You have, most of you, I presume, read with thrilling joy in one of the recent issues of the Star of the West that illuminating account given by our beloved sister, Miss Martha Root, wherein she tells with her characteristic directness and modesty the story of her moving interview with Her Majesty Queen Marie of Roumania and of the cordial and ready response which her gentle yet persuasive presentation of the principles of the Bahá’í Faith has evoked in the heart of that honored queen. One of the visible and potent effects which this historic interview proved capable of achieving was the remarkable appeal in the form of an open letter which Her Majesty freely and spontaneously caused to be published to the world at large testifying in a language of exquisite beauty to the power and sublimity of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh.

It was indeed a never-to-be-forgotten occasion when, on the eve of the day commemorating the passing of Bahá’u’lláh, a handful 111 of us, His sorrowing servants, had gathered round His beloved Shrine supplicating relief and deliverance for the down-trodden in Persia, to receive in the midst of the silence of that distressing hour the glad-tidings of this notable triumph which the unbending energy and indomitable spirit of our beloved Martha has achieved for our sacred Cause.

With bowed heads and grateful hearts we recognize in this glowing tribute which royalty has thus paid to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh an epoch-making pronouncement destined to herald those stirring events which, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has prophesied, shall in the fulness of time signalize the triumph of God’s holy Faith. For who can doubt but that the deeds of those valiant pioneers of the Faith, unexampled though they have been in the abundance of their number and unexcelled in their sublime heroism, are but a faint glimmer of what, according to the divine promise, its steadfast followers are destined to perform? Those heroic exploits that have immortalized the names of its primitive adherents will continue to adorn and illuminate the pages of its blood-stained history; yet we cannot forget that the period of its full fruition with all its promise of world felicity and undreamt-of achievements is yet to be realized, its golden age yet to unfold. Indeed, how chastening to our pride, how challenging to our enthusiasm, if we but pause for a moment amidst the world’s many distractions and ponder in our hearts the vastness, the compelling urgency, the ineffable glory of what still remains unachieved.