an; the bastinado inflicted upon Him in Amul; the
humble fare which filled His ka_sh_kul while He lived for two years the
life of a dervish in the mountains of Kurdistan; the days in Ba_gh_dad
when He did not even possess a change of linen, and when His followers
subsisted on a handful of dates; His confinement behind the prison-walls
of Akka, when for nine years even the sight of verdure was denied Him; and
the public humiliation to which He was subjected at government
headquarters in that city--pictures from the tragic past such as these must
have many a time overpowered Him with feelings of mingled gratitude and
sorrow, as He witnessed the many marks of respect, of esteem, and honor
now shown Him and the Faith which He represented. "O Baha'u'llah! What
hast Thou done?" He, as reported by the chronicler of His travels, was
heard to exclaim one evening as He was being swiftly driven to fulfil His
third engagement of the day in Washington, "O Baha'u'llah! May my life be
sacrificed for Thee! O Baha'u'llah! May my soul be offered up for Thy
sake! How full were Thy days with trials and tribulations! How severe the
ordeals Thou didst endure! How solid the foundation Thou hast finally
laid, and how glorious the banner Thou didst hoist!" "One day, as He was
strolling," that same chronicler has testified, "He called to remembrance
the days of the Blessed Beauty, referring with sadness to His sojourn in
Sulaymaniyyih, to His loneliness and to the wrongs inflicted upon Him.
Though He had often recounted that episode, that day He was so overcome
with emotion that He sobbed aloud in His grief.... All His attendants wept
with Him, and were plunged into sorrow as they heard the tale of the
woeful trials endured by the Ancient Beauty, and witnessed the tenderness
of heart manifested by His Son."

A most significant scene in a century-old drama had been enacted. A
glorious chapter in the history of the first Baha'i century had been
written. Seeds of undreamt-of potentialities had, with the hand of the
Center of the Covenant Himself, been sown in some of the fertile fields of
the Western world. Never in the entire range of religious history had any
Figure of comparable stature arisen to perform a labor of such magnitude
and imperishable worth. Forces were unleashed through those fateful
journeys which even now, at a distance of well nigh thirty-five years, we
are unable to measure or comprehend. Already a Queen, inspired by the
powerful