The Greatest Power

*A retelling for children, based on **Portals to Freedom** by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937). The words in quotation marks are 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own, from a talk He gave at Green Acre, Maine, on 16 August 1912 (published in The Promulgation of Universal Peace), which Ives placed at the head of his chapter about the wedding.*

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On 17 July 1912, in New York, two Bahá'ís named Harlan Ober and Grace Robarts were married. That morning 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself joined them in marriage according to the law of Bahá'u'lláh. In the evening a minister named Howard Colby Ives performed a second ceremony, so that the marriage would also follow the law of the land.

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The room was full of guests, and they had come from many parts of the world: from Paris, Berlin and London, from Tehran and Bombay, from Baku and Haifa. There were Black and white Americans, rich people and poor people. Howard felt that East and West had come together in that room.

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'Abdu'l-Bahá wore a cream-colored robe and a fez of the same color. After the ceremony He stood up, raised His hands, closed His eyes and chanted a prayer in Persian for the bride and groom.

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Howard did not understand Persian. But as he listened, he felt as if he understood, so strongly that when the interpreter translated the prayer into English, it came as a surprise. Of everything that happened that evening, the prayer was what he remembered best.

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A month later, in a talk at Green Acre in Maine, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke about love as the power that draws human hearts together. He said:

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> It is, therefore, evident that in the world of humanity the greatest king and sovereign is love.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["The Greatest Sovereign Is Love"](/stories/pf-the-greatest-sovereign-is-love).*

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