Among the Poor of London and New York

Among the most touching contacts the Master had with the poor in the Occident were surely His visits to the Salvation Army headquarters in London and to the Bowery Mission in New York City. “On Christmas night, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited a Salvation Army Shelter in London where a thousand homeless men ate a special Christmas dinner.

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He spoke to them while they ate, reminding them that Jesus had been poor and that it was easier for the poor than the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The men sat enthralled. Some were so impressed that in spite of hunger and the special dinner before them they forgot to eat.

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When, on leaving, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave the warden of the Shelter money with which to buy a similar dinner on New Year's night, the men rose to their feet to cheer Him as He went, waving their knives and forks in the air. They little realized that He had experienced trials, hardship and suffering far greater than any they had known.”

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Before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went to the Bowery Mission, He asked friends to convert a thousand-franc note into quarters. At the Mission, in April 1912, He spoke most lovingly to the several hundred men who were present: “You must be thankful to God that you are poor, for His Holiness Jesus Christ has said ‘Blessed are the poor’; He never said Blessed are the rich.

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He said too that the kingdom is for the poor and that it is easier for a camel to enter a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.” And then He told them, “when Jesus Christ appeared it was the poor who first accepted Him, not the rich.” And later, “The rich are mostly negligent, inattentive, steeped in worldliness, depending upon their means whereas the poor are dependent upon God and their reliance is upon Him, not upon themselves.

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Therefore the poor are nearer the threshold of God and His throne.”

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He closed with characteristic humbleness, asking the men to accept Him as their servant. After the talk, He stood at the Mission Hall entrance. He took each hand and placed in each a number of coins—the price of a bed for the night.

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