particular attention should be devoted to the provision of the necessary
means whereby the newly fledged centers in the Dominion of Canada and
throughout the Republics of Latin America can be coordinated and further
consolidated, through the formation of three National Spiritual
Assemblies, designed to participate in time in the international elections
that must precede the constitution of the First Universal House of
Justice. The erection of these three pillars, raising to eleven the number
of existing National Spiritual Assemblies, which are to be designated in
future as Secondary Houses of Justice, and are designed to support the
highest legislative body in the administrative hierarchy of the Faith,
will, as the Divine Plan continues to unfold, be supplemented by the
formation of similar bodies which, as they multiply, will, of necessity,
broaden the basis and reinforce the representative character, of the
supreme elective institution which, in conjunction with the institution of
Guardianship, must direct and coordinate the activities of a
world-encircling Faith. Through the formation of these National Spiritual
Assemblies, as the implications of the Divine Plan gradually unfold in the
coming years, the American Baha'i Community will, in addition to its
missionary activities throughout five continents and the islands of the
seven seas, be contributing directly to the laying of the foundation, and
hastening the formation, of an institution which, when constituted, will
have consummated the threefold process involved in the erection of the
total structure of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah.
In conjunction with these afore-mentioned objectives, and in a sense, more
far-reaching in its repercussions and of greater urgency, is the task of
extending the ramifications of the Divine Plan to a continent which not
only stands in dire need of the ennobling, the reinvigorating, and
spiritualizing influence of a world-redeeming Faith, but must serve as a
stepping-stone to the spiritual conquest of the vast and numerous
territories, lying as yet beyond the scope of the plan, in both the
Asiatic and African continents, and which must, in the course of
successive epochs, be warmed and illuminated by the rays of Baha'u'llah's
Revelation as prescribed in the Tablets revealed by the Center of His
Covenant and the Authorized Interpreter of His teachings.
In the western extremity of that continent, in the Iberian Peninsula, the
parent land and fountain-head of the culture of those Republics which have
already been quickened by the first stirrings of the Plan conceived by
'Abdu'l-Baha; in the extreme North, among the Scandinavian peoples, and
further south, amidst their Flemish and French neighbors, whose conversion
will considerably enrich the diversity of the races to be included within
the orbit of its operation; in the extreme South, in the Italian
Peninsula, the cradle of a far-famed civilization and the seat and
stronghold of the most powerful Church in Christendom; in the very heart
of that continent, amidst a freedom-loving, peace-pursuing, high-minded
people, the prosecutors of the second Seven Year Plan must, preferably in
the capitals of these countries, arise to establish, on an unassailable
foundation, the structural basis of the nascent institutions of their
Faith, which future promoters of the Divine Plan must, in the course of
succeeding epochs, enlarge, and thereon erect the mightiest edifices of
that Faith. Any assistance which the National Spiritual Assemblies of the
Baha'is of the British Isles and of Germany can, through the
instrumentality of their Publishing Committees and other agencies, extend,
any facilities which the establishment of an Office, acting as an adjunct
to the International Baha'i Bureau in Geneva can provide, should be
promptly and fully utilized for the speedy accomplishment of the initial
tasks to be undertaken in Europe under the present Seven Year Plan.
Through the prompt settlement of nine wholly dedicated souls, aglow with
enthusiasm and keenly aware of the plight of the peoples for whose sake
they are abandoning the comfort and security of their homeland, and who
will head the Roll of Honor as the curtain rises on this new and glorious
phase of American Baha'i enterprise; through the dispatch of itinerant
teachers who, either delegated by the American National Spiritual Assembly
or of their own accord, will cross and re-cross the vast distances, now
providentially shrunk, which separate the old and new worlds, who will
assiduously water the seeds sown by these pioneers, consolidate the work
already started by isolated believers, and act as intermediaries between
the various groups which, as the present Plan develops, must evolve into
Spiritual Assemblies; through the vigorous dissemination of literature,
properly translated, promptly printed, and comprehensive in range, in
French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch and each of the
Scandinavian languages; through a steady process of concentration on a few
receptive souls, who can be relied upon to embrace, wholeheartedly and
with alacrity, the truth of the Faith, identify themselves unreservedly
with its tenets, actively support its institutions, and join in forming
its initial Assemblies; through the persistent efforts, at a later stage,
of a considerable number of settlers who, joining forces with the original
pioneers and the native and newly enrolled believers, will provide the
necessary requisites for the constitution of properly functioning local
Assemblies; through the participation, as the situation on the continent
improves and the restrictions are relaxed, of these settlers, itinerant
teachers, native and isolated believers in conferences and organizations,
humanitarian, educational and otherwise designed to promote ends akin to
our own; through the liberal supply of funds to those who have forsaken
their homes and kindred in the new world, and journeyed so far afield in
the service of both their Faith and their fellowmen; through the exertion
of a special effort, as the present Plan approaches its close and the
general condition in most European countries improves, aimed at securing,
through the radio and the press, the widest possible publicity for the
Faith, its tenets and institutions, to serve as a means of reinforcing the
number of its avowed promoters and of consolidating the basis of its
evolving institutions--through these, and similar measures which the
American National Spiritual Assembly and its European Teaching Committee
may initiate and promote, the American Baha'i Community must demonstrate,
in this new field of their inter-continental enterprise, an initiative, a
tenacity, a resourcefulness, a self-sacrifice and an audacity comparable
to, and even exceeding, the qualities evinced by those who, ever since the
inception of the Faith in the West, have, haphazardly, single-handed and
with no organization to sustain them, labored with such fidelity and
devotion in various countries throughout that continent.
The first century of the Baha'i Era witnessed in darkest Persia the birth
of the Faith, as well as the establishment of the Administrative Order--the
Child of that Faith--an Order which, cradled in the heart of the North
American continent, has already succeeded, in less than a decade and in
direct consequence of the initial operation of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Plan, and
through the concerted, the sustained, and richly blessed efforts of the
champion builders of that Order, in spreading out its roots and in rearing
its institutions in no less than twenty Republics throughout the length
and breadth of the Western Hemisphere. The second century is destined to
witness a tremendous deployment and a notable consolidation of the forces
working towards the world-wide development of that Order, as well as the
first stirrings of that World Order, of which the present Administrative
System is at once the precursor, the nucleus and pattern--an Order which,
as it slowly crystallizes and radiates its benign influence over the
entire planet, will proclaim at once the coming of age of the whole human
race, as well as the maturity of the Faith itself, the progenitor of that
Order. As the Plan bequeathed by 'Abdu'l-Baha unfolds, through successive
decades of the present century, its measureless potentialities, and
gathers within the field of its operations nation after nation in
successive continents of the globe, it will be increasingly recognized not
only as the most potent agency for the development of the world
Administrative System, but also as a primary factor in the birth and
efflorescence of the World Order itself in both the East and the West.
The first Seven Year Plan, ushered in on the eve of the greatest conflict
that has ever shaken the human race, has, despite six years of chaos and
tribulation, been crowned with a success far exceeding the most sanguine
hopes of its ardent promoters. Within so short a period, during such
troublous years, such exploits were achieved as will forever illuminate
the pages of Baha'i history. The exterior ornamentation of the House of
Worship was completed sixteen months before the appointed time. The
administrative basis of the Faith was laid in every virgin state and
province of the North American continent. The number of Spiritual
Assemblies in the United States and Canada was almost doubled. No less
than fourteen Republics of Latin America were provided with such
Assemblies. Active groups began to function in the remaining Republics,
raising thereby the number of sovereign states within the pale of the
Faith to sixty. Extension work in which the newly constituted Assemblies
were vigorously participating was initiated. Two of the newly fledged
Assemblies in Latin America, as well as a considerable number in the
United States, were incorporated. An International School to provide
training for Baha'i teachers in Central and South America was founded.
Considerable literature in Spanish and Portuguese was disseminated.
Newspaper and radio publicity, teacher training courses, and Baha'i Youth
Symposiums were inaugurated. A distributing center of Baha'i literature
for Latin America was established in the capital of Argentina, and the
outposts of the Faith, in the Western Hemisphere, were pushed as far north
as Anchorage in Alaska, in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, and as far
as the extremity of Chile, to Magellanes, the world's southernmost city.
The second Seven Year Plan, set in motion on the morrow of that universal
and cataclysmic upheaval, must, despite the great confusion that still
prevails, the spiritual torpor, the disillusionment, the embitterment, the
political and social restlessness that still afflict the human race, meet,
as it gathers momentum and multiplies its agencies across the ocean, in
lands and amidst races that have borne, for the most part, the brunt of
this dire and bloody contest, with a success no less startling and
complete than that which rewarded the self-sacrifice, the vigilance and
the strenuous labors of those who inaugurated the initial phase of this
glorious Mission. Might not this second and still greater adventure,
undertaken by the trustees of a God-Given Mandate, demonstrate in both
hemispheres, despite the prodigious scale on which it is launched, such
prodigies of service as will carry its prosecutors far beyond their avowed
objectives, and eclipse, through the wisdom, the valor and the exploits of
those pioneers and administrators immediately responsible for its planning
and execution, the splendor of every previous collective enterprise
undertaken by the followers of Baha'u'llah in the West?
Let them as they gird up their loins, as they deliberate in their council
chambers, as they embark on their bold and holy mission, as they encounter
the hazards, and suffer the setbacks, and are confronted with the
formidable obstacles, which so vast, so complex, so arduous an enterprise
must necessarily involve, call to mind the illuminating, the comforting,
the sustaining words enshrined for all time in those epoch-making Tablets
wherein the unerring pen of their Master has traced the course of their
mission: "May America become the distributing center of spiritual
enlightenment, and all the world receive this heavenly blessing! For
America has developed powers and capacities greater and more wonderful
than other nations... May the inhabitants of this country ... 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."
And again: "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... The full measure
of your success is as yet unrevealed, its significance still
unapprehended. Ere long 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.... The range of your
future achievements still remains undisclosed. I fervently hope that in
the near future the whole earth may be stirred and shaken by the results
of your achievements. The Almighty will no doubt grant you the help of His
grace, will invest you with the tokens of His might, and will endue your
souls with the sustaining power of His Holy Spirit." And again: "Be not
concerned with the smallness of your numbers, neither be oppressed by the
multitude of an unbelieving world... Exert yourselves; your mission is
unspeakably glorious. 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.... 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.... 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." And finally, this
apocalyptic vision of the consummation of the task entrusted to the
American Baha'i community, as evoked by that same Pen in those same
Tablets: "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 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 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."
What greater reward can crown the labors of that community, now launched
on the second stage of its world mission, than that the consummation of
the second Seven Year Plan should coincide with the celebrations
commemorating the centenary of the "Year Nine," the year which alike
marked the termination of the Babi Dispensation, and signalized the birth
of Baha'u'llah's prophetic Mission? It was at a time when the Faith for
which the Bab had suffered and died was hovering on the brink of
extinction, when Baha'u'llah lay wrapped in the gloom of the Siyah-_Ch_al
of Tihran, His feet in stocks, His neck freighted with chains, and
surrounded by vile and wretched criminals, that the auspicious year 1269
A.H., acclaimed by the Bab as the "Year Nine," dawned upon the world,
ushering in the most glorious and momentous stage in the Heroic Age of the
greatest religious Dispensation in the spiritual history of mankind. To
that year He had referred as the year in which "the realities of the
created things" will "be made manifest," the year in which mankind "will
attain unto all good," in which the "Bayan," as yet "in the stage of
seed," will manifest "its ultimate perfection," in which the "embryo of
the Faith will attain the station of 'the most comely of forms,'" and in
which "a new creation" will be beheld. It was in that same year that the
"third woe," as anticipated by St. John the Divine, quickly succeeded the
second. To that same year _Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i, who had heralded the
Faith of the Bab, had alluded as the year "after Hin" (68), when,
according to his written testimony, the "mystery" of the Cause of God
would be "manifested," and the "secret" of His Message "divulged." It was
in that same year that, according to Baha'u'llah Himself, "the requisite
number of pure, of wholly consecrated, and sanctified souls" had been
"most secretly consummated."
It was in such dramatic circumstances, recalling the experience of Moses
when face to face with the Burning Bush in the wilderness of Sinai, the
successive visions of Zoroaster, the opening of the heavens and the
descent of the Dove upon Christ in the Jordan, the cry of Gabriel heard by
Muhammad in the Cave of Hira, and the dream of the Bab, in which the blood
of the Imam Husayn touched and sanctified His lips, that Baha'u'llah, He
"around Whom the Point of the Bayan hath revolved," and the Vehicle of the
greatest Revelation the world has yet seen, received the first intimation
of His sublime Mission, and that a ministry which, alike in its duration
and fecundity, is unsurpassed in the religious history of mankind, was
inaugurated. It was on that occasion that the "Most Great Spirit," as
designated by Baha'u'llah Himself, revealed itself to Him, in the form of
a "Maiden," and bade Him "lift up" His "voice between earth and
heaven"--that same Spirit which, in the Zoroastrian, the Mosaic, the
Christian, and Muhammadan Dispensations, had been respectively symbolized
by the "Sacred Fire," the "Burning Bush," the "Dove," and the "Angel
Gabriel."
"One night in a dream," Baha'u'llah Himself, recounting His soul-shaking
experience of the first stirrings of His prophetic Mission, in the Year
Nine, in that abominable pit, has written, "these exalted words were heard
on every side: 'Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by
Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be
Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Ere long will God raise up the
treasures of the earth--men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through
Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized
Him'." And again, "During the days I lay in the prison of Tihran, though
the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but
little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if
something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a
mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of
a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set afire.
At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear."
What still greater reward could await those who, inspired by the success
achieved by the prosecutors of the second Seven Year Plan, will have
arisen to carry forward to a triumphant conclusion the third phase of the
Mission entrusted to them by 'Abdu'l-Baha, than that their prodigious
labors, having embraced territories far beyond the confines of the
continents of Europe and of America, should climax in, and be worthily
commemorated through, the world-wide celebrations of the "Most Great
Festival," the "King of Festivals," the "Festival of God" Himself--the
Festival associated with the accession of Him Who is the Lord of the
Kingdom to the throne of everlasting glory, and with the formal assumption
by Him of His prophetic office? What greater reward than that the
consummation of the third Seven Year Plan, marking the close of the first,
and signalizing the opening of the second, epoch in the evolution of the
Divine Plan, should synchronize with that greatest of all Jubilees,
related to the year 1335, mentioned by Daniel in the last Chapter of His
Book, and associated by 'Abdu'l-Baha with the world triumph of His
Father's Faith? What greater glory than that those who have brought this
initial epoch in the resistless march of a world-embracing Plan to a
triumphant termination should be made to feel that they, and those gone
before them, have, through their collective, their sustained, and heroic
endeavors, organized through three successive stages, and covering a span
of almost a quarter of a century, been vouchsafed by the Almighty the
privilege of contributing, more than any other community consciously
laboring in the service of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, to this blissful
consummation, and to have played a preponderating role in the world
triumph of its institutions?
Dearly-beloved friends! It is not for us, at this crucial hour, to delve
into the future, to speculate on the possibilities of the Plan and its
orientation, to conjecture on its impact on the unfoldment of an embryonic
World Order, or to dwell on the glories and triumphs which it may hold in
store, or to seek to delineate the mysterious course which a God given
Mission, impelled by forces beyond our power to predict or appraise, may
pursue. To try to obtain a clear view of the shape of things to come would
be premature inasmuch as the glittering prizes to be won are directly
dependent on the measure of success which the combined efforts that are
now being exerted must yield. Ours is the duty to fix our gaze with
undeviating attention on the duties and responsibilities confronting us at
this present hour, to concentrate our resources, both material and
spiritual, on the tasks that lie immediately ahead, to insure that no time
is wasted, that no opportunity is missed, that no obligation is evaded,
that no task is half-heartedly performed, that no decision is
procrastinated. The task summoning us to a challenge, unprecedented in its
gravity and force, is too vast and sacred, the time too short, the hour
too perilous, the workers too few, the call too insistent, the resources
too inadequate, for us to allow these precious and fleeting hours to slip
from our grasp, and to suffer the prizes within our reach to be endangered
or forfeited. So much depends upon us, so pregnant with possibilities is
the present stage in the evolution of the Plan, that great and small,
individuals, groups and Assemblies, white and colored, young and old,
neophytes and veterans, settlers, pioneers, itinerant teachers and
administrators, as isolated believers, as organizers of groups, and as
contributors to the formation of local or national Assemblies, as builders
of the Temple, as laborers on the home teaching front, or in Latin
America, or in the new transatlantic field of service--all, without
exception and in every sphere of activity, however modest, restricted, or
inconspicuous, must participate and labor, assiduously and continually,
until every ounce of our energy is spent, until, tired but blissful, our
promised harvest is brought in, and our pledge to our Beloved fully
redeemed.