A Celestial Mirror: 'Abdu'l-Bahá at Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper's

‘Abdu’l-Bahá had arrived in London a few days earlier, on the 4th of September, 1911 — the first ever visit of the Master to the West in His own person. By the 13th He was holding gatherings around the city, and on that evening He went to the home of Mrs. Annie Thornburgh-Cropper, one of the earliest English Bahá’ís, who had made pilgrimage to ‘Akká years before.

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The room was small and the listeners were few — devoted seekers, many of them women who had been quietly preparing for His coming. The Master spoke softly.

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> The Celestial Universe is so formed that the under world reflects > the upper world.

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Whatever exists in heaven, He explained, *is reflected in this phenomenal world.* The friends gathered there together that evening were not, He said, simply a small assembly in a London drawing room. They were *a reflection of the heavenly concourse; it is as though we had taken a mirror and had gazed into it.*

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He looked over the company and contrasted their aspiration with the ordinary aims of the city outside the door. Many in the world, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá noted, sought *conquest over others;* many others sought *rest and ease.* The friends in that room were doing something different. They desired *spirituality and for union with God.*

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The Master closed by blessing the gathering. He said He was *very happy to be with you all,* and expressed, with characteristic courtesy, His pleasure with *the English King and Government, and with the people,* and gratitude for the freedom which English law made possible — a freedom He had not known in His own land.

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The evening was short. But the believers who had been there spoke of it for the rest of their lives. They had seen, in His face, the mirror He had described.

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