Citadel Of Faith Part 6

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

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

[May 18, 1948]

URGE SPECIAL ATTENTION TO GOALS

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

[June 23, 1948]

PRAYING FOR ADDED FERVOR

Greatly welcome initiated plans for schools, delighted at progress of Temple work, acceptance of resolutions by UNO Conference, election of Ioas. Urge unrelaxing vigilance in maintenance of status and consolidation of a.s.semblies in North America, to insure steady expansion of manifold activities in Latin America and Europe. Praying for added fervor, speedy realization of high objectives of G.o.d-given mission of much-admired American Baha'i Community.

[August 9, 1948]

COMPLETED TASKS RELEASE OUTPOURING OF GRACE

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

[September 14, 1948]

APPEAL TO ENTIRE COMMUNITY TO PERSEVERE

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

[October 21, 1948]

SCALE n.o.bLER HEIGHTS OF HEROISM

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

The record of the Baha'i community since inception of the Formative Age conclusively demonstrates that accomplishment of signal acts accompanied, or followed upon, periods of acute distress in European and American contemporary history. The machinery of the Administrative Order was established, and preliminary stage of construction of the House of Worship was undertaken, by a grief-stricken community in the anxious years following the sudden removal of its loving, watchful Founder. The superstructure of the Temple was erected amid the strain and stress of an economic depression of an unprecedented severity gripping the North American continent. The first Seven Year Plan, opening stage in the execution of the historic mission entrusted to the American Baha'i Community, was launched in the face of a gathering storm culminating in the direst conflict yet experienced by mankind. The Tablets of the Divine Plan were revealed amidst the turmoil of the first World War involving great danger to the life of their Author. The remains of 'Abdu'l-Baha's mother and brother were transferred to site of monuments const.i.tuting focus of inst.i.tutions of future World Administrative Center and erected on the morrow of the outbreak of hostilities while the Holy Land was increasingly exposed to the perils precipitated by the second conflict.

The daughter communities of Latin America were called into being and exterior ornamentation of the Temple was consummated while the American mother community was in the throes of the last, most hara.s.sing stage of the devastating struggle. The world-wide Centenary celebrations crowning these enterprises were undertaken in such perilous circ.u.mstances and carried out despite the formidable obstacles engendered through prolongation of hostilities. National administrative headquarters were established in ?ihran, Cairo, Ba_gh_dad, Delhi and Sydney, national and international endowments were enriched and a.s.semblies incorporated in countries confronted by growing threat of invasion and encirclement.

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

Precious years are inexorably slipping by. The world outlook is steadily darkening. The American Community's most arduous feats still lie ahead.

Disasters overtaking Europe and America, more afflictive than any tribulations yet suffered in either continent, may yet attend still more majestic revelations in the unfoldment of concluding stage of the Second Seven Year Plan destined to witness successively the raising of the tenth and eleventh pillars of the Universal House of Justice, and the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Mother Temple of the West.

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

[November 3, 1948]

THE CITADEL OF THE FAITH OF BAHa'U'LLaH

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

STAUNCHNESS OF AMERICAN BELIEVERS

Neither the irreparable loss sustained by the termination of the earthly life of a vigilant Master, nor the acute distress caused by the financial collapse which suddenly swept their country, nor the unprecedented tragedy of a world crisis that swept their land and its people into its vortex, nor the perils and uncertainties, the exhaustion and the disillusionment a.s.sociated with its aftermath nor even the soul-shaking tests which periodically a.s.sailed them, through the defection and the attacks of Covenant-breakers, occupying, by virtue of their kinship to, or their long a.s.sociation with, the Founder of their community, exalted positions at the World Center of the Faith, or in the land from which it sprang, or in their own country-none of these have succeeded in vitiating the hidden spring of their spiritual life, in deflecting them from their chosen course, or in even r.e.t.a.r.ding the forward march and fruition of their enterprises. In the toilsome task of fixing the pattern, of laying the foundations, of erecting the machinery, and of setting in operation the Administrative Order of their Faith, in the execution of the successive stages in the erection and exterior ornamentation of their Temple, in the launching of the initial enterprise under 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, which enabled them to establish the structural basis of the Order, recently laid in their homeland, in every republic of Central and South America; in the sustained, the systematic and prodigious effort exerted for the enlargement of the administrative foundations of the inst.i.tutions of their Faith in every state and province of the United States and the Dominion of Canada; in the parallel endeavors aimed at the widespread dissemination of its literature, and the proclamation of its verities and tenets to the ma.s.ses; in the launching of the Second Seven Year Plan, which has extended the ramifications of the Divine Plan across the Atlantic to ten sovereign states of the European continent and which has already yielded a rich return through the formation of the first Canadian Baha'i National a.s.sembly and the convocation of the first European Teaching Conference; in the repeated, the timely, the spontaneous and generous contributions they have made, on numerous occasions, for the relief of the persecuted among their brethren, for the defense of their inst.i.tutions, for the vindication of their rights, for the consolidation of their activities and the progress of their enterprises-in all these the champions of the Faith of Baha'u'llah have, with ever-increasing emphasis, borne witness to the sublimity of the faith which burns within their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, to the radiance of the vision that shines clearly and steadily before their eyes, the sureness and rapidity that mark their gigantic strides, and the vastness and glory of the unique mission entrusted to their hands.

Milestones of historic significance have been successively reached and rapidly left behind. A still stonier stretch of road now lies before them.

Rumblings of catastrophes yet more dreadful agitate with increasing frequency a sorely stressed and chaotic world, presenting a challenge to grapple with the unfinished tasks, a challenge graver and still more pressing than any hitherto experienced.

PRESS FORWARD ON TEMPLE CONTRACTS

The present and remaining contracts, designed to consummate the magnificent enterprise, initiated almost fifty years ago, in the heart of the North American continent and complete an edifice consecrated for all time by the loving hands of the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, const.i.tuting the foremost symbol of the Faith, and incarnating the soul of the American Baha'i Community in the Western Hemisphere, must be speedily and systematically carried out, however onerous the task may become, in consequence of the inevitable fluctuations to which the present economic conditions are subjected, in preparation for the jubilee that must mark the completion of that holy edifice. The recent broadening of the administrative basis of the Faith in a land that has served, and will long remain the base of the spiritual operations now being conducted in both hemispheres, in response to the ringing call of 'Abdu'l-Baha, sounded three decades ago in His historic Tablets, must, no matter how arduous and insistent the tasks to be performed in Latin America and Europe, be fully maintained, and the process continually enlarged and steadily consolidated. The various agencies designed to carry the Message to the ma.s.ses, and to present to them befittingly the teachings of its Author, must, likewise, be vigilantly preserved, supported and encouraged. The essential preliminaries, calculated to widen the basis of the forthcoming Latin American national Baha'i a.s.semblies, to familiarize the Latin American believers with the administrative duties and functions they will be called upon to discharge and to enrich and deepen their knowledge of the essentials of their Faith, its ideals, its history, its requirements and its problems, must be carried out with ever-increasing energy as the hour of the emergence of these Latin American communities into independent existence steadily and inexorably approaches. The necessary guidance, which can alone be properly insured through the maintenance of an uninterrupted extension of administrative a.s.sistance, through the settlement of pioneers and the visits of itinerant teachers to the daughter communities, must under no circ.u.mstances be completely withdrawn, after their independence has been achieved. Above all, the momentous enterprise initiated in the transatlantic field of service, so vast in conception, so timely, so arduous, so far-reaching in its potentialities, so infinitely meritorious, must in the face of obstacles, however insurmountable they may seem, be continually reinvigorated through undiminished financial support, through an ever-expanding supply of literature in each of the required languages, through frequent, and whenever possible prolonged, visits of itinerant teachers, through the continued settlement of pioneers, through the consolidation of the a.s.semblies already established, through the early const.i.tution of properly functioning a.s.semblies in the few remaining goal countries as yet deprived of this inestimable blessing, and last but not least through the exertion of sustained and concentrated efforts designed to supplement these foci of Baha'i national administrative activity with subsidiary centers whose formation will herald the inauguration of teaching enterprises throughout the provinces of each of these ten countries.