society, yet pregnant with possibilities of unsurpassed triumphs for the
power of Baha'u'llah's redemptive Cause. The occasion is propitious for a
display, by the American Baha'i Community, in its corporate capacity, of
an effort which in its magnitude, character, and purpose must outshine its
past endeavors. Failure to exploit these present, these golden
opportunities would blast the hopes which the prosecution of the Plan has
thus far aroused, and would signify the loss of the rarest privilege ever
conferred by Providence upon the American Baha'i Community. It is in view
of the criticalness of the situation that I was led to place at the
disposal of any pioneer willing to dedicate himself to the task of the
present hour such modest resources as would facilitate the discharge of so
enviable a duty.
The Baha'i World, increasingly subjected to the rigors of suppression, in
both the East and the West, watches with unconcealed astonishment, and
derives hope and comfort from the rapid unfoldment of the successive
stages of God's Plan for so blest a community. Its eyes are fixed upon
this community, eager to behold the manner in which its gallant members
will break down, one after another, the barriers that obstruct their
progress towards a divinely-appointed goal. On every daring adventurer in
the service of the Cause of Baha'u'llah the Concourse on high shall
descend, "each bearing aloft a chalice of pure light." Every one of these
adventurers God Himself will sustain and inspire, and will "cause the pure
waters of wisdom and utterance to gush out and flow copiously from his
heart." "The Kingdom of God," writes 'Abdu'l-Baha, "is possessed of
limitless potency. Audacious must be the army of life if the confirming
aid of that Kingdom is to be repeatedly vouchsafed unto it.... Vast is the
arena, and the time ripe to spur on the charger within it. Now is the time
to reveal the force of one's strength, the stoutness of one's heart and
the might of one's soul."
Dearly-beloved friends! What better field than the vast virgin
territories, so near at hand, and waiting to receive, at this very hour,
their full share of the onrushing tide of Baha'u'llah's redeeming grace?
What theatre more befitting than these long-neglected nine remaining
states and provinces in which the true heroism of the intrepid pioneers of
His World Order can be displayed? There is no time to lose. There is no
room left for vacillation. Multitudes hunger for the Bread of Life. The
stage is set. The firm and irrevocable Promise is given. God's own Plan
has been set in motion. It is gathering momentum with every passing day.
The powers of heaven and earth mysteriously assist in its execution. Such
an opportunity is irreplaceable. Let the doubter arise and himself verify
the truth of such assertions. To try, to persevere, is to insure ultimate
and complete victory.
January 28, 1939
GOD'S CREATIVE PLAN
The task regarded as an essential preliminary to the crusade destined to
embrace the whole of Latin America is now in full swing and is being
rapidly carried out. A further step, designed to hasten the conclusion of
the final phase of the ornamentation of the Temple, has also been taken.
As the days roll by, as the perturbations of an imperiled civilization are
more alarmingly manifested, the potentialities of God's creative Plan
correspondingly unfold, and the valor and heroism of its intrepid
supporters are more widely and convincingly demonstrated. With every
successful effort to muster its young and scattered forces, to perfect its
methods, to extend the range of its operations, to deepen its spiritual
life and to scale loftier heights of individual heroism, there will, I
cannot but feel confident, be granted to this community a greater
opportunity to prove its worth, and a fuller measure of celestial strength
to enable it to reenact, on the soil of the United States and Canada and
throughout the entire Western Hemisphere, those stirring exploits that
have shed such lustre on the apostolic age of the Faith of Baha'u'llah.
Though much has thus far been achieved, yet the processes now set in
motion through the evolution of the Plan are still far too rudimentary to
permit even a faint glimpse of the brilliancy of the epoch in which
'Abdu'l-Baha's own Plan must come to fruition. Not ours to attempt, at the
present moment, a survey of the distant scene, or to seek to visualize its
glories, or to dwell on the consequences of the eventual attainment of an
as yet far-off goal. Ours is the solemn, the inescapable duty to labor
faithfully and unremittingly to insure that no opportunity is being
missed, that no avenues are left unexplored, that might, however
indirectly, contribute to the furtherance of those tasks that claim so
insistently our immediate attention. That those into whose hands this
dynamic Plan has been entrusted are aware of the essential character of
their obligations and will discharge worthily their duties, no one,
viewing the range and quality of their achievements, can entertain the
slightest doubt.
February 8, 1939
APPROACH OF FINAL ERUPTION
Fresh, ominous rumblings demonstrate the inevitability and foreshadow the
approach of the final eruption involving the dissolution of a lamentably
defective international order. The privileged community of American
believers forewarned, undismayed, spiritually equipped. Notwithstanding
the gravity of the times, they will pursue unswervingly the
divinely-chartered course, their attention undistracted, their objective
unobscured, their resolve unimpaired, their support undiminished, their
loyalty unsullied. The immediate obligation is to complete settlement of
Delaware, Utah, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia before termination of Baha'i
administrative year. Responsibility solemn, pressing, unavoidable.
Cablegram March 24, 1939
GRATITUDE TO PIONEERS
Assure each pioneer immeasurable gratitude. Such vigorous response at such
perilous times to so vital a call opens brilliant epoch in Formative Age
of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. I am impelled to congratulate the Assembly
for its wise, efficient trusteeship.
Cablegram April 1, 1939
MY PLEA, MY SUPREME ENTREATY
I have in two recent, successive messages, cabled to your Assembly, giving
expression, as far as it lay in my power, to the feelings of overpowering
gratitude which the response of so many pioneers to the call of teaching
has evoked in my heart. I have moreover felt impelled to convey my
congratulations to the members of your Assembly who, through their
resource, unity and singlemindedness, have lent so needed and timely an
impetus to the mighty work associated with the second year of the Seven
Year Plan. There can be no doubt whatever that what the American
believers, no less than their elected National representatives, have
accomplished, the long and assiduous care of the former and the potent
methods employed by the latter, have witnessed to the uprising of a new
spirit on which the defamers of the Cause may well pause to reflect, and
from which its lovers cannot but derive deep joy and solace. I again wish
to thank with all my soul those whose acts have stirred the imagination of
friend and foe alike.
In my desire not to omit anything that might help to spur on or reinforce
the community of the American believers as they move on to their destiny,
I feel it necessary to add a word of warning in connection with the work
that has been so splendidly begun lest it should be jeopardized or
frustrated. The initial phase of the teaching work operating under the
Seven Year Plan has at long last been concluded. They who have pushed it
forward have withstood the test gloriously. By their acts, whether as
teachers or administrators, they have written a glorious page in the
struggle for the laying of a continent-wide foundation for the
Administrative Order of their Faith. At this advanced stage in the
fulfilment of the purpose to which they have set their hand there can be
no turning back, no halting, no respite. To launch the bark of the Faith,
to implant its banner, is not enough. Support, ample, organized and
unremitting, should be lent, designed to direct the course of that work
and to lay an unassailable foundation for the fort destined to stand guard
over that banner.
The National Spiritual Assembly, the National Teaching Committee, the
Regional and local teaching committees, no less than the itinerant
teachers, should utilize every possible means calculated to fan the zeal,
enrich the resources and insure the solidity and permanency of the work,
of those who, actuated by so laudable and shining a spirit of
self-sacrifice, have arisen to face the hazards and perils of so holy and
historic an adventure. Indeed every believer, however humble and
inexperienced, should sense the obligation to play his or her part in a
mission that involves so very deeply the destinies not only of the
American Baha'i community but of the nation itself.
Whether through the frequency of their visits, the warmth of their
correspondence, the liberality of their support, the wisdom of their
counsels, the choice of the literature placed at the disposal of the
pioneers, the members of the community should, at this hour when the sands
of a moribund civilization are inexorably running out, and at a time when
they are preparing themselves to launch yet another stage in their
teaching activities, insure the security and provide for the steady
expansion, of the work initiated in those territories so recently set
alight from the torch of an inextinguishable Faith.
This is my plea, my supreme entreaty.
April 17, 1939
PENETRATION OF LATIN AMERICA
Message to 1939 Convention
Brilliant conclusion of second year in Seven Year Plan evokes universal
admiration of the Baha'i world, deepens its spiritual consciousness and
mitigates the hardships of its increasingly harassed communities. Closing
phase of Temple ornamentation already entered. Initial stage of
Intercontinental Teaching Campaign successfully terminated. Firm anchorage
of the institutions of the Administrative Order permanently established in
every State and Province of North American continent. Mexico, lying in the
forefront of the southward marching army, recently enlisted. Pedro
Espinosa's auspicious attendance at the Convention is welcome evidence.
Settlement of the Central American republics is next step in progressive,
systematic penetration of Latin America. Upsurge of Baha'u'llah's
impelling Spirit can not, will not, be stemmed nor impeded. Methodical
advance along the line traced by pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha irresistible.
Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba,
Dominica and Haiti immediate objectives. Though politically unsettled,
religiously intolerant, socially backward and climatically inhospitable,
these unexplored territories hold forth inestimable prizes for audacious
adventures in the path of Baha'i service. Dearly-beloved Martha's
unrivaled experience, indomitable faith and indefatigable labors will soon
reinforce powers released for contemplated campaign. Task admittedly
laborious, hour laden with fate, privilege incomparable, precious
divinely-promised aid unfailing, reward predestined immeasurable. Appeal
to all believers, white and Negro alike, to arise and assume rightful
responsibilities. Urge prolongation of sessions of Convention to enable
delegates to exercise their inalienable right to deliberate and formulate
recommendations designed to aid incoming National Assembly resolutely to
prosecute this momentous enterprise. Fervor of prayers intensified.
Cablegram April 28, 1939
PROVE THEMSELVES ... WORTHY OF THAT PRICELESS HERITAGE
The concerted activities of the followers of Baha'u'llah in the North
American continent assume, as they multiply and develop, a dual aspect,
and may be said to fall into two distinct categories, both equally vital
and complementary to each other. The one aims at the safeguarding and
consolidation of the work already achieved; the other is designed to
enlarge the range of its operation. The former depends chiefly for its
success upon the capacity, the experience and loyalty of wise, resourceful
and judicious administrators, who, impelled by the very nature of their
task, will be increasingly called upon to exercise the utmost care and
vigilance in protecting the interests of the Faith, in resolving its
problems, in regulating its life, in enriching its resources, and in
preserving the pristine purity of its precepts. The latter is essentially
pioneer in nature, demanding first and foremost those qualities of
renunciation, tenacity, dauntlessness and passionate fervor that can alone
brave the dangers and sweep away the obstacles with which an infant Faith,
struggling against vested interests and face to face with the entrenched
forces of prejudice, of ignorance and fanaticism, must needs contend. In
both of these spheres of Baha'i activity the community of the American
believers, it is becoming increasingly evident, is evincing those
characteristics which must be regarded as the essential foundation for the
success of their dual task.
As to those whose function is essentially of an administrative character
it can hardly be doubted that they are steadily and indefatigably
perfecting the structural machinery of their Faith, are multiplying its
administrative agencies, and are legalizing the status of the newly
established institutions. Slowly and patiently they are canalizing the
spirit that at once directs, energizes and safeguards its operation. They
are exploiting its potentialities, broadcasting its message, publicizing
its literature, fostering the aspirations of its youth, devising ways and
means for the training of its children, guarding the integrity of its
teachings, and paving the way for the ultimate codification of its laws.
Through all the resources at their disposal, they are promoting the growth
and consolidation of that pioneer movement for which the entire machinery
of their Administrative Order has been primarily designed and erected.
They are visibly and progressively contributing to the enrichment of their
unique community life, and are insuring, with magnificent courage and
characteristic promptitude, the completion of their consecrated
Edifice--the embodiment of their hopes and the supreme symbol of their
ideals.
As to those into whose valiant and trusted hands--and no believer, however
humble is to think himself debarred from joining their ranks--the standards
of a forward marching Faith have been entrusted, they too with no less
zest and thoroughness are pushing farther and farther its frontiers,
breaking new soil, establishing fresh outposts, winning more recruits, and
contributing to the greater diversification and more harmonious blending
of the elements comprised in the world-wide society of its followers.
The Edifice of this New World Order, which the Bab has heralded, which the
mind of Baha'u'llah has envisioned, and whose features 'Abdu'l-Baha, its
Architect, has delineated, we, whatever our capacities, opportunities or
position, are now, at so precarious a period in the world's history,
summoned to found and erect. The community of the Most Great Name in the
Western Hemisphere is, through the nature of its corporate life and the
scope of its exertions, assuming, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a
preponderating share in the laying of such a foundation and the erection
of such a structure. The eyes of its sister communities are fixed upon it.
Their prayers ascend on its behalf. Their hands are outstretched to lend
whatever aid lies within their power. I, for my part, am determined to
reinforce the impulse that impels its members forward to meet their
destiny. The Founders of their Faith survey from the Kingdom on high the
range of their achievements, acclaim their progress, and are ever ready to
speed their eventual triumph.
Far be it from me to underrate the gigantic proportions of their task, nor
do I for one moment overlook the urgency and gravity of the times in which
they are laboring. Nor do I wish to minimize the hazards and trials that
surround or lie ahead of them. The grandeur of their task is indeed
commensurate with the mortal perils by which their generation is hemmed
in. As the dusk creeps over a steadily sinking society the radiant
outlines of their redemptive mission become sharper every day. The present
world unrest, symptom of a world-wide malady, their world religion has
already affirmed must needs culminate in that world catastrophe out of
which the consciousness of world citizenship will be born, a consciousness
that can alone provide an adequate basis for the organization of world
unity, on which a lasting world peace must necessarily depend, the peace
itself inaugurating in turn that world civilization which will mark the
coming of age of the entire human race.
Fortified by such reflections, the American believers, in whichever
section of the Western Hemisphere they find themselves laboring, whether
at home or abroad, and however dire and distressing the processes involved
in the disintegration of the structure of present-day civilization, will,
I feel convinced, prove themselves, through their lives and deeds, worthy
of that priceless heritage which it is their undoubted privilege to
proclaim, preserve and perpetuate.
May 22, 1939
OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF WORLD MISSION
Newly-launched Central American campaign marks official inauguration of
long-deferred World Mission constituting 'Abdu'l-Baha's distinctive legacy
to the Baha'i Community of North America. Chosen Community broadening its
basis, gaining in stature, deepening in consecration. Its vanguard now
entering arena monopolized by entrenched forces of Christendom's mightiest
ecclesiastical institutions. Laboring amidst race foreign in language,
custom, temperament embracing vast proportion of New World's ethnic
elements. American believers' isolated oversea teaching enterprises
hitherto tentative, intermittent, now at end. New epoch opening, demanding
exertions incomparably more strenuous, unflinchingly sustained, centrally
directed, systematically organized, efficiently conducted. Upon alacrity,
tenacity, fearlessness of present prosecutors of the unfolding mission
depend speedy and fullest revelation, in the First and Second Centuries,
of the potentialities of the birthright conferred upon American believers.
Convey to pioneers in North, Middle and South America my eagerness to
maintain with each direct, personal contact. Assure Teaching and
Inter-America Committees my delight at successive testimonies of
believers' glowing spirit reflected in Minutes, letters and reports
recently received. Entreat every section of community to labor
unremittingly until every nation in Western Hemisphere is illumined by
rays and woven into fabric of Baha'u'llah's triumphant Administrative
Order.
Cablegram May 28, 1939
FULFIL THE REQUIREMENTS
The readiness of your Assembly, as expressed in your recently cabled
message, to transfer the National Baha'i Secretariat to the vicinity of
the Temple in Wilmette has evoked within me the deepest feelings of
thankfulness and joy. Your historic decision, so wise and timely, so
surprising in its suddenness, so far-reaching in its consequences, is one
that I cannot but heartily and unreservedly applaud. To each one of your
brethren in the Faith, throughout the United States and Canada, who are
witnessing, from day to day and at an ever-hastening speed, the
approaching completion of their National House of Worship, the great
Mother Temple of the West, your resolution to establish within its
hallowed precincts and in the heart of the North American continent the
Administrative Seat of their beloved Faith cannot but denote henceforward
a closer association, a more constant communion, and a higher degree of
coordination between the two primary agencies providentially ordained for
the enrichment of their spiritual life and for the conduct and regulation
of their administrative affairs. To the far-flung Baha'i communities of
East and West, most of which are being increasingly proscribed and
ill-treated, and none of which can claim to have had a share of the dual
blessings which a specially designed and constructed House of Worship and
a fully and efficiently functioning Administrative Order invariably
confer, the concentration in a single locality of what will come to be
regarded as the fountain-head of the community's spiritual life and what
is already recognized as the mainspring of the administrative activities,
signalizes the launching of yet another phase in the slow and
imperceptible emergence, in these declining times, of the model Baha'i
community--a community divinely ordained, organically united,
clear-visioned, vibrant with life, and whose very purpose is regulated by
the twin directing principles of the worship of God and of service to
one's fellow-men.
The decision you have arrived at is an act that befittingly marks the
commencement of your allotted term of stewardship in service to the Cause
of Baha'u'llah. Moreover, it significantly coincides with the inauguration
of that world mission of which the settlement of Baha'i pioneers in the
virgin territories of the North American continent has been but a prelude.
That such a decision may speedily and without the slightest hitch be
carried into effect is the deepest longing of my heart. That those who
have boldly carried so weighty a resolution may without pause or respite
continue to labor and build up, as circumstances permit, around this
administrative nucleus such accessories as the machinery of a fast
evolving administrative order, functioning under the shadow of, and in
such close proximity to, the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, must demand, is the
object of my incessant and fervent prayer. That such a step, momentous as
it is, may prove the starting point for acts of still greater renown and
richer possibilities that will leave their distinct mark on the third year
of the Seven Year Plan is a hope which I, together with all those who are
eagerly following its progress, fondly and confidently cherish.
The American believers, while straining to accomplish befittingly this
particular task, must simultaneously brace themselves for another sublime
effort to discharge, ere the present year draws to a close, their manifold
responsibilities allotted to them under the Seven Year Plan. The placing
of yet another contract for the casting of the ornamentation of the First
Story of the Temple, the permanent settlement of the six remaining
Republics of Central America, and the extension of continual support both
material and moral, to those weaker States, Provinces and Republics that
have been recently incorporated in the body of the Faith, combine to
offer, at this hour when the fate of civilization trembles in the balance,
the boldest and gravest challenge that has ever faced the community of the
American believers both in the propagative and administrative spheres of
Baha'i activity. In the field of pioneer teaching, and particularly in
connection with the opening of the Republics of Haiti, Salvador, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, Dominica and Guatemala, the utmost encouragement should
at all times be vouchsafed by the elected representatives of the community
to those who, out of the abundance of their hearts, and in direct response
to the call of their Faith and the dictates of their conscience, have
renounced their comforts, fled their homes, and hazarded their fortunes
for the sake of bringing into operation the majestic Plan of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
while special support should be extended to those who appear to be best
qualified for the strenuous labors which pioneering under such exacting
circumstances demands. Care should be exercised lest any hindrance,
should, for any reason, be placed in the way of those who have, whether
young or old, rich or poor, so spontaneously dedicated themselves to so
urgent and holy a mission.