The Book on the Trolley

*A retelling based on **Portals to Freedom** by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937), chapter 5. The narrative is retold in our own words; the lines in quotation marks are verbatim from the book. Read the [full text](https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom) for Ives's own telling.*

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In May 1912, a few days before 'Abdu'l-Bahá was to speak at Howard Colby Ives's Brotherhood Church in Jersey City, Ives took the trolley to Newark on business connected with the building of his church. As usual he had a Bahá'í book with him. This time it was *Some Answered Questions*, in which, as Ives described it, 'Abdu'l-Bahá discusses some of the most vital matters of the spiritual life, mainly from the standpoint of the Christian tradition.

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A young woman was sitting beside him, and Ives noticed that her eyes kept straying toward the book. He moved it slightly toward her, and for the hour-and-a-half ride to Newark they read it together. Neither spoke, but Ives could feel that she was deeply stirred.

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When they reached the city and he closed the book, she said:

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> I think that is the most wonderful book I ever saw. Won't you tell me, please, who is the author?

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Ives told her about 'Abdu'l-Bahá: His long years of exile and imprisonment for the sake of His love of Truth, His visit to America, and the talk He was to give at Ives's church in Jersey City the following Sunday evening. "I will surely be there," she said.

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She was. Ives saw her in the audience and spoke with her after the meeting. He wrote that he often wondered afterwards whether that spark became a flame.

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*A retelling based on **Portals to Freedom** (Howard Colby Ives, George Ronald, 1937), chapter 5. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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