A continuation from Juliet’s story about the children (see yesterday’s post): "But the very next day another picture, of very different children, was superimposed upon this.
I had been with the Master all morning. (Later I will write of the morning.) In the afternoon around three o'clock I returned with Rhoda Nichols only to meet Him just going out with the Persians. He smiled, then walked swiftly toward the river, but Ahmad, dropping behind, called to Rhoda and me: "Come along with us to the Harrises'." We should have known better than to go, for the Master had not invited us, but we couldn't resist the temptation. So we followed up Riverside Drive, then West End Avenue, till we came to Ninety-Fifth Street, where Mr and Mrs Harris live. A tenement house neighborhood.
As we approached Ninety-Fifth Street, there we saw them: the different children. There must have been nearly a hundred of them, playing in the street with their hoops and balls. But, when the Master drew near, all shining white in His long flowing robes, they immediately stopped playing. It all happened instantaneously. The next moment they had fallen into formation and were marching down the street behind Him (we had turned east toward Central Park), some of them still rolling their hoops. Without one word they followed, their little faces almost solemn. They made me think of a real and beautiful Children's Crusade.
We came to the house where the Harrises live and walked up five steep flights, but when Mrs Harris opened her apartment door and Rhoda and I saw a table inside set only for the Master and the Persians, we backed away terribly embarrassed and lost no time in getting downstairs. After all, we couldn't have foreseen a luncheon at three o'clock!
When we opened the street door, there were the children again, surrounding the house, silently looking up at it. A little yellow-haired girl came running up the stoop to me. She seemed to be the spokesman for the others. Breathlessly she asked: "Please, ma'am, tell us. Is He Christ?"
I sat down on the stoop while the whole crowd of children swarmed and pushed around me. "I will tell you all about Him," I said. Then I whispered to Rhoda: "Go upstairs again, dear, and let the Master know what is happening."
She returned with a wonderful message from the Master, an invitation to all the children to come to a feast to be given specially for them at the Kinneys' house next Sunday.
__________
And now just a word about the morning. Georgie Ralston and Mrs Brittingham, Lua, and I were together in the Master's room. As I sat there I felt something of the Mystery of His Divinity. The day was very hot and His sleeves were rolled up and I saw on His arms the scars of chains.
When the others left He kept me.
"I come to Your Presence, my Lord," I said, "to be cured of my spiritual ills."
"Your pure heart," the Master answered, "is a magnet for the Divine feelings."
He spoke of my mother and sent her some fruit. "Your mother," He said, "is very dear to me. You cannot imagine how I love your mother."
Then He laughed and asked: "How is Dr Grant?"
"I don't know, my Lord. I haven't seen him. I'm afraid I hurt him the last time we met."
"What did you do?"
"I refused to go into his house with him."
"How is he with Us?"
"I don't know."
"I want to see him. Is this possible?"
"Yes, I am sure. I will telephone to him."
"Tell him I am longing to see him, longing to see him," repeated the Master smiling.
I knelt and kissed His robe, looking up so happy, so grateful, while He looked down and laughed at me.
That night I telephoned to Percy. "I am the bearer of a message to you," I said, "from the Master. He asked this morning if I had seen you lately and said He wanted to see you. 'Tell Dr Grant I am longing to see him,' He said."
"That was very beautiful of Him. Give Him my cordial greetings. Tell him how happy I am that He thought of me. I can't tell you at this moment, Juliet, when I can go. I hope tomorrow afternoon. I have a wedding at half-past four. After that, perhaps."
"Well, I will give you the Master's telephone number and you can call His house about it, unless you prefer to have me arrange it."
"I should rather do it through you."
Saying he would let me know in the morning, he bade me goodbye; then, "I give you my loving salutations."
The next morning, however, when he called me up, he was in another state of mind. "Tell the Master," he said, "I have so many human engagements just now. I am going up to Greenwich after the wedding. (Greenwich is Alice Flagler's home.) "But I want to run in to see you this morning, if I may."
I went to my room and prayed. I was on my knees when he came. Not that he found me on them!
"To come straight to the point, Percy," I said, "I hope you will go to see the Master."
"I'm going to see the Master, only I can't today."
"Oh that is all right," I said, brightening. "I didn't understand."
We talked about other things and then Katherine Berwind dropped in. Percy spent the morning with us, leaving us for a little while to return with bottles of ginger ale and grape juice which he mixed into a drink for us. When he finally left about noon I followed him out of the studio.
"What message have you," I asked, "for the Master?"
He swore! It was a very mild swear, but he coupled the Master's name with it, so I can't repeat it.
"I believe you love Him," he said fiercely, "more than anything on earth."
"I do."
"More than your art," he added quickly.
"But of course."
"Well, you shouldn't. With your talent, Juliet, you could do immortal work. Do you never think of that?"
“I am thinking of His immortal work in us."
"He has done it, in you!"
"Not yet."
"Juliet, I have wanted to co-operate with Him. You know that. But I don't believe He can do this thing alone."
"I believe He is perfectly able to do it alone."
"You do?"
"He changes the hearts and nobody else can do that. Well, what message shall I take to Him?"
"Tell Him with my greeting that I will come up some time to see Him, but I am out of town a great deal, most of the time, and--"
"Can't you do any better than that?" I asked.
"I want to do something for His comfort and when Mr Flagler's yacht comes back I want to take Him up the Hudson. I will be in town Friday, Juliet."
"Then come up on Friday to see Him with me. Please come. You know I don't often persist, but this time--forgive me if I do."
"I think it is beautiful of you to persist in this instance, Juliet." With the face of a martyr he kissed my hand. "I will come Friday."
And, looking unspeakably miserable, he left me."
Terrible, to think of scars of chains upon the Master. We somehow expect the Manifestation to bear the lot of grief for humankind--to be a ransom. But Abdu'l-Baha in His divine humanness--we do not expect to have suffered so much. What a close relationship Juliet has--to see Him with such proximity!
Terrible, to think of scars of chains upon the Master. We somehow expect the Manifestation to bear the lot of grief for humankind--to be a ransom. But Abdu'l-Baha in His divine humanness--we do not expect to have suffered so much. What a close relationship Juliet has--to see Him with such proximity!
[Mahmud has an entry marked the 11th but the events actually occurred on the 12th, which concur with Juliet's account.]
No comments:
Post a Comment