The Bahá’í Centenary 1844-1944/America's Spiritual Destiny
 | The text below this notice was generated by a computer, it still needs to be checked for errors and corrected. If you would like to help, view the original document by clicking the PDF scans along the right side of the page. Click the edit button at the top of this page (notepad and pencil icon) or press Alt+Shift+E to begin making changes. When you are done press "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. |
PART TWO AMERICAS SPIRITUAL ‘DESTINY
References to North America in the Baba”t' Writings
BAHA'U'LLAH
O RULERS of America, and Presidents of the Republics therein! Harl-ten to the strains of the Dove on the Branch of Eternity singing the melody: "There is no God but Me, the Everlasting, the Forgiver, the Generous.”
Adorn the temple of dominion with the embroidered garment of justice and virtue, and crown its head with the diadem of the celebration of your Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. Thus the Day-Spring of the Names commands you on the part of the One all-knowing and wise. The Promised One has appeared in this exalted
Station, whereat all creation, both seen and unseen, smiled and rejoiced.
O people, avail yourselves of the Day of God. Verily, to meet Him is better for you than all that upon which the sun rises, were you of those who know!
O concourse of Statesmen! Harken to that which is raised from the Day-Spring of Majesty. that: "There is no God but Me, the Speaker, the All-Knowing. Assist with the hands of justice the broken-hearted, and crush the great oppressors with the scourges of the commands of your Lord, the Powerful, the Wise!"
II
‘ABDU'L-BAHA
Public Addresses in the United Stairs and Crmmla, 19/2
The body of the human world is sick. Its remedy and healing will be the oneness of the kingdom of humanity. Its life is the Most Great Peace. Its illumination and quickening is love. Its happiness is the attainment of spiritual perfections. It is my wish and hope that in the bounties and favors of the Blessed Perfection (Bahá’u’lláh) we may find a new life, acquire a new power and attain to a wonderful and supreme source of energy so that the Most Great Peace of divine intention shall be established upon the foundations of the unity of the world of men with God. May the love of God be spread from this city, from this meeting, to all the surrounding countries. Nay, may America become the distributing center of spiritual enlightenment and all the world receive this heavenly blessing. For America
19
has developed powers and capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations. While it is true that its people have attained a marvelous material civilization, I hope that spiritual forces may animate this great body and a corresponding spiritual civilization be established.
New York, April 16
I have traveled this long distance, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to this western continent in the desire and hope that the strongest bond of unity may he established between America and Persia. I know this to be your wish and purpose also and am sure of your cooperation. We shall therefore offer supplication in the divine threshold that a great love may take possession of the hearts of men and unite the nations of the world.
20 THE Bahá’í
We will pray that the ensign of international peace may be uplifted and that the oneness of the world of humanity may be realized and accomplished. All this is made possible and practicable through your efforts. May this American democracy be the first nation
"to establish the foundation of international
agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the universality of mankind. May it be the first to upraise the standard of the "Most Great Peace," and through this nation of democracy may these philanthropic intentions and institutions be spread broadcast throughout the world. Truly this is a great and revered nation. Here liberty has reached its highest degree. The intentions of its people are most praiseworthy. They are indeed worthy of being the first people to build the tabernacle of the great peace and proclaim the oneness of the world of humanity. I will supplicate God for assistance and confirmation in your behalf. Washington, D. C., April 20
Today I am exceedingly glad that both white and colored people have gathered here and I hope the time will come when they shall live together in the utmost peace, unity and friendship. I wish to say one thing of importance to both in order that the white race may be just and kind to the colored and that the colored race may in turn be grateful and appreciative toward the white. The great proclamation of liberty and emancipation from slavery was made upon this continent. A long bloody war was fought by white men for the sake of colored people. These white men forfeited their possessions and sacrificed their lives by thousands in order that colored men might be freed from bondage. The colored population of the United States of America are possibly not fully informed of the wide-reaching effect of this freedom and emancipation upon their colored brethren in Asia and Africa where even more terrible conditions of slavery existed. Influenced and impelled by the example of the United States, the European powers proclaimed universal liberty to the colored race and slavery ceased to exist. This effort and accomplishment by the‘ white nations should never be lost sight of. Both races should rejoice in gratitude, for the
CENTENARY
institution of liberty and equality here became the cause of liberating your fellowbeings elsewhere. . . .
Therefore strive earnestly and put forth your greatest endeavor toward the accomplishment of this fellowship and the cementing of this bond of brotherhood between you. Such an attainment is not possible without will and effort on the part of each; from one, expressions of gratitude and appreciation; from the other, kindliness and recognition of equality. Each one should endeavor to develop and assist the other toward mutual advancement. This is possible only by conjoining of effort and inclination. Love and unity will be fostered between you, thereby‘ bringing about the oneness of mankind. For the accomplishment of unity between the colored and whites will be an assurance of the world's peace. Then racial prejudice, national prejudice, limited patriotism and religious bias will pass away and remain no longer. .
Washington, D. C., April 23
O God! O Thou who givest! This congregation is turning to Thee, casting their glances toward Thy Kingdom and favor, longing to behold the lights of Thy face. O God! bless this nation. Confirm this government. Reveal Thy glory unto this people and confer upon them life eternal. O God! illumine the faces, render the hearts radiant. exhilarate the breasts. crown the heads with the diadem of Thy providence, cause them to soar in Thy pure atmosphere so they may reach the highest pinnacles of Thy splendor. Assist them in order that this world may ever find the light and effulgence of Thy presence. O God! shelter this congregation and admonish this nation. Render them progressive in all degrees. May they become leaders in the world of humanity. May they be Thy examples among humankind. May they be manifestations of Thy grace. May they be filled with the inspiration of Thy Word. Thou art the powerful! Thou art the mighty! Thou art the giver and thou art the omniscient!
Chicago, May 3
In this western world with its stimulating climate, its capacitia for knowledge and
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 21
lofty ideals, the message of peace should be easily spread. The people are not so influenced by imitations and prejudices, and through their comprehension of the real and unreal they should attain the truth. They should become leaders in the effort to establish the oneness of humankind. What is higher than this responsibility? In the kingdom of God no service is greater and in the estimation of the prophets including Jesus Christ there is no deed so estimable.
Yet even now warfare prevails. Envy and hatred have arisen between nations but because I find the American nation so capable of achievement and this government the fairest of western governments, its institutions superior to others, my wish and hope is that the banner of international reconciliation may first be raised on this continent and the standard of the “Most Great Peace" be unfurled here. May the American people and their government unite in their efforts in order that this light may dawn from this point and spread to all regions: for this is one of the greatest bestowals of God. In order that America may avail herself of this opportunity I beg that you strive and pray with heart and soul. devoting all your energies to this end that the banner of international peace may be upraised here and that thierdemocracy may be the cause of the cessation of warfare in all other countries.
Observe what is taking place in Tripoli; men cutting each other into pieces; bombardment from the sea, attacks from the land and the hail of dynamite from the very heaven itself. The contending armies are thirsting for each other's blood. How they can do this is inconceivable. They have fathers. mothers, children: they are human. What of their wives and families? Think of their anguish and suffering. How uniust, how terrible! Human beings should prevent and forbid this. These kings, rulers and chieftains should strive for the good of their subjects instead of their destruction. These shepherds should bring their sheep within the fold, comfort them and give them pasture instead of death and slaughter.
I supplicate the divine Kingdom and ask that you may be instrumental in establishing the Great Peace in this country and that
this government and nation may spread it to all the world. Chicago, May 3
O thou kind Lord! Thou hast created all humanity from the same original parents. Thou hast intended that all belong to the same household. In Thy holy presence they are Thy servants and all mankind are sheltered beneath Thy tabernacle. All have gathered at Thy table of bounty and are radiant through the light of Thy providence. O God! Thou art kind to all, thou hast provided for all, thou dost shelter all, thou dost confer life upon all. Thou hast endowed all with talents and faculties; all are submerged in the ocean of Thy mercy. O thou kind Lord! unite all, let the religions agree, make the nations one so that they may be as one kind and as children of the same fatherland. May they associate in unity and concord. O God! upraise the standard of the oneness of humankind. O God! establish the "Most Great Peace." Cement the hearts togcther, O God! O thou kind father, God! exhilarate the hearts through the fragrance of Thy love; brighten the eyes through the light of Thy guidance; cheer the hearing with the melodies of Thy Word and shelter us in the cave of Thy providence. Thou art the mighty and powerful! Thou art the forgiving and thou art the one who overlookest the shortcomings of humankind. Chicago. May S
This revered American nation presents evidences of greatness and worth. It is my hope that this just government will stand for peace so that warfare may be abolished throughout the world and the standards of national unity and reconciliation be upraised. This is the greatest attainment of the world of humanity. This American nation 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 the east and the west for the triumph of its democracy. I pray that this may come to pass and I ask the blessing of God in behalf of you all.
Cleveland, May 6
All of us know that international peace is
22 THE Bahá’í
good. that it is conducive to human welfare and the glory of man, but volition and action are necessary before it can be established. Action is the essential. Inasmuch as this century is a century of light, capacity for action is assured to mankind. Necessarily the divine principles will be spread among men until the time of action arrives. Surely this has been so and truly the time and conditions are ripe for action now. All men know that verily. war is a destroyer of human foundations and in every country of the world this is admitted and apparent.
I find the United States of America an exceedingly progressive naticn. the government just. the people in a state of readiness and the principle of equality established to an extraordinary degree. Therefore it is my hope that inasmuch as the standard of international peace must be upraised it may be upraised upon this Continent, for this nation is more deserving and has greater capacity for such an initial step than any other. If other nations should attempt to do this the motive will be misunderstood. . . Your government has, strictly speaking, no colonies to protect. ,You are not endeavoring to extend your domain nor have you need of territorial expansion. Therefore if Arrierica
' takes the first step toward the establish ment of world peace it is certain to be ascribed to unsclfishness and altruism. . . . Just now Europe is a battlefield of ammunition ready for a spark; and one spark will set aflame the whole world. Before these complications and cataclysmic events happen, take the step to prevent it. . . . Let this be her mission and undertaking and may its blessed impetus spread to all countries. New York, May 12
His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned and subjected to severe persecutions. Finally He was exiled from Persia to Mesopotamia; from Bafidad He was sent to Constantinople and Adrianople and from thence to the prison of Akka in Syria. Through all these ordeals He strove day and night to proclaim the oneness of humanity and promulgate the message of Universal Peace. From the prison of Akka He addressed the kings and rulers of the earth in lengthy letters summoning them to international agreement and explicitly
CENTENARY
stating that the standard of the "Most Great Peace" would surely be upraised in the world.
This has come to pass. The powers of earth cannot withstand the privileges and bestowals which God has ordained for this great and glorious century. It is a need and exigency of the time. Man can withstand anything except that which is divinely intended and indicated for the age and its requirements. Now, Praise be to God! in all countries of the world, lovers of peace are to be found and these principles are being spread among mankind, especially in this country. Praise be to God! this thought is prevailing and souls are continually arising as defenders of the oneness of humanity, endeavoring to assist and establish international peace. There is no doubt that this wonderful democracy will be able to realize it and the banner of international agreement will be unfurled here to spread onward and outward among all the nations of the world. I give thanks to God that I find you imbued with such susceptibilities and lofty aspirations and I hope that you will be the means of spreading this light to all men. Thus may the Sun of
-Reality shine upon the east and west. The
enveloping clouds shall pass away and the heat of the divine rays will dispel the mist. The reality of man shall develop and come forth as the image of God his creator. The thoughts of man shall take such upward flight that former accomplishments shall appear as the play of children;-—for the ideas and beliefs of the past and the prejudices regarding race and religion have ever been lowering and destructive to human evolution. I am most hopeful that in this century these lofty thoughts shall be conducive to human welfare. Let this century be the sun of previous centuries the eflulgences of which shall last forever, so that in times to come they shall glorify the twentieth century. saying the twentieth century was the century of lights, the twentieth century was the century of life, the twentieth century was the century of international peace, the twentieth century was the century of divine bestowals and the twentieth century has left traces which shall last forever.
New York, May I}
I have come to this country in the ad
AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 23
vanced years of my life, undergoing difficulties of health and climate because of excessive love for the friends of God. It is my wish that they may be assisted to become servants of the heavenly kingdom. captives in the service of the will of God. This captivity is freedom, this sacrifice is glorification, this labor is reward, this need is bestowal. For service in love for mankind is unity with God. He who serves has already entered the kingdom and is seated at the right hand of his Lord.
New York, June 11
I desire to make manifest among the friends in America a new light that they may become a new people, that a new foundation may be established and complete harmony be realized; for the foundation of Bahá’u’lláh is love. When you go to Green Acre’ you must have infinite love for each other. each preferring the other before himself. The people must be so attracted to you that they will exclaim "What happiness exists among you!" and will see in your faces the lights of the kingdom; then in wonderment they will turn to you and seek the cause of your happiness. You must give the message through action and deed, not alone by word. Word must be conjoined with deed. You must love your friend better than yourself; yes, be willing to sacrifice yourself. The cause of Bahá’u’lláh has not yet appeared in this country. I desire that you be ready to sacrifice everything for each other, even life itself; then I will know that the cause of Bahá’u’lláh has been established. I will pray for you that you may become the cause of upraising the lights of God. May everyone point to you and ask “Why are these people so happy?" I want you to be happy in Green Acre, to laugh, smile and rejoice in order that others may be made happy by you. I will pray for you.
New York, July 1
My highest hope and desire is that the strongest and most indissoluble bond shall be established between the American nation and the people of the Orient. This is my prayer to God. May the day come when through divine and spiritual activity in the human world, the religions shall be reconciled
and all races of mankind come together in unity and love. Fifty years ago His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed the peace of the nations and oneness of the divine religions. addressing His words to all the kings and rulers of the world in specific tablets. Therefore my supreme desire is the unity of the east and west, Universal Peace, and the oneness of the world of humanity.
Denver. September 25
The issue of paramount importance in the world today is International Peace. The European continent is like an arsenal, a storehouse of explosives ready for ignition. and one spark will set the whole of Europe aflame. particularly at this time when the Balkan question is before the world. Even now war is raging furiously in some places, the blood of innocent people is being shed, children are made captive, women are left without support and homes are being destroyed. Therefore the greatest need in the world today is International Peace. The time is ripe. It is time for the abolition of warfare, the unification of nations and governments. It is the time for love. It is time for cementing together the cast and the west.
Inasmuch as the Californians seem peaceloving and possessed of great worthiness and capacity, I hope that advocates of peace may daily increase among them until the whole population shall stand for that bcneficent outcome. May the men of affairs in this democracy uphold the standard of international conciliation. Then may altruistic aims and thoughts radiate from this center toward all other regions of the earth and may the glory of this accomplishment forever halo the history of this country. May the first flag of International Peace be upraised in this State. May the first illumination of reality shine gloriously upon this soil. May this center and capitol become distinguished in all degrees of accomplishment; for the virtues of humanity and the possibilities of human advancement are boundless. There is no end to them and whatever be the degree to which humanity may attain, there are always degrees beyond. There is no attainment in the contingent realm of which it may be said “Beyond this state of being and perfection there is no other," or "This has
24 THE BAHA'I
achieved the superlative degree." No matter how perfect it may appear, there is always a greater degree of attainment to be reached. Therefore no matter how much humanity may advance there are even higher stations to be attained because virtues are unlimited. There is a consummation for everything except virtues and although this country has achieved extraordinary progress, I hope that its attainment may be immeasurably greater, for the divine bounties are infinite and unlimited.
Sacramento, October 26
As we are in Cincinnati, the home of President Taft, who has rendered such noble service to the cause of peace, I will dictate a statement for the people of Cincinnati and America generally.
In the Orient I was informed that there are many lovers of peace in America. Therefore I left my native land to associate here with those who are the standard-bearers of international conciliation and agreement. Having traveled from coast to coast, I find the United States of America vast and progressive, the government just and equable, the nation noble and independent. I attended many meetings where International Peace was discussed and am always extremely happy to witness the results of such meetings, for one of the great principles of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is the establishment of agreement among the peoples of the world.
He founded and taught this principle in the Orient fifty years ago. He proclaimed international unity, summoned the religions of the world to harmony and reconciliation and established fellowship among many races, sects and communities. At that time He wrote Epistles to the kings and rulers of the world, calling upon them to arise and cooperate with Him in spreading these principles, saying that the stability and advancement of humanity could only be realized through the unity of the nations. Through His eiiorts this principle of universal harmony and agreement was practically demonstrated in Persia and other countries. Today, in Persia, for instance, there are many people of various races and religions who have followed the exhortations of Baha’ ’ CENTENARY
llah and are living together in love and fellowship without religious, patriotic on racial prejudices: Muhammadans, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and many others.
America has arisen to spread the teachings of peace, to increase the illumination of humankind and bestow happiness and prosperity upon the children of men. These are the principles and evidences of divine civilization. America is a noble nation, the standardbearer of peace throughout the world, shedding light to all regions. Foreign nations are not untrammelled and free from intrigues and complications like the United States, therefore they are not able to bring about universal harmony, but America—praise be to Godl—is at peace with all the world and is worthy of raising the flag of brotherhood and international agreement. When this is done, the rest of the world will accept. All nations will join in adopting the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revealed more than fifty years ago. In His epistles He asked the parliaments of the world to send their wisest and best men to an international world conference which should decide all questions between the peoples and establish Universal Peace. This would be the highest court of appeal and the parliament of man so long dreamed of by poets and idealists would be realized. [ts accomplishment would be more far-reaching than the Hague tribunal.
I am most grateful to President Taft for having extended his influence toward the establishment of Universal Peace. What he has accomplished in making treaties with various nations is very good but when we have the inter-parliamentary body composed of delegates from all the nations of the world and devoted to the maintenance of agreement and good will, the utopian dream of sages and poets, the parliament of man, will be realized.
Cincinnati. November 5
Praise be to God! The standard of liberty is held aloft in this land. You enjoy political liberty; you enjoy liberty of thought and'speech, religious liberty, racial and personal liberty. Surely this is worthy of appreciation and thanksgiving. Washington, D. C., November 6
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 25
It is my fond and fervent hope through the favor of God that this present meeting may be instrumental in ushering in the day when the standard of the oneness of the world of humanity shall be held aloft in America. May it be the first real foundation of International Peace, having for its object universal service to man. May it be divine philanthropy without distinctions or differentiations in humankind. May you consider all religions the instruments of God and regard all races as channels of divine manifestation. May you view mankind as the sheep of God and know for a certainty that He is the real shepherd. Washington, D. C.. November 9
I consider the American people a highly civilized and intelligent nation,—a nation investigating truth and reality. It is my hope that through the efforts of this noble nation the solidarity of humanity may be continually advanced, that the illumination of the human world may become widespread, that the banner of Universal Peace may be held aloft, the lamp of the oneness of the human world be ignited and the hearts of the east and west be conjoined. Then
the reality of the divine religions shall become resplendent and refulgent, indicating that they were meant to be the cause of unity and love and that through them, heavenly bestowals have ever been conferring light upon the human world.
New York, November 18
I have been in America nine months and have traveled to all the large cities, speaking before various assemblages, proclaiming to them the oneness of the world of humanity, summoning all to union, harmony, and oneness. I have indeed received the greatest kindness from the American people. I look upon them as a noble nation capable of every perfection. Tomorrow I am going away to Europe and now I bid farewell to you all, seeking for you the divine mercy, the eternal glory and everlasting life; and I pray that you may attain the highest station of humanity. I am greatly pleased with this meeting. My happiness is great. I shall never forget you. You shall always live in my thought. I shall always pray and supplicate before the Kingdom of God and seek heavenly blessings for you.
New York, December S
IH
‘ABDU’L-BAHA
Tablets of the Divine Plan
To the Assemblies and Meetings of the Believers of God and (be maid-sernmts of HMMerciful in the United States and Canada.
Upon them be Bahá’u’lláh El-Abhál HE IS COD! O ye blessed souls!
I desire for you eternal success and prosperity and beg perfect confirmation for each one in the divine world. My hope for you is that each one may shine forth like unto the morning star from the horizon of the world and in this Garden of God become a blessed tree, producing everlasting fruits and results.
Therefore I direct you to that which is conducive to your heavenly confirmation and illumination in the Kingdom of God!
It is this: Alaska is a vast country; although one of the maid-servants of the Merciful has hastened to those parts, serving as a librarian in the Public Library, and according to her ability is not failing in teaching the Cause; yet the call of the Kingdom of God is not yet raised through that spacious territory.
His Holiness Christ says: Travel ye to the East and to the West of the world and
26 THE BAHA’l
summon the people to the Kingdom of God. Hence the mercy of God must encompass all humanity. Therefore do ye not think it permissible to leave that region deprived of the breezes of the Morn of Guidance. Consequently, strive as far as ye are able to send to those parts fluent speakers, who are detached from aught else save God, attracted with the fragrances of God, and sanctificd and purified from all desires and temptations. Their sustenance and food must consist of the teachings of God. First they must themselves live in accordance with those principles, then guide the people. Perchance, God willing, the lights of the most great guidance may illumine that country and the breezes of the rose garden of the love of God may perfume the nostrils of the inhabitants of Alaska. Should ye become confirmed in thus rendering such a service, rest ye assured that ye shall crown your heads with the diadem of everlasting sovereignty. and at the threshold of oneness you will become the favored and accepted servants.
Likewise the Republic of Mexico is very important. The majority of the inhabitants of that country are devoted Catholics. They are totally unaware of the reality of the Bible, the Gospel and the new divine teachings. They do not know that the basis of the religions of God is one and that the Holy Manifestations are like unto the Sun of Truth. rising from the different dawning places. Those souls are submerged in the sea of dogmas. If one breath of life be blown over them, great results will issue therefrom. But it is better for those who intend to go to Mexico to teach, to be familiar with the Spanish language.
Similarly, the six Central American Republics. situated south of Mexico,—Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the seventh country, Belize or British Honduras. The teachers going to these parts must also be familiar with the Spanish language.
You must give great importance to teaching the Indians i. e.. the aborigines of America. For these souls are like the ancient inhabitants of Peninsular Arabia, who previow: to the Manifestation of His Holiness Muhammad were treated as savages. But when the Muhammadic light shone forth in their
CENTENARV
-midst,-they became so illumined that they
brightened the world. Likewise, should thesd Indians and aborigines be educated and obtain guidance, there is no doubt that through the divine teachings, they will become so enlightened as in turn to shed light to all regions.
All the above countries have importance, but especially the Republic of Panama.
wherein the Atlantic and the 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 the Islands of the West Indies, such as Cuba, Haiti. Puerto Rico, Jamaica. the Islands of the Lesser Antilles, Bahama Islands, even the small Watling Island, have great importance; especially the two black Republics, Haiti and Santa Dorningo, situated in the cluster of the Greater Antilles. Likewise the cluster of the Islands of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean have importance.
In a similar way. the Republics on the Continent of South America—Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. Brazil. British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, French Guiana, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay. Venezuela; also the Islands in the North, East and West of South America, such as Falkland Island. Galapagos, Juan Fernandez, Tobago and Trinidad. Likewise the city of Bahia. situated on the eastern shore of Brazil. Because it is some time that it has become known by this name, its efficacy will be most potent.
In short, O ye believers of God! Exalt your effort and magnify your aims. His Holiness Christ says: Blessed are the poor. for theirs shall be the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words: Blessed are the nameless and tracelcss poor, for they are the leaders of mankind. Likewise it is said in the Qur'én: “We desire to bestow our gifts upon those who have become weak on the face of the earth, and make them a nation, and the heirs (of spiritual truth).” Or. we wish to grant a favor to the impotent souls and suffer them to become the inheritors of the Messengers and Prophets.
Therefore, now is the time that you may
AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 27
divest yourselves from the garment of attachment to this phenomenal realm, be wholly severed from the physical world, become angels of heaven and travel and teach through all these regions.
I declare by Him, beside whom there is no one, that each one of you shall become the Israfel of Life, blowing the breath of life in the souls of others.
Upon you be greeting and praise!
SUPPLICATION
O Thou Incomparable God! O thou Lord of the Kingdom! These souls are Thy heavenly army. Assist them and with the cohorts of the Supreme Concourse, make
them victorious; so that each one of them may become like unto a regiment and conquer these countries through the love of God and the illumination of divine teachings.
O God! Be Thou their supporter and their helper, and in the wilderness, the mountain, the valley, the forests, the prairies and the seas, be Thou their confidant—so that they may cry out through the power of the Kingdom and the breath of the Holy Spirit!
Verily Thou art the powerful, the mighty and the omnipotent, and Thou art the wise, the hearing and the seeing.
Haifa, Palestine, April 8, 1916.
To fbe believers and the maid-serrartts of the Merciful of the Baba"r' Assemblies and Meetings in 1179 United States and Canada!
HE IS COD! O ye real Ba/)a"r's of Amrrim!
Praise be to His Highness the Desired One that ye have become confirmed in the promotion of divine teachings in that vast Continent, raised the call of the Kingdom of God in that region and announced the Glad Tidings of the manifestation of the Lord of Hosts and His Highness the Promised One. Thanks be unto the Lord that ye have become assisted and confirmed in this aim. This is purely through the confirmations of the Lord of Hosts and the breaths of the Holy Spirit. At present your confirmation is not known and understood. Ere long ye shall observe that each one of you like unto a brilliant and shining star will diffuse the light of guidance from that horizon and that ye have become the cause of eternal life to the inhabitants of America.
Consider! The station and the confirmation of the apostles in the time of Christ was not known, and no one looked on them with the feeling of importance-—nay. rather, they persecuted and ridiculed them. Later on it became evident what crowns studded with the brilliant jewels of guidance were placed on the heads of the apostles, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of John.
Likewise your confirmation is not known at the present time. I hope that etc long ‘it may throw a mighty reverberation
through the pillars of the earth. Therefore it is the hope of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that just as ye are confirmed and assisted on the continent of America, ye may also be confirmed and assisted in other continents of the globe:that is, ye may carry the fame of the Cause of God to the East and to the West and spread the Glad Tidings of the appearance of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts throughout the five continents of the world.
When this divine call travels from the continent of America to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Islands of the Pacific, the American believers shall be established on the throne of everlasting Glory, the fame of their illumination and guidance shall reach to all regions and the renown of their greatness become world-wide. Therefore, a party, speaking the languages, severed, holy, sanctified and filled with the love of God, must turn their faces to and travel through the three great island groups of the Pacific Ocean,———Polynesia, Micronesia and Malanesia, and the islands attached to these groups, such as New Guinea. Borneo. Java. Sumatra, Philippine Islands, Solomon Islands. Fiji Islands. New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Bismarck Archipelago, Ceram, Celebes, Friendly Islands. Samoa Islands, Society Islands. Caroline Islands, Low Archipelago, Marquesas, Hawaiian Islands, Gilbert Islands, Moluccas, Marshall Islands, Timor and the other islands. Witli hearts
28 THE BAHA'I
overflowing with the love of God, with tongues commemorating the mention of God, with eyes turned to the Kingdom of God, they must deliver the Glad Tidings of the manifestation of the Lord of Hosts to all the people. Know ye of a certainty that in whatever meeting ye may enter, in the apex of that meeting the Holy Spirit shall be waving and the heavenly confirmations of the Blessed Perfection shall encompass all.
Consider ye, that Miss Agnes Alexander, the daughter of the Kingdom, the beloved maid-servant of the Blessed Perfection, traveled alone to Hawaii and the Island of Honolulu, and now she is gaining spiritual victories in Japan! Reflect ye how this daughter was confirmed in the Hawaiian Islands. She became the cause of the guidance of a gathering of people.
Likewise Miss Knobloch traveled alone to Germany. To what a great extent she became confirmed! Therefore, know ye of a certainty that whosoever arises in this day to diffuse the divine fragrances the cohorts of the Kingdom of God shall confirm him and the bestowals and the favors of the Blessed Perfection shall encircle him.
0 how I long that it could be made possible for me to travel throughout these parts, even if necessary on foot and with the utmost poverty, and while passing through the cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans. cry at the top of my voice: "Yzi Bahi i’l Abhál” and promote the divine teachings. But now this is not feasible for me, therefore I live in great regret; perchance, God willing, ye may become assisted therein.
At this time, in the Islands of Hawaii, through the efforts of Miss Alexander, :1 number of souls have reached the shore of the sea of faith! Consider ye, what happiness, what joy is this! I declare by the Lord of Hosts that had this respected daughter founded an empire, that empire would not have been so great! For this sovereignty is eternal sovereignty and this glory is everlasting glory.
Likewise, if some teachers go to other islands and other parts, such as the continent of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania. also to japan, Asiatic Russia, Korea, French IndoChina, Siam, Straits Settlements, India, Ceylon and Afghanistan, most great results will
CENTENARY
be forthcoming. How good would it be ' were there any possibility of a commission composed of men and women, to travel together through China and Japan—so that this bond of love may become strengthened, and through this going and coming they may establish the oneness of the world of humanity, summon the people to the Kingdom of God and spread the teachings.
Similarly, if possible. they should travel to the continent of Africa, Canary Islands. Cape Verde Islands, Madeira Islands, Reunion Islands, St. Helena, Zanzibar, Mauritius, etc., and in those countries summon the people to the Kingdom of God and raise the cry of: “Ya Bahi i’l Abhá!” They must also upraise the flag of the oneness of the world of humanity in the Island of Madagascar.
Books and pamphlets must be either translated or composed in the languages of these countries and islands, to be circulated in every part and in all directions.
It is said that in South Africa, a diamond mine is discovered. Although this mine is most valuable, yet after all it is stone. Perchance, God willing, the mine of humanity may be discovered and the brilliant pearls of the Kingdom be found.
In brief, this world—consuming war has set such a conflagration to the hearts that no word can describe it. In all the countries of the world the longing for Universal Peace is taking possession of the consciousness of men. There is not a soul who does not yearn for concord and peace. A most wonderful state of receptivity is being realized. This is through the consummate wisdom of God. so that capacity may be created, the standard of the oneness of the world of humanity be upraised, and the fundamentals of Universal Peace and the divine principles be promoted in the East and the West.
Therefore, O ye believers of God! Show ye an effort and after this war spread ye the synopsis of the divine teachings in the British Isles, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland. Portugal, Roumania, Serbia. Montenegro. Bulgaria, Greece, Andora, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino, Balearic Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, Malta,_
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 29
Iceland, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides and Orkney Islands.
In all these countries, like unto the morning stars shine ye forth from the horizon of guidance. Up to this time you have displayed great magnanimity, but after this, ye must add a thousand times to your effort and throughout the above countries, capitals, islands, meetings and churches, invite mankind to the Kingdom of Abhá! The circle of your exertion must become widened. The more it is broadened and extended, the greater will be your confirmation.
Ye have observed that while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in the utmost bodily weakness and feebleness, while He was indisposed, and had not the power to move,—notwithstanding this physical state He traveled through many countries, in Europe and America, and in churches, meetings and conventions. was occupied with the promotion of the divine principles and summoned the people to the manifestation of the Kingdom of Abhi. Ye have also observed how the confirmations of the Blessed Perfection encompassed all. What result is forthcoming from material rest, tranquillity, luxury and attachment to this corporeal world! It is evident that the man who pursues these things will in the end heeome afflicted with regret and loss.
Consequently, one must close his eyes wholly to these thoughts, long for eternal life, the sublimity of the world of humanity, the celestial developments, the Holy Spirit, the promotion of the Word of God, the guidance of the inhabitants of the globe, the promulgation of Universal Peace and the proclamation of the oneness of the world of humanity! Tbis is tbs work. Otherwise like unto other animals and birds one must occupy himself with the requirements of this physical life, the satisfaction of which is the highest aspiration of the animal kingdom, and one must stallt across the earth like unto the quadrupeds.
Consider ye! No matter how much man gains wealth, riches and opulence in this world, he will not become as independent as a cow. For these fattened cows roam freely over the vast tableland. All the prairies and meadows are theirs for grazing, and all the springs and rivers are theirs for drinking! No matter how much they graze, the fields
will not be exhausted! It is evident that they have earned these material bounties with the utmost facility.
Still more ideal than this life is the life of a bird. A bird, on the summit of a mountain, on the high, waving branches, has built for itself a nest more beautiful than the palaces of the kings! The air is in the utmost purity, the water cool and clear as crystal, the panorama charming and enchanting. In such glorious surroundings, he expends his numbered days. All the harvests of the plain are his possessions, having earned all this wealth without the least labor. Hence, no matter how much man may advance in this world, he shall not attain to the station of this bird! Thus it becomes evident that in the matters of this world, however much man may strive and work to the point of death, he will be unable to earn the abundance, the freedom and the independent life of a small bird. This proves and establishes the fact that man is not created for the life of this ephemeral world:—nay, rather, he is created for the acquirement of infinite perfections, for the attainment to the sublimity of the world of humanity, to be drawn nigh unto the divine threshold and to sit on the throne of everlasting sovereignty!
Upon you be Bahá El-Abba!
Any soul starting on a trip of teaching to various parts, and while sojourning in strange countries, may peruse the following supplication—day and night.
SUPPLICATION
O God! O God! Thou seest me enamored and-attracted toward Thy Kingdom, the El Abhil, enkindled with the fire of Thy love amongst mankind, a herald of Thy Kingdom in these vast and spacious countries, severed from aught else save Thee, relying on Thee, abandoning rest and comfort. remote from my native home, a wanderer in these regions, a stranger fallen on the ground, humble before Thy exalted threshold, submissive toward Thy most high realm, supplicating Thee in the middle of nights and in the heart of evenings, entreating and invoking Thee in the morn and eve-—so that Thou mayst assist me in the service of Thy Cause, the promotion of Thy Teachings and the exaltation of Thy Word
so THE Bahá’í
in the Easts of the earth and the Wests thereof.
O Lord! Associate with me in my loneliness and accompany me in my journeys through these foreign lands.
Verily, Thou art the confirmcr of whom CENTENARY
socvcr Thou willcst in that which Thou desirest. and verily Thou art the powerful, the omnipotent!
Haifa, Palestine, April 11, 1916.
To the Assemblies am! Meetings of the In-lierrrt of Gm! and Ibr maid-srrranfs of the Merciful in the United Stairs apd Canada:
Upon them be Bahá’u’lláh El-Abhá! HE IS GOD!
O ye heavenly souls, sons and daughters of the Kingdom!
God says in the Qur’án: "Take ye hold of the Cord of God, all of you, and become ye not disunited."
In the contingent world there are many collective centers which are conducive to association and unity between the children of men. For example, patriotism is a collective center; nationalism is a collective center; identity of interests is a collective center; political alliance is a collective center; the union of ideals is a collective center, and the prosperity of the world of humanity is dependent upon the organization and promotion of the collective centers. Nevertheless, all the above institutions are in reality, the matter and not the substance, accidental and not eternal—tempor.ary and not everlasting. With the appearance of great revolutions and upheavals, all these collective centers are swept away. But the Collective Center of the Kingdom, embodying the Institutes and Divine Teachings, is the eternal Collective Center. It establishes relationship between the East and the West, organizes the oneness of the world of humanity, and destroys the foundation of differences. It overcomes and includes all the other collective centers. Like unto the ray of the sun, it dispels entirely the darkness, encompassing all the regions, bestows ideal life, and causes the effulgence of divine illumination. Through the breaths of the Holy Spirit it performs miracles; the Orient and the Océident cmbrace each other, the North and South become intimates and associates; conflicting and contending opinions disappear; antago nistic aims arc brushed aside, the law of the struggle for existence is abrogated, and the canopy of the oneness of the world of humanity is raised on the apex of the globe, casting its shade over all the races of men. Consequently, the real Collective Center is the body of the divine teachings, which include all the degrees and embrace all the universal relations and necessary laws of humanity.
Consider! The people of the East and the West were in the utmost strangeness. Now to what a high degree they are acquainted with each other and united together! How far are the inhabitants of Persia from the remotest countries of America! And now observe how great has been the influence of the heavenly power, for the distance of thousands of miles has become identical with one step! How various nations that have had no relations or similarity with each other are now united and agreed through this divine potency! Indeed to God belongs power in the past and in the future! And verily God is powerful over all things!
Consider! When the rain, the heat, the sun and the gentle zephyrs cooperate with each other, what beautiful gardens are produced! How the various kinds of hyacinths, flowers, trees and plants associate with each other and are conducive to the adornment and charm of one another! Hence the oneness of the bounty of the sun, the oneness of rain and the oneness of the breeze have so overcome all other considerations, that the variety of hues, fragrances and tastes have increased the adornment, the attraction and sweetness of the whole. In a similar manner, when the divine Collective Center and the outpouring of the Sun of Reality and the breaths of the Holy Spirit are brought together, the variety of races and the differences existing between
AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 31
countries will become the cause of the embellishment, decoration and elegance of the world of humanity.
Therefore, the believers of God throughout all the Republics of America, through the divine power, must become the cause of the promotion of heavenly teachings and the establishment of the oneness of humanity. Every one of the important souls must arise, blowing over all parts of America the breath of life, conferring upon the people a new spirit, baptizing them with the fire of the love of God, the water of life, and the breaths of the Holy Spirit—so that the second birth may become realized. For it is written in the Gospel: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit."
Therefore, O ye believers of God in the United States and Canada! Select ye important personages, or that they by themselves becoming scvered from rest and composure of the world, may arise and travel throughout Alaska, the Republic of Mexico, and south of Mexico, in the Central American Republics. such as Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize; and through the great South American Republics, such as Argentine, Uruguay. Paraguay, Brazil. French Guiana, Dutch Guiana. British Guiana, Venezuela, Ecuador. Peru, Bolivia and Chile; also in the group of the West Indies Islands such as Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Santo Domingo, and the group of Islands of the Lesser Antilles, the Islands of Bahama and the Islands of Bermuda; likewise to the Islands of the east, west and south of South America, such as Trinidad, Falkland Islands, Galapago Islands, Juan Fernandez and Tobago. Visit ye especially the city of Bahia. on the eastern shore of Brazil. Because in the past years this city was christened with the name, Baba"r‘, there is no doubt that it has been through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Consequently, the believers of God must display the utmost effort. upraise the divine melody throughout those regions, promulgate the heavenly teachings and waft over all, the spirit of eternal life; so that those Republics may become so illumined with the splendors and the eifulgences of the Sun of
Reality that they may become the objects of the praise and commendation of all other countries. Likewise, ye must give great attention to the Republic of Panama, for in that point the Occidcnt 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 im-portant in the future. The Teachings once established there, they will unite the East and the West. the North and the South.
Hence the intention must be purified, the effort ennobled and exalted, so that ye may establish aflinity between the hearts of the world of humanity. This glorious aim will not become realized save through the pro motion of divine teachings which are the .
foundations of the holy religions.
Consider how the religions of God served the world of humanity! How the religion of Torah became conducive to the glory and honor and progress of the Israelitish nation! How the breaths of the Holy Spirit of His Holiness Christ created atfinity and unity between divergent communities and quarreling families! How the sacred power of His Holiness Muhammad became the means of uniting and harmonizing the contentious tribes and the different clans of Peninsular Arabia—to such an extent that one thousand tribes were welded into one tribe, strife and discord was done away with, all of them unitedly and with one accord strove in advancing the cause of culture and civilization. and thus were freed from the lowest degree of degradation, soaring toward the height of everlasting glory! Is it possible to find a greater Collective Center in the phenomenal world than this? In comparison to this Divine Collective Center, the national collective centcr, the patriotic collective center, the political collective center, and the cultural and intellectual collective center are like child's play!
Now strive ye that the Collective Center of the sacred religions, for the inculcation of which all the Prophets were manifested and which is no other than the spirit of the Divine Teachings,—be spread in all parts of America——so that each one of you may shine forth from the horizon of Reality like unto the morning star, divine illumination may overcome the darkness of nature, and the
Entrance to the Garden of Ricjlvin where Bahá’u’lláh declared His Mission to the world and after twelve days departed for Constantinople. These twelve days are observed as a Bahá’í Festival (Ridv;in) in commemoration of this event.
-x:
Zi
/KEIVNEILNEID LY}-{V9 EIH.L
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 33
world of humanity may become enlightened. This is the most great work! Should ye become confirmed therein, this world will become another world, the surface of the earth will become the delectable Paradise, and eternal Institutions be founded.
Let whosoever travels to different parts to teach, peruse over mountain, desert, land and sea this supplication!
SUPPLICATION
O God! O God! Thou seest my weakness, lowliness and humility amongst Thy creatures; nevertheless I have trusted on Thee and have arisen in the promotion of Thy Teachings amongst Thy strong servants. relying on Thy power and might!
O Lord! I am a broken-winged bird and desire to soar in this Thy space to which there is no limit. How is it possible for me to do this save through Thy providence and grace, Thy confirmation and assistance!
O Lord! Have pity on my weakness and strengthen me with Thy power!
O Lord! Have pity on my impotcncy and assist me with Thy might and majesty!
O Lord! Should the breaths of the Holy Spirit confirm the weakest of creatures, he shall attain to the highest station of greatness and shall possess anything he desireth. Indeed Thou hast assisted Thy servants in the past, and they were the weakest of Thy creatures, the lowliest of Thy servants and the most insignificant of those who lived upon the earth; but through Thy sanction and potency they took precedence over the most glorious of Thy people and the most noble of Thy mankind. Whereas formerly they were as moths, they became royal falcons and whereas before they were as bubbles they became seas. Through Thy bestowal, Thy mercy and Thy most great favor, they became stars shining in the horizon of guidance, birds singing in the rose garden of immortality, lions roaring in the forest of knowledge and wisdom, and whales swimming in the oceans of life.
Verily, Thou art the element, the powerful, the mighty. and the most merciful of the merciful!
Haifa. Palestine, March 8, 1917.
To (bu believers of God and the malt!-sermmts of [be Merciful of the Bahá’í’ Assemblies in the United States and Canada:
Upon them bé Bahá’u’lláh 21451.5: HE IS COD! O ye apostles of Bahá’u’lláh,—May my life be
a ransom to you!
The blessed Person of the Promised One is interpreted in the Holy Book as the Lord of Hosts, i. e., the heavenly armies. By heavenly armies those souls are intended who are entirely freed from the human world, transformed into celestial spirits.and have become divine angels. Such souls are the rays of the Sun of Reality who will illumine all the continents. Each one is holding in his hand a trumpet, blowing the breath of life over all the regions. They are delivered from human qualities and the defects of the world of nature, are characterized with the characteristics of God, and are attracted with the fragrances of the Merciful. Like unto the apostles of Christ, who were filled with Him, these souls also have become filled with His Holi ness Bahá’u’lláh, i. e., the love of Bahá’u’lláh has so mastered every organ, part and limb of their bodies, as to leave no effect by the promptings of the human world.
These souls are the armies of God and the conquerors of the East and the West. Should one of them turn his face toward some direction and summon the people to the Kingdom of God, all the ideal forces and lordly confirmations will rush to his support and reinforcement. He will behold all the doors open and all the strong fortifications and impregnable castles razed to the ground. Singly and alone he will attack the armies of the world, defeat the right and left wings of the hosts of all the countries, break through the lines of the legions of all the nations and carry his attack to the very center of the powers of the earth. This is the meaning of the Hosts of God.
Any soul from among the believers of Bahá’u’lláh who attains to this station, will become known as the Apostle of Bahá’u’lláh.
34 THE BA}-Iii"!
Therefore strive ye with heart and soul—so that ye may reach this lofty and exalted position, be established on the throne of everlasting glory, and crown your heads with the shining diadem of the Kingdom, whose brilliant jewels may irradiate upon centuries and cycles.
O ye kind friends! Uplift your magnanimity and soar high toward the apex of heaven —so that your blessed hearts may become illumined more and more, day by day, through the Rays of the Sun of Reality, i. e., His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh; at every moment the spirits may obtain a new life, and the darkness of the world of nature may be entirely dispelled—thus ye may become incarnate light and personified spirit, become entirely unaware of the sordid matters of this world and in touch with the affairs of the divine world.
Consider ye what doors His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has opened before you, and what a high and exalted station He has destined for you, and what bounties He has prepared for you! Should we become intoxicated with this cup. the sovereignty of this globe of earth will become lower in our estimation than the children's plays. Should they place in the arena the crown of the government of the whole world, and invite each one of us to accept it, undoubtedly we shall not condescend, and shall refuse to accept it.
To attain to this supreme station is, however, dependent on the realization of certain conditions.
The first condition is firmness in the Covenant of God. For the power of the Covenant will protect the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh from the doubts of the people of error. It is the fortified fortress of the Cause of God and the firm pillar of the religion of God. Today no power can conserve the oneness of the Bahá’í world save the Covenant of God; otherwise differences like unto a most great tempest will encompass the Bahá’í world. It is evident that the axis of the oneness of the world of humanity is the power of the Covenant and nothing else. Had the Covenant not come to pass. had it not been revealed from the Supreme Pen and had not the Book of the Covenant, like unto the ray of the Sun of Reality, illuminated the world, the forces of the Cause of God would have been utterly
CENTENARY
scattered and certain souls who were the prisoners of their own passions and lusts would have taken into their hands an axe, cutting the root of this Blessed Tree. Every person would have pushed forward his own desire and every individual aired his own opinion! Notwithstanding this great Covenant, a few negligent souls galloped with their chargers into the battlefield, thinking perchance they might be able to weaken the foundation of the Cause of God: but praise be to God, all of them were afflicted with regret and loss, and ere long they shall see themselves in poignant despair. Therefore. in the beginning one must make his steps firm in the Covenant—so that the confirmations of Bahá’u’lláh may encircle from all sides, the cohorts of the Supreme Concourse may become the supporters and the helpers, and the exhortations and advices of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. like unto the pictures engraved on stone, may remain permanent and ineffaceable in the tablets of the hearts.
The second condition: Fellowship and love amongst the believers. The divine friends must be attracted to and enamored of each other and ever be ready and willing to sacrifice their own lives for each other. Should one soul from amongst the believers meet another, it must be as though a thirsty one with parched lips has reached to the fountain of the water of life, or a lover has met his true beloved. For one of the greatest divine wisdoms regarding the appearance of the Holy Manifestations is this: The souls may come to know each other and become intimate with each other; the power of the love of God may make all of them the waves of one sea, the flowers of one rose garden and the stars of one heaven. This is the wisdom for the appearance of the Holy Manifestations! When the most great bestowal reveals itself in the hearts of the believers, the world of nature will be transformed, the darkness of the contingent being will vanish, and heavenly illumination will be obtained. Then the whole world will become the Paradise of Abba, every one of the believers of God will become a blessed tree, producing wonderful fruits.
O ye friends! Fellowship, fellowship! Love, love! Unity, unity!--5O that the power of the Bahá’í Cause may appear and
AMERlCA’S SPIRITUAL DESTINY ‘ 35
become manifest in the world of existence. Just at this moment I am engaged in your commemoration and this heart is in the utmost glow and excitement! Were ye to realize how this conscience is attracted with the love of the friends, unquestionably ye would obtain such a degree of joy and fragrance that ye would all become enamored with each other!
The third condition: Teachers must continually travel to all parts of the continent, nay, rather, to all parts of the world, but they must travel like ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who journeyed throughout the cities of America. He was sanctified and free from every attachment and in the utmost severance. Just as His Holiness Christ says: "Shake ofi the very dust from your feet."
Ye have observed that while in America many souls in the utmost of supplication and entreaty desired to offer some gifts, but this servant, in accord with the exhortations and behests of the Blessed Perfection, never accepted a thing, although on certain occasions we were in most straitened circumstances. But on the other hand, if a soul for the sake of God, voluntarily and out of his pure desire, wishes to offer a contribution (toward the expenses of a teacher) in order to make the contributor happy, the teacher may accept a small sum, but must live with utmost contentment.
The aim is this: The intention of the teacher must be pure, his heart independent, his spirit attracted. his thought at peace, his resolution firm, his magnanimity exalted and in the love of God'a shining torch. Should he become as such, his sanctified breath will even affect the rock; otherwise there will be no result whatsoever. As long as a soul is not perfected, how can he elface the defects of others! Unless he is detached from aught else save God, how can he teach the severance to others!
In short, O ye believers of God! Endeavor ye; so that ye may take hold of every means in the promulgation of the religion of God and the diffusion of the fragrances of God.
Amongst other things is the holding of the meetings for teaching-—so that blessed souls and the old ones from amongst the believers may gather together the youths of the love of God in schools of instruction and teach
them all the divine proofs and irrefragible arguments, explain and elucidate the history of the Cause, and interpret also the prophecies and proofs which are recorded and are extant in the divine Books and Epistles regarding the Manifestation of the Promised One, so that the young ones may go in perfect knowledge in all these degrees.
Likewise, whenever it is possible a committee must be organized for the translation of the Tablets. Wise souls who have mastered and studied perfectly the Persian, Arabic and foreign languages, or know one of the foreign languages—must commence translating Tablets and books containing the proofs of this Revelation. and publishing those books, circulate them throughout the five continents of the globe.
Similarly, the Magazine, the Star of the West, must be edited in the utmost regularity. but its contents must be the promulgator of the Cause of God—so that both in the East and the West, they may become informed of the most important events.
In short, in all the meetings, whether public or private, nothing should be discussed save that which is under consideration, and all the articles be centered around the Cause of God. Promiscuous talks must not be dragged in and contention is absolutely forhidden.
The teachers traveling in different directions must know the language of the country in which they will enter. For example, a person being proficient in the Japanese language may travel in Japan, or a person knowing the Chinese language may hasten to China, and so forth.
In short, after this universal war, the people have obtained extraordinary capacity to hearken to the divine teachings, for the wisdom of this war is this: That it may become proven to all that the fire of war is world-consuming, whereas the rays of peace are world-enlightening. One is death, the other is life; this is extinction, that is immortality; one is the most great calamity, the other is the most great bounty; this is darkness, that is light; this is eternal humiliation and that is everlasting glory; one is the dcstroyer of the foundation of man, the other is the founder of the prosperity of the human race.
36 THE BAHK'l
Consequently, a number of souls may arise
and act in accordance with the aforesaid conditions, and hasten to all parts of the world, especially from America to Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and travel through Japan and China. Likewise, from Germany teachers and believers may travel to the continents of America, Africa, Japan and China; in brief, they may travel through all the continents and islands of the globe. Thus in a short space of time, most wonderful results will be produced, the banner of Universal Peace will be waving on the apex of the world and the lights of the oneness of the world of humanity may illumine the universe. In brief, O ye believers of God! The text of the Divine Book is this: If two souls quarrel and contend about a question of the Divine questions, differing and disputing, bot/J are wrong. The wisdom of this incontrovertible law of God is this: That between two souls from amongst the believers of God, no contention and dispute might arise; that they may speak with each other with infinite amity and love. Should there appear the least trace of controversy, they must remain silent, and both parties must continue their discussions no longer, but ask the reality of the question from the Interpreter. This is the irrefutable command!
Upon you be Bahi El-Abhá!
SUI-‘PLICATION
O God! O God! Thou seest that black darkness hath encompassed all the regions, all the countries are burning with the conflagration of dissension and the fire of war and carnage is ignited in the Easts of the earth and the Wests thereof. The blood is being shed, the corpses are out-stretched and the heads are decapitated and thrown on the ground in the battlefield.
Lord! Lord! Have pity on these ignorant ones, look upon them with the eye of forgiveness and pardon. Extinguish this fire-so that these gloomy clouds covering the horizon may be scattered; the Sun of Reality may shine forth with the rays of conciliation; this darkness be rent asunder and all the countries be illumined with the lights of
peace.
CENTENARY
Lord! Awaken them from the depths of the sea of animosity. deliver them from these impenetrable darknesses, establish affinity between their hearts and enlighten their eyes with the light of peace and reconciliation.
Lord! Rescue them from the fathomless depths of war and bloodshed! Arouse them out of the gloom of error, rend asunder the veil from their eyes, brighten their hearts with the light of guidance, deal with them through Thy favor and mercy and do not treat them according to Thy justice and wrath through which the backs of the mighty ones are shaken!
Lord! Verily the wars have prolonged. the calamities have increased, and every building hath turned into ruin.
Lord! Verily the breasts are agitated and the souls are convulsed. Have mercy on these poor ones and do not leave them to do with themselves that which they desire!
Lord! Send forth throughout Thy countries humble and submissive souls, their faces illumined with the rays of guidance, severed from the world, speaking Thy remembrance and praise and diffusing Thy holy fragrances amongst mankind!
Lordl Strengthen their backs, reinforce their loins and dilate their breasts with the signs of Thy most great love.
Lord! Verily, they are weak and Thou art the powerful and the mighty, and they are impotent and Thou art the helper and the merciful!
Lord! Verily the sea of transgression is waving high and these hurricanes will not be calmed down save through Thy boundless grace which hath embraced all the regions!
Lord! Verily the souls are in the deep valleys of lust and nothing will awaken them save Thy most wonderful bounties.
Lord! Dispel these darknesses of temptations and illumine the hearts with the lamp of Thy love, through which all the countries will be enlightened. Confirm those believers who, leaving their countries, their families and their children, travel throughout the regions for the sake of the love of Thy beauty, the diffusion of Thy fragrances and the promulgation of Thy teachings. Be thou their companion in their loneliness, their helper in a strange land, the remover of their
AMERlCA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 37
sorrow, the comforter in their calamity, their deliverer in their hardship, the satisfier of their thirst, the healer of their malady and the allayer of the fire of their longing. Verily, Thou art the clement, the possessor
of mercy, and verily, Thou art the compassionate and the merciful.
Haifa, Palestine, April 19, 20 and 22,1917.
IV
SHOGHI EFFENDI
Excerpts from Letters and Messages, 1923-194}
NOW surely, if ever, is the time for us, the chosen ones of Bahá’u’lláh and the bearers of His Message to the world, to endeavor by day and by night, to deepen, first and foremost, the Spirit of His Cause in our own individual lives, and then labor, and labor incessantly to exemplify in all our dealings with our fellowmen that noble Spirit of which His beloved Son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has been all the days of His life a true and unique exponent. The sayings of our beloved Master have been noised abroad, His name has filled all regions, and the eyes of mankind are now turned expectant towards His disciples who bear His name and profess His teachings. Shall we not by our daily life vindicate theihigh claims of His teachings. and prove by our services the influence of His undying Spirit? This surely is our highest privilege, and our most sacred duty.
Let us, with a pure heart, with humility and earnestness. turn afresh to His counsels and exhortations, and seek from that Source of Celestial Potency all the guidance, the spirit, the power which we shall need for the fulfilment of our mission in this life.
Behold, the station to which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is now calling His loved ones from the Realm of Glory: "It behooveth the loved ones of God to he enamored of one another and to sacrifice themselves for their fellow-workers in the Cause. They should yearn towards one another even as the sore athirst yearm-th for the Water of Life, and the lover hurneth to meet his heart's desire."
Such is the sublime, the glorious position
He wishes us, and all the peoples and ltindreds on earth, to attain in this world; how much more to achieve unity and common understanding among ourselves, and then arise to herald with one voice the coming of the Kingdom and the salvation of mankind.
With unity of purpose firmly established in our minds, with every trace of personal animosity banished from our hearts, and with the spirit of whole-hearted and sustained fellowship kindled in our souls, can we hope to deliver effectively the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, and execute faithfully the various provisions of our Beloved's Will and Testament.
Steadfast in our faith, firm in our union, abounding in our hope, fervent in our spirit, and selfless in our labors, let us arise and with prayerful hearts make another and supreme effort to fulfill these last words of our Beloved, His most cherished desire:
"O ye that stand fast in the Covenant! When the hour eometh that this wronged and broken winged bird will have taken flight unto the Celestial Concourse, when it will have hastened to the Realm of the Unseen, and its mortal frame will have either been lost or hidden neath the dust, it is incumbent upon the Afndn that are steadfast in the Covenant of God and have branched from the Tree of Holiness, the Hands of the Cause of God (the glory of the Lord rest upon them), and all the friends and loved ones, one and all, to hestir themselves and arise with heart and soul and in one accord to difluse the sweet savors of God, to teach His Cause and to promote His Faith. It behooveth them not to rest for a moment,
38 THE BAHA‘l
neither to seek repose. They must disperse themsi'l1'es in every land, pass by every rlime. and trawl throughout all regions. Beslirred. without rest. and stead fast to the end, t/Jey must raise in erery land the triumphal cry of Ya’-Baha"u’l—Al)ha'. must achieve renouwn in the world wherever they go, must burn brightly exert as a candle in every meeting, and must kindle the flame of Divine Love in every assembly; that the Light of Truth may rise resplendent in the midmost heart of the world, that throughout the East and throughout the West a vast concourse may gather under the shadow of the Word of God, that the sweet sarsors of Holiness may he diflused, that fares may shine radiantly, hearts be filled with the Divine Spirit and souls he made heavenly. In these days the most important of all things is the guidance of the nations and the peoples of the world. Teaching the Cause is of utmost importance, for it is the head corner-stone of the foundation itself. This wronged servant has spent His days and nights in promoting the Cause, and urging the peoples to service. He rested not a -moment, till the fame of the Cause of God was noised abroad in the world, and the celestial Strains from the Ahha Kingdom roused the East and the West. The beloved of God must also follow the same example. This is the secret of faithfulness, this is the requirerizent of servitude to the Threshold of Baha'.”
4/
u . o
Ll LIJLIJ.
1'; 7 .
fit 5
., . 'I
' I. I
c~,"”‘ mvaiffi ‘‘ '1'...-.,
( n--.
CENTENARY
We need but glance at the Words of Bahá’u’lláh and the Epistles of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to realize the great privilege of teaching the Cause. its vital necessity, its supreme urgency. and its wide-reaching effects. These are the very words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: "In these days, the Holy Ones of the Realm of Glory, dwelling in the all-highest Paradise, yearn to return unto this -world. and he of some service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and prove their servitude to the Threshold of the Abhá Beauty.”
What a wondrous vision these words unfold to our eyes! How great our privilege to labor in this Day in the Divine Vineyard! Is it not incumbent upon us to arise and teach His Cause with such an ardor which no worldly adversity can quell, nor any measure of success can satiate?
March 12, 1923.
And as to the world's evil. plight, we need but recall the Writings and sayings of Bahá’u’lláh, who, more than fifty years ago. declared in terms prophetic the prime cause of the ills and sufferings of mankind, and set forth their true and divine remedy. "Should the Lamp of Religion be hidden,” He declares, "Chaos and confusion will ensue.” How admirably fitting and applicable are these words to the present state of mankind!
Ours then is the duty and privilege to
Barracks at 'Akk:i, Palestine. where Bahá’u’lláh was incarcerated in 1868.
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 59
labor, by day and by night, amidst the storm and stress of these troublous days, that we may quicken the zeal of our fellow-men. rekindle their hopes, stimulate their interest, open their eyes to the true Faith of God and enlist their active support in the carrying out of our common task for the peace and regeneration of the world.
Let us take heart and be thankful to our beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as we remember His manifold blessings and unfailing care and protection, ever since the hour of His departure from our midst. The flames of sedition, so maliciously kindled in the past by those who have dared to flout His will, are gone out for ever, and the fondest hopes of these evil plotters are now abandoned, doomed never to revive. He has indeed redeemed His promise!
It seemed not a long time ago that their agitation, so violently renewed immediately after the passing of our Beloved, would for a time confuse the Divine Message of Bahá’u’lláh, obscure His Covenant, retard the progress of His Cause, and shatter its unity; and yet how well we see them all today, not through our efforts, but by their own folly, and above all, by the intervention of the hiddenhand of God, reduced to the vilest and most humiliating position.
And now, with the Cause purified and inwardly victorious, its principles vindicated, its enemies silenced and sunk in unspeakable misery, may we not, henceforth, direct all our efforts to collective action and constructive achievement. and, in utter disregard of the flickerings of their. fast-fading light. arise to carry out those urgent measures that will secure the outward and complete triumph of the Cause.
I, for my part, as I look back to the unfortunate circumstances of ill-health and physical exhaustion that have attended the opening years of my career of service to the Cause, feel hardly gratified, and would be truly despondent but for the sustaining memory and inspiring example of the diligent and ceaseless efforts which my fellowworkers the world over have displayed during these two trying years in the service of the Cause.
I cherish the hope that, from now on, the Beloved may bestow upon me all the strength
and vigor that will enable me to pursue over a long and unbroken period of strenuous labor the supreme task of achieving, in collaboration with the friends in every land. the speedy triumph of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. This is the prayer I earnestly request all my fellow-brethren and sisters in the Faith to offer on my behalf.
Let us pray to God that in these days of world-encircling gloom, when the dark forces of nature, of hate. rebellion, anarchy and reaction are threatening the very stability of human society, when the most precious fruits of civilization are undergoing severe and unparallelled tests, we may all realize. more profoundly than ever, that though but a mere handful amidst the seething masses of the world, we are in this day the chosen instruments of God’s grace, that our mission is most urgent and vital to the fate of humanity, and, fortified by these sentiments, arise to achieve God's holy purpose for mankind.
November 14, 192}.
I would also earnestly entreat all the delegates at this coming Convention, and through them I appeal to the larger body of believers whom they represent, to ever hear in mind the supreme injunction of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to teach unceasingly until the "bead cornerstone of the foundation" of the Cause of God is firmly established in every heart. Let those whose time, resources and means allow, travel throughout the length and breadth of that vast continent, let them scatter to the most distant regions of the earth and, fired with enthusiasm and detachment, hand on the torch of God’s undying flame to the waiting multitudes of a sadlystricken world.
One word more in conclusion. Let the West, and particularly the Great Republic of the New World, where a quarter of a century ago Bahá’u’lláh's Banner was firmly implanted, realize that upon it now rests the responsibility of achieving the universal recognition of the Bahá’í Faith, of fulfilling ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's fondcst hopes.
Persia, the cradle of an unfolding world civilization, is still bereft of her freedom. sunk in ignorance, a prey tocontending policies and factions, beset on one hand by the
40 THE BAHA’I
powers of orthodoxy and sectarian fanaticism and assailed on the other by the forces of materialism and unbelief. In her evil plight she is radiantly confident that the Flame she had kindled in the world will, in the fullness of time, blaze forth in the heart of the mighty West and shed redeeming illumination upon the silent suflerers of a distracted country. Will it be America, will it be one of the nations of Europe, that will seize the torch of Divine Guidance from Pcrsia's fettercd hands and with it set the western world aflame? May your Convention, by its spirit, its resolutions and its accomplishments. give to that country's urgent call a noble and decisive answer.
June 3, 1925.
The Declaration of Trust, the provisions of which you have so splendidly conceived. and formulated with such assiduous care. marks yet another milestone on the road of progress along which you are patiently and deterrninedly advancing. Clear and concise in its wording, sound in principle, and complete in its affirmations of the fundamentals of Bahá’í administration, it stands in its final form as a worthy and faithful exposition of the constitutional basis of Bahá’í communities in every land, foreshadowing the final emergence of the world Bahá’í Commonwealth of the future. This document, when correlated and combined with the set of bylaws which I trust are soon forthcoming, will serve as a pattern to every National Bahá’í Assembly, be it in the East or’ in the West. which aspires to conform, pending the formation of the First Universal House of Justice, with the spirit and letter of the world order ushered in by Bahá’u’lláh.
May 27, 1927.
As already intimated, I have read and reread most carefully the final draft of the By-Laws drawn up by that highly-talented. much-loved servant of Bahá’u’lláh, Mountfort Mills, and feel I have nothing substantial to add to this first and very creditable attempt at codifying the principles of general Bahá’í administration. I heartily and unhesitatingly commend it to the earnest perusal of, and its loyal adoption by, every National Bahá’í Spiritual Assembly, whether consti CENTENARY
tuted in the East or in the West. I would ask you particularly to send copies of the text of this document of fundamental importance accompanied by copies of the Declaration of Trust and the text of the Indenture of Trust, to every existing National Spiritual Assembly, with my insistent request to study the provisions, comprehend its implications. and endeavor to incorporate it, to the extent that their own circumstances permit, within the framework of their own national activities. You can but faintly imagine how comforting a stimulant and how helpful a guide its publication and circulation will be to those patient and toiling workers in Eastern lands. and particularly Persia, who in the midst of uncertainties and almost insuperable obstacles are straining every nerve in order to establish the world order ushered in by Bahá’u’lláh. You can hardly realize how substantially it will contribute to pave the way for the elaboration of the beginnings of the constitution of the worldwide Bahá’í Cbmmunity that will form the permanent basis upon which the blest and sanctified edifice of the first International House of Justice will securely rest and flourish.
October 18. 1927.
American believers’ inspired leadership steadily unfolding to Bahá’ís world over the potentialities of the majestic edifice heralding formative period of the Faith of Baha'u'llab. Their unerring vision conceived its matehless design. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's own hands laid its cornerstone. Their dynamic faith reared its structure. Their sustained self-sacrifice crowned it with immortal glory. May the flame of their unconquerable enthusiasm continue glowing undimmed in their hearts till its naked frame is enveloped in its shining mantle.
June 4. 1934.
Convey to assembled believers celebrating termination entire dome unit of Mashriqu’l-Adhkár my heart-felt congratulations on triumphant progress of their undeniably glorious enterprise. To prayers and testimonies ascending to Throne of Bahá’u’lláh I am moved to add my fervent though inadequate tribute to solidarity of so dazzling
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 41
an achievement. The forces which progressive revelation of this mighty symbol of our Faith is fast releasing in heart of a sorely tried continent no one of this generation can correctly appraise. The new hour has struck in history of our beloved Cause, calling for nation-wide, systematic, sustained efforts in teaching field, enabling thereby these forces to be directed into such channels as shall redound to glory of our Faith and to the honor of its institutions. October 26, 1955.
This new stage in the gradual unfoldment of the Formative Period of our Faith into which we have just entered-—the phase of concentrated teaching activity—synchronizes with a period of deepening gloom. of universal impotence, of ever-increasing destitution and wide-spread disillusionment in the fortunes of a declining age. This is truly providential and its significance and the opportunities it offers us should be fully apprehended and utilized. Now that the administrative organs of a firmly established Faith are vigorously and harmoniously functioning, and now that the Symbol (i.e., the House of Worship) of its invincible might is lending unprecedented impetus to its spread, an effort unexampled in its scope and sustained vitality is urgently required so that the moving spirit of its Founder may permeate and transform the lives of the countless multitudes that hunger for its teachings. That the beloved friends in America, who have carried triumphantly the banner of His Cause throughvthe initial stages of its development, will in a still greater measure prove themselves capable of meeting the challenge of the present hour, I for one, can never doubt. Of the evidences of their inexhaustible vitality I am sufficiently and continually conscious. My fervent plea will not, I feel certain. remain unanswered. For them I shall continue to pray from all my heart.
January 10, 1936.
Convey to American believers abiding gratitude efforts unitedly exerted in teaching field. Inaugurated campaign should be vigorously pursued, systematically extended. Appeal to assembled delegates ponder historic
appeal voiced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Tablets of the Divine Plan. Urge earnest deliberation with incoming National Assembly to insure its complete fulfilment. First century of Bahá’í era drawing to a close. Humanity entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence. Opportunities of present hour unimaginably precious. Would to God every State within American Republic and every Republic in American continent might ere termination of this glorious century‘ embrace the light of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and establish structural basis of His World Order.
May 1, 1936.
I cannot allow this communication to be sent without adding a few words in person and stress afresh the significance of the undertaking in which the entire Bahá’í community has embarked. The promulgation of the Divine Plan, unveiled by our departed Master in the darkest days of one of the severest ordeals which humanity has ever experienced, is the key which Providence has placed in the hands of the American believers whereby to unlock the doors leading them to fulfil their unimaginably glorious Destiny. As the proclamation of the Message reverberates throughout the land, as its resistless march gathers momentum, as the field of its operation widens, and the numbers of its upholders and champions multiply, its potentialities will correspondingly unfold, exerting a most beneficent influence not only on every community throughout the Bahá’í world, but on the immediate fortunes of a travailing society. The repercussions of this campaign are already apparent in Europe, India, Egypt, ‘Iráq and even among the sore-tried communities in Persia and Russia. The Faith of God is gaining in stature, effectiveness and power. Not until, however, the great enterprise which you are now conducting runs its full course and attains its final objective, at its appointed time, can its world-encompassing benefits be fully apprehended or revealed. The perseverance of the American believers will, no doubt, insure the ultimate realization of these benefits. November 1-1, 1936.
" The First Century of the Bahá’í Era, inaugurated by the Declaration of the Bib, May 23, 1844.
42 THE BAHA‘I
The responsibilities which, under your direction and in response to my plea, the American community is now assuming, over and above the task they have already undertaken in connection with the Divine Plan, proclaiming in unmistakable terms their unswerving determination to prove themselves worthy of the sublimity of their mission. and of their privileged position among their sister communities in both the East and the West,—the twofold task they have arisen to perform will, if carried out in time, release the potentialities with which the community of the Greatest Name has been so generously
CENTENARY
manifest and within their reach. Though their responsibilities be pressing and heavy and the obstacles formidable and manifold, yet the spirit of our invincible Faith will enable them to conquer if they arise unitedly and determinedly and persevere till the very end.
June 4, 1937.
I feel truly exhilarated as I witness the ever-recurrent manifestations of unbroken solidarity and unquenchable enthusiasm that distinguish every stage in the progressive development of the nation-wide enterprise which is being so unflinchingly pursued by
House where Bahá’u’lláh Passed Away at Bahjí, ‘Akká, Palestine.
and mysteriously endowed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. To carry out in its entirety and to its final consummation this dual enterprise would shed on the closing years of this first century of the Bahá’í Era a luster no less brilliant than the immortal deeds which have signalized its birth. in the heroic age of our Faith. To the American believers, the spiritual descendants of the heroes of God's Cause, I again address my plea to arise as one soul and to prosecute with unrelaxing resolve the high mission with which their immediate destiny is inextricably interwoven. The call has gone forth, the path is clear, the goal
the whole American Bahá’í community. The marked deterioration in world affairs, the steadily deepening gloom that envelops the storm-tossed peoples and nations of the Old World, invest the Seven-Year Plan, now operating in both the northern and southern American continents, with a significance and urgency that cannot be overestimated. Conceived as the supreme agency for the establishment, in the opening century of the Bahá’í Era. of what is but the initial stage in the progressive realization of ‘/\bdu’lBaha's Plan for the American believers, this enterprise, as it extends its ramifications
AMERlCA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 4}
throughout the entire New World. is demonstrating its power to command all the resources and utilize all the facilities which the machinery of a laboriously evolved Administrative Order can place at its disposal. However we view its aspects, it offers in its functioning a sharp contrast to the workings of the moribund and obsolescent institutions to which a perverse generation is desperately clinging. Tempestuous are the winds that buffet and will, as the days go by, fiercely assail the very structure of the Order through the agency of which this two fold task is being performed. The potentialities with which an almighty Providence has endowed it will no doubt enable its promoters to achieve their purpose. Much, however will depend upon the spirit and manner in which that task will be conducted. Through the clearness and steadiness of their vision, through the unvitiated vitality of their belief, through the incorruptibility of their character, through the adamantine force of their resolve, the matchless superiority of their aims and purpose, and the unsurpassed range of their accomplishments, they who labor for the glory of the Most Great Name throughout both Americas can best demonstrate to the visionless, faithless and restless society to which they belong their power‘ to proffer a haven of refuge to its members in the hour of their realized doom. Then and only then will this tender sapling, embedded in the fertile soil of a Divinely appointed Administrative Order, and energized by the dynamic processes of its institutions, yield its richest and destined fruit. That the community of the American believers. to whose keeping so vast, so delicate and precious a trust has been committed will, severally and collectively prove themselves worthy of their high calling, I for one, who in my association with them have been privileged to observe more closely than perhaps any one else the nature of their reactions to the momentous issues that have confronted them in the past, will refuse to doubt. September 10, 1938.
The period ahead is short, strenuous, fraught with mortal perils for human society, yet pregnant with possibilities of unsurpassed triumphs for the power of Bahá’u’lláh’s re demptive Cause. The occasion is propitious for a display, by the American Bahá’í Community, in its corporate capacity, of an effort which in its magnitude, character, and purpose must outshine its past endeavors. Failure to exploit these present, these golden opportunities would blast the hopes which the prosecution of the Plan has thus far aroused, and would signify the loss of the rarest privilege ever conferred by Providence upon the American Bahá’í Community. It is in view of the criticalncss of the situation that I was led to place at the disposal of any pioneer willing to dedicate himself to the task of the present hour such modest resources as would facilitate the discharge of so enviable a duty.
The Bahá’í World, increasingly subjected to the rigors of suppression, in both the East and the West, watches with unconcealed astonishment, and derives hope and comfort from the rapid unfoldment of the successive stages of God’s Plan for so blest a community. Its eyes are fixed upon this community,
eager to behold the manner in which its gal- ,
lant members will break down. one after another, the barriers that obstruct their progress towards a divinely-appointed goal. On every daring adventurer in the service of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh the Concourse on high shall descend. "each bearing aloft at chalice of pure light.” Every one of these adventurers God Himself will sustain and inspire, and will "cause the pure waters of wisdom and utterance to gush out and [low copiously from his heart.” "The Kingdom of God,” writes ‘Abdu’l-Bahás possessed of limitless potency. Audacious must he the army of life if the confirming aid of that Kingdom is to be repeatedly uouchsnfed -unto it. . . . Vast is the arena, and the time ripe to spur on the charger within it. Now is the time to reveal the force of one’: strength, the stoutness of one’: heart and the might of one’: soul.”
Dearly-beloved friends! What better field than the vast virgin territories. so near at hand, and waiting to receive, at this very hour, their full share of the onrushing tide of Bahá’u’lláh's redeeming grace? What theatre more befitting than these long-neglected nine remaining states and provinces in which the true heroism of the intrepid pio
44 THE Bahá’í
neers of His World Order can be displayed? There is no time to lose. There is no room left for vacillation. Multitudes hunger for the Bread of Life. The stage is set. The firm and irrevocable Promise is «given. God's own Plan has been set in motion. It is gathering momentum with every passing day. The powe1's'of heaven and earth mysteriously assist in its execution. . Such an opportunity is irreplaceable. Let the doubler arise and himself verify the truth of such assertions. To try; to persevere, is to insure ultimate and complete victory.
January 28, 1938.
The concerted activities of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the North American continent assume, as they multiply and develop, a dual aspect, and may be said to fall into two distinct categories, both equally vital and complementary to each other. The one aims at the safeguarding and consolidation of the work already achieved; the other is designed to enlarge the range of its oper'ation. The former depends chiefly for its success upon the capacity, the experience and loyalty of ‘wise, resourceful and judicious administrators, who, impelled by the very nature of their task, will be increasingly called upon to exercise the utmost care and vigilance in protecting the interests of the Faith, in resolving its problems, in regulating its life, in enriching its resources, and in preserving the pristine purity of its precepts. The latter is essentially pioneer in nature, demanding first and foremost those qualities of renunciation, tenacity, dauntlessness and passionate fervor that can alone brave the dangers and sweep away the obstacles with which an infant Faith, struggling against vested interests and face to face with the entrenched forces of prejudice, of ignorance and fanaticism, must needs contend. In both of these spheres of Bahá’í activity the community of the American believers, it is becoming increasingly evident, is evincing those characteristics which must be regarded as the essential foundation for the success of their dual task.
As to those whose function is essentially of an administrative character it can hardly be doubted that they are steadily and indefatigably perfecting the structural machinery of their Faith, are multiplying its ad CENTENARY
ministrative agencies. and are legalizing the status of the newly established institutions.
Slowly and patiently they are canalizing the‘
spirit that at once directs, energizes and safeguards its operation. They are exploiting its potentialities, broadcasting its message, publicizing its literature, fostering the aspirations of its youth, devising ways and means for the training of its children, guarding the integrity of its teachings, and paving the way for the ultimate codification of its laws. Through all the resources at their disposal, they are promoting the »growth and consolidation of that pioneer movement for which the entire machinery of their Administrative Order has been primarily designed and erected. They are visibly and progressively contributing to the enrichment of their unique community life. and are insuring, with magnificent courage and characteristic promptitude, the completion of their consecrated Edifice—the embodiment of their hopes and the supreme symbol of their ideals.
As to those into whose valiant and trusted hands—and no believer, however humble is to think himself debarrcd from joining their ranlts—the standards of a forward marching Faith have been entrusted, they too with no less zest and thoroughness are pushing farther and farther its frontiers, breaking new soil, establishing fresh outposts, winning more recruits, and contributing to the greater diversification and more harmonious blending of the elements comprised in the world—wide society of its followers.
The Edifice of this New World Order, which the Báb has heralded, which the mind of Bahá’u’lláh has envisioned. and whose features ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, its Architect, has delineated, we, whatever our capacities, opportunities or position, are now, at so precarious a period in the world's history, summoned to found and erect. The community of the Most Great Name in the Western Hemisphere is, through the nature of its corporate life and the scope of its exertions, assuming, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a preponderating share in the laying of such a foundation and the erection of such a structure. The eyes of its sister communities are fixed upon it. Their prayers ascend on its behalf. Their hands are out
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 45
O
stretched to lend whatever aid lies within their power. I, for my part, am determined to reinforce the impulse that impels its members forward to meet their destiny. The Founders of their Faith survey from the Kingdom on high the range of their achievements, acclaim their progress, and are ever ready to speed their eventual triumph.
Far be it from me to underrate the gigantic proportions of their task, nor do I for one moment overlook the urgency and gravity of the times in which they are laboring. Nor do I wish to minimize the hazards and trials that surround or lie ahead of them. The grandeur of their task is indeed commensurate with the mortal perils by which their generation is hemmed in. As the dusk creeps over a steadily sinking society the radiant outlines of their redemptive mission become sharper every day. The present world unrest, symptom of a world-wide malady. their world religion has already affirmed must needs culminate in that world catastrophe out of which the consciousness of world citizenship will be born, a consciousness that can alone provide an adequate basis for the organization of world unity. on which a lasting world peace must necessarily depend, the peace itself inaugurating in turn that world civilization which will mark the coming of age of the entire human race.
Fortified by such reflections, the American believers, in whichever section of the Western Hemisphere they find themselves laboring, whether at home or abroad. and however dire and distressing the processes involved in the disintegration of the structure of present-day civilization, will, I feel convinced, prove themselves, through their lives and deeds, worthy of that priceless heritage which it is their undoubted privilege to proclaim, preserve and perpetuate.
May 22, W3 9.
Newly-launched Central American campaign marks official inauguration of long-deferred World Mission constituting 'Abdu’lBah§’s distinctive legacy to the Bahá’í Community of North America. Chosen Community broadening its basis, gaining in stature, deepening in consecration. Its vanguard now entering arena monopolized by
entrenched forces of Christendom’s mightiest ecclesiastical institutions. Laboring amidst race foreign in language, custom. temperament embracing vast proportion of New World's ethnic elements. American believers‘ isolated oversea teaching enterprises hitherto tentative, intermittent, now at end. New epoch opening, demanding exertions incomparably more strenuous, unflinchingly sustained, centrally directed, systematically organized, efficiently conducted. Upon alacrity, tenacity, fearlessness of present prosecutors of the unfolding mission depend speedy and fullest revelation, in the First and Second Centuries, of the potentialities of the birthright conferred upon American believers. Convey to pioneers in North, Middle and South America my eagerness to maintain with each direct, personal contact. Assure Teaching and Inter-America Committees my delight at successive testimonies of believers’ glowing spirit reflected in Minutes, letters and reports recently received. Entreat every section of community to labor unremittingly until every nation in Western Hemisphere is illumined by rays and woven into fabric of Bahá’u’lláh's triumphant Administrative Order.
May 23, 1939.
The readiness of your Assembly, as expressed in your recently cabled message, to transfer the National Bahá’í Secretariat to the vicinity of the Temple in Wilmette has evoked within me the deepest feelings of thankfulness and joy. Your historic decision, so wise and timely, so surprising in its suddenness, so far-reaching in its consequences, is one that I cannot but heartily and unreservedly applaud. To each one of your brethren in the Faith, throughout the United States and Canada, who are witnessing, from day to day and at an ever-hastening speed, the approaching completion of their National House of Worship, the great Mother Temple of the West, your resolution to establish within its hallowed precincts and in the heart of the North American continent the Administrative Seat of their beloved Faith cannot but denote henceforward a closer association, at more constant communion, and a higher degree of coordination between the two primary agencies providen
46 THE BAHA't
tially ordained for the enrichment of their spiritual life and for the conduct and regulation of their administrative affairs. To the far-flung Bahá’í communities of East and West, most of which are being increasingly proscribed and ill-treated, and none of which can claim to have had a share of the dual blessings which a specially designed and constructed House of Worship and a fully and efficiently functioning Administrative Order invariably confer, the concentration in a single locality of what will come to be regarded as the fountain-head of the community’s spiritual life and what is already recognized as the mainspring of the administrative activities, signalizes the launching of yet another phase in the slow and imperceptible emergence, in these declining times, of the model Bahá’í community—,a community divinely ordained. organically united, clear-visioned, vibrant with life, and whose very purpose is regulated by the twin directing principles of the worship of God and of service to one's fellow-men.
The decision you have arrived at is an act that befittingly marks the commencement of your allotted term of stewardship in service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. Moreover, it significantly coincides with the inauguration of that world mission of which the settlement of Bahá’í pioneers in the virgin territories of the North American continent has been but a prelude. That such a decision may speedily and without the slightest hitch be carried into effect is the deepest longing of my heart. That those who have boldly carried so weighty a resolution may without pause or respite continue to labor and build up, as circumstances permit, around this administrative nucleus such accessories as the machinery of a fast evolving administrative order, functioning under the shadow of, and in such close proximity to, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, must demand, is the object of my incessant and fervent prayer. That such a step, momentous as it is, may prove the starting point for acts of still greater renown and richer possibilities that will leave their distinct mark on the third year of the Seven Year Plan is a hope which I, together with all those who are eagerly following its progress, fondly and confidently cherish.
The American believers, while straining to
CENTENARY
C accomplish befittingly this particular task, must simultaneously brace themselves for another sublime effort to discharge, ere the present year draws to a close, their manifold responsibilities allotted to them under the Seven Year Plan. The placing of yet another contract for the casting of the ornamentation of the First Story of the Temple, the permanent settlement of the six remaining Republics of Central America. and the extension of continual support both material and moral, to those weaker States, Provinces and Republics that have been recently incorporated in the body of the Faith, combine to offer, at this hour when the fate of civilization tremblcs in the balance, the boldest and gravest challenge that has ever faced the community of the American believers both in the propagative and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity. In the field of pioneer teaching, and particularly in connection with the opening of the Republics of Haiti, Salvador. Costa Rica. Nicaragua, Dominica and Guatemala, the utmost encouragement should at all times be vouchsafed by the elected representatives of the community to those who, out of the abundance of their hearts, and in direct response to the call of their Faith and the dictates of their conscience, have renounced their comforts, fled their homes, and hazarded their fortunes for the sake of bringing into operation the majestic Plan of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, while special support should be extended to those who appear to be best qualified for the strenuous labors which pioneering under such exacting circumstances demands. Care should be exercised lest any hindrance should, for any reason, be placed in the way of those who have, whether young or old, rich or poor, so spontaneously dedicated themselves to so urgent and holy a mission.
Towards this newly-appointed enterprise
- 1 more definite reorientation is needed. To
its purposes a more complete dedication is demanded. In its fortunes a more widespread concern is required. For its further consolidation and speedy fulfilment a larger number and a greater variety of participants are indispensable. For its success a more abundant flow of material resources should be assured.
Let the privileged few, the ambassadors of
AMERIC/US SPIRITUAL DESTINY 47
the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, bear in mind His words as they go forth on their errands of service to His Cause. "I! lzcbovrlb 1u/)0.mover willcllz to journey for the sake of God, and whose intention is to [rroclaim His Won! and quic/zen (be «lead, to bathe bimtelf wi!/2 tbe waters of detachment, and to adorn bis Irmple will) the ornaments of resignation and submission. Le! fruit in God be his s/Jielrl, and reliance on God bis provision. am! the fear of God bis raimmt. Let patience be his helper, aml praise-worlby eamlucl bis sucmurer, and goodly «leads his army. Tbrn will the concourse on big!) sustain him. Then will tbs denizens of the Kingdom of Names marrb forth wilb bim, and the banners of Divine guiilanrr and inspiration be rmfurlnl on bis right hand and before bim."
Faced with such a challenge, a community that has scaled thus far such peaks of enduring achievements can neither falter nor recoiL Confident in its destiny, reliant cn its God-given power, fortified by the consciousness of its past victories, galvanized into action at the sight of a slowly disrupting civilization, it will—I can have no doubt—continue to fulfil unflinchingly the immediate requirements of its task, assured that with every step it takes and with each stage it traverses, a fresh revelation of Divine light and strength will guide and propel it forward until it consummates, in the fulness of time and in the plenitude of its power, the Plan inseparably bound up with its shining destiny.
July 4, 1939.
A triple call, clear-voiced, insistent and inescapable, summons to the challenge all members of the American Bahá’í community, at this, the most fateful hour in their history. The first is the voice, distant and piteous, of those sister communities which now, alas, are fettered by the falling chains of religious orthodoxy and isolated through the cruel barriers set up by a rampant nationalism. The second is the plea, no less vehement and equally urgent, of those peopics and nations of the New ‘World, whose vast and unexplored territories await to be warmed by the light and swept into the orbit of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The third, more universal and stirring than either of the
others, is the call of humanity itself crying out for deliverance at a time when the tide of mounting evils has destroyed its’ equilibrium and is now strangling its very life.
These imperative calls of Bahá’í duty the American ‘believers can immediately if only partially answer. Their present status, their circumscribed resources, debar them, however great their eagcrness, from responding completely and decisively to the full implications of this threefold obligation. They can, neither individually nor through their concerted efforts, impose directly their will upon those into whose hands the immediate destinies of their persecuted brethren are placed. Nor are they as yet capable of launching a campaign of such magnitude as could capture the imagination and arouse the conscience of mankind. and thereby insure the immediate and full redress of those grievances from which their helpless co-religionists in both the East and the West are suffering. They cannot moreover hope to wield at the present time in the councils of nations an influence commensurate with the stupendous claims advanced, or adequate to the greatness of the Cause proclaimed, by the Author of their Faith. Nor can they assume a position or exercise such responsibilities as would enable them by their acts and decisions to reverse the process which is urging so tragically the decline of human society and its institutions.
And yet, though their influence be at the present hour indecisive and their divinelyconferred authority unrecognized, the role they can play in both alleviating the hardships that afflict their brethren and in attenuating the ills that torment mankind is none the less considerable and far-reaching. By the range and liberality of their contri ‘butions to mitigate the distress of the be reaved, the exiled and the imprisoned; by the persistent, the wise and judicious intervention of their elected representatives through the authorities concerned; by a clear and convincing exposition, whenever circumstances are propitious, of the issues involved; by a vigorous defence of the rights and liberties denied; by an accurate and dignified presentation of the events that have transpired; by every manner of encouragement which their sympathies may suggest, or
48 THE Bahá’í
their means permit, or their consciences dictate, to succor the outcast and the irnpoverished; and above all by their tenacious adherence to, and wide proclamation of, those principles, laws, ideals, and institutions which their disabled fellow-believers are unable to affirm or publicly espouse; and lastly, by the energetic prosecution of those tasks which their oppressed fellow-workers are forbidden to initiate or conduct, the privileged community of the American Bahá’í: can play a conspicuous part in the great drama involving so large a company of their unemancipated brethren in the Asiatic, the European and African continents.
Their duties towards mankind in general are no less distinct and vital. Their impotence to stem the tide of onrushing calamities, their seeming helplessness in face of those cataclysmic forces that are to convulse human society, do not in the least detract from the urgency of their unique mission, nor exonerate them from those weighty responsibilities which they alone can and must assume. Humanity, heedless and impenitent, is admittedly hovering on the edge of an awful abyss, ready to precipitate itself into that titanic struggle, that crucible whose chastening fires alone can and will weld its antagonistic elements of race, class, religion and nation into one coherent system, one world commonwealth. "Tb: hour is approaching” is Bahá’u’lláh’s own testimony. "when the mos! great convulsion will have appeared . . . I swear by God! The promised day is come, the day when tormenting trials will have surged above your beads, and beneath your feet, saying: Taste ye, what your bends barre wrougbt.’ ” Not ours to question the almighty wisdom or fathom the inscrutable ways of Him in whose hands the ultimate destiny of an unregenerate yet potentially glorious race must lie. Ours rather is the duty to believe that the world-wide community of the Most Great Name, and in particular, at the present time its vanguard in North America, however bufieted by the powerful currents of these troublous times, and however keen their awareness of the inevitability of the final eruption, can, if they will, rise to the level of their calling and discharge their functions, both in the period which is witnessing the confusion and break CENTENARY
down of human institutions, and in the ensuing epoch during which the shattered basis of a dismembered society is to be recast, and its forces reshaped, re-directed and unified. With the age that is still unborn, with its herculean tasks and unsuspected glories, we need not concern ourselves at present. It is to the fierce struggle, the imperious duties, the distinctive contributions which the present generation of Bahá’í: are summoned to undertake and render that I feel we should, at this hour, direct our immediate and anxious attention. Though powerless to avert the impending contest the followers of Bahá’u’lláh can, by the spirit they evince and the efforts they exert help to circumscribe its range, shorten its duration, allay its hardships, proclaim its salutary consequences, and demonstrate its necessary and vital role in the shaping of human destiny. Theirs is the duty to hold, aloft and undirnmed, the torch of Divine Guidance, as the shades of night descend upon, and ultimately envelop the, entire human race. Theirs is the function, amidst its tumults, perils and agonies, to witness to the vision, and proclaim the approach, of that re-created society, that Christpromised Kingdom, that World Order whose generative impulse is the spirit of none other than Bahá’u’lláh Himself, whose dominion is the entire planet, whose watchword is unity, whose animating power is the force of Justice, whose directive purpose is the reign of righteousness and truth, and whose supreme glory is the complete, the undisturbed, and everlasting felicity of the whole of human kind. By the sublimity and serenity of their faith, by the steadiness and clarity of their vision, the incorruptihility of their character. the rigor of their discipline, the sanctity of their morals, and the unique example of their community life, they can and indeed must in a world polluted with its incurable corruptions, paralyzed by its haunting fears, torn by its devastating hatrcds, and languishing under the weight of its appalling miseries demonstrate the validity of their claim to be regarded as the sole repository of that grace upon whose operation must depend the complete deliverancc, the fundamental reorganization and the supreme felicity of all mankind.
July 23, 1939.
49
/\MI’.RICA’S SPIRITUAL DESTINY
Views of the Outer Shrine of B;1h2i’u’I|iI1.
SO THE BAH/Vi
Shades of night descending on imperilled humanity inexorably deepening. American believers, heirs of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, prosecutors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's plan, con _ fronted supreme opportunity vindicate in destructibility their faith. inflexibility their resolution, their incorruptibility, sanctity for Qppointcd task. Anxiously, passionately entreat them, whatever obstacles march of tragic events may create, however distressing barriers predicted calamities raise between them and sister communities and possibly Faith’s World Center, unwaveringly hold aloft torch whose infant light heralds the birth of the effulgent World Order destined supplant disrupting civilization.
August 30, 1939.
The association of the First Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West with the hallowed memories_of the Purest Branch and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s mother, recently re-interred under the shadow of the B:’ib's holy Shrine. inaugurates a new, and at long last the final phase of an enterprise which, thirty years ago, was providentially launched on the very day the remains of the Forerunner of our Faith were laid to rest by our beloved Master in the sepulchre specifically erected for that purpose on Mt. Carmel. The birth of this holy enterprise, pregnant with such rich, such infinite possibilities, synchronized with. and was consecrated through, this historic event which, as ‘Abdu’l'-Bahi Himself has affirmed, constitutes the most signal act of the triple mission He\had been prompted to perform. The site of the Temple itself was honored by the presence of Him Who. ever since this enterprise was initiated, had, through His messages and Tablets bestowed upon it His special attention and care. and surrounded it with the marks of His unfailing solicitude. Its foundation-stone was laid by His own loving hands, on an occasion so moving that it has come to be regarded as one of the most stirring episodes of His historic visit to the North American continent. Its superstructure was raised as a direct consequence of the pent-up energies which surged from the breasts of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's lovers at a time when His sudden removal from their midst had plunged them into consternation, bewilderment and sorrow. lts
CENTENARY
external orngmentation was initiated and accelerated through the energizing influences which the rising and continually consolidating institutions of a divinely established Administrative Order had released in the midst. of a community that had identified its vital interests with that Temple's destiny. The measures devised to hasten its completion were incorporated in a Plan which derives its inspiration from those destinyshaping Tablets wherein, in bold relief. stands outlined the world mission entrusted by their Author to the American Bahá’í community. And finally, the Fund, designed to receive and dispose of the resources amassed for its prosecution. was linked with the memory and bore the name of her whose ebbing life was brightened and,chccred by those tidings that unmistakably revealed to her the depth of devotion and the tenacity of purpose which animate the American believers in the cause of their beloved Temple. And now, while the Bahá’í world vibrates with emotion at the news of the transfer of the precious remains of both the Purest Branch and of ‘Amatu’l-Bahá‘: mother to a spot which, watched over by the Twin Holy Shrines and in the close neighborhood of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf, is to become the focus of the administrative institutions of the Faith at its world center, the mere act of Jinking the destiny of so farreaching an undertaking with so significant an event in the Formative Period of our Faith will ‘lssuredly set the seal of complete triumph upon, and enhance the spiritual potentialities of. a work so significantly started and so magnificently executed by the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the North American continent.
Dccember 30, 1939.
And now as this year, so memorable in the annals of the Faith, was drawing to a close, there befcll the American Bahá’í community, through the dramatic and sudden death of May Maxwell, yet another loss, which viewed in retrospect will come to be regarded as a potent blessing conferred upon the campaign now being so diligently conducted by its members. Laden with the fruits garnered through well-nigh half a century of toilsomc service to the Cause she
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 5]
so greatly loved, headless of the warnings of age and ill-health, and afire with the longing to worthily demonstrate her gratitude in her overwhelming awareness of the bounties of her Lord and Master, she set. her face towards the southern outpost of the Faith in the New World, and laid down her life in such a spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice as has truly merited the crown of martyrdom.
To Keith Ransom-Kchler, whose dust sleeps in far-off Iṣfahán; to Martha Root, fallen in her tracks on an island in the midmost heart of the ocean; to May Maxwell. lying in solitary glory in the southern outpost of the Western Hcmisphere—to these three heroines of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, they who now labor so assiduously for its expansion and establishment. owe a debt of gratitude which future generations will not fail to adequately recognize.
April 15. 1940.
The stupendous struggle now convulsing the major part of the European continent is progressively revealing the ominous features, and increasingly assuming the proportions, of the titanic upheaval foreshadowed seventy years ago by the prophetic pen of Bahá’u’lláh. The disruptive forces associated with humanity's world-shaking ordeal are closely interrelated with the constructive potentialities inherent in the American believers’ Divincly-ordained Plan. Both are directly hastening the emergence of the spiritual World Order stirring in the womb of a trav-ailing age. I entreat the American Bahá’í Community. whatever the immediate or distant repercussions of the present turmoil on their own continent. however violent its impact upon the World Center of their Faith, to pledge themselves anew, before the Throne of Bahá’u’lláh. to discharge, with unswerving aim, unfailing courage. invincible vigor, cxemplary fidelity and ever-deepening consecration. the dual responsibility solemnly undertaken under the Seven Year Plan. I implore them to accelerate their efforts, increase their vigilance. deepen their unity, multiply their heroic feats. maintain their distant outposts in the teaching field of Latin America. and expedite the termina tion of the last stage in the ornamentation of the Temple. I‘ am praying continually with redoubled fervor.
June 13. 1940.
My heart is thrilled with delight as I witness, in so many fields, and in such distant outposts, and despite such formidable difficulties, restrictions, obstacles and dangers, so many evidences of the solidarity, the valor, and the achievements of the American Bahá’í community. As the end of the First Century of the Bahá’í Era approaches, as the shadows descending upon and enveloping mankind steadily and remorselessly deepen, this community, which can almost be regarded as the solitary champion of the Faith in the Western World, is increasingly evincing and demonstrating its capacity, its worth, and ability as the torchbearer of the New. the World Civilization which is destined to supplant in the fulness of time the present one. And more particularly in the virgin and far-flung territories of Latin America, it has in recent months, abundantly given visible evidence of its merits and competence to shoulder the immense responsibilities which the carrying of the sacred Fire to all the Republics of the Western Hernispherc must necessarily entail.
Through these initial steps, which in putsuance of the Plan conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, this community has taken, through the settlement in each of these sovereign states of the New World of American Bahá’í pioneers. through the formation of Bahá’í groups and the establishment of» two. Assemblies in Buenos Aires and salsa‘: {he American National Aslembl_v,.as gmelltf its InterAmerica Committee,'- iiid all subsidiary agencies, no less than the individual members of the North American Bahá’í community who have sacrificed and are still sacrificing so much in their support of this Divine and momentous Plan. have earned the unqualified admiration and the undying gratitude of sister Assemblies and fellowworkers throughout the Bahá’í World.
Their work, however. is only beginning. The dispatch of pioneers. the provision of adequate means for their support. their settlement and initiation of Bahá’í activities in these far-olf lands, however strenuous and
52 THE Bahá’í
meritorious, are insufficient if the Plan is to evolve harmoniously and yield promptly its destined fruit. The extension by the Parent Assembly — the immediate source from which this vast system with all its ramifications is now proceeding—of the necessary support, guidance, recognition and material assistance to enable these newly-fledged groups and Assemblies to function in strict accordance with both the spiritual and administrative principles of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. would seem as essential and urgent as the preliminary task already achieved. To nurse these tender plants of the Vineyard of God, to foster their growth, to direct their development, to accord them the necessary recognition, to help resolve their problems, to familiarize them with gentleness, patience and fidelity with the processes of the Administrative Order and thus enable them to assume independently the conduct of future local and national Bahá’í activities, would bring the plan to swift and full fruition and would add fresh Iaurels to the crown of immortal glory already won by a community that holds in these days of dark and dire calamities, valiantly and almost alone, the Fort of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
December 3, 1940.
The internecine struggle, now engulfing the generality of mankind, is increasingly assuming, in its range and ferocity, the proportions of the titanic upheaval foreshadowed as far back as seventy years ago by Bahá’u’lláh. It can be viewed in no other light except as.a direct interposition by Him Who is the Ordainer of the Universe, the Judge of all menand the Deliverer of the nations. It is the rod of both the anger of God and of His correction. The fierceness of its devastating power chastens the children of men for their refusal to acclaim the century-old Message of their promised, their Heaven-sent Redeemer. The fury of its flames, on the other hand, purges away the dross, and welds the limbs of humanity into one single organism, indivisible, purified, God-conscious and divinely directed.
its immediate cause can be traced to the forces engendered by the last war of which it may be truly regarded as the direct con CENTENARY
tinuation. Its first sparks were kindled on the eastern shores of the Asiatic continent, enveloping two sister races of the world in a conflagration which no force seems able to either quench or circumscribe. This cataclysmic process was accelerated by the outbreak of a fierce conflict in the heart of Europe, fanning into flame age-long animositics and unchaining a series of calamities as swift as they were appalling. As the turmoil gathered momentum it swept remorsclcssly into its vortex the most powerful nations of the European continent— the chief protagonists of that highly-vaunted yet lamentably defective civilization. The mounting tide of its havoc and devastation soon overspread the northernmost regions of that afflicted continent, subsequently ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean, and invaded the African continent as far as Ethiopia and the surrounding territories. The Balkan countries, as predicted by ‘Abdu’l-B-ahi, were soon to sustain the impact of this tragic ordeal, communicating in their turn the commations to which they-had been subjected to both the Near and Middle East, wherein are enshrined the heart of the Faith itself, its Cradle, its chief center of Pilgrimage, and its most sacred and historic sites.
Its menace is overleaping the limits of the Old World and is plunging into consternation the Great Republic of the West. as well as the peoples of Central and South America. The New World as well as the Old is experiencing the terrific impact of this disruptive force. Even the peoples of the Antipodes are trembling before the approaching tempest that threatens to burst on their heads.
The races of the world, Nordic, Slavonic. Mongolian, Arab and African. are alike subjected to its consuming violence. The world’s religious systems are no less affected by the universal paralysis which is creeping over the minds and souls of men. The persecution of world Jewry, the rapid deterioration of Christian institutions, the intestine division and disorders of Islam. are but manifestations of the fear and trembling that has seized humanity in its hour of unprecedented turmoil and peril. On the high seas, in the air, on land, in the forefront of battle. in the palaces of kings and the cottages of peasants,
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 53
in the most hallowed sanctuaries, whether secular or religious, the evidences of God's retributive act and mysterious discipline are manifest. Its heavy toll is steadily mounting —a holocaust sparing neither prince nor peasant, neither man not woman, neither young not old.
The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—that priceless gem of Divine Revelation enshrining the Spirit of God and incarnating His Purpose for mankind in this agi.+can neither aspire nor expect to escape unhurt amid the hurricane of human disasters that blows around it. By most men unnoticed, scorned and ridiculed by some, feared and challenged by others, this world redemptive Faith, for whose precious sake the world is undergoing such agonies, finds its virgin strength assailed, and its infant institutions hemmed in, by the dark forces which a godless civilization has unloosed over the face of the planet. In the Old World, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, it is being buffeted about, ostracized, arraigned and repressed. In certain countries its community life is being extinguished, in others a ban is severely imposed on its propagation, in still others its members are denied all intercotirse with its World Center. Dangers, grave and unsuspected, confront its cradle and surround its very heart.
Not so, however, with the countries of the Western Hemisphere. The call of Bahá’u’lláh summons, at this challenging hour, the peoples of the New World, and its leaders to redress the balance of the old. "0 Rulers of America," He thus addresses the Chief Magistrates of that continent, "and Ibr Presidents of the Refmblics Ibereirr. . . . Adorn the temple of your dominion with the ornament of Iustice and of the fear of God, and its bead wifb the crown of (be remembrance of your Lord, I/we Maker of the heavens.” The Great Republic of the West, an object of special solicitude throughout the ministry of the Center of the Covenant, whose soil has been hallowed by His footsteps, and the foundation of whose edifice—the Mother Temple of the West—has been consecrated by His hand, has been singled out through the operation of His Will, and been invested by His Pen with a unique, an inescapable, a weighty and most sacred re sponsibility. The Mission entrusted to the community of the North American believers in the darkest days of the last war, is, after a period of incubation of well nigh twenty years, and through the instrumentality of the administrative agencies erected after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, efllorescing under our very eyes. Already, since the inception of the Seven Year Plan, this community can well claim to have attained, through its deeds. a stature that dwarfs its sister communities, and can glory in a parentage that embraces every Republic of Latin America. The first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West, its beauteous and noble handiwork, is virtually completed. A nucleus for a future flourishing local community is already formed in every state and province in North America. The administrative structure, following the pattern of its prototype in the U.S.A. is, through the agency of that same Plan, raising its triumphant head in the Central and South American Republics. The Plan itself, propelled by the agencies released by those immortal Tablets which constitute its charter. bids fair, in the fifth year of its operation. to exceed the highest expectations of those who have so courageously launched it. Its comsummation, coinciding with the tennination of the first century of the Bahá’í Era. will mark the opening of yet another phase in a series of crusades which must carry, in the course of the succeeding century, the privileged recipients of those epoch-making Tablets beyond the Western Hemisphere to the uttermost ends of the earth, to implant the banner, and lay an unassailable basis for the administrative structure of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
The quality and magnitude of the work already achieved by these stalwart champions of God's New World Order are inexpressibly exhilarating and infinitely meritorious. The immensity of the task still to be performed staggers our fancy and inflames our imagination. The potentialities with which these tasks are endowed elude our shrewdest calculations. The promise they enshrine is too dazzling to contemplate. What else can we do but how our heads in thanksgiving and reverence, steel our hearts in preparation for the strenuous days ahead, and intensify a hundredfold our resolution to carry on the
54 THE Bahá’í
task to which our hands are set at present? May 25, 1941. '
As I survey the activities and accomplishments of the American believers in recent months, and recall their -reaction to the urgent call for service, embodied in the Seven Year Plan, I feel overwhelmed by a threefold sense of gratitude and admiration which I feel prompted to place on record. but which I cannot adequately express. Future generations can alone appraise correctly the value of their present services, and the Beloved, whose mandate they are so valiantly obeying. can alone befittingly reward them for the manner in which they are discharging their duties.
The virtual completion of a thirty year old enterprise, which was initiated in His days and blessed by His Hand, is the first and foremost accomplishment that must shed imperishable luster not only on the administrative annals of the Formative Age of the Faith, but on the entire record of the signal achievements performed in the course of the First Century of the Bahá’í Era. The steady expansion and consolidation of the world mission. entrusted by that same Master, to their hands and set in operation after His passing, constitutes the second object of my undying gratitude to a community that has abundantly demonstrated its worthiness to shoulder the superhuman tasks with which it has been entrusted. The spirit with which that same community has faced and resisted the onslaught of the enemies of the Faith who, for various reasons and with everincreasing subtlety and malice, have persistently striven to disrupt the administrative machinery of an Order, foreshadowed by the Báb, enunciated by Bahá’u’lláh, and established by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is yet another testimony to the unrivalled merits and the eminent position attained by its privileged members since the ascension of the Center of the Covenant.
The extinction of the influence precariously exerted by some of these enemies, the decline that has set in in the fortunes of others, the sincere repentance expressed b_v still others. and their subsequent reinstatement and effectual participation in the teaching and administrative activities of the Faith.
CENTENARY
constitute in themselves sufficient evidence of the unconquerable power and invincible spirit which animates those who stand identifled with and loyally carry out the provisions and injunctions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
And now more particularly concerning the prime mover of this latest agitation, which, whatever its immediate consequences. will sooner or later come to be regarded as merely one more of those ugly and abortive attempts designed to undermine the foundation. and obscure the purpose, of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Obscure in his origin, ambitious of leadership, untaught by the lesson of such as have erred before him, odious in the hopes he nurses, contemptible in the methods he pursues, shameless in his deliberate distortions of truths he has long since ceased to believe in. ludicrous in his present isolation and helplessness. wounded and exasperated by the downfall which his own folly has precipitated, he, the latest protagonist of a spurious cause, cannot but in the end be subjected, as remorselessly as his infamous predecessors. to the fate which they invariably have suffered.
Generated by the propelling and purifying forces of a mysterious Faith. born of delusion or malice, winning a fleeting notoriety derived from the precarious advantages of wealth, fame or fortune, these movements sponsored by deluded, self-seeking adventurers find themselves, sooner or later. enmeshed in the machinations of their authors. are buried in shame. and sink eventually into complete oblivion.
The schism which their foolish leaders had contrived so sedulously to produce within the Faith, will soon, to their utter amazement, come to be regarded as a process of purification, a cleansing agency. which, far from decimating the ranks of its followers, reinforces its indestructible unity, and proclaims anew to a world, skeptical or indifferent, the cohesive strength of the institutions of that Faith, the incorruptibility of its purposes and principles, and the recuperative powers inherent in its community life.
Wert- anyone to imagine or expect that a Cause, comprising within its orbit so vast a portion of the globe, so turbulent in its
4‘
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY SS
history, so challenging in its claims, so diversificd in the elements it has assimilated into its administrative structure, should, at all times, be immune to any divergence of opinion, or any defection on the part of its multitudinous followers, it would be sheer delusion, wholly unreasonable and unwarranted, even in the face of the unprecedented evidence_ of the miraculous power which its rise and progress have so powerfully exhibited. That such a secession, however, whether elfected by those who apostatize their faith or preach heretical doctrines, should have failed, after the lapse of a century, to split in twain the entire body of the adherents of the Faith. or to create a grave, a permanent and irremediable breach in its organic structure, is a fact too eloquent for even a casual observer of the internal processes of its administrative order to either deny or ignore.
Therein, every loyal and intelligent upholder of Bahá’u’lláh’s incomparable Covenant—4 Covenant designed by Him as the sole refuge against schism, disruption and anarchy—will readily recognize the hallmark of His Faith, and will acclaim it as the supreme gift conferred by Him Who is the Lord of Revelation upon the present and future generations who are destined, in this greatest of all Dispensations, to flock, from every creed and religion, to the banner. and espouse the Cause. of His Most Great Name.
Dear friends! Manifold, various, and at times extremely perilous, have been the tragic crises which the blind hatred, the unfounded presumption, the incredible folly, the abiect perfidy, the vaulting ambition. of the enemy have intermittently engendered within the pale of the Faith. From some of its most powerful and renowned votaries, at the hands of its once trusted and ablest propagators, champions, and administrators, from the ranks of its most revered and highlyplaced trustees whether as companions, amanuenses or appointed lieutenants of the Herald of the Faith, of its Author, and of the Center of His Covenant, from even those who were numbered among the kindred of the Manifestation, not excluding the brother, the sons and daughters of Bahá’u’lláh. and the nominee of the Báb Himself, a Faith, of such tender age, and enshrining so
priceless a promise, has sustained blows as dire and treacherous as any recorded in the world's religious history.
From the record of its tumultuous history, almost every page of which portrays a fresh crisis, is laden with the description of a new calamity, recounts the tale of a base betrayal. and is stained with the account of unspeakable atrocities, there emerges, clear and incontrovertible, the supreme truth that with every fresh outbreak of hostility to the Faith, whether from within or from without, a corresponding measure of outpouring grace, sustaining its defenders and confounding its adversaries, has been providentially released, communicating a fresh impulse to the onward march of the Faith, while this impetus, in its turn, would through its manifestations. provoke fresh hostility in quarters heretofore unaware of its challenging implicationsthis increased hostility being accompanied by a still more arresting revelation of Divine Power and a more abundant effusion of celestial grace, which, by enabling the upholders of that Faith to register still more brilliant victories, would thereby generate issues of still more vital import and raise up still more formidable enemies against a Cause that cannot but, in the end, resolve those issues and crush the resistance of those enemies, through a still more glorious unfoldment of its inherent power.
The resistless march of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, viewed in this light, and propelled by the stimulating influences which the unwisdom of its enemies and the force latent within itself, both engender, resolves itself into a series of rhythmic pulsations, precipitated, on the one hand, through the explosive outbursts of its foes, and the vibrations of Divine Power, on the other, which speed it, with ever-increasing momentum, along that predestined course traced for it by the Hand of the Almighty.
As opposition to the Faith, from whatever source it may spring, whatever form it may assume, however violent its outbursts, is admittedly the motive-power that galvanizcs on the one hand, the souls of its valiant defenders, and taps for them, on the other, fresh springs of that Divine and inexhaustible Energy, we who are called upon to represent, defcnd, and promote its interests,
56 THE BA}-{A’l
should, far from regarding any manifestation of hostility as an evidence of the weakening of the pillars of the Faith, acclaim it as both a God-sent gift and a God-sent opportunity which, if we remain undaunted, we can utilize for the furtherance of His Faith and the routing and complete elimination of its adversaries.
The Heroic Age of the Faith, born in anguish, nursed in adversity, and terminating in trials as woeful as those that greeted its birth, has been succeeded by that Formative Period which is to witness the gradual crystallization of those creative energies which the Faith has released, and the consequent emergence of that World Order for which those forces were made to operate.
Fierce and relentless will be the opposition which this crystallization and emergence must provoke. The alarm it must and will awaken, the envy it will certainly arouse. the misrepresentations to which it will remorselessly be subjected, the setbacks it must, sooner or later, sustain, the commotions to which it must eventually give rise. the fruits it must in the end garner, the blessings it must inevitably bestow and the glorious, the Golden Age, it must irresistibly usher in, are iust beginning to be faintly perceived, and will, as the old order crumbles beneath the weight of so stupendous a Revelation. become increasingly apparent and arresting.
Not ours, dear friends, to attempt to survey the distant scene; ours rather the duty to face the trials of the present hour, to ponder the meaning, to discharge the obligations, to meet its challenge and utilize the opportunity it offers to the fullest extent of our ability and power.
August 12, 1941
Heart thrilled with pride at message announcing the approaching completion of the ornamentation of seven faces of Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, proclaiming an intensification of North American teaching campaign, and revealing the adamantine resolution of the Temple builders and stalwart crusaders, in face of the perfidy, ingratitude and opposition of the enemies both within and without the Holy Faith. As the fury and destructiveness of the tremendous world ordeal attains
CENTENARYI
its most intensive pitch, so the Mission conferred twenty years ago by ‘Abdu"l-Bah:i's sacred Will on the worldwide, indivisiblc and incorruptible body of His followers unfolds its fullest potentialities. Securely abiding and confidently battling within the impregnable structure which that Will has divinely established, the dwellers in the ark of the divine Covenant the world over watch with awe, pride and delight the evidences of the mounting momentum of the eternal process of integration and disintegration hurrying the Faith along its predistined course. The royal adversary, personally responsible for the recrudesence of persecution closing all Bahá’í schools in Bahá’u’lláh's native land, has been humbled to the dust. The sufferings endured by the builders of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkáre being avenged. The cornerstone of the National Administrative Headquarters of the Egyptian Bahá’í community has been ceremoniously laid. The first officially recognized Bahá’í cemetery is ready to receive the precious remains of the illustrious ‘Abdu’l-Fadl and the immortal Lua. The Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Baghdad has been extended and is nearing completion. The property dedicated as first Administrative Center of the Syrian Bahá’í: has been purchased. A group of families of Persian believers,Muslim. Jewish, Zoroastrian in origin, afire with the example set by American pioneers, are settling the adjoining territories of Hejaz, Yemen, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Bahrain Island. The spiritual competition galvanizing the organized followers of Bahá’u’lláh in East and West waxes lreener as first Bahá’í century speeds to its close. With bowed head, exultant spirit and thankful heart I acclaim these recurrent, increasingly compelling manifestations of the solidarity, loyalty and unquenchable spirit animating, throughout five continents, the community of the followers of the Most Great Name.
November 22. 1941
The entry of the United States of America into the war invests it with the character of a truly world-embracing crisis, designed to release world-shaking, world-shaping forces, which, as they operate, and mount in intensity, will throw down the barriers that
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 57
hinder the emergence of that world community which the World Religion of Bahá’u’lláh has anticipated and can alone permanently establish. It marks a milestone on the road which must lead the peoples of the North American continent to the glorious destiny that awaits them. It confronts the American Bahá’í community, already so well advanced in the prosecution of their Seven Year Plan, with a challenge at once severe and inescapable. The exterior ornamentation of their consecrated Edifice has been providentially expedited to a point where its completion is now assured. The intercontinental and national teaching campaigns. that constitute the second and even more vital aspect of that plan, though progressing magnificently in the States, in Canada and throughout Latin America, are still far from having attained their consummation. The obstacles which the extension of the war to the Western Hemisphere has raised are, I am well aware, manifold and formidable. The heroic self-sacrifice exhibited by the North American Bahá’í community will, I am confident, surmount them. The Hand of Omnipotence, which has led so mighty a member of the human race to plunge into the turmoil of world disaster, that has provided thereby the means for the effective and decisive participation of so promising a nation in the immediate trials and the future reconstruction of human society, will not and cannot allow those who are directly, consciously and worthily promoting the highest interests of their nation and of the world, to fall short of the accomplishment of their God-given task. He will, more than ever before in their history, pour out His blessings upon them, if they refuse to allow the present circumstances. grievous though they are, to interfere with the full and uninterrupted execution of this initial undertaking in pursuance of their world mission. The coming two years must witness, fraught as they may well be with the greatest ordeal afflicting their countrymen, a manifestation of spiritual vitality and an output of heroic action, commensurate with the gravity and afflictions of the present hour, and worthy of the concluding years of the first Bahá’í century. January 15, 1942.
Viewed in the perspective of Bahá’í history. the Seven Year Plan, associated with the closing years of the First Bahá’í Century, will come to be regarded as the mightiest instrument yet forged, designed to enable the trustees of a firmly established, steadily evolving Administrative Order to complete the initial stage in the prosecution of the world mission confidently entrusted by the Center of the Covenant to His chosen disciples. The Divine Plan, thus set in operation, may be said to have derived its inspiration from, and been dimly foreshadowed in, the injunction so significantly addressed by Bahá’u’lláh to the Chief Magistrates of the American continent. It was prompted by the contact established by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself. in the course of His historic journey, with the entire body of His followers throughout the United States and Canada. It was conceived, soon after that contact was established, in the midst of what was then held to be one of the most devastating crises in human history. -It underwent a of incubation, after His ascension, while the machinery of a divinely appointed Administrative Order was being laboriously devised and its processes set in motion. Its initial operations were providentially made to synchronize with the final years of a century that witnessed the birth and rise of a Faith of which it is the direct consequence. The opening stage in its execution has been faced by, and will survive, the severe challenge of a crisis of still greater magnitude than that which baptized its birth. The conclusion of the firs: phase of its tremendous and irresistible unfoldment is now approaching. The hopes and aspirations of a multitude of believers, in both the East and the West, young and old, whether free or suppressed, hang on its triumphant consummation. The Temple itself, that fair incarnation of the soul of an unoonquerable Faith, and the first fnsit of the Plan now set in motion, stands in its silent beauty, ready to reinforce the strenuous endeavors of its prosecutors. Towering in grandeur and resplendent in its majesty it calls aloud incessantly for a greater, 1 far greater number of pioneers who, both at home and in foreign fields, will scatter to sow the Divine seeds and gather the harvest into its gates. The
is THE ISAHA’i
Author of the Plan Himself, looking down from His retreats above, and surveying the prodigious labors of His dcfcatlcss disciples, voices, with even greater insistence, the same call. The time in which to respond to it is relentlessly shortening. Let men of action seize their chance ere the swiftly passing days place it irretrievably beyond their reach. May 26, 1942.
The completion of the exterior ornamentation of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Wilmette, the most hallowed Temple ever to be erected by the followers of Bahá’u’lláh, and the crowning glory of the first Bahá’í century, is an event of unique and transcendental significance. Neither the first Mashriqu’l-Ad_hlt:'tr of the Bahá’í world, reared in the city of Ishqábád. nor any House of Worship to be raised in succeeding centuries, can claim to possess the vast, the immeasurable potentialities with which this Mother Temple of the West, established in the very heart of so-enviable a continent, and whose foundationstonc has been laid by the hand of the Center of the Covenant Himself, has been endowed. Conceived forty years ago by that little band of far-sighted and resolute disciples of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, members of the first Bahá’í community established in the Western Hemisphere; blessed and fostered by a vigilant Master Who directed its course from the hour of its inception to the last days of His life; supported by the spontaneous contributions of Bahá’ís poured in from the live continents of the globe, this‘ noble, this mighty, this magnificent enterprise deserves to rank among the immortal epics, that have adorned the annals of the Apostolic Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
The debt of gratitude owed by the entire Bahá’í world to its champion-builders is indeed immeasurable. The admiration which this brilliant exploit has evoked in the breasts of countless followers of the Faith in East and West knows no bounds. The creative energies its completion must unleash are incalculable. The role it is destined to play in hastening the emergence of the world order of Bahá’u’lláh, now stirring in the womb of this travailing age, cannot as yet be fathomed. We stand too close to so majestic, so lofty, so radiant, so symbolic a monument
CENTENARY
raised so heroically to the glory of the Most Great Name, at so critical a stage in human history, and at so significant a spot in .1 continent so richly endowed, to be able to visualize the future glories which the consummation of this institution, this harbinger of an as yet unborn civilization. must in the fulness of time disclose to the eyes of all mankind.
That so laborious, so meritorious an undertaking has been completed -a year before its appointed time is a further cause for rejoicing and gratitude, and an added testimony to the vision, the resourcefulness, and enterprising spirit of the American believers.
No need, however, to dwell at length on their past achievements, remarkable and exemplary though they have been, not is this the time to expatiatc on the superb spirit that has characterized their stewardship in the service of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Tasks of extreme urgency, of great magnitude, of the utmost significance await them in this concluding year of the first Bahá’í century, and at this hour of great peril, of stress and trial for all mankind. The sacred—the pressing, the incscapable teaching responsibilities assumed under the Seven Year Plan must be resolutely faced as befits those whose record has shed so brilliant a light on the annals of the first Bahá’í century. The consolidation of each and every nucleus formed so painstakingly in every republic of Central and South America, the formation of a Bahá’í Assembly in every virgin State and Province in the North American Continent, call for undivided attention, for further heroism, for a concerted, a persistent, a herculean effort on the part of the stalwart builders of that bountcous Edifice which posterity will recognize as the greatest shrine in the Western world.
Nor must the elaborate preparations in connection with the forthcoming celebration of the centenary of our glorious Faith be overlooked or neglected, if we would befittingly consummate this First, this most fecund, century of the Bahá’í era. An unprecedented, a carefully conceived, etficiently co-ordinated, nation-wide campaign, aiming at the proclamation of the Message of
' Bahá’u’lláh, through speeches, articles in the
and radio broadcasts, should be
press,
AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL DESTINY S9
promptly initiated and vigorously prosecuted. The universality of the Faith, its aims and purposes, episodes in its dramatic history, testimonials to its transforming power, and the character and distinguishing features of its World Order should be emphasized and explained to the general public, and particularly to eminent friends and leaders sympathetic to its cause. who should be approached and invited to participate in the celebrations. Lectures, conferences, banquets, special publications should, to whatever extent is practicable and according to the resources at the disposal of the believers, proclaim the character of this joyous Festival. An all-America Convention, at which representatives of Bahá’í centers in every Republic in Central and South America will be invited to participate, and to which, for the first time, all isolated believers, all groups, and all communities already possessing local Spiritual Assemblies will have the right to appoint delegates and to share in the election of the National Spiritual Assembly, will, moreover, have to be held to commemorate this epochmaking event. A dedication ceremony, in consonance with the solemnity of the occasion, and held beneath the dome of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, on the very day and at the very hour of the Báb’: historic Declaration. followed by a public session, consecrated to the memory of both the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, should constitute the leading features of this historic Convention.
For it should be borne in mind that in the year 1944 we celebrate not only the termination of the first century of the Bahá’í Era, but also the centenary of the birth of the Bahá’í Dispensation, of the inception of the Bahá’í cycle, and of the birth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and commemorate as well the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith in the Western world.
No effort, not any sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure the decisive. the brilliant success of the celebrations which this historic year, of such manifold significance. must witness. He Who in the past. has in diverse ways and on so many occasions, graciously and unfailingly guided, blessed and sustained the members of this privileged community will, no doubt, continue to aid and inspire them to carry to a victorious
conclusion the unfinished tasks which still confront them, and will enable them to crown their labors in a manner that will befit their high destiny.
March 28, 1943.
The latest evidences of the magnificent success that has marked the activities of the members of the American Bahá’í community have been such as to excite the brightest hopes for the victorious consummation of the collective undertaking they have so courageously launched and have so vigorously proseeuted in recent years. As the fitst Bahá’í Century approaches its end. the magnitude and quality of their achievements acquire added significance and shed increasing luster on its annals. The proceedings of the recently held annual Convention; the formation of twi:nty—eight Assemblies in the course of the year that has just elapsed; the splendid progress achieved in the LatinAmerican field of Bahá’í activity; the superb spirit evinced by the pioneers holding their lonely posts in widely scattered areas throughout the Americas; the exemplary attitude shown by the entire body of the faithful towards the machinations of those who have so sedulously striven to disrupt the Faith and pervert its purposiwthese have, to a marked degree, intensified the admiration of the Bahá’í communities for those who are contributing so outstanding a share to the enlargement of the limits, and the enhancement of the prestige, of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The preparations which the American believers are undertaking for the celebration of the Centenary of the Faith must be such as to crown with immortal glory the fifry—yeat long record of their stewardship in the service of that Faith. Such a celebration must, in its scope and magnificence, fully compensate for the disabilities which hinder so many Bahá’í communities in Europe and elsewhere, and even in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land, from paying a befitting tribute to their beloved Faith at so glorious an hour in its history. The few remaining months of this century must witness a concentration of effort, a scale of achievement, a spirit of heroism that will outshine even the most daring exploits that have already immortalized the Seven Year
60 i THE BAHA'l
Plan and covered with glory its valiant prosecutors. The plea I addressed to them, at this late hour, will, I am sure, meet with a response no less remarkable than their past reactions to the appeals I have felt impelled to make to them ever since the inception of the Plan. He Who, at every stage of their collective enterprise, has so abundantly blessed them, will, no doubt, continue to vouchsafe the blessings until the seal of unqualified victory is set upon their epochmaking task.
August 8, 1943.
THE Desrmv or AMERICA
Let any one inclined to doubt the course which this enviable community is destined to follow, turn to and meditate upon these words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, enshrined. for all time, in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, and addressed to the entire community of the believers of the United States and Canada: "The full measure of your success,” He informs them, "is at yet unrevealed, its significance still unapprehended. Erelong, ye will, with your own eyes, witness how brilliantly every one of you, even as a shining star, will radiate, in the firmarnent of your country, the light of Divine Guidance, and will hestow upon its people the glory of an everlasting life. . . . The range of your future achievements still remains undisclosed. l fervently hope that in the near future the whole earth may be stirred and shaken by the results of your achievements. The hope, therefore, 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 he difluserl 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," He most significantly adds, "this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the shores of America, and is propagated throughout the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion. Then will all the pea CENTENARY
pits 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.”
No reader of these words, so vibrant with promises that not even the triumphant consummation of the Seven Year Plan can fulfill, can expect a community that has been raised so high. and endowed so richly, to remain content with any laurels it may win in the immediate future. To rest upon such laurels would indeed be tantamount to a betrayal of the trust placed in that community by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. To cut short the chain of victories that must lead it on to that supreme triumph when, "the whole earth may be stirred and shaken” by the results of its achievements would shatter His hopes. To vacillate, and fail to "propagate through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa. and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific” a Message so magnificently proclaimed by it in the American continent would deprive it of the privilege of being "securely cslablishcd upon the throne of an everlasting dominion.” To forfeit the honor of proclaiming "the advent of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts" in "all the five continents of the globe” would silence those "praises of its majesty and greatm-ss” that otherwise would echo throughout "the whole earth.”
Such vacillation, failure, or neglect, the American believers. the ambassadors of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, will, I am firmly convinced, never permit. Such a trust will never be betrayed. such hopes can never be shattered, such a privilege will never be forfeited, nor will such praises remain unuttered. Nay rather the present generation of this blessed, this repeatedly blessed, community will go from strength to strength, and will hand on. as the first century draws to a close, to the generations that must succeed it in the second, the torch of Divine Guidance. undimmed by the tempesruous winds that must blow upon it, that they in turn, faithful to the wish and mandate of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may carry that torch, with that self-same vigor, fidelity, and enthusiasm, to the darkest and remotest comers of the earth. . . .
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 61
One more word in conclusion. Among some of the most momentous and thoughtprovolring pronouncements ever made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in the course of His epochmaking travels in the North American continent, are the following: "May this American Democracy be the first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the firs! nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it he the first to unfurl the Standard of the Most Great Peace." And again: "The American people are indeed worthy of being the first to huild the Tabernacle of the Great Peace, and proclaim the oneness of mankind. . . . Fm America hath developed powers and capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations. The American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which -will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and he blast in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people. . . . The American continent giues signs and cridences of very great advancemmt. Its future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually.”
The creative energies, mysteriously generated by the first stirrings of the embryonic World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, have, as soon as released within a nation destined to become its cradle and champion, endowed that nation with the worthiness, and invested it with the powers and capacities, and equipped it spiritually, to play the part foreshadowed in these prophetic words. The potencies which this God-given mission has infused into its people are, on the one hand. beginning to be manifested through the conscious efforts and the nation-wide accomplishments, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, of the organized community of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the North American continent. These same potencies, apart from, yet collateral with these efforts and accomplishments, are, on the other hand, insensibly shaping, under the impact of world political and economic forces, the destiny of that nation, and are influencing the lives and actions of both its government and its
people.
To the efforts and accomplishments of those who, aware of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, are now laboring in that continent, to their present and future course of activity, I have, in the foregoing pages sufficiently rcfcrred. A word, if the destiny of the American people, in its entirety, is to be correctly apprehended, should now be said regarding the orientation of that nation as a whole. and the trend of the affairs of its people. For no matter how ignorant of the Source from which those directing energies proceed, and however slow and laborious the process. it is becoming increasingly evident that the nation as a whole, whether through the agency of its government or otherwise, is gravitating, under the influence of forces that it can neither comprehend nor control, towards such associations and policies, wherein, as indicated by ‘Abdu'l-Bahi, her true destiny must lie. Both the cornrnunity of the American believers, who are aware of that Source. and the great mass of their countrymen, who have not as yet recognizcd the Hand that directs their destiny, are contributing, each in its own way, to the realization of the hopes, and the fulfillment of the promises, voiced in the abovequoted words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The world is moving on. Its events are unfolding ominously and with bewildering rapidity. The whirlwind of its passions is swift and alarmingly violent. The New World is being insensibly drawn into its vortex. The potential storm centers of the earth are already casting their shadows upon its shores. Dangers, undreamt of and unpredictable, thrcatcn it both from within and from without. Its governments and peoples are being gradually enmeshed in the coils of the world's recurrent crises and fierce controversies. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are, with every acceleration in the march of science, steadily shrinking into mere channels. The Great Republic of the West finds itself particularly and increasingly involved. Distant rumblings echo menacingly in the ebullitions of its people. On its flanks are ranged the potential storm centers of the European continent and of the Far East. On its southern horizon thcrc looms what might conceivably develop into another center of agitation and danger. The
62 T H P. B’A H A ’ i world is contracting into a neighborhood. America. willingly or unwillingly, must face and grapple with this new situation. For purposes of national security, let alone any humanitarian motive, she must assume the obligations imposed by this newly created neighborhood. Paradoxical as it may seem, her only hope of extricating herself from the perils gathering around her is to become entangled in that very web of international association which the Hand of an inscrutable Providence is weaving. ‘Abdu’lBah5’s counsel to a highly placed official in its government comes to mind. with peculiar appropriateness and force. "You can best serve your country if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of frrdrralism, mulcrlying the government of your own country, to the relationship: now existing bet warn the peoples and nations of the world.” The ideals that fired the imagination of America's tragically unapprociatcd President, whose high endeavors, however much nullified by a visionless generation, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, through His own pen. acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great Peace, though now lying in the dust, bitterly reproach a headless generation for having so cruelly abandoned them.
That the world is beset with perils, that dangers are now accumulating and are actually threatening the American nation. no clear-eyed observer can possibly deny. The earth is now transformed into an armed camp. As much as fifty million men are either under arms or in reserve. No less than the sum of three billion pounds is being spent, in one year, on its armaments. The light of religion is dimmed and moral authority disintegrating. The nations of the world have, for the most part, fallen a prey to battling ideologies that threaten to disrupt the very foundations of their dearlywon political unity. Agitated multitudes in these countries see them with discontent, are armed to the teeth, are stampeded with fear, and groan beneath the yoke of tribulations engendered by political strife, racial fanaticism, national hatreds, and religious animosities. "The winds of drspair," Bahá’u’lláh has unmistakably affirmed, "are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strifr
CENTENARY
that divide: and afflicts the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned. . . ."’ "The ills,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. writing as far back as two decades ago, has prophesied. "from which the world now suficrs will multiply; the gloom which envelop: it will deepen. The Balkans will remain discontented. its restlessness will increase. Tb!‘ vanquished Powers will continue to agitate. They will resort to every measure that may rekindle the flame of war. Movements, newly-born and warld—u/ide in their range, will exert their utmost for the advancement of their designs. The Movernmt of the Left will acquire great importance. Its influence will spre .” As to the American nation itself, the voice of its own President, emphatic and clear, warns his people that a possible attack upon their country has been brought infinitely closer by the development of aircraft and by other factors. Its Secretary of State. addressing at a recent Conference the assembled reprcsentatives of all the American Republics, utters no less ominous a warning. “These resurgent forces loom threateningly throughout the worldtheir ominous shadow falls athwart our own Hemisphere.” As to its Press, the same note of warning and of alarm at an approaching danger is struck. “We must be prepared to defend ourselves both fron‘ within and without. . . . Our defensive frontier is long. It reaches from Alaska’: Point Barrow to Cape Horn, and ranges the Atlantic and the Pacific. When or where Europe's and Asia's aggressors may strike at us no one can say. It could be anywhere, any time. . . . We have no option save to
go armed ourselves. . . . We must mount vigilant guard over the Western Hemisphere."
The distance that the American nation has traveled since its fomial and categoric repudiation of the Wilsonian ideal, tht changes that have unexpectedly overtaken it in recent years, the direction in which world events are moving, with their inevitable impact on the policies and the economy of that nation. are to every Bahá’í observer. viewing the developments in the international situation, in the light of the prophecies of both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL DESTINY 63
most significant, and highly instructive and
encouraging. To trace the exact course
which, in these troubled times and pregnant
years, this nation will follow would be im possible. We can only, judging from the
direction its affairs are now taking, anticipate the course she will most likely choose to pursue in her relationships with both the
Republics of America and the countries of
the remaining continents.
A closer association with these Republics, on the one hand, and an increased participation, in varying degrees, on the other. in the affairs of the whole world, as a result of recurrent international crises, appear as the most likely developments which the future has in store for that country. Delays must inevitably arise, setbacks must be suffered, in the course of that country’s evolution towards its ultimate destiny. Nothing, however, can alter eventually that course. ordained for it by the unerring pen of ‘Abdu"l-Bahai. Its federal unity having already been achieved and its internal institutions consolidated—a stage that marked its coming of age as a political entity—its further evolution, as a member of the family of nations, must, under circumstances that cannot at present be visualized, steadily continue. Such an evolution must persist until such time as that nation will, through the active and decisive part it will have played in the organization and the peaceful settlement of the affairs of mankind, have attained the plenitude of its powers and functions as an outstanding member, and component part, of a federated world.
The immediate future must, as a result of this steady, this gradual, and inevitable absorption in the manifold perplcxities and problems afflicting humanity, be dark and
oppressive for that nation. The world shak ing ordeal which Bahá’u’lláh, as quoted in
the foregoing pages,"' has so graphically
prophesied, may find it swept, to an unpre cedented degree, into its vortex. Out of it it will probably emerge, unlike its reactions to the last world conflict, consciously determined to seize its opportunity, to bring the full weight of its influence to bear upon the gigantic problems that such an ordeal must leave in its wake, and to exorcise forever, in conjunction with its sister nations of both the East and the West, the greatest curse which. from time immemorial, has afflicted and degraded the human race.
Then, and only then, will the American nation, molded and purified in the crucible of a common war, inured to its rigors, and disciplined by its lessons, be in a position to raise its voice in the councils of the nations, itself lay the cornerstone of a universal and enduring peace, proclaim the solidarity, the unity, and maturity of mankind, and assist in the establishment of the promised reign of righteousness on earth. Then, and only then, will the American nation, while the community of the American believers within its heart is consummating its divinely-appointed mission, be able to fulfill the unspeakably glorious destiny ordained for it by the Almighty, and immortally enshrined in the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Then, and only then, will the American nation accomplish "that which will adorn the pages of history,” "become the envy of the world and be blast in both the East and
the West." _ December 2 S, 1938.
"’ This passage is an excerpt from "The Advent of Divine Justice."—Edilr)r.
