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- What went ye out for to see?”’
“Wat Went Ye Out For To SEE?” (Mart. 11:9)
By the shore of the Mediterranean, the ‘‘Great Sea,” in one of the ancient cities—perhaps the most ancient in the world—in the Holy Land, the Land of Promise, lives a captive, an exile, a man.
The fame of him has gone around the world. Many, from this country, led by various motives, have visited him, and we have seen and heard them after their return. Without exception they have agreed in declaring that they have seen the most wonderful being upon the earth. They tell how, going before him with varied expectations, curiosities or hopes, and finding themselves in his presence, they were overwhelmed with awe, shame, fear, love, abasement or exaltation, emotions differing according to the conditions of each. They tell how they fell at his feet and longed to kiss even the dust on which he trod; how sudden consciousness of utter unworthiness oppressed them; how shame overcame them and made them long for sack-cloth and ashes; how immeasurable love possessed them and made them wish for death rather than separation from him.
Strong men, with tears streaming down their cheeks and
voices broken with emotion, have told us of the unspeakable love, gentleness, majesty and power radiating from
that simple man of slender build and medium height.
Some have declared that the very “Glory of God” shone
from his face. Some have returned, “treading on air,” re[Page 2]
hearsing his expressions of love to them, and, with wonderful exaltation — founded upon the favor which they had received from him—they have exclaimed like Peter of old: “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended,” and, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.”
We are told how the little children love him; how he takes them in his arms and bears them on their way to school and enters into their hearts with his sweet sympathies; how the poor and afflicted hover around his steps and feed upon his words, while he blesses them with both material and spiritual gifts; how the friends brave all things, endure all things and bear all trials to gain the briefest visit to him; how his enemies bow and bend like willows before the gentle forgiveness of his look; how no soul can enter and leave his presence without being changed—for better, or for worse. Each one, coming within the calm gaze of his eyes, finds a search-light of self-conviction piercing the inmost depths of his being. It needs not a voice to tell him of his life. Before that look, the heart of each becomes his own accuser, and he can well repeat the words of the woman of Samaria: “Come see a man which told me all that ever I did.” (John 4:29.) But when such an one, walking in the valley of despair, pressed down with his own unworthiness, hears the tender words of His Love, he is lifted up and joyfully ascends the mountains of exaltation.
Who is he? What is he? Whence this wonderful
charm that melts the hearts of the friends and stills the
roaring of enemies? From his youth he has been an exile.
The whole of his life has been passed among the poor, the
despised, the hated, in contact with poverty and worldly
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wretchedness. Yet the rich bow before him, equally with
the poor. He is no “respecter of persons” but treats all
alike, pouring out his wealth of love to the utmost capacity
of each to receive it. He is numbered with the oppressed
but is honored and loved beyond any of the mighty of the
earth. 7
Scholars, scientists, theologians and students from the seats of learning of the world, of every race, religion and clime, ply him with questions, and his simple answers have satisfied — or confounded them. Whence came such knowledge? He has never been enrolled in the schools. His only Teacher has been—his Father. His only books —the writings that were claimed to be Sacred Scriptures. There is no man living that can say: I taught him.
His own writings, spreading like white-winged doves
from the Center of His Presence to the ends of the earth,
are so many (hundreds pouring forth daily) that it is an
impossibility for him to have given time to them for searching thought or to have applied the mental processes of the
scholar to them. They flow like streams from a gushing
fountain, bearing treasures of knowledge and wisdom, and
bringing the waters of Life to thirsty souls everywhere in
the wilderness of earth. They satisfy the intellects and
pierce the hearts of men the world around, and many are
they who have told us that, in the “Tablets” received from
“The Master,” it is proved that He knew their secret conditions and touched the pulses of their inmost thoughts
and desires. It is evident that ‘“ He knows.” Who “knows?”
Is it the man—Asput-Bauwa Appas? Indeed, who can
know save the One who knows all things—the Omniscient
—the Holy Spirit of God?
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Who can thus attract the love and confidence of the simple, the children, the poor and afflicted, and give them joy in their troubles, but the Comforter—the Spirit of God?
Who, like a blazing Sun of Righteousness, can burn conviction of sin and need into the depths of the human soul, save the Holy Spirit of God?
Who, like a mighty Magnet of Love, can so melt and draw the hearts of men, except the gentle, overwhelming Spirit of God?
Who can shine into the caverns of ignorance, disperse the darkness of superstition, and quench the cold lights of false doctrine, save the dawning Sun of Truth, the Manifestation of the Spirit of God?
That Holy Spirit has revealed the Beauty and Majesty of God in all time through the mouths and lives of His Prophets and Chosen Ones. In this Day of days Its Glory has shone forth like the lightning from the East even unto the West: It has thundered the Truth of God in Words of irresistible power: It has disclosed the hidden things of the ages: It has invited man to enter the heavens of Intimacy with God and the Shekinah of His Love. For forty years It spoke and wrote the commands of the Father through His Mighty Manifestation — Bana’u’LLAu. (Glory and praise be unto Him!)
He has ascended and placed the planted garden of His
Spiritual Kingdom in the care of His Son, the Branch, the
Master, the Center of the Covenant, Asput-Baua. He
is the Liver of the Word, the Exemplar of the life commanded by the Father: He is the Leader of men, traveling
the Path before them and proving, through all suffering and
indignity, the joy and glory of treading the Way of God.
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He can say with One of old: “My father worketh hitherto, and I work.” (Jno. 5:17.) He is without blame, pure and righteous, and yet of all men the most humble and the servant of all. He is as gracious to the pauper as to the potentate, to the child as to the patriarch. His one claim is to be Abdul-Baha—the Servant of God.
One who lived nineteen centuries ago, our Lord, Jesus Christ, said: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” In that time the Spirit speaking through him, said: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” In this time the Spirit, speaking through the Servant of God, Apput-Bana, says: “Come unto me, O ye children of men! Come unto me, O ye who are thirsty, and drink from this Sweet Water which is descending in torrents upon all parts of the globe. Now is the time! Now is the time! While the rays of the Sun of Truth are still shining and the ‘Center of the Covenant of God’ is manifest, let us go forth to work; for, after awhile, the night will come and the way to the Vineyard will not then be so easy to find.”
This is the invitation of the Master. It is the Spirit of God ever calling, now as then: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,Come. And let him that is athirst, Come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
THORNTON CHASE. �
