Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand Part 7

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-workers:

The visit of our dear and cherished sister and exemplary co-worker, Martha, to your sh.o.r.es is approaching and I feel confident that her collaboration with you will lend an unprecedented impetus to the advancement of the Faith. Laden with laurels, animated by an unquenchable spirit, armed with a faith that none can surpa.s.s, she will, I feel sure, contribute magnificently to the magnificent work her co-workers in Australia and New Zealand have so valiantly achieved and are so energetically and methodically extending. My prayers for you and for her will continue to be offered with a heart filled with pride, joy and grat.i.tude.

Your true brother, Shoghi.

LETTER OF FEBRUARY 15TH, 1939

February 15th, 1939.

Dear Miss Brooks:

Your letter of January 17th, enclosing one addressed to the Guardian by the Sydney Spiritual a.s.sembly, have both duly arrived, and their contents read by him with deepest satisfaction and with feelings of unbounded grat.i.tude.

He is writing the Sydney a.s.sembly separately, a.s.suring them that Miss Davis who is on a world tour, would be most welcome to visit the Holy Shrines in Haifa and Bahji, but he himself is exceedingly sorry not to be able to meet her, as he is at present away from the Holy Land, and may not be back to Haifa before some time. He hopes, nevertheless, Miss Davis will benefit from her close contact with the Sacred Places of the Faith, and will gain such experiences as will stimulate still further her interest in the Cause, and lead her gradually to fully and unreservedly embrace its truth.

Regarding the extensive preparations made by the N.S.A. in connection with the teaching travels of our indefatigable and highly-esteemed Baha'i sister Miss Martha Root throughout Australia and New-Zealand; the Guardian feels truly delighted and profoundly grateful to your a.s.sembly for the befitting welcome you have extended to her, and for the arrangements you have made for her to broadcast her speeches, and to contact as many individuals and organisations as her time and health permit. You are certainly fully availing yourself of the opportunity of her presence in your midst to further intensify the campaign of teaching throughout Australia, and you can rest a.s.sured that Baha'u'llah will reinforce and bless your endeavours for the accomplishment of so vital and so sacred a task.

The draft for thirty pounds which you had enclosed in your letter, representing the contribution of the believers of Australia and New-Zealand toward the International Fund of the Cause, has been received with grateful appreciation by our beloved Guardian, and he wishes your a.s.sembly to kindly convey to all the friends his deep sense of grat.i.tude, as well as his profound admiration, for the exemplary devotion and loyal attachment to the Cause that has prompted them to make such generous donations.

With renewed and heartfelt thanks for your very kind letter, and reciprocating your greetings,

Yours in His Service, H. Rabbani.

[From the Guardian:]

Dearly-beloved co-workers:

I am so glad and grateful for the plans you have conceived for the reception, and organisation of the work, of Martha during her visit to your sh.o.r.es. The community of the believers in Australia and New Zealand is making remarkable progress in every phase of its activities, and deserves the highest praise in its magnificent and incessant labours. I am proud of the quality of its faith and the range of its achievements. May the Beloved infuse into each one of its members a greater measure of His power and of His spirit that will enable them to seek n.o.bler heights in their historic service to His Cause!

Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi.

LETTER OF MARCH 17TH, 1939

March 17th, 1939.

Dear Miss Brooks,

Your communication of February the 12th addressed to our beloved Guardian, informing him of Martha's safe arrival in Australia, has been received, and he was made truly happy to know how cordially and befittingly she had been welcomed by the friends. The wide acclamation with which you have greeted her upon her arrival, and the kind solicitude and warm affection you have displayed towards her by arranging for dear Dr. Bolton to give her the necessary treatment soon after her landing in Adelaide-such spontaneous expressions of your deep set admiration and love for this valiant and indefatigable star-servant of the Cause must have surely greatly warmed and touched her heart.

Your N.S.A., no less than the local a.s.semblies of Perth and Adelaide, has undoubtedly spared no effort to use her presence as an opportunity for giving the Faith every publicity possible through both the radio and the press. It is to be hoped that before long the results of this campaign of publicity will be made apparent, and a good number of sincere and intelligent inquirers will be led to investigate and seriously study the Teachings, and enrol later on in the Community.

While the Guardian wishes the friends to take full advantage of Martha's presence and invite her to speak and teach as frequently as her energies permit, yet he would advise that they should also take great care lest her health be seriously impaired through overwork, specially as she is already so frail, having extensively travelled and tirelessly laboured for a whole year throughout India. He would further entreat the believers to join him in ardently supplicating Baha'u'llah to continue bestowing upon our well-beloved and distinguished sister all the strength and energy that she requires for the continuation and successful termination of her teaching tour throughout Australia and New-Zealand.

With reference to Mr. and Mrs. Bolton's request for permission to visit Haifa during next October or November, the Guardian wishes you to a.s.sure them that they would be most welcome to undertake this pilgrimage through which, he hopes, they will get refreshed spiritually and filled with renewed vigour and added determination to labour for the further promotion of the Faith upon their return home.

With the season's best greetings to you and all the friends,

Yours ever in His Service, H. Rabbani.

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-worker:

How deeply I appreciate what you and your dear collaborators are achieving for the success of Martha's work amidst you. My heart brims over with grat.i.tude for the manner in which you approach your task, discharge your duties and extend the range of your local and national activities. With your deeds you are demonstrating in that far-off continent what the power of the Greatest Name can achieve when it operates through channels that are pure, and receptive to its outpouring grace. My prayers are being continually offered for you all. Rest a.s.sured and be happy.

Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi.

LETTER OF JULY 12TH, 1939

July 12th, 1939.

Dear Miss Brooks,

On behalf of our beloved Guardian I acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your deeply-appreciated message written on behalf of our Australian N.S.A., and of various materials, including a.s.sembly reports and photographs of the Yerrinbool Summer-School, mailed under separate cover, all of which reached him safely, and for which kindly convey his heart's deepest grat.i.tude to your a.s.sembly.

He has read with great pleasure the account of Miss Root's last few weeks in Australia, and feels exceedingly gratified and thankful at this renewed evidence of the loving hospitality so spontaneously and generously extended to her by all the friends in each center she visited, and wishes me, in particular, to convey to you and to dear Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne his special thanks for having kindly offered to accompany our precious and well-beloved sister throughout the last stages of her journey to Melbourne and Tasmania. May Baha'u'llah richly reward you with His choicest blessings for all the tender care and affection you lavished upon her all through her teaching itinerary, and may He sustain, strengthen and guide you in your endeavours to further enrich and consolidate the notable teaching results she was able to accomplish in your midst during all these months.

The Guardian was highly encouraged to hear of the news of the confirmation of Miss Lamprill's friend, and earnestly hopes and prays that through the combined, sustained, and loving exertions of these two dear believers the Cause will gradually make a headway in Hobart, and a group of well-confirmed souls will soon be established in that center. Kindly convey to these friends the expression of his warmest good wishes for the extension and success of their labours in service to our beloved Faith, and do urge them whole-heartedly, joyously and confidently persevere in their task of promulgating the message in Hobart.

With regard to Mrs. Routh's request for permission to visit Haifa; much as the Guardian desires her to undertake such longed for visit to the Holy Shrines, he feels that owing to the continued disturbances agitating the Holy Land, and which give no sign of abating, it would be inadvisable for her to come at such a dangerous time. He hopes some day when the situation will have returned to normal in Palestine, she will have an opportunity of undertaking this pilgrimage.

a.s.suring you, and your newly-elected fellow-members in the N.S.A. of his continued prayers and best wishes, and with affectionate greetings to all the friends,

Yours in His Service, H. Rabbani.

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-workers:

The recent evidences of your marvellous activities in the service of our beloved Faith have brought infinite joy to my heart. The inst.i.tutions you are so devotedly and laboriously erecting, multiplying and perfecting, notwithstanding your limited numbers, the scarcity of Baha'i teachers and proper facilities, and despite your limited resources and the varied obstacles in your way, attest the splendid progress you have achieved and augur well for the future of your historic work in His service. The summer-school is but one of those inst.i.tutions which you have established with such a rare spirit of devotion, such magnificent loyalty and such a.s.siduous care. The foundation you have laid is broad, solid and una.s.sailable. The rising generation who will build upon it will extol your virtues, enn.o.ble your task, preserve the record of your acts, and transmit to posterity the great tradition which you are now so happily and n.o.bly establishing. My heart brims over with grat.i.tude for all that you are achieving, and is filled with hopes for all that you will achieve in the near and distant future. Perseverance, fidelity, redoubled effort, will enable you to reap a rich harvest and to attain your shining goal.

Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi.