And finally, dearly-beloved brethren, let me once more direct your
attention to the pressing claims of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, our beloved
Temple. Need I remind you of the imperative necessity of carrying out to a
successful conclusion, while there is yet time, the great enterprise to
which, before the eyes of a watching world, we stand committed? Need I
stress the great damage which further delay in the prosecution of this
divinely-appointed task must, even in these critical and unforeseen
circumstances, inflict upon the prestige of our beloved Cause? I am, I can
assure you, acutely conscious of the stringency of the circumstances with
which you are faced, the embarrassments under which you labor, the cares
with which you are burdened, the pressing urgency of the demands that are
being incessantly made upon your depleted resources. I am, however, still
more profoundly aware of the unprecedented character of the opportunity
which it is your privilege to seize and utilize. I am aware of the
incalculable blessings that must await the termination of a collective
enterprise which, by the range and quality of the sacrifices it entailed,
deserves to be ranked among the most outstanding examples of Baha'i
solidarity ever since those deeds of brilliant heroism immortalized the
memory of the heroes of Nayriz, of Zanjan, and of Tabarsi. I appeal to
you, therefore, friends and fellow-disciples of Baha'u'llah, for a more
abundant measure of self-sacrifice, for a higher standard of concerted
effort, for a still more compelling evidence of the reality of the faith
that glows within you.
And in this fervent plea, my voice is once more reinforced by the
passionate, and perhaps, the last, entreaty, of the Greatest Holy Leaf,
whose spirit, now hovering on the edge of the Great Beyond, longs to carry
on its flight to the Abha Kingdom, and into the presence of a Divine, an
almighty Father, an assurance of the joyous consummation of an enterprise,
the progress of which has so greatly brightened the closing days of her
earthly life. That the American believers, those stout-hearted pioneers of
the Faith of Baha'u'llah, will unanimously respond, with that same
spontaneous generosity, that same measure of self-sacrifice, as have
characterized their response to her appeals in the past, no one who is
familiar with the vitality of their faith can possibly question.
Would to God that by the end of the spring of the year 1933 the multitudes
who, from the remote corners of the globe, will throng the grounds of the
Great Fair to be held in the neighborhood of that hallowed shrine may, as
a result of your sustained spirit of self-sacrifice, be privileged to gaze
on the arrayed splendor of its dome--a dome that shall stand as a flaming
beacon and a symbol of hope amidst the gloom of a despairing world.
Your true brother,
SHOGHI
Haifa, Palestine,
March 21, 1932