Dear fellow-workers in the Divine Vineyard:
It will gladden and rejoice every one of you to learn that from various quarters there has of late reached the Holy Land tidings of fresh developments that are a clear indication of those hidden and transforming influences which, from the source of Bahá’u’lláh’s mystic strength, continue to flow with ever-increasing vitality into the heart of this troubled world.
Both in the wider field of its spiritual conquests, where its indomitable spirit is forging ahead, capturing the heights, pervading the multitude; as well as in the gradual consolidation of the administrative structure which its avowed followers the world over are laboring to raise and fortify, the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, we can increasingly discern, bids fair to become that force which, though not as yet universally recognized, none can afford to belittle or ignore.
In the bold and repeated testimonies which Her Majesty, Queen Marie of Roumania, has chosen to give to the world,—a copy of whose latest pronouncement I enclose, 1 —we truly recognize evidences of the irresistible power, the increasing vitality, the strange working of a Faith destined to regenerate the world. Her Majesty’s striking tribute paid to the illuminative power of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is bound to effect an entire transformation in the attitude of many to a Faith the tenets of which have often been misunderstood and sorely neglected. It will serve as a fresh stimulus to the enlightened and cultured to investigate with an open mind the verities of its message, the source of its life-giving principles.
From Baghdád, moreover, where the sacred habitation of Bahá’u’lláh has been violated by a relentless enemy and converted into a rallying center for the corrupt, the perverse, and the fanatical, there comes the news, highly reassuring to us all, of the satisfactory progress of the negotiations which, we are informed on high authority, will soon lead to the expropriation of the property by the State, culminating in the fullness of time in its occupation by the triumphant followers of God’s holy Faith. The case of the houses, so ably presented, so persistently pursued, above all reinforced by the vigilant and protecting power of our departed Master, will eventually triumph, and by its repercussions in Persia as in the world at large, will lend a powerful impetus to the liberation of those forces which will carry the Cause to its ultimate destiny. I will, when the occasion presents itself, inform the believers through their respective National Spiritual Assemblies to address messages of appreciation and gratitude to the authorities concerned in view of their unrelaxing efforts for the triumph of right and justice.
For the present, we cannot but rejoice and feel profoundly thankful as we witness in so many directions the welcome signs of the gradual emancipation of the struggling Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, of the increasing recognition on the part of both the high and lowly of its universal principles—all so rich in their promise of ultimate victory.
Your true brother,
SHOGHI.
[1.] This enclosure consisted of a copy of an article by Queen Marie in her newspaper syndicated series entitled “Queen’s Counsel.” Since the queen’s first public reference to the Cause in this series, two additional references have appeared, one on September 26 and one on September 27, 1926.
(Shoghi Effendi, Baha’i Administration, p. 114)
