Bahá’í World Vol XIII

pp. 849-58

HORACE HOTCHKISS HOLLEY

April 7, 1887—July 12, 1960

Horace Holley was a tall, spare man with a pleasant, intellectual face and singularly luminous light blue-green eyes which regarded the world and his fellow man shrewdly and openly. Anyone who is unfamiliar with the people of New England cannot expect to fully grasp his nature for he was a typical example of that race of hardheaded, independent, humorous and yet taciturn people, descendents of the first colonizers of America, who are renowned for their rugged individualism, who were largely responsible for winning the United States its political independence and who later played no small part in abolishing slavery from their nation. Of such a largely Puritan stock was Horace, whose ancestors included many educators and Congregational ministers. Born in the town of Torrington, Connecticut, he attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, going back to New England for his higher education, where he studied at Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from 1906-1909, majoring in literature and becoming a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. He was also a member of the Gargoyle Society.
There were two strongly defined sides to Horace Holley's personality, and part of the spiritual triumph that was his before he passed away, at the age of 73, was that these two sides of his nature flowered into a third creation, more beautiful and powerful than either of the others had ever been. To understand this process one must go back to the forces that shaped his life. Not only did he possess a brilliant, analytical mind, but at the same time he was a dreamer, idealist and mystic. His strong personal bent was literature and those of the Bahá’ís familiar with his books, his letters, articles and speeches as a Bahá’í, are perhaps unaware of the fact that he was a poet and had published between the ages of twenty-one and thirty three volumes of verse. His capacities and interests led him amongst a circle of artists and writers, progressive, independent, often Bohemian, but also astir with the new social concepts, the exploring and questing ideas so characteristic of the generation to which he belonged.
When he left college in 1909 he went to Europe where he travelled, studied and worked until war broke out in 1914. On that voyage two major changes in his life were to take place. He met a young artist, Bertha Herbert, who lent him a book to read; and shortly afterwards he married her in Paris. The book was Abbas Effendi, His Life and Teachings by Myron H. Phelps. Compared with the literature now available in English it was inaccurate and inadequate, but it opened a new world to the mind of the twenty-two-year-old young man who read it.
Years later, writing of this event in his life, Horace said:
"That was my first encounter with the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The wisdom, the universality of spirit and the profound love expressed in 'Abdu'1-Bahá, persecuted leader of a new religion, captivated me. He stood apart from the epic heroes and thinkers of history and brought a new dimension to my inexperienced, naive liberal culture. Without knowing what it meant I had become a Bahá’í. The pattern of life since then has been a series of efforts to find out what the Bahá’í World Faith is, what it means, and how it functions."
From that day he never turned back. His seeking mind and strong spirit had not only found personal answers to the problems of life but also the arena in which he was to express himself, to labour, to be tested, to suffer and win his victories for over half-a-century. His own attitude to the metamorphosis which took place in him over the years, he expressed in 1956: "At first it seemed possible to encompass the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh by reducing it to a formula or confining it within a well-turned phrase. Gradually my ventures proved to me that I myself was to be encompassed, re-oriented, re-moulded in all the realms of my being. For religion in its purity reveals God, and only God can reveal man to himself."
It was while Horace and his wife were living in Siena, Italy, in 1911, that he heard of the arrival of 'Abdu'1-Bahá and his party in Thonon-les-Bains, France. As they had been hoping to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to meet the Master they lost no time in seizing this golden opportunity to attain His presence and left immediately for the small watering place on Lake Geneva, where they arrived on the afternoon of August 29th. Horace, in his account of this meeting with 'Abdu'1-Bahá, wrote that he had felt that if he could only look upon the Master from a distance, this would satisfy his pilgrim's heart. He then goes on to describe what this privilege of spending a few days near 'Abdu'1-Bahá meant to him:
"I saw among them a stately old man, robed in a cream-coloured gown, his white hair and beard shining in the sun. He displayed a beauty of stature, an inevitable harmony of attitude and dress I had never seen nor thought of in men. Without having ever visualized the Master, I knew that this was He. My whole body underwent a shock. My heart leaped, my Knees weakened, a thrill of acute, receptive feeling flowed from head to foot. I seemed to have turned into some most sensitive sense-organ, as if eyes and ears were not enough for this sublime impression. In every part of me I stood aware of 'Abdu'1-Bahá's presence. From sheer happiness I wanted to cry—it seemed the most suitable form of self-expression at my command. While my own personality was flowing away, a new being, not my own assumed its place. A glory, as it were from the summits of human nature poured into me, and I was conscious of a most intense impulse to admire. In 'Abdu'1-Bahá I felt the awful presence of Bahá’u’lláh, and, as my thoughts returned to activity, I realized that I had thus drawn as near as man now may to pure spirit and pure being ... I yielded to a feeling of reverence which contained more than the solution of intellectual or moral problems. To look upon so wonderful a human being, to respond utterly to the charm of His presence—this brought me continual happiness. I had no fear that its effects would pass away and leave me unchanged. I was content to remain in the background .. .'Abdu'1-Bahá answered questions and made frequent observations on religion in the West. He laughed heartily from time to time—indeed, the idea of asceticism or useless misery of any kind cannot attach itself to this fully-developed personality. The divine element in Him does not feed at the expense of the human element, but appears rather to vitalize and enrich the human element by its own abundance, as if He had attained His spiritual development by fulfilling His social relations with the utmost ardour ..."
When the time drew near for them to leave, Horace, (like others), having received a gift of a Bahá’í ringstone, requested 'Abdu'1-Bahá to take it in His hands as he wanted to give it to his child "a blessing", as he wrote, "for my baby girl who thus, as it were, accompanied us on our pilgrimage and shares its benefits". When 'Abdu'1-Bahá was in Paris, Horace again had the privilege of meeting Him and hearing many of His intimate daily talks. Doris Pascal, later to become Doris Holley, remembers being present on one of these occasions and seeing 'Abdu’l-Bahá holding on his knee Horace's daughter Hertha. This contact with 'Abdu'1-Bahá in the early days of Horace's Bahá’í life left a deep mark on him. The Master had entered the door of his heart and never left it again. Through many of the trials and bitter experiences of life this core of sweetness left by that great privilege sustained and nourished him.
It was during the years in Paris, before the outbreak of the war, that Horace's first two books of poems, The Inner Garden and The Stricken King were published. He had become the founder and director of the Ashur Gallery of Modern Art, situated at 211 Boulevard Raspail in Paris. It is clear that in spite of a mind preoccupied with the social and economic problems of the world, the arts were the predominating influence during these early years. Paris has always been known for its small but elite American colony and the days of the salon had not yet been swallowed up in the bedlam of the post-war years; Horace and his wife must have enjoyed the entree to many interesting circles of artists and intellectuals, an environment eminently congenial and natural to them both in every way.
In 1913 Horace's first book on the subject of his new-found Faith was published in New York under the title Bahá’ísm—The Modern Social Religion. A copy of this was forwarded to 'Abdu'1-Bahá and on the twenty-second of September, 1913, 'Abdu'1-Bahá sent to him from Ramleh, Egypt, the first of the two Tablets He wrote to him, praising his book highly and stating that the friends were busy reading it and that He Himself hoped it would be translated so He, too, could read it. He addresses Horace as "O Son of the Kingdom!" and goes on to say, "Thank God ... thou art confirmed and assisted, thy aim is to render service to the Kingdom of Abhá and to promote the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. Although the glory and greatness of this service is not known at present, in future ages it will assume the greatest importance and will attract the attention of learned men. Therefore strive thou ever increasingly in such service in order that it may become the cause of thy everlasting glory . . . and thou mayest shine like a star on the Abhá horizon."
Returning with his family to the United States in 1914, Horace moved in New York City in very much the same circles as he had in Europe; he was engaged in writing a second book on the Bahá’í standpoint which appeared in 1916 under the title The Social Principle. It was during this year that he received his second letter from the Master, written from Haifa and dated March 20th, 1916, in which 'Abdu'1-Bahá addresses him as "O tree of the Abhá Paradise laden with fruit." From the tone of this Tablet it is clear that Horace had been passing through deep waters in his own personal life. Unfortunately Horace's letter to the Master is not available, but 'Abdu'1-Bahá's letter says: "All that thou hast written was a cry from the depths of a sincere heart." He goes on to say, in sum, that although Horace has been silent, once again his voice is raised in new melodies and that every wayfarer must expect to be tossed on the rough seas of life; tests are stimulating and a sea with no storms brings stagnation and complacency.
In 1917 Horace's pen was again active and he published two books, one of poems, entitled Divination and Creation and a prose work Read-Aloud Plays. They were his last flights in poetry and prose to go to press. The present world is not too hospitable to poets or dreamers and the struggle to earn a living, to support a wife and now two daughters, Hertha and Marcia, as well as a growing unhappiness in his domestic life, all combined to clip Horace's wings.
I remember Horace from this period. My mother and he and his wife were old friends, joined in their common devotion to the Faith, the very essence of which had been poured into them through their meetings with 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Our association lasted until his death in 1960, so one can only take this as a personal impression.
These were the years, I believe, when Horace changed. It is hard to define in words. A race-horse has to give up racing and learn to pull a load; an artist, full of creative impulses, inherits a farm, needs a means of support, goes and farms and in the endless round of pressing chores all his practical, inherited farmer-ancestry comes out in him. Every now and then the dreamer inside turns over restlessly in his sleep. Such to me is what happened to Horace. But at the end of his life the dreaming Horace awoke again and the two men became one, a much greater person than either could have been alone.
From 1918 to 1920 Horace went to work for the Iron Age Publishing Company in New York in its sales promotion department. These were the years when his marriage to Bertha came to an end and he married Doris Pascal, with whom he lived for forty-one years, serving the Cause constantly together. In 1921 he left the publishing firm and became chief of the copy department at the Redfield Advertising Agency, where he remained until 1925.
His preoccupation with serving the Bahá’í Cause was steadily growing. In 1922 the first American National Spiritual Assembly was elected. In 1923 Horace became a member of that body, on which he remained until 1959, serving as its secretary for thirty-four of those thirty-six history-making years. It was in 1921 that he wrote Bahá’í —- The Spirit of the Age. His own spirit is revealed by the words in which he dedicated a volume of this work to 'Abdu'1-Bahá's much-loved sister: "Will the Greatest Holy Leaf lay this book in the dust of the Supreme Threshold as an offering of humility, of love, of evanescence from the servant of Bahá’u’lláh, Horace Holley, New York City, December 20, 1921." During that same year he edited the first comprehensive compilation of the Bahá’í Teachings in the English language, entitled Bahá’í Scriptures, a thick volume that, for many years served as a sort of Bahá’í bible and was of inestimable assistance in educating the Bahá’ís themselves in a better understanding of their Faith. This book was later revised by him and published as Bahá’í World Faith.
At the very outset of Shoghi Effendi's ministry Horace's relationship to the young Guardian of his Faith was established, a relationship the importance of which to the development of Bahá’u’lláh's Administrative Order cannot be overestimated. As early as 1923 Shoghi Effendi wrote to the American Assembly in connection with the Star of the West: "I have been impressed by the beauty and force of the various articles contributed to the Journal by Mr. Horace Holley and Mr. Stanwood Cobb and would indeed welcome with genuine satisfaction an even more active participation on their part in the editorial section of the Bahá’í Magazine." And in 1924 he wrote to Horace: "My most precious brother: The recent activities of the Publishing Committee with you as its central figure and moving and directing force, are indeed worthy of the highest praise. Words are inadequate to express my admiration, gratitude and appreciation."
Shoghi Effendi highly valued the qualities of Horace's mind and throughout the years encouraged him to write. "I am gratified", he wrote during those early years, "to peruse the able and masterly work of my dear fellow-worker, Mr. Horace Holley, a work which I have no doubt will by virtue of its subject matter, its comprehensiveness and uniqueness, arouse widespread and genuine interest in the Movement."
The relationship between Horace and the Guardian was an extremely interesting one. Shoghi Effendi desperately needed capable, loyal workers to assist him in his tasks. Such people, from East or West, were for the most part lacking, and of the few, relatively speaking, giants in the Cause, many instruments he seized upon crumbled in his hands, proving themselves sick of the disease of self and becoming Covenant-breakers and even bitter enemies. Other capable lieutenants, like Dr. Esselmont, died. Shoghi Effendi's work was staggering and the workers possessed of any real capacity were tragically few. Horace was therefore doubly precious. In 1925 Shoghi Effendi refers to him, in writing to the American National Assembly, as "Your distinguished secretary", and calls him "that indefatigable servant of Bahá’u’lláh, my esteemed brother, Mr. Holley . . .". The Guardian at this time was himself in desperate need of secretarial assistance and his thoughts naturally turned to this man of such marked ability. He writes to him, in May, 1926, very revealingly on this subject:
"My dear and valuable friend: I wish to re-assure you of my keen appreciation of your continuous efforts for the consolidation of the work of the Cause throughout America. I have often felt the extreme desirability of having a collaborator like you working by my side here in Haifa. The loss of Dr. Esslemont is keenly felt by me and my hope is that the conditions here and abroad will enable me to establish the work in Haifa upon a more systematic basis. I am waiting for a favorable time."
But the Guardian realized that to bring Horace to Haifa was a solution to his own personal problem which the work in America could not afford. A month later he wrote to two of Horace's old Bahá’í friends: "Horace of course is the ideal man, but he mustn't leave his position at the present time."
Shoghi Effendi's attitude to what Horace was accomplishing in America and its relation to his own needs is fully clarified in his letter to Horace written in September of that same year: 
"My dearest co-worker: I have lately followed your activities and efforts, as reflected in the minutes of the meetings you sent me, with true satisfaction and pleasure ... I have read with deep interest the article you wrote on Green Acre and published in the Star. Your personal contribution to so many aspects and phases of the Movement, performed so diligently, so effectively and so thoroughly are truly a source of joy and inspiration to me. How much I feel the need of a similar worker by my side in Haifa, as competent, as thorough, as methodical, as alert as yourself. You cannot and should not leave your post for the present. Haifa will have to take care of itself for some time. Your grateful brother, Shoghi."
It never materialized. In 1925 Horace gave up earning his living in various companies to devote his entire life to Bahá’í activity. It must never be thought that this was an easy step for a man of his character to take. It is always difficult for devoted Bahá’ís to accept support from Bahá’í Funds. It was only Horace's passionate conviction of the Tightness of Bahá’u’lláh's Teachings that persuaded him to give up all thought of a personal, independent career and become the full-time servant of an administration in which all too often his fellow believers criticized him for doing so. Shoghi Effendi was well aware of all this; his sympathy, understanding and approval were reflected in the letter he wrote to the National Assembly at that time: 
"I rejoice to learn that ways and means have been found to enable the National Secretary, who discharges in such an exemplary manner the manifold and exacting duties of a highly responsible position, to devote all his time to the pursuit of so meritorious a task. I am fully conscious of the privations and sacrifice which the choice of this arduous work must involve for him, as well as his devoted and selfless companion; I cannot but admire and extol their heroic efforts and wish to assure them both of my continued prayers for the speedy fruition of their earnest endeavors."
With this instrument, the most powerful national body throughout the Bahá’í World, a national body responsible for the execution of the Divine Plan of 'Abdu'l-Baha given to the American believers as their unique distinction and sacred trust, with a man of Horace's calibre devoting his entire time and energy to its work, Shoghi Effendi found that he could set the forces of Bahá’í Administration in motion. Halfway across the world there was a collaborator who grasped the import of his instructions and interpretations of the Teachings and who, as the "indefatigable and distinguished" secretary of that Assembly, as Shoghi Effendi characterized him, in conjunction with its other eight members, and backed up by a devoted and enthusiastic Bahá’í community, not only saw they were implemented, but expounded and classified them.
This partnership was of an importance impossible to overestimate. That it worked so well, bore such fruit and survived the acid test of time, is a great compliment to the two people involved. For Shoghi Effendi was not dealing with a sycophant but a man of strong personality, views and capacity, and Horace was not dealing with a mere leader but a divinely inspired, infallibly guided spiritual ruler. The execution of the tasks set by the Guardian for Horace was therefore not without its hazards. But the loyalty of Horace on the one hand and Shoghi Effendi's patience and tact on the other, avoided situations which in other circumstances might have led to difficulties.
In Shoghi Effendi's life there was a tragic lack of stimulating, creative individuals. Horace drew out of the Guardian many things that would have otherwise remained hidden or pursued some other course. It was Horace who really conceived the idea of some form of publication that would reflect the world-wide activities of the Faith. Shoghi Effendi reacted enthusiastically to this idea and the series of Bahá’í World came into being. The Guardian was in reality the Editor-in-Chief, Horace the executor. At the Guardian's request, Horace, until he passed away, wrote every International Survey of Current Bahá’í Activities. The material was largely forwarded to him by Shoghi Effendi, together with pages and pages of instructions and not infrequent cables similar to this one sent in 1932: "Detailed letter mailed for International Survey confident your masterly treatment collected data". As this added periodically a tremendous amount of extra work for Horace, he was often behind schedule in writing these surveys and it was suggested to Shoghi Effendi that someone else should do the survey, a suggestion he would not hear of, as he considered no one else as qualified to produce such a key article for the Bahá’í World. In 1932 in a letter of the Guardian to Horace, Shoghi Effendi's secretary writes: 
"Were it not for your competence and his reliance on your efficiency and judgment he would have to do the work of the Bahá’í World alone and thereby neglect many of his other duties. He is still more thankful to God when he sees you hunger for service and enjoy being over-burdened." And in 1933, in his own hand, Shoghi Effendi wrote: "Dear and precious co-worker: I am deeply conscious of the complexity and strenuous character of the work you have undertaken for the Bahá’í World. I trust and pray that the forthcoming volume will be such as to fully repay your painstaking and valuable efforts. I am eager to receive a few copies of your survey as soon as completed."
"Your contributions to the Biennial", Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1933, 
"are outstanding, unique and exemplary. The more you contribute the greater my eagerness to have you add to the output of your already remarkable contributions."
It was Horace who so brilliantly titled the wonderful general letters of the Guardian to America and to the Bahá’ís of the West, picking out from the text such key, eyecatching phrases, as "The Promised Day Is Come", "The Goal of a New World Order", "The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh", and so on, and put subtitles throughout the texts to facilitate the study of such weighty, thought-provoking material. Shoghi Effendi approved of this and it was a major service to the Bahá’ís everywhere.
One of the bonds that linked the Guardian and Horace was their common overwork. In one of Shoghi Effendi's letters to Horace his secretary writes: "He is always happy to hear from you, as he has a great deal of sympathy for what he fully realizes must be your continually overworked state. Hard-pressed for time as he himself constantly is, he well knows what lit means!" And "he hopes you yourself are keeping in very good health and not overdoing ?—Though he knows from long experience that it is almost impossible not to overdo when the work of the Cause keeps on piling up!"
The Guardian had the habit of addressing his letters to National Assemblies to 'heir secretaries; usually this meant that they started "Dear Bahá’í brother", but there are dozens and dozens of letters to the American Assembly that just start "Dear Horace". It was a very personal relationship.
The evolution of the Administrative Order and the part Horace played in its unfoldment is too vast a subject to be dealt with here, but the messages sent to him by Shoghi Effendi adequately testify how great a role he played in the early history of the Formative Age of our Faith and how deeply the Guardian valued his services and constantly encouraged him: "Your ready pen, your brilliant mind, your marvellous vigour and organizing ability, above all your unwavering loyalty are assets that I greatly value and for which I am deeply grateful.. ." he wrote in 1931. In 1932 Shoghi Effendi wrote to him: ". .. your active share in the administrative activities of the Cause, your splendid letters of appeal in connection with the Plan of Unified Action, your wise leadership of the New York Assembly—all testify to your marvellous efficiency and your high spiritual attainments." That same year he cabled him: "May the Almighty sustain you in your stupendous efforts . . ." Another cable, in 1933, testifies to the esteem of the Guardian which Horace was winning for himself: "Assure you my ever deepening admiration your unrivaled services", and the same thought was echoed five years later: "Assure you my ever deepening admiration your unrivaled services love abiding gratitude." In this same year Shoghi Effendi wrote to Horace: "Be assured and persevere in your historic services." And in 1943 Shoghi Effendi reiterates these sentiments in even warmer terms: "I greatly value, as you already know, your presentation of the various aspects of the Cause, for whose expansion, consolidation and defense you have, during so many years, laboured so indefatigably and served with such distinction. I will, I assure you, continue to pray for you and your dear collaborator Mrs. Holley, that you may both enrich still further the record of your past services."
Needless to say Horace's road was a thorny one. Periodically he had battles to win with himself, like most of us, and he usually had a lot of battles to win for the Cause. A time came when Shoghi Effendi wished the National Secretariat to move to the vicinity of the Temple in Wilmette, so that in the heart of the American continent the spiritual and administrative centre could be fused into one. It was not an easy thing for Horace to pull up stakes and leave New York, the biggest city in the world, where he had long lived in a congenial atmosphere— and with some degree of privacy—and take up residence in the middle west, in a small town, where his home would be constantly invaded by visiting Bahá’ís and the public who came to see the Temple. Shoghi Effendi appreciated all this and cabled him in 1939: "Aware, profoundly appreciate sacrifice personal convenience involved transference Temple vicinity deepest love." Having accepted to do it he put his heart into it; in a letter dated 1940 from Shoghi Effendi his secretary wrote: "The Guardian was particularly gratified to know of the arrangements you have made in connection with the establishment of the National Office in Wilmette." His qualities were soon appreciated by a new circle of friends and he was made a Rotarian and founded the Wilmette Historical Commission, acting as its chairman for many years.
Horace was a clever, witty and distinguished lecturer. He had a rather high voice with a slight Yankee twang, which added spice to his clear, dry, gripping delivery of his subject. Throughout the years he was one of the finest speakers the Bahá’ís had in North America and, in addition to a great many public lectures to Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í audiences, and participation in various symposiums, he frequently gave courses at Bahá’í Summer Schools, particularly Green Acre where he and his wife had a cottage of their own.
On Horace's initiative the American Bahá’í News was created and met with the Guardian's enthusiastic approval. "The first printed issue of the National Assembly's News Letter", he wrote in 1925, "prepared and signed on behalf of the Assembly by its capable secretary, stands as a bright and eloquent testimony to his thoroughness, his industry, his conspicuous ability, his undoubted self-sacrifice." Horace contributed many articles to World Order Magazine, and to various volumes of Bahá’í World (in addition to his Surveys).
To many people he was many things. Much loved by his personal friends who understood and enjoyed his often caustic wit, his intense independence and individuality, he was not always understood by others. Nevertheless his comprehensive knowledge of the Teachings, his mastery of correct Bahá’í procedure, and the lucidity of his mind were invaluable assets to the Cause. It was Horace who was largely responsible for drafting, in conjunction with a Bahá’í lawyer, the American Declaration of Trust of the National Assembly and the By-laws of a Local Assembly which have been made by Shoghi Effendi the pattern for all such legal instruments of the Faith in other countries.
This great servant of the Faith, with just that kind of mind, ground a lot of edges off the administrative machinery of the Cause in America and in this process, lasting thirty-six years, had a lot of the sharp edges ground off his own nature and mind. Undoubtedly the greatest factor in his life, next to his having accepted so wholeheartedly the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, was Shoghi Effendi. Horace loved Shoghi Effendi's ideas. He grasped, perhaps better than anyone else, just what the Guardian was constructing through the erection of the Administrative Order. He assisted in this through all the powers of his mind, giving, year after year, an unstinting service to-its realization.
In 1944 he suffered a heart attack and was in hospital for some time. The Guardian was distressed by the news of this illness and wrote to him in August of 1944: "I am so glad and relieved to learn you are on the road to recovery. I trust, however, you will not overtax your newly-found strength, and I feel confident that you will render our beloved Faith services as outstanding and unique as those that will remain associated with your name during the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh". His continued solicitude for Horace's health and services is reflected in a letter to him written in 1945: "... my prayer to the Almighty is to give you all the strength you need to enable you to win still greater victories in the course of your historic labours for the establishment of His Faith and the consolidation of its nascent Institutions. Be happy, rest assured, and persevere. Your true and grateful brother".
In spite of weakened health Horace was present as representative of the old, outgoing National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, at the convention held in Montreal to elect the first independent Canadian National Assembly in 1948. In 1951 he and Dorothy Baker, acting as representatives of the United States National body, attended the convention held in Panama City to elect the first Central American National Assembly, and in 1957 Horace, in his capacity as Hand of the Cause, and acting as Shoghi Effendi's own special representative, attended the convention in Lima, Peru at which the northern countries of South America elected their new National Assembly.
In a cable to Horace, dated December 24, 1951, Shoghi Effendi announced to him his appointment as one of the three Hands in America, chosen by the Guardian:
"Moved convey glad tidings your election rank Hand Cause stop Appointment officially announced public message addressed .all National Assemblies stop May sacred function enable you enrich record services already rendered for Bahá’u’lláh". It was received at the National Office during his absence and when Mrs. Holley met him at the airport with this momentous news his first reaction was to push from him this station, so utterly unexpected and overwhelming. The dreamer and mystic, essentially humble before his God, shied away from the glorious rank so suddenly thrust upon him. But of course there was really no question, for any of the Hands, of accepting or rejecting the honour their Guardian had seen fit to confer upon them; whether they felt themselves worthy or not they bowed their heads in submission. Like yeast the new office fermented in the character of Horace, bringing out the depths of his spirituality, raising him to new heights, releasing, after so many years of grinding routine and administrative work, that other side of his nature which had prevailed in his youth. Under the influence .of this new form of service Horace mellowed and softened. Now he had another function to fulfil. For years he had instructed, admonished, fought for adherence to laws and principles, blended himself into the consultative process of the National Assembly as a body. Now he was called upon as an individual, one man, a high-ranking officer of the Faith, to work in a different way; to protect, to teach, to heal the hearts of the believers, to lead and help as Horace Holley, the Hand of the Cause, operating under the direction of the Guardian himself as part of his own Institution.
In 1953, during the Holy Year celebrations, and pursuant with the request of the Guardian that the Hands of the Cause attend as many of the Intercontinental Conferences as possible, Horace was present in Kampala, Stockholm, Chicago and New Delhi. In December, 1953, at long last, and for the first time, he came to Haifa as a pilgrim and met face to face the man he had served for the best years of both their lives. My own impression of the significance of that meeting is, of course, personal, but it seemed to me that Horace, who had always been a man standing alone in his own wilderness, bowing only to his God, and vigorously protecting his inner independence, had been a little afraid, probably sub-consciously, of meeting this Shoghi Effendi. I think he suspected his soul would be seduced by that meeting, and to me that is what happened. Horace surrendered completely to love. As to the Guardian, he too had been aware of the intense independence of this rare Bahá’í giant and wondered what their meeting would be like. I remember the first night something prevented Shoghi Effendi from going over to the Pilgrim House and so he did not meet Horace until the second night of his pilgrimage; but then the last barricades of Horace's heart went down like a sand fortress when the tide comes in, and I suspect this must have been a great inner release for this essentially sensitive, deeply spiritual man.
When Shoghi Effendi passed away in November, 1957, Horace was again ill in hospital and unable to attend the funeral in London. Increasingly for some years he had been suffering from some impingement on the nerves of his legs and towards the end of his life he was almost constantly in pain. This condition, combined with his weakened heart, now left him near to being an invalid, yet in spite of his frailty he attended the tragic and historic first gathering of the Hands of the Cause held in Bahji in December, 1957 after the passing of their Guardian. To me, it was here that Horace crowned his lifetime of service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh by producing the finest fruit of his knowledge and understanding of its teachings—the Proclamation issued by the Hands, the first draft of which and major portion, we owe to his pen alone.
His fellow-Hands desired that he should come and serve as one of the nine Hands in the Holy Land, and after returning to America to get his affairs in order and resign from the American National Assembly, he and his wife arrived in Israel on December 31, 1959. As his wife later wrote, "When he was in Haifa he was so ill and so depleted by pain that he was hardly a shadow of his real self." Indeed, little time was given him to serve in this new capacity, for six months later he died, suddenly and peacefully, and is buried at the foot of Mount Carmel, not very far from the resting place of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself.
It was very touching to see how Horace, so frail that one felt a breeze would blow him away, would cross the street and struggle up the short flight of steps to the Hands' meeting room. He listened attentively to the discussions, signifying agreement through a nod of his head or raising his hand, saving the very little strength he had left to express his opinion in words should the need arise. In spite of his extremely fragile condition he was still the old Horace, and his clear mind and wisdom were of inestimable help in our decisions and his personality a joy to me.
No account of this great Bahá’í would be complete if it did not cite at least a few of his delightful bon mots, gathered from the recollections of one of his fellow-Hands and long-time fellow-member of the American National Assembly: one midnight, when the members of that Assembly were still consulting at the end of a long week-end of constant meetings, this friend, trying from a tired-out mind to express himself, apologized in advance if he did not succeed in conveying his thought lucidly; Horace remarked, "I assure you, my dear boy, you have more capacity to give than we have to receive." Being called upon late at night by a Bahá’í woman, who volubly expressed, at great length, what she thought should be done about a certain administrative problem that had arisen in her community, Horace informed her, "You are very sincere, dear—but you are sincerely wrong!" On the occasion when, after months and months of patience, during which the man concerned had insisted on his own Tightness and the National Assembly's wrongness and had been an ever-increasingly disturbing element to the American Community, this individual had at last been deprived of his voting rights. Horace pronounced the following obituary: "Mr. So and So has been unable to adapt the Bahá’í community to himself."
His fellow-Hands, deprived of his counsel and support, paid a last tribute to his memory and services in the message they sent to the Bahá’í world at the time of his death: 
"Grieved announce passing Haifa much loved distinguished Hand Cause Horace Holley outstanding champion Faith since days Master praised by beloved Guardian for unique contribution development Administrative Order. His indefatigable services protection teaching administrative fields culminating service Holy Land inspiring example present future generations Bahá’ís." Great as this tribute is, one cannot help wondering what the golden pen of Shoghi Effendi would have written, on such an occasion, of such a man as Horace Holley. But let Horace's own words reveal him as he was during the end of his life: "Now what we have here is, indeed, a Divine creation. It is humanity being raised toward God and the Divine grace of God descending to humanity ... therefore in our daily lives, when we have troubles and difficulties of an administrative nature, let us not be too impatient or too easily discouraged because we are in the process of making possible the formation of that spiritual body of the Universal House of Justice. There is the basis of the world's peace. There is the order and security of the world. There is the nobility and enlightenment of the human race ... if by the purity of our motives, by the depths of our self-sacrifice, we could hasten by one year or one month the establishment of that body, the whole human race would bless us for that great gift."
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