Who Will Bell the Cat?

At Lake Mohonk, where He spoke to the Peace Conference in May 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was walking with a group of the friends one morning when they encountered a group of young people, to whom He told this story in relation to the effects of the Peace Conference:

Once the rats and mice held an important conference the subject of which was how to make peace with the cat. After a long and heated discussion it was decided that the best thing to do would be to tie a bell around the neck of the cat, so that the rats and mice would be warned of his movements and have time to get out of his way. This seemed an excellent plan until the question arose as to who should undertake the dangerous job of belling the cat. None of the rats liked the idea and the mice thought they were altogether too weak. So the conference broke up in confusion.

Everyone laughed, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with them. After a short pause He added that that is much like these Peace Conferences. Many words, but no one is likely to approach the question of who will bell the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Germany, the President of France and the Emperor of Japan. Faces were now more grave. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laughed again: “There is a Divine Club”, He said, “which shall break their power in pieces.”

Howard Colby Ives, who recorded the story, added: “Two years later the world war broke.”

Source: Howard Colby Ives, Portals to Freedom, ch. 13, “Some Divine Characteristics”; also Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, p. 131

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: peace).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/peace