Why Do You Not Execute?

*A retelling based on **Portals to Freedom** by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937), chapter 13. The narrative is retold in our own words; the words in quotation marks are from the book. Read the [full text](https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom) for Ives's own telling.*

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In the last days of His stay in America, a subject very close to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's heart was the station that the believers were called to attain by accepting the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. Howard Colby Ives, writing about those days, recalled a story told to him by one of the friends who had been at a meeting of the executive committee of the New York Spiritual Assembly.

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'Abdu'l-Bahá had been asked to be present. He listened to their deliberations for half an hour or so, then calmly rose to leave. At the door He paused and looked at the faces turned towards Him. After a moment of silence, He said that He had been told this was a meeting of the executive committee.

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"Yes, Master," said the Chairman.

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Then, He asked, why did they not execute?

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"Always was His emphasis upon deeds," Ives commented, deeds of a quality and purity that seemed to those who heard Him beyond reach. Yet He never lowered the standard. "And He set the example. There was no doubt of that." He never asked His followers to go anywhere He had not gone first.

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*A retelling based on **Portals to Freedom** (Howard Colby Ives, George Ronald, 1937), chapter 13. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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