Impressions on ‘Abdu’l-Baha

Master in Montreal

Source: Montreal Daily Star |Gazette

On 2 September 1912, the {Montreal Daily Star} reported:

‘{Persian Preacher in Flowing Robes calls for Unity}. Clad in flowing robes, and with a turbaned head, the great Persian apostle of peace, Abdul Baha, made a majestic appearance in the Church of the Messiah Sunday morning when he preached his message urging the oneness of religion and the doing away with strife and hatred over imaginary things…'[3]

………. [3. Montreal Daily Star, 2 Sept. 1912, p. 2]

On the same day, the {Gazette} stated, under the headline {‘Racialism Wrong, says Eastern Sage’}:

………. Both in matter and in style the message which was delivered in the Church of the Messiah yesterday morning by Abdul Baha, the Oriental prophet, was unique, and it had a picturesque setting all its own. A venerable looking figure, with a long white beard, just streaked with a dark shade… The chief points brought out by the speaker were the equality of the human race and the unnaturalness of the division of nations and countries, the horror of religious or any warfare whatever, and the equality of the sexes.

………. In introducing Abdul Baha, Rev. F. R. Grillin said he came not to unfold a fresh mystery or to teach a new theology, and much less to establish a new church. ‘The strangest part of all about him is that nothing is strange. He seeks to be the embodiment of that which is most natural. Is this not turning back to religion itself? Venerable in years, he is young as a child in the purity of his outlook on life; disciplined by long years in prison, his spirit has never yet been crucified by pain.'[4]

………. [4. {Gazette}, 2 Sept. 1912, p. 6]

The editor of the {Montreal Daily Star}, John Lewis, visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the evening of his arrival in Montreal. On 6 September the following editorial concerning ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appeared in that newspaper: ‘It was out of the East that the Wise Men came who first did homage at the cradle of the Prince of Peace; still it seems strange that two thousand years later the East must send another wise man to remind us of the Western World who are nominally pledged to His service, what His gospel is.'[5]

………. [5. Montreal Daily Star, 6 Sept. 1912, p. 12]

In an editorial published after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s departure from Montreal, the same newspaper stated: ‘In a word, Abdul Baha is the great protagonist of peace in the world today. To bring about its accomplishment is the practical corollary of the two tenets which are the foundation of his creed — the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.'[6]

………. [6. Montreal Daily Star, 11 Sept. 1912, p. 12]