That the supporters of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, throughout the United
States and Canada, are increasingly demonstrating the truth of this solemn
affirmation is evident to even a casual observer of the record of their
manifold services, whether in their individual capacities or through their
concerted endeavors. The manifestations of spontaneous loyalty which
marked their response to the expressed wishes of a departed Master; the
generosity with which they have, on more than one occasion, arisen to lend
a helping hand to the needy and harassed among their brethren in Persia;
the vigor with which they have resisted the shameless attacks which
unrelenting enemies, both from within and without, have, with increasing
frequency, launched against them; the example which the body of their
national representatives have set to their sister Assemblies in fashioning
the instruments essential to the effective discharge of their collective
duties; their successful intervention on behalf of their persecuted
fellow-workers in Russia; the moral support they have extended to their
Egyptian fellow-disciples at a most critical stage in their struggle for
emancipation from the fetters of Islamic orthodoxy; the historic services
rendered by those intrepid pioneers who, faithful to the call of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, forsook their homes to plant, in the uttermost corners of
the globe, the standard of His Faith; and, last but not least, the
magnificence of their self-sacrifice, culminating in the completion of the
super-structure of the Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár—these stand out each as an
eloquent testimony to the indomitable character of the faith Bahá’u’lláh
has kindled in their hearts.
Who, contemplating so splendid a record of service, can doubt that these
faithful stewards of the redeeming grace of God have preserved, undivided
and unimpaired, the priceless heritage entrusted to their charge? Have
they not, one might well reflect, in ways which only future historians
will indicate, approached the high standard that characterized those deeds
of imperishable renown accomplished by those that have gone before them?
Not by the material resources which the members of this infant community
can now summon to their aid; not by the numerical strength of its
present-day supporters; nor by any direct tangible benefits its votaries
can as yet confer upon the multitude of the needy and the disconsolate
among their countrymen, should its potentialities be tested or its worth
determined. Nowhere but in the purity of its precepts, the sublimity of
its standards, the integrity of its laws, the reasonableness of its
claims, the comprehensiveness of its scope, the universality of its
program, the flexibility of its institutions, the lives of its founders,
the heroism of its martyrs, and the transforming power of its influence,
should the unprejudiced observer seek to obtain the true criterion that
can enable him to fathom its mysteries or to estimate its virtue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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