Though the rebellion of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali precipitated many sombre and
distressing events, and though its dire consequences continued for several
years to obscure the light of the Covenant, to endanger the life of its
appointed Center, and to distract the thoughts and retard the progress of
the activities of its supporters in both the East and the West, yet the
entire episode, viewed in its proper perspective, proved to be neither
more nor less than one of those periodic crises which, since the inception
of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, and throughout a whole century, have been
instrumental in weeding out its harmful elements, in fortifying its
foundations, in demonstrating its resilience, and in releasing a further
measure of its latent powers.
Now that the provisions of a divinely appointed Covenant had been
indubitably proclaimed; now that the purpose of the Covenant was clearly
apprehended and its fundamentals had become immovably established in the
hearts of the overwhelming majority of the adherents of the Faith; and now
that the first assaults launched by its would-be subverters had been
successfully repulsed, the Cause for which that Covenant had been designed
could forge ahead along the course traced for it by the finger of its
Author. Shining exploits and unforgettable victories had already
signalized the birth of that Cause and accompanied its rise in several
countries of the Asiatic continent, and particularly in the homeland of
its Founder. The mission of its newly-appointed Leader, the steward of its
glory and the diffuser of its light, was, as conceived by Himself, to
enrich and extend the bounds of the incorruptible patrimony entrusted to
His hands by shedding the illumination of His Father's Faith upon the
West, by expounding the fundamental precepts of that Faith and its
cardinal principles, by consolidating the activities which had already
been initiated for the promotion of its interests, and, finally, by
ushering in, through the provisions of His own Will, the Formative Age in
its evolution.
A year after the ascension of Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha had, in a verse
which He had revealed, and which had evoked the derision of the
Covenant-breakers, already foreshadowed an auspicious event which
posterity would recognize as one of the greatest triumphs of His ministry,
which in the end would confer an inestimable blessing upon the western
world, and which erelong was to dispel the grief and the apprehensions
that had surrounded the community of His fellow-exiles in Akka. The Great
Republic of the West, above all the other countries of the Occident, was
singled out to be the first recipient of God's inestimable blessing, and
to become the chief agent in its transmission to so many of her sister
nations throughout the five continents of the earth.
The importance of so momentous a development in the evolution of the Faith
of Baha'u'llah--the establishment of His Cause in the North American
continent--at a time when 'Abdu'l-Baha had just inaugurated His Mission,
and was still in the throes of the most grievous crisis with which He was
ever confronted, can in no wise be overestimated. As far back as the year
which witnessed the birth of the Faith in _Sh_iraz the Bab had, in the
Qayyumu'l-Asma, after having warned in a memorable passage the peoples of
both the Orient and the Occident, directly addressed the "peoples of the
West," and significantly bidden them "issue forth" from their "cities" to
aid God, and "become as brethren" in His "one and indivisible religion."
"In the East," Baha'u'llah Himself had, in anticipation of this
development, written, "the light of His Revelation hath broken; in the
West the signs of His dominion have appeared." "Should they attempt," He,
moreover, had predicted, "to conceal its light on the continent, it will
assuredly rear its head in the midmost heart of the ocean, and, raising
its voice, proclaim: 'I am the lifegiver of the world!'" "Had this Cause
been revealed in the West," He, shortly before His ascension, is reported
by Nabil in his narrative to have stated, "had Our verses been sent from
the West to Persia and other countries of the East, it would have become
evident how the people of the Occident would have embraced Our Cause. The
people of Persia, however, have failed to appreciate it." "From the
beginning of time until the present day," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's own testimony,
"the light of Divine Revelation hath risen in the East and shed its
radiance upon the West. The illumination thus shed hath, however, acquired
in the West an extraordinary brilliancy. Consider the Faith proclaimed by
Jesus. Though it first appeared in the East, yet not until its light had
been shed upon the West did the full measure of its potentialities become
manifest." "The day is approaching," He has affirmed, "when ye shall
witness how, through the splendor of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, the West
will have replaced the East, radiating the light of Divine guidance." And
again: "The West hath acquired illumination from the East, but, in some
respects, the reflection of the light hath been greater in the Occident."
Furthermore, "The East hath, verily, been illumined with the light of the
Kingdom. Erelong will this same light shed a still greater illumination
upon the West."
More specifically has the Author of the Baha'i Revelation Himself chosen
to confer upon the rulers of the American continent the unique honor of
addressing them collectively in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, His most Holy Book,
significantly exhorting them to "adorn the temple of dominion with the
ornament of justice and of the fear of God, and its head with the crown of
the remembrance" of their Lord, and bidding them "bind with the hands of
justice the broken," and "crush the oppressor" with the "rod of the
commandments" of their "Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise." "The continent
of America," wrote 'Abdu'l-Baha, "is, in the eyes of the one true God, the
land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide
and the free assemble." "The American continent," He has furthermore
predicted, "giveth signs and evidences of very great advancement. Its
future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are far
reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually."
"The American people," 'Abdu'l-Baha, even more distinctly, singling out
for His special favor the Great Republic of the West, the leading nation
of the American continent, has revealed, "are indeed worthy of being the
first to build the Tabernacle of the Most Great Peace, and proclaim the
oneness of mankind." And again: "This American nation is equipped and
empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to
become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East and the West
for the triumph of its people." Furthermore: "May this American democracy
be the first nation to establish the foundation of international
agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind.
May it be the first to unfurl the standard of the Most Great Peace." "May
the inhabitants of this country," He, moreover has written, "...rise from
their present material attainment to such heights that heavenly
illumination may stream from this center to all the peoples of the world."
"O ye apostles of Baha'u'llah!," 'Abdu'l-Baha has thus addressed the
believers of the North American continent, "...consider how exalted and
lofty is the station you are destined to attain... The full measure of
your success is as yet unrevealed, its significance still unapprehended."
And again: "Your mission is unspeakably glorious. Should success crown
your enterprise, America will assuredly evolve into a center from which
waves of spiritual power will emanate, and the throne of the Kingdom of
God, will in the plenitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly
established." And finally, this stirring affirmation: "The moment this
Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the
shores of America, and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of
Asia, of Africa and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the
Pacific, this community will find itself securely established upon the
throne of an everlasting dominion... Then will the whole earth resound
with the praises of its majesty and greatness."
Little wonder that a community belonging to a nation so abundantly
blessed, a nation occupying so eminent a position in a continent so richly
endowed, should have been able to add, during the fifty years of its
existence, many a page rich with victories to the annals of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah. This is the community, it should be remembered, which, ever
since it was called into being through the creative energies released by
the proclamation of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, was nursed in the lap of
'Abdu'l-Baha's unfailing solicitude, and was trained by Him to discharge
its unique mission through the revelation of innumerable Tablets, through
the instructions issued to returning pilgrims, through the despatch of
special messengers, through His own travels at a later date, across the
North American continent, through the emphasis laid by Him on the
institution of the Covenant in the course of those travels, and finally
through His mandate embodied in the Tablets of the Divine Plan. This is
the community which, from its earliest infancy until the present day, has
unremittingly labored and succeeded, through its own unaided efforts, in
implanting the banner of Baha'u'llah in the vast majority of the sixty
countries which, in both the East and the West, can now claim the honor of
being included within the pale of His Faith. To this community belongs the
distinction of having evolved the pattern, and of having been the first to
erect the framework, of the administrative institutions that herald the
advent of the World Order of Baha'u'llah. Through the efforts of its
members the Mother Temple of the West, the Harbinger of that Order, one of
the noblest institutions ordained in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and the most
stately edifice reared in the entire Baha'i world, has been erected in the
very heart of the North American continent. Through the assiduous labors
of its pioneers, its teachers and its administrators, the literature of
the Faith has been enormously expanded, its aims and purposes fearlessly
defended, and its nascent institutions solidly established. In direct
consequence of the unsupported and indefatigable endeavors of the most
distinguished of its itinerant teachers the spontaneous allegiance of
Royalty to the Faith of Baha'u'llah has been secured and unmistakably
proclaimed in several testimonies transmitted to posterity by the pen of
the royal convert herself. And finally, to the members of this community,
the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of the
Baha'i Dispensation, must be ascribed the eternal honor of having arisen,
on numerous occasions, with marvelous alacrity, zeal and determination, to
champion the cause of the oppressed, to relieve the needy, and to defend
the interests of the edifices and institutions reared by their brethren in
countries such as Persia, Russia, Egypt, 'Iraq and Germany, countries
where the adherents of the Faith have had to sustain, in varying measure,
the rigors of racial and religious persecution.
Strange, indeed, that in a country, invested with such a unique function
among its sister-nations throughout the West, the first public reference
to the Author of so glorious a Faith should have been made through the
mouth of one of the members of that ecclesiastical order with which that
Faith has had so long to contend, and from which it has frequently
suffered. Stranger still that he who first established it in the city of
Chicago, fifty years after the Bab had declared His Mission in _Sh_iraz,
should himself have forsaken, a few years later, the standard which he,
single-handed, had implanted in that city.
It was on September 23, 1893, a little over a year after Baha'u'llah's
ascension, that, in a paper written by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D.D.,
Director of Presbyterian Missionary Operations in North Syria, and read by
Rev. George A. Ford of Syria, at the World Parliament of Religions, held
in Chicago, in connection with the Columbian Exposition, commemorating the
four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, it was announced
that "a famous Persian Sage," "the Babi Saint," had died recently in Akka,
and that two years previous to His ascension "a Cambridge scholar" had
visited Him, to whom He had expressed "sentiments so noble, so
Christ-like" that the author of the paper, in his "closing words," wished
to share them with his audience. Less than a year later, in February 1894,
a Syrian doctor, named Ibrahim _Kh_ayru'llah, who, while residing in
Cairo, had been converted by Haji 'Abdu'l-Karim-i-Tihrani to the Faith,
had received a Tablet from Baha'u'llah, had communicated with
'Abdu'l-Baha, and reached New York in December 1892, established his
residence in Chicago, and began to teach actively and systematically the
Cause he had espoused. Within the space of two years he had communicated
his impressions to 'Abdu'l-Baha, and reported on the remarkable success
that had attended his efforts. In 1895 an opening was vouchsafed to him in
Kenosha, which he continued to visit once a week, in the course of his
teaching activities. By the following year the believers in these two
cities, it was reported, were counted by hundreds. In 1897 he published
his book, entitled the Babu'd-Din, and visited Kansas City, New York City,
Ithaca and Philadelphia, where he was able to win for the Faith a
considerable number of supporters. The stout-hearted Thornton Chase,
surnamed _Th_abit (Steadfast) by 'Abdu'l-Baha and designated by Him "the
first American believer," who became a convert to the Faith in 1894, the
immortal Louisa A. Moore, the mother teacher of the West, surnamed Liva
(Banner) by 'Abdu'l-Baha, Dr. Edward Getsinger, to whom she was later
married, Howard MacNutt, Arthur P. Dodge, Isabella D. Brittingham, Lillian
F. Kappes, Paul K. Dealy, Chester I. Thacher and Helen S. Goodall, whose
names will ever remain associated with the first stirrings of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah in the North American continent, stand out as the most
prominent among those who, in those early years, awakened to the call of
the New Day, and consecrated their lives to the service of the newly
proclaimed Covenant.
By 1898 Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, the well-known philanthropist (wife of Senator
George F. Hearst), whom Mrs. Getsinger had, while on a visit to
California, attracted to the Faith, had expressed her intention of
visiting 'Abdu'l-Baha in the Holy Land, had invited several believers,
among them Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, Dr. _Kh_ayru'llah and his wife, to join
her, and had completed the necessary arrangements for their historic
pilgrimage to Akka. In Paris several resident Americans, among whom were
May Ellis Bolles, whom Mrs. Getsinger had won over to the Faith, Miss
Pearson, and Ann Apperson, both nieces of Mrs. Hearst, with Mrs.
Thornburgh and her daughter, were added to the party, the number of which
was later swelled in Egypt by the addition of Dr. _Kh_ayru'llah's
daughters and their grand-mother whom he had recently converted.
The arrival of fifteen pilgrims, in three successive parties, the first of
which, including Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, reached the prison-city of Akka
on December 10, 1898; the intimate personal contact established between
the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant and the newly arisen heralds of His
Revelation in the West; the moving circumstances attending their visit to
His Tomb and the great honor bestowed upon them of being conducted by
'Abdu'l-Baha Himself into its innermost chamber; the spirit which, through
precept and example, despite the briefness of their stay, a loving and
bountiful Host so powerfully infused into them; and the passionate zeal
and unyielding resolve which His inspiring exhortations, His illuminating
instructions and the multiple evidences of His divine love kindled in
their hearts--all these marked the opening of a new epoch in the
development of the Faith in the West, an epoch whose significance the acts
subsequently performed by some of these same pilgrims and their
fellow-disciples have amply demonstrated.
"Of that first meeting," one of these pilgrims, recording her impressions,
has written, "I can remember neither joy nor pain, nor anything that I can
name. I had been carried suddenly to too great a height, my soul had come
in contact with the Divine Spirit, and this force, so pure, so holy, so
mighty, had overwhelmed me... We could not remove our eyes from His
glorious face; we heard all that He said; we drank tea with Him at His
bidding; but existence seemed suspended; and when He arose and suddenly
left us, we came back with a start to life; but never again, oh! never
again, thank God, the same life on this earth." "In the might and majesty
of His presence," that same pilgrim, recalling the last interview accorded
the party of which she was a member, has testified, "our fear was turned
to perfect faith, our weakness into strength, our sorrow into hope, and
ourselves forgotten in our love for Him. As we all sat before Him, waiting
to hear His words, some of the believers wept bitterly. He bade them dry
their tears, but they could not for a moment. So again He asked them for
His sake not to weep, nor would He talk to us and teach us until all tears
were banished..."
..."Those three days," Mrs. Hearst herself has, in one of her letters,
testified, "were the most memorable days of my life... The Master I will
not attempt to describe: I will only state that I believe with all my
heart that He is the Master, and my greatest blessing in this world is
that I have been privileged to be in His presence, and look upon His
sanctified face... Without a doubt Abbas Effendi is the Messiah of this
day and generation, and we need not look for another." "I must say," she,
moreover, has in another letter written, "He is the most wonderful Being I
have ever met or ever expect to meet in this world... The spiritual
atmosphere which surrounds Him and most powerfully affects all those who
are blest by being near Him, is indescribable... I believe in Him with all
my heart and soul, and I hope all who call themselves believers will
concede to Him all the greatness, all the glory, and all the praise, for
surely He is the Son of God--and 'the spirit of the Father abideth in
Him.'"
Even Mrs. Hearst's butler, a negro named Robert Turner, the first member
of his race to embrace the Cause of Baha'u'llah in the West, had been
transported by the influence exerted by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the course of that
epoch-making pilgrimage. Such was the tenacity of his faith that even the
subsequent estrangement of his beloved mistress from the Cause she had
spontaneously embraced failed to becloud its radiance, or to lessen the
intensity of the emotions which the loving-kindness showered by
'Abdu'l-Baha upon him had excited in his breast.
The return of these God-intoxicated pilgrims, some to France, others to
the United States, was the signal for an outburst of systematic and
sustained activity, which, as it gathered momentum, and spread its
ramifications over Western Europe and the states and provinces of the
North American continent, grew to so great a scale that 'Abdu'l-Baha
Himself resolved that, as soon as He should be released from His prolonged
confinement in Akka, He would undertake a personal mission to the West.
Undeflected in its course by the devastating crisis which the ambition of
Dr. _Kh_ayru'llah had, upon his return from the Holy Land (December, 1899)
precipitated; undismayed by the agitation which he, working in
collaboration with the arch-breaker of the Covenant and his messengers,
had provoked; disdainful of the attacks launched by him and his
fellow-seceders, as well as by Christian ecclesiastics increasingly
jealous of the rising power and extending influence of the Faith;
nourished by a continual flow of pilgrims who transmitted the verbal
messages and special instructions of a vigilant Master; invigorated by the
effusions of His pen recorded in innumerable Tablets; instructed by the
successive messengers and teachers dispatched at His behest for its
guidance, edification and consolidation, the community of the American
believers arose to initiate a series of enterprises which, blessed and
stimulated a decade later by 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself, were to be but a
prelude to the unparalleled services destined to be rendered by its
members during the Formative Age of His Father's Dispensation.
No sooner had one of these pilgrims, the afore-mentioned May Bolles,
returned to Paris than she succeeded, in compliance with 'Abdu'l-Baha's
emphatic instructions, in establishing in that city the first Baha'i
center to be formed on the European continent. This center was, shortly
after her arrival, reinforced by the conversion of the illumined Thomas
Breakwell, the first English believer, immortalized by 'Abdu'l-Baha's
fervent eulogy revealed in his memory; of Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first
Frenchman to embrace the Faith, who, through his writings, translations,
travels and other pioneer services, was able to consolidate, as the years
went by, the work which had been initiated in his country; and of Laura
Barney, whose imperishable service was to collect and transmit to
posterity in the form of a book, entitled "Some Answered Questions,"
'Abdu'l-Baha's priceless explanations, covering a wide variety of
subjects, given to her in the course of an extended pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. Three years later, in 1902, May Bolles, now married to a Canadian,
transferred her residence to Montreal, and succeeded in laying the
foundations of the Cause in that Dominion.
In London Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper, as a consequence of the creative
influences released by that never-to-be-forgotten pilgrimage, was able to
initiate activities which, stimulated and expanded through the efforts of
the first English believers, and particularly of Ethel J. Rosenberg,
converted in 1899, enabled them to erect, in later years, the structure of
their administrative institutions in the British Isles. In the North
American continent, the defection and the denunciatory publications of Dr.
_Kh_ayru'llah (encouraged as he was by Mirza Muhammad-'Ali and his son
_Sh_u'a'u'llah, whom he had despatched to America) tested to the utmost
the loyalty of the newly fledged community; but successive messengers
despatched by 'Abdu'l-Baha (such as Haji 'Abdu'l-Karim-i-Tihrani, Haji
Mirza Hasan-i-_Kh_urasani, Mirza Asadu'llah and Mirza Abu'l-Fadl)
succeeded in rapidly dispelling the doubts, and in deepening the
understanding, of the believers, in holding the community together, and in
forming the nucleus of those administrative institutions which, two
decades later, were to be formally inaugurated through the explicit
provisions of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament. As far back as the year
1899 a council board of seven officers, the forerunner of a series of
Assemblies which, ere the close of the first Baha'i Century, were to cover
the North American Continent from coast to coast, was established in the
city of Kenosha. In 1902 a Baha'i Publishing Society, designed to
propagate the literature of a gradually expanding community, was formed in
Chicago. A Baha'i Bulletin, for the purpose of disseminating the teachings
of the Faith was inaugurated in New York. The "Baha'i News," another
periodical, subsequently appeared in Chicago, and soon developed into a
magazine entitled "Star of the West." The translation of some of the most
important writings of Baha'u'llah, such as the "Hidden Words," the
"Kitab-i-Iqan," the "Tablets to the Kings," and the "Seven Valleys,"
together with the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha, as well as several treatises
and pamphlets written by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl and others, was energetically
undertaken. A considerable correspondence with various centers throughout
the Orient was initiated, and grew steadily in scope and importance. Brief
histories of the Faith, books and pamphlets written in its defence,
articles for the press, accounts of travels and pilgrimages, eulogies and
poems, were likewise published and widely disseminated.
Simultaneously, travellers and teachers, emerging triumphantly from the
storms of tests and trials which had threatened to engulf their beloved
Cause, arose, of their own accord, to reinforce and multiply the
strongholds of the Faith already established. Centers were opened in the
cities of Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland,
Baltimore, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Paul
and in other places. Audacious pioneers, whether as visitors or settlers,
eager to spread the new born Evangel beyond the confines of their native
country, undertook journeys, and embarked on enterprises which carried its
light to the heart of Europe, to the Far East, and as far as the islands
of the Pacific. Mason Remey voyaged to Russia and Persia, and later, with
Howard Struven, circled, for the first time in Baha'i history, the globe,
visiting on his way the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, China, India and Burma.
Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober traveled, during no less than seven months,
in India and Burma, visiting Bombay, Poona, Lahore, Calcutta, Rangoon and
Mandalay. Alma Knobloch, following on the heels of Dr. K. E. Fisher,
hoisted the standard of the Faith in Germany, and carried its light to
Austria. Dr. Susan I. Moody, Sydney Sprague, Lillian F. Kappes, Dr. Sarah
Clock, and Elizabeth Stewart transferred their residence to Tihran for the
purpose of furthering the manifold interests of the Faith, in
collaboration with the Baha'is of that city. Sarah Farmer, who had already
initiated in 1894, at Green Acre, in the State of Maine, summer
conferences and established a center for the promotion of unity and
fellowship between races and religions, placed, after her pilgrimage to
Akka in 1900, the facilities these conferences provided at the disposal of
the followers of the Faith which she had herself recently embraced.
And last but not least, inspired by the example set by their
fellow-disciples in I_sh_qabad, who had already commenced the construction
of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world, and afire with the
desire to demonstrate, in a tangible and befitting manner, the quality of
their faith and devotion, the Baha'is of Chicago, having petitioned
'Abdu'l-Baha for permission to erect a House of Worship, and secured, in a
Tablet revealed in June 1903, His ready and enthusiastic approval, arose,
despite the smallness of their numbers and their limited resources, to
initiate an enterprise which must rank as the greatest single contribution
which the Baha'is of America, and indeed of the West, have as yet made to
the Cause of Baha'u'llah. The subsequent encouragement given them by
'Abdu'l-Baha, and the contributions raised by various Assemblies decided
the members of this Assembly to invite representatives of their
fellow-believers in various parts of the country to meet in Chicago for
the initiation of the stupendous undertaking they had conceived. On
November 26, 1907, the assembled representatives, convened for that
purpose, appointed a committee of nine to locate a suitable site for the
proposed Temple. By April 9, 1908, the sum of two thousand dollars had
been paid for the purchase of two building lots, situated near the shore
of Lake Michigan. In March 1909, a convention representative of various
Baha'i centers was called, in pursuance of instructions received from
'Abdu'l-Baha. The thirty-nine delegates, representing thirty-six cities,
who had assembled in Chicago, on the very day the remains of the Bab were
laid to rest by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the specially erected mausoleum on Mt.
Carmel, established a permanent national organization, known as the Baha'i
Temple Unity, which was incorporated as a religious corporation,
functioning under the laws of the State of Illinois, and invested with
full authority to hold title to the property of the Temple and to provide
ways and means for its construction. At this same convention a
constitution was framed, the Executive Board of the Baha'i Temple Unity
was elected, and was authorized by the delegates to complete the purchase
of the land recommended by the previous Convention. Contributions for this
historic enterprise, from India, Persia, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Russia,
Egypt, Germany, France, England, Canada, Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and
even Mauritius, and from no less than sixty American cities, amounted by
1910, two years previous to 'Abdu'l-Baha's arrival in America, to no less
than twenty thousand dollars, a remarkable testimony alike to the
solidarity of the followers of Baha'u'llah in both the East and the West,
and to the self-sacrificing efforts exerted by the American believers who,
as the work progressed, assumed a preponderating share in providing the
sum of over a million dollars required for the erection of the structure
of the Temple and its external ornamentation.