The Unfolding Destiny of the British Bahá'í Community : the Messages from the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith to the Bahá'ís of the British IslesShoghi, Effendi
Religion
The Unfolding Destiny of the British Bahá'í Community : the Messages from the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith to the Bahá'ís of the British Isles
Shoghi, Effendi
Bahai Faith -- Great Britain -- History -- Sources; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
Great and overpowering as these sacrifices may now appear, they will, when
viewed in their proper perspective, be adjudged as inconsiderable, and
pale into insignificance when balanced against the inestimable advantages
which must accrue to a community that has achieved total and complete
victory for a Plan so epoch-making in character, and so charged with
undreamt of potentialities. The sacrifices which this fateful hour calls
for, are by their very nature, individual; the loss or inconvenience they
entail are at most transitory in their effect, and might well be fully
compensated for in the days ahead, whereas the blessings that must
irresistibly flow out, as the result of the integral success of a
nation-wide, historically unprecedented Plan, will enrich and ennoble the
life of an entire community, exert an abiding influence on its fortunes,
and empower it to launch still mightier crusades in the course of
subsequent stages in its organic spiritual development. How bountiful,
moreover, will be the rewards which He who watches from on high the
varying fortunes of the Plan and presides over its destinies, must either
in this world or in the next—and it may well be in both—choose to confer
upon those, who, at the hour of the Plan’s greatest need, will fly to its
succour, exhibit the rarest evidences of courage and heroism, and choose
to subordinate their personal interests to the immediate needs and future
glory of the community to which they belong.
The interval during which a decision so momentous, so rich in promise,
must be taken is steadily and inexorably shrinking. The golden opportunity
which such a decision offers will never again recur. The issues hinging on
such a decision can neither be over-estimated nor visualised while the
fate of the First Plan embarked upon by the British Bahá’í community still
hangs in the balance. The invisible hosts of the Kingdom are ready and
eager to rush forth to the assistance of such as will have the courage to
weigh the issues involved and to take the decision commensurate with these
issues. To such as take it, while there is yet time, the present
generation as well as those who will succeed it will be eternally
grateful, for theirs will have been the privilege of sealing on the one
hand, the fate of the First Historic Plan in British Bahá’í annals, and on
the other of paving the way for the initiation of the successive
enterprises that must follow in its wake.
To reach such a decision, to face willingly and cheerfully its
consequences, will, above all, earn the good-pleasure and commendation of
the One Who, well nigh a hundred years ago, so gloriously made the supreme
sacrifice of laying down His life that the Cause for which the present
prosecutors of the Plan have so wholly dedicated themselves might live,
prosper and bear, in the fullness of time, its fairest fruit in both the
East and the West.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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