October 1911: Howard Colby Ives' first encounter with the Baha'i Faith

It was in October of 1911 when there came to me those first stirrings of influences which were to change the course of my life. I picked up a copy of Everybody's Magazine from a casual bookstall and found therein a rather complete article concerning 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His projected visit to America. I shall never forget the thrill this somewhat commonplace story gave me-commonplace, I mean, in comparison with the reality of that story as future months were to unfold it to me. Again I heard the inner voice which since very early youth has come to me again and again: "Come along up." I read and re-read the story. Here was a Man who had indeed found a Truth for which He was not only willing to die but had died, a living death covering almost sixty years of torture, banishment and imprisonment, and who had seen many thousands of His followers willingly and joyfully face a martyr's death. And above all-O happy marvel!-here was a man who placed money where it belonged, beneath His feet. He never took up a collection! I read and re-read that glorious and tragic story and filed it in my voluminous twenty-five volume scrap-book. There may have been a vague purpose in my mind of making that story the background of a sermon some day. To such human uses do we often put the skyey glimpses God vouchsafes us. Which is well; or would be if those celestial visions found utterance in our lives as well as through our lips.

- Howard Colby Ives  (Portals to Freedom)