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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."
By Howard Colby Ives · 1937 · George Ronald
Formative Age (1921–1957) · in copyright
Howard Colby Ives' memoir of his encounters with 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1912. Use brief paraphrases only.
About Howard Colby Ives
American Unitarian minister who became a Bahá'í after extended encounters with 'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York during the Master's 1912 tour. *Portals to Freedom* is his memoir of those meetings.
1867–1941
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A man crossed the whole city to ask 'Abdu'l-Bahá one big question — and got his answer in a way he never expected.
A boy stood at the edge of a crowd, sure that no one would notice him — until 'Abdu'l-Bahá lifted His hand and called him something beautiful, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Lua crossed a whole ocean hoping to do something great for 'Abdu'l-Bahá — and the small, hard task He gave her turned out to be the greatest thing of all.
A tired man carried a heavy worry he had never said out loud — and over a small cup of tea, 'Abdu'l-Bahá answered the very question hiding in his heart.
On a sunny Sunday in a little garden, 'Abdu'l-Bahá bent low over the lilies and laughed with the children — and a man named Howard never forgot how that afternoon smelled.
A minister in Brooklyn loved listening to 'Abdu'l-Bahá so much that one Sunday he invited Him to speak from his very own pulpit — and his church was never the same again.
On the evening before 'Abdu'l-Bahá sailed away from America, a man named Howard sat close to Him and heard the most important thing he would ever try to remember.
A man climbed the stairs of a tall hotel with a long list of hard questions in his pocket — and discovered that the answer he truly needed was waiting for him in a single, warm hello.
A man knelt for one last blessing and placed 'Abdu'l-Bahá's hand on his own head — and what he felt taught him what true greatness really is.
After a long day of talking to crowd after crowd, 'Abdu'l-Bahá came home so tired He had to be helped inside — and then, fifteen minutes later, His strong voice rang out again.
A group of friends in New York sat talking and planning, until 'Abdu'l-Bahá stopped at the door and asked them one small question they never forgot.
A poor boy from the roughest part of New York came to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá, sure that no one would notice him. He was wrong — 'Abdu'l-Bahá noticed him most of all.
On a long, rattling streetcar ride, a man noticed a stranger reading over his shoulder — so he tilted his book to share it. By the end of the ride, everything had changed for her.
A lady looked out her window and saw 'Abdu'l-Bahá do something surprising for a poor old man on the street.
Friends came from a dozen faraway countries to one happy wedding — and 'Abdu'l-Bahá told them all the secret of the strongest power in the whole world.
A Unitarian minister who had spent his life hungry for a reality his own theology could not give him met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York in 1912. Recognition did not strike him like lightning; it dawned, slowly and against his own resistance, over months of inner struggle — until the light he had been looking for all his life rose at last, and he walked out of one ministry into another.
Howard Colby Ives crossed New York to ask 'Abdu'l-Bahá one earnest question about renunciation. The Master seemed to talk of everything but that — until, in His room, He turned and asked the question back. A retelling from Portals to Freedom.
In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives recalls a moment in New York in 1912 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá publicly greeted a Black boy in a crowd with the loud, unmistakable proclamation that he was *a black rose* — a phrase that, in the racially stratified America of the day, was a small revolution.
Lua Getsinger had crossed an ocean to sit at the feet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the prison-city of 'Akka. She longed to serve Him — and the task He gave her was not the one she expected. A retelling from Howard Colby Ives's Portals to Freedom.
In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives recounts an evening in May 1912 when, having sat through one of the great public meetings, he was invited into the Master's private room for a small cup of tea — and a quiet conversation that addressed, without his having spoken them, the very fears he had carried in.
In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives describes a Sunday afternoon in 1912 when 'Abdu'l-Bahá received the believers in a small New Jersey garden — and the way the smell of lilies, the ordinary furniture of the house, and the laughter of children combined into what Ives later called the *fragrance* of the Cause.
In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives describes the Sunday morning in 1912 when he invited 'Abdu'l-Bahá to speak from his own Unitarian pulpit in Brooklyn — and the strange experience of standing in his own church and watching his own congregation be addressed by the man whose presence had reorganised his ministry from within.
In one of the closing chapters of *Portals to Freedom,* Howard Colby Ives describes the gathering on December 2, 1912, in the days before 'Abdu'l-Bahá sailed from America. The Master's parting counsel — to manifest complete love and to count no soul beneath one's own — fell on Ives, he writes, like a *stream of spiritual energy* he could almost not bear.
When the ragged boys of the Bowery came to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá, one of them — a Black boy of about thirteen — hung back at the edge of the room. What the Master did next no one present ever forgot. A retelling from Howard Colby Ives's Portals to Freedom.
Howard Colby Ives was reading on a crowded trolley to Newark when a young woman beside him began, silently, to read along. By journey's end her whole face had changed. A gentle retelling from Portals to Freedom.
In *Portals to Freedom* Howard Colby Ives describes the first morning in April 1912 when, summoned to the Ansonia Hotel in New York, he climbed the stair and entered the room where 'Abdu'l-Bahá was receiving — and found that all the arguments of his Unitarian ministry suddenly fell silent.
On a summer day in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself rose to bless the marriage of two believers, with friends gathered from a dozen cities of the world. A warm retelling from Howard Colby Ives's Portals to Freedom.
At the last farewell aboard the ship, Howard Colby Ives knelt and placed 'Abdu'l-Bahá's hand upon his own head. What he felt in that hand — and saw in that face — became his lasting picture of true humility. A retelling from Portals to Freedom.
After a day of speaking that would have flattened a younger man, 'Abdu'l-Bahá returned so exhausted He had to be helped from the car. Fifteen minutes later His voice rang out, stronger than ever. A retelling from Howard Colby Ives's Portals to Freedom.
'Abdu'l-Bahá sat quietly through half an hour of an 'executive committee' meeting in New York. Then He rose, paused at the door, and asked one gentle question that the members never forgot. A retelling from Howard Colby Ives's Portals to Freedom.
A woman watching from her inn window saw 'Abdu'l-Bahá call back a shabby old man from the street — and quietly give away the clothes off His own body. A retelling from Howard Colby Ives's Portals to Freedom.
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