July 26, 2025 • 13 mins
Delve into the fascinating life and journey of Thornton Chase, widely acknowledged as the first person of Western descent to embrace the Baháí Faith. Chase was a pivotal figure in organizing Baháí activities in Chicago and Los Angeles, making him a well-respected figure within the Baháí community. His 1907 pilgrimage to Akka profoundly impacted him, particularly his three-day encounter with `Abdul Bahá. So taken was `Abdul Bahá by Chases character, he bestowed upon him the title of Thábit, meaning steadfast. Upon his return, Chase penned his pilgrimage experiences, producing a richly detailed and emotive depiction of `Abdul-Bahás home, family, and personal demeanor in Akka. Published in 1908 as In Galilee, this insightful account stands as a notable contribution to the genre known as pilgrims notes.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section two of In Galilee by Thornton Chase. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater. In Galilee by Thornton Chase,
(00:22):
Section two The Holy Land. The view was fine of
the city below, and of the tomb of the Bob
high up on the mountain side above. We could scarcely
appreciate the sacredness of that historic ground. But as we
looked up to the tomb and thought of its meaning,
(00:46):
of the wonderful lives of the Bob and of Baha'u'llah,
of their sufferings and apparent defeat at the hands of oppressors,
and of the victories which are now following the word
of truth for which they suffered, we began to realize
that we had indeed entered the border of the Holy Land,
(01:08):
the land that Abraham knew, where Melchizedek dwelt, where Elijah
prophesied and sacrificed on Carmel unto the Lord whose fire
descended upon his altar and put to shame the hosts
of Baal It was on the top of Carmel that
(01:29):
Elijah bowed himself down upon the earth and put his
face between his knees before the Lord. And there at
the seventh time, behold, there ariseth a cloud out of
the sea, as small as a man's hand. And it
came to pass in a little while that the heaven
(01:50):
grew back with clouds and wind, and there was a
great rain. How prophetic becomes this history in the light
of present day events. There Jesus walked and taught Capernaum
is near Nazareth, twelve miles away, and it is but
(02:10):
a short distance to the sea of Galilee, where the
fishers drew their nets and left them at the command,
Come follow me, and I will make you fishures of men.
This was the land of Zebulun and Naftali, by the
way of the sea, which was covered with darkness until
(02:31):
that light shone forth upon it. And now again it
is plunged in gross darkness, all heedless of the light
which has again risen upon it, of the glory that
is within it, which is even now flaming forth from
its ancient prison to the farthest bounds of mankind. The
(02:52):
light which is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and
which shall illumine the darkness of ignorance and awakened man
to the dawning day of service, love and peace. The
afternoon following our arrival in Haifa, I was riding at
a table on the little veranda of the hospice, looking
(03:16):
toward Aka, nine miles away, when a beautiful thing appeared.
The day had been showery, and about four o'clock a
splendid double rainbow shone forth. It seemed to rest on
the eastern part of Haifa, where the gate opens out
to the way of the sea. Its further end was
(03:37):
directly at the gate of Akka, and the western sun
shone brightly on the glistening city just beyond the long,
inward curving shore line of the Blue Sea, with its
white breakers swept in under the rainbow and beneath its
glorious arch. The distant Lebanon Hills showed their purple sighs
(04:00):
and snow capped ranges. For over half an hour, that
vision of beauty remained peace. There was its sign declared
of old. There was the ancient symbol of the creative
holy Spirit brooding over that place of promise, and I
seemed to see beneath its ark of glory, temples of silver,
(04:25):
with domes of gold, gates of pearl, and all precious stones.
And I realized that the city hath no need of
the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it,
for the glory of God did lighten it. And the
lamp thereof is the Lamb. And he said, unto me,
(04:45):
son of Man, this is the place of my throne
and the place of the souls of my feet, where
I will dwell in the midst of the children of
Israel forever. And the name of the city from that
day shall be the Lord is there Mount Carmel. The
(05:08):
next day, according to arrangement, mister and Missus Agnew went
to Akka, while mister Scheffler and I moved to the
Hotel Pross on the top of Mount Carmel, where we
were met by mister Snyder, a German minister and missionary
who keeps it. We found him a kindly host, quiet
(05:28):
and simple. Everything was thoroughly clean and comfortable. Several English
and American women tourists were there, school teachers, and some
missionaries returning from India. They were resting before going to Nazareth. Damascus,
and Beirut. In the evening, a lady told of her
(05:49):
trip that day to Aka. She said, the house of
the new Prophet was pointed out, and someone suggested that
she might like to meet him, she said, and one
went into his garden and asked permission for the meeting,
which was granted. He was a man of striking and
attractive appearance, and met her most graciously and presented her
(06:14):
with a rose he was carrying through an interpreter. She
asked him several questions, which he answered in a courteous
and gentle manner, and she could see no difference in
what he said from the teachings of Jesus. Considerable conversation ensued,
and one lady said she had heard that Americans sometimes
(06:35):
came all the way there expressly to visit him and
receive his teachings, and she wondered how they could be
such fools. She also supposed they brought much money to him.
Mister Scheffler and I sat there, longing to open our
mouths and loosen our tongues, but beyond asking some simple questions,
(06:58):
we remained silent. One asked the lady what she had
done with the rose. She replied that she had pressed
it and intended to keep it as a souvenir. In
the over to the headland that rises boldly from the sea,
roadsides and fields were painted with blossoms, and we delighted
(07:19):
in their variety, colors and fragrance. There were myriads of flowers, daisies,
forget me nots, sweet peas, lilies, roses, and the flaming
red poppies everywhere. We gathered them as we went, only
to drop some as we found others more beautiful. We
(07:39):
were happy as children, wandering over the hills and talking
of things most dear to our hearts. When we returned
to the hotel, we filled every available dish with flowers
and pressed what we could in our diaries the tomb
of the Bob. The next day we walked to the
(08:01):
Tomb of the Bob. We went on the smooth, broad
road along the ridge until we came to the top
of the trail, which goes almost directly down the side,
the same on which we had seen donkeys loaded with
wood picking their way the day before. It was very
steep and all of loose, crumbling stones. The sides of
(08:25):
the mountain are terraced and cultivated everywhere. The larger loose
stones are gathered into walls the rich reddish brown soil,
and smaller stones are leveled or gently sloped from the
foot of one wall to the top of another, thus
making steps from ten to twenty or thirty feet wide,
(08:46):
in which our fig and olive trees, grapes and vegetables.
Men and women were loosening the soil with mattocks. After
going down about one thousand feet, we came to the
road and found found a neat carriageway between walls leading
from the main roadway to the tomb. It was a
(09:06):
square of brownish yellow limestone with white iron paneled doors,
simple in architecture and with little outside ornament. A considerable
space was cut out from the side of the mountain
and leveled around the tomb. A portion of it is
a stone surface, in which is the mouth of a
(09:27):
large cistern for water. Another portion is a flower garden,
beyond which is the house of the caretaker, a Persian
behind He lives there with his wife and baby, and
has an Arab assistant. When we came onto the stone
platform we saw no one, but in a few minutes
(09:48):
the Arab appeared came over to us and said Akka
and a boss offendi. We smiled and nodded assent. He
went to the garden and brought a flower to each
of us. Then the caretaker, Rahmatollah came from the house
with his little baby boy and greeted us. He brought
(10:09):
out chairs and I asked him to sit with the
baby for a picture. He excused himself, went into the house,
and after a few minutes appeared dressed in his best clothes,
a long black coat hiding the flowing costume in which
I wished to photograph him. But the picture was never taken,
for just then two Persians appeared who had come up
(10:31):
to the trail from below. They greeted him joyfully with
the greatest name, embracing him, and then as we also
repeated that name, they took us in their arms with
expressions of great gladness and praises to God. They were
Mirza Mohammed Ali Yazdi and Haji Mohammed Shushtari of Cairo,
(10:55):
with his seven year old boy. They could speak no English,
but they had had a message for us, which was
that cooks would come for us the next morning to
take us to Aka. Although we understood their meaning. It
was further assured by the Persian who went into the
house to consult his wife, who must have known some English,
(11:16):
for he returned saying, tomorrow morning, go a caw. Then
the door of the tomb was opened and we were
invited to enter. It is simple and beautiful, although it
is not finished. It is divided into three large compartments,
(11:37):
a center and two sides, and these inter sections named
after notable bobbies and Bahai's. The floor of the center
is slightly raised, the roof is in arches, those of
the sides being at right angles to the arches of
the center. We bowed in silence for a few minutes
(12:00):
and bade our friends adieu, while they exclaimed again and
again hush a madid hush amdid the Persian expression for
you are welcome. As we left the road and began
to climb the trail, we looked back and saw them
going into the little grove of ten cypress trees in
(12:22):
a circle on the hillside just above the tomb. It
is said that Bahawala used often to sit in that grove,
which commands a beautiful view of the sea and the
valley of Aka. When we had gone up the trail
some distance and reached the end of our first breath.
(12:42):
We rested and noticed a lithe young Arab hurrying up
from below. When he reached us, we found that he
had a note from Cook's saying that they would call
for us the next morning at any hour we would
name to take us to Aka. The messinger was on
his way to the hotel, and finding us on the
(13:03):
way saved him a long climb, but lost him no bakshish.
Then we hastened up the mountain with joy in our
hearts and our feet lightened by the glad anticipations for
the next day. End of section two. Recording by Nicholas
James Bridgewater, recorded in London, England,
Section two of In Galilee by Thornton Chase. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater. In Galilee by Thornton Chase,
(00:22):
Section two The Holy Land. The view was fine of
the city below, and of the tomb of the Bob
high up on the mountain side above. We could scarcely
appreciate the sacredness of that historic ground. But as we
looked up to the tomb and thought of its meaning,
(00:46):
of the wonderful lives of the Bob and of Baha'u'llah,
of their sufferings and apparent defeat at the hands of oppressors,
and of the victories which are now following the word
of truth for which they suffered, we began to realize
that we had indeed entered the border of the Holy Land,
(01:08):
the land that Abraham knew, where Melchizedek dwelt, where Elijah
prophesied and sacrificed on Carmel unto the Lord whose fire
descended upon his altar and put to shame the hosts
of Baal It was on the top of Carmel that
(01:29):
Elijah bowed himself down upon the earth and put his
face between his knees before the Lord. And there at
the seventh time, behold, there ariseth a cloud out of
the sea, as small as a man's hand. And it
came to pass in a little while that the heaven
(01:50):
grew back with clouds and wind, and there was a
great rain. How prophetic becomes this history in the light
of present day events. There Jesus walked and taught Capernaum
is near Nazareth, twelve miles away, and it is but
(02:10):
a short distance to the sea of Galilee, where the
fishers drew their nets and left them at the command,
Come follow me, and I will make you fishures of men.
This was the land of Zebulun and Naftali, by the
way of the sea, which was covered with darkness until
(02:31):
that light shone forth upon it. And now again it
is plunged in gross darkness, all heedless of the light
which has again risen upon it, of the glory that
is within it, which is even now flaming forth from
its ancient prison to the farthest bounds of mankind. The
(02:52):
light which is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and
which shall illumine the darkness of ignorance and awakened man
to the dawning day of service, love and peace. The
afternoon following our arrival in Haifa, I was riding at
a table on the little veranda of the hospice, looking
(03:16):
toward Aka, nine miles away, when a beautiful thing appeared.
The day had been showery, and about four o'clock a
splendid double rainbow shone forth. It seemed to rest on
the eastern part of Haifa, where the gate opens out
to the way of the sea. Its further end was
(03:37):
directly at the gate of Akka, and the western sun
shone brightly on the glistening city just beyond the long,
inward curving shore line of the Blue Sea, with its
white breakers swept in under the rainbow and beneath its
glorious arch. The distant Lebanon Hills showed their purple sighs
(04:00):
and snow capped ranges. For over half an hour, that
vision of beauty remained peace. There was its sign declared
of old. There was the ancient symbol of the creative
holy Spirit brooding over that place of promise, and I
seemed to see beneath its ark of glory, temples of silver,
(04:25):
with domes of gold, gates of pearl, and all precious stones.
And I realized that the city hath no need of
the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it,
for the glory of God did lighten it. And the
lamp thereof is the Lamb. And he said, unto me,
(04:45):
son of Man, this is the place of my throne
and the place of the souls of my feet, where
I will dwell in the midst of the children of
Israel forever. And the name of the city from that
day shall be the Lord is there Mount Carmel. The
(05:08):
next day, according to arrangement, mister and Missus Agnew went
to Akka, while mister Scheffler and I moved to the
Hotel Pross on the top of Mount Carmel, where we
were met by mister Snyder, a German minister and missionary
who keeps it. We found him a kindly host, quiet
(05:28):
and simple. Everything was thoroughly clean and comfortable. Several English
and American women tourists were there, school teachers, and some
missionaries returning from India. They were resting before going to Nazareth. Damascus,
and Beirut. In the evening, a lady told of her
(05:49):
trip that day to Aka. She said, the house of
the new Prophet was pointed out, and someone suggested that
she might like to meet him, she said, and one
went into his garden and asked permission for the meeting,
which was granted. He was a man of striking and
attractive appearance, and met her most graciously and presented her
(06:14):
with a rose he was carrying through an interpreter. She
asked him several questions, which he answered in a courteous
and gentle manner, and she could see no difference in
what he said from the teachings of Jesus. Considerable conversation ensued,
and one lady said she had heard that Americans sometimes
(06:35):
came all the way there expressly to visit him and
receive his teachings, and she wondered how they could be
such fools. She also supposed they brought much money to him.
Mister Scheffler and I sat there, longing to open our
mouths and loosen our tongues, but beyond asking some simple questions,
(06:58):
we remained silent. One asked the lady what she had
done with the rose. She replied that she had pressed
it and intended to keep it as a souvenir. In
the over to the headland that rises boldly from the sea,
roadsides and fields were painted with blossoms, and we delighted
(07:19):
in their variety, colors and fragrance. There were myriads of flowers, daisies,
forget me nots, sweet peas, lilies, roses, and the flaming
red poppies everywhere. We gathered them as we went, only
to drop some as we found others more beautiful. We
(07:39):
were happy as children, wandering over the hills and talking
of things most dear to our hearts. When we returned
to the hotel, we filled every available dish with flowers
and pressed what we could in our diaries the tomb
of the Bob. The next day we walked to the
(08:01):
Tomb of the Bob. We went on the smooth, broad
road along the ridge until we came to the top
of the trail, which goes almost directly down the side,
the same on which we had seen donkeys loaded with
wood picking their way the day before. It was very
steep and all of loose, crumbling stones. The sides of
(08:25):
the mountain are terraced and cultivated everywhere. The larger loose
stones are gathered into walls the rich reddish brown soil,
and smaller stones are leveled or gently sloped from the
foot of one wall to the top of another, thus
making steps from ten to twenty or thirty feet wide,
(08:46):
in which our fig and olive trees, grapes and vegetables.
Men and women were loosening the soil with mattocks. After
going down about one thousand feet, we came to the
road and found found a neat carriageway between walls leading
from the main roadway to the tomb. It was a
(09:06):
square of brownish yellow limestone with white iron paneled doors,
simple in architecture and with little outside ornament. A considerable
space was cut out from the side of the mountain
and leveled around the tomb. A portion of it is
a stone surface, in which is the mouth of a
(09:27):
large cistern for water. Another portion is a flower garden,
beyond which is the house of the caretaker, a Persian
behind He lives there with his wife and baby, and
has an Arab assistant. When we came onto the stone
platform we saw no one, but in a few minutes
(09:48):
the Arab appeared came over to us and said Akka
and a boss offendi. We smiled and nodded assent. He
went to the garden and brought a flower to each
of us. Then the caretaker, Rahmatollah came from the house
with his little baby boy and greeted us. He brought
(10:09):
out chairs and I asked him to sit with the
baby for a picture. He excused himself, went into the house,
and after a few minutes appeared dressed in his best clothes,
a long black coat hiding the flowing costume in which
I wished to photograph him. But the picture was never taken,
for just then two Persians appeared who had come up
(10:31):
to the trail from below. They greeted him joyfully with
the greatest name, embracing him, and then as we also
repeated that name, they took us in their arms with
expressions of great gladness and praises to God. They were
Mirza Mohammed Ali Yazdi and Haji Mohammed Shushtari of Cairo,
(10:55):
with his seven year old boy. They could speak no English,
but they had had a message for us, which was
that cooks would come for us the next morning to
take us to Aka. Although we understood their meaning. It
was further assured by the Persian who went into the
house to consult his wife, who must have known some English,
(11:16):
for he returned saying, tomorrow morning, go a caw. Then
the door of the tomb was opened and we were
invited to enter. It is simple and beautiful, although it
is not finished. It is divided into three large compartments,
(11:37):
a center and two sides, and these inter sections named
after notable bobbies and Bahai's. The floor of the center
is slightly raised, the roof is in arches, those of
the sides being at right angles to the arches of
the center. We bowed in silence for a few minutes
(12:00):
and bade our friends adieu, while they exclaimed again and
again hush a madid hush amdid the Persian expression for
you are welcome. As we left the road and began
to climb the trail, we looked back and saw them
going into the little grove of ten cypress trees in
(12:22):
a circle on the hillside just above the tomb. It
is said that Bahawala used often to sit in that grove,
which commands a beautiful view of the sea and the
valley of Aka. When we had gone up the trail
some distance and reached the end of our first breath.
(12:42):
We rested and noticed a lithe young Arab hurrying up
from below. When he reached us, we found that he
had a note from Cook's saying that they would call
for us the next morning at any hour we would
name to take us to Aka. The messinger was on
his way to the hotel, and finding us on the
(13:03):
way saved him a long climb, but lost him no bakshish.
Then we hastened up the mountain with joy in our
hearts and our feet lightened by the glad anticipations for
the next day. End of section two. Recording by Nicholas
James Bridgewater, recorded in London, England,
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