pleased with you,
> Juliet, and have nothing but good to say of you, although they
> complain of others. Miss X is pleased with you! Mrs XX is pleased
> with you!" (laughing as He mentioned the two chief disturbers of
> the peace). "And you have accomplished this only through your
> sincerity. Others may do this through diplomatic action, but you
> have done it with your heart."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. I am destroying my diary in longhand and I can't bear
> to lose any of the Master's words to me, those dear words of
> encouragement. That is why I keep them.)
> 
> __________
> 
> Just then Lee McClung arrived and the Master took him
> upstairs.[109]
> 
> __________
> 
> New York
> 
> 11 May 1912
> 
> On Saturday, 11 May, just one month from the day of His landing,
> the Master returned to New York from Washington, Cleveland, and
> Chicago.
> 
> A few of us gathered in His rooms to prepare them for Him and fill
> them with flowers; then to wait for His arrival: May Maxwell, Lua
> Getsinger, Carrie Kinney, Kate Ives, Grace Robarts, and I. Mr Mills
> and Mr Woodcock were waiting too.
> 
> The Master has a new home, in the Hudson Apartment House,[110]
> overlooking the river. His flat is on one of the top stories, so
> that its windows frame the sky. Now the windows were all open and
> a fresh breeze blew in.
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with children and Persian entourage.]
> 
> About five o'clock He came. Oh the coming of that Presence! If only
> I could convey to the future the mighty commotion of it! The hearts
> almost suffocate with joy, the eyes burn with tears at the stir of
> that step! It is futile to try to express it. Sometimes when the
> sun breaks through clouds and spreads a great fiery glow, I get
> something of that feeling.
> 
> After greeting us all the Master took a seat by the window and
> began to talk to us, with supreme love and gladness, wittily,
> tenderly, eloquently, carrying us up as if on wings to the apex of
> sublime feeling, so that we wept; then turning our tears to sudden
> little ripples of laughter as an unexpected gleam of wit flashed
> out; then melting our hearts with His yearning affection.
> 
> He had been horrified in Washington by the prejudice against the
> Negroes. "What does it matter," He asked, "if the skin of a man is
> black, white, yellow, pink, or green? In this respect the animals
> show more intelligence than man. Black sheep and white sheep, white
> doves and blue do not quarrel because of difference of colour."
> 
> Lua, May, and I, for the first time together in the Glory of His
> Presence, sat on the floor in a corner, gazing through tears at Him
> and whenever we could wrench our eyes from the sorrowful beauty of
> His face, silhouetted against the sky, gazing at one another, still
> through tears.
> 
> Day after day I was with Him there. Lua and I had permission to be
> always with Him. I would go to His apartment in the early morning
> and stay through the whole day and again and again He would call
> me to His Presence.
> 
> "My Lord," I said once, "I really shouldn't take Your time. I don't
> want to take Your time. I am only too
> 
> thankful to be here, serving at a distance, somewhere in Your
> atmosphere."
> 
> "I know you are content with whatever I do, therefore I send for
> you, Juliet," He replied.
> 
> 13 May 1912
> 
> On the thirteenth of May (Percy Grant's birthday) a meeting of the
> Peace Conference took place at the Hotel Astor. It was an enormous
> meeting with thousands present. The Master was the Guest of Honour
> and the first speaker, Dr Grant and Rabbi Wise the other speakers.
> 
> The Master sat at the centre on the high stage, Dr Grant on His
> right, Rabbi Wise on His left. Oh, the symbolism of that: the
> Jewish rabbi, the Christian clergyman, with the Centre of the
> Covenant between, on the platform of the World Peace
> Conference.[111]
> 
> The Master was really too ill to have gone to this Conference. He
> had been in bed all morning, suffering from complete exhaustion,
> and had a high temperature. I was with Him all morning. While I was
> sitting beside Him I asked: "Must You go to the Hotel Astor when
> You are so ill?"
> 
> "I work by the confirmations of the Holy Spirit," He answered. "I
> do not work by hygienic laws. If I did," He laughed, "I would get
> nothing done."
> 
> After that meeting, the wonderful record of which has been kept,
> the Master shook hands with the whole audience, with every one of
> those thousands of people!
> 
> 14 May 1912
> 
> On Friday, the fourteenth of May, I had quite a distinguished
> visitor, Khan Bahadur Allah-Bakhsh, the Governor of Lahore. Mr
> Barakatu'llah had sent him to see me. I invited him to my meeting
> that night and he
> 
> came and seemed to fall in love with the Teachings. The next
> morning early he called on the Master at the Hudson Apartment
> House. Lua, May, and I were there at the time and I told him that
> May was one of my spiritual mothers and Lua my spiritual
> grandmother. Whereupon the old gentleman said that in that case I
> was his mother, May Maxwell his grandmother, and Lua his
> great-grandmother!
> 
> Very soon the Master sent for him and kept him a long time in His
> room. When the interview was over and Khan Bahadur Allah-Bakhsh had
> left, the Master called me to Him.
> 
> "You teach well, Juliet," He said. "You teach with ecstasy. You
> ignite the souls. A great bounty will descend upon you. I have
> perfect confidence in you as a teacher. Your heart is pure,
> absolutely pure."
> 
> My heart absolutely pure! I wept.
> 
> Then, for the second time, the Master gave me a picture of Himself.
> 
> Three days later I had a note from the Governor of Lahore. In it
> he said: "'Abdu'l-Baha is the Divine Light of today."
> 
> __________
> 
> One night I took Marjorie to the Master. She had in her hand an
> offering of tulips, grown in her own garden, and these He
> distributed among His visitors.
> 
> "Juliet's love for you is divine," He said, speaking to Marjorie,
> "and your love for each other must become so great that no stab
> will affect it." Then He told us that, in reality, our friendship
> was an "eternal" one.
> 
> Marion deKay went with me to Him.
> 
> "Your friend, Juliet? Ancient friend?" and He smiled at the child.
> "You must become a flame of love." ("Like Juliet," He said. I have
> to keep all His sweet words to
> 
> me.) "You must become as steadfast as a rock, firm! strong! so that
> when the storms break over you, when the thunder roars and the
> winds rage, you will not be shaken. You must become a teacher, a
> speaker."
> 
> On the fifteenth of May the Master went away for a few days. As
> soon as He returned Lua telephoned me. "The Master says: come up
> now if you wish. If not, you have permission to come to Him at any
> time and to stay as long as you are able. Only, don't displease
> your mother. He wants her to be happy, He says. This is His
> message, Julie."
> 
> 19 May 1912
> 
> On Sunday, 19 May, He spoke at the Church of the Divine
> Paternity.[112] This was unbearably beautiful. The church is
> Byzantine, making me think of the worship of the early Christians.
> The interior is of grey stone.
> 
> Oh the look of His that day! Then, more vividly than ever, He shone
> as the Good Shepherd, returned at last to His flocks. I wept
> through the whole service. At the end of the pew in front of me sat
> Lua, her eyes fixed on the master, rapt, adoring, her beauty
> immeasurably heightened by that recognition, that adoration.
> 
> Soon I caught a glimpse of another rapt face--a man's--my old
> friend, Mr Bailey's. Mr Bailey is the last person I could have
> hoped to see there. A very old gentleman, he had always seemed to
> me a hopelessly unconvertible atheist. At least he would never
> listen to a word from me about the Cause. And now, here he sat, and
> never have I seen a face more touched. His eyes were wistful, like
> a child's, shyly reverent and as limpid as though there were tears
> in them.
> 
> He met me that afternoon at the Master's apartment,
> 
> making his entrance with these words: "I have been thinking since
> this morning that the way to the attainment of greatness is through
> elimination."
> 
> "You felt," I ventured, "'Abdu'l-Baha's simplicity?"
> 
> "One would naturally feel,"--huffily--"the simplicity of Niagara."
> 
> "And the beauty of His Face?"
> 
> "The patriarchal grandeur of His face cannot be denied."
> 
> Later, how his eyes hung on that Face while the Master talked with
> him!
> 
> 21 May 1912
> 
> On 21 May, Mrs Tatum[113] had a reception for the Master. The
> people who were there were of the fashionable world, with a
> sprinkling of artists and writers. Mrs Sheridan was pouring tea.
> 
> Mrs Tatum's house is beautiful. The impression you get is of space
> and light. A white staircase winds up through a very wide hall,
> from which, on each side, rooms open--living rooms, dining room,
> library. All these were soon crowded.
> 
> The first friend I caught sight of was Louis Potter.[114] He
> 
> came running up to me, exclaiming: "Oh august Juliet!" and attached
> himself at once to Lua and me. Suddenly, there was a stir among the
> people, and 'Abdu'l-Baha was in our midst. He walked over to a
> yellow couch which curved along the big half-moon of the bay window
> and sat down on it.
> 
> I think I must tell you how He looked there. His surroundings were
> all white and yellow. Sunlight streamed in. The shadows on His face
> were transparent; His profile, against the blue sky through the
> polished glass of the windowpane, outlined in light.
> 
> "Come, Louis," I said to Louis Potter, "let's go to the Master."
> 
> Louis had never seen Him before, but he skipped forward like a
> buoyant faun, his head tipped to one side, his hands outstretched.
> 
> "Ah-h-h!" he said. It was a little cry from his soul, as though he
> were just coming home, and was so glad.
> 
> And the Master too said: "Ah-h-h!" His arms wide open, welcoming
> Louis home.
> 
> Percy Grant arrived. As soon as he appeared, big and imposing, in
> the room, the Master rose almost eagerly, smiling and holding out
> His hand.
> 
> "Ah! Dr Grant!" He said.
> 
> They stood for what seemed to me minutes, their hands clasped,
> Percy, with beautiful deference, bowing his head, a gentle, almost
> tender look on his face. One of the Persians translated the
> Master's greeting to him but spoke so low that I could not catch
> the words. Then Percy sat down on the curving window seat so that
> he faced the Master.
> 
> Soon there was another stir in the room. A small, rather plain
> middle-aged woman with the most astonishing eyes--very clear, very
> violet--stood in the
> 
> doorway, almost timidly, and the Master at once sent Dr Farid to
> her to ask her to come and sit by Him. This was Sarah Graham
> Mulhall.
> 
> He spoke a few words to her and she rose and went out, returning
> after some time with a tray and a pot of tea and two cups on it.
> The tray was placed on a stool between the Master and Miss Mulhall
> and they drank their tea together.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. Miss Mulhall's father and brother, who were
> physicians, had come to New York from England to study the effects
> of drugs on the body and mind. Both died mysteriously. Miss
> Mulhall's only training had been in music. She was a very gentle,
> retiring woman and knew nothing of the ways of business or
> organization or medicine, or anything that would have equipped her
> for the evidently dangerous work of her father and brother. But
> something inside her, against which she fought, urged her to
> continue it. She was in the midst of this inward conflict when Mrs
> Tatum telephoned her and asked her to come to meet the Master. At
> first Miss Mulhall declined, saying that she really couldn't go
> anywhere, she was too absorbed in her own problems, she couldn't
> face a crowd of people. But later she thought: Perhaps 'Abdu'l-Baha
> is a Prophet, as Mrs Tatum believes,[115] and He might help me in
> making my decision.
> 
> The Master, when He called her to Him in Mrs Tatum's house, asked
> if she would do something for Him. Would she brew some tea for Him
> with her own
> 
> hands and drink it with Him? And while they drank tea and talked,
> He Himself brought up her problem.
> 
> He told her she must do the work she had in mind; she would rise
> very high in it and become "a great Counsellor"; God would always
> protect her and all the Celestial Beings of the Supreme Concourse
> would rally to her assistance.
> 
> She did become a Great Counsellor. After years of wonderful work,
> Governor Smith, Al Smith, made her Adviser and First Commissioner
> of Narcotics for New York State. One night she herself led a raid
> against one of the chief centres of the drug ring--a ring of very
> rich, prominent men, some of them "pillars" of St. Patrick's, some
> "pillars" of St. John's Cathedral. Rounding them up in their
> centre, an apartment on Park Avenue, she, with the help of her
> squad of police, locked them in; then telephoned to the governor.
> He took the next train to New York and upheld Miss Mulhall's
> determination to bring them all to trial. Then he went to Cardinal
> Hayes and Bishop Manning. Cardinal Hayes said: "These men are the
> worst type of criminals. I agree with you that they must be
> punished." Bishop Manning said: "You can't touch my parishioners.
> They are the builders of St. John's Cathedral." He threatened Miss
> Mulhall. "If you ruin them, I will destroy your office." Which he
> did, ultimately, for of course every one of the men was found
> guilty and sent to Fort Leavenworth. After Lehman was elected
> Governor, the Narcotics Commission was abolished. But in the
> meantime Miss Mulhall had done a tremendous work. Her book, Opium,
> the Demon Flower, has become world famous.)
> 
> __________
> 
> Then I caught sight of little "Fergie". His real name I don't want
> to mention because of what I am going to
> 
> tell. He is a noted newspaper man who writes visionary books on
> economics. Percy Grant calls him "my prophet". His face is pale
> and pinched and suffering and he wears a thick chestnut wig. I went
> up to him and asked: "Wouldn't you like to meet the Master?" "I
> think not," he drawled, "I really have nothing to say to Him."
> 
> And now the Master began to speak to the whole roomful of people.
> 
> He was very happy, He said, to be with us. "Think of the contrast!"
> For years He had been imprisoned in a fortress, His associates
> criminals. Now He found Himself in spacious homes, "associating,"
> He said, "with you."
> 
> His talk gradually shaped itself to some definite point, which,
> however, He kept for the very end. I wondered what could be coming.
> When it came it was like a thunderclap.
> 
> "Think of it," He said. "Two kings were dethroned in order that I
> might be freed. This is naught but pure destiny."
> 
> I glanced at Percy Grant and saw that he was deeply stirred. He had
> been listening, still with that tender deference, his head slightly
> tipped to one side, but at these last startling words of the
> Master's, in a flash the placidity of his face broke up, something
> burned through and his eyes sparked.
> 
> "And now," ended the Master, suddenly rising to His feet, strong
> and incredibly majestic, "you here in America must work with Me for
> the peace of the world and the oneness of mankind."
> 
> And with this He left us, the room seeming strangely empty after
> He had gone.
> 
> The next morning early Howard MacNutt came to see me, looking so
> radiant that I knew he was bringing good news. Then he told me. He
> had just had breakfast with
> 
> Dr Grant, and the Master was to speak again at the Church of the
> Ascension--at the People's Forum this time, the night of 2 June.
> Bishop Burch had severely reprimanded Percy for inviting the Master
> to speak on 14 April and for seating Him in the Bishop's chair! But
> an idiotic thing like that would never stop Percy Grant--only make
> him more defiant.
> 
> He had talked very freely with Mr MacNutt about 'Abdu'l-Baha and
> His address of the day before with its great climax. "As I
> listened," he said, "I realized profoundly that this was a historic
> moment; that before me sat One Who, imprisoned for the sake of
> humankind, had been freed by the Power of God alone, through the
> dethroning of two kings."
> 
> Return to New York
> 
> On 22 May the Master left for Boston, returning the twenty-sixth.
> After His return He stayed with the Kinneys a day or so (till He
> moved to His new house), and then came my test! For two days He
> never even looked at me. My heart bled and burned. I could not
> endure the withdrawal of His nearness. The third day I went to the
> new house--309 West Seventy-Eighth Street--and there, in Lua's
> arms, I sobbed my heart out.
> 
> "I cry," I said, "only because I love Him," (which I fear was not
> exactly true) "because I have just realized how terrifically I love
> Him. This love burns my heart. It is beyond endurance."
> 
> Then He sent for me to come to Him.
> 
> __________
> 
> With tears rolling down my cheeks I entered His Presence. He was
> sitting on a couch writing and did not look up--still didn't look
> at me! But at last He said, going straight to the point, piercing
> to the real cause of my trouble: "I have not seen you lately,
> Juliet, because of
> 
> the multitude of the affairs. But I have not forgotten My promise
> to pose for you. Come on Saturday with your materials and I will
> sit."
> 
> I thanked Him; then falling on my knees, begged Him not to banish
> me from His Presence. I could not endure to be separated from Him.
> I loved, loved Him.
> 
> He rose, stood above me, took my hand and held it a long, long
> time. I still knelt at His feet, the hem of His garment pressed to
> my lips.
> 
> Lua joined her sweet voice to mine.
> 
> "Julie has had so much trouble this year. She wants to stay close
> to You now so that her heart may be healed."
> 
> "I want to stay close because I love You!"
> 
> He smiled and said something about another love.
> 
> "That is gone. Gone," I cried.
> 
> At these words of mine which I thought were true, the strangest
> thing happened. Always when the Master holds my hand I feel a flow
> of sparks from His palm to mine. Now this current of Life was
> suddenly cut off. Could I have lied to my Lord, and so, by
> unconscious self-deception, disconnected myself from the
> Fountainhead of pure Truth?
> 
> But His answer was merciful, reminding me of past sincerities. "I
> am pleased with you, Juliet. You are so truthful. You tell me
> everything. She said:" (He turned, laughing, to Lua) "'This is my
> heart. What can I do with it?'"
> 
> I laughed too, through my tears. But soon I began to cry again.
> 
> He went back to the couch and sat down and Lua and I followed Him
> and knelt together at His feet there.
> 
> "Don't cry!" (I wish the whole world could hear the
> 
> Master say "don't cry". Tears would soon cease to be.) "Don't cry!
> Unhappiness and the love of Baha'u'llah cannot exist in the same
> heart, for the love of Baha'u'llah is happiness."
> 
> "I cry for love of you, my Lord. My tears come from my heart. I
> can't help it."
> 
> "Your eyes and Lua's"--and He laughed again--"are two rivers of
> tears." "I love Juliet," He added, "for her truthfulness."
> 
> "I told Juliet," said Lua, putting her arms around me, as we still
> knelt together side by side, "of Your words to Mrs Kaufman: that
> these human loves were like waves of the sea rolling to the shore
> one behind the other, each wave receding."
> 
> "Balih," (yes) said the Master, "this is true. You will not find
> faithfulness in humanity. All humanity is unfaithful. Only God is
> faithful. Baha'u'llah spent fifty years in prison for the sake of
> humanity. There was faithfulness!"
> 
> "From this moment," cried Lua, "Juliet and I dedicate our lives to
> Thee and we beg to at last die in Thy Path--to drink the cup of
> martyrdom. Oh, it would be so good for the Cause if two Americans
> could do this! Take hold of His coat, Julie, and beseech."
> 
> I touched the hem of His garment.
> 
> "Say yes," implored Lua. "Oh Julie, beg Him to say yes."
> 
> But in Thonon I had told the Master that I would not ask for that
> cup again but would wait till God found me ready for it.
> 
> "I accept the dedication of your lives now. The rest will be
> decided later."
> 
> And it was clear what He meant. How we must amuse Him!
> 
> __________
> 
> I must go back a little. On Sunday, 26 May, the night of the
> Master's return from Boston, He spoke at Mr Ramsdell's (Baptist)
> church.[116]
> 
> My friend, Lawrence White, who lives in Utica, had come to New York
> to met the Master, and he, Silvia Gannett, and I went together to
> the church.
> 
> We entered, to see a breathtaking picture: That church suggests an
> old Jewish synagogue. Behind the chancel is a sweeping arch from
> which hangs a dark, massive curtain in folds straight as organ
> pipes. The chancel was empty that night except for the Master,
> sitting--almost lying--in a semicircular chair, His head thrown
> back, His luminous eyes uprolled. The sleeves of His
> bronze-coloured 'aba branched out from His shoulders like great
> spread wings, hiding His hands, so that I was conscious only of His
> head and those terribly alive eyes. There was an awful mystery
> about that dominance of the head. It seemed to obliterate the human
> form and reveal Him as the Face of God. The curtain behind Him
> might have concealed the Ark of the Covenant, which He, THE
> COVENANT, was guarding.
> 
> Later, when He rose to speak, the Manifestation of the Glory was
> entirely different. He diffused a softer radiance.
> 
> "Look at Him and see the Christ," whispered Lawrence White.
> 
> __________
> 
> Next, He spoke at the Church of the Open Door. Again the Shepherd.
> Again I watched Him through blinding tears.
> 
> 2 June 1912
> 
> On the second of June He spoke for Dr Grant's Forum.[117] And there
> He was simpler; He manifested less, or perhaps I should say
> manifested something different: a sort of brotherhood to the
> masses, still retaining His grandeur. And how He addressed Himself
> to that meeting and to the heart of Percy Grant!
> 
> The subject was: "What can the Orient bring to the Occident?"
> 
> That subject in that church!
> 
> Lua and I were in a front pew with Valiyu'llah Khan and Mirza
> Mahmud. Suddenly I was petrified to see Mason Remey coming in,
> through the door of the vestry-room. When he was last in the Church
> of the Ascension I was siting beside him, engaged to him, while
> Percy thundered at me from the pulpit. The text of the sermon that
> Sunday was the same as the text today: "What can the Orient bring
> to the Occident." "Nothing but disease and death," said Percy, his
> eyes on me, "and God wants us to live; He wants us to live."
> 
> But the Speaker this time was the Master. He said: "The Orient
> brings to the Occident the Manifestations of God."
> 
> Then He defined the Church as that Collective Centre which,
> attracting many diverse elements, united them
> 
> into one ordered system, adding that the Church was but a
> reflection of the real Collective Centre, the Shepherd, Who,
> whenever His sheep became scattered, reappeared to unite them. So
> the Church, established by God's Manifestation, was the Law of God,
> and when Christ said to Peter, "On thee will I build My Church,"
> He meant He would build His Law upon Peter. Upon him Christ built
> the Law of God by which all peoples and creeds were afterward
> unified.
> 
> The Master had said it again to Percy Grant: "Be thou like Peter,"
> for this was His message sent by me last summer.
> 
> When, at the end of the marvellous address, Percy stepped out into
> the chancel, it was another man I saw: a man touched by the Hand
> of God, shaken to the very roots of his being. As Marjorie said,
> he looked ill and strangely upset. He could scarcely articulate.
> 
> The questions followed; it is the custom of the Forum to ask
> questions. In the centre of the chancel sat the Master, Dr Grant
> on His right in a choirstall, Dr Farid behind Him. How at home the
> Master looked there! He pushed back His turban and smiled as He
> answered, often very wittily. Once He raised one finger high. I
> caught my breath then. He was like Jesus in the synagogue
> confronting the scribes and Pharisees, except that His audience
> weren't Pharisees.
> 
> 5 June 1912
> 
> The Master has begun to pose for me. He had said: "Can you paint
> Me in a half hour?"
> 
> "A half hour, my Lord?" I stammered, appalled. I can never finish
> a head in less than two weeks.
> 
> "Well, I will give you three half hours. You mustn't waste My time,
> Juliet."
> 
> He told me to come to Him Saturday morning, 1 June, at
> seven-thirty.
> 
> I went in a panic. He was waiting for me in the entrance hall, a
> small space in the English basement where the light--not much of
> it--comes from the south. In fact I found myself faced with every
> kind of handicap. I always paint standing, but now I was obliged
> to sit, jammed so close to the window (because of the lack of
> distance between the Master and me) that I couldn't even lean back.
> No light. No room. And I had brought a canvas for a life-size head.
> 
> The Master was seated in a dark corner, His black 'aba melting into
> the background; and again I saw Him as the Face of God, and
> quailed. How could I paint the Face of God?
> 
> "I want you," He said, "to paint My Servitude to God."
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I cried, "only the Holy Spirit could paint Your
> Servitude to God. No human hand could do it. Pray for me, or I am
> lost. I implore You, inspire me."
> 
> "I will pray," He answered, "and as you are doing this only for the
> sake of God, you will be inspired."
> 
> And then an amazing thing happened. All fear fell away from me and
> it was as though Someone Else saw through my eyes, worked through
> my hand.
> 
> All the points, all the planes in that matchless Face were so clear
> to me that my hand couldn't put them down quickly enough, couldn't
> keep pace with the clarity of my vision. I painted in ecstasy, free
> as I had never been before.
> 
> At the end of the half hour the foundation of the head was perfect.
> 
> On Monday again I went to the Master at seven-thirty. As I got off
> the bus at Seventy-Eighth Street and Riverside Drive I saw Him at
> the centre of a little group standing beside that strip of park
> that drops low to the river--the part we love to call "His garden",
> a forever hallowed spot to us, for there we sometimes walk with Him
> in the evenings, there He takes His daily exercise, or escapes from
> the house to rest and pray.
> 
> The people who were with Him this morning were Nancy Sholl and Ruth
> Berkeley, Mr MacNutt and Mr Mills, and, as I hurried to join them,
> I saw that the Master was anointing them from a vial of attar of
> rose.
> 
> Oh the heavenly perfume, the pale, early-morning sunshine and the
> Master, all in white glistening in it (no one else takes the
> sunlight as He does: He is like a polished mirror to the sun), the
> ecstatic, intoxicating love with which He rubbed our foreheads with
> His strong fingers dripping with that essence of a hundred roses!
> 
> Soon we saw Miss Buckton crossing the street toward us, bringing
> with her a tall young man with a remarkable face, very pure and
> serene, which seemed somehow familiar to me. The Master abruptly
> left us and met the two in the middle of the Drive. Then I saw Him
> open His arms wide and clasp the young man to His breast.
> 
> We all followed the Master to His house, where the young man was
> introduced to me, and then I knew why his face had seemed familiar.
> He was Walter Hempden. I had seen him in the theatre. I was in the
> audience, he on the stage playing the part of "the Servant" in The
> Servant in the House: Christ. And he played it so intensely, with
> such spiritual fervour, that I prayed with all my
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in His "garden" on Riverside Drive in
> New York, 1912.]
> 
> heart, there in the audience, that he might some day meet the real
> "Servant!"118
> 
> 12 June 1912
> 
> Yesterday morning I went up early to the Master's house, that house
> whose door is open at seven-thirty and kept wide open till
> midnight.
> 
> He had been away and I had not seen Him for three days. I had
> brought my pastels, thinking He might sit for me, but I found Him
> looking utterly spent. He was in the English basement, Ruth
> Berkeley and Valiyu'llah Khan with Him, lying back against the sofa
> cushions. But, in spite of His weariness, He looked up with
> brilliant eyes.
> 
> "What do you want of Us, Juliet?" He smiled.
> 
> I had hid my pastels. "Only to be near You."
> 
> "You must excuse Me from sitting for you today. I am not able
> today."
> 
> "I knew that, my Lord, as soon as I came in."
> 
> Then He talked to Ruth and me. He told us we were as babes nursing
> at the Divine Breast. "But babes," He said, "grow daily through the
> mother's milk."
> 
> I could not help but weep, for His was the Divine Breast.
> 
> Soon He went out alone to "the garden", leaving Ruth, Valiyu'llah
> Khan, and me together.
> 
> "It is wonderful," Ruth said as He went, "to see how the world is
> quickened today in all directions."
> 
> "And to know," I said, "that the Voice that is quickening it is the
> same tender Voice that spoke to us just now." And I wept again, for
> something about the Master that morning had utterly melted me.
> 
> Later He came back. The English basement was crowded by then and
> He talked for a long while to the people. But this I could see was
> pure sacrifice. His vitality seemed gone. At times He could
> scarcely bring forth the words, yet He gave and gave. When He had
> finished He hurriedly left the house and went again to "His
> garden".
> 
> On the way to the bus I met Him returning alone. He stopped me, put
> out His hand and took mine, with indescribable tenderness smiling
> at me. In the handclasp, the look, even in the tilt of the head was
> a Love so poignant as to give me pain.
> 
> "Come tomorrow and paint, Juliet," He said.
> 
> He appeared refreshed--better--but remembering His utter depletion
> of the morning I couldn't help answering, "If You are well." Then
> I thought I would speak in Persian to amuse Him, but instead of
> saying, "If Your health is good," I made a mistake and said, "Agar
> Shuma khub ast," (If You are good.) whereupon I was covered with
> confusion. I must have amused Him!
> 
> How stupidly we speak to Him! Imagine saying "if" to Him. That was
> even worse than my break in Persian.
> 
> __________
> 
> That night there was a meeting at the Kinneys', one of those deadly
> "Board meetings", but the Master came to it.
> 
> Striding up and down like a king, He spoke to us. In these
> meetings, He said, we should be in connection
> 
> with the Supreme Concourse. Between the Supreme Concourse and us
> there should be telegraphic communication, one end of the wire in
> the breast of each one here and the other in that Concourse on
> high, so that all we might say or do would be inspired.
> 
> __________
> 
> Today (12 June) I went up early to His house, but not early enough.
> As I turned into Seventy-Eighth Street from West End Avenue I saw
> Him a block away, hastening toward "His garden", His robes floating
> out as He walked.
> 
> Soon He came back to us. Miss Buckton had arrived by that time and
> a poor little waif of a girl, a Jewess. She was all in black and
> her small pale face was very careworn.
> 
> I had been in the kitchen with Lua. When I heard the voice of the
> Master I hurried into the hall, and there I saw them sitting at the
> window, the poor sad little girl at the Master's right, Alice
> Buckton at His left. Like a God, He dominated the scene. Sunlight
> streamed through the window, His white robes and turban shining in
> it, the strong carving of His Face thrown into high relief by
> masses of shadow.
> 
> The little Jewish girl was crying.
> 
> "Don't grieve now, don't grieve," He said. He was very, very still
> and I think He was calming her.
> 
> "But my brother has been in prison for three years, and it wasn't
> just to put him in prison. It wasn't his fault, what he did. He was
> weak and other people led him. He has to serve four more years. My
> father and mother are always depressed. My brother-in-law has just
> died, and he was the on who supported us. Now we haven't even
> that."
> 
> "You must trust in God," said the Master.
> 
> "But the more I trust the worse things become!" she sobbed.
> 
> "You have never trusted."
> 
> "But my mother is all the time reading psalms. She doesn't deserve
> to have God abandon her. I read the psalms myself, the ninety-first
> psalm and the twenty-third psalm, every night before I go to bed.
> I pray too."
> 
> "To pray is not to read psalms. To pray is to trust in God and to
> be submissive in all things to Him. Be submissive; then things will
> change for you. Put your parents and your brother in God's hands.
> Love God's Will. Strong ships are not conquered by the sea, they
> ride the waves! Now be a strong ship, not a battered one."
> 
> At noon I took Percy Grant to the Master. The Master had inquired
> for him and sent him a message by me, and Percy had responded
> instantly by himself suggesting this visit. But the Master was out
> when we reached the house and while we were waiting for Him I
> mentioned a very interesting thing He had said to Gifford
> Pinchot:[119] that the people were rising wave upon wave, like a
> great tide, and the capitalists, unless they realized this soon,
> would be driven out with violence; also, that in the future the
> labourer would not work on a wage basis but for an interest in the
> concern.
> 
> Just then Lua appeared at the door of the room opposite, went to
> the stairway and, with her beautiful reverence, leaned across the
> rail to look down.
> 
> "He is coming, Lua?"
> 
> "Yes, Julie, He is coming!"
> 
> He entered the room with both hands extended and in
> 
> a voice like a chime from His heart, said: "Oh-h, Dr Grant! Dr
> Grant!"
> 
> Then I slipped out.
> 
> When I returned at the Master's call, He was signing a photograph
> for Percy and writing a prayer on it. "And now," he said,
> presenting it, "you must give Me your photograph. I want your face.
> I have given you Mine. Now you must give Me yours."
> 
> "I will pray for you," He added as He bade Percy goodbye. "I will
> mention you daily in My prayers."
> 
> The Master detained me for a moment. As I rejoined Percy in the
> car, Valiyu'llah Khan was just going into the house.
> 
> "Do you see that handsome, distinguished-looking young man?" I
> said. "That is Valiyu'llah Khan, a descendant of two generations
> of martyrs and the brother of one very young martyr. His
> grandfather, Sulayman Khan, was a disciple of the Bab. He was
> Governor of Fars and a great prince, but that didn't save him. He
> suffered the most ghastly kind of martyrdom and with such ecstasy
> that he is one of the best beloved of the Babi martyrs.
> 
> "Just a few years ago Valiyu'llah's father, Varqa Khan, and his
> little brother, [Ruhu'llah] Varqa, went on a pilgrimage to 'Akka
> and had a wonderful visit with the Master. But on their way home
> they were both arrested and thrown into prison. Then one day some
> brutal men came into their cell, one with an axe. Varqa Khan was
> hacked into pieces alive, and the poor little boy forced to look
> on at that butchery. When it was over, one of the executioners
> turned to the child. I think I will tell the rest in Valiyu'llah
> Khan's own language, just as he told it to me.
> 
> "'The man said to my brother: "If you will deny Baha'u'llah, we
> will take you to the court of the Shah and honours and riches will
> be heaped upon you." But my brother answered: "I do not want such
> things." Then the man said to him: "If you refuse to deny, we will
> kill you worse than your father." "You may kill me a thousand times
> worse," my brother said. "Is my life of more value than my
> father's? To die for Baha'u'llah is my supreme desire." 'This so
> angered the executioners that they fell upon Varqa and choked him
> to death.' Varqa was only twelve years old.
> 
> "A day or two ago," I went on, "Valiyu'llah Khan asked me, 'How is
> the Master's portrait progressing?' and he added that, in a
> portrait, he thought 'one must paint the soul.' 'But who can paint
> the soul of 'Abdu'l-Baha I asked. And I wish you could have seen
> the fire in his eyes as he drew himself up and said: 'We can paint
> it with our blood!'"
> 
> 13 June 1912
> 
> The next day, 13 June, as usual I went very early to the Master's
> house--so early that no one was there--I mean, no visitors. Some
> of the Persians of course were with Him: Valiy'u'llah Khan, Ahmad
> and Mirza 'Ali-Akbar. I found them in the lower hall, the English
> basement. The Master was sitting in the big chair by the window.
> He called me to a seat opposite, then began to speak, smiling.
> 
> "Juliet is absolutely truthful. For this I love her very much. She
> conceals nothing from me."
> 
> "It would be useless, my Lord," I said, "to try to conceal anything
> from You. I could hide nothing."
> 
> "That is true," said the Master, raising one hand. "Nothing;
> nothing."
> 
> Soon He rose. "Stay here," He told me, and went out with Ahmad.
> 
> By the time He returned a crowd had gathered. He gave a few private
> interviews upstairs, then came down and, sitting by the window,
> talked to all the people. I think the strongest image in my mind
> is and will always be the holy figure of the Master sitting in the
> rays of the sun at that window.
> 
> The meeting over, a few of us went upstairs to say a healing prayer
> for Mrs Hinkle-Smith, but just before Lua began to chant, the
> Master looked in at the door and called: "Juliet," and I happily
> deserted Mrs Hinkle-Smith.
> 
> "Bring your things in here and paint," He said, pointing to the
> library.
> 
> Oh, these sittings: so wonderful, yet so humanly difficult! We move
> from room to room, from one kind of light to another. The Master
> has given me three half hours, each time in a different room, and
> each time people come in and watch me. But the miraculous thing is
> that nothing makes any difference. The minute I begin to work the
> same rapture takes possession of me. Someone Else looks through my
> eyes and sees clearly; Someone Else works through my hand with a
> sort of furious precision.
> 
> On this thirteenth of June, after Lua had chanted the prayer for
> Mrs Hinkle-Smith, she and May came into the library, crossed over
> to where I was sitting and stood behind me.
> 
> The Master looked up and smiled at May. "You have a kind heart, Mrs
> Maxwell." Then He turned to Lua. "You, Lua, have a tender heart.
> And what kind of heart
> 
> have you, Juliet?" He laughed. "What kind of a heart have you?"
> 
> "Oh, what kind of heart have I? You know, my Lord. I don't know."
> 
> "An emotional heart." He laughed again and rolled His hands one
> round the other in a sort of tempestuous gesture. "You will have
> a boiling heart, Juliet. Now," He continued, "if these three hearts
> were united into one heart--kind, tender and emotional--what a
> great heart that would be!"
> 
> 14 June 1912
> 
> The next morning, Thursday, though I went unusually early to the
> Master, He had already left the house. But Lua, Valiyu'llah Khan,
> and I had a wonderful morning. Valiyu'llah told us so many things.
> 
> "My father," he said, "spent much time with the Blessed Beauty. The
> Blessed Beauty Himself taught him.
> 
> "One time when my father was in His room, Baha'u'llah rose and
> strode back and forth till the very walls seemed to shake. And He
> told my father that once in an age the Mighty God sent a Soul to
> earth endowed with the power of the Great Ether, and that such a
> Soul had all power and was able to do anything. 'Even this walk of
> Mine' said Baha'u'llah, 'has an effect in the world.'
> 
> "Then He said that His Holiness Jesus Christ had also come with the
> power of the Great Ether, but the haughty priesthood of His day
> thought of Him as a poor, unlettered youth and believed that if
> they should crucify Him, His Teachings would soon be forgotten.
> Therefore they did crucify Him. But because His Holiness Jesus
> possessed the power of the Great Ether, He could not remain
> 
> underground. This ethereal power rose and conquered the whole
> earth. 'And now,' the Blessed Beauty said, 'look to the Master, for
> this same Power is His.'
> 
> "Baha'u'llah," added Valiyu'llah Khan, "taught my father much about
> Áqa. Áqa (the Master, you know) is one of the titles of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha and the Greatest Branch is another, and the Greatest
> Mystery of God another. By all these we call Him in Persian. The
> Blessed Perfection, Baha'u'llah, revealed the Station of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha to my father. And my father wrote many poems to the
> Master, though the Master would scold him and say: 'You must not
> write such things to Me.' But the heart of my father could not keep
> quiet. This is one poem he wrote:
> 
> __________
> 
> 'O Dawning-Point of the Beauty of God, I know Thee! Though Thou
> shroudest Thyself in a thousand veils, I know Thee! Though Thou
> shouldst assume the tatters of a beggar, still would I know Thee!'
> 
> __________
> 
> In the late afternoon I returned with my mother. The Master
> received us in His own room, which was full of roses and lilies and
> carnations.
> 
> "Ah-h! Mrs Thompson. Marhaba! Marhaba!" (Welcome! Welcome!)
> 
> The intonation of that "Marhaba" can never be described. It is a
> welcome from a heart which is a channel for God's heart.
> 
> He was very playful with Mamma. "Are you pleased
> 
> with Juliet? Pleased now, Mrs Thompson? The next time you have to
> complain of her, come and complain to Me and I will beat her!"
> 
> 15 June 1912
> 
> On Friday, 15 June, I was with the Master alone for a while, and
> I brought up the name of Percy Grant. "He didn't understand You the
> other day, my Lord. He thinks that You teach asceticism, that the
> spirit and the flesh are two separate things."
> 
> "That is not what I said," the Master replied. "I said that the
> spiritual man and the materialist were two different beings. The
> spirit is in the flesh."
> 
> 5 July 1912
> 
> The Beloved Master's portrait is finished. He sat for me six times,
> but I really did it in the three half hours He had promised me; for
> the sixth time, when He posed in His own room on the top floor, I
> didn't put on a single stroke. I was looking at the portrait
> wondering what I could find to do, when He suddenly rose from his
> chair and said: "It is finished." The fifth time He sat, Miss
> Souley-Campbell came in with a drawing she had done from a
> photograph to ask if He would sign it for her and if she might add
> a few touches from life. This meant that He had to change His pose,
> so of course I couldn't paint that day. And the fourth time (the
> nineteenth of June)--who could have painted then?
> 
> I had just begun to work, Lua in the room sitting on a couch
> nearby, when the Master smiled at me; then turning to Lua said in
> Persian: "This makes me sleepy. What shall I do?"
> 
> [Photograph: Portrait of 'Abdu'l-Baha painted by Juliet Thompson,
> 1912.]
> 
> "Tell the Master, Lua, that if He would like to take a nap, I can
> work while He sleeps."
> 
> But I found that I could not. What I saw then was too sacred, too
> formidable. He sat still as a statue, His eyes closed, infinite
> peace on that chiselled face, a God-like calm and grandeur in His
> erect head.
> 
> Suddenly, with a great flash like lightning He opened His eyes and
> the room seemed to rock like a ship in a storm with the Power
> released. The Master was blazing. "The veils of glory", "the
> thousand veils", had shrivelled away in that Flame and we were
> exposed to the Glory itself.
> 
> Lua and I sat shaking and sobbing.
> 
> Then He spoke to Lua. I caught the words, "Munadiy-i 'Ahd." (Herald
> of the Covenant.
> 
> Lua started forward, her hand to her breast.
> 
> "Man?" (I?) she exclaimed.
> 
> "Call one of the Persians. You must understand this."
> 
> Never shall I forget that moment, the flashing eyes of 'Abdu'l-Baha
> the reverberations of His Voice, the Power that still rocked the
> room. God of lightning and thunder! I thought.
> 
> "I appoint you, Lua, the Herald of the Covenant. And I AM THE
> COVENANT, appointed by Baha'u'llah. And no one can refute His Word.
> This is the Testament of Baha'u'llah. You will find it in the Holy
> Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, 'This is THE COVENANT OF GOD
> in your midst.'"
> 
> A great joy had lifted Lua up. Her eyes were full of light. She
> looked like a winged angel. "Oh recreate me," she cried, "that I
> may do this work for Thee!"
> 
> By now I was sobbing uncontrollably.
> 
> "Julie too," said Lua, not even in such a moment forgetful of me,
> "wants to be recreated."
> 
> But the Master had shrouded Himself with His veils again, the
> "thousand veils". He sat before us now in His dear humanity: very,
> very human, very simple.
> 
> "Don't cry, Juliet," He said. "This is no time for tears. Through
> tears you cannot see to paint."
> 
> I tried hard to hold back my tears and to work, but painting that
> day was at an end for me.
> 
> The Master smiled lovingly.
> 
> "Juliet is one of My favourites because she speaks the truth to me.
> See how I love the truth, Juliet. You spoke one word of truth to
> Me and see how I have praised it!"
> 
> I looked up to smile in answer, and in gratitude, then was
> overwhelmed again by that awful convulsive sobbing.
> 
> At this the Master began to laugh and, as He laughed and laughed,
> the strangest thing happened. It was as if at each outburst He
> wrapped Himself in more veils, so that now He looked completely
> human, without a trace left of His superhuman majesty. Never had
> I seen Him like this before and I never did afterward.
> 
> "I am going to tell you something funny," He said, adding in
> English, "a joke".
> 
> "Oh tell it!" we begged; and now I was in a sort of hysteria,
> laughing and crying at the same time.
> 
> "No. Not now. Paint."
> 
> But of course I couldn't paint.
> 
> Later, walking up and down, He laughed again.
> 
> "I am thinking of My joke," He explained.
> 
> "Tell it!" we pleaded.
> 
> "No, I cannot, for every time I try to tell it I laugh so I cannot
> speak."
> 
> We got down on our knees, able at last to enter into His play, and
> begged Him, "Please, please tell us." We were laughing on our
> knees.
> 
> "No. Not now. After lunch."
> 
> But, alas, after lunch He went upstairs to His room, and we never
> heard the Master's joke.
> 
> Perhaps, there wasn't any joke. Perhaps He had just found it
> necessary, after that mighty Declaration, to bring us down to earth
> again. He had revealed to us "The Apex of Immortality." He had
> lifted us to a height from which we could see it. Now He, our
> loving Shepherd, had carried us in His own arms back to our little
> valley and put us where we belonged.
> 
> __________
> 
> In the early morning of 19 June, before the Master had called me
> to paint Him, He had spoken to the people in the English basement.
> On His way down the stairs from His room He passed Lua and me,
> where we stood in the third-floor hall. We saw, and felt, as He
> walked down the upper flight, a peculiar power in His step--as
> though some terrific Force had possession of Him; a Force too
> strong to be caged in the body, sparking through, almost escaping
> His body, able to sunder it. I cannot begin to describe that
> indomitable step, its fearful majesty, or the strange flashing of
> His eyes. The sublime language of the Old Testament, words such as
> these: "Who is this that cometh from Bozrah ... that treadeth the
> wine-press in His fury?" faintly express what I saw as I watched
> the Master descending those stairs. Unsmiling, He passes Lua and
> me. Then He looked back, still unsmiling.
> 
> "Juliet is one of My favourites," He said.
> 
> __________
> 
> 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.
> 
> Still later that afternoon the Master had promised to sit for a
> photograph. I had made the appointment myself with Mrs Kasebier,
> a very wonderful photographer, to bring the Master to her studio,
> but some people prevented His getting off in time. When they left,
> He sent for me.
> 
> "I am ashamed," He said (while I nearly died at that word "ashamed"
> from Him), "but I will go tomorrow. I had planned to leave for
> Montclair tomorrow but I will stay until Friday for your sake."
> 
> "I can't bear, my Lord," I said, "to have You delay Your trip to
> the country for this."
> 
> "No, I wish it," He answered.
> 
> "I have a confession to make, my Lord," I said. "I have been to Dr
> Grant's house. It happened in this way: he asked if I would be the
> bearer of his photograph to You and would I stop at the Rectory for
> it on my way up to You. Then he invited me to come to breakfast.
> That invitation I declined, but I could think of no excuse for
> refusing to stop for the picture. So I did go. But I stayed only
> five or ten minutes and his mother was with us all the time."
> 
> "Good, good," said the Master. "Going to his house was not good,
> but since you have confessed it, Juliet, I am very much pleased.
> When I look into your heart," He added, smiling, "I find it just
> like that mirror--it is so pure."
> 
> (Oh, please understand me, when I repeat such things it is only
> because they are His words to me. I keep them just to remind myself
> of something potential He sees in me which I must grow up to. I am
> not reminding myself of His praise, for it really isn't praise but
> stimulation. If He had been blaming me, I would repeat His blame
> too.
> 
> He then spoke of my teaching. "Your breath is effective," He said.
> "You are now in the Kingdom of Abha with Me, as I wished you to
> be."
> 
> 20 June 1912
> 
> The next day, 20 June, we went to Mrs Kasebier's--Lua, Mrs
> Hinkle-Smith, and I--in the car with the Master.
> 
> I shall never forget the Master's beauty in the strange cold light
> of her studio, a green, underwater sort of light, in which He
> looked shining and chiselled, like the statue of a god. But the
> pictures are dark shadows of Him.
> 
> 21 June 1912
> 
> On 21 June, the Master left for Montclair to stay nine days. I was
> with Him all day till He went. I had lunched with Him nearly every
> day that week. Lua, Mrs Hinkle-Smith, Valiyu'llah Khan, and I bade
> Him goodbye on the steps of His house. Montclair
> 
> 23 June 1912
> 
> It had nearly killed Lua not to be taken to Montclair with Him. Two
> days later she said to me: "Let's go to see Him, Julie."
> 
> "How can we, Lua? He didn't invite us," I answered. "He bade us
> goodbye for nine days."
> 
> "Oh but you have an excuse, those proofs of Mrs Kasebier's
> pictures. You really should show them to Him, Julie."
> 
> And she whirled Georgie Ralston and me off to Montclair with her.
> 
> We were punished of course, and our first punishment was that lunch
> was unusually late (so that instead of arriving after, as we had
> planned, we arrived just in time for it). And this was agonizing,
> for there weren't enough seats at the table, and the Master
> wouldn't sit down to eat. One of us had to occupy His chair, while
> He Himself waited on us, carrying all the courses around and around
> that table. I couldn't get over my mortification.
> 
> At the end He came in with the fruit, a glass bowl full of golden
> peaches. Without turning His head--His face was set straight before
> Him--He sent a piercing glance from the corner of His eye toward
> Lua and me. Such a majestic, stern glance, like a sword-thrust.
> 
> After lunch, and this was our second punishment, He banished the
> three of us--Georgie, Lua, and me--leading us to a small back porch
> and abandoning us there. But before very long He returned and asked
> us to take a walk with Him.
> 
> We came back from our walk by way of the front porch. Some people
> were gathered there and Lua, Georgie, and I sat down with them
> while the Master went upstairs to rest. He joined us, however, very
> soon and, striding up and down, began to talk to us. As He walked
> His Power shook us; His intoxicating exhilaration, pouring into me,
> filled me up with new life.
> 
> His eyes--those eyes of light, which seem to be always looking into
> heaven and when for an instant they glance toward earth, veer away
> at once, back to heaven--were brilliantly restless. His whole Being
> was restless with the same strange Force I had felt on that
> memorable day, the nineteenth of June. It was as though
> 
> the lightning of His Spirit could scarcely endure to be harnessed
> to the body. He was almost out of the body. But soon He took a seat
> and rested quietly.
> 
> I showed Him the proofs of the pictures, then spoke of Mrs
> Kasebier--who had seen Him only once, when she photographed Him.
> "She said she would like to live near You, my Lord."
> 
> He laughed. "She doesn't want to live near Me. She only wants a
> good time!" Then He grew serious. "To live near Me," He said, "one
> must have My aims and objects. Do you remember the rich young man
> who wanted to live near Christ, and when he learned what it cost
> to live near Him--that it meant to give away all his possessions
> and take up a cross and follow Christ--then," the Master laughed,
> "he fled away!"[120]
> 
> "Among the disciples of the Bab," He continued, "were two: His
> amanuensis and a firm believer. On the eve of the Bab's martyrdom
> the firm believer prayed: 'Oh let me die with You!' The amanuensis
> said: 'What shall I do?'
> 
> "'What shall I do?'" mocked the Master. "'What do you want me to
> do?' The disciple died with the Bab, his head on the breast of the
> Bab, and their bodies were mingled in death. The other died in
> prison anyway, but think of the difference in their stations!
> 
> "There was another martyr," continued the Master after a moment,
> "Mirza 'Abdu'llah of Shiraz." Then He told us that Mirza 'Abdu'llah
> had been in the Presence of Baha'u'llah only once, "but he so loved
> the Blessed Beauty" that he could not resist following Him to
> 
> Tihran, though Baha'u'llah had commanded him to remain in Shiraz
> with his old parents. "Still," said the Master, His tone exultant,
> "he followed!"
> 
> Mirza 'Abdu'llah reached Tihran in the midst of that bloodiest of
> massacres resulting from the attempt on the Shah's life by two
> fanatical Babis. Baha'u'llah had been cast into a dungeon. There,
> in that foul cellar He sat, weighted down by "The Devil's Chain",
> eleven disciples sitting with Him, bound by the same chain. In it
> were set iron collars which were fastened around the neck by iron
> pins. Every day a disciple was slaughtered and none knew when his
> turn would come. The first intimation he had of his immediate death
> was when the jailer took out the iron pin from his collar.
> 
> Mirza 'Abdu'llah entered Tihran and inquired of the guard at the
> gate "where Baha'u'llah resided." "We will take you to Him," said
> the guard. And some men took 'Abdu'llah to the dungeon and chained
> him to Baha'u'llah.
> 
> "So," the Master said, "he found his Beloved again!"
> 
> One day the jailer came into the dungeon and took out the pin from
> Mirza 'Abdu'llah's collar.
> 
> "Then," said the Master, "Mirza 'Abdu'llah stepped joyfully
> forward. First, he kissed the feet of the Blessed Beauty, and then
> ..."
> 
> The Master's whole aspect suddenly changed. It was as though the
> spirit of the martyr had entered into Him. With that God-like head
> erect, snapping His fingers high in the air, beating out a
> drum-like rhythm with His foot till we could hardly endure the
> vibrations set up, He triumphantly sang "The Martyr's Song".
> 
> "I have come again, I have come again,
> 
> By way of Shiraz I have come again!
> 
> With the wine cup in My hand!
> 
> Such is the madness of Love!"
> 
> "And thus," ended 'Abdu'l-Baha, "singing and dancing he went to his
> death, and a hundred executioners fell on him! And later his
> parents came to Baha'u'llah, praising God that their son had given
> his life in the Path of God."
> 
> This was what the Cause meant then. This was what it meant to "live
> near Him"! Another realm opened to me, the realm of Divine Tragedy.
> 
> The Master sank back into His chair. Tears swelled in my eyes,
> blurring everything. When they cleared I saw a still stranger look
> on His face. His eyes were unmistakably fixed on the Invisible.
> They were filled with delight and as brilliant as jewels. A smile
> of exultation played on His lips. So low that it sounded like an
> echo He hummed the Martyr's Song.
> 
> "See," He exclaimed, "the effect that the death of a martyr has in
> the world. It has changed My condition." After a moment's silence,
> He asked: "What is it, Juliet, you are pondering so deeply?"
> 
> "I was thinking, my Lord, of the look on Your face when You said
> Your condition had been changed. And that I had seen a flash of the
> joy of God when someone dies happily for His Cause."
> 
> "There was one name," the Master answered, "that always brought joy
> to the face of Baha'u'llah. His expression would change at the
> mention of it. That name was Mary of Magdala."
> 
> West Englewood
> 
> 29 June 1912
> 
> Almost a week passed before we saw our Lord again. Then, on the
> twenty-ninth of June, we met Him at West Englewood. He was giving
> a feast for all the believers in the grounds around Roy Wilhelm's
> house, the "Feast of Unity" He called it.
> 
> I went with dear Silvia Gannett. We walked from the little station,
> past the grove where the tables were set--a grove of tall pine
> trees--and on to the house in which He was, He Whose Presence
> filled our eyes with light and without Whom our days had been very
> dim and lifeless.
> 
> Ah, there He was again! Sitting in a corner of the porch! I sped
> across the lawn, forgetting Silvia, forgetting everything. He
> looked down at me with grave eyes, and I saw a fathomless welcome
> in them.
> 
> For a while we sat with Him on the porch. Then He led us down into
> the grove. There He seated Himself on the ground at the foot of a
> pine tree and called two believers to His right and left. One was
> Mrs Krug in her very elegant clothes, the other a poor and shabby
> old woman. But both faces, the wrinkled one and the smooth, pretty
> one, were beautiful with the same radiance. I shall never forget
> that old woman's shining blue eyes.
> 
> The great words He spoke to us then have been preserved.[121] I
> will not repeat them. Besides I remember them too imperfectly. But
> He said one thing which woke my whole being: "This is a New Day;
> a New Hour."
> 
> By the time He had finished, the feast was ready, but just as it
> was announced a storm blew up--a strange, sudden storm, without
> warning. There was a tremen-
> 
> dous crash of thunder; through the treetops we could see black
> clouds boiling up, and big drops of rain splashed on the tables.
> 
> The Master rose calmly and, followed by the Persians, walked out
> to the road, then to the end of it where there is a crossroad. A
> single chair had been left there and, as I watched from a distance,
> I saw the Master take it and sit down, while the Persians ranged
> themselves behind Him. I saw Him lift His face to the sky. He had
> gone a long way from the house; thunder still crashed and the
> clouds rolled frighteningly low, but He continued to sit perfectly
> motionless, that sacred, powerful face upturned to the sky. Then
> came a strong, rushing wind; the clouds began to race away; blue
> patches appeared above and the sun shone out. And then the Master
> rose and walked back into the grove. This I witnessed.
> 
> Later, as we sat at the tables, two hundred and fifty of us, He
> anointed us all with attar of rose. I was not at a table but
> sitting under a tree with Marjorie Morten and Silvia. The Master
> swept toward us in His long white robes, forever the Divine
> Shepherd.
> 
> "Friends here?" He smiled, "Friends?"
> 
> In His voice was a thrilling joy. With a look that shook my heart,
> so full was it with the musk of His Love, He rubbed my face hard
> with the attar of rose.
> 
> He passed among all the tables with His little vial of perfume
> (which Grace Robarts swears was almost as full at the end as in the
> beginning) anointing the forehead of every one there, touching and
> caressing all our blind faces with His tingling fingers.
> 
> Then He disappeared for hours.
> 
> __________
> 
> Lua, too, went off alone, an exceedingly naughty purpose in her
> mind. The Master had just told her that she
> 
> must leave very soon for California. So now she deliberately walked
> in poison ivy, walked back and forth and back and forth till her
> feet were thoroughly poisoned. "Now, Julie," she said (when the
> deed was done) "He can't send me to California."
> 
> __________
> 
> To me the most beautiful scene of all came later, when the Master
> returned to us after dark. About fifty or sixty people had
> lingered, unable to tear themselves from Him. The Master sat in a
> chair on the top step of the porch, some of us surrounding
> Him--dear guilty Lua with her poisoned feet, May, Silvia, Marjorie,
> and I and a young coloured man, Neval Thomas. Below us, all over
> the lawn, on each side of the path, sat the others, the light
> summer skirts of the women spread out on the grass, tapers in their
> hands (to keep off mosquitoes). In the dark, in their filmy
> dresses, they looked like great moths and the burning tips of the
> tapers they waved like fireflies darting about.
> 
> Then the Master spoke again to us. I was standing behind Him, close
> to Him, and before He began He turned and gave me a long, profound
> look. His talk of that night has been recorded. It was a resounding
> Call to us to arise from the tomb of self in this Day of the Great
> Resurrection and unite around Him to vivify the world.
> 
> Before He had finished He rose from His chair and started down the
> path still talking, passing between the dim figures on the grass
> with their lighted tapers, talking till He reached the road, where
> He turned and we could no longer see Him. Even then His words
> floated back to us--the liquid Persian, 'Ali Quli Khan's beautiful,
> quivering translation, like the sound of a violin string.
> 
> "Peace be with you," this was the last we heard, "I will pray for
> you."
> 
> Oh that Voice that came back out of His invisibility when He had
> passed beyond our sight. May I always remember, and hear the Voice.
> New York
> 
> 30 June 1912
> 
> That night our Beloved Lord returned to New York. The next morning
> early I flew up to see Him, but He sent me at once to Lua, who was
> staying with Georgie Ralston in a hotel nearby.
> 
> She was in bed, her feet terribly swollen from the poison ivy.
> 
> "Look at me, Julie," she said. "Look at my feet. Oh, please go
> right back to the Master and tell Him about them and say: 'How can
> Lua travel now?'"
> 
> I did it, returned to the Master's house, found Him in His room and
> put Lua's question to Him. He laughed, then crossed the room to a
> table on which stood a bowl of fruit, and, selecting an apple and
> a pomegranate, gave them to me.
> 
> "Take these to Lua," He said. "Tell her to eat them and she will
> be cured. Spend the day with her, Juliet."
> 
> Oh precious Lua--strange mixture of disobedience and obedience--and
> all from love! I shall never forget her, seizing first the apple,
> then the pomegranate and gravely chewing them all the way through
> till not even a pomegranate seed was left: thoroughly eating her
> cure, which was certain to send her to California.
> 
> In the late afternoon we were happily surprised by a visit from the
> Master Himself. He drew back the sheet and looked at Lua's feet,
> which by that time were beautifully slim. Then He burst out
> laughing.
> 
> "See," He said, "I have cured Lua with an apple and a pomegranate."
> 
> But Lua revolted again. There was one more thing she could try, and
> she tried it. The Master had asked me to
> 
> paint her portrait and I had already had one sitting. The following
> day, at the Master's house, she drew me aside.
> 
> "Please, Julie, do something else for me. Go to the Master, now,
> and say: 'If Lua is in California, how can I paint her?'"
> 
> I went straight to His room with Valiyu'llah Khan to translate. "My
> Lord," I said, "You have commanded me to paint Lua. If she is in
> California and I here, how can I do it? The portrait is begun; how
> can I finish it?"
> 
> Again the Master burst out laughing, for this of course was too
> transparent.
> 
> "In a year," He said, "Lua will join Me in Egypt. She will stay in
> New York a few days on her way to Me and you can paint her then,
> Juliet."
> 
> So poor Lua had to go to California. There was no way out for
> her.[122]
> 
> 4 July 1912
> 
> On the fourth of July, yesterday, Mamma had her birthday dinner
> with the Master. He was so sweet to her. When we first arrived we
> found Him in the English basement and He led Mamma to the sofa and,
> with that wonderful freedom of His, drew her down beside Him.
> 
> Carrie Kinney, Georgie Ralston, and I were sitting across the room
> by the window and I'm afraid we did look solemn, for we sat in a
> row, perfectly silent.
> 
> "Look at them!" said Mamma, laughing. "They are jealous of me!"
> 
> "Then we will make them more jealous!" arid the
> 
> Master seized Mamma's hand and drew her still closer, at which she
> looked really scared!
> 
> Now I felt compelled to speak. "Three years ago, my Lord, on the
> fourth of July, Carrie, and I were with You in 'Akka and You took
> us to the Holy Shrine of Baha'u'llah. I never expected to keep that
> anniversary with You in New York."
> 
> At the table the Master joked with Mamma because she was eating so
> little. "I perceive that you are an angel, Mrs Thompson. Angels do
> not eat."
> 
> "The Master sees I am not an angel," I laughed, "for I eat every
> morsel He puts on my plate."
> 
> "I perceive that you are a very clever girl. Mrs Thompson," He
> continued, "is going home to a luscious supper and saving her
> appetite for that."
> 
> Passing me a dish with three very shrivelled dates on it, He said:
> "Here, Juliet, are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
> 
> And I ate them up!
> 
> A little later Mamma said, looking at the Master with her sweet
> shyness: "You are very kind to me."
> 
> "God knows the degrees of it," He sighed deeply.
> 
> __________
> 
> While we sat with Him after dinner, He spoke of tests. "Even the
> sword," He said, "is no test to the Persian believers. They are
> given a chance to recant; they cry out instead: 'Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!'
> Then the sword is raised,"--He shot up His arm as though
> brandishing a sword--"they cry out all the more 'Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!'
> But some of the people here are tested if I don't say 'How do you
> do?'"
> 
> 12 July 1912
> 
> I have almost no time to write these days, as I spend most of them
> with the Beloved Master and when I try to write after dinner, my
> darling little mother stops me too soon. Her room is at right
> angles with mine and at ten o'clock she calls through her window:
> "Put out your light, baby." But there are three or four lovely
> things that I must tell.
> 
> On Monday, 9 July, the Master invited me, with the Persians to go
> to the Natural History Museum. It was a broiling afternoon and I
> couldn't imagine why He should want to go to that Museum, and in
> the hottest part of the day. But wherever He went, there I wanted
> to be.
> 
> When we reached the Ninth Avenue corner of the Museum the Master,
> exhausted by that time, sank to a low stone ledge to rest. Between
> us and the main door on the Central Park corner stretched a long
> cross-town block in glaring sun, not a single tree on the sidewalk.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "let me try to find a nearer entrance for You."
> And I hurried along the grass, keeping close to the building,
> searching the basement for a door. The employees' entrance was
> locked. Just beyond stood a sign: "No Thoroughfare." I was rushing
> past this when a shrill whistle stopped me, and I turned to face
> the watchman of the grounds. He was a little bent old Jew with a
> very kind face.
> 
> "Oh excuse me," I said, "for breaking the rules, but I must find
> a nearer door than the main one. See Who is sitting on that ledge!
> I must find it for Him."
> 
> The watchman turned and looked at the Master, look-
> 
> ed and looked, at that Figure from the East, from the Past--the
> Days of the Old Testament--and his eyes became very soft. "Is He
> a Jew?" he asked.
> 
> "A descendant of Abraham."
> 
> "Come with me," said the watchman. "Ask Him to come with me."
> 
> I went over and spoke to the Master and He rose and followed with
> the Persians, I dropping back to walk with them. There was not a
> nearer entrance, but the watchman, taking a risk perhaps, led us
> across the grass, where at least it was cooler and the way shorter.
> 
> In the Museum we passed through a room in which a huge whale hung
> from the ceiling. The Master looked up at it, laughed and said: "He
> could hold seventy Jonahs!"
> 
> Then He took us straight to the Mexican exhibit, and this seemed
> to interest Him very much. In the great elaborately carved glyphs
> standing around the room He found traces of Persian art and pointed
> them out to me. He told us this sculpture resembled very closely
> the ancient sculpture of Egypt. "Only," He said, "this is better."
> Then He took me over to the cases where He showed me purely Persian
> bracelets.
> 
> "I have heard a tradition," I said, "that in the very distant past
> this country and Asia were connected."
> 
> "Assuredly," answered the Master, "before a great catastrophe there
> was such a connection between Asia and America."
> 
> After looking at everything in the Mexican rooms, He led us to the
> front door and out into the grounds again. Then, stepping from the
> stone walk to the grass, He seated Himself beneath a young birch
> tree, His back to us, while we stood behind Him on the flags. He
> sat there
> 
> a long time, silent. Was He waiting for someone? I wondered.
> 
> While He--waited?--the old Jewish watchman stole quietly up to me
> from the direction of the Museum.
> 
> "Is He tired?" he whispered. "Who is He? He looks like such a great
> man."
> 
> "He is 'Abdu'l-Baha of Persia," I said, "and He has been a great
> Sufferer because of His work for the real Brotherhood of Man, the
> uniting of all the races and nations."
> 
> "I should like to speak to Him," said the Jew. And I took him over
> to the tree under which the Master still sat with His back to us.
> 
> At the sound of our footsteps He turned and looked up at the
> watchman, His brilliant eyes full of sweetness. "Come and sit by
> Me," He said.
> 
> "Thank You, Sir, but I am not allowed."
> 
> "Is it against the rules for Me to sit on the grass?"
> 
> The old man's eyes, softly shining, were fixed on the Master. "No,
> You may sit there all day!"
> 
> But the Master rose and stood beneath the tree.
> 
> Such pictures as I see when the Master is in them could never be
> put upon canvas--not even into words, except by the sublimest
> poet--but I always want to try at least to leave a trace of their
> beauty. The Master, luminous in the sunlight, His white robe
> flowing to the grass, standing beside the white slender trunk of
> the birch tree, with its leafy canopy over His head. The Jew
> standing opposite Him--so bent, so old--his eyes, like a lover's,
> humbly raised to the face of his own Messiah! As yet unrecognized,
> his Messiah, yet his heart worshiped.
> 
> Eagerly he went on, offering all he could think of to this
> Mysterious One Who had touched him so deeply.
> 
> "You didn't see the whole of the Museum. Would You like to go back
> after You have rested? You didn't go up to the third floor."
> (Unseen by us he must have been following all the time.) "The
> fossils and the birds are up there. Wouldn't You like to see the
> birds?"
> 
> The Master answered very gently, smiling.
> 
> "I am tired of travelling and looking at the things of this world.
> I want to go above and travel and see in the spiritual worlds. What
> do you think about that?" He asked suddenly, beaming on the old
> watchman.
> 
> The watchman looked puzzled and scratched his head.
> 
> "Which would you rather posses," continued the Master, "the
> material or the spiritual world?"
> 
> Still the old man pondered. At last he brought forth: "Well, I
> guess the material. You know you have that, anyway."
> 
> "But you do not lose it when you have attained the spiritual world.
> When you go upstairs in a house, you don't leave the house. The
> lower floor is under you."
> 
> "Oh I see!" cried the watchman, his whole face lighting up, "I
> see!"
> 
> After we parted from the watchman, who walked with us all the way
> to the Ninth Avenue corner, leading us again across the grass, I
> began to blame myself for not inviting him to the Master's house,
> forgetting that the Master Himself had not done so. Every day I
> meant to return to the Museum to tell the old man where the Master
> lived, but I put off from day to day.
> 
> When, at the end of a week, I did run over to the Museum, I found
> a young watchman there, who seemed to know nothing of the one he
> had replaced.
> 
> Had our friend "gone upstairs?"
> 
> Why had the Master visited a Museum of Natural
> 
> History in the hottest hour of a blistering July day? Had He
> instead visited a soul whose need was crying out to Him, to open
> an old man's eyes so that he might see to climb the stairs, to take
> away the dread of death?[123]
> 
> __________
> 
> On the tenth of July, I went to the Master in the early morning
> with something in my heart to say, but already there were people
> with Him and I saw no chance of talking privately.
> 
> "Come, Juliet, sit by Me," He called as I entered the room. "Now,
> speak."
> 
> How could I, before those people? I hesitated.
> 
> "All your hopes and desires are destined to be fulfilled," He said,
> "in the Kingdom of God."
> 
> This was my cue.
> 
> "I came to tell You, my Lord, that now I have only one desire, to
> offer my heart for Your service."
> 
> "This you will also do, but all your desires will be fulfilled."
> 
> He kept me to lunch that day. While we were waiting in the English
> basement for the lunch to be announced, Valiyu'llah Khan and I
> alone with the Master, He spoke again of my "truthfulness".
> 
> "Oh," I prayed, "may I some day have all the virtues so that in
> every way I can make you happy."
> 
> "But he who possesses truthfulness possesses all the virtues," said
> the Master. Then He went on to tell us a story. "There was once a
> disciple of Muhammad who
> 
> asked of another disciple, 'What shall I do to please God?' And the
> other disciple replied: 'Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not covet,'
> etc., etc., etc. A great many 'do nots'." the Master laughed. "He
> asked still another, 'What shall I do to become nearer to God?' And
> this one said: 'You must supplicate and pray. You must be generous.
> You must be courageous,' etc., etc., etc. Then the disciple went
> to 'Ali. 'What do you say I should do in order to please God and
> to become nearer to Him?' 'One thing only: be truthful.'
> 
> "For," continued the Master, "if you are truthful, you cannot
> commit murder. You would have to confess it! Neither can you steal.
> You would have to confess it. So, if one is truthful, he possesses
> all the virtues.
> 
> "I may tell you this," He said to me, and He told me a thing so
> wonderful that, even to keep and cherish His words and read them
> over in the time to come, I cannot repeat it here.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "if ever I have told You an untruth it was
> because I deceived myself."
> 
> "There are degrees of truth," He answered, "but that word of yours
> which has so pleased Me was absolute, perfect, extraordinary
> truth."
> 
> __________
> 
> That night we walked with Him in "His garden"--Georgie Ralston,
> Mirza 'Ali Akbar, Valiyu'llah Khan, Ahmad, and I. Dear Lua, who has
> not yet left for California, was ill and unable to be with us.
> 
> He led us down a path sloping to the river, flanked by tall
> poplars. Sweeping on ahead in His gleaming white robes, He was like
> a spirit. The night was very dark, the river and the Jersey
> Palisades starred and glittering with lights and there were chains
> of lights close to the water.
> 
> With a wave of the hand towards them He said: "If only the souls
> of men could be thus illumined."
> 
> "It is You, my Lord," I said, as I followed close with Valiyu'llah
> Khan and Ahmad, "Who put a torch to our souls and light them."
> 
> Suddenly out from behind the bushes rushed a crowd of children,
> bursting upon us like little demons, capering around us and
> hooting. Some of them even picked up stones and threw them. Then
> they all began to sing: "Follow the Lord! The Lord leads on!"
> 
> Back to us floated the voice of the Master: "The people of the
> world are blind. You must have vision. The people of the world are
> heedless: see how heedless they are!" and He swept His hand toward
> the children, who immediately melted back into the shadows as if
> they had never really existed. "You must be aware. The people of
> the world are steeped in darkness. You must be immersed in a sea
> of light."
> 
> We went deep down in the park, close to the river; then turned,
> climbed a path, and came out upon the street. Here there was a
> stone wall, dividing the park from the sidewalk. The Master leaned
> wearily on the wall and gazed far below to the river. He seemed to
> be lost in meditation, His face profoundly sorrowful. I thought of
> a picture, a poster, which, in the early days of His visit, had
> been displayed on all the church doors: the Christ mourning over
> the city.
> 
> Soon He continued His walk. I turned to Valiyu'llah Khan.
> 
> "Oh," I said, "if only I could realize throughout the whole fibre
> of my being, feel with every nerve, every atom in me, His Divine
> Reality, if only while in His bodily Presence I could be fully
> aware of Who He is ..."
> 
> He turned and spoke and His face was ineffably gentle and holy and
> something in His voice pierced me to the heart. He couldn't have
> heard me with the outer ear--I had fallen too far behind and was
> whispering, and in English--but how He answered me!
> 
> "They laugh at Me, yet My dress is the dress of Jesus, just the
> same that He wore."
> 
> The people of the world: children! Had the Master Himself evoked
> those little demons and made a sort of moving picture of them, to
> show us what is to come as we "follow the Lord" in the dark night?
> 
> __________
> 
> But the very next day another picture, of very different children,
> was superimposed upon this.
> 
> I had been with the Master all morning. (Later I will write of the
> morning.) In the afternoon around three o'clock I returned with
> Rhoda Nichols only to meet Him just going out with the Persians.
> He smiled, then walked swiftly toward the river, but Ahmad,
> dropping behind, called to Rhoda and me: "Come along with us to the
> Harrises'." We should have known better than to go, for the Master
> had not invited us, but we couldn't resist the temptation. So we
> followed up Riverside Drive, then West End Avenue, till we came to
> Ninety-Fifth Street, where Mr and Mrs Harris live. A tenement house
> neighbourhood.
> 
> As we approached Ninety-Fifth Street, there we saw them: the
> different children. There must have been nearly a hundred of them,
> playing in the street with their hoops and balls. But, when the
> Master drew near, all shining white in His long flowing robes, they
> immediately stopped playing. It all happened instantaneously. The
> next moment they had fallen into formation and were marching down
> the street behind Him (we had
> 
> turned east toward Central Park), some of them still rolling their
> hoops. Without one word they followed, their little faces almost
> solemn. They made me think of a real and beautiful Children's
> Crusade.
> 
> We came to the house where the Harrises live and walked up five
> steep flights, but when Mrs Harris opened her apartment door and
> Rhoda and I saw a table inside set only for the Master and the
> Persians, we backed away terribly embarrassed and lost no time in
> getting downstairs. After all, we couldn't have foreseen a luncheon
> at three o'clock!
> 
> When we opened the street door, there were the children again,
> surrounding the house, silently looking up at it. A little
> yellow-haired girl came running up the stoop to me. She seemed to
> be the spokesman for the others. Breathlessly she asked: "Please,
> ma'am, tell us. Is He Christ?"
> 
> I sat down on the stoop while the whole crowd of children swarmed
> and pushed around me. "I will tell you all about Him," I said. Then
> I whispered to Rhoda: "Go upstairs again, dear, and let the Master
> know what is happening."
> 
> She returned with a wonderful message from the Master, an
> invitation to all the children to come to a feast to be given
> specially for them at the Kinneys' house next Sunday.
> 
> __________
> 
> And now just a word about the morning. Georgie Ralston and Mrs
> Brittingham, Lua, and I were together in the Master's room. As I
> sat there I felt something of the Mystery of His Divinity. The day
> was very hot and His sleeves were rolled up and I saw on His arms
> the scars of chains.
> 
> When the others left He kept me.
> 
> "I come to Your Presence, my Lord," I said, "to be cured of my
> spiritual ills."
> 
> "Your pure heart," the Master answered, "is a magnet for the Divine
> feelings."
> 
> He spoke of my mother and sent her some fruit. "Your mother," He
> said, "is very dear to me. You cannot imagine how I love your
> mother."
> 
> Then He laughed and asked: "How is Dr Grant?"
> 
> "I don't know, my Lord. I haven't seen him. I'm afraid I hurt him
> the last time we met."
> 
> "What did you do?"
> 
> "I refused to go into his house with him."
> 
> "How is he with Us?"
> 
> "I don't know."
> 
> "I want to see him. Is this possible?"
> 
> "Yes, I am sure. I will telephone to him."
> 
> "Tell him I am longing to see him, longing to see him," repeated
> the Master smiling.
> 
> I knelt and kissed His robe, looking up so happy, so grateful,
> while He looked down and laughed at me.
> 
> That night I telephoned to Percy. "I am the bearer of a message to
> you," I said, "from the Master. He asked this morning if I had seen
> you lately and said He wanted to see you. 'Tell Dr Grant I am
> longing to see him,' He said."
> 
> "That was very beautiful of Him. Give Him my cordial greetings.
> Tell him how happy I am that He thought of me. I can't tell you at
> this moment, Juliet, when I can go. I hope tomorrow afternoon. I
> have a wedding at half-past four. After that, perhaps."
> 
> "Well, I will give you the Master's telephone number and you can
> call His house about it, unless you prefer to have me arrange it."
> 
> "I should rather do it through you."
> 
> Saying he would let me know in the morning, he bade me goodbye;
> then, "I give you my loving salutations."
> 
> The next morning, however, when he called me up, he was in another
> state of mind. "Tell the Master," he said, "I have so many human
> engagements just now. I am going up to Greenwich after the wedding.
> (Greenwich is Alice Flagler's home.) "But I want to run in to see
> you this morning, if I may."
> 
> I went to my room and prayed. I was on my knees when he came. Not
> that he found me on them!
> 
> "To come straight to the point, Percy," I said, "I hope you will
> go to see the Master."
> 
> "I'm going to see the Master, only I can't today."
> 
> "Oh that is all right," I said, brightening. "I didn't understand."
> 
> We talked about other things and then Katherine Berwind dropped in.
> Percy spent the morning with us, leaving us for a little while to
> return with bottles of ginger ale and grape juice which he mixed
> into a drink for us. When he finally left about noon I followed him
> out of the studio.
> 
> "What message have you," I asked, "for the Master?"
> 
> He swore! It was a very mild swear, but he coupled the Master's
> name with it, so I can't repeat it.
> 
> "I believe you love Him," he said fiercely, "more than anything on
> earth."
> 
> "I do."
> 
> "More than your art," he added quickly.
> 
> "But of course."
> 
> "Well, you shouldn't. With your talent, Juliet, you could do
> immortal work. Do you never think of that?"
> 
> "I am thinking of His immortal work in us."
> 
> "He has done it, in you!"
> 
> "Not yet."
> 
> "Juliet, I have wanted to co-operate with Him. You know that. But
> I don't believe He can do this thing alone."
> 
> "I believe He is perfectly able to do it alone."
> 
> "You do?"
> 
> "He changes the hearts and nobody else can do that. Well, what
> message shall I take to Him?"
> 
> "Tell Him with my greeting that I will come up some time to see
> Him, but I am out of town a great deal, most of the time, and--"
> 
> "Can't you do any better than that?" I asked.
> 
> "I want to do something for His comfort and when Mr Flagler's yacht
> comes back I want to take Him up the Hudson. I will be in town
> Friday, Juliet."
> 
> "Then come up on Friday to see Him with me. Please come. You know
> I don't often persist, but this time--forgive me if I do."
> 
> "I think it is beautiful of you to persist in this instance,
> Juliet." With the face of a martyr he kissed my hand. "I will come
> Friday."
> 
> And, looking unspeakably miserable, he left me.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Friday in the afternoon he stopped for me. We were expecting the
> Master in the evening--He was to bless our house with a visit--and
> at the moment Percy arrived I was telephoning Marjorie, who had
> offered to bring some light refreshment. Percy, sitting in the
> living room, heard. But I couldn't invite him, for I knew it would
> spoil Mamma's evening with the Master--she mightn't even come into
> the room.
> 
> While I was putting on my gloves Percy produced a large and ornate
> pocketbook. "Juliet," he said, "here is an empty pocketbook which
> someone brought me from Italy. Will you accept it? I thought you
> might have in mind some Oriental person to whom you would like to
> give it."
> 
> When we started out he proposed going up in a cab, but I objected
> on the grounds that it would be slow and we were already half an
> hour late.
> 
> "I am bringing the Master down here at six and you would have no
> visit at all if we took a slow cab."
> 
> "Well, for the matter of that, Juliet"--and his upper lip grew very
> stiff--"any visit I might pay would be merely an expression of
> affection and courtesy. As for all you could get from a visit of
> this sort, where conversation must be through an interpreter and
> 'Abdu'l-Baha will go off into a monologue on some subject that
> interests Him--well, as I said, it is merely a mark of courtesy."
> 
> __________
> 
> I never saw his mouth so stubborn as when we entered the Master's
> house. The Master was waiting for us, sitting in the bay window of
> the English basement.
> 
> "Marhaba, Dr Grant! It is a long time since I have seen you, a long
> time."
> 
> But His welcome was more reserved than it had been before.
> 
> "Well, Dr Grant," He said, after a moment, "what is the very latest
> news, the very latest?"
> 
> Remembering Percy's remark, that the Master always indulged in
> monologue, I couldn't help smiling at this.
> 
> "The latest news," said Percy with a wicked look, as
> 
> obstinate, pugnacious and self-confident as I have ever seen, "is
> in the field of athletics."
> 
> "The Olympic games?" asked the Master.
> 
> "Yes," said Percy, surprised.
> 
> "You know," the Master went on, "that these games originated in
> ancient Greece and it was a necessity of that time to develop the
> body to its fullest strength, the nations being constantly at
> warfare and the men wearing armour and fighting hand to hand. Heavy
> swords had to be driven through coats of mail; bodies had to be
> strengthened to endure the mail."
> 
> "But explain to the Master," said Percy, very much de haut en bas,
> "that because of the people all centring in the cities and thus
> depleting their constitutions, the necessity for physical
> development is just as great now as it was then, though the basis
> is different."
> 
> The Master answered with the utmost sweetness: "We do not deprecate
> physical development, for the sound mind should work through a
> sound body, but We think that the people of the West are too much
> concerned with mere physical development. They forget the need of
> spiritual development."
> 
> But Percy was bent upon argument. The development of the spirit,
> he maintained, could not even begin till the body had first been
> built up; and he looked so absurdly condescending, so pompous, so
> sure of his power to defeat the Master, that I could scarcely
> control my mirth. The Master did not control His.
> 
> "Man thinks too much of perfecting the body," He smiled
> delightfully, "but of what use is it to him without the perfecting
> of the spirit? No matter how much he develops his muscles and
> sinews he will never
> 
> become as strong as the ox, as brave as the lion or as big as the
> elephant! Physically he is an animal, yet inferior to the animals,
> for animals acquire their sustenance with the greatest ease,
> whereas man has to toil incessantly, to labour with infinite pain,
> for a mere livelihood. So, in the physical realm, the beast is
> nobler than man. But man is distinguished from the beast by his
> spiritual gifts and these he should develop with the other, both
> together. There should be the perfect balance, the spiritual and
> the physical. A man whose ideal side only is developed is also
> imperfect. We do not deprecate comfort. If I could find a better
> house than this I would certainly move into it. But man should not
> think of comfort alone."
> 
> I looked at Percy. He was still like a fighting-cock, ready for
> another bout. He would never give in before me, I knew, so I
> slipped quietly into the kitchen. When I returned the whole
> atmosphere had changed. His face had softened, his stiff mouth
> relaxed. As I entered the room the Master was saying: "When one
> prays, one sometimes has divine glimpses. So, when one is
> spiritually developed, a sublimity of nature is obtained, a
> delicacy of vision such as could not otherwise be found. Not only
> this, but tranquillity and happiness are secured.
> 
> "Do you think if it had not been for spiritual assurance I could
> have been happy all those years in prison? Think of it, forty
> years! You have just been telling me, Dr Grant, that forty years
> is the average American life. I spent My American life in prison.
> Yet all that time I was on the heights of happiness. Many believers
> in Persia have been forced to give up
> 
> everything: their possessions, their families, and, in the end,
> their lives, but they never lost their happiness.
> 
> "Remember Christ, when they placed the crown of thorns on His head.
> At that very moment, as the thorns wounded His brow, He looked down
> the vista of the centuries and beheld innumerable kings bowing
> their jewelled crowns low before that crown of thorns. Do you think
> He did not know, that He could not foresee?" (Again I stole a
> glance at Percy. He looked utterly melted now and his eyes shone.)
> "When they spat in the face of Christ," the Master went on, "when
> they made a mock procession and carried Him around the streets, He
> felt no humiliation."
> 
> Just then I rose to go, first asking permission, with my eyes, of
> the Master, Percy was not inclined to go, even when we were on our
> feet. In spite of that momentary softening--perhaps partly because
> of it--he still wanted to stay and argue and I could hardly tear
> him away.
> 
> While we were standing, he swung the master's divine subject to a
> combative one, "the Occident versus the Orient": that was the
> substance of it. And if ever I saw the Occident embodied, it was
> at that moment in that man.
> 
> The Master leaned close to him and with the utmost gentleness and
> patience tried to appeal to him. The people of the East, He said,
> were content with less than the people here, so their hours of work
> were shorter. He touched too on the absence of suicide in the
> Orient.
> 
> When He spoke of suicide, and also while He described the
> humiliations heaped on Christ, which could not humiliate Him, I had
> a strange sense of impending tragedy for Percy Grant, of something
> dreadful to happen
> 
> in the future in which he would utterly "lose his happiness" and
> would feel humiliation, when perhaps these words of the Master
> would come back to him.[124]
> 
> On the way down in the cab the Master talked about economics. "The
> most important of the questions here," He said, "is the economic
> question. Until that is first solved nothing can be done. But if
> it should not be solved there will be riots."
> 
> Percy spoke of democracy.
> 
> "But your poor man," the Master replied, "cannot even think of
> economics; he is so overburdened."
> 
> I asked Percy to tell about his work and when he had done so, with
> some hesitation (for he seldom speaks of himself), the Master said
> sweetly: "May you make peace here. May you unite the classes."
> 
> Whereupon Percy's face beamed.
> 
> But he steeled himself again and at my door he turned to go, though
> I did invite him in, and the Master also said: "Are you not coming
> in?"
> 
> "No, no," and he hurried away, with a huffy look.
> 
> I can still see the Master on my steps, so in command.
> 
> "Au revoir, Dr Grant," He said.
> 
> Percy had mentioned the yacht trip to the Master and asked if He
> could make it the following Monday, but the
> 
> Master had several appointments Monday and could not accept for
> that day.
> 
> "I will try," said Percy, "to get the yacht for Tuesday."
> 
> The Master had planned to spend the whole evening with us and we
> were all to go for a walk, but the Persians had forgotten to
> announce at the Seventy-Eighth Street house that He would be absent
> Friday evening, so He felt He must return early.
> 
> __________
> 
> My Lord came into our house. The door was not locked. He opened it
> Himself and walked up the stairs. It was His house. Mamma almost
> ran to meet Him, her face suffused with joy, her eyes shy and
> tender. The MacNutts and the Goodalls had arrived and Ruth Berkeley
> and Marjorie, and were waiting in the second-floor living room. The
> Master went in and greeted them with His wonderful buoyant
> greeting; then I took Him to my room to rest and, after kneeling
> and kissing the hem of His garment, left Him lying on my couch.
> 
> While He was resting Kahlil Gibran came. He had a private talk with
> the Master in my room; then joined us upstairs in the studio, to
> which we had all gone by that time, and in a very few minutes the
> Master too joined us.
> 
> Mamma, with her own loving hands, had prepared the studio for His
> reception and it was very beautiful, full of laurel, white roses,
> and lighted white candles.
> 
> "What a good room," said the Master as He entered it. "It is like
> an Oriental room--so high. If I were to build a house here," He
> laughed, "I would build an eclectic house--partly Oriental, partly
> Occidental."
> 
> Then we passed the refreshments and our Beloved Lord "broke bread"
> with us.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. Of course I was terribly disappointed that the Master
> stayed such a short time that night. A few days later I began to
> see that this was no accident, that the changing of His plan for
> that evening had not been just a result of the Persians'
> forgetfulness, but that in it was a deep and subtle lesson for me.
> A lesson in perception--or intuition--which is truth itself. I had
> asked the Master whom I should invite to meet Him. "Anyone you
> think of," He answered. "Whatever name comes into your mind, invite
> that person." A few names came into my mind as if projected there
> from outside. Percy Grant. At once I rejected that name, on Mamma's
> account, as I have explained already. Mrs Krug. Oh no! Mamma wasn't
> fond of Mrs Krug. Mrs Kaufman. No. Then I selected my personal
> friends. Mrs Krug and Mrs Kaufman both were extremely hurt because
> I didn't invite them and what harmony there was between us was
> broken for the time being. As for Percy Grant ... !)
> 
> 16 July 1912
> 
> Tuesday, 16 July, the day proposed for the yacht trip up the
> Hudson, was a day of crushing disappointment. In the morning I
> awoke thinking: Today great things may happen for Percy; miracles
> may happen! Still, an instinct made me uneasy.
> 
> As soon as I reached the Master's house I asked if Dr Grant had
> been heard from. No word had come, Dr Farid told me, and really the
> Master ought to know in order to arrange His day's appointments.
> "You had better telephone, Juliet."
> 
> I went to the corner drugstore and called the Rectory,
> 
> only to learn that Percy was still in Greenwich. I called him in
> Greenwich.
> 
> "Oh, Juliet." He sounded bored. "I have been meaning to telephone
> you all morning, but one thing after another has prevented. No, I
> am sorry, tell 'Abdu'l-Baha how very sorry I am, but I cannot
> arrange the trip for today. Mrs Flagler was in town yesterday and
> it didn't agree with her and she isn't well enough to go today."
> 
> "I am very sorry," I murmured, so shocked I could scarcely speak.
> 
> "When does the Master leave New York?"
> 
> "On the twenty-second."
> 
> "On the twenty-second? I hope it can be arranged before them."
> 
> "I hope so."
> 
> "How did the supper go off the other night?"
> 
> "What supper?"
> 
> "The supper you had for the Master?"
> 
> "There was no supper."
> 
> "Why, I heard you talking about 'provisions' over the telephone
> with Mrs Morten."
> 
> "That was only fruit and a cool drink. The Master just paid us a
> visit. I asked you to come in."
> 
> "Well, I didn't feel that I could. I thought you were going to sit
> around a table and that all those Persians you had asked would fill
> it up, and that woman you invited at the Master's house. It makes
> me shudder, Juliet, to think of all the money you spent that day."
> 
> "That was nothing."
> 
> "Oh, money is nothing, I suppose!"
> 
> "Certainly nothing compared with a visit from the Master." And I
> said goodbye.
> 
> I went back to the house so ashamed I could hardly
> 
> hold up my head: miserably ashamed of Percy Grant, burning up with
> indignation at his deliberate insult to the Master, to Him Whose
> "dress was the same as the dress of Jesus", an insult levelled at
> the Master, the real intention of which was to hurt me. Just a
> petty revenge on me.
> 
> I gave Percy's wretched message to Dr Farid without any comment;
> then stole off alone and wept.
> 
> Soon my Lord sent for me. I longed to unburden my heart to Him, but
> Grace Krug and Louise were with Him and Grace was telling her own
> troubles, speaking of some unhappiness of the day before, so of
> course I could say nothing. I sat forcing back my tears, feeling
> that at any moment I might burst out crying and that I mustn't do
> that in His Presence for any other reason than love.
> 
> "And now," said the Master, still talking with Grace, "the sun is
> out again! The sun is shining. I am glad of that. I do not like
> clouds!"
> 
> Oh, what if I cry now, I thought.
> 
> "Winds from all directions: from the north, south, east, and
> west--great hurricanes--have beaten against My Ark, yet My Ark
> still floats." Smiling, He made an adorable gesture with His hands,
> swinging them like a rocking boat. "One single wave has submerged
> many a great ship, yet My Ark still floats!"
> 
> "Juliet," He said, turning suddenly to me, "is there anything you
> want to ask Me privately? Biya! (Come)."
> 
> He led me by the hand into the back room.
> 
> "Now speak. Your eyes are all speech!"
> 
> "I only want to say that I am deeply ashamed for Dr Grant. Deeply
> sorry. The friend to whose husband the yacht belongs is sick and
> he could not get it for today."
> 
> "It is better so," said the Master. "I was wondering
> 
> how I could do it, for I am not very well today and must be in
> Brooklyn this evening at eight o'clock. But I would have done it
> for his sake. It is better; better," He ended, with a strange sweet
> intonation, as He returned to the other room.
> 
> 18 July 1912
> 
> Each day I drink deeper of the cup of Love. Yesterday the draught
> I took was pure ecstasy. I saw Him for three brief moments only,
> but those three moments were charged.
> 
> First, I saw Him with a few others--Mrs Helen Goodall, Miss Wise,
> Ella Goodall Cooper--and He spoke to us of the kindness of God,
> holding in His hand my rosary, which He has carried for several
> days (the one Khanum gave me in Haifa). When we meet kindness in
> a human being He said, how happy it makes us. How much happier we
> will be when we realize the kindness of God.
> 
> Later He called to Him alone. I met Him as He came downstairs from
> His room to the library. He was all in white.
> 
> "Ah-h, Juliet," He said. He began to walk up and down the library.
> "Your mother sent me these things," (referring to some flowers and
> another little present). "These things came from your mother? I
> became very happy from them, but she should not have taken the
> trouble."
> 
> "It made her so happy to send that little offering."
> 
> "But she should not have taken the trouble." He continued to walk
> up and down. In a moment He said: "I am very much please with your
> truthfulness, Juliet.
> 
> That matter between us, your truthfulness on that occasion makes
> Me happy whenever I think of it."
> 
> "Everything in my heart is for You to see, my Lord. I only hope the
> day may come when You will see nothing in it except the Love of
> God."
> 
> He came very close and looked deep into my eyes with His brilliant
> eyes.
> 
> "I see your heart," He said. "I look into your face and your heart
> is perfectly clear to Me."
> 
> Again He paced up and down and it was then I knelt.
> 
> "Tell the Master," I said to Valiyu'llah Khan, "I pray that my
> heart may become entirely detached from this world."
> 
> "Your heart," said the Master, pausing before me and gazing at me
> with a face of glistening light, "will become entirely detached.
> You are now in the condition I desired for you." He walked to the
> window and stood, looking out. "I wish you to teach constantly.
> Therein lies your happiness, and My happiness."
> 
> He came back to me. I had risen.
> 
> "I wish you to be detached from the entire world of existence; to
> turn to the Kingdom of Abha with a pure heart; with a pure breath
> to teach the people. I desire for you," He continued, resuming His
> walk, "that which I desire for My own daughters, Tuba and Ruha."
> 
> With this He dismissed me.
> 
> __________
> 
> In the evening I returned to a wedding, Grace Robarts' and Harlan
> Ober's, where the Master, for me, as well as for the bride and
> bridegroom, turned the water of life into wine.
> 
> Grace and Harlan stood together, transfigured; they
> 
> seemed to be bathed in white light. Mr Ives, standing opposite,
> married them. Back in the shadow sat the Master. There were times
> when I, sitting at a little distance from Him, felt His lightning
> glance on me. At the end of the service He blessed the marriage.
> After this He went upstairs, to the front room on the third floor.
> 
> I soon followed him there, taking with me our coloured maid, Mamie,
> and her little adopted son, George, a child six years old. Mamie
> wanted to have the Master bless him.
> 
> On the way up in the bus I had (idiotically) asked: "Do you know
> who the Master is, George?"
> 
> "No, ma'am," very positively.
> 
> "Well, you will know some day, for by the time you grow up the
> whole world will know Who the Master is and then you will be so
> proud and happy to remember that He blessed you."
> 
> The blessing the Master gave George was not an obvious one, there
> was nothing ceremonial about it. He just took the child on His knee
> and talked playfully with him and caressed him. But how it
> impressed that little boy!
> 
> While we were going downtown in the bus, he rolled his big eyes up
> at me and out of a dead silence said: "I know now, ma'am."
> 
> And when Mamie's husband, Cornelius, opened the door for us, George
> rushed to him, crying out: "The Master blessed me, dearie, and I
> will show you just how."
> 
> Then he clattered down the basement stairs and I was spared the
> scene! I never did know how George demonstrated it--he couldn't
> have taken Cornelius on
> 
> his knee!--but the next day Mamie told me of something else.
> 
> "Dearie," George had asked, "is the Master that blessed me this
> evening the same Master that holds the moon in His hand and makes
> the sun shine?"
> 
> "Go to bed, child," said Cornelius.
> 
> "But," repeated George, "is the Master that same Lord that makes
> the sun shine and the rain come down?"
> 
> "The Lord that makes the sun shine," said Mamie, "is in the Master
> that blessed you this evening, George. It was the Holy Spirit that
> blessed you."
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. Thirteen years later a handsome young man came to
> my door. At first I thought he was Syrian. "Do you remember
> George?" he asked. Almost at once he spoke of the Master. "I have
> had a rough life among my own people," he said, "but the blessing
> He gave me has lived like a fountain in my heart. It has protected
> me through all my sufferings. It has inspired me with the resolve
> to work for better conditions among my people. And," he went on,
> "that other time when He spoke at a big meeting on the first floor
> and you brought me up from the basement and stood me on a chair so
> that I could see Him plainly, I thought He was God then and was
> frightened." Then he described the Master to the minutest detail:
> the colour of His eyes, His skin, His hair, even the two tones of
> white in the turban He wore.
> 
> A few years ago, during the Second World War, I heard of George
> again from his real mother. He was in England, practising medicine
> and working with the wounded in the hospitals.)
> 
> 19 July 1912
> 
> This morning I went as usual to the Master's house but was stopped
> at the door by Alice Beede.
> 
> "Fly," she said, "after Mrs Goodall and Ella. They have your
> rosary. The Master just gave it to them."
> 
> My precious, precious coral rosary--given to me by the Greatest
> Holy Leaf! Given on a wonderful occasion, when a young carpenter
> living on Mount Carmel had been healed of typhoid fever. Ruha and
> I had climbed the mountain to see him and we were trying to help
> his mother when Khanum and the Holy Mother arrived with a doctor.
> The doctor went into the hut and the rest of us stayed outside,
> Khanum sitting on the ground under a tree, praying on this same
> rosary. It was dark by then, and very dark in that little garden.
> Khanum was all in shadowy white, from her veil to her feet. When
> she had finished praying, she glided like a spirit toward me and
> threw the coral chain over my head. A few days ago I took this
> great treasure to the Master. "This is the dearest thing I
> possess," I said, "except Your tablets and the ring You gave me.
> If You will use it, my Lord, it will be infinitely dearer."
> 
> I ran up the street after Mrs Goodall and Ella Cooper and when I
> overtook them said breathlessly: "Alice Beede has just told me that
> the Master gave you my rosary."
> 
> "Oh! Take it back," said Mrs Goodall.
> 
> But I had come to my senses.
> 
> "No, no," I answered. "If the Master gave it to you it is yours."
> 
> In the afternoon I went again to my Lord. He was sitting in the
> English basement, in His lap a tangled pile of rosaries. I sat
> between Ahmad and Edward Getsinger. The Master held up a rosary.
> 
> "To whom do I return this?" He inquired of Ahmad.
> 
> Edward leaned over to me and whispered: "That is the way your
> rosary went."
> 
> "Oh no, it isn't," I whispered back.
> 
> "What did Juliet say?" asked the Master.
> 
> "It was nothing, my Lord, nothing," I said.
> 
> He smiled and the subject was dropped.[125]
> 
> 25 July 1912
> 
> She Master is gone. Gone to Dublin, New Hampshire.
> 
> I shall never forget the day He left, day before yesterday. I went
> up early to His house--but oh, too late! On the street I met Mrs
> Hutchinson.
> 
> "The Master has gone!" she said, her eyes full of tears, her lips
> quivering.
> 
> "When?"
> 
> "Twenty minutes ago."
> 
> "I will go to the station."
> 
> I jumped on a subway train and reached the station in a few
> minutes. But nowhere did I see the Master and the Persians. I
> stopped a porter.
> 
> "Did a party of foreigners pass through here just now?"
> 
> "Egyptians?"
> 
> [Photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Dublin, New Hampshire]
> 
> "Yes!" There wasn't a minute to explain.
> 
> "Yes. Go to track 19."
> 
> But track 19 was deserted except for the gateman.
> 
> "Has a party of foreigners passed this way?" I asked him.
> 
> "Turks?"
> 
> "Yes."
> 
> "They are on the train."
> 
> "I supposed I couldn't go through?"
> 
> "Yes, go through, but come right back."
> 
> Smiling my thanks, I dashed down the platform. At one of the
> windows in the train I saw a white turban.
> 
> "Could I get on the car?" I asked the conductor.
> 
> "Yes, get on. It's all right."
> 
> __________
> 
> "Ah-h, Juliet!"
> 
> "Goodbye, my Lord."
> 
> "Goodbye." He drew me down beside Him. "You should not have
> troubled to come here," He said.
> 
> "My heart wouldn't let me do otherwise."
> 
> "I will see you in a month.[126] Give My greetings to your mother,
> to all the friends; to Mrs Krug, Miss Boylan."
> 
> Closely, closely He pressed my hand, pouring the attar of rose of
> His Love upon me. Then once more He said goodbye and I left.
> 
> It had been too bold, yet even against the rules every door had
> opened to me.
> 
> __________
> 
> The last time I talked with the Master was the day before He left.
> Sure that He was to leave that morning,
> 
> the twenty-second, I went very early to His house, with eight
> palm-leaf fans in my hands. Mamma had sent them for the Master and
> the Persians to use on the hot journey.
> 
> The master was sitting in the English basement at the window. He
> called me to a chair opposite Him. "What are all those for?" He
> asked, laughing, waving His hand toward the fans.
> 
> I laughed too, for they did look funny. I explained their purpose
> and that they were from Mamma.
> 
> For a while I sat in silence before Him. Then suddenly I realized
> that He was about to leave us, that in just a few minutes He would
> be gone. I began to cry quietly.
> 
> "Tell Juliet," laughed the Master, "that I am not going today."
> 
> At this the sun came out! But soon by tears were flowing again,
> this time because His love was melting me.
> 
> "Why are you crying, Juliet? I am not going today!"
> 
> __________
> 
> In the afternoon He called me to Him and I had twenty minutes alone
> with Him and Valiyu'llah Khan. I sat with over-brimming eyes,
> drinking in the Glory of His Presence.
> 
> "Oh Valiyu'llah Khan," I said, "say to the Master for me that I
> know He is the Sun and I pray He will always encircle me with His
> rays."
> 
> "You are very near Me," He answered, "and while you speak the truth
> you will always be with Me. I pray that you may become the candle
> of New York, spreading the Light of Love all around you."
> 
> After this we sat silent in His Presence, silent for a long time.
> 
> Once again He saw me when Marjorie came. He told
> 
> her she was my child, my "little chicken" and said we must comfort
> each other after He has gone. Green Acre, Maine, 1947
> 
> If only I had written of Green Acre day by day while we were there
> with Him! There are unforgettable things, but so many details,
> precious details, have slipped away.
> 
> Mamma and I were in Bass Rocks when the Master's invitation reached
> us. Bass Rocks, on a cliff above the ocean, was Mamma's paradise
> and we could never afford more than two weeks of it. So, when
> Ahmad's postcard came, with word from the Master that He wished us
> to spend three days with Him in Green Acre, all she could think of
> at first was that three days would be lost from her paradise!
> 
> "I won't go," she said.
> 
> "Oh, Mamma, an invitation from a king is a command, and this is
> from the King of kings."
> 
> "Well, I'll go for just one night and no more. And I won't take a
> suitcase. Just a little Irish bundle, so that we can't stay more
> than one night."
> 
> So she packed our little Irish bundle: two night-gowns, two
> toothbrushes, our combs and brushes and a change of underwear.
> 
> When we arrived at the Green Acre Inn the Master met us at the door
> with His loving Marhaba; then He drew me into the dining room.
> 
> "She does not want?" He asked in English.
> 
> I couldn't tell the truth then, but of course He knew.
> 
> __________
> 
> Pictures come back to me. Mamma and I following Him down a path to
> the Eirenion, where He was to speak
> 
> to the believers. He was all in white in the dark. Mamma whispering
> to me: "It is like following a Spirit."
> 
> A tussle day after day to keep Mamma in Green Acre, in which dear
> Carrie Kinney helped me.
> 
> A night when a horrifying young man came to a meeting at the
> Kinneys' house. From head to foot he was covered with soot. His
> blue eyes stared out from a dark grey face. This was Fred
> Mortenson. He had spent half his boyhood and young manhood in a
> prison in Minneapolis. Our beloved Albert Hall, who was interested
> in prison work, had found him and taken him out on parole and given
> him the Baha'i Message. But Albert Hall was dead when the Master
> came to America.
> 
> Fred Mortenson, hearing that 'Abdu'l-Baha was in Green Acre, and
> having no money to make the trip, had ridden the bumpers [on
> freight trains] to His Presence.
> 
> He came into the meeting and sat down and was very unhappy when the
> Master, pacing back and forth as He talked, took no notice of him.
> "It must be that He knows I stole a ride," thought Fred (who told
> me all about it afterward). But no sooner was the meeting over and
> the Master upstairs in His room than He sent for Fred.
> 
> Fred had said nothing to anyone about his trip on the bumpers, but
> the minute he entered that upstairs room the Master asked smiling
> and with twinkling eyes: "How did you enjoy your ride?" then He
> took from Fred's hand his soot-covered cap and kissed it.
> 
> Years later, during the First World War, when the American
> believers sent ten thousand dollars for the relief of the starving
> Arabs, the messenger they chose to carry the money through the
> warring countries was: Fred Mortenson. The Master declined the ten
> thousand
> 
> dollars, relieving the Arabs Himself by His own hard labour. He
> went to His estate near Tiberius and Himself ploughed the fields
> there; then stored all the grain in the Shrine of the Bab.
> 
> For this He was knighted by Great Britain when British rule
> replaced Turkish in Palestine. It was meant as an honour, but to
> me it was like an insult. It nearly killed me after that to direct
> my supplications to Sir 'Abdu'l-Baha 'Abbas.
> 
> __________
> 
> But to return to Green Acre.
> 
> One day the Master, speaking from the porch of somebody's cottage,
> while the believers sat on the grass below, made this fascinating
> statement: "We are in affinity now because in pre-existence we were
> in affinity."
> 
> "Let's ask Him what He means by that," whispered Carrie to me.
> 
> So, in the evening, while the Master was in our room--Mamma's and
> mine--and Carrie sitting there with us, I put the question to Him.
> 
> "I will answer you later," He said.
> 
> But He never did, outwardly.
> 
> In a minute or so Mamma, with that funny boldness of hers which
> would sometimes burst through her timidity, said: "Master, I would
> like to see You without Your turban."
> 
> He smiled. "It is not our custom, Mrs Thompson, to take off our
> turbans before ladies, but for your sake I will do it."
> 
> And oh, the beauty we saw then! There was something in the silver
> hair flowing back from His high forehead, something in the shape
> of the head, which, in spite of His age, made me think of Christ.
> 
> There was another night, when Carrie, Mamma, and I and a few other
> believers were sitting in the second-floor hall. Suddenly, on the
> white wall of the floor above, at the head of the staircase, the
> Master's great shadow loomed. Mamma slipped over to the foot of the
> stairs and looking up with adoring eyes, called: "Master!"
> 
> And still another night. This was our third in Green Acre. Again
> we were sitting in the second-floor hall, but now the Master was
> in our midst.
> 
> "We must say goodbye tomorrow," Mamma said to Him.
> 
> "Oh no, Mrs Thompson," He laughed. "You are not going tomorrow. One
> more day." and He laughed again. "You see, I am leaving for Boston
> day after tomorrow and you are of My own family. Therefore you must
> travel with Me."
> 
> And Mamma submitted now with a satisfaction wonderful to see. She
> was proud as a peacock. "He said I was of His own family," she kept
> repeating to me.
> 
> Once He called Mamma and me into His room and among other things
> He said was this: "There are correspondences, Mrs Thompson, between
> heaven and earth and Juliet's correspondence in heaven is Mary of
> Magdala."
> 
> __________
> 
> (This diary, owing to the fact that it was written under
> difficulties, has large areas left out of it. I find that I have
> not spoken of what seemed then such a crucial thing--Lua's
> departure for California. But since she was not at our house when
> the Master visited us on 12 July, and my last account of being with
> her is dated the morning of 11 July, I'm sure she must have left
> the night of the eleventh.
> 
> I have just one story to tell of Lua, with the Master, in
> California. I want to tell it for two reasons. First: because of
> its value and also its humour; then because another version of it
> is still being told by the believers, less direct and much less
> like the Master. This is how I had it from Lua herself.
> 
> She and Georgie Ralston (who had gone with Lua to California) were
> driving one day with the Master, when He closed His eyes and
> apparently feel asleep. Lua and Georgie talked on, I imagine about
> their own concerns, for suddenly His eyes sprang open and He
> laughed.
> 
> "I, me, my, mine: words of the Devil!" He said.) New York
> 
> November 1912
> 
> The Master is here again!
> 
> I met Him at the boat last Monday, 11 November. I met Him alone.
> And this is how that happened. At noon on 11 November, Mirza
> 'Ali-Akbar arrived from Washington to find living quarters for the
> Masters and the Persians. I had had a wire from him earlier, asking
> me to meet him at the station and to house-hunt with him, which I
> did. The Master was to come at ten that night and we thought we had
> plenty of time to notify the friends so that they could meet His
> ferryboat, but later another wire came to our house, relayed to me
> through Mamma and Mr Mills at Mrs Champney's (and luckily catching
> me there), saying that the Master would arrive at eight. Through
> a series of accidents, Mr Mills' chauffeur landed us first
> somewhere in New Jersey and then at the Liberty Street station, and
> there was no time to telephone anybody.
> 
> "This will be very bad," said Mirza 'Ali-Akbar, but we couldn't
> help it.
> 
> We had accomplished everything else, had rented again the dear
> house on Seventy-Eighth Street (Mrs Champney's) and found extra
> rooms for some of the Persians.
> 
> Now, Mirza 'Ali-Akbar insisted on my taking Mr Mills' car and going
> at breakneck speed to the Twenty-Third Street station to try to
> meet the Master there, if He should come that way, while he himself
> waited at Liberty Street.
> 
> I reached Twenty-Third Street just in time. The ferryboat was
> approaching and very close to the dock. Standing at the end of the
> pier, I saw it with its chain of lights. I saw Dr Farid. Then the
> Master rose from a seat on the deck and entered the brightly lit
> cabin.
> 
> Soon He came toward me down the gangplank.
> 
> "Ah, Juliet," He said, taking my hand in His and drawing me along
> with Him, so that I walked beside Him. But He didn't invite me to
> drive to His house with Him. Instead, He sent me back after Mirza
> 'Ali-Akbar--Dr Baghdadi and Mirza Mahmud going with me. We returned
> all together to Seventy-Eighth Street.
> 
> Oh, to see Him in that house again, sitting in His old corner in
> the English basement, the corner in the bay window!
> 
> __________
> 
> I had been very naughty with Mamma that day and had grieved her.
> My precious mother was brought up in luxury, lived in luxury until
> Papa died. She cannot get over her sensitiveness about our
> too-apparent poverty and she simply won't have people to meals. I
> had begged her to make an exception of Mirza 'Ali-Akbar, who was
> arriving at such an awkward hour, and to let me bring him back for
> lunch. But she wouldn't hear of it.
> 
> Whereupon I flew into a temper, told her what I thought of her
> "false pride", and stamped out of the house.
> 
> Now, entering the Master's house with the three Persians, instead
> of a welcome, I received a blow. The Master didn't even look at me.
> 
> "How is your mother?" were His first words. "Is she happy?"
> 
> Then He told me to go straight back to her but to return the next
> day. I went back and comforted her with His rebuke to me.
> 
> __________
> 
> Early as I could on 12 November, I sought His Beloved Presence.
> Ruth and Lawrence White (who have lately been married) were with
> Him and Rhoda and Marjorie. It seems impossible sometimes for the
> physical ear, or the human mind, to retain His Divine Words. They
> moved me to tears.
> 
> "Don't cry! Don't cry!" said the Master, with His infinite
> tenderness.
> 
> The twelfth of November, the Birthday of Baha'u'llah, was the day
> of Mrs Krug's meeting and never, never shall I forget it.
> 
> There, at Mrs Krug's, the Master invoked Baha'u'llah. And as His
> cry, "Ya Baha'u'llah!" rang out, I hid my eyes, for it was as
> though He were calling Someone the same plane with Him, Someone
> Whom He saw, and Who would certainly come.
> 
> He came--the Blessed Beauty, the Lord of Hosts. A Power flashed
> into our midst, a great Sacred Power ... I can find no words.
> Burning tears poured down my cheeks. My heart shook.
> 
> After the meeting, the Master, Who was resting in another room,
> sent for me. I had supplicated through
> 
> Valiyu'llah Khan that He would come to the meeting at our house
> Friday.
> 
> "Tomorrow, Juliet," He said, "I will tell you about your meeting.
> Now go back to the house and wait till I come."
> 
> I did so and He soon came--came and sat in the corner of the window
> in the English basement just as He used to last summer. Carrie
> Kinney was there and Mr Hoar.
> 
> He had spoken so often in public and in private of an inevitable
> world war, warning America not to enter it, that I felt moved to
> mention it now.
> 
> "Will the present war in the Balkans," I asked, "terminate in the
> world war?"
> 
> "No, but within two years a spark will rise from the Balkans and
> set the whole world on fire."
> 
> Soon He rose and calling, "Come, Juliet," and beckoning to
> Valiyu'llah Khan, took us out to walk in "His garden", that narrow
> strip of park above the river. As we followed Him, Valiyu'llah Khan
> said: "How blessed to be walking in His footsteps!"
> 
> He led us to a bench and sat down between us, clasping my hand
> tightly. And then He began to ask me questions: question after
> question about the believers in New York, as to a certain condition
> among them, a lack of firmness in the Covenant, which I had never
> suspected--of which I was really ignorant. Of course, I did know
> that earlier there had been awful confusion--some teaching that
> 'Abdu'l-Baha was like Peter, others that He was Jesus Himself--but
> I thought that time was past.
> 
> "But I don't know, my Lord!" I said. "If I knew, I would tell you."
> 
> "I know you don't know," He laughed, "and I do
> 
> know. There are many things I know that you do not know. I was only
> testing you. I have loved you for your truthfulness, for the truth
> you spoke in a matter you remember. I wanted to see if your heart
> were in the same state of truthfulness." Then He said: "With those
> who are against the Centre of the Covenant you must not associate
> at all. When you find that a soul has turned away from the Covenant
> you must cut yourself off completely from him. You will know these
> people. You will see it in their faces." (How on earth, I thought,
> could I trust my judgement of the faces? He answered my unspoken
> thought at once.) "You will see a dimness on the faces, like the
> letting down of a veil."
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "I feel that I have failed in everything. I have
> failed You in all my pitiful efforts to bring about unity. And I
> know my failure has been due to lack of strict obedience."
> 
> "Obedience," said the Master, "is firmness in the Covenant. You
> must associate with the steadfast ones." He mentioned three people
> who, since His return--since I met His ferryboat alone--have
> wreaked their displeasure on me, one of whom had even "scandalized
> my name" (!) for several years; then added to the list--Mason
> Remey. This was bitter! "You must be a rock, as they are rocks."
> 
> "My Lord," I asked, with a sinking heart, "am I not firm in the
> Covenant?"
> 
> "You could be more firm," He laughed.
> 
> "Oh, my Lord!"
> 
> He rose and we began to walk.
> 
> "I had hoped," I said miserably, "that nobody loved You better than
> I."
> 
> "I know you love Me, Juliet," He answered, "but
> 
> there are degrees of love." Then He told me He carried a
> measuring-rod in His hand by which He measured the love of the
> people and that rod was obedience.
> 
> At the corner, at the entrance to the park, He paused. "You must
> love Me," He said, "for the sake of God."
> 
> "You are all I shall ever know of God!"
> 
> "I am the Servant of God. You must love Me for His sake and for the
> sake of Baha'u'llah. I am very kind to you Juliet," He added.
> 
> "I know, my Lord."
> 
> "Now go back to your mother, so that she may be pleased with you!"
> He laughed, and left me to wait for the bus.
> 
> But when He had crossed the street, when I saw Him stop for a
> moment to speak to Valiyu'llah Khan, I sank on the chain of the
> fence utterly broken-hearted.
> 
> Oh I am nothing, nothing, I thought. I have done nothing but fail
> Him. Which was just what He wanted me to see, I suppose.
> 
> But, could it be that I was not firm? I examined my character: Yes,
> it was unstable.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Wednesday, 14 November, I went very early to my Lord's house.
> He was on the point of going out, but He called me to Him.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, as He paced up and down His room, "I want to
> thank You for Your great mercy last night. I was asleep and You
> woke me."
> 
> "I pray you may ever be awake. There are a few souls in America,"
> He continued, "whom I have chosen to be teachers in this Cause. You
> are of those, Juliet. I wish you to have all the qualities of a
> teacher. That is all."
> 
> Then He asked me to wait till His return. I waited all
> 
> day. At five o'clock He came and called me to His room on the upper
> floor. With that exquisite courtesy of His, the sweetness of which
> almost breaks the heart, He--I can hardly write it--asked me to
> excuse Him for keeping me waiting.
> 
> "To wait for You, my Lord, is joy. Oh these blessed days when we
> can wait for You!"
> 
> He went on to tell me why He had been detained ...
> 
> __________
> 
> (The record of this last month must be sketchy. I cannot copy it
> all, as it concerns other people, and conditions that are past and
> best forgotten.
> 
> 28 November 1912
> 
> It is Thanksgiving Day, and I am thankful--thankful and happy.
> Everything that means my personal happiness, even every hope is
> lost. My Lord has entirely stripped my life. But I pray that He has
> freed my spirit.
> 
> On 15 November, the Master came to our house (48 West Tenth Street)
> and gave a most wonderful talk in the front room on the first floor
> to a great crowd of people who filled both the front and back rooms
> and the hall.[127] I brought George up from the basement and stood
> him on a chair, so that he could see the Master. He thought the
> Master was God and was frightened.
> 
> Driving down to us with Mrs Champney, our Lord had said: "The time
> has come for Me to throw bombs!" And He threw them in His talk that
> night.
> 
> "I have spoken," He said, "in the various Christian churches and
> in the synagogues, and in no assembly has
> 
> there been a dissenting voice. All have listened and all have
> conceded that the Teachings of Baha'u'llah are superlative in
> character, acknowledging that they constitute the very essence or
> spirit of this age and that there is no better pathway to the
> attainment of its ideals. Not a single voice has been raised in
> objection. At most there have been some who have refused to
> acknowledge the Mission of Baha'u'llah, although even these have
> admitted that He was a great teacher, a most powerful soul, a very
> great man. Some who could find no other pretext have said: 'These
> Teachings are not new; they are old and familiar; we have heard
> them before.' Therefore, I will speak to you upon the distinctive
> characteristics of the Manifestation of Baha'u'llah and prove that
> from every standpoint His Cause is distinguished from all others."
> 
> And in this address, which was one of His most powerful, the Master
> certainly proved it. The address was taken down and will be
> printed.
> 
> __________
> 
> On 18 November, at the Kinneys' house, the Master put Howard
> MacNutt through a severe ordeal, an inevitable ordeal.
> 
> Mr MacNutt had been one of the few who, when I first came to New
> York, had taught that the Master was "like Peter"--just a glorified
> disciple. But for years he had never mentioned this point of view,
> and I thought he had gotten over it.
> 
> In Chicago there are some so-called Baha'is who are still connected
> with Khayru'llah, the great Covenant-breaker, and last week the
> Master sent Mr MacNutt to Chicago to see them and try to persuade
> them to give up Khayru'llah; otherwise he was to cut them off from
> the
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with His Persian entourage in the garden
> of Howard MacNutt, New York, 1912.]
> 
> faithful believers. He--Mr MacNutt--wrote Diya Baghdadi that he had
> found these people "angels", and did nothing about the situation.
> 
> He had just returned to New York and was to meet the Master at the
> Kinneys' house that evening, 18 November, for the first time since
> his unfruitful trip. I was in the second-floor hall with the Master
> and Carrie Kinney when he arrived. The Master took him to His own
> room. After some time they came out together into the hall.
> 
> An immense crowd had gathered by then on the first floor, which is
> open the whole length of the house.
> 
> I heard the Master say to Mr MacNutt: "Go down and tell the people:
> 'I was like Saul. Now I am Paul, for I see."
> 
> "But I don't see," said poor Howard.
> 
> "Go down and say: 'I was like Saul.'"
> 
> I pulled his coattail. "For God's sake," I said, "go down."
> 
> "Let me alone," he replied in his misery.
> 
> "GO DOWN," commanded the Master.
> 
> Mr MacNutt turned and went down, and his back looked shrunken. The
> Master leaned over the stair rail, His head thrown far back, His
> eyes closed, in anguished prayer. I sat with Carrie on the top
> step, watching Him. This is like Christ in Gethsemane, I thought.
> 
> We could hear the voice of Howard MacNutt stumbling through his
> confession: "I was like Saul." But he seemed to be saying it by
> rote, dragging through it still unconvinced. Nevertheless when he
> came upstairs again, the Master deluged him with love.
> 
> By that time the Master was back in His room and as Mr MacNutt
> appeared at the door, He ran forward to meet him. Our Lord was all
> in white that night and as
> 
> He ran with His arms wide open He looked like a great flying bird.
> He enfolded Howard in a close embrace, kissed his face and neck,
> welcomed with ecstasy this broken man who, even though bewildered,
> had obeyed Him.
> 
> The next night while Mamma, Miss Annie Boylan[128] and I were
> together in the Master's Presence, Miss Annie Boylan brought up Mr
> MacNutt's name and spoke gloatingly of his chastisement.
> 
> The Master sighed. "I immersed Mr MacNutt in the fountain of Job
> last night," He said.
> 
> __________
> 
> The next morning, Sunday, 24 November, I hastened to the Master's
> house. I knew it would be full of people, friends from other towns
> who had come to attend the banquet and to be with the Master during
> His last days here. I knew Mason Remey was in New York and that I
> should have to meet him, perhaps this morning; and to face him
> before the Master and all the believers would be misery. Our
> engagement, in the eyes of the believers, had been the most ideal
> romance:[129] I had seen many moved to tears by it, and when the
> engagement was broken, every one of them had resented it, taking
> up cudgels for Mason and putting the entire blame on me. As for
> Mason, he had said: "I am an Indian. I never forgive."
> 
> For over a year Mason and I had avoided each other in perfectly
> absurd ways. When I had to go down to Washington, I had written
> him: "Please stay away from the meetings while I am there." (!)
> Then one day, in Washington, when I boarded a moving, rocking
> street
> 
> car, I fell backward on somebody's lap and turned to find myself
> sitting on Mason's knees! I haven't seen him since and now, as I
> approached the Master's house, knowing he would surely be
> inside--if not at that moment, very soon--I wanted to turn and run.
> 
> Suddenly I saw that all this was nonsense and should be overcome
> at once, before the Master's departure. An idea occurred to me. I
> stood on the doorstep a minute or two bracing myself to carry it
> out, to walk boldly up to Mason and say: "Let's go to the Master
> now and tell Him we are friends again and want to work together in
> the old way as a real brother and sister in the Cause." All at
> once, though still a little shy, I felt eager to do this, to put
> things right.
> 
> I opened the door, and there stood Marie Hopper, evidently waiting
> to waylay me. She looked very mysterious, important and excited.
> "Juliet," she said, "I must have a word with you. There is
> something I have to do."
> 
> Then she exhorted me to marry Mason. She told me she knew the
> Master wished it; she had "private information". The Master had
> said I would "suffer" until I did marry him
> 
> "If I have to suffer," I said, "I prefer a respectable martyrdom!
> I'd be nothing but a common prostitute if I married him. And I
> can't believe, Marie, that the Master really said this."
> 
> May Maxwell came up at that moment, very earnest and starry-eyed,
> to reinforce Marie.
> 
> "Very well," I said, "I will talk with the Master myself about it.
> He is just upstairs, thank God, no further away than the top floor
> of this house, and whatever He wants me to do, I will do."
> 
> I went up with Valiyu'llah Khan. But first I stopped on
> 
> the third floor and had a little private cry with Valiyu'llah.
> Percy Grant was to come the next day to the Master--this would be
> his last visit--and who could tell what would happen then; what
> miracle might not happen; what change might not take place in him?
> And now, Mason Remey looming up again!
> 
> We found the Master on the point of going out, standing in His
> room, holding a big, white, folded umbrella. I knelt and He pressed
> my head against His arm and took my hand in a tight clasp. "Speak,"
> He said.
> 
> "Tell the Master, Valiyu'llah Khan, that I know He will laugh at
> this, because I want to speak about marrying Mason. I have heard
> from Marie Hopper that the Master wishes it. If He really does wish
> it, I am ready."
> 
> "Na! Na!" (No! No!) said the Master. His eyes were twinkling and
> the corners of His mouth quivering as though He were trying not to
> smile. "It was this way," He said. "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."
> 
> I kissed His tender hand.
> 
> Needless to say, after this, I couldn't go near Mason Remey.
> 
> __________
> 
> On 20 November, the Master spent the morning in my little
> room.[130] Once more His Glory shone in my room; His Life was
> diffused in it. It is a sanctuary now to me, like a chapel in our
> house.
> 
> He had brought Mrs Champney with Him and Mr MacNutt and, during the
> morning, Mr MacNutt, who
> 
> was standing behind the Master very humbly, lifted the hem of His
> 'aba to his lips.
> 
> Mamma brought the Master some soup which she had prepared
> especially for Him.
> 
> "I was just wishing for soup," He said sweetly. "You, Mrs Thompson,
> have the reality of love."
> 
> Mamma then showed Him Papa's picture and He kissed it.
> 
> After a while He left us and was absent for some time. When He came
> back He said: "I have been in every room in your house."
> 
> And when He bade us goodbye, as He swung down the stairs with His
> powerful step, His voice rang out: "This house is blessed."
> 
> After He had gone I sat in the chair He had sat in and wrote an
> appeal to Percy Grant: "I tried to reach you by phone this morning
> to tell you the Master is soon returning to Haifa and that He
> wishes to take His portrait with Him." (Percy had been exhibiting
> it in the chapel of his Parish House.) "And to ask if some time
> tomorrow I could come for it. I want to thank you too for your
> hospitality to the Master's picture and for your beautiful
> reference to it last Sunday, of which I have heard.
> 
> "You have given to many an opportunity to see at least a portrayal,
> if a very weak one, of a dear face which I doubt if most of us will
> see again. He is going back into dangerous conditions. Dear Percy,
> will you let Him go without saying goodbye to Him? Only the other
> day he was speaking of you."
> 
> To this I received a very stiff answer, merely asking the date of
> the Master's sailing and His address.
> 
> __________
> 
> On Saturday, the twenty-third, the Master spent most of the day in
> Montclair. When I went to His Seventy-
> 
> Eighth Street house in the late afternoon I was met with joyous
> news. By staying over in Montclair He had missed reserving His
> passage on the Mauretania and His sailing was now delayed! Also I
> heard that Percy had telephoned and asked for permission to call
> Monday.
> 
> That night the Master gave a banquet at the Great Northern Hotel.
> 
> May Maxwell, Marie Hopper, Marjorie, Rhoda, Mamma, and I sat at the
> same table. Just before the food was served the Master rose from
> his seat, a vial of attar of rose in His hand, and passed among all
> the tables, anointing every one of His guests. As His wonderful
> hand, dripping perfume, touched my forehead, as He scattered on my
> hair the fragrant drops, my whole being seemed to wake and sparkle.
> 
> At the end of His talk[131] He said: "Such a banquet and such an
> assemblage command the sincere devotion of all present and invite
> the down-pouring of the blessings of God. Therefore be ye assured
> and confident that the confirmations of God are descending upon
> you, the assistance of God will be given unto you, the breaths of
> the Holy Spirit will quicken you with a new life, the Sun of
> Reality will shine gloriously upon you and the fragrant breeze of
> the rose gardens of Divine Mercy will waft through the windows of
> your souls. Be ye confident and steadfast ..."
> 
> __________
> 
> The following morning, 25 November, I spent with the Master. One
> heavenly thing He said was this: "I have searched throughout the
> length and breadth of this land for flames, I want the flames! The
> solid ones are no good." Then He told me I was a flame. And He
> spoke
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha in banquet at the Great Northern Hotel,
> 23 November 1912.]
> 
> beautifully of Mamma: "If I had a mother like yours, Juliet, I
> would never deviate, even by a hair's breadth, from her wishes."
> 
> That night Mamma went to see Him with me. He was looking utterly
> spent, but He insisted on keeping us--wouldn't let us go for at
> least an hour.
> 
> In the meantime, at five o'clock, Percy Grant had come. The Master
> was out but expected back any minute. He had had to address a
> Women's Club early in the afternoon and from there was to go to Mrs
> Cochran's. Through Valiyu'llah Khan, He had asked me to wait and
> detain Percy. While I was waiting in the English basement, Carrie
> and Mrs Champney with me, a taxicab stopped at the door; then in
> came Dr Grant, very big and rigid, his black clerical broadcloth
> and his white clerical collar firmly moulded around him.
> 
> Soon the Master returned. I can still see that Figure entering the
> room like a mighty Eastern king, in His long green 'aba, edged with
> white fur, His white turban; I can see His outstretched arms, His
> divinely sweet smile; can hear the music of His voice: that long
> "Oh-h! Oh-h!" of welcome. "Oh-h! Oh-h!, Dr Grant!" as though to
> meet Dr Grant were the most delectable thing on earth.
> 
> Then He took Percy's hand and held it, never letting it go while
> I saw them together, and began to talk smilingly to him.
> 
> "You must excuse me for keeping you waiting, Dr Grant. I am very,
> very sorry to have kept you waiting, very sorry. But I was captured
> by three hundred women this afternoon. Is it not a dreadful thing
> to be captured by so many women? (At this I felt wickedly amused.)
> "The women in America dominate the men," the Master continued.
> "Come upstairs with Me." And still
> 
> holding Percy by the hand, with the lightness of a spirit He led
> him up the first flight. I shall never cease to see those two
> figures. The King of the East--and the West--in the garments of an
> Eastern king, leading the way to an upper chamber; the resistant
> clergyman, hardened into his clerical clothes, stiffly following,
> pulled up the stairs by a too strong hand.
> 
> But when Percy came down, after a very long time, his whole face
> was changed. His eyes were like burning stars, his mouth softened,
> relaxed. He grasped my hand and pressed it. "May I take you home,
> Juliet?"
> 
> "Thanks, Percy, I am staying here for a while."
> 
> Soon after he left, Dr Farid rushed down the stairs to me.
> 
> "There is hope--great hope," he said. "He was a changed man today.
> Entirely different from last summer. He seemed deeply touched at
> the thought of the Master returning into danger and asked if we
> would cable him if any trouble should arise, so that he might do
> whatever he could. He asked also if, from time to time, the Master
> would send him news, 'through one of your humblest followers,' he
> said.
> 
> "When he spoke of danger the Master replied that He had never
> feared danger and told him the story of the Turkish Investigating
> Committee sent to 'Akka by 'Abdu'l-Hamid. How the verdict of this
> Committee was that He--'Abdu'l-Baha--must die; that He must either
> be crucified at the gate of 'Akka or sent alone to the desert of
> Fezan, where He would inevitably starve. How at that time the
> Italian consul, a friend, had arranged for a ship to be sent to
> Haifa, ostensibly with cargo, but really to help the Master escape.
> And how the Master had said: 'My Father, Baha'u'llah, never
> delivered Himself, though He had the opportunity. From this
> 
> Prison He spread His Teachings. I, therefore, will follow in His
> footsteps. I will not deliver Myself.'
> 
> "Then," Dr Farid went on, "the Master told Dr, Grant of the
> hastening of the Committee to Turkey to lay its verdict with all
> possible speed before the Sultan, but before they landed on Turkish
> soil, 'the cannon of God had boomed forth at the gates of the
> Sultan's palace.' 'Abdu'l-Hamid was deposed by the rising of the
> Young Turks and 'Abdu'l-Baha set free.
> 
> "'So,' ended the Master, 'God delivered Me.'"
> 
> The miracle had happened. Percy Grant was "a changed man!"
> 
> __________
> 
> Not long was I allowed to cherish my hope!
> 
> The next day, 26 November, while I was waiting in the Master's
> house, He sent Dr Baghdadi to bring me to His room. May Maxwell was
> with Him and Dr Baghdadi remained. I sat on the floor at my Lord's
> feet.
> 
> Smiling down on me, He said: "Why does Mrs Maxwell love you so,
> Juliet?"
> 
> "Because she is my spiritual mother."
> 
> "In Montreal, when I was staying with her, she was always
> mentioning your name and Lua's. 'Juliet, Lua. Juliet, Lua. Juliet,
> Lua,'" chanted the Master. "That was her song."
> 
> "May and Lua, May and Lua," I smiled, "are the two dearest names
> to my heart."
> 
> "This is well," said the Master.
> 
> May turned to Dr Baghdadi. "Ask the Master," she said, "if I may
> be allowed to speak of something to Him." And when she had received
> permission: "My heart is tortured at the thought of all the
> children who are starving for love in these days. So little is
> understood
> 
> [Photograph of Juliet Thompson and may Maxwell]
> 
> of the privileges of motherhood. The children are left to nurses
> and brought up in blighting environments. I want to ask His prayers
> for the mothers of America. Juliet," she whispered to me, "join in
> this supplication."
> 
> I put my best foot forward to support her: "I should like to join
> in May's supplication that the women may soon realize that
> motherhood is their first function." But, even as I spoke the words
> I saw how funny they were, coming from me--and that I had spread
> a snare for my own feet, which I suspect May wanted me to do!
> 
> The Master smiled broadly.
> 
> "What are you doing advocating this, Juliet? Where are your
> children? Mrs Maxwell has a child, but where are yours? If you had
> married, you too could have brought children to me, one to sit on
> each knee! A sterile woman is like a fruitless tree. Of course,"
> He added, smiling again and quoting my words of last summer, "of
> course you will say: 'What can I do with my heart.'"
> 
> "No, I won't say that any more," I answered. "You can do something
> with my heart if I cannot. You can make me a new heart. And now,
> since the Master has spoken of this," I said to Dr Baghdadi, "there
> is something I should like to ask Him. Last spring and summer He
> was indefinite with me about ... Dr Grant; perhaps, as I have been
> thinking lately, because I wasn't strong enough to bear the truth.
> But I believe I am stronger now and ready, at a word from Him, to
> renounce this hope. Is it not to be fulfilled?"
> 
> "No," said the Master. "Otherwise, I would have told you."
> 
> For a moment we sat in His Presence silent. In the fire of that
> Presence, in that little moment, my hope of twelve years melted
> away. As it vanished, a miracle happened. The Being sitting before
> me, now writing on a bit
> 
> of parchment held in the palm of His hand, changed from a body to
> a sun-like Spirit. I saw Him translucent, luminous, and depths of
> iridescence opened behind Him.
> 
> "Oh," I cried, tears coursing down my cheeks, "since that phantom
> of a hope went, I have entered the Presence of God."
> 
> The Master said nothing. He was still writing, writing
> mysteriously.
> 
> "May," I whispered, "do you remember that prayer: 'As the Pen moves
> over the pages of the Tablet by which the musk of significances in
> the world of creation is exhaled?'"
> 
> After a while the Master looked up. "I wish you to marry, Juliet,"
> He said. "I wish you to bring Me children to hold on My knees. God
> will send someone to you who will be agreeable to you."
> 
> What did it matter?
> 
> "May I ask one thing, my Lord? May I supplicate for Percy's soul,
> that in the end he will see the truth?"
> 
> "We must always pray for him," answered the Master.
> 
> Mrs Krug and Carrie came in then. I hated to cry before them, but
> I couldn't stop.
> 
> "Don't cry, don't cry," said the Master, as only He can say it.
> 
> "Oh, that Voice!" whispered May.
> 
> "No, no. Don't cry." This from Grace Krug, with a very disapproving
> look.
> 
> "I seem to be in flames, my Lord--the flames of Thy love, Thy
> Presence--and to be melting."
> 
> But He saw deeper. "Khayr," (no) He said slowly.
> 
> "NO!" echoed Mrs Krug.
> 
> "You must be happy," the Master ended, "because of this thing I
> have told you."
> 
> As I said, this happened in the afternoon of 26 November. The
> morning had been a tremendous one.
> 
> Knowing that my Lord would be at the Kinneys', I went directly
> there. On the way up in the bus a great wave of tears, like a tidal
> wave, rose from my heart (I didn't know why) and threatened at any
> moment to break over me.
> 
> I found the Master on the upper floor of the Kinneys' house with
> the Persians, Carrie and Ned, Nellie Lloyd, and Mr Mills. The
> Tablet of the Branch[132] was being translated under the
> supervision of the Master. Dr Baghdadi and Dr Farid were working
> on it, submitting it time after time to the Master before He was
> satisfied with their rendering. I shall never forget His sternness,
> His terrific majesty as He directed that translation.
> 
> The wave of tears did break as I listened and watched. I was shaken
> beyond all control. Mirza Mahmud and Valiyu'llah Khan tenderly
> tried to calm me.
> 
> 7 December 1912
> 
> 28 November, Thanksgiving Day, was to be a day of rest for our
> Beloved Lord. It had been given out that no one would be received
> at the house that day. So, when the telephone rang about noon and
> Ahmad, at the other end, asked me to come immediately to the
> Master, I felt so singled out and privileged! And to be alone with
> Him and the Persians--that would be something important, something
> wonderful.
> 
> But He met me with a grave, almost stern face. And
> 
> with a command which at once banished my complacent hope. Swiftly
> crossing His room to the door where I stood, He said, without even
> a greeting: "Mrs May Maxwell is sick. I want you to go with some
> medicine to her and to spend the afternoon taking care of her." He
> walked back to the window, beckoning me to follow Him. Then He
> picked up a glass from His table and a bottle of rosewater. "Give
> her this," He said. "Pour out so much," (He poured about an inch
> into the glass) "and so much water. Put in some sugar, the sugar
> of your love. Drink this yourself." He gave me the glass He had
> been preparing, for my cure, and, looking pointedly at me, began
> to pray.
> 
> "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!"
> 
> Feeling strangely numb, I said, as I drank the rosewater: "Ya
> Baha'u'l-Abha!"
> 
> He turned to the window and looked out.
> 
> "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!"
> 
> "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha," I echoed.
> 
> Again and again He repeated the Greatest Name and I repeated it
> after Him, praying with Him.
> 
> At last He said: "Now go to Mrs May Maxwell. Telephone your mother
> that I have sent you to her as she is sick, to spend the afternoon
> with her."
> 
> Then He bowed, still grave, and I left Him, the bottle of rosewater
> in my hand.
> 
> __________
> 
> (Footnote. 1947. Years later I was to see the meaning of this and
> that I had utterly failed in administering the "medicine". Mrs May
> Maxwell wouldn't drink it; she said I had put too much sugar in it.
> I loved her with a personal love. It never rose to the heights of
> an all-forgiving love, and so I
> 
> couldn't overcome that strange vein of cruelty in the love I think
> she felt for me. We were still divided when she died. This was one
> of my great failures.
> 
> Another significant thing: Nine years after that date, on 28
> November 1921, our Beloved Lord ascended. Could this have been the
> reason, with His pre-vision, that He spent that day in 1912 in
> solitude?)
> 
> __________
> 
> Within the next day or two, Mrs May Maxwell and I were together in
> His Presence. "Am I spiritually sick, my Lord?" she asked. "For I
> was not physically sick the day you sent me the rosewater."
> 
> "Yes," He answered gently, "you are spiritually sick. Had you been
> physically sick I would have sent you a doctor instead of Juliet."
> 
> __________
> 
> On 29 November, May Maxwell, Dorothea Spinney, and I were with the
> Master when Esther Foster came in. May, Miss Spinney, and I rose.
> 
> "All of you may stay," said the Master, "on the condition that
> Juliet doesn't cry."
> 
> I tried so hard after that to squeeze back the tears, but I
> couldn't. I wiped them away furtively as they trickled down one by
> one.
> 
> He kept us with Him an hour. Dorothea Spinney--an Englishwoman and
> a Theosophist--spoke of a vision she had had while meditating. She
> has seen a great globe of fire which she seemed to know was "the
> Centre of Peace".
> 
> "I should like to understand this," she said. "What, or Who is the
> Centre of Peace?"
> 
> The Master had been writing on a piece of parchment held in the
> palm of His hand. He continued to write, not looking up, leaving
> Miss Spinney's question in the air.
> 
> And all the time He glowed more and more, like the sun dispersing
> clouds, pulsing out with every breath intenser light.
> 
> "Look at His Face," I whispered to Miss Spinney, "and see the
> Centre of Peace."
> 
> By and by He spoke: "Excuse me for writing," He said, "it was very
> important. You asked me concerning visions. Sometimes the thought
> becomes abstracted, enters the World of Reality, and there makes
> discoveries."
> 
> Then He rose and began to pace up and down and discovered that I
> was crying.
> 
> "Oh my Lord," I cried, in a panic, "what are You going to do with
> me?"
> 
> "I am going to find a Mister for you," He laughed.
> 
> __________
> 
> Those last meetings in the Kinneys' house. Those divine talks of
> the Good Shepherd leaving His flock for a while: too tender, too
> sad for the heart to bear.[133]
> 
> One day, however, He was very stern. Holding the book of the Hidden
> Words in His hand, walking back and forth with that step which
> always makes me think of the prophecy, "Who is this that cometh
> from Bozrah, Who treadeth the wine-press in His fury?" lifting the
> Hidden Words high, He said: "Whosoever does not live up to these
> Words is not of Me."
> 
> __________
> 
> Mr Howard Colby Ives accepted the Cause in those days. Mrs Moore
> accepted. Touched to the core of their beings they would sit with
> streaming eyes in the meetings.
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha with the Kinney family in their home in
> New York.]
> 
> At last came the day before He sailed.
> 
> "May I stay in some corner of this house all day," I asked, "that
> I may breathe the same air with You this last day?"
> 
> "What does your mother say about it?"--laughing.
> 
> "She said I might."
> 
> "Very well."
> 
> In the afternoon He called me. He kept me in the room a long, long
> time, seeing many others while I sat there. When He had dismissed
> them all, He came close to me and took my hand.
> 
> "There is a matter," He said, "about which I want to speak to you.
> The photographs of the portrait you painted of Me, you have offered
> them for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. I know your circumstances, Juliet.
> You have not complained to Me, you have said nothing, but I know
> them. I know your affairs are in confusion, that you have debts,
> that you have that house, that you have to take care of your
> mother. Now I want you to keep the money" (for the photographs)
> "for yourself. No, no; do not feel unhappy," (as I began to cry)
> "this is best. You must do exactly as I say. I will speak about
> this Myself to the believers. I will tell them," He laughed, "that
> is it My command."
> 
> I thanked Him brokenly.
> 
> I can see Him now, pacing up and down the room in front of the line
> of Persians, who stood with bowed heads and folded arms in the
> Glory of His Presence, deeply aware of its Divineness.
> 
> Then Valiyu'llah spoke: "Juliet wants to know if You are pleased
> with her, or not?"
> 
> (I had spoken out my troubled heart to dear Valiyu'llah.)
> 
> "I am very much pleased with the love of Juliet," answered the
> Master.
> 
> My Lord, I pray that my life may please You."
> 
> "Insha'llah." And that was all!
> 
> "And that my services may become acceptable to You. I know I have
> not begun to serve You yet."
> 
> The Master said nothing.
> 
> But that night He healed my broken heart, healed it by a tone in
> His voice as He spoke to my mother, which was the essence of God's
> tenderness, a tone unimaginable to those who have only heard the
> human voice.
> 
> As Mamma approached Him to bid Him goodbye, He said: "Ah, the
> mother of Juliet; the mother of Julie!" (Mamma's pet name for me.)
> 
> "I can't bear to say goodbye," said Mamma.
> 
> "Insha'llah, I shall meet you in 'Akka, Mrs Thompson, and there I
> shall greet you with 'Welcome! Welcome!'"
> 
> This was on the night of 4 December.
> 
> He asked me to come to the Emerys' (where He had been staying for
> a few days) the morning of 5 December, the day of His sailing; and
> I was there at eight o'clock. That last morning. I stood at the
> door of His room, gazing in, my eyes drinking their fill, if they
> ever could drink their fill, of the Divine Figure as He sat, or
> stood, or moved about the room.
> 
> He called me in twice. The second time He took my hand. "Remember,"
> He said, "I am with you always. Baha'u'llah will be with you
> always."
> 
> Carrie Kinney was there that morning and Ned, and 'Ali Quli Khan
> and Florence, Edna Ballora and her husband, Harriet Magee, Mrs
> Parsons, and Mrs Hannen. The Master had invited Mamma too, but she
> had not felt well enough to go.
> 
> "Rest assured," He said when I told Him, "that she will be healed."
> And He filled my arms with fruit for her.
> 
> We drove to the boat, then followed Him up to His cabin. Many
> believers were crowding the cabin. Later we all went upstairs and
> sat in a large room with Him. Very soon He rose, and, walking up
> and down, delivered to us His last spoken message.[134]
> 
> First He described heartbreakingly the war now raging in the
> Balkans. Then He said: "As to you: your efforts must be lofty.
> Exert yourselves with heart and soul that perchance through your
> efforts the light of Universal Peace may shine and this darkness
> of estrangement and enmity may be dispelled from amongst men ...
> 
> "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 ...
> 
> "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 God's image and likeness. And unto this I call you, praying to
> God to strengthen and bless you."
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha leaving America on the Celtic from New
> York City.]
> 
> He seated Himself again in a corner of the large cabin, all the
> believers flocked around Him. I sat opposite Him at a little
> distance, weeping quietly. A great fear had taken possession of me,
> a question risen in my mind which must be answered or I should have
> no peace--I should be left in a frantic state. I rose and walked
> over to Him and stood before Him.
> 
> "My Lord," I said, "each time I have parted from You: in Haifa, in
> Europe, You have said You would call me again to You. Each time You
> gave me hope that I would see You again. But this time You gave me
> no hope. Won't I see You again, my Lord?"
> 
> "This is My hope," He replied.
> 
> "But still You don't tell me, my Lord, and it makes me feel
> hopeless."
> 
> "You must not feel hopeless."
> 
> This was all He said to me. It killed me. While I sat, weighed down
> with despair and grief, He drew from an inside pocket the purse Dr
> Grant had sent Him last summer, laid it on His knee and looked at
> me. To me it seemed a promise that He Himself would take care of
> Percy. And this was the very last.
> 
> It was death to leave that ship. I stood on the pier with May
> Maxwell, tears blurring my sight. Through them I could see the
> Master in the midst of the group of Persians waving a patient hand
> to us. It waved and waved, that beautiful patient hand, till the
> Figure was lost to sight.
> 
> [Photograph: 'Abdu'l-Baha--the last photo taken in America, 1912.]
> 
> (1947. Because of those blurring tears I could not see the look on
> His face, the look of profound agony, as though He were on the
> cross, as He bade His immature children farewell, foreseeing for
> us so many sorrows, so many failures, and a world gone to pieces
> because of our failures.
> 
> This look I have seen ever since in a photograph taken at that last
> moment.)
> 
> Diary of Juliet Thompson: Notes Chapter 4
> 
> Notes
> 
> [1] `Abdu'l-Baha.
> 
> [2] Holy Mother is the title of Munirih Khanum, the wife of
> `Abdu'l-Baha. Holy Leaves designates the women of Baha'u'llah's
> family.
> 
> [3] Mrs Carrie Kinney, a prominent Baha'i from New York.
> 
> [4] Dr Aminu'llah Farid (Ameen Ullah Fareed), nephew of
> `Abdu'l-Baha.
> 
> [5] Dr Farid's half brother. (p. 5.)
> 
> [6] Father of Dr Farid and brother-in-law of `Abdu'l-Baha. He was
> one of the Persian teachers sent to America by `Abdu'l-Baha at the
> turn of the century.
> 
> [7] Rector of the Church of the Ascension in New York. Juliet was,
> at this time, in love with him.
> 
> [8] Sister of `Abdu'l-Baha; the premier woman of the Baha'i
> Revelation.
> 
> [9] Baha'u'llah.
> 
> [10] Two of `Abdu'l-Baha's daughters.
> 
> [11] A Baha'i from Paris.
> 
> [12] An allusion to Rev. 5:5.
> 
> [13] See Luke 1:22
> 
> [14] Howard MacNutt, a leading Baha'i from Brooklyn.
> 
> [15] Íran was at this time in the midst of the Constitutional
> Revolution, 1906-1911. Eventually, the country was divided into two
> spheres of influence: Russia took the north, and Great Britain the
> south.
> 
> [16] Cf. Rev. 21:4, Isa. 25:8.
> 
> [17] Cf. John 3:8.
> 
> [18] Lua Getsinger; one of the first American Baha'is; the "Mother
> Teacher of the West."
> 
> [19] Mrs Ellen Beecher, grandmother of Hand of the Cause Dorothy
> Baker.
> 
> [20] Mrs Agnes Parsons, a prominent believer from Washington, D.C.
> 
> [21] A Persian Baha'i living in New York.
> 
> [22] Mrs Mabel Rice Wray Ives, a Baha'i from Newark, N.J.
> 
> [23] Cf. Mark 10:24.
> 
> [24] Matt. 10.8.
> 
> [25] Matt. 13:27.
> 
> [26] This had taken place on 27 April 1909.
> 
> [27] The Shrine of Baha'u'llah.
> 
> [28] NOTE: A discrepancy exists in the various manuscripts of
> Juliet Thompson's diary concerning the identities of the children
> from the East mentioned here.
> 
> [29] John 10:16.
> 
> [30] Leaders of Muslim orders.
> 
> [31] This I have written from memory with the help of Munavvar
> Khanum, so it is not so strong as when the master gave it.--J.T.
> 
> [32] Cf. Matt. 19:14, Mark 10:14, and Luke 18:16.
> 
> [33] That day (the third of July) we had been to the House of the
> Blessed Perfection in `Akka. It is a palace, spacious, stately, but
> it has not the charm of the Master's House. In the room of the
> Blessed Perfection was a marvellous atmosphere. I felt intense
> vibrations, currents of Life. When we left, X leaned her head
> against the door.--J.T.
> 
> [34] Ibrahim George Khayru'llah (Kheiralla)--The believer who first
> brought the Baha'i Faith to America. He later rebelled against
> `Abdu'l-Baha and broke the Covenant.
> 
> [35] Cf. Luke 18:9-14.
> 
> [36] That is, Howard MacNutt, Hooper Harris, and William Hoar. This
> refers to disputes involving these believers which took place in
> the New York Baha'i Community.
> 
> [37] The early name of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of New
> York.
> 
> [38] See God Passes By, pp. 269-71.
> 
> [39] Isa. 53:5, 1 Pet. 2:24.
> 
> [40] Mrs Louise Gibbons, a Baha'i from New York.
> 
> [41] Rev. O. M. Fischer, an Episcopal clergyman who was also a
> Baha'i in New York.
> 
> [42] Mr Albert Windust, a Baha'i from Chicago.
> 
> [43] Tahirih, Babi heroine and Letter of the Living.
> 
> [44] A musical term: an altered note (such as a sharp or flat)
> foreign to the key indicated by the signature.
> 
> [45] Mr Sidney Sprague, a prominent American Baha'i and travelling
> teacher.
> 
> [46] In 1893 Rev. Grant had become rector of the New York Church
> of the Ascension, long the stronghold of fashionable, orthodox
> Episcopalians, but now with a dwindling congregation in a declining
> neighbourhood. His sweeping innovations were successful, but
> controversial: pews were no longer private property, but opened to
> the public; sermons were preached on issues of the day; new
> afternoon musical services attracted hundreds; Sunday evenings, the
> People's Forum debated political and economic questions, often
> until midnight. Grant became the militant leader of the radical
> wing of the city's clergy.
> 
> [47] An oral tradition of the teachings of Muhammad.
> 
> [48] The intent of this tradition is, of course, metaphorical. The
> Baha'i Faith rejects the doctrine of Divine incarnation. The
> Guardian of the Baha'i Faith states: "God ... can in no wise
> incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible and
> all-embracing Reality in the concrete and limited frame of a mortal
> being. Indeed, the God Who could so incarnate His own reality
> would, in the light of the teachings of Baha'u'llah, cease
> immediately to be God." (World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 112)
> 
> [49] At this time, large numbers of people were becoming Baha'is
> in Íran.
> 
> [50] The Ridvan Garden, a short distance from `Akka, was one of
> Baha'u'llah's favourite resting places.
> 
> [51] Some Answered Questions.
> 
> [52] The Baha'i Proofs.
> 
> [53] Many of the early American Baha'is believed that `Abdu'l-Baha
> was the Return of Christ, despite His many denials. In one Tablet
> `Abdu'l-Baha wrote: "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-Baha, that what is meant in the prophecies by the
> `Lord of Hosts' and the `Promised Christ' is the Blessed Perfection
> (Baha'u'llah) and His holiness ... (the Bab). My name is
> `Abdu'l-Baha. My qualification is `Abdu'l-Baha. My reality is
> `Abdu'l-Baha. My praise is `Abdu'l-Baha. 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-Baha." (World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 139)
> 
> [54] The passage in the Aqdas reads: "Let nothing grieve thee, O
> Land of Ta [Tihran] ... Ere long will the state of affairs within
> thee be changed, and the reins of power fall into the hands of the
> people." (The Kitab-i-Aqdas, paras 91 and 93, pp. 53, 53)
> 
> [55] 1936. There seems no reason to conceal it now. He gave me a
> cylinder of gold louis, so that I might be able to return.--J.T.
> 
> The Louis d'or was a gold twenty franc piece, at the time worth
> slightly more than five US dollars.--ED.
> 
> [56] Haji Mirza Haydar-`Ali, an early believer and champion teacher
> of the Cause in Íran, was known to Western pilgrims as the "Angel
> of Carmel". See A. Q. Faizi, Stories from the Delight of Hearts.
> 
> [57] Cf. Mark 14:3.
> 
> [58] "There is no room in my heart for any but Thee," I said to Him
> once. "I want you to be like that," He answered, "to be filled with
> the Love of God, to be entirely cut from the world and always to
> hold to My garment."--J.T.
> 
> [59] When He is speaking, His mouth has an upward turn at the
> comers, which gives Him that divine, smiling expression. --J.T.
> 
> [60] Cf. Matt. 13:8 and Luke 8:8.
> 
> [61] Cf. Isa. 66:1.
> 
> [62] Isa. 52:7.
> 
> [63] In the Arab and Muslim city of `Akka, women were obliged to
> remain indoors.
> 
> [64] Rev. 16:15, 1 Thess. 5:2. See also Matt. 24:43 and Luke 12:39.
> 
> [65] Rev. 1:12.
> 
> [66] This time my heart is more sensitive. His voice pierces and
> wrings it. Every note of that voice makes my heart quiver.--J.T.
> 
> [67] Dr Yunis Khan Afrukhtih, who served `Abdu'l-Baha in Haifa from
> 1900 to 1909; Mirza Badi'u'llah, half brother of `Abdu'l-Baha; and
> Mirza Munir-i Zayn, son of the famous Baha'i scribe
> Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin.
> 
> [68] While I was walking with Ruha the day before on Mount Cannel,
> as we sat on a fallen tree to rest, she had broached the subject
> of my marrying Mason Remey. Our Lord had told her to ask me about
> it. "You are treating Juliet like one of Your own daughters who
> were married in this way," Ruha had said. "It is too strong a test
> for her." "Just ask her and see what she says," our Lord had
> repeated. "But," added Ruha to me, "if the Master should command
> me now: `Go, leave your husband and children and jump into the
> sea,' I would go and jump!"--J.T.
> 
> [69] Mirza Mihdi, the Purest Branch, the youngest son of
> Baha'u'llah and His consort Navvab (Ásiyyih Khanum died after an
> accidental fall from the roof of the prison in `Akka. See God
> Passes By, pp. 188-89.
> 
> [70] The cylinder of gold louis the Master had given me so that I
> might return to Him.--J.T.
> 
> [71] Cf. Matt. 10:14, Mark 6:11, and Luke 9:5.
> 
> [72] Ahmad Sohrab, who had lived in the United States, but was at
> this time residing in Egypt.
> 
> [73] Professor Dickinson Miller, educator and philosopher; then a
> professor at Columbia University.
> 
> [74] Matt. 5:13, Luke 14:34.
> 
> [75] Disputes had developed in New York between Mr MacNutt and
> other prominent Baha'is. It became the general opinion that
> MacNutt's teaching of the Faith was incorrect in some aspects.--ED.
> 
> [76] Enlarging the Board from nine to nineteen members.--J.T.
> 
> [77] He said "see them again." Ten years ago, in 1926, I went--and
> saw them, and the beloved Guardian. But the Master was not
> there.--J.T.
> 
> [78] During the First World War, Hippolyte, then in the army,
> guarded a bridge!--J. T.
> 
> [79] 1947. When I saw Laura this year I said: "Remember Thonon!"
> "The waterfall," she answered.--J.T.
> 
> [80] Edith Sanderson, a Baha'i from Paris, and her mother.
> 
> [81] The X of the Thonon diary is not the X of the `Akka diary, but
> somebody else who must remain incognito.--J.T.
> 
> This X is Annie Boylan.--ED.
> 
> [82] See Gen. 18:32.
> 
> [83] "He has such a good, such a simple bearing." "Yes, and eyes
> of fire!"
> 
> [84] Apparently, either May Maxwell or Marjorie Morton.
> 
> [85] 1924. Lilian died serving in Persia.--J.T.
> 
> 1947. Some years later Elizabeth also died from an illness
> contracted there.--J.T.
> 
> [86] Sultan Husayn Mirza; grandson of Nasiri'd-Din Shah.--Ed.
> 
> [87] 1947. Years later I heard that he had been born again--a
> Baha'i--and was serving the Cause with great zeal in Persia. His
> poor young brother, Prince Bahram, died in the First World War, on
> a torpedoed ship.--J.T.
> 
> [88] Juliet was, at this time, a member of the Church of the
> Ascension. It was not until much later that the Guardian of the
> Faith instructed the Baha'is of the United States to sever formal
> affiliations with churches. See Messages to America, pp. 4-5.
> 
> [89] Cf. Star of the West, III:3 (1912) p. 4.
> 
> [90] Ahmad Sohrab, now part of `Abdu'l-Baha's entourage.
> 
> [91] 1947. In the years that followed she would often say to me:
> "I love the Master more than you do, Julie, and I obey Him better
> than you do, for He performed a miracle for me, which He never did
> for you! He took all the bitterness out of my heart."
> 
> There was another occasion, which I find I haven't mentioned in my
> diary, when my darling little mother knelt before the Master. This
> was a public occasion, after He had spoken in a church. The service
> over, the whole congregation, including a multitude of believers,
> surged toward the chancel to shake hands with Him. Mamma was the
> only one in that long procession who sank to her knees and kissed
> his hand.--J.T.
> 
> [92] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 7-9.
> 
> [93] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 9-11.
> 
> [94] A follower of the economic philosophy of Henry George who
> advocated a single tax on profits from the sale of land.
> 
> [95] An allusion to the Last Supper. See Mark 14:15 and Luke 22:12.
> 
> [96] Cf. The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 11-13.
> 
> [97] Cf. Some Early Baha'is of the West, p. 78.
> 
> [98] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 14-16.
> 
> [99] At the time, equal to about two-hundred-fifty dollars.
> 
> [100] This baby was Mary Maxwell, later Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih
> Khanum.
> 
> [101] 1947. This was fulfilled years after, but by that time my
> heart was severed; and to my everlasting shame, I was cruel to
> him.--J.T.
> 
> [102] Cf. The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 32-34.
> 
> [103] Dr Farid, within the year, turned traitor.--J.T.
> 
> [104] `Ali Quli Khan, the Chargé d'Affaires for the Persian
> Legation.
> 
> [105] See The Baha'i World, Vol. 12, p. 668.
> 
> [106] The wife of `Ali Quli Khan.
> 
> [107] Senator Stephen Benton Elkins; died 4 January 1911.
> 
> [108] Mrs Barney Hemmick, a Baha'i from Washington, D.C.
> 
> [109] Mr MacClung died soon afterward.--J.T.
> 
> [110] At 227 Riverside Drive, New York.--ED.
> 
> [111] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 123-26.
> 
> [112] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 126-29.
> 
> [113] In December of that same year, Mrs Tatum came to see me. "The
> Master," told me, "said such a strange thing to me just before He
> left America. I had been saying how sorry I was that I had left my
> car in Boston and couldn't put it at His disposal as I had done
> last spring. He answered: `Soon, Mrs Tatum, you will not need your
> car, for you will be riding in a chariot of fire.' I wonder,
> Juliet, what He meant by that!" Within a few weeks, dear Mrs Tatum
> died suddenly.--J.T.
> 
> [114] Louis Potter, one of the best-known sculptors in this
> country, also died in 1912, in August, very tragically. Even after
> seeing the Master and really loving Him, he was still seeking truth
> in other directions. He went out to California to follow a
> spiritual quack, whose methods of healing killed poor Louis. The
> last thing from his gifted hand was [a] beautiful medal with the
> Master's profile on it.--J.T.
> 
> [115] Baha'is to not believe that `Abdu'l-Baha is a Prophet of God,
> although this was a widespread notion at this time. The prophets
> of the Baha'i Faith are Baha'u'llah and the Bab.
> 
> [116] Mount Morris Baptist Church. See The Promulgation of
> Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp. 147-50.
> 
> [117] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 163-71.
> 
> 118 After this, Walter Hampton came to the Master every day--he
> never missed a day--till our Lord went to Dublin [New
> Hampshire].--J.T.
> 
> [119] The famous conservationist.
> 
> [120] See Mark 10:17-22 and Luke 18:18-23.
> 
> [121] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 213-16.
> 
> [122] We never dreamed how soon He would be with her there.--J.T.
> 
> `Abdu'l-Baha journeyed to California, arriving in San Francisco on
> 1 October 1912. Lua made the arrangements for his visit.--ED.
> 
> [123] 1947. There may have been two meanings to that visit to the
> Museum and the second meaning I could not have thought of till
> 1940, when I became so deeply involved in the Baha'i work in Mexico
> and completely at one in heart and spirit with the believers
> there.--J.T.
> 
> [124] 1947. He died of his humiliations which were more than human
> flesh could bear. And in the end he would weep and say to a friend,
> who told me afterward, "Do you think we did all we could have done
> for the Master?" He tried his best to communicate with me, but fate
> had made me inaccessible. "I must write to Juliet," he said. "There
> is something I must tell her." I have never known what this
> was.--J.T.
> 
> Dr Grant was eventually publicly disgraced and forced to resign his
> position in the Church of the Ascension. He retired to his country
> home and died less than three years later.--ED.
> 
> [125] 1947. Just after the Master ascended, dear Mrs Goodall died
> and Ella sent the rosary back to me. Several years later I gave it
> to Romeyn Benjamin. It played a miraculous part in his life and
> when he died, eight years ago, again it came back to me.--J.T.
> 
> [126] In exactly a month, to the day, He saw me in Green Acre,
> where Mamma and I were His guests for four days.--J.T.
> 
> [127] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 431-37.
> 
> [128] The Miss X of this and the Thonon diary.
> 
> [129] See announcement of their engagement, Baha'i News (later Star
> of the West), I:9 (1910), p. 11.
> 
> [130] The extension room on the second floor of 48 West Tenth
> Street, now divided into two rooms.--J.T.
> 
> [131] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 447-48.
> 
> [132] See Baha'i World Faith, pp. 204-207.
> 
> [133] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 449-56, 460-61.
> 
> [134] See The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Second Edition, pp.
> 469-70.
> 
> 
>
> — *The Diary of Juliet Thompson*