The baha’i world

II  

SURVEY OF CURRENT BAHA’i  

ACTIVITIES IN THE EAST  

AND WEST  

INTERNATIONAL  

Br 

HORACE HOLLEY 

 

THE 

period from April, 1938, to April, 1940, represented in the present volume, brought humanity to that stage in 

the destruction of a long historic cycle when inner incompatibility, prejudice, fear and ambition seize upon the 

instruments of civilization and employ the terms of political and economic policy in order to render to violence its 

supreme expression. The trend became fixed and irrevocable. Failing to yield itself to the divine Will, human will 

became victim to that frenzy which is the more sinister because 

it 

is no longer primitive excitement but the 

crystallization of implacable formulas of collective power. The individual consciousness is not scaled to such vast areas 

of experience. Spiritually little men raise up artificial formulas to serve as substitutes for the essential truths uttered by 

the Prophet as He walks among men.  

The condition was defined by these words in a cablegram from the Guardian of the Cause received in America August 

30, 1939:  

“Shades (of) night, descending (upon) imperilled humanity, inexorably deepening.” Dark, encircling night, witnessing 

the setting of all the illumined heavenly bodies which had brought light to mankind in the past, hopeless of any new 

dawn, the state in which man learns that he must confront his own ignorance and his own evil!  

What more can the civilized man do for himself and for others when the ends, the issues and the plans of existence 

have been seized from his grasp by Caesar and his legions? What more can the loyal follower of a sectarian creed 

accomplish for himself, his church or his neighbors when the ancestral world which the creed might have fitted 

 

is utterly abandoned, an empty house fallen to decay? How long can the stronger, cleverer few hope to fish in troubled 

waters when the hurricane engulfs even the dry land and dashes ships of steel against houses of stone? “(The) long-

predicted world- encircling conflagation, essential pre-requisite (to) world unification, (is) ineitorably moving to its 

appointed climax,” the Guardian cabled a few months later, in 1940.  

Immersed in such a vast movement of destiny, knowing that in this crisis there is no escape by migration, discovery, 

even by conquest and seizure, the Bahâ’i at moments turns back to significant pictures by which human feeling 

attempts to grasp the meaning of times, peoples and civilizations. One of these pictures reveals the image of an 

inhuman god, enthroned by a powerful priesthood high above the people, his belly a smoking fire, his worship the 

sacrifice of children torn from their mothers’ arms. Another uncovers the rising waters of the great flood, inch by inch 

submerging every safety and every stronghold which mankind has built for protection against its foes. One sees, finally, 

the Figure of the Holy One walking on earth, asserting truth and love against every human argument and condition, the 

miracle of history, shepherding the lowly and sincere into His Kingdom, judging and condemning the cruel, the 

truthless, the deniers.  

Never in all recorded time has a destined destruction of civilization been stayed by any of the institutions, secular or 

religious, through which the civilization has developed to the degree of external glory and inner decay. All that has fed 

upon the civilization 

 

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THE BAHA’i WORLD 

 

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:  

— 

 

Descriptive Card for Bahá’i Exhibit Prepared by Directors of Temple of Religion 

 

 

GOLDEN GATE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION 

 

TEMPLE of RELIGION 

 

SAHA’I HOUSE OF WORSHIP 

 

WILMETTE, ILLINOIS 

 

DEDICATED TO THE 

 

UNITY OP RELIGION 

 

AND THE 

 

ONENESS OP MANKIND 

 

LENT ST THE SPIRITOAL AASEMSLY OF THE SAHATA OF SAN FRANOISOO 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CURRENT BAHA’I ACTIVITIES 

 

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and exploited the weakness of its peoples, all that has attained influence and power for its own ends, all that depends directly or 

indirectly upon its injustice, goes down with the collapse of the civilixation as parasites go down with the dying tree. For wars and 

revolutions to come, there must he a succession of awful prior defeats in the world of the soul. There must be ahdications of truth and 

righteousness, there must be prostitutions of public privilege and power, there must be accommodations entered into with despoilers of 

the people. One by one the mighty walls raised by the people of faith must be undermined by creed, ceremony and policy bef ore the 

hosts of the destroyers can enter the city gates. The work of evil goes on unchecked and unnoticed when leaders are busy in disputes 

concerning the priorities of institutional religion. At last the process cnlçninates in necessity to uphold immoral public policy in the 

guise of programs for crisis. At last, having abandoned voluntary effort to remain true to the Faith of God, it becomes imperative for 

the multitudes to perform what their faith had originally condemned. Definitions of necessity are a last vain effort of man to remain 

rational when he has betrayed the true aim and function of reason.  

No concentration of social force nor combination of moribund institutions can restore the youthful vigor and integrity that have been 

lost. The spirit creates the social institutions needed for accomplishing tasks concerned with the development of one historic era. 

When the tool has done its work, and different instruments are needed, the institutions are destroyed by that same spirit, which then is 

engaged in creating new and more effective tools. But faith is the capacity to live positively in and through conditions which to the 

denier seem to be utterly irreconcilable and mutually exclusive. The beginnings and the ends of all things on earth are matters of faith. 

The tenderest love which the Prophet can convey, and the violence of war itself, can to the man of faith be one and the same mystery.  

The outcome of the trend when the power of destruction is manifest discloses the true nature of the prevalent human qualities and 

attitudes. Destruction is never merely the 

 

expression of one evil party in relation to another innocent party, for the outcome rests upon prior indifference and non-action as much 

as upon explosive ambition. The passive unwillingness of a great body of cultured, humane and civilized people in many countries to 

exert themselves sufficiently to establish either justice for their own poor or collective security for all nations, weak or powerful, 

provided the opportunity for the active forces to work. Those who build an anvil may deny having built the hammer, but in action the 

anvil and the hammer are one instrument and one function. That is why, in a time like the present, there can be so much apparent good 

and so much innocence, such wonderful virtues and such heroic suffering. Praiseworthy in relation to ethical standards of the past, 

they nevertheless did not suffice to stay the hand of the great destroyers. The eventual outcome of events is their condemnation.  

But destruction itself is part of that larger order whose dynamic form is growth. The Bahá’is find in their Faith complete assurance 

that this outer darkness will end and the light of spiritual knowledge cover the earth. By the elimination of the social patterns, which 

have become agencies of destruction, and the refutation of the human loyalties which serve to organize and perpetuate prejudice of 

race, creed, class and nation, the creative spirit sent down through Bahá’u’lláh will gradually disclose its own world pattern and 

establish it with the authority of truth and discipline in the hearts of men.  

Thus these passing years have to the Bahá’i revealed as never before the constructive nature of the new Dispensation. In his soul and 

in his religious commtsnity he can perceive reflections of world order and justice the essence of which shines brilliantly from the 

teachings of Bahá’u’lláh above the clouds of war.  

The problem of reconciling his relations to the two worlds of past and future the Bahà’i has been able to solve by applying the 

instruction cabled by the Guardian on September 24, 1938:  

“Loyalty (to the) world order (of) Bahá’u’lláh, (the) security (of) its basic institutions, both imperatively demand (that) 

 

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THE BAHA’I WORLD 

 

all its avowed supporters, particularly its champion builders (on the) American continent, in these days when sinister, uncontrollable 

forces are deepening (the) cleavage sundering peoples, nations, creeds, (and) classes, resolve, despite (the) pressure (of a) fast 

crystallizing public opinion, (to) abstain, individually (and) collectively, in word (and) action, informally as well as in all official 

utterances (and) publications, from assigning blame, (or) taking sides, however indirectly, in (the) recurring political crises now 

agitating (and) ultimately engulfing human society.”  

And, a few months prior to the outbreak of hostilities, to prepare the believers for the future ordeal:  

“Fresh, ominous rumblings demonstrate (the) inevitability (and) foreshadow (the) approach (of the) final eruption involving (the) 

dissolution (of a) lamentably defective international order.”  

The mission of the Bahá’is at this crucial time was emphasized again by the Guardian in his letter addressed to the American National 

Spiritual Assembly on May  

22, 1939:  

“The Edifice of this New World Order, which the Bib has heralded, which the mind of Bahi’u’llih has envisioned, and whose features 

‘Abdu’l-Bahi, its Architect, has delineated, we, whatever our capacities, opportunities or position, are now, at so precarious a period in 

the world history, summoned to found and erect. The community of the Most Great Name in the Western Hemisphere is, through the 

nature of its corporate hfe 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 outstretched 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 gi ganti 

 

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 becosue 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.”  

By such words has the Guardian of a spiritual world community made it evident that capacity for collective action and initiative has 

for a time been centered in North America, whose believers are, until the present trend has been fulfilled, to feel themselves as trustees 

for their fellow-workers in other lands, endeavoring, by the reinforcement of this sacred mission, to serve them and to represent them 

as though the outer association continued to be as close and complete as the association of their spirits.  

BLESSED REMAINS OF PUREST  

BRANCH AND ‘ABDU’L-BAHA’S  

MOTHER TRANSFERRED TO  

MOUNT CARMEL  

In the development of the Bahi’i world community, the source of spiritual power and guidance, as well as the central institutions, is 

established at Mount Carmel, Palestine. There beats the heart of the Faith, there is concentrated its mind and there operates its will. 

Whatever makes for the evolution of its World Center becomes an influence felt throughout the Faith. The period under survey has 

been blessed by a great and mysterious event, the transfer of the remains of the two holy beings, the brother and mother of ‘Abdu’l-

Bahi, to the hallowed precincts of the Shrines on Mount 

 

CURRENT BAHA’I ACTIVITIES 

 

19 

 

Carmel. On Christmas eve, 1939, as the Bahá’is were informed by the Guardian in a cabled message, the beloved remains were laid in 

state in the Bãb’s Tomb, and on the following day a profoundly moving ceremony was carried out in the presence of believers come 

from centers of the Near East, when the remains were reinterred near the resting place of the revered Bahiyyih Khánum, the Greatest 

Holy Leaf.  

Thus was consummated the reuniting at the focal center of Bahá’i institutions, of the earthly remains of the three figures who, in the 

Guardian’s words, “tower 

. . . 

above the entire concourse of the faithful.” “The transfer of the sacred remains,” he further stated, 

“constitute, apart from their historic associations and the tender sentiments they arouse, events of such capital institutional significance 

as only future happenings, steadily and mysteriously unfolding at the world center of our Faith, can adequately demonstrate.”  

Bitter and determined efforts had been made by enemies within the family of Bahâ’u’lláh, those members who had violated the Center 

of Bahá’u’llih’s Covenant, ‘Abdu’lBahá, to prevent the moving of the remains from their original grave. “The circumstances attending 

the consummation of this long, this profoundly cherished hope were no less significant,” the Guardian explained in a detailed letter 

dated December 21, 1939. “The swiftness and suddenness with which so delicate and weighty an undertaking was conducted; the 

surmounting of various obstacles which the outbreak of war and its inevitable repercussions necessarily engendered; the success of the 

long-drawn out negotiations which the solution of certain preliminary problems imposed; the execution of the plan in the face of the 

continued instability and persistent dangers following the fierce riots that so long and so violently rocked the Holy Land and despite 

the smouldering fire of animosity kindled in the breasts of ecclesiastics and Covenant-breakers alike  

—all combined to demonstrate, afresh and with compelling power, the invincible might of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.”  

For the American believers, and no doubt for those in other countries as well, these events served to deepen their understanding 

 

of certain mysteries attending the coming of the Manifestation to earth. These high matters were unfolded in the letter from Shoghi 

Effendi already cited. “For it must be clearly understood, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized, that the conjunction of the restingplace 

of the Greatest Holy Leaf with those of her brother and mother incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies of that consecrated Spot 

which, under the wings of the Báb’s overshadowing Sepulchre, and in the vicinity of the future Mashriqu’lAdhkár, which will be 

reared on its flank, is destined to evolve into the focal center of those world-shaking, world-embracing, world-directing administrative 

institutions, ordained by Bahã’u’llãh and anticipated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and which are to function in consonance with the twin 

institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.” 

. . . 

“the association of these three incomparably precious souls 

. . . 

in 

such a potentially powerful spiritual and administrative Center is in itself an event which will release forces that are bound to hasten 

the emergence in a land which, geographically, spiritually and administratively, constitutes the heart of the entire planet, of  

of the brightest gems of that World Order now shaping in the womb of this travailing age.”  

Concerning the loftiness of the beings whose spiritual capacity can release such forces, we have these excerpts from the writings of 

Bahá’u’lláh. “Happy art thou in that thou hast been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, until thou didst sacrifice 

thyself before the face of thy Lord, the Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged, and to this testifieth the 

Beauty of Him, the Self- Subsisting. Thou didst, in the first days of thy life, bear that which caused all things to groan, and made every 

pillar to tremble. Happy is the one that remembereth thee, and draweth nigh, through thee, unto God, the Creator of the Morn. 

. . . 

I 

have, 0 my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickened and all that dwell on earth be 

united.”  

In such words Bahâ’u’lláh wrote testimony to the Purest Branch, His son, who sacrificed his hfe that the Bahá’is, separated 

 

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THE BAHA’I WORLD 

 

Section of the ornamentation of the Bahá’i Temple in Wilmette, Ill., presented by the American Bahá’is to be placed in 

the gardens surrounding the tomb of the  

Báb on Mt. Carmel. 

 

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CURRENT BAHA’! ACTIVITIES 

 

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from Bahá’u’lláh, might have access to Him in the Prison at ‘Akká.  

Of the mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His own wife, the Most Exalted Leaf, Bahã’u’lláh wrote: “Thou art the one whom God created to 

arise and serve His own Self, and the Manifestation of His Cause, and the Day-Spring of His Revelation, and the Dawning-Place of 

His signs, and the Source of His commandments; and who so aided thee that thou didst turn with thy whole being unto Him, at a time 

when His servants and handmaidens had turned away from His Face....”” 0 Navváb! 0 Leaf rhat harh sprung from My Tree, and been 

My companion! My glory be upon thee, and My loving-kindness, and My mercy that bath surpassed all beings  

‘Abdu’l-Bahá added these words: “As to thy question concerning the 54th chapter of Isaiah. This chapter refers to the Most Exalted 

Leaf, the mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. As a proof of this it is said: ‘For more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the 

married wife.’ Reflect upon this statement, and then upon the following: ‘And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the 

desolate cities to be inhabited.’ And truly the humiliation and reproach which she suffered in the path of God is a fact which no one 

can refute. For the calamities and afflictions mentioned in the whole chapter are such afflictions which she suffered in the path of God, 

all of which she endured with patience and thanked God therefor and praised Him, because He had enabled her to endure afflictions 

for the sake of Bahá.”  

THE PASSING OF  

MUNtRIH KHANUM  

During the annual Convention of 1938, on April 30, the American Bahá’is received this message from the Guardian:  

“Holy Mother, Munirih Khánum, ascended (to) Abhá Kingdom. With sorrowful hearts (the) Bahá’is (the) world over recall divers 

phases (of) her rich, eventful life marked by unique services which by virtue (of) her exalted position she rendered during (the) darkest 

days (of) ‘Abdu’l-Bahã’s life.”  

In reverent honor to this noble spirit, the Bahá’is devoted a session of the Convention to a special gathering in the auditorium of 

 

the Mashriqu’l-Adhkãr, devoted to meditation and prayer. They were conscious that a link with the Apostolic days of their Faith had 

broken, a generation of mighty believers in her had passed away, and that it is now for those serving in the days of the first 

Guardianship to labor in deeper consecration because such souls as this have lived and marked the path of sacrifice, of devotion and of 

fidelity for those who have come after them.  

Munirih Khánum was given burial under the shadow of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf. In 

Memories of My Life, 

published fifteen years ago, the believers have her own exquisite story of her unique experiences.  

PROGRESS OF THE TEACHING PLAN IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA  

Upon the behevers of North America destiny has laid a special task and to them entrusted a special mission during these years of 

international turmoil when religious groups in so many countries are denied freedom of action. This mission has been strongly 

emphasized and precisely defined by the Gttardian of the Faith in successive letters and cablegrams since 1936. Some of those 

references written during the period devoted to THE BAHA’I WORLD, VII are repeated here in order to give more complete 

development to this crucial subject.  

“(The) Dawn-Breakers (in) previous age have on Persian soil signalized by their acts (the) birth (of the) Faith (of) Bahá’u’lláh. Might 

not American believers, their spiritual descendants, prove themselves in turn capable (of) ushering in on world scale the civilization of 

which that Faith is (the) direct source and sole begetter.”——October  

29, 1936.  

“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 thsir 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 

 

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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’i world, but on the immediate fortunes of a travailing 

society.”—November 14, 1936.  

“Dual gift Providentially conferred (upon) American Bahã’i community invests recipients with dual responsibility fulfil historic 

mission. First, prosecute uninterruptedly teaching campaign inaugurated (at) last Convention in accordance (with) Divine Plan. 

Second, resume with inflexible determination exterior ornamentation (of) entire structure (of) Temple. Advise ponder message 

conveyed (to) delegates (through) esteemed co-worker, Fred Schopflocher. No triumph can more befittingly signalize termination (of) 

first century (of) Bahã’I era than accomplishment (of) this twofold task.”—May 1, 1937.  

“Blest and honored as none among its sister communities has been in recent years, preserved through the inscrutable dispensations of 

Divine Providence for a destiny which no mind can yet imagine, such a community cannot for a moment afford to be content with or 

rest on the laurels it has so deservedly won. It must go on, continually go on, exploring fresh fields, scaling nobler heights, laying 

firmer foundations, shedding added splendor and achieving added renown in the service and for the glory of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. 

The seven year plan which it has sponsored and with which its destiny is so closely interwoven, must at all costs be prosecuted wiith 

increasing force and added consecration. All should arise and participate.”—November 

25, 

1937.  

“The outposts of a Faith, already persecuted in both Europe and Asia, are in the American continent steadily advancing, the visible 

symbols of its undoubted sovereignty are receiving fresh luster every day and its manifold institutions are driving their roots deeper 

and deeper into its soil.  

“For no less than six consecutive years this two-fold and stupendous enterprise, which has been set in operation, must, if the American 

believers are to prove themselves worthy of their high calling, be wisely conducted, continually reinforced and energeti call 

 

prosecuted to its very end. Severe and unprecedented as may be the internal tests and ordeals which the members of this Community 

may yet experience, however tragic and momentous the external happenings which might well disrupt the fabric of the society in 

which they live, they must not throughout these six remaining years, allow themselves to be deflected from the course they are now 

steadily pursuing. Nay, rather, as the impelling forces which have set in motion this mighty undertaking acquire added momentum and 

its potentialities are more fully manifested, they who are responsible for its success must as time goes on evince a more burning 

enthusiasm, demonstrate a higher sense of solidarity, reveal greater depths of consecration to their task, and display a more unyielding 

determination to achieve its purpose. Then, and only then, will the pleas, the hopes and wishes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, eternally enshrined in 

the Tablets of the Divine Plan, be worthily acknowledged and fulfilled. 

teLet your exertions, henceforth, increase a 

thousandfold” 

is the earnest appeal voiced by I-Jim in those Tablets. 

cesummon the people,” 

He exhorts them, 

“in these 

countries, capitals, islands, assemblies and churches, to enter the Abhd Kingdom. The scope of your exertions must 

needs be extended. The wider its range the more striking will be the evidences of Divine assistance.” “The moment,” 

He solemnly affirms, 

‘this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the shores of America and 

is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia 

. . . 

this community will find itself 

securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion.  

Then will the whole earth resound with the praises of its majesty and greatness.” 

The Seven Year Plan, to which every 

American believer is fully and irrevocably pledged, during the closing years of the First Century of the Bahã’i Era, is in itself but an 

initial stage in the unfoldment of ‘Abdu’l-Bahã’s vision of America’s spiritual destiny—a destiny which only those who will have 

successfully accomplished this preliminary task can enable the rising generation who will labor after them to fulfil in the course of the 

succeeding century.”—April 14, 1938. 

 

CURRENT BAHA’I ACTIVITIES 

 

23 

 

“The Community of the Most Great Name, the leaven that must leaven the lump, the chosen remnant that must survive the rolling up 

of the old, discredited, tottering order, and assist in the unfoldment of a new one in its stead, is standing ready, alert, clear-visioned, 

and resolute. The American believers, standard-bearers of this world-wide community and torch-bearers of an as yet unborn 

civilization, have girt up their loins, unfurled their banners and stepped into the arena of service. Their Plan has been formulated. Their 

forces are mobilized. They are steadfastly marching towards their goal. The hosts of the Abhá Kingdom are rushing forth, as 

promised, to direct their steps and reinforce their power. Through their initial victories they have provided the impulse that must now 

surge and, with relentless force sweep over their sister-communities and eventually overpower the entire human race. The generality 

of mankind, blind and enslaved, is wholly unaware of the healing power with which this community has been endowed, nor can it as 

yet suspect the role which this same community is destined to play in its redemption.”—July 

5, 

1938.  

“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’i 

Era, of what is but the initial stage in the progressive realization of ‘Abdu’l-]laha’s Plan for the American believers, this enterprise, as 

it extends its ramifications 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 twofold 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.”—

September 10, 1938.  

“Recent swift progress (of) Temple ornamentation prompts me entreat American Community (to) focus immediate attention (and) 

center energies (upon) corresponding acceleration (in the) Teaching enterprise formulated (in) Seven Year Plan. Final phase (in) 

construction (of) Mashriqu’lAdhkár already entered. Initial stage (in the) inaugurated Teaching Campaign still untraversed. End (of) 

First Century rapidly approaching. Alaska, Delaware, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Manitoba (and) Nova 

Scotia still unsettled. Universal, prolonged intensification (in) pioneer activity (is the) crying need (of this) fateful hour. (The) 

establishment (of) one resident believer (in) each virgin territory (is the) precondition (to the) full launching (of the) subsequent, 

eagerly- anticipated stage aiming (at the) spiritual conquest (of the) Southern Half (of the) Western Hemisphere. (The) Concourse on 

high expectantly await, ready (to) assist (and) acclaim (the) nine holy souls who, independently or as deputies, will promptly, 

fearlessly volunteer (to) forsake (their) homes, cast away (their) attachments (and) definitely settle (in) these territories (to) 

 

The recently inaugurated headquarters of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’is of the United States and Canada, adjacent to 

the Bahá’i Temple, ‘Wilmette, Illinois.