 | 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. |
FOREWORD
THE Declaration of His mission made by ‘Ali-Muhammad. the Báb, on May 23, 1844 in the city of Shíráz, Persia, inaugurated the era of spiritual knowledge and world civilization. In Him the Persons of the Prophets, the Manifestations of God who had guided the races and peoples along the paths of their destiny and renewed the Promise of God to every darkened and soulless age, united in one transcendent mystery of Being, and their Voices, the trumpet calls of history, became at last one Voice, their messages one Message, their purpose one Purpose.
In this creation of oneness where the world had always before realized only difference and diversity, divine Providence employed the Báb as its instrument to establish the spiritual condition from which should emanate the evolution of human nature and the development of human society revealing the heavenly kingdom brought to and predominating over the substances and inertias of the human world. Inevitably His physical being was slain, His followers martyred, His purpose resisted, His divine commission denied, for in that implacable rage of the spiritually dead has the life of the spirit ever been rekindled and released.
His Declaration brought all the calendars to an end. A new cycle began; and therefore to the Bahá’ís of East and West the date of May 23, 1844 possesses infinite significance, for it is the first date and event affecting the entire world and all mankind as one unit and one whole. Now in this year of 1944 the Bahá’ís reverently celebrate this Anniversary, this Festival of the inauguration of the oneness of humanity, the year 100 to those who have become conscious of the spiritual miracle which God wrought a century ago. There is one reverence, one gratitude, one adoration and one sacrifice filling with the same spirit every community of Bahá’ís now existing in sixty or more countries. Though they are outwardly and physically separated by wars, revolutions, differences of language and all the divisive forces of the historic past, the Bahá’ís exemplify the conscious and passionate inwardness of union transcending race, class, nation and creed.
This spiritual oneness is the true celebration of the Centenary, for it is the direct and unique result of the inspiration which the Ba'|b's message breathed into our modern world. Nothing else can claim to have been the source and cause of the recognition of the oneness of God which has been the pivot around which all things revolve in this age. But the Bahá’ís of all lands have each their particular contribution to make to the public observance of the supreme event. Each community has had its particular history to unfold and its special achievements to record.
The Bahá’ís of North America have compiled this work in order to afford to others
some glimpse of how one continent responded to the call of God. It is a Memorial which
all have combined to build during fifty years of continuous Bahá’í activity: those who
sacrificed for the construction of the noble House of Worship in the very heart of the[Page x]
country; those who traveled overseas to carry the Message to other lands; those who
entered into the founding of the Bahá’í communities in hundreds of cities, towns and
villages here at home; those who assisted in the development of the administrative order;
those who taught, lectured, wrote and in their lives reflected the light of faith; those
who upraised the schools and other institutions which have become such powerful organs
of service—men and women representing whites and colored, Christian and Jew, artisan
and scientist, artist and business man, nucleus of the pattern traced by love and truth
upon the luminous surfaces of human hearts.
These are they who have found the path and entered the portals of security and peace. What they have accomplished seems infinitely little in comparison to the surging ocean of spiritual power vouchsafcd to all who accept His message today; but they have been as those settlers in new lands who have broken the soil, raised their homes and fabricated tools and utensils as first step toward a higher order of human relations whose proof for generations is a faith and a hope and not a visible civilization. What the blessed century has accomplished has been the laying of a firm foundation. Others will come with greater power, skill and resources to construct the temple of unity and peace in which the spirit of men will dwell.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís.
of the United States and Canada
536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, Illinois. January 11, 1944
