Friends at the 96th Annual Bahá’í Souvenir Picnic of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

On May 19th, [1912,] ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed the congregation of the Brotherhood Church, at Jersey City, New Jersey. The pastor of that church, Howard Colby Ives, relates the story: ‘It was an impressive, even to me a thrilling sight when the majestic figure of the Master strode up the aisle of the Brotherhood Church leading the little company of believers from various parts of the world. As memory now takes its backward look I realize how little I understood at that time the full significance of that memorable scene. Here, in a setting of Western civilization, almost two thousand years from the dawn of Christian teaching, stood One whose Life and Word were the very embodiment of the essence of the message of good-will to all peoples which those nations which bear His name had seemingly forgotten.

Here stood the living proof of the falsity of the assumption that East and West can never meet. Here was martyrdom for Truth and Love speaking lovingly and humbly to souls engrossed with self and who knew it not . . .