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Chapter XIX:  `Abdu'l-Bahá's Travels in Europe and America
 
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     The establishment of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the Western 
Hemisphere--the most outstanding achievement that will forever 
be associated with `Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry--had, as observed in the 
preceding pages, set in motion such tremendous forces, and been 
productive of such far-reaching results, as to warrant the active and 
personal participation of the Center of the Covenant Himself in those 
epoch-making activities which His Western disciples had, through 
the propelling power of that Covenant, boldly initiated and were 
vigorously prosecuting.  
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     The crisis which the blindness and perversity of the Covenant-breakers 
had precipitated, and which, for several years, had so 
tragically interfered with the execution of `Abdu'l-Bahá's purpose, 
was now providentially resolved.  An unsurmountable barrier had 
been suddenly lifted from His path, His fetters were unlocked, and 
God's avenging wrath had taken the chains from His neck and 
placed them upon that of `Abdu'l-Hamíd, His royal adversary and 
the dupe of His most implacable enemy.  The sacred remains of the 
Báb, entrusted to His hands by His departed Father, had, moreover, 
with immense difficulty been transferred from their hiding-place in 
far-off Tihrán to the Holy Land, and deposited ceremoniously and 
reverently by Him in the bosom of Mt. Carmel.  
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     `Abdu'l-Bahá was at this time broken in health.  He suffered from 
several maladies brought on by the strains and stresses of a tragic 
life spent almost wholly in exile and imprisonment.  He was on the 
threshold of three-score years and ten.  Yet as soon as He was released 
from His forty-year long captivity, as soon as He had laid the Báb's 
body in a safe and permanent resting-place, and His mind was free 
of grievous anxieties connected with the execution of that priceless 
Trust, He arose with sublime courage, confidence and resolution to 
consecrate what little strength remained to Him, in the evening of 
His life, to a service of such heroic proportions that no parallel to it 
is to be found in the annals of the first Bahá'í century.  
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     Indeed His three years of travel, first to Egypt, then to Europe 
and later to America, mark, if we would correctly appraise their 
historic importance, a turning point of the utmost significance in 
 
the history of the century.  For the first time since the inception of 
the Faith, sixty-six years previously, its Head and supreme Representative 
burst asunder the shackles which had throughout the ministries 
of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh so grievously fettered its 
freedom.  Though repressive measures still continued to circumscribe 
the activities of the vast majority of its adherents in the land of its 
birth, its recognized Leader was now vouchsafed a freedom of action 
which, with the exception of a brief interval in the course of the War 
of 1914-18, He was to continue to enjoy to the end of His life, 
and which has never since been withdrawn from its institutions at 
its world center.  
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     So momentous a change in the fortunes of the Faith was the 
signal for such an outburst of activity on His part as to dumbfound 
His followers in East and West with admiration and wonder, and 
exercise an imperishable influence on the course of its future history.  
He Who, in His own words, had entered prison as a youth and left it 
an old man, Who never in His life had faced a public audience, had 
attended no school, had never moved in Western circles, and was 
unfamiliar with Western customs and language, had arisen not only 
to proclaim from pulpit and platform, in some of the chief capitals 
of Europe and in the leading cities of the North American continent, 
the distinctive verities enshrined in His Father's Faith, but to demonstrate 
as well the Divine origin of the Prophets gone before Him, and 
to disclose the nature of the tie binding them to that Faith.  
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     Inflexibly resolved to undertake this arduous voyage, at whatever 
cost to His strength, at whatever risk to His life, He, quietly and 
without any previous warning, on a September afternoon, of the 
year 1910, the year following that which witnessed the downfall of 
Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd and the formal entombment of the Báb's 
remains on Mt. Carmel, sailed for Egypt, sojourned for about a 
month in Port Said, and from thence embarked with the intention 
of proceeding to Europe, only to discover that the condition of His 
health necessitated His landing again at Alexandria and postponing 
His voyage.  Fixing His residence in Ramleh, a suburb of Alexandria, 
and later visiting Zaytún and Cairo, He, on August 11 of the ensuing 
year, sailed with a party of four, on the S.S. Corsica, for Marseilles, 
and proceeded, after a brief stop at Thonon-les-Bains, to London, 
where He arrived on September 4, 1911.  After a visit of about a 
month, He went to Paris, where He stayed for a period of nine weeks, 
returning to Egypt in December, 1911.  Again taking up His residence 
in Ramleh, where He passed the winter, He embarked, on 
 
His second journey to the West, on the steamship Cedric, on 
March 25, 1912, sailing via Naples direct to New York where He 
arrived on April 11.  After a prolonged tour of eight months' duration, 
which carried Him from coast to coast, and in the course of 
which He visited Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, 
Montclair, Boston, Worcester, Brooklyn, Fanwood, Milford, Philadelphia, 
West Englewood, Jersey City, Cambridge, Medford, Morristown, 
Dublin, Green Acre, Montreal, Malden, Buffalo, Kenosha, 
Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha, Lincoln, Denver, Glenwood Springs, 
Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Oakland, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Pasadena, 
Los Angeles, Sacramento, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, He sailed, 
on the S.S. Celtic, on December 5, from New York for Liverpool; 
and landing there He proceeded by train to London.  Later He 
visited Oxford, Edinburgh and Bristol, and thence returning to 
London, left for Paris on January 21, 1913.  On March 30 He 
traveled to Stuttgart, and from there proceeded, on April 9, to Budapest, 
visited Vienna nine days later, returned to Stuttgart on April 25, 
and to Paris on May first, where He remained until June 12, sailing 
the following day, on the S.S. Himalaya from Marseilles bound for 
Egypt, arriving in Port Said four days later, where after short visits 
to Ismá'ílíyyih and Abúqir, and a prolonged stay in Ramleh, He 
returned to Haifa, concluding His historic journeys on December 
5, 1913.  
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     It was in the course of these epoch-making journeys and before 
large and representative audiences, at times exceeding a thousand 
people, that `Abdu'l-Bahá expounded, with brilliant simplicity, with 
persuasiveness and force, and for the first time in His ministry, those 
basic and distinguishing principles of His Father's Faith, which together 
with the laws and ordinances revealed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas 
constitute the bed-rock of God's latest Revelation to mankind.  The 
independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition; 
the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and 
fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; 
the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, 
class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and 
science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which 
the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory 
education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; 
the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution 
of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; 
the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank 
 
of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in 
human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all 
peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal 
peace as the supreme goal of all mankind--these stand out as 
the essential elements of that Divine polity which He proclaimed to 
leaders of public thought as well as to the masses at large in the course 
of these missionary journeys.  The exposition of these vitalizing truths 
of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, which He characterized as the "spirit of 
the age," He supplemented with grave and reiterated warnings of an 
impending conflagration which, if the statesmen of the world should 
fail to avert, would set ablaze the entire continent of Europe.  He, 
moreover, predicted, in the course of these travels, the radical changes 
which would take place in that continent, foreshadowed the movement 
of the decentralization of political power which would inevitably 
be set in motion, alluded to the troubles that would overtake 
Turkey, anticipated the persecution of the Jews on the European 
continent, and categorically asserted that the "banner of the unity of 
mankind would be hoisted, that the tabernacle of universal peace 
would be raised and the world become another world."  
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     During these travels `Abdu'l-Bahá displayed a vitality, a courage, 
a single-mindedness, a consecration to the task He had set Himself to 
achieve that excited the wonder and admiration of those who had the 
privilege of observing at close hand His daily acts.  Indifferent to the 
sights and curiosities which habitually invite the attention of travelers 
and which the members of His entourage often wished Him to visit; 
careless alike of His comfort and His health; expending every ounce 
of His energy day after day from dawn till late at night; consistently 
refusing any gifts or contributions towards the expenses of His 
travels; unfailing in His solicitude for the sick, the sorrowful and 
the down-trodden; uncompromising in His championship of the 
underprivileged races and classes; bountiful as the rain in His generosity 
to the poor; contemptuous of the attacks launched against 
Him by vigilant and fanatical exponents of orthodoxy and sectarianism; 
marvelous in His frankness while demonstrating, from 
platform and pulpit, the prophetic Mission of Jesus Christ to the 
Jews, of the Divine origin of Islám in churches and synagogues, or 
the truth of Divine Revelation and the necessity of religion to 
materialists, atheists or agnostics; unequivocal in His glorification of 
Bahá'u'lláh at all times and within the sanctuaries of divers sects and 
denominations; adamant in His refusal, on several occasions, to curry 
the favor of people of title and wealth both in England and in the 
 
United States; and last but not least incomparable in the spontaneity, 
the genuineness and warmth of His sympathy and loving-kindness 
shown to friend and stranger alike, believer and unbeliever, rich 
and poor, high and low, whom He met, either intimately or casually, 
whether on board ship, or whilst pacing the streets, in parks or public 
squares, at receptions or banquets, in slums or mansions, in the 
gatherings of His followers or the assemblage of the learned, He, 
the incarnation of every Bahá'í virtue and the embodiment of every 
Bahá'í ideal, continued for three crowded years to trumpet to a world 
sunk in materialism and already in the shadow of war, the healing, the 
God-given truths enshrined in His Father's Revelation.  
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     In the course of His several visits to Egypt He had more than 
one interview with the Khedive, Abbás Hilmí Páshá II, was introduced 
to Lord Kitchener, met the Muftí, Shaykh Muhammad Bakhit, 
as well as the Khedive's Imám, Shaykh Muhammad Rashíd, and associated 
with several `ulamás, páshás, Persian notables, members of the 
Turkish Parliament, editors of leading newspapers in Cairo and 
Alexandria, and other leaders and representatives of well-known 
institutions, both religious and secular.  
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     Whilst He sojourned in England the house placed at His disposal 
in Cadogan Gardens became a veritable mecca to all sorts and conditions 
of men, thronging to visit the Prisoner of Akká Who had 
chosen their great city as the first scene of His labors in the West.  
"O, these pilgrims, these guests, these visitors!" thus bears witness 
His devoted hostess during the time He spent in London, "Remembering 
those days, our ears are filled with the sound of their footsteps
--as they came from every country in the world.  Every day, all day 
long, a constant stream, an interminable procession!  Ministers and 
missionaries, oriental scholars and occult students, practical men of 
affairs and mystics, Anglicans, Catholics, and Non-conformists, 
Theosophists and Hindus, Christian Scientists and doctors of medicine, 
Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians.  There also called:  politicians, 
Salvation Army soldiers, and other workers for human good, 
women suffragists, journalists, writers, poets and healers, dressmakers 
and great ladies, artists and artisans, poor workless people and 
prosperous merchants, members of the dramatic and musical world, 
these all came; and none were too lowly, nor too great, to receive the 
sympathetic consideration of this holy Messenger, Who was ever 
giving His life for others' good."  
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     `Abdu'l-Bahá's first public appearance before a western audience 
significantly enough took place in a Christian house of worship, when, 
 
on September 10, 1911, He addressed an overflowing congregation 
from the pulpit of the City Temple.  Introduced by the Pastor, the 
Reverend R. J. Campbell, He, in simple and moving language, and 
with vibrant voice, proclaimed the unity of God, affirmed the fundamental 
oneness of religion, and announced that the hour of the unity 
of the sons of men, of all races, religions and classes had struck.  On 
another occasion, on September 17, at the request of the Venerable 
Archdeacon Wilberforce, He addressed the congregation of St. John 
the Divine, at Westminster, after evening service, choosing as His 
theme the transcendental greatness of the Godhead, as affirmed and 
elucidated by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Íqán.  "The Archdeacon," 
wrote a contemporary of that event, "had the Bishop's chair placed 
for his Guest on the chancel steps, and, standing beside Him, read 
the translation of `Abdu'l-Bahá's address himself.  The congregation 
was profoundly moved, and, following the Archdeacon's example, 
knelt to receive the blessing of the Servant of God--Who stood with 
extended arms--His wonderful voice rising and falling in the silence 
with the power of His invocation."  
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     At the invitation of the Lord Mayor of London He breakfasted 
with him at the Mansion House; addressed the Theosophical Society 
at their headquarters, at the express request of their President, and 
also a Meeting of the Higher Thought center in London; was invited 
by a deputation from the Bramo-Somaj Society to deliver a lecture 
under their auspices; visited and delivered an address on world unity 
at the Mosque at Woking, at the invitation of the Muslim Community 
of Great Britain, and was entertained by Persian princes, 
noblemen, ex-ministers and members of the Persian Legation in London.  
He stayed as a guest in Dr. T. K. Cheyne's home in Oxford, and 
He delivered an address to "a large and deeply interested audience," 
highly academic in character, gathered at Manchester College in that 
city, and presided over by Dr. Estlin Carpenter.  He also spoke from 
the pulpit of a Congregational Church in the East End of London, 
in response to the request of its Pastor; addressed gatherings in Caxton 
Hall and Westminster Hall, the latter under the chairmanship of Sir 
Thomas Berkeley, and witnessed a performance of "Eager Heart," 
a Christmas mystery play at the Church House, Westminster, the first 
dramatic performance He had ever beheld, and which in its graphic 
depiction of the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ moved Him to 
tears.  In the Hall of the Passmore Edwards' Settlement, in Tavistock 
Place, he spoke to an audience of about four hundred and sixty 
representative people, presided over by Prof. Michael Sadler, called on 
 
a number of working women of that Settlement, who were on holiday 
at Vanners', in Byfleet, some twenty miles out of London, and paid 
a second visit there, meeting on that occasion people of every condition 
who had specially gathered to see Him, among whom were "the 
clergy of several denominations, a headmaster of a boys' public school, 
a member of Parliament, a doctor, a famous political writer, the 
vice-chancellor of a university, several journalists, a well-known poet, 
and a magistrate from London."  "He will long be remembered," 
wrote a chronicler of His visit to England, describing that occasion, 
"as He sat in the bow window in the afternoon sunshine, His arm 
round a very ragged but very happy little boy who had come to ask 
`Abdu'l-Bahá for sixpence for his money box and for his invalid 
mother, whilst round Him in the room were gathered men and 
women discussing Education, Socialism, the first Reform Bill, and the 
relation of submarines and wireless telegraphy to the new era on 
which man is entering."  
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     Among those who called on Him during the memorable days He 
spent in England and Scotland were the Reverend Archdeacon Wilberforce, 
the Reverend R. J. Campbell, the Reverend Rhonddha 
Williams, the Reverend Roland Corbet, Lord Lamington, Sir Richard 
and Lady Stapley, Sir Michael Sadler, the Jalálu'd-Dawlih, son of the 
Zillu's-Sultan, Sir Ameer Ali, the late Maharaja of Jalawar, who paid 
Him many visits and gave an elaborate dinner and reception in His 
honor, the Maharaja of Rajputana, the Ranee of Sarawak, Princess 
Karadja, Baroness Barnekov, Lady Wemyss and her sister, Lady Glencomer, 
Lady Agnew, Miss Constance Maud, Prof. E. G. Browne, 
Prof. Patrick Geddes, Mr. Albert Dawson, editor of the Christian 
Commonwealth, Mr. David Graham Pole, Mrs. Annie Besant, Mrs. 
Pankhurst, and Mr. Stead, who had long and earnest conversations 
with Him.  "Very numerous," His hostess, describing the impression 
produced on those who were accorded by Him the privilege of a 
private audience, has written, "were these applicants for so unique an 
experience, how unique only those knew when in the presence of the 
Master, and we could partly divine, as we saw the look on their faces 
as they emerged--a look as though blended of awe, of marveling, 
and of a certain calm joy.  Sometimes we were conscious of reluctance 
in them to come forth into the outer world, as though they would 
hold fast to their beatitude, lest the return of things of earth should 
wrest it from them."  "A profound impression," the aforementioned 
chronicler has recorded, summing up the results produced by that 
memorable visit, "remained in the minds and memories of all sorts 
 
and conditions of men and women....  Very greatly was `Abdu'l-Bahá's 
sojourn in London appreciated; very greatly His departure 
regretted.  He left behind Him many, many friends.  His love had 
kindled love.  His heart had opened to the West, and the Western 
heart had closed around this patriarchal presence from the East.  His 
words had in them something that appealed not only to their immediate 
hearers, but to men and women generally."  
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     His visits to Paris, where for a time He occupied an apartment 
in the Avenue de Camoens, were marked by a warmth of welcome 
no less remarkable than the reception accorded Him by His friends 
and followers in London.  "During the Paris visit," that same devoted 
English hostess, Lady Blomfield, who had followed Him to that city, 
has testified, "as it had been in London, daily happenings took on 
the atmosphere of spiritual events....  Every morning, according to 
His custom, the Master expounded the principles of the teaching of 
Bahá'u'lláh to those who gathered round Him, the learned and the 
unlearned, eager and respectful.  They were of all nationalities and 
creeds, from the East and from the West, including Theosophists, 
agnostics, materialists, spiritualists, Christian Scientists, social reformers, 
Hindus, Sufis, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and many 
others."  And again:  "Interview followed interview.  Church dignitaries 
of various branches of the Christian Tree came, some earnestly 
desirous of finding new aspects of the Truth....  Others there were 
who stopped their ears, lest they should hear and understand."  
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     Persian princes, noblemen and ex-ministers, among them the 
Zillu's-Sultan, the Persian Minister, the Turkish Ambassador in Paris, 
Rashíd Páshá, an ex-valí of Beirut, Turkish páshás and ex-ministers, 
and Viscount Arawaka, Japanese Ambassador to the Court of Spain, 
were among those who had the privilege of attaining His presence.  
Gatherings of Esperantists and Theosophists, students of the Faculty 
of Theology and large audiences at l'Alliance Spiritualiste were addressed 
by Him; at a Mission Hall, in a very poor quarter of the city, 
He addressed a congregation at the invitation of the Pastor, whilst 
in numerous meetings of His followers those already familiar with 
His teachings were privileged to hear from His lips detailed and 
frequent expositions of certain aspects of His Father's Faith.  
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     In Stuttgart, where He made a brief but never-to-be-forgotten 
stay, and to which He traveled in spite of ill-health in order to establish 
personal contact with the members of the community of His 
enthusiastic and dearly beloved German friends, He, apart from 
attending the gatherings of His devoted followers, bestowed His 
 
abundant blessings on the members of the Youth group, gathered at 
Esslingen, and addressed, at the invitation of Professor Christale, 
President of the Esperantists of Europe, a large meeting of Esperantists 
at their club.  He, moreover, visited Bad Mergentheim, in 
Württemberg, where a few years later (1915) a monument was 
erected in memory of His visit by one of His grateful disciples.  "The 
humility, love and devotion of the German believers," wrote an eyewitness, 
"rejoiced the heart of `Abdu'l-Bahá, and they received His 
blessings and His words of encouraging counsel in complete submissiveness.  
...Friends came from far and near to see the Master.  There 
was a constant flow of visitors at the Hotel Marquart.  There `Abdu'l-Bahá 
received them with such love and graciousness that they became 
radiant with joy and happiness."  
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     In Vienna, where He stayed a few days, `Abdu'l-Bahá addressed 
a gathering of Theosophists in that city, whilst in Budapest He 
granted an interview to the President of the University, met on a 
number of occasions the famous Orientalist Prof. Arminius Vambery, 
addressed the Theosophical Society, and was visited by the 
President of the Turanian, and representatives of the Turkish Societies, 
army officers, several members of Parliament, and a deputation 
of Young Turks, led by Prof. Julius Germanus, who accorded Him 
a hearty welcome to the city.  "During this time," is the written 
testimony of Dr. Rusztem Vambery, "His (`Abdu'l-Bahá) room in 
the Dunapalota Hotel became a veritable mecca for all those whom 
the mysticism of the East and the wisdom of its Master attracted into 
its magic circle.  Among His visitors were Count Albert Apponyi, 
Prelate Alexander Giesswein, Professor Ignatius Goldziher, the Orientalist 
of world-wide renown, Professor Robert A. Nadler, the famous 
Budapest painter, and leader of the Hungarian Theosophical Society."  
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     It was reserved, however, for the North American continent to 
witness the most astonishing manifestation of the boundless vitality 
`Abdu'l-Bahá exhibited in the course of these journeys.  The remarkable 
progress achieved by the organized community of His followers 
in the United States and Canada, the marked receptivity of the American 
public to His Message, as well as His consciousness of the high 
destiny awaiting the people of that continent, fully warranted the 
expenditure of time and energy which he devoted to this most important 
phase of His travels.  A visit which entailed a journey of 
over five thousand miles, which lasted from April to December, which 
carried Him from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and back, which 
elicited discourses of such number as to fill no less than three volumes, 
 
was to mark the climax of those journeys, and was fully justified 
by the far-reaching results which He well knew such labors on His 
part would produce.  "This long voyage," He told His assembled followers 
on the occasion of His first meeting with them in New York, 
"will prove how great is My love for you.  There were many troubles 
and vicissitudes, but in the thought of meeting you, all these things 
vanished and were forgotten."  
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     The character of the acts He performed fully demonstrated the 
importance He attached to that visit.  The laying, with His own 
hands, of the dedication stone of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, by the 
shore of Lake Michigan, in the vicinity of Chicago, on the recently 
purchased property, and in the presence of a representative gathering 
of Bahá'ís from East and West; the dynamic affirmation by Him 
of the implications of the Covenant instituted by Bahá'u'lláh, following 
the reading of the newly translated Tablet of the Branch, in 
a general assembly of His followers in New York, designated henceforth 
as the "City of the Covenant"; the moving ceremony in Inglewood, 
California, marking His special pilgrimage to the grave of 
Thornton Chase, the "first American believer," and indeed the first 
to embrace the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh in the Western world; the 
symbolic Feast He Himself offered to a large gathering of His disciples 
assembled in the open air, and in the green setting of a June day at 
West Englewood, in New Jersey; the blessing He bestowed on the 
Open Forum at Green Acre, in Maine, on the banks of the Piscataqua 
River, where many of His followers had gathered, and which was to 
evolve into one of the first Bahá'í summer schools of the Western 
Hemisphere and be recognized as one of the earliest endowments 
established in the American continent; His address to an audience 
of several hundred attending the last session of the newly-founded 
Bahá'í Temple Unity held in Chicago; and, last but not least, the 
exemplary act He performed by uniting in wedlock two of His followers 
of different nationalities, one of the white, the other of the 
Negro race--these must rank among the outstanding functions associated 
with His visit to the community of the American believers, 
functions designed to pave the way for the erection of their central 
House of Worship, to fortify them against the tests they were soon 
to endure, to cement their unity, and to bless the beginnings of that 
Administrative Order which they were soon to initiate and champion.  
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     No less remarkable were `Abdu'l-Bahá's public activities in the 
course of His association with the multitude of people with whom 
He came in contact during His tour across a continent.  A full account 
 
of these diversified activities which crowded His days during 
no less than eight months, would be beyond the scope of this survey.  
Suffice it to say that in the city of New York alone He delivered 
public addresses in, and made formal visits to, no less than fifty-five 
different places.  Peace societies, Christian and Jewish congregations, 
colleges and universities, welfare and charitable organizations, members 
of ethical cults, New Thought centers, metaphysical groups, 
Women's clubs, scientific associations, gatherings of Esperantists, 
Theosophists, Mormons, and agnostics, institutions for the advancement 
of the colored people, representatives of the Syrian, the Armenian, 
the Greek, the Chinese, and Japanese communities--all were 
brought into contact with His dynamic presence, and were privileged 
to hear from His lips His Father's Message.  Nor was the press either 
in its editorial comment or in the publication of reports of His lectures, 
slow to appreciate the breadth of His vision or the character 
of His summons.  
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     His discourse at the Peace Conferences at Lake Mohonk; His addresses 
to large gatherings at Columbia, Howard and New York 
Universities; His participation in the fourth annual conference of 
the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored 
People; His fearless assertion of the truth of the prophetic Missions 
of both Jesus Christ and Muhammad in Temple Emmanu-El, a 
Jewish synagogue in San Francisco, where no less than two thousand 
people were gathered; His illuminating discourse before an audience 
of eighteen hundred students and one hundred and eighty teachers 
and professors at Leland Stanford University; His memorable visit 
to the Bowery Mission in the slums of New York; the brilliant reception 
given in His honor in Washington, at which many outstanding 
figures in the social life of the capital were presented to Him--these 
stand out as the highlights of the unforgettable Mission He undertook 
in the service of His Father's Cause.  Secretaries of State, Ambassadors, 
Congressmen, distinguished rabbis and churchmen, and 
other people of eminence attained His presence, among whom were 
such figures as Dr. D. S. Jordan, President of Leland Stanford University, 
Prof. Jackson of Columbia University, Prof. Jack of Oxford 
University, Rabbi Stephen Wise of New York, Dr. Martin A. Meyer, 
Rabbi Joseph L. Levy, Rabbi Abram Simon, Alexander Graham Bell, 
Rabindranath Tagore, Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Mrs. William Jennings 
Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, Hon. Franklin MacVeagh, Secretary 
of the United States Treasury, Lee McClung, Mr. Roosevelt, Admiral 
Wain Wright, Admiral Peary, the British, Dutch and Swiss Ministers 
 
in Washington, Yúsúf Díyá Páshá, the Turkish Ambassador in that 
city, Thomas Seaton, Hon. William Sulzer and Prince Muhammad-`Alí 
of Egypt, the Khedive's brother.  
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     "When `Abdu'l-Bahá visited this country for the first time in 
1912," a commentator on His American travels has written, "He 
found a large and sympathetic audience waiting to greet Him personally 
and to receive from His own lips His loving and spiritual message.  
...Beyond the words spoken there was something indescribable 
in His personality that impressed profoundly all who came into His 
presence.  The dome-like head, the patriarchal beard, the eyes that 
seemed to have looked beyond the reach of time and sense, the soft 
yet clearly penetrating voice, the translucent humility, the never 
failing love,--but above all, the sense of power mingled with gentleness 
that invested His whole being with a rare majesty of spiritual 
exaltation that both set Him apart, and yet that brought Him near 
to the lowliest soul,--it was all this, and much more that can never 
be defined, that have left with His many ... friends, memories that 
are ineffaceable and unspeakably precious."  
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     A survey, however inadequate of the varied and immense activities 
of `Abdu'l-Bahá in His tour of Europe and America cannot leave 
without mention some of the strange incidents that would often 
accompany personal contact with Him.  The bold determination of 
a certain indomitable youth who, fearing `Abdu'l-Bahá would not be 
able to visit the Western states, and unable himself to pay for a train 
journey to New England, had traveled all the way from Minneapolis 
to Maine lying on the rods between the wheels of a train; the transformation 
effected in the life of the son of a country rector in England, 
who, in his misery and poverty, had resolved, whilst walking 
along the banks of the Thames, to put an end to his existence, and 
who, at the sight of `Abdu'l-Bahá's photograph displayed in a shop 
window, had inquired about Him, hurried to His residence, and been 
so revived by His words of cheer and comfort as to abandon all 
thought of self-destruction; the extraordinary experience of a woman 
whose little girl, as the result of a dream she had had, insisted that 
Jesus Christ was in the world, and who, at the sight of `Abdu'l-Bahá's 
picture exposed in the window of a magazine store, had instantly 
identified it as that of the Jesus Christ of her dream--an act which 
impelled her mother, after reading that `Abdu'l-Bahá was in Paris, 
to take the next boat for Europe and hasten to attain His presence; 
the decision of the editor of a journal printed in Japan to break his 
journey to Tokyo at Constantinople, and travel to London for "the 
 
joy of spending one evening in His presence"; the touching scene 
when `Abdu'l-Bahá, receiving from the hands of a Persian friend, 
recently arrived in London from Ishqábád, a cotton handkerchief 
containing a piece of dry black bread and a shrivelled apple--the 
offering of a poor Bahá'í workman in that city--opened it before His 
assembled guests, and, leaving His luncheon untouched, broke pieces 
off that bread, and partaking Himself of it shared it with those who 
were present--these are but a few of a host of incidents that shed 
a revealing light on some personal aspects of His memorable journeys.  
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	| 24 | 
	
     Nor can certain scenes revolving around that majestic and patriarchal 
Figure, as He moved through the cities of Europe and America, 
be ever effaced from memory.  The remarkable interview at which 
`Abdu'l-Bahá, while placing lovingly His hand on the head of Archdeacon 
Wilberforce, answered his many questions, whilst that distinguished 
churchman sat on a low chair by His side; the still more 
remarkable scene when that same Archdeacon, after having knelt 
with his entire congregation to receive His benediction at St. John's 
the Divine, passed down the aisle to the vestry hand in hand with 
his Guest, whilst a hymn was being sung by the entire assembly 
standing; the sight of Jalálu'd-Dawlih, fallen prostrate at His feet, 
profuse in his apologies and imploring His forgiveness for his past 
iniquities; the enthusiastic reception accorded Him at Leland Stanford 
University when, before the gaze of well nigh two thousand 
professors and students, He discoursed on some of the noblest truths 
underlying His message to the West; the touching spectacle at Bowery 
Mission when four hundred of the poor of New York filed past Him, 
each receiving a piece of silver from His blessed hands; the acclamation 
of a Syrian woman in Boston who, pushing aside the crowd that 
had gathered around Him, flung herself at His feet, exclaiming, 
"I confess that in Thee I have recognized the Spirit of God and Jesus 
Christ Himself"; the no less fervent tribute paid Him by two admiring 
Arabs who, as He was leaving that city for Dublin, N. H., cast 
themselves before Him, and, sobbing aloud, avowed that He was 
God's own Messenger to mankind; the vast congregation of two 
thousand Jews assembled in a synagogue in San Francisco, intently 
listening to His discourse as He demonstrated the validity of the 
claims advanced by both Jesus Christ and Muhammad; the gathering 
He addressed one night in Montreal, at which, in the course of His 
speech, His turban fell from His head, so carried away was He by 
the theme He was expounding; the boisterous crowd in a very poor 
quarter of Paris, who, awed by His presence, reverently and silently 
 
made way for Him as He passed through their midst, while returning 
from a Mission Hall whose congregation He had been addressing; 
the characteristic gesture of a Zoroastrian physician who, arriving in 
breathless haste on the morning of `Abdu'l-Bahá's departure from 
London to bid Him farewell, anointed with fragrant oil first His 
head and His breast, and then, touching the hands of all present, 
placed round His neck and shoulders a garland of rosebuds and lilies; 
the crowd of visitors arriving soon after dawn, patiently waiting on 
the doorsteps of His house in Cadogan Gardens until the door would 
be opened for their admittance; His majestic figure as He paced with 
a vigorous step the platform, or stood with hands upraised to pronounce 
the benediction, in church and synagogue alike, and before 
vast audiences of reverent listeners; the unsolicited mark of respect 
shown Him by distinguished society women in London, who would 
spontaneously curtsy when ushered into His presence; the poignant 
sight when He stooped low to the grave of His beloved disciple, 
Thornton Chase, in Inglewood Cemetery, and kissed his tombstone, 
an example which all those present hastened to follow; the distinguished 
gathering of Christians, Jews and Muslims, men and women 
and representative of both the East and the West, assembled to hear 
His discourse on world unity in the mosque at Woking--such scenes 
as these, even in the cold record of the printed page, must still have 
much of their original impressiveness and power.  
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	| 25 | 
	
     Who knows what thoughts flooded the heart of `Abdu'l-Bahá as 
He found Himself the central figure of such memorable scenes as 
these?  Who knows what thoughts were uppermost in His mind as 
He sat at breakfast beside the Lord Mayor of London, or was received 
with extraordinary deference by the Khedive himself in his palace, 
or as He listened to the cries of "Alláh-u-Abhá" and to the hymns of 
thanksgiving and praise that would herald His approach to the 
numerous and brilliant assemblages of His enthusiastic followers and 
friends organized in so many cities of the American continent?  Who 
knows what memories stirred within Him as He stood before the 
thundering waters of Niagara, breathing the free air of a far distant 
land, or gazed, in the course of a brief and much-needed rest, upon 
the green woods and countryside in Glenwood Springs, or moved 
with a retinue of Oriental believers along the paths of the Trocadero 
gardens in Paris, or walked alone in the evening beside the majestic 
Hudson on Riverside Drive in New York, or as He paced the terrace 
of the Hotel du Parc at Thonon-les-Bains, overlooking the Lake of 
Geneva, or as He watched from Serpentine Bridge in London the 
 
pearly chain of lights beneath the trees stretching as far as the eye 
could see?  Memories of the sorrows, the poverty, the overhanging 
doom of His earlier years; memories of His mother who sold her gold 
buttons to provide Him, His brother and His sister with sustenance, 
and who was forced, in her darkest hours, to place a handful of dry 
flour in the palm of His hand to appease His hunger; of His own 
childhood when pursued and derided by a mob of ruffians in the 
streets of Tihrán; of the damp and gloomy room, formerly a morgue, 
which He occupied in the barracks of Akká and of His imprisonment 
in the dungeon of that city--memories such as these must surely 
have thronged His mind.  Thoughts, too, must have visited Him of 
the Báb's captivity in the mountain fastnesses of Ádhirbayján, when 
at night time He was refused even a lamp, and of His cruel and 
tragic execution when hundreds of bullets riddled His youthful 
breast.  Above all His thoughts must have centered on Bahá'u'lláh, 
Whom He loved so passionately and Whose trials He had witnessed 
and had shared from His boyhood.  The vermin-infested Síyáh-Chál 
of Tihrán; the bastinado inflicted upon Him in Ámul; the humble 
fare which filled His kashkúl while He lived for two years the life 
of a dervish in the mountains of Kurdistán; the days in Baghdád 
when He did not even possess a change of linen, and when His followers 
subsisted on a handful of dates; His confinement behind the 
prison-walls of Akká, when for nine years even the sight of verdure 
was denied Him; and the public humiliation to which He was subjected 
at government headquarters in that city--pictures from the 
tragic past such as these must have many a time overpowered Him 
with feelings of mingled gratitude and sorrow, as He witnessed the 
many marks of respect, of esteem, and honor now shown Him and 
the Faith which He represented.  "O Bahá'u'lláh!  What hast Thou 
done?"  He, as reported by the chronicler of His travels, was heard 
to exclaim one evening as He was being swiftly driven to fulfil His 
third engagement of the day in Washington, "O Bahá'u'lláh!  May 
my life be sacrificed for Thee!  O Bahá'u'lláh!  May my soul be 
offered up for Thy sake!  How full were Thy days with trials and 
tribulations!  How severe the ordeals Thou didst endure!  How solid 
the foundation Thou hast finally laid, and how glorious the banner 
Thou didst hoist!"  "One day, as He was strolling," that same chronicler 
has testified, "He called to remembrance the days of the Blessed 
Beauty, referring with sadness to His sojourn in Sulaymáníyyih, to 
His loneliness and to the wrongs inflicted upon Him.  Though He 
had often recounted that episode, that day He was so overcome with 
 
emotion that He sobbed aloud in His grief....  All His attendants 
wept with Him, and were plunged into sorrow as they heard the tale 
of the woeful trials endured by the Ancient Beauty, and witnessed 
the tenderness of heart manifested by His Son."  
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	| 26 | 
	
     A most significant scene in a century-old drama had been enacted.  
A glorious chapter in the history of the first Bahá'í century had been 
written.  Seeds of undreamt-of potentialities had, with the hand of 
the Center of the Covenant Himself, been sown in some of the 
fertile fields of the Western world.  Never in the entire range of 
religious history had any Figure of comparable stature arisen to perform 
a labor of such magnitude and imperishable worth.  Forces were 
unleashed through those fateful journeys which even now, at a distance 
of well nigh thirty-five years, we are unable to measure or 
comprehend.  Already a Queen, inspired by the powerful arguments 
adduced by `Abdu'l-Bahá in the course of His addresses in support 
of the Divinity of Muhammad, has proclaimed her faith, and borne 
public testimony to the Divine origin of the Prophet of Islám.  
Already a President of the United States, imbibing some of the principles 
so clearly enunciated by Him in His discourses, has incorporated 
them in a Peace Program which stands out as the boldest and noblest 
proposal yet made for the well-being and security of mankind.  And 
already, alas! a world which proved deaf to His warnings and refused 
to heed His summons has plunged itself into two global wars of 
unprecedented severity, the repercussions of which none as yet can 
even dimly visualize.  
 
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