I first met ‘Abdu’l-Baha vicariously, so to speak, and it was this meeting that brought me into the Baha’i Faith in the summer of 1906. It happened that being in the vicinity of Green Acre that summer I made a pilgrimage there to see what it was all about. My curiosity had been aroused by weekly articles in the Boston Transcript. At the time I was studying for the Unitarian ministry at the Harvard Divinity School.It was a warm Sunday afternoon in August. The big tent on Green Acre’s lower level, where the lecture hall now is located, was filled to capacity to hear some famous sculptor from New York. I was not greatly interested in his lecture. It was not for the sake of art that I had come, but for the sake of religion.
At the end of the lecture I went up to speak to Sarah Farmer -- who had been presiding in her own ineffable way, shedding a warm spiritual glow upon the whole affair. As I had previously met her in Cambridge at the home of Mrs. Ole Bull, I ventured to recall myself to her.
Miss Farmer took my hand in hers and cordially held it while she looked into my eyes and asked, “Have you heard of the Persian Revelation?”
“No,” I answered.
“Well, go to that lady in a white headdress and ask her to tell you about it. I know by your eyes that you are ready for it.”
What had she seen in my eyes? I do not know. But what she had read there proved true. For within half an hour from that moment I became a confirmed Baha’i and have remained so ever since.
