One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, an interpreter, and Howard Colby Ives, at that time a…

One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, an interpreter, and Howard Colby Ives, at that time a Unitarian minister, were alone in a reception room. Colby Ives later wrote: '‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been speaking of some Christian doctrine and His interpretation of the words of Christ was so different from the accepted one that I could not restrain an expression of remonstrance. I remember speaking with some heat: "How is it possible to be so sure?" I asked.

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"No one can say with certainty what Jesus meant after all these centuries of misinterpretation and strife." 'He intimated that it was quite possible. 'It is indicative of my spiritual turmoil and my blindness to His station, that instead of His serenity and tone of authority impressing me as warranted it drove me to actual impatience. "That I cannot believe," I exclaimed. 'I shall never forget the glance of outraged dignity the interpreter cast upon me.

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It was as though he would say: "Who are you to contradict or even to question ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?" 'But not so did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá look at me. How I thank God that it was not! He looked at me a long moment before He spoke. His calm, beautiful eyes searched my soul with such love and understanding that all my momentary heat evaporated.

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He smiled as winningly as a lover smiles upon his beloved, and the arms of His spirit seemed to embrace me as He said softly that I should try my way and He would try his.'

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