Messages to America: Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'í's of North America 1932–1946Shoghi, Effendi
Religion
Messages to America: Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'í's of North America 1932–1946
Shoghi, Effendi
Bahai Faith -- North America; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
Dearly-beloved friends! It is not for us, at this crucial hour, to delve
into the future, to speculate on the possibilities of the Plan and its
orientation, to conjecture on its impact on the unfoldment of an embryonic
World Order, or to dwell on the glories and triumphs which it may hold in
store, or to seek to delineate the mysterious course which a God given
Mission, impelled by forces beyond our power to predict or appraise, may
pursue. To try to obtain a clear view of the shape of things to come would
be premature inasmuch as the glittering prizes to be won are directly
dependent on the measure of success which the combined efforts that are
now being exerted must yield. Ours is the duty to fix our gaze with
undeviating attention on the duties and responsibilities confronting us at
this present hour, to concentrate our resources, both material and
spiritual, on the tasks that lie immediately ahead, to insure that no time
is wasted, that no opportunity is missed, that no obligation is evaded,
that no task is half-heartedly performed, that no decision is
procrastinated. The task summoning us to a challenge, unprecedented in its
gravity and force, is too vast and sacred, the time too short, the hour
too perilous, the workers too few, the call too insistent, the resources
too inadequate, for us to allow these precious and fleeting hours to slip
from our grasp, and to suffer the prizes within our reach to be endangered
or forfeited. So much depends upon us, so pregnant with possibilities is
the present stage in the evolution of the Plan, that great and small,
individuals, groups and Assemblies, white and colored, young and old,
neophytes and veterans, settlers, pioneers, itinerant teachers and
administrators, as isolated believers, as organizers of groups, and as
contributors to the formation of local or national Assemblies, as builders
of the Temple, as laborers on the home teaching front, or in Latin
America, or in the new transatlantic field of service—all, without
exception and in every sphere of activity, however modest, restricted, or
inconspicuous, must participate and labor, assiduously and continually,
until every ounce of our energy is spent, until, tired but blissful, our
promised harvest is brought in, and our pledge to our Beloved fully
redeemed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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