Dawn of a New Day

The Guardian was most pleased to receive your letter of the 3rd inst. and has noted with genuine satisfaction the farewell meeting which the N.S.A. had arranged in Bombay in honour 73 of our indefatigable and distinguished Baha’i sister Miss Martha L. Root on the occasion of her departure to Australia.

The feelings of unbounded joy with which you all unanimously acclaimed her arrival in India, and the expressions of deep and sorrowful regret which your National Assembly, as the official mouthpiece of all the Indian and Burmese believers, had been moved to convey to her upon her leaving your shores, all attest the high value which the friends have attached to her presence in India and the splendid work accomplished by her throughout her travels in that country. The cooperation she had received from the Assemblies and individual believers in every centre she visited, and the effective support, both moral and material, so lovingly and continually extended to her by the N.S.A. in the execution of her teaching plans, have contributed to a marked degree to the success of her journey, which has been indeed the longest and most fruitful she had ever undertaken to your shores.

The Guardian hopes that the friends, and in particular the N.S.A., will now endeavour to follow up, with united and unflinching resolve, the splendid work accomplished by Miss Root. The contacts she has formed with leading personalities in social, religious and university circles should be maintained, nay extended and consolidated, and every effort exerted in order to speed up the progress of the teaching work which has received such a fresh impetus as a result of her uninterrupted teaching activity during this past year.

He has noted with profound appreciation, in particular, the account of the farewell meeting held in Bombay under the auspices of your Assembly on the occasion of the departure of our indefatigable and highly esteemed Baha’i sister Miss Martha Root from India. No more eloquent tribute could have been paid indeed to the historic work accomplished by that well-beloved star-servant of the Cause during her stay of one full year in that country than that beautiful and impressive gathering which had met to bid her a last farewell upon her leaving your 74 shores. The warmth and spontaneity of your love must have profoundly impressed and moved her heart, and given her an added proof of the unbounded gratitude which you all surely cherish for her, after these many months of ceaseless teaching activity she has spent in your midst.

The Guardian wishes to express his own gratitude to the members of the N.S.A., and through them to the community of believers throughout India and Burma for the hospitality and loving assistance you have all, individually as well as collectively, continually extended to Miss Root all through her stay in your country. The essential now, he feels, is for each one of the friends, and particularly the local Assemblies, to arise and with unflinching resolve to endeavour to follow up the splendid work she has so ably, yet so unostentatiously, accomplished. They would be certainly failing in their debt of gratitude to her, if they allow the seeds she has faithfully and painstakingly scattered, during these months of arduous and uninterrupted effort, to get lost. Rather, they should spare no effort to water these seeds and enable them to germinate and yield in due time most abundant and lasting results.