To the beloved of God and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the
United States and Canada.
Friends and fellow-defenders of the Faith of Baha'u'llah:
Significant as have been the changes that have lately overtaken a swiftly
awakening humanity at this transitional phase of its checkered history,
the steady consolidation of the institutions which the administrators of
the Faith of Baha'u'llah are, in every land, toiling to establish should
appear no less remarkable to even those who are as yet imperfectly
acquainted with the obstacles they have had to surmount or the meagre
resources on which they could rely.
That a Faith which, ten years ago, was severely shaken by the sudden
removal of an incomparable Master should have, in the face of tremendous
obstacles, maintained its unity, resisted the malignant onslaught of its
ill-wishers, silenced its calumniators, broadened the basis of its
far-flung administration, and raised upon it institutions symbolizing its
ideals of worship and service, should be deemed sufficient evidence of the
invincible power with which the Almighty has chosen to invest it from the
moment of its inception.
That the Cause associated with the name of Baha'u'llah feeds itself upon
those hidden springs of celestial strength which no force of human
personality, whatever its glamour, can replace; that its reliance is
solely upon that mystic Source with which no worldly advantage, be it
wealth, fame, or learning can compare; that it propagates itself by ways
mysterious and utterly at variance with the standards accepted by the
generality of mankind, will, if not already apparent, become increasingly
manifest as it forges ahead towards fresh conquests in its struggle for
the spiritual regeneration of mankind.
Indeed, how could it, unsupported as it has ever been by the counsels and
the resources of the wise, the rich, and the learned in the land of its
birth, have succeeded in breaking asunder the shackles that weighed upon
it at the hour of its birth, in emerging unscathed from the storms that
agitated its infancy, had not its animating breath been quickened by that
spirit which is born of God, and on which all success, wherever and
however it be sought, must ultimately depend?
It is not necessary for me to recall, even in their briefest outline, the
heart-rending details of that appalling tragedy which marked the
birth-pangs of our beloved Faith, enacted in a land notorious for its
unrestrained fanaticisms, its crass ignorance, its unbridled cruelty. Nor
do I need to expatiate on the valor, the sublime fortitude, that defied
the cruel torture-mongers of that race, or stress the number, or emphasize
the purity of the lives, of those who died willingly that their Cause
might live and prosper. Nor is it necessary to dwell upon the indignation
which those atrocities evoked, and the feelings of unqualified admiration
that surged, in the breasts of countless men and women, in regions remote
from the scene of those indescribable cruelties. Suffice it to say that
upon these heroes of Baha'u'llah's native land was bestowed the
inestimable privilege of sealing with their life-blood the early triumphs
of their cherished Faith, and of paving the way for its approaching
victory. In the blood of the unnumbered martyrs of Persia lay the seed of
the Divinely-appointed Administration which, though transplanted from its
native soil, is now budding out, under your loving care, into a new order,
destined to overshadow all mankind.