Howard Colby Ives struggled for several months to understand the

Howard Colby Ives struggled for several months to understand the reality of ‘Abdu’l- Bahá's message. He was the pastor of the Brotherhood Unitarian church in Jersey City. He had organized the church in mid-1911, but by late 1912, the church was in financial trouble and he was forced to close it. Ives wrote to ‘Abdu’l- Bahá about this and about his growing interest in the Faith.

1 / 2

The Master turned Ives anxiousness about the failure of his church into opportunity: "In brief: be thou not unhappy. This event has happened so that thou mayest become freed of all other at occupations, day and night thou mayest call the people to the Kingdom; spread the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh; inaugurate the Era of the New Life; promulgate the reality, and be sanctified and purified from all save God. It is my hope that thou mayest become as such.

2 / 2