National Teaching Committee Bulletins/1920/October 12/Text

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National Teaching Committee Bulletins October 12, 1920

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Copy of a letter from Mr. George Vail Williams giving an account of Jenabe Fazel’s visit to Johnstown and Gloversville N. 1.

Gloversville N. Y. Oct 12, 1920.

Dear Sister in El Abha:

It is with pleasure and joy I take up my pen to give you some account of the visit of the Persian brothers to our benighted city. My one fear is that I shall be unable to do justice to the theme. In fact I know that any human words must fall far short of the mark in any effort to describe the blessings of the brief stay of Jenabe Fazel and Ahmad Sohrab in our cities adjoining each other, ve usually speak of as "the Glove cities."

Mirza Fazel, dirza Ahmad Sohrab, and Manoucher Khan arrived in Johnstown at 5:19 P. M. Oct. 5th. Great had been the anticipation of the believers in this vicinity, and with hearts full of love were they welcomed. The response was a perfect demonstration of the reality of the Bahá’í spirit in the world.

The brothers were conducted to the home of the tried and true sister, Margaret La Grange, who with the warm spirit of hospitality that has characterized her entire life in the Cause, had prepared a real Bahá’í dinner for them and the friends as well. Our sister Margaret is one of the few who came into the kingdom through the efforts of sister Brittingham about 17 years ago. While the little group of 13 believers grew less and less until but 4 remained she, Ella Cuant, Emily Gustin, and Grace Vosberg stood true and firm while opposition fell upon them and some deserted the Cause and some proved faithful unto death. All this time the glorious truth was unknown to the writer, and as he pens these lines he realizes full well how inadequate are words to express the gratitude and admiration that fills his heart as he thinks of these noble, faithful souls holding up the Light through all those storms that he might be guided to the feet of the Master. He realizes also that the debt can be paid only by doing the same service to others who are still in ignorance of the great glory of this Dispensation. The feast was a feast indeed, and though the food was so good and so skillfully prepared by such a faithful and loving hand, the spiritul repast that came with it from the hand of the Master was infinitely more.

Wednesday afternoon at 4 Mirza Fazel gave a most scholarly lecture on "The Modern Education in Persia, in the auditorium of the High School in Gloversville. In the evening he spoke in The Jewish Community Center, and although the audience was not large (owing to some misunderstanding among the people of the center) it was a highly intelligent and a deeply interested one.

On Thursday the Business Men’s Luncheon was served at the hotel where the party were guests, and although the program was entirely taken up by an out of town speaker, Mirza Fazel and Ahmad had the good fortune to find quite an important audience of one in the person of the pastor of one of the churches of the city. The delicacy and beauty of Jenabe Fazel’s presentation of the truth were wonderful, and the pastor on learning that the writer was a resident of the city expressed a hope of seeing him in the future -- a hope which will certainly be fulfilled. At five o'clock the party arrived in Johnstown and were entertained by sister Emily Gustin who served a bountiful repest to the believers. [Page 2] The evening meeting was held in the Court House which was erected in 1774 and has stood through the entire life of our Nation. Mirza Fazel discussed the social side of the Revelation in a most able manner, explaining the philosophy of the material and spiritual evolution of human society, declaring that spiritual power alone could save our boasted civilization from ruin, and that it would make the earth a terrestrial paradise. His glowing words of wisdom interpreted by Ahmad Sohrab came in rich imagery, and almost poetic rythm that fell like music on the ear and heart, and he held his hearers spell bound.

Friday evening the brothers held their meeting in All Souls Universalist Church before a large and deeply interested audience -- three or four of whom came from the village of Canajoharie about fifteen miles distant, and several from Johnstown. In this lecture he discussed the development of the idea and conception of deity in the human consciousness, from fetichism through the anthropomorphic idea to the conception of God as the Absolute Being, and the Manifestation in a human temple in the time of need of the world, as at present in our Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Truly it was a time of refreshing for the believers and a time of discovery for others. Saturday morning the writer bade the brothers a most reluctant adieu, and they departed to bless other souls in Ithaca, St. Johns, Montreal,-- and so on their In going they assured me that though their bodies would be distant that the soul, rising above the limitations of space, would in reality be with us still.

Not only by their masterly discourses will they diffuse the fragrances of the Kingdom. Their private interviews have done much good, yea, their very presence has been a benediction upon these cities, nor is it strange that it should be so, when we remember that these consecrated souls are really apostles of this Dispensation fresh from the Holy Threshold and the presence of the Blessed Master.

What a revelation it has all been to me! Perfect strangers--in the earthly sense--from a foreign land engrafting themselves upon or within my heart's inner consciousness as dearer than any earthly kin.

The younger member of the party Manoucher Khan departed Wednesday evening to prepare for the party in advance of their coming, but within the brief time he was with me he grew very near and dear to me, and I shall look forward to meeting him again. I feel that the master has a mission for him to fulfill.

It was my privilege to hear him give the message with the eloquence of an angel to one of my best friends.

We feel that the fragrance of the rose garden of Rizwan has come to our valleys, that the splendor of the Divine Manifestation has advanced to the foot hills of the Adirondacks; and we hope that the tent of the Beloved will soon cover these two cities like the Canopy of Heaven.

(Signed) George Vail Williams.