National Teaching Committee Bulletins/1920/August 28/Text
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DISCIPLES OF THE NEW DAY[edit]
There are as many untold stories of pilgrimages in this New Day as there are Bahá’ís in the world. This little account of the seven day trip from Boston to Chautauqua and back is just one of those perfumes of exceeding love, exceeding faith and exceeding results. Thousands of souls, most of whom had never before heard of the Bahá’í Revelation, may remember the visit of these five pilgrims as the spiritual fragrance of jasmine, the New Idea and Ideal which transform for them the world into a spiritual Rose-Garden.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá attracted souls of great capacity in these new places about as follows: Martha, returning from New York City, stopped in Buffalo to arrange a meeting for the great Persian brother, Fazel, Harry, Manucher and Ahmad, East Aurora, N. Y. being a notable American center of the Roycroft idea "to marry beauty to industry" in its work, an engagement was made for the Bahá’í pilgrims to go out and speak in their auditorium. Mrs. Tifft of Buffalo had said: "Why not try Lily Dale, N.Y.?" So Martha went there. It has the largest camp for spiritualists in the United States and the director promised the morning service for Sunday, August 15, 1920. Next, Chautauqua Assembly in Chautauqua, N. Y. was approached. It has the unique idea of giving people on its grounds mental and spiritual outings as well as pleasant physical vacations. It also interests people in reading to such an extent that 60,000 people have been graduated from its reading circle. Chautauqua Assembly was the new "Jericho" -- its directors did not make the engagement for a Bahá’í address. A second trip was made by Martha to Chautauqua. Harry saw a Boston Chautauqua man but nothing was arranged. Still, the little group felt the Urge of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Spirit to go to CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY.
The Boston pilgrims met Martha in Buffalo, August 13, 1920. Buffalo Bahá’ís had had a dozen fine articles in their daily papers announcing the Bahá’í lecture in the Iroquois Hotel for that evening. In the afternoon, Mrs. Movius of Nottingham Terrace opened her beautiful home, a "palacete" in loveliness set in the midst of a luxuriant garden. There the radiantly gifted brother from Persia, Fazel, spoke to the accompaniment of rhythmical fountains. Bahá’í friends from smaller centers came and brought relatives.
Fazel spoke to all the Words of Life. He and Harry answered their questions and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá blessed the event--there are new Bahá’ís as the fruits of that afternoon of love and unity.
The evening meeting was well attended; in Buffalo and in each succeeding place it was people of capacity who were attracted. Harry, in introducing Fazel, showed how the world is seeking today that which will UNITE all, and he explained the results of the Bahá’í Movement as he had observed it
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in his trip to the Holy Land. Fazel spoke on "‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His Life and Teachings, a Solution for World Problems". He spoke as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke when in this country, giving the Message always from the viewpoint of his audience and introducing the basic principles. Both men turned their hearts to the Center of the Covenant and their words were always ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Words to the souls in each, particular audience. Martha took down all the addresses of the trip, verbatim, and Fazel’s are already typed and put on record. A member of the Rotary Club of Buffalo invited them to come again and speak before his organization; a clergyman offered his pulpit. People present from other cities extended similar invitations. In every city people pressed forward to shake their hands, or stopped them in the streets. They were LOVED! LOVED by all!
Saturday morning they spoke in Roycroft chapel at East Aurora, N. Y. There they outlined the new economic system given by Bahá’u’lláh and explained by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. These disciples of the Center of the Covenant were urgently invited to come again and speak at a Sunday service. The group placed two books in the library and Harry is sending two sets of books for the Roycroft libraries. "The Roycroft" (magazine), circulation 50,000, will publish an article about the visit.
Next day, Sunday, was spent at Lily Dale, N. Y. The spiritualists had given to them the morning service in the auditorium. About three thousand were present. The event had been heralded in the Chicago "National Spiritualist" and in "The Progressive Thinker", two of the best spiritualist magazines in America. Fazel’s address on "The Bahá’í Vision of Immortality" is something that every Bahá’í could with profit study. The audience cheered both Fazel and Harry, while en masse they seemed to exclaim: "This is OUR religion!"
Directors changed their afternoon service and invited Fazel and Harry to speak at 4.30 o’clock in Forest Temple, a magnificent, natural auditorium where nearly three thousand came again to hear about "New Evidences of Life After Death". Fazel and Harry are wonderful speakers together and they were centers of love that drew the hearts of their listeners like impelling magnets. Ahmad and Manucher interpreted gloriously. The meeting was later turned into an open forum; questions on the Bahá’í view of immortality were asked and answered like the surging of mighty waves breaking against a perfectly secure Gibraltar. Everybody was happy and exclamations were heard: "They believe what we believe!" Fazel directed them to read the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on immortality. Harry promised to send them a set of Bahá’í books for their library, and the remarkable afternoon came to a close by the choir leader calling out: "Couldn’t this great man sing us a song in Persian?" Harry stepped forward and announced: "His Excellency, Janabi Fazel Mazandarani, will close this session by chanting for you a prayer in Persian. The hush of the Center of the Covenant fell upon them as Janabi Fazel stood in the lingering sunset glory and prayed to Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Monday, they journeyed on to Chautauqua. It was dark and rainy in the physical world which seemed to reflect the outlook for a Bahá’í engagement. But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had given the urge to every heart in the quintet that Chautauqua was the place where HE WOULD SPEAK! The faith, the effort and the falling of the walls of ancient Jericho will never again seem extraordinary to the five
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who saw Abdul Baha open the great Chautauqua amphitheater, at the best hour of the day, for an address to over four thousand souls and put Fazel and Harry on the platform to speak on "The Political and Spiritual Regeneration of Persia and Its Cause".
Since Abdul Baha was in America in 1912, perhaps no American event has been more significant in Bahai history.
Two opening paragraphs in the "Chautauquan Daily" give the key to the address: "A most extraordinary address was given yesterday morning in the Amphitheater by Mirza Fazel Mazandarani, Professor of Philosophy in the Imperial University of Persia. Translated into excellent English by one of his interpreters, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, it was an eloquent account of the message of universal love and brotherhood given to the world by the Oriental mystic, Abdul Baha."
"Mr. W. H. Randall, a distinguished speaker from Boston, introduced Mirza Mazandarani who spoke of the joy and intellectual stimulus he had received in Chautauqua, and paid tribute to the work of American missionary and philanthropic effort in Persia. He then said: 'Love is the cause of the salvation of mankind, which suffers men and women to enter into the Kingdom of God. His Holiness, Christ, epitomized a world of meaning into one sentence by saying: 'Love is God'. Divine, spiritual religions have been founded in different cycles to establish love in the hearts of men. Consider the power of love emanated from Christ, how in His Day and in the apostolic age the various tribes and nations were united with its golden bonds. It is established beyond a shadow of doubt that in the world there is no greater means of love, unity and brotherhood than religion. The prophets accepted all kinds of persecution, and Christ went to the cross in order to create the Fire of the Love of God in the hearts of men." Then he gave a short history of the Bahai Cause, its principles and its effects in Persia and throughout the world.
The Chautauqua audience cheered again and again. One said: "He hasn’t told us enough, I am hungry to hear more." Another said: "This Bahai Cause is our Christian religion universalized." Dear Manucher, like a shy, young, beautiful gazelle of the El-Abha Kingdom gave the Message to more people individually than any one of the five. He spoke with souls in the amphitheater and later brought them to meet the four. Those Bahais who do not know Chautauqua can never realize what it meant to get that opening and the aftermath of opportunities that have and will follow. Some leaders of several religious movements, Unitarian, New Thought, Christian, Indian lore, directors of reading courses called upon the Bahais on the broad verandas of the Hotel Athenaeum. Each one went away happy, taking the love of the Bahai Cause home with him. New friends from Roycroft shops and Lily Dale Camp came on to Chautauqua to hear more. (The Chautauqua platform will mean open sesame in hundreds of other places.)
Jamestown, a city of 40,000, is one hour’s ride by trolley from Chautauqua. Its lawyers and newspaper men, some one hundred of them, who compose the Saturday Night Club, opened their clubhouse Wednesday evening, to the Bahai speakers. It was a men’s meeting. At first the atmosphere of the
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place indicated they wanted a political evening, not a religious one. Abdul Baha used Harry to answer those lawyers--like the Charge of the Light Brigade, intellect against intellect, for about ten minutes he proved that the solution of world problems is through Spiritual Teachings. Then his great heart of love drew them to his arguments which were so inspired that when he finished, a lawyer sprang up and said: "You have brought it home! This is the Greatest Truth I have ever heard in my life!"
Then Fazel spoke again at length. Ahmad gave a vivid description of conditions in the Holy Land and Harry said they would be glad to answer questions. An open forum continued until midnight, and near the close one lawyer said: "I congratulate the men of this club in connecting themselves with this highest Divine Force. I never heard the great law of Divine Intelligence, called God, so well defined as explained here tonight. I thank God for the communion such as we have had here." This tribute, the questions and answers and part of the addresses were published next day in a Jamestown Journal. Next day nine lawyers called and made enquiries at the library for books on the Bahai Cause. Martha is sending to their club library "Some Answered Questions", "Paris Talks" and "London Talks".
So outwardly the short pilgrimage came to an end. In those few days Abdul Baha taught not only people of great capacity, but centers of great capacity in America. In reality the inner PILGRIMAGE is just begun for these NEW souls are going to sing the Melodies of the Kingdom. They will go a-journeying to carry the Song of the Center of the Covenant on down the ages and back to Its Infinite Essence in El-Abha!
Written by Martha, the day she returned home, August 19, 1920.
The foregoing record of a brilliant pilgrimage by our revered and blessed teacher, Jenabe Fazel, accompanied by Harry, Ahmad, Manoucher and Martha, is so significant; the seed sowing was so marvellous; the Supreme Concourse really opening the doors and rushing to the assistance of the blessed servers, that we feel the friends should have this NOW in this Special Bulletin, for we long to immediately share with the members of the Beloved Family everywhere a story of work actually accomplished, and which is so thrillingly important.
Martha felt the "call" to this service, and she also had the great and quite necessary gift of faith. ("Faith is a miracle. It has a wonder-working power." Abdul Baha)
Harry writes: "We have returned from an extraordinary trip through New York State. Mirza Fazel has given the Message to more than 15,000 people and the doors are opening everywhere."
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Several letters written from Green Acre immediately after the return of Jenabe Fazel and party there for the closing week, may be briefly summed up and quoted as follows:
"We have just had a most wonderful experience. So inspiring was it, - I think most of us feel we can do anything! It came through the talks of the returned teachers from their speaking tour in New York State. Mr. Randall closed his talk by saying that we should prepare our little Bahai groups to become teachers qualified to address audiences, because he said he realized that very soon we are going to receive more demands for Bahai speakers than we can supply. It will be no longer the speaker seeking an audience, but the audience seeking a speaker, and we should start at once the training which will meet this need. Mirza Fazel emphasized strongly the point that we are not to think of ourselves, but to realize that if we arise to teach, we will have the hosts of the Supreme Concourse to assist us."
The friends everywhere are arising "with all heart" to co-operate, and there will be continued rejoicing as news comes to us from time to time of the sharing of the Life-imparting Message with thousands throughout the country. The really sincere striving of the friends towards Ideal Unity is being demonstrated; the unity of the hearts is bearing fruit, for all want to serve in some way in this season of seed-sowing. As a greater realization of our responsibilities comes to us, there comes also the clarified vision which gives us glimpses of the services we should accomplish NOW for we will never "find a like opportunity".
The Creative Words of Abdul Baha take effect in the hearts of the sincere, and here are some of these Words which so confer life:
"This time is the time of teaching (the Truth). Each one of the beloved of GOD must night and day endeavor and exert himself in teaching the souls (or people) and guide men to the Divine Kingdom. Such souls (those who teach) are in this Day assisted (by God) and successful; for, each time (or season) hath a requirement. One day is the time of seed-sowing; one day is the time of watering; one day is the time of reaping; and one day is the time of harvest. Now in the Kingdom of GOD, is the time of seed-sowing. Think ye of this, in order that ye may be assisted and confirmed; that ye may see the assistance of the hosts of the Kingdom of ABHA and behold the confirmation of the Angels of Heaven." (Abdul Baha)
- THE TEACHING COMMITTEE,
- By Mariam Haney, Secretary.
Issued at Washington, D. C., August 28, 1920.