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MESSAGES TO AMERICA
By SHOGHI EFFENDI
GUARDIAN OF THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH
Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed
to the Bahá'í's of North America 1932-1946
"As the end of the First Century of the Bahá'í Era approaches, as the shadows descending upon and enveloping mankind steadily and remorselessly deepen, this community, which can almost be regarded as the solitary champion of the Faith in the Western World, is increasingly evincing and demonstrating its capacity, its worth, and ability as the torchbearer of the New, the World Civilization which is destined to supplant in the fulness of time the present one."
--Shoghi Effendi, December 3, 1940.
BAHÁ'Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
WILMETTE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A.
1947
MESSAGES TO AMERICA
(U.S., 1947)
FILENAME: MA.FN
FILEDATE: 1-1-95
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MESSAGES TO AMERICA
NABÍL'S NARRATIVE
Feel impelled appeal entire body American believers to henceforth regard
Nabíl's soul-stirring Narrative as essential adjunct to reconstructed Teaching
program, as unchallengeable textbook in their Summer Schools, as source
of inspiration in all literary and artistic pursuits, as an invaluable
companion in times of leisure, as indispensable preliminary to future
pilgrimage to Bahá'u'lláh's native land, and as unfailing instrument to allay
distress and resist attacks of critical, disillusioned humanity.
Cablegram
June 21, 1932.
IMMORTAL SPIRIT
Greatest Holy Leaf's immortal spirit winged its flight Great Beyond.
Countless lovers her saintly life in East and West seized with pangs of
anguish. Plunged in utterable sorrow humanity shall ere long recognize its
irreparable loss. Our beloved Faith, well nigh crushed by devastating blow of
`Abdu'l-Bahá's unexpected Ascension, now laments passing of last remnant of
Bahá'u'lláh, its most exalted member. Holy Family cruelly divested of its
most precious great Adorning. I for my part bewail sudden removal of my
sole earthly sustainer, the joy and solace of my life. Remains will repose in
the vicinity of the Holy Shrines. So grievous a bereavement necessitates
suspension for nine months through Bahá'í world every manner religious
festivity. Inform Local Assemblies and groups hold in befitting manner
memorial gatherings to extol a life so laden with sacred experiences, so rich
in imperishable memories. Advise holding additional Commemoration Service
of strictly devotional character in the Auditorium of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.
Cablegram July 15, 1932
UNITED WILL, CONCERTED ACTION
I am deeply conscious of the many obstacles that stand in the path of
the American believers in their stupendous endeavor to attain their goal--a
goal on which our dearly beloved Greatest Holy Leaf had set her fondest
hopes. I cannot, however, overlook, much as I sympathize with them in
their financial tribulations and anxieties, the mysterious power that resides
in the united will and concerted action of all the members of that
self-sacrificing community--a community which, since the passing of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, has put an impetus to the advancement of the Cause out of all
proportion to its numerical strength, its youthfulness, and experience of the
powers latent in this sacred Faith. What an untold wealth of blessings will
flow out of a renewed, an irrevocable resolution, representing the combined
will of all
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the steadfast lovers of the Cause of God in that land, to carry out in its
entirety during the few remaining months a Plan on which so much that is
vital to its world-wide interests depends! The American believers, the
stout-hearted supporters of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, have already given too
many evidences of their preponderating influence in the direction of its
affairs to allow the slightest disappointment to mar the radiance of their past
achievements. Their will to succeed must eventually triumph.
October 27, 1932
NON-PARTICIPATION IN POLITICAL AFFAIRS
The handling of this delicate and vital problem regarding
non-participation by Bahá'ís of East and West in political affairs, calls for
the utmost circumspection, tact, patience and vigilance, on the part of those
whose function and privilege it is to guard, promote and administer the
activities of a world-wide, ever-advancing Cause. The misgivings and
apprehensions of individual Bahá'ís should be allayed and eventually
completely dispelled. Any misconception of the sane and genuine patriotism
that animates every Bahá'í heart, if it ever obscures or perplexes the minds
of responsible government officials, should be instantly and courageously
dissipated. Any deliberate misrepresentation by the enemies of the Cause of
God of the aims, the tenets and methods of the administrators of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh should be vigorously faced and its fallacy pitilessly exposed.
The Cause to which we belong stands on the threshold of an era of unprecedented
expansion. Its problems are many, diverse and challenging. Our methods and
ways of approach must likewise be characterized by unusual sagacity, consummate
skill and wisdom. He will surely never fail us in meeting the needs of a
critical hour.
March 16, 1933
PERSONALITIES SUBORDINATED
Concerning the removal of believers I feel that such a vitally important
matter should be given the most serious consideration and preferably be
referred to the National Assembly for further consideration and final
decision. We should be slow to accept and reluctant to remove. I fully
approve and wholeheartedly and unreservedly uphold the principle to which you
refer that personalities should not be made centers around which the community
may revolve but that they should be subordinated under all conditions
and however great their merits to the properly constituted Assemblies. You
and your co-workers can never over-estimate or over-emphasize this cardinal
principle of Bahá'í Administration.
April 11, 1933
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MOMENTOUS CONVENTION
Message to 1933 Convention
Entire Bahá'í world stirred with expectations to witness results of
American believers' momentous Convention. On its proceedings hang issue of
incalculable benefit to world-wide Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. To its delegates is
given great opportunity to release forces which will usher in an era whose
splendor must outshine the heroic age of our beloved Cause. Supreme Concourse
waiting for them to seize it.
Cablegram June 1, 1933
AN EMINENT RANK
Keith's precious life offered up in sacrifice to beloved Cause in
Bahá'u'lláh's native land. On Persian soil, for Persia's sake, she
encountered, challenged and fought the forces of darkness with high
distinction, indomitable will, unswerving, exemplary loyalty. The mass of her
helpless Persian brethren mourns the sudden loss of their valiant emancipator.
American believers grateful and proud of the memory of their first and
distinguished martyr. Sorrow stricken, I lament my earthly separation from an
invaluable collaborator, an unfailing counselor, an esteemed and faithful
friend. I urge the Local Assemblies befittingly to organize memorial
gatherings in memory of one whose international services entitled her to an
eminent rank among the Hands of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
Cablegram October 30, 1933
POTENTIALITIES OF MAJESTIC EDIFICE
Message to 1934 Convention
American believers' inspired leadership steadily unfolding to Bahá'ís
world over the potentialities of the majestic edifice heralding formative
period of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Their unerring vision conceived its
matchless design. `Abdu'l-Bahá's own hands laid its cornerstone. Their
dynamic faith reared its structure. Their sustained self-sacrifice crowned it
with immortal glory. May the flame of their unconquerable enthusiasm continue
glowing undimmed in their hearts till its naked frame is enveloped in its
shining mantle.
Cablegram June 4, 1934
THE VOTING RIGHT
I feel I must reaffirm the vital importance and necessity of the right of
voting--a sacred responsibility of which no adult recognized believer should
be deprived, unless he is associated with a community that has not as yet been
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in a position to establish a local Assembly. This distinguishing right which
the believer possesses, however, does not carry with it nor does it imply an
obligation to cast his vote, if he feels that the circumstances under which
he lives do not justify or allow him to exercise that right intelligently and
with understanding. This is a matter which should be left to the individual
to decide himself according to his own conscience and discretion.
April 28, 1935
UNPRECEDENTED IMPETUS
Message to 1935 Convention
Heartily reciprocate sentiments conveyed in your message. Appeal to
assembled delegates and incoming National Assembly to deliberate on measures
required to stimulate all local communities and groups to lend immediate,
unprecedented impetus to teaching activities throughout United States
and Canada. Sustained concentration on this paramount issue can alone
reveal the potentialities of beloved Temple and enable the superb
self-sacrifice associated with it to yield its fairest fruit.
Cablegram April 29, 1935
SEPARATION FROM OUTWORN CREEDS
The separation that set in between the institutions of the Bahá'í Faith
and the Islamic ecclesiastical organizations that oppose it--a movement that
has originated in Egypt and is now spreading steadily throughout the middle
East and will in time communicate its influence to the West--imposes upon
every loyal upholder of the Cause the obligation of refraining from any word
or action that might prejudice the position which our enemies have in recent
years and of their own accord, proclaimed and established. This historic
development, the beginnings of which could neither be recognized nor even
anticipated in the years immediately preceding `Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, may
be said to have signalized the Formative Period of our Faith and to have
paved the way for the consolidation of its administrative order. As this
movement gains momentum, as it receives added impetus from the attitude
and future action of the civil authorities in Persia, it will inevitably
manifest its repercussions in the West and will rouse the leaders of the Church
and finally the civil authorities to challenge the claims and eventually to
recognize the independent status of the Religion of Bahá'u'lláh. Nothing
whatever in the meantime should be said or done by any of us, whether in the
political field or in our relations with ecclesiastical organizations, that
would tend to confuse the issues with which our struggling Cause will sooner or
later be confronted. We should accept no position, should avoid any
affiliations or commitments that could in any way harm our future position or
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provide our potential enemies with weapons with which they can resist that
complete emancipation of our Cause or retard its ultimate recognition and
victory. Though our Cause unreservedly recognizes the Divine origin of
all the religions that preceded it and upholds the spiritual truths which lie
at their very core and are common to them all, its institutions, whether
administrative, religious or humanitarian, must if their distinctive character
is to be maintained and recognized, be increasingly divorced from the outworn
creeds, the meaningless ceremonials and man-made institutions with
which these religions are at present identified. Our adversaries in the East
have initiated the struggle. Our future opponents in the West will, in their
turn, arise and carry it a stage further. Ours is the duty, in anticipation of
this inevitable contest, to uphold unequivocally and with undivided loyalty
the integrity of our Faith and demonstrate the distinguishing features of
its divinely appointed institutions.
June 15, 1935
THE NATIONAL FUND
As the activities of the American Bahá'í community expand, and its
world-wide prestige correspondingly increases, the institution of the National
Fund, the bedrock on which all other institutions must necessarily rest and
be established, acquires added importance, and should be increasingly supported
by the entire body of the believers, both in their individual capacities,
and through their collective efforts, whether organized as groups or as local
Assemblies. The supply of funds, in support of the National Treasury,
constitutes, at the present time, the life-blood of those nascent institutions
which you are laboring to erect. Its importance cannot, surely, be
overestimated. Untold blessings shall no doubt crown every effort directed to
that end. I am eagerly and prayerfully awaiting the news of an unprecedented
expansion in so vital an organ of the administrative Order of the Faith.
July 29, 1935
THE NEW HOUR HAS STRUCK
Convey to assembled believers celebrating termination entire dome unit
of Mashriqu'l-Adhkár my heart-felt congratulations on triumphant progress
of their undeniably glorious enterprise. To prayers and testimonies ascending
to Throne of Bahá'u'lláh I am moved to add my fervent though inadequate
tribute to solidarity of so dazzling an achievement. The forces which
progressive revelation of this mighty symbol of our Faith is fast releasing
in heart of a sorely tried continent no one of this generation can correctly
appraise. The new hour has struck in history of our beloved Cause, calling
for nation-wide, systematic, sustained efforts in teaching field, enabling
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thereby these forces to be directed into such channels as shall redound to the
glory of our Faith and to the honor of its institutions.
Cablegram October 26, 1935
THIS IS TRULY PROVIDENTIAL
This new stage in the gradual unfoldment of the Formative Period of
our Faith into which we have just entered--the phase of concentrated teaching
activity--synchronizes with a period of deepening gloom, of universal
impotence, of ever-increasing destitution and wide-spread disillusionment in
the fortunes of a declining age. This is truly providential and its
significance and the opportunities it offers us should be fully apprehended and
utilized. Now that the administrative organs of a firmly established Faith are
vigorously and harmoniously functioning, and now that the Symbol (i.e., the
House of Worship) of its invincible might is lending unprecedented impetus
to its spread, an effort unexampled in its scope and sustained vitality is
urgently required so that the moving spirit of its Founder may permeate
and transform the lives of the countless multitudes that hunger for its
teachings. That the beloved friends in America, who have carried triumphantly
the banner of His Cause through the initial stages of its development, will in
a still greater measure prove themselves capable of meeting the challenge
of the present hour, I, for one, can never doubt. Of the evidences of their
inexhaustible vitality I am sufficiently and continually conscious. My fervent
plea will not, I feel certain, remain unanswered. For them I shall continue
to pray from all my heart.
January 10, 1936
`ABDU'L-BAHÁ'S HISTORIC APPEAL
Message to 1936 Convention
Convey to American believers abiding gratitude efforts unitedly exerted
in teaching field. Inaugurated campaigns should be vigorously pursued,
systematically extended. Appeal to assembled delegates ponder historic appeal
voiced by `Abdu'l-Bahá in Tablets of the Divine Plan. Urge earnest
deliberation with incoming National Assembly to insure its complete
fulfilment. First Century of Bahá'í era drawing to a close. Humanity
entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence. Opportunities of
present hour unimaginably precious. Would to God every State within American
Republic and every Republic in American continent might ere termination of this
glorious century+F1 embrace the light of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and
establish structural basis of His World Order.
Cablegram May 1, 1936
+F1 The First Century of the Bahá'í Era, ending May 22, 1944.
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FRESH CONQUESTS AND UNPRECEDENTED TRIUMPHS
I fervently hope and pray that the year into which we have just entered
may be signalized by fresh conquests and unprecedented triumphs in the
teaching field within the United States and beyond its confines. A systematic,
carefully conceived, and well-established plan should be devised, rigorously
pursued and continuously extended. Initiated by the National representatives
of the American believers, the vanguard and standard-bearers of the
radiant army of Bahá'u'lláh, this plan should receive the wholehearted, the
sustained and ever-increasing support, both moral and financial, of the
entire body of His followers in that continent. Its supreme immediate
objective should be the permanent establishment of at least one center in
every state of the American Republic and in every Republic of the American
continent not yet enlisted under the banner of His Faith. Its ramifications
should gradually be extended to the European continent, and its scope
should be made to include those countries, such as the Baltic States, Poland,
Greece, Spain and Portugal, where no avowed believer has established any
definite residence. The field is immense, the task gigantic, the privilege
immeasurably precious. Time is short, and the obligation sacred, paramount
and urgent. The American community must muster all its force, concentrate
its resources, summon to its aid all the faith, the determination and
energies of which it is capable, and set out, single-minded and undaunted,
to attain still greater heights in its mighty exertions for the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh.
May 30, 1936
INTENSIFY TEACHING WORK A THOUSANDFOLD
I am eagerly awaiting the news of the progress of the activities initiated
to promote the teaching work within, and beyond, the confines of the American
continent. The American believers, if they wish to carry out, in the
spirit and the letter, the parting wishes of their beloved Master, must
intensify their teaching work a thousandfold and extend its ramifications
beyond the confines of their native land and as far as the most distant
outposts of their far-flung Faith. The Tablets of the Divine Plan invest your
Assembly with unique and grave responsibilities, and confer upon it privileges
which your sister Assemblies might well envy and admire. The present
opportunity is unutterably precious. It may not recur again. Undaunted by the
perils and the uncertainties of the present hour, the American believers must
press on and prosecute in its entirety the task which now confronts them. I
pray for their success from the depths of my heart.
July 28, 1936
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNDERTAKING
I cannot allow this communication to be sent without adding a few
words in person and stress afresh the significance of the undertaking in
which the entire Bahá'í community has embarked. The promulgation of the
Divine Plan, unveiled by our departed Master in the darkest days of one of
the severest ordeals which humanity has ever experienced, is the key which
Providence has placed in the hands of the American believers whereby to
unlock the doors leading them to fulfil their unimaginably glorious Destiny.
As the proclamation of the Message reverberates throughout the land, as its
resistless march gathers momentum, as the field of its operation widens,
and the numbers of its upholders and champions multiply, its potentialities
will correspondingly unfold, exerting a most beneficent influence not only
on every community throughout the Bahá'í world, but on the immediate
fortunes of a travailing society. The repercussions of this campaign are
already apparent in Europe, India, Egypt, `Iráq and even among the sore-tried
communities in Persia and Russia. The Faith of God is gaining in
stature, effectiveness and power. Not until, however, the great enterprise
which you are now conducting runs its full course and attains its final
objective, at its appointed time, can its world-encompassing benefits be
fully apprehended or revealed. The perseverance of the American believers
will, no doubt, insure the ultimate realization of these benefits.
November 14, 1936
A COMPLETE REDEDICATION
The progress of the teaching campaign is most remarkable and reassuring:
the uninterrupted prosecution of this holy enterprise and its extension
to the South American continent and the islands of the Pacific will no doubt
attract unimaginable blessings and must entail far-reaching consequences.
In the course of this year, when the American believers are commemorating
the 25th anniversary of `Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to America, a mighty impetus
should be lent to this campaign which you have so splendidly initiated. A
complete rededication to its ideals, its purposes and requirements on the
part of all individuals and Assemblies, can alone befit such a nation-wide
celebration. I pray that you may fulfil your high destiny.
March 22, 1937
INSTITUTION OF GUARDIANSHIP
NOW FURTHER REINFORCED
Deeply moved by your message. Institution of Guardianship, head
cornerstone of the Administrative Order of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, already
ennobled through its organic connection with the Persons of Twin Founders
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of the Bahá'í Faith, is now further reinforced through direct association with
West and particularly with the American believers, whose spiritual destiny
is to usher in the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. For my part I desire to
congratulate community of American believers on acquisition of tie vitally
binding them to so weighty an organ of their Faith.
Cablegram March 30, 1937
DUAL GIFT
Message to 1937 Convention
Dual gift providentially conferred upon American Bahá'í community
invests recipients with dual responsibility fulfil historic mission. First,
prosecute uninterruptedly teaching campaign inaugurated at last Convention
in accordance with Divine Plan. Second, resume with inflexible determination
exterior ornamentation of entire structure of Temple. Advise
ponder message conveyed to delegates through esteemed co-worker, Fred
Schopflocher. No triumph can more befittingly signalize termination of
first century of Bahá'í era than accomplishment of this twofold task.
Advise prolongation of Convention sessions to enable delegates consult
National Assembly to formulate feasible Seven Year Plan to assure success
Temple enterprise. No sacrifice too great for community so abundantly
blessed, so repeatedly honored.
Cablegram May 1, 1937
THE CALL HAS GONE FORTH ... THE PATH IS CLEAR
The responsibilities which, under your direction and in response to my
plea, the American community is now assuming, over and above the task
they have already undertaken in connection with the Divine Plan, proclaiming
in unmistakable terms their unswerving determination to prove themselves
worthy of the sublimity of their mission, and of their privileged
position among their sister communities in both the East and the West,--the
twofold task they have arisen to perform will, if carried out in time, release
the potentialities with which the community of the Greatest Name has been
so generously and mysteriously endowed by `Abdu'l-Bahá. To carry out in
its entirety and to its final consummation this dual enterprise would shed on
the closing years of this first century of the Bahá'í Era a luster no less
brilliant than the immortal deeds which have signalized its birth, in the
heroic age of our Faith. To the American believers, the spiritual descendants
of the heroes of God's Cause, I again address my plea to arise as one soul
and to prosecute with unrelaxing resolve the high mission with which their
immediate destiny is inextricably interwoven. The call has gone forth, the
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path is clear, the goal manifest and within their reach. Though their
responsibilities be pressing and heavy and the obstacles formidable and
manifold, yet the spirit of our invincible Faith will enable them to conquer if
they arise unitedly and determinedly and persevere till the very end.
June 4, 1937
CONVENTION DELEGATES INCREASED
Election of hundred seventy-one delegates for this year's and future
Conventions absolutely essential. Admitted expansion American community
vitally demands it. Appeal delegates unable attend in person exercise
conscientiously ballot right by mail. Increased participation by believers in
Convention proceedings reinforces authority and broadens basis body national
representatives and knits them closer to entire body electorate. Advise
share message American believers.
Cablegram November 21, 1937
ALL SHOULD ARISE
As I lift up my gaze beyond the strains and stresses which a struggling
Faith must necessarily experience, and view the wider scene which the
indomitable will of the American Bahá'í community is steadily unfolding,
I can not but marvel at the range which the driving force of their ceaseless
labors has acquired and the heights which the sublimity of their faith has
attained. The outposts of a Faith, already persecuted in both Europe and
Asia, are in the American continent steadily advancing, the visible symbols
of its undoubted sovereignty are receiving fresh luster every day and its
manifold institutions are driving their roots deeper and deeper into its soil.
Blest and honored as none among its sister communities has been in recent
years, preserved through the inscrutable dispensations of Divine Providence
for a destiny which no mind can as yet imagine, such a community cannot
for a moment afford to be content with or rest on the laurels it has so
deservedly won. It must go on, continually go on, exploring fresh fields,
scaling nobler heights, laying firmer foundations, shedding added splendor
and achieving added renown in the service and for the glory of the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh. The seven year plan which it has sponsored and with which
its destiny is so closely interwoven, must at all costs be prosecuted with
increasing force and added consecration. All should arise and participate.
Upon the measure of such a participation will no doubt depend the welfare
and progress of those distant communities which are now battling for their
emancipation. To such a priceless privilege the inheritors of the shining
grace of Bahá'u'lláh cannot surely be indifferent. The American believers
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must gird up the loins of endeavor and step into the arena of service with
such heroism as shall astound the entire Bahá'í world. Let them be assured
that my prayers will continue to be offered on their behalf.
November 25, 1937
ARCHBREAKER OF COVENANT
The Hand of Omnipotence has removed the archbreaker of Bahá'u'lláh's
Covenant, his hopes shattered, his plottings frustrated, the society of his
fellow-conspirators extinguished. God's triumphant Faith forges on, its
unity unimpaired, its purpose unsullied, its stability unshaken. Such a death
calls for neither exultation nor recrimination, but evokes overwhelming pity
at so tragic a downfall unparalleled in religious history.
Cablegram December 20, 1937
CERTAIN VITAL REQUIREMENTS OF SEVEN YEAR PLAN
The Seven Year Plan, with which the immediate fortunes of the American
Bahá'í community are so closely interwoven, demands, at this critical
stage in its development, serious and prayerful consideration of certain vital
requirements, without which such a stupendous task can never be brought
to a successful completion. The evolution of the Plan imposes a three-fold
obligation, which all individual believers, all local Assemblies, as well as
the National Assembly itself, must respectively recognize and conscientiously
fulfil. Each and every believer, undaunted by the uncertainties, the perils
and the financial stringency afflicting the nation, must arise and insure, to
the full measure of his or her capacity, that continuous and abundant flow
of funds into the national Treasury, on which the successful prosecution of
the Plan must chiefly depend. Upon the local Assemblies, whose special
function and high privilege is to facilitate the admission of new believers
into the community, and thereby stimulate the infusion of fresh blood into
its organic institutions, a duty no less binding in character devolves. To
them I wish particularly to appeal, at this present hour, when the call of
God is being raised throughout the length and breadth of both continents
in the New World, to desist from insisting too rigidly on the minor observances
and beliefs, which might prove a stumbling block in the way of any
sincere applicant, whose eager desire is to enlist under the banner of
Bahá'u'lláh. While conscientiously adhering to the fundamental qualifications
already laid down, the members of each and every Assembly should
endeavor, by their patience, their love, their tact and wisdom to nurse,
subsequent to his admission, the new-comer into Bahá'í maturity, and win
him over gradually to the unreserved acceptance of whatever has been
ordained in the teachings. As to the National Assembly, whose inescapable
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responsibility is to guard the integrity, coordinate the activities, and
stimulate the life, of the entire community, its chief concern at the present
moment should be to anxiously deliberate on how best to enable both individual
believers and local Assemblies to fulfil their respective tasks. Through
their repeated appeals, through their readiness to dispel all misunderstandings
and remove all obstacles, through the example of their lives, and their
unrelaxing vigilance, their high sense of justice, their humility, consecration
and courage, they must demonstrate to those whom they represent their
capacity to play their part in the progress of the Plan in which they, no
less than the rest of the community, are involved. May the all-conquering
Spirit of Bahá'u'lláh be so infused into each component part of this
harmoniously functioning System as to enable it to contribute its proper share
to the consummation of the plan.
January 30, 1938
A YEAR HAS ALMOST ELAPSED
A year has almost elapsed since the Seven Year Plan has been launched
with characteristic vigor and noble enthusiasm by the American Bahá'í
Community. For no less than six consecutive years this two-fold and
stupendous enterprise, which has been set in operation, must, if the American
believers are to prove themselves worthy of their high calling, be wisely
conducted, continually reinforced and energetically prosecuted to its very
end. Severe and unprecedented as may be the internal tests and ordeals
which the members of this Community may yet experience, however tragic
and momentous the external happenings which might well disrupt the fabric
of the society in which they live, they must not throughout these six
remaining years, allow themselves to be deflected from the course they are
now steadily pursuing. Nay, rather, as the impelling forces which have set
in motion this mighty undertaking acquire added momentum and its potentialities
are more fully manifested, they who are responsible for its success must
as time goes on evince a more burning enthusiasm, demonstrate a higher
sense of solidarity, reveal greater depths of consecration to their task, and
display a more unyielding determination to achieve its purpose. Then, and
only then, will the pleas, the hopes and wishes of `Abdu'l-Bahá, eternally
enshrined in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, be worthily acknowledged and
fulfilled. "Let your exertions, henceforth, increase a thousandfold" is the
earnest appeal voiced by Him in those Tablets. "Summon the people," He
exhorts them, "in these countries, capitals, islands, assemblies and churches,
to enter the Abhá Kingdom. The scope of your exertions must needs be
extended. The wider its range the more striking will be the evidences of
Divine assistance." "The moment," He solemnly affirms, "this Divine Message
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is carried forward by the American believers from the shores of America
and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa
and of Australia ... this community will find itself securely established upon
the throne of an everlasting dominion.... Then will the whole earth resound
with the praises of its majesty and greatness." The Seven Year Plan, to
which every American believer is fully and irrevocably pledged, during the
closing years of the First Century of the Bahá'í Era, is in itself but an
initial stage in the unfoldment of `Abdu'l-Bahá's vision of America's spiritual
destiny--a destiny which only those who will have successfully accomplished
this preliminary task can enable the rising generation who will labor
after them to fulfil in the course of the succeeding century.
April 14, 1938
DRAW NIGH UNTO BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
Message to 1938 Convention
On this auspicious occasion when number elected representatives American
Bahá'í Community is well-nigh doubly reinforced moved convey on
eve Thirtieth Convention to all delegates friends expression most loving
welcome. Gathered within House of Worship which enterprise persevering
loyalty self-abnegation American believers reared and adorned summoning
their aid vitalizing influence prayers meditations which Author their Faith
Himself revealed let them delegates visitors alike draw nigh unto Bahá'u'lláh
that He may draw nigh unto them. Community American believers whose
hearts have been stirred by tragic tale events immortalizing early history
their Faith whose minds have been enriched by further measure fundamental
Bahá'í Teachings whose hands have been fortified by fashioning instruments
wherein embryonic World Order can mature must at so critical stage in
fortunes declining civilization seek purge galvanize their souls through daily
prayer meditation that can best sustain them in discharge task still initial
stage development. As token my gratitude to such community entrusted
beloved co-worker Mrs. Collins locks Bahá'u'lláh's most precious hair
arranged preserved by loving hands Greatest Holy Leaf to rest beneath
dome of Temple nobly raised by dearly beloved believers in American
continent.
Cablegram April 27, 1938
MARCHING TOWARD THEIR GOAL
Pregnant indeed are the years looming ahead of us all. The twin processes
of internal disintegration and external chaos are being accelerated and
every day are inexorably moving towards a climax. The rumblings that
must precede the eruption of those forces that must cause "the limbs of
+P14
humanity to quake" can already be heard. "The time of the end," "the latter
years," as foretold in the Scriptures, are at long last upon us. The Pen of
Bahá'u'lláh, the voice of `Abdu'l-Bahá, have time and again, insistently and
in terms unmistakable, warned an unheeding humanity of impending disaster.
The Community of the Most Great Name, the leaven that must
leaven the lump, the chosen remnant that must survive the rolling up of
the old, discredited, tottering order, and assist in the unfoldment of a new
one in its stead, is standing ready, alert, clear-visioned, and resolute. The
American believers, standard-bearers of this world-wide community and
torch-bearers of an as yet unborn civilization, have girt up their loins,
unfurled their banners and stepped into the arena of service. Their Plan has
been formulated. Their forces are mobilized. They are steadfastly marching
towards their goal. The hosts of the Abhá Kingdom are rushing forth, as
promised, to direct their steps and reinforce their power. Through their
initial victories they have provided the impulse that must now surge and, with
relentless force sweep over their sister-communities and eventually overpower
the entire human race. The generality of mankind, blind and enslaved, is
wholly unaware of the healing power with which this community has been
endowed, nor can it as yet suspect the role which this same community is
destined to play in its redemption. Fierce and manifold will be the assaults
with which governments, races, classes and religions, jealous of its rising
prestige and fearful of its consolidating strength, will seek to silence its
voice and sap its foundations. Unmoved by the relative obscurity that
surrounds it at the present time, and undaunted by the forces that will be
arrayed against it in the future, this community, I cannot but feel confident,
will, no matter how afflictive the agonies of a travailing age, pursue its
destiny, undeflected in its course, undimmed in its serenity, unyielding in
its resolve, unshaken in its convictions.
July 5, 1938
UNBROKEN SOLIDARITY, UNQUENCHABLE ENTHUSIASM
I feel truly exhilarated as I witness the ever-recurrent manifestations
of unbroken solidarity and unquenchable enthusiasm that distinguish every
stage in the progressive development of the nation-wide enterprise which
is being so unflinchingly pursued by the whole American Bahá'í community.
The marked deterioration in world affairs, the steadily deepening gloom
that envelops the storm-tossed peoples and nations of the Old World,
invest the Seven Year Plan, now operating in both the northern and southern
American continents, with a significance and urgency that cannot be
overestimated. Conceived as the supreme agency for the establishment, in
the opening century of the Bahá'í Era, of what is but the initial stage in
+P15
the progressive realization of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Plan for the American believers,
this enterprise, as it extends its ramifications throughout the entire New
World, is demonstrating its power to command all the resources and utilize
all the facilities which the machinery of a laboriously evolved Administrative
Order can place at its disposal. However we view its aspects, it offers in its
functioning a sharp contrast to the workings of the moribund and obsolescent
institutions to which a perverse generation is desperately clinging.
Tempestuous are the winds that buffet and will, as the days go by, fiercely
assail the very structure of the Order through the agency of which this twofold
task is being performed. The potentialities with which an almighty Providence
has endowed it will no doubt enable its promoters to achieve their
purpose. Much, however, will depend upon the spirit and manner in which
that task will be conducted. Through the clearness and steadiness of their
vision, through the unvitiated vitality of their belief, through the
incorruptibility of their character, through the adamantine force of their
resolve, the matchless superiority of their aims and purpose, and the
unsurpassed range of their accomplishments, they who labor for the glory of the
Most Great Name throughout both Americas can best demonstrate to the
visionless, faithless and restless society to which they belong their power to
proffer a haven of refuge to its members in the hour of their realized doom.
Then and only then will this tender sapling, embedded in the fertile soil of a
Divinely appointed Administrative Order, and energized by the dynamic
processes of its institutions, yield its richest and destined fruit. That the
community of the American believers, to whose keeping so vast, so delicate
and precious a trust has been committed will, severally and collectively
prove themselves worthy of their high calling, I for one, who in my
association with them have been privileged to observe more closely than
perhaps any one else the nature of their reactions to the momentous issues
that have confronted them in the past, will refuse to doubt.
September 10, 1938
LOYALTY TO WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
Loyalty to world order of Bahá'u'lláh, security of its basic
institutions, both imperatively demand all its avowed supporters, particularly
its champion builders of the American continent, in these days when sinister,
uncontrollable forces are deepening the cleavage sundering peoples, nations,
creeds, and classes, resolve despite pressure of fast crystallizing public
opinion, abstain individually, collectively in word, action, informally as
well as in all official utterances and publications from assigning blame,
taking sides, however indirectly, in recurring political crises now agitating,
ultimately engulfing human society. Grave apprehension lest cumulative
+P16
effect of such compromises disintegrate fabric, clog channel of grace that
sustains system of God's essentially supra-national, supernatural order so
laboriously evolved, so recently established.
Cablegram September 24, 1938
NINE HOLY SOULS
Recent swift progress of Temple ornamentation prompts me entreat
American Community to focus immediate attention and center energies
upon corresponding acceleration in the Teaching enterprise formulated in
Seven Year Plan. Final phase in construction of Mashriqu'l-Adhkár already
entered. Initial stage in the inaugurated Teaching Campaign still
untraversed. End of First Century rapidly approaching. Alaska, Delaware,
Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia
still unsettled. Universal, prolonged intensification in pioneer activity is
the crying need of this fateful hour. The establishment of one resident
believer in each virgin territory is the precondition to the full launching
of the subsequent, eagerly-anticipated stage aiming at the spiritual conquest
of the Southern Half of the Western Hemisphere. The Concourse on high
expectantly await, ready to assist and acclaim the nine holy souls who,
independently or as deputies, will promptly, fearlessly volunteer to forsake
their homes, cast away their attachments and definitely settle in these
territories to lay firm anchorage of the Administrative Order of this
undefeatable Faith. I am irresistibly urged and proud of the privilege to
pledge nine hundred pounds to facilitate the permanent settlement of pioneers
in these States and Provinces whose acts and heroic self-abnegation will mark
the conclusion of this shining Epoch in American Bahá'í history.
Cablegram January 26, 1939
THE RAREST PRIVILEGE EVER CONFERRED BY PROVIDENCE
UPON THE AMERICAN BAHÁ'Í COMMUNITY
Very soon we shall be entering the second half of the last decade of this,
the first century of the Bahá'í Era. The five remaining years should
essentially be consecrated to the imperative, the spiritual needs of the
remaining Republics of both Central and South America, for whose entry into the
fellowship of Bahá'u'lláh the Plan was primarily formulated. The prime
requisite for the definite opening of what may come to be regarded as one
of the most brilliant chapters in American Bahá'í history, is the completion
of the initial task which American Bahá'í pioneers must perform in the
nine remaining States and Provinces as yet unassociated with the organic
structure of the Faith.
+P17
The period ahead is short, strenuous, fraught with mortal perils for
human society, yet pregnant with possibilities of unsurpassed triumphs for
the power of Bahá'u'lláh's redemptive Cause. The occasion is propitious for
a display, by the American Bahá'í Community, in its corporate capacity, of
an effort which in its magnitude, character, and purpose must outshine its
past endeavors. Failure to exploit these present, these golden opportunities
would blast the hopes which the prosecution of the Plan has thus far
aroused, and would signify the loss of the rarest privilege ever conferred by
Providence upon the American Bahá'í Community. It is in view of the
criticalness of the situation that I was led to place at the disposal of any
pioneer willing to dedicate himself to the task of the present hour such
modest resources as would facilitate the discharge of so enviable a duty.
The Bahá'í World, increasingly subjected to the rigors of suppression,
in both the East and the West, watches with unconcealed astonishment, and
derives hope and comfort from the rapid unfoldment of the successive stages
of God's Plan for so blest a community. Its eyes are fixed upon this
community, eager to behold the manner in which its gallant members will break
down, one after another, the barriers that obstruct their progress towards a
divinely-appointed goal. On every daring adventurer in the service of the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh the Concourse on high shall descend, "each bearing
aloft a chalice of pure light." Every one of these adventurers God Himself
will sustain and inspire, and will "cause the pure waters of wisdom and
utterance to gush out and flow copiously from his heart." "The Kingdom
of God," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá, "is possessed of limitless potency. Audacious
must be the army of life if the confirming aid of that Kingdom is to be
repeatedly vouchsafed unto it.... Vast is the arena, and the time ripe to
spur on the charger within it. Now is the time to reveal the force of one's
strength, the stoutness of one's heart and the might of one's soul."
Dearly-beloved friends! What better field than the vast virgin
territories, so near at hand, and waiting to receive, at this very hour, their
full share of the onrushing tide of Bahá'u'lláh's redeeming grace? What
theatre more befitting than these long-neglected nine remaining states and
provinces in which the true heroism of the intrepid pioneers of His World Order
can be displayed? There is no time to lose. There is no room left for
vacillation. Multitudes hunger for the Bread of Life. The stage is set. The
firm and irrevocable Promise is given. God's own Plan has been set in motion.
It is gathering momentum with every passing day. The powers of heaven
and earth mysteriously assist in its execution. Such an opportunity is
irreplaceable. Let the doubter arise and himself verify the truth of such
assertions. To try, to persevere, is to insure ultimate and complete victory.
January 28, 1939
+P18
GOD'S CREATIVE PLAN
The task regarded as an essential preliminary to the crusade destined to
embrace the whole of Latin America is now in full swing and is being
rapidly carried out. A further step, designed to hasten the conclusion of
the final phase of the ornamentation of the Temple, has also been taken. As
the days roll by, as the perturbations of an imperiled civilization are more
alarmingly manifested, the potentialities of God's creative Plan
correspondingly unfold, and the valor and heroism of its intrepid supporters
are more widely and convincingly demonstrated. With every successful effort to
muster its young and scattered forces, to perfect its methods, to extend the
range of its operations, to deepen its spiritual life and to scale loftier
heights of individual heroism, there will, I cannot but feel confident, be
granted to this community a greater opportunity to prove its worth, and a
fuller measure of celestial strength to enable it to reenact, on the soil of
the United States and Canada and throughout the entire Western Hemisphere,
those stirring exploits that have shed such lustre on the apostolic age of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Though much has thus far been achieved, yet the
processes now set in motion through the evolution of the Plan are still far too
rudimentary to permit even a faint glimpse of the brilliancy of the epoch
in which `Abdu'l-Bahá's own Plan must come to fruition. Not ours to
attempt, at the present moment, a survey of the distant scene, or to seek
to visualize its glories, or to dwell on the consequences of the eventual
attainment of an as yet far-off goal. Ours is the solemn, the inescapable
duty to labor faithfully and unremittingly to insure that no opportunity
is being missed, that no avenues are left unexplored, that might, however
indirectly, contribute to the furtherance of those tasks that claim so
insistently our immediate attention. That those into whose hands this
dynamic Plan has been entrusted are aware of the essential character of their
obligations and will discharge worthily their duties, no one, viewing the
range and quality of their achievements, can entertain the slightest doubt.
February 8, 1939
APPROACH OF FINAL ERUPTION
Fresh, ominous rumblings demonstrate the inevitability and foreshadow
the approach of the final eruption involving the dissolution of a lamentably
defective international order. The privileged community of American
believers forewarned, undismayed, spiritually equipped. Notwithstanding
the gravity of the times, they will pursue unswervingly the divinely-chartered
course, their attention undistracted, their objective unobscured, their
resolve unimpaired, their support undiminished, their loyalty unsullied. The
immediate obligation is to complete settlement of Delaware, Utah, Manitoba,
+P19
and Nova Scotia before termination of Bahá'í administrative year.
Responsibility solemn, pressing, unavoidable.
Cablegram March 24, 1939
GRATITUDE TO PIONEERS
Assure each pioneer immeasurable gratitude. Such vigorous response
at such perilous times to so vital a call opens brilliant epoch in Formative
Age of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. I am impelled to congratulate the Assembly
for its wise, efficient trusteeship.
Cablegram April 1, 1939
MY PLEA, MY SUPREME ENTREATY
I have in two recent, successive messages, cabled to your Assembly,
giving expression, as far as it lay in my power, to the feelings of
overpowering gratitude which the response of so many pioneers to the call of
teaching has evoked in my heart. I have moreover felt impelled to convey
my congratulations to the members of your Assembly who, through their
resource, unity and singlemindedness, have lent so needed and timely an
impetus to the mighty work associated with the second year of the Seven
Year Plan. There can be no doubt whatever that what the American believers,
no less than their elected National representatives, have accomplished,
the long and assiduous care of the former and the potent methods employed
by the latter, have witnessed to the uprising of a new spirit on which the
defamers of the Cause may well pause to reflect, and from which its lovers
cannot but derive deep joy and solace. I again wish to thank with all my
soul those whose acts have stirred the imagination of friend and foe alike.
In my desire not to omit anything that might help to spur on or reinforce
the community of the American believers as they move on to their
destiny, I feel it necessary to add a word of warning in connection with the
work that has been so splendidly begun lest it should be jeopardized or
frustrated. The initial phase of the teaching work operating under the
Seven Year Plan has at long last been concluded. They who have pushed it
forward have withstood the test gloriously. By their acts, whether as teachers
or administrators, they have written a glorious page in the struggle for the
laying of a continent-wide foundation for the Administrative Order of
their Faith. At this advanced stage in the fulfilment of the purpose to
which they have set their hand there can be no turning back, no halting,
no respite. To launch the bark of the Faith, to implant its banner, is not
enough. Support, ample, organized and unremitting, should be lent, designed
to direct the course of that work and to lay an unassailable foundation for
the fort destined to stand guard over that banner.
+P20
The National Spiritual Assembly, the National Teaching Committee,
the Regional and local teaching committees, no less than the itinerant
teachers, should utilize every possible means calculated to fan the zeal,
enrich the resources and insure the solidity and permanency of the work, of
those who, actuated by so laudable and shining a spirit of self-sacrifice, have
arisen to face the hazards and perils of so holy and historic an adventure.
Indeed every believer, however humble and inexperienced, should sense the
obligation to play his or her part in a mission that involves so very deeply
the destinies not only of the American Bahá'í community but of the nation
itself.
Whether through the frequency of their visits, the warmth of their
correspondence, the liberality of their support, the wisdom of their counsels,
the choice of the literature placed at the disposal of the pioneers, the
members of the community should, at this hour when the sands of a moribund
civilization are inexorably running out, and at a time when they are preparing
themselves to launch yet another stage in their teaching activities,
insure the security and provide for the steady expansion, of the work
initiated in those territories so recently set alight from the torch of an
inextinguishable Faith.
This is my plea, my supreme entreaty.
April 17, 1939
PENETRATION OF LATIN AMERICA
Message to 1939 Convention
Brilliant conclusion of second year in Seven Year Plan evokes universal
admiration of the Bahá'í world, deepens its spiritual consciousness and
mitigates the hardships of its increasingly harassed communities. Closing
phase of Temple ornamentation already entered. Initial stage of
Intercontinental Teaching Campaign successfully terminated. Firm anchorage
of the institutions of the Administrative Order permanently established in
every State and Province of North American continent. Mexico, lying in
the forefront of the southward marching army, recently enlisted. Pedro
Espinosa's auspicious attendance at the Convention is welcome evidence.
Settlement of the Central American republics is next step in progressive,
systematic penetration of Latin America. Upsurge of Bahá'u'lláh's impelling
Spirit can not, will not, be stemmed nor impeded. Methodical advance along
the line traced by pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá irresistible. Guatemala, Honduras,
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Dominica and Haiti immediate
objectives. Though politically unsettled, religiously intolerant, socially
backward and climatically inhospitable, these unexplored territories hold
forth inestimable prizes for audacious adventures in the path of Bahá'í
service. Dearly-beloved Martha's unrivaled experience, indomitable faith
+P21
and indefatigable labors will soon reinforce powers released for contemplated
campaign. Task admittedly laborious, hour laden with fate, privilege
incomparable, precious divinely-promised aid unfailing, reward predestined
immeasurable. Appeal to all believers, white and Negro alike, to arise and
assume rightful responsibilities. Urge prolongation of sessions of Convention
to enable delegates to exercise their inalienable right to deliberate and
formulate recommendations designed to aid incoming National Assembly
resolutely to prosecute this momentous enterprise. Fervor of prayers
intensified.
Cablegram April 28, 1939
PROVE THEMSELVES ... WORTHY OF THAT PRICELESS HERITAGE
The concerted activities of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the North
American continent assume, as they multiply and develop, a dual aspect,
and may be said to fall into two distinct categories, both equally vital and
complementary to each other. The one aims at the safeguarding and
consolidation of the work already achieved; the other is designed to enlarge
the range of its operation. The former depends chiefly for its success upon
the capacity, the experience and loyalty of wise, resourceful and judicious
administrators, who, impelled by the very nature of their task, will be
increasingly called upon to exercise the utmost care and vigilance in
protecting the interests of the Faith, in resolving its problems, in regulating
its life, in enriching its resources, and in preserving the pristine purity of
its precepts. The latter is essentially pioneer in nature, demanding first and
foremost those qualities of renunciation, tenacity, dauntlessness and
passionate fervor that can alone brave the dangers and sweep away the obstacles
with which an infant Faith, struggling against vested interests and face to
face with the entrenched forces of prejudice, of ignorance and fanaticism,
must needs contend. In both of these spheres of Bahá'í activity the community
of the American believers, it is becoming increasingly evident, is
evincing those characteristics which must be regarded as the essential
foundation for the success of their dual task.
As to those whose function is essentially of an administrative character
it can hardly be doubted that they are steadily and indefatigably perfecting
the structural machinery of their Faith, are multiplying its administrative
agencies, and are legalizing the status of the newly established institutions.
Slowly and patiently they are canalizing the spirit that at once directs,
energizes and safeguards its operation. They are exploiting its
potentialities, broadcasting its message, publicizing its literature, fostering
the aspirations of its youth, devising ways and means for the training of its
children, guarding the integrity of its teachings, and paving the way for the
ultimate
+P22
codification of its laws. Through all the resources at their disposal, they
are promoting the growth and consolidation of that pioneer movement for
which the entire machinery of their Administrative Order has been primarily
designed and erected. They are visibly and progressively contributing to
the enrichment of their unique community life, and are insuring, with
magnificent courage and characteristic promptitude, the completion of their
consecrated Edifice--the embodiment of their hopes and the supreme symbol
of their ideals.
As to those into whose valiant and trusted hands--and no believer,
however humble is to think himself debarred from joining their ranks--the
standards of a forward marching Faith have been entrusted, they too with
no less zest and thoroughness are pushing farther and farther its frontiers,
breaking new soil, establishing fresh outposts, winning more recruits, and
contributing to the greater diversification and more harmonious blending of
the elements comprised in the world-wide society of its followers.
The Edifice of this New World Order, which the Báb has heralded,
which the mind of Bahá'u'lláh has envisioned, and whose features `Abdu'l-Bahá,
its Architect, has delineated, we, whatever our capacities, opportunities
or position, are now, at so precarious a period in the world's history,
summoned to found and erect. The community of the Most Great Name
in the Western Hemisphere is, through the nature of its corporate life and
the scope of its exertions, assuming, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a
preponderating share in the laying of such a foundation and the erection of
such a structure. The eyes of its sister communities are fixed upon it. Their
prayers ascend on its behalf. Their hands are outstretched to lend whatever
aid lies within their power. I, for my part, am determined to reinforce
the impulse that impels its members forward to meet their destiny. The
Founders of their Faith survey from the Kingdom on high the range of
their achievements, acclaim their progress, and are ever ready to speed their
eventual triumph.
Far be it from me to underrate the gigantic proportions of their task,
nor do I for one moment overlook the urgency and gravity of the times in
which they are laboring. Nor do I wish to minimize the hazards and trials
that surround or lie ahead of them. The grandeur of their task is indeed
commensurate with the mortal perils by which their generation is hemmed
in. As the dusk creeps over a steadily sinking society the radiant outlines
of their redemptive mission become sharper every day. The present world
unrest, symptom of a world-wide malady, their world religion has already
affirmed must needs culminate in that world catastrophe out of which the
consciousness of world citizenship will be born, a consciousness that can
alone provide an adequate basis for the organization of world unity, on
+P23
which a lasting world peace must necessarily depend, the peace itself
inaugurating in turn that world civilization which will mark the coming of age
of the entire human race.
Fortified by such reflections, the American believers, in whichever
section of the Western Hemisphere they find themselves laboring, whether at
home or abroad, and however dire and distressing the processes involved in the
disintegration of the structure of present-day civilization, will, I feel
convinced, prove themselves, through their lives and deeds, worthy of
that priceless heritage which it is their undoubted privilege to proclaim,
preserve and perpetuate.
May 22, 1939
OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF WORLD MISSION
Newly-launched Central American campaign marks official inauguration
of long-deferred World Mission constituting `Abdu'l-Bahá's distinctive legacy
to the Bahá'í Community of North America. Chosen Community broadening
its basis, gaining in stature, deepening in consecration. Its vanguard
now entering arena monopolized by entrenched forces of Christendom's
mightiest ecclesiastical institutions. Laboring amidst race foreign in
language, custom, temperament embracing vast proportion of New World's ethnic
elements. American believers' isolated oversea teaching enterprises hitherto
tentative, intermittent, now at end. New epoch opening, demanding exertions
incomparably more strenuous, unflinchingly sustained, centrally directed,
systematically organized, efficiently conducted. Upon alacrity,
tenacity, fearlessness of present prosecutors of the unfolding mission depend
speedy and fullest revelation, in the First and Second Centuries, of the
potentialities of the birthright conferred upon American believers. Convey
to pioneers in North, Middle and South America my eagerness to maintain
with each direct, personal contact. Assure Teaching and Inter-America
Committees my delight at successive testimonies of believers' glowing spirit
reflected in Minutes, letters and reports recently received. Entreat every
section of community to labor unremittingly until every nation in Western
Hemisphere is illumined by rays and woven into fabric of Bahá'u'lláh's
triumphant Administrative Order.
Cablegram May 28, 1939
FULFIL THE REQUIREMENTS
The readiness of your Assembly, as expressed in your recently cabled
message, to transfer the National Bahá'í Secretariat to the vicinity of the
Temple in Wilmette has evoked within me the deepest feelings of thankfulness
and joy. Your historic decision, so wise and timely, so surprising in
+P24
its suddenness, so far-reaching in its consequences, is one that I cannot but
heartily and unreservedly applaud. To each one of your brethren in the
Faith, throughout the United States and Canada, who are witnessing, from
day to day and at an ever-hastening speed, the approaching completion of
their National House of Worship, the great Mother Temple of the West,
your resolution to establish within its hallowed precincts and in the heart
of the North American continent the Administrative Seat of their beloved
Faith cannot but denote henceforward a closer association, a more constant
communion, and a higher degree of coordination between the two primary
agencies providentially ordained for the enrichment of their spiritual life
and for the conduct and regulation of their administrative affairs. To the
far-flung Bahá'í communities of East and West, most of which are being
increasingly proscribed and ill-treated, and none of which can claim to
have had a share of the dual blessings which a specially designed and
constructed House of Worship and a fully and efficiently functioning
Administrative Order invariably confer, the concentration in a single locality
of what will come to be regarded as the fountain-head of the community's
spiritual life and what is already recognized as the mainspring of the
administrative activities, signalizes the launching of yet another phase in the
slow and imperceptible emergence, in these declining times, of the model
Bahá'í community--a community divinely ordained, organically united,
clear-visioned, vibrant with life, and whose very purpose is regulated by the
twin directing principles of the worship of God and of service to one's
fellow-men.
The decision you have arrived at is an act that befittingly marks the
commencement of your allotted term of stewardship in service to the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. Moreover, it significantly coincides with the
inauguration of that world mission of which the settlement of Bahá'í pioneers
in the virgin territories of the North American continent has been but a
prelude. That such a decision may speedily and without the slightest hitch
be carried into effect is the deepest longing of my heart. That those who
have boldly carried so weighty a resolution may without pause or respite
continue to labor and build up, as circumstances permit, around this
administrative nucleus such accessories as the machinery of a fast evolving
administrative order, functioning under the shadow of, and in such close
proximity to, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, must demand, is the object of my
incessant and fervent prayer. That such a step, momentous as it is, may prove
the starting point for acts of still greater renown and richer possibilities
that will leave their distinct mark on the third year of the Seven Year Plan is
a hope which I, together with all those who are eagerly following its progress,
fondly and confidently cherish.
+P25
The American believers, while straining to accomplish befittingly this
particular task, must simultaneously brace themselves for another sublime
effort to discharge, ere the present year draws to a close, their manifold
responsibilities allotted to them under the Seven Year Plan. The placing
of yet another contract for the casting of the ornamentation of the First
Story of the Temple, the permanent settlement of the six remaining
Republics of Central America, and the extension of continual support both
material and moral, to those weaker States, Provinces and Republics
that have been recently incorporated in the body of the Faith, combine to
offer, at this hour when the fate of civilization trembles in the balance, the
boldest and gravest challenge that has ever faced the community of the
American believers both in the propagative and administrative spheres
of Bahá'í activity. In the field of pioneer teaching, and particularly in
connection with the opening of the Republics of Haiti, Salvador, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, Dominica and Guatemala, the utmost encouragement should
at all times be vouchsafed by the elected representatives of the community
to those who, out of the abundance of their hearts, and in direct response
to the call of their Faith and the dictates of their conscience, have renounced
their comforts, fled their homes, and hazarded their fortunes for the sake
of bringing into operation the majestic Plan of `Abdu'l-Bahá, while special
support should be extended to those who appear to be best qualified for the
strenuous labors which pioneering under such exacting circumstances
demands. Care should be exercised lest any hindrance, should, for any
reason, be placed in the way of those who have, whether young or old,
rich or poor, so spontaneously dedicated themselves to so urgent and holy
a mission.
Towards this newly-appointed enterprise a more definite reorientation
is needed. To its purposes a more complete dedication is demanded. In its
fortunes a more widespread concern is required. For its further consolidation
and speedy fulfilment a larger number and a greater variety of participants
are indispensable. For its success a more abundant flow of material
resources should be assured.
Let the privileged few, the ambassadors of the Message of Bahá'u'lláh,
bear in mind His words as they go forth on their errands of service to His
Cause. "It behoveth whosoever willeth to journey for the sake of God, and
whose intention is to proclaim His Word and quicken the dead, to bathe
himself with the waters of detachment, and to adorn his temple with the
ornaments of resignation and submission. Let trust in God be his shield, and
reliance on God his provision, and the fear of God his raiment. Let patience
be his helper, and praise-worthy conduct his succorer, and goodly deeds his
army. Then will the concourse on high sustain him. Then will the denizens
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of the Kingdom of Names march forth with him, and the banners of Divine
guidance and inspiration be unfurled on his right hand and before him."
Faced with such a challenge, a community that has scaled thus far such
peaks of enduring achievements can neither falter nor recoil. Confident in
its destiny, reliant on its God-given power, fortified by the consciousness
of its past victories, galvanized into action at the sight of a slowly
disrupting civilization, it will--I can have no doubt--continue to fulfil
unflinchingly the immediate requirements of its task, assured that with every
step it takes and with each stage it traverses, a fresh revelation of Divine
light and strength will guide and propel it forward until it consummates, in
the fulness of time and in the plenitude of its power, the Plan inseparably
bound up with its shining destiny.
July 4, 1939
THE MOST FATEFUL HOUR
A triple call, clear-voiced, insistent and inescapable, summons to the
challenge all members of the American Bahá'í community, at this, the most
fateful hour in their history. The first is the voice, distant and piteous, of
those sister communities which now, alas, are fettered by the falling chains
of religious orthodoxy and isolated through the cruel barriers set up by a
rampant nationalism. The second is the plea, no less vehement and equally
urgent, of those peoples and nations of the New World, whose vast and
unexplored territories await to be warmed by the light and swept into the
orbit of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. The third, more universal and stirring
than either of the others, is the call of humanity itself crying out for
deliverance at a time when the tide of mounting evils has destroyed its
equilibrium and is now strangling its very life.
These imperative calls of Bahá'í duty the American believers can
immediately if only partially answer. Their present status, their
circumscribed resources, debar them, however great their eagerness, from
responding completely and decisively to the full implications of this threefold
obligation. They can, neither individually nor through their concerted
efforts, impose directly their will upon those into whose hands the immediate
destinies of their persecuted brethren are placed. Nor are they as yet capable
of launching a campaign of such magnitude as could capture the imagination and
arouse the conscience of mankind, and thereby insure the immediate and full
redress of those grievances from which their helpless coreligionists in both
the East and the West are suffering. They cannot moreover hope to wield at
the present time in the councils of nations an influence commensurate with
the stupendous claims advanced, or adequate to the greatness of the Cause
proclaimed, by the Author of their Faith. Nor can they assume a position
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or exercise such responsibilities as would enable them by their acts and
decisions to reverse the process which is urging so tragically the decline of
human society and its institutions.
And yet, though their influence be at the present hour indecisive and
their divinely-conferred authority unrecognized, the role they can play in
both alleviating the hardships that afflict their brethren and in attenuating
the ills that torment mankind is none the less considerable and far-reaching.
By the range and liberality of their contributions to mitigate the distress
of the bereaved, the exiled and the imprisoned; by the persistent, the wise
and judicious intervention of their elected representatives through the
authorities concerned; by a clear and convincing exposition, whenever
circumstances are propitious, of the issues involved; by a vigorous defence of
the rights and liberties denied; by an accurate and dignified presentation
of the events that have transpired; by every manner of encouragement which
their sympathies may suggest, or their means permit, or their consciences
dictate, to succor the outcast and the impoverished; and above all by their
tenacious adherence to, and wide proclamation of, those principles, laws,
ideals, and institutions which their disabled fellow-believers are unable to
affirm or publicly espouse; and lastly, by the energetic prosecution of those
tasks which their oppressed fellow-workers are forbidden to initiate or
conduct, the privileged community of the American Bahá'ís can play a
conspicuous part in the great drama involving so large a company of their
unemancipated brethren in the Asiatic, European and African continents.
Their duties towards mankind in general are no less distinct and vital.
Their impotence to stem the tide of onrushing calamities, their seeming
helplessness in face of those cataclysmic forces that are to convulse human
society, do not in the least detract from the urgency of their unique
mission, nor exonerate them from those weighty responsibilities which they
alone can and must assume. Humanity, heedless and impenitent, is admittedly
hovering on the edge of an awful abyss, ready to precipitate itself
into that titanic struggle, that crucible whose chastening fires alone can and
will weld its antagonistic elements of race, class, religion and nation into
one coherent system, one world commonwealth. "The hour is approaching"
is Bahá'u'lláh's own testimony, "when the most great convulsion will have
appeared... I swear by God! The promised day is come, the day when
tormenting trials will have surged above your heads, and beneath your feet,
saying: `Taste ye, what your hands have wrought.'" Not ours to question
the almighty wisdom or fathom the inscrutable ways of Him in whose hands
the ultimate destiny of an unregenerate yet potentially glorious race must
lie. Ours rather is the duty to believe that the world-wide community of
the Most Great Name, and in particular, at the present time its vanguard in
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North America, however buffeted by the powerful currents of these troublous
times, and however keen their awareness of the inevitability of the final
eruption, can, if they will, rise to the level of their calling and discharge
their functions, both in the period which is witnessing the confusion and
breakdown of human institutions, and in the ensuing epoch during which the
shattered basis of a dismembered society is to be recast, and its forces
reshaped, re-directed and unified. With the age that is still unborn, with its
herculean tasks and unsuspected glories, we need not concern ourselves at
present. It is to the fierce struggle, the imperious duties, the distinctive
contributions which the present generation of Bahá'ís are summoned to
undertake and render that I feel we should, at this hour, direct our immediate
and anxious attention. Though powerless to avert the impending contest the
followers of Bahá'u'lláh can, by the spirit they evince and the efforts they
exert help to circumscribe its range, shorten its duration, allay its
hardships, proclaim its salutary consequences, and demonstrate its necessary
and vital role in the shaping of human destiny. Theirs is the duty to hold,
aloft and undimmed, the torch of Divine guidance, as the shades of night
descend upon, and ultimately envelop the entire human race. Theirs is the
function, amidst its tumults, perils and agonies, to witness to the vision, and
proclaim the approach, of that re-created society, that Christ-promised
Kingdom, that World Order whose generative impulse is the spirit of none other
than Bahá'u'lláh Himself, whose dominion is the entire planet, whose watchword
is unity, whose animating power is the force of Justice, whose directive
purpose is the reign of righteousness and truth, and whose supreme glory
is the complete, the undisturbed and everlasting felicity of the whole of
human kind. By the sublimity and serenity of their faith, by the steadiness
and clarity of their vision, the incorruptibility of their character, the rigor
of their discipline, the sanctity of their morals, and the unique example of
their community life, they can and indeed must in a world polluted with
its incurable corruptions, paralyzed by its haunting fears, torn by its
devastating hatreds, and languishing under the weight of its appalling miseries
demonstrate the validity of their claim to be regarded as the sole repository
of that grace upon whose operation must depend the complete deliverance,
the fundamental reorganization and the supreme felicity of all mankind.
Though the obstacles confronting the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the
American continent in their efforts to completely emancipate their
fellow-Bahá'ís on the one hand, and to speedily rehabilitate the fortunes of
their fellow-men on the other, be in the main unsurmountable, such impediments
cannot as yet be said to exist that can frustrate their efforts to fully
discharge the second duty now incumbent upon them in the inter-continental
sphere of Bahá'í teaching. The field, in all its vastness and fertility, is
wide
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open and near at hand. The harvest is ripe. The hour is over-due. The
signal has been given. The spiritual forces, mysteriously released, are
already operating with increasing momentum, unchallenged and unchecked.
Victory, speedy and unquestioned, is assured to whosoever will arise and
respond to this second, this urgent and vital call. In this field, as in no
other, the American believers can most easily evince the full force of their
latent energies, can exercise in their plentitude their conspicuous talents,
and can rise to the highest level of their God-given opportunities.
Fired by their zeal, their love for and faith in Bahá'u'lláh; armed with
that Holy Charter, wherein `Abdu'l-Bahá's mandate investing them with
their world mission is inscribed; piloted through the instrumentality of
those agencies which a divine, a smoothly functioning Administrative Order
has providentially placed at their disposal; disciplined and invigorated by
those immutable verities, spiritual principles and administrative regulations
that distinguish their religious beliefs, govern their individual conduct and
regulate their community life; aspiring to emulate the example of those
heroes and martyrs, the narrative of whose exploits they have admired and
pondered, it behooves all members of the American Bahá'í community to
gird themselves as never before to the task of befittingly playing their part
in the enactment of the opening scene of the First Act of that superb Drama
whose theme is no less than the spiritual conquest of both the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres. Their immediate task, under the Seven Year Plan,
the object of which is the establishment of a minimum of one Bahá'í center
in each of the Republics of Middle and South America, has now been gloriously
ushered in through the settlement of one pioneer in most of the Central
American Republics, and bids fair to be recognized by posterity as
the original impulse imparted to an enterprise that will go round the world.
That impulse must, as time goes by, communicate itself to the farthest
extremities of Latin America, and must be reinforced in every manner, by
as many of the American believers as possible. The broader the basis of
this campaign, the deeper its roots, the finer the flower into which it shall
eventually blossom. That its call may be heeded, that its implications may
be recognized and its potentialities progressively unfold, is my earnest
prayer, and the supreme longing of my heart.
July 28, 1939
IMPERILLED HUMANITY
Shades of night descending on imperilled humanity are inexorably
deepening. American believers, heirs of Bahá'u'lláh's covenant, prosecutors
of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Plan, are confronted by supreme opportunity to vindicate
indestructibility of their faith, inflexibility their resolution, their
incorruptibility,
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sanctity for appointed task. Anxiously, passionately entreat
them, whatever obstacles the march of tragic events may create, however
distressing barriers predicted calamities raise between them and sister
communities and possibly Faith's World Center, to unwaveringly hold aloft torch
whose infant light heralds the birth of the effulgent World Order destined to
supplant disrupting civilization.
Cablegram August 30, 1939
IN GALAXY OF BAHÁ'Í IMMORTALS
Martha's unnumbered admirers throughout Bahá'í world lament with
me the earthly extinction of her heroic life. Concourse on high acclaim her
elevation to rightful position in galaxy of Bahá'í immortals. Posterity will
establish her as foremost Hand which `Abdu'l-Bahá's will has raised up in
first Bahá'í century. Present generation of her fellow-believers recognize
her to be the first, finest fruit which the Formative Age of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh has as yet produced. Advise hold befitting memorial gathering
in Temple to honor one whose acts shed imperishable lustre on American
Bahá'í community. Impelled share with National Assembly expenses of
erection of monument in symbolic spot,+F1 the meeting-place of East and
West, to both of which she unsparingly dedicated the full force of her
mighty energies.
Cablegram October 3, 1939
MANDATE CONFERRED BY `ABDU'L-BAHÁ
Weighty resolutions of San Francisco meeting call forth emotions too
deep for expression. Fondest hopes excelled. Indomitable courage and
overflowing energy of the firmly-welded, providentially-directed American
Bahá'í community impelling them outstrip pace and surpass the limits of
the theatre of action assigned to the third year of the Seven Year Plan.
Welcome particularly recent action designed expedite termination of
Divinely-founded Temple ordained to be the Ark destined to ride triumphant the
tidal wave of world-encircling calamities and offering sole refuge to
storm-tossed sufferers of sinful, steadily sinking civilization. Kindly renew
to every established and intending pioneer in enumerated Republics and
dependencies my ardent plea to resolve to refuse, despite the deepening
world confusion, to abandon their posts and surrender the responsibilities
solemnly assumed under the Mandate conferred by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Cablegram October 23, 1939
+F1 Honolulu
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THE SPIRITUAL POTENCIES OF THAT CONSECRATED SPOT
The transfer of the sacred remains of the brother and mother of our
Lord and Master `Abdu'l-Bahá to Mount Carmel and their final interment
within the hallowed precincts of the Shrine of the Báb, and in the immediate
neighborhood of the resting place of the Greatest Holy Leaf, constitute,
apart from their historic associations and the tender sentiments they arouse,
events of such capital institutional significance as only future happenings,
steadily and mysteriously unfolding at the world center of our Faith, can
adequately demonstrate.
The circumstances attending the consummation of this long, this profoundly
cherished hope were no less significant. The swiftness and suddenness
with which so delicate and weighty an undertaking was conducted; the
surmounting of various obstacles which the outbreak of war and its inevitable
repercussions necessarily engendered; the success of the long-drawn out
negotiations which the solution of certain preliminary problems imposed;
the execution of the plan in the face of the continued instability and
persistent dangers following the fierce riots that so long and so violently
rocked the Holy Land, and despite the smoldering fire of animosity kindled in
the breasts of ecclesiastics and Covenant-breakers alike--all combined to
demonstrate, afresh and with compelling power, the invincible might of the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
The Purest Branch, the martyred son, the companion, and amanuensis
of Bahá'u'lláh, that pious and holy youth, who in the darkest days of
Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the barracks of `Akká entreated, on his
death-bed, his Father to accept him as a ransom for those of His loved
ones who yearned for, but were unable to attain, His presence, and the
saintly mother of `Abdu'l-Bahá, surnamed Navváb by Bahá'u'lláh, and the
first recipient of the honored and familiar title of "the Most Exalted Leaf,"
separated in death above half a century, and forced to suffer the humiliation
of an alien burial-ground, are now at long last reunited with the Greatest
Holy Leaf with whom they had so abundantly shared the tribulations of
one of the most distressing episodes of the Heroic Age of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh. Avenged, eternally safeguarded, befittingly glorified, they
repose embosomed in the heart of Carmel, hidden beneath its sacred soil,
interred in one single spot, lying beneath the shadow of the twin holy Tombs,
and facing across the bay, on an eminence of unequalled loveliness and beauty,
the silver-city of `Akká, the Point of Adoration of the entire Bahá'í world,
and the Door of Hope for all mankind. "Haste thee, O Carmel!" thus proclaims
the Pen of Bahá'u'lláh, "for lo, the light of the countenance of God,
the Ruler of the Kingdom of Names and Fashioner of the heavens, hath
been lifted upon thee." "Rejoice, for God hath in this Day established upon
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thee His throne, hath made thee the dawning-place of His signs and the
day-spring of the evidences of His Revelation."
The machinations of Badí'u'lláh--the brother and lieutenant of the Focal
Center of sedition and Arch-Breaker of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, the
deceased Muhammad-'Ali--who with uncommon temerity and exceptional
vigor addressed his written protest to the civil authorities, claiming the
right to oppose the projected transfer of the remains of the mother and
brother of `Abdu'l-Bahá, have been utterly frustrated. So foolish a claim,
advanced by one who in the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá has been
denounced as an "alert and active worker of mischief," and whose life has
been marked by so many instances of extravagance, of betrayal and folly,
has been summarily rejected by the fairness and justice of the civil
authorities, in whose custody the notorious Sádhij, the daughter of that same
Badí'u'lláh, is still retained, as a direct result of her ceaseless
instigations to rebellion and terrorism, and whose acts constitute a clear and
double violation of the civil law of the land and of the spiritual ordinances
of Bahá'u'lláh, in Whose Faith she professes to believe.
Unabashed by his appalling mistakes and blunders; undeterred by the
galling failure of his persistent efforts, in conjunction with his brother,
to establish, in the days following the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá, their alleged
right to the custody of the Most Holy Tomb; unrestrained by the memory
of the abortive attempt of Muhammad-'Ali to retain the Mansion of
Bahá'u'lláh as a private residence for himself and his family; unchastened
by the spiritual and material misery into which he and his kindred have
sunk; and impotent to perceive the contrast between that misery and the
consolidating strength and ever-enhancing prestige of the institutions
heralding the birth of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh at its international
center, he has, with characteristic insolence, dared to raise once again his
voice against the resistless march of events that are steadily accelerating
the expansion and establishment of the Faith in the Holy Land.
For it must be clearly understood, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized,
that the conjunction of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf with
those of her brother and mother incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies
of that consecrated Spot which, under the wings of the Báb's overshadowing
Sepulchre, and in the vicinity of the future Mashriqu'l-Adhkár,
which will be reared on its flank, is destined to evolve into the focal center
of those world-shaking, world-embracing, world-directing administrative
institutions, ordained by Bahá'u'lláh and anticipated by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and
which are to function in consonance with the principles that govern the
twin institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.
Then, and then only, will this momentous prophecy which illuminates the
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concluding passages of the Tablet of Carmel be fulfilled: "Ere long will
God sail His Ark upon thee (Carmel), and will manifest the people of Bahá
who have been mentioned in the Book of Names."
To attempt to visualize, even in its barest outline, the glory that must
envelop these institutions, to essay even a tentative and partial description
of their character or the manner of their operation, or to trace however
inadequately the course of events leading to their rise and eventual
establishment is far beyond my own capacity and power. Suffice it to say that
at this troubled stage in world history the association of these three
incomparably precious souls who, next to the three Central Figures of our
Faith, tower in rank above the vast multitude of the heroes, Letters, martyrs,
hands, teachers and administrators of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, in such a
potentially powerful spiritual and administrative Center, is in itself an event
which will release forces that are bound to hasten the emergence in a land
which, geographically, spiritually and administratively, constitutes the heart
of the entire planet, of some of the brightest gems of that World Order now
shaping in the womb of this travailing age.
For such as might undertake, in the days to come, the meritorious and
highly enviable pilgrimage to these blessed shrines, as well as for the benefit
of the less privileged who, aware of the greatness of their virtue and the
pre-eminence of their lineage, desire to commune with their spirits, and to
strive to acquire an added insight into the glory of their position, and to
follow in their footsteps, let these testimonies written by Bahá'u'lláh and
`Abdu'l-Bahá be their inspiration and guidance in their noble quest:
"At this very moment," Bahá'u'lláh testifies, "My son is being washed
before My face, after Our having sacrificed him in the Most Great Prison.
Thereat have the dwellers of the Abhá Tabernacle wept with a great weeping,
and such as have suffered imprisonment with this Youth in the path of
God, the Lord of the promised Day, lamented. Under such conditions My
Pen hath not been prevented from remembering its Lord, the Lord of all
nations. It summoneth the people unto God, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
This is the day whereon he that was created by the light of Bahá
has suffered martyrdom, at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands of
his enemies."
"Upon thee, O Branch of God!" He solemnly and most touchingly, in
that same Tablet, bestows upon him His benediction, "be the remembrance
of God and His praise, and the praise of all that dwell in the Realm of
Immortality, and of all the denizens of the Kingdom of Names. Happy art
thou in that thou hast been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament,
until Thou didst sacrifice thyself before the face of thy Lord, the
Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged, and to
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this testifieth the Beauty of Him, the Self-Subsisting. Thou didst, in the
first days of thy life, bear that which hath caused all things to groan, and
made every pillar to tremble. Happy is the one that remembereth thee, and
draweth nigh, through thee, unto God, the Creator of the Morn."
"Glorified art Thou, O Lord, my God!" He, in a prayer, astoundingly
proclaims, "Thou seest me in the hands of Mine enemies, and My son bloodstained
before Thy face, O Thou in Whose hands is the kingdom of all
names. I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me,
that Thy servants may be quickened and all that dwell on earth be united."
"Blessed art thou," He, in another Tablet affirms, "and blessed he that
turneth unto thee, and visiteth thy grave, and draweth nigh, through thee,
unto God, the Lord of all that was and shall be.... I testify that thou
didst return in meekness unto thine abode. Great is thy blessedness and the
blessedness of them that hold fast unto the hem of thy outspread robe....
Thou art, verily, the trust of God and His treasure in this land. Erelong will
God reveal through thee that which He hath desired. He, verily, is the
Truth, the Knower of things unseen. When thou wast laid to rest in the
earth, the earth itself trembled in its longing to meet thee. Thus hath it
been decreed, and yet the people perceive not.... Were We to recount the
mysteries of thine ascension, they that are asleep would waken, and all
beings would be set ablaze with the fire of the remembrance of My Name,
the Mighty, the Loving."
Concerning the Most Exalted Leaf, the mother of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'u'lláh
has written: "The first Spirit through which all spirits were revealed,
and the first Light by which all lights shone forth, rest upon thee, O Most
Exalted Leaf, thou who hast been mentioned in the Crimson Book! Thou
art the one whom God created to arise and serve His own Self, and the
Manifestation of His Cause, and the Day-Spring of His Revelation, and the
Dawning-Place of His signs, and the Source of His commandments; and
Who so aided thee that thou didst turn with thy whole being unto Him, at
a time when His servants and handmaidens had turned away from His Face.
...Happy art thou, O My handmaiden, and My Leaf, and the one mentioned
in My Book, and inscribed by My Pen of Glory in My Scrolls and Tablets.
...Rejoice thou, at this moment, in the most exalted Station and the
All-highest Paradise, and the Abhá Horizon, inasmuch as He Who is the Lord
of Names hath remembered thee. We bear witness that thou didst attain
unto all good, and that God hath so exalted thee, that all honor and glory
circled around thee."
"O Navváb!" He thus, in another Tablet, addresses her, "O Leaf that
hath sprung from My Tree, and been My companion! My glory be upon
thee, and My loving-kindness, and My mercy that hath surpassed all beings.
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We announce unto thee that which will gladden thine eye, and assure thy
soul, and rejoice thine heart. Verily, thy Lord is the Compassionate, the
All-Bountiful. God hath been and will be pleased with thee, and hath singled
thee out for His own Self, and chosen thee from among His handmaidens
to serve Him, and hath made thee the companion of His Person in the day-time
and in the night-season."
"Hear thou Me once again," He reassures her, "God is well-pleased with
thee, as a token of His grace and a sign of His mercy. He hath made thee
to be His companion in every one of His worlds, and hath nourished thee
with His meeting and presence, so long as His Name, and His Remembrance,
and His Kingdom, and His Empire shall endure. Happy is the handmaid
that hath mentioned thee, and sought thy good-pleasure, and humbled
herself before thee, and held fast unto the cord of thy love. Woe betide him
that denieth thy exalted station, and the things ordained for thee from
God, the Lord of all names, and him that hath turned away from thee, and
rejected thy station before God, the Lord of the mighty throne."
"O faithful ones!" Bahá'u'lláh specifically enjoins, "Should ye visit the
resting-place of the Most Exalted Leaf, who hath ascended unto the Glorious
Companion, stand ye and say: `Salutation and blessing and glory upon
thee, O Holy Leaf that hath sprung from the Divine Lote-Tree! I bear
witness that thou hast believed in God and in His signs, and answered His
Call, and turned unto Him, and held fast unto His cord, and clung to the
hem of His grace, and fled thy home in His path, and chosen to live as a
stranger, out of love for His presence and in thy longing to serve Him.
May God have mercy upon him that draweth nigh unto thee, and remembereth
thee through the things which My Pen hath voiced in this, the most
great station. We pray God that He may forgive us, and forgive them that
have turned unto thee, and grant their desires, and bestow upon them,
through His wondrous grace, whatever be their wish. He, verily, is the
Bountiful, the Generous. Praise be to God, He Who is the Desire of all
worlds; and the Beloved of all who recognize Him."
And, finally, `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself in one of His remarkably significant
Tablets, has borne witness not only to the exalted station of one whose
"seed shall inherit the Gentiles," whose Husband is the Lord of Hosts, but
also to the sufferings endured by her who was His beloved mother. "As to
thy question concerning the 54th chapter of Isaiah," He writes, "This
chapter refers to the Most Exalted Leaf, the mother of `Abdu'l-Bahá. As a
proof of this it is said: `For more are the children of the desolate, than the
children of the married wife.' Reflect upon this statement, and then upon
the following: `And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.' And truly the humiliation and reproach which
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she suffered in the path of God is a fact which no one can refute. For the
calamities and afflictions mentioned in the whole chapter are such afflictions
which she suffered in the path of God, all of which she endured with patience
and thanked God therefor and praised Him, because He had enabled her to
endure afflictions for the sake of Bahá. During all this time, the men and
women (Covenant-breakers) persecuted her in an incomparable manner,
while she was patient, God-fearing, calm, humble and contented through
the favor of her Lord and by the bounty of her Creator."
December 21, 1939
THE SEAL OF COMPLETE TRIUMPH
The association of the First Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West with the
hallowed memories of the Purest Branch and of `Abdu'l-Bahá's mother,
recently re-interred under the shadow of the Báb's holy Shrine, inaugurates
a new, and at long last the final phase of an enterprise which, thirty years
ago, was providentially launched on the very day the remains of the Forerunner
of our Faith were laid to rest by our beloved Master in the sepulchre
specifically erected for that purpose on Mount Carmel. The birth of this
holy enterprise, pregnant with such rich, such infinite possibilities,
synchronized with, and was consecrated through, this historic event which, as
`Abdu'l-Bahá Himself has affirmed, constitutes the most signal act of the
triple mission He had been prompted to perform. The site of the Temple
itself was honored by the presence of Him Who, ever since this enterprise
was initiated, had, through his messages and Tablets, bestowed upon it His
special attention and care, and surrounded it with the marks of His unfailing
solicitude. Its foundation-stone was laid by His own loving hands, on
an occasion so moving that it has come to be regarded as one of the most
stirring episodes of His historic visit to the North American continent. Its
superstructure was raised as a direct consequence of the pent-up energies
which surged from the breasts of `Abdu'l-Bahá's lovers at a time when
His sudden removal from their midst had plunged them into consternation,
bewilderment and sorrow. Its external ornamentation was initiated and
accelerated through the energizing influences which the rising and continually
consolidating institutions of a divinely established Administrative
Order had released in the midst of a community that had identified its vital
interests with that Temple's destiny. The measures devised to hasten its
completion were incorporated in a Plan which derives its inspiration from
those destiny-shaping Tablets wherein, in bold relief, stands outlined the
world mission entrusted by their Author to the American Bahá'í community.
And finally, the Fund, designed to receive and dispose of the resources
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amassed for its prosecution, was linked with the memory and bore the name
of her whose ebbing life was brightened and cheered by those tidings that
unmistakably revealed to her the depth of devotion and the tenacity of
purpose which animate the American believers in the cause of their beloved
Temple. And now, while the Bahá'í world vibrates with emotion at the
news of the transfer of the precious remains of both the Purest Branch and
of `Abdu'l-Bahá's mother to a spot which, watched over by the Twin Holy
Shrines and in the close neighborhood of the resting-place of the Greatest
Holy Leaf, is to become the focus of the administrative institutions of the
Faith at its world center, the mere act of linking the destiny of so
far-reaching an undertaking with so significant an event in the Formative
Period of our Faith will assuredly set the seal of complete triumph upon, and
enhance the spiritual potentialities of, a work so significantly started and
so magnificently executed by the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the North
American continent.
The Plan which your Assembly has suggested to raise the sum of fifty
thousand dollars by next April, which will enable you to place the necessary
contracts for the final completion of the entire First Story of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, meets with my unqualified approval. It was specially in
order to initiate and encourage the progress of such a plan that I felt
impelled to pledge the sum of one thousand pounds in the memory of these two
glorious souls who, apart from the Founders of our Faith and its Exemplar,
tower together with the Greatest Holy Leaf, above the rank and file of the
faithful.
The interval separating us from that date is admittedly short. The
explosive forces which lie dormant in the international field may, ere the
expiry of these fleeting months, break out in an eruption that may prove the
most fateful that mankind has experienced. It is within the power of the
organized body of the American believers to further demonstrate the
imperturbability of their faith, the serenity of their confidence and the
unyielding tenacity of their resolve.
We stand at the threshold of the decade within which the centenary of
the birth of our Faith is to be celebrated. Scarcely more than four years
stand between us and that glorious consummation. No community, no
individual, neither in the East nor in the West, however afflictive the
circumstances that now prevail, can afford to hesitate or falter. The few
years immediately ahead are endowed with potencies that we can but dimly
appreciate. Ours is the duty and privilege to utilize to the full the
opportunities which these fate-laden years offer us. The American Bahá'í
community, already responsible, over such a long period, for such heroic acts,
under such severe handicaps, cannot and will not hesitate or falter. The past
is a
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witness of their splendid triumphs. The future will be no less a witness of
their final victory.
December 30, 1939
DUAL, VITALLY URGENT OBLIGATION
Urge Assembly focus attention at its forthcoming meeting upon the
dual, vitally urgent obligation: the conservation of the vigor and spiritual
health of the community and the intensification of effort aiming at realization
of recently approved Temple Plan. Sleepless vigilance to ward off
subtle attacks of enemies is first prerequisite to sound unfoldment of the
processes of the enterprise already operating. The fateful forties, pregnant
for weal and woe, are ushered in. The American believers enter them firmly
rooted in the fertile soil of the administrative order and bountifully
nourished by the vital sap of the animation of its institutions, spreading its
sheltering shadow to the farthest corners of the Western Hemisphere. Centenary
of the Birth of the Faith is approaching. Victories unsuspected are within
reach of community. The sooner they are achieved, the sharper the contrast
offered with distracting miseries afflicting a generation which the Faith
alone can and must eventually redeem.
Cablegram January 18, 1940
BELOVED HANDMAID
`Abdu'l-Bahá's beloved handmaid, the distinguished disciple, May Maxwell,
is gathered into the glory of the Abhá Kingdom. Her earthly life, so rich,
eventful, incomparably blessed, is worthily ended. To sacred tie her signal
services had forged, the priceless honor of a martyr's crown is now added,
a double crown deservedly won. The Seven Year Plan, particularly the
South American campaign, derive fresh impetus from the example of her
glorious sacrifice. Southern outpost of Faith greatly enriched through
association with her historic resting place, destined to remain a poignant
reminder of the resistless march of the triumphant army of Bahá'u'lláh.
Advise believers of both Americas to hold befitting memorial gathering.
Cablegram March 3, 1940
THEIR GOD-GIVEN TASK
The fourth year of the Seven Year Plan enters upon its course in
circumstances that are at once critical, challenging, and unprecedented in
their significance. The year that has passed has in so far as the rise and
establishment of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the Western Hemisphere is
concerned, been one of the most eventful since the Plan began to operate and
exercise its potent and beneficent influence. Both within and without the
Community
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of the Most Great Name, the events which the last twelve months
has unfolded have in some mysterious way, whether directly or indirectly,
communicated their force to the Plan's progressive unfoldment, contributed
to the orientation of its policy and assisted in the consolidation of the
diversified undertakings, both primary and subsidiary that fall within its
orbit. Even the losses which the ranks of its stout-hearted upholders have
sustained will, when viewed in their proper perspective, be regarded as gains
of incalculable value, affecting both its immediate fortunes as well as its
ultimate destiny.
The successive international crises which agitated the opening months
of the year that has elapsed, culminating in the outbreak of the war in
Europe, far from drowning the enthusiasm or daunting the spirit of the
prosecutors of God's Plan, served by deflecting their gaze from a storm-tossed
continent, to focus their minds and resources on ministering to the
urgent needs of that hemisphere in which the first honors and the initial
successes of the heroes of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh are
to be scored and won.
The sudden extinction of the earthly life of that star-servant of the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, Martha Root, who, while on the last lap of her fourth
journey round the world--journeys that carried her to the humblest homes
as well as the palaces of royalty--was hurrying homeward to lend her promised
aid to her fellow-countrymen in their divinely-appointed task--such a
death, though it frustrated this cherished resolution of her indomitable
spirit, steeled the hearts of her bereaved lovers and admirers to carry on,
more energetically than ever, the work which she herself had initiated, as
far back as the year 1919, in every important city in the South American
continent.
The subtle and contemptible machinations by which the puny adversaries
of the Faith, jealous of its consolidating power and perturbed by the
compelling evidences of its conspicuous victories, have sought to challenge the
validity and misrepresent the character of the Administrative Order embedded
in its teachings have galvanized the swelling army of its defenders
to arise and arraign the usurpers of their sacred rights and to defend the
long-standing strongholds of the institutions of their Faith in their home
country.
And now as this year, so memorable in the annals of the Faith, was
drawing to a close, there befell the American Bahá'í community, through
the dramatic and sudden death of May Maxwell, yet another loss, which
viewed in retrospect will come to be regarded as a potent blessing conferred
upon the campaign now being so diligently conducted by its members. Laden
with the fruits garnered through well-nigh half a century of toilsome service
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to the Cause she so greatly loved, heedless of the warnings of age and
ill-health, and afire with the longing to worthily demonstrate her gratitude in
her overwhelming awareness of the bounties of her Lord and Master, she
set her face towards the southern outpost of the Faith in the New World,
and laid down her life in such a spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice as
has truly merited the crown of martyrdom.
To Keith Ransom-Kehler, whose dust sleeps in far-off Isfahán; to Martha
Root, fallen in her tracks on an island in the midmost heart of the ocean;
to May Maxwell, lying in solitary glory in the southern outpost of the
Western Hemisphere--to these three heroines of the Formative Age of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, they who now labor so assiduously for its expansion
and establishment, owe a debt of gratitude which future generations will
not fail to adequately recognize.
I need not expatiate on other, though less prominent, events that have
contributed their share to the furtherance of the Seven Year Plan, or marked
its systematic development. The association of the Fund, specifically
inaugurated for its prosecution, with the hallowed memories of both the Mother
and Brother of `Abdu'l-Bahá; the establishment of at least one pioneer in
each of the Republics of Central and South America; the ushering in of the
last phase of the external ornamentation of the Temple; the conjunction
of the institutions of the Hazíratu'l-Quds and the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in
the heart of the North American continent; the founding of yet another
institution designed as a training school for Inter-America teaching work;
the steady rise in the number of groups and Assemblies functioning within
the Administrative Framework of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh--these stand out
as further evidences of the animating Force that propels the Plan towards
its final consummation.
Varied and abundant as have been the past manifestations of this
driving, resistless Force, they cannot but pale before the brilliant victories
which its progressive and systematic development must achieve in the future.
The American believers, standing on the threshold of the fourth year
of the Seven Year Plan, pursue their God-given task with a radiance that
no earthly gloom can dim, and will continue to shoulder its ever-growing
duties and responsibilities with a vigor and loyalty that no earthly power
can either sap or diminish.
April 15, 1940
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH'S SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGNTY
Message to 1940 Convention
Overjoyed, elated that dynamic energy, invincible valor of American
believers impelled them far outstrip the goal fixed for third year of Seven
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Year Plan. Temple ornamentation has been uninterruptedly pursued. The
theatre of operation of the teaching campaign is already embracing entire
Central America and every South American Republic excepting Paraguay
and Colombia. Number of countries within the orbit of the Faith is now
exceeding sixty. Intercontinental crusade, through path broken by Martha
Root and seal set by May Maxwell's death yielding destined fruit. Galvanized,
permanently safeguarded. Together with Keith they forged through sacrifice
a triple cord indissolubly knitting the community of North American
believers to cradle of Faith in every continent of Old World and Latin
America. Unperturbed by gathering gloom of tottering civilization without,
contemptuous of the assault of the perfidious enemies within, the executors
of `Abdu'l-Bahá's mandate must and will strain every nerve in the course
of the ensuing year to multiply the number of enrolled pioneers to consolidate
work achieved in newly opened North American States and Provinces,
to insure prompt settlement of remaining Republics, to prosecute unremittingly
ornamentation of last unit of Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, to expedite formation
in isolated centers of nuclei capable of the establishment of local
Assemblies. Urgently plead, fervently pray that all ranks of the valiant
forerunners of Bahá'u'lláh's Commonwealth may, ere expiry of allotted term,
bring fruition of mission to insure ascendancy of Bahá'u'lláh's spiritual
sovereignty over entire Western Hemisphere.
Cablegram April 25, 1940
SECTION OF ORNAMENTATION
Section of Temple ornamentation has been placed in the precincts of the
Báb's Shrine. Magnificent reminder of American believers' stupendous
efforts.
Cablegram April 27, 1940.
CONTINUOUS CONSECRATION
To these words, written on my behalf, and in answer to your particular
questions relating to the administrative issues that confront you in these
days, I wish to add my own tribute to the magnificent manner in which
you face the problems, both spiritual and administrative, which the expansion
of the Faith is continually raising, and to the way in which you resolve
them, explain their nature, and derive fresh strength from your experience
of any one of them. The text of the annual reports demonstrates this fact
and establishes for all time the high standard according to which the
administrative machinery of the Faith is functioning, developing and
consolidating itself under your able and energetic direction. As the
administrative processes expand, as their operation steadily improves, as their
necessity is more fully and strikingly demonstrated, and their beneficent
influence correspondingly
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grows more apparent and evident, so will the blessings, the strength
and guidance bestowed by Him Who animates and directs these processes
be more abundantly vouchsafed to those who have been called upon to
utilize them, in this age, for the execution of God's Purpose and for the
ultimate redemption of a sore-stricken travailing humanity. Many will be
the setbacks, the shocks and the disturbances, which the commotions of a
convulsive age must produce; yet no force, however violent and world-wide
in its range and catastrophic in its immediate consequences, can either