# Advent of Divine Justice

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Shoghi Effendi, Advent of Divine Justice, Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971 [1938], bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Advent of Divine Justice
> 
> Shoghi Effendi
> 
> Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971 [1938]
> 
> Click on a number below to go to a page of The Advent of Divine Justice (unformatted version):
> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91
> 
> Or click below for a single section or paragraph:
> Section 1, pages 1-16: "To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful ..." 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Section 2, pages 16-43: "Dearly beloved friends! Great as is my love and admiration ..." 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Section 3, pages 43-72: "Dearly beloved friends! I have attempted, in the beginning ..." 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Section 4, pages 72-85: "Such, dearly beloved friends, is the vista that stretches ..." 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Section 5, pages 85-91: "One more word in conclusion. Among some of the ..." 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
> 
> Section
> 1, pages 1-16
> 
> The Advent of Divine Justice
> 
> "To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful ..."
> 
> 1
> 
> To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
> the United States and Canada.
> 
> 2
> 
> Best-beloved brothers and sisters
> in the love of Bahá'u'lláh:
> 
> 3
> 
> It would be difficult indeed to adequately express the
> feelings of irrepressible joy and exultation that flood my
> heart every time I pause to contemplate the ceaseless evidences
> of the dynamic energy which animates the stalwart
> pioneers of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in the execution
> of the Plan committed to their charge. The signature of the
> contract, by your elected national representatives, signalizing
> the opening of the final phase of the greatest enterprise
> ever launched by the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in
> the West, no less than the extremely heartening progress recorded
> in the successive reports of their National Teaching
> Committee, attest, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the fidelity,
> the vigor, and the thoroughness with which you are
> conducting the manifold operations which the evolution of
> the Seven Year Plan must necessarily involve. In both of its
> aspects, and in all its details, it is being prosecuted with exemplary
> regularity and precision, with undiminished efficiency,
> and commendable dispatch.
> 
> 4
> 
> The resourcefulness which the national representatives
> of the American believers have, in recent months, so strikingly
> demonstrated, as evidenced by the successive measures
> they have adopted, has been matched by the loyal, the
> unquestioning and generous support accorded them by all
> 
> those whom they represent, at every critical stage, and with
> every fresh advance, in the discharge of their sacred duties.
> Such close interaction, such complete cohesion, such continual
> harmony and fellowship between the various agencies
> that contribute to the organic life, and constitute the basic
> framework, of every properly functioning Bahá'í community,
> is a phenomenon which offers a striking contrast to the
> disruptive tendencies which the discordant elements of
> present-day society so tragically manifest. Whereas every
> apparent trial with which the unfathomable wisdom of the
> Almighty deems it necessary to afflict His chosen community
> serves only to demonstrate afresh its essential solidarity
> and to consolidate its inward strength, each of the
> successive crises in the fortunes of a decadent age exposes
> more convincingly than the one preceding it the corrosive
> influences that are fast sapping the vitality and undermining
> the basis of its declining institutions.
> 
> 5
> 
> For such demonstrations of the interpositions of an
> ever-watchful Providence they who stand identified with
> the Community of the Most Great Name must feel eternally
> grateful. From every fresh token of His unfailing blessing on
> the one hand, and of His visitation on the other, they cannot
> but derive immense hope and courage. Alert to seize every
> opportunity which the revolutions of the wheel of destiny
> within their Faith offers them, and undismayed by the prospect
> of spasmodic convulsions that must sooner or later fatally
> affect those who have refused to embrace its light,
> they, and those who will labor after them, must press forward
> until the processes now set in motion will have each
> spent its force and contributed its share towards the birth of
> the Order now stirring in the womb of a travailing age.
> 
> 6
> 
> These recurrent crises which, with ominous frequency
> and resistless force, are afflicting an ever-increasing portion
> of the human race must of necessity continue, however impermanently,
> to exercise, in a certain measure, their baleful
> influence upon a world community which has spread its
> ramifications to the uttermost ends of the earth. How can
> 
> the beginnings of a world upheaval, unleashing forces that
> are so gravely deranging the social, the religious, the political,
> and the economic equilibrium of organized society,
> throwing into chaos and confusion political systems, racial
> doctrines, social conceptions, cultural standards, religious
> associations, and trade relationships--how can such agitations,
> on a scale so vast, so unprecedented, fail to produce
> any repercussions on the institutions of a Faith of such tender
> age whose teachings have a direct and vital bearing on
> each of these spheres of human life and conduct?
> 
> 7
> 
> Little wonder, therefore, if they who are holding aloft
> the banner of so pervasive a Faith, so challenging a Cause,
> find themselves affected by the impact of these world-shaking
> forces. Little wonder if they find that in the midst of
> this whirlpool of contending passions their freedom has
> been curtailed, their tenets contemned, their institutions assaulted,
> their motives maligned, their authority jeopardized,
> their claim rejected.
> 
> 8
> 
> In the heart of the European continent a community
> which, as predicted by `Abdu'l-Bahá, is destined, by virtue
> of its spiritual potentialities and geographical situation, to
> radiate the splendor of the light of the Faith on the countries
> that surround it, has been momentarily eclipsed through the
> restrictions which a regime that has sorely misapprehended
> its purpose and function has chosen to impose upon it. Its
> voice, alas, is now silenced, its institutions dissolved, its literature
> banned, its archives confiscated, and its meetings
> suspended.
> 
> 9
> 
> In central Asia, in the city enjoying the unique distinction
> of having been chosen by `Abdu'l-Bahá as the home of
> the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world, as well as
> in the towns and villages of the province to which it belongs,
> the sore-pressed Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, as a result of
> the extraordinary and unique vitality which, in the course of
> several decades, it has consistently manifested, finds itself at
> the mercy of forces which, alarmed at its rising power, are
> now bent on reducing it to utter impotence. Its Temple,
> 
> though still used for purposes of Bahá'í worship, has been
> expropriated, its Assemblies and committees disbanded, its
> teaching activities crippled, its chief promoters deported,
> and not a few of its most enthusiastic supporters, both men
> and women, imprisoned.
> 
> 10
> 
> In the land of its birth, wherein reside the immense
> majority of its followers--a country whose capital has been
> hailed by Bahá'u'lláh as the "mother of the world" and the
> "dayspring of the joy of mankind"--a civil authority, as yet undivorced
> officially from the paralyzing influences of an antiquated,
> a fanatical, and outrageously corrupt clergy, pursues
> relentlessly its campaign of repression against the adherents
> of a Faith which it has for well-nigh a century striven unsuccessfully
> to suppress. Indifferent to the truth that the members
> of this innocent and proscribed community can justly
> claim to rank as among the most disinterested, the most
> competent, and the most ardent lovers of their native land,
> contemptuous of their high sense of world citizenship
> which the advocates of an excessive and narrow nationalism
> can never hope to appreciate, such an authority refuses to
> grant to a Faith which extends its spiritual jurisdiction over
> well-nigh six hundred local communities, and which numerically
> outnumbers the adherents of either the Christian,
> the Jewish, or the Zoroastrian Faiths in that land, the necessary
> legal right to enforce its laws, to administer its affairs, to
> conduct its schools, to celebrate its festivals, to circulate its
> literature, to solemnize its rites, to erect its edifices, and to
> safeguard its endowments.
> 
> 11
> 
> And now recently in the Holy Land itself, the heart and
> nerve-center of a world-embracing Faith, the fires of racial
> animosity, of fratricidal strife, of unabashed terrorism, have
> lit a conflagration that gravely interferes, on the one hand,
> with that flow of pilgrims that constitutes the lifeblood of
> that center, and suspends, on the other, the various projects
> that had been initiated in connection with the preservation
> and extension of the areas surrounding the sacred Spots it
> enshrines. The safety of the small community of resident
> 
> believers, faced by the rising tide of lawlessness, has been
> imperiled, its status as a neutral and distinct community indirectly
> challenged, and its freedom to carry out certain of
> its observances curtailed. A series of murderous assaults, alternating
> with outbursts of bitter fanaticism, both racial and
> religious, involving the leaders as well as the followers of
> the three leading Faiths in that distracted country, have, at
> times, threatened to sever all normal communications both
> within its confines as well as with the outside world. Perilous
> though the situation has been, the Bahá'í Holy Places,
> the object of the adoration of a world-encircling Faith, have,
> notwithstanding their number and exposed position, and
> though to outward seeming deprived of any means of protection,
> been vouchsafed a preservation little short of miraculous.
> 
> 12
> 
> A world, torn with conflicting passions, and perilously
> disintegrating from within, finds itself confronted, at so crucial
> an epoch in its history, by the rising fortunes of an infant
> Faith, a Faith that, at times, seems to be drawn into its
> controversies, entangled by its conflicts, eclipsed by its gathering
> shadows, and overpowered by the mounting tide of its
> passions. In its very heart, within its cradle, at the seat of its
> first and venerable Temple, in one of its hitherto flourishing
> and potentially powerful centers, the as-yet unemancipated
> Faith of Bahá'u'lláh seems indeed to have retreated before
> the onrushing forces of violence and disorder to which humanity
> is steadily falling a victim. The strongholds of such a
> Faith, one by one and day after day, are to outward seeming
> being successively isolated, assaulted and captured. As the
> lights of liberty flicker and go out, as the din of discord
> grows louder and louder every day, as the fires of fanaticism
> flame with increasing fierceness in the breasts of men, as the
> chill of irreligion creeps relentlessly over the soul of mankind,
> the limbs and organs that constitute the body of the
> Faith of Bahá'u'lláh appear, in varying measure, to have become
> afflicted with the crippling influences that now hold
> in their grip the whole of the civilized world.
> 
> 13
> 
> How clearly and strikingly the following words of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá are being demonstrated at this hour: "The darkness
> of error that has enveloped the East and the West is, in this
> most great cycle, battling with the light of Divine Guidance. Its
> swords and its spears are very sharp and pointed; its army keenly
> bloodthirsty." "This day," He, in another passage has written,
> "the powers of all the leaders of religion are directed towards the
> dispersion of the congregation of the All-Merciful, and the shattering
> of the Divine Edifice. The hosts of the world, whether material,
> cultural or political are from every side launching their assault, for
> the Cause is great, very great. Its greatness is, in this day, clear and
> manifest to men's eyes."
> 
> 14
> 
> The one chief remaining citadel, the mighty arm which
> still raises aloft the standard of an unconquerable Faith, is
> none other than the blessed community of the followers of
> the Most Great Name in the North American continent. By
> its works, and through the unfailing protection vouchsafed
> to it by an almighty Providence, this distinguished member
> of the body of the constantly interacting Bahá'í communities
> of East and West, bids fair to be universally regarded as the
> cradle, as well as the stronghold, of that future New World
> Order, which is at once the promise and the glory of the Dispensation
> associated with the name of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 15
> 
> Let anyone inclined to either belittle the unique station
> conferred upon this community, or to question the role it
> will be called upon to play in the days to come, ponder the
> implication of these pregnant and highly illuminating words
> uttered by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and addressed to it at a time when
> the fortunes of a world groaning beneath the burden of a
> devastating war had reached their lowest ebb. "The continent
> of America," He so significantly wrote, "is, in the eyes of the one
> true God, the land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed,
> where the mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, where
> the righteous will abide, and the free assemble."
> 
> 16
> 
> Already, the community of the believers of the North
> American continent--at once the prime mover and pattern
> of the future communities which the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is
> 
> destined to raise up throughout the length and breadth
> of the Western Hemisphere--has, despite the prevailing
> gloom, shown its capacity to be recognized as the torchbearer
> of that light, the repository of those mysteries, the exponent
> of that righteousness and the sanctuary of that freedom.
> To what other light can these above-quoted words
> possibly allude, if not to the light of the glory of the Golden
> Age of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh? What mysteries could `Abdu'l-Bahá
> have contemplated except the mysteries of that
> embryonic World Order now evolving within the matrix of
> His Administration? What righteousness if not the righteousness
> whose reign that Age and that Order can alone establish?
> What freedom but the freedom which the proclamation
> of His sovereignty in the fullness of time must
> bestow?
> 
> 17
> 
> The community of the organized promoters of the
> Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the American continent--the spiritual
> descendants of the dawn-breakers of an heroic Age,
> who by their death proclaimed the birth of that Faith--
> must, in turn, usher in, not by their death but through living
> sacrifice, that promised World Order, the shell ordained to
> enshrine that priceless jewel, the world civilization, of which
> the Faith itself is the sole begetter. While its sister communities
> are bending beneath the tempestuous winds that beat
> upon them from every side, this community, preserved by
> the immutable decrees of the omnipotent Ordainer and deriving
> continual sustenance from the mandate with which
> the Tablets of the Divine Plan have invested it, is now busily
> engaged in laying the foundations and in fostering the
> growth of those institutions which are to herald the approach
> of the Age destined to witness the birth and rise of
> the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 18
> 
> A community, relatively negligible in its numerical
> strength; separated by vast distances from both the focal-center
> of its Faith and the land wherein the preponderating
> mass of its fellow-believers reside; bereft in the main of material
> resources and lacking in experience and in prominence;
> 
> ignorant of the beliefs, concepts and habits of those
> peoples and races from which its spiritual Founders have
> sprung; wholly unfamiliar with the languages in which its
> sacred Books were originally revealed; constrained to place
> its sole reliance upon an inadequate rendering of only a
> fragmentary portion of the literature embodying its laws, its
> tenets, and its history; subjected from its infancy to tests of
> extreme severity, involving, at times, the defection of some
> of its most prominent members; having to contend, ever
> since its inception, and in an ever-increasing measure, with
> the forces of corruption, of moral laxity, and ingrained prejudice--
> such a community, in less than half a century, and
> unaided by any of its sister communities, whether in the
> East or in the West, has, by virtue of the celestial potency
> with which an all-loving Master has abundantly endowed
> it, lent an impetus to the onward march of the Cause it has
> espoused which the combined achievements of its coreligionists
> in the West have failed to rival.
> 
> 19
> 
> What other community, it can confidently be asked,
> has been instrumental in fixing the pattern, and in imparting
> the original impulse, to those administrative institutions that
> constitute the vanguard of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh?
> What other community has been capable of demonstrating,
> with such consistency, the resourcefulness, the discipline,
> the iron determination, the zeal and perseverance, the devotion
> and fidelity, so indispensable to the erection and the
> continued extension of the framework within which those
> nascent institutions can alone multiply and mature? What
> other community has proved itself to be fired by so noble a
> vision, or willing to rise to such heights of self-sacrifice, or
> ready to achieve so great a measure of solidarity, as to be
> able to raise, in so short a time and in the course of such
> crucial years, an edifice that can well deserve to be regarded
> as the greatest contribution ever made by the West to the
> Cause of Bahá'u'lláh? What other community can justifiably
> lay claim to have succeeded, through the unsupported efforts
> of one of its humble members, in securing the spontaneous
> 
> allegiance of Royalty to its Cause, and in winning
> such marvelous and written testimonies to its truth? What
> other community has shown the foresight, the organizing
> ability, the enthusiastic eagerness, that have been responsible
> for the establishment and multiplication, throughout its
> territory, of those initial schools which, as time goes by, will,
> on the one hand, evolve into powerful centers of Bahá'í
> learning, and, on the other, provide a fertile recruiting
> ground for the enrichment and consolidation of its teaching
> force? What other community has produced pioneers combining
> to such a degree the essential qualities of audacity, of
> consecration, of tenacity, of self-renunciation, and unstinted
> devotion, that have prompted them to abandon their
> homes, and forsake their all, and scatter over the surface of
> the globe, and hoist in its uttermost corners the triumphant
> banner of Bahá'u'lláh? Who else but the members of this
> community have won the eternal distinction of being the
> first to raise the call of Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá in such highly important
> and widely scattered centers and territories as the
> hearts of both the British and French empires, Germany, the
> Far East, the Balkan States, the Scandinavian countries, Latin
> America, the Islands of the Pacific, South Africa, Australia
> and New Zealand, and now more recently the Baltic States?
> Who else but those same pioneers have shown themselves
> ready to undertake the labor, to exercise the patience, and to
> provide the funds, required for the translation and publication,
> in no less than forty languages, of their sacred literature,
> the dissemination of which is an essential prerequisite
> to any effectively organized campaign of teaching? What
> other community can lay claim to have had a decisive share
> in the worldwide efforts that have been exerted for the safeguarding
> and the extension of the immediate surroundings
> of its holy shrines, as well as for the preliminary acquisition
> of the future sites of its international institutions at its world
> center? What other community can to its eternal credit claim
> to have been the first to frame its national and local constitutions,
> thereby laying down the fundamental lines of the
> 
> twin charters designed to regulate the activities, define the
> functions, and safeguard the rights, of its institutions? What
> other community can boast of having simultaneously acquired
> and legally secured the basis of its national endowments,
> thus paving the way for a similar action on the part
> of its local communities? What other community has
> achieved the supreme distinction of having obtained, long
> before any of its sister communities had envisaged such a
> possibility, the necessary documents assuring the recognition,
> by both the federal and state authorities, of its Spiritual
> Assemblies and national endowments? And finally what
> other community has had the privilege, and been granted
> the means, to succor the needy, to plead the cause of the
> downtrodden, and to intervene so energetically for the safeguarding
> of Bahá'í edifices and institutions in countries such
> as Persia, Egypt, `Iráq, Russia, and Germany, where, at various
> times, its fellow-believers have had to suffer the rigors
> of both religious and racial persecution?
> 
> 20
> 
> Such a matchless and brilliant record of service, extending
> over a period of well-nigh twenty years, and so
> closely interwoven with the interest and fortunes of such a
> large section of the worldwide Bahá'í community, deserves
> to rank as a memorable chapter in the history of the Formative
> Period of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Reinforced and enriched
> as it is by the memory of the American believers' earlier
> achievements, such a record is in itself convincing
> testimony to their ability to befittingly shoulder the responsibilities
> which any task may impose upon them in the future.
> To overrate the significance of these manifold services
> would be well-nigh impossible. To appraise correctly their
> value, and dilate on their merits and immediate consequences,
> is a task which only a future Bahá'í historian can
> properly discharge. I can only for the present place on record
> my profound conviction that a community capable of
> showing forth such deeds, of evincing such a spirit, of rising
> to such heights, cannot but be already possessed of such potentialities
> as will enable it to vindicate, in the fullness of
> 
> time, its right to be acclaimed as the chief creator and champion
> of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 21
> 
> Magnificent as has been this record, reminiscent as it is,
> in some of its aspects, of the exploits with which the dawn-breakers
> of an heroic Age have proclaimed the birth of the
> Faith itself, the task associated with the name of this privileged
> community is, far from approaching its climax, only
> beginning to unfold. What the American believers have,
> within the space of almost fifty years, achieved is infinitesimal
> when compared to the magnitude of the tasks ahead of
> them. The rumblings of that catastrophic upheaval, which is
> to proclaim, at one and the same time, the death-pangs of
> the old order and the birth-pangs of the new, indicate both
> the steady approach, as well as the awe-inspiring character,
> of those tasks.
> 
> 22
> 
> The virtual establishment of the Administrative Order
> of their Faith, the erection of its framework, the fashioning
> of its instruments, and the consolidation of its subsidiary institutions,
> was the first task committed to their charge, as an
> organized community called into being by the Will, and under
> the instructions, of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Of this initial task
> they have acquitted themselves with marvelous promptitude,
> fidelity, and vigor. No sooner had they created and
> correlated the various and necessary agencies for the efficient
> conduct of any policy they might subsequently wish to
> initiate, than they addressed themselves, with equal zest
> and consecration, to the next more arduous task of erecting
> the superstructure of an edifice the cornerstone of which
> `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself had laid. And when that feat was
> achieved, this community, alive to the passionate pleas, exhortations,
> and promises recorded in the Tablets of the Divine
> Plan, resolved to undertake yet another task, which in
> its scope and spiritual potentialities is sure to outshine any
> of the works they have already accomplished. Launching
> with unquenchable enthusiasm and dauntless courage the
> Seven Year Plan, as the first and practical step towards the
> fulfillment of the mission prescribed in those epoch-making
> 
> Tablets, they entered, with a spirit of renewed consecration,
> upon their dual task, the consummation of which, it is
> hoped, will synchronize with the celebration of the centenary
> of the birth of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Well aware that
> every advance made in the external ornamentation of their
> majestic edifice would directly react on the progress of the
> teaching campaign initiated by them in both the northern
> and southern American continents, and realizing that every
> victory gained in the teaching field would, in its turn, facilitate
> the work, and hasten the completion, of their Temple,
> they are now pressing on, with courage and faith, in their
> efforts to discharge, in both of its phases, their obligations
> under the Plan they have dedicated themselves to execute.
> 
> 23
> 
> Let them not, however, imagine that the carrying out
> of the Seven Year Plan, coinciding as it does with the termination
> of the first century of the Bahá'í era, signifies either
> the termination of, or even an interruption in, the work
> which the unerring Hand of the Almighty is directing them
> to perform. The opening of the second century of the Bahá'í
> era must needs disclose greater vistas, usher in further
> stages, and witness the initiation of plans more far-reaching
> than any as yet conceived. The Plan on which is now focused
> the attention, the aspirations, and the resources of the
> entire community of the American believers should be
> viewed as a mere beginning, as a trial of strength, a stepping-stone
> to a crusade of still greater magnitude, if the duties
> and responsibilities with which the Author of the Divine
> Plan has invested them are to be honorably and entirely fulfilled.
> 
> 24
> 
> For the consummation of the present Plan can result in
> no more than the formation of at least one center in each of
> the Republics of the Western Hemisphere, whereas the duties
> prescribed in those Tablets call for a wider diffusion,
> and imply the scattering of a far greater and more representative
> number of the members of the North American Bahá'í
> community over the entire surface of the New World. It is
> the undoubted mission of the American believers, therefore,
> 
> to carry forward into the second century the glorious work
> initiated in the closing years of the first. Not until they have
> played their part in guiding the activities of these isolated
> and newly fledged centers, and in fostering their capacity to
> initiate in their turn institutions, both local and national,
> modeled on their own, can they be satisfied to have adequately
> discharged their immediate obligations under `Abdu'l-Bahá's
> divinely revealed Plan.
> 
> 25
> 
> Nor should it for a moment be supposed that the completion
> of a task which aims at the multiplication of Bahá'í
> centers and the provision of the assistance and guidance
> necessary for the establishment of the Administrative Order
> of the Bahá'í Faith in the countries of Latin America realizes
> in its entirety the scheme visualized for them by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
> A perusal, however perfunctory, of those Tablets embodying
> His Plan will instantly reveal a scope for their activities
> that stretches far beyond the confines of the Western
> Hemisphere. With their inter-American tasks and responsibilities
> virtually discharged, their intercontinental mission
> enters upon its most glorious and decisive phase. "The moment
> this Divine Message," `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself has written,
> "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 Australasia, and as far as the islands of the
> Pacific, this community will find itself securely established upon
> the throne of an everlasting dominion."
> 
> 26
> 
> And who knows but that when this colossal task has
> been accomplished a greater, a still more superb mission, incomparable
> in its splendor, and foreordained for them by
> Bahá'u'lláh, may not be thrust upon them? The glories of
> such a mission are of such dazzling splendor, the circumstances
> attending it so remote, and the contemporary events
> with the culmination of which it is so closely knit in such a
> state of flux, that it would be premature to attempt, at the
> present time, any accurate delineation of its features. Suffice
> it to say that out of the turmoil and tribulations of these "latter
> years" opportunities undreamt of will be born, and circumstances
> 
> unpredictable created, that will enable, nay impel,
> the victorious prosecutors of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Plan, to
> add, through the part they will play in the unrolling of the
> New World Order, fresh laurels to the crown of their servitude
> to the threshold of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 27
> 
> Nor should any of the manifold opportunities, of a totally
> different order, be allowed to pass unnoticed which the
> evolution of the Faith itself, whether at its world center, or
> in the North American continent, or even in the most outlying
> regions of the earth, must create, calling once again
> upon the American believers to play a part, no less conspicuous
> than the share they have previously had in their collective
> contributions to the propagation of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
> I can only for the moment cite at random certain of
> these opportunities which stand out preeminently, in any
> attempt to survey the possibilities of the future: The election
> of the International House of Justice and its establishment in
> the Holy Land, the spiritual and administrative center of the
> Bahá'í world, together with the formation of its auxiliary
> branches and subsidiary institutions; the gradual erection of
> the various dependencies of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of
> the West, and the intricate issues involving the establishment
> and the extension of the structural basis of Bahá'í community
> life; the codification and promulgation of the ordinances
> of the Most Holy Book, necessitating the formation,
> in certain countries of the East, of properly constituted and
> officially recognized courts of Bahá'í law; the building of the
> third Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í world in the outskirts
> of the city of Tihrán, to be followed by the rise of a similar
> House of Worship in the Holy Land itself; the deliverance of
> Bahá'í communities from the fetters of religious orthodoxy
> in such Islamic countries as Persia, `Iráq, and Egypt, and the
> consequent recognition, by the civil authorities in those
> states, of the independent status and religious character of
> Bahá'í National and Local Assemblies; the precautionary
> and defensive measures to be devised, coordinated, and carried
> out to counteract the full force of the inescapable attacks
> 
> which the organized efforts of ecclesiastical organizations
> of various denominations will progressively launch
> and relentlessly pursue; and, last but not least, the multitudinous
> issues that must be faced, the obstacles that must be
> overcome, and the responsibilities that must be assumed, to
> enable a sore-tried Faith to pass through the successive
> stages of unmitigated obscurity, of active repression, and of
> complete emancipation, leading in turn to its being acknowledged
> as an independent Faith, enjoying the status of
> full equality with its sister religions, to be followed by its establishment
> and recognition as a State religion, which in turn
> must give way to its assumption of the rights and prerogatives
> associated with the Bahá'í state, functioning in the plenitude
> of its powers, a stage which must ultimately culminate
> in the emergence of the worldwide Bahá'í Commonwealth,
> animated wholly by the spirit, and operating solely in direct
> conformity with the laws and principles of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 28
> 
> The challenge offered by these opportunities the
> American believers, I feel confident, will, in addition to their
> answer to the teaching call voiced by `Abdu'l-Bahá in His
> Tablets, unhesitatingly take up, and will, with their traditional
> fearlessness, tenacity, and efficiency, so respond to it
> as to confirm, before all the world, their title and rank as the
> champion-builders of the mightiest institutions of the Faith
> of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 29
> 
> Dearly beloved friends! Though the task be long and
> arduous, yet the prize which the All-Bountiful Bestower has
> chosen to confer upon you is of such preciousness that
> neither tongue nor pen can befittingly appraise it. Though
> the goal towards which you are now so strenuously striving
> be distant, and as yet undisclosed to men's eyes, yet its
> promise lies firmly embedded in the authoritative and unalterable
> utterances of Bahá'u'lláh. Though the course He
> has traced for you seems, at times, lost in the threatening
> shadows with which a stricken humanity is now enveloped,
> yet the unfailing light He has caused to shine continually
> upon you is of such brightness that no earthly dusk can ever
> 
> eclipse its splendor. Though small in numbers, and circumscribed
> as yet in your experiences, powers, and resources,
> yet the Force which energizes your mission is limitless in its
> range and incalculable in its potency. Though the enemies
> which every acceleration in the progress of your mission
> must raise up be fierce, numerous, and unrelenting, yet the
> invisible Hosts which, if you persevere, must, as promised,
> rush forth to your aid, will, in the end, enable you to vanquish
> their hopes and annihilate their forces. Though the ultimate
> blessings that must crown the consummation of your
> mission be undoubted, and the Divine promises given you
> firm and irrevocable, yet the measure of the goodly reward
> which every one of you is to reap must depend on the extent
> to which your daily exertions will have contributed to the
> expansion of that mission and the hastening of its triumph.
> 
> Section
> 2, pages 16-43
> 
> "Dearly beloved friends! Great as is my love and admiration ..."
> 
> 1
> 
> Dearly beloved friends! Great as is my love and admiration
> for you, convinced as I am of the paramount share
> which you can, and will, undoubtedly have in both the continental
> and international spheres of future Bahá'í activity
> and service, I feel it nevertheless incumbent upon me to utter,
> at this juncture, a word of warning. The glowing tributes,
> so repeatedly and deservedly paid to the capacity, the
> spirit, the conduct, and the high rank, of the American believers,
> both individually and as an organic community,
> must, under no circumstances, be confounded with the
> characteristics and nature of the people from which God has
> raised them up. A sharp distinction between that community
> and that people must be made, and resolutely and fearlessly
> upheld, if we wish to give due recognition to the
> transmuting power of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, in its impact
> on the lives and standards of those who have chosen to enlist
> under His banner. Otherwise, the supreme and distinguishing
> function of His Revelation, which is none other
> than the calling into being of a new race of men, will remain
> wholly unrecognized and completely obscured.
> 
> 2
> 
> How often have the Prophets of God, not excepting
> Bahá'u'lláh Himself, chosen to appear, and deliver their
> Message in countries and amidst peoples and races, at a time
> when they were either fast declining, or had already
> touched the lowest depths of moral and spiritual degradation.
> The appalling misery and wretchedness to which the
> Israelites had sunk, under the debasing and tyrannical rule
> of the Pharaohs, in the days preceding their exodus from
> Egypt under the leadership of Moses; the decline that had
> set in in the religious, the spiritual, the cultural, and the
> moral life of the Jewish people, at the time of the appearance
> of Jesus Christ; the barbarous cruelty, the gross idolatry
> and immorality, which had for so long been the most distressing
> features of the tribes of Arabia and brought such
> shame upon them when Muhammad arose to proclaim His
> Message in their midst; the indescribable state of decadence,
> with its attendant corruption, confusion, intolerance, and
> oppression, in both the civil and religious life of Persia, so
> graphically portrayed by the pen of a considerable number
> of scholars, diplomats, and travelers, at the hour of the Revelation
> of Bahá'u'lláh--all demonstrate this basic and inescapable
> fact. To contend that the innate worthiness, the
> high moral standard, the political aptitude, and social attainments
> of any race or nation is the reason for the appearance
> in its midst of any of these Divine Luminaries would be
> an absolute perversion of historical facts, and would
> amount to a complete repudiation of the undoubted interpretation
> placed upon them, so clearly and emphatically, by
> both Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá.
> 
> 3
> 
> How great, then, must be the challenge to those who,
> belonging to such races and nations, and having responded
> to the call which these Prophets have raised, to unreservedly
> recognize and courageously testify to this indubitable truth,
> that not by reason of any racial superiority, political capacity,
> or spiritual virtue which a race or nation might possess,
> but rather as a direct consequence of its crying needs, its lamentable
> 
> degeneracy, and irremediable perversity, has the
> Prophet of God chosen to appear in its midst, and with it as
> a lever has lifted the entire human race to a higher and nobler
> plane of life and conduct. For it is precisely under such
> circumstances, and by such means that the Prophets have,
> from time immemorial, chosen and were able to demonstrate
> their redemptive power to raise from the depths of
> abasement and of misery, the people of their own race and
> nation, empowering them to transmit in turn to other races
> and nations the saving grace and the energizing influence of
> their Revelation.
> 
> 4
> 
> In the light of this fundamental principle it should always
> be borne in mind, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized,
> that the primary reason why the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh
> chose to appear in Persia, and to make it the first repository
> of their Revelation, was because, of all the peoples and nations
> of the civilized world, that race and nation had, as so
> often depicted by `Abdu'l-Bahá, sunk to such ignominious
> depths, and manifested so great a perversity, as to find no
> parallel among its contemporaries. For no more convincing
> proof could be adduced demonstrating the regenerating
> spirit animating the Revelations proclaimed by the Báb and
> Bahá'u'lláh than their power to transform what can be truly
> regarded as one of the most backward, the most cowardly,
> and perverse of peoples into a race of heroes, fit to effect in
> turn a similar revolution in the life of mankind. To have appeared
> among a race or nation which by its intrinsic worth
> and high attainments seemed to warrant the inestimable
> privilege of being made the receptacle of such a Revelation
> would in the eyes of an unbelieving world greatly reduce
> the efficacy of that Message, and detract from the self-sufficiency
> of its omnipotent power. The contrast so strikingly
> presented in the pages of Nabíl's Narrative between the
> heroism that immortalized the life and deeds of the Dawn-Breakers
> and the degeneracy and cowardice of their defamers
> and persecutors is in itself a most impressive testimony
> to the truth of the Message of Him Who had instilled such a
> 
> spirit into the breasts of His disciples. For any believer of
> that race to maintain that the excellence of his country and
> the innate nobility of its people were the fundamental reasons
> for its being singled out as the primary receptacle of the
> Revelations of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh would be untenable
> in the face of the overwhelming evidence afforded so convincingly
> by that Narrative.
> 
> 5
> 
> To a lesser degree this principle must of necessity apply
> to the country which has vindicated its right to be regarded
> as the cradle of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. So great a
> function, so noble a role, can be regarded as no less inferior
> to the part played by those immortal souls who, through
> their sublime renunciation and unparalleled deeds, have
> been responsible for the birth of the Faith itself. Let not,
> therefore, those who are to participate so predominantly in
> the birth of that world civilization, which is the direct offspring
> of their Faith, imagine for a moment that for some
> mysterious purpose or by any reason of inherent excellence
> or special merit Bahá'u'lláh has chosen to confer upon their
> country and people so great and lasting a distinction. It is
> precisely by reason of the patent evils which, notwithstanding
> its other admittedly great characteristics and achievements,
> an excessive and binding materialism has unfortunately
> engendered within it that the Author of their Faith
> and the Center of His Covenant have singled it out to become
> the standard-bearer of the New World Order envisaged
> in their writings. It is by such means as this that Bahá'u'lláh
> can best demonstrate to a heedless generation His
> almighty power to raise up from the very midst of a people,
> immersed in a sea of materialism, a prey to one of the most
> virulent and long-standing forms of racial prejudice, and
> notorious for its political corruption, lawlessness and laxity
> in moral standards, men and women who, as time goes by,
> will increasingly exemplify those essential virtues of self-renunciation,
> of moral rectitude, of chastity, of indiscriminating
> fellowship, of holy discipline, and of spiritual insight
> that will fit them for the preponderating share they will
> 
> have in calling into being that World Order and that World
> Civilization of which their country, no less than the entire
> human race, stands in desperate need. Theirs will be the
> duty and privilege, in their capacity first as the establishers
> of one of the most powerful pillars sustaining the edifice of
> the Universal House of Justice, and then as the champion-builders
> of that New World Order of which that House is to
> be the nucleus and forerunner, to inculcate, demonstrate,
> and apply those twin and sorely needed principles of Divine
> justice and order--principles to which the political corruption
> and the moral license, increasingly staining the society
> to which they belong, offer so sad and striking a contrast.
> 
> 6
> 
> Observations such as these, however distasteful and
> depressing they may be, should not, in the least, blind us to
> those virtues and qualities of high intelligence, of youthfulness,
> of unbounded initiative, and enterprise which the nation
> as a whole so conspicuously displays, and which are
> being increasingly reflected by the community of the believers
> within it. Upon these virtues and qualities, no less than
> upon the elimination of the evils referred to, must depend,
> to a very great extent, the ability of that community to lay a
> firm foundation for the country's future role in ushering in
> the Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 7
> 
> How great, therefore, how staggering the responsibility
> that must weigh upon the present generation of the American
> believers, at this early stage in their spiritual and administrative
> evolution, to weed out, by every means in their
> power, those faults, habits, and tendencies which they have
> inherited from their own nation, and to cultivate, patiently
> and prayerfully, those distinctive qualities and characteristics
> that are so indispensable to their effective participation
> in the great redemptive work of their Faith. Incapable as yet,
> in view of the restricted size of their community and the limited
> influence it now wields, of producing any marked effect
> on the great mass of their countrymen, let them focus their
> attention, for the present, on their own selves, their own individual
> needs, their own personal deficiencies and weaknesses,
> 
> ever mindful that every intensification of effort on
> their part will better equip them for the time when they will
> be called upon to eradicate in their turn such evil tendencies
> from the lives and the hearts of the entire body of their fellow-citizens.
> Nor must they overlook the fact that the World
> Order, whose basis they, as the advance-guard of the future
> Bahá'í generations of their countrymen, are now laboring to
> establish, can never be reared unless and until the generality
> of the people to which they belong has been already purged
> from the divers ills, whether social or political, that now so
> severely afflict it.
> 
> 8
> 
> Surveying as a whole the most pressing needs of this
> community, attempting to estimate the more serious deficiencies
> by which it is being handicapped in the discharge of
> its task, and ever bearing in mind the nature of that still
> greater task with which it will be forced to wrestle in the
> future, I feel it my duty to lay special stress upon, and draw
> the special and urgent attention of the entire body of the
> American believers, be they young or old, white or colored,
> teachers or administrators, veterans or newcomers, to what I
> firmly believe are the essential requirements for the success
> of the tasks which are now claiming their undivided attention.
> Great as is the importance of fashioning the outward
> instruments, and of perfecting the administrative agencies,
> which they can utilize for the prosecution of their dual task
> under the Seven Year Plan; vital and urgent as are the campaigns
> which they are initiating, the schemes and projects
> which they are devising, and the funds which they are raising,
> for the efficient conduct of both the Teaching and Temple
> work, the imponderable, the spiritual, factors, which are
> bound up with their own individual and inner lives, and
> with which are associated their human and social relationships,
> are no less urgent and vital, and demand constant
> scrutiny, continual self-examination and heart-searching on
> their part, lest their value be impaired or their vital necessity
> be obscured or forgotten.
> 
> 9
> 
> Of these spiritual prerequisites of success, which constitute
> 
> the bedrock on which the security of all teaching
> plans, Temple projects, and financial schemes, must ultimately
> rest, the following stand out as preeminent and vital,
> which the members of the American Bahá'í community will
> do well to ponder. Upon the extent to which these basic requirements
> are met, and the manner in which the American
> believers fulfill them in their individual lives, administrative
> activities, and social relationships, must depend the measure
> of the manifold blessings which the All-Bountiful Possessor
> can vouchsafe to them all. These requirements are none
> other than a high sense of moral rectitude in their social and
> administrative activities, absolute chastity in their individual
> lives, and complete freedom from prejudice in their dealings
> with peoples of a different race, class, creed, or color.
> 
> 10
> 
> The first is specially, though not exclusively, directed to
> their elected representatives, whether local, regional, or national,
> who, in their capacity as the custodians and members
> of the nascent institutions of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, are
> shouldering the chief responsibility in laying an unassailable
> foundation for that Universal House of Justice which,
> as its title implies, is to be the exponent and guardian of that
> Divine Justice which can alone insure the security of, and
> establish the reign of law and order in, a strangely disordered
> world. The second is mainly and directly concerned
> with the Bahá'í youth, who can contribute so decisively to
> the virility, the purity, and the driving force of the life of the
> Bahá'í community, and upon whom must depend the future
> orientation of its destiny, and the complete unfoldment of
> the potentialities with which God has endowed it. The third
> should be the immediate, the universal, and the chief concern
> of all and sundry members of the Bahá'í community, of
> whatever age, rank, experience, class, or color, as all, with
> no exception, must face its challenging implications, and
> none can claim, however much he may have progressed
> along this line, to have completely discharged the stern responsibilities
> which it inculcates.
> 
> 11
> 
> A rectitude of conduct, an abiding sense of undeviating
> justice, unobscured by the demoralizing influences which a
> corruption-ridden political life so strikingly manifests; a
> chaste, pure, and holy life, unsullied and unclouded by the
> indecencies, the vices, the false standards, which an inherently
> deficient moral code tolerates, perpetuates, and fosters;
> a fraternity freed from that cancerous growth of racial
> prejudice, which is eating into the vitals of an already debilitated
> society--these are the ideals which the American believers
> must, from now on, individually and through concerted
> action, strive to promote, in both their private and
> public lives, ideals which are the chief propelling forces that
> can most effectively accelerate the march of their institutions,
> plans, and enterprises, that can guard the honor and
> integrity of their Faith, and subdue any obstacles that may
> confront it in the future.
> 
> 12
> 
> This rectitude of conduct, with its implications of justice,
> equity, truthfulness, honesty, fair-mindedness, reliability,
> and trustworthiness, must distinguish every phase of the
> life of the Bahá'í community. "The companions of God," Bahá'u'lláh
> Himself has declared, "are, in this day, the lump that
> must leaven the peoples of the world. They must show forth such
> trustworthiness, such truthfulness and perseverance, such deeds
> and character that all mankind may profit by their example." "I
> swear by Him Who is the Most Great Ocean!" He again affirms,
> "Within the very breath of such souls as are pure and sanctified
> far-reaching potentialities are hidden. So great are these potentialities
> that they exercise their influence upon all created things." "He
> is the true servant of God," He, in another passage has written,
> "who, in this day, were he to pass through cities of silver and gold,
> would not deign to look upon them, and whose heart would remain
> pure and undefiled from whatever things can be seen in this world,
> be they its goods or its treasures. I swear by the Sun of Truth! The
> breath of such a man is endowed with potency, and his words with
> attraction." "By Him Who shineth above the Dayspring of sanctity!"
> He, still more emphatically, has revealed, "If the whole
> 
> earth were to be converted into silver and gold, no man who can be
> said to have truly ascended into the heaven of faith and certitude
> would deign to regard it, much less to seize and keep it.... They
> who dwell within the Tabernacle of God, and are established upon
> the seats of everlasting glory, will refuse, though they be dying of
> hunger, to stretch their hands, and seize unlawfully the property of
> their neighbor, however vile and worthless he may be. The purpose
> of the one true God in manifesting Himself is to summon all mankind
> to truthfulness and sincerity, to piety and trustworthiness, to
> resignation and submissiveness to the will of God, to forbearance
> and kindliness, to uprightness and wisdom. His object is to array
> every man with the mantle of a saintly character, and to adorn him
> with the ornament of holy and goodly deeds." "We have admonished
> all the loved ones of God," He insists, "to take heed lest the
> hem of Our sacred vesture be smirched with the mire of unlawful
> deeds, or be stained with the dust of reprehensible conduct."
> "Cleave unto righteousness, O people of Bahá," He thus exhorts
> them, "This, verily, is the commandment which this wronged One
> hath given unto you, and the first choice of His unrestrained will
> for every one of you." "A good character," He explains, "is, verily,
> the best mantle for men from God. With it He adorneth the temples
> of His loved ones. By My life! The light of a good character surpasseth
> the light of the sun and the radiance thereof." "One righteous
> act," He, again, has written, "is endowed with a potency that
> can so elevate the dust as to cause it to pass beyond the heaven of
> heavens. It can tear every bond asunder, and hath the power to
> restore the force that hath spent itself and vanished.... Be pure,
> O people of God, be pure; be righteous, be righteous.... Say: O
> people of God! That which can insure the victory of Him Who is
> the Eternal Truth, His hosts and helpers on earth, have been set
> down in the sacred Books and Scriptures, and are as clear and
> manifest as the sun. These hosts are such righteous deeds, such
> conduct and character, as are acceptable in His sight. Whoso ariseth,
> in this Day, to aid Our Cause, and summoneth to his assistance
> the hosts of a praiseworthy character and upright conduct,
> the influence from such an action will, most certainly, be diffused
> throughout the whole world." "The betterment of the world," is
> 
> yet another statement, "can be accomplished through pure and
> goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct." "Be fair
> to yourselves and to others," He thus counseleth them, "that
> the evidences of justice may be revealed through your deeds among
> Our faithful servants." "Equity," He also has written, "is the
> most fundamental among human virtues. The evaluation of all
> things must needs depend upon it." And again, "Observe equity
> in your judgment, ye men of understanding heart! He that is unjust
> in his judgment is destitute of the characteristics that distinguish
> man's station." "Beautify your tongues, O people," He further
> admonishes them, "with truthfulness, and adorn your souls with
> the ornament of honesty. Beware, O people, that ye deal not
> treacherously with anyone. Be ye the trustees of God amongst His
> creatures, and the emblems of His generosity amidst His people."
> "Let your eye be chaste," is yet another counsel, "your hand
> faithful, your tongue truthful, and your heart enlightened." "Be an
> ornament to the countenance of truth," is yet another admonition,
> "a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of
> righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of
> the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue." "Let
> truthfulness and courtesy be your adorning," is still another admonition;
> "suffer not yourselves to be deprived of the robe of forbearance
> and justice, that the sweet savors of holiness may be
> wafted from your hearts upon all created things. Say: Beware, O
> people of Bahá, lest ye walk in the ways of them whose words differ
> from their deeds. Strive that ye may be enabled to manifest to the
> peoples of the earth the signs of God, and to mirror forth His commandments.
> Let your acts be a guide unto all mankind, for the professions
> of most men, be they high or low, differ from their conduct.
> It is through your deeds that ye can distinguish yourselves from
> others. Through them the brightness of your light can be shed upon
> the whole earth. Happy is the man that heedeth My counsel, and
> keepeth the precepts prescribed by Him Who is the All-Knowing,
> the All-Wise."
> 
> 13
> 
> "O army of God!" writes `Abdu'l-Bahá, "Through the protection
> and help vouchsafed by the Blessed Beauty--may my life
> be a sacrifice to His loved ones--ye must conduct yourselves in
> 
> such a manner that ye may stand out distinguished and brilliant as
> the sun among other souls. Should any one of you enter a city, he
> should become a center of attraction by reason of his sincerity, his
> faithfulness and love, his honesty and fidelity, his truthfulness and
> loving-kindness towards all the peoples of the world, so that the
> people of that city may cry out and say: `This man is unquestionably
> a Bahá'í, for his manners, his behavior, his conduct, his morals,
> his nature, and disposition reflect the attributes of the Bahá'ís.'
> Not until ye attain this station can ye be said to have been faithful
> to the Covenant and Testament of God." "The most vital duty, in
> this day," He, moreover, has written, "is to purify your characters,
> to correct your manners, and improve your conduct. The beloved
> of the Merciful must show forth such character and conduct
> among His creatures, that the fragrance of their holiness may be
> shed upon the whole world, and may quicken the dead, inasmuch
> as the purpose of the Manifestation of God and the dawning of the
> limitless lights of the Invisible is to educate the souls of men, and
> refine the character of every living man...." "Truthfulness," He
> asserts, "is the foundation of all human virtues. Without truthfulness
> progress and success, in all the worlds of God, are impossible
> for any soul. When this holy attribute is established in man, all the
> divine qualities will also be acquired."
> 
> 14
> 
> Such a rectitude of conduct must manifest itself, with
> ever-increasing potency, in every verdict which the elected
> representatives of the Bahá'í community, in whatever capacity
> they may find themselves, may be called upon to pronounce.
> It must be constantly reflected in the business dealings
> of all its members, in their domestic lives, in all manner
> of employment, and in any service they may, in the future,
> render their government or people. It must be exemplified in
> the conduct of all Bahá'í electors, when exercising their sacred
> rights and functions. It must characterize the attitude of
> every loyal believer towards nonacceptance of political
> posts, nonidentification with political parties, nonparticipation
> in political controversies, and nonmembership in political
> organizations and ecclesiastical institutions. It must reveal
> itself in the uncompromising adherence of all, whether
> 
> young or old, to the clearly enunciated and fundamental
> principles laid down by `Abdu'l-Bahá in His addresses, and
> to the laws and ordinances revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in His
> Most Holy Book. It must be demonstrated in the impartiality
> of every defender of the Faith against its enemies, in his fair-mindedness
> in recognizing any merits that enemy may possess,
> and in his honesty in discharging any obligations he
> may have towards him. It must constitute the brightest ornament
> of the life, the pursuits, the exertions, and the utterances
> of every Bahá'í teacher, whether laboring at home or
> abroad, whether in the front ranks of the teaching force, or
> occupying a less active and responsible position. It must be
> made the hallmark of that numerically small, yet intensely
> dynamic and highly responsible body of the elected national
> representatives of every Bahá'í community, which constitutes
> the sustaining pillar, and the sole instrument for the
> election, in every community, of that Universal House
> whose very name and title, as ordained by Bahá'u'lláh, symbolizes
> that rectitude of conduct which is its highest mission
> to safeguard and enforce.
> 
> 15
> 
> So great and transcendental is this principle of Divine
> justice, a principle that must be regarded as the crowning
> distinction of all Local and National Assemblies, in their capacity
> as forerunners of the Universal House of Justice, that
> Bahá'u'lláh Himself subordinates His personal inclination
> and wish to the all-compelling force of its demands and implications.
> "God is My witness!" He thus explains, "were it not
> contrary to the Law of God, I would have kissed the hand of My
> would-be murderer, and would cause him to inherit My earthly
> goods. I am restrained, however, by the binding Law laid down in
> the Book, and am Myself bereft of all worldly possessions." "Know
> thou, of a truth," He significantly affirms, "these great oppressions
> that have befallen the world are preparing it for the advent of
> the Most Great Justice." "Say," He again asserts, "He hath appeared
> with that Justice wherewith mankind hath been adorned,
> and yet the people are, for the most part, asleep." "The light of men
> is Justice," He moreover states, "Quench it not with the contrary
> 
> winds of oppression and tyranny. The purpose of justice is the appearance
> of unity among men." "No radiance," He declares, "can
> compare with that of justice. The organization of the world and the
> tranquillity of mankind depend upon it." "O people of God!" He
> exclaims, "That which traineth the world is Justice, for it is upheld
> by two pillars, reward and punishment. These two pillars are
> the sources of life to the world." "Justice and equity," is yet another
> assertion, "are two guardians for the protection of man.
> They have appeared arrayed in their mighty and sacred names to
> maintain the world in uprightness and protect the nations." "Bestir
> yourselves, O people," is His emphatic warning, "in anticipation
> of the days of Divine justice, for the promised hour is now
> come. Beware lest ye fail to apprehend its import, and be accounted
> among the erring." "The day is approaching," He similarly has
> written, "when the faithful will behold the daystar of justice shining
> in its full splendor from the dayspring of glory." "The shame I
> was made to bear," He significantly remarks, "hath uncovered
> the glory with which the whole of creation had been invested, and
> through the cruelties I have endured, the daystar of justice hath
> manifested itself, and shed its splendor upon men." "The world,"
> He again has written, "is in great turmoil, and the minds of its
> people are in a state of utter confusion. We entreat the Almighty
> that He may graciously illuminate them with the glory of His Justice,
> and enable them to discover that which will be profitable unto
> them at all times and under all conditions." And again, "There
> can be no doubt whatever that if the daystar of justice, which the
> clouds of tyranny have obscured, were to shed its light upon men,
> the face of the earth would be completely transformed."
> 
> 16
> 
> "God be praised!" `Abdu'l-Bahá, in His turn, exclaims,
> "The sun of justice hath risen above the horizon of Bahá'u'lláh. For
> in His Tablets the foundations of such a justice have been laid as
> no mind hath, from the beginning of creation, conceived." "The
> canopy of existence," He further explains, "resteth upon the pole
> of justice, and not of forgiveness, and the life of mankind dependeth
> on justice and not on forgiveness."
> 
> 17
> 
> Small wonder, therefore, that the Author of the Bahá'í
> Revelation should have chosen to associate the name and
> 
> title of that House, which is to be the crowning glory of His
> administrative institutions, not with forgiveness but with
> justice, to have made justice the only basis and the permanent
> foundation of His Most Great Peace, and to have proclaimed
> it in His Hidden Words as "the best beloved of all
> things" in His sight. It is to the American believers, particularly,
> that I feel urged to direct this fervent plea to ponder in
> their hearts the implications of this moral rectitude, and to
> uphold, with heart and soul and uncompromisingly, both
> individually and collectively, this sublime standard--a standard
> of which justice is so essential and potent an element.
> 
> 18
> 
> As to a chaste and holy life, it should be regarded as no
> less essential a factor that must contribute its proper share to
> the strengthening and vitalization of the Bahá'í community,
> upon which must in turn depend the success of any Bahá'í
> plan or enterprise. In these days when the forces of irreligion
> are weakening the moral fiber, and undermining the
> foundations of individual morality, the obligation of chastity
> and holiness must claim an increasing share of the attention
> of the American believers, both in their individual
> capacities and as the responsible custodians of the interests
> of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. In the discharge of such an obligation,
> to which the special circumstances resulting from an
> excessive and enervating materialism now prevailing in
> their country lend particular significance, they must play a
> conspicuous and predominant role. All of them, be they
> men or women, must, at this threatening hour when the
> lights of religion are fading out, and its restraints are one by
> one being abolished, pause to examine themselves, scrutinize
> their conduct, and with characteristic resolution arise to
> purge the life of their community of every trace of moral
> laxity that might stain the name, or impair the integrity, of
> so holy and precious a Faith.
> 
> 19
> 
> A chaste and holy life must be made the controlling
> principle in the behavior and conduct of all Bahá'ís, both in
> their social relations with the members of their own community,
> and in their contact with the world at large. It must
> 
> adorn and reinforce the ceaseless labors and meritorious exertions
> of those whose enviable position is to propagate the
> Message, and to administer the affairs, of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
> It must be upheld, in all its integrity and implications,
> in every phase of the life of those who fill the ranks of that
> Faith, whether in their homes, their travels, their clubs, their
> societies, their entertainments, their schools, and their universities.
> It must be accorded special consideration in the
> conduct of the social activities of every Bahá'í summer
> school and any other occasions on which Bahá'í community
> life is organized and fostered. It must be closely and continually
> identified with the mission of the Bahá'í youth, both as
> an element in the life of the Bahá'í community, and as a factor
> in the future progress and orientation of the youth of
> their own country.
> 
> 20
> 
> Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of
> modesty, purity, temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness,
> involves no less than the exercise of moderation in all
> that pertains to dress, language, amusements, and all artistic
> and literary avocations. It demands daily vigilance in the
> control of one's carnal desires and corrupt inclinations. It
> calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its
> excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures.
> It requires total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks,
> from opium, and from similar habit-forming drugs. It condemns
> the prostitution of art and of literature, the practices
> of nudism and of companionate marriage, infidelity in marital
> relationships, and all manner of promiscuity, of easy familiarity,
> and of sexual vices. It can tolerate no compromise
> with the theories, the standards, the habits, and the excesses
> of a decadent age. Nay rather it seeks to demonstrate,
> through the dynamic force of its example, the pernicious
> character of such theories, the falsity of such standards, the
> hollowness of such claims, the perversity of such habits, and
> the sacrilegious character of such excesses.
> 
> 21
> 
> "By the righteousness of God!" writes Bahá'u'lláh, "The
> world, its vanities and its glory, and whatever delights it can offer,
> 
> are all, in the sight of God, as worthless as, nay even more contemptible
> than, dust and ashes. Would that the hearts of men could
> comprehend it. Wash yourselves thoroughly, O people of Bahá,
> from the defilement of the world, and of all that pertaineth unto it.
> God Himself beareth Me witness! The things of the earth ill beseem
> you. Cast them away unto such as may desire them, and fasten
> your eyes upon this most holy and effulgent Vision." "O ye My
> loved ones!" He thus exhorts His followers, "Suffer not the hem
> of My sacred vesture to be smirched and mired with the things of
> this world, and follow not the promptings of your evil and corrupt
> desires." And again, "O ye the beloved of the one true God! Pass
> beyond the narrow retreats of your evil and corrupt desires, and
> advance into the vast immensity of the realm of God, and abide ye
> in the meads of sanctity and of detachment, that the fragrance of
> your deeds may lead the whole of mankind to the ocean of God's
> unfading glory." "Disencumber yourselves," He thus commands
> them, "of all attachment to this world and the vanities thereof.
> Beware that ye approach them not, inasmuch as they prompt you
> to walk after your own lusts and covetous desires, and hinder you
> from entering the straight and glorious Path." "Eschew all manner
> of wickedness," is His commandment, "for such things are forbidden
> unto you in the Book which none touch except such as God
> hath cleansed from every taint of guilt, and numbered among the
> purified." "A race of men," is His written promise, "incomparable
> in character, shall be raised up which, with the feet of detachment,
> will tread under all who are in heaven and on earth, and
> will cast the sleeve of holiness over all that hath been created from
> water and clay." "The civilization," is His grave warning, "so
> often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if
> allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil
> upon men.... If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific
> a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the
> restraints of moderation." "He hath chosen out of the whole world
> the hearts of His servants," He explains, "and made them each a
> seat for the revelation of His glory. Wherefore, sanctify them from
> every defilement, that the things for which they were created may
> be engraven upon them. This indeed is a token of God's bountiful
> 
> favor." "Say," He proclaims, "He is not to be numbered with the
> people of Bahá who followeth his mundane desires, or fixeth his
> heart on things of the earth. He is My true follower who, if he come
> to a valley of pure gold will pass straight through it aloof as a
> cloud, and will neither turn back, nor pause. Such a man is assuredly
> of Me. From his garment the Concourse on high can inhale
> the fragrance of sanctity.... And if he met the fairest and most
> comely of women, he would not feel his heart seduced by the least
> shadow of desire for her beauty. Such an one indeed is the creation
> of spotless chastity. Thus instructeth you the Pen of the Ancient of
> Days, as bidden by your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful."
> "They that follow their lusts and corrupt inclinations," is yet another
> warning, "have erred and dissipated their efforts. They indeed
> are of the lost." "It behooveth the people of Bahá," He also
> has written, "to die to the world and all that is therein, to be so
> detached from all earthly things that the inmates of Paradise may
> inhale from their garment the sweet smelling savor of sanctity....
> They that have tarnished the fair name of the Cause of God by
> following the things of the flesh--these are in palpable error!"
> "Purity and chastity," He particularly admonishes, "have been,
> and still are, the most great ornaments for the handmaidens of
> God. God is My Witness! The brightness of the light of chastity
> sheddeth its illumination upon the worlds of the spirit, and its fragrance
> is wafted even unto the Most Exalted Paradise." "God," He
> again affirms, "hath verily made chastity to be a crown for the
> heads of His handmaidens. Great is the blessedness of that handmaiden
> that hath attained unto this great station." "We, verily,
> have decreed in Our Book," is His assurance, "a goodly and
> bountiful reward to whosoever will turn away from wickedness,
> and lead a chaste and godly life. He, in truth, is the Great Giver,
> the All-Bountiful." "We have sustained the weight of all calamities,"
> He testifies, "to sanctify you from all earthly corruption and
> ye are yet indifferent.... We, verily, behold your actions. If We
> perceive from them the sweet smelling savor of purity and holiness,
> We will most certainly bless you. Then will the tongues of the
> inmates of Paradise utter your praise and magnify your names
> amidst them who have drawn nigh unto God."
> 
> 22
> 
> "The drinking of wine," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá, "is, according
> to the text of the Most Holy Book, forbidden; for it is the cause
> of chronic diseases, weakeneth the nerves, and consumeth the
> mind." "Drink ye, O handmaidens of God," Bahá'u'lláh Himself
> has affirmed, "the Mystic Wine from the cup of My words. Cast
> away, then, from you that which your minds abhor, for it hath
> been forbidden unto you in His Tablets and His Scriptures. Beware
> lest ye barter away the River that is life indeed for that which the
> souls of the pure-hearted detest. Become ye intoxicated with the
> wine of the love of God, and not with that which deadeneth your
> minds, O ye that adore Him! Verily, it hath been forbidden unto
> every believer, whether man or woman. Thus hath the sun of My
> commandment shone forth above the horizon of My utterance, that
> the handmaidens who believe in Me may be illumined."
> 
> 23
> 
> It must be remembered, however, that the maintenance
> of such a high standard of moral conduct is not to be
> associated or confused with any form of asceticism, or of excessive
> and bigoted puritanism. The standard inculcated by
> Bahá'u'lláh seeks, under no circumstances, to deny anyone
> the legitimate right and privilege to derive the fullest advantage
> and benefit from the manifold joys, beauties, and pleasures
> with which the world has been so plentifully enriched
> by an All-Loving Creator. "Should a man," Bahá'u'lláh Himself
> reassures us, "wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of
> the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can
> bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to
> intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good
> thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of
> His servants as truly believe in Him. Eat ye, O people, of the good
> things which God hath allowed you, and deprive not yourselves
> from His wondrous bounties. Render thanks and praise unto Him,
> and be of them that are truly thankful."
> 
> 24
> 
> As to racial prejudice, the corrosion of which, for well-nigh
> a century, has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the
> whole social structure of American society, it should be regarded
> as constituting the most vital and challenging issue
> confronting the Bahá'í community at the present stage of its
> 
> evolution. The ceaseless exertions which this issue of paramount
> importance calls for, the sacrifices it must impose,
> the care and vigilance it demands, the moral courage and
> fortitude it requires, the tact and sympathy it necessitates,
> invest this problem, which the American believers are still
> far from having satisfactorily resolved, with an urgency and
> importance that cannot be overestimated. White and Negro,
> high and low, young and old, whether newly converted to
> the Faith or not, all who stand identified with it must participate
> in, and lend their assistance, each according to his or
> her capacity, experience, and opportunities, to the common
> task of fulfilling the instructions, realizing the hopes, and
> following the example, of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Whether colored or
> noncolored, neither race has the right, or can conscientiously
> claim, to be regarded as absolved from such an obligation, as
> having realized such hopes, or having faithfully followed
> such an example. A long and thorny road, beset with pitfalls,
> still remains untraveled, both by the white and the Negro
> exponents of the redeeming Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. On the
> distance they cover, and the manner in which they travel
> that road, must depend, to an extent which few among
> them can imagine, the operation of those intangible influences
> which are indispensable to the spiritual triumph of the
> American believers and the material success of their newly
> launched enterprise.
> 
> 25
> 
> Let them call to mind, fearlessly and determinedly, the
> example and conduct of `Abdu'l-Bahá while in their midst.
> Let them remember His courage, His genuine love, His informal
> and indiscriminating fellowship, His contempt for
> and impatience of criticism, tempered by His tact and wisdom.
> Let them revive and perpetuate the memory of those
> unforgettable and historic episodes and occasions on which
> He so strikingly demonstrated His keen sense of justice, His
> spontaneous sympathy for the downtrodden, His ever-abiding
> sense of the oneness of the human race, His overflowing
> love for its members, and His displeasure with
> 
> those who dared to flout His wishes, to deride His methods,
> to challenge His principles, or to nullify His acts.
> 
> 26
> 
> To discriminate against any race, on the ground of its
> being socially backward, politically immature, and numerically
> in a minority, is a flagrant violation of the spirit that
> animates the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. The consciousness of any
> division or cleavage in its ranks is alien to its very purpose,
> principles, and ideals. Once its members have fully recognized
> the claim of its Author, and, by identifying themselves
> with its Administrative Order, accepted unreservedly the
> principles and laws embodied in its teachings, every differentiation
> of class, creed, or color must automatically be obliterated,
> and never be allowed, under any pretext, and however
> great the pressure of events or of public opinion, to
> reassert itself. If any discrimination is at all to be tolerated, it
> should be a discrimination not against, but rather in favor of
> the minority, be it racial or otherwise. Unlike the nations and
> peoples of the earth, be they of the East or of the West, democratic
> or authoritarian, communist or capitalist, whether belonging
> to the Old World or the New, who either ignore,
> trample upon, or extirpate, the racial, religious, or political
> minorities within the sphere of their jurisdiction, every organized
> community enlisted under the banner of Bahá'u'lláh
> should feel it to be its first and inescapable obligation to
> nurture, encourage, and safeguard every minority belonging
> to any faith, race, class, or nation within it. So great and
> vital is this principle that in such circumstances, as when an
> equal number of ballots have been cast in an election, or
> where the qualifications for any office are balanced as between
> the various races, faiths or nationalities within the
> community, priority should unhesitatingly be accorded the
> party representing the minority, and this for no other reason
> except to stimulate and encourage it, and afford it an opportunity
> to further the interests of the community. In the light
> of this principle, and bearing in mind the extreme desirability
> of having the minority elements participate and share responsibility
> 
> in the conduct of Bahá'í activity, it should be
> the duty of every Bahá'í community so to arrange its affairs
> that in cases where individuals belonging to the divers minority
> elements within it are already qualified and fulfill the
> necessary requirements, Bahá'í representative institutions,
> be they Assemblies, conventions, conferences, or committees,
> may have represented on them as many of these divers
> elements, racial or otherwise, as possible. The adoption of
> such a course, and faithful adherence to it, would not only
> be a source of inspiration and encouragement to those elements
> that are numerically small and inadequately represented,
> but would demonstrate to the world at large the universality
> and representative character of the Faith of
> Bahá'u'lláh, and the freedom of His followers from the taint
> of those prejudices which have already wrought such havoc
> in the domestic affairs, as well as the foreign relationships,
> of the nations.
> 
> 27
> 
> Freedom from racial prejudice, in any of its forms,
> should, at such a time as this when an increasingly large section
> of the human race is falling a victim to its devastating
> ferocity, be adopted as the watchword of the entire body of
> the American believers, in whichever state they reside, in
> whatever circles they move, whatever their age, traditions,
> tastes, and habits. It should be consistently demonstrated in
> every phase of their activity and life, whether in the Bahá'í
> community or outside it, in public or in private, formally as
> well as informally, individually as well as in their official capacity
> as organized groups, committees and Assemblies. It
> should be deliberately cultivated through the various and
> everyday opportunities, no matter how insignificant, that
> present themselves, whether in their homes, their business
> offices, their schools and colleges, their social parties and
> recreation grounds, their Bahá'í meetings, conferences, conventions,
> summer schools and Assemblies. It should, above
> all else, become the keynote of the policy of that august
> body which, in its capacity as the national representative,
> and the director and coordinator of the affairs of the community,
> 
> must set the example, and facilitate the application
> of such a vital principle to the lives and activities of those
> whose interests it safeguards and represents.
> 
> 28
> 
> "O ye discerning ones!" Bahá'u'lláh has written, "Verily,
> the words which have descended from the heaven of the Will of
> God are the source of unity and harmony for the world. Close your
> eyes to racial differences, and welcome all with the light of oneness."
> "We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of
> the nations," He proclaims, "...that all nations should become
> one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and
> unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity
> of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled."
> "Bahá'u'lláh hath said," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá, "that the various
> races of humankind lend a composite harmony and beauty of color
> to the whole. Let all associate, therefore, in this great human garden
> even as flowers grow and blend together side by side without
> discord or disagreement between them." "Bahá'u'lláh," `Abdu'l-Bahá
> moreover has said, "once compared the colored people to
> the black pupil of the eye surrounded by the white. In this black
> pupil is seen the reflection of that which is before it, and through it
> the light of the spirit shineth forth."
> 
> 29
> 
> "God," `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself declares, "maketh no distinction
> between the white and the black. If the hearts are pure
> both are acceptable unto Him. God is no respecter of persons on
> account of either color or race. All colors are acceptable unto Him,
> be they white, black, or yellow. Inasmuch as all were created in the
> image of God, we must bring ourselves to realize that all embody
> divine possibilities." "In the estimation of God," He states, "all
> men are equal. There is no distinction or preference for any soul, in
> the realm of His justice and equity." "God did not make these divisions,"
> He affirms; "these divisions have had their origin in man
> himself. Therefore, as they are against the plan and purpose of God
> they are false and imaginary." "In the estimation of God," He
> again affirms, "there is no distinction of color; all are one in the
> color and beauty of servitude to Him. Color is not important; the
> heart is all-important. It mattereth not what the exterior may be if
> the heart is pure and white within. God doth not behold differences
> 
> of hue and complexion. He looketh at the hearts. He whose morals
> and virtues are praiseworthy is preferred in the presence of God; he
> who is devoted to the Kingdom is most beloved. In the realm of
> genesis and creation the question of color is of least importance."
> "Throughout the animal kingdom," He explains, "we do not find
> the creatures separated because of color. They recognize unity of
> species and oneness of kind. If we do not find color distinction
> drawn in a kingdom of lower intelligence and reason, how can it be
> justified among human beings, especially when we know that all
> have come from the same source and belong to the same household?
> In origin and intention of creation mankind is one. Distinctions
> of race and color have arisen afterward." "Man is endowed
> with superior reasoning power and the faculty of perception"; He
> further explains, "he is the manifestation of divine bestowals.
> Shall racial ideas prevail and obscure the creative purpose of unity
> in his kingdom?" "One of the important questions," He significantly
> remarks, "which affect the unity and the solidarity of
> mankind is the fellowship and equality of the white and colored
> races. Between these two races certain points of agreement and
> points of distinction exist which warrant just and mutual consideration.
> The points of contact are many.... In this country, the
> United States of America, patriotism is common to both races; all
> have equal rights to citizenship, speak one language, receive the
> blessings of the same civilization, and follow the precepts of the
> same religion. In fact numerous points of partnership and agreement
> exist between the two races, whereas the one point of distinction
> is that of color. Shall this, the least of all distinctions, be allowed
> to separate you as races and individuals?" "This variety in
> forms and coloring," He stresses, "which is manifest in all the
> kingdoms is according to creative Wisdom and hath a divine purpose."
> "The diversity in the human family," He claims, "should
> be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many
> different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord." "If
> you meet," is His admonition, "those of a different race and color
> from yourself, do not mistrust them, and withdraw yourself into
> your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them
> kindness." "In the world of being," He testifies, "the meeting is
> 
> blessed when the white and colored races meet together with infinite
> spiritual love and heavenly harmony. When such meetings are
> established, and the participants associate with each other with
> perfect love, unity and kindness, the angels of the Kingdom praise
> them, and the Beauty of Bahá'u'lláh addresseth them, `Blessed are
> ye! Blessed are ye!'" "When a gathering of these two races is
> brought about," He likewise asserts, "that assemblage will become
> the magnet of the Concourse on high, and the confirmation of
> the Blessed Beauty will surround it." "Strive earnestly," He again
> exhorts both races, "and put forth your greatest endeavor toward
> the accomplishment of this fellowship and the cementing of this
> bond of brotherhood between you. Such an attainment is not possible
> without will and effort on the part of each; from one, expressions
> of gratitude and appreciation; from the other, kindliness and
> recognition of equality. Each one should endeavor to develop and
> assist the other toward mutual advancement.... Love and unity
> will be fostered between you, thereby bringing about the oneness of
> mankind. For the accomplishment of unity between the colored
> and white will be an assurance of the world's peace." "I hope," He
> thus addresses members of the white race, "that ye may cause
> that downtrodden race to become glorious, and to be joined with
> the white race, to serve the world of man with the utmost sincerity,
> faithfulness, love, and purity. This opposition, enmity, and prejudice
> among the white race and the colored cannot be effaced except
> through faith, assurance, and the teachings of the Blessed Beauty."
> "This question of the union of the white and the black is very important,"
> He warns, "for if it is not realized, erelong great difficulties
> will arise, and harmful results will follow." "If this matter remaineth
> without change," is yet another warning, "enmity will
> be increased day by day, and the final result will be hardship and
> may end in bloodshed."
> 
> 30
> 
> A tremendous effort is required by both races if their
> outlook, their manners, and conduct are to reflect, in this
> darkened age, the spirit and teachings of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
> Casting away once and for all the fallacious doctrine
> of racial superiority, with all its attendant evils, confusion,
> and miseries, and welcoming and encouraging the intermixture
> 
> of races, and tearing down the barriers that now divide
> them, they should each endeavor, day and night, to fulfill
> their particular responsibilities in the common task which so
> urgently faces them. Let them, while each is attempting to
> contribute its share to the solution of this perplexing problem,
> call to mind the warnings of `Abdu'l-Bahá, and visualize,
> while there is yet time, the dire consequences that must
> follow if this challenging and unhappy situation that faces
> the entire American nation is not definitely remedied.
> 
> 31
> 
> Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to
> contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to
> abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious
> sense of superiority, to correct their tendency
> towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members
> of the other race, to persuade them through their intimate,
> spontaneous and informal association with them of
> the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their
> intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness
> on the part of a people who have received, for
> so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds.
> Let the Negroes, through a corresponding effort on their
> part, show by every means in their power the warmth of
> their response, their readiness to forget the past, and their
> ability to wipe out every trace of suspicion that may still linger
> in their hearts and minds. Let neither think that the solution
> of so vast a problem is a matter that exclusively concerns
> the other. Let neither think that such a problem can
> either easily or immediately be resolved. Let neither think
> that they can wait confidently for the solution of this problem
> until the initiative has been taken, and the favorable circumstances
> created, by agencies that stand outside the orbit
> of their Faith. Let neither think that anything short of genuine
> love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact,
> sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent,
> and prayerful effort, can succeed in blotting out the stain
> which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common
> country. Let them rather believe, and be firmly convinced,
> 
> that on their mutual understanding, their amity, and
> sustained cooperation, must depend, more than on any other
> force or organization operating outside the circle of their
> Faith, the deflection of that dangerous course so greatly
> feared by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and the materialization of the
> hopes He cherished for their joint contribution to the fulfillment
> of that country's glorious destiny.
> 
> 32
> 
> Dearly beloved friends! A rectitude of conduct which,
> in all its manifestations, offers a striking contrast to the deceitfulness
> and corruption that characterize the political life
> of the nation and of the parties and factions that compose it;
> a holiness and chastity that are diametrically opposed to the
> moral laxity and licentiousness which defile the character of
> a not inconsiderable proportion of its citizens; an interracial
> fellowship completely purged from the curse of racial prejudice
> which stigmatizes the vast majority of its people--these
> are the weapons which the American believers can and
> must wield in their double crusade, first to regenerate the
> inward life of their own community, and next to assail the
> long-standing evils that have entrenched themselves in the
> life of their nation. The perfection of such weapons, the
> wise and effective utilization of every one of them, more
> than the furtherance of any particular plan, or the devising
> of any special scheme, or the accumulation of any amount
> of material resources, can prepare them for the time when
> the Hand of Destiny will have directed them to assist in creating
> and in bringing into operation that World Order which
> is now incubating within the worldwide administrative institutions
> of their Faith.
> 
> 33
> 
> In the conduct of this twofold crusade the valiant warriors
> struggling in the name and for the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh
> must, of necessity, encounter stiff resistance, and suffer
> many a setback. Their own instincts, no less than the fury of
> conservative forces, the opposition of vested interests, and
> the objections of a corrupt and pleasure-seeking generation,
> must be reckoned with, resolutely resisted, and completely
> overcome. As their defensive measures for the impending
> 
> struggle are organized and extended, storms of abuse and
> ridicule, and campaigns of condemnation and misrepresentation,
> may be unloosed against them. Their Faith, they may
> soon find, has been assaulted, their motives misconstrued,
> their aims defamed, their aspirations derided, their institutions
> scorned, their influence belittled, their authority undermined,
> and their Cause, at times, deserted by a few who
> will either be incapable of appreciating the nature of their
> ideals, or unwilling to bear the brunt of the mounting criticisms
> which such a contest is sure to involve. "Because of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá," the beloved Master has prophesied, "many a
> test will be visited upon you. Troubles will befall you, and suffering
> afflict you."
> 
> 34
> 
> Let not, however, the invincible army of Bahá'u'lláh,
> who in the West, and at one of its potential storm centers is
> to fight, in His name and for His sake, one of its fiercest and
> most glorious battles, be afraid of any criticism that might be
> directed against it. Let it not be deterred by any condemnation
> with which the tongue of the slanderer may seek to
> debase its motives. Let it not recoil before the threatening
> advance of the forces of fanaticism, of orthodoxy, of corruption,
> and of prejudice that may be leagued against it. The
> voice of criticism is a voice that indirectly reinforces the
> proclamation of its Cause. Unpopularity but serves to throw
> into greater relief the contrast between it and its adversaries,
> while ostracism is itself the magnetic power that must eventually
> win over to its camp the most vociferous and inveterate
> amongst its foes. Already in the land where the greatest
> battles of the Faith have been fought, and its most rapacious
> enemies have lived, the march of events, the slow yet steady
> infiltration of its ideals, and the fulfillment of its prophecies,
> have resulted not only in disarming and in transforming the
> character of some of its most redoubtable enemies, but also
> in securing their firm and unreserved allegiance to its
> Founders. So complete a transformation, so startling a reversal
> of attitude, can only be effected if that chosen vehicle
> which is designed to carry the Message of Bahá'u'lláh to the
> 
> hungry, the restless, and unshepherded multitudes is itself
> thoroughly cleansed from the defilements which it seeks to
> remove.
> 
> 35
> 
> It is upon you, therefore, my best-beloved friends, that
> I wish to impress not only the urgency and imperative necessity
> of your holy task, but also the limitless possibilities
> which it possesses of raising to such an exalted level not
> only the life and activities of your own community, but the
> motives and standards that govern the relationships existing
> among the people to which you belong. Undismayed by the
> formidable nature of this task, you will, I am confident,
> meet as befits you the challenge of these times, so fraught
> with peril, so full of corruption, and yet so pregnant with
> the promise of a future so bright that no previous age in the
> annals of mankind can rival its glory.
> 
> Section
> 3, pages 43-72
> 
> "Dearly beloved friends! I have attempted, in the beginning ..."
> 
> 1
> 
> Dearly beloved friends! I have attempted, in the beginning of
> these pages, to convey an idea of the glorious opportunities
> as well as the tremendous responsibilities which, as
> a result of the persecution of the far-flung Faith of Bahá'u'lláh,
> now face the community of the American believers, at
> so critical a stage in the Formative Period of their Faith, and
> in so crucial an epoch in the world's history. I have dwelt
> sufficiently upon the character of the mission which in a not
> too distant future that community must, through the impelling
> force of circumstances, arise and carry out. I have uttered
> the warning which I felt would be necessary to a clearer
> understanding, and a better discharge, of the tasks lying
> ahead of it. I have set forth, and stressed as far as it was in
> my power, those exalted and dynamic virtues, those lofty
> standards, which, difficult as they are to attain, constitute
> nonetheless the essential requirements for the success of
> those tasks. A word, I believe, should now be said in connection
> with the material aspect of their immediate task,
> upon the termination of which, at its appointed time, must
> depend not only the unfoldment of the subsequent stages in
> the Divine Plan envisaged by `Abdu'l-Bahá, but also the acquisition
> 
> of those capacities which will qualify them to discharge,
> in the fullness of time, the duties and responsibilities
> demanded by that greater mission which it is their privilege
> to perform.
> 
> 2
> 
> The Seven Year Plan, with its twofold aspects of Temple
> ornamentation and extension of teaching activity, embracing
> both the Northern and Southern American continents,
> is now well advanced into its second year, and offers
> to anyone who has observed its progress in recent months
> signs that are extremely heartening and which augur well
> for the attainment of its objectives within the allotted time.
> The successive steps designed to facilitate, and covering the
> entire field of, the work to be achieved in connection with
> the exterior ornamentation of the Temple have for the most
> part been taken. The final phase which is to mark the triumphant
> conclusion of a thirty-year old enterprise has at long
> last been entered. The initial contract connected with the
> first and main story of that historic edifice has been signed.
> The Fund associated with the beloved name of the Greatest
> Holy Leaf has been launched. The uninterrupted continuation
> to its very end of so laudable an enterprise is now assured.
> The poignant memories of one whose heart so greatly
> rejoiced at the rearing of the superstructure of this sacred
> House will so energize the final exertions required to complete
> it as to dissipate any doubt that may yet linger in any
> mind as to the capacity of its builders to worthily consummate
> their task.
> 
> 3
> 
> The teaching aspect of the Plan must now be pondered.
> Its challenge must be met, and its requirements studied,
> weighed, and fulfilled. Superb and irresistible as is the
> beauty of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West, majestic
> as are its dimensions, unique as is its architecture, and priceless
> as are the ideals and the aspirations which it symbolizes,
> it should be regarded, at the present time, as no more
> than an instrument for a more effective propagation of the
> Cause and a wider diffusion of its teachings. In this respect
> it should be viewed in the same light as the administrative
> 
> institutions of the Faith which are designed as vehicles for
> the proper dissemination of its ideals, its tenets, and its verities.
> 
> 4
> 
> It is, therefore, to the teaching requirements of the Seven
> Year Plan that the community of the American believers
> must henceforth direct their careful and sustained attention.
> The entire community must, as one man, arise to fulfill
> them. To teach the Cause of God, to proclaim its truths, to
> defend its interests, to demonstrate, by words as well as by
> deeds, its indispensability, its potency, and universality,
> should at no time be regarded as the exclusive concern or
> sole privilege of Bahá'í administrative institutions, be they
> Assemblies, or committees. All must participate, however
> humble their origin, however limited their experience, however
> restricted their means, however deficient their education,
> however pressing their cares and preoccupations, however
> unfavorable the environment in which they live. "God,"
> Bahá'u'lláh, Himself, has unmistakably revealed, "hath prescribed
> unto everyone the duty of teaching His Cause." "Say," He
> further has written, "Teach ye the Cause of God, O people of
> Bahá, for God hath prescribed unto everyone the duty of proclaiming
> His Message, and regardeth it as the most meritorious of all
> deeds."
> 
> 5
> 
> A high and exalted position in the ranks of the community,
> conferring as it does on its holder certain privileges and
> prerogatives, no doubt invests him with a responsibility that
> he cannot honorably shirk in his duty to teach and promote
> the Faith of God. It may, at times, though not invariably,
> create greater opportunities and furnish better facilities to
> spread the knowledge of that Faith, and to win supporters to
> its institutions. It does not, however, under any circumstances,
> necessarily carry with it the power of exercising
> greater influence on the minds and hearts of those to whom
> that Faith is presented. How often--and the early history of
> the Faith in the land of its birth offers many a striking testimony--
> have the lowliest adherents of the Faith, unschooled
> and utterly inexperienced, and with no standing
> 
> whatever, and in some cases devoid of intelligence, been capable
> of winning victories for their Cause, before which the
> most brilliant achievements of the learned, the wise, and the
> experienced have paled.
> 
> 6
> 
> "Peter," `Abdu'l-Bahá has testified, "according to the history
> of the Church, was also incapable of keeping count of the days
> of the week. Whenever he decided to go fishing, he would tie up his
> weekly food into seven parcels, and every day he would eat one of
> them, and when he had reached the seventh, he would know that
> the Sabbath had arrived, and thereupon would observe it." If the
> Son of Man was capable of infusing into apparently so
> crude and helpless an instrument such potency as to cause,
> in the words of Bahá'u'lláh, "the mysteries of wisdom and of
> utterance to flow out of his mouth," and to exalt him above the
> rest of His disciples, and render him fit to become His successor
> and the founder of His Church, how much more can
> the Father, Who is Bahá'u'lláh, empower the most puny and
> insignificant among His followers to achieve, for the execution
> of His purpose, such wonders as would dwarf the
> mightiest achievements of even the first apostle of Jesus
> Christ!
> 
> 7
> 
> "The Báb," `Abdu'l-Bahá, moreover, has written, "hath
> said: `Should a tiny ant desire, in this day, to be possessed of such
> power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest and most bewildering
> passages of the Qur'án, its wish will no doubt be fulfilled, inasmuch
> as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the innermost
> being of all created things.' If so helpless a creature can be
> endowed with so subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious
> must be the power released through the liberal effusions of the
> grace of Bahá'u'lláh!"
> 
> 8
> 
> The field is indeed so immense, the period so critical,
> the Cause so great, the workers so few, the time so short, the
> privilege so priceless, that no follower of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh,
> worthy to bear His name, can afford a moment's
> hesitation. That God-born Force, irresistible in its sweeping
> power, incalculable in its potency, unpredictable in its
> course, mysterious in its workings, and awe-inspiring in its
> 
> manifestations--a Force which, as the Báb has written, "vibrates
> within the innermost being of all created things," and
> which, according to Bahá'u'lláh, has through its "vibrating
> influence," "upset the equilibrium of the world and revolutionized
> its ordered life"--such a Force, acting even as a two-edged
> sword, is, under our very eyes, sundering, on the one hand,
> the age-old ties which for centuries have held together the
> fabric of civilized society, and is unloosing, on the other, the
> bonds that still fetter the infant and as yet unemancipated
> Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. The undreamt-of opportunities offered
> through the operation of this Force--the American believers
> must now rise, and fully and courageously exploit them.
> "The holy realities of the Concourse on high," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá,
> "yearn, in this day, in the Most Exalted Paradise, to return
> unto this world, so that they may be aided to render some service
> to the threshold of the Abhá Beauty, and arise to demonstrate their
> servitude to His sacred Threshold."
> 
> 9
> 
> A world, dimmed by the steadily dying-out light of religion,
> heaving with the explosive forces of a blind and triumphant
> nationalism; scorched with the fires of pitiless persecution,
> whether racial or religious; deluded by the false
> theories and doctrines that threaten to supplant the worship
> of God and the sanctification of His laws; enervated by a
> rampant and brutal materialism; disintegrating through the
> corrosive influence of moral and spiritual decadence; and
> enmeshed in the coils of economic anarchy and strife--such
> is the spectacle presented to men's eyes, as a result of the
> sweeping changes which this revolutionizing Force, as yet in
> the initial stage of its operation, is now producing in the life
> of the entire planet.
> 
> 10
> 
> So sad and moving a spectacle, bewildering as it must
> be to every observer unaware of the purposes, the prophecies,
> and promises of Bahá'u'lláh, far from casting dismay
> into the hearts of His followers, or paralyzing their efforts,
> cannot but deepen their faith, and excite their enthusiastic
> eagerness to arise and display, in the vast field traced for
> them by the pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá, their capacity to play their
> 
> part in the work of universal redemption proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh.
> Every instrument in the administrative machinery
> which, in the course of several years, they have so laboriously
> erected must be fully utilized, and subordinated to the
> end for which it was created. The Temple, that proud embodiment
> of so rare a spirit of self-sacrifice, must likewise be
> made to play its part, and contribute its share to the teaching
> campaign designed to embrace the entire Western Hemisphere.
> 
> 11
> 
> The opportunities which the turmoil of the present age
> presents, with all the sorrows which it evokes, the fears
> which it excites, the disillusionment which it produces, the
> perplexities which it creates, the indignation which it
> arouses, the revolt which it provokes, the grievances it engenders,
> the spirit of restless search which it awakens, must,
> in like manner, be exploited for the purpose of spreading far
> and wide the knowledge of the redemptive power of the
> Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and for enlisting fresh recruits in the
> ever-swelling army of His followers. So precious an opportunity,
> so rare a conjunction of favorable circumstances,
> may never again recur. Now is the time, the appointed time,
> for the American believers, the vanguard of the hosts of the
> Most Great Name, to proclaim, through the agencies and
> channels of a specially designed Administrative Order, their
> capacity and readiness to rescue a fallen and sore-tried generation
> that has rebelled against its God and ignored His
> warnings, and to offer it that complete security which only
> the strongholds of their Faith can provide.
> 
> 12
> 
> The teaching campaign, inaugurated throughout the
> states of the North American Republic and the Dominion of
> Canada, acquires, therefore, an importance, and is invested
> with an urgency, that cannot be overestimated. Launched
> on its course through the creative energies released by the
> Will of `Abdu'l-Bahá, and sweeping across the Western
> Hemisphere through the propelling force which it is generating,
> it must, I feel, be carried out in conformity with certain
> 
> principles, designed to insure its efficient conduct, and
> to hasten the attainment of its objective.
> 
> 13
> 
> Those who participate in such a campaign, whether in
> an organizing capacity, or as workers to whose care the execution
> of the task itself has been committed, must, as an essential
> preliminary to the discharge of their duties, thoroughly
> familiarize themselves with the various aspects of
> the history and teachings of their Faith. In their efforts to
> achieve this purpose they must study for themselves, conscientiously
> and painstakingly, the literature of their Faith,
> delve into its teachings, assimilate its laws and principles,
> ponder its admonitions, tenets and purposes, commit to
> memory certain of its exhortations and prayers, master the
> essentials of its administration, and keep abreast of its current
> affairs and latest developments. They must strive to obtain,
> from sources that are authoritative and unbiased, a
> sound knowledge of the history and tenets of Islám--the
> source and background of their Faith--and approach reverently
> and with a mind purged from preconceived ideas the
> study of the Qur'án which, apart from the sacred scriptures
> of the Bábí and Bahá'í Revelations, constitutes the only Book
> which can be regarded as an absolutely authenticated Repository
> of the Word of God. They must devote special attention
> to the investigation of those institutions and circumstances
> that are directly connected with the origin and birth
> of their Faith, with the station claimed by its Forerunner,
> and with the laws revealed by its Author.
> 
> 14
> 
> Having acquired, in their essentials, these prerequisites
> of success in the teaching field, they must, whenever they
> contemplate undertaking any specific mission in the countries
> of Latin America, endeavor, whenever feasible, to acquire
> a certain proficiency in the languages spoken by the
> inhabitants of those countries, and a knowledge of their customs,
> habits, and outlook. "The teachers going to those parts,"
> `Abdu'l-Bahá, referring in one of the Tablets of the Divine
> Plan to the Central American Republics, has written, "must
> 
> also be familiar with the Spanish language." "A party speaking
> their languages ...," He, in another Tablet, has written,
> "must turn their faces to and travel through the three great Island
> groups of the Pacific Ocean." "The teachers traveling in different
> directions," He further states, "must know the language of the
> country in which they will enter. For example, a person being proficient
> in the Japanese language may travel to Japan, or a person
> knowing the Chinese language may hasten to China, and so forth."
> 
> 15
> 
> No participator in this inter-American campaign of
> teaching must feel that the initiative for any particular activity
> connected with this work must rest solely with those
> agencies, whether Assemblies or committees, whose special
> concern is to promote and facilitate the attainment of this
> vital objective of the Seven Year Plan. It is the bounden duty
> of every American believer, as the faithful trustee of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
> Divine Plan, to initiate, promote, and consolidate,
> within the limits fixed by the administrative principles of
> the Faith, any activity he or she deems fit to undertake for
> the furtherance of the Plan. Neither the threatening world
> situation, nor any consideration of lack of material resources,
> of mental equipment, of knowledge, or of experience--
> desirable as they are--should deter any prospective
> pioneer teacher from arising independently, and from setting
> in motion the forces which, `Abdu'l-Bahá has repeatedly
> assured us, will, once released, attract even as a magnet the
> promised and infallible aid of Bahá'u'lláh. Let him not wait
> for any directions, or expect any special encouragement,
> from the elected representatives of his community, nor be
> deterred by any obstacles which his relatives, or fellow-citizens
> may be inclined to place in his path, nor mind the censure
> of his critics or enemies. "Be unrestrained as the wind," is
> Bahá'u'lláh's counsel to every would-be teacher of His
> Cause, "while carrying the Message of Him Who hath caused the
> dawn of Divine Guidance to break. Consider how the wind, faithful
> to that which God hath ordained, bloweth upon all regions of
> the earth, be they inhabited or desolate. Neither the sight of desolation,
> nor the evidences of prosperity, can either pain or please it. It
> 
> bloweth in every direction, as bidden by its Creator." "And when
> he determineth to leave his home, for the sake of the Cause of his
> Lord," Bahá'u'lláh, in another passage, referring to such a
> teacher, has revealed, "let him put his whole trust in God, as the
> best provision for his journey, and array himself with the robe of
> virtue.... If he be kindled with the fire of His love, if he forgoeth
> all created things, the words he uttereth shall set on fire them that
> hear him."
> 
> 16
> 
> Having on his own initiative, and undaunted by any
> hindrances with which either friend or foe may, unwittingly
> or deliberately, obstruct his path, resolved to arise and respond
> to the call of teaching, let him carefully consider every
> avenue of approach which he might utilize in his personal
> attempts to capture the attention, maintain the
> interest, and deepen the faith, of those whom he seeks to
> bring into the fold of his Faith. Let him survey the possibilities
> which the particular circumstances in which he lives offer
> him, evaluate their advantages, and proceed intelligently
> and systematically to utilize them for the achievement of the
> object he has in mind. Let him also attempt to devise such
> methods as association with clubs, exhibitions, and societies,
> lectures on subjects akin to the teachings and ideals of
> his Cause such as temperance, morality, social welfare, religious
> and racial tolerance, economic cooperation, Islám, and
> Comparative Religion, or participation in social, cultural,
> humanitarian, charitable, and educational organizations
> and enterprises which, while safeguarding the integrity of
> his Faith, will open up to him a multitude of ways and
> means whereby he can enlist successively the sympathy, the
> support, and ultimately the allegiance of those with whom
> he comes in contact. Let him, while such contacts are being
> made, bear in mind the claims which his Faith is constantly
> making upon him to preserve its dignity, and station, to
> safeguard the integrity of its laws and principles, to demonstrate
> its comprehensiveness and universality, and to defend
> fearlessly its manifold and vital interests. Let him consider
> the degree of his hearer's receptivity, and decide for himself
> 
> the suitability of either the direct or indirect method of
> teaching, whereby he can impress upon the seeker the vital
> importance of the Divine Message, and persuade him to
> throw in his lot with those who have already embraced it.
> Let him remember the example set by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and
> His constant admonition to shower such kindness upon the
> seeker, and exemplify to such a degree the spirit of the
> teachings he hopes to instill into him, that the recipient will
> be spontaneously impelled to identify himself with the
> Cause embodying such teachings. Let him refrain, at the
> outset, from insisting on such laws and observances as
> might impose too severe a strain on the seeker's newly
> awakened faith, and endeavor to nurse him, patiently, tactfully,
> and yet determinedly, into full maturity, and aid him
> to proclaim his unqualified acceptance of whatever has been
> ordained by Bahá'u'lláh. Let him, as soon as that stage has
> been attained, introduce him to the body of his fellow-believers,
> and seek, through constant fellowship and active
> participation in the local activities of his community, to enable
> him to contribute his share to the enrichment of its life,
> the furtherance of its tasks, the consolidations of its interests,
> and the coordination of its activities with those of its
> sister communities. Let him not be content until he has infused
> into his spiritual child so deep a longing as to impel
> him to arise independently, in his turn, and devote his energies
> to the quickening of other souls, and the upholding of
> the laws and principles laid down by his newly adopted
> Faith.
> 
> 17
> 
> Let every participator in the continent-wide campaign
> initiated by the American believers, and particularly those
> engaged in pioneer work in virgin territories, bear in mind
> the necessity of keeping in close and constant touch with
> those responsible agencies designed to direct, coordinate,
> and facilitate the teaching activities of the entire community.
> Whether it be the body of their elected national representatives,
> or its chief auxiliary institution, the National
> Teaching Committee, or its subsidiary organs, the regional
> 
> teaching committees, or the local Spiritual Assemblies and
> their respective teaching committees, they who labor for the
> spread of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh should, through constant
> interchange of ideas, through letters, circulars, reports, bulletins
> and other means of communication with these established
> instruments designed for the propagation of the Faith,
> insure the smooth and speedy functioning of the teaching
> machinery of their Administrative Order. Confusion, delay,
> duplication of efforts, dissipation of energy will, thereby, be
> completely avoided, and the mighty flood of the grace of
> Bahá'u'lláh, flowing abundantly and without the least obstruction
> through these essential channels will so inundate
> the hearts and souls of men as to enable them to bring forth
> the harvest repeatedly predicted by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
> 
> 18
> 
> Upon every participator in this concerted effort, unprecedented
> in the annals of the American Bahá'í community,
> rests the spiritual obligation to make of the mandate of
> teaching, so vitally binding upon all, the all-pervading concern
> of his life. In his daily activities and contacts, in all his
> journeys, whether for business or otherwise, on his holidays
> and outings, and on any mission he may be called upon to
> undertake, every bearer of the Message of Bahá'u'lláh
> should consider it not only an obligation but a privilege to
> scatter far and wide the seeds of His Faith, and to rest content
> in the abiding knowledge that whatever be the immediate
> response to that Message, and however inadequate the
> vehicle that conveyed it, the power of its Author will, as He
> sees fit, enable those seeds to germinate, and in circumstances
> which no one can foresee enrich the harvest which
> the labor of His followers will gather. If he be member of
> any Spiritual Assembly let him encourage his Assembly to
> consecrate a certain part of its time, at each of its sessions, to
> the earnest and prayerful consideration of such ways and
> means as may foster the campaign of teaching, or may furnish
> whatever resources are available for its progress, extension,
> and consolidation. If he attends his summer school--
> and everyone without exception is urged to take advantage
> 
> of attending it--let him consider such an occasion as a welcome
> and precious opportunity so to enrich, through lectures,
> study, and discussion, his knowledge of the fundamentals
> of his Faith as to be able to transmit, with greater
> confidence and effectiveness, the Message that has been entrusted
> to his care. Let him, moreover, seek, whenever feasible,
> through intercommunity visits to stimulate the zeal for
> teaching, and to demonstrate to outsiders the zest and alertness
> of the promoters of his Cause and the organic unity of
> its institutions.
> 
> 19
> 
> Let anyone who feels the urge among the participators
> in this crusade, which embraces all the races, all the republics,
> classes and denominations of the entire Western Hemisphere,
> arise, and, circumstances permitting, direct in particular
> the attention, and win eventually the unqualified
> adherence, of the Negro, the Indian, the Eskimo, and Jewish
> races to his Faith. No more laudable and meritorious service
> can be rendered the Cause of God, at the present hour, than
> a successful effort to enhance the diversity of the members
> of the American Bahá'í community by swelling the ranks of
> the Faith through the enrollment of the members of these
> races. A blending of these highly differentiated elements of
> the human race, harmoniously interwoven into the fabric of
> an all-embracing Bahá'í fraternity, and assimilated through
> the dynamic processes of a divinely appointed Administrative
> Order, and contributing each its share to the enrichment
> and glory of Bahá'í community life, is surely an achievement
> the contemplation of which must warm and thrill every
> Bahá'í heart. "Consider the flowers of a garden," `Abdu'l-Bahá
> has written, "though differing in kind, color, form, and
> shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of one
> spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays
> of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm, and addeth unto
> their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and
> plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruits, the branches and the
> trees of that garden were all of the same shape and color! Diversity
> of hues, form and shape, enricheth and adorneth the garden, and
> 
> heighteneth the effect thereof. In like manner, when divers shades
> of thought, temperament and character, are brought together under
> the power and influence of one central agency, the beauty and
> glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest.
> Naught but the celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth
> and transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing
> the divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas, and convictions of
> the children of men." "I hope," is the wish expressed by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
> "that ye may cause that downtrodden race [Negro] to
> become glorious, and to be joined with the white race to serve the
> world of man with the utmost sincerity, faithfulness, love and purity."
> "One of the important questions," He also has written,
> "which affect the unity and the solidarity of mankind is the fellowship
> and equality of the white and colored races." "You must attach
> great importance," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá in the Tablets of
> the Divine Plan, "to the Indians, the original inhabitants of
> America. For these souls may be likened unto the ancient inhabitants
> of the Arabian Peninsula, who, prior to the Revelation of Muhammad,
> were like savages. When the Muhammadan Light shone
> forth in their midst, they became so enkindled that they shed illumination
> upon the world. Likewise, should these Indians be educated
> and properly guided, there can be no doubt that through the
> Divine teachings they will become so enlightened that the whole
> earth will be illumined." "If it is possible," `Abdu'l-Bahá has
> also written, "send ye teachers to other portions of Canada; likewise,
> dispatch ye teachers to Greenland and the home of the Eskimos."
> "God willing," He further has written in those same
> Tablets, "the call of the Kingdom may reach the ears of the Eskimos....
> Should you display an effort, so that the fragrances of God
> may be diffused among the Eskimos, its effect will be very great
> and far-reaching." "Praise be to God," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá,
> "that whatsoever hath been announced in the Blessed Tablets unto
> the Israelites, and the things explicitly written in the letters of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá, are all being fulfilled. Some have come to pass; others
> will be revealed in the future. The Ancient Beauty hath in His sacred
> Tablets explicitly written that the day of their abasement is
> over. His bounty will overshadow them, and this race will day by
> 
> day progress, and be delivered from its age-long obscurity and degradation."
> 
> 20
> 
> Let those who are holding administrative positions in
> their capacity as members of either the National Spiritual
> Assembly, or of the national, the regional, or local teaching
> committees, continually bear in mind the vital and urgent
> necessity of insuring, within as short a time as possible, the
> formation, in the few remaining states of the North American
> Republic and the provinces of the Dominion of Canada,
> of groups, however small and rudimentary, and of providing
> every facility within their power to enable these newly
> formed nuclei to evolve, swiftly and along sound lines, into
> properly functioning, self-sufficient, and recognized Assemblies.
> To the laying of such foundations, the erection of such
> outposts--a work admittedly arduous, yet sorely needed
> and highly inspiring--the individual members of the American
> Bahá'í community must lend their unstinted, continual,
> and enthusiastic support. Wise as may be the measures
> which their elected representatives may devise, however
> practical and well conceived the plans they formulate, such
> measures and plans can never yield any satisfactory results
> unless a sufficient number of pioneers have determined to
> make the necessary sacrifices, and to volunteer to carry
> these projects into effect. To implant, once and for all, the
> banner of Bahá'u'lláh in the heart of these virgin territories,
> to erect the structural basis of His Administrative Order in
> their cities and villages, and to establish a firm and permanent
> anchorage for its institutions in the minds and hearts of
> their inhabitants, constitute, I firmly believe, the first and
> most significant step in the successive stages through which
> the teaching campaign, inaugurated under the Seven Year
> Plan, must pass. Whereas the external ornamentation of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, under this same Plan, has now entered
> the final phase in its development, the teaching campaign is
> still in its initial stages, and is far from having extended effectively
> its ramifications to either these virgin territories, or
> to those Republics that are situated in the South American
> 
> continent. The effort required is prodigious, the conditions
> under which these preliminary establishments are to be
> made are often unattractive and unfavorable, the workers
> who are in a position to undertake such tasks limited, and
> the resources they can command meager and inadequate.
> And yet, how often has the pen of Bahá'u'lláh assured us
> that "should a man, all alone, arise in the name of Bahá, and put
> on the armor of His love, him will the Almighty cause to be victorious,
> though the forces of earth and heaven be arrayed against
> him." Has He not written: "By God, besides Whom is none other
> God! Should anyone arise for the triumph of our Cause, him will
> God render victorious though tens of thousands of enemies be
> leagued against him. And if his love for me wax stronger, God will
> establish his ascendancy over all the powers of earth and heaven."
> "Consider the work of former generations," `Abdu'l-Bahá has
> written; "During the lifetime of Jesus Christ the believing, firm
> souls were few and numbered, but the heavenly blessings descended
> so plentifully that in a number of years countless souls entered beneath
> the shadow of the Gospel. God has said in the Qur'án: `One
> grain will bring forth seven sheaves, and every sheaf shall contain
> one hundred grains.' In other words, one grain will become seven
> hundred; and if God so wills He will double these also. It has often
> happened that one blessed soul has become the cause of the guidance
> of a nation. Now we must not consider our ability and capacity,
> nay rather we must fix our gaze upon the favors and bounties of
> God, in these days, Who has made of the drop a sea, and of the
> atom a sun." Let those who resolve to be the first to hoist the
> standard of such a Cause, under such conditions, and in
> such territories, nourish their souls with the sustaining
> power of these words, and, "putting on the armor of His love,"
> a love which must "wax stronger" as they persevere in their
> lonesome task, arise to adorn with the tale of their deeds the
> most brilliant pages ever written in their country's spiritual
> history.
> 
> 21
> 
> "Although," `Abdu'l-Bahá, in the Tablets of the Divine
> Plan, has written, "in most of the states and cities of the United
> States, praise be to God, His fragrances are diffused, and souls unnumbered
> 
> are turning their faces and advancing toward the Kingdom
> of God, yet in some of the states the Standard of Unity is not
> yet upraised as it should be, nor are the mysteries of the Holy
> Books, such as the Bible, the Gospel, and the Qur'án, unraveled.
> Through the concerted efforts of all the friends the Standard of
> Unity must needs be unfurled in those states, and the Divine
> teachings promoted, so that these states may also receive their portion
> of the heavenly bestowals and a share of the Most Great Guidance."
> "The future of the Dominion of Canada," He, in another
> Tablet of the Divine Plan, has asserted, "is very great, and the
> events connected with it infinitely glorious. The eye of God's loving-kindness
> will be turned towards it, and it shall become the manifestation
> of the favors of the All-Glorious." "Again I repeat," He,
> in that same Tablet reaffirms His previous statement, "that
> the future of Canada, whether from a material or a spiritual standpoint,
> is very great."
> 
> 22
> 
> No sooner is this initial step taken, involving as it does
> the formation of at least one nucleus in each of these virgin
> states and provinces in the North American continent, than
> the machinery for a tremendous intensification of Bahá'í
> concerted effort must be set in motion, the purpose of which
> should be the reinforcement of the noble exertions which
> only a few isolated believers are now making for the awakening
> of the nations of Latin America to the Call of Bahá'u'lláh.
> Not until this second phase of the teaching campaign,
> under the Seven Year Plan, has been entered can the campaign
> be regarded as fully launched, or the Plan itself as
> having attained the most decisive stage in its evolution. So
> powerful will be the effusions of Divine grace that will be
> poured forth upon a valiant community that has already in
> the administrative sphere erected, in all the glory of its exterior
> ornamentation, its chief Edifice, and in the teaching
> field raised aloft, in every state and province, in the North
> American continent the banner of its Faith--so great will be
> these effusions that its members will find themselves overpowered
> by the evidences of their regenerative power.
> 
> 23
> 
> The Inter-America Committee must, at such a stage,
> nay even before it is entered, rise to the level of its opportunities,
> and display a vigor, a consecration, and enterprise as
> will be commensurate with the responsibilities it has shouldered.
> It should not, for a moment, be forgotten that Central
> and Southern America embrace no less than twenty independent
> nations, constituting approximately one-third of
> the entire number of the world's sovereign states, and are
> destined to play an increasingly important part in the shaping
> of the world's future destiny. With the world contracting
> into a neighborhood, and the fortunes of its races, nations
> and peoples becoming inextricably interwoven, the remoteness
> of these states of the Western Hemisphere is vanishing,
> and the latent possibilities in each of them are becoming increasingly
> apparent.
> 
> 24
> 
> When this second stage in the progressive unfoldment
> of teaching activities and enterprises, under the Seven Year
> Plan, is reached, and the machinery required for its prosecution
> begins to operate, the American believers, the stout-hearted
> pioneers of this mighty movement, must, guided by
> the unfailing light of Bahá'u'lláh, and in strict accordance
> with the Plan laid out by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and acting under
> the direction of their National Spiritual Assembly, and assured
> of the aid of the Inter-America Committee, launch an
> offensive against the powers of darkness, of corruption, and
> of ignorance, an offensive that must extend to the uttermost
> end of the Southern continent, and embrace within its scope
> each of the twenty nations that compose it.
> 
> 25
> 
> Let some, at this very moment, gird up the loins of their
> endeavor, flee their native towns, cities, and states, forsake
> their country, and, "putting their whole trust in God as the best
> provision for their journey," set their faces, and direct their
> steps towards those distant climes, those virgin fields, those
> unsurrendered cities, and bend their energies to capture the
> citadels of men's hearts--hearts, which, as Bahá'u'lláh has
> written, "the hosts of Revelation and of utterance can subdue."
> 
> Let them not tarry until such time as their fellow-laborers
> will have passed the first stage in their campaign of teaching,
> but let them rather, from this very hour, arise to usher
> in the opening phase of what will come to be regarded as
> one of the most glorious chapters in the international history
> of their Faith. Let them, at the very outset, "teach their own
> selves, that their speech may attract the hearts of their hearers."
> Let them regard the triumph of their Faith as their "supreme
> objective." Let them not "consider the largeness or smallness of
> the receptacle" that carries the measure of grace that God
> poureth forth in this age. Let them "disencumber themselves of
> all attachment to this world and the vanities thereof," and, with
> that spirit of detachment which `Abdu'l-Bahá exemplified
> and wished them to emulate, bring these diversified peoples
> and countries to the remembrance of God and His supreme
> Manifestation. Let His love be a "storehouse of treasure for
> their souls," on the day when "every pillar shall tremble, when
> the very skins of men shall creep, when all eyes shall stare up with
> terror." Let their "souls be aglow with the flame of the undying
> Fire that burneth in the midmost heart of the world, in such wise
> that the waters of the universe shall be powerless to cool down its
> ardor." Let them be "unrestrained as the wind" which "neither
> the sight of desolation nor the evidences of prosperity can either
> pain or please." Let them "unloose their tongues and proclaim
> unceasingly His Cause." Let them "proclaim that which the Most
> Great Spirit will inspire them to utter in the service of the Cause of
> their Lord." Let them "beware lest they contend with anyone, nay
> strive to make him aware of the truth with kindly manner and
> most convincing exhortation." Let them "wholly for the sake of
> God proclaim His Message, and with that same spirit accept whatever
> response their words may evoke in their hearers." Let them
> not, for one moment, forget that the "Faithful Spirit shall
> strengthen them through its power," and that "a company of His
> chosen angels shall go forth with them, as bidden by Him Who is
> the Almighty, the All-Wise." Let them ever bear in mind "how
> great is the blessedness that awaiteth them that have attained the
> honor of serving the Almighty," and remember that "such a service
> 
> is indeed the prince of all goodly deeds, and the ornament of
> every goodly act."
> 
> 26
> 
> And, finally, let these soul-stirring words of Bahá'u'lláh,
> as they pursue their course throughout the length and
> breadth of the southern American continent, be ever ready
> on their lips, a solace to their hearts, a light on their path, a
> companion in their loneliness, and a daily sustenance in
> their journeys: "O wayfarer in the path of God! Take thou thy
> portion of the ocean of His grace, and deprive not thyself of the
> things that lie hidden in its depths.... A dewdrop out of this ocean
> would, if shed upon all that are in the heavens and on earth, suffice
> to enrich them with the bounty of God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing,
> the All-Wise. With the hands of renunciation draw forth
> from its life-giving waters, and sprinkle therewith all created
> things, that they may be cleansed from all man-made limitations,
> and may approach the mighty seat of God, this hallowed and resplendent
> Spot. Be not grieved if thou performest it thyself alone.
> Let God be all-sufficient for thee.... Proclaim the Cause of thy
> Lord unto all who are in the heavens and on the earth. Should any
> man respond to thy call, lay bare before him the pearls of the wisdom
> of the Lord, thy God, which His Spirit hath sent down upon
> thee, and be thou of them that truly believe. And should anyone
> reject thy offer, turn thou away from him, and put thy trust and
> confidence in the Lord of all worlds. By the righteousness of God!
> Whoso openeth his lips in this day, and maketh mention of the
> name of his Lord, the hosts of Divine inspiration shall descend
> upon him from the heaven of my name, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
> On him shall also descend the Concourse on high, each bearing
> aloft a chalice of pure light. Thus hath it been foreordained in
> the realm of God's Revelation, by the behest of Him Who is the
> All-Glorious, the Most Powerful."
> 
> 27
> 
> Let these words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, gleaned from the
> Tablets of the Divine Plan, ring likewise in their ears, as they
> go forth, assured and unafraid, on His mission: "O ye apostles
> of Bahá'u'lláh! May my life be sacrificed for you!... Behold the
> portals which Bahá'u'lláh hath opened before you! Consider how
> exalted and lofty is the station you are destined to attain; how
> 
> unique the favors with which you have been endowed." "My
> thoughts are turned towards you, and my heart leaps within me at
> your mention. Could ye know how my soul gloweth with your love,
> so great a happiness would flood your hearts as to cause you to
> become enamored with each other." "The full measure of your success
> is as yet unrevealed, its significance still unapprehended. Erelong
> ye will, with your own eyes, witness how brilliantly every one
> of you, even as a shining star, will radiate in the firmament of your
> country the light of Divine Guidance, and will bestow upon its
> people the glory of an everlasting life." "I fervently hope that in
> the near future the whole earth may be stirred and shaken by the
> results of your achievements." "The Almighty will no doubt grant
> you the help of His grace, will invest you with the tokens of His
> might, and will endue your souls with the sustaining power of His
> holy Spirit." "Be not concerned with the smallness of your numbers,
> neither be oppressed by the multitude of an unbelieving
> world.... Exert yourselves; your mission is unspeakably glorious.
> Should success crown your enterprise, America will assuredly
> evolve into a center from which waves of spiritual power will emanate,
> and the throne of the Kingdom of God will, in the plenitude of
> its majesty and glory, be firmly established."
> 
> 28
> 
> It should be remembered that the carrying out of the
> Seven Year Plan involves, insofar as the teaching work is
> concerned, no more than the formation of at least one center
> in each of the Central and South American Republics. The
> hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh
> should witness, if the Plan already launched is to meet
> with success, the laying, in each of these countries, of a
> foundation, however rudimentary, on which the rising generation
> of the American believers may, in the opening years
> of the second century of the Bahá'í era, be able to build.
> Theirs will be the task, in the course of successive decades,
> to extend and reinforce those foundations, and to supply the
> necessary guidance, assistance, and encouragement that will
> enable the widely scattered groups of believers in those
> countries to establish independent and properly constituted
> local Assemblies, and thereby erect the framework of the
> 
> Administrative Order of their Faith. The erection of such a
> framework is primarily the responsibility of those whom the
> community of the North American believers have converted
> to the Divine Message. It is a task which must involve, apart
> from the immediate obligation of enabling every group to
> evolve into a local Assembly, the setting up of the entire machinery
> of the Administrative Order in conformity with the
> spiritual and administrative principles governing the life and
> activities of every established Bahá'í community throughout
> the world. No departure from these cardinal and clearly
> enunciated principles, embodied and preserved in Bahá'í national
> and local constitutions, common to all Bahá'í communities,
> can under any circumstances be tolerated. This, however,
> is a task that concerns those who, at a later period, must
> arise to further a work which, to all intents and purposes, has
> not yet been effectively started.
> 
> 29
> 
> To pave the way, in a more systematic manner, for the
> laying of the necessary foundation on which such permanent
> national and local institutions can be reared and securely
> established is a task that will very soon demand the
> concentrated attention of the prosecutors of the Seven Year
> Plan. No sooner has their immediate obligation in connection
> with the opening up of the few remaining territories in
> the United States and Canada been discharged, than a carefully
> laid-out plan should be conceived, aiming at the establishment
> of such a foundation. As already stated, the provision
> for these vast, preliminary undertakings, the scope of
> which must embrace the entire area occupied by the Central
> and South American Republics, constitutes the very core,
> and must ultimately decide the fate, of the teaching campaign
> conducted under the Seven Year Plan. Upon this campaign
> must depend not only the effectual discharge of the
> solemn obligations undertaken in connection with the present
> Plan, but also the progressive unfoldment of the subsequent
> stages essential to the realization of `Abdu'l-Bahá's vision
> of the part the American believers are to play in the
> worldwide propagation of their Cause.
> 
> 30
> 
> These undertakings, preliminary as they are to the
> strenuous and organized labors by which future generations
> of believers in the Latin countries must distinguish themselves,
> require, in turn, without a moment's delay, on the
> part of the National Spiritual Assembly and of both the National
> Teaching and Inter-America Committees, painstaking
> investigations preparatory to the sending of settlers and itinerant
> teachers, whose privilege will be to raise the call of the
> New Day in a new continent.
> 
> 31
> 
> I can only, in my desire to be of some service to those
> who are to assume such tremendous responsibilities, and to
> suffer such self-denial, attempt to offer a few helpful suggestions
> which, I trust, will facilitate the accomplishment of
> the great work to be achieved in the very near future. To this
> work, that must constitute an historical landmark of first-class
> importance when completed, the energies of the entire
> community must be resolutely consecrated. The number of
> Bahá'í teachers, be they settlers or travelers, must be substantially
> increased. The material resources to be placed at
> their disposal must be multiplied, and efficiently administered.
> The literature with which they should be equipped
> must be vastly augmented. The publicity that should aid
> them in the distribution of such literature should be extended,
> centrally organized, and vigorously conducted. The
> possibilities latent in these countries should be diligently exploited,
> and systematically developed. The various obstacles
> raised by the widely varying political and social conditions
> obtaining in these countries should be closely surveyed and
> determinedly surmounted. In a word, no opportunity
> should be neglected, and no effort spared, to lay as broad
> and solid a basis as possible for the progress and development
> of the greatest teaching enterprise ever launched by
> the American Bahá'í community.
> 
> 32
> 
> The careful translation of such important Bahá'í writings
> as are related to the history, the teachings, or the Administrative
> Order of the Faith, and their wide and systematic
> dissemination, in vast quantities, and throughout as
> 
> many of these Republics as possible, and in languages that
> are most suitable and needed, would appear to be the chief
> and most urgent measure to be taken simultaneously with
> the arrival of the pioneer workers in those fields. "Books and
> pamphlets," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá in one of the Tablets of the
> Divine Plan, "must be either translated or composed in the languages
> of these countries and islands, to be circulated in every part
> and in all directions." In countries where no objections can be
> raised by the civil authorities or any influential circles, this
> measure should be reinforced by the publication, in various
> organs of the Press, of carefully worded articles and letters,
> designed to impress upon the general public certain features
> of the stirring history of the Faith, and the range and character
> of its teachings.
> 
> 33
> 
> Every laborer in those fields, whether as traveling
> teacher or settler, should, I feel, make it his chief and constant
> concern to mix, in a friendly manner, with all sections
> of the population, irrespective of class, creed, nationality, or
> color, to familiarize himself with their ideas, tastes, and habits,
> to study the approach best suited to them, to concentrate,
> patiently and tactfully, on a few who have shown
> marked capacity and receptivity, and to endeavor, with extreme
> kindness, to implant such love, zeal, and devotion in
> their hearts as to enable them to become in turn self-sufficient
> and independent promoters of the Faith in their respective
> localities. "Consort with all men, O people of Bahá," is
> Bahá'u'lláh's admonition, "in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.
> If ye be aware of a certain truth, if ye possess a jewel, of
> which others are deprived, share it with them in a language of
> utmost kindliness and goodwill. If it be accepted, if it fulfill its
> purpose, your object is attained. If anyone should refuse it, leave
> him unto himself, and beseech God to guide him. Beware lest ye
> deal unkindly with him. A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the
> hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words
> with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding."
> 
> 34
> 
> An effort, moreover, can and should be made, not only
> 
> by representative Bahá'í bodies, but also by prospective
> teachers, as well as by other individual believers, deprived
> of the privilege of visiting those shores or of settling on that
> continent, to seize every opportunity that presents itself to
> make the acquaintance, and awaken the genuine interest, of
> such people who are either citizens of these countries, or are
> in any way connected with them, whatever be their interests
> or profession. Through the kindness shown them, or any literature
> which may be given them, or any connection which
> they may establish with them, the American believers can
> thereby sow such seeds in their hearts as might, in future
> circumstances, germinate and yield the most unexpected results.
> Care, however, should, at all times, be exercised, lest
> in their eagerness to further the international interests of the
> Faith they frustrate their purpose, and turn away, through
> any act that might be misconstrued as an attempt to proselytize
> and bring undue pressure upon them, those whom they
> wish to win over to their Cause.
> 
> 35
> 
> I would particularly direct my appeal to those American
> believers, sore-pressed as they are by the manifold, the
> urgent, and ever-increasing issues that confront them at the
> present hour, who may find it possible, whatever be their
> calling or employment, whether as businessmen, school
> teachers, lawyers, doctors, writers, office workers, and the
> like, to establish permanently their residence in such countries
> as may offer them a reasonable prospect of earning the
> means of livelihood. They will by their action be relieving
> the continually increasing pressure on their Teaching Fund,
> which in view of its restricted dimensions must provide,
> when not otherwise available, the traveling and other expenses
> to be incurred in connection with the development
> of this vast undertaking. Should they find it impossible to
> take advantage of so rare and sacred a privilege, let them,
> mindful of the words of Bahá'u'lláh, determine, each according
> to the means at his or her disposal, to appoint a deputy
> who, on that believer's behalf, will arise and carry out so
> noble an enterprise. "Center your energies," are Bahá'u'lláh's
> 
> words, "in the propagation of the Faith of God. Whoso is worthy
> of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable,
> it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this
> Revelation, whose power hath caused the foundations of the
> mightiest structures to quake, every mountain to be crushed into
> dust, and every soul to be dumbfounded."
> 
> 36
> 
> As to those who have been able to leave their homes
> and country, and to serve in those regions, whether temporarily
> or permanently, a special duty, which must continually
> be borne in mind, devolves upon them. It should be one of
> their chief aims to keep, on the one hand, in constant touch
> with the National Committee specifically entrusted with the
> promotion of their work, and to cooperate, on the other, by
> every possible means and in the utmost harmony, with their
> fellow-believers in those countries, whatever the field in
> which they labor, whatever their standing, ability, or experience.
> Through the performance of their first duty they will
> derive the necessary stimulus and obtain the necessary
> guidance that will enable them to prosecute effectively their
> mission, and will also, through their regular reports to that
> committee, be imparting to the general body of their fellow-believers
> the news of the latest developments in their activities.
> By fulfilling their other duty, they will insure the
> smooth efficiency, facilitate the progress, and avert any untoward
> incidents that might handicap the development of
> their common enterprise. The maintenance of close contact
> and harmonious relationships between the Inter-America
> Committee, entrusted with the immediate responsibility of
> organizing such a far-reaching enterprise, and the privileged
> pioneers who are actually executing that enterprise, and extending
> its ramifications far and wide, as well as among
> these pioneers themselves, would set, apart from its immediate
> advantages, a worthy and inspiring example to generations
> still yet to be born who are to carry on, with all its
> increasing complexities, the work which is being initiated at
> present.
> 
> 37
> 
> It would, no doubt, be of exceptional importance and
> 
> value, particularly in these times when the various restrictions
> imposed in those countries make it difficult for a considerable
> number of Bahá'í pioneers to establish their residence
> and earn their livelihood in those states, if certain
> ones among the believers, whose income, however slender,
> provides them with the means of an independent existence,
> would so arrange their affairs as to be able to reside indefinitely
> in those countries. The sacrifices involved, the courage,
> faith, and perseverance it demands, are no doubt very
> great. Their value, however, can never be properly assessed
> at the present time, and the limitless reward which they
> who demonstrate them will receive can never be adequately
> depicted. "They that have forsaken their country," is Bahá'u'lláh's
> own testimony, "for the purpose of teaching Our Cause--
> these shall the Faithful Spirit strengthen through its power.... By
> My life! No act, however great, can compare with it, except such
> deeds as have been ordained by God, the All-Powerful, the Most
> Mighty. Such a service is indeed the prince of all goodly deeds, and
> the ornament of every goodly act." Such a reward, it should be
> noted, is not to be regarded as purely an abstract blessing
> confined to the future life, but also as a tangible benefit
> which such courage, faith and perseverance can alone confer
> in this material world. The solid achievements, spiritual
> as well as administrative, which in the far-away continent
> of Australasia, and more recently in Bulgaria, representative
> believers from both Canada and the United States have accomplished,
> proclaim in terms unmistakable the nature of
> those prizes which, even in this world, such sterling heroism
> is bound to win. "Whoso," Bahá'u'lláh, in a memorable passage,
> extolling those of His loved ones who have "journeyed
> through the countries in His Name and for His praise," has written,
> "hath attained their presence will glory in their meeting, and
> all that dwell in every land will be illumined by their memory."
> 
> 38
> 
> I am moved, at this juncture, as I am reminded of the
> share which, ever since the inception of the Faith in the
> West, the handmaidens of Bahá'u'lláh, as distinguished
> from the men, have had in opening up, single-handed, so
> 
> many, such diversified, and widely scattered countries over
> the whole surface of the globe, not only to pay a tribute to
> such apostolic fervor as is truly reminiscent of those heroic
> men who were responsible for the birth of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh,
> but also to stress the significance of such a preponderating
> share which the women of the West have had
> and are having in the establishment of His Faith throughout
> the whole world. "Among the miracles," `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself
> has testified, "which distinguish this sacred Dispensation is
> this, that women have evinced a greater boldness than men when
> enlisted in the ranks of the Faith." So great and splendid a testimony
> applies in particular to the West, and though it has
> received thus far abundant and convincing confirmation
> must, as the years roll away, be further reinforced, as the
> American believers usher in the most glorious phase of their
> teaching activities under the Seven Year Plan. The "boldness"
> which, in the words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, has characterized
> their accomplishments in the past must suffer no
> eclipse as they stand on the threshold of still greater and nobler
> accomplishments. Nay rather, it must, in the course of
> time and throughout the length and breadth of the vast and
> virgin territories of Latin America, be more convincingly
> demonstrated, and win for the beloved Cause victories more
> stirring than any it has as yet achieved.
> 
> 39
> 
> To the Bahá'í youth of America, moreover, I feel a
> word should be addressed in particular, as I survey the possibilities
> which a campaign of such gigantic proportions has
> to offer to the eager and enterprising spirit that so powerfully
> animates them in the service of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
> Though lacking in experience and faced with insufficient resources,
> yet the adventurous spirit which they possess, and
> the vigor, the alertness, and optimism they have thus far so
> consistently shown, qualify them to play an active part in
> arousing the interest, and in securing the allegiance, of their
> fellow youth in those countries. No greater demonstration
> can be given to the peoples of both continents of the youthful
> vitality and the vibrant power animating the life, and the
> 
> institutions of the nascent Faith of Bahá'u'lláh than an intelligent,
> persistent, and effective participation of the Bahá'í
> youth, of every race, nationality, and class, in both the
> teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá'í activity.
> Through such a participation the critics and enemies of the
> Faith, watching with varying degrees of skepticism and resentment,
> the evolutionary processes of the Cause of God
> and its institutions, can best be convinced of the indubitable
> truth that such a Cause is intensely alive, is sound to its very
> core, and its destinies in safe keeping. I hope, and indeed
> pray, that such a participation may not only redound to the
> glory, the power, and the prestige of the Faith, but may also
> react so powerfully on the spiritual lives, and galvanize to
> such an extent the energies of the youthful members of the
> Bahá'í community, as to empower them to display, in a
> fuller measure, their inherent capacities, and to unfold a further
> stage in their spiritual evolution under the shadow of
> the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 40
> 
> Faithful to the provisions of the Charter laid down by
> the pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá, I feel it my duty to draw the special
> attention of those to whom it has been entrusted to the urgent
> needs of, and the special position enjoyed by, the Republic
> of Panama, both in view of its relative proximity to
> the heart and center of the Faith in North America, and of
> its geographical position as the link between two continents.
> "All the above countries," `Abdu'l-Bahá, referring to the Latin
> States in one of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, has written,
> "have importance, but especially the Republic of Panama, wherein
> the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans come together through the Panama
> Canal. It is a center for travel and passage from America to
> other continents of the world, and in the future it will gain most
> great importance." "Likewise," He again has written, "ye must
> give great attention to the Republic of Panama, for in that point
> the Occident and the Orient find each other united through the
> Panama Canal, and it is also situated between the two great
> oceans. That place will become very important in the future. The
> teachings, once established there, will unite the East and the West,
> 
> the North and the South." So privileged a position surely demands
> the special and prompt attention of the American
> Bahá'í community. With the Republic of Mexico already
> opened up to the Faith, and with a Spiritual Assembly properly
> constituted in its capital city, the southward penetration
> of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh into a neighboring country is but
> a natural and logical step, and should, it is to be hoped,
> prove to be not a difficult one. No efforts should be spared,
> and no sacrifice be deemed too great, to establish even
> though it be a very small group in a Republic occupying,
> both spiritually and geographically, so strategic a position--
> a group which, in view of the potency with which the words
> of `Abdu'l-Bahá have already endowed it, cannot but draw
> to itself, as soon as it is formed, the outpouring grace of the
> Abhá Kingdom, and evolve with such marvelous swiftness
> as to excite the wonder and the admiration of even those
> who have already witnessed such stirring evidences of the
> force and power of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Preference, no
> doubt, should be given by all would-be pioneers, as well as
> by the members of the Inter-America Committee, to the
> spiritual needs of this privileged Republic, though every effort
> should, at the same time, be exerted to introduce the
> Faith, however tentatively, to the Republics of Guatemala,
> Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica which
> would link it, in an unbroken chain, with its mother Assemblies
> in the North American continent. Obstacles, however
> formidable, should be surmounted, the resources of the
> Bahá'í treasury should be liberally expended on its behalf,
> and the ablest and most precious exertions should be consecrated
> to the cause of its awakening. The erection of yet another
> outpost of the Faith, in its heart, will constitute, I firmly
> believe, a landmark in the history of the Formative Period of
> the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the New World. It will create limitless
> opportunities, galvanize the efforts, and reinvigorate
> the life, of those who will have accomplished this feat, and
> infuse immense courage and boundless joy into the hearts
> of the isolated groups and individuals in the neighboring
> 
> and distant Republics, and exert intangible yet powerful
> spiritual influences on the life and future development of its
> people.
> 
> Section
> 4, pages 72-85
> 
> "Such, dearly beloved friends, is the vista that stretches ..."
> 
> 1
> 
> Such, dearly beloved friends, is the vista that stretches
> before the eyes, and challenges the resources, of the American
> Bahá'í community in these, the concluding years of the
> First Century of the Bahá'í Era. Such are the qualities and
> qualifications demanded of them for the proper discharge of
> their responsibilities and duties. Such are the requirements,
> the possibilities, and the objectives of the Plan that claims
> every ounce of their energy. Who knows but that these few
> remaining, fast-fleeting years, may not be pregnant with
> events of unimaginable magnitude, with ordeals more severe
> than any that humanity has as yet experienced, with
> conflicts more devastating than any which have preceded
> them. Dangers, however sinister, must, at no time, dim the
> radiance of their new-born faith. Strife and confusion, however
> bewildering, must never befog their vision. Tribulations,
> however afflictive, must never shatter their resolve.
> Denunciations, however clamorous, must never sap their
> loyalty. Upheavals, however cataclysmic, must never deflect
> their course. The present Plan, embodying the budding
> hopes of a departed Master, must be pursued, relentlessly
> pursued, whatever may befall them in the future, however
> distracting the crises that may agitate their country or the
> world. Far from yielding in their resolve, far from growing
> oblivious of their task, they should, at no time, however
> much buffeted by circumstances, forget that the synchronization
> of such world-shaking crises with the progressive unfoldment
> and fruition of their divinely appointed task is itself
> the work of Providence, the design of an inscrutable
> Wisdom, and the purpose of an all-compelling Will, a Will
> that directs and controls, in its own mysterious way, both
> the fortunes of the Faith and the destinies of men. Such simultaneous
> processes of rise and of fall, of integration and
> of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous
> 
> and reciprocal reactions on each other, are but aspects of a
> greater Plan, one and indivisible, whose Source is God,
> whose author is Bahá'u'lláh, the theater of whose operations
> is the entire planet, and whose ultimate objectives are
> the unity of the human race and the peace of all mankind.
> 
> 2
> 
> Reflections such as these should steel the resolve of the
> entire Bahá'í community, should dissipate their forebodings,
> and arouse them to rededicate themselves to every single
> provision of that Divine Charter whose outline has been delineated
> for them by the pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá. The Seven
> Year Plan, as already stated, is but the initial stage, a stepping-stone
> to the unfoldment of the implications of this
> Charter. The impulse, originally generated through the
> movement of that pen, and which is now driving forward,
> with increasing momentum, the machinery of the Seven
> Year Plan, must, in the opening years of the next century, be
> further accelerated, and impel the American Bahá'í community
> to launch further stages in the unfoldment of the Divine
> Plan, stages that will carry it far beyond the shores of the
> Northern Hemisphere, into lands and among peoples where
> that community's noblest acts of heroism are to be performed.
> 
> 3
> 
> Let anyone inclined to doubt the course which this enviable
> community is destined to follow, turn to and meditate
> upon these words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, enshrined, for all time,
> in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, and addressed to the entire
> community of the believers of the United States and Canada:
> "The full measure of your success," He informs them, "is as
> yet unrevealed, its significance still unapprehended. Erelong, ye
> will, with your own eyes, witness how brilliantly every one of you,
> even as a shining star, will radiate, in the firmament of your country,
> the light of Divine Guidance, and will bestow upon its people
> the glory of an everlasting life.... The range of your future
> achievements still remains undisclosed. I fervently hope that in the
> near future the whole earth may be stirred and shaken by the results
> of your achievements. The hope, therefore, which `Abdu'l-Bahá
> cherishes for you is that the same success which has attended
> 
> your efforts in America may crown your endeavors in other parts of
> the world, that through you the fame of the Cause of God may be
> diffused throughout the East and the West, and the advent of the
> Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts be proclaimed in all the five continents
> of the globe." "The moment," He most significantly adds,
> "this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers
> from the shores of America, and is propagated throughout the continents
> of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, and of Australasia, and as far
> as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself securely
> established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion. Then will
> all the peoples of the world witness that this community is spiritually
> illumined and divinely guided. Then will the whole earth
> resound with the praises of its majesty and greatness."
> 
> 4
> 
> No reader of these words, so vibrant with promises
> that not even the triumphant consummation of the Seven
> Year Plan can fulfill, can expect a community that has been
> raised so high, and endowed so richly, to remain content
> with any laurels it may win in the immediate future. To rest
> upon such laurels would indeed be tantamount to a betrayal
> of the trust placed in that community by `Abdu'l-Bahá. To
> cut short the chain of victories that must lead it on to that
> supreme triumph when "the whole earth may be stirred and
> shaken" by the results of its achievements would shatter His
> hopes. To vacillate, and fail to "propagate through the continents
> of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, and of Australasia, and as far as
> the islands of the Pacific" a Message so magnificently proclaimed
> by it in the American continent would deprive it of
> the privilege of being "securely established upon the throne of
> an everlasting dominion." To forfeit the honor of proclaiming
> "the advent of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts" in "all the five
> continents of the globe" would silence those "praises of its majesty
> and greatness" that otherwise would echo throughout
> "the whole earth."
> 
> 5
> 
> Such vacillation, failure, or neglect, the American believers,
> the ambassadors of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, will, I
> am firmly convinced, never permit. Such a trust will never
> be betrayed, such hopes can never be shattered, such a privilege
> 
> will never be forfeited, nor will such praises remain
> unuttered. Nay rather the present generation of this blessed,
> this repeatedly blessed, community will go from strength to
> strength, and will hand on, as the first century draws to a
> close, to the generations that must succeed it in the second
> the torch of Divine Guidance, undimmed by the tempestuous
> winds that must blow upon it, that they in turn, faithful
> to the wish and mandate of `Abdu'l-Bahá, may carry that
> torch, with that self-same vigor, fidelity, and enthusiasm, to
> the darkest and remotest corners of the earth.
> 
> 6
> 
> Dearly beloved friends! I can do no better, eager as I am
> to extend to every one of you any assistance in my power
> that may enable you to discharge more effectively your divinely
> appointed, continually multiplying duties, than to direct
> your special attention, at this decisive hour, to these immortal
> passages, gleaned in part from the great mass of
> Bahá'u'lláh's unpublished and untranslated writings.
> Whether in His revelation of the station and functions of His
> loved ones, or His eulogies of the greatness of His Cause, or
> His emphasis on the paramount importance of teaching, or
> the dangers which He foreshadows, the counsels He imparts,
> the warnings He utters, the vistas He discloses, and
> the assurances and promises He gives, these dynamic and
> typical examples of Bahá'u'lláh's sublime utterance, each
> having a direct bearing on the tasks which actually face or
> lie ahead of the American Bahá'í community, cannot fail to
> produce on the minds and hearts of any one of its members,
> who approaches them with befitting humility and detachment,
> such powerful reactions as to illuminate his entire being
> and intensify tremendously his daily exertions.
> 
> 7
> 
> "O friends! Be not careless of the virtues with which ye have
> been endowed, neither be neglectful of your high destiny.... Ye
> are the stars of the heaven of understanding, the breeze that stirreth
> at the break of day, the soft-flowing waters upon which must
> depend the very life of all men, the letters inscribed upon His sacred
> scroll." "O people of Bahá! Ye are the breezes of spring that
> are wafted over the world. Through you We have adorned the
> 
> world of being with the ornament of the knowledge of the Most
> Merciful. Through you the countenance of the world hath been
> wreathed in smiles, and the brightness of His light shone forth.
> Cling ye to the Cord of steadfastness, in such wise that all vain
> imaginings may utterly vanish. Speed ye forth from the horizon of
> power, in the name of your Lord, the Unconstrained, and announce
> unto His servants, with wisdom and eloquence, the tidings of this
> Cause, whose splendor hath been shed upon the world of being.
> Beware lest anything withhold you from observing the things prescribed
> unto you by the Pen of Glory, as it moved over His Tablet
> with sovereign majesty and might. Great is the blessedness of him
> that hath hearkened to its shrill voice, as it was raised, through the
> power of truth, before all who are in heaven and all who are on
> earth.... O people of Bahá! The river that is Life indeed hath
> flowed for your sakes. Quaff ye in My name, despite them that
> have disbelieved in God, the Lord of Revelation. We have made
> you to be the hands of Our Cause. Render ye victorious this
> Wronged One, Who hath been sore-tried in the hands of the workers
> of iniquity. He, verily, will aid everyone that aideth Him, and
> will remember everyone that remembereth Him. To this beareth
> witness this Tablet that hath shed the splendor of the loving-kindness
> of your Lord, the All-Glorious, the All-Compelling." "Blessed
> are the people of Bahá! God beareth Me witness! They are the solace
> of the eye of creation. Through them the universes have been
> adorned, and the Preserved Tablet embellished. They are the ones
> who have sailed on the ark of complete independence, with their
> faces set towards the Dayspring of Beauty. How great is their
> blessedness that they have attained unto what their Lord, the Omniscient,
> the All-Wise, hath willed. Through their light the heavens
> have been adorned, and the faces of those that have drawn
> nigh unto Him made to shine." "By the sorrows which afflict the
> beauty of the All-Glorious! Such is the station ordained for the true
> believer that if to an extent smaller than a needle's eye the glory of
> that station were to be unveiled to mankind, every beholder would
> be consumed away in his longing to attain it. For this reason it
> hath been decreed that in this earthly life the full measure of the
> glory of his own station should remain concealed from the eyes of
> 
> such a believer." "If the veil be lifted, and the full glory of the
> station of those who have turned wholly towards God, and in their
> love for Him renounced the world, be made manifest, the entire
> creation would be dumbfounded."
> 
> 8
> 
> "Verily I say! No one hath apprehended the root of this
> Cause. It is incumbent upon everyone, in this day, to perceive with
> the eye of God, and to hearken with His ear. Whoso beholdeth Me
> with an eye besides Mine own will never be able to know Me.
> None among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed degree,
> hath ever completely apprehended the nature of this Revelation."
> "I testify before God to the greatness, the inconceivable
> greatness of this Revelation. Again and again have We, in most of
> Our Tablets, borne witness to this truth, that mankind may be
> roused from its heedlessness." "How great is the Cause, how staggering
> the weight of its Message!" "In this most mighty Revelation
> all the Dispensations of the past have attained their highest, their
> final consummation." "That which hath been made manifest in
> this preeminent, this most exalted Revelation, stands unparalleled
> in the annals of the past, nor will future ages witness its like."
> "The purpose underlying all creation is the revelation of this most
> sublime, this most holy Day, the Day known as the Day of God, in
> His Books and Scriptures--the Day which all the Prophets, and
> the Chosen Ones, and the holy ones, have wished to witness."
> "The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever
> the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this
> most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the
> Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God." "This is the
> Day in which God's most excellent favors have been poured out
> upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused
> into all created things." "This is the Day whereon the Ocean
> of God's mercy hath been manifested unto men, the Day in which
> the Daystar of His loving-kindness hath shed its radiance upon
> them, the Day in which the clouds of His bountiful favor have
> overshadowed the whole of mankind." "By the righteousness of
> Mine own Self! Great, immeasurably great is this Cause! Mighty,
> inconceivably mighty is this Day!" "Every Prophet hath announced
> the coming of this Day, and every Messenger hath
> 
> groaned in His yearning for this Revelation--a revelation which,
> no sooner had it been revealed than all created things cried out
> saying, `The earth is God's, the Most Exalted, the Most Great!'"
> "The Day of the Promise is come, and He Who is the Promised One
> loudly proclaimeth before all who are in heaven and all who are on
> earth, `Verily there is none other God but He, the Help in Peril, the
> Self-Subsisting!' I swear by God! That which had been enshrined
> from eternity in the knowledge of God, the Knower of the seen and
> unseen, is revealed. Happy is the eye that seeth, and the face that
> turneth towards, the Countenance of God, the Lord of all being."
> "Great indeed is this Day! The allusions made to it in all the sacred
> Scriptures as the Day of God attest its greatness. The soul of every
> Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted for this
> wondrous Day. All the divers kindreds of the earth have, likewise,
> yearned to attain it." "This Day a door is open wider than both
> heaven and earth. The eye of the mercy of Him Who is the Desire
> of the worlds is turned towards all men. An act, however infinitesimal,
> is, when viewed in the mirror of the knowledge of God, mightier
> than a mountain. Every drop proffered in His path is as the sea
> in that mirror. For this is the Day which the one true God, glorified
> be He, hath announced in all His Books, unto His Prophets and
> His Messengers." "This is a Revelation, under which, if a man
> shed for its sake one drop of blood, myriads of oceans will be his
> recompense." "A fleeting moment, in this Day, excelleth centuries
> of a bygone age.... Neither sun nor moon hath witnessed a day
> such as this Day." "This is the Day whereon the unseen world
> crieth out, `Great is thy blessedness, O earth, for thou hast been
> made the footstool of thy God, and been chosen as the seat of His
> mighty throne.'" "The world of being shineth, in this Day, with
> the resplendency of this Divine Revelation. All created things extol
> its saving grace, and sing its praises. The universe is wrapt in an
> ecstasy of joy and gladness. The Scriptures of past Dispensations
> celebrate the great Jubilee that must needs greet this most great
> Day of God. Well is it with him that hath lived to see this Day, and
> hath recognized its station." "This Day a different Sun hath arisen,
> and a different Heaven hath been adorned with its stars and its
> planets. The world is another world, and the Cause another
> 
> Cause." "This is the Day which past ages and centuries can never
> rival. Know this, and be not of the ignorant." "This is the Day
> whereon human ears have been privileged to hear what He Who
> conversed with God [Moses] heard upon Sinai, what He Who is
> the Friend of God [Muhammad] heard when lifted up towards
> Him, what He Who is the Spirit of God [Jesus] heard as He ascended
> unto Him, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting." "This
> Day is God's Day, and this Cause His Cause. Happy is he who
> hath renounced this world, and clung to Him Who is the Dayspring
> of God's Revelation." "This is the King of Days, the Day
> that hath seen the coming of the Best Beloved, He Who through all
> eternity hath been acclaimed the Desire of the World." "This is the
> Chief of all days and the King thereof. Great is the blessedness of
> him who hath attained, through the sweet savor of these days,
> unto everlasting life, and who, with the most great steadfastness,
> hath arisen to aid the Cause of Him Who is the King of Names.
> Such a man is as the eye to the body of mankind." "Peerless is this
> Day, for it is as the eye to past ages and centuries, and as a light
> unto the darkness of the times." "This Day is different from other
> days, and this Cause different from other causes. Entreat ye the
> one true God that He may deprive not the eyes of men from beholding
> His signs, nor their ears from hearkening unto the shrill
> voice of the Pen of Glory." "These days are God's days, a moment
> of which ages and centuries can never rival. An atom, in these
> days, is as the sun, a drop as the ocean. One single breath exhaled
> in the love of God and for His service is written down by the Pen
> of Glory as a princely deed. Were the virtues of this Day to be recounted,
> all would be thunderstruck, except those whom thy Lord
> hath exempted." "By the righteousness of God! These are the days
> in which God hath proved the hearts of the entire company of His
> Messengers and Prophets, and beyond them those that stand guard
> over His sacred and inviolable Sanctuary, the inmates of the celestial
> Pavilion and dwellers of the Tabernacle of Glory." "Should the
> greatness of this Day be revealed in its fulness, every man would
> forsake a myriad lives in his longing to partake, though it be for
> one moment, of its great glory--how much more this world and its
> corruptible treasures!" "God the true One is My Witness! This is
> 
> the Day whereon it is incumbent upon everyone that seeth to behold,
> and every ear that hearkeneth to hear, and every heart that
> understandeth to perceive, and every tongue that speaketh to proclaim
> unto all who are in heaven and on earth, this holy, this exalted,
> and all-highest Name." "Say, O men! This is a matchless
> Day. Matchless must, likewise, be the tongue that celebrateth the
> praise of the Desire of all nations, and matchless the deed that
> aspireth to be acceptable in His sight. The whole human race hath
> longed for this Day, that perchance it may fulfill that which well
> beseemeth its station and is worthy of its destiny."
> 
> 9
> 
> "Through the movement of Our Pen of Glory We have, at the
> bidding of the Omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every
> human frame, and instilled into every word a fresh potency. All
> created things proclaim the evidences of this worldwide regeneration."
> "O people! I swear by the one true God! This is the Ocean
> out of which all Seas have proceeded, and with which every one of
> them will ultimately be united. From Him all the Suns have been
> generated, and unto Him they will all return. Through His potency
> the Trees of Divine Revelation have yielded their fruits, every one
> of which hath been sent down in the form of a Prophet, bearing a
> Message to God's creatures in each of the worlds whose number
> God, alone, in His all-encompassing knowledge, can reckon. This
> He hath accomplished through the agency of but one Letter of His
> Word, revealed by His Pen--a Pen moved by His directing Finger
> --His Finger itself sustained by the power of God's Truth." "By
> the righteousness of the one true God! If one speck of a jewel be lost
> and buried beneath a mountain of stones, and lie hidden beyond
> the seven seas, the Hand of Omnipotence would assuredly reveal it
> in this Day, pure and cleansed from dross." "Every single letter
> proceeding from Our mouth is endowed with such regenerative
> power as to enable it to bring into existence a new creation--a creation
> the magnitude of which is inscrutable to all save God. He
> verily hath knowledge of all things." "It is in Our power, should
> We wish it, to enable a speck of floating dust to generate, in less
> than the twinkling of an eye, suns of infinite, of unimaginable
> splendor, to cause a dewdrop to develop into vast and numberless
> oceans, to infuse into every letter such a force as to empower it to
> 
> unfold all the knowledge of past and future ages." "We are possessed
> of such power which, if brought to light, will transmute the
> most deadly of poisons into a panacea of unfailing efficacy."
> 
> 10
> 
> "The days are approaching their end, and yet the peoples of
> the earth are seen sunk in grievous heedlessness, and lost in manifest
> error." "Great, great is the Cause! The hour is approaching
> when the most great convulsion will have appeared. I swear by
> Him Who is the Truth! It shall cause separation to afflict everyone,
> even those who circle around Me." "Say: O concourse of the heedless!
> 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!'" "The
> time for the destruction of the world and its people hath arrived.
> He Who is the Pre-Existent is come, that He may bestow everlasting
> life, and grant eternal preservation, and confer that which is
> conducive to true living." "The day is approaching when its [civilization's]
> flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur
> will proclaim: `The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the All-Praised!'"
> "O ye that are bereft of understanding! A severe trial
> pursueth you, and will suddenly overtake you. Bestir yourselves,
> that haply it may pass and inflict no harm upon you." "O ye peoples
> of the world! Know, verily, that an unforeseen calamity is following
> you, and that grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not
> the deeds ye have committed have been blotted from My sight." "O
> heedless ones! Though the wonders of My mercy have encompassed
> all created things, both visible and invisible, and though
> the revelations of My grace and bounty have permeated every
> atom of the universe, yet the rod with which I can chastise the
> wicked is grievous, and the fierceness of Mine anger against them
> terrible." "Grieve thou not over those that have busied themselves
> with the things of this world, and have forgotten the remembrance
> of God, the Most Great. By Him Who is the Eternal Truth! The day
> is approaching when the wrathful anger of the Almighty will have
> taken hold of them. He, verily, is the Omnipotent, the All-Subduing,
> the Most Powerful. He shall cleanse the earth from the defilement
> of their corruption, and shall give it for an heritage unto such
> of His servants as are nigh unto Him." "Soon will the cry, `Yea,
> 
> yea, here am I, here am I' be heard from every land. For there hath
> never been, nor can there ever be, any other refuge to fly to for
> anyone." "And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly
> appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to
> quake. Then, and only then, will the Divine Standard be unfurled,
> and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody."
> 
> 11
> 
> "In the beginning of every Revelation adversities have prevailed,
> which later on have been turned into great prosperity."
> "Say: O people of God! Beware lest the powers of the earth alarm
> you, or the might of the nations weaken you, or the tumult of the
> people of discord deter you, or the exponents of earthly glory sadden
> you. Be ye as a mountain in the Cause of your Lord, the Almighty,
> the All-Glorious, the Unconstrained." "Say: Beware, O
> people of Bahá, lest the strong ones of the earth rob you of your
> strength, or they who rule the world fill you with fear. Put your
> trust in God, and commit your affairs to His keeping. He, verily,
> will, through the power of truth, render you victorious, and He,
> verily, is powerful to do what He willeth, and in His grasp are the
> reins of omnipotent might." "I swear by My life! Nothing save that
> which profiteth them can befall My loved ones. To this testifieth
> the Pen of God, the Most Powerful, the All-Glorious, the Best Beloved."
> "Let not the happenings of the world sadden you. I swear
> by God! The sea of joy yearneth to attain your presence, for every
> good thing hath been created for you, and will, according to the
> needs of the times, be revealed unto you." "O my servants! Sorrow
> not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to
> your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of
> blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you.
> Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes.
> You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of
> their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their
> sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will, no
> doubt, attain."
> 
> 12
> 
> "This is the day in which to speak. It is incumbent upon the
> people of Bahá to strive, with the utmost patience and forbearance,
> to guide the peoples of the world to the Most Great Horizon. Every
> body calleth aloud for a soul. Heavenly souls must needs quicken,
> 
> with the breath of the Word of God, the dead bodies with a fresh
> spirit. Within every word a new spirit is hidden. Happy is the man
> that attaineth thereunto, and hath arisen to teach the Cause of
> Him Who is the King of Eternity." "Say: O servants! The triumph
> of this Cause hath depended, and will continue to depend, upon
> the appearance of holy souls, upon the showing forth of goodly
> deeds, and the revelation of words of consummate wisdom." "Center
> your energies in the propagation of the Faith of God. Whoso is
> worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is
> unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim
> this Revelation, whose power hath caused the foundations of
> the mightiest structures to quake, every mountain to be crushed
> into dust, and every soul to be dumbfounded." "Let your principal
> concern be to rescue the fallen from the slough of impending extinction,
> and to help him embrace the ancient Faith of God. Your
> behavior towards your neighbor should be such as to manifest
> clearly the signs of the one true God, for ye are the first among men
> to be re-created by His Spirit, the first to adore and bow the knee
> before Him, the first to circle round His throne of glory." "O ye
> beloved of God! Repose not yourselves on your couches, nay, bestir
> yourselves as soon as ye recognize your Lord, the Creator, and hear
> of the things which have befallen Him, and hasten to His assistance.
> Unloose your tongues, and proclaim unceasingly His Cause.
> This shall be better for you than all the treasures of the past and of
> the future, if ye be of them that comprehend this truth." "I swear
> by Him Who is the Truth! Erelong will God adorn the beginning of
> the Book of Existence with the mention of His loved ones who have
> suffered tribulation in His path, and journeyed through the countries
> in His name and for His praise. Whoso hath attained their
> presence will glory in their meeting, and all that dwell in every
> land will be illumined by their memory." "Vie ye with each other
> in the service of God and of His Cause. This is indeed what profiteth
> you in this world, and in that which is to come. Your Lord, the
> God of Mercy, is the All-Informed, the All-Knowing. Grieve not at
> the things ye witness in this day. The day shall come whereon the
> tongues of the nations will proclaim: `The earth is God's, the Almighty,
> the Single, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing!'" "Blessed
> 
> is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the
> heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the
> valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow
> where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified."
> "The movement itself from place to place, when undertaken for the
> sake of God, hath always exerted, and can now exert, its influence
> in the world. In the Books of old the station of them that have
> voyaged far and near in order to guide the servants of God hath
> been set forth and written down." "I swear by God! So great are the
> things ordained for the steadfast that were they, so much as the eye
> of a needle, to be disclosed, all who are in heaven and on earth
> would be dumbfounded, except such as God, the Lord of all worlds,
> hath willed to exempt." "I swear by God! That which hath been
> destined for him who aideth My Cause excelleth the treasures of
> the earth." "Whoso openeth his lips in this day, and maketh mention
> of the name of his Lord, the hosts of Divine inspiration shall
> descend upon him from the heaven of My name, the All-Knowing,
> the All-Wise. On him shall also descend the Concourse on high,
> each bearing aloft a chalice of pure light. Thus hath it been foreordained
> in the realm of God's Revelation, by the behest of Him Who
> is the All-Glorious, the Most Powerful." "By the righteousness of
> Him Who, in this day, crieth within the inmost heart of all created
> things, `God, there is none other God besides Me!' If any man were
> to arise to defend, in his writings, the Cause of God against its
> assailants, such a man, however inconsiderable his share, shall be
> so honored in the world to come that the Concourse on high would
> envy his glory. No pen can depict the loftiness of his station, neither
> can any tongue describe its splendor." "Please God ye may all
> be strengthened to carry out that which is the Will of God, and
> may be graciously assisted to appreciate the rank conferred upon
> such of His loved ones as have arisen to serve Him and magnify
> His name. Upon them be the glory of God, the glory of all that is in
> the heavens and all that is on earth, and the glory of the inmates of
> the most exalted Paradise, the heaven of heavens." "O people of
> Bahá! That there is none to rival you is a sign of mercy. Quaff ye of
> the Cup of Bounty the wine of immortality, despite them that have
> repudiated God, the Lord of names and Maker of the heavens."
> 
> 13
> 
> "I swear by the one true God! This is the day of those who
> have detached themselves from all but Him, the day of those who
> have recognized His unity, the day whereon God createth, with the
> hands of His power, divine beings and imperishable essences, every
> one of whom will cast the world and all that is therein behind
> him, and will wax so steadfast in the Cause of God that every wise
> and understanding heart will marvel." "There lay concealed within
> the Holy Veil, and prepared for the service of God, a company of
> His chosen ones who shall be manifested unto men, who shall aid
> His Cause, who shall be afraid of no one, though the entire human
> race rise up and war against them. These are the ones who, before
> the gaze of the dwellers on earth and the denizens of heaven, shall
> arise and, shouting aloud, acclaim the name of the Almighty, and
> summon the children of men to the path of God, the All-Glorious,
> the All-Praised." "The day is approaching when God will have, by
> an act of His Will, raised up a race of men the nature of which is
> inscrutable to all save God, the All-Powerful, the Self-Subsisting."
> "He will, erelong, out of the Bosom of Power, draw forth the Hands
> of Ascendancy and Might--Hands who will arise to win victory
> for this Youth, and who will purge mankind from the defilement of
> the outcast and the ungodly. These Hands will gird up their loins
> to champion the Faith of God, and will, in My name, the Self-Subsistent,
> the Mighty, subdue the peoples and kindreds of the
> earth. They will enter the cities, and will inspire with fear the
> hearts of all their inhabitants. Such are the evidences of the might
> of God; how fearful, how vehement is His might!"
> 
> Section
> 5, pages 85-91
> 
> "One more word in conclusion. Among some of the ..."
> 
> 1
> 
> One more word in conclusion. Among some of the most momentous and thought-provoking pronouncements
> ever made by `Abdu'l-Bahá, in the course of His epoch-making
> travels in the North American continent, are the following:
> "May this American Democracy be the first nation to establish
> the foundation of international agreement. May it be the
> first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it be the first to
> unfurl the Standard of the Most Great Peace." And again: "The
> American people are indeed worthy of being the first to build the
> Tabernacle of the Great Peace, and proclaim the oneness of mankind....
> 
> For America hath developed powers and capacities
> greater and more wonderful than other nations.... The American
> nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will
> adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be
> blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people.
> ...The American continent gives signs and evidences of very
> great advancement. Its future is even more promising, for its influence
> and illumination are far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually."
> 
> 2
> 
> The creative energies, mysteriously generated by the
> first stirrings of the embryonic World Order of Bahá'u'lláh,
> have, as soon as released within a nation destined to become
> its cradle and champion, endowed that nation with the worthiness,
> and invested it with the powers and capacities, and
> equipped it spiritually, to play the part foreshadowed in
> these prophetic words. The potencies which this God-given
> mission has infused into its people are, on the one hand, beginning
> to be manifested through the conscious efforts and
> the nationwide accomplishments, in both the teaching and
> administrative spheres of Bahá'í activity, of the organized
> community of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the North
> American continent. These same potencies, apart from, yet
> collateral with these efforts and accomplishments, are, on
> the other hand, insensibly shaping, under the impact of the
> world political and economic forces, the destiny of that nation,
> and are influencing the lives and actions of both its
> government and its people.
> 
> 3
> 
> To the efforts and accomplishments of those who,
> aware of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, are now laboring in
> that continent, to their present and future course of activity,
> I have, in the foregoing pages sufficiently referred. A word,
> if the destiny of the American people, in its entirety, is to be
> correctly apprehended, should now be said regarding the
> orientation of that nation as a whole, and the trend of the
> affairs of its people. For no matter how ignorant of the
> Source from which those directing energies proceed, and
> however slow and laborious the process, it is becoming increasingly
> 
> evident that the nation as a whole, whether
> through the agency of its government or otherwise, is gravitating,
> under the influence of forces that it can neither comprehend
> nor control, towards such associations and policies,
> wherein, as indicated by `Abdu'l-Bahá, her true destiny
> must lie. Both the community of the American believers,
> who are aware of that Source, and the great mass of their
> countrymen, who have not as yet recognized the Hand that
> directs their destiny, are contributing, each in its own way,
> to the realization of the hopes, and the fulfillment of the
> promises, voiced in the above-quoted words of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
> 
> 4
> 
> The world is moving on. Its events are unfolding ominously
> and with bewildering rapidity. The whirlwind of its
> passions is swift and alarmingly violent. The New World is
> being insensibly drawn into its vortex. The potential storm
> centers of the earth are already casting their shadows upon
> its shores. Dangers, undreamt of and unpredictable, threaten
> it both from within and from without. Its governments
> and peoples are being gradually enmeshed in the coils of the
> world's recurrent crises and fierce controversies. The Atlantic
> and Pacific Oceans are, with every acceleration in the
> march of science, steadily shrinking into mere channels. The
> Great Republic of the West finds itself particularly and increasingly
> involved. Distant rumblings echo menacingly in
> the ebullitions of its people. On its flanks are ranged the potential
> storm centers of the European continent and of the
> Far East. On its southern horizon there looms what might
> conceivably develop into another center of agitation and
> danger. The world is contracting into a neighborhood.
> America, willingly or unwillingly, must face and grapple
> with this new situation. For purposes of national security, let
> alone any humanitarian motive, she must assume the obligations
> imposed by this newly created neighborhood. Paradoxical
> as it may seem, her only hope of extricating herself
> from the perils gathering around her is to become entangled
> in that very web of international association which the
> 
> Hand of an inscrutable Providence is weaving. `Abdu'l-Bahá's
> counsel to a highly placed official in its government
> comes to mind, with peculiar appropriateness and force:
> You can best serve your country if you strive, in your capacity
> as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application
> of the principle of federalism, underlying the government of
> your own country, to the relationships now existing between
> the peoples and nations of the world. The ideals that
> fired the imagination of America's tragically unappreciated
> President, whose high endeavors, however much nullified
> by a visionless generation, `Abdu'l-Bahá, through His own
> pen, acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great
> Peace, though now lying in the dust, bitterly reproach a
> heedless generation for having so cruelly abandoned them.
> 
> 5
> 
> That the world is beset with perils, that dangers are
> now accumulating and are actually threatening the American
> nation, no clear-eyed observer can possibly deny. The
> earth is now transformed into an armed camp. As much as
> fifty million men are either under arms or in reserve. No less
> than the sum of three billion pounds is being spent, in one
> year, on its armaments. The light of religion is dimmed and
> moral authority disintegrating. The nations of the world
> have, for the most part, fallen a prey to battling ideologies
> that threaten to disrupt the very foundations of their dearly
> won political unity. Agitated multitudes in these countries
> seethe with discontent, are armed to the teeth, are stampeded
> with fear, and groan beneath the yoke of tribulations
> engendered by political strife, racial fanaticism, national hatreds,
> and religious animosities. "The winds of despair," Bahá'u'lláh
> has unmistakably affirmed, "are, alas, blowing from every
> direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human
> race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and
> chaos can now be discerned...." "The ills," `Abdu'l-Bahá, writing
> as far back as two decades ago, has prophesied, "from
> which the world now suffers will multiply; the gloom which envelops
> it will deepen. The Balkans will remain discontented. Its restlessness
> will increase. The vanquished Powers will continue to agitate.
> 
> They will resort to every measure that may rekindle the
> flame of war. Movements, newly born and worldwide in their
> range, will exert their utmost for the advancement of their designs.
> The Movement of the Left will acquire great importance. Its influence
> will spread." As to the American nation itself, the voice
> of its own President, emphatic and clear, warns his people
> that a possible attack upon their country has been brought
> infinitely closer by the development of aircraft and by other
> factors. Its Secretary of State, addressing at a recent Conference
> the assembled representatives of all the American Republics,
> utters no less ominous a warning. "These resurgent
> forces loom threateningly throughout the world--their ominous
> shadow falls athwart our own Hemisphere." As to its
> Press, the same note of warning and of alarm at an approaching
> danger is struck. "We must be prepared to defend
> ourselves both from within and without.... Our defensive
> frontier is long. It reaches from Alaska's Point Barrow to
> Cape Horn, and ranges the Atlantic and the Pacific. When
> or where Europe's and Asia's aggressors may strike at us no
> one can say. It could be anywhere, any time.... We have
> no option save to go armed ourselves.... We must mount
> vigilant guard over the Western Hemisphere."
> 
> 6
> 
> The distance that the American nation has traveled
> since its formal and categoric repudiation of the Wilsonian
> ideal, the changes that have unexpectedly overtaken it in recent
> years, the direction in which world events are moving,
> with their inevitable impact on the policies and the economy
> of that nation, are to every Bahá'í observer, viewing the developments
> in the international situation, in the light of the
> prophecies of both Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá, most significant,
> and highly instructive and encouraging. To trace
> the exact course which, in these troubled times and pregnant
> years, this nation will follow would be impossible. We
> can only, judging from the direction its affairs are now taking,
> anticipate the course she will most likely choose to pursue
> in her relationships with both the Republics of America
> and the countries of the remaining continents.
> 
> 7
> 
> A closer association with these Republics, on the one
> hand, and an increased participation, in varying degrees, on
> the other, in the affairs of the whole world, as a result of
> recurrent international crises, appear as the most likely developments
> which the future has in store for that country.
> Delays must inevitably arise, setbacks must be suffered, in
> the course of that country's evolution towards its ultimate
> destiny. Nothing, however, can alter eventually that course,
> ordained for it by the unerring pen of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Its federal
> unity having already been achieved and its internal institutions
> consolidated--a stage that marked its coming of
> age as a political entity--its further evolution, as a member
> of the family of nations, must, under circumstances that
> cannot at present be visualized, steadily continue. Such an
> evolution must persist until such time when that nation will,
> through the active and decisive part it will have played in
> the organization and the peaceful settlement of the affairs of
> mankind, have attained the plenitude of its powers and
> functions as an outstanding member, and component part,
> of a federated world.
> 
> 8
> 
> The immediate future must, as a result of this steady,
> this gradual, and inevitable absorption in the manifold perplexities
> and problems afflicting humanity, be dark and oppressive
> for that nation. The world-shaking ordeal which
> Bahá'u'lláh, as quoted in the foregoing pages, has so graphically
> prophesied, may find it swept, to an unprecedented
> degree, into its vortex. Out of it it will probably emerge, unlike
> its reactions to the last world conflict, consciously determined
> to seize its opportunity, to bring the full weight of its
> influence to bear upon the gigantic problems that such an
> ordeal must leave in its wake, and to exorcise forever, in
> conjunction with its sister nations of both the East and the
> West, the greatest curse which, from time immemorial, has
> afflicted and degraded the human race.
> 
> 9
> 
> Then, and only then, will the American nation, molded
> and purified in the crucible of a common war, inured to its
> rigors, and disciplined by its lessons, be in a position to raise
> 
> its voice in the councils of the nations, itself lay the cornerstone
> of a universal and enduring peace, proclaim the solidarity,
> the unity, and maturity of mankind, and assist in the
> establishment of the promised reign of righteousness on
> earth. Then, and only then, will the American nation, while
> the community of the American believers within its heart is
> consummating its divinely appointed mission, be able to fulfill
> the unspeakably glorious destiny ordained for it by the
> Almighty, and immortally enshrined in the writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
> Then, and only then, will the American nation accomplish
> "that which will adorn the pages of history," "become
> the envy of the world and be blest in both the East and the West."
> 
> SHOGHI
> 
> December 25, 1938
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views50964 views since posted 1999-10-11; last edit 2026-02-14 04:07 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../shoghi-effendi_advent_divine_justice;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> English
> Permission
> © BIC, public sharing permitted. See sources 1, 2, and 3.
> Share
> 
> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/1521
> Citation: ris/1521
> 
> select Collection:
> Archives
> Articles
> Articles-unpublished
> Audio
> Bibliographies
> BIC
> Biographies
> Books
> Chronologies
> Compilations
> Compilations-NSA
> Compilations-personal
> Documents
> East-asia
> Encyclopedia
> Essays
> Etc
> Excerpts
> Fiction
> Glossaries
> Guardian
> Histories
> Introductory
> Letters
> Maps
> Music
> Newspapers
> NSA-documents
> NSA-letters
> Personal
> Pilgrims
> Poetry
> Presentations
> Resources
> Reviews
> Scripts
> Software
> Statistics
> Study
> Talks
> Theses
> Transcripts
> Translations
> UHJ-documents
> UHJ-letters
> Video
> Visual
> Writings
> 
> home
> 
> sitemap
> 
> series
> 
> chronology
> 
> search:
> author
> 
> title
> 
> date
> 
> tags
> 
> adv. search
> languages
> 
> inventory
> 
> bibliography
> 
> abbreviations
> 
> links
> 
> about
> 
> contact
> 
> RSS
> 
> new
>
> — *Advent of Divine Justice (Used by permission of the curator)*