continent is progressively revealing the ominous features, and
increasingly assuming the proportions, of the titanic upheaval
foreshadowed seventy years ago by the prophetic Pen of Baha'u'llah. The
disruptive forces associated with humanity's world-shaking ordeal are
closely interrelated with the constructive potentialities inherent in the
American believers' Divinely-ordained Plan. Both are directly hastening
the emergence of the spiritual World Order stirring in the womb of a
travailing age. I entreat the American Baha'i Community, whatever the
immediate or distant repercussions of the present turmoil on their own
continent, however violent its impact upon the World Center of their
Faith, to pledge themselves anew, before the Throne of Baha'u'llah, to
discharge, with unswerving aim, unfailing courage, invincible vigor,
exemplary fidelity and ever-deepening consecration, the dual
responsibility solemnly undertaken under the Seven Year Plan. I implore
them to accelerate their efforts, increase their vigilance, deepen their
unity, multiply their heroic feats, maintain their distant outposts in the
teaching field of Latin America and expedite the termination of the last
stage in the ornamentation of the Temple. I am praying continually with
redoubled fervor.
Cablegram June 13, 1940
SUPREMELY CHALLENGING HOUR
The long-predicted world-encircling conflagration, essential pre-requisite
to world unification, is inexorably moving to its appointed climax. Its
fires, first lit in the Far East, subsequently ravaging Europe and
enveloping Africa, now threaten devastation both in Near East and Far
West, respectively enshrining the World Center and the chief remaining
Citadel of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. The Divinely-appointed Plan must and
will likewise pursue undeflected its predestined course. Time is pressing.
The settlement of the two remaining Latin Republics, the sounder
consolidation through formation of firmly-knit groups in newly-opened
territories, the provision of adequate means for the ornamentation of last
six faces of first story of Temple, stand out as vital requirements of
approaching supremely challenging hour. My eyes and heart are anxiously,
longingly turned to the New World to witness the evidences of a new, still
more heroic phase of enterprise confidently entrusted to vigilant care of
the American believers by the ever-watchful, powerfully-sustaining Master.
I refuse to believe that a community so richly endowed, so greatly envied,
so repeatedly honored, will suffer the slightest relaxation of its
resolution to jeopardize the spiritual prizes painstakingly and deservedly
won throughout the States and Provinces of the Republics of the Western
Hemisphere.
Cablegram July 21, 1940
CHAOS AND REDEMPTION
Present world chaos, exhibiting the impetuosity, follies, rebelliousness
characteristic of humanity's adolescent stage of development, and
harbinger of the long-promised Golden Age of the maturity of the human
race, is relentlessly spreading and distressingly intensified. The
alternating victories and reverses, heralding parallel transition of
proscribed Cause of Baha'u'llah struggling towards emancipation, world
recognition and spiritual universal dominion, are simultaneously
multiplying. The recrudescence of the chronic persecution afflicting the
cradle of the Faith, the grave danger threatening the appropriated Temple
and disbanded centers in Turkistan and Caucasus, the repressive measures
successively choking the life and paralyzing the action of both the
long-standing and the newly-fledged communities of Central, Western and
South-Eastern Europe, the intermittent outbursts of religious fanaticism
directed against the North African Assemblies, and the aggravation of the
situation at the world Spiritual and Administrative Center, contrast with,
and are outweighed by, the surging spirit, the startling expansion, the
sweeping conquests, the superb consolidation of the swiftly-accumulating
resources of the one remaining community singled out for the proclamation
of the Administrative Order throughout the length and breadth of the
Western Hemisphere. I appeal to the New World champions of the New World
Order of Baha'u'llah to stand fast at this tragic hour in the fortunes of
mankind and the challenging state of the evolution of the Faith. I beg
them to close their ranks jointly, severally and vow themselves to
incomparably sublime task whose operation must hasten the ascendancy of
the beloved Cause and the spiritual redemption of a reconstructed mankind.
Cablegram October 29, 1940
TORCHBEARER OF WORLD CIVILIZATION
My heart is thrilled with delight as I witness, in so many fields, and in
such distant outposts, and despite such formidable difficulties,
restrictions, obstacles and dangers, so many evidences of the solidarity,
the valor, and the achievements of the American Baha'i community. As the
end of the First Century of the Baha'i Era approaches, as the shadows
descending upon and enveloping mankind steadily and remorselessly deepen,
this community, which can almost be regarded as the solitary champion of
the Faith in the Western World, is increasingly evincing and demonstrating
its capacity, its worth, and ability as the torchbearer of the New, the
World Civilization which is destined to supplant in the fulness of time
the present one. And more particularly in the virgin and far-flung
territories of Latin America, it has in recent months, abundantly given
visible evidence of its merits and competence to shoulder the immense
responsibilities which the carrying of the sacred Fire to all the
Republics of the Western Hemisphere must necessarily entail.
Through these initial steps, which, in pursuance of the Plan conceived by
'Abdu'l-Baha, this community has taken, through the settlement in each of
these sovereign states of the New World of American Baha'i pioneers,
through the formation of Baha'i groups and the establishment of two
Assemblies in Buenos Aires and Bahia, the American National Assembly, as
well as its Inter-America Committee, and all subsidiary agencies, no less
than the individual members of the North American Baha'i community who
have sacrificed and are still sacrificing so much in their support of this
Divine and momentous Plan, have earned the unqualified admiration and the
undying gratitude of sister Assemblies and fellow-workers throughout the
Baha'i World.
Their work, however, is only beginning. The dispatch of pioneers, the
provision of adequate means for their support, their settlement and
initiation of Baha'i activities in these far-off lands, however strenuous
and meritorious, are insufficient if the Plan is to evolve harmoniously
and yield promptly its destined fruit. The extension by the Parent
Assembly--the immediate source from which this vast system with all its
ramifications is now proceeding--of the necessary support, guidance,
recognition and material assistance to enable these newly-fledged groups
and Assemblies to function in strict accordance with both the spiritual
and administrative principles of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, would seem as
essential and urgent as the preliminary task already achieved. To nurse
these tender plants of the Vineyard of God, to foster their growth, to
direct their development, to accord them the necessary recognition, to
help resolve their problems, to familiarize them with gentleness, patience
and fidelity with the processes of the Administrative Order and thus
enable them to assume independently the conduct of future local and
national Baha'i activities, would bring the plan to swift and full
fruition and would add fresh laurels to the crown of immortal glory
already won by a community that holds in these days of dark and dire
calamities, valiantly and almost alone, the Fort of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah. Fortified by these reflections, let them gird up their loins
for still mightier exertions and more brilliant victories.
December 3, 1940
THIS VETERAN WARRIOR
I share your sorrow in the loss, and participate in your rejoicings for
the triumph of beloved Father Dunn. The magnificent career of this veteran
warrior of the Faith of Baha'u'llah reflects the purest luster of the
world historic mission conferred upon American community by 'Abdu'l-Baha.
To the three heroines whose dust reposes in the heart of Persia, in the
Pacific Islands and southern extremity of the American continent, a fourth
witness in far-off Australasia is now added, attesting the first vital
sparks of far-flung spiritual dominion American believers have been
commissioned to establish. I am moved to congratulate them for the
resplendent successes of the Plan destined to encircle the entire globe.
Advise hold National Memorial Gathering in Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar befitting
the rank of Australia's spiritual conqueror.
Cablegram February 21, 1941(3)
THE ANGER OF GOD AND HIS CORRECTION
The internecine struggle, now engulfing the generality of mankind, is
increasingly assuming, in its range and ferocity, the proportions of the
titanic upheaval foreshadowed as far back as seventy years ago by
Baha'u'llah. It can be viewed in no other light except as a direct
interposition by Him Who is the Ordainer of the Universe, the Judge of all
men and the Deliverer of the nations. It is the rod of both the anger of
God and of His correction. The fierceness of its devastating power
chastens the children of men for their refusal to acclaim the century-old
Message of their promised, their Heaven-sent Redeemer. The fury of its
flames, on the other hand, purges away the dross, and welds the limbs of
humanity into one single organism, indivisible, purified, God-conscious
and divinely directed.
Its immediate cause can be traced to the forces engendered by the last war
of which it may be truly regarded as the direct continuation. Its first
sparks were kindled on the eastern shores of the Asiatic continent,
enveloping two sister races of the world in a conflagration which no force
seems able to either quench or circumscribe. This cataclysmic process was
accelerated by the outbreak of a fierce conflict in the heart of Europe,
fanning into flame age-long animosities and unchaining a series of
calamities as swift as they were appalling. As the turmoil gathered
momentum, it swept remorselessly into its vortex the most powerful nations
of the European continent--the chief protagonists of that highly-vaunted
yet lamentably defective civilization. The mounting tide of its havoc and
devastation soon overspread the northernmost regions of that afflicted
continent, subsequently ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean, and
invaded the African continent as far as Ethiopia and the surrounding
territories. The Balkan countries, as predicted by 'Abdu'l-Baha, were soon
to sustain the impact of this tragic ordeal, communicating in their turn
the commotions to which they had been subjected to both the Near and
Middle East, wherein are enshrined the heart of the Faith itself, its
Cradle, its chief center of Pilgrimage, and its most sacred and historic
sites.
Its menace is overleaping the limits of the Old World and is plunging into
consternation the Great Republic of the West, as well as the peoples of
Central and South America. The New World as well as the Old is
experiencing the terrific impact of this disruptive force. Even the
peoples of the Antipodes are trembling before the approaching tempest that
threatens to burst on their heads.
The races of the world, Nordic, Slavonic, Mongolian, Arab and African, are
alike subjected to its consuming violence. The world's religious systems
are no less affected by the universal paralysis which is creeping over the
minds and souls of men. The persecution of world Jewry, the rapid
deterioration of Christian institutions, the intestine division and
disorders of Islam, are but manifestations of the fear and trembling that
has seized humanity in its hour of unprecedented turmoil and peril. On the
high seas, in the air, on land, in the forefront of battle, in the palaces
of kings and the cottages of peasants, in the most hallowed sanctuaries,
whether secular or religious, the evidences of God's retributive act and
mysterious discipline are manifest. Its heavy toll is steadily mounting--a
holocaust sparing neither prince nor peasant, neither man nor woman,
neither young nor old.
The Faith of Baha'u'llah--that priceless gem of Divine Revelation
enshrining the Spirit of God and incarnating His Purpose for mankind in
this age--can neither aspire nor expect to escape unhurt amid the hurricane
of human disasters that blows around it. By most men unnoticed, scorned
and ridiculed by some, feared and challenged by others, this world
redemptive Faith, for whose precious sake the world is undergoing such
agonies, finds its virgin strength assailed, and its infant institutions
hemmed in, by the dark forces which a godless civilization has unloosed
over the face of the planet. In the Old World, whether in Europe, Asia or
Africa, it is being buffeted about, ostracized, arraigned and repressed.
In certain countries its community life is being extinguished, in others a
ban is severely imposed on its propagation, in still others its members
are denied all intercourse with its World Center. Dangers, grave and
unsuspected, confront its cradle and surround its very heart.
Not so, however, with the countries of the Western Hemisphere. The call of
Baha'u'llah summons, at this challenging hour, the peoples of the New
World, and its leaders to redress the balance of the old. "O Rulers of
America," He thus addresses the Chief Magistrates of that continent, "and
the Presidents of the Republics therein.... Adorn the temple of your
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 Maker of the heavens."
The Great Republic of the West, an object of special solicitude throughout
the ministry of the Center of the Covenant, whose soil has been hallowed
by His footsteps, and the foundation of whose edifice--the Mother Temple of
the West--has been consecrated by His hand, has been singled out through
the operation of His Will, and been invested by His Pen with an unique, an
inescapable, a weighty and most sacred responsibility. The Mission
entrusted to the community of the North American believers in the darkest
days of the last war, is, after a period of incubation of well nigh twenty
years, and through the instrumentality of the administrative agencies
erected after 'Abdu'l-Baha's passing, efflorescing under our very eyes.
Already, since the inception of the Seven Year Plan, this community can
well claim to have attained, through its deeds, a stature that dwarfs its
sister communities, and can glory in a parentage that embraces every
Republic of Latin America. The first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West,
its beauteous and noble handiwork, is virtually completed. A nucleus for a
future flourishing local community is already formed in every state and
province in North America. The administrative structure, following the
pattern of its prototype in the U.S.A. is, through the agency of that same
Plan, raising its triumphant head in the Central and South American
Republics. The Plan itself, propelled by the agencies released by those
immortal Tablets which constitute its charter, bids fair, in the fifth
year of its operation, to exceed the highest expectations of those who
have so courageously launched it. Its consummation, coinciding with the
termination of the first century of the Baha'i Era, will mark the opening
of yet another phase in a series of crusades which must carry, in the
course of the succeeding century, the privileged recipients of those
epoch-making Tablets beyond the Western Hemisphere to the uttermost ends
of the earth, to implant the banner, and lay an unassailable basis for the
administrative structure of the Faith of Baha'u'llah.
The quality and magnitude of the work already achieved by these stalwart
champions of God's New World Order are inexpressibly exhilarating and
infinitely meritorious. The immensity of the task still to be performed
staggers our fancy and inflames our imagination. The potentialities with
which these tasks are endowed elude our shrewdest calculations. The
promise they enshrine is too dazzling to contemplate. What else can we do
but bow our heads in thanksgiving and reverence, steel our hearts in
preparation for the strenuous days ahead, and intensify a hundredfold our
resolution to carry on the task to which our hands are set at present.
May 25, 1941
FATE-LADEN WORLD ORDEAL
The fate-laden world ordeal is moving in steady, pre-ordained crescendo.
The blaze of a seemingly uncontrollable fire is leaping, ravaging last
remaining great Power on European continent. Shadows of God's retributive
act are fast gathering. As the arena of world convulsing contest broadens;
as wounds it inflicts deepen; as issues it raises aggravate and multiply,
so will the operation of the spiritual forces, destined to cast the burden
of a travailing age, be accelerated. As the old world sinks beneath the
weight of a crumbling old order, so must new world exponents of
Baha'u'llah's nascent, integrating World Order climb loftier summits of
their sublime calling. I urgently, insistently plead that all American
believers, particularly the National Teaching and Inter-America
Committees, above all the National elected representatives, arm their
souls, labor more resolutely, cooperate more closely, scatter more widely,
sacrifice more abundantly, to insure, during remaining years of Seven Year
Plan, the brilliant discharge of the one remaining obligation of their
dual task, whose consummation must signalize the termination and seal the
triumph of First Baha'i Century.
Cablegram July 4, 1941
ELIZABETH GREENLEAF
Share deep grief of bereaved community at passing of Elizabeth Greenleaf,
beloved handmaid of Baha'u'llah. Her radiant spirit, staunch loyalty,
noble character, effective teaching method were distinguishing features of
her consecrated life. Praying abundant blessings in life beyond.
Cablegram August 7, 1941
UNCONQUERABLE POWER
As I survey the activities and accomplishments of the American believers
in recent months, and recall their reaction to the urgent call for
service, embodied in the Seven Year Plan, I feel overwhelmed by a
three-fold sense of gratitude and admiration which I feel prompted to
place on record, but which I cannot adequately express. Future generations
can alone appraise correctly the value of their present services, and the
Beloved, whose mandate they are so valiantly obeying, can alone
befittingly reward them for the manner in which they are discharging their
duties.
The virtual completion of a thirty year old enterprise, which was
initiated in His days and blessed by His Hand, is the first and foremost
accomplishment that must shed imperishable luster not only on the
administrative annals of the Formative Age of the Faith, but on the entire
record of the signal achievements performed in the course of the First
Century of the Baha'i Era. The steady expansion and consolidation of the
world mission, entrusted by that same Master, to their hands and set in
operation after His passing, constitutes the second object of my undying
gratitude to a community that has abundantly demonstrated its worthiness
to shoulder the superhuman tasks with which it has been entrusted. The
spirit with which that same community has faced and resisted the onslaught
of the enemies of the Faith who, for various reasons and with
ever-increasing subtlety and malice, have persistently striven to disrupt
the administrative machinery of an Order, foreshadowed by the Bab,
enunciated by Baha'u'llah, and established by 'Abdu'l-Baha, is yet another
testimony to the unrivalled merits and the eminent position attained by
its privileged members since the ascension of the Center of the Covenant.
The extinction of the influence precariously exerted by some of these
enemies, the decline that has set in in the fortunes of others, the
sincere repentance expressed by still others, and their subsequent
reinstatement and effectual participation in the teaching and
administrative activities of the Faith, constitute in themselves
sufficient evidence of the unconquerable power and invincible spirit which
animates those who stand identified with and loyally carry out the
provisions and injunctions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
And now more particularly concerning the prime mover of this latest
agitation, which, whatever its immediate consequences, will sooner or
later come to be regarded as merely one more of those ugly and abortive
attempts designed to undermine the foundation, and obscure the purpose, of
the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Obscure in his
origin, ambitious of leadership, untaught by the lesson of such as have
erred before him, odious in the hopes he nurses, contemptible in the
methods he pursues, shameless in his deliberate distortions of truths he
has long since ceased to believe in, ludicrous in his present isolation
and helplessness, wounded and exasperated by the downfall which his own
folly has precipitated, he, the latest protagonist of a spurious cause,
cannot but in the end be subjected, as remorselessly as his infamous
predecessors, to the fate which they invariably have suffered.
Generated by the propelling and purifying forces of a mysterious Faith,
born of delusion or malice, winning a fleeting notoriety derived from the
precarious advantages of wealth, fame or fortune, these movements
sponsored by deluded, self-seeking adventurers find themselves, sooner or
later, enmeshed in the machinations of their authors, are buried in shame,
and sink eventually into complete oblivion.
The schism which their foolish leaders had contrived so sedulously to
produce within the Faith, will soon, to their utter amazement, come to be
regarded as a process of purification, a cleansing agency, which, far from
decimating the ranks of its followers, reinforces its indestructible
unity, and proclaims anew to a world, skeptical or indifferent, the
cohesive strength of the institutions of that Faith, the incorruptibility
of its purposes and principles, and the recuperative powers inherent in
its community life.
Were anyone to imagine or expect that a Cause, comprising within its orbit
so vast a portion of the globe, so turbulent in its history, so
challenging in its claims, so diversified in the elements it has
assimilated into its administrative structure, should, at all times, be
immune to any divergence of opinion, or any defection on the part of its
multitudinous followers, it would be sheer delusion, wholly unreasonable
and unwarranted, even in the face of the unprecedented evidence of the
miraculous power which its rise and progress have so powerfully exhibited.
That such a secession, however, whether effected by those who apostatize
their faith or preach heretical doctrines, should have failed, after the
lapse of a century, to split in twain the entire body of the adherents of
the Faith, or to create a grave, a permanent and irremediable breach in
its organic structure, is a fact too eloquent for even a casual observer
of the internal processes of its administrative order to either deny or
ignore.
Therein, every loyal and intelligent upholder of Baha'u'llah's
incomparable Covenant--a Covenant designed by Him as the sole refuge
against schism, disruption and anarchy--will readily recognize the
hall-mark of His Faith, and will acclaim it as the supreme gift conferred
by Him Who is the Lord of Revelation upon the present and future
generations who are destined, in this greatest of all Dispensations, to
flock, from every creed and religion, to the banner, and espouse the
Cause, of His Most Great Name.
Dear friends! Manifold, various, and at times extremely perilous, have
been the tragic crises which the blind hatred, the unfounded presumption,
the incredible folly, the abject perfidy, the vaulting ambition, of the
enemy have intermittently engendered within the pale of the Faith. From
some of its most powerful and renowned votaries, at the hands of its once
trusted and ablest propagators, champions, and administrators, from the
ranks of its most revered and highly-placed trustees whether as
companions, amanuenses or appointed lieutenants of the Herald of the
Faith, of its Author, and of the Center of His Covenant, from even those
who were numbered among the kindred of the Manifestation, not excluding
the brother, the sons and daughters of Baha'u'llah, and the nominee of the
Bab Himself, a Faith, of such tender age, and enshrining so priceless a
promise, has sustained blows as dire and treacherous as any recorded in
the world's religious history.