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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
58 stories in the library.
In New York on 13 April 1912 a young single-taxer asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá what message to take to his friends. The Master laughed and told him that in the Kingdom of God there is plenty of land and no taxes.
On 13 May 1912, ill with a high fever, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá still went to speak at the New York Peace Society’s meeting at the Hotel Astor, telling Juliet Thompson that He worked by the confirmations of the Holy Spirit.
Before speaking at New York’s Bowery Mission in April 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had two thousand-franc notes changed into quarters, and He pressed a gift of silver into the hand of each man there.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá loved laughter. Once He laughed so heartily that His turban became disarranged; He told Juliet Thompson and May Maxwell that they rested Him, and He could not tell one joke for laughing.
After His release in 1908, American believers begged ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to visit. In 1911 He told Juliet Thompson that His invitation to America would be the unity of the believers.
At the Unity Feast in West Englewood in June 1912, a sudden storm broke just as the meal was announced. Juliet Thompson watched ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sit at a distant crossroad, His face upturned to the sky, until the clouds raced away.
Worn out after seeing a hundred and forty people and speaking at the Mortens’ home in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went up to rest, but crowds followed. When Juliet Thompson asked to shut the door, He gently said to let them come.
On pilgrimage in ‘Akká in 1909, Juliet Thompson stayed up late instead of resting as the Master had asked, and argued about whether the New York Assembly was united. The next morning ‘Abdu’l-Bahá looked deep into her eyes and took her hand in a clasp of love.
On a drive near Thonon in 1911, peasant children selling violets crowded around 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He bought all their flowers and gave to each child bountifully, and when they held out their hands for more, He gently said, "Tell them that they have taken."
Driving up Broadway with Juliet Thompson in April 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá smiled at the electric signs and told His companions that Bahá’u’lláh had loved light and had taught that it should be used freely.
Grieving over a family rift, Juliet Thompson’s mother went through a thunderstorm to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. His words of comfort took away her bitterness, and she regarded it as a miracle.
When Juliet Thompson asked about His daughter Rúḥá Khánum, who had been very ill, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said He had put her in the hands of the Blessed Perfection and no longer worried.
In April 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to several hundred men at the Bowery Mission and placed coins in each hand. The quarters left over He gave to a chambermaid, who later came to thank Him and to ask Him to pray for her.
In New York in June 1912, Valíyu’lláh Varqá told Juliet Thompson and Lua Getsinger how Bahá’u’lláh had taught his father, the poet Varqá, about the power of the Great Ether and the station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Driving back to Thonon in 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá stopped the car to sit above a spectacular waterfall and delighted in the beauty of the countryside. He then told Juliet Thompson that His invitation to America would be the unity of the believers.
In Geneva in 1911 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked Juliet Thompson whether she could come on to London, and she said her steamer ticket could not be exchanged. Back in New York, a Tablet reached her with a small sum of money: exactly the cost of the ticket.
In New York on 19 June 1912, while Juliet Thompson was painting His portrait, 'Abdu'l-Bahá opened His eyes and named Lua Getsinger the Herald of the Covenant, telling her to go forth and proclaim it.
In the summer of 1911 Juliet Thompson met two professors from New York near 'Abdu'l-Bahá on Lake Geneva. One lunched with Him and asked his questions; the other stayed away and watched from a window.
On 13 May 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá lay ill in New York with a high fever. Asked by Juliet Thompson whether He must still go to the peace meeting at the Hotel Astor, He answered that He worked by the confirmations of the Holy Spirit, and went.
In Haifa in July 1909 Juliet Thompson watched 'Abdu'l-Baha dictate Tablets. He answered a believer whose father had driven him out, and told Carrie Kinney, who had said nothing of her own trouble, that the reply was for her too.
In 'Akká in 1909 Juliet Thompson gave 'Abdu'l-Bahá her mother's wish that she give up teaching the Faith for her painting. He told her to do both, and gave her a message about her two arts to take home.
Haifa, 1909. When 'Abdu'l-Bahá left for 'Akká without her, Juliet Thompson spoke her submission to His Will aloud on Mount Carmel. His Tablet to her repeated the very words she had spoken there.
In 1912 Lua Getsinger, asked by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to go to California, walked through poison ivy so that she could not travel. He sent her an apple and a pomegranate to cure her, and she went.
Juliet Thompson, a painter with debts and a mother to care for, offered the proceeds of photographs of her 1912 portrait of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the House of Worship. The day before He sailed from New York, He told her to keep the money.
In Washington in 1912, while Juliet Thompson waited at Mrs Parsons' house, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told her that her heart, not her eloquence, was what taught, and promised that her tongue would be loosed.
In 'Akká in July 1909, some believers met to settle how the Master's station should be spoken of. At lunch that day 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke of Bahá'u'lláh's warnings to the kings and ended by declaring that His only name was 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
In New York in 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised Juliet Thompson again and again for her truthfulness, and in November He tested whether her heart was still in the same state.
At Thonon in 1911 Zillu's-Sultán, whose orders had sent Bahá'ís to their deaths, met 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who embraced him and told him never to think of the past again. Later one of the prince's sons wept over his family's deeds.
In April 1912, four years after the Ottoman Empire released 'Abdu'l-Bahá from prison, its ambassador in Washington gave a dinner in His honour, read Him a tribute, and walked Him to His carriage.
Juliet Thompson describes the Cedric reaching New York in April 1912, and Siyyid Asadu'lláh's report that 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed at His first sight of the Wall Street skyscrapers and called them the minarets of the West.
On 14 April 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave His first public address in America at New York's Church of the Ascension. Juliet Thompson recalls how He likened material civilization to a lamp's glass and spiritual civilization to its light.
At Thonon in 1911 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá embraced the exiled prince Ẓillu’s-Sulṭán, whose family had persecuted the Bahá’ís, and asked to meet his sons; the elder of them later became a Bahá’í.
On a drive near Thonon in August 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá bought violets from peasant children and stopped at a waterfall. When Juliet Thompson wished she could follow Him all her life, He told her to be happy in the present.
On 19 April 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke to three hundred homeless men at the Bowery Mission in New York, then stood at the end of the aisle and pressed coins into the hand of each man as he filed past.
In New York in April 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent for Juliet Thompson's grieving mother, who had opposed her daughter's work for the Faith, and comforted her. The next day she told Juliet that all her bitterness had gone.
At Thonon in August 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told Juliet Thompson, through His interpreter, that He bore witness to the purity of her heart and had sent for her out of nothing but affection.
At a Washington luncheon in April 1912, asked whether the spirit could heal broken bones, 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed that all the spirits in the air could not create a salad. Two days later, at the Turkish Embassy, He answered high praise very simply.
In June 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá sat for the painter Juliet Thompson in New York. At the first sitting, in a cramped and dark entrance hall, He asked her to paint His Servitude to God.
On 4 July 1909 'Abdu'l-Bahá took Juliet Thompson and other pilgrims to Bahjí, sat on the floor to sweeten the children's tea, led the pilgrims to the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh, and told them that the world is one.
In 'Akká in July 1909, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called Juliet Thompson to His room and asked for the messages she had brought from the American believers. She asked His prayers for her godchild, her brother and a friend.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá told the artist Juliet Thompson that, though she was not eloquent, she taught well, because her heart taught and her feeling made people ask what she had.
On an outing for the Master’s birthday, a group of boys in a Bronx park jeered at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and threw stones. He asked for the birthday cake, cut it into a piece for each boy, and they ran off happily.
In ‘Akká, Juliet Thompson told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá she was afraid she was not dressed well enough to meet the Persian believers. He answered that they do not look at the dress but at the heart.
At a Washington reception in April 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá congratulated Admiral Peary on reaching the North Pole and gently observed that, having found nothing there, he had relieved the public mind. Juliet Thompson recorded the scene.
While Juliet Thompson painted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s portrait in America, He told May Maxwell she had a kind heart, Lua Getsinger a tender heart and Juliet an emotional one, and said that united they would make a great heart.
The poet Kahlil Gibran, Juliet Thompson's neighbor, asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to sit for him and came to love Him deeply. Years later, seeing the Master on film, he wept before the gathering.
On a July morning in 1909 at Bahjí, 'Abdu'l-Bahá sat on the floor among four children, sweetened their tea and fed it to them. Later, looking out over the sea, He said that America and the Holy Land are one.
During her 1909 pilgrimage, Juliet Thompson, held back by shyness, was called to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s room. As she wept, He wiped away her tears and said to her, “Speak. Speak to Me!”
While Juliet Thompson was painting 'Abdu'l-Bahá's portrait in New York on June 19, 1912, the Master suddenly appointed Lua Getsinger the Herald of the Covenant and declared that He was the Covenant appointed by Bahá'u'lláh.
When Agnes Parsons asked whether the spirit could heal even broken bones, 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed that all the spirits in the air could not create a salad, yet the spirit of man can do far greater things.
After His visit to the Bowery Mission in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá emptied the leftover quarters into a hotel chambermaid's apron, and she resolved to give every cent of it away.
In New York in 1912 a grieving young woman told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that the more she trusted in God, the worse things became. He told her that to pray is to trust in God, and urged her to be a strong ship.
Asked how one should live, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered, “Be kind to everyone.” He told Juliet Thompson never to let anyone speak unkindly of another in her presence.
Juliet Thompson's diary records how, in April 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had her change a thousand-franc note into quarters for the men of New York's Bowery Mission, and how He gave the coins that were left to a hotel chambermaid.
In New York on 19 June 1912, as Juliet Thompson painted His portrait, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appointed Lua Getsinger the Herald of the Covenant and declared Himself the Covenant appointed by Bahá’u’lláh.
After Juliet Thompson lost her temper with her mother and stormed out, 'Abdu'l-Bahá greeted her by asking whether her mother was happy, and sent her straight home to her.
Learning that Juliet Thompson's mother was grieving, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent for her in the midst of a thunderstorm. Though exhausted, He welcomed and comforted her, and the next day she said all her bitterness had gone.
At the Bowery Mission in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed some four hundred of the city’s poorest men, shook every hand and placed coins in each palm; back at His hotel a moved chambermaid resolved to give as He had given.