Bahaism and Its Claims Part 17

[426] _Ibid._, pp. 49, 50.

[427] Phelps, p. 13.

[428] "Beha Ullah," p. 411.

[429] "Trav.'s Narr.," p. 53.

[430] _Ibid._, p. 323.

[431] _S. W._, Oct. 16, 1913, p. 210.

[432] _Ibid._, July 13, 1913, p. 118.

[433] _Ibid._, Sept. 18, 1912.

[434] "Some Answered Questions," p. 37.

[435] Pages 77, 78.

[436] Page 63.

[437] "Tablets of Abdul Baha," Vol. I, p. 46.

[438] _S. W._, May 17, 1911, p. 6.

[439] Mrs. Templeton (previously Mrs. Laurence Oliphant), in "Facts for Behaists," tells of the unrighteousness of Abbas Effendi (Abdul Baha) in keeping from his brothers and stepmothers the pension money of the Turkish Government and the revenue of Baha's villages, and of his ostentatious charity in giving away part of these funds by distributing coins to a mixed crowd of beggars every Friday.

[440] _S. W._, May 17, 1913, p. 74.

[441] "Tablets of Abdul Baha," Vol. I, p. 44.

[442] _S. W._, _Ibid._, p. 67.

[443] _Ibid._, Sept. 8, 1912, p. 5.

[444] Phelps, p. 66.

[445] _Ibid._, p. 70.

[446] This house was purchased by an American Bahai lady, that it might remain in Bahai hands.

[447] "Bahai Proofs," by Abul Fazl, p. 66. Remey, p. 23.

[448] Mrs. Grundy, p. 73 ff., "Ten Days," etc., speaks of the Palace of Joy as a very large white mansion. Professor Browne was received here (1890). He was conducted through a s.p.a.cious hall, paved with a mosaic of marble, into a great antechamber, and entered through a lifted curtain into a large Audience Room.

Of the Garden of Baha, Sprague ("A Year in India," etc., p. 1) says, "It is a veritable garden of Eden, with luxuriant foliage and every fruit.

Baha Ullah used to sit under the large spreading tree and teach his disciples." Mrs. Grundy says, "The Rizwan is filled with palm trees, oranges, lemons and wonderful flowers. A river, the Nahr Naaman, runs through it, in two streams, on which ducks and other fowls swim. On an island is an arbour under two large mulberry trees. A fountain plays in the midst. Under the arbour is a chair where Baha used to sit. No one sits in it any more. (Mrs. Grundy knelt at the foot of the chair.) The garden has a cottage, where Baha spent his summers." A Palace and a luxurious summer place were Baha's "Most Great Prison" during most of his years at Acca. Compare Laurence Oliphant's "Haifa," etc., p. 103, for a fine description of his "pleasure ground." How unfounded are such statements as Bernard Temple's (_S. W._, p. 39, April 28, 1914). "All this while the founders were behind prison walls."

[449] Phelps, p. 75.

[450] _Ibid._, p. 80.

[451] Dr. H. H. Jessup, who visited him in 1900, writes (New York _Outlook_, June, 1901), "Abbas Effendi has two houses in Haifa, one for his family, in which he entertains the American lady pilgrims, and one down town where his Persian followers meet him."

[452] Abbas Effendi in Acca at this time visited Mr. Remey ("Bahai Movement," p. 108). He received American pilgrims. Mrs. Goodall ("Daily Lessons," p. 6) speaks of "His bountifully spread table," the laughter and good cheer, and (p. 13) remarks, "One would never realize he was visiting a Turkish prison."

[453] Doctor Shedd says, "Concealment of religious faith is a common practice in Persia, and it is approved and recommended by Bahais."

[454] Phelps, p. 101.

[455] New York _Outlook_.

[456] _S. W._, March 2, 1914.

[457] Phelps, p. x.x.xi.

[458] "Le Beyan Persan" (Paris), Introduction xvi.-xxiv., by A. L. M.

Nicolas.

[459] "New Hist.," p. 252.

[460] "Trav.'s Narr.," p. 252.

[461] S. M. Jordan, of Teheran, says ("The Mohammedan World," Cairo, p.

130), "We are honestly open in our methods, while they are the reverse."

Doctor Shedd says, "Christian Mission work is openly Christian, that of Persian Bahais is professedly Mohammedan." "Bahaism, as offered to a Jew, a Christian or a Mohammedan, varies greatly."

[462] _Missionary Review_, October, 1911.

[463] Phelps, p. 154.

[464] Miss A. Montgomery, in _Woman's Work_, 1913, p. 270, says of these Bahais, "This sect of Moslems, thirty years ago, were afraid to appear to be what they really were, they exercised the privilege of falsehood their deceitful faith grants them, and called themselves Christians."

[465] A European Jew reports as follows (1914), "The Jewish Bahais in Hamadan are few in number (exactly fifty-nine besides children). They have not yet broken with Judaism. They go to the Synagogue and follow outwardly our religious practices. They deny _in public_ that they are Bahais from fear of the Mussulmans, who detest the new religion. But the continual attacks of the Bahais against the Jews will exasperate our co-religionists, who will cast them out finally. At present the practical result is hatred and disdain, and bitter dissensions between fathers and sons, sisters and brothers, husband and wife."

[466] Phelps, p. 96. The Report of the Bahais to the United States Census Board says, "One may be a Bahai and still retain active membership in another religious body."

[467] Remey's "The Bahai Movement," p. 97.

[468] Bahaism says, "Christians who do not believe in the Koran have not believed Christ."

[469] The name of the Society has been changed to the "Orient Occident Unity," and a commercial department added. Its contributions are acknowledged, and its work reported through the _Star of the West_ as Bahai work. An American, who imported a machine flour-mill to Persia, under its auspices, told the Consul that the object of his coming was not the mill but propagating Bahaism. In the _Jam-i-Jamsied_, Calcutta, March 28, 1914, Dr. E. C. Getsinger boasts to the Pa.r.s.ees, "The American Bahais have established schools in Persia, and have sent American teachers to those schools."

[470] "Words of Paradise," p. 53.

[471] "The Universal Religion," p. 139.

[472] "Observations of a Bahai Traveller," 1908, p. 77.