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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."
12 stories in the library.
In Paris in 1901, Thomas Breakwell heard a voice in the wind say “Christ has come again!” He learned of Bahá'u'lláh from May Bolles, visited 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, and gave the rest of his short life to service.
In the summer of 1901 a young Englishman met May Bolles in Paris and within three days accepted the Bahá'í Faith. On pilgrimage to 'Akká he told 'Abdu'l-Bahá that the mill he worked for relied on child labour, and resigned at the Master's word.
Returning to Paris from her 1898–99 pilgrimage to 'Akká, May Bolles established, at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's instruction, the first Bahá'í centre on the European continent, where Thomas Breakwell, Hippolyte Dreyfus and Laura Barney came to the Faith.
Kept in Paris at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's wish, May Maxwell met Thomas Breakwell and gave him the Message. On the evening of the day he wrote his supplication to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a cablegram arrived for her: ‘You may leave Paris.’
Grieve thou not over the ascension of my beloved Breakwell, for he hath risen unto a rose garden of splendours within the Abhá Paradise, sheltered by the mercy of his mighty Lord, and he is crying at the top of his voice …
O thou who art rejoiced by the Divine Glad-tidings! Verily I have received thy last letter and thanked God that thou didst reach Paris protected and guarded (by Him).
From Paris, the ailing Thomas Breakwell wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through Dr Yúnis Khán, refused to leave his post, asked the Master to pray for his parents, and soon reported that his father had become a Bahá’í.
Thomas Breakwell died in June 1902, hardly a year after becoming a Bahá’í. Yúnis Khán recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him of the death, though no news of it had passed through his hands, and wrote a prayer of visitation for Breakwell.
On pilgrimage to ‘Akká, Thomas Breakwell told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that the cotton mills where he held his post were run on child labour; the Master told him to cable his resignation, and he gladly obeyed.
Ill with tuberculosis, Thomas Breakwell sent ever more joyful letters to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, never asked to be healed, and told the other patients he was not going to die but merely departing for the Kingdom of God.
Dr Yúnis Khán recalls how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, sensing a fragrance from one sealed envelope, had it opened first; it held a violet picked from Thomas Breakwell's grave, and the Master wept.