Citadel Of Faith Part 15

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

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

AN APPEAL TO ALL ENGAGED IN THE CRUSADE

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

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

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

On the members of the American Baha'i Community, the envied custodians of a Divine Plan, the princ.i.p.al builders and defenders of a mighty Order and the recognized champions of an unspeakably glorious and precious Faith, a peculiar and inescapable responsibility must necessarily rest. Through their courage, their self-abnegation, their fort.i.tude and their perseverance; through the range and quality of their achievements, the depth of their consecration, their initiative and resourcefulness, their organizing ability, their readiness and capacity to lend their a.s.sistance to less privileged sister communities struggling against heavy odds; through their generous and sustained response to the enormous and ever-increasing financial needs of a world-encompa.s.sing, decade-long and admittedly strenuous enterprise, they must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, vindicate their right to the leaders.h.i.+p of this World Crusade.

Now is the time for the hope voiced by 'Abdu'l-Baha that from their homeland "heavenly illumination" may "stream to all the peoples of the world" to be realized. Now is the time for the truth of His remarkable a.s.sertion that that same homeland is "equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world and be blest in both the East and the West," to be strikingly and unmistakably demonstrated. "Should success crown" their "enterprise," He, moreover, has a.s.sured them, "the throne of the Kingdom of G.o.d will, in the plenitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly established."

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

[July 18, 1953]

SAFEGUARDING AMERICAN PRIMACY

Overjoyed by remarkable achievements of American Baha'i Community, safeguarding primacy, enhancing prestige, setting magnificent example to sister communities East and West. a.s.sure three a.s.sembly members, also Lofoten valiant pioneer of abiding appreciation, fervent loving prayers.

[September 5, 1953]

TEMPLE SITE PURCHASED IN PANAMA

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

[Circa May 1954]

a.s.sEMBLIES MUST BE MAINTAINED

Information incorrect. Maintenance of all a.s.semblies vital.

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

AMERICAN BAHa'iS IN THE TIME OF WORLD PERIL

The American Baha'i Community, in this, the opening year of the second phase of the World Spiritual Crusade upon which it has embarked, finds itself standing on the threshold of the seventh decade of its existence.

It leaves behind it, as it enters the second decade of the second Baha'i century, sixty years crowded with events and marked by exploits so stirring and momentous that they stand unsurpa.s.sed in the annals of any other national Baha'i community with the sole exception of its venerable sister community in Baha'u'llah's native land.

CHIEF EXECUTOR OF DIVINE PLAN

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

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

AMERICA Pa.s.sING THROUGH CRISIS

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

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

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

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

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

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