During the next nine
months He traveled through America, from coast to coast, addressing all
sorts and conditions of men--university students, Socialists, Mormons,
Jews, Christians, Agnostics, Esperantists, Peace Societies, New Thought
Clubs, Women's Suffrage Societies, and speaking in churches of almost
every denomination, in each case giving addresses suited to the audience
and the occasion. On December 5 He sailed for Great Britain, where He
passed six weeks, visiting Liverpool, London, Bristol and Edinburgh. In
Edinburgh He gave a notable address to the Esperanto Society, in which He
announced that He had encouraged the Baha'is of the East to study
Esperanto in order to further better understanding between the East and
the West. After two months in Paris, spent as before in daily interviews
and conference, He proceeded to Stuttgart, where He held a series of very
successful meetings with the German Baha'is; thence to Budapest and
Vienna, founding new groups in these places, returning, in May 1913, to
Egypt, and on December 5, 1913, to Haifa.

Return to Holy Land

He was then in His seventieth year, and His long and arduous labors,
culminating in these strenuous Western tours, had worn out His physical
frame. After His return He wrote the following pathetic Tablet to the
believers in East and West:--

Friends, the time is coming when I shall be no longer with you. I
have done all that could be done. I have served the Cause of
Baha'u'llah to the utmost of my ability. I have labored night and
day all the years of my life.

Oh, how I long to see the believers shouldering the
responsibilities of the Cause! Now is the time to proclaim the
Kingdom of Abha (i.e. The Most Glorious!). Now is the hour of
union and concord! Now is the day of the spiritual harmony of the
friends of God! ...

I am straining my ears toward the East and toward the West, toward
the North and toward the South, that haply I may hear the songs of
love and fellowship raised in the meetings of the believers. My
days are numbered, and save this there remains none other joy for
me.

Oh, how I yearn to see the friends united, even as a shining
strand of pearls, as the brilliant Pleiades, as the rays of the
sun, the gazelles of one meadow!

The mystic nightingale is singing for them; will they not listen?
The bird of paradise is warbling; will they not hear