y expanding Faith in Persia, the
cradle of that Faith, in the Great Republic of the West, the cradle of its
Administrative Order, in the Dominion of Canada, in France, in England, in
Germany, in Egypt, in 'Iraq, in Russia, in India, in Burma, in Japan, and
even in the remote Pacific Islands. It was during these stirring times
that a tremendous impetus was lent by Him to the translation, the
publication and dissemination of Baha'i literature, whose scope now
included a variety of books and treatises, written in the Persian, the
Arabic, the English, the Turkish, the French, the German, the Russian and
Burmese languages. At His table, in those days, whenever there was a lull
in the storm raging about Him, there would gather pilgrims, friends and
inquirers from most of the afore-mentioned countries, representative of
the Christian, the Muslim, the Jewish, the Zoroastrian, the Hindu and
Buddhist Faiths. To the needy thronging His doors and filling the
courtyard of His house every Friday morning, in spite of the perils that
environed Him, He would distribute alms with His own hands, with a
regularity and generosity that won Him the title of "Father of the Poor."
Nothing in those tempestuous days could shake His confidence, nothing
would be allowed to interfere with His ministrations to the destitute, the
orphan, the sick, and the down-trodden, nothing could prevent Him from
calling in person upon those who were either incapacitated or ashamed to
solicit His aid. Adamant in His determination to follow the example of
both the Bab and Baha'u'llah, nothing would induce Him to flee from His
enemies, or escape from imprisonment, neither the advice tendered Him by
the leading members of the exiled community in Akka, nor the insistent
pleas of the Spanish Consul--a kinsman of the agent of an Italian steamship
company--who, in his love for 'Abdu'l-Baha and his anxiety to avert the
threatening danger, had gone so far as to place at His disposal an Italian
freighter, ready to provide Him a safe passage to any foreign port He
might name.

So imperturbable was 'Abdu'l-Baha's equanimity that, while rumors were
being bruited about that He might be cast into the sea, or exiled to Fizan
in Tripolitania, or hanged on the gallows, He, to the amazement of His
friends and the amusement of His enemies, was to be seen planting trees
and vines in the garden of His house, whose fruits when the storm had
blown over, He would bid His faithful gardener,