‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas Comes to Lecture on Bahá’í Religion

Salt Lake, Sept. 30 — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, leader of the Bahá’í movement, which he says has 10,000,000 followers in the world, is in Salt Lake City. He is making a tour of the United States and plans to lecture on his religion here.

The principal tenets of the Bahá’í doctrines are the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God; the establishment of universal peace, the creation of a universal language and the establishment of a tribunal to which all the nations in the world would come to settle arguments. Its followers must seek out the truth in all matters of religion and conduct for themselves. They must have no pre-conceptions, handed down from their fathers, but must search and decide the truth for themselves.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the son of the founder of the Bahá’í movement, Bahá’u’lláh. He is a Persian. His native government imprisoned him and his father in Acca, Syria, where the son was held in exile for forty-two years. Upon the dethronement of ‘Abdul Hamid in Turkey, the young Turks released ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from his Syrian prison and he was again oaleldw to go forth and preach his doctrines.

He arrived in this country with his suite on April 11 of this year and has been making a lecture tour of the country. Attired in his flowing native robes of a somber gray with a white fez on his broad brow, he presented a striking appearance as he walked the downtown streets last evening, followed respectfully by his attendants. With him are Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, the interpreter, and three others, all from Teheran, the Persian capital.