Western World Behind in Spiritual Civilization

Persian Philosopher and Religious Leader, Head of Bahá’ís, Addresses Hew York Audience.

New York, April 14. — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, the venerable Persian philosopher and religious leader, who is head of the Bahá’í movement for the unification of religions and for the establishment of universal peace, made his first public address in America today at the Church of the Ascension on Fifth avenue. He spoke through an interpreter, his nephew, Dr. Ameen Ullah Fareed, taking as his subject, “The Bahá’í Revelation.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas recently arrived here from Egypt.

The Rev. Dr. Percy Stickney Grant, rector of the church, in introducing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, who is an exile from his own country, welcomed him as “A messenger from the east freshly bearing a message of the gospel of peace, good will and love to all mankind.”

“He is to many millions of true souls,” said Dr. Grant, the master of things absolute, and has brought to these shores a touchstone of love and of peace. He believes that the great faiths of the world belong together. He believes that the spirituality of the orient should shake hands with the materiality of the occident.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, whose long iron gray beard gives him the appearance of a patriarch, was dressed in the costume of the east. He said that he had found here that material civilization had progressed greatly, but the spiritual civilization had been left behind.