[602] Page 28.
[603] "Fifty-three Years in Syria," p. 687.
XII
Bahaism in America
I speak from the point of view of Persian Bahaism and not from that American fantasy which bears its name.—Nicolas, "Béyan Persan," Vol. I, p. II.
Abbas is an elderly and venerable man, very similar to a score of venerable Druse and Moslem Sheikhs I have met.... The Lord deliver them (American Christians) from the delirious blasphemies.... The claim that the Acca Sheikh is God is quite enough to condemn them.—H. H. Jessup, "Fifty-three Years in Syria," p. 638.
Pray for my return to America and say: O Baha Ullah! Confirm Him in the servitude of the East; so that He may not spend all his time in the Orient; that He may return to America and occupy His time in the Western world.—Prayer of Bahais.
It is doubtless this mystical, allegorical character of Bahaism which attracts a certain type of mind in America, in the main probably, the same type which follows after spiritualism, esoteric Buddhism, Swamis from India, theosophy, and other movements which play around the edges of the occult and magical, and help to dull the edge of present realities with the things which are neither present nor real.... Indeed it is probably this soft compliance with anything and the absence of the robustness of definite truth and solid principle which makes Bahaism attractive to many moral softlings in the West.... It will run a brief course and amount to little in America.... The novelty will soon be over and the people who did not have sufficient discernment to discover the truth that will satisfy them in Christianity, will not find it in Baha Ullah or Abbas Effendi.—R. E. Speer, "Miss. and Mod. Hist.," Vol. I, pp. 143, 162-168.
BAHAISM, as distinguished from Babism, was, to a certain extent, introduced to public notice in America by Christian missionaries, who reported about it as a movement likely to break the solidarity of Shiahism and facilitate the evangelization of Persia. With the same thought in mind, Professor Browne's translations of "The New History" and "The Traveller's Narrative" attracted attention. In the Congress of Religions, at the Chicago Exposition in 1893, the eminent missionary, Rev. H. H. Jessup, D. D., described Baha Ullah as "a famous Persian sage,—the Babi saint, named Baha Ullah (the glory of God), the head of that vast reform party of Persian Moslems, who accept the New Testament as the word of God and Christ as the deliverer of men; who regard all nations as one and all men as brothers."[604] Shortly after the Exposition a Syrian, named Ibrahim G. Kheiralla, began a propaganda in favour of Bahaism. He was of Christian parentage, born in Mount Lebanon, and educated in Beirut College. At Cairo, under the tutelage of Mirza Karim of Teheran, he accepted the Bahai faith. He was engaged in business, to which he joined faith healing and lecturing. He was given a fake degree of Doctor of something by a night school in Chicago. This he rightly despised, but considered that he was entitled to the degree because M. Mohammed Ali had addressed him as Doctor! I had several interviews with him. He showed me a trunk full of Bahai manuscripts and documents, and allowed me to read his translation into English of the "Kitab-ul-Akdas." He is a man of strong mind, acute argumentative faculties, fine conversational powers and altogether an interesting personality. He first taught Bahaism in secret lessons, as a religion of mysteries, a secret order, a doctrine for truth-seekers only, not for the masses. "The secret teaching gives us the key to the truth."[605]
Mr. S. K. Vatralsky was among the private pupils at Kenosha. He did not become a believer, but learned the esoteric doctrine and published an interesting account of the cult under the title, "Mohammedan Gnosticism in America."[606] Of the method used he writes, "In their secret lessons they allegorize and explain away; in public by means of mental reservation and the use of words in a double sense, they appear as they wish to appear." Doctor Kheiralla published in 1897 a booklet called "Bab-ed-Din, The Door of the True Religion—Revelation from the East." It has two parts (1) On the Individuality of God and (2) A Refutation of the Christian doctrine of the atonement. Later (1900), in conjunction with Mr. Howard MacNutt, he published "Beha Ullah" in two volumes. It is the theology and apologetics of Bahaism. Its Preface informs us that its purpose is to "demonstrate that the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, has appeared in human form and established His kingdom on earth." The propaganda met with considerable success in Chicago and its vicinity. In 1897 Doctor Kheiralla went to New York City and in a short time "140 souls" were persuaded. In this same year two of his pupils were married in his house in Chicago, receiving his blessing. These were Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Getsinger. They "taught seekers" in Ithaca, N. Y., and afterwards in California. There they converted Mrs. H——, a woman of great wealth, to the faith. Mr. Vatralsky narrates that Doctor Kheiralla converted no less than 2,000 Americans during the first two years of his labour. Of these 700 were living in Chicago (Doctor Kheiralla told me 840), between 250 and 300 in Wisconsin, about 400 in New York, the rest in Boston, etc. In his "Beha Ullah" Doctor Kheiralla says, "Over seven years ago I began to preach the message. Since then thousands of people of this country have believed and accepted the glad tidings of the appearance of the Lord of Hosts, the Incarnation of Deity, and the glorious message is rapidly spreading in the United States." Speaking of this period Mr. Vatralsky writes: "It would not have had its success, had it come flying its own native colours. It has succeeded because, like a counterfeit coin, it has passed for what it is not."
A curious incident occurred on May 6, 1906. Mr. August J. Stenstrand was exscinded from the "First Central Church of the Manifestation," because he rejected Baha Ullah and accepted Subh-i-Azal. He was led to this step by investigating the history as recorded in Professor Browne's translations. He subsequently published three pamphlets, "Calls to Behaists" (1907, 1910, 1913) setting forth the claims of Azal. I had interesting interviews with him in 1914.