I am thrilled with admiration as I contemplate, at this advanced stage
in the unfoldment of the Seven Year Plan, the vastness of the field already
covered by the pioneer activities of its stalwart and valiant prosecutors.
The heights of heroic self-sacrifice to which they have attained, the depths
of faith and devotion they have plumbed in the course of their ceaseless
exertions are no less noteworthy than the immensity of the task they have
already performed. An effort so prodigious, a mission so sublime, a solidarity
so truly remarkable, an achievement, which in its scope and quality, stands
unparalleled in American Bahá'í history, provide a befitting climax to the
century old record of magnificent accomplishments associated with the rise
and progress of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. Such a glorious century, so unique
in the annals of mankind's spiritual history, is, however, not yet completed.
The gigantic enterprises which the American believers are pledged to consummate
are as yet but partially concluded. The remaining two years must
witness an intensification of Bahá'í activity, throughout the entire Western
Hemisphere on such a scale as to eclipse the splendor of all past achievements,
and worthily crown this initial phase in the progressive evolution of
the Divine Plan. An unprecedented multiplication in the number of pioneer
teachers and settlers; an unexampled flow of material resources for their
maintenance and the extension of their labors; a still wider dissemination
of Bahá'í literature, to aid and support them in their presentation of the
Faith to Latin American peoples; an immediate increase in the number of
groups and Assemblies in the States and Provinces of North America; an
increased awareness on the part of all believers, whether in the North or in
the South, whether newly enrolled or of old standing in the Faith, that
every one of them shares, vitally and directly and without any exception,
in the responsibility for the successful prosecution of the Plan; a still
firmer resolution not to allow a world-convulsing conflict, with its attendant
miseries, perils, dislocations, and anxieties, to deflect them from their
course or distract their attention; these are the crying needs of this
critical, this challenging, this swiftly passing hour; to exploit its
possibilities, to meet
its challenge, to grasp its implications, is the manifest, the inescapable and
urgent duty of every member of the Bahá'í communities now laboring so
assiduously in the Western Hemisphere. May the cumulative effect of
their concentrated and sustained labors shed further lustre on the concluding
years of this, the first century of the Bahá'í Era.
August 15, 1942