| >> Back to Shoghi Effend: Uncompiled Letters |
“To Move the World”, Morrison, p236-7
:
Shoghi Effendi wishes me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated September 25th 1932. He deeply sympathises with you in your difficulties and earnestly prays that God will guide you and enable you to take the right step at this cross-road of your life. He is sure that ultimately you will appreciate the wisdom of all this and will not be in the least sorry for what has transpired. What is however essential is that you have faith in the love and guidance of Baha’u’llah and be certain that He will not forsake a person like you who has for so many years spread his Cause so devotedly. It may be a period during which He will test your power of endurance and tenacity of faith, but with His help you shall win and see yourself victorious both spiritually and also in managing your material affairs.
Shoghi Effendi knows that you can render inestimable service both if you go to Persia and also if you join Mrs. Gregory in Europe. . . . but Shoghi Effendi thinks that the place you are needed most is America. The Master asked you to work for the colored and among them and Shoghi Effendi would urge you to do the same. Your own people need you most and you have a duty towards them that you have to fulfil.
Shoghi Effendi wishes you to take a kind of work like the one Mr. [Hyde] Dunn has taken in Australia, that would enable you to travel throughout the U. S. and both win your bread and serve the Cause. The kind of work Miss [Orcella] Rexford has [i.e., paid lecturing] Shoghi Effendi would not advise you for even though there is no harm in it, it may cause misunderstanding. The people may confuse what you say on the subject of the Cause with what you say in your other lectures. Keep also in mind that the Faith cannot spare your services totally. You should take up a work that will give you ample time to teach among the colored.
In his moments of prayer at the Shrine Shoghi Effendi will pray for you and ask God to guide and assist you in this very critical period of your life.
At the bottom of the letter, as was his custom, Shoghi Effendi added a postscript in his own hand:
Dear and precious co-worker:
The spirit which you have demonstrated and which your welcome letter so powerfully reveals is indeed worthy of the praise and admiration of the Supreme Concourse. The place you occupy in my heart and the measure of admiration I cherish for the sublimity of your faith, I cannot describe. ... I wish you to concentrate, within the limits which your changed material position imposes, on the teaching work in America and particularly among the colored inhabitants. My prayers will accompany you, wherever you may be. With a heart filled with love and gratitude,
Your true brother, (Signed) Shoghi
[To Louis Gregory, 20 October 1932]
|
|
