Believers’ Generous Response
to Temple Fund

Thrilled by generous response of believers to Temple
Fund. Deeply touched. Hail latest striking evidence of the
magnificent spirit, unshakable solidarity and unflinching resolve of
American Bahá’í Community. Deepest loving
gratitude.

[January 20, 1947]

Call to Fuller Participation

Acclaim with grateful heart evidences of steadily
accelerating movement of pioneers, multiplication of conferences,
consolidation of activities of national committees, progress in
preliminaries of internal ornamentation of Temple, and formulation of
teaching policy in southern states. Overwhelmed by tributes paid my
own humble efforts by stalwart company whose championship of Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh during last quarter century
provided greatest support and solace, enabling me to sustain the
weight of cares and responsibilities of Guardianship.

Impelled to plead afresh to ponder responsibilities
incurred in transatlantic field of service. Time is flying. First
year of Second Seven Year Plan is drawing to a close. Shadow of war’s
tragic aftermath is deepening. Initial stage of colossal task
undertaken in European continent still in balance. Urge stress for
entire community extreme urgency to reinforce promptly, at whatever
cost, however inadequate the instruments, the number of volunteers,
both settlers and itinerant teachers, whom posterity will rightly
recognize as vanguard of torch-bearers of Bahá’u’lláh’s
resistless, world-redeeming order to despairing millions of
diversified races, conflicting nationalities in darkest, most
severely tested, spiritually depleted continent of globe. Prayerfully
awaiting response by all ranks of community to supreme call to fuller
participation in glorious enterprise.

[January 30, 1947]

Consolidation in Europe

Overjoyed, grateful, proud of notable expansion of
manifold activities in three continents. Vital significance of
preeminent objective in European continent cannot be overemphasized.
Intense, sustained, self-sacrificing efforts aimed at rapid
consolidation of American Community’s recently initiated
fate-laden transatlantic enterprise are urgent, imperative, highly
meritorious. Praying for such demonstration of heroism as will
outshine exploits illuminating pages of American Bahá’í
history in continents of Western Hemisphere.

[March 24, 1947]

Participation in Second Seven Year
Plan
[MESSAGE TO 1947 CONVENTION]

My heart is filled with delight, wonder, pride and
gratitude in contemplation of the peace-time exploits, in both
hemispheres, of the world community of the followers of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh, triumphantly emerging from the
crucible of global war and moving irresistibly into the second epoch
of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

The opening years of the second century of the Bahá’í
Era, synchronizing with concluding stage of the memorable
quarter-century elapsed since the termination of the Heroic Age of
the Faith, have been distinguished by a compelling demonstration by
the entire body of believers, headed by the valorous American Bahá’í
Community, of solidarity, resolve and self-sacrifice as well as by a
magnificent record of systematic, world-wide achievements.

The three years since the celebration of the Centenary
have been characterized by a simultaneous process of internal
consolidation and steady enlargement of the orbit of a fast-evolving
Administrative Order.

These years witnessed, first, the astounding resurgence
of a war-devastated Bahá’í community of Central
Europe, the rehabilitation of the communities in Southeast Asia, the
Pacific Islands and the Far East; second, the inauguration of a new
Seven Year Plan by the American Bahá’í Community
destined to culminate with the Centenary of the Birth of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Prophetic Mission,
aiming at the formation of three national assemblies in Latin America
and the Dominion of Canada, at completion of the holiest House of
Worship in the Bahá’í world, and at the erection
of the structure of the Administrative Order in ten sovereign states
of the European continent; and third, the formulation by the British,
the Indian and the Persian National Assemblies of Six Year, Four and
One-Half Year, and Forty-Five Month Plans respectively, culminating
with the Centenary of the Báb’s Martyrdom and pledged to
establish nineteen spiritual assemblies in the British Isles, double
the number of assemblies in the Indian subcontinent, establish
ninety-five new centers of the Faith in Persia, convert the groups in
Bahrein, Mecca and Kabul into assemblies and plant the banner of the
Faith in the Arabian territories of Yemen, Oman, Ahsa and Kuweit.

Moreover, the number of countries opened to the
onsweeping Faith, and the number of languages in which its literature
has been translated and printed, is now raised to eighty-three and
forty-seven, respectively. Four additional countries are in process
of enrollment. Translations into fifteen other languages are being
undertaken. No less than seventeen thousand pounds have accumulated
for the international relief of war-afflicted Bahá’í
communities of East and West. The Bahá’í
endowments on the North American continent have now passed the two
million dollar mark. The value of the endowments recently acquired at
the World Center of the Faith, dedicated to the Shrines, are
estimated at thirty-five thousand pounds. Bahá’í
literature has been disseminated as far north as Upernavik,
Greenland, above the Arctic Circle. The Bahá’í
message has been broadcast by radio as far south as Magallanes. The
area of land dedicated to the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of Persia has increased by almost a quarter-million square meters.
The number of localities in the Antipodes where Bahá’ís
reside has been raised to thirty-five, spread over Australia, New
Zealand and Tasmania. Twenty-seven assemblies are functioning in
Latin America. In over a hundred localities Bahá’ís
are resident in Central and South America, almost double the
localities at opening of the first Seven Year Plan. Historic Latin
American conferences have been held in Buenos Aires and Panama.
Summer schools are established in Argentina and Chile. Land has been
offered in Chile for site of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of Latin America. Additional assemblies have been incorporated in
Paraguay and Colombia. Seven others are in process of incorporation.
A notable impetus has been lent this world-redeeming Message through
the concerted measures devised by the American National Assembly
designed to proclaim the Faith to the masses through public
conferences, press and radio.

Such remarkable multiplication of dynamic institutions,
such thrilling deployment of world-regenerating forces, North, South,
East and West, endow the preeminent goal of the Second Seven Year
Plan in Europe with extraordinary urgency and peculiar significance.
I am impelled to appeal to all American believers possessing
independent means to arise and supplement the course of the second
year of the Second Seven Year Plan through personal participation or
appointment of deputies, the superb exertions of the heroic vanguard
of the hosts destined, through successive decades, to achieve the
spiritual conquest of the continent unconquered by Islám,
rightly regarded as the mother of Christendom, the fountainhead of
American culture, the mainspring of western civilization, and the
recipient of the unique honor of two successive visits to its shores
by the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant.

[April 28, 1947]

NSA Must Control Credentials of
Foreigners

Owing to arrival of disloyal so-called Bahá’ís
your Assembly’s control of credentials should be strictly
exercised, otherwise corruptive influences will spread and injure the
magnificent services being achieved by the American Bahá’í
Community.

[Circa June 1947]

The Challenging Requirements of the
Present Hour

The opening years of the second century of the Bahá’í
Era have synchronized with the termination of the first epoch of the
Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, a
Dispensation which posterity will recognize as the most glorious and
momentous in the greatest cycle in the world’s religious
history.

The first seventy-seven years of the preceding century,
constituting the Apostolic and Heroic Age of our Faith, fell into
three distinct epochs, of nine, of thirty-nine and of twenty-nine
years’ duration, associated respectively with the Bábí
Dispensation and the ministries of Bahá’u’lláh
and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This Primitive Age of the
Bahá’í Era, unapproached in spiritual fecundity
by any period associated with the mission of the Founder of any
previous Dispensation, was impregnated, from its inception to its
termination, with the creative energies generated through the advent
of two independent Manifestations and the establishment of a Covenant
unique in the spiritual annals of mankind.

The last twenty-three years of that same century
coincided with the first epoch of the second, the Iron and Formative,
Age of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh—the
first of a series of epochs which must precede the inception of the
last and Golden Age of that Dispensation—a Dispensation which,
as the Author of the Faith has Himself categorically asserted, must
extend over a period of no less than one thousand years, and which
will constitute the first stage in a series of Dispensations, to be
established by future Manifestations, all deriving their inspiration
from the Author of the Bahá’í Revelation, and
destined to last, in their aggregate, no less than five thousand
centuries.

We are now entering the second epoch of the second Age
of the first of these Dispensations. The first epoch witnessed the
birth and the primary stages in the erection of the framework of the
Administrative Order of the Faith—the nucleus and pattern of
its World Order—according to the precepts laid down in
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament, as well
as the launching of the initial phase of the world-encompassing Plan
bequeathed by Him to the American Bahá’í
Community. That epoch was characterized by a twofold process aiming
at the consolidation of the administrative structure of the Faith and
the extension of the range of its institutions. It witnessed on the
one hand, the emergence and the laying of the groundwork of that
embryonic World Order whose advent was announced by the Báb in
the Bayán, whose laws were revealed by Bahá’u’lláh
in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and whose features were delineated by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will and Testament. It was
marked on the other hand by the launching, in the Western Hemisphere,
of the first stage of a Plan whose original impulse was communicated
by the Herald of our Faith in His Qayyúmu’l-Asmá,
to whose implications the Author of the Bahá’í
Revelation alluded in His Tablets, and whose Charter was revealed by
the Center of His Covenant in the evening of His life.

The epoch we have now entered is destined to impart a
great impetus to this historic, this twofold process. It must
witness, on the one hand, the consummation of a laboriously
constructed Administrative Order, and, on the other, the unfoldment
of successive stages in the development of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Plan beyond the confines of the Western Hemisphere and of the
continent of Europe.

CROWNING FEATURE OF ADMINISTRATIVE
ORDER: THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

During this Formative Age of the Faith, and in the
course of present and succeeding epochs, the last and crowning stage
in the erection of the framework of the Administrative Order of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—the election of
the Universal House of Justice—will have been completed, the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Mother-Book of His Revelation, will have
been codified and its laws promulgated, the Lesser Peace will have
been established, the unity of mankind will have been achieved and
its maturity attained, the Plan conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
will have been executed, the emancipation of the Faith from the
fetters of religious orthodoxy will have been effected, and its
independent religious status will have been universally recognized,
whilst in the course of the Golden Age, destined to consummate the
Dispensation itself, the banner of the Most Great Peace, promised by
its Author, will have been unfurled, the World Bahá’í
Commonwealth will have emerged in the plenitude of its power and
splendor, and the birth and efflorescence of a world civilization,
the child of that Peace, will have conferred its inestimable
blessings upon all mankind.

FOURFOLD OBJECTIVE TO PRESENT
REQUIREMENTS

Not ours, however, to unriddle the workings of a distant
future, or to dwell upon the promised glories of a God-impelled and
unimaginably potent Revelation. Ours, rather, the task to cast our
eyes upon, and bend our energies to meet, the challenging
requirements of the present hour. Labors, of an urgent and sacred
character, claim insistently our undivided attention during the
opening years of this new epoch which we have entered. The Second
Seven Year Plan, intended to carry a stage further the mission
conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the American Bahá’í
Community, is now entering its second year, and must, as it operates
in three continents, be productive of results outshining any as yet
achieved since the Divine Plan itself was set in motion during the
concluding years of the first Bahá’í century.
Unlike the plans which Bahá’í communities in
Europe and on the Asiatic continent have spontaneously inaugurated
since the commencement of the present century, the Plan with which
the community of the “Apostles of Bahá’u’lláh”
stands identified is divine in origin, is guided by the explicit and
repeated instructions that have flowed from the pen of the Center of
the Covenant Himself, is energized by the all-compelling will of its
Author, claims as the theater for its operation territories spread
over five continents and the islands of the seven seas, and must
continue to function, ere its purpose is achieved, throughout
successive epochs in the course of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation. As it propels itself forward, driven by forces which
its prosecutors can not hope to properly assess, as it spreads its
ramifications to the furthest corners of the Western Hemisphere, and
across the oceans to the continents of the Old World, and beyond them
to the far-flung islands of the seas, this Plan, the birthright of
the North American Bahá’í Community, will be
increasingly regarded as an agency designed not only for the
enlargement of the limits of the Faith and the multiplication of its
institutions over the face of the planet, but for the acceleration of
the construction and completion of the administrative framework of
Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Order,
hastening thereby the advent of that Golden Age which must witness
the proclamation of the Most Great Peace and the unfoldment of that
world civilization which is the offspring and primary purpose of that
Peace.

The fourfold objective, which the prosecutors of the
Plan, in the present early stage of its development, are now
pursuing, and which is designed to stimulate the dual process
initiated during the opening phase of the Formative Age of the Faith,
must be strenuously and unfalteringly pursued. The second year of the
Second Seven Year Plan must witness, on all fronts, on the part of
young and old alike, rich and poor, colored and white, neophyte and
veteran, a rededication to the tasks undertaken and an
intensification of effort for their furtherance wholly unparalleled
in the annals of American Bahá’í history. In
every state of the United States, in every province of the Dominion
of Canada, in every republic of Central and South America, in each of
the ten selected sovereign states of the European continent, the
ever-swelling legions of Bahá’u’lláh’s
steadily advancing army, obeying the Mandate of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
launched on the second stage of their world-wide crusade, deriving
fresh courage from the exploits that have distinguished the opening
phase of the present stage of their enterprise, must strain every
nerve to scale loftier heights of heroism, and deploy, over a wider
range, their divinely sustained forces, as their present Plan unfolds
and moves towards a climax.

GOALS IN THE UNITED STATES AND
ALASKA

In the United States of America, the base from which the
manifold operations of this holy expedition are conducted, the
enterprise associated with the completion of the first
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West, designed to
consummate this historic undertaking in time for the celebration of
its Jubilee in the year 1953, must be strenuously pushed forward. The
prodigious efforts exerted for the erection of this noble edifice—the
holiest House of Worship ever to be reared by the followers of
Bahá’u’lláh—on which no less than one
million four hundred thousand dollars have thus far been expended,
and which will necessitate the expenditure of at least half a million
more dollars, ere it is completed, must not, for one moment, be
relaxed. The necessary modifications of the design chosen for its
interior ornamentation should be adopted, the plans and
specifications prepared, the preliminary contracts for its execution
placed, and actual construction work started, if possible, ere the
expiry of the present year.

The utmost effort by the National Teaching Committee and
its auxiliary Regional Teaching Committees, aimed at raising the
number of spiritual assemblies in the North American continent to no
less than one hundred and seventy-five, ere the expiry of the current
year, should be exerted. The eighty cities newly opened to the Faith
should, likewise, be reinforced. The two hundred and eighteen groups
already constituted should be continually encouraged to evolve into
assemblies, while the vast number of localities, totalling over nine
hundred, where isolated believers reside, should, however tremendous
the exertion required, be enabled to attain group status, and be
eventually converted into properly functioning assemblies.

Collateral to this process of reinforcing the fabrics of
the Administrative Order and of widening its basis, a resolute
attempt should be made by the national elected representatives of the
entire community, aided by their Public Relations, Race Unity, Public
Meetings, Visual Education, College Speakers Bureau and Radio
Committees, to reinforce the measures already adopted for the
proclamation, through the press and radio, of the verities of the
Faith to the masses, and for the establishment of closer contact with
the leaders of public thought, with colleges and universities and
with newspaper and magazine editors. National advertising and
publicity should be further developed, the contact with seven hundred
and fifty newspapers, magazines and trade papers should be maintained
and the public relations programs amplified. Association, as distinct
from affiliation, and untainted by any participation in political
matters, with the various organs, leaders and representatives of the
United Nations and kindred organizations should be stimulated for the
purpose of giving, on the one hand, greater publicity to the aims and
purposes of the Faith, and of paving the way, on the other, for the
eventual conversion of a selected number of capable and receptive
souls who will reinforce the ranks of its active and unreserved
supporters.

The process of the incorporation of properly functioning
spiritual assemblies must be simultaneously and vigorously carried
out. The forty-five assemblies now incorporated are the first fruits
of an enterprise of great significance, which must rapidly develop in
the days to come, as an essential preliminary to the establishment,
and the extension of the scope, of Bahá’í local
endowments, as soon as the financial obligations incurred in
connection with the completion of the Temple have been discharged.
The institutions of the three summer schools, at Green Acre, Davison
and Geyserville, and the International School at Temerity Ranch, as
well as the activities of the Bahá’í Youth, must,
under the close supervision of their respective national committees,
be continually expanded and increasingly utilized as agencies for the
furtherance of the vital objectives of the Plan.

The beneficial and highly responsible activities
undertaken by the Publishing, the Reviewing, the Library, the Service
for the Blind, the Visual Education, the Pamphlet Literature and
Study Aids Committees, designed to disseminate and insure the
integrity of Bahá’í literature, should, however
indirectly connected with the purposes of the Plan, and within the
limits imposed upon them through its operation, be steadily expanded,
consolidated and be made to promote, in whatever way possible, its
paramount interests.

Nor should the “spacious territory of Alaska,”
particularly mentioned by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His
Tablets of the Divine Plan, and at present the northern outpost of
the Faith in the Western Hemisphere, be ignored, or its vital
requirements neglected. The maintenance and consolidation of the
first historic spiritual assembly in Anchorage, the northernmost
administrative center of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
in the world; the multiplication of Bahá’í
centers in that territory; the propagation of the teachings among the
Eskimos, emphasized by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s pen in
those same Tablets; the translation and publication of selected
passages from Bahá’í literature in their native
language; the extension of the limits of the Faith beyond Fairbanks
and nearer to the Arctic Circle—these constitute the urgent
tasks facing the prosecutors of the present Plan in the years
immediately ahead.

“Alaska is a vast country,” are
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own words, recorded in those
Tablets, “…Perchance, God willing, the lights of the Most
Great Guidance will illuminate that country, and the breezes of the
rose garden of the love of God will perfume the nostrils of the
inhabitants of Alaska. Should you be aided to render such a service,
rest ye assured that your heads shall be crowned with the diadem of
everlasting sovereignty.”

CANADA TO FORM SEPARATE NATIONAL
ASSEMBLY

In the Dominion of Canada, to whose significance and
future the Author of the Tablets of the Divine Plan has repeatedly
referred, and in all the nine provinces of which, as a direct result
of the operation of the first Seven Year Plan, the Faith has
established its spiritual assemblies, the Canadian believers, as a
token of their recognition of the significance of the forthcoming
formation of their first National Spiritual Assembly, must arise and
carry out befittingly the task allotted to them in their homeland.
Irrespective of the smallness of their numbers, notwithstanding the
vastness of the territory for which they have been made responsible,
and as a sign of their appreciation of the great bounty and
independent status soon to be conferred upon them, they must,
unitedly, exert a supreme effort to enlarge the limits, multiply the
administrative centers, consolidate the institutions, and broadcast
the truths and essentials of their beloved Faith throughout the
length and breadth of that immense dominion.

The thirteen Canadian assemblies already formed should
be, at all costs, maintained and fortified. The fifty-six localities
where Bahá’ís reside should receive immediate
attention, and the most promising among them should be chosen for the
establishment of future assemblies, in order to broaden the basis and
reinforce the foundations of the future pillar of the Universal House
of Justice. Particular attention should, moreover, be paid to the
need for the establishment, without delay, of the first Canadian
Bahá’í summer school, which, as the scope of the
activities of the Canadian believers extends, will have to be
gradually supplemented by other institutions of a similar character,
as has been the case in the development of summer schools in the
United States of America. Preliminary steps should, likewise, be
taken for the incorporation of all firmly grounded spiritual
assemblies, as a prelude to the establishment of local and national
endowments. The institution of the local Fund, in every center where
the administrative structure of the Faith has been erected, should be
assiduously developed. The holding of conferences designed to foster
the unity, the solidarity and harmonious development of the Canadian
Bahá’í Community should be steadily encouraged.
An organized attempt should be made to broadcast the Message to the
masses and their leaders through the medium of the press and radio. A
deliberate and sustained endeavor should be exerted to win fresh
recruits for the Faith from the ranks of the considerable
French-speaking population of that dominion. The greatest care should
be exercised to attract the attention, and win the support of other
minorities in that land, such as the Indians, the Eskimos, the
Dukhobors and the Negroes, thereby reinforcing the representative
character of a rapidly developing community.

Nor should that community, as its local centers
multiply, and the fabric of its national institutions is erected, and
its maturity is demonstrated, and its independence vindicated, lose
sight of, or neglect, the weighty provisions of those Tablets of the
Divine Plan, addressed specifically to its members by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
wherein He confers upon them the mission of carrying the Message of
His Father to territories and islands beyond the confines of that
dominion, to Newfoundland and the Franklin Islands, to the Yukon, to
Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava and Greenland. The tentative steps
recently taken by a Danish believer in disseminating Bahá’í
literature in the territory of Greenland, in a number of settlements
and outposts beyond the Arctic Circle, and in dispatching Bahá’í
books to Godthaab, its capital, and as far north as Upernavik on
Baffin Bay, constitutes a modest yet historic beginning which the
Canadian believers, in the light of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Tablets addressed to them, must follow up in the years to come.

“Should the fire of the love of God be kindled in
Greenland,” He significantly assures them in one of the Tablets
of the Divine Plan, “all the ice of that country will be
melted, and its cold weather become temperate—that is, if the
hearts be touched with the heat of the love of God, that territory
will become a divine rose garden and a heavenly paradise, and the
souls, even as fruitful trees, will acquire the utmost freshness and
beauty. Effort, the utmost effort, is required.”

Theirs is the duty, the privilege and honor, once their
central administrative institution is firmly established, its
subsidiary agencies are vigorously operating, and its immediate
requirements are met, to take preliminary measures, on however small
a scale, ere the Second Seven Year Plan is terminated, for the
dispatch of a handful of pioneers to some of these territories, as an
evidence of the determination and capacity of a newly independent
national community to assume the functions, and discharge the
responsibilities with which it has been invested in those immortal
Tablets by the pen of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant.

“There is no difference between countries,”
is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s testimony in one of those
Tablets. “The future of the Dominion of Canada, however, is
very great, and the events connected with it infinitely glorious. It
shall become the object of the glance of Providence, and shall show
forth the bounties of the All-Glorious.” “Again I
repeat,” He, in that same Tablet affirms, “that the
future of Canada is very great, whether from a material or a
spiritual standpoint…. The clouds of the Kingdom will water the
seeds of guidance which have been sown there.”

TASKS IN LATIN AMERICA

In the far-flung Latin American field, where the first
fruits of the Divine Plan, operating beyond the confines of the North
American continent, have already been garnered in such abundance, the
Latin American Bahá’í communities, from the
Mexican border to the extremity of Chile, should bestir themselves
for the collective, the historic and gigantic tasks that await them,
and which must culminate, ere the expiry of the present Plan, in the
formation of two national spiritual assemblies for Central and South
America.

The marvelous progress achieved as a result of the
operation of the first Seven Year Plan, as evidenced by the
establishment of full-fledged spiritual assemblies in the virgin
territories of no less than fourteen republics, and the formation of
active groups in the remaining republics, has been enhanced by the
even more startling expansion of Bahá’í activity
since the termination of the first stage of the Divine Plan. As a
result of this expansion spiritual assemblies have been established
in all the remaining republics, the number of localities where
Bahá’ís reside has been raised to over a hundred,
almost double the number of localities in which the Faith had been
introduced after the completion of the first Seven Year Plan, the
number of spiritual assemblies has swelled to no less than
thirty-seven, three of which have been duly incorporated, a notable
impetus has been given to the activities of the distributing centers
of Bahá’í literature in Argentina and Panama,
historic conferences have been held in these two republics, summer
schools have been inaugurated in Argentina and Chile, and a tract of
land has been presented as a site for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
in Latin America. No community since the inception of the
hundred-year-old Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, not
even the community of the Most Great Name in the North American
continent, can boast of an evolution as rapid, a consolidation as
sound, a multiplication of centers as swift, as those that have
marked the birth and rise of the community of His followers in Latin
America.

The colossal tasks that now summon this Latin American
Bahá’í community to a challenge, cannot but
dwarf, if faithfully and promptly accomplished, the magnificent
achievements that have immortalized the first decade of organized
activity in Latin American Bahá’í history. The
seed-sowing stage associated, in the main, with the labors and
travels of that saintly soul, that star-servant of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh, the incomparable Martha Root,
links this decade of organized Bahá’í activity in
Latin America with both the closing years of the Heroic Age of our
Faith and the first fifteen years of the initial epoch of the Age we
live in.

TWO REGIONAL NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES A
VITAL OBJECTIVE

The emergence of organized local communities in most of
the republics of Latin America will be forever associated with the
exploits that have shed such luster on the first stage of the Divine
Plan launched during the concluding years of that first epoch of the
Formative Age of our Faith. The constitution of two independent duly
elected national spiritual assemblies for the northern and southern
zones of Latin America is now to be regarded as one of the most vital
objectives of the Second Seven Year Plan, whose inauguration
synchronizes with the opening years of the second Bahá’í
century, and which will be chiefly associated with the first phase of
the second epoch of that Age. The emergence of these two national
assemblies, precursors of the institutions which must participate in
the election, and contribute to the support, of the Universal House
of Justice—the last crowning unit in the erection of the fabric
of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—must
lead gradually and uninterruptedly, and in the course of successive
epochs of the Formative Age, to the constitution in each of the
republics of Central and South America, of a properly elected, fully
representative national assembly, constituting thereby the last stage
in the administrative evolution of that Faith throughout Latin
America.

In order that these future tasks may be carried out with
dispatch, efficiency, harmony and in strict accordance with the
administrative and spiritual principles of our Faith, the Latin
American promoters of the present Seven Year Plan must focus their
attention on the requirements of the present hour, close their ranks,
reinforce the bonds of unity, of solidarity and of cooperation which
unite them, rededicate themselves individually to the sacred,
all-important and vital task of teaching, exert strenuous endeavors
to deepen their knowledge of the history and fundamentals of their
Faith, steep themselves in the spirit and the love of its teachings
and acquire special training for future pioneer activity throughout
the length and breadth of the vast stretches of territory which
extend from the confines of the great republic in the north to the
Straits of Magellan in the south.

The process of the steady multiplication of spiritual
assemblies, already numbering thirty-seven, of groups whose number
equals that of the assemblies, and of the forty localities where
isolated believers reside, must vigorously and uninterruptedly
continue. The incorporation of well-grounded spiritual assemblies,
following the example set by the spiritual assemblies of San José,
Costa Rica, of Bogotà, Colombia, and of Asunciòn,
Paraguay, as a preliminary to the incorporation of the future
national assemblies to be established in Latin America, must be
strenuously and efficiently carried out. A beginning, however modest,
should be made in the direction of establishing local Funds,
supported by native believers and designed to supplement the
financial assistance extended by the parent community in North
America, for the furtherance of pioneer activity, for the
dissemination of Bahá’í literature, for the
maintenance of local Bahá’í headquarters, for the
gradual initiation of Bahá’í endowments, such as
the land offered for a Bahá’í Temple in Chile,
for the holding of conferences and of summer schools, for the
creation of publicity agencies, and for the conduct and expansion of
youth activities.

Strong and sustained support should be given to the
vitally needed and meritorious activities started by the native Latin
American traveling teachers, particularly in the pioneer field, who,
as the mighty task progresses, must increasingly bear the brunt of
responsibility for the propagation of the Faith in their homelands.
Full advantage should be taken of the facilities provided by the use
of practical workshop courses in Latin American pioneering at the
International School at Temerity Ranch. The two summer schools in
Azeiza and Santiago, as well as one planned in Vera Cruz, should be
utilized, not only as centers for the acquisition of Bahá’í
learning, but as training grounds for pioneering among the Spanish
and Portuguese speaking populations of all the republics of Latin
America. The regional conferences held in Buenos Aires and Panama
should be followed by conferences of a similar character, at which a
growing number of attendants from among the ranks of Latin American
believers will assume an ever-increasing share of responsibility in
the initiation and conduct of the affairs of a continually evolving
community. A deliberate effort should be made to increase, through
correspondence teaching and its extension to all the Spanish speaking
countries, the number of the active supporters of the Faith, so
desperately needed in view of the vastness of the field, the mighty
responsibilities that have been incurred, the smallness of the number
of laborers, and the shortness of the time at their disposal.

Other agencies, such as publicity and advertising in the
press, the multiplication of accurate and improved radio scripts, the
extension of teaching projects through regional teaching committees,
visual education and the organization of public meetings, should be
fully utilized to capture the attention, win the sympathy, and secure
the active and unreserved support of a steadily increasing proportion
of the population of the various Latin American republics. The
publishing activities of a constantly growing community should,
likewise, be stimulated, their scope should be continually widened,
the quality of Bahá’í publications in Spanish,
Portuguese and French be improved, and their dissemination over a
wide area be insured. The two Spanish bulletins, the one already
published in Santiago and the other planned in San José,
should, likewise, as an adjunct to Bahá’í
publications, be developed and widely circulated. The contact
established with the two hundred and forty-four Masonic Lodges should
be reinforced by similar contacts with schools as well as business
firms established throughout the various republics, for the sole
purpose of giving further publicity to the Faith, and winning
ultimately fresh recruits to the strength of its followers.

IMPORTANCE OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS

Particular attention, I feel, should, at this juncture,
be directed to the various Indian tribes, the aboriginal inhabitants
of the Latin republics, whom the Author of the Tablets of the Divine
Plan has compared to the “ancient inhabitants of the Arabian
Peninsula.” “Attach great importance,” is His
admonition to the entire body of the believers in the United States
and the Dominion of Canada, “to the indigenous population of
America. For these souls may be likened unto the ancient inhabitants
of the Arabian Peninsula, who, prior to the Mission of Muḥammad,
were like unto savages. When the light of Muḥammad shone forth
in their midst, however, they became so radiant as to illumine the
world. Likewise, these Indians, should they be educated and guided,
there can be no doubt that they will become so illumined as to
enlighten the whole world.” The initial contact already
established, in the concluding years of the first Bahá’í
century, in obedience to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Mandate, with the Cherokee and Oneida Indians in North Carolina and
Wisconsin, with the Patagonian, the Mexican and the Inca Indians, and
the Mayans in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Yucatan, respectively,
should, as the Latin American Bahá’í communities
gain in stature and strength, be consolidated and extended. A special
effort should be exerted to secure the unqualified adherence of
members of some of these tribes to the Faith, their subsequent
election to its councils, and their unreserved support of the
organized attempts that will have to be made in the future by the
projected national assemblies for the large-scale conversion of
Indian races to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

Nor should the peculiar position of the Republic of
Panama be overlooked at the present stage in the development of the
Faith in Latin America. “All the above countries,”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, referring to the Central American
republics in one of the Tablets of His Divine Plan, has affirmed,
“have importance, but especially the Republic of Panama,
wherein the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans come together through the
Panama Canal. It is a center for travel and passage from America to
other continents of the world, and in the future it will gain most
great importance.” “Likewise,” He moreover has
written, “ye must give great attention to the Republic of
Panama, for in that point the Occident and the Orient find each other
united through the Panama Canal, and it is also situated between the
two great oceans. That place will become very important in the
future. The teachings, once established there, will unite the East
and the West, the North and the South.”

The manifold activities initiated since the launching of
the first Seven Year Plan should, under no circumstances, be
neglected or allowed to stagnate. The excellent publicity accorded
the Faith, and the contact established with several leaders in that
republic should be followed up, systematically and with the greatest
care, by the growing community within its confines. The initial
contact with the Indians should be developed with assiduous care and
unfailing patience. Furthermore, the strengthening of the bonds now
being forged between the North American communities and their sister
communities in Latin America must constitute, owing to the unique and
central position occupied by that republic, one of the chief
objectives of the Panamanian believers, the progress of whose
activities deserves to rank as one of the most notable chapters of
recent Latin American Bahá’í history.

Nor should the valuable and meritorious labors
accomplished since the inception of the first Seven Year Plan in
Punta Arenas de Magallanes, that far-off center situated not only on
the southern extremity of the Western Hemisphere, but constituting
the southernmost outpost of the Faith in the whole world, be for a
moment neglected in the course of the second stage in the development
of the Divine Plan. The assembly already constituted in that city,
the remarkable radio publicity secured by the believers there, the
assistance extended by them to the teaching work in other parts of
Chile, should be regarded only as a prelude to the work of
consolidation which must be indefatigably pursued. This work, if
properly carried out, in conjunction with the activities associated
with the assemblies of Santiago, Valparaìso and Viná
del Mar, and the groups of Puerto Montt, Valdivia, Quilpue, Temuco,
Sewell, Chorrillos, Mülchen and other smaller ones, as well as
several isolated localities in that republic, may well hasten the
advent of the day when the Chilean followers of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh will have established the first
independent national spiritual assembly to be formed by any single
nation of Latin America.

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH’S
SUMMONS TO THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

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 Kitáb-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 Bahá’í
communities who, among the followers of Bahá’u’lláh,
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-Bahá’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 Bahá’í
Dispensation; whose leading spiritual assemblies are now establishing
direct contact with the World Center of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
in the Holy Land; the photographs of whose elected representatives,
at their chief centers, will soon adorn the walls of His Mansion at
Bahjí; 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 Bahá’í 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 Bahá’í 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.

SPIRITUAL CRUSADE TO BE LAUNCHED IN
EUROPE

To the fourth, and by far the most momentous, the most
arduous, the most challenging task to be carried out under the Second
Seven Year Plan—the systematic launching of a crusade in a
mighty, a tormented, a spiritually famished continent, a continent
drawn, in recent years through political developments as well as
through improvement in the means of transportation, so close to the
great republic of the West, and constituting a stepping-stone on the
road leading to the redemption of the Old World—I must now
direct the attention of my readers.

This as yet unfought and unbelievably potent crusade,
embarked upon in the opening decade of the second century of the
Bahá’í Era, signalizing the commencement of the
second epoch of the Formative Age of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh,
and marking the first stage in the propulsion of a divinely conceived
Plan across the borders of the Western Hemisphere, must, as its pace
augments, reveal the first signs and tokens which, as anticipated by
the Author of the Plan Himself, must accompany the carrying of His
Father’s Message across the ocean, at the hands of His
“apostles,” from the shores of their homeland to the
European continent. “The moment,” is His powerfully
sustaining, gloriously inspiring promise, “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 Australia, 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.”

The first stage in this transatlantic field of service
which those crusading for the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh
in the Western Hemisphere are now entering is a step fraught with
possibilities such as no mind can adequately envisage. Its challenge
is overwhelming and its potentialities unfathomable. Its hazards,
rigors and pitfalls are numerous, its field immense, the number of
its promoters as yet utterly inadequate, the resources required for
its effective prosecution barely tapped. The races, nations and
classes included within its orbit are numerous and highly
diversified, and the prizes to be won by its victors incalculably
great. The hatreds that inflame, the rivalries that agitate, the
controversies that confuse, the miseries that afflict, these races,
nations and classes are bitter and of long standing. The influence
and fanaticism, whether ecclesiastical or political, of potentially
hostile organizations, firmly entrenched within their ancestral
strongholds, are formidable.

The members of the North American Bahá’í
Community, to whose care the immediate destinies of this fate-laden
crusade have been entrusted, are standing at a new crossroads. Behind
them is an imperishable record, brief yet illustrious, of feats
performed over the entire range of the Western Hemisphere. Before
them stretches a vista alluring in its as yet hazy outlines,
entrancing in its magnitude, reaching to the far horizons of as yet
unconquered territories. They can look back, since that crusade was
launched, upon a decade of modest beginnings, of toilsome labors, of
richly deserved rewards. They now look forward to successive epochs
reaching as far as the fringes of that Golden Age that is to be,
glowing in the light of God-given promises, destined to be traversed
at the cost of infinite toil and of heroic self-sacrifice.

They can neither retrace their steps, nor falter, nor
even afford to mark time. The sands are running out, the short span
of six brief years intervening between the present hour and the
termination of the second stage of the enterprise on which they have
embarked will soon expire. The hosts on high, having sounded the
signal, are impatient to rush forward, and demonstrate anew the
irresistible force of their might. Europe, in the throes of the
aftermath of a horribly devastating conflict, calls desperately, in
one of the darkest hours of its history, for that sovereign remedy
which only the Plan, conceived by a divinely appointed Physician, can
administer. Sister communities, in the north and in the heart of that
continent, alive to the needs, the opportunities and the glorious
mission of the vanguard of Bahá’u’lláh’s
crusaders, now landing on the shores of that agitated continent, are
only too eager to reinforce the stupendous exertions that must needs
be made for its ultimate redemption. Nor will other sister
communities further afield refrain, for a moment, from lending a
helping hand, once the progress of this gigantic movement now set in
motion is accelerated. Above and beyond them all, unsleeping,
ever-solicitous, unerring, is the Pilot of their bark, the Charterer
of their course, the Founder of their spiritual fellowship, the
Bestower of that primacy which is the hallmark of their destiny.

EVOLVING STRONGHOLDS IN TEN INITIAL
COUNTRIES

The ten countries, constituting the initial field
wherein the prowess of these crusaders must, in the years immediately
ahead, be exhibited, and in whose capitals the foundations of the
embryonic Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
must preferably be unassailably laid, must each evolve into
strongholds from which the dynamic energies of that Faith can be
diffused to neighboring territories in the course of the unfoldment
of the Plan. The nuclei that are now being formed, and the groups
that are beginning to emerge, must be speedily and systematically
reinforced, not only through the dispatch and settlement of pioneers
and the visits paid them by itinerant teachers, but also through the
progressive development of the teaching work which the pioneers
themselves must initiate and foster among the native population in
those countries. Any artificially created assembly, consisting of
settlers from abroad, can at best be considered as temporary and
insecure, and should, if the second stage of the European enterprise
is to be commenced without undue delay in the future, be supplanted
by broad-based, securely grounded, efficiently functioning
assemblies, composed primarily of the people of the countries
themselves, who are firm in faith, unimpeachable in their loyalty and
whole-hearted in their support of the Administrative Order of the
Faith. The twenty-five pioneers that have already proceeded to
Scandinavia and the Low Countries, to the Iberian Peninsula, to
Switzerland and Italy, should, in the course of this current year,
and while the process of teaching the native population is being
inaugurated, be reinforced by as many additional pioneers as
possible, and particularly by those who, possessed of independent
means, can, either themselves or through their appointed deputies,
swell the number of the valiant workers already laboring with such
devotion in those fields.

The translation, the publication and dissemination of
Bahá’í literature, whether in the form of
leaflets, pamphlets or books, in the nine selected languages, should,
as the work progresses and the demand is correspondingly increased,
be strenuously carried out, as a preliminary to its free distribution
among the public on certain occasions, and its presentation to both
the leaders of public thought and the numerous and famous libraries
established in those countries. No time should be lost in
establishing, on however small a scale, initial contact with the
press and other agencies designed to invite greater attention on the
part of the masses to the historic work now being initiated in their
respective countries.

No opportunity, in view of the necessity of insuring the
harmonious development of the Faith, should be ignored, which its
potential enemies, whether ecclesiastical or otherwise, may offer, to
set forth, in a restrained and unprovocative language, its aims and
tenets, to defend its interests, to proclaim its universality, to
assert the supernatural, the supra-national and non-political
character of its institutions, and its acceptance of the divine
origin of the Faiths which have preceded it. Nor should any chance be
missed of associating the Faith, as distinct from affiliating it,
with all progressive, non-political, non-ecclesiastical institutions,
whether social, educational, or charitable, whose objectives
harmonize with some of its tenets, and amongst whose members and
supporters individuals may be found who will eventually embrace its
truth. Particular attention should, moreover, be paid to attendance
at congresses and conferences, and to any contacts that can be made
with colleges and universities which offer a fertile field for the
scattering of the seeds of the Faith, and afford opportunities for
broadcasting its message, and for winning fresh recruits to its
strength.

Nor should any occasion be neglected by the pioneers of
attending, if their personal circumstances permit, either the British
or German Bahá’í summer schools, and of forging
such links with these institutions as will not only assist them in
the discharge of their duties, but enable them to initiate, when the
time is ripe, an institution of a similar character, under the
auspices of the European Teaching Committee—an institution
which will be the forerunner of the summer schools that will have to
be founded separately by the future assemblies in their respective
countries. Above all, any assistance which the two national spiritual
assemblies, already established on that continent, and their
auxiliary committees, and particularly their publishing agencies, can
extend should be gratefully welcomed and utilized to the full, until
such time as the institutions destined to evolve in these countries
can assume independently the conduct of their own affairs.

A constant interchange of news between the centers,
through the medium of the Geneva Bulletin, whose scope must be
steadily enlarged, and close contact with each other through the
European office of the European Teaching Committee, functioning as an
adjunct to the International Bahá’í Bureau,
should, furthermore, be maintained and reinforced, whenever
circumstances are favorable, by the convening of conferences, which
will bring together as many pioneers laboring in these ten countries,
and newly converted believers, as possible, enabling them to jointly
consider their plans, problems and activities, concert measures for
the progress of the Faith in that continent, and pave the way for the
future formation of regional national spiritual assemblies, which
must precede the constitution of separate independent national
institutions in each of these countries. Such summer schools and
conferences, initiated and conducted by one of the most important
agencies of the highest administrative institution in the North
American Bahá’í Community, gathering together as
they will Bahá’í representatives of various races
and nations on the continent of Europe, will, by reason of their
unprecedented character in the evolution of the Faith, since its
inception, constitute a historic landmark in the development of the
organic world-wide Bahá’í community, and will be
the harbinger of those epoch-making world conferences, at which the
representatives of the nations and races within the Bahá’í
fold will convene for the strengthening of the spiritual and
administrative bonds that unite its members.

INITIATING NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS AND
ADAPTING TEACHING METHODS

A beginning, however limited in scope, should be made,
ere the present stage of the Divine Plan draws to a close, in the
direction of establishing befitting administrative headquarters for
the rising communities and their projected assemblies in the capital
cities of Stockholm, of Oslo, of Copenhagen, of The Hague, of
Brussels, of Luxembourg, of Madrid, of Lisbon, of Rome and of Bern,
through the rental of suitable quarters which, in the course of time,
must lead to either the construction or the purchase in each of these
capitals of a national Hazíratu’l-Quds, as a future seat
for independent, elected national spiritual assemblies.

A tentative start, though strictly speaking excluded
from the scope of the present Plan, should, I feel, be made, ere the
six remaining years have run their course, aiming at the formation,
in each of the ten designated countries, of a number of nuclei,
however few, however unstable, which will proclaim to the entire
Bahá’í world the ability of the prosecutors of
the Plan to exceed their allocated task, even as they surpassed, in
the Latin American field, the goals which they had originally set
before them. Such a feat, if accomplished, would impart to my
overburdened heart a joy that would equal the many consolations which
a dearly loved community has showered upon me, in the past, by its
signal acts, both within its homeland and abroad, since the passing
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Nor should any of the pioneers, at this early stage in
the upbuilding of Bahá’í national communities,
overlook the fundamental prerequisite for any successful teaching
enterprise, which is to adapt the presentation of the fundamental
principles of their Faith to the cultural and religious backgrounds,
the ideologies, and the temperament of the divers races and nations
whom they are called upon to enlighten and attract. The
susceptibilities of these races and nations, from both the northern
and southern climes, springing from either the Germanic or Latin
stock, belonging to either the Catholic or Protestant communion, some
democratic, others totalitarian in outlook, some socialistic, others
capitalistic in their tendencies, differing widely in their customs
and standards of living, should at all times be carefully considered,
and under no circumstances neglected.

These pioneers, in their contact with the members of
divers creeds, races and nations, covering a range which offers no
parallel in either the north or south continents, must neither
antagonize them nor compromise with their own essential principles.
They must be neither provocative nor supine, neither fanatical nor
excessively liberal, in their exposition of the fundamental and
distinguishing features of their Faith. They must be either wary or
bold, they must act swiftly or mark time, they must use the direct or
indirect method, they must be challenging or conciliatory, in strict
accordance with the spiritual receptivity of the soul with whom they
come in contact, whether he be a nobleman or a commoner, a northerner
or a southerner, a layman or a priest, a capitalist or a socialist, a
statesman or a prince, an artisan or a beggar. In their presentation
of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh they must
neither hesitate nor falter. They must be neither contemptuous of the
poor nor timid before the great. In their exposition of its verities
they must neither overstress nor whittle down the truth which they
champion, whether their hearer belong to royalty, or be a prince of
the church, or a politician, or a tradesman, or a man of the street.
To all alike, high or low, rich or poor, they must proffer, with open
hands, with a radiant heart, with an eloquent tongue, with infinite
patience, with uncompromising loyalty, with great wisdom, with
unshakable courage, the Cup of Salvation at so critical an hour, to
the confused, the hungry, the distraught and fear-stricken
multitudes, in the north, in the west, in the south and in the heart,
of that sorely tried continent.

EUROPE FEELS STIRRINGS OF SPIRITUAL
REVOLUTION

The second century of the Bahá’í Era
has dawned. The second stage of the Divine Plan has been launched.
The second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation has opened. The tragedy of a continent, so blessed, so
rich in history, so harassed, is moving towards a climax. The
vanguard of the torchbearers of a world-redeeming civilization are
landing on its shores and are settling in its capitals. An epoch has
commenced, inaugurating the systematic conquest of the European
continent by the organized body of the “apostles of
Bahá’u’lláh,” destined to unfold its
potentialities in the course of succeeding centuries, and bidding
fair to eclipse the radiance of those past ages which have
successfully witnessed the introduction of the Christian Faith into
the continent’s northern climes, the efflorescence of Islamic
culture that shed such radiance along its southern shores, and the
rise of the Reformation in its very heart.

The stage is set. The hour is propitious. The signal is
sounded. Bahá’u’lláh’s spiritual
battalions are moving into position. The initial clash between the
forces of darkness and the army of light, as unnoticed as the
landing, two milleniums ago, of the apostles of Christ on the
southern shores of the European continent, is being registered by the
denizens of the Abhá Kingdom. The Author of the Plan that has
set so titanic an enterprise in motion is Himself mounted at the head
of these battalions, and leads them on to capture the cities of men’s
hearts. A continent, twice blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
successive visits to its shores, and the scene of His first public
appearance in the West; which has been the cradle of a civilization
to some of whose beneficent features the pen of Bahá’u’lláh
has paid significant tribute; on whose soil both the Greek and Roman
civilizations were born and flourished; which has contributed so
richly to the unfoldment of American civilization; the fountainhead
of American culture; the mother of Christendom, and the scene of the
greatest exploits of the followers of Jesus Christ; in some of whose
outlying territories have been won some of the most resplendent
victories which ushered in the Golden Age of Islám; which
sustained, in its very heart, the violent impact of the onrushing
hosts of that Faith, intent on the subjugation of its cities, but
which refused to bend the knee to its invaders, and succeeded in the
end in repulsing their assault—such a continent is now
experiencing, at the hands of the little as yet unnoticed band of
pioneers sent forth by the enviable, the privileged, the dynamic
American Bahá’í Community, the first stirrings of
that spiritual revolution which must culminate, in the Golden Age
that is as yet unborn, in the permanent establishment of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Order throughout that
continent.

DIVINE PLAN CHALLENGES NORTH
AMERICAN BELIEVERS

One word in conclusion to those to whom the Tablets of
so stupendous a Plan have been addressed, to whose care the destinies
of so prodigious an enterprise have been committed, and of whom such
titanic efforts are now demanded. I can do no better than recall, nor
can I sufficiently emphasize, or refrain from quoting anew, those
stirring and pregnant passages that illuminate the pages of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s epoch-making Tablets.

In one of these Tablets, addressed to the believers in
the Northeastern States, these weighty and highly significant words
are recorded: “All countries, in the estimation of the one true
God, are but one country, and all cities and villages are on an equal
footing… Through faith and certitude, and the precedence achieved
by one over another, however, the dweller conferreth honor upon the
dwelling, some of the countries achieve distinction, and attain a
preeminent position. For instance, notwithstanding that some of the
countries of Europe and of America are distinguished by, and surpass
other countries in, the salubrity of their climate, the wholesomeness
of their water, and the charm of their mountains, plains and
prairies, yet Palestine became the glory of all nations inasmuch as
all the holy and Divine Manifestations, from the time of Abraham
until the appearance of the Seal of the Prophets (Muḥammad),
have lived in, or migrated to, or traveled through, that country.
Likewise, Mecca and Medina have achieved illimitable glory, as the
light of Prophethood shone forth therein. For this reason Palestine
and Ḥijáz have been distinguished from all other
countries.” “Likewise,” is His remarkable
disclosure, “the continent of America is, in the eyes of the
one true God, the land wherein the splendors of His light shall be
revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, the
home of the righteous, and the gathering-place of the free.”

To those of His followers, dwelling in that enviable and
blessed continent, He has chosen to address these no less inspiring
words, as recorded in one of those Tablets revealed in honor of the
believers of the United States and Canada: “O ye apostles of
Bahá’u’lláh! May my life be sacrificed for
you!… Behold the portals which Bahá’u’lláh
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… My thoughts are turned towards you, and my heart
leaps within me at your mention. Could ye know how my soul gloweth
with your love, so great a happiness would flood your hearts as to
cause you to become enamored with each other.” “The full
measure of your success,” He, in another Tablet, addressed to
the entire company of His followers in the North American continent
these prophetic words: “is as yet unrevealed, its significance
unapprehended. Erelong 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… I
fervently hope that in the near future the whole earth may be stirred
and shaken by the results of your achievements. The hope which
‘Abdu’l-Bahá 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. 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 Australia, 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… Know ye of a certainty that whatever
gathering ye enter, the waves of the Holy Spirit are surging over it,
and the heavenly grace of the Blessed Beauty encompasseth that
gathering… O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the
utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of
Yá-Bahá’u’l-Abhá in cities,
villages, mountains, deserts and oceans promote the divine teachings!
This, alas, I cannot do. How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye
may achieve it… 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 Abhá Kingdom. The scope of your exertions must needs
be extended. The wider its range, the more striking will be the
evidence of divine assistance.”

DETACHMENT FROM THE PHYSICAL WORLD

“Now is the time,” He no less significantly
remarks in another of these Tablets, “for you to divest
yourselves of the garment of attachment to this world that perisheth,
to be wholly severed from the physical world, become heavenly angels,
and travel to these countries. I swear by Him besides Whom there is
none other God that each one of you will become an Isráfíl
of Life, and will blow the Breath of Life into the souls of others.”
And lastly this glorious promise in another of those immortal
Tablets: “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.”

In one of the earliest Tablets addressed by Him to the
American believers these equally significant words have been penned:
“If ye be truly united, if ye agree to promote that which is
the essential purpose, and to show forth an all-unifying love, I
swear by Him Who causeth the seed to split and the breeze to waft, so
great a light will shine forth from your faces as to reach the
highest heavens, the fame of your glory will be noised abroad, the
evidences of your preeminence will spread throughout all regions,
your power will penetrate the realities of all things, your aims and
purposes will exert their influence upon the great and mighty
nations, your spirits will encompass the whole world of being, and ye
will discover yourselves to be kings in the dominions of the Kingdom,
and attired with the glorious crowns of the invisible Realm, and
become the marshals of the army of peace, and princes of the forces
of light, and stars shining from the horizon of perfection, and
brilliant lamps shedding their radiance upon men.”

CONTRIBUTION OF THE WEST TO WORLD
ORDER

In the light of these glowing tributes, these ardent
hopes, these soul-stirring promises, recorded by the pen of the
Center of the Covenant, is it surprising to find that the Author of
the Covenant Himself has, anticipating the great contribution which
the West is destined to make to the establishment of His World Order,
made such a momentous statement in His writings: “In the East
the light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West have appeared
the signs of His dominion. Ponder this in your hearts, O people, and
be not of those who have turned a deaf ear to the admonitions of Him
Who is the Almighty, the All-Praised.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, confirming this
statement, has written: “From the beginning of time until the
present day the light of Divine Revelation hath risen in the East and
shed its radiance upon the West. The illumination thus shed hath,
however, acquired in the West an extraordinary brilliancy. Consider
the Faith proclaimed by Jesus. Though it first appeared in the East,
yet not until its light had been shed upon the West did the full
measure of its potentialities become manifest.” “The day
is approaching when ye shall witness how, through the splendor of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh the West will have
replaced the East, radiating the light of divine guidance.”
“The West hath acquired illumination from the East, but, in
some respects the reflection of the light hath been greater in the
Occident.” “The East hath, verily, been illumined with
the light of the Kingdom. Erelong will this same light shed a still
greater illumination through the potency of the teachings of God, and
their souls be set aglow by the undying fire of His love.”

Invested, among its sister communities in East and West,
with the primacy conferred upon it by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan; armed with the mandatory provisions of His momentous
Tablets; equipped with the agencies of a quarter-century-old
Administrative Order, whose fabric it has reared and consolidated;
encouraged by the marvelous success achieved by its daughter
communities throughout the Americas, a success which has sealed the
triumph of the first stage of that Plan; launched on a campaign of
vaster dimensions, of superior merit, of weightier potentialities,
than any it has hitherto initiated, a campaign destined to multiply
its spiritual progeny in distant lands and amidst divers races, the
community of the Most Great Name in the North American continent must
arise, as it has never before in its history, and demonstrate anew
its capacity to perform such deeds as are worthy of its high calling.
Its members, the executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Plan, the champion-builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s
embryonic Order, the torchbearers of a world-girdling civilization,
must, in the years immediately ahead, bestir themselves, and, as
bidden by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “increase”
their exertions “a thousandfold,” lay bare further vistas
in the “range” of their “future achievements”
and of their “unspeakably glorious” mission, and hasten
the day when, as prophesied by Him, their community will “find
itself securely established upon the throne of an everlasting
dominion,” when “the whole earth” will be stirred
and shaken by the results of its “achievements” and
“resound with the praises of majesty and greatness,” when
America will “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.”

In every state of the United States, in every province
of the Dominion of Canada, in every republic of Latin America, in
each of the ten European countries to which its inescapable
responsibilities are insistently calling it, this community, so
blessed in the past, so promising at present, so dazzling in its
future destiny, must, if it would guard its priceless birthright and
enhance its heritage, forge ahead with equal zeal, with unrelaxing
vigilance, with indomitable courage, with tireless energy, until the
present stage of its mission is triumphantly concluded.

THE WORKINGS OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS
PROCESSES

How could it forfeit its birthright or mar its heritage,
when the country from which the vast majority of its members have
sprung, the great republic of the West, government and people alike,
is itself, through experiment and trial, slowly, painfully,
unwittingly and irresistibly advancing towards the goal destined for
it by both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?
Indeed if we would read aright the signs of the times, and appraise
correctly the significances of contemporaneous events that are
impelling forward both the American Bahá’í
Community and the nation of which it forms a part on the road leading
them to their ultimate destiny, we cannot fail to perceive the
workings of two simultaneous processes, generated as far back as the
concluding years of the Heroic Age of our Faith, each clearly
defined, each distinctly separate, yet closely related and destined
to culminate, in the fullness of time, in a single glorious
consummation.

One of these processes is associated with the mission of
the American Bahá’í Community, the other with the
destiny of the American nation. The one serves directly the interests
of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
the other promotes indirectly the institutions that are to be
associated with the establishment of His World Order. The first
process dates back to the revelation of those stupendous Tablets
constituting the Charter of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan. It was held in abeyance for well-nigh twenty years while
the fabric of an indispensable Administrative Order, designed as a
divinely appointed agency for the operation of that Plan, was being
constructed. It registered its initial success with the triumphant
conclusion of the first stage of its operation in the republics of
the Western Hemisphere. It signalized the opening of the second phase
of its development through the inauguration of the present teaching
campaign in the European continent. It must pass into the third stage
of its evolution with the initiation of the third Seven Year Plan,
designed to culminate in the establishment of the structure of the
Administrative Order in all the remaining sovereign states and chief
dependencies of the globe. It must reach the end of the first epoch
in its evolution with the fulfillment of the prophecy mentioned by
Daniel in the last chapter of His Book, related to the year 1335, and
associated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with the world triumph
of the Faith of His Father. It will be consummated through the
emergence of the Bahá’í World Commonwealth in the
Golden Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

The other process dates back to the outbreak of the
first World War that threw the great republic of the West into the
vortex of the first stage of a world upheaval. It received its
initial impetus through the formulation of President Wilson’s
Fourteen Points, closely associating for the first time that republic
with the fortunes of the Old World. It suffered its first setback
through the dissociation of that republic from the newly born League
of Nations which that president had labored to create. It acquired
added momentum through the outbreak of the second World War,
inflicting unprecedented suffering on that republic, and involving it
still further in the affairs of all the continents of the globe. It
was further reinforced through the declaration embodied in the
Atlantic Charter, as voiced by one of its chief progenitors, Franklin
D. Roosevelt. It assumed a definite outline through the birth of the
United Nations at the San Francisco Conference. It acquired added
significance through the choice of the City of the Covenant itself as
the seat of the newly born organization, through the declaration
recently made by the American president related to his country’s
commitments in Greece and Turkey, as well as through the submission
to the General Assembly of the United Nations of the thorny and
challenging problem of the Holy Land, the spiritual as well as the
administrative center of the World Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
It must, however long and tortuous the way, lead, through a series of
victories and reverses, to the political unification of the Eastern
and Western Hemispheres, to the emergence of a world government and
the establishment of the Lesser Peace, as foretold by Bahá’u’lláh
and foreshadowed by the Prophet Isaiah. It must, in the end,
culminate in the unfurling of the banner of the Most Great Peace, in
the Golden Age of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.

A PARALLEL BETWEEN THE AMERICAN
BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC

Might not a still closer parallel be drawn between the
community singled out for the execution of this world-embracing Plan,
in its relation to its sister communities, and the nation of which it
forms a part, in its relation to its sister nations? On the one hand
is a community which ever since its birth has been nursed in the lap
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and been lovingly trained by Him
through the revelation of unnumbered Tablets, through the dispatch of
special and successive messengers, and through His own prolonged
visit to the North American continent in the evening of His life. It
was to the members of this community, the spiritual descendants of
the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of our Faith, that He, whilst
sojourning in the City of the Covenant, chose to reveal the
implications of that Covenant. It was in the vicinity of this
community’s earliest established center that He laid, with His
own hands, the cornerstone of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of the western world. It was to the members of this community that He
subsequently addressed His Tablets of the Divine Plan, investing it
with a spiritual primacy, and singling it out for a glorious mission
among its sister communities. It was this community which won the
immortal honor of being the first to introduce the Faith in the
British Isles, in France and in Germany, and which sent forth its
consecrated pioneers and teachers to China, Japan and India, to
Australia and New Zealand, to the Balkan Peninsula, to South Africa,
to Latin America, to the Baltic States, to Scandinavia and the
islands of the Pacific, hoisting thereby its banner in the vast
majority of the countries won over to its cause, in both the East and
the West, prior to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing.

It was this community, the cradle and stronghold of the
Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
which, on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
ascension, was the first among all other Bahá’í
communities in East and West to arise and champion the cause of that
Order, to fix its pattern, to erect its fabric, to initiate its
endowments, to establish and consolidate its subsidiary institutions,
and to vindicate its aims and purposes. To it belongs the unique
distinction of having erected, in the heart of the North American
continent, the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of
the West, the holiest edifice ever to be reared by the hands of the
followers of Bahá’u’lláh in either the
Eastern or Western Hemisphere. It was through the assiduous and
unflagging labors of the most distinguished and consecrated among its
itinerant teachers that the allegiance of royalty to the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh was won, and unequivocally
proclaimed in successive testimonies as penned by the royal convert
herself. To its members, the vanguard of the torchbearers of the
future world civilization, must, moreover, be ascribed the
imperishable glory of having launched and successfully concluded the
first stage of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan,
in the concluding years of the first Bahá’í
century, establishing thereby the structural basis of the
Administrative Order of the Faith in all the republics of Central and
South America. It is this same community which is once again carrying
off the palm of victory through launching, in the first decade of the
second century of the Bahá’í Era, the second
stage of that same Plan, destined to lay the foundations of the
Bahá’í Administrative Order in no less than ten
sovereign states in the continent of Europe, comprising the
Scandinavian states, the Low Countries, the states of the Iberian
Peninsula, Switzerland and Italy. And lastly, to its enterprising
members must go the unique honor and privilege of having arisen, on
unnumbered occasions, and over a period of more than a quarter of a
century, to champion the cause of the down-trodden and persecuted
among their brethren in Persia, in Egypt, in Russia, in ‘Iráq
and in Germany, to stretch a generous helping hand to the needy among
them, to defend and safeguard the interests of their institutions,
and to plead their cause before political and ecclesiastical
adversaries.

On the other hand is a nation that has achieved
undisputed ascendancy in the entire Western Hemisphere, whose rulers
have been uniquely honored by being collectively addressed by the
Author of the Bahá’í Revelation in His
Kitáb-i-Aqdas; which has been acclaimed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
as the “home of the righteous and the gathering-place of the
free,” where the “splendors of His light shall be
revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled”
and belonging to a continent which, as recorded by that same pen,
“giveth signs and evidences of very great advancement,”
whose “future is even more promising,” whose “influence
and illumination are far-reaching,” and which “will lead
all nations spiritually.” Moreover, it is to this great
republic of the West that the Center of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh
has referred as the nation that has “developed powers and
capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations,” and
which “is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will
adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be
blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people.”
It is for this same American democracy that He expressed His fervent
hope that it might be “the first nation to establish the
foundation of international agreement,” “to proclaim the
unity of mankind,” and “to unfurl the Standard of the
Most Great Peace,” that it might become “the distributing
center of spiritual enlightenment, and all the world receive this
heavenly blessing,” and that its inhabitants might “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.” It is in connection with its people that He has
affirmed that they are “indeed worthy of being the first to
build the Tabernacle of the Great Peace and proclaim the oneness of
mankind.”

THE UNITED STATES IS SIGNALLY BLEST

This nation so signally blest, occupying so eminent and
responsible a position in a continent so wonderfully endowed, was the
first among the nations of the West to be warmed and illuminated by
the rays of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,
soon after the proclamation of His Covenant on the morrow of His
ascension. This nation, moreover, may well claim to have, as a result
of its effective participation in both the first and second world
wars, redressed the balance, saved mankind the horrors of devastation
and bloodshed involved in the prolongation of hostilities, and
decisively contributed, in the course of the latter conflict, to the
overthrow of the exponents of ideologies fundamentally at variance
with the universal tenets of our Faith.

To her President, the immortal Woodrow Wilson, must be
ascribed the unique honor, among the statesmen of any nation, whether
of the East or of the West, of having voiced sentiments so akin to
the principles animating the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh,
and of having more than any other world leader, contributed to the
creation of the League of Nations—achievements which the pen of
the Center of God’s Covenant acclaimed as signalizing the dawn
of the Most Great Peace, whose sun, according to that same pen, must
needs arise as the direct consequence of the enforcement of the laws
of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.

To the matchless position achieved by so preeminent a
president of the American Union, in a former period, at so critical a
juncture in international affairs, must now be added the splendid
initiative taken, in recent years by the American government,
culminating in the birth of the successor of that League in San
Francisco, and the establishment of its permanent seat in the city of
New York. Nor can the preponderating influence exerted by this nation
in the councils of the world, the prodigious economic and political
power that it wields, the prestige it enjoys, the wealth of which it
disposes, the idealism that animates its people, her magnificent
contribution, as a result of her unparalleled productive power, for
the relief of human suffering and the rehabilitation of peoples and
nations, be overlooked in a survey of the position which she holds,
and which distinguishes her from her sister nations in both the new
and old worlds.

TRIBULATIONS ARE INEVITABLE

Many and divers are the setbacks and reverses which this
nation, extolled so highly by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and
occupying at present so unique a position among its fellow nations,
must, alas, suffer. The road leading to its destiny is long, thorny
and tortuous. The impact of various forces upon the structure and
polity of that nation will be tremendous. Tribulations, on a scale
unprecedented in its history, and calculated to purge its
institutions, to purify the hearts of its people, to fuse its
constituent elements, and to weld it into one entity with its sister
nations in both hemispheres, are inevitable.

In one of the most remarkable Tablets revealed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, passages of which have already been
quoted on previous occasions, written in the evening of His life,
soon after the termination of the first World War, He anticipates, in
succinct and ominous sentences, the successive ebullitions which must
afflict humanity, and whose full force the American nation must, if
her destiny is to be accomplished, inevitably experience. “The
ills from which the world now suffers,” He wrote, “will
multiply; the gloom which envelops it will deepen. The Balkans will
remain discontented. Its restlessness will increase. The vanquished
powers will continue to agitate. They will resort to every measure
that may rekindle the flame of war. Movements, newly born and
world-wide in their range, will exert their utmost effort for the
advancement of their designs. The Movement of the Left will acquire
great importance. Its influence will spread.”

The agitation in the Balkan Peninsula; the feverish
activity in which Germany and Italy played a disastrous role,
culminating in the outbreak of the second World War; the rise of the
Fascist and Nazi movements, which spread their ramifications to
distant parts of the globe; the spread of communism which, as a
result of the victory of Soviet Russia in that same war, has been
greatly accelerated—all these happenings, some unequivocally,
others in veiled language, have been forecast in this Tablet, the
full force of whose implications are as yet undisclosed, and which,
we may well anticipate, the American nation, as yet insufficiently
schooled by adversity, must sooner or later experience.

AMERICA TO EVOLVE UNTIL LAST TASK IS
DISCHARGED

Whatever the Hand of a beneficent and inscrutable
Destiny has reserved for this youthful, this virile, this idealistic,
this spiritually blessed and enviable nation, however severe the
storms which may buffet it in the days to come in either hemisphere,
however sweeping the changes which the impact of cataclysmic forces
from without, and the stirrings of a Divine embryonic Order from
within, will effect in its structure and life, we may, confident in
the words uttered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, feel assured
that that great republic—the shell that enshrines so precious a
member of the world community of the followers of His Father—will
continue to evolve, undivided and undefeatable, until the sum total
of its contributions to the birth, the rise and the fruition of that
world civilization, the child of the Most Great Peace and hallmark of
the Golden Age of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh,
will have been made, and its last task discharged.

[June 5, 1947]

European Pioneers and Temple
Contract

Rejoice at evidences of continued vigorous activity.
Renew plea to believers possessing independent means to volunteer for
European pioneer field, both settlers and itinerant teachers. Eagerly
awaiting response to Convention message. Praying for placing of
Temple contract before termination of current year. Ardently
supplicating unprecedented blessings for manifold, meritorious,
magnificent services. Deepest love.

[July 13, 1947]

Evidences of Notable Expansion

Greatly welcome evidences of a notable expansion of
activities and increased intensification of efforts for publicity. I
urge believers and local assemblies to redouble their efforts in
support of vital National Fund. Praying ardently for realization of
your highest hopes. Appreciate action for preservation of Keith’s
grave. Do not advise you to transmit further funds to Persia for the
grave. I appeal to North American believers to exert their utmost to
insure the formation of required number of assemblies by next April.
Further sacrifices demanded, rich reward assured. May entire body of
American believers arise to fulfill their glorious destiny.

Abiding gratitude, deepest love.

[September 10, 1947]

Effective Prosecution of Sacred
Tasks

The steadily deepening crisis which mankind is
traversing, on the morrow of the severest ordeal it has yet suffered,
and the attendant tribulations and commotions which a travailing age
must necessarily experience, as a prelude to the birth of the new
World Order, destined to rise upon the ruins of a tottering
civilization, must, as they intensify, increasingly influence the
course, and, in some cases, retard the progress, of the collective
enterprises successively launched in the opening years of the second
Bahá’í century, and in almost every continent of
the globe, by the world-wide community of the organized followers of
the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. In the land of
its birth long-standing political rivalries, combined with a steady
decline in the authority and influence exercised by the central
government, are contributing to the reemergence of reactionary
forces, represented by an as yet influential and fanatical
priesthood, to a recrudescence of the persecution, and a
multiplication of the disabilities, to which a still unemancipated
Faith has been so cruelly subjected for more than a century. In the
heart of the continent of Europe, still fiercer political rivalries,
as well as the clash of conflicting ideologies, have prevented the
unification, indefinitely retarded the national revival, multiplied
the vicissitudes and rendered more desperate the plight, of a nation
comprising within its frontiers the largest community of the
adherents of the Faith on that continent—a community destined,
as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to play a major
role in the spiritual awakening and the ultimate conversion of the
European peoples and races to His Father’s Faith. In the
subcontinent of India recent political developments of a momentous
character have plunged its divers castes, races and denominations
into grave turmoil, brought in their wake riots, bloodshed, misery
and confusion, fanned into flame religious animosities, and well-nigh
disrupted its economic life. In the Nile Valley the outbreak of a
widespread and virulent epidemic, following closely upon the
political unrest and the severe economic crisis already afflicting
its inhabitants, threatens to disorganize the life of the nation and
to bring in its wake afflictions of an even more serious character.
In the Holy Land itself, the heart and nerve-center of the far-flung
and firmly knit community of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh,
and the repository of its holiest shrines, already gravely disturbed
by the chronic instability of its political life, the religious
dissensions of its inhabitants, and the ten-year-long strain and
danger to which its people have been subjected and exposed, fresh
perils are looming on its horizon, menacing it, on the one hand with
the ravages of an epidemic that has already taken so heavy a toll of
the lives of the people beyond its southern frontier, and threatening
it, on the other, with a civil war of extreme severity and
unpredictable in its consequences. Subject to the same fundamental
causes which have deranged the equilibrium of present-day society and
corroded its life are to be regarded the privations, the restrictions
and crisis which, to a lesser degree, are oppressing the peoples of
Central and Southeastern Europe, of the British Isles and of certain
republics of Central and South America.

In all these territories, whether in the Eastern or
Western Hemisphere, the nascent institutions of a struggling Faith,
though subjected in varying degrees to the stress and strain
associated with the decline and dissolution of time-honored
institutions, with fratricidal strife, economic upheavals, financial
crises, outbreaks of epidemics and political revolutions, have thus
far, through the interpositions of a merciful Providence, been
graciously enabled to follow their charted course, undeflected by the
cross-currents and the tempestuous winds which must of necessity
increasingly agitate human society ere the hour of its ultimate
redemption approaches.

In contrast to these sorely tried countries on the
European, the Asiatic and the African continents, unlike her sister
republics in either Central or South America, the great republic of
the West—the homeland of that mother community which, fostered
through the tender care of an ever-solicitous Master, has already
proved itself capable of rearing in its turn such splendid progeny
among the divers communities of Latin America, which bids fair to
multiply its daughter communities in a continent of mightier
potentialities—such a republic has been, to a peculiar degree
and over a long and uninterrupted period, relatively free from the
chronic disorders, the political disturbances, the economic
convulsions, the communal riots, the epidemics, the religious
persecutions, the privations and loss of life which, during
successive generations, have in one way or another afflicted so many
peoples in almost every part of the globe.

Singled out by the Almighty for such a unique measure of
favor, suffered to evolve, untrammelled and unperturbed, within the
shell of its God-given Administrative Order, distinguished from its
sister communities through the revelation of a Plan emanating
directly from the mind and pen of its Founder, enriched already by so
many trophies, each an eloquent testimony to its missionary zeal and
valor in distant fields and amidst divers peoples, the Community of
the Most Great Name in the North American continent must, sensible of
the abounding grace vouchsafed to it by Bahá’u’lláh,
resolve, as it has never resolved before, to carry out, however much
it may be buffeted by future circumstances and the unforeseen ordeals
which a heedless and chaotic world may still further experience, the
mission confidently entrusted to its hands by an all-wise and loving
Master.

---

---

Recognition of Preeminent Services

Highly gratified at unceasing, compelling evidences of
exalted spirit of Bahá’í stewardship animating
American Bahá’í Community, as attested by the
alacrity of its national representatives in executing the first
Temple contract, their promptitude in extending effective assistance
to their Persian brethren, their vigilance in safeguarding integrity
of the Faith in the City of the Covenant and their vigor in
prosecuting the national campaign of publicity.

In recognition of preeminent services continually
enriching the record of achievements associated with preeminent
community of the Bahá’í world, I am arranging
transfer of extensive, valuable property acquired in precincts of
Shrines on Mount Carmel to name of Palestine Branch of American
Assembly.

Happy to announce completion of plans and specifications
for erection of arcade surrounding the Báb’s Sepulcher,
constituting the first step in the process destined to culminate in
construction of the dome anticipated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
and marking consummation of enterprise initiated by Him fifty years
ago according to instructions given Him by Bahá’u’lláh.

[December 15, 1947]

Critical Stage of Task on Home Front

I am deeply concerned at critical stage of task
confronting North American Teaching Committee, constituting at this
juncture the paramount objective of present Plan. Owing to urgent,
overriding importance of Committee’s responsibility and to
swiftly approaching time limit fixed for attainment of the goal of
one hundred seventy-five assemblies, emergency measures carefully,
promptly devised by national representatives of the community and
wholeheartedly supported by entire mass of the believers of the North
American continent, designed to safeguard the existing assemblies and
rapidly multiply their number, are imperative. The placing of further
contract for Temple, the reinforcement of basis of forthcoming
Canadian National Spiritual Assembly, the additional consolidation of
the institutions of the Faith in Latin America, the wider
proclamation of its message to the masses, even the multiplication of
pioneers in the European field, should be unhesitatingly subordinated
to demands of the one disconcerting aspect of an otherwise
successfully conducted Plan. I address this last-minute appeal to
every single member of the community, the champion warriors in the
army of Bahá’u’lláh, which since launching
the Plan formulated by the Center of His Covenant never succumbed to
defeat nor was thwarted in its purpose, to arise resolutely,
volunteer instantly to fill the gap in the main defenses of the home
front and register total victory ere the termination of the second
year of the Second Seven Year Plan. Fervently praying for
instantaneous, decisive response.

[January 10, 1948]

No Sacrifice Too Great

The gravity of the emergency facing the North American
believers is unprecedented since the initiation of the Divine Plan
and unparalleled in the history of the American Bahá’í
Community since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing. No
obstacle is insuperable, no sacrifice too great for attainment of
supremely important objective. The eyes of her sister communities in
every continent of the globe and of her daughter communities of Latin
America, handicapped by a variety of adverse circumstances, are fixed
upon the community of followers of Bahá’u’lláh
in North American continent who are enjoying the blessings of
internal peace, adequate resources, administrative experience and
organizing ability for their divinely appointed mission, expecting
them to arise and avert the reverse which would mar the splendor of
their record of unexampled stewardship. I am moved to plead, at this
eleventh hour, that the rank and file of the community, particularly
the members resident in long-established leading strongholds of the
Faith—New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Washington—issue forth unhesitatingly, determinedly, sacrifice
every interest, assume positions in the forefront of the struggle and
emulate in the course of the first decade of second Bahá’í
century, opening years of the second epoch of Formative Age of the
Faith, exploits of their spiritual progenitors, the dawn-breakers of
the Heroic Age, which immortalized the dawn of the first Bahá’í
century. The immediate fortunes of the Plan are precariously hanging
in the balance. The three months’ interval is swiftly running
out. My heart aches at contemplation of the possibility of failure of
the stalwart community to rise to the heights of the occasion. I
refuse to believe that its members, invested with unique apostolic
mission of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, will shrink from meeting
the most challenging requirement of the present hour.

[February 1, 1948]

Prevailing Crisis

Hope is welling up in my anxious, overburdened heart
that the North American Bahá’í Community may yet
emerge triumphant over the prevailing crisis, demonstrate its
capacity to preserve its hard-won prizes and redeem its pledges
through a further display of its qualities of unconquerable faith,
unbreakable solidarity, dauntless valor and heroic self-sacrifice,
and vindicate its right to primacy in the world community of the
followers of Bahá’u’lláh. High water mark
is still unattained notwithstanding the mounting tide of enthusiastic
response displayed by an aroused community. Dangerous passage now
forded in this eleventh-hour campaign. I am fervently praying that
further intensification of effort, sustained, coordinated,
consecrated and unanimously exerted, will sweep its members on crest
of the wave to total victory. I feel assured that cumulative efforts
of participants in emergency campaign launched by entire community
will increasingly attract the promised inflowing grace of the holy
Author of its destinies, will demonstrate afresh its worthiness of
the paternal care of its divine Founder, will win added commendation
from its sister communities of the Eastern Hemisphere, deepen the
admiration and inspire the emulation of its daughter communities in
Latin America and the European continent, and strengthen the
attachment and reinforce the brotherly affection of its Guardian.

[February 13, 1948]

Emergency Teaching Campaign

Greatly encouraged by the splendid progress of the
tremendous drive initiated in response to my appeal. The zero hour is
inexorably approaching. Nineteen additional settlers can and must be
provided. Praying with increasing fervor for total success, complete
victory.

[April 6, 1948]

Marvelous Acceleration
[FIRST
MESSAGE TO 1948 CONVENTION]

I am moved to share with assembled delegates of the
fortieth American Bahá’í Convention the following
facts and figures testifying to the present status of the World Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh and disclosing the marvelous
acceleration in the double process of the extension of its range and
the consolidation of the institutions of its Administrative Order in
the Eastern and Western Hemispheres in the course of the first four
years of the second Bahá’í century.

The number of countries opened to the Faith total
ninety-one. Bahá’í literature is translated and
printed in fifty-one languages. Representatives of thirty-one races
are enrolled in the Bahá’í World Community.
Eighty-eight assemblies, national and local, are incorporated. The
number of localities where Bahá’ís have
established residence has been raised to over thirty in Australasia,
to over forty in Germany and Austria, over sixty in the Dominion of
Canada, over eighty in the Indian subcontinent and Burma, over one
hundred in Latin America, over seven hundred in Persia and to over
twelve hundred in the United States of America.

The value of international Bahá’í
endowments in the Holy Land and the Jordan Valley is estimated at
over six hundred thousand pounds. National Bahá’í
endowments on the North American continent are valued at over two
million dollars. The area of land dedicated to the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
in Persia is approximately four million square meters. The value of
the national Hazíratu’l-Quds in the capitals of India
and Persia respectively is six hundred thousand rupees and fifty
thousand pounds. The area of land dedicated to the first
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in South America is
ninety thousand square meters. The number of pieces of Bahá’í
literature sold and distributed in the course of one year in North
America is over eighty thousand pieces. The record of the number of
visitors to the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in
America in one year is over seventeen thousand and the total number
of visitors since its erection is over one quarter of a million. The
number of states in the American Union formally recognizing Bahá’í
marriage certificates is now eight. The number of national assemblies
functioning in the Bahá’í world is raised to nine
through the formation of the first Canadian National Assembly, to be
shortly reinforced through the constitution of two additional
assemblies in South and Central America and the West Indies.

The second seven-year, the six-year, the four and
one-half year, the six-year, the three-year, the five-year and
forty-five month plans respectively launched by the American,
British, Indian, Australasian, Iráqí, Canadian, and
Persian National Spiritual Assemblies, some culminating at the first
Centennial of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s
mission, others the Hundredth Anniversary of the Báb’s
Martyrdom, are aiming at the establishment of three national
assemblies in Canada and Latin America, the completion of the
interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West, the
formation of spiritual assemblies in ten sovereign states of the
European continent, the constitution of nineteen assemblies in the
British Isles, doubling the number of assemblies in India, Pakistan
and Burma, the reconstitution of the dissolved assemblies and the
establishment of ninety-five new centers in Persia, the conversion of
groups in Bahrein, the Ḥijáz and Afghánistán
into assemblies, the formation of administrative nuclei in the
Arabian territories of Yemen, Oman, Hasa and Kuweit; the formation of
thirty-one groups and seven assemblies in Australia, New Zealand and
Tasmania; the multiplication of centers in the provinces of ‘Iráq,
including the district of Shattu’l-Arab; the incorporation of
the Canadian National Assembly; doubling the number of assemblies and
raising to one hundred the centers in the Dominion of Canada; the
constitution of nuclei in Newfoundland and Greenland and the
participation of Eskimos and Red Indians in the local institutions of
the Administrative Order.

Plans and specifications have been prepared, and
preliminary measures taken, to place contracts for the arcade of the
Báb’s Sepulcher. Historic International Bahá’í
Congresses held in South and Central America and an inter-European
Teaching Conference projected for Geneva paving the way for future
World Bahá’í Congress. Recognition extended to
the Faith by United Nations as international non-governmental body,
enabling appointment of accredited representatives to United Nations
conferences, is heralding world recognition for a universal
proclamation of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

[April 16, 1948]

Brilliant Achievements
[SECOND
MESSAGE TO 1948 CONVENTION]

Joyfully acclaim brilliant achievements transcending
fondest hopes and setting the seal of complete victory on the
stupendous labors undertaken by American Bahá’í
Community in the second year of the Second Seven Year Plan. The
constitution of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, the heroic
feat of raising to almost two hundred the number of spiritual
assemblies in the North American continent, the marvelous expansion
of the daughter communities in Latin America, the successful
conclusion of the preliminary phase of the interior ornamentation of
the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, and the crowning
exploit of the formation of no less than seven assemblies in the
newly opened transcontinental field, endow with everlasting fame the
second epoch of the Formative Age, immeasurably enrich the annals of
the opening decade of the second Bahá’í century,
and constitute a landmark in the unfoldment of the second stage of
the execution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan.

The primacy of the American Bahá’í
Community is reasserted, fully vindicated and completely safeguarded.
Recent successive victories proclaim the undiminished strength and
exemplary valor of the rank and file of the community whether
administrators, teachers or pioneers in three continents regarded as
the latest links in the chain of uninterrupted achievements performed
by its members in the council, and teaching field for over a quarter
of a century. I recall on this joyous occasion with pride, emotion,
thankfulness, the resplendent record of stewardship of this dearly
loved, richly endowed, unflinchingly resolute community, whose
administrators have assumed the preponderating share in perfecting
the machinery of the Administrative Order, whose elected
representatives have raised the edifice and completed the exterior
ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West, whose trail-blazers
opened an overwhelming majority of the ninety-one countries now
included within the pale of the Faith, whose pioneers established
flourishing communities in twenty republics of Latin America, whose
benefactors extended in ample measure assistance in various ways to
their sorely pressed brethren in distant fields, whose members
scattered themselves to thirteen hundred centers in every state of
the American Union, every province of the Dominion of Canada, whose
firmest champion succeeded in winning royalty’s allegiance to
the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, whose heroes
and martyrs laid down their lives in its service in fields as remote
as Honolulu, Buenos Aires, Sidney, Iṣfáhán, whose
vanguard pushed its outposts to the antipodes on the farthest verge
of the South American continent, to the vicinity of the Arctic
Circle, to the northern, southern, and western fringes of the
European continent, whose ambassadors are now convening, on the soil
of one of the newly won territories, its historic first conference
designed to consolidate the newly won prizes, whose spokesmen are
securing recognition of the institutions of Bahá’u’lláh’s
rising World Order in the United Nations.

Appeal to members of the community so privileged, so
loved, so valorous, endowed with such potentialities to unitedly
press forward however afflictive the trials their countrymen may yet
experience, however grievous the tribulations the land of their
heart’s desire may yet suffer, however oppressive an anxiety
the temporary severance of external communications with the World
Center of their Faith may engender, however onerous the tasks still
to be accomplished, until every single obligation under the present
Plan is honorably fulfilled, enabling them to launch in its appointed
time the third crusade destined to bring glorious consummation to the
first epoch in the evolution of their divinely appointed world
mission, fulfill the prophecy uttered by Daniel over twenty centuries
ago, contribute the major share of the world triumph of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh envisaged by the Center of His
Covenant, and hasten the opening of the Golden Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation.

[April 26, 1948]

Support the National Fund

Temple drawings received. Approve design. Urge that you
proceed without delay to place Temple contracts.

I appeal to entire body of believers to arise and
generously support the National Fund in hour of greatest need to
insure uninterrupted progress in the ornamentation of the House of
Worship which, as foretold by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is
already conferring such benefits upon the community.

[May 4, 1948]

Temple Interior Ornamentation and
Arcade of the Báb’s Sepulcher

Delighted at contract for ornamentation, projected
reception (i.e., for UN delegates in Geneva), appointment of new
committees for consolidation of teaching work and noble determination
to pursue unremittingly your God-given task.

Announce to the friends that signature on contracts for
arcade of the Báb’s Sepulcher is synchronizing with
first contract for interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the
West.

[May 14, 1948]

My Appeal to This God-Chosen
Community

The response of the American Bahá’í
Community to the urgent call to arise and remedy a critical situation
has been such as to excite my highest admiration and exceed the hopes
of all those who had waited with anxious hearts for this dangerous
corner to be turned at such an important stage in the prosecution of
the Second Seven Year Plan.

The rapidity with which the challenge has been met, the
strenuous efforts which have been systematically exerted, the zeal
and devotion which have been so abundantly demonstrated, the
resolution and self-sacrifice which have been so strikingly displayed
by the members of a community, burdened with such mighty
responsibilities and intent on maintaining its lead among its sister
communities in East and West, confer great luster on this latest
episode in the history of the prosecution of the Divine Plan. I am
moved to offer its high-minded and valiant members my heartfelt
congratulations on so conspicuous a victory, and on the preservation
of an unblemished record of achievements in the service of the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh.

The formation of the Canadian National Assembly, the
conclusion of the preliminary steps for the completion of the
interior ornamentation of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,
the rapid multiplication and consolidation of the institutions of the
Faith throughout Latin America, the steady expansion of the
activities aiming at the proclamation of the Faith to the masses, the
recognition secured, on behalf of the national institutions of a
world community, from the United Nations Organization, above all the
phenomenal success achieved through the constitution of no less than
eight spiritual assemblies in seven of the goal countries selected as
targets for the transatlantic operation of the Plan, now crowned by
the holding of the first teaching conference on the continent of
Europe—all these have served to immortalize the second year of
the Second Seven Year Plan and round out the mighty feat accomplished
throughout the states and provinces of the North American
continent—the base from which the operation of a divinely
impelled and constantly expanding Plan are being conducted.

Emboldened by the enduring and momentous successes won,
on so many fronts, in such distant fields, among such a diversity of
peoples, and in the face of such formidable obstacles, by a community
now launched, in both hemispheres, on its world-encircling mission, I
direct my appeal to the entire membership of this God-chosen
community, to its associates and daughter communities in the Dominion
of Canada, in Central and South America, and in the continent of
Europe, to proclaim, in the course of this current year, to their
sister communities in East and West and by deeds no less resplendent
than those of the past, their inflexible resolve to prosecute
unremittingly the Plan entrusted to their care, and emblazon on their
shields the emblems of new victories in its service.

The placing, with care and promptitude, of the
successive contracts, designed to ensure the uninterrupted progress
of the interior ornamentation of the Temple, at a time when the
international situation is fraught with so many complications and
perils; the acceleration of the twofold process designed to preserve
the status of the present assemblies throughout the states of the
Union and multiply their number; the constant broadening of the bases
on which the projected Latin American national assemblies are to be
securely founded; the steady expansion of the work initiated to give
wider publicity to the Faith in the North American continent and in
circles associated with the United Nations; and, last but not least,
the constitution of firmly established assemblies in each of the
remaining goal countries in Europe and the simultaneous initiation,
in the countries already provided with such assemblies, of measures
aiming at the formation of several nuclei calculated to reinforce the
structural basis of an infant Administrative Order—these stand
out as the primary and inescapable duties which the members of your
Assembly—the mainspring of the multitudinous activities carried
on in your homeland, in the Latin American field, and on the European
front—must in this third year of the Second Seven Year Plan,
befittingly discharge.

That the launching of one of these fundamental
activities to be conducted by your Assembly during the present
year—the commencement of the interior ornamentation of the
Mother Temple of the West—should have so closely synchronized
with the placing of the first two contracts for the completion of the
Sepulcher of the Báb, as contemplated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
is indeed a phenomenon of singular significance. This conjunction of
two events of historic importance, linking, in a peculiar degree, the
most sacred House of Worship in the American continent with the most
hallowed Shrine on the slopes of Mount Carmel, brings vividly to mind
the no less remarkable coincidence marking the simultaneous holding,
on a Naw-Rúz Day, of the first convention of the American
Bahá’í Community and the entombment by the Center
of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant of the
remains of the Báb in the newly constructed vault of His
Shrine.1
The simultaneous arrival of those remains in the fortress city of
Akká and of the first pilgrims from the continent of America;2
the subsequent association of the founder of the American Bahá’í
Community with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the laying of the
cornerstone of the Báb’s Mausoleum on Mount Carmel; the
holding of the Centenary of His Declaration beneath the dome of the
recently constructed Mashriqu’l-Adhkár at
Wilmette, on which solemn occasion His blessed portrait was unveiled,
on western soil, to the eyes of His followers; and the unique
distinction now conferred on a member3
of the North American Bahá’í Community of
designing the dome, envisaged by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as
the final and essential embellishment of the Báb’s
Sepulcher—all these have served to associate the Herald of our
Faith and His resting-place with the fortunes of a community which
has so nobly responded to His summons addressed to the “peoples
of the West” in His Qayyúmu’l-Asmá.

“This Sublime Shrine has remained unbuilt …,”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, looking at the Shrine from the steps
of His House on an August day in 1915, remarked to some of His
companions, at a time when the Báb’s remains had already
been placed by Him in the vault of one of the six chambers He had
already constructed for that purpose. “God willing, it will be
accomplished. We have carried its construction to this stage.”

The initiation in these days of extreme peril in the
Holy Land of so great and holy an enterprise, founded by Bahá’u’lláh
Himself whilst still a Prisoner in Akká and commenced by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá during the darkest and most perilous
days of His ministry, recalls to our minds, furthermore, the
construction of the superstructure of the Temple in Wilmette during
one of the severest financial crises that has afflicted the United
States of America, and the completion of its exterior ornamentation
during the dark days of the last World War. Indeed, the tragic and
moving story of the transfer of the Báb’s mutilated body
from place to place ever since His Martyrdom in Tabríz, its
fifty-year concealment in Persia; its perilous and secret journey by
way of Ṭihrán, Iṣfáhán, Kirmansháh,
Baghdád, Damascus, Beirut and Akká to the
Mountain of God, its ultimate resting place; its concealment for a
further period of ten years in the Holy Land itself; the vexatious
and long-drawn-out negotiations for the purchase of the site chosen
by Bahá’u’lláh Himself for its entombment;
the threats of ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd, the Turkish
tyrant, the accusations levelled against its Trustee, the plots
devised, and the inspection made, by the scheming members of the
notorious Turkish Commission of Inquiry; the perils to which the
bloodthirsty Jamál Páshá exposed it; the
machinations of the arch-breaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant, of His brother and of His son, respectively, aiming at the
frustration of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s design, at the
prevention of the sale of land within the precincts of the Shrine
itself, and the multiplication of the measures taken for the
preservation and consolidation of the properties purchased in its
vicinity and dedicated to it—all these are to be regarded as
successive stages in the history of the almost hundred year long
process destined to culminate in the consummation of Bahá’u’lláh’s
irresistible purpose of erecting a lasting and befitting memorial to
His Divine Herald and Co-Founder of His Faith.

As the mission entrusted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
to the followers of His Faith in the North American continent gathers
momentum, unfolds its potentialities, and raises to new heights of
heroism and renown its valiant prosecutors, events of still greater
significance will, no doubt, transpire, which will serve to enhance
the value of the work which the prosecutors of the Plan are carrying
out, to widen their vision, to reinforce their exertions, to sustain
their spirit, to ennoble their heritage, to noise abroad their fame,
to facilitate their assumption of the unique functions distinguishing
their stewardship to the Faith, and to hasten the advent of the day,
which shall witness, in the Golden Age that is still unborn, their
“elevation to the throne of an everlasting dominion,” the
day whereon “the whole earth” will “resound with
the praises” of their “majesty and greatness.”

[May 18, 1948]

Urge Special Attention to Goals

Welcome decisions made at recent Assembly meeting.
Supplicating blessings for forthcoming conference with committees.
Elated by magnificent success achieved at European Conference,
development of affiliation with United Nations… Urge you devote
special attention in current year to insure rapid progress of Temple
construction, maintenance of assembly status and consolidation of
newly formed assemblies.

[June 23, 1948]

Praying for Added Fervor

Greatly welcome initiated plans for schools, delighted
at progress of Temple work, acceptance of resolutions by UNO
Conference, election of Ioas. Urge unrelaxing vigilance in
maintenance of status and consolidation of assemblies in North
America, to insure steady expansion of manifold activities in Latin
America and Europe. Praying for added fervor, speedy realization of
high objectives of God-given mission of much-admired American Bahá’í
Community.

[August 9, 1948]

Completed Tasks Release Outpouring
of Grace

Welcome Assembly’s high resolve to insure
uninterrupted Temple construction. Deeply moved and thankful for
continued evidence of the inflexible determination with which the
rank and file of the clear-sighted, high-minded, divinely sustained
American Bahá’í Community, its representatives,
national, local and regional, its pioneers at home and overseas,
discharge in distant fields, despite the smallness of their numbers
and their limited resources, tasks of such vast dimensions, of so
diversified a character, of such great moment, at so significant a
stage in the declining fortunes of an imperiled society. I feel
convinced that unflinching maintenance of so exalted a standard of
stewardship at the threshold of Bahá’u’lláh
must release in still greater measure the outpouring of His grace so
essential and befitting the consummation of a Divine Plan deriving
its authority from the pen of the Center of His Covenant and
propelled by agencies created through the generative influence of His
Will and Testament.

[September 14, 1948]

Appeal to Entire Community to
Persevere

Appreciate Assembly’s message. Praying for success
of plans. Urge special effort to expedite work of Temple, reinforce
pioneer endeavor in Europe owing to deteriorating international
situation. Appeal to entire community wholeheartedly to persevere
irrespective of darkened outlook.

[October 21, 1948]

Scale Nobler Heights of Heroism

The deepening crisis ominously threatening further to
derange the equilibrium of a politically convulsed, economically
disrupted, socially subverted, morally decadent and spiritually
moribund society is testing the tenacity, taxing the resources and
challenging the spirit throughout three continents of the chosen
trustees and valiant executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan. This present hour, however critical, fraught with
uncertainty, cannot and must not retard the unfoldment of the
manifold tasks so brilliantly inaugurated, so diligently prosecuted,
so dazzling in their prospects.

The record of the Bahá’í community
since inception of the Formative Age conclusively demonstrates that
accomplishment of signal acts accompanied, or followed upon, periods
of acute distress in European and American contemporary history. The
machinery of the Administrative Order was established, and
preliminary stage of construction of the House of Worship was
undertaken, by a grief-stricken community in the anxious years
following the sudden removal of its loving, watchful Founder. The
superstructure of the Temple was erected amid the strain and stress
of an economic depression of an unprecedented severity gripping the
North American continent. The first Seven Year Plan, opening stage in
the execution of the historic mission entrusted to the American
Bahá’í Community, was launched in the face of a
gathering storm culminating in the direst conflict yet experienced by
mankind. The Tablets of the Divine Plan were revealed amidst the
turmoil of the first World War involving great danger to the life of
their Author. The remains of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
mother and brother were transferred to site of monuments constituting
focus of institutions of future World Administrative Center and
erected on the morrow of the outbreak of hostilities while the Holy
Land was increasingly exposed to the perils precipitated by the
second conflict. The daughter communities of Latin America were
called into being and exterior ornamentation of the Temple was
consummated while the American mother community was in the throes of
the last, most harassing stage of the devastating struggle. The
world-wide Centenary celebrations crowning these enterprises were
undertaken in such perilous circumstances and carried out despite the
formidable obstacles engendered through prolongation of hostilities.
National administrative headquarters were established in Ṭihrán,
Cairo, Baghdád, Delhi and Sydney, national and
international endowments were enriched and assemblies incorporated in
countries confronted by growing threat of invasion and encirclement.

The Second Seven Year Plan inaugurating the
transatlantic mission embracing Scandinavia, the Low Countries,
Switzerland, the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, was launched on the
morrow of the catastrophic upheaval despite the exhaustion,
confusion, distress and restrictions afflicting a war-shattered
continent. The first fruits of this newly launched Plan were garnered
through convocation of first European Teaching Conference and
erection of the ninth pillar of the Universal House of Justice in the
Dominion of Canada despite premonitory rumblings of a third ordeal
threatening to engulf the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The
central structure of the Báb’s Sepulcher was built while
the precious life of its builder was hanging perilously in the
balance. Plans were drawn, contracts placed and foundations laid for
its arcade while the holy places were ravaged by flames of the civil
strife burning fiercely in the Holy Land.

Precious years are inexorably slipping by. The world
outlook is steadily darkening. The American Community’s most
arduous feats still lie ahead. Disasters overtaking Europe and
America, more afflictive than any tribulations yet suffered in either
continent, may yet attend still more majestic revelations in the
unfoldment of concluding stage of the Second Seven Year Plan destined
to witness successively the raising of the tenth and eleventh pillars
of the Universal House of Justice, and the celebration of the Golden
Jubilee of the Mother Temple of the West.

The champion builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s
rising World Order must scale nobler heights of heroism as humanity
plunges into greater depths of despair, degradation, dissension and
distress. Let them forge ahead into the future serenely confident
that the hour of their mightiest exertions and the supreme
opportunity for their greatest exploits must coincide with the
apocalyptic upheaval marking the lowest ebb in mankind’s
fast-declining fortunes.

[November 3, 1948]

The Citadel of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh

As the threat of still more violent convulsions
assailing a travailing age increases, and the wings of yet another
conflict, destined to contribute a distinct, and perhaps a decisive,
share to the birth of the new Order which must signalize the advent
of the Lesser Peace, darken the international horizon, the eyes of
the divers communities, comprising the body of the organized
followers of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the
Eastern Hemisphere, are being increasingly fixed upon the progressive
unfoldment of the tasks which the executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Mandate have been summoned to undertake in the course of the second
stage of their world-girdling mission. Past experience, ranging over
a period of many years, has taught them that no matter how formidable
the external obstacles that have confronted them during the turbulent
and eventful decades since the Master’s passing, and despite
the strain and stress which internal crises, precipitated by enemies
from within and by adverse economic circumstances afflicting their
country, have imposed, the stalwart occupants of the citadel of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh have with
extraordinary steadfastness, enviable fidelity and magnificent
courage, not only shielded the interests, preserved the integrity and
demonstrated the worthiness, of the Cause they have embraced, but
have sallied forth, with dynamic and irrepressible energy, to implant
its banner and establish its outposts in countries and continents far
beyond the original scene of their operations.

---

---

---

Budget Approved for 1949–1950

Approve committing community to amounts proposed for
1949 and 1950 in your letter of November 11. Urgent to curtail if
necessary expenditure on Public Relations, National Programming and
Radio during the next two years. Ardently praying for solution of
problem, removal of difficulties, attainment of high objectives.

[November 25, 1948]

Preliminary Temple Contracts

Welcome preliminary contracts for Temple and
determination to ensure completion. Advise drastic reduction in
appropriation for activities except budgets for Latin America and
European campaign, if maximum sum for Temple is exceeded. Praying for
removal of difficulties, continual divine guidance, wise conduct of
manifold activities for Faith. Deepest love.

[December 10, 1948]

Arcade for the Shrine of the Báb

Convey to believers the joyful news of the safe delivery
on Mt. Carmel of a consignment of thirty-two granite monolith
columns, part of the initial shipment of material ordered for
construction of the arcade of the Báb’s Sepulcher,
designed to envelop and preserve the sacred previous structure reared
by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Building operations are soon
starting notwithstanding the difficulties of the present situation. I
am supplicating the Almighty’s guidance and sustaining grace
for successive stages of an enterprise envisaged sixty years ago by
Bahá’u’lláh, initiated by the Center of His
Covenant, designed to culminate as contemplated by Him in erection of
a superstructure to be crowned by a golden dome marking the
consummation at the heart of the Mountain of God of the momentous
undertaking born through the generating influence of the Will of the
Founder of our beloved Faith, so dear to the heart of His blessed
Son, and dedicated to the memory of the Martyr-Prophet, the immortal
Herald of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

[December 13, 1948]

Drastic Budget Reduction

Further drastic reduction in budget for next two years
including temporary suspension of Public Relations, National
Programming, radio activities; World Order, Bahá’í
World publications permissible if necessary.

[December 22, 1948]

Further Budget Reduction

Advise plan two. Urge, however, maintain permanent
entrance ways, vestibules and metal doors. Also permanent rubber tile
or terrazzo floor. Considering soaring prices, shortness of period,
weighty issues involved, approve still more drastic reduction of
budget, complete suspension during two years of appropriations for
activities unconnected with European project, Latin American work and
assembly consolidation in United States.

[January 13, 1949]

(“Plan two” refers to a series of possible
Temple construction schedules submitted to the Guardian.)

Curtailment of Some Activities

Budgets for activities in Europe, Latin America and
consolidation work in United States should not be reduced owing to
their vital relation to Second Seven Year Plan. All other activities,
whether connected with proclamation of Faith, publications, Bahá’í
Magazine, Bahá’í World or schools, should either
be drastically curtailed or suspended during two years. Holding
Annual Convention and maintenance of Bahá’í News
essential.

[January 19, 1949]

Divert Contributions to Temple Fund

Advise that you divert contributions for International
Fund to Temple Fund, and suspend World Order Magazine.

[February 26, 1949]

Suspend World Order Magazine

Advise you to suspend magazine for next two years.
Appeal on my behalf to subscribers in East and West to devote their
subscription fee to Temple Fund. Owing to present emergency such
action would be highly meritorious.

[February 28, 1949]

A Testing Period Recalling Ordeals
of the Dawn-Breakers

The first half of the opening decade of the second
Bahá’í century is terminating. The great-minded,
stout-hearted, high-spirited American Bahá’í
Community, laden with the trophies accumulated in the course of its
fifty years’ magnificent stewardship of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh is irresistibly embarking upon
a two and a half year period unsurpassed in its fateful consequences
by any previous stage traversed in the community’s eventful
history.

Its members, without exception, are called upon to steel
themselves without delay to face an unexpected emergency, seize a
God-given opportunity, meet a supreme challenge, and show forth a
tenacity of purpose, a solidarity in sacrifice, an austerity in
everyday life, worthy the Martyr-Prophet of their Faith as well as
their heroic spiritual forebears, the hundredth anniversary of whose
agonizing tribulations, including captivity, sieges, betrayals,
spoliation and martyrdom, is being commemorated during this same
period.

No lesser tribute can be paid the memory of the glorious
Báb, the immortal Quddús, the lion-hearted Mullá
Ḥusayn, the erudite Vahíd, the audacious Hujjat, the
illustrious seven martyrs of Ṭihrán and a host of
unnumbered heroes whose lifeblood flowed so copiously in the course
of the opening decade of the first Bahá’í
century, by the privileged champion-builders of the World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh during the present critical
stage in the unfoldment of the Formative Age of His Dispensation,
than a parallel outpouring of their substance by the builders of the
most holy House of Worship laboring in the corresponding decade of
the succeeding century.

The American Bahá’í Community,
exalted, singled out among sister communities of East and West
through revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, is unavoidably
approaching a testing period, crucial, prolonged, potent, purifying,
clearly envisaged by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, different from
but recalling in its severity the ordeals which afflicted the
dawn-breakers in a former Age.

The anticipated trials will enable its members to plumb
greater depths of consecration, soar to nobler heights of collective
endeavor, and disclose in fuller measure the future glory of their
destiny.

Might not the strain, the stress, of the strenuous
period now being ushered in through inscrutable dispensations of
Providence be productive of perspicuous benefits and blessings
reminiscent of the incalculable outpourings of divine grace which
followed closely in the train of the woeful trials immortalizing the
initial, the bloodiest, the most dramatic period in the Heroic Age of
the Bahá’í Dispensation.

[March 16, 1949]

Arcade of the Báb’s
Shrine Begun

Convey to friends the joyful historic news of
commencement of construction of arcade of the Báb’s
Shrine coinciding with fortieth anniversary of the placing of His
remains in marble sarcophagus in vault of the same shrine by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

[March 21, 1949]

One Remaining Objective Hangs in the
Balance

The American Bahá’í Community,
undefeated as yet in the performance of any task undertaken
collectively by its members, in the course of its eventful history,
is now entering a period of grave emergency, that will try the mettle
of every single one of its members. Severe as the challenge will be,
however prolonged the test, no matter how distracting the condition
of the world about them, the issues which claim every ounce of their
energy and call for their sustained, wholehearted, concentrated
attention are so weighty that none can evaluate at present the
influence they will exert on the course of the community’s
future destiny.

There can be no doubt that the Second Seven Year Plan,
the vital link binding the initial and concluding stages of the first
epoch in the progressive evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
long-term continually unfolding Plan, has reached its crucial phase—a
phase on which hinge the fortunes not only of the Plan itself but of
the community as a whole. The fourth objective of the Plan, the
transatlantic project, on which its members have embarked, has, four
years ahead of schedule, been, to all intents and purposes,
victoriously achieved. The third objective has been partly attained,
while its complete fulfillment, as a direct consequence of the
marvelous success that has attended the valiant labors of the
American pioneers and the newly enrolled native believers in Latin
America, appears to be now fully assured. The attainment of the first
objective has, as a result of the remarkable impetus given, during
the opening years of the Plan, to the multiplication of spiritual
assemblies and the proclamation of the Faith in North America, been
greatly facilitated, and will, with steady effort, involving not too
great an expenditure of energy, be insured in the course of the
concluding phase of the Plan. The completion of the Mother Temple of
the West, the sacredness of which neither the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of the Bahá’í world, nor any future House of
Worship to be erected by the followers of Bahá’u’lláh,
in any country, at any future date, can rival, in time for the
celebration of its Jubilee, is the one remaining objective that now
hangs precariously in the balance. Owing to a combination of
circumstances wholly beyond the control of its builders, this task
has assumed a critical importance, and is of such vital urgency, that
no prosecutor of the Plan, eager to witness its consummation, can
afford to ignore for a moment.

The sacrifice demanded is such as to have no parallel
whatsoever in the history of that community. The manifold issues
inextricably interwoven with the campaign audaciously launched for
the achievement of this high objective are of such a weighty
character as to overshadow every enterprise embarked upon through the
organized efforts of its members, in either the concluding years of
the Heroic Age of the Faith or the first epoch of the Age which
succeeded it. The two years during which this emergency will be most
keenly felt coincide on the one hand with a period of increasing
distraction occasioned by the uncertainties, the perils and fears of
a steadily worsening international situation, and on the other with
the centenary of one of the most turbulent, afflictive and glorious
stages of Bahá’í history—a stage
immortalized by an effusion of blood, a self-abnegation, a heroism
unsurpassed not only in the annals of the Faith but in the world’s
spiritual history. How meritorious, indeed, are the self-denying acts
which this supremely challenging hour now calls forth, amidst the
perplexities and confusion which present-day society is now
experiencing! And yet, how trifling in comparison with the
self-immolation of the most distinguished, the most precious heroes
and saints of the Primitive Age of our glorious Faith! An outpouring
of treasure, no less copious than the blood shed so lavishly in the
Apostolic Age of the Faith by those who in the heart of the Asiatic
continent proclaimed its birth to the world, can befit their
spiritual descendants, who, in the present Formative Age of the
Bahá’í Dispensation, have championed the Cause,
and assumed so preponderating a share in the erection of its
Administrative Order, and are now engaged in the final stage of the
building of the House that incarnates the soul of that Faith in the
American continent. No sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure
the completion of such an edifice—the most holy House of
Worship ever to be associated with the Faith of the Most Great
Name—an edifice whose inception has shed such a luster on the
closing years of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation, which has assumed a concrete shape in the present
Formative stage in the evolution of our beloved Faith, whose
dependencies must spring into existence in the course of successive
epochs of this same Age, and whose fairest fruits will be garnered in
the Age that is to come, the last, the Golden Age of the initial and
brightest Dispensation of the five-thousand-century Bahá’í
Cycle.

“A most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear
in the world of existence,” are ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
own words, predicting the release of spiritual forces that must
accompany the completion of this most hallowed House of Worship.
“From that point of light,” He, further glorifying that
edifice, has written, “the spirit of teaching … will permeate
to all parts of the world.” And again: “Out of this
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, without doubt,
thousands of Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs will be
born.” “It marks the inception of the Kingdom of God on
earth.”

Again I repeat—and I cannot overrate the vital,
the unique importance of the campaign now launched to insure the
completion of such an edifice—the immediate destiny of the
American Bahá’í Community is intimately and
inescapably bound up with the outcome of this newly launched, this
severely trying, soul-purging, spiritually uplifting campaign. The
God-given mission, constituting the birthright, and proclaiming the
primacy of a community whose members the Founder of that community,
the Center of the Covenant Himself, has addressed as the “Apostles
of Bahá’u’lláh,” can only be
fulfilled if they befittingly obey the specific Mandate issued by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Tablets of the Divine Plan.
The execution of this Mandate is, in its turn, dependent upon the
triumphant conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan, the second stage
in the series of specific plans formulated to insure the successful
termination of the opening phase in the execution of that Mandate.
Indeed, the successive plans, inaugurated since the birth of the
second Bahá’í century, by the British, the
Indian, the Persian, the Australia-New Zealand, the Iráqí,
the German and the Egyptian National Assemblies, with the exception
of the plan undertaken by the Canadian National Assembly, which forms
an integral part of the Plan associated with the Tablets of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, are but supplements to the vast
enterprise whose features have been delineated in those Tablets and
are to be regarded, by their very nature, as regional in scope, in
contrast with the world-embracing character of the mission entrusted
to the community of the champion builders of the World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh, and the torch-bearers of the
civilization which that Order must eventually establish. As to the
Second Seven Year Plan itself, its eventual success must depend on
the attainment of its second and most vital objective. This
objective, in its turn, cannot be achieved unless the two-year
campaign, now launched by the elected representatives of this
community, is successfully carried out. Nor can this campaign yield
its richest fruit unless and until the community, in its entirety,
participates in this nation-wide sacrificial effort. Nor can this
collective effort be blessed, to the fullest extent possible, unless
the contributions made by its members involve acts of
self-abnegation, not only on the part of those of modest means, but
also by those endowed with substantial resources. Nor, indeed, can
these self-denying acts, by both the rich and the poor, be productive
of the fullest possible benefit unless this sacrificial effort is
neither momentary nor haphazard, but rather systematic and continuous
throughout the period of the present emergency.

Then and only then will this holy edifice, symbol and
harbinger of a world civilization as yet unborn, and the embodiment
of the sacrifice of a multitude of the upholders of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh, release the full measure of
the regenerative power with which it has been endowed, shed in all
its plenitude the glory of the Most Holy Spirit dwelling within it,
and vindicate, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the truth of every
single promise recorded by the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
pertaining to its destiny.

No more befitting consummation for this magnificent
enterprise can be envisaged than that this noble edifice, whose
cornerstone has been laid by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
own hands, the preliminary measure for whose construction
synchronized with the formal interment of the Báb’s
remains on Mt. Carmel, within whose walls the first Centenary of the
birth of His ministry has been celebrated, whose interior
ornamentation has coincided with the construction of the arcade of
His Sepulcher, should be vouchsafed the honor of having the Jubilee
of its inception coincide with, and celebrated on the occasion of,
the Centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s
prophetic Mission in the Síyáh-Chál of
Ṭihrán.

[April 11, 1949]

Process of Expansion
Accelerates
[MESSAGE TO 1949 CONVENTION]

Desire to share with attendants at Forty-first American
Bahá’í Convention feelings of joyous gratitude
evoked by the steady acceleration of the dual process of expansion
and consolidation of the Bahá’í World Community
as well as the perspicuous evidences of divine protection vouchsafed
the World Center of the Faith during the course of the third year of
the Second Seven Year Plan. The number of countries included within
the pale of the Faith is ninety-four. Languages into which Bahá’í
literature is translated, and assemblies, local and national,
incorporated, now total fifty-six and one hundred five, respectively.
Bahá’í literature now being translated into
fourteen additional languages. The number of centers in Latin America
is one hundred and nine. The fourth objective of the present Plan has
been achieved four years ahead of schedule through the formation of a
spiritual assembly in each of the ten goal countries on the European
continent. Centers established in these countries total thirty-one,
newly enrolled native believers, one hundred fifty-four. Nearly a
million dollar drive to complete the Mother Temple of the West has
been auspiciously launched and construction of interior sections of
the ornamentation initiated. Number of settlements in Greenland
provided with Bahá’í scriptures raised to
forty-eight, including Thule beyond the Arctic Circle and Etah near
eightieth latitude. Number of American states, territories and
federal districts recognizing Bahá’í marriage
raised to eighteen. Restoration of the newly acquired German national
Hazíratu’l-Quds at Frankfurt has been commenced.
Formulation of five year plans for German and Egyptian National
Assemblies, culminating at the Centenary of the Birth of
Bahá’u’lláh’s prophetic Mission,
completes the number of national assemblies pledged to achieve within
appointed time specified goals in five continents. The European
Teaching Conference convened at Geneva inaugurating series of annual
gatherings designed to consolidate the tremendously significant
transatlantic project. Bahá’í observers
accredited by United Nations participated in Conference on Human
Rights, Geneva; United Nations General Assembly, Paris. Bahá’í
representative attended Luxembourg general conference of world
movement for world federation. First all red Indian Assembly
consolidated at Macy, Nebraska. Building operations on arcade of
Báb’s Sepulcher commenced forty years after official
interment of His remains by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Prolonged hostilities ravaging Holy Land providentially terminated.
Bahá’í holy places, unlike those belonging to
other faiths, miraculously safeguarded. Perils no less grave than
those which threatened the World Center of the Faith under
‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd and Jamál Páshá
and through Hitler’s intended capture of the Near East,
averted. Independent sovereign state within confines of Holy Land
established and recognized, marking termination of
twenty-century-long provincial status. Formal assurance of the
protection of Bahá’í holy sites and continuation
of Bahá’í pilgrimage given by Prime Minister of
newly emerged state. Official invitation extended by its government
on the historic occasion of the opening of the state’s first
parliament. Official record of Bahá’í marriage
endorsed, Bahá’í endowments exempted by
responsible authorities of the same state. Best wishes for the future
welfare of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
conveyed in writing by the newly elected head of the state in reply
to congratulatory message addressed him upon assumption of his
office. Appeal to entire community, through assembled delegates, in
thankful recognition of the manifold blessings vouchsafed the Faith
and in response to the alert sounded for the present emergency, to
arise and demonstrate more conspicuously than ever before, through
greater austerity at home and increasing audacity in foreign fields,
both in Latin America and Europe, their grim determination at
whatever cost, no matter how crucial the test, however long the
period, however herculean the labor, to carry forward unremittingly
their task to its triumphant conclusion.

[April 25, 1949]

Welcome Initial Victory

Greatly welcome, much impressed by remarkable feat of
initial victory collectively achieved by self-sacrificing efforts of
invincible, far-visioned, forward-marching American Bahá’í
Community. Ultimate victory now in sight bidding fair to bring
present emergency period to triumphant conclusion, seal fate of
Second Seven Year Plan and open prospect of glorious inauguration at
appointed time of third collective Plan designed to terminate initial
chapter in story of mysterious unfoldment of Divine Plan. Rejoice
particularly at formulation of teaching plans so vitally linked with
immediate destiny of Temple enterprise. Owing to relaxation of
pressure occasioned by critical situation advise direct special
attention to invigorate activities conducted in Latin America and
European continent. Need for voluntary, self-supporting, wholly
dedicated pioneers calculated to supplement newly launched
undertaking in both fields is still pressing and acquiring greater
urgency owing to approaching emergence of Latin American national
assemblies and necessity to consolidate swiftly the newly-formed
local assemblies in ten European goal countries. Heart uplifted at
contemplation of mighty range of accomplishments embracing so vast a
field in both hemispheres. Prayers continually ascending to Abhá
throne both in thanksgiving for marvelous bounties already vouchsafed
and in supplication for renewal of strength for attainment of future
goals.

[June 29, 1949]

Supplicating Blessing for American
Activities

Delighted by progress of Temple work. Highly approve,
deeply appreciate suggestion to defray expenses of German
representative to Brussels conference. Supplicating Almighty’s
blessing for manifold activities pursued, unrelaxing vigilance,
unflinching determination, exemplary self-sacrifice in three
continents by divinely sustained American Bahá’í
Community.

[July 20, 1949]

Corners of Shrine Arcade Under
Construction

Inform friends of commencement of construction on three
corners of arcade of Shrine. Six granite pilasters already erected,
twelve columns will be raised shortly. Forwarding photographs for
publicity purposes.

[August 7, 1949]

This Hour, Crowded With Destiny

The efforts exerted, and the results achieved, by the
members of the American Bahá’í Community during
the opening months of the two-year emergency period are such as to
merit the highest commendation and praise. They will, if the effort
be sustained, evoke the admiration of the entire Bahá’í
world, which is now watching, with feelings of wonder and expectancy,
the outcome of the tremendous labor of this community now confronted
with one of the most challenging, arduous and far-reaching tasks ever
undertaken in its history.

The great forward stride that has already been
undertaken, during so short a period, augurs well for the ultimate
victory, now within sight—a victory which will pave the way for
the successful execution of a seven-year enterprise, destined, in its
turn, to enable its executors to launch, at the appointed time, the
third and most glorious stage in the initial unfoldment of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s unique and grand design for
that privileged and conspicuously blessed community.

No less striking has been the achievement of the
representatives of this community in the vast and most recent field
of their historic and highly meritorious endeavors, exerted beyond
the confines of their homeland, where over so vast a territory, on a
continent so agitated, and amidst peoples so disillusioned, so varied
in race, language and outlook, so impoverished spiritually, so
paralyzed with fear, so confused in thought, so abased in their moral
standards, so rent by internal schisms, victories so rich in promise,
so startling in their rapidity, so magnificent in their range, have
been won, and ennobled, to such a marked degree, the deathless record
of American Bahá’í service to the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh.

Now that so prodigious and successful an effort has been
exerted on behalf of the historic and sacred Temple, whose completion
constitutes so vital an objective of the Second Seven Year Plan, and
so conspicuous a triumph won in the transatlantic sphere of its
operation, its needs and other vital objectives, both at home and in
the Latin American field, must receive, in the months immediately
ahead, the particular attention of both the national elected
representatives of the community who supervise the working of the
Plan and the mass of believers who participate in its execution.

While the financial requirements of the Mother Temple of
the West are being met with unabated heroism by rich and poor alike
in the critical months that lie ahead, and the measures to ensure the
undiminished support, and the uninterrupted consolidation of the
European enterprise are being assiduously carried out, a parallel
effort, no less strenuous and sustained should be simultaneously
exerted in the North American continent and in Central and South
America, for the purpose of preserving the prizes already won over
the length and breadth of the Western Hemisphere, where the initial
impulse of this mighty and Divine Plan has been felt and its initial
victories in foreign fields registered.

The assemblies of the North American continent,
constituting the base for the gigantic operations destined to warm
and illuminate, under American Bahá’í auspices,
the five continents of the globe, must, at no time and under no
circumstances, be allowed to diminish in number or decline in
strength and in influence. The movement of pioneers, whether settlers
or itinerant teachers, which in fields so distant from this base, has
exhibited so marvelous a vitality, must, within the limits of the
homeland itself, be neither interrupted nor suffer a decline. The
groups and isolated centers so painstakingly formed and established
must, conjointly with this highly commendable and essential duty, be
maintained, fostered and if possible multiplied.

No less attention, while this emergency period taxes, to
an unprecedented degree, the combined resources of the envied
trustees of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan,
should be directed to the vast network of Bahá’í
enterprises initiated throughout Latin America, where the work so
nobly conceived, so diligently prosecuted, so conspicuously blessed,
is rapidly nearing the first stage of its fruition. The flow of
pioneers, so vital in all its aspects, and which has yielded such
inestimable benefits at the early stages of this widely ramified
enterprise, must, however urgent the other tasks already shouldered
by an overburdened yet unfailingly protected community, be neither
arrested nor slacken. The outpost of the newly born communities,
established in the Straits of Magallanes in the South, must be held
with undiminished vigor and determination. The major task of ensuring
the breadth and solidity of the foundations laid for the
establishment of two national Bahá’í assemblies,
through the preservation of the present assemblies, groups and
isolated centers, and the restoration of any of these vital centers,
now dissolved, to their former status, must be scrupulously watched
and constantly encouraged. The process of the dissemination of Bahá’í
literature, of Bahá’í publication and
translation, must continue unabated, however much the sacrifice
involved. The newly fledged institutions of teaching and regional
committees, of summer schools and of congresses, must be continually
encouraged and increasingly supported by teachers as well as
administrators, by pioneers from abroad, as well as by the native
believers themselves. The highly salutary and spiritually beneficent
experiment of encouraging a more active participation by these newly
won supporters of the Faith in Latin America, and a greater
assumption of administrative responsibility on their part, in the
ever expanding activities to be entrusted wholly to their care in the
years to come, should be, in particular, developed, systematized and
placed on a sure and unassailable foundation. Above all, the
paramount duty of deepening the spiritual life of these newly
fledged, these precious and highly esteemed co-workers, and of
enlightening their minds regarding the essential verities enshrined
in their Faith, its fundamental institutions, its history and
genesis—the twin Covenants of Bahá’u’lláh
and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the present Administrative
Order, the future World Order, the Laws of the Most Holy Book, the
inseparable institutions of the Guardianship and of the Universal
House of Justice, the salient events of the Heroic and Formative Ages
of the Faith, and its relationship with the Dispensations that have
preceded it, its attitude toward the social and political
organizations by which it is surrounded—must continue to
constitute the most vital aspect of the great spiritual Crusade
launched by the champions of the Faith from among the peoples of
their sister republics in the South.

The magnitude of the tasks these heroes and champions of
the Faith are summoned, at this hour, crowded with destiny, to
discharge from the borders of Greenland to the southern extremity of
Chile in the Western Hemisphere, and from Scandinavia in the north,
to the Iberian peninsula in the south of the European continent, is,
indeed, breath-taking in its implications and back-breaking in the
strain it imposes. The sacrifices they are called upon to voluntarily
make for the successful performance of such herculean, such holy,
such epoch-making tasks, are comparable to none but those which their
spiritual forbears have willingly accepted at the hour of the birth
of their Faith more than a hundred years ago. Theirs is the
privilege, no less meritorious and perhaps as epoch-making, to
preside, in their own homeland and its neighboring continents, over,
and direct the forces generated by, the birth of an order that
posterity will acclaim as both the offspring of that Faith, and the
precursor of the Golden Age in which that same Faith must, in the
fullness of time, find its fullest expression and most glorious
consummation.

How great the opportunity which the present hour, so
dark in the fortunes of mankind and yet so bright in the
ever-unfolding history of their Faith, offers them. How unspeakably
precious the reward which they who serve it will reap! How pitiful
and urgent the need of the waiting multitudes of these continents,
summoned to sustain the initial impact of the operation of a divinely
impelled Plan which no force can resist and no power can rival!

For what this superbly equipped community, this
irresistibly advancing army of the chosen warriors of Bahá’u’lláh,
battling under His banner, operating in conformity with the explicit
Mandate voiced by His beloved Son, has already achieved, over so
extensive a field, in such a brief time, at such great sacrifice, for
so precious a Cause, and in the course of such turbulent years, I
cannot but feel the deepest sense of gratitude the like of which no
achievement, single or collective, rendered in any other part of the
globe, by any community associated with the Cause of the Most Great
Name has evoked. For what it will and must achieve in the future I
entertain feelings of warm expectation and serene confidence. For it,
I will continue, from the depths of a loving and grateful heart to
supplicate blessings immeasurably richer than any it has yet
experienced.

[August 18, 1949]

Praying For Increasing Success

Delighted at progress of Temple work; urge uninterrupted
reinforcement of Latin American and European enterprises through
steady flow of pioneers, continued self-sacrifice; praying for
increasing success of your high endeavors. Deepest loving
appreciation.

[November 6, 1949]

Majesty of the Báb’s
Shrine Unfolding

Announce to the friends that six hundred tons of stones
destined for the arcade of the Báb’s Shrine, received in
successive shipments to the Holy Land, have been safely transported
to its precincts despite repeated accidents—the sinking of a
lighter in the harbor and outbreak of fire in the hold of the ship.
An additional two hundred tons of material including carved marble
mosaic have been ordered through recent contract for erection of
parapet designed to crown the columns and arches of the arcade. North
and east sides of structure with three corners virtually completed.
Construction of cornice and roof, last stage in erection of the
arcade, will soon be undertaken. Majesty and beauty of the colonnade
enveloping the central holy edifice built by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
hands steadily unfolding, presaging revelation of the full glory of
the completed Sepulcher manifesting the plenitude of the splendor of
the constructed dome.

[November 13, 1949]

Faithless Brother Hussein

Faithless brother Hussein, already abased through
dishonorable conduct over period of years followed by association
with Covenant-breakers in Holy Land and efforts to undermine
Guardian’s position, recently further demeaned himself through
marriage under obscure circumstances with lowborn Christian girl in
Europe. This disgraceful alliance, following four successive
marriages by sisters and cousins with three sons of Covenant-breaker
denounced repeatedly by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as His enemy,
and daughter of notorious political agitator, brands them with infamy
greater than any associated with marriages contracted by old
Covenant-breakers whether belonging to family of Muḥammad-‘Alí
or Badí’u’lláh.

[December 19, 1949]

Maintain Momentum in Triple Field

Delighted by progress in Latin-American field, Temple
construction and publicity activities. Announce arrival of first
shipment of parapet panels. Anticipate early completion of eastern
façade of Shrine including mosaic panels. Urge maintenance of
momentum in triple field, home, intercontinental enterprises. Praying
for bountiful blessings from the Almighty.

[February 25, 1950]

Shrine Parapet Completed

Announce to the friends the completion, on the eve of
Naw-Rúz, of the erection of parapet crowning the eastern
façade of Holy Shrine one year after placing the first
threshold stones upon the foundation of the arcade. The beauty and
majesty of the finely carved panels surmounting the soaring arches
spanning the rosy monolith columns, emblazoned with emerald green and
scarlet mosaic symbolizing the Báb’s lineage and
martyrdom, are strikingly revealed. The original pearl-like structure
raised by the hands of the Center of the Covenant, enshrining the
remains of the Martyr-Prophet of the Faith, acquiring, through
construction of the shell designed for its embellishment and
preservation, additional height by one-third, additional width by
one-fifth, enhancing the massiveness of the edifice embosomed in the
Mountain of God, heralding the erection of the lofty gilded dome that
will eventually shine forth in solitary splendor from its heart.

[March 21, 1950]

Sacred Task of Present Hour

Approved recommendation regarding treatment of walls.
Meeting deficit budget must have precedence over purchase of land
near Hazírá owing to critical situation in Latin
America and vital needs in Europe. Steady flow of pioneers to both
continents is the imperative, urgent, sacred task of the present
hour.

[March 29, 1950]

Shrine Arcade Nearing Completion

Announce to friends that central panel of north façade,
adorned with green mosaic with gilded Greatest Name, the fairest gem
set in crown of arcade of Shrine, clearly visible from city by day,
floodlit by night, is now in position.

Three corner panels bearing symbol of ringstone erected,
presaging completion of both parapet and arcade on the occasion of
approaching Centenary of martyrdom of the Blessed Báb.

[June 17, 1950]

Centenary of the Martyrdom of the
Báb

Moved to share with assembled representatives of
American Bahá’í Community gathered beneath the
dome of the Most Holy House of Worship in the Bahá’í
world, feelings of profound emotion evoked by this historic occasion
of the world-wide commemoration of the First Centenary of the
Martyrdom of the Blessed Báb, Prophet and Herald of the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Dispensation
marking the culmination of the six thousand year old Adamic Cycle,
Inaugurator of the five thousand century Bahá’í
Cycle.

Poignantly call to mind the circumstances attending the
last act consummating the tragic ministry of the Master-Hero of the
most sublime drama in the religious annals of mankind, signalizing
the most dramatic event of the most turbulent period of the Heroic
Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, destined to be
recognized by posterity as the most precious, momentous sacrifice in
the world’s spiritual history. Recall the peerless tributes
paid to His memory by the Founder of the Faith, acclaiming Him
Monarch of God’s Messengers, the Primal Point round Whom the
realities of all the Prophets circle in adoration. Profoundly stirred
by the memory of the agonies He suffered, the glad-tidings He
announced, the warnings He uttered, the forces He set in motion, the
adversaries He converted, the disciples He raised up, the
conflagrations He precipitated, the legacy He left of faith and
courage, the love He inspired. Acknowledge with bowed head, joyous,
thankful heart the successive, marvelous evidence of His triumphant
power in the course of the hundred years elapsed since the last
crowning act of His meteoric ministry.

The creative energies released at the hour of the birth
of His Revelation, endowing mankind with the potentialities of the
attainment of maturity are deranging, during the present transitional
age, the equilibrium of the entire planet as the inevitable prelude
to the consummation in world unity of the coming of age of the human
race. The portentous but unheeded warnings addressed to kings,
princes, ecclesiastics are responsible for the successive overthrow
of fourteen monarchies of East and West, the collapse of the
institution of the Caliphate, the virtual extinction of the Pope’s
temporal sovereignty, the progressive decline in the fortunes of the
ecclesiastical hierarchies of the Islámic, Christian, Jewish,
Zoroastrian, and Hindu Faiths.

The Order eulogized and announced in His writings, whose
laws Bahá’u’lláh subsequently revealed in
the Most Holy Book, whose features ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
delineated in His Testament, is now passing through its embryonic
stage through the emergence of the initial institutions of the world
Administrative Order in the five continents of the globe. The clarion
call sounded in the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá, summoning the
peoples of the West to forsake their homes and proclaim His message,
was nobly answered by the communities of the Western Hemisphere
headed by the valorous, stalwart American believers, the chosen
vanguard of the all-conquering, irresistibly marching army of the
Faith in the western world.

The embryonic Faith, maturing three years after His
martyrdom, traversing the period of infancy in the course of the
Heroic Age of the Faith is now steadily progressing towards maturity
in the present Formative Age, destined to attain full stature in the
Golden Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

Lastly the Holy Seed of infinite preciousness, holding
within itself incalculable potentialities representing the
culmination of the centuries-old process of the evolution of humanity
through the energies released by the series of progressive
Revelations starting with Adam and concluded by the Revelation of the
Seal of the Prophets, marked by the successive appearance of the
branches, leaves, buds, blossoms and plucked, after six brief years
by the hand of destiny, ground in the mill of martyrdom and
oppression but yielding the oil whose first flickering light cast
upon the somber, subterranean walls of the Síyáh-Chál
of Ṭihrán, whose fire gathered brilliance in Baghdád
and shone in full resplendency in its crystal globe in Adrianople,
whose rays warmed and illuminated the fringes of the American,
European, Australian continents through the tender ministerings of
the Center of the Covenant, whose radiance is now overspreading the
surface of the globe during the present Formative Age, whose full
splendor is destined in the course of future milleniums to suffuse
the entire planet.

Already the crushing of this God-imbued kernel upon the
anvil of adversity has ignited the first sparks of the Holy Fire
latent within it through the emergence of the firmly knit
world-encompassing community constituting no less than twenty-five
hundred centers established throughout a hundred countries
representing over thirty races and extending as far north as the
Arctic Circle and as far south as the Straits of Magallanes, equipped
with literature translated into sixty languages and possessing
endowments nearing ten million dollars, enriched through the erection
of two Houses of Worship in the heart of the Asiatic and North
American continents and the stately mausoleum reared in its World
Center, consolidated through the incorporation of over a hundred of
its national and local assemblies and reinforced through the
proclamation of its independence in the East, its recognition in the
West, eulogized by royalty, buttressed by nine pillars sustaining the
future structure of its supreme administrative council, energized
through the simultaneous prosecution of specific plans conducted
under the aegis of its national councils designed to enlarge the
limits and extend the ramifications and consolidate the foundations
of its divinely appointed Administrative Order over the surface of
the entire planet.

I appeal on this solemn occasion, rendered doubly sacred
through the approaching hundredth anniversary of the most devastating
holocaust in the annals of the Faith, at this anxious hour in the
fortunes of this travailing age, to the entire body of the American
believers, the privileged occupants and stout-hearted defenders of
the foremost citadel of the Faith, to rededicate themselves and
resolve, no matter how great the perils confronting their sister
communities on the European, Asiatic, African and Australian
continents, however somber the situation facing both the cradle of
the Faith and its World Center, however grievous the vicissitudes
they themselves may eventually suffer, to hold aloft unflinchingly
the torch of the Faith impregnated with the blood of innumerable
martyrs and transmit it unimpaired so that it may add luster to
future generations destined to labor after them.

[July 4, 1950]

A Worthy, Five-Fold Offering

The first half of the two-year austerity period,
inaugurated at so anxious an hour in the fortunes of the Second Seven
Year Plan, has been successfully traversed, and deserves to be
regarded as a memorable episode in the history of the Faith and the
unfoldment of the Plan in the North American continent. An effort,
prodigious, nation-wide, sustained, and reminiscent in its heroism
and consecration of the immortal exploits of the dawn-breakers of the
Apostolic Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, has
been exerted by their spiritual descendants, in circumstances which,
though totally different in character, are yet no less challenging
and for a cause as meritorious—an effort that has indeed
outshone the high endeavors that have distinguished for so long the
record of service associated with the American Bahá’í
Community. All of its members who have participated in this
collective undertaking should be heartily congratulated, particularly
those who, by their acts of self-abnegation, have emulated the
example of the heroes of our Faith at the early dawn of its history.
The entire Bahá’í world is stirred when
contemplating the range of such an effort, the depth of consecration
reached by those who have participated in it, the results it has
achieved, the noble purpose it has served. My heart overflows with
gratitude for the repeated evidences of worthiness demonstrated by
this generous-hearted, valiant and dedicated community which has, no
matter how onerous the task, how challenging the issue, how
distracting the external circumstances with which it has been
surrounded, never shirked its duty or hesitated for a moment.

The high watermark of so gigantic an exertion, however,
still remains to be reached. The year now entered, ushered in and
consecrated by the Centenary of the tragic execution of the
Martyr-Prophet of our Faith, and packed with poignant memories of the
persecutions of Zanján which stained its history a hundred
years ago and carried its fortunes to almost its lowest ebb, and were
a prelude to the most ghastly holocaust ever experienced by its
followers, must witness as it rolls forward to its close, a still
more striking demonstration of the tenacity of the members of this
community, a still nobler display of acts of self-sacrifice, a still
more inspiring manifestation of solidarity, and evidences of a
grimmer determination, of a greater courage and perseverance in
response to the triple call of this present hour.

The vital needs of the most holy House of Worship reared
in the service and for the glory of the Most Great Name, though
virtually met, still require the last exertions to ensure its
completion as the hour of its Jubilee approaches. The Latin-American
enterprise, initiated thirteen years ago, and marking the initial
collective undertaking launched by the American Bahá’í
Community beyond the confines of the great republic of the West, and
under the mandate of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine
Plan, still in a state of emergency and rapidly advancing towards its
initial fruition, demands unrelaxing vigilance, and calls for still
more strenuous exertions and self-sacrifice on the part of those who
have so enthusiastically embarked upon it, who have so
conscientiously and painstakingly shepherded it along its destined
course and throughout the early stages of its unfoldment, and who are
now, as a result of their ceaseless exertions, witnessing the first
efflorescence of their mammoth pioneer labors. The construction of
the superstructure of the Holy Sepulcher of the Blessed Báb,
now, at this anxious and urgent hour, superimposed on the manifold
responsibilities shouldered by members of the American Bahá’í
Community, affording them the first historic opportunity of directly
sustaining, through their contributions, the most sacred enterprise
ever undertaken in the history of the Faith, the first and most holy
edifice reared at its World Center, and the initial international
institution heralding the establishment of the supreme legislative
body at the World Administrative Center, requires the immediate and
sustained attention of the members of a community whose destiny has
been linked, ever since its inception, with the various stages
marking the rise and consolidation of this divinely appointed,
unspeakably holy enterprise.

AN HOUR LADEN WITH FATE

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 Báb 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
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár 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 Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
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 Bahá’u’lláh, 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
Bahá’u’lláh, 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 Báb
on the occasion of the Centenary of His Martyrdom.

[July 5, 1950]

Ruhi and Family Show Open Defiance

Inform friends that Ruhi, his mother, with Ruha, his
aunt, and their families, not content with years of disobedience and
unworthy conduct, are now showing open defiance. Confident that
exemplary loyalty of American believers will sustain me in carrying
overwhelming burden of cares afflicting me.

[July 15, 1950]

Non-Bahá’í Gifts

All gifts by non-Bahá’ís are to be
used for charity only.

[July 24, 1950]

Teaching in Africa

Feel moved to appeal to gallant, great-hearted American
Bahá’í Community to arise on the eve of launching
the far-reaching, historic campaign by sister Community of the
British Isles to lend valued assistance to the meritorious enterprise
undertaken primarily for the illumination of the tribes of East and
West Africa, envisaged in the Tablets of the Center of the Covenant
revealed in the darkest hour of His ministry.

I appeal particularly to its dearly beloved members
belonging to the Negro race to participate in the contemplated
project marking a significant milestone in the world-unfoldment of
the Faith, supplementing the work initiated fifty years ago on the
North American continent, forging fresh links binding the American,
British and Egyptian Communities and providing the prelude to the
full-scale operations destined to be launched at a later period of
the unfoldment of the Divine Plan aiming at the conversion of the
backward, oppressed masses of the swiftly awakening continent.

Though such participation is outside the scope of the
Second Seven Year Plan, I feel strongly that the assumption of this
added responsibility for this distant vital field at this crucial
challenging hour, when world events are moving steadily towards a
climax and the Centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Mission is fast approaching, will further ennoble the record of the
world-embracing tasks valiantly undertaken by the American Bahá’í
Community and constitute a worthy response to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
insistent call raised on behalf of the race He repeatedly blessed and
loved so dearly and for whose illumination He ardently prayed and for
whose future He cherished the brightest hopes.

[August 5, 1950]

Comforted by Messages of Devotion

My anguished heart is comforted by the unnumbered
messages from communities, assemblies, groups, committees and
individual American believers, replete with expressions of loving
devotion, pledges of loyalty to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Covenant, prayers on my behalf and assurances of rededication in
service to the precious Faith.

The triple cord binding me to the American Community,
outstanding in its affectionate and unfailing support in the course
of my almost thirty years’ stewardship to the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh, is greatly reinforced. But for
America’s multitudinous services and unparalleled record of
achievements my burden of cares both past and present would be
unbearable.

Far from complaining of the added weight of afflictions
oppressing me at this hour I feel I cannot but welcome with feelings
of thankfulness and humility such tribulations enabling me to taste
the cup the Martyr-Prophet of our beloved Faith drained so heroically
a hundred years ago.

Much as I desire to acknowledge separately all messages
I regretfully find the task beyond the limits of my overtaxed
strength. I ask, dearly beloved friends, to regard this message as
addressed to each one personally, bearing to each and every one
assurance of my constant awareness of their enfolding love and
unfailing support as well as my everlasting gratitude and unalterable
affection and immense pride in their unrivaled collective share in
the world-wide furtherance of the Cause so dear, so precious to us
all.

[September 12, 1950]

Relieved by Intensified Activity

My heart is greatly relieved by the splendid, welcome
evidences of the intensified activity on the home front, Europe and
Latin America. Supplicating bountiful blessings on the manifold
enterprises energetically and devotedly conducted by the exemplary
American Bahá’í Community.

[September 19, 1950]

Badí’u’lláh
Has Miserably Perished

Badí’u’lláh, brother and chief
lieutenant of archbreaker of divine Covenant, has miserably perished
after sixty years’ ceaseless, fruitless efforts to undermine
the divinely-appointed Order, having witnessed within the last five
months the deaths of his nephews Shoa and Musa, notorious
standard-bearers of the rebellion associated with the name of their
perfidious father.

[November 3, 1950]

Requirements for Temple Completion

Temple not regarded as completed until all accessories
are provided, including landscape gardening. Public announcement and
worship must coincide with termination of plan.

[November 8, 1950]

Summer Schools to Reopen

Owing to paramount need of Shrine and Temple, advise
that you postpone publication of magazine until 1953. Summer schools
may be reopened.

[December 8, 1950 (Excerpt)]

Assistance to Epoch-Making
Enterprise in Africa

Assistance to Africa project through financial
contribution, participation of pioneers white and colored, and close
consultation and cooperation with British Assembly necessary.
Independent campaign not intended. Fervently praying the
participation of British, American, Persian, and Egyptian National
Assemblies in unique, epoch-making enterprise in African continent
may prove prelude to convocation of first African Teaching Conference
leading eventually to initiation of undertakings involving
collaboration among all national assemblies of Bahá’í
world, thereby paving way to ultimate organic union of these
assemblies through formation of International House of Justice
destined to launch enterprises embracing whole Bahá’í
world. Acclaim simultaneous inauguration of crusade linking
administrative machinery of four national assemblies of East and West
within four continents and birth of first International Council at
World Center of Faith, twin evidences of resistless unfoldment of
embryonic, divinely appointed World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.

[January 17, 1951]

Status of Bahá’ís
Regarding Military Duty

No change whatsoever in status of Bahá’ís
in relation to active military duty. No compromise of spiritual
principles of Faith possible, however tense the situation, however
aroused public opinion.

[January 17, 1951]

Spiritual Conquest of the Planet

The virtual termination of the interior ornamentation of
the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West;
the forthcoming formation of the twin national spiritual assemblies
of Latin America, following upon the establishment of a corresponding
institution in the Dominion of Canada; the full attainment of the
prescribed goals on the European continent in accordance with the
provisions of the Second Seven Year Plan and the consolidation
already achieved in the North American continent, do not, under any
circumstances, imply that the vast responsibilities shouldered by a
valiant, an alert and resolute community, have been fully and totally
discharged, or that its members can afford, as the plan draws to its
conclusion, to sink into complacency or relax for one moment in their
high endeavors.

The hour destined to mark the triumphant conclusion of
the second stage in their historic, divinely conferred,
world-encircling mission has not yet struck. Rumblings, loud and
persistent, presaging a crisis of extreme severity in world affairs,
confront them with a challenge which, in spite of what they have
already accomplished, they cannot and must not either ignore or
underrate. The rise of the World Administrative Center of their
Faith, within the precincts and under the shadow of its World
Spiritual Center, a process that has been kept in abeyance for well
nigh thirty years, whilst the machinery of the national and local
institutions of a nascent Order was being erected and perfected,
presents them with an opportunity which, as the champion-builders of
that Order and the torchbearers of an as yet unborn civilization,
they must seize with alacrity, resolution and utter consecration. The
initiation of momentous projects in other continents of the globe,
and particularly in Africa, as a result of the growing initiative and
the spirit of enterprise exhibited by their fellow-workers in East
and West, cannot leave unmoved the vanguard of a host summoned by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, its Divine Commander, and in
accordance with the provisions of a God-given Charter, to play such a
preponderating role in the spiritual conquest of the entire planet.
Above all, the rapid prosecution of an enterprise transcending any
undertaking, whether national or local, embarked upon by the
followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
destined to attain its consummation with the erection of the dome of
the Báb’s holy Sepulcher, imposes an added obligation,
owing to unforeseen circumstances, on the already multitudinous
duties assumed by a community wholly absorbed in the various tasks it
shoulders. In fact, as the Centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s
prophetic Mission approaches, His American followers, not content
with the successful conclusion, in their entirety, of the tasks
assigned to them, must aspire to celebrate befittingly this historic
occasion, as becomes the chosen recipients, and the privileged
trustees, of a divinely conceived Plan, through emblazoning with
still more conspicuous exploits, their record of stewardship to a
Faith whose Author has issued such a ringing call to the rulers of
the American continent, and the Center of Whose Covenant has
entrusted the American Bahá’í Community with so
glorious a mission. Indeed the present stage in the construction of
the superstructure of so holy a shrine imperatively demands a
concentration of attention and resources commensurate with the high
position occupied by this community, with the freedom it enjoys and
the material means at its disposal. The signing of two successive
contracts, for the masonry of the octagon, the cylinder and the dome
of the edifice, necessitated by a sudden worsening of the
international situation, which might cut off indefinitely the
provision of the same stones used for the erection of the arcade and
the parapet of that Sepulcher, and amounting to no less than one
hundred and ninety thousand dollars; the subsidiary contracts for the
provision of steel and cement for the erection of the wrought iron
balustrade and the metal window frames of both the octagon and the
cylinder, involving an additional expenditure of no less than twenty
thousand dollars, to which must be added the cost of the excavation
for and the sinking of the eight piers designed to support the weight
of the dome and the immediate construction of the octagon—these
call for a stupendous effort on the part of all Bahá’í
communities and a self-abnegation unprecedented in Bahá’í
history. A drastic reduction of national and local budgets; the
allocation of substantial sums by all national assemblies; the
participation of individuals through sustained and direct donations
to the first international and incomparably holy enterprise
synchronizing with the birth of the International Bahá’í
Council at the very heart and center of a world-encircling Faith can
alone insure the uninterrupted progress of an undertaking which,
coupled with the completion of the Mother Temple of the West, cannot
fail to produce tremendous repercussions in the Holy Land, in the
North American continent and throughout the world. A period of
austerity covering the two-year interval separating us from the
Centenary celebrations of the Year Nine, prolonging so unexpectedly
the austerity period already traversed by the American Bahá’í
Community, and now extended to embrace its sister communities
throughout the Bahá’í world, is evidently not
only essential for the attainment of so transcendent a goal, but also
supremely befitting when we recall the nature and dimensions of the
holocaust which a hundred years ago crimson-dyed the annals of our
Faith, which posterity will recognize as the bloodiest episode of the
most tragic period of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation, which involved the martyrdom of that incomparable
heroine Táhirih, which was immediately preceded by the
imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh in the
subterranean dungeon of Ṭihrán, and which sealed the
fate of thousands of men, women and children in circumstances of
unspeakable savagery and on a scale unapproached throughout
subsequent stages of Bahá’í history.

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First American Pioneer to Africa

Rejoice at departure of first pioneer to Africa; urge
acceleration of historic process now set in motion. Time is short,
tasks ahead manifold, pressing, momentous. Praying ardently for
increasing response and befitting discharge of mighty supplementary
task shouldered by valorous community.

[October 19, 1951]

Message to 1951 State Conventions

Advise assembled friends to focus attention on vital,
pressing, paramount needs of National Fund at this critical juncture.
Hour is ripe to recall unnumbered tribulations, sacrifices heroically
endured by the dawn-breakers, culminating in Bahá’u’lláh’s
afflictive imprisonment in Síyáh Chál,
Centennial of which is now approaching. Urge deepening realization of
sacredness, preeminent importance of twin purposes which individual
resolves serve. Appeal for immediate, unanimous, sustained, decisive
response, safeguard thereby American Community’s share in
tribute to memory of Founder of Faith on occasion of forthcoming
Jubilee of Birth of glorious Mission. Praying for befitting answer to
heartfelt plea.

[November 4, 1951]

The Last and Irretrievable Chance

The brief interval separating the hard-pressed,
valiantly struggling, resistlessly expanding American Bahá’í
Community from the anticipated consummation of the second, fate-laden
collective enterprise launched so auspiciously by its national
elected representatives is speedily drawing to a close. The sixteen
months that still lie ahead constitute in view of the tasks that
still remain to be achieved, and the sacrifices still to be made, a
period at once critical and challenging. This memorable period
commemorates, if we pause and call to mind the stirring events and
bloody episodes linking the Dispensation of the Báb with the
dawning Mission of the Founder of our Faith, the centenary of what
may be truly regarded as the darkest, the most tragic, the most
heroic, period in the annals of a hundred-year-old Revelation. This
period, moreover, affords the last and irretrievable chance to a
ceaselessly striving, repeatedly victorious community of setting the
seal of triumph upon a momentous undertaking, on whose fate hinges
the launching of yet another glorious Crusade, the consummation of
which will mark the successful conclusion of the initial epoch in the
unfoldment of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan—an
evolution that must continue to blossom and fructify in the course of
successive epochs of the Formative Ages of the Faith, and yield its
fairest fruit in the Golden Age that is yet to come.

A PERIOD OF HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE

The historic significance of this period cannot indeed
be overestimated. For it was a hundred years ago that a Faith, which
had already been oppressed by a staggering weight of untold
tribulations; which had sustained shattering blows in Mázindarán,
Nayríz, Ṭihrán and Zanján, and indeed
throughout every province in the land of its birth; which had lost
its greatest exponents through the tragic martyrdom of most of the
Letters of the Living, and particularly of the valiant Mullá
Ḥusayn and of the erudite Vahíd and which had been
afflicted with the supreme calamity of losing its Divine Founder; was
being subjected to still more painful ordeals—ordeals which
robbed it of both the heroic Hujjat and of the far-famed Táhirih;
which caused it to pass through a reign of terror, and to experience
a blood-bath of unprecedented severity, which inflicted on it one of
the greatest humiliations it has ever suffered through the attempted
assassination of the sovereign himself, and which unloosed a
veritable deluge of barbarous atrocities in Ṭihrán,
Mázindarán, Nayríz and Shíráz
before which paled the horrors of the siege of Zanján, and
which swept no less a figure than Bahá’u’lláh
Himself—the last remaining pillar of a Faith that had been so
rudely shaken, so ruthlessly denuded of its chief buttresses—into
the subterranean dungeon of Ṭihrán, an imprisonment that
was soon followed by His cruel banishment, in the depths of an
exceptionally severe winter, from His native land to ‘Iráq.
To these tribulations He Himself has referred as “afflictions”
that “rained” upon Him, whilst the blood shed by His
companions and lovers He characterized as the blood which
“impregnated” the earth with the “wondrous
revelation” of God’s “might.”

Nor should the momentous character of the unique event,
that may be regarded as the climax and consummation of this tragic
period, be overlooked or underestimated, inasmuch as its centenary
synchronizes with the termination of the sixteen-month interval
separating the American Bahá’í Community from the
conclusion of its present Plan. This unique event, the centenary of
which is to be befittingly celebrated, not only in the American
continent but throughout the Bahá’í world, and is
destined to be regarded as the culmination of the Second Seven Year
Plan, is none other than the “Year Nine,” anticipated
2,000 years ago as the “third woe” by St. John the
Divine, alluded to by both Shaykh Aḥmad and
Siyyid Kázim—the twin luminaries that heralded the
advent of the Faith of the Báb—specifically mentioned
and extolled by the Herald of the Bahá’í
Dispensation in His Writings, and eulogized by both the Founder of
our Faith and the Center of His Covenant. In that year, the year
“after Hin” (68), mentioned by Shaykh
Aḥmad, the year that witnessed the birth of the Mission of the
promised “Qayyúm,” specifically referred to by
Siyyid Kázim, the “requisite number” in the words
of Bahá’u’lláh “of pure, of wholly
consecrated and sanctified souls” had been “most secretly
consummated.” In that year, as testified by the pen of the Báb,
the “realities of the created things” were “made
manifest,” “a new creation was born” and the seed
of His Faith revealed its “ultimate perfection.” In that
year, as borne witness by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a hitherto
“embryonic Faith” was born. In that year, while the
Blessed Beauty lay in chains and fetters, in that dark and
pestilential pit, “the breezes of the All-Glorious,” as
He Himself described it, “were wafted” over Him. There,
whilst His neck was weighted down by the Qará-Guhar, His feet
in stocks, breathing the fetid air of the Síyáh-Chál,
He dreamed His dream and heard, “on every side,” “exalted
words,” and His “tongue recited” words that “no
man could bear to hear.”

There, as He Himself has recorded, under the impact of
this dream, He experienced the onrushing force of His newly revealed
Mission, that “flowed” even as “a mighty torrent”
from His “head” to His “breast,” whereupon
“every limb” of His body “would be set afire.”
There, in a vision, the “Most Great Spirit,” as He
Himself has again testified, appeared to Him, in the guise of a
“Maiden” “calling” with “a most
wondrous, a most sweet voice” above His Head, whilst “suspended
in the air” before Him and, “pointing with her finger”
unto His head, imparted “tidings which rejoiced” His
“soul.” There appeared above the horizon of that dungeon
in the city of Ṭihrán, the rim of the Orb of His Faith,
whose dawning light had, nine years previously, broken upon the city
of Shíráz—an Orb which, after suffering an
eclipse of ten years, was destined to burst forth, with its
resplendent rays, upon the city of Baghdád, to mount
its zenith in Adrianople, and to set eventually in the
prison-fortress of Akká.

Such is the year we are steadily approaching. Such is
the year with which the fortunes of the Second Seven Year Plan have
been linked. As the tribulations, humiliations and trials inflicted
on the Cause of God in Persia, a century ago, moved inexorably
towards a climax, so must the present austerity period, inaugurated a
hundred years later, in the continent of America, to reflect the
privations and sacrifices endured so stoically by the dawn-breakers
of the Heroic Age of the Faith witness, as it approaches its
culmination, a self-abnegation on the part of the champion-builders
of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, laboring
in the present Formative Age of His Faith, which, at its best, can be
regarded as but a faint reflection of the self-sacrifice so
gloriously evinced by their spiritual forbears.

OBJECTIVES OF SECOND SEVEN YEAR PLAN
LARGELY ATTAINED

The objectives of the Second Seven Year Plan, the
concluding phase of which has synchronized with this period of
nation-wide austerity, have, it must be recognized, been in the main,
attained. The pillars which must needs add their strength in
supporting the future House of Justice have, according to the
schedule laid down, been successively erected in the Dominion of
Canada and in Latin America. The European Teaching Campaign—the
second outstanding enterprise launched, beyond the confines of the
North American continent, in pursuance of the Mandate, issued by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Bahá’u’lláh’s
valiant “Apostles”—has not only achieved its
original aims, but exceeded all expectations through the formation of
a local spiritual assembly in the capital city of each of the ten
goal countries included within its scope. The interior ornamentation
of the Mother Temple of the West has, before its appointed time, been
completed. Other tasks, no less vital, still remain to be carried, in
the course of a fast shrinking period, to a successful conclusion.
The landscaping of the area surrounding a structure whose foundations
and exterior and interior ornamentation have demanded, for so many
years, so much effort and such constant sacrifice, must, under no
circumstances, and while there is yet time, be neglected, lest
failure to achieve this final task mar the beauty of the approaches
of a national shrine which provide so suitable a setting for an
edifice at once so sacred and noble. The responsibilities solemnly
undertaken to consolidate and multiply the administrative
institutions throughout all the states of the Union—a task that
has of late been allowed to fall into abeyance, and has been eclipsed
by the spectacular success attending the shining exploits of the
American Bahá’í Community in foreign fields—must
be speedily and seriously reconsidered, for upon the constant
broadening and the steady reinforcement of this internal
administrative structure, which provides the essential base for
future operations in all the continents of the globe, must depend the
vigor, the rapidity and the soundness of the future crusades which
must needs be launched in the service, and for the glory of the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh, and in obedience to the
stirring summons issued by the Center of His Covenant in some of His
most weighty Tablets. Above all, the accumulating deficit which has
lately again thrown its somber shadow on an otherwise resplendent
record of service, must, through a renewed display of
self-abnegation, which, though not commensurate with the sacrifice of
so many souls immolated on the altar of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
may at least faintly reflect its poignant heroism, be obliterated,
once and for all, from the record of a splendid stewardship to His
Faith.

There can be no doubt—and I am the first to
proudly acknowledge it—that, ever since the launching of the
Second Seven Year Plan, and in consequence of unexpected developments
both in the Holy Land and elsewhere, the American Bahá’í
Community, ever ready to bear the brunt of responsibility, under the
stress of unforeseen circumstances, has considerably widened the
scope of its original undertakings and augmented the weight
shouldered by its stalwart members. At the World Center of the Faith,
in response to the urgent call for action, necessitated by the
imperative needs of the rising Sepulcher of the Báb, the
formation of the Bahá’í International Council,
and the establishment of the State of Israel, as well as in the
continent of Africa, where the appointed, the chief trustees of a
divinely conceived, world-encompassing Plan could not well remain
unmoved by the sight of the first attempts being made to introduce
systematically the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and
to implant its banner amongst its tribes and races, the American
Bahá’í Community have assumed responsibilities
well exceeding the original duties they had undertaken to discharge.
This twofold opportunity that providentially presented itself to
them, to contribute to the rise and consolidation of the World Center
of their Faith, and to the spiritual re-awakening of a long-neglected
continent, must, however, be exploited to the fullest extent, if the
early completion of the most sacred edifice, next to the Qiblih of
the Bahá’í world, is to be assured, and if the
executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan are to
retain untarnished the primacy conferred upon them by its Author.

That primacy will be demonstrated and re-emphasized as
the representatives of this privileged community take their place,
and assume their functions, at each of the four Intercontinental
Bahá’í Teaching Conferences which are to be
convened in the course of, and which must signalize, the world-wide
celebrations of the Centenary of the Year Nine. Playing a
preponderating role, as the custodians of a Divine Plan, in the
global crusade which all the Bahá’í national
spiritual assemblies, without exception, must, in various degrees and
combinations, launch on the morrow of the forthcoming Centenary, and
during the entire course of the ten-year interval separating them
from the Most Great Jubilee, they must, upon the consummation of
their present Plan, deliberate, together with their ally the Canadian
National Assembly, and their associates, the newly formed National
Spiritual Assemblies of Central and South America, on the occasion of
the convocation of the approaching All-American Teaching Conference,
on ways and means whereby they can best contribute to the
establishment of the Faith, not only throughout the Americas and
their neighboring islands, but in the chief sovereign states and
dependencies of the remaining continents of the globe.

SCOPE OF THIRD SEVEN YEAR PLAN
WIDENED

For unlike the First and Second Seven Year Plans,
inaugurated by the American Bahá’í Community, the
scope of the Third Seven Year Plan, the termination of which will
mark the conclusion of the first epoch in the evolution of the Master
Plan designed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, will embrace all
the continents of the earth, and will bring the central body
directing these widely ramified operations into direct contact with
all the national assemblies of the Bahá’í world,
which, in varying degrees, will have to contribute their share to the
world establishment of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh,
as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and envisioned by
Daniel—a consummation that, God willing, will be befittingly
celebrated on the occasion of the Most Great Jubilee commemorating
the hundredth anniversary of the formal assumption by Bahá’u’lláh
of His Prophetic Office.

The vision now disclosed to the eyes of this community
is indeed enthralling. The tasks which, if that vision is to be
fulfilled, must be valiantly shouldered by its members are
staggering. The time during which so herculean a task is to be
performed is alarmingly brief. The period during which so gigantic an
operation must be set in motion, prosecuted and consummated,
coincides with the critical, and perhaps the darkest and most tragic,
stage in human affairs. The opportunities presenting themselves to
them are now close at hand. The invisible battalions of the Concourse
on High are mustered, in serried ranks, ready to rush their
reinforcements to the aid of the vanguard of Bahá’u’lláh’s
crusaders in the hour of their greatest need, and in anticipation of
that Most Great, that Wondrous Jubilee in the joyfulness of which
both heaven and earth will partake. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
the Founder of this community and the Author of the Plan which
constitutes its birthright, to Whose last wishes its members so
marvelously responded; the Báb, the Centenary of Whose
Revelation this same community so magnificently celebrated, and to
the building of whose Sepulcher it has given so fervent a support;
Bahá’u’lláh Himself, to the glory of Whose
Name so stately an edifice it has raised, will amply bless and repay
its members if they but persevere on the long road they have so
steadfastly trodden, and pursue, with undimmed vision, with
unrelaxing resolve and unshakable faith, their onward march towards
their chosen goal.

That this community, so young in years, yet withal so
rich in exploits, may, in the months immediately ahead, as well as in
the years immediately following this coming Jubilee, maintain,
untarnished and unimpaired, its record of service to our beloved
Faith, that it may further embellish, through still nobler feats, its
annals, is the dearest wish of my heart, and the object of my
constant supplications at the Holy Threshold.

[November 23, 1951]

Funds for International Center

Deeply touched by reconsecration and readiness to
sacrifice. Praying for fulfilment of your hopes. Advise allocate
substantial portion of budget to meet continual needs arising at
International Center of Faith.

[May 3, 1952]

Forty-Fifth Annual Convention: U.S.
Tasks in World Crusade

My soul is uplifted in joy and thanksgiving at the
triumphant conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan immortalized by
the brilliant victories simultaneously won by the vanguard of the
hosts of Bahá’u’lláh in Latin America, in
Europe and in Africa—victories befittingly crowned through the
consummation of a fifty year old enterprise, the completion of the
first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the western
world. The signal success that has attended the second collective
enterprise undertaken in the course of American Bahá’í
history climaxes a term of stewardship to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
of almost three score years’ duration—a period which has
enriched the annals of the concluding epoch of the Heroic, and shed
luster on the first thirty years of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation. So fecund a period has been marked by teaching
activities unexcelled throughout the western world and has been
distinguished by administrative exploits unparalleled in the annals
of any Bahá’í national community whether in the
East or in the West. I am impelled, on the occasion of the
anniversary of the Most Great Festival, coinciding with a triple
celebration—the dedication of the Mother Temple of the West,
the launching of a World Spiritual Crusade and the commemoration of
the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission—to
pay warmest tribute to the preeminent share which the American Bahá’í
Community has had in the course of over half a century in proclaiming
His Revelation, in shielding His Cause, in championing His Covenant,
in erecting the administrative machinery of His embryonic World
Order, in expounding His teachings, in translating and disseminating
His Holy Word, in dispatching the messengers of His Glad Tidings, in
awakening royalty to His Call, in succoring His oppressed followers,
in routing His enemies, in upholding His Law, in asserting the
independence of His Faith, in multiplying the financial resources of
its nascent institutions and, last but not least, in rearing its
greatest House of Worship—the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of the western world.

The hour is now ripe for this greatly gifted, richly
blessed community to arise and reaffirm, through the launching of yet
another enterprise, its primacy, enhance its spiritual heritage,
plumb greater depths of consecration and capture loftier heights in
the course of its strenuous and ceaseless labors for the exaltation
of God’s Cause.

The Ten Year Plan, constituting the third and final
stage of the initial epoch in the evolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Master Plan, which, God willing, will raise to greater heights the
fame of the stalwart American Bahá’í Community,
and seat it upon “the throne of an everlasting dominion,”
envisaged by the Author of the Tablets of this same Plan, involves:

First, the opening of the following virgin territories,
eleven in Africa: Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands, French
Somaliland, French Togoland, Mauritius, Northern Territories
Protectorate, Portuguese Guinea, Reunion Island, Spanish Guinea, St.
Helena and St. Thomas Island; eight in Asia: Caroline Islands, Dutch
New Guinea, Hainan Island, Kazakhstan, Macao Island, Sakhalin Island,
Tibet and Tonga Islands; six in Europe: Andorra, Azores, Balearic
Islands, Lofoten Islands, Spitzbergen and Ukraine; and four in
America: Aleutian Islands, Falkland Islands, Key West and Kodiak
Island.

Second, the consolidation of the Faith in the following
territories, six in Asia: China, Formosa, Japan, Korea, Manchuria,
Philippine Islands; two in Africa: Liberia and South Africa; twelve
in Europe: the ten goal countries, Finland and France; three in
America: the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska and Puerto Rico.

Third, the extension of assistance to the National
Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of Central
and South America, as well as to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland in forming
twenty national spiritual assemblies in the republics of Latin
America and two in Europe, namely in Italy and Switzerland; the
extension of assistance for the establishment of a national
Hazíratu’l-Quds in the capital of each of the
aforementioned countries as well as of national Bahá’í
endowments in these same countries.

Fourth, the establishment of ten national spiritual
assemblies in the following European countries: Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, France and
Finland.

Fifth, the establishment of a national spiritual
assembly in Japan and one in the South Pacific Islands.

Sixth, the establishment of the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Alaska.

Seventh, the establishment of the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South and West Africa.

Eighth, the incorporation of each of the fourteen
above-mentioned national spiritual assemblies.

Ninth, the establishment of national Bahá’í
endowments by these same national spiritual assemblies.

Tenth, the establishment of a national Hazíratu’l-Quds
in the capital city of each of the eleven of the aforementioned
countries, as well as one in Anchorage, one in Suva, and one in
Johannesburg.

Eleventh, the erection of the first dependency of the
first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the western
world.

Twelfth, the extension of assistance for the purchase of
land for four future Temples, two in Europe: in Stockholm and Rome;
one in Central America, in Panama City; and one in Africa, in
Johannesburg.

Thirteenth, the completion of the landscaping of the
grounds of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in
Wilmette.

Fourteenth, the raising to one hundred of the number of
incorporated local assemblies within the American Union.

Fifteenth, the raising to three hundred of the number of
local spiritual assemblies in that same country.

Sixteenth, the incorporation of spiritual assemblies in
the leading cities of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland,
Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal, as well as of the Spiritual
Assemblies of Paris, of Helsingfors, of Tokyo, of Suva and of
Johannesburg.

Seventeenth, the quadrupling of the number of local
spiritual assemblies and the trebling of the number of localities in
the aforementioned countries.

Eighteenth, the translation of Bahá’í
literature into ten languages in Europe, (Basque, Estonian, Flemish,
Lapp, Maltese, Piedmontese, Romani, Romansch, Yiddish and Ziryen; ten
in America: Aguaruna, Arawak, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Iroquois, Lengua,
Mataco, Maya, Mexican and Yahgan.

Nineteenth, the conversion to the Faith of members of
the leading Indian tribes.

Twentieth, the conversion to the Faith of
representatives of the Basque and Gypsy races.

Twenty-first, the establishment of summer schools in
each of the Scandinavian and Benelux countries, as well as those of
the Iberian Peninsula.

Twenty-second, the proclamation of the Faith through the
press and radio throughout the United States of America.

Twenty-third, the establishment of a Bahá’í
Publishing Trust in Wilmette, Illinois.

Twenty-fourth, the formation of an Asian teaching
committee designed to stimulate and coordinate the teaching
activities initiated by the Plan.

May this community—the spiritual descendants of
the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í
Faith, the chief repository of the immortal Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan, the foremost executors of the Mandate issued by the
Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, the
champion-builders of a divinely conceived Administrative Order, the
standard-bearers of the all-conquering army of the Lord of Hosts, the
torchbearers of a future divinely inspired world civilization—arise,
in the course of the momentous decade separating the Great from the
Most Great Jubilee to secure, as befits its rank, the lion’s
share in the prosecution of a global crusade designed to diffuse the
light of God’s revelation over the surface of the entire
planet.

[April 29, 1953]

Intending Pioneers Urged to Scatter

Strongly urge intending pioneers to scatter as widely as
possible, settle even territories, islands not specifically assigned
to United States. Prompt opening of virgin territories is highly
meritorious, extremely urgent, vital prerequisite to insure
triumphant conclusion of opening phase of Global Crusade, prerogative
of chief executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan.
May enrolled pioneers arise and confirm primacy of American Bahá’í
Community playing preponderating role in initial stage of spiritual
conquest of unopened territories and islands of the planet.

[May 13, 1953]

A Turning Point in American Bahá’í
History

My soul is thrilled and my heart is filled with
gratitude as I contemplate—looking back upon six decades of
eventful American Bahá’í history—the chain
of magnificent achievements which, from the dawn of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh in the West until the present
day, have signalized the birth, marked the rise and distinguished the
unfoldment of the glorious mission of the American Bahá’í
Community. Of all Bahá’í communities in both the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres, with the sole exception of its
venerable sister community in Bahá’u’lláh’s
native land, it alone may well claim to have released forces, and set
in motion events, which stand unparalleled in the annals of the
Faith; while in the course of the last fifty years, comprising the
concluding years of the Heroic and the opening epochs of the
Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, it can
confidently boast of a record of stewardship which, for its scope,
effectiveness and splendor, is unmatched by that of any other
community in the entire Bahá’í world.

The first to awaken to the call of the New Day in the
western world; the first to spontaneously arise to befittingly erect
the Mother Temple of the West; the first to grasp the implications,
evolve the pattern and lay the basis of the structure of the Bahá’í
Administrative Order in the entire Bahá’í world;
the first to openly and systematically proclaim the fundamental
principles of the Faith, to adopt effectual measures for its defense,
to invite the attention of royalty to its teachings, to devise an
adequate machinery for the translation, the publication and the
dissemination of its literature and to provide the means for the
creation of its subsidiary institutions; the first to champion the
cause of the oppressed and to generously contribute to the
alleviation of the sufferings of the needy and persecuted among the
followers of Bahá’u’lláh; the first to
inaugurate collective enterprises for the propagation of His Cause;
the first to assert its independence in the West; the first to lay an
unassailable foundation for the erection of auxiliary institutions
designed to multiply its financial resources; and, more recently, the
first to achieve, as befits its primacy, the initial task devolving
upon it in pursuance of the newly launched World Spiritual Crusade,
this community has abundantly merited, by the quality of its deeds
and the magnitude of its exploits, the distinctive titles of the
cradle of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh,
of the vanguard of His world-conquering host, of the standard-bearers
of the oneness of mankind, of the chief trustees of the Plan devised
by the Center of the Covenant and of the torch-bearers of an as yet
unborn world civilization.

RECENT SERVICES DESERVING MENTION

The services rendered by this same community in recent
years, in its capacity as the chief executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan, in the course of the second stage of the initial epoch
in its evolution, are of such importance and significance as to
deserve particular mention at this time. In the North American
continent, throughout the republics of Latin America, in the ten goal
countries of Europe, on the shores and in the heart of the African
continent, the members of this community have, in conformity with the
provisions of the Second Seven Year Plan, performed feats of such
noble and enduring heroism as to enhance immensely their prestige,
demonstrate unmistakably the caliber of their faith and qualify them
to assume a preponderating share in the prosecution of the Ten Year
Plan whose operations are to extend over the entire surface of the
globe.

In the multiplication and consolidation of Bahá’í
administrative institutions and their auxiliary agencies throughout
Central America, the Antilles and every South American republic—a
task supplementing the initial enterprise undertaken, in pursuance of
the first Seven Year Plan, in connection with the introduction of the
Faith into the republics of Latin America; in the even more rapid
development of nascent institutions of the Faith in Scandinavia, in
the Benelux countries, in Switzerland, in the Italian and Iberian
Peninsulas; in the laying of the administrative basis of the World
Order of Bahá’u’lláh in the capital and in
some of the major cities of each of the ten European sovereign states
included within the scope of the Plan; in the convocation of a series
of historic teaching conferences in the north and in the heart of the
European continent—heralding the convocation of the recently
held, epoch-making Intercontinental Teaching Conferences; in the
translation, the publication and dissemination of Bahá’í
literature in various European languages; in the still more dramatic
evolution of the Faith in the African continent, culminating in the
convocation of the first Intercontinental Teaching Conference of the
Holy Year in the heart of Africa; in the tremendous sacrifices
spontaneously and repeatedly made to broaden and reinforce the
foundations of the Faith in the North American continent, to sustain
the campaigns undertaken in Latin America, Europe and Africa, and to
meet the many demands of the Bahá’í Temple,
rapidly nearing completion in Wilmette; in the successive emergence
of three national spiritual assemblies in the Western Hemisphere—an
outstanding contribution to the evolution and consolidation of the
structure of the world Administrative Order of the Faith; in the
completion of the interior ornamentation of the first
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West, the
provision of its accessories and the initiation of the landscaping of
its grounds; in the support extended to the development of the
institutions of the World Center of the Faith; in the role played by
its representatives, whether as Hands of the Cause or members of the
International Bahá’í Council; in the financial
aid unhesitatingly given to hasten the construction, and insure the
completion, of the superstructure of the Báb’s Sepulcher
on Mt. Carmel—above all, in the share its national elected
representatives have assumed in providing the means for the
convocation of the second Intercontinental Teaching Conference of the
Holy Year; in commemorating worthily the dedication to public worship
of the Mother Temple of the West, on the occasion of its Jubilee; in
befittingly inaugurating the launching of the World Spiritual
Crusade, and in celebrating the climax of the Holy Year marking the
centenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Mission—in all these the American Bahá’í
Community has fully deserved the praise and gratitude of posterity,
has merited the applause of the Concourse on High and earned a full
measure of the divine blessings and of the celestial sustenance of
which it will stand in such great need in the course of the
prosecution of still mightier and more glorious enterprises in the
days to come.

ADDED RESPONSIBILITIES IN
PROPAGATING THE DIVINE PLAN

The stage is now set, and the hour propitious, for a
deployment of forces, and for the revelation of the indomitable
spirit animating this community, on a scale and to a degree
unprecedented in the entire course of American Bahá’í
history. To the Antilles and the seventeen republics of Central and
of South America—the scene of the initial exploits of a
community inaugurating the opening phase of its world-girding
mission—to the ten sovereign states of Europe which, at a
subsequent stage in the unfoldment of that mission, the members of
this community enthusiastically and determinedly arose to open up and
conquer; to the African territories which, in addition to their
allocated task under the Second Seven Year Plan, they spontaneously
endeavored to win to the all-conquering Cause of Bahá’u’lláh—to
these numerous islands and archipelagos, bordering the American, the
European and African continents; dependencies extensive, well-nigh
inaccessible, and remote from the base of their operations throughout
the Asiatic continent; lastly, the South Pacific area, the home of
the one remaining race not as yet adequately represented in the
Bahá’í world community, occupying spiritually so
strategic a position owing to its proximity to the Bahá’í
communities already firmly entrenched in South America, in the Indian
subcontinent and in Australasia, at once challenging the resources of
no less than eight national spiritual assemblies, and the theater
destined to witness the noblest and the most resounding victories
which the chosen executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan have been called upon to win in the service of the Cause
of God—all these have now, in accordance with the requirements
of an irresistibly unfolding Plan, been added, completing thereby the
full circle of the world-wide obligations devolving upon a community
invested with spiritual primacy by the Author of the immortal Tablets
constituting the Charter of the Master Plan of the appointed Center
of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant.

“The moment this Divine Message,” He Who
penned these Tablets and conferred this primacy has most
significantly affirmed, “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,
and only then, will, as He Himself has so remarkably prophesied, “the
whole earth” “resound with the praises of its majesty and
greatness.”

Now, indeed, is the time, after the lapse of two score
years; following the triumphant conclusion of two successive historic
Plans, marking the opening stages of the first epoch in the
unfoldment of that same Master Plan; on the morrow of the brilliant
celebrations climaxing the world-wide festivities of a memorable Holy
Year; and while a triumphant community, in the first flush of
enthusiasm, has just garnered the first fruits of its campaigns in
four continents of the globe and is laden with its freshly won
trophies, for this community to bestir itself, and, assuming its
rightful preponderating share in the conduct of a newly launched
World Spiritual Crusade, to demonstrate, through a supreme and
sustained effort embracing the entire surface of the planet, its
ability to safeguard that primacy, to enrich immeasurably the record
of its stewardship and to bring to a majestic conclusion the opening
epoch in the evolution of a Plan destined to reveal the full measure
of its potentialities, not only throughout the successive epochs of
the Formative Age of the Faith, but in the course of the vast reaches
of time stretching into the Golden, the last Age of the Bahá’í
Dispensation.

A LASTING INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN
COMMUNITY AND NATION

This decade-long global Crusade must mark a veritable
turning point in American Bahá’í history. It must
prove itself to be, as it develops, a force so pervasive and
revolutionary in its character as to leave a lasting imprint not only
on the destinies of the American Bahá’í Community
but on the fortunes of the American nation as well. It must, even as
a baptismal fire, so purge its members from self as to enable them to
scale heights never as yet attained. It must, in its initial stages,
witness a dispersal, combined with a consecration, reminiscent of the
dawn of the Heroic Age in Bahá’u’lláh’s
native land. It must, as it gathers momentum, awaken the select and
gather the spiritually hungry amongst the peoples of the world, as
well as create an awareness of the Faith not only among the political
leaders of present-day society but also among the thoughtful, the
erudite in other spheres of human activity. It must, as it approaches
its climax, carry the torch of the Faith to regions so remote, so
backward, so inhospitable that neither the light of Christianity or
Islám has, after the revolution of centuries, as yet
penetrated. It must, as it approaches its conclusion, pave the way
for the laying, on an unassailable foundation, of the structural
basis of an Administrative Order whose fabric must, in the course of
successive crusades, be laboriously erected throughout the entire
globe and which must assemble beneath its sheltering shadow peoples
of every race, tongue, creed, color and nation.

Seconded by the neighboring fully fledged Canadian
Bahá’í Community flourishing beyond the northern
frontier of its homeland; supported by the newly emerged Latin
American communities established in the Antilles and in each of the
central and southern republics of the Western Hemisphere; ably aided
by its sister community vigorously functioning in the heart of a
far-flung empire, and destined to lend its inestimable assistance in
the spiritual conquest of the numerous and widely scattered
dependencies of the British Crown; reinforced by the oldest and
youngest national Bahá’í communities on the
European mainland which are to play a prominent part in the eastern
and southern regions, and across the frontiers of Europe, along the
shores and in the islands of the Mediterranean; assisted by its
venerable sister community in the cradle of the Faith and by the
second oldest national community in the Bahá’í
world actively engaged in the propagation of the Faith in the Asiatic
continent; confident of the help of its Egyptian and Indian sister
communities, whose destiny is closely linked with the African
continent and southeast Asia respectively, and, lastly, assured of
the unfailing cooperation of yet another national community in the
Antipodes which, owing to its geographical position, is bound to
assume a notable share in the introduction of the Faith in the
islands of the South Pacific Ocean, the American Bahá’í
Community must, as befits its rank as the chief executor of the
Divine Plan, play a dominant and decisive role in the direction and
control of the manifold operations involved in the prosecution of the
North American, the Latin American, the European, the African, the
Asian and the South Pacific campaigns of this World Crusade, and
insure, by every means at its disposal and in conjunction with its
junior partners, its ultimate and total success.

Within its own sphere, extending to every continent of
the globe, embracing no less than twenty-nine virgin territories and
islands, the members of this stalwart and preeminent community are
called upon, among other things and within the relatively brief span
of a single decade, to create nuclei, around which will crystallize
future assemblies, in no less than eleven territories and islands of
Africa, eight of Asia, six of Europe, four of America; to inaugurate
the establishment of the future dependencies of the Mother Temple of
the West, and to terminate the landscaping of its grounds; to
consolidate and broaden the basis of the Administrative Order already
laid in twenty-three territories and islands distributed in four
continents of the globe and situated in the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans; to assist in the erection of no less than thirty-six pillars,
twenty in Latin America, twelve in Europe, two in Asia, one in the
North American continent and one in Africa, designed to help in
sustaining the weight of the crowning unit of the Bahá’í
Administrative Order, and in the establishment of national Bahá’í
headquarters, of national endowments, and of national incorporations
in all of these continents; to lend its aid for the acquisition of
land in anticipation of the erection of four Temples, two in Europe,
one in Africa and one in Central America; to lend an impetus to the
progress of the Faith in its homeland through raising to three
hundred the number of local spiritual assemblies and to one hundred
the number of incorporated assemblies, as well as through the
founding of a Bahá’í Publishing Trust and the
proclamation of the Faith through the press and radio; to enroll in
the ranks of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh
members of the Indian, of the Basque and Gypsy races; to assume
responsibility for the translation and publication of Bahá’í
literature in twenty languages, ten in the Americas and ten in
Europe; and to contribute to the consolidation of the Faith in eight
of the European goal countries through the establishment of local
incorporations, as well as through the quadrupling of the number of
local assemblies and the trebling of the number of local Bahá’í
centers in each one of them.

While this colossal task, which in its magnitude and
potentialities transcends any previous collective enterprise launched
in the course of American Bahá’í history, is
being energetically carried out, it should be constantly borne in
mind—and this applies to all communities without exception
participating in this World Crusade—that the twofold task of
extension and consolidation must be supplemented by continuous and
strenuous efforts to increase speedily not only the number of the
avowed followers of the Faith in both the virgin and opened
territories and islands included within the scope of the Ten Year
Plan, but also to swell the ranks of its active supporters who will
consecrate their time, resources and energy to the effectual spread
of its teachings and the multiplication and consolidation of its
administrative institutions.

The movement of pioneers, the opening of virgin
territories, the initiation of Houses of Worship and of
administrative headquarters, the incorporation of local and national
elective bodies, the multiplication of assemblies, groups and
isolated centers, the increase in the number of races represented in
the world Bahá’í fellowship, the translation,
publication and dissemination of Bahá’í
literature, the consolidation of administrative agencies and the
creation of auxiliary bodies designed to support them, however
valuable, essential and meritorious, will in the long run amount to
little and fail to achieve their supreme purpose if not supplemented
by the equally vital task—which is one that primarily concerns
continually and challenges each single individual believer whatever
his rank, capacity or origin—of winning to the Faith fresh
recruits to the slowly yet steadily advancing army of the Lord of
Hosts, whose reinforcing strength is so essential to the safeguarding
of the victories which the band of heroic Bahá’í
conquerors are winning in the course of their several campaigns in
all the continents of the globe.

Such a steady flow of reinforcements is absolutely vital
and is of extreme urgency, for nothing short of the vitalizing influx
of new blood that will reanimate the world Bahá’í
community can safeguard the prizes which, at so great a sacrifice
involving the expenditure of so much time, effort and treasure, are
now being won in virgin territories by Bahá’u’lláh’s
valiant Knights, whose privilege is to constitute the spearhead of
the onrushing battalions which, in diverse theaters and in
circumstances often adverse and extremely challenging, are vying with
each other for the spiritual conquest of the unsurrendered
territories and islands on the surface of the globe.

This flow, moreover, will presage and hasten the advent
of the day which, as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
will witness the entry by troops of peoples of divers nations and
races into the Bahá’í world—a day which,
viewed in its proper perspective, will be the prelude to that
long-awaited hour when a mass conversion on the part of these same
nations and races, and as a direct result of a chain of events,
momentous and possibly catastrophic in nature, and which cannot as
yet be even dimly visualized, will suddenly revolutionize the
fortunes of the Faith, derange the equilibrium of the world, and
reinforce a thousandfold the numerical strength as well as the
material power and the spiritual authority of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh.

MOST VITAL OBJECTIVE IN THE
CRUSADE’S OPENING YEAR

Of all the objectives enumerated in my message to the
representatives of this community, assembled on the occasion of the
celebration of the climax of the Holy Year, of the convocation of the
second Intercontinental Teaching Conference, of the inauguration of
the Mother Temple of the West and of the launching of the World
Spiritual Crusade, the most vital, urgent and meritorious, in this
the opening year of the initial phase of this world-embracing
enterprise, is, without doubt, the settlement of pioneers in all the
virgin territories and islands assigned to this community in all the
continents of the globe, with the exception of the few which, owing
to present political obstacles, cannot as yet be opened to the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh. This process already so
auspiciously inaugurated, which, in the course of the first eight
months of the Holy Year has gathered such splendid momentum, and
which bids fair to astonish, stimulate and inspire the entire Bahá’í
world, must, during the concluding months of this same year and the
one succeeding it, be so accelerated as to insure the attainment of
this paramount objective before the lapse of two years from the
official launching of this World Crusade.

While this goal is being vigorously pursued, close
attention must be directed to the preliminary measures for the
establishment of the first dependency of the Mother Temple of the
West, as well as to the completion of the landscaping of its grounds,
a double task that will, on the one hand, mark the termination of the
fifty-year-old process of the construction of the central Bahá’í
House of Worship, and proclaim, on the other, the commencement of
another designed to culminate in the establishment in its plenitude
of the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
as conceived by Bahá’u’lláh and envisaged
by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Moreover, immediate consideration
should be given to two other issues of prime importance, namely the
purchase of land, which need not exceed for the present one acre, in
anticipation of the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of South Africa, and the prompt translation of a suitable Bahá’í
pamphlet into the American and European languages allocated to your
assembly, and its publication and wide dissemination among the
peoples and tribes for whom it has been primarily designed.

The followers of the Most Great Name, citizens of the
great republic of the West; constituting the majority and the oldest
followers of His Faith in a continent wherein, in the words of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the splendors of His
(Bahá’u’lláh’s) Light shall be
revealed” and “the mysteries of His Faith shall be
unveiled,” addressed by Him in His Tablets of the Divine Plan
as the “Apostles” of His Father; the recipients of the
overwhelming majority of these same Tablets constituting the Charter
of that Plan; conquerors of most of the territories, whether
sovereign states or dependencies, already included within the pale of
the Faith; the champion-builders of a world administrative system
which posterity will regard as the harbinger of the World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh, must, if they wish to retain
their primacy and enrich their heritage, insure that, ere the opening
of the second phase of this World Crusade, the names of the first
American Bahá’í conquerors to settle in virgin
territories and islands will, as befits their primacy, be inscribed
on the Scroll of Honor, now in process of preparation, and designed
to be permanently deposited at the entrance door of the Inner
Sanctuary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy
Tomb, that the limited area of land required for the erection of four
future Bahá’í Temples, in Rome, Stockholm, Panama
City and Johannesburg, will be bought, that the landscaping of the
grounds of the Temple in Wilmette will be completed, and that the
translation and the publication of the aforementioned pamphlet in the
specified languages will be accomplished.

The two years that lie ahead, three months of which have
already elapsed, will swiftly and imperceptibly draw to a close.
Tasks even more onerous, equally weighty and requiring in a still
greater measure the expenditure of effort and substance, lie ahead,
which will brook no delay, which will carry the Faith to still higher
levels of achievement and renown, which will enlarge, through the
forging of fresh instruments, the framework of a steadily rising
world Administrative Order, and which will eventually, if worthily
discharged, seal the triumph of the most prodigious, the most
sublime, the most sacred collective enterprise launched by the
adherents of the Cause of God in both hemispheres since the early
days of the Heroic Age of the Faith—an enterprise which in its
vastness, organization and unifying power, has no parallel in the
world’s spiritual history.

AN APPEAL TO ALL ENGAGED IN THE
CRUSADE

To them, and indeed to the entire body of the followers
of Bahá’u’lláh, engaged in this global
Crusade, I direct my appeal to arise and, in the course of these
fast-fleeting years, in every phase of the campaigns that are to be
fought in all the continents of the globe, prove their worth as
gallant warriors battling for the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
Indeed, from this very hour until the eve of the Most Great Jubilee,
each and every one of those enrolled in the Army of Light must seek
no rest, must take no thought of self, must sacrifice to the
uttermost, must allow nothing whatsoever to deflect him or her from
meeting the pressing, the manifold, the paramount needs of this
preeminent Crusade.

“Light as the spirit,” “pure as air,”
“blazing as fire,” “unrestrained as the wind”—for
such is Bahá’u’lláh’s own admonition
to His loved ones in His Tablets, and directed not to a select few
but to the entire congregation of the faithful—let them scatter
far and wide, proclaim the glory of God’s Revelation in this
Day, quicken the souls of men and ignite in their hearts the love of
the One Who alone is their omnipotent and divinely appointed
Redeemer.

Bracing the fearful cold of the Arctic regions and the
enervating heat of the torrid zone; heedless of the hazards, the
loneliness and the austerity of the deserts, the far-away islands and
mountains wherein they will be called upon to dwell; undeterred by
the clamor which the exponents of religious orthodoxy are sure to
raise, or by the restrictive measures which political leaders may
impose; undismayed by the smallness of their numbers and the
multitude of their potential adversaries; armed with the efficacious
weapons their own hands have slowly and laboriously forged in
anticipation of this glorious and inevitable encounter with the
organized forces of superstition, of corruption and of unbelief;
placing their whole trust in the matchless potency of Bahá’u’lláh’s
teachings, in the all-conquering power of His might and the
infallibility of His glorious and oft-repeated promises, let them
press forward, each according to his strength and resources, into the
vast arena now lying before them, and which, God willing, will
witness, in the years immediately lying ahead, such exhibitions of
prowess and of heroic self-sacrifice as may well recall the superb
feats achieved by that immortal band of God-intoxicated heroes who
have so immeasurably enriched the annals of the Christian, the
Islamic and Bábí Dispensations.

On the members of the American Bahá’í
Community, the envied custodians of a Divine Plan, the principal
builders and defenders of a mighty Order and the recognized champions
of an unspeakably glorious and precious Faith, a peculiar and
inescapable responsibility must necessarily rest. Through their
courage, their self-abnegation, their fortitude and their
perseverance; through the range and quality of their achievements,
the depth of their consecration, their initiative and
resourcefulness, their organizing ability, their readiness and
capacity to lend their assistance to less privileged sister
communities struggling against heavy odds; through their generous and
sustained response to the enormous and ever-increasing financial
needs of a world-encompassing, decade-long and admittedly strenuous
enterprise, they must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, vindicate their
right to the leadership of this World Crusade.

Now is the time for the hope voiced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
that from their homeland “heavenly illumination” may
“stream to all the peoples of the world” to be realized.
Now is the time for the truth of His remarkable assertion that that
same homeland is “equipped and empowered to accomplish that
which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the
world and be blest in both the East and the West,” to be
strikingly and unmistakably demonstrated. “Should success
crown” their “enterprise,” He, moreover, has
assured them, “the throne of the Kingdom of God will, in the
plenitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly established.”

Would to God that this community, boasting already of so
superb a record of achievements both at home and overseas, and
elevated to such dazzling heights by the hopes cherished and the
assurance given by the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant, may prove itself capable of performing deeds of such
distinction, in the course of the opening, as well as the succeeding
phases of this World Spiritual Crusade, as will outshine the
dedicated acts which have already left their indelible mark on the
Apostolic Age of the Faith in the West; will excel the enduring, the
historic achievements associated, at a later period, with this
community’s memorable contribution to the rise and
establishment of the world Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh;
will surpass the magnificent accomplishments which, subsequently, as
the result of the operation of the first Seven Year Plan, illuminated
the annals of the Faith in both the North American continent and
throughout Latin America and will eclipse the even more dramatic
exploits which, during the opening years of the second epoch of the
Formative Age of the Faith, and in the course of the prosecution of
the Second Seven Year Plan, have exerted so lasting an influence on
the fortunes of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in
the Antilles, throughout the republics of Central America, in each of
the ten republics of South America, in no less than ten sovereign
states in the continent of Europe, and in various dependencies on the
eastern and western shores, as well as in the heart of the African
continent.

[July 18, 1953]

Safeguarding American Primacy

Overjoyed by remarkable achievements of American Bahá’í
Community, safeguarding primacy, enhancing prestige, setting
magnificent example to sister communities East and West. Assure three
Assembly members, also Lofoten valiant pioneer of abiding
appreciation, fervent loving prayers.

[September 5, 1953]

Temple Site Purchased in Panama

Heartfelt congratulations on acquisition of Temple site;
notable achievement of World Crusade.

[Circa May 1954]

Assemblies Must Be Maintained

Information incorrect. Maintenance of all assemblies
vital.

[July 23, 1954] (NOTE: Reply to National Spiritual
Assembly request for advice concerning a statement which the Guardian
was alleged to have made to the effect that all Bahá’ís
should scatter. Many felt, therefore, that assembly status need not
be maintained.)

American Bahá’ís
in the Time of World Peril

The American Bahá’í Community, in
this, the opening year of the second phase of the World Spiritual
Crusade upon which it has embarked, finds itself standing on the
threshold of the seventh decade of its existence. It leaves behind
it, as it enters the second decade of the second Bahá’í
century, sixty years crowded with events and marked by exploits so
stirring and momentous that they stand unsurpassed in the annals of
any other national Bahá’í community with the sole
exception of its venerable sister community in Bahá’u’lláh’s
native land.

CHIEF EXECUTOR OF DIVINE PLAN

The first to respond to the call of the New Day in the
western world; for many years, in concert with the small band of
Canadian believers residing in its immediate neighborhood, the sole
champion of the newly proclaimed Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh;
foremost in its decisive contribution to the creation of the pattern,
the erection of the fabric, the enlargement of the limits, and the
consolidation of the institutions of the embryonic World Order, the
child of that same Covenant and the harbinger of a still unborn world
civilization; singled out by the pen of the Center of that same
Covenant for a unique and imperishable bounty as the principal
custodian and chief executor of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan; doubly honored in the course of His extensive visit to
the shores of its homeland through the distinction conferred by Him
on the community’s two leading centers, the one as the site
where He laid the cornerstone of the holiest House of Worship in the
Bahá’í world, and the other the scene of the
proclamation of His Father’s Covenant; the triumphant
prosecutor of two successive historic Plans, boldly initiated by its
elected national representatives for the propagation of the Faith it
has espoused in the land of its birth, in the Dominion of Canada, in
Central and South America and in the continent of Europe and for the
erection of its own House of Worship, the Mother Temple of the West;
outstanding in its role as the defender of the Faith, as the
supporter of its down-trodden, long-persecuted sister communities in
both the Asiatic and African continents, and as the formulator of the
national Bahá’í constitution, embodying the
by-laws regulating the internal affairs of the members of the Bahá’í
communities; incomparable throughout the Bahá’í
world as the dynamic agent responsible for the opening of the vast
majority of the over two hundred sovereign states and chief
dependencies of the globe to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh;
surpassing even its over a hundred-year old sister community in the
cradle of that Faith in the number and variety of isolated centers,
groups and local assemblies it has succeeded in establishing over the
face of the Union stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific
seaboards and from Alaska to Mexico; noteworthy in the rapid
accumulation and wise expenditure of material resources, often
involving a self-abnegation reminiscent of the self-sacrifice of the
dawn-breakers of the Apostolic Age of the Faith, for the sole purpose
of systematically propagating the Faith it has pledged itself to
serve, of enhancing its prestige, of multiplying and perfecting its
administrative agencies, of enriching its literature, of erecting its
edifices, of launching its manifold enterprises, of succoring the
needy among the members of its sister communities, of warding off the
dangers confronting it from time to time through the malice of its
enemies—the American Bahá’í Community,
boasting of such a record of exalted service, can well afford to
contemplate the immediate future, with its severe challenge, its
complex problems, its hazards, tests and trials, with equanimity and
confidence.

For there can be no doubt that the entire community,
limited as is its numerical strength and circumscribed as are its
meager resources, in comparison with the vastness of the field
stretching before it, the prodigious efforts demanded of it, and the
complexity of the problems it must resolve, stands at a most critical
juncture in its history.

AMERICA PASSING THROUGH CRISIS

Moreover, the country of which it forms a part is
passing through a crisis which, in its spiritual, moral, social and
political aspects, is of extreme seriousness—a seriousness
which to a superficial observer is liable to be dangerously
underestimated.

The steady and alarming deterioration in the standard of
morality as exemplified by the appalling increase of crime, by
political corruption in ever widening and ever higher circles, by the
loosening of the sacred ties of marriage, by the inordinate craving
for pleasure and diversion, and by the marked and progressive
slackening of parental control, is no doubt the most arresting and
distressing aspect of the decline that has set in, and can be clearly
perceived, in the fortunes of the entire nation.

Parallel with this, and pervading all departments of
life—an evil which the nation, and indeed all those within the
capitalist system, though to a lesser degree, share with that state
and its satellites regarded as the sworn enemies of that system—is
the crass materialism, which lays excessive and ever-increasing
emphasis on material well-being, forgetful of those things of the
spirit on which alone a sure and stable foundation can be laid for
human society. It is this same cancerous materialism, born originally
in Europe, carried to excess in the North American continent,
contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations, spreading its ominous
tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now invading its very heart,
which Bahá’u’lláh in unequivocal and
emphatic language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a
devouring flame and regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating
the dire ordeals and world-shaking crises that must necessarily
involve the burning of cities and the spread of terror and
consternation in the hearts of men. Indeed a foretaste of the
devastation which this consuming fire will wreak upon the world, and
with which it will lay waste the cities of the nations participating
in this tragic world-engulfing contest, has been afforded by the last
World War, marking the second stage in the global havoc which
humanity, forgetful of its God and heedless of the clear warnings
uttered by His appointed Messenger for this day, must, alas,
inevitably experience. It is this same all-pervasive, pernicious
materialism against which the voice of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant was raised, with pathetic persistence, from platform and
pulpit, in His addresses to the heedless multitudes, which, on the
morrow of His fateful visit to both Europe and America, found
themselves suddenly swept into the vortex of a tempest which in its
range and severity was unsurpassed in the world’s history.

Collateral with this ominous laxity in morals, and this
progressive stress laid on man’s material pursuits and
well-being, is the darkening of the political horizon, as witnessed
by the widening of the gulf separating the protagonists of two
antagonistic schools of thought which, however divergent in their
ideologies, are to be commonly condemned by the upholders of the
standard of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh for
their materialistic philosophies and their neglect of those spiritual
values and eternal verities on which alone a stable and flourishing
civilization can be ultimately established. The multiplication, the
diversity and the increasing destructive power of armaments to which
both sides, in this world contest, caught in a whirlpool of fear,
suspicion and hatred, are rapidly contributing; the outbreak of two
successive bloody conflicts, entangling still further the American
nation in the affairs of a distracted world, entailing a considerable
loss in blood and treasure, swelling the national budget and
progressively depreciating the currency of the state; the confusion,
the vacillation, the suspicions besetting the European and Asiatic
nations in their attitude to the American nation; the overwhelming
accretion of strength to the arch enemy of the system championed by
the American Union in consequence of the re-alignment of the powers
in the Asiatic continent and particularly in the Far East—these
have, moreover, contributed their share, in recent years, to the
deterioration of a situation which, if not remedied, is bound to
involve the American nation in a catastrophe of undreamed-of
dimensions and of untold consequences to the social structure, the
standard and conception of the American people and government.

No less serious is the stress and strain imposed on the
fabric of American society through the fundamental and persistent
neglect, by the governed and governors alike, of the supreme, the
inescapable and urgent duty—so repeatedly and graphically
represented and stressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His
arraignment of the basic weaknesses in the social fabric of the
nation—of remedying, while there is yet time, through a
revolutionary change in the concept and attitude of the average white
American toward his Negro fellow citizen, a situation which, if
allowed to drift, will, in the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
cause the streets of American cities to run with blood, aggravating
thereby the havoc which the fearful weapons of destruction, raining
from the air, and amassed by a ruthless, a vigilant, a powerful and
inveterate enemy, will wreak upon those same cities.

The American nation, of which the community of the Most
Great Name forms as yet a negligible and infinitesimal part, stands,
indeed, from whichever angle one observes its immediate fortunes, in
grave peril. The woes and tribulations which threaten it are partly
avoidable, but mostly inevitable and God-sent, for by reason of them
a government and people clinging tenaciously to the obsolescent
doctrine of absolute sovereignty and upholding a political system,
manifestly at variance with the needs of a world already contracted
into a neighborhood and crying out for unity, will find itself purged
of its anachronistic conceptions, and prepared to play a
preponderating role, as foretold by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
in the hoisting of the standard of the Lesser Peace, in the
unification of mankind, and in the establishment of a world federal
government on this planet. These same fiery tribulations will not
only firmly weld the American nation to its sister nations in both
hemispheres, but will through their cleansing effect, purge it
thoroughly of the accumulated dross which ingrained racial prejudice,
rampant materialism, widespread ungodliness and moral laxity have
combined, in the course of successive generations, to produce, and
which have prevented her thus far from assuming the role of world
spiritual leadership forecast by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
unerring pen—a role which she is bound to fulfill through
travail and sorrow.

AMERICAN BAHÁ’ÍS
STAND AT CROSSROADS

The American Bahá’í Community, the
leaven destined to leaven the whole, cannot hope, at this critical
juncture in the fortunes of a struggling, perilously situated,
spiritually moribund nation, to either escape the trials with which
this nation is confronted, nor claim to be wholly immune from the
evils that stain its character.

At so critical a period, at so challenging an hour, the
members of a community, invested by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
with a primacy which can, through neglect and apathy, be allowed to
lose its vital power and driving force, are immersed in a task, and
are faced with responsibilities, which a World Spiritual Crusade, the
third and greatest collective enterprise embarked upon in American
Bahá’í history, has thrust upon them before the
eyes of their admiring and expectant sister communities throughout
the world. They now stand at the crossroads, unable to relax for a
moment, or hesitate as to which road they should tread, or to allow
any decline in the high standard they have, for no less than six
decades, undeviatingly upheld. Nay, if this primacy is to be
safeguarded and enhanced, a consecration, not only on the part of a
chosen few, to every single objective of the Ten-Year Plan to which
they are now pledged, and a pouring out of substance, not only by
those of limited means, but by the richest and wealthiest, in a
degree involving the truest sacrifice, for the purpose of insuring
the attainment of the aims and purposes of the Plan in its present
phase of development, are imperative and can brook no delay.

The mighty and laudable effort exerted, by a
considerable number of pioneers, in the course of the opening phase
of this world-encircling Crusade, in the virgin territories of the
globe, must, if this primacy is to remain unimpaired, be increased,
doubled, nay trebled, and must manifest itself not only in foreign
fields where the prizes so laboriously won during the last twelve
months must, at whatever sacrifice, be meticulously preserved, but
throughout the entire length and breadth of the American Union, and
particularly in the goal cities, where hitherto the work has
stagnated, and which must, in the year now entered, become the scene
of the finest exploits which the home front has yet seen. A veritable
exodus from the large cities where a considerable number of believers
have, over a period of years, congregated, both on the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts, as well as in the heart of the country, and where,
owing to the tempo and the distractions of city life, the progress of
the Faith has been retarded, must signalize the inauguration of this
most intensive and challenging phase of the Crusade on the home
front. Most certainly and emphatically must the lead be given by the
two focal centers of Bahá’í activity which rank
among the oldest of and occupy the most honored position among, the
cities throughout the American Union, the one as the mother city of
the North American continent, the other named by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
the City of the Covenant. Indeed, so grave are the exigencies of the
present hour, and so critical the political position of the country,
that were a bare fifteen adult Bahá’ís to be left
in each of these cities, over which unsuspected dangers are hanging,
it would still be regarded as adequate for the maintenance of their
local spiritual assemblies.

WORLD CRUSADE TASKS

While this vital process of multiplication of Bahá’í
isolated centers, groups and local assemblies is being accelerated,
through a rapid and unprecedented dispersion of believers, and as the
result of the initiation of vigorous teaching activities, through
individuals as well as administrative agencies, the incorporation of
full-fledged local assemblies—a process which has been
noticeably slackening in recent years—must be given immediate
attention by the community’s elected national representatives,
reinforcing, thereby, the foundations of local Bahá’í
communities, and paving the way for the establishment, in a not too
distant future, of local Bahá’í endowments.

The inauguration of the first dependency of the
Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, the first link to be
forged destined to bind the Community of the Most Great Name to the
general public, expectant to witness the first evidences of direct
Bahá’í service to humanity as a complement to
Bahá’í worship, is yet another task which must be
conscientiously tackled and fulfilled in the course of the second
phase of this Ten-Year Plan. The consummation of this project must
synchronize with the termination of the landscaping of the area
surrounding the Temple—a double achievement that will mark yet
another stage in the materialization of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
often expressed and cherished hopes for this holiest House of Worship
in the Bahá’í world.

Yet another task, of extreme urgency and of great
spiritual significance, is the selection and purchase of the site of
the future Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Sweden, as
well as the appropriation of sufficient funds during the coming two
years, for the establishment, on however modest a scale, of a
national Hazíratu’l-Quds in Anchorage, Alaska, in Panama
City and in the capital of Peru, in Suva, in Tokyo and in
Johannesburg, and the lending of financial assistance to the
Italo-Swiss National Assembly, the proud daughter of the American
Bahá’í Community, for the erection of a similar
national center in the Italian and Swiss capitals.

Of no less importance, though involving a smaller outlay
of funds, is the establishment of token national endowments in the
aforementioned cities, in anticipation of the formation of an
independent national spiritual assembly in each of them, at a later
stage in the execution of this stupendous Plan.

The translation and publication of Bahá’í
literature in the European and American Indian languages, allocated
to your Assembly and its European Teaching Committee under the
provisions of the Ten-Year Plan, is yet another objective of this
second phase of this World Crusade, a task that must be resolutely
pursued and speedily consummated in order to facilitate the intensive
teaching activity which, at a later stage, must be conducted for the
purpose of converting a considerable number of the minority races in
both Europe and America to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

The all-important teaching enterprises in France and
Finland, designed to broaden the basis of the infant Administrative
Order in both countries, and extend the ramifications of the Faith to
their chief towns and cities, is yet another responsibility which
should be promptly discharged, as an indispensable preliminary to the
establishment in each of these two countries of an independent
national assembly.

Finally, the establishment of a Bahá’í
Publishing Trust, similar in its essentials to the institution
already functioning in the British Isles, and which must serve as a
model for other national assemblies in both the East and the West, is
a matter to which prompt and earnest attention must be directed in
the course of the second phase of the Plan, and which will require
full and speedy consultation with the national elected
representatives of the British Bahá’í Community.

A systematic campaign designed to proclaim the Faith to
the masses through the press and radio must moreover be launched and
maintained with vigilance, persistence and vigor.

The American Bahá’í Community—the
champion-builders of an Order which posterity will hail as the
harbinger of a civilization to be regarded as the fairest fruit of
the Revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh;
the principal trustees of a Plan which future generations will
acclaim as one of the two greatest legacies left by the Center of His
Covenant; marching in the van of a Crusade which history will
recognize as the most momentous spiritual enterprise launched in
modern times; beset by the same anxieties and perils by which the
nation of which it forms a part finds itself, to an unprecedented
degree, afflicted and surrounded—such a community is, at this
hour, experiencing the impact of a challenge unique in its sixty
years of existence.

CHALLENGE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL BAHÁ’Í

In its meteoric career its fortunes have risen so
swiftly, its exploits have so greatly multiplied, its spirit in times
of emergency has swelled and risen so high, it has earned on such
occasions the applause and excited the admiration of its sister
communities throughout both hemispheres to such a degree, that it
cannot, at this critical hour in its destinies, suffer this golden
opportunity to slip from its grasp, or this priceless privilege to be
irretrievably forfeited.

This challenge, so severe and insistent, and yet so
glorious, faces no doubt primarily the individual believer on whom,
in the last resort, depends the fate of the entire community. He it
is who constitutes the warp and woof on which the quality and pattern
of the whole fabric must depend. He it is who acts as one of the
countless links in the mighty chain that now girdles the globe. He it
is who serves as one of the multitude of bricks which support the
structure and insure the stability of the administrative edifice now
being raised in every part of the world. Without his support, at once
whole-hearted, continuous and generous, every measure adopted, and
every plan formulated, by the body which acts as the national
representative of the community to which he belongs, is foredoomed to
failure. The World Center of the Faith itself is paralyzed if such a
support on the part of the rank and file of the community is denied
it. The Author of the Divine Plan Himself is impeded in His purpose
if the proper instruments for the execution of His design are
lacking. The sustaining strength of Bahá’u’lláh
Himself, the Founder of the Faith, will be withheld from every and
each individual who fails in the long run to arise and play his part.

The administrative agencies of a divinely conceived
Administrative Order at long last erected and relatively perfected
stand in dire need of the individual believer to come forward and
utilize them with undeviating purpose, serene confidence and
exemplary dedication. The heart of the Guardian cannot but leap with
joy, and his mind derive fresh inspiration, at every evidence
testifying to the response of the individual to his allotted task.
The unseen legions, standing rank upon rank, and eager to pour forth
from the Kingdom on high the full measure of their celestial strength
on the individual participants of this incomparably glorious Crusade,
are powerless unless and until each potential crusader decides for
himself, and perseveres in his determination, to rush into the arena
of service ready to sacrifice his all for the Cause he is called upon
to champion.

APPEAL FOR DEDICATION

It is therefore imperative for the individual American
believer, and particularly for the affluent, the independent, the
comfort-loving and those obsessed by material pursuits, to step
forward, and dedicate their resources, their time, their very lives
to a Cause of such transcendence that no human eye can even dimly
perceive its glory. Let them resolve, instantly and unhesitatingly,
to place, each according to his circumstances, his share on the altar
of Bahá’í sacrifice, lest, on a sudden,
unforeseen calamities rob them of a considerable portion of the
earthly things they have amassed.

Now if ever is the time to tread the path which the
dawn-breakers of a previous age have so magnificently trodden. Now is
the time to carry out, in the spirit and in the letter, the fervent
wish so pathetically voiced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who
longed, as attested in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, to “travel
though on foot and in the utmost poverty” and raise “in
cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans” “the
call of Yá-Bahá’u’l-Abhá!”

Then, and only then, can the members of this community
hasten the advent of the day when, as prophesied by His pen,
“heavenly illumination” will “stream” from
their country “to all the peoples of the world.” Then,
and only then will they find themselves “securely established
upon the throne of an everlasting dominion.”

That the members of this community, of either sex and of
every age, of whatever race or background, however limited in
experience, capacity and knowledge, may arise as one man, and seize
with both hands the God-given opportunities now presented to them
through the dispensations of an all-loving, ever-watchful,
ever-sustaining Providence, and lend thereby a tremendous impetus to
the propelling forces mysteriously guiding the operations of this
newly launched, unspeakably potent, world-encompassing Crusade, is
one of the dearest wishes which a loving and longing heart holds for
them at this great turning point in the fortunes of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh in the American continent.

[July 28, 1954]

Nine-Pointed Star for Headstone

Approve star for graves.

[October 22, 1954] (NOTE: The Guardian considered the
Greatest Name too sacred for use on tombstones.)

Send Appeals to President Eisenhower

Owing to aggravation of the situation, the hacking to
pieces of the bodies of seven believers in the vicinity of Yazd, and
the likelihood of worse massacre in the approaching months, advise
all groups and assemblies in the United States to address
telegraphically President Eisenhower, appealing for his intervention
for protection from further massacres of our offenseless, law-abiding
co-religionists in Írán and the safeguard of their
human rights. Include brief reference to the worst atrocities.
National Assembly should address him similar message both in writing
and telegraphically. Include list of atrocities in accompanying
memorandum…

[August 15, 1955]

A Mysterious Dispensation of
Providence

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Revitalize Entire Community

Urge intensification of efforts to revitalize entire
community and expedite attainment of plans and objectives,
particularly as related to purchase of Hazírás and
endowments in America and Europe; translation into remaining
languages; incorporation of assemblies; multiplication of centers and
assemblies on home front; opening of Iceland, Spitzbergen, Anticosti
and remaining islands of Pacific and Atlantic. Fervently supplicating
for immediate signal victories.

[January 5, 1956]

Greater Consecration to Pressing
Tasks

Deplore situation on home front. Praying ardently for
rededication of entire community for greater consecration to pressing
tasks. Approve all suggestions in recent letter. Urge that you
redouble efforts, supplicate for unprecedented blessings.

[February 2, 1956]

Praying for Great Victories on Home
Front

Fervently praying for great victories on the home front.
Appeal to entire community to arise, participate and insure
attainment of goals.

[June 22, 1956]

Inestimable Prizes Within Our Reach

As I survey, after the lapse of a little over three
years, the vast range of historic and unforgettable achievements with
which the stout-hearted, high-minded and wholly consecrated followers
of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh have, in the
course of the operations of a World Spiritual Crusade, enriched, in
every continent of the globe and in so many islands of the seven
seas, the annals of the Formative Age of His Dispensation, I cannot
but acknowledge, with feelings of pride, of joy, and of gratitude,
the preponderating share which the American Bahá’í
Community, faithful to its traditions, and in keeping with its high
standard of stewardship to the Cause of God, has had in the conduct
of this world-encircling enterprise and the discharge of its
manifold, its pressing and sacred responsibilities. With one or two
exceptions, greatly to be deplored, this valiant community has, ever
since the inception of this Spiritual Crusade, and in every sphere of
Bahá’í activities in which its participators have
both individually and collectively been assiduously engaged, set an
example of whole-hearted dedication, dogged perseverance, unstinting
self-sacrifice and undeviating loyalty worthy of emulation by its
sister, as well as its daughter, communities over the entire face of
the globe.

The number, the character and the rapidity of the
spiritual conquests achieved by its steadfast and intrepid members,
in so many sovereign states of the globe, its chief dependencies and
widely scattered islands, in the course of the one-year period,
constituting the opening phase of a memorable Plan, will no doubt be
universally acclaimed as a turning point of unimaginable consequence
in Bahá’í history. Such feats, in so many
territories, during so short a time, will rank, in the eyes of
posterity, as superb and outstanding exploits, immortalizing the fame
of the American followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
and as epoch-making events unsurpassed since the closing of the
Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

AID ACCORDED TO THEIR OPPRESSED
BRETHREN IN PERSIA

The reaction, so swift and so energetic, of the members
of this same community, now deservedly recognized as the impregnable
citadel of the Faith of God, and the cradle of the rising
institutions of its World Order, to the sudden onslaught made upon
the institutions, the lives and the livelihood of their oppressed
brethren, members of the numerically leading and the most venerable
national Bahá’í community, by the traditional
adversaries of a long-persecuted Faith, has been such as to deepen,
to a marked extent, the feelings of genuine admiration and esteem, so
strongly felt throughout the Bahá’í world, for
the enduring and magnificent services rendered in the course of more
than six decades by the American believers to the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh and its embryonic World Order.
The spontaneity with which the rank and file of this community as
well as the body of its elected representatives, have contributed to
the “Save the Persecuted Fund” established for the succor
of the victims of these savage and periodically recurring
barbarities; the measure of publicity accorded them in the American
press, as well as over the radio; the timely and efficacious
intervention of men of prominence, in various walks of life, on
behalf of the oppressed and the down-trodden; the repeated and direct
appeals addressed by them to the highest authorities in Persia, as
well as to their representative in the United States; the immense
number of written and cabled appeals, made by the local as well as
the national elected representatives of the community, to the chief
magistrate of Persia, his ministers and parliament; the numerous
messages addressed by the same representatives to the chief executive
of the United States, urging his personal intervention, the pleading
of the cause of an harassed, sorely-tried community in the course of
repeated representations made to the State Department in Washington;
the part played in the presentation of the Bahá’í
case to the United Nations officials in both Geneva and New York; the
allocation of a sizeable sum for the purpose of securing the
assistance of an expert publicity agent, in order to reinforce the
publicity already being received in the public press—these, as
well as other measures which, by their very nature, must of necessity
remain confidential—proclaim, in no uncertain terms, the
dynamic and decisive nature of the aid accorded, in a hour of trial
and emergency, by the champions of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh,
raised up in the great republic of the West, at such a crucial hour
in the evolution of His Plan, for both His Faith and the world at
large, to the vast body of the descendants of the dawn-breakers of
the Apostolic Age of that same Faith in the land of its birth.

A NOBLE RECORD OF SERVICE

No less remarkable has been the share of this community,
chiefly responsible, on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
passing, for the fixing of the pattern, the elaboration of the
national constitution, and the erection of the basic institutions, of
a divinely conceived Administrative Order, in the acquisition and
establishment, in the course of two brief years, constituting the
second phase of the Ten-Year Plan, of practically all of the future
national administrative headquarters—numbering over thirty—of
Bahá’í national assemblies in four continents of
the globe, involving the expenditure from the National Fund of over a
hundred thousand dollars.

An effort, hardly less meritorious and equally
efficacious and astonishing, has been exerted by the members of this
alert, forward-looking, ceaselessly laboring community, in the course
of the same two-year period, for the establishment of national Bahá’í
endowments in more than twenty countries of both the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres, entailing the expenditure of over twenty
thousand dollars.

In other spheres of Bahá’í activity,
related to the prosecution of the Ten-Year Plan, all of vital
importance to the teaching work initiated under that same Plan, and
to the enlargement and consolidation of the administrative structure
of the institutions to be erected in the future, the accomplishments
of the members of this community, during the first two phases of this
world Crusade, have been no less significant. The establishment of
the Bahá’í Publishing Trust; the translation of
Bahá’í literature into more than fifteen
languages, both within the scope of the Ten-Year Plan and outside it,
spoken in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the North American
continent; the purchase of the site of the first dependency of the
Mother Temple of the West; the practical completion of the
landscaping of its gardens; the provision of a considerable part of
the material resources required for the purchase of the sites of
future Bahá’í Temples in both the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres, as well as for the construction of the two
projected Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs in the
European and African continents; the guidance given and the aid
extended to newly elected national assemblies, for the efficient
conduct of Bahá’í administrative activities and
the prosecution of Bahá’í national plans; the
initial visits made by Bahá’í teachers to
countries within the Soviet orbit, foreshadowing the launching of
systematic teaching enterprises in both Europe and Asia; the
assistance given, through financial help as well as through the
dispatch of Bahá’í pioneers, to various Bahá’í
communities for the enlargement of the limits of the Faith and the
consolidation of its institutions; and, last but not least, the
purchase of the sacred site of the Síyáh-Chál
of Ṭihrán, the scene of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Prophetic Mission, by a member of that community of Persian
descent—these stand out as further evidences of the enormous
share the firmly knit, highly organized, swiftly advancing, fully
dedicated American Bahá’í Community has had in
the prosecution and triumphant progress of the three year old
Ten-Year Plan, and augur well for a no less splendid contribution to
be made, in the years immediately ahead, for the attainment of its
remaining objectives.

FRUITFUL EFFORTS OF HANDS OF THE
CAUSE

Supplementing this noble record of service have been the
constant and fruitful efforts exerted by the Hands of the Cause,
nominated from among the members of that community, in both the
United States and the Holy Land, efforts that have lent a
considerable impetus to the expansion and consolidation of the
far-reaching enterprises initiated at the World Center of the Faith,
and which have, particularly through the instrumentality of the
recently appointed American Auxiliary Board, stimulated, to a
noticeable extent the progress of the teaching work and the
advancement of the Plan itself.

STUPENDOUS WORK ACHIEVED BY MEMBERS
OF THE INTERNATIONAL BAHÁ’Í COUNCIL

Particular tribute should, I feel, at this juncture, be
paid to the stupendous work achieved, since the launching of the
World Crusade, by the representatives of this highly privileged
community, in their capacity as members of the International Bahá’í
Council, in connection with the prosecution of a variety of
enterprises embarked upon in recent years, aiming at the expansion
and consolidation of the international institutions of the Faith, the
enhancement of its prestige, the embellishment of the surroundings of
its Shrines, the efficient conduct of its internal affairs, and the
forging of fresh links binding it still more closely to the civil
authorities in the Holy Land. The erection of the International
Archives in the close neighborhood of the Báb’s holy
Sepulcher; the extension of the international Bahá’í
endowments on the slopes of Mt. Carmel; the formation of several
Israel Branches of Bahá’í National Spiritual
Assemblies; the embellishment of the precincts of the resting-place
of both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh; the
purchase of the site of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
of the Holy Land; the preparation of the designs for the
International Bahá’í Archives on Mt. Carmel; and
of the Mother Temples of Persia and of Africa; the inauguration of
the preliminary steps for the eventual construction of Bahá’u’lláh’s
holy Sepulcher; the measures adopted, with the assistance of various
officials of the State of Israel, for the eviction of the
covenant-breakers from the immediate precincts of the Shrine of
Bahá’u’lláh and the elimination of any
influence they still exercise, after the lapse of over sixty years,
in the close vicinity of that Most Holy Spot—in these, as well
as in other various subsidiary activities, constantly increasing in
number as well as in diversity at the spiritual and administrative
center of the Bahá’í world, have the members of
the little band, assiduously laboring under the shadow of the Holy
Shrines, and befittingly representing the American Bahá’í
Community, conspicuously participated, and through their dedicated
services, added fresh luster to the annals of the community to which
they belong.

REVITALIZATION OF THE HOME FRONT

So splendid a record of service, rendered within the
brief span of a little over three years, extending over so vast an
area of the globe, so highly diversified, so pregnant with promise,
in the face of such formidable obstacles, and by so limited a number
of participants, has, much to my deepest regret, been marred by a
progressive devitalization of the home front, constituting so
momentous an aspect of the Ten-Year Plan, and upon which its
continued and effective prosecution by the American Bahá’í
Community, in the course of the present and third phase of the World
Spiritual Crusade, so largely depends.

Constituting as it does the base of the multiple
operations now being conducted to ensure the success of the North
American, the Latin American, the African, the European and Asiatic
campaigns of a global crusade, no sacrifice can be deemed too great
for its revitalization and the broadening and consolidation of its
foundations. The manpower of the community, so essential to the
further deployment of its forces must, rapidly and at all costs,
increase. The material resources, now at its disposal, which are so
bountifully poured forth and so generously distributed to the four
corners of the globe, must be correspondingly augmented to meet the
pressing and ever-swelling demands of a constantly and irresistibly
advancing Crusade. A far greater proportion of the avowed supporters
of the Faith must arise, ere the Crusade suffers any setback, for the
fourfold purpose of winning over an infinitely greater number of
recruits to the army of Bahá’u’lláh
fighting on the home front, of swelling to an unprecedented degree
the isolated centers now scattered within its confines, of converting
an increasing number of them into firmly founded groups, and of
accelerating the formation of local assemblies, while safeguarding
those already in existence.

THE INDIVIDUAL BAHÁ’Í
MUST ARISE

There can be no doubt whatever that to achieve this
fourfold purpose is the most strenuous, the least spectacular, and
the most challenging of the tasks now confronting the American Bahá’í
Community. It is primarily a task that concerns the individual
believer, wherever he may be, and whatever his calling, his
resources, his race, or his age. Neither the local nor national
representatives of the community, no matter how elaborate their
plans, or persistent their appeals, or sagacious their counsels, nor
even the Guardian himself, however much he may yearn for this
consummation, can decide where the duty of the individual lies, or
supplant him in the discharge of that task. The individual alone must
assess its character, consult his conscience, prayerfully consider
all its aspects, manfully struggle against the natural inertia that
weighs him down in his effort to arise, shed, heroically and
irrevocably, the trivial and superfluous attachments which hold him
back, empty himself of every thought that may tend to obstruct his
path, mix, in obedience to the counsels of the Author of His Faith,
and in imitation of the One Who is its true Exemplar, with men and
women, in all walks of life, seek to touch their hearts, through the
distinction which characterizes his thoughts, his words and his acts,
and win them over tactfully, lovingly, prayerfully and persistently,
to the Faith he himself has espoused.

The gross materialism that engulfs the entire nation at
the present hour; the attachment to worldly things that enshrouds the
souls of men; the fears and anxieties that distract their minds; the
pleasure and dissipations that fill their time, the prejudices and
animosities that darken their outlook, the apathy and lethargy that
paralyze their spiritual faculties—these are among the
formidable obstacles that stand in the path of every would-be warrior
in the service of Bahá’u’lláh, obstacles
which he must battle against and surmount in his crusade for the
redemption of his own countrymen.

To the degree that the home front crusader is himself
cleansed of these impurities, liberated from these petty
preoccupations and gnawing anxieties, delivered from these prejudices
and antagonisms, emptied of self, and filled by the healing and the
sustaining power of God, will he be able to combat the forces arrayed
against him, magnetize the souls of those whom he seeks to convert,
and win their unreserved, their enthusiastic and enduring allegiance
to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

Delicate and strenuous though the task may be, however
arduous and prolonged the effort required, whatsoever the nature of
the perils and pitfalls that beset the path of whoever arises to
revive the fortunes of a Faith struggling against the rising forces
of materialism, nationalism, secularism, racialism, ecclesiasticism,
the all-conquering potency of the grace of God, vouchsafed through
the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, will,
undoubtedly, mysteriously and surprisingly, enable whosoever arises
to champion His Cause to win complete and total victory.

The history of a century-old Faith eloquently bears
witness to similar unnumbered successes won, in both the Apostolic
and Formative Ages of the Bahá’í Dispensation, in
circumstances even more challenging than those in which the American
Bahá’í Community now finds itself.

So magnificent a victory, won collectively, at such a
time, in a country so vitally affecting the immediate destinies of
mankind, singled out to play so predominant a role in the unification
and spiritualization of the entire human race, by a community which
in every other field can boast a brilliant and unbroken record of
victories, will, no doubt, exert not only a profound influence on the
ultimate destinies of an entire nation and people, but will
galvanize, through its repercussions, the entire Bahá’í
world.

“A PRAYER WHICH I NEVER CEASE
TO UTTER”

The prizes within the reach of this community are truly
inestimable. Much will depend on the reaction of the rank and file of
the believers to the plea now addressed to them with all the fervor
of my soul.

To act, and act promptly and decisively, is the need of
the present hour and their inescapable duty. That the American Bahá’í
Community may, in this one remaining field, where so much is at
stake, and where the needs of the Faith are so acute, cover itself
with a glory that will outshine the splendor of its past exploits in
the far-flung territories of the globe, is a prayer which I never
cease to utter in my continual supplications to Bahá’u’lláh.

[July 19, 1956]

Intensification of Efforts

Welcome pledge by delegates. Fervently supplicating
Bahá’u’lláh’s sustaining grace. Urge
intensification of efforts, rededication and achievement of goals of
Plan in order to discharge befittingly the sacred, manifold,
inescapable, urgent responsibilities confronting the entire American
Bahá’í Community. Appeal for unprecedented
increase in pioneers on the home front and all continents of the
globe, on which the prosperity, security and destiny of the American
believers must ultimately rest.

[April 29, 1957]

Dual, Inescapable, Paramount
Responsibilities

Assembly’s dual, inescapable, paramount
responsibilities for current year are to ensure expansion and
consolidation of the home front and the rapid multiplication of
pioneers abroad to reinforce Latin American, African, European and
Pacific campaigns of World Crusade. Fervently supplicating for signal
success in fulfillment of dearest hopes.

[May 7, 1957]

Heights Never Before Attained

The American Bahá’í Community has,
ever since the launching of the global Spiritual Crusade, in which it
has been assigned the lion’s share in view of the primacy
conferred upon it by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, exerted itself,
in numerous and widely scattered areas of the globe, with commendable
perseverance, a high sense of undeviating loyalty and exemplary
consecration. The inexorable march of events, hastening its members
along the path of their destiny, is steadily carrying them to the
stage at which the momentous Plan, to which they have dedicated their
resources, will have reached its midway point.

ENDURING ACHIEVEMENTS

A prodigious expenditure of effort, a stupendous flow of
material resources, an unprecedented dispersal of pioneers, embracing
so vast a section of the globe, and bringing in their wake the rise,
the multiplication and consolidation of so many institutions, so
divers in character, so potent and full of promise, already stand to
their credit, and augur well for a befitting consummation of a
decade-long task in the years immediately ahead.

The opening of a large percentage of the virgin
territories, scattered over the face of the planet, and assigned,
under the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan, to this community and its
sister and daughter communities in all continents of the globe; the
allocation of vast sums, for the founding of national
Hazíratu’l-Quds, for the establishment of national
Bahá’í endowments; and for the purchase of the
sites of future Bahá’í Temples; the financial aid
extended and the moral support accorded to a still persecuted sister
community, struggling heroically for its emancipation, in the cradle
of the Faith; the steady progress in the vital process of
incorporating firmly grounded local spiritual assemblies in various
states of the union; the translation of Bahá’í
literature into the languages listed in the Ten-Year Plan, as well as
into a number of supplementary languages, spontaneously undertaken by
American Bahá’í pioneers in territories far
beyond the confines of their homeland; the completion of the
landscaping of the area immediately surrounding the Mother Temple of
the West, in conformity with the expressed, often repeated wishes of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, contributing so greatly to the
beauty of an edifice, the spiritual influence of which He, repeatedly
and unequivocally, emphasized; the acquisition of the site of the
first dependency of that same edifice, designed to pave the way for
the early establishment of the first of several institutions, which,
as conceived by Him, will be grouped around every Bahá’í
House of Worship, complementing, through their association with
direct service to mankind, in the educational, the humanitarian and
social fields, its spiritual function as the ordained place of
communion with the Creator and the Spirit of His appointed Messenger
in this day; the establishment of the Bahá’í
Publishing Trust; the generous financial assistance extended, the
administrative guidance vouchsafed and the unfailing encouragement
given, by the elected representatives of this same community to the
newly fledged assemblies, emerging into independent existence in both
the Eastern and Western Hemispheres; the substantial share which one
of its members has had in the acquisition of one of the holy sites in
the capital city of Bahá’u’lláh’s
native land; the preponderating role played by the various agencies,
acting under the direction of its national elected representatives,
in giving publicity to the Faith, through the proclamation of the
fundamental verities underlying the Bahá’í
Revelation, the airing of the manifold grievances weighing so heavily
on the overwhelming majority of their coreligionists, and the appeals
directed, on their behalf, to men of eminence in various walks of
life, as well as to different departments of the United Nations, both
in New York and Geneva; and, finally, ranking as equally meritorious
to anything hitherto achieved by the members of this privileged
community, the magnificent and imperishable contribution made by
them, singly and collectively, to the rise and establishment of the
institutions of their beloved Faith at its World Center; through the
assistance given by their distinguished representatives serving in
the Holy Land, in hastening the erection of the Bahá’í
International Archives, through the purchase of the site of the
Mother Temple of the Holy Land, the enlargement of the scope of
Bahá’í international endowments on the slopes of
Mt. Carmel and in the Plain of Akká, the embellishment of the
sacred precincts of the two holiest Shrines of the Bahá’í
world; the formation of the Israel Branches of four national
spiritual assemblies, the preparation and completion of the designs
of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs to be
erected in the Asiatic, the African and Australian continents, and
the setting in motion, through the instrumentality of various
departments of the Israeli government, of a long-drawn-out process,
culminating in the expropriation by the state of the entire property,
owned and controlled by the remnants of the breakers of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant, immediately surrounding His resting-place and the Mansion
of Bahjí, the evacuation of this property by this ignoble
band, and the final and definite purification, after the lapse of no
less than six decades, of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most Holy Shrine
of the Bahá’í world, of the defilement, which had
caused so much sorrow and anxiety to the heart of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—these
are among the enduring achievements which four brief years of
unremitting devotion to the interests of the Ten-Year Plan have
brought about, and which will eternally redound to the glory of the
champion-builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s
embryonic World Order, holding aloft so valiantly the banner of His
Faith in the great republic of the West.

THE HOME FRONT—BASE FOR
EXPANSION OF FUTURE OPERATIONS

Though much has been achieved in the space of less than
five years, though the objectives of the Ten-Year Plan, in most of
its essential aspects, may be said to have been triumphantly attained
long before the time appointed for its termination, through a
striking display, and a remarkable combination, of American Bahá’í
initiative, resourcefulness, generosity, fidelity and perseverance,
the Plan, prosecuted hitherto so vigorously by the rank and file of
this community, may be said to be still suffering in some of its
vital aspects, from certain deficiencies, which, if not speedily and
fundamentally remedied, will not only mutilate the Plan itself, but
jeopardize the prizes won so laboriously since its inauguration.

As I have already forewarned the energetic prosecutors
of the global Crusade in the North American continent, the home
front, from which have sprung, since the inception of the Formative
Age of the Faith, the dynamic forces which have set in motion, and
directed the operation, of so many processes, in both the teaching
and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity,
and which must continue to act as a base for the steady expansion of
future operations in every continent of the globe, and the extension
of their ramifications to the uttermost corners of the earth, and
which must be increasingly regarded, as the forces of internal
disruption and the stress and danger of aggressiveness from without
gather momentum, as the sole stronghold of a Faith which cannot hope
to escape unscathed from the turmoil gathering around it—such a
home front must, at all costs, and in the shortest possible time, be
spiritually reinvigorated, administratively expanded, and materially
replenished. The flame of devotion ignited and the enthusiasm
generated, during the celebrations which commemorated the centenary
of the birth of the Mission of the Divine Author of our Faith, and
which, in the course of the years immediately following it have
carried the members of the American Bahá’í
Community, so far and so high, along the road leading to their
ultimate destiny, must, in whatever way possible, be fanned and
continually fed throughout the entire area of the Union, in every
state from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboards, in every locality
where Bahá’ís reside, in every heart throbbing
with the love of Bahá’u’lláh. The spirit
that sent forth, not so long ago, in such rapid succession, so many
pioneers to such remote areas of the globe, must at all costs and
above everything else, be recaptured, for the twofold purpose of
swelling the number, and of ensuring the continual flow, of pioneers,
so essential for the safeguarding of the prizes won in the course of
the several campaigns of a world-girdling Crusade, and of combatting
the evil forces which a relentless and all-pervasive materialism, the
cancerous growth of militant racialism, political corruption,
unbridled capitalism, wide-spread lawlessness and gross immorality,
are, alas, unleashing, with ominous swiftness, amongst various
classes of the society to which the members of this community belong.

The administrative strongholds of a Faith, bound to be
subjected on the one hand, to a severe spiritual challenge from
within, through the inevitable impact of these devastating influences
on its infant strength, and, on the other, to the onslaught of
ecclesiastical leaders, the traditional defenders of religious
orthodoxy from without, must be multiplied and reinforced for the
purpose of warding off the inevitable attacks of the assailants, of
vindicating the ideals and principles which animate their defenders,
and of ensuring the ultimate victory and ascendency of the Faith
itself over the nefarious elements seeking to undermine it from
within, and its powerful detractors aiming at its extinction from
without.

Nor must the material resources, so vitally required to
meet the challenge of a continually expanding Faith, be, for a
moment, either ignored, neglected, or underestimated—resources
which a home front, materially and adequately replenished by a steady
and marked influx of active and wholehearted supporters from all
ranks of society, can, in the long run, provide. As the imperative
needs of a Faith, now irresistibly advancing in every direction,
multiply, a corresponding increase in the financial means at the
disposal of its national administrators directing and controlling its
operations, within and beyond the confines of their homeland, to meet
these essential and urgent requirements, must be ensured, if its
onward march is not to be either halted or slowed down.

MIGHTY AND HISTORIC ENTERPRISES

It is upon the individual believer, constituting the
fundamental unit in the structure of the home front, that the
revitalization, the expansion, and the enrichment of the home front
must ultimately depend. The more strenuous the effort exerted, daily
and methodically, by the individual laboring on the home front to
rise to loftier heights of consecration, of self-abnegation, to
contribute, through pioneering at home, to the multiplication of
Bahá’í isolated centers, groups and assemblies,
and to raise, through diligent, painstaking and continual endeavor to
convert receptive souls to the Faith he has espoused, the number of
its active and wholehearted supporters, the sooner will the vast and
multiple enterprises, launched beyond the confines of the homeland,
and now so desperately calling for a greater supply of men and means,
be provided with the necessary support that will ensure their
uninterrupted development and hasten their ultimate fruition, and the
lighter will be the burden of the impending contest that must be
waged, sooner or later, within the borders of the Union itself,
between the rising institutions of Bahá’u’lláh’s
embryonic divinely appointed Order, and the exponents of obsolescent
doctrines and the defenders, both secular and religious, of a corrupt
and fast-declining society.

The fourth phase of the Ten-Year Plan, which the
prosecutors of a world-encompassing Crusade are about to enter, must
witness on the one hand, on every home front, and particularly within
the confines of the American homeland, this same spiritual
reinvigoration, administrative expansion, and material replenishment,
constituting the triple facets of a task which can brook no further
delay, and, on the other, an acceleration, particularly in connection
with the construction of the Mother Temples of Australia and Germany
(the needs of the Mother Temple of Africa having, to all intents and
purposes, been met) in the contributions to be made, by individual
believers as well as national spiritual assemblies, to ensure the
uninterrupted progress and the early completion of these mighty and
historic enterprises.

As the members of the valiant American Bahá’í
Community have, in the space of more than four years, blazed the
trail, and vindicated their primacy, through the share they have had
in opening the chief remaining virgin territories of the globe, in
contributing to the furtherance of the interests of the institutions
of the Faith at its World Center, and in hastening the acquisition of
national Hazíratu’l-Quds, the establishment of Bahá’í
national endowments, and the purchase of sites for future Bahá’í
Temples, so must they, if they be intent on safeguarding that
primacy, and on preserving, intact and untarnished, the noble example
they have already set the Bahá’í world, maintain
their enviable position, as the vanguard of the army of Bahá’u’lláh’s
crusaders, in rescuing, while there is yet time, their home front
from the precarious position in which it now finds itself, and in
displaying for the purpose of ensuring the erection of the Mother
Temples of three continents—tasks which tower far above any of
the national enterprises hitherto undertaken—be they
Hazíratu’l-Quds, endowments or Temple sites—that
selfsame generosity and self-abnegation which have distinguished
their stewardship to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh
in the past.

The year, the opening of which will mark the midway
point of this World Spiritual Crusade, must be distinguished from all
previous years, by the special allotment of a substantial sum from
the national budget that will adequately meet the urgent needs of
these Houses of Worship, and particularly those that are to be
erected in the European and Australian continents.

A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY, A GLORIOUS
CHALLENGE

The forthcoming convocation of no less than five
intercontinental conferences, marking the passing of half of the time
allotted for the prosecution of a World Crusade, and to be held, in
five continents of the globe, for the purpose of paying homage to the
Author of the Bahá’í Revelation for His
protection, guidance and blessings, of focusing attention on the
achievements of the immediate past and the pressing requirements of
the immediate future, will, it is my ardent hope and prayer, provide
a fresh stimulus for the adequate discharge of these two
afore-mentioned responsibilities, which constitute the distinguishing
features of the fourth phase of a rapidly unfolding Plan.

At four of these five conferences, in the proceedings of
which four, the members of the American Bahá’í
Community—the principal executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
Divine Plan and the keepers and defenders of the stronghold of the
Bahá’í Administrative Order—will
participate, through their official representatives, the voice of the
champion-builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s
embryonic World Order, who can well claim to have had a decisive
share in the great strides made by this Crusade, should be raised in
a spirit and manner that will galvanize these conferences into
action, and produce such results as will reverberate round the world.

A golden opportunity, a glorious challenge, an
inescapable duty, a staggering responsibility, confront them, at this
fresh turning point in the fortunes of a Crusade, for which they have
so unremittingly labored, whose Cause they have so notably advanced,
in the further unfoldment of which they must continue to play a
leading part, and in whose closing stages, they will, I feel
confident, rise to heights never before attained in the course of six
decades of American Bahá’í history.

Once again—and this time more fervently than ever
before—I direct my plea to every single member of this
strenuously laboring, clear-visioned, stout-hearted, spiritually
endowed community, every man and woman, on whose individual efforts,
resolution, self-sacrifice and perseverance the immediate destinies
of the Faith of God, now traversing so crucial a stage in its rise
and establishment, primarily depends, not to allow, through apathy,
timidity or complacency, this one remaining opportunity to be
irretrievably lost. I would rather entreat each and every one of them
to immortalize this approaching, fateful hour in the evolution of a
World Spiritual Crusade, by a fresh consecration to their God-given
mission, coupled with an instantaneous plan of action, at once so
dynamic and decisive, as to wipe out, on the one hand, with one
stroke, the deficiencies which have, to no small extent, bogged down
the operations of the Crusade on the home front, and tremendously
accelerate, on the other, the progress of the triple task, launched,
in three continents, and constituting one of its preeminent
objectives.

HIS WATCHFUL POWER AND UNFAILING
GRACE

May He, Who through the irresistible operation of the
will of His almighty Father, called this community into being, nursed
it in its infancy through the inestimable benefits conferred by a
divinely appointed Covenant, infused through His personal contact
with its members, and the proclamation of His Own Station, a new
spirit into their souls; conferred, subsequently, through the
revelation of His Tablets, the spiritual primacy designed to enable
them to assume a preponderating role in the propagation of His
Father’s Faith; graciously aided them, following His ascension,
to inaugurate their God-given mission by fixing the pattern, creating
the institutions, and vindicating the purpose, of a divinely
appointed Administrative Order and by launching subsequently the
preliminary undertakings in their homeland, as well as in all the
republics of Latin America, in anticipation of the formal
inauguration of a systematic World Crusade for the furtherance of His
Father’s Cause; and more recently assisted them to embark, in
concert with their brethren in other continents of the globe, upon
the first stage of their world-encompassing mission, and to win a
series of victories unprecedented in the annals of the Faith in their
homeland—may He, through His watchful care and unfailing grace,
continue to sustain them, individually and collectively, in the
course of the remaining stages of the Plan, and enable them to bring
to a triumphant termination the initial epoch in the unfoldment of
the Divine Plan which He has primarily entrusted to them and on the
successful prosecution of which their entire spiritual destiny must
depend.

[September 21, 1957]

IN MEMORIAM

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