The Earth Is One Native Land: Farewell Aboard the SS Celtic

On the morning of the fifth of December, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stood on the deck of the SS *Celtic*, anchored in New York harbour, and prepared to leave America. He had arrived nine months earlier, in April, on the SS *Cedric*. In between He had crossed and recrossed the country — Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Montreal — speaking in churches, synagogues, hotels, universities, peace societies, slum settlements, and the parlours of friends.

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Now He was going home. The believers crowded round Him on the deck to hear His last words.

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> The earth is one native land, one home; and all mankind are the > children of one Father. God has created them, and they are the > recipients of His compassion. Therefore, if anyone offends another, > he offends God.

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The talk was a farewell, but its content was a charge. The Master called His listeners to become *brilliant lamps* casting light upon humanity. He warned them that nine months of His presence had been a gift; the work would now belong to them. True peace, He said, would not be brought about by treaties signed in Geneva. It would be brought about by ordinary believers, in ordinary cities, who had learned to live according to *the divine commandments of universal love and kindness toward all people, including one’s adversaries.*

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The ship’s whistle sounded. The friends went down the gangway one by one. From the rail the Master watched them gather on the dock, small and hopeful, looking up at Him as the *Celtic* began to draw out into the Atlantic. Many of them never saw Him again. But the sentence — *the earth is one native land* — went with them, and through them, into the long century He had left them to build.

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