The latest evidences of the magnificent success that has marked the
activities of the members of the American Bahá'í community have been
such as to excite the brightest hopes for the victorious consummation of the
collective undertaking they have so courageously launched and have so
vigorously prosecuted in recent years. As the first Bahá'í Century approaches
its end, the magnitude and quality of their achievements acquire added
significance and shed increasing luster on its annals. The proceedings of the
recently held annual Convention; the formation of twenty-eight Assemblies
in the course of the year that has just elapsed; the splendid progress achieved
in the Latin-American field of Bahá'í activity; the superb spirit evinced
by the pioneers holding their lonely posts in widely scattered areas throughout
the Americas; the exemplary attitude shown by the entire body of the
faithful towards the machinations of those who have so sedulously
striven to disrupt the Faith and pervert its purpose--these have, to a marked
degree, intensified the admiration of the Bahá'í communities for those who
are contributing so outstanding a share to the enlargement of the limits,
and the enhancement of the prestige, of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. The
preparations which the American believers are undertaking for the celebration
of the Centenary of the Faith must be such as to crown with immortal
glory the fifty-year long record of their stewardship in the service of that
Faith. Such a celebration must, in its scope and magnificence, fully
compensate for the disabilities which hinder so many Bahá'í communities in
Europe and elsewhere, and even in Bahá'u'lláh's native land, from paying a
befitting tribute to their beloved Faith at so glorious an hour in its
history. The few remaining months of this century must witness a concentration
of effort, a
scale of achievement, a spirit of heroism that will outshine even the most
daring exploits that have already immortalized the Seven Year Plan and
covered with glory its valiant prosecutors. The plea I addressed to them, at
this late hour, will, I am sure, meet with a response no less remarkable than
their past reactions to the appeals I have felt impelled to make to them ever
since the inception of the Plan. He Who, at every stage of their collective
enterprise, has so abundantly blessed them, will, no doubt, continue to
vouchsafe the blessings until the seal of unqualified victory is set upon their
epoch-making task.
August 8, 1943