Daily Lessons Received at `Akká, January 1908

Before there were Bahá'í books, pamphlets, periodicals--before there were, properly speaking, Bahá'í administrative institutions; before Abdu'l-Bahá had made His historic voyage to America; before Shoghi Effendi transmitted to the English speakers of the world his own sensitive and authoritative translations of the Writings central to the Bahá'í Faith--there were Bahá'ís in America. On what spiritual food did they subsist? Ever since the announcement had been made at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 concerning the spiritual sanctity of Bahá'u'lláh, Americans began to explore the new Revelation. Some Persian Bahá'ís came from the Holy Land about that time to give lessons in the Bahá'í Faith in New York and Chicago. The first pilgrimage to Akka and Haifa, in 1898, was followed by a steady and ever-increasing stream of Americans intent on hearing the Faith expounded by Abdu'l-Bahá, Whom Bahá'u'lláh had designated Center of the Covenant. The pilgrims, on their return to the United States and Canada, conveyed their ardor, enkindled at the feet of the Master, to their questioning compatriots. They did it by word of mouth, by private letter, by widely circulated and continually copied and recopied letters, descriptions, journals, and accounts that went from hand to hand. Sometimes they published their own little books and pamphlets, and, when the Bahá'í Publishing Society (predecessor of the present Bahá'í Publishing Trust) was established in 1902, these travelers' accounts constituted an important part of its output.

Early American Bahá'ís had neither a vast corpus of literature, nor Bahá'í administrative institutions such as exist today. They were sustained by the visits of believers to `Abdu'l-Bahá, the oral and written accounts of their experiences, and letters received from `Abdu'l-Bahá. This is an account of the authors' pilgrimage to the Holy Land.