Citadel of Faith

CITADEL OF FAITH
(U.S., Third printing, 1980)
FILENAME: CF.FN
FILEDATE: 08-06-94


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Believers' Generous Response to Temple Fund

Thrilled by generous response of believers to Temple Fund. Deeply
touched. Hail latest striking evidence of the magnificent spirit, unshakable
solidarity and unflinching resolve of American &Baha'i Community.
Deepest loving gratitude.

[January 20, 1947]


Call to Fuller Participation

Acclaim with grateful heart evidences of steadily accelerating
movement of pioneers, multiplication of conferences, consolidation of
activities of national committees, progress in preliminaries of internal
ornamentation of Temple, and formulation of teaching policy in
southern states. Overwhelmed by tributes paid my own humble efforts
by stalwart company whose championship of Faith of &Baha'u'llah
during last quarter century provided greatest support and solace,
enabling me to sustain the weight of cares and responsibilities of
Guardianship.
Impelled to plead afresh to ponder responsibilities incurred in
transatlantic field of service. Time is flying. First year of Second Seven
Year Plan is drawing to a close. Shadow of war's tragic aftermath is
deepening. Initial stage of colossal task undertaken in European continent
still in balance. Urge stress for entire community extreme urgency
to reinforce promptly, at whatever cost, however inadequate the instruments,
the number of volunteers, both settlers and itinerant teachers,
whom posterity will rightly recognize as vanguard of torch-bearers of
&Baha'u'llah's resistless, world-redeeming order to despairing millions of
diversified races, conflicting nationalities in darkest, most severely
tested, spiritually depleted continent of globe. Prayerfully awaiting
response by all ranks of community to supreme call to fuller participation
in glorious enterprise.

[January 30, 1947]

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Consolidation in Europe

Overjoyed, grateful, proud of notable expansion of manifold activities
in three continents. Vital significance of preeminent objective in
European continent cannot be overemphasized. Intense, sustained,
self-sacrificing efforts aimed at rapid consolidation of American Community's
recently initiated fate-laden transatlantic enterprise are urgent,
imperative, highly meritorious. Praying for such demonstration of
heroism as will outshine exploits illuminating pages of American &Baha'i
history in continents of Western Hemisphere.

[March 24, 1947]


Participation in Second Seven Year Plan

[MESSAGE TO 1947 CONVENTION]

My heart is filled with delight, wonder, pride and gratitude in
contemplation of the peace-time exploits, in both hemispheres, of the
world community of the followers of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, triumphantly
emerging from the crucible of global war and moving irresistibly
into the second epoch of the Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation.
The opening years of the second century of the &Baha'i Era, synchronizing
with concluding stage of the memorable quarter-century
elapsed since the termination of the Heroic Age of the Faith, have been
distinguished by a compelling demonstration by the entire body of
believers, headed by the valorous American &Baha'i Community, of
solidarity, resolve and self-sacrifice as well as by a magnificent record of
systematic, world-wide achievements.
The three years since the celebration of the Centenary have been
characterized by a simultaneous process of internal consolidation and
steady enlargement of the orbit of a fast-evolving Administrative Order.
These years witnessed, first, the astounding resurgence of a
war-devastated &Baha'i community of Central Europe, the rehabilitation of
the communities in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Far
East; second, the inauguration of a new Seven Year Plan by the
American &Baha'i Community destined to culminate with the Centenary
of the Birth of &Baha'u'llah's Prophetic Mission, aiming at the

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formation of three national assemblies in Latin America and the
Dominion of Canada, at completion of the holiest House of Worship in
the &Baha'i world, and at the erection of the structure of the Administrative
Order in ten sovereign states of the European continent; and
third, the formulation by the British, the Indian and the Persian
National Assemblies of Six Year, Four and One-Half Year, and Forty-Five
Month Plans respectively, culminating with the Centenary of the
&Bab's Martyrdom and pledged to establish nineteen spiritual assemblies
in the British Isles, double the number of assemblies in the Indian
subcontinent, establish ninety-five new centers of the Faith in Persia,
convert the groups in Bahrein, Mecca and Kabul into assemblies and
plant the banner of the Faith in the Arabian territories of Yemen,
Oman, Ahsa and Kuweit.
Moreover, the number of countries opened to the onsweeping
Faith, and the number of languages in which its literature has been
translated and printed, is now raised to eighty-three and forty-seven,
respectively. Four additional countries are in process of enrollment.
Translations into fifteen other languages are being undertaken. No less
than seventeen thousand pounds have accumulated for the international
relief of war-afflicted &Baha'i communities of East and West. The
&Baha'i endowments on the North American continent have now passed
the two million dollar mark. The value of the endowments recently
acquired at the World Center of the Faith, dedicated to the Shrines, are
estimated at thirty-five thousand pounds. &Baha'i literature has been
disseminated as far north as Upernavik, Greenland, above the Arctic
Circle. The &Baha'i message has been broadcast by radio as far south as
Magallanes. The area of land dedicated to the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of
Persia has increased by almost a quarter-million square meters. The
number of localities in the Antipodes where &Baha'is reside has been
raised to thirty-five, spread over Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
Twenty-seven assemblies are functioning in Latin America. In
over a hundred localities &Baha'is are resident in Central and South
America, almost double the localities at opening of the first Seven Year
Plan. Historic Latin American conferences have been held in Buenos
Aires and Panama. Summer schools are established in Argentina and
Chile. Land has been offered in Chile for site of the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of Latin America. Additional assemblies have been
incorporated in Paraguay and Colombia. Seven others are in process of

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incorporation. A notable impetus has been lent this world-redeeming
Message through the concerted measures devised by the American
National Assembly designed to proclaim the Faith to the masses
through public conferences, press and radio.
Such remarkable multiplication of dynamic institutions, such thrilling
deployment of world-regenerating forces, North, South, East and
West, endow the preeminent goal of the Second Seven Year Plan in
Europe with extraordinary urgency and peculiar significance. I am
impelled to appeal to all American believers possessing independent
means to arise and supplement the course of the second year of the
Second Seven Year Plan through personal participation or appointment
of deputies, the superb exertions of the heroic vanguard of the hosts
destined, through successive decades, to achieve the spiritual conquest
of the continent unconquered by &Islam, rightly regarded as the mother
of Christendom, the fountainhead of American culture, the mainspring
of western civilization, and the recipient of the unique honor of two
successive visits to its shores by the Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant.

[April 28, 1947]


NSA Must Control Credentials of Foreigners

Owing to arrival of disloyal so-called &Baha'is your Assembly's
control of credentials should be strictly exercised, otherwise corruptive
influences will spread and injure the magnificent services being
achieved by the American &Baha'i Community.

[Circa June 1947]


The Challenging Requirements of the Present Hour

The opening years of the second century of the &Baha'i Era have
synchronized with the termination of the first epoch of the Formative
Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation, a Dispensation which posterity will
recognize as the most glorious and momentous in the greatest cycle in
the world's religious history.
The first seventy-seven years of the preceding century, constituting
the Apostolic and Heroic Age of our Faith, fell into three distinct

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epochs, of nine, of thirty-nine and of twenty-nine years' duration,
associated respectively with the &Babi Dispensation and the ministries of
&Baha'u'llah and of &Abdu'l-Baha. This Primitive Age of the &Baha'i Era,
unapproached in spiritual fecundity by any period associated with the
mission of the Founder of any previous Dispensation, was impregnated,
from its inception to its termination, with the creative energies generated
through the advent of two independent Manifestations and the
establishment of a Covenant unique in the spiritual annals of mankind.
The last twenty-three years of that same century coincided with the
first epoch of the second, the Iron and Formative, Age of the Dispensation
of &Baha'u'llah--the first of a series of epochs which must precede
the inception of the last and Golden Age of that Dispensation--a
Dispensation which, as the Author of the Faith has Himself categorically
asserted, must extend over a period of no less than one thousand
years, and which will constitute the first stage in a series of Dispensations,
to be established by future Manifestations, all deriving their
inspiration from the Author of the &Baha'i Revelation, and destined to
last, in their aggregate, no less than five thousand centuries.
We are now entering the second epoch of the second Age of the
first of these Dispensations. The first epoch witnessed the birth and the
primary stages in the erection of the framework of the Administrative
Order of the Faith--the nucleus and pattern of its World Order--
according to the precepts laid down in &Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament,
as well as the launching of the initial phase of the world-encompassing
Plan bequeathed by Him to the American &Baha'i Community.
That epoch was characterized by a twofold process aiming at
the consolidation of the administrative structure of the Faith and the
extension of the range of its institutions. It witnessed on the one hand,
the emergence and the laying of the groundwork of that embryonic
World Order whose advent was announced by the &Bab in the &Bayan,
whose laws were revealed by &Baha'u'llah in the &Kitab-i-Aqdas, and
whose features were delineated by &Abdu'l-Baha in His Will and
Testament. It was marked on the other hand by the launching, in the
Western Hemisphere, of the first stage of a Plan whose original
impulse was communicated by the Herald of our Faith in His
&Qayyumu'l-Asma', to whose implications the Author of the &Baha'i
Revelation alluded in His Tablets, and whose Charter was revealed by
the Center of His Covenant in the evening of His life.

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The epoch we have now entered is destined to impart a great
impetus to this historic, this twofold process. It must witness, on the one
hand, the consummation of a laboriously constructed Administrative
Order, and, on the other, the unfoldment of successive stages in the
development of &Abdu'l-Baha's Plan beyond the confines of the Western
Hemisphere and of the continent of Europe.

CROWNING FEATURE OF ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER: THE UNIVERSAL
HOUSE OF JUSTICE

During this Formative Age of the Faith, and in the course of
present and succeeding epochs, the last and crowning stage in the
erection of the framework of the Administrative Order of the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah--the election of the Universal House of Justice--will have
been completed, the &Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Mother-Book of His Revelation,
will have been codified and its laws promulgated, the Lesser Peace
will have been established, the unity of mankind will have been
achieved and its maturity attained, the Plan conceived by &Abdu'l-Baha
will have been executed, the emancipation of the Faith from the
fetters of religious orthodoxy will have been effected, and its independent
religious status will have been universally recognized, whilst in the
course of the Golden Age, destined to consummate the Dispensation
itself, the banner of the Most Great Peace, promised by its Author,
will have been unfurled, the World &Baha'i Commonwealth will have
emerged in the plenitude of its power and splendor, and the birth and
efflorescence of a world civilization, the child of that Peace, will have
conferred its inestimable blessings upon all mankind.

FOURFOLD OBJECTIVE TO PRESENT REQUIREMENTS

Not ours, however, to unriddle the workings of a distant future, or
to dwell upon the promised glories of a God-impelled and unimaginably
potent Revelation. Ours, rather, the task to cast our eyes upon, and
bend our energies to meet, the challenging requirements of the present
hour. Labors, of an urgent and sacred character, claim insistently our
undivided attention during the opening years of this new epoch which
we have entered. The Second Seven Year Plan, intended to carry a
stage further the mission conceived by &Abdu'l-Baha for the American
&Baha'i Community, is now entering its second year, and must, as it
operates in three continents, be productive of results outshining any as

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yet achieved since the Divine Plan itself was set in motion during the
concluding years of the first &Baha'i century. Unlike the plans which
&Baha'i communities in Europe and on the Asiatic continent have
spontaneously inaugurated since the commencement of the present
century, the Plan with which the community of the "Apostles of
&Baha'u'llah" stands identified is divine in origin, is guided by the
explicit and repeated instructions that have flowed from the pen of the
Center of the Covenant Himself, is energized by the all-compelling will
of its Author, claims as the theater for its operation territories spread
over five continents and the islands of the seven seas, and must continue
to function, ere its purpose is achieved, throughout successive
epochs in the course of the Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation.
As it propels itself forward, driven by forces which its prosecutors can
not hope to properly assess, as it spreads its ramifications to the furthest
corners of the Western Hemisphere, and across the oceans to the
continents of the Old World, and beyond them to the far-flung islands
of the seas, this Plan, the birthright of the North American &Baha'i
Community, will be increasingly regarded as an agency designed not
only for the enlargement of the limits of the Faith and the multiplication
of its institutions over the face of the planet, but for the acceleration
of the construction and completion of the administrative framework
of &Baha'u'llah's embryonic World Order, hastening thereby the
advent of that Golden Age which must witness the proclamation of the
Most Great Peace and the unfoldment of that world civilization which
is the offspring and primary purpose of that Peace.
The fourfold objective, which the prosecutors of the Plan, in the
present early stage of its development, are now pursuing, and which is
designed to stimulate the dual process initiated during the opening
phase of the Formative Age of the Faith, must be strenuously and
unfalteringly pursued. The second year of the Second Seven Year Plan
must witness, on all fronts, on the part of young and old alike, rich and
poor, colored and white, neophyte and veteran, a rededication to the
tasks undertaken and an intensification of effort for their furtherance
wholly unparalleled in the annals of American &Baha'i history. In every
state of the United States, in every province of the Dominion of
Canada, in every republic of Central and South America, in each of the
ten selected sovereign states of the European continent, the ever-swelling
legions of &Baha'u'llah's steadily advancing army, obeying

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the Mandate of &Abdu'l-Baha, launched on the second stage of their
world-wide crusade, deriving fresh courage from the exploits that have
distinguished the opening phase of the present stage of their enterprise,
must strain every nerve to scale loftier heights of heroism, and deploy,
over a wider range, their divinely sustained forces, as their present Plan
unfolds and moves towards a climax.

GOALS IN THE UNITED STATES AND ALASKA

In the United States of America, the base from which the manifold
operations of this holy expedition are conducted, the enterprise
associated with the completion of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the
West, designed to consummate this historic undertaking in time for the
celebration of its Jubilee in the year 1953, must be strenuously pushed
forward. The prodigious efforts exerted for the erection of this noble
edifice--the holiest House of Worship ever to be reared by the followers
of &Baha'u'llah--on which no less than one million four hundred
thousand dollars have thus far been expended, and which will necessitate
the expenditure of at least half a million more dollars, ere it is
completed, must not, for one moment, be relaxed. The necessary
modifications of the design chosen for its interior ornamentation should
be adopted, the plans and specifications prepared, the preliminary
contracts for its execution placed, and actual construction work started,
if possible, ere the expiry of the present year.
The utmost effort by the National Teaching Committee and its
auxiliary Regional Teaching Committees, aimed at raising the number
of spiritual assemblies in the North American continent to no less than
one hundred and seventy-five, ere the expiry of the current year, should
be exerted. The eighty cities newly opened to the Faith should,
likewise, be reinforced. The two hundred and eighteen groups already
constituted should be continually encouraged to evolve into assemblies,
while the vast number of localities, totalling over nine hundred, where
isolated believers reside, should, however tremendous the exertion
required, be enabled to attain group status, and be eventually converted
into properly functioning assemblies.
Collateral to this process of reinforcing the fabrics of the
Administrative Order and of widening its basis, a resolute attempt should be
made by the national elected representatives of the entire community,
aided by their Public Relations, Race Unity, Public Meetings, Visual

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Education, College Speakers Bureau and Radio Committees, to reinforce
the measures already adopted for the proclamation, through the
press and radio, of the verities of the Faith to the masses, and for the
establishment of closer contact with the leaders of public thought, with
colleges and universities and with newspaper and magazine editors.
National advertising and publicity should be further developed, the
contact with seven hundred and fifty newspapers, magazines and trade
papers should be maintained and the public relations programs amplified.
Association, as distinct from affiliation, and untainted by any
participation in political matters, with the various organs, leaders and
representatives of the United Nations and kindred organizations should
be stimulated for the purpose of giving, on the one hand, greater
publicity to the aims and purposes of the Faith, and of paving the way,
on the other, for the eventual conversion of a selected number of
capable and receptive souls who will reinforce the ranks of its active
and unreserved supporters.
The process of the incorporation of properly functioning spiritual
assemblies must be simultaneously and vigorously carried out. The
forty-five assemblies now incorporated are the first fruits of an enterprise
of great significance, which must rapidly develop in the days to
come, as an essential preliminary to the establishment, and the extension
of the scope, of &Baha'i local endowments, as soon as the financial
obligations incurred in connection with the completion of the Temple
have been discharged. The institutions of the three summer schools, at
Green Acre, Davison and Geyserville, and the International School at
Temerity Ranch, as well as the activities of the &Baha'i Youth, must,
under the close supervision of their respective national committees, be
continually expanded and increasingly utilized as agencies for the
furtherance of the vital objectives of the Plan.
The beneficial and highly responsible activities undertaken by the
Publishing, the Reviewing, the Library, the Service for the Blind, the
Visual Education, the Pamphlet Literature and Study Aids Committees,
designed to disseminate and insure the integrity of &Baha'i literature,
should, however indirectly connected with the purposes of the
Plan, and within the limits imposed upon them through its operation,
be steadily expanded, consolidated and be made to promote, in whatever
way possible, its paramount interests.
Nor should the "spacious territory of Alaska," particularly mentioned

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by &Abdu'l-Baha in His Tablets of the Divine Plan, and at
present the northern outpost of the Faith in the Western Hemisphere,
be ignored, or its vital requirements neglected. The maintenance and
consolidation of the first historic spiritual assembly in Anchorage, the
northernmost administrative center of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in the
world; the multiplication of &Baha'i centers in that territory; the propagation
of the teachings among the Eskimos, emphasized by &Abdu'l-Baha's
pen in those same Tablets; the translation and publication of
selected passages from &Baha'i literature in their native language; the
extension of the limits of the Faith beyond Fairbanks and nearer to the
Arctic Circle--these constitute the urgent tasks facing the prosecutors
of the present Plan in the years immediately ahead.
"Alaska is a vast country," are &Abdu'l-Baha's own words, recorded
in those Tablets, "...Perchance, God willing, the lights of the Most
Great Guidance will illuminate that country, and the breezes of the rose
garden of the love of God will perfume the nostrils of the inhabitants of
Alaska. Should you be aided to render such a service, rest ye assured
that your heads shall be crowned with the diadem of everlasting
sovereignty."

CANADA TO FORM SEPARATE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

In the Dominion of Canada, to whose significance and future the
Author of the Tablets of the Divine Plan has repeatedly referred, and
in all the nine provinces of which, as a direct result of the operation of
the first Seven Year Plan, the Faith has established its spiritual
assemblies, the Canadian believers, as a token of their recognition of
the significance of the forthcoming formation of their first National
Spiritual Assembly, must arise and carry out befittingly the task allotted
to them in their homeland. Irrespective of the smallness of their
numbers, notwithstanding the vastness of the territory for which they
have been made responsible, and as a sign of their appreciation of the
great bounty and independent status soon to be conferred upon them,
they must, unitedly, exert a supreme effort to enlarge the limits,
multiply the administrative centers, consolidate the institutions, and
broadcast the truths and essentials of their beloved Faith throughout
the length and breadth of that immense dominion.
The thirteen Canadian assemblies already formed should be, at all
costs, maintained and fortified. The fifty-six localities where &Baha'is

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reside should receive immediate attention, and the most promising
among them should be chosen for the establishment of future assemblies,
in order to broaden the basis and reinforce the foundations of the
future pillar of the Universal House of Justice. Particular attention
should, moreover, be paid to the need for the establishment, without
delay, of the first Canadian &Baha'i summer school, which, as the scope
of the activities of the Canadian believers extends, will have to be
gradually supplemented by other institutions of a similar character, as
has been the case in the development of summer schools in the United
States of America. Preliminary steps should, likewise, be taken for the
incorporation of all firmly grounded spiritual assemblies, as a prelude to
the establishment of local and national endowments. The institution of
the local Fund, in every center where the administrative structure of
the Faith has been erected, should be assiduously developed. The
holding of conferences designed to foster the unity, the solidarity and
harmonious development of the Canadian &Baha'i Community should
be steadily encouraged. An organized attempt should be made to
broadcast the Message to the masses and their leaders through the
medium of the press and radio. A deliberate and sustained endeavor
should be exerted to win fresh recruits for the Faith from the ranks
of the considerable French-speaking population of that dominion.
The greatest care should be exercised to attract the attention, and win
the support of other minorities in that land, such as the Indians, the
Eskimos, the Dukhobors and the Negroes, thereby reinforcing the
representative character of a rapidly developing community.
Nor should that community, as its local centers multiply, and the
fabric of its national institutions is erected, and its maturity is
demonstrated, and its independence vindicated, lose sight of, or neglect, the
weighty provisions of those Tablets of the Divine Plan, addressed
specifically to its members by &Abdu'l-Baha, wherein He confers upon
them the mission of carrying the Message of His Father to territories
and islands beyond the confines of that dominion, to Newfoundland
and the Franklin Islands, to the Yukon, to Mackenzie, Keewatin,
Ungava and Greenland. The tentative steps recently taken by a Danish
believer in disseminating &Baha'i literature in the territory of Greenland,
in a number of settlements and outposts beyond the Arctic Circle, and
in dispatching &Baha'i books to Godthaab, its capital, and as far north as
Upernavik on Baffin Bay, constitutes a modest yet historic beginning

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which the Canadian believers, in the light of &Abdu'l-Baha's Tablets
addressed to them, must follow up in the years to come.
"Should the fire of the love of God be kindled in Greenland," He
significantly assures them in one of the Tablets of the Divine Plan,
"all the ice of that country will be melted, and its cold weather become
temperate--that is, if the hearts be touched with the heat of the love of
God, that territory will become a divine rose garden and a heavenly
paradise, and the souls, even as fruitful trees, will acquire the utmost
freshness and beauty. Effort, the utmost effort, is required."
Theirs is the duty, the privilege and honor, once their central
administrative institution is firmly established, its subsidiary agencies
are vigorously operating, and its immediate requirements are met, to
take preliminary measures, on however small a scale, ere the Second
Seven Year Plan is terminated, for the dispatch of a handful of pioneers
to some of these territories, as an evidence of the determination and
capacity of a newly independent national community to assume the
functions, and discharge the responsibilities with which it has been
invested in those immortal Tablets by the pen of the Center of
&Baha'u'llah's Covenant.
"There is no difference between countries," is &Abdu'l-Baha's testimony
in one of those Tablets. "The future of the Dominion of Canada,
however, is very great, and the events connected with it infinitely
glorious. It shall become the object of the glance of Providence, and
shall show forth the bounties of the All-Glorious." "Again I repeat,"
He, in that same Tablet affirms, "that the future of Canada is very
great, whether from a material or a spiritual standpoint.... The
clouds of the Kingdom will water the seeds of guidance which have
been sown there."

TASKS IN LATIN AMERICA

In the far-flung Latin American field, where the first fruits of the
Divine Plan, operating beyond the confines of the North American
continent, have already been garnered in such abundance, the Latin
American &Baha'i communities, from the Mexican border to the extremity
of Chile, should bestir themselves for the collective, the historic and
gigantic tasks that await them, and which must culminate, ere the
expiry of the present Plan, in the formation of two national spiritual
assemblies for Central and South America.

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The marvelous progress achieved as a result of the operation of the
first Seven Year Plan, as evidenced by the establishment of full-fledged
spiritual assemblies in the virgin territories of no less than fourteen
republics, and the formation of active groups in the remaining republics,
has been enhanced by the even more startling expansion of
&Baha'i activity since the termination of the first stage of the Divine
Plan. As a result of this expansion spiritual assemblies have been
established in all the remaining republics, the number of localities
where &Baha'is reside has been raised to over a hundred, almost double
the number of localities in which the Faith had been introduced after
the completion of the first Seven Year Plan, the number of spiritual
assemblies has swelled to no less than thirty-seven, three of which have
been duly incorporated, a notable impetus has been given to the
activities of the distributing centers of &Baha'i literature in Argentina
and Panama, historic conferences have been held in these two republics,
summer schools have been inaugurated in Argentina and
Chile, and a tract of land has been presented as a site for the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Latin America. No community since the inception
of the hundred-year-old Faith of &Baha'u'llah, not even the community
of the Most Great Name in the North American continent, can
boast of an evolution as rapid, a consolidation as sound, a multiplication
of centers as swift, as those that have marked the birth and rise of the
community of His followers in Latin America.
The colossal tasks that now summon this Latin American &Baha'i
community to a challenge, cannot but dwarf, if faithfully and promptly
accomplished, the magnificent achievements that have immortalized
the first decade of organized activity in Latin American &Baha'i history.
The seed-sowing stage associated, in the main, with the labors and
travels of that saintly soul, that star-servant of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah,
the incomparable Martha Root, links this decade of organized &Baha'i
activity in Latin America with both the closing years of the Heroic Age
of our Faith and the first fifteen years of the initial epoch of the Age we
live in.

TWO REGIONAL NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES A VITAL OBJECTIVE

The emergence of organized local communities in most of the
republics of Latin America will be forever associated with the exploits
that have shed such luster on the first stage of the Divine Plan launched

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during the concluding years of that first epoch of the Formative Age of
our Faith. The constitution of two independent duly elected national
spiritual assemblies for the northern and southern zones of Latin
America is now to be regarded as one of the most vital objectives of the
Second Seven Year Plan, whose inauguration synchronizes with the
opening years of the second &Baha'i century, and which will be chiefly
associated with the first phase of the second epoch of that Age. The
emergence of these two national assemblies, precursors of the institutions
which must participate in the election, and contribute to the
support, of the Universal House of Justice--the last crowning unit in
the erection of the fabric of the Administrative Order of the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah--must lead gradually and uninterruptedly, and in the
course of successive epochs of the Formative Age, to the constitution in
each of the republics of Central and South America, of a properly
elected, fully representative national assembly, constituting thereby the
last stage in the administrative evolution of that Faith throughout Latin
America.
In order that these future tasks may be carried out with dispatch,
efficiency, harmony and in strict accordance with the administrative
and spiritual principles of our Faith, the Latin American promoters of
the present Seven Year Plan must focus their attention on the requirements
of the present hour, close their ranks, reinforce the bonds of
unity, of solidarity and of cooperation which unite them, rededicate
themselves individually to the sacred, all-important and vital task of
teaching, exert strenuous endeavors to deepen their knowledge of the
history and fundamentals of their Faith, steep themselves in the spirit
and the love of its teachings and acquire special training for future
pioneer activity throughout the length and breadth of the vast stretches
of territory which extend from the confines of the great republic in the
north to the Straits of Magellan in the south.
The process of the steady multiplication of spiritual assemblies,
already numbering thirty-seven, of groups whose number equals that of
the assemblies, and of the forty localities where isolated believers reside,
must vigorously and uninterruptedly continue. The incorporation of
well-grounded spiritual assemblies, following the example set by the
spiritual assemblies of San &Jose, Costa Rica, of &Bogota, Colombia, and
of &Asuncion, Paraguay, as a preliminary to the incorporation of the
future national assemblies to be established in Latin America, must be

+P15
strenuously and efficiently carried out. A beginning, however modest,
should be made in the direction of establishing local Funds, supported
by native believers and designed to supplement the financial assistance
extended by the parent community in North America, for the furtherance
of pioneer activity, for the dissemination of &Baha'i literature, for
the maintenance of local &Baha'i headquarters, for the gradual initiation
of &Baha'i endowments, such as the land offered for a &Baha'i Temple in
Chile, for the holding of conferences and of summer schools, for the
creation of publicity agencies, and for the conduct and expansion of
youth activities.
Strong and sustained support should be given to the vitally needed
and meritorious activities started by the native Latin American traveling
teachers, particularly in the pioneer field, who, as the mighty task
progresses, must increasingly bear the brunt of responsibility for the
propagation of the Faith in their homelands. Full advantage should be
taken of the facilities provided by the use of practical workshop courses
in Latin American pioneering at the International School at Temerity
Ranch. The two summer schools in Azeiza and Santiago, as well as one
planned in Vera Cruz, should be utilized, not only as centers for the
acquisition of &Baha'i learning, but as training grounds for pioneering
among the Spanish and Portuguese speaking populations of all the
republics of Latin America. The regional conferences held in Buenos
Aires and Panama should be followed by conferences of a similar
character, at which a growing number of attendants from among the
ranks of Latin American believers will assume an ever-increasing share
of responsibility in the initiation and conduct of the affairs of a
continually evolving community. A deliberate effort should be made to
increase, through correspondence teaching and its extension to all the
Spanish speaking countries, the number of the active supporters of
the Faith, so desperately needed in view of the vastness of the field,
the mighty responsibilities that have been incurred, the smallness of
the number of laborers, and the shortness of the time at their disposal.
Other agencies, such as publicity and advertising in the press, the
multiplication of accurate and improved radio scripts, the extension of
teaching projects through regional teaching committees, visual education
and the organization of public meetings, should be fully utilized to
capture the attention, win the sympathy, and secure the active and
unreserved support of a steadily increasing proportion of the population

+P16
of the various Latin American republics. The publishing activities of a
constantly growing community should, likewise, be stimulated, their
scope should be continually widened, the quality of &Baha'i publications
in Spanish, Portuguese and French be improved, and their dissemination
over a wide area be insured. The two Spanish bulletins, the one
already published in Santiago and the other planned in San &Jose,
should, likewise, as an adjunct to &Baha'i publications, be developed and
widely circulated. The contact established with the two hundred and
forty-four Masonic Lodges should be reinforced by similar contacts
with schools as well as business firms established throughout the
various republics, for the sole purpose of giving further publicity to the
Faith, and winning ultimately fresh recruits to the strength of its
followers.

IMPORTANCE OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS

Particular attention, I feel, should, at this juncture, be directed to
the various Indian tribes, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Latin
republics, whom the Author of the Tablets of the Divine Plan has
compared to the "ancient inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula."
"Attach great importance," is His admonition to the entire body of the
believers in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, "to the
indigenous population of America. For these souls may be likened unto
the ancient inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula, who, prior to the
Mission of &Muhammad, were like unto savages. When the light of
&Muhammad shone forth in their midst, however, they became so
radiant as to illumine the world. Likewise, these Indians, should they
be educated and guided, there can be no doubt that they will become so
illumined as to enlighten the whole world." The initial contact already
established, in the concluding years of the first &Baha'i century, in
obedience to &Abdu'l-Baha's Mandate, with the Cherokee and Oneida
Indians in North Carolina and Wisconsin, with the Patagonian, the
Mexican and the Inca Indians, and the Mayans in Argentina, Mexico,
Peru and Yucatan, respectively, should, as the Latin American &Baha'i
communities gain in stature and strength, be consolidated and extended.
A special effort should be exerted to secure the unqualified
adherence of members of some of these tribes to the Faith, their
subsequent election to its councils, and their unreserved support of the
organized attempts that will have to be made in the future by the

+P17
projected national assemblies for the large-scale conversion of Indian
races to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah.
Nor should the peculiar position of the Republic of Panama be
overlooked at the present stage in the development of the Faith in Latin
America. "All the above countries," &Abdu'l-Baha, referring to the
Central American republics in one of the Tablets of His Divine Plan,
has affirmed, "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 moreover 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."
The manifold activities initiated since the launching of the first
Seven Year Plan should, under no circumstances, be neglected or
allowed to stagnate. The excellent publicity accorded the Faith, and the
contact established with several leaders in that republic should be
followed up, systematically and with the greatest care, by the growing
community within its confines. The initial contact with the Indians
should be developed with assiduous care and unfailing patience. Furthermore,
the strengthening of the bonds now being forged between
the North American communities and their sister communities in
Latin America must constitute, owing to the unique and central position
occupied by that republic, one of the chief objectives of the
Panamanian believers, the progress of whose activities deserves to rank
as one of the most notable chapters of recent Latin American &Baha'i
history.
Nor should the valuable and meritorious labors accomplished since
the inception of the first Seven Year Plan in Punta Arenas de Magallanes,
that far-off center situated not only on the southern extremity of
the Western Hemisphere, but constituting the southernmost outpost of
the Faith in the whole world, be for a moment neglected in the course
of the second stage in the development of the Divine Plan. The assembly
already constituted in that city, the remarkable radio publicity
secured by the believers there, the assistance extended by them to the

+P18
teaching work in other parts of Chile, should be regarded only as a
prelude to the work of consolidation which must be indefatigably
pursued. This work, if properly carried out, in conjunction with the
activities associated with the assemblies of Santiago, &Valparaiso and
&Vina del Mar, and the groups of Puerto Montt, Valdivia, Quilpue,
Temuco, Sewell, Chorrillos, &Mulchen and other smaller ones, as well
as several isolated localities in that republic, may well hasten the advent
of the day when the Chilean followers of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah will
have established the first independent national spiritual assembly to be
formed by any single nation of Latin America.

&BAHA'U'LLAH'S SUMMONS TO THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

Whoever it may be among these Latin American communities who
will eventually carry off the palm of victory, and win this immortal
distinction, all without exception, and with equal zeal, must participate
in this vast and collective enterprise which is engaging, in an ever-increasing
measure, their attention and challenging their resources. Let
them remember that the Author of their Faith has in His &Kitab-i-Aqdas,
the Mother-Book of His Revelation, singled out the company of
the Presidents of their countries, together with those of the North
American continent, and addressed them in terms that sharply contrast
with the dire warnings and condemnatory words addressed directly and
indirectly, to the King of Prussia, the French and Austrian Emperors
and the Sultan of Turkey, who, together with those Presidents, are the
only sovereigns and rulers specifically mentioned by Him in that Book.
"Hearken ye, O rulers of America and the Presidents of the
Republics therein!" is His summons sounded in that mighty Charter of
the future world civilization, "unto that which the Dove is warbling on
the Branch of Eternity: There is none other God but Me, the Ever-Abiding,
the Forgiving, the All-Bountiful. Adorn ye the temple of
dominion with the ornament of justice and of the fear of God, and its
head with the crown of the remembrance of your Lord, the Creator of
the heavens. Thus counselleth you He Who is the Dayspring of
Names, as bidden by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. The
Promised One hath appeared in this glorified Station, whereat all
beings, both seen and unseen, have rejoiced. Take ye advantage of the
Day of God. Verily, to meet Him is better for you than all that whereon

+P19
the sun shineth, could ye but know it. O concourse of rulers! Give ear
unto that which hath been raised from the Dayspring of Grandeur:
Verily, there is none other God but Me, the Lord of Utterance, the All-Knowing.
Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the
oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your
Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise."
Let them ponder the honor which the Author of the Revelation
Himself has chosen to confer upon their countries, the obligations
which that honor automatically brings in its wake, the opportunities it
offers, the power it releases for the removal of all obstacles, however
formidable, which may be encountered in their path, and the promise
of guidance it implies for the attainment of the objectives alluded to in
these memorable passages.
To the eager, the warm-hearted, the spiritually minded and staunch
members of these Latin American &Baha'i communities who, among the
followers of &Baha'u'llah, already constitute the most considerable body
of recruits from the ranks of the most deeply entrenched and powerful
Church of Christendom; whose motherlands have been chosen as the
scene of the earliest victories won by the prosecutors of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan; launched on their crusade for the spiritual conquest of the
whole planet; the establishment of whose projected national spiritual
assemblies must constitute a notable landmark in the second epoch of
the Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation; whose leading spiritual
assemblies are now establishing direct contact with the World Center
of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in the Holy Land; the photographs of whose
elected representatives, at their chief centers, will soon adorn the walls
of His Mansion at &Bahji; a few of whose members have already arisen
to carry back the torch of divine guidance entrusted to their care to the
peoples and races from which they have sprung--to this privileged, this
youngest, this dynamic and highly promising member of the organic
&Baha'i World Community, I feel moved, before I dismiss this aspect of
my theme, to direct this general appeal to rise to the heights of the
glorious opportunity which destiny is unfolding before its members.
Theirs is the opportunity, if they but seize it, to adorn the opening pages
of the annals of the second &Baha'i century with a tale of deeds
approaching in valor those with which their Persian brethren have
illuminated the opening years of the first, and comparable with the

+P20
exploits more recently achieved by their North American fellow-believers
and which have shed such luster on the closing decade of that
same century.

SPIRITUAL CRUSADE TO BE LAUNCHED IN EUROPE

To the fourth, and by far the most momentous, the most arduous,
the most challenging task to be carried out under the Second Seven
Year Plan--the systematic launching of a crusade in a mighty, a
tormented, a spiritually famished continent, a continent drawn, in
recent years through political developments as well as through improvement
in the means of transportation, so close to the great republic of
the West, and constituting a stepping-stone on the road leading to the
redemption of the Old World--I must now direct the attention of my
readers.
This as yet unfought and unbelievably potent crusade, embarked
upon in the opening decade of the second century of the &Baha'i Era,
signalizing the commencement of the second epoch of the Formative
Age of the Dispensation of &Baha'u'llah, and marking the first stage in
the propulsion of a divinely conceived Plan across the borders of the
Western Hemisphere, must, as its pace augments, reveal the first signs
and tokens which, as anticipated by the Author of the Plan Himself,
must accompany the carrying of His Father's Message across the ocean,
at the hands of His "apostles," from the shores of their homeland to the
European continent. "The moment," is His powerfully sustaining,
gloriously inspiring promise, "this Divine Message is carried forward by
the American believers from the shores of America, and is propagated
through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australia,
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."
The first stage in this transatlantic field of service which those
crusading for the Cause of &Baha'u'llah in the Western Hemisphere are
now entering is a step fraught with possibilities such as no mind can
adequately envisage. Its challenge is overwhelming and its potentialities
unfathomable. Its hazards, rigors and pitfalls are numerous, its
field immense, the number of its promoters as yet utterly inadequate,

+P21
the resources required for its effective prosecution barely tapped. The
races, nations and classes included within its orbit are numerous and
highly diversified, and the prizes to be won by its victors incalculably
great. The hatreds that inflame, the rivalries that agitate, the controversies
that confuse, the miseries that afflict, these races, nations and
classes are bitter and of long standing. The influence and fanaticism,
whether ecclesiastical or political, of potentially hostile organizations,
firmly entrenched within their ancestral strongholds, are formidable.
The members of the North American &Baha'i Community, to whose
care the immediate destinies of this fate-laden crusade have been
entrusted, are standing at a new crossroads. Behind them is an imperishable
record, brief yet illustrious, of feats performed over the entire
range of the Western Hemisphere. Before them stretches a vista
alluring in its as yet hazy outlines, entrancing in its magnitude,
reaching to the far horizons of as yet unconquered territories. They can
look back, since that crusade was launched, upon a decade of modest
beginnings, of toilsome labors, of richly deserved rewards. They now
look forward to successive epochs reaching as far as the fringes of that
Golden Age that is to be, glowing in the light of God-given promises,
destined to be traversed at the cost of infinite toil and of heroic
self-sacrifice.
They can neither retrace their steps, nor falter, nor even afford to
mark time. The sands are running out, the short span of six brief years
intervening between the present hour and the termination of the
second stage of the enterprise on which they have embarked will soon
expire. The hosts on high, having sounded the signal, are impatient to
rush forward, and demonstrate anew the irresistible force of their
might. Europe, in the throes of the aftermath of a horribly devastating
conflict, calls desperately, in one of the darkest hours of its history, for
that sovereign remedy which only the Plan, conceived by a divinely
appointed Physician, can administer. Sister communities, in the north
and in the heart of that continent, alive to the needs, the opportunities
and the glorious mission of the vanguard of &Baha'u'llah's crusaders,
now landing on the shores of that agitated continent, are only too eager
to reinforce the stupendous exertions that must needs be made for its
ultimate redemption. Nor will other sister communities further afield
refrain, for a moment, from lending a helping hand, once the progress
of this gigantic movement now set in motion is accelerated. Above and

+P22
beyond them all, unsleeping, ever-solicitous, unerring, is the Pilot of
their bark, the Charterer of their course, the Founder of their spiritual
fellowship, the Bestower of that primacy which is the hallmark of
their destiny.

EVOLVING STRONGHOLDS IN TEN INITIAL COUNTRIES

The ten countries, constituting the initial field wherein the prowess
of these crusaders must, in the years immediately ahead, be exhibited,
and in whose capitals the foundations of the embryonic Order of the
Faith of &Baha'u'llah must preferably be unassailably laid, must each
evolve into strongholds from which the dynamic energies of that Faith
can be diffused to neighboring territories in the course of the unfoldment
of the Plan. The nuclei that are now being formed, and the
groups that are beginning to emerge, must be speedily and systematically
reinforced, not only through the dispatch and settlement of
pioneers and the visits paid them by itinerant teachers, but also through
the progressive development of the teaching work which the pioneers
themselves must initiate and foster among the native population in
those countries. Any artificially created assembly, consisting of settlers
from abroad, can at best be considered as temporary and insecure, and
should, if the second stage of the European enterprise is to be commenced
without undue delay in the future, be supplanted by broad-based,
securely grounded, efficiently functioning assemblies, composed
primarily of the people of the countries themselves, who are firm
in faith, unimpeachable in their loyalty and whole-hearted in their
support of the Administrative Order of the Faith. The twenty-five
pioneers that have already proceeded to Scandinavia and the Low
Countries, to the Iberian Peninsula, to Switzerland and Italy, should, in
the course of this current year, and while the process of teaching the
native population is being inaugurated, be reinforced by as many
additional pioneers as possible, and particularly by those who, possessed
of independent means, can, either themselves or through their appointed
deputies, swell the number of the valiant workers already
laboring with such devotion in those fields.
The translation, the publication and dissemination of &Baha'i literature,
whether in the form of leaflets, pamphlets or books, in the nine
selected languages, should, as the work progresses and the demand is
correspondingly increased, be strenuously carried out, as a preliminary

+P23
to its free distribution among the public on certain occasions, and its
presentation to both the leaders of public thought and the numerous
and famous libraries established in those countries. No time should be
lost in establishing, on however small a scale, initial contact with the
press and other agencies designed to invite greater attention on the part
of the masses to the historic work now being initiated in their respective
countries.
No opportunity, in view of the necessity of insuring the harmonious
development of the Faith, should be ignored, which its potential
enemies, whether ecclesiastical or otherwise, may offer, to set forth, in a
restrained and unprovocative language, its aims and tenets, to defend
its interests, to proclaim its universality, to assert the supernatural, the
supra-national and non-political character of its institutions, and its
acceptance of the divine origin of the Faiths which have preceded it.
Nor should any chance be missed of associating the Faith, as distinct
from affiliating it, with all progressive, non-political, non-ecclesiastical
institutions, whether social, educational, or charitable, whose objectives
harmonize with some of its tenets, and amongst whose members and
supporters individuals may be found who will eventually embrace its
truth. Particular attention should, moreover, be paid to attendance at
congresses and conferences, and to any contacts that can be made with
colleges and universities which offer a fertile field for the scattering of
the seeds of the Faith, and afford opportunities for broadcasting its
message, and for winning fresh recruits to its strength.
Nor should any occasion be neglected by the pioneers of attending,
if their personal circumstances permit, either the British or German
&Baha'i summer schools, and of forging such links with these institutions
as will not only assist them in the discharge of their duties, but enable
them to initiate, when the time is ripe, an institution of a similar
character, under the auspices of the European Teaching Committee
--an institution which will be the forerunner of the summer schools
that will have to be founded separately by the future assemblies
in their respective countries. Above all, any assistance which the two
national spiritual assemblies, already established on that continent, and
their auxiliary committees, and particularly their publishing agencies,
can extend should be gratefully welcomed and utilized to the full, until
such time as the institutions destined to evolve in these countries can
assume independently the conduct of their own affairs.

+P24
A constant interchange of news between the centers, through the
medium of the Geneva Bulletin, whose scope must be steadily enlarged,
and close contact with each other through the European office
of the European Teaching Committee, functioning as an adjunct to the
International &Baha'i Bureau, should, furthermore, be maintained and
reinforced, whenever circumstances are favorable, by the convening of
conferences, which will bring together as many pioneers laboring in
these ten countries, and newly converted believers, as possible, enabling
them to jointly consider their plans, problems and activities,
concert measures for the progress of the Faith in that continent, and
pave the way for the future formation of regional national spiritual
assemblies, which must precede the constitution of separate independent
national institutions in each of these countries. Such summer
schools and conferences, initiated and conducted by one of the most
important agencies of the highest administrative institution in the
North American &Baha'i Community, gathering together as they will
&Baha'i representatives of various races and nations on the continent of
Europe, will, by reason of their unprecedented character in the evolution
of the Faith, since its inception, constitute a historic landmark in
the development of the organic world-wide &Baha'i community, and
will be the harbinger of those epoch-making world conferences, at
which the representatives of the nations and races within the &Baha'i
fold will convene for the strengthening of the spiritual and administrative
bonds that unite its members.

INITIATING NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS AND ADAPTING TEACHING
METHODS

A beginning, however limited in scope, should be made, ere the
present stage of the Divine Plan draws to a close, in the direction of
establishing befitting administrative headquarters for the rising communities
and their projected assemblies in the capital cities of Stockholm,
of Oslo, of Copenhagen, of The Hague, of Brussels, of Luxembourg,
of Madrid, of Lisbon, of Rome and of Bern, through the rental
of suitable quarters which, in the course of time, must lead to either the
construction or the purchase in each of these capitals of a national
&Haziratu'l-Quds, as a future seat for independent, elected national
spiritual assemblies.
A tentative start, though strictly speaking excluded from the scope

+P25
of the present Plan, should, I feel, be made, ere the six remaining years
have run their course, aiming at the formation, in each of the ten
designated countries, of a number of nuclei, however few, however
unstable, which will proclaim to the entire &Baha'i world the ability of
the prosecutors of the Plan to exceed their allocated task, even as they
surpassed, in the Latin American field, the goals which they had
originally set before them. Such a feat, if accomplished, would impart
to my overburdened heart a joy that would equal the many consolations
which a dearly loved community has showered upon me, in the past,
by its signal acts, both within its homeland and abroad, since the
passing of &Abdu'l-Baha.
Nor should any of the pioneers, at this early stage in the upbuilding
of &Baha'i national communities, overlook the fundamental prerequisite
for any successful teaching enterprise, which is to adapt the presentation
of the fundamental principles of their Faith to the cultural and
religious backgrounds, the ideologies, and the temperament of the
divers races and nations whom they are called upon to enlighten and
attract. The susceptibilities of these races and nations, from both the
northern and southern climes, springing from either the Germanic or
Latin stock, belonging to either the Catholic or Protestant communion,
some democratic, others totalitarian in outlook, some socialistic, others
capitalistic in their tendencies, differing widely in their customs and
standards of living, should at all times be carefully considered, and
under no circumstances neglected.
These pioneers, in their contact with the members of divers creeds,
races and nations, covering a range which offers no parallel in either the
north or south continents, must neither antagonize them nor compromise
with their own essential principles. They must be neither provocative
nor supine, neither fanatical nor excessively liberal, in their
exposition of the fundamental and distinguishing features of their
Faith. They must be either wary or bold, they must act swiftly or mark
time, they must use the direct or indirect method, they must be
challenging or conciliatory, in strict accordance with the spiritual
receptivity of the soul with whom they come in contact, whether he be
a nobleman or a commoner, a northerner or a southerner, a layman or a
priest, a capitalist or a socialist, a statesman or a prince, an artisan or a
beggar. In their presentation of the Message of &Baha'u'llah they must
neither hesitate nor falter. They must be neither contemptuous of the

+P26
poor nor timid before the great. In their exposition of its verities they
must neither overstress nor whittle down the truth which they champion,
whether their hearer belong to royalty, or be a prince of the
church, or a politician, or a tradesman, or a man of the street. To all
alike, high or low, rich or poor, they must proffer, with open hands,
with a radiant heart, with an eloquent tongue, with infinite patience,
with uncompromising loyalty, with great wisdom, with unshakable
courage, the Cup of Salvation at so critical an hour, to the confused,
the hungry, the distraught and fear-stricken multitudes, in the north,
in the west, in the south and in the heart, of that sorely tried continent.

EUROPE FEELS STIRRINGS OF SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION

The second century of the &Baha'i Era has dawned. The second
stage of the Divine Plan has been launched. The second epoch of the
Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation has opened. The tragedy
of a continent, so blessed, so rich in history, so harassed, is moving
towards a climax. The vanguard of the torchbearers of a world-redeeming
civilization are landing on its shores and are settling in its
capitals. An epoch has commenced, inaugurating the systematic conquest
of the European continent by the organized body of the "apostles
of &Baha'u'llah," destined to unfold its potentialities in the course of
succeeding centuries, and bidding fair to eclipse the radiance of those
past ages which have successfully witnessed the introduction of the
Christian Faith into the continent's northern climes, the efflorescence
of Islamic culture that shed such radiance along its southern shores, and
the rise of the Reformation in its very heart.
The stage is set. The hour is propitious. The signal is sounded.
&Baha'u'llah's spiritual battalions are moving into position. The initial
clash between the forces of darkness and the army of light, as unnoticed
as the landing, two milleniums ago, of the apostles of Christ on the
southern shores of the European continent, is being registered by the
denizens of the &Abha Kingdom. The Author of the Plan that has set so
titanic an enterprise in motion is Himself mounted at the head of these
battalions, and leads them on to capture the cities of men's hearts. A
continent, twice blessed by &Abdu'l-Baha's successive visits to its shores,
and the scene of His first public appearance in the West; which has
been the cradle of a civilization to some of whose beneficent features the
pen of &Baha'u'llah has paid significant tribute; on whose soil both the

+P27
Greek and Roman civilizations were born and flourished; which has
contributed so richly to the unfoldment of American civilization; the
fountainhead of American culture; the mother of Christendom, and
the scene of the greatest exploits of the followers of Jesus Christ; in
some of whose outlying territories have been won some of the most
resplendent victories which ushered in the Golden Age of &Islam; which
sustained, in its very heart, the violent impact of the onrushing hosts of
that Faith, intent on the subjugation of its cities, but which refused to
bend the knee to its invaders, and succeeded in the end in repulsing
their assault--such a continent is now experiencing, at the hands of
the little as yet unnoticed band of pioneers sent forth by the enviable,
the privileged, the dynamic American &Baha'i Community, the first
stirrings of that spiritual revolution which must culminate, in the
Golden Age that is as yet unborn, in the permanent establishment of
&Baha'u'llah's Order throughout that continent.

DIVINE PLAN CHALLENGES NORTH AMERICAN BELIEVERS

One word in conclusion to those to whom the Tablets of so
stupendous a Plan have been addressed, to whose care the destinies of
so prodigious an enterprise have been committed, and of whom such
titanic efforts are now demanded. I can do no better than recall, nor
can I sufficiently emphasize, or refrain from quoting anew, those stirring
and pregnant passages that illuminate the pages of &Abdu'l-Baha's
epoch-making Tablets.
In one of these Tablets, addressed to the believers in the Northeastern
States, these weighty and highly significant words are recorded:
"All countries, in the estimation of the one true God, are but one
country, and all cities and villages are on an equal footing...
Through faith and certitude, and the precedence achieved by one
over another, however, the dweller conferreth honor upon the
dwelling, some of the countries achieve distinction, and attain a preeminent
position. For instance, notwithstanding that some of the
countries of Europe and of America are distinguished by, and surpass
other countries in, the salubrity of their climate, the wholesomeness of
their water, and the charm of their mountains, plains and prairies, yet
Palestine became the glory of all nations inasmuch as all the holy and
Divine Manifestations, from the time of Abraham until the appearance
of the Seal of the Prophets (&Muhammad), have lived in, or migrated

+P28
to, or traveled through, that country. Likewise, Mecca and Medina
have achieved illimitable glory, as the light of Prophethood shone forth
therein. For this reason Palestine and &Hijaz have been distinguished
from all other countries." "Likewise," is His remarkable disclosure, "the
continent of America 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, the home of the righteous, and
the gathering-place of the free."
To those of His followers, dwelling in that enviable and blessed
continent, He has chosen to address these no less inspiring words, as
recorded in one of those Tablets revealed in honor of the believers of
the United States and Canada: "O ye apostles of &Baha'u'llah! May my
life be sacrificed for you!... Behold the portals which &Baha'u'llah
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," He, in another Tablet, addressed to the entire
company of His followers in the North American continent these
prophetic words: "is as yet unrevealed, its significance 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 hope which &Abdu'l-Baha 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 this
Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the
shores of America, and is propagated through the continents of Europe,
of Asia, of Africa and of Australia, 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

+P29
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... Know ye of a certainty that whatever
gathering ye enter, the waves of the Holy Spirit are surging over it, and
the heavenly grace of the Blessed Beauty encompasseth that
gathering... O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the
utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of &Ya-Baha'u'l-Abha
in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans promote the
divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do. How intensely I deplore it!
Please God, ye may achieve it... Thus far ye have been untiring in
your labors. Let your exertions henceforth increase a thousandfold.
Summon the people in these countries, capitals, islands, assemblies and
churches to enter the &Abha Kingdom. The scope of your exertions must
needs be extended. The wider its range, the more striking will be the
evidence of divine assistance."

DETACHMENT FROM THE PHYSICAL WORLD

"Now is the time," He no less significantly remarks in another of
these Tablets, "for you to divest yourselves of the garment of attachment
to this world that perisheth, to be wholly severed from the physical
world, become heavenly angels, and travel to these countries. I swear by
Him besides Whom there is none other God that each one of you will
become an &Israfil of Life, and will blow the Breath of Life into the souls
of others." And lastly this glorious promise in another of those immortal
Tablets: "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."
In one of the earliest Tablets addressed by Him to the American
believers these equally significant words have been penned: "If ye be
truly united, if ye agree to promote that which is the essential purpose,
and to show forth an all-unifying love, I swear by Him Who causeth
the seed to split and the breeze to waft, so great a light will shine forth
from your faces as to reach the highest heavens, the fame of your glory
will be noised abroad, the evidences of your preeminence will spread
throughout all regions, your power will penetrate the realities of all
things, your aims and purposes will exert their influence upon the great
and mighty nations, your spirits will encompass the whole world of

+P30
being, and ye will discover yourselves to be kings in the dominions of
the Kingdom, and attired with the glorious crowns of the invisible
Realm, and become the marshals of the army of peace, and princes of
the forces of light, and stars shining from the horizon of perfection, and
brilliant lamps shedding their radiance upon men."

CONTRIBUTION OF THE WEST TO WORLD ORDER

In the light of these glowing tributes, these ardent hopes, these
soul-stirring promises, recorded by the pen of the Center of the Covenant, is
it surprising to find that the Author of the Covenant Himself has,
anticipating the great contribution which the West is destined to make
to the establishment of His World Order, made such a momentous
statement in His writings: "In the East the light of His Revelation hath
broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His dominion. Ponder
this in your hearts, O people, and be not of those who have turned a
deaf ear to the admonitions of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Praised."
&Abdu'l-Baha Himself, confirming this statement, has written:
"From the beginning of time until the present day the light of Divine
Revelation hath risen in the East and shed its radiance upon the West.
The illumination thus shed hath, however, acquired in the West an
extraordinary brilliancy. Consider the Faith proclaimed by Jesus.
Though it first appeared in the East, yet not until its light had been
shed upon the West did the full measure of its potentialities become
manifest." "The day is approaching when ye shall witness how,
through the splendor of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah the West will have
replaced the East, radiating the light of divine guidance." "The West
hath acquired illumination from the East, but, in some respects the
reflection of the light hath been greater in the Occident." "The East
hath, verily, been illumined with the light of the Kingdom. Erelong
will this same light shed a still greater illumination through the potency
of the teachings of God, and their souls be set aglow by the undying fire
of His love."
Invested, among its sister communities in East and West, with the
primacy conferred upon it by &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan; armed with
the mandatory provisions of His momentous Tablets; equipped with
the agencies of a quarter-century-old Administrative Order, whose
fabric it has reared and consolidated; encouraged by the marvelous

+P31
success achieved by its daughter communities throughout the Americas,
a success which has sealed the triumph of the first stage of that
Plan; launched on a campaign of vaster dimensions, of superior merit,
of weightier potentialities, than any it has hitherto initiated, a campaign
destined to multiply its spiritual progeny in distant lands and
amidst divers races, the community of the Most Great Name in the
North American continent must arise, as it has never before in its
history, and demonstrate anew its capacity to perform such deeds as are
worthy of its high calling. Its members, the executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Plan, the champion-builders of &Baha'u'llah's embryonic Order, the
torchbearers of a world-girdling civilization, must, in the years immediately
ahead, bestir themselves, and, as bidden by &Abdu'l-Baha,
"increase" their exertions "a thousandfold," lay bare further vistas in
the "range" of their "future achievements" and of their "unspeakably
glorious" mission, and hasten the day when, as prophesied by Him,
their community will "find itself securely established upon the throne
of an everlasting dominion," when "the whole earth" will be stirred and
shaken by the results of its "achievements" and "resound with the
praises of majesty and greatness," when America will "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."
In every state of the United States, in every province of the
Dominion of Canada, in every republic of Latin America, in each of the
ten European countries to which its inescapable responsibilities are
insistently calling it, this community, so blessed in the past, so promising
at present, so dazzling in its future destiny, must, if it would guard its
priceless birthright and enhance its heritage, forge ahead with equal
zeal, with unrelaxing vigilance, with indomitable courage, with tireless
energy, until the present stage of its mission is triumphantly concluded.

THE WORKINGS OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS PROCESSES

How could it forfeit its birthright or mar its heritage, when the
country from which the vast majority of its members have sprung, the
great republic of the West, government and people alike, is itself,
through experiment and trial, slowly, painfully, unwittingly and irresistibly
advancing towards the goal destined for it by both &Baha'u'llah
and &Abdu'l-Baha? Indeed if we would read aright the signs of the

+P32
times, and appraise correctly the significances of contemporaneous
events that are impelling forward both the American &Baha'i Community
and the nation of which it forms a part on the road leading them to
their ultimate destiny, we cannot fail to perceive the workings of two
simultaneous processes, generated as far back as the concluding years of
the Heroic Age of our Faith, each clearly defined, each distinctly
separate, yet closely related and destined to culminate, in the fullness of
time, in a single glorious consummation.
One of these processes is associated with the mission of the
American &Baha'i Community, the other with the destiny of the
American nation. The one serves directly the interests of the Administrative
Order of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, the other promotes indirectly
the institutions that are to be associated with the establishment of His
World Order. The first process dates back to the revelation of those
stupendous Tablets constituting the Charter of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine
Plan. It was held in abeyance for well-nigh twenty years while the
fabric of an indispensable Administrative Order, designed as a divinely
appointed agency for the operation of that Plan, was being constructed.
It registered its initial success with the triumphant conclusion of the
first stage of its operation in the republics of the Western Hemisphere.
It signalized the opening of the second phase of its development
through the inauguration of the present teaching campaign in the
European continent. It must pass into the third stage of its evolution
with the initiation of the third Seven Year Plan, designed to culminate
in the establishment of the structure of the Administrative Order in all
the remaining sovereign states and chief dependencies of the globe.
It must reach the end of the first epoch in its evolution with the
fulfillment of the prophecy mentioned by Daniel in the last chapter of
His Book, related to the year 1335, and associated by &Abdu'l-Baha with
the world triumph of the Faith of His Father. It will be consummated
through the emergence of the &Baha'i World Commonwealth in the
Golden Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation.
The other process dates back to the outbreak of the first World War
that threw the great republic of the West into the vortex of the first
stage of a world upheaval. It received its initial impetus through the
formulation of President Wilson's Fourteen Points, closely associating
for the first time that republic with the fortunes of the Old World. It
suffered its first setback through the dissociation of that republic from
the newly born League of Nations which that president had labored to

+P33
create. It acquired added momentum through the outbreak of the
second World War, inflicting unprecedented suffering on that republic,
and involving it still further in the affairs of all the continents of the
globe. It was further reinforced through the declaration embodied in
the Atlantic Charter, as voiced by one of its chief progenitors, Franklin
D. Roosevelt. It assumed a definite outline through the birth of the
United Nations at the San Francisco Conference. It acquired added
significance through the choice of the City of the Covenant itself as the
seat of the newly born organization, through the declaration recently
made by the American president related to his country's commitments
in Greece and Turkey, as well as through the submission to the
General Assembly of the United Nations of the thorny and challenging
problem of the Holy Land, the spiritual as well as the administrative
center of the World Faith of &Baha'u'llah. It must, however long
and tortuous the way, lead, through a series of victories and reverses, to
the political unification of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, to
the emergence of a world government and the establishment of the
Lesser Peace, as foretold by &Baha'u'llah and foreshadowed by the
Prophet Isaiah. It must, in the end, culminate in the unfurling of the
banner of the Most Great Peace, in the Golden Age of the Dispensation
of &Baha'u'llah.

A PARALLEL BETWEEN THE AMERICAN &BAHA'I COMMUNITY AND THE
AMERICAN REPUBLIC

Might not a still closer parallel be drawn between the community
singled out for the execution of this world-embracing Plan, in its
relation to its sister communities, and the nation of which it forms a
part, in its relation to its sister nations? On the one hand is a community
which ever since its birth has been nursed in the lap of &Abdu'l-Baha
and been lovingly trained by Him through the revelation of unnumbered
Tablets, through the dispatch of special and successive messengers,
and through His own prolonged visit to the North American
continent in the evening of His life. It was to the members of this
community, the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers of the
Heroic Age of our Faith, that He, whilst sojourning in the City of
the Covenant, chose to reveal the implications of that Covenant. It
was in the vicinity of this community's earliest established center that
He laid, with His own hands, the cornerstone of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
of the western world. It was to the members of this community

+P34
that He subsequently addressed His Tablets of the Divine Plan,
investing it with a spiritual primacy, and singling it out for a glorious
mission among its sister communities. It was this community which
won the immortal honor of being the first to introduce the Faith in the
British Isles, in France and in Germany, and which sent forth its
consecrated pioneers and teachers to China, Japan and India, to
Australia and New Zealand, to the Balkan Peninsula, to South Africa,
to Latin America, to the Baltic States, to Scandinavia and the islands of
the Pacific, hoisting thereby its banner in the vast majority of the
countries won over to its cause, in both the East and the West, prior to
&Abdu'l-Baha's passing.
It was this community, the cradle and stronghold of the Administrative
Order of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, which, on the morrow of
&Abdu'l-Baha's ascension, was the first among all other &Baha'i communities
in East and West to arise and champion the cause of that Order,
to fix its pattern, to erect its fabric, to initiate its endowments, to
establish and consolidate its subsidiary institutions, and to vindicate its
aims and purposes. To it belongs the unique distinction of having
erected, in the heart of the North American continent, the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the West, the holiest edifice ever to be reared by
the hands of the followers of &Baha'u'llah in either the Eastern or
Western Hemisphere. It was through the assiduous and unflagging
labors of the most distinguished and consecrated among its itinerant
teachers that the allegiance of royalty to the Cause of &Baha'u'llah was
won, and unequivocally proclaimed in successive testimonies as penned
by the royal convert herself. To its members, the vanguard of the
torchbearers of the future world civilization, must, moreover, be ascribed
the imperishable glory of having launched and successfully
concluded the first stage of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, in the concluding
years of the first &Baha'i century, establishing thereby the structural
basis of the Administrative Order of the Faith in all the republics of
Central and South America. It is this same community which is once
again carrying off the palm of victory through launching, in the first
decade of the second century of the &Baha'i Era, the second stage
of that same Plan, destined to lay the foundations of the &Baha'i
Administrative Order in no less than ten sovereign states in the
continent of Europe, comprising the Scandinavian states, the Low
Countries, the states of the Iberian Peninsula, Switzerland and Italy.
And lastly, to its enterprising members must go the unique honor and

+P35
privilege of having arisen, on unnumbered occasions, and over a period
of more than a quarter of a century, to champion the cause of the down-trodden
and persecuted among their brethren in Persia, in Egypt, in
Russia, in &Iraq and in Germany, to stretch a generous helping hand to
the needy among them, to defend and safeguard the interests of their
institutions, and to plead their cause before political and ecclesiastical
adversaries.
On the other hand is a nation that has achieved undisputed
ascendancy in the entire Western Hemisphere, whose rulers have been
uniquely honored by being collectively addressed by the Author of the
&Baha'i Revelation in His &Kitab-i-Aqdas; which has been acclaimed by
&Abdu'l-Baha as the "home of the righteous and the gathering-place of
the free," where the "splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled" and belonging to a continent
which, as recorded by that same pen, "giveth signs and evidences of
very great advancement," whose "future is even more promising,"
whose "influence and illumination are far-reaching," and which "will
lead all nations spiritually." Moreover, it is to this great republic of the
West that the Center of the Covenant of &Baha'u'llah has referred as the
nation that has "developed powers and capacities greater and more
wonderful than other nations," and which "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." It is for this same American
democracy that He expressed His fervent hope that it might be "the
first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement," "to
proclaim the unity of mankind," and "to unfurl the Standard of the
Most Great Peace," that it might become "the distributing center of
spiritual enlightenment, and all the world receive this heavenly blessing,"
and that its inhabitants might "rise from their present material
attainments to such a height that heavenly illumination may stream
from this center to all the peoples of the world." It is in connection with
its people that He has affirmed that they are "indeed worthy of being
the first to build the Tabernacle of the Great Peace and proclaim the
oneness of mankind."

THE UNITED STATES IS SIGNALLY BLEST

This nation so signally blest, occupying so eminent and responsible
a position in a continent so wonderfully endowed, was the first among

+P36
the nations of the West to be warmed and illuminated by the rays of the
Revelation of &Baha'u'llah, soon after the proclamation of His Covenant
on the morrow of His ascension. This nation, moreover, may well claim
to have, as a result of its effective participation in both the first and
second world wars, redressed the balance, saved mankind the horrors of
devastation and bloodshed involved in the prolongation of hostilities,
and decisively contributed, in the course of the latter conflict, to the
overthrow of the exponents of ideologies fundamentally at variance
with the universal tenets of our Faith.
To her President, the immortal Woodrow Wilson, must be ascribed
the unique honor, among the statesmen of any nation, whether of the
East or of the West, of having voiced sentiments so akin to the
principles animating the Cause of &Baha'u'llah, and of having more
than any other world leader, contributed to the creation of the League
of Nations--achievements which the pen of the Center of God's
Covenant acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great Peace,
whose sun, according to that same pen, must needs arise as the direct
consequence of the enforcement of the laws of the Dispensation of
&Baha'u'llah.
To the matchless position achieved by so preeminent a president of
the American Union, in a former period, at so critical a juncture in
international affairs, must now be added the splendid initiative taken,
in recent years by the American government, culminating in the birth
of the successor of that League in San Francisco, and the establishment
of its permanent seat in the city of New York. Nor can the preponderating
influence exerted by this nation in the councils of the world, the
prodigious economic and political power that it wields, the prestige it
enjoys, the wealth of which it disposes, the idealism that animates its
people, her magnificent contribution, as a result of her unparalleled
productive power, for the relief of human suffering and the rehabilitation
of peoples and nations, be overlooked in a survey of the position
which she holds, and which distinguishes her from her sister nations in
both the new and old worlds.

TRIBULATIONS ARE INEVITABLE

Many and divers are the setbacks and reverses which this nation,
extolled so highly by &Abdu'l-Baha, and occupying at present so unique
a position among its fellow nations, must, alas, suffer. The road leading

+P37
to its destiny is long, thorny and tortuous. The impact of various forces
upon the structure and polity of that nation will be tremendous.
Tribulations, on a scale unprecedented in its history, and calculated to
purge its institutions, to purify the hearts of its people, to fuse its
constituent elements, and to weld it into one entity with its sister
nations in both hemispheres, are inevitable.
In one of the most remarkable Tablets revealed by &Abdu'l-Baha,
passages of which have already been quoted on previous occasions,
written in the evening of His life, soon after the termination of the first
World War, He anticipates, in succinct and ominous sentences, the
successive ebullitions which must afflict humanity, and whose full
force the American nation must, if her destiny is to be accomplished,
inevitably experience. "The ills from which the world now suffers," He
wrote, "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 world-wide in their range, will exert their utmost effort for the
advancement of their designs. The Movement of the Left will acquire
great importance. Its influence will spread."
The agitation in the Balkan Peninsula; the feverish activity in
which Germany and Italy played a disastrous role, culminating in the
outbreak of the second World War; the rise of the Fascist and Nazi
movements, which spread their ramifications to distant parts of the
globe; the spread of communism which, as a result of the victory of
Soviet Russia in that same war, has been greatly accelerated--all these
happenings, some unequivocally, others in veiled language, have been
forecast in this Tablet, the full force of whose implications are as yet
undisclosed, and which, we may well anticipate, the American nation,
as yet insufficiently schooled by adversity, must sooner or later experience.

AMERICA TO EVOLVE UNTIL LAST TASK IS DISCHARGED

Whatever the Hand of a beneficent and inscrutable Destiny has
reserved for this youthful, this virile, this idealistic, this spiritually
blessed and enviable nation, however severe the storms which may
buffet it in the days to come in either hemisphere, however sweeping
the changes which the impact of cataclysmic forces from without, and

+P38
the stirrings of a Divine embryonic Order from within, will effect in its
structure and life, we may, confident in the words uttered by &Abdu'l-Baha,
feel assured that that great republic--the shell that enshrines so
precious a member of the world community of the followers of His
Father--will continue to evolve, undivided and undefeatable, until the
sum total of its contributions to the birth, the rise and the fruition of
that world civilization, the child of the Most Great Peace and hallmark
of the Golden Age of the Dispensation of &Baha'u'llah, will have been
made, and its last task discharged.

[June 5, 1947]


European Pioneers and Temple Contract

Rejoice at evidences of continued vigorous activity. Renew plea to
believers possessing independent means to volunteer for European
pioneer field, both settlers and itinerant teachers. Eagerly awaiting
response to Convention message. Praying for placing of Temple contract
before termination of current year. Ardently supplicating unprecedented
blessings for manifold, meritorious, magnificent services. Deepest
love.

[July 13, 1947]


Evidences of Notable Expansion

Greatly welcome evidences of a notable expansion of activities and
increased intensification of efforts for publicity. I urge believers and
local assemblies to redouble their efforts in support of vital National
Fund. Praying ardently for realization of your highest hopes. Appreciate
action for preservation of Keith's grave. Do not advise you to
transmit further funds to Persia for the grave. I appeal to North
American believers to exert their utmost to insure the formation of
required number of assemblies by next April. Further sacrifices demanded,
rich reward assured. May entire body of American believers
arise to fulfill their glorious destiny.
Abiding gratitude, deepest love.

[September 10, 1947]

+P39
Effective Prosecution of Sacred Tasks

The steadily deepening crisis which mankind is traversing, on the
morrow of the severest ordeal it has yet suffered, and the attendant
tribulations and commotions which a travailing age must necessarily
experience, as a prelude to the birth of the new World Order, destined
to rise upon the ruins of a tottering civilization, must, as they intensify,
increasingly influence the course, and, in some cases, retard the
progress, of the collective enterprises successively launched in the
opening years of the second &Baha'i century, and in almost every
continent of the globe, by the world-wide community of the organized
followers of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah. In the land of its birth long-standing
political rivalries, combined with a steady decline in the
authority and influence exercised by the central government, are
contributing to the reemergence of reactionary forces, represented by
an as yet influential and fanatical priesthood, to a recrudescence of the
persecution, and a multiplication of the disabilities, to which a still
unemancipated Faith has been so cruelly subjected for more than a
century. In the heart of the continent of Europe, still fiercer political
rivalries, as well as the clash of conflicting ideologies, have prevented
the unification, indefinitely retarded the national revival, multiplied the
vicissitudes and rendered more desperate the plight, of a nation comprising
within its frontiers the largest community of the adherents of
the Faith on that continent--a community destined, as prophesied by
&Abdu'l-Baha, to play a major role in the spiritual awakening and the
ultimate conversion of the European peoples and races to His Father's
Faith. In the subcontinent of India recent political developments of a
momentous character have plunged its divers castes, races and denominations
into grave turmoil, brought in their wake riots, bloodshed,
misery and confusion, fanned into flame religious animosities, and well-nigh
disrupted its economic life. In the Nile Valley the outbreak of a
widespread and virulent epidemic, following closely upon the political
unrest and the severe economic crisis already afflicting its inhabitants,
threatens to disorganize the life of the nation and to bring in its wake
afflictions of an even more serious character. In the Holy Land itself,
the heart and nerve-center of the far-flung and firmly knit community
of the followers of &Baha'u'llah, and the repository of its holiest shrines,
already gravely disturbed by the chronic instability of its political life,

+P40
the religious dissensions of its inhabitants, and the ten-year-long strain
and danger to which its people have been subjected and exposed, fresh
perils are looming on its horizon, menacing it, on the one hand with the
ravages of an epidemic that has already taken so heavy a toll of the lives
of the people beyond its southern frontier, and threatening it, on the
other, with a civil war of extreme severity and unpredictable in its
consequences. Subject to the same fundamental causes which have
deranged the equilibrium of present-day society and corroded its life are
to be regarded the privations, the restrictions and crisis which, to a
lesser degree, are oppressing the peoples of Central and Southeastern
Europe, of the British Isles and of certain republics of Central and
South America.
In all these territories, whether in the Eastern or Western Hemisphere,
the nascent institutions of a struggling Faith, though subjected
in varying degrees to the stress and strain associated with the decline
and dissolution of time-honored institutions, with fratricidal strife,
economic upheavals, financial crises, outbreaks of epidemics and political
revolutions, have thus far, through the interpositions of a merciful
Providence, been graciously enabled to follow their charted course,
undeflected by the cross-currents and the tempestuous winds which
must of necessity increasingly agitate human society ere the hour of its
ultimate redemption approaches.
In contrast to these sorely tried countries on the European, the
Asiatic and the African continents, unlike her sister republics in either
Central or South America, the great republic of the West--the homeland
of that mother community which, fostered through the tender care
of an ever-solicitous Master, has already proved itself capable of rearing
in its turn such splendid progeny among the divers communities of
Latin America, which bids fair to multiply its daughter communities in
a continent of mightier potentialities--such a republic has been, to a
peculiar degree and over a long and uninterrupted period, relatively
free from the chronic disorders, the political disturbances, the economic
convulsions, the communal riots, the epidemics, the religious
persecutions, the privations and loss of life which, during successive
generations, have in one way or another afflicted so many peoples in
almost every part of the globe.
Singled out by the Almighty for such a unique measure of favor,
suffered to evolve, untrammelled and unperturbed, within the shell of

+P41
its God-given Administrative Order, distinguished from its sister communities
through the revelation of a Plan emanating directly from the
mind and pen of its Founder, enriched already by so many trophies,
each an eloquent testimony to its missionary zeal and valor in distant
fields and amidst divers peoples, the Community of the Most Great
Name in the North American continent must, sensible of the abounding
grace vouchsafed to it by &Baha'u'llah, resolve, as it has never
resolved before, to carry out, however much it may be buffeted by
future circumstances and the unforeseen ordeals which a heedless and
chaotic world may still further experience, the mission confidently
entrusted to its hands by an all-wise and loving Master.

HEART-WARMING PROGRESS IN EUROPEAN ENTERPRISE

Already in the newly opened European field, where the first stage
of its transatlantic missionary enterprise is now unfolding, the success
which the vanguard of its army of pioneers has already achieved in
several leading capitals of that continent is truly heart-warming and
evokes intense admiration. The broad outlines of the primary institutions
heralding the erection of the administrative framework of the
Faith of &Baha'u'llah in no less than ten sovereign states of Europe can
already be discerned--a powerful and signal reinforcement of the
organized and progressive efforts exerted by the British and German
communities on the northwestern limits of that continent and in its
very heart. In the Latin American field, where the structural basis of a
rising Administrative Order has already been established, through the
formation of firmly grounded assemblies in each of the republics of
Central and South America, the stage is being set for the erection of
those institutions which are to be regarded as the harbingers of the
secondary Houses of Justice which, in each of these republics, must act
as pillars, and assist in sustaining the weight, of the final unit designed
to consummate the institutions of that order. On the northern portion
of that same hemisphere the stage is already set for the impending
emergence of an institution which, however circumscribed its basis,
must ultimately, directly participate in the measures preliminary to the
constitution of the Universal House of Justice.
A community now in the process of marshalling and directing, in
such vast territories, in such outlying regions, amidst such a diversity of
peoples, at so precarious a stage in the fortunes of mankind, forces of

+P42
such incalculable potency, to serve purposes so meritorious and lofty,
cannot afford to falter for a moment or retrace its steps on the path it
now travels. Its commitments, so vast, so challenging, so rich in their
potentialities, in the North American continent, must, whatever betide
it, be carried out, in their entirety and without the slightest reservation
or hesitation. The pledge to multiply the local administrative institutions,
throughout the length and breadth of this continent must be
honored, and the placing of the contract for the interior ornamentation
of the holiest House of Worship ever to be erected to the glory of
&Baha'u'llah expedited. Above all a prodigious effort, nationwide, sustained
and wholly unprecedented in the annals of a richly endowed
and spiritually blessed community, aiming at the immediate increase of
the financial resources required for the effective prosecution of its
manifold and pressing tasks, is required.

TRIPLE CAMPAIGN OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE

The triple campaign, conducted in two hemispheres, comprising
within the scope of its operation the entire territory of the North
American republic, the Dominion of Canada, twenty republics of
Latin America, and no less than ten sovereign states of the European
continent, is indeed of critical importance. Every phase of this threefold
crusade, undertaken at the dawn of the second &Baha'i century by the
executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's Will and the custodians of His Plan, must
be accorded its due measure of consideration and its needs simultaneously
and vigorously fulfilled. The allurements of the glorious
adventure in the Latin American field, the glittering prizes already won
and the new ones within reach, must, at no time, obscure the issues, or
retard the task confronting the prosecutors of the Plan in their homeland,
or allow the interests of its assemblies, for the most part new and
struggling, to be either neglected or forgotten. Nor must the glamor of
the still more recent and glorious adventure embarked upon across the
Atlantic, within a turbulent, politically convulsed, economically disrupted
and spiritually depleted continent, dim, in however small a
measure, the radiance, or detract from the urgency, of the magnificent
enterprises, whose first fruits in Latin America are only beginning to
mature, in direct consequence of the initial operation of the Plan
bequeathed by &Abdu'l-Baha to the American believers.

+P43
To the vital requirements of this Plan, at so critical a juncture, both
in the fortunes of mankind in general, and of the Plan itself, to which
detailed reference has been made in a previous communication, I need
not again refer. All I desire to emphasize is my fervent plea, addressed to
both the administrators who, as the elected representatives of the
community must devise the plans, coordinate the activities, and direct
the agencies of a continually expanding community, and to those
whose privilege it is to labor, at home and abroad, to insure the effective
prosecution of these sacred tasks, to realize the propitiousness of the
present hour, recognize its urgency, meet its challenge and appreciate
its unique potentialities. As the international situation worsens, as the
fortunes of mankind sink to a still lower ebb, the momentum of the
Plan must be further accelerated, and the concerted exertions of the
community responsible for its execution rise to still higher levels of
consecration and heroism. As the fabric of present-day society heaves
and cracks under the strain and stress of portentous events and calamities,
as the fissures, accentuating the cleavage separating nation from
nation, class from class, race from race, and creed from creed, multiply,
the prosecutors of the Plan must evince a still greater cohesion in their
spiritual lives and administrative activities, and demonstrate a higher
standard of concerted effort, of mutual assistance, and of harmonious
development in their collective enterprises.
Then, and only then, will the reaction to the stupendous forces,
released through the operation of a divinely conceived, divinely impelled
Plan, be made apparent, and the fairest fruit of the weightiest
spiritual enterprise launched in recorded history under the aegis of the
Center of the Covenant of &Baha'u'llah be garnered.

[October 25, 1947]


Recognition of Preeminent Services

Highly gratified at unceasing, compelling evidences of exalted
spirit of &Baha'i stewardship animating American &Baha'i Community, as
attested by the alacrity of its national representatives in executing the
first Temple contract, their promptitude in extending effective assistance
to their Persian brethren, their vigilance in safeguarding integrity

+P44
of the Faith in the City of the Covenant and their vigor in prosecuting
the national campaign of publicity.
In recognition of preeminent services continually enriching the
record of achievements associated with preeminent community of the
&Baha'i world, I am arranging transfer of extensive, valuable property
acquired in precincts of Shrines on Mount Carmel to name of Palestine
Branch of American Assembly.
Happy to announce completion of plans and specifications for
erection of arcade surrounding the &Bab's Sepulcher, constituting the
first step in the process destined to culminate in construction of the
dome anticipated by &Abdu'l-Baha and marking consummation of
enterprise initiated by Him fifty years ago according to instructions
given Him by &Baha'u'llah.

[December 15, 1947]


Critical Stage of Task on Home Front

I am deeply concerned at critical stage of task confronting North
American Teaching Committee, constituting at this juncture the
paramount objective of present Plan. Owing to urgent, overriding
importance of Committee's responsibility and to swiftly approaching
time limit fixed for attainment of the goal of one hundred seventy-five
assemblies, emergency measures carefully, promptly devised by national
representatives of the community and wholeheartedly supported
by entire mass of the believers of the North American continent,
designed to safeguard the existing assemblies and rapidly multiply their
number, are imperative. The placing of further contract for Temple,
the reinforcement of basis of forthcoming Canadian National Spiritual
Assembly, the additional consolidation of the institutions of the Faith
in Latin America, the wider proclamation of its message to the masses,
even the multiplication of pioneers in the European field, should be
unhesitatingly subordinated to demands of the one disconcerting aspect
of an otherwise successfully conducted Plan. I address this last-minute
appeal to every single member of the community, the champion
warriors in the army of &Baha'u'llah, which since launching the Plan
formulated by the Center of His Covenant never succumbed to defeat
nor was thwarted in its purpose, to arise resolutely, volunteer instantly

+P45
to fill the gap in the main defenses of the home front and register total
victory ere the termination of the second year of the Second Seven Year
Plan. Fervently praying for instantaneous, decisive response.

[January 10, 1948]


No Sacrifice Too Great

The gravity of the emergency facing the North American believers
is unprecedented since the initiation of the Divine Plan and unparalleled
in the history of the American &Baha'i Community since &Abdu'l-Baha's
passing. No obstacle is insuperable, no sacrifice too great for
attainment of supremely important objective. The eyes of her sister
communities in every continent of the globe and of her daughter
communities of Latin America, handicapped by a variety of adverse
circumstances, are fixed upon the community of followers of
&Baha'u'llah in North American continent who are enjoying the blessings
of internal peace, adequate resources, administrative experience
and organizing ability for their divinely appointed mission, expecting
them to arise and avert the reverse which would mar the splendor of
their record of unexampled stewardship. I am moved to plead, at this
eleventh hour, that the rank and file of the community, particularly the
members resident in long-established leading strongholds of the
Faith--New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington
--issue forth unhesitatingly, determinedly, sacrifice every interest,
assume positions in the forefront of the struggle and emulate in
the course of the first decade of second &Baha'i century, opening years
of the second epoch of Formative Age of the Faith, exploits of their
spiritual progenitors, the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age, which
immortalized the dawn of the first &Baha'i century. The immediate
fortunes of the Plan are precariously hanging in the balance. The three
months' interval is swiftly running out. My heart aches at contemplation
of the possibility of failure of the stalwart community to rise to the
heights of the occasion. I refuse to believe that its members, invested
with unique apostolic mission of &Abdu'l-Baha, will shrink from meeting
the most challenging requirement of the present hour.

[February 1, 1948]

+P46
Prevailing Crisis

Hope is welling up in my anxious, overburdened heart that the
North American &Baha'i Community may yet emerge triumphant over
the prevailing crisis, demonstrate its capacity to preserve its hard-won
prizes and redeem its pledges through a further display of its qualities of
unconquerable faith, unbreakable solidarity, dauntless valor and heroic
self-sacrifice, and vindicate its right to primacy in the world community
of the followers of &Baha'u'llah. High water mark is still unattained
notwithstanding the mounting tide of enthusiastic response displayed
by an aroused community. Dangerous passage now forded in this
eleventh-hour campaign. I am fervently praying that further intensification
of effort, sustained, coordinated, consecrated and unanimously
exerted, will sweep its members on crest of the wave to total
victory. I feel assured that cumulative efforts of participants in emergency
campaign launched by entire community will increasingly attract
the promised inflowing grace of the holy Author of its destinies,
will demonstrate afresh its worthiness of the paternal care of its divine
Founder, will win added commendation from its sister communities of
the Eastern Hemisphere, deepen the admiration and inspire the emulation
of its daughter communities in Latin America and the European
continent, and strengthen the attachment and reinforce the brotherly
affection of its Guardian.

[February 13, 1948]


Emergency Teaching Campaign

Greatly encouraged by the splendid progress of the tremendous
drive initiated in response to my appeal. The zero hour is inexorably
approaching. Nineteen additional settlers can and must be provided.
Praying with increasing fervor for total success, complete victory.

[April 6, 1948]


Marvelous Acceleration

[FIRST MESSAGE TO 1948 CONVENTION]

I am moved to share with assembled delegates of the fortieth
American &Baha'i Convention the following facts and figures testifying

+P47
to the present status of the World Faith of &Baha'u'llah and disclosing
the marvelous acceleration in the double process of the extension of its
range and the consolidation of the institutions of its Administrative
Order in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres in the course of the
first four years of the second &Baha'i century.
The number of countries opened to the Faith total ninety-one.
&Baha'i literature is translated and printed in fifty-one languages.
Representatives of thirty-one races are enrolled in the &Baha'i World
Community. Eighty-eight assemblies, national and local, are incorporated.
The number of localities where &Baha'is have established residence has
been raised to over thirty in Australasia, to over forty in Germany and
Austria, over sixty in the Dominion of Canada, over eighty in the
Indian subcontinent and Burma, over one hundred in Latin America,
over seven hundred in Persia and to over twelve hundred in the United
States of America.
The value of international &Baha'i endowments in the Holy Land
and the Jordan Valley is estimated at over six hundred thousand
pounds. National &Baha'i endowments on the North American continent
are valued at over two million dollars. The area of land dedicated
to the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Persia is approximately four million square
meters. The value of the national &Haziratu'l-Quds in the capitals of
India and Persia respectively is six hundred thousand rupees and fifty
thousand pounds. The area of land dedicated to the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
in South America is ninety thousand square meters. The
number of pieces of &Baha'i literature sold and distributed in the course
of one year in North America is over eighty thousand pieces. The
record of the number of visitors to the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in America
in one year is over seventeen thousand and the total number of visitors
since its erection is over one quarter of a million. The number of
states in the American Union formally recognizing &Baha'i marriage
certificates is now eight. The number of national assemblies functioning
in the &Baha'i world is raised to nine through the formation of the
first Canadian National Assembly, to be shortly reinforced through the
constitution of two additional assemblies in South and Central America
and the West Indies.
The second seven-year, the six-year, the four and one-half year, the
six-year, the three-year, the five-year and forty-five month plans respectively
launched by the American, British, Indian, Australasian, &Iraqi,
Canadian, and Persian National Spiritual Assemblies, some culminating

+P48
at the first Centennial of the birth of &Baha'u'llah's mission, others
the Hundredth Anniversary of the &Bab's Martyrdom, are aiming at the
establishment of three national assemblies in Canada and Latin America,
the completion of the interior ornamentation of the Mother
Temple of the West, the formation of spiritual assemblies in ten
sovereign states of the European continent, the constitution of nineteen
assemblies in the British Isles, doubling the number of assemblies in
India, Pakistan and Burma, the reconstitution of the dissolved assemblies
and the establishment of ninety-five new centers in Persia, the
conversion of groups in Bahrein, the &Hijaz and &Afghanistan into
assemblies, the formation of administrative nuclei in the Arabian
territories of Yemen, Oman, Hasa and Kuweit; the formation of thirty-one
groups and seven assemblies in Australia, New Zealand and
Tasmania; the multiplication of centers in the provinces of &Iraq,
including the district of Shattu'l-Arab; the incorporation of the Canadian
National Assembly; doubling the number of assemblies and
raising to one hundred the centers in the Dominion of Canada; the
constitution of nuclei in Newfoundland and Greenland and the
participation of Eskimos and Red Indians in the local institutions of the
Administrative Order.
Plans and specifications have been prepared, and preliminary
measures taken, to place contracts for the arcade of the &Bab's Sepulcher.
Historic International &Baha'i Congresses held in South and Central
America and an inter-European Teaching Conference projected for
Geneva paving the way for future World &Baha'i Congress. Recognition
extended to the Faith by United Nations as international non-governmental
body, enabling appointment of accredited representatives
to United Nations conferences, is heralding world recognition
for a universal proclamation of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah.

[April 16, 1948]


Brilliant Achievements

[SECOND MESSAGE TO 1948 CONVENTION]

Joyfully acclaim brilliant achievements transcending fondest hopes
and setting the seal of complete victory on the stupendous labors
undertaken by American &Baha'i Community in the second year of the
Second Seven Year Plan. The constitution of the National Spiritual

+P49
Assembly of Canada, the heroic feat of raising to almost two hundred
the number of spiritual assemblies in the North American continent,
the marvelous expansion of the daughter communities in Latin America,
the successful conclusion of the preliminary phase of the interior
ornamentation of the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, and the crowning exploit of
the formation of no less than seven assemblies in the newly opened
transcontinental field, endow with everlasting fame the second epoch
of the Formative Age, immeasurably enrich the annals of the opening
decade of the second &Baha'i century, and constitute a landmark in the
unfoldment of the second stage of the execution of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Plan.
The primacy of the American &Baha'i Community is reasserted,
fully vindicated and completely safeguarded. Recent successive victories
proclaim the undiminished strength and exemplary valor of the
rank and file of the community whether administrators, teachers or
pioneers in three continents regarded as the latest links in the chain of
uninterrupted achievements performed by its members in the council,
and teaching field for over a quarter of a century. I recall on this joyous
occasion with pride, emotion, thankfulness, the resplendent record of
stewardship of this dearly loved, richly endowed, unflinchingly resolute
community, whose administrators have assumed the preponderating
share in perfecting the machinery of the Administrative Order, whose
elected representatives have raised the edifice and completed the
exterior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West, whose trail-blazers
opened an overwhelming majority of the ninety-one countries
now included within the pale of the Faith, whose pioneers established
flourishing communities in twenty republics of Latin America, whose
benefactors extended in ample measure assistance in various ways to
their sorely pressed brethren in distant fields, whose members scattered
themselves to thirteen hundred centers in every state of the American
Union, every province of the Dominion of Canada, whose firmest
champion succeeded in winning royalty's allegiance to the Message of
&Baha'u'llah, whose heroes and martyrs laid down their lives in its
service in fields as remote as Honolulu, Buenos Aires, Sidney, &Isfahan,
whose vanguard pushed its outposts to the antipodes on the farthest
verge of the South American continent, to the vicinity of the Arctic
Circle, to the northern, southern, and western fringes of the European
continent, whose ambassadors are now convening, on the soil of one of
the newly won territories, its historic first conference designed to

+P50
consolidate the newly won prizes, whose spokesmen are securing
recognition of the institutions of &Baha'u'llah's rising World Order in
the United Nations.
Appeal to members of the community so privileged, so loved, so
valorous, endowed with such potentialities to unitedly press forward
however afflictive the trials their countrymen may yet experience,
however grievous the tribulations the land of their heart's desire may
yet suffer, however oppressive an anxiety the temporary severance of
external communications with the World Center of their Faith may
engender, however onerous the tasks still to be accomplished, until
every single obligation under the present Plan is honorably fulfilled,
enabling them to launch in its appointed time the third crusade
destined to bring glorious consummation to the first epoch in the
evolution of their divinely appointed world mission, fulfill the prophecy
uttered by Daniel over twenty centuries ago, contribute the major share
of the world triumph of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah envisaged by the
Center of His Covenant, and hasten the opening of the Golden Age of
the &Baha'i Dispensation.

[April 26, 1948]


Support the National Fund

Temple drawings received. Approve design. Urge that you proceed
without delay to place Temple contracts.
I appeal to entire body of believers to arise and generously support
the National Fund in hour of greatest need to insure uninterrupted
progress in the ornamentation of the House of Worship which, as
foretold by &Abdu'l-Baha, is already conferring such benefits upon the
community.

[May 4, 1948]


Temple Interior Ornamentation and Arcade of the &Bab's
Sepulcher

Delighted at contract for ornamentation, projected reception (i.e.,
for UN delegates in Geneva), appointment of new committees for

+P51
consolidation of teaching work and noble determination to pursue
unremittingly your God-given task.
Announce to the friends that signature on contracts for arcade of
the &Bab's Sepulcher is synchronizing with first contract for interior
ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West.

[May 14, 1948]


My Appeal to This God-Chosen Community

The response of the American &Baha'i Community to the urgent call
to arise and remedy a critical situation has been such as to excite my
highest admiration and exceed the hopes of all those who had waited
with anxious hearts for this dangerous corner to be turned at such an
important stage in the prosecution of the Second Seven Year Plan.
The rapidity with which the challenge has been met, the strenuous
efforts which have been systematically exerted, the zeal and devotion
which have been so abundantly demonstrated, the resolution and self-sacrifice
which have been so strikingly displayed by the members of a
community, burdened with such mighty responsibilities and intent on
maintaining its lead among its sister communities in East and West,
confer great luster on this latest episode in the history of the prosecution
of the Divine Plan. I am moved to offer its high-minded and valiant
members my heartfelt congratulations on so conspicuous a victory, and
on the preservation of an unblemished record of achievements in the
service of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah.
The formation of the Canadian National Assembly, the conclusion
of the preliminary steps for the completion of the interior ornamentation
of the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, the rapid multiplication and consolidation
of the institutions of the Faith throughout Latin America, the
steady expansion of the activities aiming at the proclamation of the
Faith to the masses, the recognition secured, on behalf of the national
institutions of a world community, from the United Nations Organization,
above all the phenomenal success achieved through the constitution
of no less than eight spiritual assemblies in seven of the goal
countries selected as targets for the transatlantic operation of the Plan,
now crowned by the holding of the first teaching conference on the
continent of Europe--all these have served to immortalize the second

+P52
year of the Second Seven Year Plan and round out the mighty feat
accomplished throughout the states and provinces of the North American
continent--the base from which the operation of a divinely
impelled and constantly expanding Plan are being conducted.
Emboldened by the enduring and momentous successes won, on so
many fronts, in such distant fields, among such a diversity of peoples,
and in the face of such formidable obstacles, by a community now
launched, in both hemispheres, on its world-encircling mission, I direct
my appeal to the entire membership of this God-chosen community, to
its associates and daughter communities in the Dominion of Canada, in
Central and South America, and in the continent of Europe, to
proclaim, in the course of this current year, to their sister communities
in East and West and by deeds no less resplendent than those of the
past, their inflexible resolve to prosecute unremittingly the Plan entrusted
to their care, and emblazon on their shields the emblems of new
victories in its service.
The placing, with care and promptitude, of the successive contracts,
designed to ensure the uninterrupted progress of the interior
ornamentation of the Temple, at a time when the international
situation is fraught with so many complications and perils; the acceleration
of the twofold process designed to preserve the status of the
present assemblies throughout the states of the Union and multiply
their number; the constant broadening of the bases on which the
projected Latin American national assemblies are to be securely
founded; the steady expansion of the work initiated to give wider
publicity to the Faith in the North American continent and in circles
associated with the United Nations; and, last but not least, the
constitution of firmly established assemblies in each of the remaining
goal countries in Europe and the simultaneous initiation, in the
countries already provided with such assemblies, of measures aiming at
the formation of several nuclei calculated to reinforce the structural
basis of an infant Administrative Order--these stand out as the primary
and inescapable duties which the members of your Assembly--the
mainspring of the multitudinous activities carried on in your homeland,
in the Latin American field, and on the European front--must in
this third year of the Second Seven Year Plan, befittingly discharge.
That the launching of one of these fundamental activities to be

+P53
conducted by your Assembly during the present year--the commencement
of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the
West--should have so closely synchronized with the placing of the first
two contracts for the completion of the Sepulcher of the &Bab, as
contemplated by &Abdu'l-Baha, is indeed a phenomenon of singular
significance. This conjunction of two events of historic importance,
linking, in a peculiar degree, the most sacred House of Worship in the
American continent with the most hallowed Shrine on the slopes of
Mount Carmel, brings vividly to mind the no less remarkable coincidence
marking the simultaneous holding, on a &Naw-Ruz Day, of the
first convention of the American &Baha'i Community and the entombment
by the Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant of the remains of the &Bab
in the newly constructed vault of His Shrine.+F1 The simultaneous arrival
of those remains in the fortress city of &Akka and of the first pilgrims
from the continent of America;+F2 the subsequent association of the
founder of the American &Baha'i Community with &Abdu'l-Baha in the
laying of the cornerstone of the &Bab's Mausoleum on Mount Carmel;
the holding of the Centenary of His Declaration beneath the dome of
the recently constructed &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at Wilmette, on which
solemn occasion His blessed portrait was unveiled, on western soil, to
the eyes of His followers; and the unique distinction now conferred on
a member+F3 of the North American &Baha'i Community of designing the
dome, envisaged by &Abdu'l-Baha, as the final and essential embellishment
of the &Bab's Sepulcher--all these have served to associate the
Herald of our Faith and His resting-place with the fortunes of a
community which has so nobly responded to His summons addressed to
the "peoples of the West" in His &Qayyumu'l-Asma'.
"This Sublime Shrine has remained unbuilt ...," &Abdu'l-Baha,
looking at the Shrine from the steps of His House on an August day in
1915, remarked to some of His companions, at a time when the &Bab's
remains had already been placed by Him in the vault of one of the six
chambers He had already constructed for that purpose. "God willing, it
will be accomplished. We have carried its construction to this stage."
The initiation in these days of extreme peril in the Holy Land of so
great and holy an enterprise, founded by &Baha'u'llah Himself whilst
still a Prisoner in &Akka and commenced by &Abdu'l-Baha during the
darkest and most perilous days of His ministry, recalls to our minds,

+F1 See God Passes By, p. 276
+F2 See God Passes By, p. 257-8
+F3 William Sutherland Maxwell of Montreal

+P54
furthermore, the construction of the superstructure of the Temple in
Wilmette during one of the severest financial crises that has afflicted
the United States of America, and the completion of its exterior
ornamentation during the dark days of the last World War. Indeed, the
tragic and moving story of the transfer of the &Bab's mutilated body from
place to place ever since His Martyrdom in &Tabriz, its fifty-year
concealment in Persia; its perilous and secret journey by way of &Tihran,
&Isfahan, &Kirmanshan, &Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and &Akka to the
Mountain of God, its ultimate resting place; its concealment for a further
period of ten years in the Holy Land itself; the vexatious and long-drawn-out
negotiations for the purchase of the site chosen by
&Baha'u'llah Himself for its entombment; the threats of &Abdu'l-Hamid,
the Turkish tyrant, the accusations levelled against its Trustee, the
plots devised, and the inspection made, by the scheming members of
the notorious Turkish Commission of Inquiry; the perils to which the
bloodthirsty &Jamal &Pasha exposed it; the machinations of the arch-breaker
of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant, of His brother and of His son,
respectively, aiming at the frustration of &Abdu'l-Baha's design, at the
prevention of the sale of land within the precincts of the Shrine itself,
and the multiplication of the measures taken for the preservation and
consolidation of the properties purchased in its vicinity and dedicated
to it--all these are to be regarded as successive stages in the history of
the almost hundred year long process destined to culminate in the
consummation of &Baha'u'llah's irresistible purpose of erecting a lasting
and befitting memorial to His Divine Herald and Co-Founder of His
Faith.
As the mission entrusted by &Abdu'l-Baha to the followers of His
Faith in the North American continent gathers momentum, unfolds its
potentialities, and raises to new heights of heroism and renown its
valiant prosecutors, events of still greater significance will, no doubt,
transpire, which will serve to enhance the value of the work which the
prosecutors of the Plan are carrying out, to widen their vision, to
reinforce their exertions, to sustain their spirit, to ennoble their heritage,
to noise abroad their fame, to facilitate their assumption of the
unique functions distinguishing their stewardship to the Faith, and to
hasten the advent of the day, which shall witness, in the Golden Age
that is still unborn, their "elevation to the throne of an everlasting

+P55
dominion," the day whereon "the whole earth" will "resound with the
praises" of their "majesty and greatness."

[May 18, 1948]


Urge Special Attention to Goals

Welcome decisions made at recent Assembly meeting. Supplicating
blessings for forthcoming conference with committees. Elated by
magnificent success achieved at European Conference, development of
affiliation with United Nations... Urge you devote special attention
in current year to insure rapid progress of Temple construction,
maintenance of assembly status and consolidation of newly formed
assemblies.

[June 23, 1948]


Praying for Added Fervor

Greatly welcome initiated plans for schools, delighted at progress of
Temple work, acceptance of resolutions by UNO Conference, election
of Ioas. Urge unrelaxing vigilance in maintenance of status and
consolidation of assemblies in North America, to insure steady expansion
of manifold activities in Latin America and Europe. Praying for
added fervor, speedy realization of high objectives of God-given mission
of much-admired American &Baha'i Community.

[August 9, 1948]


Completed Tasks Release Outpouring of Grace

Welcome Assembly's high resolve to insure uninterrupted Temple
construction. Deeply moved and thankful for continued evidence of the
inflexible determination with which the rank and file of the clear-sighted,
high-minded, divinely sustained American &Baha'i Community,

+P56
its representatives, national, local and regional, its pioneers at
home and overseas, discharge in distant fields, despite the smallness
of their numbers and their limited resources, tasks of such vast
dimensions, of so diversified a character, of such great moment, at so
significant a stage in the declining fortunes of an imperiled society. I
feel convinced that unflinching maintenance of so exalted a standard of
stewardship at the threshold of &Baha'u'llah must release in still greater
measure the outpouring of His grace so essential and befitting the
consummation of a Divine Plan deriving its authority from the pen of
the Center of His Covenant and propelled by agencies created through
the generative influence of His Will and Testament.

[September 14, 1948]


Appeal to Entire Community to Persevere

Appreciate Assembly's message. Praying for success of plans. Urge
special effort to expedite work of Temple, reinforce pioneer endeavor in
Europe owing to deteriorating international situation. Appeal to entire
community wholeheartedly to persevere irrespective of darkened outlook.

[October 21, 1948]


Scale Nobler Heights of Heroism

The deepening crisis ominously threatening further to derange the
equilibrium of a politically convulsed, economically disrupted, socially
subverted, morally decadent and spiritually moribund society is testing
the tenacity, taxing the resources and challenging the spirit throughout
three continents of the chosen trustees and valiant executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan. This present hour, however critical, fraught with
uncertainty, cannot and must not retard the unfoldment of the manifold
tasks so brilliantly inaugurated, so diligently prosecuted, so
dazzling in their prospects.
The record of the &Baha'i community since inception of the Formative
Age conclusively demonstrates that accomplishment of signal acts
accompanied, or followed upon, periods of acute distress in European

+P57
and American contemporary history. The machinery of the Administrative
Order was established, and preliminary stage of construction of
the House of Worship was undertaken, by a grief-stricken community
in the anxious years following the sudden removal of its loving,
watchful Founder. The superstructure of the Temple was erected amid
the strain and stress of an economic depression of an unprecedented
severity gripping the North American continent. The first Seven Year
Plan, opening stage in the execution of the historic mission entrusted to
the American &Baha'i Community, was launched in the face of a
gathering storm culminating in the direst conflict yet experienced by
mankind. The Tablets of the Divine Plan were revealed amidst the
turmoil of the first World War involving great danger to the life of
their Author. The remains of &Abdu'l-Baha's mother and brother were
transferred to site of monuments constituting focus of institutions of
future World Administrative Center and erected on the morrow of the
outbreak of hostilities while the Holy Land was increasingly exposed to
the perils precipitated by the second conflict. The daughter communities
of Latin America were called into being and exterior ornamentation
of the Temple was consummated while the American mother community
was in the throes of the last, most harassing stage of the devastating
struggle. The world-wide Centenary celebrations crowning these enterprises
were undertaken in such perilous circumstances and carried out
despite the formidable obstacles engendered through prolongation of
hostilities. National administrative headquarters were established in
&Tihran, Cairo, &Baghdad, Delhi and Sydney, national and international
endowments were enriched and assemblies incorporated in countries
confronted by growing threat of invasion and encirclement.
The Second Seven Year Plan inaugurating the transatlantic mission
embracing Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Switzerland, the
Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, was launched on the morrow of the
catastrophic upheaval despite the exhaustion, confusion, distress and
restrictions afflicting a war-shattered continent. The first fruits of this
newly launched Plan were garnered through convocation of first
European Teaching Conference and erection of the ninth pillar of the
Universal House of Justice in the Dominion of Canada despite
premonitory rumblings of a third ordeal threatening to engulf the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The central structure of the &Bab's
Sepulcher was built while the precious life of its builder was hanging

+P58
perilously in the balance. Plans were drawn, contracts placed and
foundations laid for its arcade while the holy places were ravaged by
flames of the civil strife burning fiercely in the Holy Land.
Precious years are inexorably slipping by. The world outlook is
steadily darkening. The American Community's most arduous feats
still lie ahead. Disasters overtaking Europe and America, more afflictive
than any tribulations yet suffered in either continent, may yet attend
still more majestic revelations in the unfoldment of concluding stage of
the Second Seven Year Plan destined to witness successively the raising
of the tenth and eleventh pillars of the Universal House of Justice, and
the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Mother Temple of the
West.
The champion builders of &Baha'u'llah's rising World Order must
scale nobler heights of heroism as humanity plunges into greater depths
of despair, degradation, dissension and distress. Let them forge ahead
into the future serenely confident that the hour of their mightiest
exertions and the supreme opportunity for their greatest exploits must
coincide with the apocalyptic upheaval marking the lowest ebb in
mankind's fast-declining fortunes.

[November 3, 1948]


The Citadel of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah

As the threat of still more violent convulsions assailing a travailing
age increases, and the wings of yet another conflict, destined to
contribute a distinct, and perhaps a decisive, share to the birth of the
new Order which must signalize the advent of the Lesser Peace, darken
the international horizon, the eyes of the divers communities, comprising
the body of the organized followers of &Baha'u'llah throughout the
Eastern Hemisphere, are being increasingly fixed upon the progressive
unfoldment of the tasks which the executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's Mandate
have been summoned to undertake in the course of the second stage of
their world-girdling mission. Past experience, ranging over a period of
many years, has taught them that no matter how formidable the
external obstacles that have confronted them during the turbulent and
eventful decades since the Master's passing, and despite the strain and
stress which internal crises, precipitated by enemies from within and by

+P59
adverse economic circumstances afflicting their country, have imposed,
the stalwart occupants of the citadel of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah have
with extraordinary steadfastness, enviable fidelity and magnificent
courage, not only shielded the interests, preserved the integrity and
demonstrated the worthiness, of the Cause they have embraced, but
have sallied forth, with dynamic and irrepressible energy, to implant its
banner and establish its outposts in countries and continents far
beyond the original scene of their operations.

STAUNCHNESS OF AMERICAN BELIEVERS

Neither the irreparable loss sustained by the termination of the
earthly life of a vigilant Master, nor the acute distress caused by the
financial collapse which suddenly swept their country, nor the unprecedented
tragedy of a world crisis that swept their land and its people into
its vortex, nor the perils and uncertainties, the exhaustion and the
disillusionment associated with its aftermath nor even the soul-shaking
tests which periodically assailed them, through the defection and the
attacks of Covenant-breakers, occupying, by virtue of their kinship to,
or their long association with, the Founder of their community, exalted
positions at the World Center of the Faith, or in the land from which it
sprang, or in their own country--none of these have succeeded in
vitiating the hidden spring of their spiritual life, in deflecting them
from their chosen course, or in even retarding the forward march and
fruition of their enterprises. In the toilsome task of fixing the pattern, of
laying the foundations, of erecting the machinery, and of setting in
operation the Administrative Order of their Faith, in the execution of
the successive stages in the erection and exterior ornamentation of their
Temple, in the launching of the initial enterprise under &Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan, which enabled them to establish the structural basis of the
Order, recently laid in their homeland, in every republic of Central and
South America; in the sustained, the systematic and prodigious effort
exerted for the enlargement of the administrative foundations of the
institutions of their Faith in every state and province of the United
States and the Dominion of Canada; in the parallel endeavors aimed at
the widespread dissemination of its literature, and the proclamation of
its verities and tenets to the masses; in the launching of the Second
Seven Year Plan, which has extended the ramifications of the Divine
Plan across the Atlantic to ten sovereign states of the European

+P60
continent and which has already yielded a rich return through the
formation of the first Canadian &Baha'i National Assembly and the
convocation of the first European Teaching Conference; in the
repeated, the timely, the spontaneous and generous contributions they
have made, on numerous occasions, for the relief of the persecuted
among their brethren, for the defense of their institutions, for the
vindication of their rights, for the consolidation of their activities and
the progress of their enterprises--in all these the champions of the
Faith of &Baha'u'llah have, with ever-increasing emphasis, borne witness
to the sublimity of the faith which burns within their breasts, to the
radiance of the vision that shines clearly and steadily before their eyes,
the sureness and rapidity that mark their gigantic strides, and the
vastness and glory of the unique mission entrusted to their hands.
Milestones of historic significance have been successively reached
and rapidly left behind. A still stonier stretch of road now lies before
them. Rumblings of catastrophes yet more dreadful agitate with increasing
frequency a sorely stressed and chaotic world, presenting a
challenge to grapple with the unfinished tasks, a challenge graver and
still more pressing than any hitherto experienced.

PRESS FORWARD ON TEMPLE CONTRACTS

The present and remaining contracts, designed to consummate the
magnificent enterprise, initiated almost fifty years ago, in the heart of
the North American continent and complete an edifice consecrated for
all time by the loving hands of the Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant,
constituting the foremost symbol of the Faith, and incarnating the soul
of the American &Baha'i Community in the Western Hemisphere, must
be speedily and systematically carried out, however onerous the task
may become, in consequence of the inevitable fluctuations to which the
present economic conditions are subjected, in preparation for the
jubilee that must mark the completion of that holy edifice. The recent
broadening of the administrative basis of the Faith in a land that has
served, and will long remain the base of the spiritual operations now
being conducted in both hemispheres, in response to the ringing call of
&Abdu'l-Baha, sounded three decades ago in His historic Tablets, must,
no matter how arduous and insistent the tasks to be performed in Latin
America and Europe, be fully maintained, and the process continually

+P61
enlarged and steadily consolidated. The various agencies designed to
carry the Message to the masses, and to present to them befittingly the
teachings of its Author, must, likewise, be vigilantly preserved, supported
and encouraged. The essential preliminaries, calculated to widen
the basis of the forthcoming Latin American national &Baha'i assemblies,
to familiarize the Latin American believers with the administrative
duties and functions they will be called upon to discharge and to
enrich and deepen their knowledge of the essentials of their Faith, its
ideals, its history, its requirements and its problems, must be carried out
with ever-increasing energy as the hour of the emergence of these Latin
American communities into independent existence steadily and inexorably
approaches. The necessary guidance, which can alone be properly
insured through the maintenance of an uninterrupted extension of
administrative assistance, through the settlement of pioneers and the
visits of itinerant teachers to the daughter communities, must under no
circumstances be completely withdrawn, after their independence has
been achieved. Above all, the momentous enterprise initiated in the
transatlantic field of service, so vast in conception, so timely, so arduous,
so far-reaching in its potentialities, so infinitely meritorious, must in the
face of obstacles, however insurmountable they may seem, be continually
reinvigorated through undiminished financial support, through
an ever-expanding supply of literature in each of the required languages,
through frequent, and whenever possible prolonged, visits of
itinerant teachers, through the continued settlement of pioneers,
through the consolidation of the assemblies already established,
through the early constitution of properly functioning assemblies in the
few remaining goal countries as yet deprived of this inestimable
blessing, and last but not least through the exertion of sustained and
concentrated efforts designed to supplement these foci of &Baha'i national
administrative activity with subsidiary centers whose formation
will herald the inauguration of teaching enterprises throughout the
provinces of each of these ten countries.
As the dynamic forces, sweeping forward the First Seven Year Plan,
on the last stages of its execution, rose rapidly to a crescendo, culminating
in the nationwide celebrations marking the centenary of the Faith
of &Baha'u'llah and synchronized with a further and still more precipitous
decline in the fortunes of a war-torn bleeding society, so must

+P62
every aggravation in the state of a world still harassed by the ravages of
a devastating conflict, and now hovering on the brink of a yet more
crucial struggle, be accompanied by a still more ennobling manifestation
of the spirit of this second crusade, whose consummation might
well coincide with a period of distress far more acute than the one
through which humanity is now passing.

CEASELESS EFFORT ESSENTIAL

Not ours to speculate, or dwell upon the immediate workings of an
inscrutable Providence presiding alike over the falling fortunes of a
dying Order and the rising glory of a Plan holding within it the seeds of
the world's spiritual revival and ultimate redemption. Nor can we
attempt as yet, whilst the second stage in the operation of such a Plan
has not yielded its destined fruit, to visualize the nature of the tasks, or
discern the character of the circumstances that will mark the progressive
unfoldment of a third successive crusade, the successful termination
of which must signalize the closing of the first historic epoch in the
evolution of the Divine Plan. All we can be sure of, and confidently
assert, is that upon the outcome of the assiduous efforts now being
collectively exerted, in three continents, by the North American, the
Latin and European believers, acting under the Mandate of &Abdu'l-Baha,
associated with the one and only Plan conceived by Himself,
aided by the agencies deriving their inspiration from His Will and
Testament, and assured of the support promised by the pen of His
Father, in His Most Holy Book, must solely depend the timing as well
as the nature of the tasks which must be successfully carried out ere the
closing of an epoch of such transcendent brightness and glory in the
evolution of the mightiest Plan ever generated through the creative
power of the Most Great Name, as manifested by the Will of the
Center of His Covenant and the Interpreter of His Teaching.
There can be no doubt whatever that with every turn of the wheel,
as a result of the operation of &Abdu'l-Baha's Plan, and with every
extension in the range of its evolution, a responsibility of still greater
gravity and of wider import will have to be shouldered by its divinely
chosen executors wherever its ramifications may extend and however
oppressive the state of the countries and continents in which they may
have to labor. They must strive, ceaselessly strive, ready for any
emergency, steeled to meet any degree of opposition, unsatisfied with

+P63
any measure of progress as yet achieved, prepared to make sacrifices far
exceeding any they have already willingly made, and confident that
such striving, such readiness, such resolution, such high-mindedness,
such sacrifice will earn them the palm of a victory still more soul-satisfying
and resounding in its magnificence than any as yet won since
the inception of their mission.
May He Who called them into being and raised them up, Who
fostered them in their infancy, Who extended to them the blessing of
His personal support in their years of childhood, Who bequeathed to
them the distinguishing heritage of His Plan, Whose Will and Testament
initiated them, during the period of their adolescence, in the
processes of a divinely appointed Administrative Order, Who enabled
them to attain maturity through the inauguration of the first stage in
the execution of His Plan, Who conferred upon them the privilege of
spiritual parenthood at the close of the initial phase in the operation of
that same Plan, continue through the further unfoldment of the second
stage in its evolution to guide their steps along the path leading to the
assumption of functions proclaiming the attainment of full spiritual
manhood, and enable them eventually, through the long and slow
processes of evolution and in conformity with the future requirements
of a continually evolving Plan, to manifest before the eyes of the
members of their sister communities, their countrymen and the whole
world, and in all their plenitude, the potentialities inherent within
them, and which in the fullness of time, must reflect in its perfected
form, the glories of the mission constituting their birthright.

[November 8, 1948]


Budget Approved for 1949-1950

Approve committing community to amounts proposed for 1949 and
1950 in your letter of November 11. Urgent to curtail if necessary
expenditure on Public Relations, National Programming and Radio
during the next two years. Ardently praying for solution of problem,
removal of difficulties, attainment of high objectives.

[November 25, 1948]

+P64
Preliminary Temple Contracts

Welcome preliminary contracts for Temple and determination to
ensure completion. Advise drastic reduction in appropriation for activities
except budgets for Latin America and European campaign, if
maximum sum for Temple is exceeded. Praying for removal of difficulties,
continual divine guidance, wise conduct of manifold activities for
Faith. Deepest love.

[December 10, 1948]


Arcade for the Shrine of the &Bab

Convey to believers the joyful news of the safe delivery on Mt.
Carmel of a consignment of thirty-two granite monolith columns, part
of the initial shipment of material ordered for construction of the
arcade of the &Bab's Sepulcher, designed to envelop and preserve the
sacred previous structure reared by &Abdu'l-Baha. Building operations
are soon starting notwithstanding the difficulties of the present situation.
I am supplicating the Almighty's guidance and sustaining grace
for successive stages of an enterprise envisaged sixty years ago by
&Baha'u'llah, initiated by the Center of His Covenant, designed to
culminate as contemplated by Him in erection of a superstructure to be
crowned by a golden dome marking the consummation at the heart of
the Mountain of God of the momentous undertaking born through the
generating influence of the Will of the Founder of our beloved Faith,
so dear to the heart of His blessed Son, and dedicated to the memory of
the Martyr-Prophet, the immortal Herald of the &Baha'i Dispensation.

[December 13, 1948]


Drastic Budget Reduction

Further drastic reduction in budget for next two years including
temporary suspension of Public Relations, National Programming,
radio activities; World Order, &Baha'i World publications permissible if
necessary.

[December 22, 1948]

+P65
Further Budget Reduction

Advise plan two. Urge, however, maintain permanent entrance
ways, vestibules and metal doors. Also permanent rubber tile or terrazzo
floor. Considering soaring prices, shortness of period, weighty issues
involved, approve still more drastic reduction of budget, complete
suspension during two years of appropriations for activities unconnected
with European project, Latin American work and assembly
consolidation in United States.

[January 13, 1949]

("Plan two" refers to a series of possible Temple construction schedules
submitted to the Guardian.)


Curtailment of Some Activities

Budgets for activities in Europe, Latin America and consolidation
work in United States should not be reduced owing to their vital
relation to Second Seven Year Plan. All other activities, whether
connected with proclamation of Faith, publications, &Baha'i Magazine,
&Baha'i World or schools, should either be drastically curtailed or
suspended during two years. Holding Annual Convention and maintenance
of &Baha'i News essential.

[January 19, 1949]


Divert Contributions to Temple Fund

Advise that you divert contributions for International Fund to
Temple Fund, and suspend World Order Magazine.

[February 26, 1949]


Suspend World Order Magazine

Advise you to suspend magazine for next two years. Appeal on my
behalf to subscribers in East and West to devote their subscription fee

+P66
to Temple Fund. Owing to present emergency such action would be
highly meritorious.

[February 28, 1949]


A Testing Period Recalling Ordeals of the Dawn-Breakers

The first half of the opening decade of the second &Baha'i century is
terminating. The great-minded, stout-hearted, high-spirited American
&Baha'i Community, laden with the trophies accumulated in the course
of its fifty years' magnificent stewardship of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah is
irresistibly embarking upon a two and a half year period unsurpassed in
its fateful consequences by any previous stage traversed in the community's
eventful history.
Its members, without exception, are called upon to steel themselves
without delay to face an unexpected emergency, seize a God-given
opportunity, meet a supreme challenge, and show forth a tenacity of
purpose, a solidarity in sacrifice, an austerity in everyday life, worthy
the Martyr-Prophet of their Faith as well as their heroic spiritual
forebears, the hundredth anniversary of whose agonizing tribulations,
including captivity, sieges, betrayals, spoliation and martyrdom, is
being commemorated during this same period.
No lesser tribute can be paid the memory of the glorious &Bab, the
immortal &Quddus, the lion-hearted &Mulla &Husayn, the erudite &Vahid,
the audacious &Hujjat, the illustrious seven martyrs of &Tihran and a host
of unnumbered heroes whose lifeblood flowed so copiously in the
course of the opening decade of the first &Baha'i century, by the
privileged champion-builders of the World Order of &Baha'u'llah during
the present critical stage in the unfoldment of the Formative Age of
His Dispensation, than a parallel outpouring of their substance by the
builders of the most holy House of Worship laboring in the corresponding
decade of the succeeding century.
The American &Baha'i Community, exalted, singled out among
sister communities of East and West through revelation of the Tablets
of the Divine Plan, is unavoidably approaching a testing period,
crucial, prolonged, potent, purifying, clearly envisaged by &Abdu'l-Baha,
different from but recalling in its severity the ordeals which
afflicted the dawn-breakers in a former Age.

+P67
The anticipated trials will enable its members to plumb greater
depths of consecration, soar to nobler heights of collective endeavor,
and disclose in fuller measure the future glory of their destiny.
Might not the strain, the stress, of the strenuous period now being
ushered in through inscrutable dispensations of Providence be productive
of perspicuous benefits and blessings reminiscent of the incalculable
outpourings of divine grace which followed closely in the train
of the woeful trials immortalizing the initial, the bloodiest, the most
dramatic period in the Heroic Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation.

[March 16, 1949]


Arcade of the &Bab's Shrine Begun

Convey to friends the joyful historic news of commencement of
construction of arcade of the &Bab's Shrine coinciding with fortieth
anniversary of the placing of His remains in marble sarcophagus in
vault of the same shrine by &Abdu'l-Baha.

[March 21, 1949]


One Remaining Objective Hangs in the Balance

The American &Baha'i Community, undefeated as yet in the performance
of any task undertaken collectively by its members, in the
course of its eventful history, is now entering a period of grave
emergency, that will try the mettle of every single one of its members.
Severe as the challenge will be, however prolonged the test, no matter
how distracting the condition of the world about them, the issues which
claim every ounce of their energy and call for their sustained, wholehearted,
concentrated attention are so weighty that none can evaluate at
present the influence they will exert on the course of the community's
future destiny.
There can be no doubt that the Second Seven Year Plan, the vital
link binding the initial and concluding stages of the first epoch in the
progressive evolution of &Abdu'l-Baha's long-term continually unfolding
Plan, has reached its crucial phase--a phase on which hinge the
fortunes not only of the Plan itself but of the community as a whole.

+P68
The fourth objective of the Plan, the transatlantic project, on which
its members have embarked, has, four years ahead of schedule, been,
to all intents and purposes, victoriously achieved. The third objective
has been partly attained, while its complete fulfillment, as a direct
consequence of the marvelous success that has attended the valiant labors
of the American pioneers and the newly enrolled native believers in
Latin America, appears to be now fully assured. The attainment of the
first objective has, as a result of the remarkable impetus given, during
the opening years of the Plan, to the multiplication of spiritual assemblies
and the proclamation of the Faith in North America, been greatly
facilitated, and will, with steady effort, involving not too great an
expenditure of energy, be insured in the course of the concluding phase
of the Plan. The completion of the Mother Temple of the West, the
sacredness of which neither the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the &Baha'i
world, nor any future House of Worship to be erected by the followers
of &Baha'u'llah, in any country, at any future date, can rival, in time for
the celebration of its Jubilee, is the one remaining objective that now
hangs precariously in the balance. Owing to a combination of circumstances
wholly beyond the control of its builders, this task has assumed
a critical importance, and is of such vital urgency, that no prosecutor
of the Plan, eager to witness its consummation, can afford to ignore
for a moment.
The sacrifice demanded is such as to have no parallel whatsoever in
the history of that community. The manifold issues inextricably interwoven
with the campaign audaciously launched for the achievement of
this high objective are of such a weighty character as to overshadow
every enterprise embarked upon through the organized efforts of its
members, in either the concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith
or the first epoch of the Age which succeeded it. The two years during
which this emergency will be most keenly felt coincide on the one hand
with a period of increasing distraction occasioned by the uncertainties,
the perils and fears of a steadily worsening international situation, and
on the other with the centenary of one of the most turbulent, afflictive
and glorious stages of &Baha'i history--a stage immortalized by an
effusion of blood, a self-abnegation, a heroism unsurpassed not only in
the annals of the Faith but in the world's spiritual history. How
meritorious, indeed, are the self-denying acts which this supremely
challenging hour now calls forth, amidst the perplexities and confusion

+P69
which present-day society is now experiencing! And yet, how trifling in
comparison with the self-immolation of the most distinguished, the
most precious heroes and saints of the Primitive Age of our glorious
Faith! An outpouring of treasure, no less copious than the blood shed so
lavishly in the Apostolic Age of the Faith by those who in the heart of
the Asiatic continent proclaimed its birth to the world, can befit their
spiritual descendants, who, in the present Formative Age of the
&Baha'i Dispensation, have championed the Cause, and assumed so
preponderating a share in the erection of its Administrative Order, and
are now engaged in the final stage of the building of the House that
incarnates the soul of that Faith in the American continent. No
sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure the completion of such an
edifice--the most holy House of Worship ever to be associated with the
Faith of the Most Great Name--an edifice whose inception has shed
such a luster on the closing years of the Heroic Age of the &Baha'i
Dispensation, which has assumed a concrete shape in the present
Formative stage in the evolution of our beloved Faith, whose dependencies
must spring into existence in the course of successive epochs of this
same Age, and whose fairest fruits will be garnered in the Age that is to
come, the last, the Golden Age of the initial and brightest Dispensation
of the five-thousand-century &Baha'i Cycle.
"A most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of
existence," are &Abdu'l-Baha's own words, predicting the release of
spiritual forces that must accompany the completion of this most
hallowed House of Worship. "From that point of light," He, further
glorifying that edifice, has written, "the spirit of teaching ... will
permeate to all parts of the world." And again: "Out of this
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, without doubt, thousands of &Mashriqu'l-Adhkars will be
born." "It marks the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth."
Again I repeat--and I cannot overrate the vital, the unique importance
of the campaign now launched to insure the completion of such
an edifice--the immediate destiny of the American &Baha'i Community
is intimately and inescapably bound up with the outcome of this newly
launched, this severely trying, soul-purging, spiritually uplifting campaign.
The God-given mission, constituting the birthright, and proclaiming
the primacy of a community whose members the Founder of
that community, the Center of the Covenant Himself, has addressed as
the "Apostles of &Baha'u'llah," can only be fulfilled if they befittingly

+P70
obey the specific Mandate issued by &Abdu'l-Baha in His Tablets of the
Divine Plan. The execution of this Mandate is, in its turn, dependent
upon the triumphant conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan, the
second stage in the series of specific plans formulated to insure the
successful termination of the opening phase in the execution of that
Mandate. Indeed, the successive plans, inaugurated since the birth of
the second &Baha'i century, by the British, the Indian, the Persian, the
Australia-New Zealand, the &Iraqi, the German and the Egyptian
National Assemblies, with the exception of the plan undertaken by the
Canadian National Assembly, which forms an integral part of the Plan
associated with the Tablets of &Abdu'l-Baha, are but supplements to the
vast enterprise whose features have been delineated in those Tablets
and are to be regarded, by their very nature, as regional in scope, in
contrast with the world-embracing character of the mission entrusted to
the community of the champion builders of the World Order of &Baha'u'llah,
and the torch-bearers of the civilization which that Order must
eventually establish. As to the Second Seven Year Plan itself, its
eventual success must depend on the attainment of its second and most
vital objective. This objective, in its turn, cannot be achieved unless the
two-year campaign, now launched by the elected representatives of this
community, is successfully carried out. Nor can this campaign yield its
richest fruit unless and until the community, in its entirety, participates
in this nation-wide sacrificial effort. Nor can this collective effort be
blessed, to the fullest extent possible, unless the contributions made by
its members involve acts of self-abnegation, not only on the part of
those of modest means, but also by those endowed with substantial
resources. Nor, indeed, can these self-denying acts, by both the rich
and the poor, be productive of the fullest possible benefit unless this
sacrificial effort is neither momentary nor haphazard, but rather systematic
and continuous throughout the period of the present emergency.
Then and only then will this holy edifice, symbol and harbinger of
a world civilization as yet unborn, and the embodiment of the sacrifice
of a multitude of the upholders of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, release the
full measure of the regenerative power with which it has been endowed,
shed in all its plenitude the glory of the Most Holy Spirit
dwelling within it, and vindicate, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the
truth of every single promise recorded by the pen of &Abdu'l-Baha
pertaining to its destiny.

+P71
No more befitting consummation for this magnificent enterprise
can be envisaged than that this noble edifice, whose cornerstone has
been laid by &Abdu'l-Baha's own hands, the preliminary measure for
whose construction synchronized with the formal interment of the
&Bab's remains on Mt. Carmel, within whose walls the first Centenary
of the birth of His ministry has been celebrated, whose interior
ornamentation has coincided with the construction of the arcade of His
Sepulcher, should be vouchsafed the honor of having the Jubilee of its
inception coincide with, and celebrated on the occasion of, the Centenary
of the birth of &Baha'u'llah's prophetic Mission in the &Siyah-Chal
of &Tihran.

[April 11, 1949]


Process of Expansion Accelerates

[MESSAGE TO 1949 CONVENTION]

Desire to share with attendants at Forty-first American &Baha'i
Convention feelings of joyous gratitude evoked by the steady acceleration
of the dual process of expansion and consolidation of the &Baha'i
World Community as well as the perspicuous evidences of divine
protection vouchsafed the World Center of the Faith during the course
of the third year of the Second Seven Year Plan. The number of
countries included within the pale of the Faith is ninety-four. Languages
into which &Baha'i literature is translated, and assemblies, local
and national, incorporated, now total fifty-six and one hundred five,
respectively. &Baha'i literature now being translated into fourteen additional
languages. The number of centers in Latin America is one
hundred and nine. The fourth objective of the present Plan has been
achieved four years ahead of schedule through the formation of a
spiritual assembly in each of the ten goal countries on the European
continent. Centers established in these countries total thirty-one, newly
enrolled native believers, one hundred fifty-four. Nearly a million
dollar drive to complete the Mother Temple of the West has been
auspiciously launched and construction of interior sections of the
ornamentation initiated. Number of settlements in Greenland provided
with &Baha'i scriptures raised to forty-eight, including Thule
beyond the Arctic Circle and Etah near eightieth latitude. Number of

+P72
American states, territories and federal districts recognizing &Baha'i
marriage raised to eighteen. Restoration of the newly acquired German
national &Haziratu'l-Quds at Frankfurt has been commenced. Formulation
of five year plans for German and Egyptian National Assemblies,
culminating at the Centenary of the Birth of &Baha'u'llah's prophetic
Mission, completes the number of national assemblies pledged to
achieve within appointed time specified goals in five continents. The
European Teaching Conference convened at Geneva inaugurating
series of annual gatherings designed to consolidate the tremendously
significant transatlantic project. &Baha'i observers accredited by United
Nations participated in Conference on Human Rights, Geneva;
United Nations General Assembly, Paris. &Baha'i representative attended
Luxembourg general conference of world movement for world
federation. First all red Indian Assembly consolidated at Macy,
Nebraska. Building operations on arcade of &Bab's Sepulcher commenced
forty years after official interment of His remains by &Abdu'l-Baha.
Prolonged hostilities ravaging Holy Land providentially terminated.
&Baha'i holy places, unlike those belonging to other faiths,
miraculously safeguarded. Perils no less grave than those which threatened
the World Center of the Faith under &Abdu'l-Hamid and &Jamal
&Pasha and through Hitler's intended capture of the Near East, averted.
Independent sovereign state within confines of Holy Land established
and recognized, marking termination of twenty-century-long provincial
status. Formal assurance of the protection of &Baha'i holy sites and
continuation of &Baha'i pilgrimage given by Prime Minister of newly
emerged state. Official invitation extended by its government on the
historic occasion of the opening of the state's first parliament. Official
record of &Baha'i marriage endorsed, &Baha'i endowments exempted by
responsible authorities of the same state. Best wishes for the future
welfare of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah conveyed in writing by the newly
elected head of the state in reply to congratulatory message addressed
him upon assumption of his office. Appeal to entire community,
through assembled delegates, in thankful recognition of the manifold
blessings vouchsafed the Faith and in response to the alert sounded for
the present emergency, to arise and demonstrate more conspicuously
than ever before, through greater austerity at home and increasing
audacity in foreign fields, both in Latin America and Europe, their
grim determination at whatever cost, no matter how crucial the test,

+P73
however long the period, however herculean the labor, to carry forward
unremittingly their task to its triumphant conclusion.

[April 25, 1949]


Welcome Initial Victory

Greatly welcome, much impressed by remarkable feat of initial
victory collectively achieved by self-sacrificing efforts of invincible,
far-visioned, forward-marching American &Baha'i Community. Ultimate
victory now in sight bidding fair to bring present emergency period to
triumphant conclusion, seal fate of Second Seven Year Plan and
open prospect of glorious inauguration at appointed time of third
collective Plan designed to terminate initial chapter in story of
mysterious unfoldment of Divine Plan. Rejoice particularly at
formulation of teaching plans so vitally linked with immediate destiny
of Temple enterprise. Owing to relaxation of pressure occasioned
by critical situation advise direct special attention to invigorate
activities conducted in Latin America and European continent.
Need for voluntary, self-supporting, wholly dedicated pioneers calculated
to supplement newly launched undertaking in both fields is
still pressing and acquiring greater urgency owing to approaching
emergence of Latin American national assemblies and necessity to
consolidate swiftly the newly-formed local assemblies in ten European
goal countries. Heart uplifted at contemplation of mighty range of
accomplishments embracing so vast a field in both hemispheres. Prayers
continually ascending to &Abha throne both in thanksgiving for marvelous
bounties already vouchsafed and in supplication for renewal of
strength for attainment of future goals.

[June 29, 1949]


Supplicating Blessing for American Activities

Delighted by progress of Temple work. Highly approve, deeply
appreciate suggestion to defray expenses of German representative to
Brussels conference. Supplicating Almighty's blessing for manifold
activities pursued, unrelaxing vigilance, unflinching determination,

+P74
exemplary self-sacrifice in three continents by divinely sustained American
&Baha'i Community.

[July 20, 1949]


Corners of Shrine Arcade Under Construction

Inform friends of commencement of construction on three corners
of arcade of Shrine. Six granite pilasters already erected, twelve
columns will be raised shortly. Forwarding photographs for publicity
purposes.

[August 7, 1949]


This Hour, Crowded With Destiny

The efforts exerted, and the results achieved, by the members of the
American &Baha'i Community during the opening months of the two-year
emergency period are such as to merit the highest commendation
and praise. They will, if the effort be sustained, evoke the admiration of
the entire &Baha'i world, which is now watching, with feelings of
wonder and expectancy, the outcome of the tremendous labor of this
community now confronted with one of the most challenging, arduous
and far-reaching tasks ever undertaken in its history.
The great forward stride that has already been undertaken, during
so short a period, augurs well for the ultimate victory, now within
sight--a victory which will pave the way for the successful execution of
a seven-year enterprise, destined, in its turn, to enable its executors to
launch, at the appointed time, the third and most glorious stage in the
initial unfoldment of &Abdu'l-Baha's unique and grand design for that
privileged and conspicuously blessed community.
No less striking has been the achievement of the representatives of
this community in the vast and most recent field of their historic and
highly meritorious endeavors, exerted beyond the confines of their
homeland, where over so vast a territory, on a continent so agitated, and
amidst peoples so disillusioned, so varied in race, language and outlook,
so impoverished spiritually, so paralyzed with fear, so confused in
thought, so abased in their moral standards, so rent by internal schisms,

+P75
victories so rich in promise, so startling in their rapidity, so magnificent
in their range, have been won, and ennobled, to such a marked degree,
the deathless record of American &Baha'i service to the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah.
Now that so prodigious and successful an effort has been exerted on
behalf of the historic and sacred Temple, whose completion constitutes
so vital an objective of the Second Seven Year Plan, and so conspicuous
a triumph won in the transatlantic sphere of its operation, its needs and
other vital objectives, both at home and in the Latin American field,
must receive, in the months immediately ahead, the particular attention
of both the national elected representatives of the community who
supervise the working of the Plan and the mass of believers who
participate in its execution.
While the financial requirements of the Mother Temple of the
West are being met with unabated heroism by rich and poor alike in
the critical months that lie ahead, and the measures to ensure the
undiminished support, and the uninterrupted consolidation of the
European enterprise are being assiduously carried out, a parallel effort,
no less strenuous and sustained should be simultaneously exerted in the
North American continent and in Central and South America, for the
purpose of preserving the prizes already won over the length and
breadth of the Western Hemisphere, where the initial impulse of this
mighty and Divine Plan has been felt and its initial victories in foreign
fields registered.
The assemblies of the North American continent, constituting the
base for the gigantic operations destined to warm and illuminate,
under American &Baha'i auspices, the five continents of the globe, must,
at no time and under no circumstances, be allowed to diminish in
number or decline in strength and in influence. The movement of
pioneers, whether settlers or itinerant teachers, which in fields so
distant from this base, has exhibited so marvelous a vitality, must,
within the limits of the homeland itself, be neither interrupted nor
suffer a decline. The groups and isolated centers so painstakingly
formed and established must, conjointly with this highly commendable
and essential duty, be maintained, fostered and if possible multiplied.
No less attention, while this emergency period taxes, to an unprecedented
degree, the combined resources of the envied trustees of

+P76
&Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, should be directed to the vast network of
&Baha'i enterprises initiated throughout Latin America, where the work
so nobly conceived, so diligently prosecuted, so conspicuously blessed,
is rapidly nearing the first stage of its fruition. The flow of pioneers, so
vital in all its aspects, and which has yielded such inestimable benefits
at the early stages of this widely ramified enterprise, must, however
urgent the other tasks already shouldered by an overburdened yet
unfailingly protected community, be neither arrested nor slacken. The
outpost of the newly born communities, established in the Straits of
Magallanes in the South, must be held with undiminished vigor and
determination. The major task of ensuring the breadth and solidity of
the foundations laid for the establishment of two national &Baha'i
assemblies, through the preservation of the present assemblies, groups
and isolated centers, and the restoration of any of these vital centers,
now dissolved, to their former status, must be scrupulously watched
and constantly encouraged. The process of the dissemination of &Baha'i
literature, of &Baha'i publication and translation, must continue unabated,
however much the sacrifice involved. The newly fledged institutions
of teaching and regional committees, of summer schools and of
congresses, must be continually encouraged and increasingly supported
by teachers as well as administrators, by pioneers from abroad, as well as
by the native believers themselves. The highly salutary and spiritually
beneficent experiment of encouraging a more active participation by
these newly won supporters of the Faith in Latin America, and a
greater assumption of administrative responsibility on their part, in the
ever expanding activities to be entrusted wholly to their care in the
years to come, should be, in particular, developed, systematized and
placed on a sure and unassailable foundation. Above all, the paramount
duty of deepening the spiritual life of these newly fledged, these
precious and highly esteemed co-workers, and of enlightening their
minds regarding the essential verities enshrined in their Faith, its
fundamental institutions, its history and genesis--the twin Covenants
of &Baha'u'llah and of &Abdu'l-Baha, the present Administrative Order,
the future World Order, the Laws of the Most Holy Book, the
inseparable institutions of the Guardianship and of the Universal
House of Justice, the salient events of the Heroic and Formative Ages
of the Faith, and its relationship with the Dispensations that have
preceded it, its attitude toward the social and political organizations by

+P77
which it is surrounded--must continue to constitute the most vital
aspect of the great spiritual Crusade launched by the champions of the
Faith from among the peoples of their sister republics in the South.
The magnitude of the tasks these heroes and champions of the
Faith are summoned, at this hour, crowded with destiny, to discharge
from the borders of Greenland to the southern extremity of Chile in the
Western Hemisphere, and from Scandinavia in the north, to the
Iberian peninsula in the south of the European continent, is, indeed,
breath-taking in its implications and back-breaking in the strain it
imposes. The sacrifices they are called upon to voluntarily make for
the successful performance of such herculean, such holy, such epoch-making
tasks, are comparable to none but those which their spiritual
forbears have willingly accepted at the hour of the birth of their
Faith more than a hundred years ago. Theirs is the privilege, no less
meritorious and perhaps as epoch-making, to preside, in their own
homeland and its neighboring continents, over, and direct the forces
generated by, the birth of an order that posterity will acclaim as both
the offspring of that Faith, and the precursor of the Golden Age in
which that same Faith must, in the fullness of time, find its fullest
expression and most glorious consummation.
How great the opportunity which the present hour, so dark in the
fortunes of mankind and yet so bright in the ever-unfolding history of
their Faith, offers them. How unspeakably precious the reward which
they who serve it will reap! How pitiful and urgent the need of the
waiting multitudes of these continents, summoned to sustain the initial
impact of the operation of a divinely impelled Plan which no force can
resist and no power can rival!
For what this superbly equipped community, this irresistibly
advancing army of the chosen warriors of &Baha'u'llah, battling under
His banner, operating in conformity with the explicit Mandate voiced
by His beloved Son, has already achieved, over so extensive a field, in
such a brief time, at such great sacrifice, for so precious a Cause, and in
the course of such turbulent years, I cannot but feel the deepest sense of
gratitude the like of which no achievement, single or collective,
rendered in any other part of the globe, by any community associated
with the Cause of the Most Great Name has evoked. For what it will
and must achieve in the future I entertain feelings of warm expectation
and serene confidence. For it, I will continue, from the depths of a

+P78
loving and grateful heart to supplicate blessings immeasurably richer
than any it has yet experienced.

[August 18, 1949]


Praying For Increasing Success

Delighted at progress of Temple work; urge uninterrupted reinforcement
of Latin American and European enterprises through
steady flow of pioneers, continued self-sacrifice; praying for increasing
success of your high endeavors. Deepest loving appreciation.

[November 6, 1949]


Majesty of the &Bab's Shrine Unfolding

Announce to the friends that six hundred tons of stones destined
for the arcade of the &Bab's Shrine, received in successive shipments to
the Holy Land, have been safely transported to its precincts despite
repeated accidents--the sinking of a lighter in the harbor and outbreak
of fire in the hold of the ship. An additional two hundred tons of
material including carved marble mosaic have been ordered through
recent contract for erection of parapet designed to crown the columns
and arches of the arcade. North and east sides of structure with three
corners virtually completed. Construction of cornice and roof, last stage
in erection of the arcade, will soon be undertaken. Majesty and beauty
of the colonnade enveloping the central holy edifice built by &Abdu'l-Baha's
hands steadily unfolding, presaging revelation of the full glory
of the completed Sepulcher manifesting the plenitude of the splendor
of the constructed dome.

[November 13, 1949]


Faithless Brother Hussein

Faithless brother Hussein, already abased through dishonorable
conduct over period of years followed by association with Covenant-breakers

+P79
in Holy Land and efforts to undermine Guardian's position,
recently further demeaned himself through marriage under obscure
circumstances with lowborn Christian girl in Europe. This disgraceful
alliance, following four successive marriages by sisters and cousins with
three sons of Covenant-breaker denounced repeatedly by &Abdu'l-Baha
as His enemy, and daughter of notorious political agitator, brands them
with infamy greater than any associated with marriages contracted by
old Covenant-breakers whether belonging to family of &Muhammad-'Ali
or &Badi'u'llah.

[December 19, 1949]


Maintain Momentum in Triple Field

Delighted by progress in Latin-American field, Temple construction
and publicity activities. Announce arrival of first shipment of
parapet panels. Anticipate early completion of eastern &facade of Shrine
including mosaic panels. Urge maintenance of momentum in triple
field, home, intercontinental enterprises. Praying for bountiful blessings
from the Almighty.

[February 25, 1950]


Shrine Parapet Completed

Announce to the friends the completion, on the eve of &Naw-Ruz, of
the erection of parapet crowning the eastern &facade of Holy Shrine one
year after placing the first threshold stones upon the foundation of the
arcade. The beauty and majesty of the finely carved panels surmounting
the soaring arches spanning the rosy monolith columns, emblazoned
with emerald green and scarlet mosaic symbolizing the &Bab's
lineage and martyrdom, are strikingly revealed. The original pearl-like
structure raised by the hands of the Center of the Covenant, enshrining
the remains of the Martyr-Prophet of the Faith, acquiring, through
construction of the shell designed for its embellishment and preservation,
additional height by one-third, additional width by one-fifth,
enhancing the massiveness of the edifice embosomed in the Mountain

+P80
of God, heralding the erection of the lofty gilded dome that will
eventually shine forth in solitary splendor from its heart.

[March 21, 1950]

Sacred Task of Present Hour

Approved recommendation regarding treatment of walls. Meeting
deficit budget must have precedence over purchase of land near &Hazira
owing to critical situation in Latin America and vital needs in Europe.
Steady flow of pioneers to both continents is the imperative, urgent,
sacred task of the present hour.

[March 29, 1950]


Shrine Arcade Nearing Completion

Announce to friends that central panel of north &facade, adorned
with green mosaic with gilded Greatest Name, the fairest gem set in
crown of arcade of Shrine, clearly visible from city by day, floodlit by
night, is now in position.
Three corner panels bearing symbol of ringstone erected, presaging
completion of both parapet and arcade on the occasion of approaching
Centenary of martyrdom of the Blessed &Bab.

[June 17, 1950]


Centenary of the Martyrdom of the &Bab

Moved to share with assembled representatives of American &Baha'i
Community gathered beneath the dome of the Most Holy House of
Worship in the &Baha'i world, feelings of profound emotion evoked by
this historic occasion of the world-wide commemoration of the First
Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Blessed &Bab, Prophet and Herald
of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, Founder of the Dispensation marking the
culmination of the six thousand year old Adamic Cycle, Inaugurator of
the five thousand century &Baha'i Cycle.
Poignantly call to mind the circumstances attending the last act

+P81
consummating the tragic ministry of the Master-Hero of the most
sublime drama in the religious annals of mankind, signalizing the most
dramatic event of the most turbulent period of the Heroic Age of the
&Baha'i Dispensation, destined to be recognized by posterity as the most
precious, momentous sacrifice in the world's spiritual history. Recall the
peerless tributes paid to His memory by the Founder of the Faith,
acclaiming Him Monarch of God's Messengers, the Primal Point
round Whom the realities of all the Prophets circle in adoration.
Profoundly stirred by the memory of the agonies He suffered, the glad-tidings
He announced, the warnings He uttered, the forces He set in
motion, the adversaries He converted, the disciples He raised up, the
conflagrations He precipitated, the legacy He left of faith and courage,
the love He inspired. Acknowledge with bowed head, joyous, thankful
heart the successive, marvelous evidence of His triumphant power in
the course of the hundred years elapsed since the last crowning act of
His meteoric ministry.
The creative energies released at the hour of the birth of His
Revelation, endowing mankind with the potentialities of the attainment
of maturity are deranging, during the present transitional age, the
equilibrium of the entire planet as the inevitable prelude to the
consummation in world unity of the coming of age of the human race.
The portentous but unheeded warnings addressed to kings, princes,
ecclesiastics are responsible for the successive overthrow of fourteen
monarchies of East and West, the collapse of the institution of the
Caliphate, the virtual extinction of the Pope's temporal sovereignty, the
progressive decline in the fortunes of the ecclesiastical hierarchies of
the &Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Hindu Faiths.
The Order eulogized and announced in His writings, whose laws
&Baha'u'llah subsequently revealed in the Most Holy Book, whose
features &Abdu'l-Baha delineated in His Testament, is now passing
through its embryonic stage through the emergence of the initial
institutions of the world Administrative Order in the five continents of
the globe. The clarion call sounded in the &Qayyumu'l-Asma', summoning
the peoples of the West to forsake their homes and proclaim
His message, was nobly answered by the communities of the Western
Hemisphere headed by the valorous, stalwart American believers, the
chosen vanguard of the all-conquering, irresistibly marching army of
the Faith in the western world.

+P82
The embryonic Faith, maturing three years after His martyrdom,
traversing the period of infancy in the course of the Heroic Age of the
Faith is now steadily progressing towards maturity in the present
Formative Age, destined to attain full stature in the Golden Age of the
&Baha'i Dispensation.
Lastly the Holy Seed of infinite preciousness, holding within
itself incalculable potentialities representing the culmination of the
centuries-old process of the evolution of humanity through the energies
released by the series of progressive Revelations starting with Adam and
concluded by the Revelation of the Seal of the Prophets, marked by the
successive appearance of the branches, leaves, buds, blossoms and
plucked, after six brief years by the hand of destiny, ground in the
mill of martyrdom and oppression but yielding the oil whose first
flickering light cast upon the somber, subterranean walls of the &Siyah-Chal
of &Tihran, whose fire gathered brilliance in &Baghdad and shone
in full resplendency in its crystal globe in Adrianople, whose rays
warmed and illuminated the fringes of the American, European,
Australian continents through the tender ministerings of the Center
of the Covenant, whose radiance is now overspreading the surface
of the globe during the present Formative Age, whose full splendor
is destined in the course of future milleniums to suffuse the entire
planet.
Already the crushing of this God-imbued kernel upon the anvil of
adversity has ignited the first sparks of the Holy Fire latent within it
through the emergence of the firmly knit world-encompassing community
constituting no less than twenty-five hundred centers established
throughout a hundred countries representing over thirty races and
extending as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as the Straits
of Magallanes, equipped with literature translated into sixty languages
and possessing endowments nearing ten million dollars, enriched
through the erection of two Houses of Worship in the heart of the
Asiatic and North American continents and the stately mausoleum
reared in its World Center, consolidated through the incorporation of
over a hundred of its national and local assemblies and reinforced
through the proclamation of its independence in the East, its recognition
in the West, eulogized by royalty, buttressed by nine pillars
sustaining the future structure of its supreme administrative council,
energized through the simultaneous prosecution of specific plans conducted

+P83
under the aegis of its national councils designed to enlarge the
limits and extend the ramifications and consolidate the foundations of
its divinely appointed Administrative Order over the surface of the
entire planet.
I appeal on this solemn occasion, rendered doubly sacred through
the approaching hundredth anniversary of the most devastating holocaust
in the annals of the Faith, at this anxious hour in the fortunes of
this travailing age, to the entire body of the American believers, the
privileged occupants and stout-hearted defenders of the foremost citadel
of the Faith, to rededicate themselves and resolve, no matter how
great the perils confronting their sister communities on the European,
Asiatic, African and Australian continents, however somber the situation
facing both the cradle of the Faith and its World Center, however
grievous the vicissitudes they themselves may eventually suffer, to hold
aloft unflinchingly the torch of the Faith impregnated with the blood of
innumerable martyrs and transmit it unimpaired so that it may add
luster to future generations destined to labor after them.

[July 4, 1950]


A Worthy, Five-Fold Offering

The first half of the two-year austerity period, inaugurated at so
anxious an hour in the fortunes of the Second Seven Year Plan, has
been successfully traversed, and deserves to be regarded as a memorable
episode in the history of the Faith and the unfoldment of the Plan in
the North American continent. An effort, prodigious, nation-wide,
sustained, and reminiscent in its heroism and consecration of the
immortal exploits of the dawn-breakers of the Apostolic Age of the
&Baha'i Dispensation, has been exerted by their spiritual descendants, in
circumstances which, though totally different in character, are yet no
less challenging and for a cause as meritorious--an effort that has
indeed outshone the high endeavors that have distinguished for so long
the record of service associated with the American &Baha'i Community.
All of its members who have participated in this collective undertaking
should be heartily congratulated, particularly those who, by their acts of
self-abnegation, have emulated the example of the heroes of our Faith
at the early dawn of its history. The entire &Baha'i world is stirred when

+P84
contemplating the range of such an effort, the depth of consecration
reached by those who have participated in it, the results it has achieved,
the noble purpose it has served. My heart overflows with gratitude for
the repeated evidences of worthiness demonstrated by this generous-hearted,
valiant and dedicated community which has, no matter how
onerous the task, how challenging the issue, how distracting the
external circumstances with which it has been surrounded, never
shirked its duty or hesitated for a moment.
The high watermark of so gigantic an exertion, however, still
remains to be reached. The year now entered, ushered in and consecrated
by the Centenary of the tragic execution of the Martyr-Prophet
of our Faith, and packed with poignant memories of the persecutions of
&Zanjan which stained its history a hundred years ago and carried its
fortunes to almost its lowest ebb, and were a prelude to the most ghastly
holocaust ever experienced by its followers, must witness as it rolls
forward to its close, a still more striking demonstration of the tenacity of
the members of this community, a still nobler display of acts of
self-sacrifice, a still more inspiring manifestation of solidarity, and
evidences of a grimmer determination, of a greater courage and perseverance
in response to the triple call of this present hour.
The vital needs of the most holy House of Worship reared in the
service and for the glory of the Most Great Name, though virtually
met, still require the last exertions to ensure its completion as the hour
of its Jubilee approaches. The Latin-American enterprise, initiated
thirteen years ago, and marking the initial collective undertaking
launched by the American &Baha'i Community beyond the confines of
the great republic of the West, and under the mandate of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan, still in a state of emergency and rapidly advancing
towards its initial fruition, demands unrelaxing vigilance, and calls for
still more strenuous exertions and self-sacrifice on the part of those who
have so enthusiastically embarked upon it, who have so conscientiously
and painstakingly shepherded it along its destined course and throughout
the early stages of its unfoldment, and who are now, as a result of
their ceaseless exertions, witnessing the first efflorescence of their
mammoth pioneer labors. The construction of the superstructure of the
Holy Sepulcher of the Blessed &Bab, now, at this anxious and urgent
hour, superimposed on the manifold responsibilities shouldered by
members of the American &Baha'i Community, affording them the first

+P85
historic opportunity of directly sustaining, through their contributions,
the most sacred enterprise ever undertaken in the history of the Faith,
the first and most holy edifice reared at its World Center, and the initial
international institution heralding the establishment of the supreme
legislative body at the World Administrative Center, requires the
immediate and sustained attention of the members of a community
whose destiny has been linked, ever since its inception, with the various
stages marking the rise and consolidation of this divinely appointed,
unspeakably holy enterprise.

AN HOUR LADEN WITH FATE

The hour is critical, laden with fate. Responsibilities numerous and
varied, as well as urgent and sacred, are crowding, in quick succession,
upon a community youthful and valorous in spirit, rich in experience,
triumphant in the past, sensible of its future obligations, keenly aware
of the sublimity of its world mission, inflexibly resolved to follow with
unfaltering steps the road of its destiny. The world situation is perilous
and gloomy. Rumblings from far and near bode evil for the immediate
fortunes of a sadly distracted society. The Second Seven Year Plan is
now approaching its conclusion. The Centenary of the Martyrdom of
the &Bab with all its poignant memories is upon us. We are entering a
period crowded with the centenaries of the direst calamities--massacres,
sieges, captivities, spoliations and tortures involving thousands
of heroes--men, women and children--the world's greatest Faith has
ever experienced. Another centenary commemorating an event as tragic
and infinitely more glorious is fast approaching. Time is short.
Opportunities, though multiplying with every passing hour, will not recur,
some for another century, others never again. However severe the
challenge, however multiple the tasks, however short the time, however
somber the world outlook, however limited the material resources of a
hard-pressed adolescent community, the untapped sources of celestial
strength from which it can draw are measureless, in their potencies, and
will unhesitatingly pour forth their energizing influences if the necessary
daily effort be made and the required sacrifices be willingly
accepted.
Nor should it be forgotten that in the hour of adversity and in the
very midst of confusion, peril and uncertainty, some of the most superb

+P86
exploits, noising abroad the fame of this community have been
achieved. The construction of the superstructure of the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
during one of the severest depressions experienced by the
people of the United States in this century; the inauguration of the first
Seven Year Plan on the eve of and during the anxious years preceding
the second world conflagration; its vigorous prosecution during its
darkest days and its triumph before its conclusion; the launching of the
European campaign on the morrow of the most devastating conflict that
rocked the continent of Europe to its foundation--these stand out as
shining evidences of the unfailing protection, guidance and sustaining
power vouchsafed its members, so readily and so abundantly, in the
hour of their greatest need and danger.
To consolidate the victories won, and reinforce the foundations of
the unnumbered institutions so diligently established, in the North
American continent; to rear the twin pillars of the Universal House of
Justice in Latin America, with their concomitant administrative agencies
functioning in no less than twenty republics of Central and South
America; to maintain in their present strength the strongholds of the
Faith in the ten goal countries of Europe; to complete the interior
ornamentation of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the West, and its
Mother Temple, in preparation of its Jubilee; to assist in the erection of
the superstructure of a still holier edifice, envisaged by its Founder and
established by the Center of His Covenant on God's holy mountain, at
the very heart and center of our beloved Faith, would indeed constitute,
by virtue of their scope, origin and character, embracing three
continents and including within their range the World Center of the
Faith itself, a worthy, befitting five-fold offering placed on the altar of
the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, on the occasion of the Centenary of the birth
of His Mission by a community which, more than any sister community,
in East or West, has contributed, since the inception of the
Formative Age of His Faith to the enlargement of its limits, the rise and
establishment of its Administrative Order and the spread of its fame,
glory and power.
That this community may, in the course of these three coming
years, discharge its five-fold task--now assuming, through the stress of
circumstances, still vaster proportions, and investing itself with still
greater blessedness and merit, than originally envisaged--with a spirit
outshining any hitherto shown in the course of its half-century stewardship

+P87
to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, is my most fervent wish and the object
of my special and ardent prayers at this time when my heart and mind
are fixed upon the sufferings and passion of the &Bab on the occasion of
the Centenary of His Martyrdom.

[July 5, 1950]


Ruhi and Family Show Open Defiance

Inform friends that Ruhi, his mother, with Ruha, his aunt, and
their families, not content with years of disobedience and unworthy
conduct, are now showing open defiance. Confident that exemplary
loyalty of American believers will sustain me in carrying overwhelming
burden of cares afflicting me.

[July 15, 1950]


&Non-Baha'i Gifts

All gifts by &non-Baha'is are to be used for charity only.

[July 24, 1950]


Teaching in Africa

Feel moved to appeal to gallant, great-hearted American &Baha'i
Community to arise on the eve of launching the far-reaching, historic
campaign by sister Community of the British Isles to lend valued
assistance to the meritorious enterprise undertaken primarily for the
illumination of the tribes of East and West Africa, envisaged in the
Tablets of the Center of the Covenant revealed in the darkest hour of
His ministry.
I appeal particularly to its dearly beloved members belonging to the
Negro race to participate in the contemplated project marking a
significant milestone in the world-unfoldment of the Faith, supplementing
the work initiated fifty years ago on the North American
continent, forging fresh links binding the American, British and
Egyptian Communities and providing the prelude to the full-scale

+P88
operations destined to be launched at a later period of the unfoldment
of the Divine Plan aiming at the conversion of the backward, oppressed
masses of the swiftly awakening continent.
Though such participation is outside the scope of the Second Seven
Year Plan, I feel strongly that the assumption of this added responsibility
for this distant vital field at this crucial challenging hour, when
world events are moving steadily towards a climax and the Centenary
of the birth of &Baha'u'llah's Mission is fast approaching, will further
ennoble the record of the world-embracing tasks valiantly undertaken
by the American &Baha'i Community and constitute a worthy response
to &Abdu'l-Baha's insistent call raised on behalf of the race He repeatedly
blessed and loved so dearly and for whose illumination He
ardently prayed and for whose future He cherished the brightest hopes.

[August 5, 1950]


Comforted by Messages of Devotion

My anguished heart is comforted by the unnumbered messages
from communities, assemblies, groups, committees and individual
American believers, replete with expressions of loving devotion,
pledges of loyalty to &Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant, prayers on my behalf
and assurances of rededication in service to the precious Faith.
The triple cord binding me to the American Community, outstanding
in its affectionate and unfailing support in the course of my almost
thirty years' stewardship to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, is greatly reinforced.
But for America's multitudinous services and unparalleled
record of achievements my burden of cares both past and present would
be unbearable.
Far from complaining of the added weight of afflictions oppressing
me at this hour I feel I cannot but welcome with feelings of thankfulness
and humility such tribulations enabling me to taste the cup the
Martyr-Prophet of our beloved Faith drained so heroically a hundred
years ago.
Much as I desire to acknowledge separately all messages I regretfully
find the task beyond the limits of my overtaxed strength. I ask,
dearly beloved friends, to regard this message as addressed to each one
personally, bearing to each and every one assurance of my constant

+P89
awareness of their enfolding love and unfailing support as well as my
everlasting gratitude and unalterable affection and immense pride in
their unrivaled collective share in the world-wide furtherance of the
Cause so dear, so precious to us all.

[September 12, 1950]


Relieved by Intensified Activity

My heart is greatly relieved by the splendid, welcome evidences of
the intensified activity on the home front, Europe and Latin America.
Supplicating bountiful blessings on the manifold enterprises energetically
and devotedly conducted by the exemplary American &Baha'i
Community.

[September 19, 1950]


&Badi'u'llah Has Miserably Perished

&Badi'u'llah, brother and chief lieutenant of archbreaker of divine
Covenant, has miserably perished after sixty years' ceaseless, fruitless
efforts to undermine the divinely-appointed Order, having witnessed
within the last five months the deaths of his nephews Shoa and Musa,
notorious standard-bearers of the rebellion associated with the name of
their perfidious father.

[November 3, 1950]


Requirements for Temple Completion

Temple not regarded as completed until all accessories are provided,
including landscape gardening. Public announcement and worship
must coincide with termination of plan.

[November 8, 1950]

+P90
Summer Schools to Reopen

Owing to paramount need of Shrine and Temple, advise that you
postpone publication of magazine until 1953. Summer schools may be
reopened.

[December 8, 1950 (Excerpt)]


Assistance to Epoch-Making Enterprise in Africa

Assistance to Africa project through financial contribution, participation
of pioneers white and colored, and close consultation and
cooperation with British Assembly necessary. Independent campaign
not intended. Fervently praying the participation of British, American,
Persian, and Egyptian National Assemblies in unique, epoch-making
enterprise in African continent may prove prelude to convocation of
first African Teaching Conference leading eventually to initiation of
undertakings involving collaboration among all national assemblies of
&Baha'i world, thereby paving way to ultimate organic union of these
assemblies through formation of International House of Justice destined
to launch enterprises embracing whole &Baha'i world. Acclaim
simultaneous inauguration of crusade linking administrative machinery
of four national assemblies of East and West within four continents
and birth of first International Council at World Center of Faith, twin
evidences of resistless unfoldment of embryonic, divinely appointed
World Order of &Baha'u'llah.

[January 17, 1951]


Status of &Baha'is Regarding Military Duty

No change whatsoever in status of &Baha'is in relation to active
military duty. No compromise of spiritual principles of Faith possible,
however tense the situation, however aroused public opinion.

[January 17, 1951]

+P91
Spiritual Conquest of the Planet

The virtual termination of the interior ornamentation of the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the West; the forthcoming formation of the twin
national spiritual assemblies of Latin America, following upon the
establishment of a corresponding institution in the Dominion of Canada;
the full attainment of the prescribed goals on the European
continent in accordance with the provisions of the Second Seven Year
Plan and the consolidation already achieved in the North American
continent, do not, under any circumstances, imply that the vast
responsibilities shouldered by a valiant, an alert and resolute community,
have been fully and totally discharged, or that its members can
afford, as the plan draws to its conclusion, to sink into complacency or
relax for one moment in their high endeavors.
The hour destined to mark the triumphant conclusion of the second
stage in their historic, divinely conferred, world-encircling mission has
not yet struck. Rumblings, loud and persistent, presaging a crisis of
extreme severity in world affairs, confront them with a challenge
which, in spite of what they have already accomplished, they cannot
and must not either ignore or underrate. The rise of the World
Administrative Center of their Faith, within the precincts and under
the shadow of its World Spiritual Center, a process that has been kept
in abeyance for well nigh thirty years, whilst the machinery of the
national and local institutions of a nascent Order was being erected and
perfected, presents them with an opportunity which, as the champion-builders
of that Order and the torchbearers of an as yet unborn
civilization, they must seize with alacrity, resolution and utter consecration.
The initiation of momentous projects in other continents of the
globe, and particularly in Africa, as a result of the growing initiative
and the spirit of enterprise exhibited by their fellow-workers in East
and West, cannot leave unmoved the vanguard of a host summoned by
&Abdu'l-Baha, its Divine Commander, and in accordance with the
provisions of a God-given Charter, to play such a preponderating role in
the spiritual conquest of the entire planet. Above all, the rapid
prosecution of an enterprise transcending any undertaking, whether
national or local, embarked upon by the followers of the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah, destined to attain its consummation with the erection of
the dome of the &Bab's holy Sepulcher, imposes an added obligation,

+P92
owing to unforeseen circumstances, on the already multitudinous
duties assumed by a community wholly absorbed in the various tasks it
shoulders. In fact, as the Centenary of the birth of &Baha'u'llah's
prophetic Mission approaches, His American followers, not content
with the successful conclusion, in their entirety, of the tasks assigned to
them, must aspire to celebrate befittingly this historic occasion, as
becomes the chosen recipients, and the privileged trustees, of a divinely
conceived Plan, through emblazoning with still more conspicuous
exploits, their record of stewardship to a Faith whose Author has issued
such a ringing call to the rulers of the American continent, and the
Center of Whose Covenant has entrusted the American &Baha'i Community
with so glorious a mission. Indeed the present stage in the
construction of the superstructure of so holy a shrine imperatively
demands a concentration of attention and resources commensurate
with the high position occupied by this community, with the freedom it
enjoys and the material means at its disposal. The signing of two
successive contracts, for the masonry of the octagon, the cylinder and
the dome of the edifice, necessitated by a sudden worsening of the
international situation, which might cut off indefinitely the provision
of the same stones used for the erection of the arcade and the parapet of
that Sepulcher, and amounting to no less than one hundred and ninety
thousand dollars; the subsidiary contracts for the provision of steel and
cement for the erection of the wrought iron balustrade and the metal
window frames of both the octagon and the cylinder, involving an
additional expenditure of no less than twenty thousand dollars, to
which must be added the cost of the excavation for and the sinking of
the eight piers designed to support the weight of the dome and the
immediate construction of the octagon--these call for a stupendous
effort on the part of all &Baha'i communities and a self-abnegation
unprecedented in &Baha'i history. A drastic reduction of national and
local budgets; the allocation of substantial sums by all national assemblies;
the participation of individuals through sustained and direct
donations to the first international and incomparably holy enterprise
synchronizing with the birth of the International &Baha'i Council at the
very heart and center of a world-encircling Faith can alone insure the
uninterrupted progress of an undertaking which, coupled with the
completion of the Mother Temple of the West, cannot fail to produce
tremendous repercussions in the Holy Land, in the North American

+P93
continent and throughout the world. A period of austerity covering the
two-year interval separating us from the Centenary celebrations of the
Year Nine, prolonging so unexpectedly the austerity period already
traversed by the American &Baha'i Community, and now extended to
embrace its sister communities throughout the &Baha'i world, is evidently
not only essential for the attainment of so transcendent a goal,
but also supremely befitting when we recall the nature and dimensions
of the holocaust which a hundred years ago crimson-dyed the annals of
our Faith, which posterity will recognize as the bloodiest episode of the
most tragic period of the Heroic Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation,
which involved the martyrdom of that incomparable heroine &Tahirih,
which was immediately preceded by the imprisonment of &Baha'u'llah
in the subterranean dungeon of &Tihran, and which sealed the fate of
thousands of men, women and children in circumstances of unspeakable
savagery and on a scale unapproached throughout subsequent
stages of &Baha'i history.

NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT

No sacrifice can be deemed too great, no expenditure of material
resources, no degree of renunciation of worldly benefits, comfort and
pleasures, can be regarded as excessive when we recall the precious
blood that flowed, the many lives that were snuffed out, the wealth of
material possessions that was plundered during these most tumultuous
and cataclysmic years of the Heroic Age of our Faith.
Nor will the sacrifices willingly and universally accepted by the
followers of the Faith in East and West for the sake of so noble a Cause,
so transcendent an enterprise, fail to contribute their share towards the
upbuilding of the World Administrative Center of that Faith, and the
reinforcement of the ties already linking this Center with the recognized
authorities of a state under the jurisdiction of which it is now
functioning, ties which the newly formed International &Baha'i Council
are so assiduously striving to cement.
Already the completion of the construction of the arcade of this
majestic Sepulcher and of its ornamental parapet has excited the
admiration, stimulated the interest, and enlisted the support, of both
the local authorities and of the central government, as evidenced by the
series of acts which, ever since the emergence of that state, have
proclaimed the good will shown and the recognition extended by the

+P94
various departments of that state to the multiplying international
institutions, endowments, laws and ordinances of a steadily rising
Faith.
The recognition of the sacred nature of the twin holy Shrines,
situated in the plain of &Akka and on the slopes of Mount Carmel; the
exemption from state and civic taxes, granted to the mansion of &Bahji
adjoining the Most Holy Shrine, to the twin houses, that of &Baha'u'llah
in &Akka, and &Abdu'l-Baha in Haifa, to the twin archives, adjoining
the Shrine of the &Bab and the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf,
and the twin pilgrim houses constructed in the neighborhood of that
Shrine, and of the residence of &Abdu'l-Baha; the delivery of the
mansion of &Mazra'ih by the authorities of that same state to the &Baha'i
Community and its occupation after a lapse of more than fifty years; the
setting apart, through government action, of the room occupied by
&Baha'u'llah in the barracks of &Akka, as a place of pilgrimage; the
recognition of the &Baha'i marriage certificate by the District Commissioner
of Haifa; the recognition of the &Baha'i holy days, in an official
circular published by the Ministry of Education and Culture; the
exemption from duty accorded by the Customs Department to all
furniture received for &Baha'i holy places as well as for all material
imported for the construction of the &Bab's Sepulcher, the exemption
from taxes similarly extended to all international &Baha'i endowments
surrounding the holy tomb on Mount Carmel, stretching from the
ridge of the mountain to the Templar colony at its foot, as well as to the
holdings in the immediate vicinity of the resting-place of the Greatest
Holy Leaf and her kinsmen--all these establish, beyond the shadow of
a doubt, the high status enjoyed by the international institutions of a
world Faith, in the eyes of this newborn state.
The construction of the mausoleum of the &Bab, synchronizing with
the birth of that state, and the progress of which has been accompanied
by these successive manifestations of the good will and support of the
civil authorities will, if steadily maintained, greatly reinforce, and lend
a tremendous impetus to this process of recognition which constitutes
an historic landmark in the evolution of the World Center of the Faith
of &Baha'u'llah--a process which the newly formed Council, now established
at its very heart, is designed to foster, which will gather
momentum, with the emergence in the course of time of a properly
recognized and independently functioning &Baha'i court, which will

+P95
attain its consummation in the institution of the Universal House of
Justice and the emergence of the auxiliary administrative agencies,
revolving around this highest legislative body, and which will reveal
the plenitude of its potentialities with the sailing of the Divine Ark as
promised in the Tablet of Carmel.
I cannot at this juncture over emphasize the sacredness of that holy
dust embosomed in the heart of the Vineyard of God, or overrate the
unimaginable potencies of this mighty institution founded sixty years
ago, through the operation of the Will of, and the definite selection
made by, the Founder of our Faith, on the occasion of His historic visit
to that holy mountain, nor can I lay too much stress on the role which
this institution, to which the construction of the superstructure of this
edifice is bound to lend an unprecedented impetus, is destined to play
in the unfoldment of the World Administrative Center of the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah and in the efflorescence of its highest institutions constituting
the embryo of its future World Order.

THE CENTER OF NINE CONCENTRIC CIRCLES

For, just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the &Bab has been
hailed by the Author of the &Baha'i Revelation as "The Point round
Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," so, on this
visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of
what may be regarded as nine concentric circles, paralleling thereby,
and adding further emphasis to the central position accorded by the
Founder of our Faith to One "from Whom God hath caused to proceed
the knowledge of all that was and shall be," "the Primal Point from
which have been generated all created things."
The outermost circle in this vast system, the visible counterpart of
the pivotal position conferred on the Herald of our Faith, is none other
than the entire planet. Within the heart of this planet lies the "Most
Holy Land," acclaimed by &Abdu'l-Baha as "the Nest of the Prophets"
and which must be regarded as the center of the world and the Qiblih
of the nations. Within this Most Holy Land rises the Mountain of God
of immemorial sanctity, the Vineyard of the Lord, the Retreat of Elijah,
Whose return the &Bab Himself symbolizes. Reposing on the breast of
this holy mountain are the extensive properties permanently dedicated
to, and constituting the sacred precincts of, the &Bab's holy Sepulcher.
In the midst of these properties, recognized as the international endowments

+P96
of the Faith, is situated the most holy court, an enclosure
comprising gardens and terraces which at once embellish, and lend a
peculiar charm to, these sacred precincts. Embosomed in these lovely
and verdant surroundings stands in all its exquisite beauty the mausoleum
of the &Bab, the shell designed to preserve and adorn the original
structure raised by &Abdu'l-Baha as the tomb of the Martyr-Herald of
our Faith. Within this shell is enshrined that Pearl of Great Price, the
holy of holies, those chambers which constitute the tomb itself, and
which were constructed by &Abdu'l-Baha. Within the heart of this
holy of holies is the tabernacle, the vault wherein reposes the most holy
casket. Within this vault rests the alabaster sarcophagus in which is
deposited that inestimable jewel, the &Bab's holy dust. So precious is this
dust that the very earth surrounding the edifice enshrining this dust has
been extolled by the Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant, in one of His
Tablets in which He named the five doors belonging to the six
chambers which He originally erected after five of the believers
associated with the construction of the Shrine, as being endowed with
such potency as to have inspired Him in bestowing these names, whilst
the tomb itself housing this dust He acclaimed as the spot round which
the Concourse on high circle in adoration.
To participate in the erection of the superstructure of an edifice at
once so precious, so holy; consecrated to the memory of so heroic a Soul;
whose site no one less than the Founder of our Faith has selected;
whose inner chambers were erected by the Center of His Covenant
with such infinite care and anguish; embosomed in so sacred a mountain,
on the soil of so holy a land; occupying such a unique position;
facing on the one hand the silver-white city of &Akka, the Qiblih of the
&Baha'i world; flanked on its right by the hills of Galilee, the home of
Jesus Christ, and on its left, by the Cave of Elijah; and backed by the
plain of Sharon and, beyond it, Jerusalem and the &Aqsa mosque, the
third holiest shrine in &Islam--to participate in the erection of such an
edifice is a privilege offered to this generation at once unique and
priceless, a privilege which only posterity will be able to correctly
appraise.

THE CHOSEN TRUSTEES OF A DIVINE PLAN

In this supreme, this sacred and international undertaking in which
the followers of &Baha'u'llah, in all the continents of the globe, are
summoned to show forth the noblest spirit of self-sacrifice, the members

+P97
of the American &Baha'i Community must by virtue of the abilities they
have already demonstrated and of the primacy conferred upon them as
the chosen trustees of a Divine Plan, play a preponderating role, and,
together with their brethren residing in the cradle of their Faith, who
are linked by such unique ties with its Herald, set an example of
self-abnegation worthy to be emulated by their fellow-workers in every
land.
Whilst the members of this privileged community, laboring so
valiantly in the Western Hemisphere, are widening the range of their
manifold activities, and thereby augmenting their responsibilities, in
both the Holy Land and the African continent, the original tasks,
associated with the prosecution of the Second Seven Year Plan, must,
simultaneously with this added and meritorious effort which is being
exerted, in memory of the beloved &Bab, and for the spiritual emancipation
of the downtrodden races of Africa, be carried to a triumphant
conclusion. Though the present deficit in their National Fund may, in
a sense, register a failure on their part to meet their pressing obligations,
and may arouse in their hearts feelings of self-reproach and anxiety, I
can confidently assert that the supplementary duties they have discharged,
and the material support they have extended, and are now
extending, for the conduct of activities, not falling within the original
scope of their Plan, not only fully compensate for an apparent shortcoming,
but constitute, instead of a stain on their record of service,
additional embellishments to the scroll already inscribed with so many
exploits for the Cause of &Baha'u'llah.
Assured that no blot has marred so splendid a record of service;
confident of their destiny; reliant on the unfailing guidance of the
Founder of their Faith as well as on His sustaining power, let them
address themselves, with unrelaxing vigilance and undiminished vigor,
to the task of rounding off the several missions undertaken by them in
Latin America, and in the North American and European continents.
The extension of the necessary material support and administrative
guidance to the forthcoming national assemblies of Central and South
America that will enable them to develop along sound lines and without
any setback in the course of their unfoldment; the steady consolidation
of the victories already won in the ten goal countries of Europe; the
maintenance, at its present level and at whatever cost, of the status of
the assemblies and groups so laboriously built up; the provision of

+P98
whatever is required to fully complete the interior of the Temple and
beautify the grounds surrounding it, in preparation for its formal
inauguration and its use for public worship--these should be regarded
as the essential objectives of the American &Baha'i Community during
the two-year interval separating us from the Centenary celebrations of
the prophetic mission of the Founder of our Faith.
Time is running short. The effort required to discharge the manifold
responsibilities now challenging the members of a lion-hearted
community is truly colossal. The issues at stake, demanding every
ounce of their energy, are incomparably glorious. An ominous international
situation emphasizes this challenge and reinforces the urgency of
these issues. In the Holy Land, amid the tribes of a dark continent, over
the wide expanses stretching from Panama to the extremity of Chile, in
the heart of its own homeland, as well as in the new European field,
marking the projection of its world mission across the seas, the American
&Baha'i Community must deploy its forces, hoist still higher its
pennants, and erect still more glorious memorials to the heroism, the
constancy and the devotion of its members. &Abdu'l-Baha, Whose Plan
they are executing in both hemispheres, and to Whose summons they
are now responding in the African continent; the &Bab, Whose
Sepulcher they are helping to erect; above all &Baha'u'llah, Whose
embryonic World Order they are building in the Holy Land and in
other continents of the globe, look down upon them from Their retreats
of glory, applauding their acts, guiding their footsteps, vouchsafing
Their blessings, and laying up, in the storehouses of the &Abha kingdom
such treasures as only They can bestow.
May the members of this community prove themselves, as they
forge ahead and approach yet another milestone on the broad highway
of their mission, worthy of still greater prizes, and fit to launch still
mightier enterprises, for the glory of the Name they bear, and in the
service of the Faith they profess.

[March 29, 1951]


First American Pioneer to Africa

Rejoice at departure of first pioneer to Africa; urge acceleration of
historic process now set in motion. Time is short, tasks ahead manifold,
pressing, momentous. Praying ardently for increasing response and

+P99
befitting discharge of mighty supplementary task shouldered by valorous
community.

[October 19, 1951]


Message to 1951 State Conventions

Advise assembled friends to focus attention on vital, pressing,
paramount needs of National Fund at this critical juncture. Hour is
ripe to recall unnumbered tribulations, sacrifices heroically endured by
the dawn-breakers, culminating in &Baha'u'llah's afflictive imprisonment
in &Siyah &Chal, Centennial of which is now approaching. Urge
deepening realization of sacredness, preeminent importance of twin
purposes which individual resolves serve. Appeal for immediate, unanimous,
sustained, decisive response, safeguard thereby American
Community's share in tribute to memory of Founder of Faith on
occasion of forthcoming Jubilee of Birth of glorious Mission. Praying
for befitting answer to heartfelt plea.

[November 4, 1951]


The Last and Irretrievable Chance

The brief interval separating the hard-pressed, valiantly struggling,
resistlessly expanding American &Baha'i Community from the anticipated
consummation of the second, fate-laden collective enterprise
launched so auspiciously by its national elected representatives is
speedily drawing to a close. The sixteen months that still lie ahead
constitute in view of the tasks that still remain to be achieved, and the
sacrifices still to be made, a period at once critical and challenging. This
memorable period commemorates, if we pause and call to mind the
stirring events and bloody episodes linking the Dispensation of the &Bab
with the dawning Mission of the Founder of our Faith, the centenary
of what may be truly regarded as the darkest, the most tragic, the most
heroic, period in the annals of a hundred-year-old Revelation. This
period, moreover, affords the last and irretrievable chance to a ceaselessly
striving, repeatedly victorious community of setting the seal of
triumph upon a momentous undertaking, on whose fate hinges the
launching of yet another glorious Crusade, the consummation of which

+P100
will mark the successful conclusion of the initial epoch in the unfoldment
of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan--an evolution that must continue
to blossom and fructify in the course of successive epochs of the
Formative Ages of the Faith, and yield its fairest fruit in the Golden
Age that is yet to come.

A PERIOD OF HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE

The historic significance of this period cannot indeed be overestimated.
For it was a hundred years ago that a Faith, which had already
been oppressed by a staggering weight of untold tribulations; which
had sustained shattering blows in &Mazindaran, &Nayriz, &Tihran and
&Zanjan, and indeed throughout every province in the land of its birth;
which had lost its greatest exponents through the tragic martyrdom of
most of the Letters of the Living, and particularly of the valiant &Mulla
&Husayn and of the erudite &Vahid and which had been afflicted with the
supreme calamity of losing its Divine Founder; was being subjected to
still more painful ordeals--ordeals which robbed it of both the heroic
&Hujjat and of the far-famed &Tahirih; which caused it to pass through a
reign of terror, and to experience a blood-bath of unprecedented
severity, which inflicted on it one of the greatest humiliations it has
ever suffered through the attempted assassination of the sovereign
himself, and which unloosed a veritable deluge of barbarous atrocities
in &Tihran, &Mazindaran, &Nayriz and &Shiraz before which paled the horrors
of the siege of &Zanjan, and which swept no less a figure than
&Baha'u'llah Himself--the last remaining pillar of a Faith that had been
so rudely shaken, so ruthlessly denuded of its chief buttresses--into
the subterranean dungeon of &Tihran, an imprisonment that was soon
followed by His cruel banishment, in the depths of an exceptionally
severe winter, from His native land to &Iraq. To these tribulations He
Himself has referred as "afflictions" that "rained" upon Him, whilst the
blood shed by His companions and lovers He characterized as the blood
which "impregnated" the earth with the "wondrous revelation" of
God's "might."
Nor should the momentous character of the unique event, that may
be regarded as the climax and consummation of this tragic period, be
overlooked or underestimated, inasmuch as its centenary synchronizes
with the termination of the sixteen-month interval separating the
American &Baha'i Community from the conclusion of its present Plan.

+P101
This unique event, the centenary of which is to be befittingly celebrated,
not only in the American continent but throughout the &Baha'i
world, and is destined to be regarded as the culmination of the Second
Seven Year Plan, is none other than the "Year Nine," anticipated 2,000
years ago as the "third woe" by St. John the Divine, alluded to by both
&Shaykh &Ahmad and Siyyid &Kazim--the twin luminaries that heralded
the advent of the Faith of the &Bab--specifically mentioned and extolled
by the Herald of the &Baha'i Dispensation in His Writings, and
eulogized by both the Founder of our Faith and the Center of His
Covenant. In that year, the year "after Hin" (68), mentioned by
&Shaykh &Ahmad, the year that witnessed the birth of the Mission of the
promised "&Qayyum," specifically referred to by &Siyyid &Kazim, the
"requisite number" in the words of &Baha'u'llah "of pure, of wholly
consecrated and sanctified souls" had been "most secretly consummated."
In that year, as testified by the pen of the &Bab, the "realities
of the created things" were "made manifest," "a new creation was born"
and the seed of His Faith revealed its "ultimate perfection." In that
year, as borne witness by &Abdu'l-Baha, a hitherto "embryonic Faith"
was born. In that year, while the Blessed Beauty lay in chains and fetters,
in that dark and pestilential pit, "the breezes of the All-Glorious,"
as He Himself described it, "were wafted" over Him. There, whilst His
neck was weighted down by the &Qara-Guhar, His feet in stocks, breathing
the fetid air of the &Siyah-Chal, He dreamed His dream and heard,
"on every side," "exalted words," and His "tongue recited" words that
"no man could bear to hear."
There, as He Himself has recorded, under the impact of this dream,
He experienced the onrushing force of His newly revealed Mission,
that "flowed" even as "a mighty torrent" from His "head" to His
"breast," whereupon "every limb" of His body "would be set afire."
There, in a vision, the "Most Great Spirit," as He Himself has again
testified, appeared to Him, in the guise of a "Maiden" "calling" with "a
most wondrous, a most sweet voice" above His Head, whilst "suspended
in the air" before Him and, "pointing with her finger" unto His
head, imparted "tidings which rejoiced" His "soul." There appeared
above the horizon of that dungeon in the city of &Tihran, the rim of the
Orb of His Faith, whose dawning light had, nine years previously,
broken upon the city of &Shiraz--an Orb which, after suffering an
eclipse of ten years, was destined to burst forth, with its resplendent

+P102
rays, upon the city of &Baghdad, to mount its zenith in Adrianople, and
to set eventually in the prison-fortress of &Akka.
Such is the year we are steadily approaching. Such is the year with
which the fortunes of the Second Seven Year Plan have been linked.
As the tribulations, humiliations and trials inflicted on the Cause of
God in Persia, a century ago, moved inexorably towards a climax, so
must the present austerity period, inaugurated a hundred years later, in
the continent of America, to reflect the privations and sacrifices endured
so stoically by the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of the Faith
witness, as it approaches its culmination, a self-abnegation on the part
of the champion-builders of the World Order of &Baha'u'llah, laboring
in the present Formative Age of His Faith, which, at its best, can be
regarded as but a faint reflection of the self-sacrifice so gloriously
evinced by their spiritual forbears.

OBJECTIVES OF SECOND SEVEN YEAR PLAN LARGELY ATTAINED

The objectives of the Second Seven Year Plan, the concluding
phase of which has synchronized with this period of nation-wide
austerity, have, it must be recognized, been in the main, attained. The
pillars which must needs add their strength in supporting the future
House of Justice have, according to the schedule laid down, been
successively erected in the Dominion of Canada and in Latin America.
The European Teaching Campaign--the second outstanding enterprise
launched, beyond the confines of the North American continent,
in pursuance of the Mandate, issued by &Abdu'l-Baha to &Baha'u'llah's
valiant "Apostles"--has not only achieved its original aims, but exceeded
all expectations through the formation of a local spiritual
assembly in the capital city of each of the ten goal countries included
within its scope. The interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of
the West has, before its appointed time, been completed. Other tasks,
no less vital, still remain to be carried, in the course of a fast shrinking
period, to a successful conclusion. The landscaping of the area surrounding
a structure whose foundations and exterior and interior
ornamentation have demanded, for so many years, so much effort and
such constant sacrifice, must, under no circumstances, and while there
is yet time, be neglected, lest failure to achieve this final task mar the
beauty of the approaches of a national shrine which provide so suitable

+P103
a setting for an edifice at once so sacred and noble. The responsibilities
solemnly undertaken to consolidate and multiply the administrative
institutions throughout all the states of the Union--a task that has
of late been allowed to fall into abeyance, and has been eclipsed by the
spectacular success attending the shining exploits of the American
&Baha'i Community in foreign fields--must be speedily and seriously
reconsidered, for upon the constant broadening and the steady reinforcement
of this internal administrative structure, which provides the
essential base for future operations in all the continents of the globe,
must depend the vigor, the rapidity and the soundness of the future
crusades which must needs be launched in the service, and for the glory
of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, and in obedience to the stirring summons
issued by the Center of His Covenant in some of His most weighty
Tablets. Above all, the accumulating deficit which has lately again
thrown its somber shadow on an otherwise resplendent record of
service, must, through a renewed display of self-abnegation, which,
though not commensurate with the sacrifice of so many souls immolated
on the altar of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, may at least faintly reflect its
poignant heroism, be obliterated, once and for all, from the record of
a splendid stewardship to His Faith.
There can be no doubt--and I am the first to proudly acknowledge
it--that, ever since the launching of the Second Seven Year Plan, and
in consequence of unexpected developments both in the Holy Land
and elsewhere, the American &Baha'i Community, ever ready to bear the
brunt of responsibility, under the stress of unforeseen circumstances,
has considerably widened the scope of its original undertakings and
augmented the weight shouldered by its stalwart members. At the
World Center of the Faith, in response to the urgent call for action,
necessitated by the imperative needs of the rising Sepulcher of the &Bab,
the formation of the &Baha'i International Council, and the establishment
of the State of Israel, as well as in the continent of Africa, where
the appointed, the chief trustees of a divinely conceived, world-encompassing
Plan could not well remain unmoved by the sight of the
first attempts being made to introduce systematically the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah and to implant its banner amongst its tribes and races, the
American &Baha'i Community have assumed responsibilities well exceeding
the original duties they had undertaken to discharge. This twofold
opportunity that providentially presented itself to them, to contribute

+P104
to the rise and consolidation of the World Center of their Faith,
and to the spiritual re-awakening of a long-neglected continent, must,
however, be exploited to the fullest extent, if the early completion of
the most sacred edifice, next to the &Qiblih of the &Baha'i world, is to be
assured, and if the executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's Plan are to retain
untarnished the primacy conferred upon them by its Author.
That primacy will be demonstrated and re-emphasized as the
representatives of this privileged community take their place, and
assume their functions, at each of the four Intercontinental &Baha'i
Teaching Conferences which are to be convened in the course of, and
which must signalize, the world-wide celebrations of the Centenary of
the Year Nine. Playing a preponderating role, as the custodians of a
Divine Plan, in the global crusade which all the &Baha'i national
spiritual assemblies, without exception, must, in various degrees and
combinations, launch on the morrow of the forthcoming Centenary,
and during the entire course of the ten-year interval separating them
from the Most Great Jubilee, they must, upon the consummation of
their present Plan, deliberate, together with their ally the Canadian
National Assembly, and their associates, the newly formed National
Spiritual Assemblies of Central and South America, on the occasion of
the convocation of the approaching All-American Teaching Conference,
on ways and means whereby they can best contribute to the
establishment of the Faith, not only throughout the Americas and their
neighboring islands, but in the chief sovereign states and dependencies
of the remaining continents of the globe.

SCOPE OF THIRD SEVEN YEAR PLAN WIDENED

For unlike the First and Second Seven Year Plans, inaugurated by
the American &Baha'i Community, the scope of the Third Seven Year
Plan, the termination of which will mark the conclusion of the first
epoch in the evolution of the Master Plan designed by &Abdu'l-Baha,
will embrace all the continents of the earth, and will bring the central
body directing these widely ramified operations into direct contact with
all the national assemblies of the &Baha'i world, which, in varying
degrees, will have to contribute their share to the world establishment
of the Cause of &Baha'u'llah, as prophesied by &Abdu'l-Baha and
envisioned by Daniel--a consummation that, God willing, will be
befittingly celebrated on the occasion of the Most Great Jubilee

+P105
commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the formal assumption
by &Baha'u'llah of His Prophetic Office.
The vision now disclosed to the eyes of this community is indeed
enthralling. The tasks which, if that vision is to be fulfilled, must be
valiantly shouldered by its members are staggering. The time during
which so herculean a task is to be performed is alarmingly brief. The
period during which so gigantic an operation must be set in motion,
prosecuted and consummated, coincides with the critical, and perhaps
the darkest and most tragic, stage in human affairs. The opportunities
presenting themselves to them are now close at hand. The invisible
battalions of the Concourse on High are mustered, in serried ranks,
ready to rush their reinforcements to the aid of the vanguard of
&Baha'u'llah's crusaders in the hour of their greatest need, and in
anticipation of that Most Great, that Wondrous Jubilee in the joyfulness
of which both heaven and earth will partake. &Abdu'l-Baha, the
Founder of this community and the Author of the Plan which constitutes
its birthright, to Whose last wishes its members so marvelously
responded; the &Bab, the Centenary of Whose Revelation this same
community so magnificently celebrated, and to the building of whose
Sepulcher it has given so fervent a support; &Baha'u'llah Himself, to the
glory of Whose Name so stately an edifice it has raised, will amply bless
and repay its members if they but persevere on the long road they have
so steadfastly trodden, and pursue, with undimmed vision, with unrelaxing
resolve and unshakable faith, their onward march towards their
chosen goal.
That this community, so young in years, yet withal so rich in
exploits, may, in the months immediately ahead, as well as in the years
immediately following this coming Jubilee, maintain, untarnished and
unimpaired, its record of service to our beloved Faith, that it may further
embellish, through still nobler feats, its annals, is the dearest wish
of my heart, and the object of my constant supplications at the Holy
Threshold.

[November 23, 1951]


Funds for International Center

Deeply touched by reconsecration and readiness to sacrifice. Praying
for fulfilment of your hopes. Advise allocate substantial portion of

+P106
budget to meet continual needs arising at International Center of
Faith.

[May 3, 1952]


Forty-Fifth Annual Convention: U.S. Tasks in World Crusade

My soul is uplifted in joy and thanksgiving at the triumphant
conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan immortalized by the brilliant
victories simultaneously won by the vanguard of the hosts of
&Baha'u'llah in Latin America, in Europe and in Africa--victories
befittingly crowned through the consummation of a fifty year old
enterprise, the completion of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the western
world. The signal success that has attended the second collective
enterprise undertaken in the course of American &Baha'i history climaxes
a term of stewardship to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, of almost three
score years' duration--a period which has enriched the annals of the
concluding epoch of the Heroic, and shed luster on the first thirty years
of the Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation. So fecund a period
has been marked by teaching activities unexcelled throughout the
western world and has been distinguished by administrative exploits
unparalleled in the annals of any &Baha'i national community whether
in the East or in the West. I am impelled, on the occasion of the
anniversary of the Most Great Festival, coinciding with a triple
celebration--the dedication of the Mother Temple of the West, the
launching of a World Spiritual Crusade and the commemoration of the
Birth of &Baha'u'llah's Mission--to pay warmest tribute to the preeminent
share which the American &Baha'i Community has had in the
course of over half a century in proclaiming His Revelation, in shielding
His Cause, in championing His Covenant, in erecting the administrative
machinery of His embryonic World Order, in expounding His
teachings, in translating and disseminating His Holy Word, in dispatching
the messengers of His Glad Tidings, in awakening royalty to
His Call, in succoring His oppressed followers, in routing His enemies,
in upholding His Law, in asserting the independence of His Faith, in
multiplying the financial resources of its nascent institutions and, last
but not least, in rearing its greatest House of Worship--the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the western world.

+P107
The hour is now ripe for this greatly gifted, richly blessed community
to arise and reaffirm, through the launching of yet another
enterprise, its primacy, enhance its spiritual heritage, plumb greater
depths of consecration and capture loftier heights in the course of its
strenuous and ceaseless labors for the exaltation of God's Cause.
The Ten Year Plan, constituting the third and final stage of the
initial epoch in the evolution of &Abdu'l-Baha's Master Plan, which,
God willing, will raise to greater heights the fame of the stalwart
American &Baha'i Community, and seat it upon "the throne of an
everlasting dominion," envisaged by the Author of the Tablets of this
same Plan, involves:
First, the opening of the following virgin territories, eleven in
Africa: Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands, French Somaliland,
French Togoland, Mauritius, Northern Territories Protectorate, Portuguese
Guinea, Reunion Island, Spanish Guinea, St. Helena and St.
Thomas Island; eight in Asia: Caroline Islands, Dutch New Guinea,
Hainan Island, Kazakhstan, Macao Island, Sakhalin Island, Tibet and
Tonga Islands; six in Europe: Andorra, Azores, Balearic Islands,
Lofoten Islands, Spitzbergen and Ukraine; and four in America:
Aleutian Islands, Falkland Islands, Key West and Kodiak Island.
Second, the consolidation of the Faith in the following territories,
six in Asia: China, Formosa, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Philippine
Islands; two in Africa: Liberia and South Africa; twelve in Europe: the
ten goal countries, Finland and France; three in America: the
Hawaiian Islands, Alaska and Puerto Rico.
Third, the extension of assistance to the National Spiritual Assemblies
of the &Baha'is of Central and South America, as well as to the
National Spiritual Assembly of the &Baha'is of Italy and Switzerland in
forming twenty national spiritual assemblies in the republics of Latin
America and two in Europe, namely in Italy and Switzerland; the
extension of assistance for the establishment of a national &Haziratu'l-Quds
in the capital of each of the aforementioned countries as well as
of national &Baha'i endowments in these same countries.
Fourth, the establishment of ten national spiritual assemblies in the
following European countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium,
Holland, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, France and Finland.
Fifth, the establishment of a national spiritual assembly in Japan
and one in the South Pacific Islands.

+P108
Sixth, the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
&Baha'is of Alaska.
Seventh, the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of
the &Baha'is of South and West Africa.
Eighth, the incorporation of each of the fourteen above-mentioned
national spiritual assemblies.
Ninth, the establishment of national &Baha'i endowments by these
same national spiritual assemblies.
Tenth, the establishment of a national &Haziratu'l-Quds in the
capital city of each of the eleven of the aforementioned countries, as
well as one in Anchorage, one in Suva, and one in Johannesburg.
Eleventh, the erection of the first dependency of the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the western world.
Twelfth, the extension of assistance for the purchase of land for
four future Temples, two in Europe: in Stockholm and Rome; one in
Central America, in Panama City; and one in Africa, in Johannesburg.
Thirteenth, the completion of the landscaping of the grounds of the
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette.
Fourteenth, the raising to one hundred of the number of incorporated
local assemblies within the American Union.
Fifteenth, the raising to three hundred of the number of local spiritual
assemblies in that same country.
Sixteenth, the incorporation of spiritual assemblies in the leading
cities of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg,
Spain and Portugal, as well as of the Spiritual Assemblies of Paris, of
Helsingfors, of Tokyo, of Suva and of Johannesburg.
Seventeenth, the quadrupling of the number of local spiritual
assemblies and the trebling of the number of localities in the aforementioned
countries.
Eighteenth, the translation of &Baha'i literature into ten languages in
Europe, (Basque, Estonian, Flemish, Lapp, Maltese, Piedmontese,
Romani, Romansch, Yiddish and Ziryen; ten in America: Aguaruna,
Arawak, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Iroquois, Lengua, Mataco, Maya, Mexican
and Yahgan.
Nineteenth, the conversion to the Faith of members of the leading
Indian tribes.

+P109
Twentieth, the conversion to the Faith of representatives of the
Basque and Gypsy races.
Twenty-first, the establishment of summer schools in each of the
Scandinavian and Benelux countries, as well as those of the Iberian
Peninsula.
Twenty-second, the proclamation of the Faith through the press
and radio throughout the United States of America.
Twenty-third, the establishment of a &Baha'i Publishing Trust in
Wilmette, Illinois.
Twenty-fourth, the formation of an Asian teaching committee
designed to stimulate and coordinate the teaching activities initiated by
the Plan.
May this community--the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers
of the Heroic Age of the &Baha'i Faith, the chief repository of
the immortal Tablets of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, the foremost
executors of the Mandate issued by the Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant,
the champion-builders of a divinely conceived Administrative
Order, the standard-bearers of the all-conquering army of the Lord of
Hosts, the torchbearers of a future divinely inspired world
civilization--arise, in the course of the momentous decade separating
the Great from the Most Great Jubilee to secure, as befits its rank, the
lion's share in the prosecution of a global crusade designed to diffuse
the light of God's revelation over the surface of the entire planet.

[April 29, 1953]


Intending Pioneers Urged to Scatter

Strongly urge intending pioneers to scatter as widely as possible,
settle even territories, islands not specifically assigned to United States.
Prompt opening of virgin territories is highly meritorious, extremely
urgent, vital prerequisite to insure triumphant conclusion of opening
phase of Global Crusade, prerogative of chief executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Plan. May enrolled pioneers arise and confirm primacy of
American &Baha'i Community playing preponderating role in initial
stage of spiritual conquest of unopened territories and islands of the
planet.

+P110
[May 13, 1953]


A Turning Point in American &Baha'i History

My soul is thrilled and my heart is filled with gratitude as I
contemplate--looking back upon six decades of eventful American
&Baha'i history--the chain of magnificent achievements which, from
the dawn of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in the West until the present day,
have signalized the birth, marked the rise and distinguished the unfoldment
of the glorious mission of the American &Baha'i Community. Of
all &Baha'i communities in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres,
with the sole exception of its venerable sister community in
&Baha'u'llah's native land, it alone may well claim to have released
forces, and set in motion events, which stand unparalleled in the annals
of the Faith; while in the course of the last fifty years, comprising the
concluding years of the Heroic and the opening epochs of the Formative
Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation, it can confidently boast of a record
of stewardship which, for its scope, effectiveness and splendor, is unmatched
by that of any other community in the entire &Baha'i world.
The first to awaken to the call of the New Day in the western
world; the first to spontaneously arise to befittingly erect the Mother
Temple of the West; the first to grasp the implications, evolve the
pattern and lay the basis of the structure of the &Baha'i Administrative
Order in the entire &Baha'i world; the first to openly and systematically
proclaim the fundamental principles of the Faith, to adopt effectual
measures for its defense, to invite the attention of royalty to its
teachings, to devise an adequate machinery for the translation, the
publication and the dissemination of its literature and to provide the
means for the creation of its subsidiary institutions; the first to champion
the cause of the oppressed and to generously contribute to the
alleviation of the sufferings of the needy and persecuted among the
followers of &Baha'u'llah; the first to inaugurate collective enterprises for
the propagation of His Cause; the first to assert its independence in the
West; the first to lay an unassailable foundation for the erection of
auxiliary institutions designed to multiply its financial resources; and,
more recently, the first to achieve, as befits its primacy, the initial task
devolving upon it in pursuance of the newly launched World Spiritual

+P111
Crusade, this community has abundantly merited, by the quality of its
deeds and the magnitude of its exploits, the distinctive titles of the
cradle of the World Order of &Baha'u'llah, of the vanguard of His
world-conquering host, of the standard-bearers of the oneness of mankind,
of the chief trustees of the Plan devised by the Center of the
Covenant and of the torch-bearers of an as yet unborn world civilization.

RECENT SERVICES DESERVING MENTION

The services rendered by this same community in recent years, in
its capacity as the chief executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, in the
course of the second stage of the initial epoch in its evolution, are of
such importance and significance as to deserve particular mention at
this time. In the North American continent, throughout the republics
of Latin America, in the ten goal countries of Europe, on the shores and
in the heart of the African continent, the members of this community
have, in conformity with the provisions of the Second Seven Year Plan,
performed feats of such noble and enduring heroism as to enhance
immensely their prestige, demonstrate unmistakably the caliber of their
faith and qualify them to assume a preponderating share in the
prosecution of the Ten Year Plan whose operations are to extend over
the entire surface of the globe.
In the multiplication and consolidation of &Baha'i administrative
institutions and their auxiliary agencies throughout Central America,
the Antilles and every South American republic--a task supplementing
the initial enterprise undertaken, in pursuance of the first Seven
Year Plan, in connection with the introduction of the Faith into the
republics of Latin America; in the even more rapid development of
nascent institutions of the Faith in Scandinavia, in the Benelux
countries, in Switzerland, in the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas; in the
laying of the administrative basis of the World Order of &Baha'u'llah in
the capital and in some of the major cities of each of the ten European
sovereign states included within the scope of the Plan; in the convocation
of a series of historic teaching conferences in the north and in the
heart of the European continent--heralding the convocation of the
recently held, epoch-making Intercontinental Teaching Conferences;
in the translation, the publication and dissemination of &Baha'i literature
in various European languages; in the still more dramatic evolution

+P112
of the Faith in the African continent, culminating in the convocation
of the first Intercontinental Teaching Conference of the Holy Year in
the heart of Africa; in the tremendous sacrifices spontaneously and
repeatedly made to broaden and reinforce the foundations of the Faith
in the North American continent, to sustain the campaigns undertaken
in Latin America, Europe and Africa, and to meet the many demands
of the &Baha'i Temple, rapidly nearing completion in Wilmette; in the
successive emergence of three national spiritual assemblies in the Western
Hemisphere--an outstanding contribution to the evolution and
consolidation of the structure of the world Administrative Order of the
Faith; in the completion of the interior ornamentation of the first
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the West, the provision of its accessories and the
initiation of the landscaping of its grounds; in the support extended to
the development of the institutions of the World Center of the Faith;
in the role played by its representatives, whether as Hands of the Cause
or members of the International &Baha'i Council; in the financial aid
unhesitatingly given to hasten the construction, and insure the completion,
of the superstructure of the &Bab's Sepulcher on Mt. Carmel--
above all, in the share its national elected representatives have assumed
in providing the means for the convocation of the second Intercontinental
Teaching Conference of the Holy Year; in commemorating
worthily the dedication to public worship of the Mother Temple of the
West, on the occasion of its Jubilee; in befittingly inaugurating the
launching of the World Spiritual Crusade, and in celebrating the
climax of the Holy Year marking the centenary of the birth of
&Baha'u'llah's Mission--in all these the American &Baha'i Community
has fully deserved the praise and gratitude of posterity, has merited the
applause of the Concourse on High and earned a full measure of the
divine blessings and of the celestial sustenance of which it will stand in
such great need in the course of the prosecution of still mightier and
more glorious enterprises in the days to come.

ADDED RESPONSIBILITIES IN PROPAGATING THE DIVINE PLAN

The stage is now set, and the hour propitious, for a deployment of
forces, and for the revelation of the indomitable spirit animating
this community, on a scale and to a degree unprecedented in the entire
course of American &Baha'i history. To the Antilles and the seventeen
republics of Central and of South America--the scene of the initial

+P113
exploits of a community inaugurating the opening phase of its world-girding
mission--to the ten sovereign states of Europe which, at a
subsequent stage in the unfoldment of that mission, the members of
this community enthusiastically and determinedly arose to open up and
conquer; to the African territories which, in addition to their allocated
task under the Second Seven Year Plan, they spontaneously endeavored
to win to the all-conquering Cause of &Baha'u'llah--to these
numerous islands and archipelagos, bordering the American, the European
and African continents; dependencies extensive, well-nigh inaccessible,
and remote from the base of their operations throughout the
Asiatic continent; lastly, the South Pacific area, the home of the one
remaining race not as yet adequately represented in the &Baha'i world
community, occupying spiritually so strategic a position owing to its
proximity to the &Baha'i communities already firmly entrenched in
South America, in the Indian subcontinent and in Australasia, at once
challenging the resources of no less than eight national spiritual assemblies,
and the theater destined to witness the noblest and the most
resounding victories which the chosen executors of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine
Plan have been called upon to win in the service of the Cause
of God--all these have now, in accordance with the requirements of
an irresistibly unfolding Plan, been added, completing thereby the full
circle of the world-wide obligations devolving upon a community invested
with spiritual primacy by the Author of the immortal Tablets
constituting the Charter of the Master Plan of the appointed Center
of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant.
"The moment this Divine Message," He Who penned these
Tablets and conferred this primacy has most significantly affirmed, "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." Then, and only then, will, as He Himself has so remarkably
prophesied, "the whole earth" "resound with the praises of its majesty
and greatness."
Now, indeed, is the time, after the lapse of two score years;
following the triumphant conclusion of two successive historic Plans,
marking the opening stages of the first epoch in the unfoldment of that
same Master Plan; on the morrow of the brilliant celebrations climaxing
the world-wide festivities of a memorable Holy Year; and while a

+P114
triumphant community, in the first flush of enthusiasm, has just
garnered the first fruits of its campaigns in four continents of the globe
and is laden with its freshly won trophies, for this community to bestir
itself, and, assuming its rightful preponderating share in the conduct of
a newly launched World Spiritual Crusade, to demonstrate, through a
supreme and sustained effort embracing the entire surface of the
planet, its ability to safeguard that primacy, to enrich immeasurably the
record of its stewardship and to bring to a majestic conclusion the
opening epoch in the evolution of a Plan destined to reveal the full
measure of its potentialities, not only throughout the successive epochs
of the Formative Age of the Faith, but in the course of the vast reaches
of time stretching into the Golden, the last Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation.

A LASTING INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN COMMUNITY AND NATION

This decade-long global Crusade must mark a veritable turning
point in American &Baha'i history. It must prove itself to be, as it
develops, a force so pervasive and revolutionary in its character as to
leave a lasting imprint not only on the destinies of the American &Baha'i
Community but on the fortunes of the American nation as well. It
must, even as a baptismal fire, so purge its members from self as to
enable them to scale heights never as yet attained. It must, in its initial
stages, witness a dispersal, combined with a consecration, reminiscent
of the dawn of the Heroic Age in &Baha'u'llah's native land. It must, as
it gathers momentum, awaken the select and gather the spiritually
hungry amongst the peoples of the world, as well as create an awareness
of the Faith not only among the political leaders of present-day society
but also among the thoughtful, the erudite in other spheres of human
activity. It must, as it approaches its climax, carry the torch of the Faith
to regions so remote, so backward, so inhospitable that neither the light
of Christianity or &Islam has, after the revolution of centuries, as yet
penetrated. It must, as it approaches its conclusion, pave the way for the
laying, on an unassailable foundation, of the structural basis of an
Administrative Order whose fabric must, in the course of successive
crusades, be laboriously erected throughout the entire globe and which
must assemble beneath its sheltering shadow peoples of every race,
tongue, creed, color and nation.
Seconded by the neighboring fully fledged Canadian &Baha'i Community

+P115
flourishing beyond the northern frontier of its homeland;
supported by the newly emerged Latin American communities established
in the Antilles and in each of the central and southern republics
of the Western Hemisphere; ably aided by its sister community
vigorously functioning in the heart of a far-flung empire, and destined
to lend its inestimable assistance in the spiritual conquest of the
numerous and widely scattered dependencies of the British Crown;
reinforced by the oldest and youngest national &Baha'i communities on
the European mainland which are to play a prominent part in the
eastern and southern regions, and across the frontiers of Europe, along
the shores and in the islands of the Mediterranean; assisted by its
venerable sister community in the cradle of the Faith and by the second
oldest national community in the &Baha'i world actively engaged in the
propagation of the Faith in the Asiatic continent; confident of the help
of its Egyptian and Indian sister communities, whose destiny is closely
linked with the African continent and southeast Asia respectively, and,
lastly, assured of the unfailing cooperation of yet another national
community in the Antipodes which, owing to its geographical position,
is bound to assume a notable share in the introduction of the Faith in
the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, the American &Baha'i Community
must, as befits its rank as the chief executor of the Divine Plan,
play a dominant and decisive role in the direction and control of the
manifold operations involved in the prosecution of the North American,
the Latin American, the European, the African, the Asian and the
South Pacific campaigns of this World Crusade, and insure, by every
means at its disposal and in conjunction with its junior partners, its
ultimate and total success.
Within its own sphere, extending to every continent of the globe,
embracing no less than twenty-nine virgin territories and islands, the
members of this stalwart and preeminent community are called upon,
among other things and within the relatively brief span of a single
decade, to create nuclei, around which will crystallize future assemblies,
in no less than eleven territories and islands of Africa, eight of Asia, six
of Europe, four of America; to inaugurate the establishment of the
future dependencies of the Mother Temple of the West, and to
terminate the landscaping of its grounds; to consolidate and broaden
the basis of the Administrative Order already laid in twenty-three
territories and islands distributed in four continents of the globe and

+P116
situated in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; to assist in the erection of
no less than thirty-six pillars, twenty in Latin America, twelve in
Europe, two in Asia, one in the North American continent and one in
Africa, designed to help in sustaining the weight of the crowning unit
of the &Baha'i Administrative Order, and in the establishment of
national &Baha'i headquarters, of national endowments, and of national
incorporations in all of these continents; to lend its aid for the
acquisition of land in anticipation of the erection of four Temples, two
in Europe, one in Africa and one in Central America; to lend an
impetus to the progress of the Faith in its homeland through raising to
three hundred the number of local spiritual assemblies and to one
hundred the number of incorporated assemblies, as well as through the
founding of a &Baha'i Publishing Trust and the proclamation of the
Faith through the press and radio; to enroll in the ranks of the followers
of &Baha'u'llah members of the Indian, of the Basque and Gypsy races;
to assume responsibility for the translation and publication of &Baha'i
literature in twenty languages, ten in the Americas and ten in Europe;
and to contribute to the consolidation of the Faith in eight of the
European goal countries through the establishment of local incorporations,
as well as through the quadrupling of the number of local
assemblies and the trebling of the number of local &Baha'i centers in
each one of them.
While this colossal task, which in its magnitude and potentialities
transcends any previous collective enterprise launched in the course of
American &Baha'i history, is being energetically carried out, it should be
constantly borne in mind--and this applies to all communities without
exception participating in this World Crusade--that the twofold task
of extension and consolidation must be supplemented by continuous
and strenuous efforts to increase speedily not only the number of the
avowed followers of the Faith in both the virgin and opened territories
and islands included within the scope of the Ten Year Plan, but also to
swell the ranks of its active supporters who will consecrate their time,
resources and energy to the effectual spread of its teachings and the
multiplication and consolidation of its administrative institutions.
The movement of pioneers, the opening of virgin territories, the
initiation of Houses of Worship and of administrative headquarters,
the incorporation of local and national elective bodies, the multiplication
of assemblies, groups and isolated centers, the increase in the

+P117
number of races represented in the world &Baha'i fellowship, the
translation, publication and dissemination of &Baha'i literature, the
consolidation of administrative agencies and the creation of auxiliary
bodies designed to support them, however valuable, essential and
meritorious, will in the long run amount to little and fail to achieve
their supreme purpose if not supplemented by the equally vital
task--which is one that primarily concerns continually and challenges
each single individual believer whatever his rank, capacity or
origin--of winning to the Faith fresh recruits to the slowly yet steadily
advancing army of the Lord of Hosts, whose reinforcing strength is so
essential to the safeguarding of the victories which the band of heroic
&Baha'i conquerors are winning in the course of their several campaigns
in all the continents of the globe.
Such a steady flow of reinforcements is absolutely vital and is of
extreme urgency, for nothing short of the vitalizing influx of new blood
that will reanimate the world &Baha'i community can safeguard the
prizes which, at so great a sacrifice involving the expenditure of so much
time, effort and treasure, are now being won in virgin territories by
&Baha'u'llah's valiant Knights, whose privilege is to constitute the
spearhead of the onrushing battalions which, in diverse theaters and in
circumstances often adverse and extremely challenging, are vying with
each other for the spiritual conquest of the unsurrendered territories
and islands on the surface of the globe.
This flow, moreover, will presage and hasten the advent of the day
which, as prophesied by &Abdu'l-Baha, will witness the entry by troops
of peoples of divers nations and races into the &Baha'i world--a day
which, viewed in its proper perspective, will be the prelude to that
long-awaited hour when a mass conversion on the part of these same nations
and races, and as a direct result of a chain of events, momentous and
possibly catastrophic in nature, and which cannot as yet be even dimly
visualized, will suddenly revolutionize the fortunes of the Faith, derange
the equilibrium of the world, and reinforce a thousandfold the
numerical strength as well as the material power and the spiritual
authority of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah.

MOST VITAL OBJECTIVE IN THE CRUSADE'S OPENING YEAR

Of all the objectives enumerated in my message to the representatives
of this community, assembled on the occasion of the celebration

+P118
of the climax of the Holy Year, of the convocation of the second
Intercontinental Teaching Conference, of the inauguration of the
Mother Temple of the West and of the launching of the World
Spiritual Crusade, the most vital, urgent and meritorious, in this the
opening year of the initial phase of this world-embracing enterprise, is,
without doubt, the settlement of pioneers in all the virgin territories
and islands assigned to this community in all the continents of the
globe, with the exception of the few which, owing to present political
obstacles, cannot as yet be opened to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah. This
process already so auspiciously inaugurated, which, in the course of the
first eight months of the Holy Year has gathered such splendid
momentum, and which bids fair to astonish, stimulate and inspire the
entire &Baha'i world, must, during the concluding months of this same
year and the one succeeding it, be so accelerated as to insure the
attainment of this paramount objective before the lapse of two years
from the official launching of this World Crusade.
While this goal is being vigorously pursued, close attention must be
directed to the preliminary measures for the establishment of the first
dependency of the Mother Temple of the West, as well as to the
completion of the landscaping of its grounds, a double task that will, on
the one hand, mark the termination of the fifty-year-old process of the
construction of the central &Baha'i House of Worship, and proclaim, on
the other, the commencement of another designed to culminate in the
establishment in its plenitude of the institution of the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
as conceived by &Baha'u'llah and envisaged by &Abdu'l-Baha.
Moreover, immediate consideration should be given to two other issues
of prime importance, namely the purchase of land, which need not
exceed for the present one acre, in anticipation of the construction of
the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of South Africa, and the prompt translation
of a suitable &Baha'i pamphlet into the American and European languages
allocated to your assembly, and its publication and wide dissemination
among the peoples and tribes for whom it has been primarily
designed.
The followers of the Most Great Name, citizens of the great
republic of the West; constituting the majority and the oldest followers
of His Faith in a continent wherein, in the words of &Abdu'l-Baha, "the
splendors of His (&Baha'u'llah's) Light shall be revealed" and "the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled," addressed by Him in His

+P119
Tablets of the Divine Plan as the "Apostles" of His Father; the
recipients of the overwhelming majority of these same Tablets constituting
the Charter of that Plan; conquerors of most of the territories,
whether sovereign states or dependencies, already included within the
pale of the Faith; the champion-builders of a world administrative
system which posterity will regard as the harbinger of the World Order
of &Baha'u'llah, must, if they wish to retain their primacy and enrich
their heritage, insure that, ere the opening of the second phase of this
World Crusade, the names of the first American &Baha'i conquerors to
settle in virgin territories and islands will, as befits their primacy, be
inscribed on the Scroll of Honor, now in process of preparation, and
designed to be permanently deposited at the entrance door of the Inner
Sanctuary of &Baha'u'llah's Most Holy Tomb, that the limited area of
land required for the erection of four future &Baha'i Temples, in Rome,
Stockholm, Panama City and Johannesburg, will be bought, that the
landscaping of the grounds of the Temple in Wilmette will be
completed, and that the translation and the publication of the aforementioned
pamphlet in the specified languages will be accomplished.
The two years that lie ahead, three months of which have already
elapsed, will swiftly and imperceptibly draw to a close. Tasks even more
onerous, equally weighty and requiring in a still greater measure the
expenditure of effort and substance, lie ahead, which will brook no
delay, which will carry the Faith to still higher levels of achievement
and renown, which will enlarge, through the forging of fresh instruments,
the framework of a steadily rising world Administrative Order,
and which will eventually, if worthily discharged, seal the triumph of
the most prodigious, the most sublime, the most sacred collective
enterprise launched by the adherents of the Cause of God in both
hemispheres since the early days of the Heroic Age of the Faith--an
enterprise which in its vastness, organization and unifying power, has
no parallel in the world's spiritual history.

AN APPEAL TO ALL ENGAGED IN THE CRUSADE

To them, and indeed to the entire body of the followers of
&Baha'u'llah, engaged in this global Crusade, I direct my appeal to arise
and, in the course of these fast-fleeting years, in every phase of the
campaigns that are to be fought in all the continents of the globe, prove
+P120
their worth as gallant warriors battling for the Cause of &Baha'u'llah.
Indeed, from this very hour until the eve of the Most Great Jubilee,
each and every one of those enrolled in the Army of Light must seek no
rest, must take no thought of self, must sacrifice to the uttermost, must
allow nothing whatsoever to deflect him or her from meeting the
pressing, the manifold, the paramount needs of this preeminent Crusade.
"Light as the spirit," "pure as air," "blazing as fire," "unrestrained as
the wind"--for such is &Baha'u'llah's own admonition to His loved ones
in His Tablets, and directed not to a select few but to the entire
congregation of the faithful--let them scatter far and wide, proclaim
the glory of God's Revelation in this Day, quicken the souls of men and
ignite in their hearts the love of the One Who alone is their omnipotent
and divinely appointed Redeemer.
Bracing the fearful cold of the Arctic regions and the enervating
heat of the torrid zone; heedless of the hazards, the loneliness and the
austerity of the deserts, the far-away islands and mountains wherein
they will be called upon to dwell; undeterred by the clamor which the
exponents of religious orthodoxy are sure to raise, or by the restrictive
measures which political leaders may impose; undismayed by the
smallness of their numbers and the multitude of their potential adversaries;
armed with the efficacious weapons their own hands have slowly
and laboriously forged in anticipation of this glorious and inevitable
encounter with the organized forces of superstition, of corruption and of
unbelief; placing their whole trust in the matchless potency of
&Baha'u'llah's teachings, in the all-conquering power of His might and
the infallibility of His glorious and oft-repeated promises, let them press
forward, each according to his strength and resources, into the vast
arena now lying before them, and which, God willing, will witness, in
the years immediately lying ahead, such exhibitions of prowess and of
heroic self-sacrifice as may well recall the superb feats achieved by that
immortal band of God-intoxicated heroes who have so immeasurably
enriched the annals of the Christian, the Islamic and &Babi Dispensations.
On the members of the American &Baha'i Community, the envied
custodians of a Divine Plan, the principal builders and defenders of a
mighty Order and the recognized champions of an unspeakably glorious
and precious Faith, a peculiar and inescapable responsibility must

+P121
necessarily rest. Through their courage, their self-abnegation, their
fortitude and their perseverance; through the range and quality of their
achievements, the depth of their consecration, their initiative and
resourcefulness, their organizing ability, their readiness and capacity to
lend their assistance to less privileged sister communities struggling
against heavy odds; through their generous and sustained response to
the enormous and ever-increasing financial needs of a world-encompassing,
decade-long and admittedly strenuous enterprise, they
must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, vindicate their right to the
leadership of this World Crusade.
Now is the time for the hope voiced by &Abdu'l-Baha that from their
homeland "heavenly illumination" may "stream to all the peoples of the
world" to be realized. Now is the time for the truth of His remarkable
assertion that that same homeland 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," to be
strikingly and unmistakably demonstrated. "Should success crown"
their "enterprise," He, moreover, has assured them, "the throne of the
Kingdom of God will, in the plenitude of its majesty and glory, be
firmly established."
Would to God that this community, boasting already of so superb a
record of achievements both at home and overseas, and elevated to such
dazzling heights by the hopes cherished and the assurance given by the
Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant, may prove itself capable of performing
deeds of such distinction, in the course of the opening, as well as
the succeeding phases of this World Spiritual Crusade, as will outshine
the dedicated acts which have already left their indelible mark on the
Apostolic Age of the Faith in the West; will excel the enduring, the
historic achievements associated, at a later period, with this community's
memorable contribution to the rise and establishment of the world
Administrative Order of &Baha'u'llah; will surpass the magnificent
accomplishments which, subsequently, as the result of the operation of
the first Seven Year Plan, illuminated the annals of the Faith in both
the North American continent and throughout Latin America and will
eclipse the even more dramatic exploits which, during the opening
years of the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith, and in the
course of the prosecution of the Second Seven Year Plan, have exerted
so lasting an influence on the fortunes of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in the

+P122
Antilles, throughout the republics of Central America, in each of the
ten republics of South America, in no less than ten sovereign states in
the continent of Europe, and in various dependencies on the eastern
and western shores, as well as in the heart of the African continent.

[July 18, 1953]


Safeguarding American Primacy

Overjoyed by remarkable achievements of American &Baha'i Community,
safeguarding primacy, enhancing prestige, setting magnificent
example to sister communities East and West. Assure three Assembly
members, also Lofoten valiant pioneer of abiding appreciation, fervent
loving prayers.

[September 5, 1953]


Temple Site Purchased in Panama

Heartfelt congratulations on acquisition of Temple site; notable
achievement of World Crusade.

[Circa May 1954]


Assemblies Must Be Maintained

Information incorrect. Maintenance of all assemblies vital.

[July 23, 1954]

(NOTE: Reply to National Spiritual Assembly request for advice concerning
a statement which the Guardian was alleged to have made to the effect
that all &Baha'is should scatter. Many felt, therefore, that assembly status
need not be maintained.)


American &Baha'is in the Time of World Peril

The American &Baha'i Community, in this, the opening year of the
second phase of the World Spiritual Crusade upon which it has

+P123
embarked, finds itself standing on the threshold of the seventh decade
of its existence. It leaves behind it, as it enters the second decade of the
second &Baha'i century, sixty years crowded with events and marked by
exploits so stirring and momentous that they stand unsurpassed in the
annals of any other national &Baha'i community with the sole exception
of its venerable sister community in &Baha'u'llah's native land.

CHIEF EXECUTOR OF DIVINE PLAN

The first to respond to the call of the New Day in the western
world; for many years, in concert with the small band of Canadian
believers residing in its immediate neighborhood, the sole champion of
the newly proclaimed Covenant of &Baha'u'llah; foremost in its decisive
contribution to the creation of the pattern, the erection of the fabric,
the enlargement of the limits, and the consolidation of the institutions
of the embryonic World Order, the child of that same Covenant and
the harbinger of a still unborn world civilization; singled out by the pen
of the Center of that same Covenant for a unique and imperishable
bounty as the principal custodian and chief executor of &Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan; doubly honored in the course of His extensive visit to the
shores of its homeland through the distinction conferred by Him on the
community's two leading centers, the one as the site where He laid the
cornerstone of the holiest House of Worship in the &Baha'i world, and
the other the scene of the proclamation of His Father's Covenant; the
triumphant prosecutor of two successive historic Plans, boldly initiated
by its elected national representatives for the propagation of the Faith it
has espoused in the land of its birth, in the Dominion of Canada, in
Central and South America and in the continent of Europe and for the
erection of its own House of Worship, the Mother Temple of the West;
outstanding in its role as the defender of the Faith, as the supporter of
its down-trodden, long-persecuted sister communities in both the Asiatic
and African continents, and as the formulator of the national
&Baha'i constitution, embodying the by-laws regulating the internal
affairs of the members of the &Baha'i communities; incomparable
throughout the &Baha'i world as the dynamic agent responsible for the
opening of the vast majority of the over two hundred sovereign states
and chief dependencies of the globe to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah;
surpassing even its over a hundred-year old sister community in the
cradle of that Faith in the number and variety of isolated centers,

+P124
groups and local assemblies it has succeeded in establishing over the
face of the Union stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboards
and from Alaska to Mexico; noteworthy in the rapid accumulation and
wise expenditure of material resources, often involving a self-abnegation
reminiscent of the self-sacrifice of the dawn-breakers of the
Apostolic Age of the Faith, for the sole purpose of systematically
propagating the Faith it has pledged itself to serve, of enhancing its
prestige, of multiplying and perfecting its administrative agencies, of
enriching its literature, of erecting its edifices, of launching its manifold
enterprises, of succoring the needy among the members of its sister
communities, of warding off the dangers confronting it from time to
time through the malice of its enemies--the American &Baha'i Community,
boasting of such a record of exalted service, can well afford to
contemplate the immediate future, with its severe challenge, its complex
problems, its hazards, tests and trials, with equanimity and confidence.
For there can be no doubt that the entire community, limited as is
its numerical strength and circumscribed as are its meager resources, in
comparison with the vastness of the field stretching before it, the
prodigious efforts demanded of it, and the complexity of the problems it
must resolve, stands at a most critical juncture in its history.

AMERICA PASSING THROUGH CRISIS

Moreover, the country of which it forms a part is passing through a
crisis which, in its spiritual, moral, social and political aspects, is of
extreme seriousness--a seriousness which to a superficial observer is
liable to be dangerously underestimated.
The steady and alarming deterioration in the standard of morality
as exemplified by the appalling increase of crime, by political corruption
in ever widening and ever higher circles, by the loosening of the
sacred ties of marriage, by the inordinate craving for pleasure and
diversion, and by the marked and progressive slackening of parental
control, is no doubt the most arresting and distressing aspect of the
decline that has set in, and can be clearly perceived, in the fortunes of
the entire nation.
Parallel with this, and pervading all departments of life--an evil
which the nation, and indeed all those within the capitalist system,
though to a lesser degree, share with that state and its satellites regarded

+P125
as the sworn enemies of that system--is the crass materialism, which
lays excessive and ever-increasing emphasis on material well-being,
forgetful of those things of the spirit on which alone a sure and stable
foundation can be laid for human society. It is this same cancerous
materialism, born originally in Europe, carried to excess in the North
American continent, contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations,
spreading its ominous tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now
invading its very heart, which &Baha'u'llah in unequivocal and emphatic
language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a devouring
flame and regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating the dire
ordeals and world-shaking crises that must necessarily involve the
burning of cities and the spread of terror and consternation in the
hearts of men. Indeed a foretaste of the devastation which this consuming
fire will wreak upon the world, and with which it will lay waste the
cities of the nations participating in this tragic world-engulfing contest,
has been afforded by the last World War, marking the second stage in
the global havoc which humanity, forgetful of its God and heedless of
the clear warnings uttered by His appointed Messenger for this day,
must, alas, inevitably experience. It is this same all-pervasive, pernicious
materialism against which the voice of the Center of &Baha'u'llah's
Covenant was raised, with pathetic persistence, from platform and
pulpit, in His addresses to the heedless multitudes, which, on the
morrow of His fateful visit to both Europe and America, found
themselves suddenly swept into the vortex of a tempest which in its
range and severity was unsurpassed in the world's history.
Collateral with this ominous laxity in morals, and this progressive
stress laid on man's material pursuits and well-being, is the darkening
of the political horizon, as witnessed by the widening of the gulf
separating the protagonists of two antagonistic schools of thought
which, however divergent in their ideologies, are to be commonly
condemned by the upholders of the standard of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah
for their materialistic philosophies and their neglect of those spiritual
values and eternal verities on which alone a stable and flourishing
civilization can be ultimately established. The multiplication, the diversity
and the increasing destructive power of armaments to which both
sides, in this world contest, caught in a whirlpool of fear, suspicion and
hatred, are rapidly contributing; the outbreak of two successive bloody
conflicts, entangling still further the American nation in the affairs of

+P126
a distracted world, entailing a considerable loss in blood and treasure,
swelling the national budget and progressively depreciating the currency
of the state; the confusion, the vacillation, the suspicions besetting
the European and Asiatic nations in their attitude to the American
nation; the overwhelming accretion of strength to the arch enemy of
the system championed by the American Union in consequence of the
re-alignment of the powers in the Asiatic continent and particularly in
the Far East--these have, moreover, contributed their share, in recent
years, to the deterioration of a situation which, if not remedied, is
bound to involve the American nation in a catastrophe of undreamed-of
dimensions and of untold consequences to the social structure, the
standard and conception of the American people and government.
No less serious is the stress and strain imposed on the fabric of
American society through the fundamental and persistent neglect, by
the governed and governors alike, of the supreme, the inescapable and
urgent duty--so repeatedly and graphically represented and stressed by
&Abdu'l-Baha in His arraignment of the basic weaknesses in the social
fabric of the nation--of remedying, while there is yet time, through a
revolutionary change in the concept and attitude of the average white
American toward his Negro fellow citizen, a situation which, if allowed
to drift, will, in the words of &Abdu'l-Baha, cause the streets of American
cities to run with blood, aggravating thereby the havoc which the
fearful weapons of destruction, raining from the air, and amassed by
a ruthless, a vigilant, a powerful and inveterate enemy, will wreak
upon those same cities.
The American nation, of which the community of the Most Great
Name forms as yet a negligible and infinitesimal part, stands, indeed,
from whichever angle one observes its immediate fortunes, in grave
peril. The woes and tribulations which threaten it are partly avoidable,
but mostly inevitable and God-sent, for by reason of them a government
and people clinging tenaciously to the obsolescent doctrine of absolute
sovereignty and upholding a political system, manifestly at variance
with the needs of a world already contracted into a neighborhood and
crying out for unity, will find itself purged of its anachronistic conceptions,
and prepared to play a preponderating role, as foretold by &Abdu'l-Baha,
in the hoisting of the standard of the Lesser Peace, in the
unification of mankind, and in the establishment of a world federal
government on this planet. These same fiery tribulations will not only

+P127
firmly weld the American nation to its sister nations in both hemispheres,
but will through their cleansing effect, purge it thoroughly of
the accumulated dross which ingrained racial prejudice, rampant
materialism, widespread ungodliness and moral laxity have combined,
in the course of successive generations, to produce, and which have
prevented her thus far from assuming the role of world spiritual
leadership forecast by &Abdu'l-Baha's unerring pen--a role which she is
bound to fulfill through travail and sorrow.

AMERICAN &BAHA'IS STAND AT CROSSROADS

The American &Baha'i Community, the leaven destined to leaven
the whole, cannot hope, at this critical juncture in the fortunes of a
struggling, perilously situated, spiritually moribund nation, to either
escape the trials with which this nation is confronted, nor claim to be
wholly immune from the evils that stain its character.
At so critical a period, at so challenging an hour, the members of a
community, invested by &Abdu'l-Baha with a primacy which can,
through neglect and apathy, be allowed to lose its vital power and
driving force, are immersed in a task, and are faced with responsibilities,
which a World Spiritual Crusade, the third and greatest
collective enterprise embarked upon in American &Baha'i history, has
thrust upon them before the eyes of their admiring and expectant sister
communities throughout the world. They now stand at the crossroads,
unable to relax for a moment, or hesitate as to which road they should
tread, or to allow any decline in the high standard they have, for no less
than six decades, undeviatingly upheld. Nay, if this primacy is to be
safeguarded and enhanced, a consecration, not only on the part of a
chosen few, to every single objective of the Ten-Year Plan to which
they are now pledged, and a pouring out of substance, not only by those
of limited means, but by the richest and wealthiest, in a degree
involving the truest sacrifice, for the purpose of insuring the attainment
of the aims and purposes of the Plan in its present phase of development,
are imperative and can brook no delay.
The mighty and laudable effort exerted, by a considerable number
of pioneers, in the course of the opening phase of this world-encircling
Crusade, in the virgin territories of the globe, must, if this primacy is to
remain unimpaired, be increased, doubled, nay trebled, and must
manifest itself not only in foreign fields where the prizes so laboriously

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won during the last twelve months must, at whatever sacrifice, be
meticulously preserved, but throughout the entire length and breadth
of the American Union, and particularly in the goal cities, where
hitherto the work has stagnated, and which must, in the year now
entered, become the scene of the finest exploits which the home front
has yet seen. A veritable exodus from the large cities where a considerable
number of believers have, over a period of years, congregated, both
on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as in the heart of the country,
and where, owing to the tempo and the distractions of city life, the
progress of the Faith has been retarded, must signalize the inauguration
of this most intensive and challenging phase of the Crusade on the
home front. Most certainly and emphatically must the lead be given by
the two focal centers of &Baha'i activity which rank among the oldest of
and occupy the most honored position among, the cities throughout the
American Union, the one as the mother city of the North American
continent, the other named by &Abdu'l-Baha the City of the Covenant.
Indeed, so grave are the exigencies of the present hour, and so critical
the political position of the country, that were a bare fifteen adult
&Baha'is to be left in each of these cities, over which unsuspected
dangers are hanging, it would still be regarded as adequate for the
maintenance of their local spiritual assemblies.

WORLD CRUSADE TASKS

While this vital process of multiplication of &Baha'i isolated centers,
groups and local assemblies is being accelerated, through a rapid and
unprecedented dispersion of believers, and as the result of the initiation
of vigorous teaching activities, through individuals as well as administrative
agencies, the incorporation of full-fledged local assemblies--a
process which has been noticeably slackening in recent years--must be
given immediate attention by the community's elected national representatives,
reinforcing, thereby, the foundations of local &Baha'i communities,
and paving the way for the establishment, in a not too distant
future, of local &Baha'i endowments.
The inauguration of the first dependency of the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar,
the first link to be forged destined to bind the Community of
the Most Great Name to the general public, expectant to witness the
first evidences of direct &Baha'i service to humanity as a complement to
&Baha'i worship, is yet another task which must be conscientiously

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tackled and fulfilled in the course of the second phase of this Ten-Year
Plan. The consummation of this project must synchronize with the
termination of the landscaping of the area surrounding the Temple--a
double achievement that will mark yet another stage in the materialization
of &Abdu'l-Baha's often expressed and cherished hopes for this
holiest House of Worship in the &Baha'i world.
Yet another task, of extreme urgency and of great spiritual
significance, is the selection and purchase of the site of the future
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Sweden, as well as the appropriation of sufficient
funds during the coming two years, for the establishment, on however
modest a scale, of a national &Haziratu'l-Quds in Anchorage, Alaska, in
Panama City and in the capital of Peru, in Suva, in Tokyo and in
Johannesburg, and the lending of financial assistance to the Italo-Swiss
National Assembly, the proud daughter of the American &Baha'i Community,
for the erection of a similar national center in the Italian and
Swiss capitals.
Of no less importance, though involving a smaller outlay of funds,
is the establishment of token national endowments in the aforementioned
cities, in anticipation of the formation of an independent
national spiritual assembly in each of them, at a later stage in the
execution of this stupendous Plan.
The translation and publication of &Baha'i literature in the European
and American Indian languages, allocated to your Assembly and
its European Teaching Committee under the provisions of the Ten-Year
Plan, is yet another objective of this second phase of this World
Crusade, a task that must be resolutely pursued and speedily consummated
in order to facilitate the intensive teaching activity which, at a
later stage, must be conducted for the purpose of converting a considerable
number of the minority races in both Europe and America to the
Faith of &Baha'u'llah.
The all-important teaching enterprises in France and Finland,
designed to broaden the basis of the infant Administrative Order in
both countries, and extend the ramifications of the Faith to their chief
towns and cities, is yet another responsibility which should be promptly
discharged, as an indispensable preliminary to the establishment in
each of these two countries of an independent national assembly.
Finally, the establishment of a &Baha'i Publishing Trust, similar in
its essentials to the institution already functioning in the British Isles,

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and which must serve as a model for other national assemblies in both
the East and the West, is a matter to which prompt and earnest
attention must be directed in the course of the second phase of the
Plan, and which will require full and speedy consultation with the
national elected representatives of the British &Baha'i Community.
A systematic campaign designed to proclaim the Faith to the masses
through the press and radio must moreover be launched and maintained
with vigilance, persistence and vigor.
The American &Baha'i Community--the champion-builders of an
Order which posterity will hail as the harbinger of a civilization to be
regarded as the fairest fruit of the Revelation proclaimed by
&Baha'u'llah; the principal trustees of a Plan which future generations
will acclaim as one of the two greatest legacies left by the Center of His
Covenant; marching in the van of a Crusade which history will
recognize as the most momentous spiritual enterprise launched in
modern times; beset by the same anxieties and perils by which the
nation of which it forms a part finds itself, to an unprecedented degree,
afflicted and surrounded--such a community is, at this hour, experiencing
the impact of a challenge unique in its sixty years of existence.

CHALLENGE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL &BAHA'I

In its meteoric career its fortunes have risen so swiftly, its exploits
have so greatly multiplied, its spirit in times of emergency has swelled
and risen so high, it has earned on such occasions the applause and
excited the admiration of its sister communities throughout both
hemispheres to such a degree, that it cannot, at this critical hour in its
destinies, suffer this golden opportunity to slip from its grasp, or this
priceless privilege to be irretrievably forfeited.
This challenge, so severe and insistent, and yet so glorious, faces no
doubt primarily the individual believer on whom, in the last resort,
depends the fate of the entire community. He it is who constitutes the
warp and woof on which the quality and pattern of the whole fabric
must depend. He it is who acts as one of the countless links in the
mighty chain that now girdles the globe. He it is who serves as one of
the multitude of bricks which support the structure and insure the
stability of the administrative edifice now being raised in every part of
the world. Without his support, at once whole-hearted, continuous and

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generous, every measure adopted, and every plan formulated, by the
body which acts as the national representative of the community to
which he belongs, is foredoomed to failure. The World Center of the
Faith itself is paralyzed if such a support on the part of the rank and file
of the community is denied it. The Author of the Divine Plan Himself
is impeded in His purpose if the proper instruments for the execution
of His design are lacking. The sustaining strength of &Baha'u'llah
Himself, the Founder of the Faith, will be withheld from every and
each individual who fails in the long run to arise and play his part.
The administrative agencies of a divinely conceived Administrative
Order at long last erected and relatively perfected stand in dire need of
the individual believer to come forward and utilize them with undeviating
purpose, serene confidence and exemplary dedication. The heart of
the Guardian cannot but leap with joy, and his mind derive fresh
inspiration, at every evidence testifying to the response of the individual
to his allotted task. The unseen legions, standing rank upon rank,
and eager to pour forth from the Kingdom on high the full measure of
their celestial strength on the individual participants of this incomparably
glorious Crusade, are powerless unless and until each potential
crusader decides for himself, and perseveres in his determination, to
rush into the arena of service ready to sacrifice his all for the Cause he is
called upon to champion.

APPEAL FOR DEDICATION

It is therefore imperative for the individual American believer, and
particularly for the affluent, the independent, the comfort-loving and
those obsessed by material pursuits, to step forward, and dedicate their
resources, their time, their very lives to a Cause of such transcendence
that no human eye can even dimly perceive its glory. Let them resolve,
instantly and unhesitatingly, to place, each according to his circumstances,
his share on the altar of &Baha'i sacrifice, lest, on a sudden,
unforeseen calamities rob them of a considerable portion of the earthly
things they have amassed.
Now if ever is the time to tread the path which the dawn-breakers
of a previous age have so magnificently trodden. Now is the time to
carry out, in the spirit and in the letter, the fervent wish so pathetically
voiced by &Abdu'l-Baha, Who longed, as attested in the Tablets of the

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Divine Plan, to "travel though on foot and in the utmost poverty" and
raise "in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans" "the call of
&Ya-Baha'u'l-Abha!"
Then, and only then, can the members of this community hasten
the advent of the day when, as prophesied by His pen, "heavenly
illumination" will "stream" from their country "to all the peoples of the
world." Then, and only then will they find themselves "securely
established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion."
That the members of this community, of either sex and of every
age, of whatever race or background, however limited in experience,
capacity and knowledge, may arise as one man, and seize with both
hands the God-given opportunities now presented to them through the
dispensations of an all-loving, ever-watchful, ever-sustaining Providence,
and lend thereby a tremendous impetus to the propelling forces
mysteriously guiding the operations of this newly launched, unspeakably
potent, world-encompassing Crusade, is one of the dearest wishes
which a loving and longing heart holds for them at this great turning
point in the fortunes of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in the American
continent.

[July 28, 1954]


Nine-Pointed Star for Headstone

Approve star for graves.

[October 22, 1954]

(NOTE: The Guardian considered the Greatest Name too sacred for use
on tombstones.)


Send Appeals to President Eisenhower

Owing to aggravation of the situation, the hacking to pieces of the
bodies of seven believers in the vicinity of Yazd, and the likelihood of
worse massacre in the approaching months, advise all groups and
assemblies in the United States to address telegraphically President
Eisenhower, appealing for his intervention for protection from further

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massacres of our offenseless, law-abiding co-religionists in &Iran and the
safeguard of their human rights. Include brief reference to the worst
atrocities. National Assembly should address him similar message both
in writing and telegraphically. Include list of atrocities in accompanying
memorandum...

[August 15, 1955]


A Mysterious Dispensation of Providence

PERSECUTION OF THE &BAHA'IS OF &IRAN

A crisis in the fortunes of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, of exceptional
severity, extensive in its ramifications, unpredictable in its immediate
consequences, directly involving the overwhelming majority of His
followers in the land of His birth, and confronting with a major
challenge &Baha'i communities in both hemispheres, has plunged the
&Baha'i world, whilst engaged in the prosecution of a world-wide
spiritual crusade, into intense sorrow and profound anxiety.
More grievous than any of the intermittent crises which have more
or less acutely afflicted the Faith since the inception, over thirty years
ago, of the Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation, such as a seizure
of the keys of the foremost Shrine of the &Baha'i world by the
covenant-breakers residing in the Holy Land; the occupation of the House of
&Baha'u'llah by His traditional enemies in &Baghdad; the expropriation
of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the &Baha'i world in &Turkistan and the
virtual extinction of the &Ishqabad &Baha'i Community; the disabilities
suffered by the Egyptian &Baha'i Community as a result of the verdict of
the Egyptian ecclesiastical court and the historic pronouncements of
the highest dignitaries of &Sunni &Islam in Egypt; the defection of the
members of &Abdu'l-Baha's family and the machinations and eventual
deviation of various recognized yet highly ambitious leaders, teachers, as
well as administrators, in Persia, Egypt, Germany and the United
States--more grievous than any of these, this latest manifestation of the
implacable hatred, and relentless opposition, of the as yet firmly
entrenched, politically influential avowed adversaries of God's infant
Faith, threatens to become more uncontrollable with every passing day.
Indeed in many of its aspects this crisis bears a striking resemblance
to the wave of persecutions which periodically swept the cradle of the

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Faith in the course of &Abdu'l-Baha's ministry, and is tragically reminiscent
of the tribulations experienced by the dawn-breakers of the
Heroic Age of the Faith at the hour of its birth in that sorely tried,
long-agitated land.
With dramatic suddenness, a situation, which had been slowly and
secretly developing, came to a head, as the result of the ceaseless
intrigue of the fanatical and determined ecclesiastical opponents of the
Faith, ever ready to seize their chance, in times of confusion, and to
strike mercilessly, at an opportune hour, at the very root of that Faith
and of its swiftly developing, steadily consolidating administrative
institutions.
The launching of the Crusade itself, with the celebrations and
ceremonials which accompanied it; the repercussions of the widely
reported proceedings of four successive Intercontinental Teaching
Conferences, which heralded its inauguration; the public dedication of
the Mother Temple of the West in Wilmette; the systematic intensification
of teaching activities in the Arabian Peninsula, enshrining
the Qiblih of the entire Islamic world; and, in particular, the opening to
the Faith of the twin holy cities of Mecca and Medina--all these may
be said to have precipitated this crisis, and alarmed the jealous exponents
and guardians of an antiquated religious orthodoxy in the
strongholds of both &Shi'ah and &Sunni &Islam.

A PREMEDITATED CAMPAIGN OF PERSECUTION

This premeditated campaign was heralded by violent and repeated
public denunciations of the Faith over the air, from the pulpit, and
through the press, defaming its holy Founders, distorting its distinctive
features, ridiculing its aims and purposes, and perverting its history. It
was formally launched by the government's official pronouncement in
the Majlis outlawing the Faith and banning its activities throughout
the land. It was soon followed by the senseless and uncivilized demolition
of the imposing dome of the &Baha'i Central Administrative
Headquarters in the capital. It assumed serious proportions through the
seizure and occupation of all &Baha'i administrative headquarters
throughout the provinces.
This drastic action taken by the representatives of the central
authorities in cities, towns and villages was the signal for the loosing of

+P135
a flood of abuse, accompanied by a series of atrocities simultaneously
and shamelessly perpetrated in most of the provinces, bringing in its
wake desolation to &Baha'i homes, economic ruin to &Baha'i families, and
staining still further the records of &Shi'ah &Islam in that troubled land.
In &Shiraz, in the province of &Fars, the cradle of the Faith, the House
of the &Bab, ordained by &Baha'u'llah in His Most Holy Book as the
foremost place of pilgrimage in the land of His birth, was twice
desecrated, its walls severely damaged, its windows broken and its
furniture partly destroyed and carried away. The neighboring house of
the &Bab's maternal uncle was razed to the ground. &Baha'u'llah's ancestral
home in &Takur, in the province of &Mazindaran, the scene of
&Abdu'l-Baha's early childhood, was occupied. Shops and farms, constituting,
in most cases, the sole source of livelihood to peaceful &Baha'i
families, were plundered. Crops and livestock, assets patiently acquired
by often poor, but always peace-loving, law-abiding farmers, were
wantonly destroyed. Bodies in various cemeteries were first disinterred
and then viciously mutilated. The homes of rich and poor alike were
forcibly entered and ruthlessly looted. Both adults and children were
publicly set upon, reviled, beaten and ridiculed. Young women were
abducted, and compelled, against their parents' wishes and their own,
to marry Muslims. Boys and girls were mobbed at school, mocked and
expelled. A boycott, in many cases, was imposed by butchers and
bakers, who refused to sell to the adherents of the Faith the barest
necessities of life. A girl in her teens was shamelessly raped, whilst an
eleven-month-old baby was heartlessly trampled underfoot. Pressure
was brought to bear upon the believers to recant their faith and to
renounce allegiance to the Cause they had espoused.
Nor was this all. Emboldened by the general applause accorded by
the populace to the savage perpetrators of these crimes, a mob of many
hundreds marched upon the hamlet of Hurmuzak, to the beating of
drums and the sounding of trumpets, and, armed with spades and
axes, fell upon a family of seven, the oldest eighty, the youngest nineteen,
and, in an orgy of unrestrained fanaticism, literally hacked them
to pieces.
Following closely upon this heinous crime, the like of which has
not been witnessed since the close of the Heroic Age of the Faith, an
official order has been issued by the Prime Minister's office in &Tihran,

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placing an interdiction against the employment of any &Baha'is in
government service, and ordering the instant dismissal of all who insist
on adhering to their faith.

APPEALS TO THE AUTHORITIES OF &IRAN AND TO THE UNITED NATIONS

These tragic, swiftly succeeding events have stirred the &Baha'i
world to its foundations. Counter measures were immediately taken,
and more than a thousand appeals were addressed by national and local
assemblies as well as groups in all continents of the globe to the highest
authorities in Persia, including the &Shah, in the hope of stemming the
tide of persecution threatening to engulf the entire Persian &Baha'i
Community. Furthermore, a wide-spread campaign of publicity was
initiated in expectation that its repercussions would exert a restraining
influence on the perpetrators of these monstrous acts. An appeal was
moreover lodged with the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
and the President of the Social and Economic Council, copies of which
were delivered to the representatives of the member nations of the
Council, to the Director of the Human Rights Division, as well as to
non-governmental organizations with consultative status. More recently,
President Eisenhower, who, as reported in the press, was the
first to make mention of the attacks launched against the Faith, was
appealed to by the American National Spiritual Assembly as well as by
all groups and local assemblies throughout the United States, to
intervene on behalf of the victims of these persecutions.

A WHOLLY DEDICATED, INFLEXIBLE RESOLVE

Faced with this organized and vicious onslaught on the followers,
the fundamental verities, the shrines and administrative institutions of
the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in the land of His birth, the American &Baha'i
Community cannot at this hour relax for a moment in the discharge of
the multiple and sacred responsibilities it has pledged itself to fulfill
under the Ten-Year Plan and must indeed display a still greater degree
of consecration and a nobler spirit of self-sacrifice in the pursuit of the
goals it has set itself to achieve.
A wider dispersal throughout the length and breadth of its homeland;
a more strenuous effort to consolidate the superb achievements in
the newly opened virgin territories in various continents and islands of
the globe; a still greater exertion to expedite the translation and

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publication of &Baha'i literature into the European and American
Indian languages assigned to it under the Plan; a more determined
thrust towards the vital objectives of acquiring the site of the future
Mother Temple of Sweden and of purchasing the remaining national
&Haziratu'l-Quds in the goal countries of Europe, as well as in Central
and South America; a concerted endeavor to establish national &Baha'i
endowments in these European and Latin American countries; a
ceaseless concentration of attention on the incorporation of firmly
established local spiritual assemblies throughout the United States and
in the goal countries of Europe, and a closer collaboration with the
administrative agencies functioning in Europe, Latin America, Africa,
Japan and Alaska for the forthcoming formation of the European,
Latin American, Southwest African, Japanese and Alaskan national
spiritual assemblies; a more intensive campaign to win over to the Faith
representatives of American Indian tribes and of the Basque and Gypsy
races--above all, a concerted, wholly dedicated, inflexible resolve to
win the allegiance of a far greater number of adherents to the Faith it
has espoused and to insure a spectacular multiplication of groups,
isolated centers and local assemblies in the vast area assigned to its
care--through these, more than through anything else, can the American
&Baha'i Community--the recognized champion of the persecuted
and the down-trodden, and the standard-bearer of the embryonic
World Order of &Baha'u'llah--offset, to a marked degree, the severe
losses the Faith has sustained in the land of its birth, and bring an
abiding and much needed consolation to the countless hearts that
bleed, in this hour of test and trial, throughout the length and breadth
of that bitterly troubled land.

"SAVE THE PERSECUTED FUND"

Not only through its superlative achievements in these diversified
and vital spheres of &Baha'i activity, but also through the support given
by its members to the "Save the Persecuted Fund" recently established
for the succor of the orphaned, the widowed and the dispossessed, and
to which the entire &Baha'i world has been invited to contribute, can this
stout-hearted, vigilant, self-sacrificing community which on similar past
occasions has so nobly discharged its responsibilities, proclaim to an
unbelieving and skeptical world, and particularly to its redoubtable,
implacable adversaries, the unconquerable spirit which animates it, the

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inflexible resolve which spurs it on, in the hour of trial, in the service of
a Faith to which it stands wholly dedicated.

THE FIRST HOUSE OF WORSHIP IN AFRICA

Over and above such meritorious accomplishments, the members of
this community are called upon to demonstrate their solidarity with
their sister communities in East and West, and indeed to assert their
divinely conferred primacy, through assuming a leading role in providing
for the erection of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to be raised in the
heart of the African continent--a continent which by virtue of the
innumerable exploits which, throughout its length and breadth, colored
and white, individuals as well as assemblies, have achieved in
recent years, and which, with the sole exception of Australasia, is the
only continent deprived of the blessings of such an institution, fully
deserves to possess its own independent House of Worship--a House
that will gather within its walls members of communities whose
prowess has, in the opening years of the second epoch of the Formative
Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation, eclipsed the feats performed in both
the southern part of the Western Hemisphere and the European
continent, and conferred such luster on the annals of our Faith.
Africa, long dormant and neglected, and now stirring in its potential
spiritual strength, is, at this very hour, under the eyes of the
clamorous multitudes of the adversaries of the Faith pressing for its
extirpation in the land of its birth, being called upon to redress the
scales so weighed down through the ferocious and ignoble acts of
bloodthirsty ecclesiastical oppressors. The erection of such an institution,
at such a time, through the combined efforts of the undismayed,
undeflected and undefeatable upholders of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah in
both the East and the West, posterity will regard as a worthy answer to
the challenge flung down by its bitterest, most powerful and inveterate
enemies. Let them give heed to the warnings and admonitions uttered,
at an hour of similar danger, by the Founder of the Faith Himself, on
the morrow of His third banishment, and addressed in clear and
unmistakable language to the "Minister of the &Shah" in Constantinople:
"Dost thou believe thou hast the power to frustrate His will, to
hinder Him from executing His judgment, or to deter Him from
exercising His sovereignty? Pretendest thou that aught in the heavens
or in the earth can resist His Faith? No, by Him Who is the eternal

+P139
Truth! Nothing whatsoever in the whole of creation can thwart His
purpose.... Know thou, moreover, that He it is Who hath by His
own behest, created all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth.
How can, then, the thing that hath been created at His bidding prevail
against Him?"

A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

Indeed this fresh ordeal that has, in pursuance of the mysterious
dispensations of Providence, afflicted the Faith, at this unexpected
hour, far from dealing a fatal blow to its institutions or existence,
should be regarded as a blessing in disguise, not a "calamity" but a
"providence" of God, not a devastating flood but a "gentle rain" on a
"green pasture," a "wick" and "oil" unto the "lamp" of His Faith, a
"nurture" for His Cause, "water for that which has been planted in the
hearts of men," a "crown set on the head" of His Messenger for this
Day.
Whatever its outcome, this sudden commotion that has seized the
&Baha'i world, that has revived the hopes and emboldened the host of
the adversaries of the Faith intent on quenching its light and obliterating
it from the face of the earth, has served as a trumpet call in the
sounding of which the press of the world, the cries of its vociferous
enemies, the public remonstrances of both men of good will and those
in authority have joined, proclaiming far and wide its existence,
publicizing its history, defending its verities, unveiling its truths,
demonstrating the character of its institutions and advertising its aims
and purposes.

UNPRECEDENTED PUBLICITY

Seldom, if at any time since its inception, has such a widespread
publicity been accorded the infant Faith of God, now at long last
emerging from an obscurity which has so long and so grievously
oppressed it. Not even the dramatic execution of its Herald, nor the
blood-bath which, in circumstances of fiendish cruelty followed quickly
in its wake in the city of &Tihran, nor even the widely advertised travels
of the Center of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant in the West, succeeded in
focusing the attention of the world and in inviting the notice of those in
high places as has this latest manifestation of God's inscrutable will,
this marvelous demonstration of His invincible power, this latest move
+P140
in His Own Major Plan, using both the mighty and lowly as pawns in
His world-shaping game, for the fulfillment of His immediate purpose
and the eventual establishment of His Kingdom on earth.
For though the newly launched World Spiritual Crusade, constituting
at best only the Minor Plan in the execution of the Almighty's
design for the redemption of mankind--has, as a result of this turmoil,
paralyzing temporarily the vast majority of the organized followers of
&Baha'u'llah within His birthplace, suffered a severe setback--yet the
over-all Plan of God, moving mysteriously and in contrast to the orderly
and well-known processes of a clearly devised Plan, has received an
impetus the force of which only posterity can adequately assess.
A Faith, which, for a quarter of a century, has, in strict accordance
with the provisions of the Will and Testament of &Abdu'l-Baha, been
building its Administrative Order--the embryonic World Order of
&Baha'u'llah--through the laborious erection of its local and national
administrative institutions; which set out, in the opening years of the
second epoch of this Formative Age, through the launching of a series
of national Plans as well as a World Crusade, to utilize the machinery
of its institutions, created patiently and unobtrusively in the course of
the first epoch of that Age, for the systematic propagation of its
teachings in all the continents and chief islands of the globe--such a
Faith finds itself, whilst in the midst of discharging its second and vital
task, thrust into the limelight of an unprecedented publicity--a publicity
which its followers never anticipated, which will involve them in
fresh and inescapable responsibilities, and which will, no doubt,
reinforce the tasks which they have undertaken, in recent years, to
discharge.
To the intensification of such a publicity in which &non-Baha'i
agencies and even the avowed adversaries of the Faith are playing
so active a part, the members of the American &Baha'i Community,
the outstanding defenders of the Faith, blessed with a freedom
so cruelly denied the vast majority of their brethren, and equipped
with the means and instruments needed to make that publicity
effective, must fully and decisively contribute. The echoes of the
mighty trumpet blast, now so providentially sounded, awakening a
multitude of the ignorant and the skeptical, both high and low, to the
existence and significance of the Message of &Baha'u'llah, must under
no circumstances, and at such a propitious hour, be allowed to die out.

+P141
Nay, their reverberations must be followed up by further calls designed
to proclaim, in still more resounding tones, the aims and tenets of this
glorious Cause, and to expose, whilst avoiding any attack on the ruling
authorities, even more convincingly than before, the barbarous ferocity
of the acts which have been perpetrated, as well as the odious fanaticism
which has inspired such conduct.
Strenuous and urgent as is the task falling to the lot of a community
already so over-burdened with a multiplicity of unavoidable obligations,
the possibilities involved in the assumption of this supplementary
responsibility are truly tremendous, the benefits that are destined to
accrue from its proper discharge are immense, and the reward inestimably
rich.
Let them remember, as they pursue diligently this sacred task, that
such a publicity, following closely upon such dire tribulations, afflicting
so large a number of their brethren, in so sacred a land, cannot but
prove to be a prelude, however slow the process involved, to the
emancipation of these same valiant sufferers from the galling fetters of
an antiquated religious orthodoxy, which, great as has been its decline
in the course of over a century, still wields considerable power and
exercises a widespread influence in high circles as well as among the
masses. Such an emancipation, which cannot be confined to
&Baha'u'llah's native land, will, in varying measure, have its repercussions
in Islamic countries, or may be even preceded by a similar
phenomenon in neighboring territories, hastening and adding fresh
impetus to the bursting of the bonds that fetter the freedom of the
followers of God's infant Faith.

WORLD RECOGNITION OF THE FAITH

Such a consummation will, in its turn, pave the way for the
recognition of that Faith as an independent religion established on a
basis of absolute equality with its sister religions, enjoying the unqualified
protection of the civil authorities for its followers and its
institutions, and fully empowered, in all matters related to personal
status, to apply without any reservations the laws and ordinances
ordained in the Most Holy Book.
That the members of the American &Baha'i Community--the outstanding
protagonists of the Cause of God; the stout-hearted defenders
of its integrity, its claims and its rights, the champion-builders of its

+P142
Administrative Order; the standard-bearers of its crusading hosts; the
torchbearers of its embryonic civilization; the chief succorers of the
down-trodden, the needy and the fettered among its followers--that
the members of such a community, may, whilst discharging, fully and
unflinchingly, their specific tasks in accordance with the provisions of
the Ten-Year Plan, seize the present God-sent opportunity, and hasten,
through a proper discharge of this supplementary task, the consummation
of such ardent hopes for so signal a victory, is a prayer constantly
in my heart, and a wish which I treasure above all others.

[August 20, 1955]


Revitalize Entire Community

Urge intensification of efforts to revitalize entire community and
expedite attainment of plans and objectives, particularly as related to
purchase of &Haziras and endowments in America and Europe; translation
into remaining languages; incorporation of assemblies; multiplication
of centers and assemblies on home front; opening of Iceland, Spitzbergen,
Anticosti and remaining islands of Pacific and Atlantic. Fervently
supplicating for immediate signal victories.

[January 5, 1956]


Greater Consecration to Pressing Tasks

Deplore situation on home front. Praying ardently for rededication
of entire community for greater consecration to pressing tasks. Approve
all suggestions in recent letter. Urge that you redouble efforts, supplicate
for unprecedented blessings.

[February 2, 1956]


Praying for Great Victories on Home Front

Fervently praying for great victories on the home front. Appeal to
entire community to arise, participate and insure attainment of goals.

[June 22, 1956]

+P143
Inestimable Prizes Within Our Reach

As I survey, after the lapse of a little over three years, the vast range
of historic and unforgettable achievements with which the stout-hearted,
high-minded and wholly consecrated followers of the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah have, in the course of the operations of a World Spiritual
Crusade, enriched, in every continent of the globe and in so many
islands of the seven seas, the annals of the Formative Age of His
Dispensation, I cannot but acknowledge, with feelings of pride, of joy,
and of gratitude, the preponderating share which the American &Baha'i
Community, faithful to its traditions, and in keeping with its high
standard of stewardship to the Cause of God, has had in the conduct of
this world-encircling enterprise and the discharge of its manifold, its
pressing and sacred responsibilities. With one or two exceptions,
greatly to be deplored, this valiant community has, ever since the
inception of this Spiritual Crusade, and in every sphere of &Baha'i
activities in which its participators have both individually and collectively
been assiduously engaged, set an example of whole-hearted
dedication, dogged perseverance, unstinting self-sacrifice and undeviating
loyalty worthy of emulation by its sister, as well as its daughter,
communities over the entire face of the globe.
The number, the character and the rapidity of the spiritual conquests
achieved by its steadfast and intrepid members, in so many sovereign
states of the globe, its chief dependencies and widely scattered islands,
in the course of the one-year period, constituting the opening phase of a
memorable Plan, will no doubt be universally acclaimed as a turning
point of unimaginable consequence in &Baha'i history. Such feats, in so
many territories, during so short a time, will rank, in the eyes of
posterity, as superb and outstanding exploits, immortalizing the fame of
the American followers of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, and as epoch-making
events unsurpassed since the closing of the Heroic Age of the
&Baha'i Dispensation.

AID ACCORDED TO THEIR OPPRESSED BRETHREN IN PERSIA

The reaction, so swift and so energetic, of the members of this same
community, now deservedly recognized as the impregnable citadel of
the Faith of God, and the cradle of the rising institutions of its World

+P144
Order, to the sudden onslaught made upon the institutions, the lives
and the livelihood of their oppressed brethren, members of the numerically
leading and the most venerable national &Baha'i community, by the
traditional adversaries of a long-persecuted Faith, has been such as to
deepen, to a marked extent, the feelings of genuine admiration and esteem,
so strongly felt throughout the &Baha'i world, for the enduring and
magnificent services rendered in the course of more than six decades
by the American believers to the Faith of &Baha'u'llah and its embryonic
World Order. The spontaneity with which the rank and file of this
community as well as the body of its elected representatives, have
contributed to the "Save the Persecuted Fund" established for the
succor of the victims of these savage and periodically recurring barbarities;
the measure of publicity accorded them in the American press, as
well as over the radio; the timely and efficacious intervention of men of
prominence, in various walks of life, on behalf of the oppressed and the
down-trodden; the repeated and direct appeals addressed by them to the
highest authorities in Persia, as well as to their representative in the
United States; the immense number of written and cabled appeals,
made by the local as well as the national elected representatives of the
community, to the chief magistrate of Persia, his ministers and parliament;
the numerous messages addressed by the same representatives to
the chief executive of the United States, urging his personal intervention,
the pleading of the cause of an harassed, sorely-tried community
in the course of repeated representations made to the State Department
in Washington; the part played in the presentation of the &Baha'i case to
the United Nations officials in both Geneva and New York; the
allocation of a sizeable sum for the purpose of securing the assistance of
an expert publicity agent, in order to reinforce the publicity already
being received in the public press--these, as well as other measures
which, by their very nature, must of necessity remain confidential--
proclaim, in no uncertain terms, the dynamic and decisive nature
of the aid accorded, in a hour of trial and emergency, by the champions
of the Faith of &Baha'u'llah, raised up in the great republic
of the West, at such a crucial hour in the evolution of His Plan,
for both His Faith and the world at large, to the vast body of the
descendants of the dawn-breakers of the Apostolic Age of that same
Faith in the land of its birth.

+P145
A NOBLE RECORD OF SERVICE

No less remarkable has been the share of this community, chiefly
responsible, on the morrow of &Abdu'l-Baha's passing, for the fixing of
the pattern, the elaboration of the national constitution, and the
erection of the basic institutions, of a divinely conceived Administrative
Order, in the acquisition and establishment, in the course of two brief
years, constituting the second phase of the Ten-Year Plan, of practically
all of the future national administrative headquarters--numbering
over thirty--of &Baha'i national assemblies in four continents of the
globe, involving the expenditure from the National Fund of over a
hundred thousand dollars.
An effort, hardly less meritorious and equally efficacious and
astonishing, has been exerted by the members of this alert, forward-looking,
ceaselessly laboring community, in the course of the same two-year
period, for the establishment of national &Baha'i endowments in
more than twenty countries of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres,
entailing the expenditure of over twenty thousand dollars.
In other spheres of &Baha'i activity, related to the prosecution of the
Ten-Year Plan, all of vital importance to the teaching work initiated
under that same Plan, and to the enlargement and consolidation of the
administrative structure of the institutions to be erected in the future,
the accomplishments of the members of this community, during the
first two phases of this world Crusade, have been no less significant.
The establishment of the &Baha'i Publishing Trust; the translation of
&Baha'i literature into more than fifteen languages, both within the
scope of the Ten-Year Plan and outside it, spoken in Europe, Asia,
Latin America and the North American continent; the purchase of the
site of the first dependency of the Mother Temple of the West; the
practical completion of the landscaping of its gardens; the provision of a
considerable part of the material resources required for the purchase of
the sites of future &Baha'i Temples in both the Eastern and Western
Hemispheres, as well as for the construction of the two projected
&Mashriqu'l-Adhkars in the European and African continents; the
guidance given and the aid extended to newly elected national assemblies,
for the efficient conduct of &Baha'i administrative activities and the
prosecution of &Baha'i national plans; the initial visits made by &Baha'i

+P146
teachers to countries within the Soviet orbit, foreshadowing the launching
of systematic teaching enterprises in both Europe and Asia; the
assistance given, through financial help as well as through the dispatch
of &Baha'i pioneers, to various &Baha'i communities for the enlargement
of the limits of the Faith and the consolidation of its institutions; and,
last but not least, the purchase of the sacred site of the &Siyah-Chal of
&Tihran, the scene of the birth of &Baha'u'llah's Prophetic Mission, by a
member of that community of Persian descent--these stand out as further
evidences of the enormous share the firmly knit, highly organized,
swiftly advancing, fully dedicated American &Baha'i Community
has had in the prosecution and triumphant progress of the three year
old Ten-Year Plan, and augur well for a no less splendid contribution to
be made, in the years immediately ahead, for the attainment of its
remaining objectives.

FRUITFUL EFFORTS OF HANDS OF THE CAUSE

Supplementing this noble record of service have been the constant
and fruitful efforts exerted by the Hands of the Cause, nominated from
among the members of that community, in both the United States and
the Holy Land, efforts that have lent a considerable impetus to the
expansion and consolidation of the far-reaching enterprises initiated at
the World Center of the Faith, and which have, particularly through
the instrumentality of the recently appointed American Auxiliary
Board, stimulated, to a noticeable extent the progress of the teaching
work and the advancement of the Plan itself.

STUPENDOUS WORK ACHIEVED BY MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
&BAHA'I COUNCIL

Particular tribute should, I feel, at this juncture, be paid to the
stupendous work achieved, since the launching of the World Crusade,
by the representatives of this highly privileged community, in their
capacity as members of the International &Baha'i Council, in connection
with the prosecution of a variety of enterprises embarked upon in
recent years, aiming at the expansion and consolidation of the international
institutions of the Faith, the enhancement of its prestige, the
embellishment of the surroundings of its Shrines, the efficient conduct

+P147
of its internal affairs, and the forging of fresh links binding it still more
closely to the civil authorities in the Holy Land. The erection of the
International Archives in the close neighborhood of the &Bab's holy
Sepulcher; the extension of the international &Baha'i endowments on
the slopes of Mt. Carmel; the formation of several Israel Branches of
&Baha'i National Spiritual Assemblies; the embellishment of the precincts
of the resting-place of both the &Bab and &Baha'u'llah; the
purchase of the site of the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the Holy Land;
the preparation of the designs for the International &Baha'i Archives on
Mt. Carmel; and of the Mother Temples of Persia and of Africa; the
inauguration of the preliminary steps for the eventual construction of
&Baha'u'llah's holy Sepulcher; the measures adopted, with the assistance
of various officials of the State of Israel, for the eviction of the
covenant-breakers from the immediate precincts of the Shrine of
&Baha'u'llah and the elimination of any influence they still exercise,
after the lapse of over sixty years, in the close vicinity of that Most Holy
Spot--in these, as well as in other various subsidiary activities, constantly
increasing in number as well as in diversity at the spiritual and
administrative center of the &Baha'i world, have the members of the
little band, assiduously laboring under the shadow of the Holy Shrines,
and befittingly representing the American &Baha'i Community, conspicuously
participated, and through their dedicated services, added fresh
luster to the annals of the community to which they belong.
REVITALIZATION OF THE HOME FRONT
So splendid a record of service, rendered within the brief span of a
little over three years, extending over so vast an area of the globe, so
highly diversified, so pregnant with promise, in the face of such
formidable obstacles, and by so limited a number of participants, has,
much to my deepest regret, been marred by a progressive devitalization
of the home front, constituting so momentous an aspect of the Ten-Year
Plan, and upon which its continued and effective prosecution by
the American &Baha'i Community, in the course of the present and third
phase of the World Spiritual Crusade, so largely depends.
Constituting as it does the base of the multiple operations now
being conducted to ensure the success of the North American, the
Latin American, the African, the European and Asiatic campaigns of a
global crusade, no sacrifice can be deemed too great for its revitalization

+P148
and the broadening and consolidation of its foundations. The manpower
of the community, so essential to the further deployment of its
forces must, rapidly and at all costs, increase. The material resources,
now at its disposal, which are so bountifully poured forth and so
generously distributed to the four corners of the globe, must be
correspondingly augmented to meet the pressing and ever-swelling
demands of a constantly and irresistibly advancing Crusade. A far
greater proportion of the avowed supporters of the Faith must arise, ere
the Crusade suffers any setback, for the fourfold purpose of winning
over an infinitely greater number of recruits to the army of &Baha'u'llah
fighting on the home front, of swelling to an unprecedented degree the
isolated centers now scattered within its confines, of converting an
increasing number of them into firmly founded groups, and of accelerating
the formation of local assemblies, while safeguarding those already
in existence.

THE INDIVIDUAL &BAHA'I MUST ARISE

There can be no doubt whatever that to achieve this fourfold
purpose is the most strenuous, the least spectacular, and the most
challenging of the tasks now confronting the American &Baha'i Community.
It is primarily a task that concerns the individual believer,
wherever he may be, and whatever his calling, his resources, his race, or
his age. Neither the local nor national representatives of the community,
no matter how elaborate their plans, or persistent their appeals, or
sagacious their counsels, nor even the Guardian himself, however
much he may yearn for this consummation, can decide where the duty
of the individual lies, or supplant him in the discharge of that task. The
individual alone must assess its character, consult his conscience,
prayerfully consider all its aspects, manfully struggle against the natural
inertia that weighs him down in his effort to arise, shed, heroically
and irrevocably, the trivial and superfluous attachments which hold
him back, empty himself of every thought that may tend to obstruct his
path, mix, in obedience to the counsels of the Author of His Faith, and
in imitation of the One Who is its true Exemplar, with men and
women, in all walks of life, seek to touch their hearts, through the
distinction which characterizes his thoughts, his words and his acts, and
win them over tactfully, lovingly, prayerfully and persistently, to the
Faith he himself has espoused.

+P149
The gross materialism that engulfs the entire nation at the present
hour; the attachment to worldly things that enshrouds the souls of men;
the fears and anxieties that distract their minds; the pleasure and
dissipations that fill their time, the prejudices and animosities that
darken their outlook, the apathy and lethargy that paralyze their
spiritual faculties--these are among the formidable obstacles that stand
in the path of every would-be warrior in the service of &Baha'u'llah,
obstacles which he must battle against and surmount in his crusade for
the redemption of his own countrymen.
To the degree that the home front crusader is himself cleansed of
these impurities, liberated from these petty preoccupations and gnawing
anxieties, delivered from these prejudices and antagonisms, emptied
of self, and filled by the healing and the sustaining power of
God, will he be able to combat the forces arrayed against him, magnetize
the souls of those whom he seeks to convert, and win their unreserved,
their enthusiastic and enduring allegiance to the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah.
Delicate and strenuous though the task may be, however arduous
and prolonged the effort required, whatsoever the nature of the perils
and pitfalls that beset the path of whoever arises to revive the fortunes
of a Faith struggling against the rising forces of materialism, nationalism,
secularism, racialism, ecclesiasticism, the all-conquering potency
of the grace of God, vouchsafed through the Revelation of &Baha'u'llah,
will, undoubtedly, mysteriously and surprisingly, enable whosoever
arises to champion His Cause to win complete and total victory.
The history of a century-old Faith eloquently bears witness to
similar unnumbered successes won, in both the Apostolic and Formative
Ages of the &Baha'i Dispensation, in circumstances even more
challenging than those in which the American &Baha'i Community now
finds itself.
So magnificent a victory, won collectively, at such a time, in a
country so vitally affecting the immediate destinies of mankind,
singled out to play so predominant a role in the unification and
spiritualization of the entire human race, by a community which in
every other field can boast a brilliant and unbroken record of victories,
will, no doubt, exert not only a profound influence on the ultimate
destinies of an entire nation and people, but will galvanize, through its
repercussions, the entire &Baha'i world.

+P150
"A PRAYER WHICH I NEVER CEASE TO UTTER"

The prizes within the reach of this community are truly inestimable.
Much will depend on the reaction of the rank and file of the
believers to the plea now addressed to them with all the fervor of my
soul.
To act, and act promptly and decisively, is the need of the present
hour and their inescapable duty. That the American &Baha'i Community
may, in this one remaining field, where so much is at stake, and
where the needs of the Faith are so acute, cover itself with a glory that
will outshine the splendor of its past exploits in the far-flung territories
of the globe, is a prayer which I never cease to utter in my continual
supplications to &Baha'u'llah.

[July 19, 1956]


Intensification of Efforts

Welcome pledge by delegates. Fervently supplicating &Baha'u'llah's
sustaining grace. Urge intensification of efforts, rededication and
achievement of goals of Plan in order to discharge befittingly the
sacred, manifold, inescapable, urgent responsibilities confronting the
entire American &Baha'i Community. Appeal for unprecedented increase
in pioneers on the home front and all continents of the globe, on
which the prosperity, security and destiny of the American believers
must ultimately rest.

[April 29, 1957]


Dual, Inescapable, Paramount Responsibilities

Assembly's dual, inescapable, paramount responsibilities for current
year are to ensure expansion and consolidation of the home front and
the rapid multiplication of pioneers abroad to reinforce Latin American,
African, European and Pacific campaigns of World Crusade.
Fervently supplicating for signal success in fulfillment of dearest hopes.

[May 7, 1957]

+P151
Heights Never Before Attained

The American &Baha'i Community has, ever since the launching of
the global Spiritual Crusade, in which it has been assigned the lion's
share in view of the primacy conferred upon it by &Abdu'l-Baha, exerted
itself, in numerous and widely scattered areas of the globe, with
commendable perseverance, a high sense of undeviating loyalty and
exemplary consecration. The inexorable march of events, hastening its
members along the path of their destiny, is steadily carrying them to the
stage at which the momentous Plan, to which they have dedicated their
resources, will have reached its midway point.

ENDURING ACHIEVEMENTS

A prodigious expenditure of effort, a stupendous flow of material
resources, an unprecedented dispersal of pioneers, embracing so vast a
section of the globe, and bringing in their wake the rise, the multiplication
and consolidation of so many institutions, so divers in character, so
potent and full of promise, already stand to their credit, and augur well
for a befitting consummation of a decade-long task in the years
immediately ahead.
The opening of a large percentage of the virgin territories, scattered
over the face of the planet, and assigned, under the provisions of the
Ten-Year Plan, to this community and its sister and daughter communities
in all continents of the globe; the allocation of vast sums, for the
founding of national &Haziratu'l-Quds, for the establishment of national
&Baha'i endowments; and for the purchase of the sites of future &Baha'i
Temples; the financial aid extended and the moral support accorded to
a still persecuted sister community, struggling heroically for its
emancipation, in the cradle of the Faith; the steady progress in the vital
process of incorporating firmly grounded local spiritual assemblies in
various states of the union; the translation of &Baha'i literature into the
languages listed in the Ten-Year Plan, as well as into a number of
supplementary languages, spontaneously undertaken by American
&Baha'i pioneers in territories far beyond the confines of their homeland;
the completion of the landscaping of the area immediately surrounding
the Mother Temple of the West, in conformity with the expressed,
often repeated wishes of &Abdu'l-Baha, contributing so greatly to the

+P152
beauty of an edifice, the spiritual influence of which He, repeatedly
and unequivocally, emphasized; the acquisition of the site of the first
dependency of that same edifice, designed to pave the way for the early
establishment of the first of several institutions, which, as conceived by
Him, will be grouped around every &Baha'i House of Worship, complementing,
through their association with direct service to mankind, in
the educational, the humanitarian and social fields, its spiritual function
as the ordained place of communion with the Creator and the
Spirit of His appointed Messenger in this day; the establishment of the
&Baha'i Publishing Trust; the generous financial assistance extended,
the administrative guidance vouchsafed and the unfailing encouragement
given, by the elected representatives of this same community
to the newly fledged assemblies, emerging into independent existence
in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres; the substantial share
which one of its members has had in the acquisition of one of the holy
sites in the capital city of &Baha'u'llah's native land; the preponderating
role played by the various agencies, acting under the direction of its
national elected representatives, in giving publicity to the Faith,
through the proclamation of the fundamental verities underlying the
&Baha'i Revelation, the airing of the manifold grievances weighing so
heavily on the overwhelming majority of their coreligionists, and the
appeals directed, on their behalf, to men of eminence in various walks
of life, as well as to different departments of the United Nations, both
in New York and Geneva; and, finally, ranking as equally meritorious
to anything hitherto achieved by the members of this privileged
community, the magnificent and imperishable contribution made by
them, singly and collectively, to the rise and establishment of the
institutions of their beloved Faith at its World Center; through the
assistance given by their distinguished representatives serving in the
Holy Land, in hastening the erection of the &Baha'i International
Archives, through the purchase of the site of the Mother Temple of the
Holy Land, the enlargement of the scope of &Baha'i international
endowments on the slopes of Mt. Carmel and in the Plain of &Akka, the
embellishment of the sacred precincts of the two holiest Shrines of the
&Baha'i world; the formation of the Israel Branches of four national
spiritual assemblies, the preparation and completion of the designs of
the first &Mashriqu'l-Adhkars to be erected in the Asiatic, the African
and Australian continents, and the setting in motion, through the

+P153
instrumentality of various departments of the Israeli government, of a
long-drawn-out process, culminating in the expropriation by the state
of the entire property, owned and controlled by the remnants of the
breakers of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant, immediately surrounding His
resting-place and the Mansion of &Bahji, the evacuation of this property
by this ignoble band, and the final and definite purification, after the
lapse of no less than six decades, of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most
Holy Shrine of the &Baha'i world, of the defilement, which had caused
so much sorrow and anxiety to the heart of &Abdu'l-Baha--these are
among the enduring achievements which four brief years of unremitting
devotion to the interests of the Ten-Year Plan have brought about,
and which will eternally redound to the glory of the champion-builders
of &Baha'u'llah's embryonic World Order, holding aloft so valiantly the
banner of His Faith in the great republic of the West.

THE HOME FRONT--BASE FOR EXPANSION OF FUTURE OPERATIONS

Though much has been achieved in the space of less than five years,
though the objectives of the Ten-Year Plan, in most of its essential
aspects, may be said to have been triumphantly attained long before the
time appointed for its termination, through a striking display, and a
remarkable combination, of American &Baha'i initiative, resourcefulness,
generosity, fidelity and perseverance, the Plan, prosecuted hitherto
so vigorously by the rank and file of this community, may be said to
be still suffering in some of its vital aspects, from certain deficiencies,
which, if not speedily and fundamentally remedied, will not only
mutilate the Plan itself, but jeopardize the prizes won so laboriously
since its inauguration.
As I have already forewarned the energetic prosecutors of the global
Crusade in the North American continent, the home front, from which
have sprung, since the inception of the Formative Age of the Faith, the
dynamic forces which have set in motion, and directed the operation, of
so many processes, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of
&Baha'i activity, and which must continue to act as a base for the steady
expansion of future operations in every continent of the globe, and the
extension of their ramifications to the uttermost corners of the earth,
and which must be increasingly regarded, as the forces of internal
disruption and the stress and danger of aggressiveness from without
gather momentum, as the sole stronghold of a Faith which cannot hope

+P154
to escape unscathed from the turmoil gathering around it--such a
home front must, at all costs, and in the shortest possible time, be
spiritually reinvigorated, administratively expanded, and materially
replenished. The flame of devotion ignited and the enthusiasm generated,
during the celebrations which commemorated the centenary of
the birth of the Mission of the Divine Author of our Faith, and which,
in the course of the years immediately following it have carried the
members of the American &Baha'i Community, so far and so high, along
the road leading to their ultimate destiny, must, in whatever way
possible, be fanned and continually fed throughout the entire area of
the Union, in every state from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboards, in
every locality where &Baha'is reside, in every heart throbbing with the
love of &Baha'u'llah. The spirit that sent forth, not so long ago, in such
rapid succession, so many pioneers to such remote areas of the globe,
must at all costs and above everything else, be recaptured, for the twofold
purpose of swelling the number, and of ensuring the continual
flow, of pioneers, so essential for the safeguarding of the prizes won in
the course of the several campaigns of a world-girdling Crusade, and of
combatting the evil forces which a relentless and all-pervasive materialism,
the cancerous growth of militant racialism, political corruption,
unbridled capitalism, wide-spread lawlessness and gross immorality,
are, alas, unleashing, with ominous swiftness, amongst various classes
of the society to which the members of this community belong.
The administrative strongholds of a Faith, bound to be subjected on
the one hand, to a severe spiritual challenge from within, through the
inevitable impact of these devastating influences on its infant strength,
and, on the other, to the onslaught of ecclesiastical leaders, the
traditional defenders of religious orthodoxy from without, must be
multiplied and reinforced for the purpose of warding off the inevitable
attacks of the assailants, of vindicating the ideals and principles which
animate their defenders, and of ensuring the ultimate victory and
ascendency of the Faith itself over the nefarious elements seeking to
undermine it from within, and its powerful detractors aiming at its
extinction from without.
Nor must the material resources, so vitally required to meet the
challenge of a continually expanding Faith, be, for a moment, either
ignored, neglected, or underestimated--resources which a home front,
materially and adequately replenished by a steady and marked influx of

+P155
active and wholehearted supporters from all ranks of society, can, in the
long run, provide. As the imperative needs of a Faith, now irresistibly
advancing in every direction, multiply, a corresponding increase in the
financial means at the disposal of its national administrators directing
and controlling its operations, within and beyond the confines of their
homeland, to meet these essential and urgent requirements, must be
ensured, if its onward march is not to be either halted or slowed down.

MIGHTY AND HISTORIC ENTERPRISES

It is upon the individual believer, constituting the fundamental
unit in the structure of the home front, that the revitalization, the
expansion, and the enrichment of the home front must ultimately
depend. The more strenuous the effort exerted, daily and methodically,
by the individual laboring on the home front to rise to loftier heights of
consecration, of self-abnegation, to contribute, through pioneering at
home, to the multiplication of &Baha'i isolated centers, groups and
assemblies, and to raise, through diligent, painstaking and continual
endeavor to convert receptive souls to the Faith he has espoused, the
number of its active and wholehearted supporters, the sooner will the
vast and multiple enterprises, launched beyond the confines of the
homeland, and now so desperately calling for a greater supply of men
and means, be provided with the necessary support that will ensure
their uninterrupted development and hasten their ultimate fruition,
and the lighter will be the burden of the impending contest that must
be waged, sooner or later, within the borders of the Union itself,
between the rising institutions of &Baha'u'llah's embryonic divinely
appointed Order, and the exponents of obsolescent doctrines and the
defenders, both secular and religious, of a corrupt and fast-declining
society.
The fourth phase of the Ten-Year Plan, which the prosecutors of a
world-encompassing Crusade are about to enter, must witness on the
one hand, on every home front, and particularly within the confines of
the American homeland, this same spiritual reinvigoration, administrative
expansion, and material replenishment, constituting the triple
facets of a task which can brook no further delay, and, on the other, an
acceleration, particularly in connection with the construction of the
Mother Temples of Australia and Germany (the needs of the Mother
Temple of Africa having, to all intents and purposes, been met) in the

+P156
contributions to be made, by individual believers as well as national
spiritual assemblies, to ensure the uninterrupted progress and the early
completion of these mighty and historic enterprises.
As the members of the valiant American &Baha'i Community have,
in the space of more than four years, blazed the trail, and vindicated
their primacy, through the share they have had in opening the chief
remaining virgin territories of the globe, in contributing to the furtherance
of the interests of the institutions of the Faith at its World Center,
and in hastening the acquisition of national &Haziratu'l-Quds, the
establishment of &Baha'i national endowments, and the purchase of sites for
future &Baha'i Temples, so must they, if they be intent on safeguarding
that primacy, and on preserving, intact and untarnished, the noble
example they have already set the &Baha'i world, maintain their enviable
position, as the vanguard of the army of &Baha'u'llah's crusaders, in
rescuing, while there is yet time, their home front from the precarious
position in which it now finds itself, and in displaying for the purpose
of ensuring the erection of the Mother Temples of three
continents--tasks which tower far above any of the national enterprises
hitherto undertaken--be they &Haziratu'l-Quds, endowments or Temple
sites--that selfsame generosity and self-abnegation which have
distinguished their stewardship to the Cause of &Baha'u'llah in the past.
The year, the opening of which will mark the midway point of this
World Spiritual Crusade, must be distinguished from all previous
years, by the special allotment of a substantial sum from the national
budget that will adequately meet the urgent needs of these Houses of
Worship, and particularly those that are to be erected in the European
and Australian continents.

A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY, A GLORIOUS CHALLENGE

The forthcoming convocation of no less than five intercontinental
conferences, marking the passing of half of the time allotted for the
prosecution of a World Crusade, and to be held, in five continents of
the globe, for the purpose of paying homage to the Author of the &Baha'i
Revelation for His protection, guidance and blessings, of focusing
attention on the achievements of the immediate past and the pressing
requirements of the immediate future, will, it is my ardent hope and
prayer, provide a fresh stimulus for the adequate discharge of these two
afore-mentioned responsibilities, which constitute the distinguishing
features of the fourth phase of a rapidly unfolding Plan.

+P157
At four of these five conferences, in the proceedings of which four,
the members of the American &Baha'i Community--the principal executors
of &Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan and the keepers and defenders of
the stronghold of the &Baha'i Administrative Order--will participate,
through their official representatives, the voice of the champion-builders
of &Baha'u'llah's embryonic World Order, who can well claim to
have had a decisive share in the great strides made by this Crusade,
should be raised in a spirit and manner that will galvanize these
conferences into action, and produce such results as will reverberate
round the world.
A golden opportunity, a glorious challenge, an inescapable duty, a
staggering responsibility, confront them, at this fresh turning point in
the fortunes of a Crusade, for which they have so unremittingly
labored, whose Cause they have so notably advanced, in the further
unfoldment of which they must continue to play a leading part, and in
whose closing stages, they will, I feel confident, rise to heights never
before attained in the course of six decades of American &Baha'i history.
Once again--and this time more fervently than ever before--I direct
my plea to every single member of this strenuously laboring, clear-visioned,
stout-hearted, spiritually endowed community, every man
and woman, on whose individual efforts, resolution, self-sacrifice and
perseverance the immediate destinies of the Faith of God, now traversing
so crucial a stage in its rise and establishment, primarily depends,
not to allow, through apathy, timidity or complacency, this one remaining
opportunity to be irretrievably lost. I would rather entreat each and
every one of them to immortalize this approaching, fateful hour in the
evolution of a World Spiritual Crusade, by a fresh consecration to their
God-given mission, coupled with an instantaneous plan of action, at
once so dynamic and decisive, as to wipe out, on the one hand, with
one stroke, the deficiencies which have, to no small extent, bogged
down the operations of the Crusade on the home front, and tremendously
accelerate, on the other, the progress of the triple task, launched,
in three continents, and constituting one of its preeminent objectives.

HIS WATCHFUL POWER AND UNFAILING GRACE

May He, Who through the irresistible operation of the will of His
almighty Father, called this community into being, nursed it in its
infancy through the inestimable benefits conferred by a divinely
appointed Covenant, infused through His personal contact with its

+P158
members, and the proclamation of His Own Station, a new spirit into
their souls; conferred, subsequently, through the revelation of His
Tablets, the spiritual primacy designed to enable them to assume a
preponderating role in the propagation of His Father's Faith; graciously
aided them, following His ascension, to inaugurate their God-given
mission by fixing the pattern, creating the institutions, and vindicating
the purpose, of a divinely appointed Administrative Order and by
launching subsequently the preliminary undertakings in their homeland,
as well as in all the republics of Latin America, in anticipation of
the formal inauguration of a systematic World Crusade for the furtherance
of His Father's Cause; and more recently assisted them to embark,
in concert with their brethren in other continents of the globe, upon
the first stage of their world-encompassing mission, and to win a series
of victories unprecedented in the annals of the Faith in their
homeland--may He, through His watchful care and unfailing grace,
continue to sustain them, individually and collectively, in the course of
the remaining stages of the Plan, and enable them to bring to a
triumphant termination the initial epoch in the unfoldment of the
Divine Plan which He has primarily entrusted to them and on the
successful prosecution of which their entire spiritual destiny must
depend.

[September 21, 1957]

+P159
IN MEMORIAM
+P160
+P161
Frank Ashton

Praying for progress of his soul in the Kingdom. His services
meritorious.

[March 1956]


Ella Bailey

Grieve at passing of valiant exemplary pioneer. Reward in Kingdom
bountiful.

[August 30, 1953]


Dorothy Baker

Hearts grieved at lamentable, untimely passing of Dorothy Baker,
distinguished Hand of the Cause, eloquent exponent of its teachings,
indefatigable supporter of its institutions, valiant defender of its precepts.
Her long record of outstanding service has enriched the annals
of the concluding years of the Heroic and the opening epoch of the
Formative Age of the &Baha'i Dispensation. Fervently praying for the
progress of her soul in the &Abha Kingdom.
Assure relatives of profound loving sympathy. Her noble spirit is
reaping bountiful reward.
Advise hold memorial gathering in the Temple befitting her rank
and imperishable services...

[January 13, 1954]


Mary Barton

Grieved by passing of your dear mother. Her services highly
meritorious. Assure you of fervent prayers for progress of her soul in the
Kingdom.

[January 26, 1957]

+P162
Victoria Bedikian

Praying for progress of the soul of indefatigable and wholly consecrated
promoter of the Faith. Her services are unforgettable....

[July 1955]


Ella Cooper

Deeply grieved at sudden passing of herald of the Covenant, Ella
Cooper, dearly loved handmaid of &Abdu'l-Baha, greatly trusted by
Him. Her devoted services during concluding years of Heroic Age and
also Formative Age of Faith unforgettable. Assure relatives, friends,
deepest sympathy for loss. Praying for progress of her soul in &Abha
Kingdom.

[July 18, 1951]


Julia Culver
Grieve at passing of devoted pioneer of Faith, Julia Culver. Her
exemplary spirit, unshakable loyalty, generous contributions are unforgettable.
Fervently praying for progress of her soul in &Abha Kingdom.

[January 30, 1950]


Dagmar Dole

Grieved by passing of distinguished, consecrated pioneer Dagmar
Dole, whose outstanding record is unforgettable, reward bountiful.
Praying for progress of her soul in the Kingdom.

[November 1952]


Homer Dyer

Praying for progress of soul of devoted and zealous servant of the
Faith.

[January 26, 1956]

+P163
L. W. Eggleston

Grieve at passing of valued promoter of Faith. His historic donation
of school highly meritorious, reward bountiful in Kingdom. Deepest
sympathy; praying for progress of his soul.

[September 8, 1953]


Harry Ford

Grieve at passing of devoted pioneer Harry Ford, whose death will
enrich the spiritual development of foremost center of South Africa.
Praying for progress of soul in the Kingdom.

[January 14, 1954]


Nellie French

Deeply regret the passing of valiant pioneer. Long record of her
services is highly meritorious. Praying for progress of soul in the
Kingdom.

[January 4, 1954]


Louis C. Gregory

Profoundly deplore grievous loss of dearly beloved, noble-minded,
golden-hearted Louis Gregory, pride and example to the Negro adherents
of the Faith. Keenly feel loss of one so loved, admired and trusted
by &Abdu'l-Baha. Deserves rank of first Hand of the Cause of his race.
Rising &Baha'i generation in African continent will glory in his memory
and emulate his example. Advise hold memorial gathering in Temple
in token recognition of his unique position, outstanding services.

[August 6, 1951]

+P164
Louise M. Gregory

Grieved by news of passing of faithful, consecrated handmaid of
&Abdu'l-Baha. Confident of rich reward in the Kingdom. Her pioneer
services highly meritorious.

[May 29, 1956]


Bertha Herklotz

Grieve at passing of faithful, steadfast servant of the Faith. Praying
for progress of her soul in the Kingdom.

[February 16, 1956]


Marie Hopper

Praying for progress of soul of loyal, devoted early believer, Marie
Hopper.

[September 11, 1953]


Maria Ioas

Share your grief at passing of esteemed veteran of Faith, Maria
Ioas. Soul rejoicing in the &Abha Kingdom at the services rendered by
her dear son at the World Center of the Faith in the triple function of
Hand of the Cause, Secretary-General of the Council and supervisor of
construction of the dome of the &Bab's Sepulcher.

[May 1953]


Beatrice Irwin

Grieved by passing of steadfast, devoted, indefatigable promoter of

+P165
the Faith. Her reward assured in the Kingdom. Praying for progress of
her soul.

[March 23, 1956]


Marion Jack

Mourn loss of immortal heroine, Marion Jack, greatly loved and
deeply admired by &Abdu'l-Baha, a shining example to pioneers of
present and future generations of East and West, surpassed in constancy,
dedication, self-abnegation and fearlessness by none except the
incomparable Martha Root. Her unremitting, highly meritorious activities
in the course of almost half a century, both in North America and
Southeast Europe, attaining their climax in the darkest, most dangerous
phase of the second World War, shed imperishable luster on contemporary
&Baha'i history.
This triumphant soul is now gathered to the distinguished band of
her co-workers in the &Abha Kingdom; Martha Root, Lua Getsinger,
May Maxwell, Hyde Dunn, Susan Moody, Keith Ransom-Kehler, Ella
Bailey and Dorothy Baker, whose remains, lying in such widely
scattered areas of the globe as Honolulu, Cairo, Buenos Aires, Sydney,
&Tihran, &Isfahan, Tripoli and the depths of the Mediterranean Sea
attest the magnificence of the pioneer services rendered by the North
American &Baha'i Community in the Apostolic and Formative Ages of
the &Baha'i Dispensation.
Advise arrange in association with the Canadian National Assembly
and the European Teaching Committee a befitting memorial gathering
in the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. Moved to share with the United States
and Canadian National Assemblies the expenses of the erection, as
soon as circumstances permit, of a worthy monument at her grave,
destined to confer eternal benediction on a country already honored by
its close proximity to the sacred city associated with the proclamation of
the Faith of &Baha'u'llah.
Share message with all national assemblies.

[March 29, 1954]

+P166
Florence Breed Khan

Profoundly grieve at passing of beloved, distinguished, staunch,
great-hearted handmaid of beloved Master. Praying fervently for progress
of her soul in Kingdom. Her reward assured. Loving sympathy.

[June 27, 1950]


Edward B. Kinney

Grieve at passing of dearly loved, highly admired, greatly trusted,
staunch, indefatigable, self-sacrificing teacher, pillar of Faith, Saffa
Kinney. His leonine spirit, exemplary steadfastness, notable record of
services enriched annals of closing period of Heroic Age and opening
phase of Formative Age of &Baha'i Dispensation. Beautiful reward
assured in &Abha Kingdom beneath the shadow of the Master he loved
so dearly, served so nobly, defended so heroically until last breath.

[December 16, 1950]


Fanny Knobloch

Grieve at passing of beloved, distinguished, exemplary pioneer of
Faith, Fanny Knobloch. Memory of her notable services imperishable,
her reward in &Abha Kingdom bountiful, assured, everlasting.

[December 14, 1949]


George Latimer

Greatly deplore passing of distinguished disciple of &Abdu'l-Baha,
firm pillar of the American &Baha'i Community, George Latimer. His
outstanding services during closing years of the Heroic and first epoch
of the Formative Ages of the Faith are imperishable. Assure bereaved,
dearly loved, much admired mother of my profound sympathy and
fervent prayers for the progress of his soul.

[June 23, 1948]

+P167
Ruhaniyyih Latimer

Saddened by loss of devoted, staunch promoter of Faith, Ruhaniyyih
Latimer; her services are unforgettable. Praying for progress of
her soul in Kingdom.

[January 20, 1952]


Fanny Lesch

Deeply sympathize in loss of loyal, distinguished handmaid of
&Baha'u'llah, Fanny Lesch. Present with you in spirit at memorial
service. Praying ardently for progress of her soul in &Abha Kingdom.

[April 27, 1948]


Edwin W. Mattoon
Grieved by news of your dear father's death. His pioneer, teaching
and administrative services are unforgettable and highly meritorious.
Assure you of fervent prayers for the progress of his soul in the &Abha
Kingdom.

[December 27, 1956]


William Sutherland Maxwell
With sorrowful heart announce through national assemblies that
Hand of Cause of &Baha'u'llah, highly esteemed, dearly beloved Sutherland
Maxwell, has been gathered into the glory of the &Abha Kingdom.
His saintly life, extending well nigh four score years, enriched during
the course of &Abdu'l-Baha's ministry by services in the Dominion of
Canada, ennobled during Formative Age of Faith by decade of services
in Holy Land, during darkest days of my life, doubly honored through
association with the crown of martyrdom won by May Maxwell and
incomparable honor bestowed upon his daughter, attained consummation

+P168
through his appointment as architect of the arcade and superstructure
of the &Bab's Sepulcher as well as elevation to the front rank
of the Hands of Cause of God. Advise all national assemblies to hold
befitting memorial gatherings particularly in the &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
in Wilmette and in the &Haziratu'l-Quds in &Tihran.
Have instructed Hands of Cause in United States and Canada,
Horace Holley and Fred Schopflocher, to attend as my representatives
the funeral in Montreal. Moved to name after him the southern door
of the &Bab's Tomb as tribute to his services to second holiest Shrine of
the &Baha'i world.
The mantle of Hand of Cause now falls upon the shoulders of his
distinguished daughter, &Amatu'l-Baha &Ruhiyyih, who has already
rendered and is still rendering manifold no less meritorious self-sacrificing
services at World Center of Faith of &Baha'u'llah.

[March 26, 1952]


Florence Morton

Grieve at passing of faithful promoter of Faith. Praying for the
progress of her soul.

[April 8, 1953]


Ella Robarts

Praying fervently for progress of soul in &Abha Kingdom of devoted
old believer. Assure you loving sympathy.

[May 2, 1950]


Annie Romer

Grieved by passing of Annie Romer, devoted, able promoter and
pioneer of the Faith. Her services have been highly meritorious.
Praying for progress of her soul in the Kingdom.

[March 1955]

+P169
Fred Schopflocher

Profoundly grieved at passing of dearly loved, outstandingly
staunch Hand of Cause Fred Schopflocher. His numerous, magnificent
services extending over thirty years in administrative and teaching
spheres for United States, Canada, Institutions at &Baha'i World Center
greatly enriched annals of Formative Age of Faith. Abundant reward
assured in &Abha Kingdom. Advising American National Assembly to
hold befitting memorial gathering at Temple he generously helped
raise. Advise hold memorial gathering at Maxwell home to commemorate
his eminent part in rise of Administrative Order of Faith in
Canada. Urge ensure burial in close neighborhood of resting place of
distinguished Hand of Cause Sutherland Maxwell.

[July 1953]


Anthony Y. Seto

Grieved by sudden loss of your dear husband, valued, consecrated,
high-minded promoter of the Faith. The record of his deeply appreciated
services both in America and Asia is unforgettable. His reward is
great in &Abha Kingdom. Assure you of loving, fervent prayers for
progress of his soul.

[May 7, 1957]


Philip G. Sprague

Heart filled with sorrow at premature passing of staunch, exemplary,
greatly admired, dearly loved Sprague. Memory of his notable
services as teacher and administrator in North and Latin America
imperishable, recompense in &Abha Kingdom bountiful. Praying ardently
for progress of his soul.

[September 27, 1951]

+P170
Gertrude Struven

Grieve at news. Praying for progress of her soul in the Kingdom.

[December 23, 1954]


Juliet Thompson

Deplore loss of much-loved, greatly admired Juliet Thompson,
outstanding, exemplary handmaid of &Abdu'l-Baha. Over half-century
record of manifold, meritorious services, embracing the concluding
years of Heroic and opening decades of Formative Ages of &Baha'i
Dispensation, won her enviable position in the glorious company of
triumphant disciples of the beloved Master in the &Abha Kingdom.
Advise hold memorial gathering in &Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to pay befitting
tribute to the imperishable memory of one so wholly consecrated to the
Faith of &Baha'u'llah, and fired with such consuming devotion to the
Center of His Covenant.

[December 6, 1956]


George Townshend

Inform Hands and national assemblies of the &Baha'i world, of the
passing into &Abha Kingdom of Hand of Cause George Townshend,
indefatigable, highly talented, fearless defender of the Faith of
&Baha'u'llah.
Agnes Alexander, distinguished pioneer of the Faith, elevated to
rank of Hand of Cause. Confident her appointment will spiritually
reinforce teaching campaign simultaneously conducted in North,
South and heart of Pacific Ocean.

[March 27, 1957]


Roy C. Wilhelm

Heart filled with sorrow for loss of greatly prized, much loved,
highly admired herald of &Baha'u'llah's Covenant, Roy Wilhelm. Distinguished

+P171
career enriched the annals of concluding years of Heroic
and opening years of Formative Age of Faith. Sterling qualities
endeared him to his beloved Master, &Abdu'l-Baha. His saintliness,
indomitable faith, outstanding services local, national, international,
his exemplary devotion, qualify him to join ranks of Hands of Cause,
insure him everlasting reward in &Abha Kingdom. Advise hold memorial
gathering in Temple befitting his unforgettable services and lofty
rank.

[December 24, 1951]


Albert Windust

Deeply grieved by passing of much loved, greatly admired, staunch,
ardent promoter of the Faith, Albert Windust, herald of the Covenant,
whose notable services in Heroic and Formative Ages of the Faith are
unforgettable. Assure friends and relatives fervently supplicating for
the progress of his soul in the Kingdom.

[March 11, 1956]