at sustained and comforted me during my hours of restful
retirement was the realization, never dismissed from my mind, that in the
German friends the Master will surely find loyal and grateful children who
will repay the tender love and paternal care which He had for them with a
devotion and service, so profound and lasting that will prove worthy of
the many blessings that have been theirs in the past.

The news of your most spiritual gatherings, since the Great Plan of the
Master as revealed in His Testament has been unfolded to our eyes; the
formation and functioning of the National Body with efficiency and
harmony; the extension of your activities; the widening of your
correspondence; the generous and spontaneous help you have extended us in
connection with our difficulties in the Holy Land and above all the spirit
of ready devotion and ever-increasing zeal which is back of it all--these
are sweet thoughts that cheer the bereaved Ladies of the Holy Household
and encourage here and abroad the many friends who look forward to the
hour when all the Master has promised His friends in Germany will come to
be fulfilled.

Having returned to the Holy Land with a renewed vigour and a refreshed
spirit, I shall not fail with the help of the Master to do my part in
enabling you to carry on further and still further the Glorious Standard
of Baha to the very heart and uttermost confines of Germany and thus
hasten the Day when the Spirit of Faith and Peace as revealed in the Cause
of Baha'u'llah will fill the world and the darkness of strife be no more.

In sweet remembrance at the Three Holy Shrines of your labours of love for
His Cause, I am and remain your brother and coworker in His service.

LETTER OF 19 JANUARY 1923

19 January 1923

The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
Germany,
Care of the members of the National Spiritual Assembly.

My dearly-beloved friends!

Ever since I have resumed my work in the Holy Land I have been awaiting
with eager and particular interest the detailed letters, individual as
well as collective, of my loved ones in Germany, who, I am sure are
arduously, devotedly and efficiently carrying on the Great Work which the
Master has destined for them in this world.

Much as I desire to correspond individually with every one of you, yet I
find that in view of the marvellously rapid extension of the Movement all
over the world to start and maintain individu