The hour is critical, laden with fate. Responsibilities numerous and
varied, as well as urgent and sacred, are crowding, in quick succession,
upon a community youthful and valorous in spirit, rich in experience,
triumphant in the past, sensible of its future obligations, keenly aware
of the sublimity of its world mission, inflexibly resolved to follow with
unfaltering steps the road of its destiny. The world situation is perilous
and gloomy. Rumblings from far and near bode evil for the immediate
fortunes of a sadly distracted society. The Second Seven Year Plan is now
approaching its conclusion. The Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Bab with
all its poignant memories is upon us. We are entering a period crowded
with the centenaries of the direst calamities--massacres, sieges,
captivities, spoliations and tortures involving thousands of heroes--men,
women and children--the world's greatest Faith has ever experienced.
Another centenary commemorating an event as tragic and infinitely more
glorious is fast approaching. Time is short. Opportunities, though
multiplying with every passing hour, will not recur, some for another
century, others never again. However severe the challenge, however
multiple the tasks, however short the time, however somber the world
outlook, however limited the material resources of a hard-pressed
adolescent community, the untapped sources of celestial strength from
which it can draw are measureless, in their potencies, and will
unhesitatingly pour forth their energizing influences if the necessary
daily effort be made and the required sacrifices be willingly accepted.
Nor should it be forgotten that in the hour of adversity and in the very
midst of confusion, peril and uncertainty, some of the most superb
exploits, noising abroad the fame of this community have been achieved.
The construction of the superstructure of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar during
one of the severest depressions experienced by the people of the United
States in this century; the inauguration of the first Seven Year Plan on
the eve of and during the anxious years preceding the second world
conflagration; its vigorous prosecution during its darkest days and its
triumph before its conclusion; the launching of the European campaign on
the morrow of the most devastating conflict that rocked the continent of
Europe to its foundation--these stand out as shining evidences of the
unfailing protection, guidance and sustaining power vouchsafed its
members, so readily and so abundantly, in the hour of their greatest need
and danger.
To consolidate the victories won, and reinforce the foundations of the
unnumbered institutions so diligently established, in the North American
continent; to rear the twin pillars of the Universal House of Justice in
Latin America, with their concomitant administrative agencies functioning
in no less than twenty republics of Central and South America; to maintain
in their present strength the strongholds of the Faith in the ten goal
countries of Europe; to complete the interior ornamentation of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West, and its Mother Temple, in preparation
of its Jubilee; to assist in the erection of the superstructure of a still
holier edifice, envisaged by its Founder and established by the Center of
His Covenant on God's holy mountain, at the very heart and center of our
beloved Faith, would indeed constitute, by virtue of their scope, origin
and character, embracing three continents and including within their range
the World Center of the Faith itself, a worthy, befitting five-fold
offering placed on the altar of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, on the occasion
of the Centenary of the birth of His Mission by a community which, more
than any sister community, in East or West, has contributed, since the
inception of the Formative Age of His Faith to the enlargement of its
limits, the rise and establishment of its Administrative Order and the
spread of its fame, glory and power.
That this community may, in the course of these three coming years,
discharge its five-fold task--now assuming, through the stress of
circumstances, still vaster proportions, and investing itself with still
greater blessedness and merit, than originally envisaged--with a spirit
outshining any hitherto shown in the course of its half-century
stewardship to the Faith of Baha'u'llah, is my most fervent wish and the
object of my special and ardent prayers at this time when my heart and
mind are fixed upon the sufferings and passion of the Bab on the occasion
of the Centenary of His Martyrdom.
[July 5, 1950]