Whoever it may be among these Latin American communities who will
eventually carry off the palm of victory, and win this immortal
distinction, all without exception, and with equal zeal, must participate
in this vast and collective enterprise which is engaging, in an
ever-increasing measure, their attention and challenging their resources.
Let them remember that the Author of their Faith has in His Kitab-i-Aqdas,
the Mother-Book of His Revelation, singled out the company of the
Presidents of their countries, together with those of the North American
continent, and addressed them in terms that sharply contrast with the dire
warnings and condemnatory words addressed directly and indirectly, to the
King of Prussia, the French and Austrian Emperors and the Sultan of
Turkey, who, together with those Presidents, are the only sovereigns and
rulers specifically mentioned by Him in that Book.
"Hearken ye, O rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics
therein!" is His summons sounded in that mighty Charter of the future
world civilization, "unto that which the Dove is warbling on the Branch of
Eternity: There is none other God but Me, the Ever-Abiding, the Forgiving,
the All-Bountiful. Adorn ye the temple of 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 Creator of the heavens. Thus counselleth you
He Who is the Dayspring of Names, as bidden by Him Who is the All-Knowing,
the All-Wise. The Promised One hath appeared in this glorified Station,
whereat all beings, both seen and unseen, have rejoiced. Take ye advantage
of the Day of God. Verily, to meet Him is better for you than all that
whereon the sun shineth, could ye but know it. O concourse of rulers! Give
ear unto that which hath been raised from the Dayspring of Grandeur:
Verily, there is none other God but Me, the Lord of Utterance, the
All-Knowing. Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the
oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your Lord,
the Ordainer, the All-Wise."
Let them ponder the honor which the Author of the Revelation Himself has
chosen to confer upon their countries, the obligations which that honor
automatically brings in its wake, the opportunities it offers, the power
it releases for the removal of all obstacles, however formidable, which
may be encountered in their path, and the promise of guidance it implies
for the attainment of the objectives alluded to in these memorable
passages.
To the eager, the warm-hearted, the spiritually minded and staunch members
of these Latin American Baha'i communities who, among the followers of
Baha'u'llah, already constitute the most considerable body of recruits
from the ranks of the most deeply entrenched and powerful Church of
Christendom; whose motherlands have been chosen as the scene of the
earliest victories won by the prosecutors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan;
launched on their crusade for the spiritual conquest of the whole planet;
the establishment of whose projected national spiritual assemblies must
constitute a notable landmark in the second epoch of the Formative Age of
the Baha'i Dispensation; whose leading spiritual assemblies are now
establishing direct contact with the World Center of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah in the Holy Land; the photographs of whose elected
representatives, at their chief centers, will soon adorn the walls of His
Mansion at Bahji; a few of whose members have already arisen to carry back
the torch of divine guidance entrusted to their care to the peoples and
races from which they have sprung--to this privileged, this youngest, this
dynamic and highly promising member of the organic Baha'i World Community,
I feel moved, before I dismiss this aspect of my theme, to direct this
general appeal to rise to the heights of the glorious opportunity which
destiny is unfolding before its members. Theirs is the opportunity, if
they but seize it, to adorn the opening pages of the annals of the second
Baha'i century with a tale of deeds approaching in valor those with which
their Persian brethren have illuminated the opening years of the first,
and comparable with the exploits more recently achieved by their North
American fellow-believers and which have shed such luster on the closing
decade of that same century.