April 21. On this date in 1933, Shoghi Effendi wrote "America and the Most Great Peace", a 23-page letter later included in The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.
In the letter, he begins by noting the various of attacks on the Bahá’í Faith. He then draws a parallel with the early histories of Christianity and Islam in describing the gravitation of Bahá’í activity "away from its cradle, to the shores of the American continent" and mentioning that the Tablets of the Divine Plan were addressed specifically to North American believers. He then refers to Covenant-breakers, "Thriving for a time through the devices which their scheming minds had conceived and supported by the ephemeral advantages which fame, ability or fortune can confer these notorious exponents of corruption and heresy have succeeded in protruding for a time their ugly features only to sink, as rapidly as they had risen, into the mire of an ignominious end." In the remainder of the letter Shoghi Effendi obsequiously adulates the American Bahá’í community.
Forty
years will have elapsed ere the close of this coming summer since the
name of Bahá’u’lláh was first mentioned on the American continent.
Strange indeed must appear to every observer, pondering in his heart the
significance of so great a landmark in the spiritual history of the
great American Republic, the circumstances which have attended this
first public reference to the Author of our beloved Faith. Stranger
still must seem the associations which the brief words uttered on that
historic occasion must have evoked in the minds of those who heard them.
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Of
pomp and circumstance, of any manifestations of public rejoicing or of
popular applause, there were none to greet this first intimation 1
to America’s citizens of the existence and purpose of the Revelation
proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Nor did he who was its chosen instrument
profess himself a believer in the indwelling potency of the tidings he
conveyed, or suspect the magnitude of the forces which so cursory a
mention was destined to release.
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Announced
through the mouth of an avowed supporter of that narrow ecclesiasticism
which the Faith itself has challenged and seeks to extirpate,
characterized at the moment of its birth as an obscure offshoot of a
contemptible creed, the Message of the Most Great Name, fed by streams
of unceasing trial and warmed by the sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s tender
care, has succeeded in driving its roots deep into America’s genial
soil, has in less than half a century sent out its shoots and tendrils
as far as the remotest corners of the globe, and now stands, clothed in
the majesty of the consecrated Edifice it has reared in the heart of
that continent, determined to proclaim its right and vindicate its
capacity to redeem a stricken people. Unsupported by any of the
advantages which talent, rank and riches can confer, the community of
the American believers, despite its tender age, its numerical strength,
its limited experience, has by virtue of the inspired wisdom, the united
will, the incorruptible loyalty of its administrators and teachers
achieved the distinction of an undisputed leadership among its sister
communities of East and West in hastening the advent of the Golden Age
anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh.
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And
yet how grave the crises which this infant, this blessed, community has
weathered in the course of its checkered history! How slow and painful
the process that gradually brought it forth from the obscurity of
unmitigated neglect to the broad daylight of public recognition! How
severe the shocks which the ranks of its devoted adherents have
sustained through the defection of the faint in heart, the malice of the
mischief-maker, the treachery of the proud and the ambitious! What
storms of ridicule, of abuse and of calumny its representatives have had
to face in their staunch support of the integrity, and their valiant
defense of the fair name, of the Faith they had espoused! How persistent
the vicissitudes and disconcerting the reverses with which its
privileged members, young and old alike, individually and collectively,
have had to contend in their heroic endeavors to scale the heights which
a loving Master had summoned them to attain!
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Many
and powerful have been its enemies who, as soon as they discovered the
evidences of the growing ascendancy of its declared supporters, have
vied with one another in hurling at its face the vilest imputations and
in pouring out upon the Object of its devotion the vials of their
fiercest wrath. How often have these sneered at the scantiness of its
resources and the seeming stagnation of its life! How bitterly they
ridiculed its origins and, misconceiving its purpose, dismissed it as a
useless appendage of an expiring creed! Have they not in their written
attacks stigmatized the heroic person of the Forerunner of so holy a
Revelation as a coward recanter, a perverted apostate, and denounced the
entire range of His voluminous writings as the idle chatter of a
thoughtless man? Have they not chosen to ascribe to its divine Founder
the basest motives which an unscrupulous plotter and usurper can
conceive, and regarded the Center of His Covenant as the embodiment of
ruthless tyranny, a stirrer of mischief, and a notorious exponent of
expediency and fraud? Its world-unifying principles these impotent
enemies of a steadily-rising Faith have time and again denounced as
fundamentally defective, have pronounced its all-embracing program as
utterly fantastic, and regarded its vision of the future as chimerical
and positively deceitful. The fundamental verities that constitute its
doctrine its foolish ill-wishers have represented as a cloak of idle
dogma, its administrative machinery they have refused to differentiate
from the soul of the Faith itself, and the mysteries it reveres and
upholds they have identified with sheer superstition. The principle of
unification which it advocates and with which it stands identified they
have misconceived as a shallow attempt at uniformity, its repeated
assertions of the reality of supernatural agencies they have condemned
as a vain belief in magic, and the glory of its idealism they have
rejected as mere utopia. Every process of purification whereby an
inscrutable Wisdom chose from time to time to purge the body of His
chosen followers of the defilement of the undesirable and the unworthy,
these victims of an unrelenting jealousy have hailed as a symptom of the
invading forces of schism which were soon to sap its strength, vitiate
its vitality, and complete its ruin.
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Dearly-beloved
friends! It is not for me, nor does it seem within the competence of
any one of the present generation, to trace the exact and full history
of the rise and gradual consolidation of this invincible arm, this
mighty organ, of a continually advancing Cause. It would be premature at
this early stage of its evolution, to attempt an exhaustive analysis,
or to arrive at a just estimate, of the impelling forces that have urged
it forward to occupy so exalted a place among the various instruments
which the Hand of Omnipotence has fashioned, and is now perfecting, for
the execution of His divine Purpose. Future historians of this mighty
Revelation, endowed with pens abler than any which its present-day
supporters can claim to possess, will no doubt transmit to posterity a
masterly exposition of the origins of those forces which, through a
remarkable swing of the pendulum, have caused the administrative center
of the Faith to gravitate, away from its cradle, to the shores of the
American continent and towards its very heart—the present mainspring and
chief bulwark of its fast evolving institutions. On them will devolve
the task of recording the history, and of estimating the significance,
of so radical a revolution in the fortunes of a slowly maturing Faith.
Theirs will be the opportunity to extol the virtues and to immortalize
the memory of those men and women who have participated in its
accomplishment. Theirs will be the privilege of evaluating the share
which each of these champion-builders of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh
has had in ushering in that golden Millennium, the promise of which lies
enshrined in His teachings.
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Does
not the history of primitive Christianity and of the rise of Islám,
each in its own way, offer a striking parallel to this strange
phenomenon the beginnings of which we are now witnessing in this, the
first century of the Bahá’í Era? Has not the Divine Impulse which gave
birth to each of these great religious systems been driven, through the
operation of those forces which the irresistible growth of the Faith
itself had released, to seek away from the land of its birth and in more
propitious climes a ready field and a more adequate medium for the
incarnation of its spirit and the propagation of its cause? Have not the
Asiatic churches of Jerusalem, of Antioch and of Alexandria, consisting
chiefly of those Jewish converts, whose character and temperament
inclined them to sympathize with the traditional ceremonies of the
Mosaic Dispensation, been forced as they steadily declined to recognize
the growing ascendancy of their Greek and Roman brethren? Have they not
been compelled to acknowledge the superior valor and the trained
efficiency which have enabled these standard-bearers of the Cause of
Jesus Christ to erect the symbols of His world-wide dominion on the
ruins of a collapsing Empire? Has not the animating spirit of Islám been
constrained, under the pressure of similar circumstances, to abandon
the inhospitable wastes of its Arabian Home, the theatre of its greatest
sufferings and exploits, to yield in a distant land the fairest fruit
of its slowly maturing civilization?
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“From
the beginning of time until the present day,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself
affirms, “the light of Divine Revelation hath risen in the East and shed
its radiance upon the West. The illumination thus shed hath, however,
acquired in the West an extraordinary brilliancy. Consider the Faith
proclaimed by Jesus. Though it first appeared in the East, yet not until
its light had been shed upon the West did the full measure of its
potentialities become manifest.” “The day is approaching,” He, in
another passage, assures us, “when ye shall witness how, through the
splendor of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, the West will have replaced the
East, radiating the light of Divine Guidance.” “In the books of the
Prophets,” He again asserts, “certain glad-tidings are recorded which
are absolutely true and free from doubt. The East hath ever been the
dawning-place of the Sun of Truth. In the East all the Prophets of God
have appeared …The West hath acquired illumination from the East but in
some respects the reflection of the light hath been greater in the
Occident. This is specially true of Christianity. Jesus Christ appeared
in Palestine and His teachings were founded in that country. Although
the doors of the Kingdom were first opened in that land and the
bestowals of God were spread broadcast from its center, the people of
the West have embraced and promulgated Christianity more fully than the
people of the East.”
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Little
wonder that from the same unerring pen there should have flowed, after
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s memorable visit to the West, these often-quoted words,
the significance of which it would be impossible for me to overrate:
“The continent of America,” He announced in a Tablet unveiling His
Divine Plan to the believers residing in the North-Eastern States of the
American Republic, “is in the eyes of the one true God the land wherein
the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries of
His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide and the free
assemble.” “May this American democracy,” He Himself, while in America,
was heard to remark, “be the first nation to establish the foundation
of international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the
unity of mankind. May it be the first to unfurl the standard of the
‘Most Great Peace’… The American people are indeed worthy of being the
first to build the tabernacle of the great peace and proclaim the
oneness of mankind… May America become the distributing center of
spiritual enlightenment and all the world receive this heavenly
blessing. For America has developed powers and capacities greater and
more wonderful than other nations… May the inhabitants of this country
become like angels of heaven with faces turned continually toward God.
May all of them become servants of the omnipotent One. May they rise
from their present material attainments to such a height that heavenly
illumination may stream from this center to all the peoples of the
world… This American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that
which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world
and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its
people… The American continent gives signs and evidences of very great
advancement. Its future is even more promising, for its influence and
illumination are far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually.”
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Would
it seem extravagant, in the light of so sublime an utterance, to expect
that in the midst of so enviable a region of the earth and out of the
agony and wreckage of an unprecedented crisis there should burst forth a
spiritual renaissance which, as it propagates itself through the
instrumentality of the American believers, will rehabilitate the
fortunes of a decadent age? It was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, His most
intimate associates testify, Who, on more than one occasion, intimated
that the establishment of His Father’s Faith in the North American
continent ranked as the most outstanding among the threefold aims which,
as He conceived it, constituted the principal objective of His
ministry. It was He Who, in the heyday of His life and almost
immediately after His Father’s ascension, conceived the idea of
inaugurating His mission by enlisting the inhabitants of so promising a
country under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh. He it was Who in His unerring
wisdom and out of the abundance of His heart chose to bestow on His
favored disciples, to the very last day of His life, the tokens of His
unfailing solicitude and to overwhelm them with the marks of His special
favor. It was He Who, in His declining years, as soon as delivered from
the shackles of a long and cruel incarceration, decided to visit the
land which had remained for so many years the object of His infinite
care and love. It was He Who, through the power of His presence and the
charm of His utterance, infused into the entire body of His followers
those sentiments and principles which could alone sustain them amidst
the trials which the very prosecution of their task would inevitably
engender. Was He not, through the several functions which He exercised
whilst He dwelt amongst them, whether in the laying of the corner-stone
of their House of Worship, or in the Feast which He offered them and at
which He chose to serve them in person, or in the emphasis which He on a
more solemn occasion placed on the implications of His spiritual
station—was He not, thereby, deliberately bequeathing to them all the
essentials of that spiritual heritage which He knew they would ably
safeguard and by their deeds continually enrich? And finally who can
doubt that in the Divine Plan which, in the evening of His life, He
unveiled to their eyes He was investing them with that spiritual primacy
on which they could rely in the fulfillment of their high destiny?
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“O
ye apostles of Bahá’u’lláh!” He thus addresses them in one of His
Tablets, “May my life be sacrificed for you!… Behold the portals which
Bahá’u’lláh hath opened before you! Consider how exalted and lofty is
the station you are destined to attain; how unique the favors with which
you have been endowed.” “My thoughts,” He tells them in another
passage, “are turned towards you, and my heart leaps within me at your
mention. Could ye know how my soul glows with your love, so great a
happiness would flood your hearts as to cause you to become enamored
with each other.” “The full measure of your success,” He declares in
another Tablet, “is as yet unrevealed, its significance still
unapprehended. Ere long ye will, with your own eyes, witness how
brilliantly every one of you, even as a shining star, will radiate in
the firmament of your country the light of Divine Guidance and will
bestow upon its people the glory of an everlasting life.” “The range of
your future achievements,” He once more affirms, “still remains
undisclosed. I fervently hope that in the near future the whole earth
may be stirred and shaken by the results of your achievements.” “The
Almighty,” He assures them, “will no doubt grant you the help of His
grace, will invest you with the tokens of His might, and will endue your
souls with the sustaining power of His holy Spirit.” “Be not
concerned,” He admonishes them, “with the smallness of your numbers,
neither be oppressed by the multitude of an unbelieving world… Exert
yourselves; your mission is unspeakably glorious. Should success crown
your enterprise, America will assuredly evolve into a center from which
waves of spiritual power will emanate, and the throne of the Kingdom of
God will, in the plentitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly
established.”
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“The
hope which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá cherishes for you,” He thus urges them, “is
that the same success which has attended your efforts in America may
crown your endeavors in other parts of the world, that through you the
fame of the Cause of God may be diffused throughout the East and the
West and the advent of the Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts be proclaimed in
all the five continents of the globe… Thus far ye have been untiring in
your labors. Let your exertions, henceforth, increase a thousandfold.
Summon the people in these countries, capitals, islands, assemblies and
churches to enter the Abhá Kingdom. The scope of your exertions must
needs be extended. The wider its range, the more striking will be the
evidences of Divine assistance… Oh! that I could travel, even though on
foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions and, raising the call
of Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans,
promote the Divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do! How intensely I
deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it.” And finally, as if to crown
all His previous utterances, is this solemn affirmation embodying His
Vision of America’s spiritual destiny: “The moment this Divine Message
is carried forward by the American believers from the shores of America
and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa
and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this
community will find itself securely established upon the throne of an
everlasting dominion. Then will all the peoples of the world witness
that this community is spiritually illumined and divinely guided. Then
will the whole earth resound with the praises of its majesty and
greatness.”
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It
is in the light of these above-quoted words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that every
thoughtful and conscientious believer should ponder the significance of
this momentous utterance of Bahá’u’lláh: “In the East the light of His
Revelation hath broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His
dominion. Ponder this in your hearts, O people, and be not of those who
have turned a deaf ear to the admonitions of Him Who is the Almighty,
the All-Praised… Should they attempt to conceal its light on the
continent, it will assuredly rear its head in the midmost heart of the
ocean, and, raising its voice, proclaim: ‘I am the life-giver of the
world!’”
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Dearly-beloved
friends! Can our eyes be so dim as to fail to recognize in the anguish
and turmoil which, greater than in any other country and in a manner
unprecedented in its history, are now afflicting the American nation,
evidences of the beginnings of that spiritual renaissance which these
pregnant words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá so clearly foreshadow? The throes and
twinges of agony which the soul of a nation in travail is now beginning
to experience abundantly proclaim it. Contrast the sad plight of the
nations of the earth, and in particular this great Republic of the West,
with the rising fortunes of that handful of its citizens, whose
mission, if they be faithful to their trust, is to heal its wounds,
restore its confidence and revive its shattered hopes. Contrast the
dreadful convulsions, the internecine conflicts, the petty disputes, the
outworn controversies, the interminable revolutions that agitate the
masses, with the calm new light of Peace and of Truth which envelops,
guides and sustains those valiant inheritors of the law and love of
Bahá’u’lláh. Compare the disintegrating institutions, the discredited
statesmanship, the exploded theories, the appalling degradation, the
follies and furies, the shifts, shams and compromises that characterize
the present age, with the steady consolidation, the holy discipline, the
unity and cohesiveness, the assured conviction, the uncompromising
loyalty, the heroic self-sacrifice that constitute the hallmark of these
faithful stewards and harbingers of the golden age of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh.
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Small
wonder that these prophetic words should have been revealed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “The East,” He assures us, “hath verily been illumined
with the light of the Kingdom. Ere long will this same light shed a
still greater illumination upon the West. Then will the hearts of its
people be vivified through the potency of the teachings of God and their
souls be set aglow by the undying fire of His love.” “The prestige of
the Faith of God,” He asserts, “has immensely increased. Its greatness
is now manifest. The day is approaching when it will have cast a
tremendous tumult in men’s hearts. Rejoice, therefore, O denizens of
America, rejoice with exceeding gladness!”
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Most
prized and best-beloved brethren! As we look back upon the forty years
which have passed since the auspicious rays of the Bahá’í Revelation
first warmed and illuminated the American continent we find that they
may well fall into four distinct periods, each culminating in an event
of such significance as to constitute a milestone along the road leading
the American believers towards their promised victory. The first of
these four decades (1893–1903), characterized by a process of slow and
steady fermentation, may be said to have culminated in the historic
pilgrimages undertaken by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s American disciples to the
shrine of Bahá’u’lláh. The ten years which followed (1903–1913), so full
of the tests and trials which agitated, cleansed and energized the body
of the earliest pioneers of the Faith in that land, had as their happy
climax ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s memorable visit to America. The third period
(1913–1923), a period of quiet and uninterrupted consolidation, had as
its inevitable result the birth of that divinely-appointed
Administration, the foundations of which the Will of a departed Master
had unmistakably established. The remaining ten years (1923–1933),
distinguished throughout by further internal development, as well as by a
notable expansion of the international activities of a growing
community, witnessed the completion of the superstructure of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—the Administration’s mighty bulwark, the symbol of its strength and the sign of its future glory.
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Each
of these successive periods would seem to have contributed its distinct
share in enriching the spiritual life of that community, and in
preparing its members for the discharge of the tremendous
responsibilities of their unique mission. The pilgrimages which its
foremost representatives were moved to undertake in that earliest period
of its history fired the souls of its members with a love and zeal
which no amount of adversity could quench. The tests and tribulations it
subsequently suffered enabled those who survived them to obtain a grasp
of the implications of their faith that no opposition, however
determined and well-organized, could ever hope to weaken. The
institutions which its tried and tested adherents later on established
furnished their promoters with that poise and stability which the
increase of their numbers and the ceaseless extension of their
activities urgently demanded. And finally the Temple which the exponents
of an already firmly established Administration were inspired to erect
gave them the vision which neither the storms of internal disorder nor
the whirlwinds of international commotion could possibly obscure.
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It
would take me too long to attempt even a brief description of the first
stirrings which the introduction of the Bahá’í Revelation into the New
World, as conceived, initiated and directed by our beloved Master,
immediately created. Nor does space permit me to narrate the
circumstances attending the epoch-making visit of the first American
pilgrims to Bahá’u’lláh’s hallowed shrine, to relate the deeds which
signalized the return of these bearers of a new-born Gospel to their
native country, or to assess the immediate consequences of their
achievements. No word of mine would suffice to express how instantly the
revelation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s hopes, expectations and purpose for an
awakened continent, electrified the minds and hearts of those who were
privileged to hear Him, who were made the recipients of His inestimable
blessings and the chosen repositories of His confidence and trust. I can
never hope to interpret adequately the feelings that surged within
those heroic hearts as they sat at their Master’s feet, beneath the
shelter of His prison-house, eager to absorb and intent to preserve the
effusions of His divine Wisdom. I can never pay sufficient tribute to
that spirit of unyielding determination which the impact of a magnetic
personality and the spell of a mighty utterance kindled in the entire
company of these returning pilgrims, these consecrated heralds of the
Covenant of God, at so decisive an epoch of their history. The memory of
such names as Lua, Chase, MacNutt, Dealy, Goodall, Dodge, Farmer and
Brittingham—to mention only a few of that immortal galaxy now gathered
to the glory of Bahá’u’lláh—will for ever remain associated with the
rise and establishment of His Faith in the American continent, and will
continue to shed on its annals a lustre that time can never dim.
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It
was through these pilgrimages, as they succeeded one another in the
years immediately following the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, that the
splendor of the Covenant, beclouded for a time by the apparent
ascendancy of its Arch-Breaker, emerged triumphant amidst the
vicissitudes which had afflicted it. It was through the arrival of these
pilgrims, and these alone, that the gloom which had enveloped the
disconsolate members of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family was finally dispelled.
Through the agency of these successive visitors the Greatest Holy Leaf,
who alone with her Brother among the members of her Father’s household
had to confront the rebellion of almost the entire company of her
relatives and associates, found that consolation which so powerfully
sustained her till the very close of her life. By the forces which this
little band of returning pilgrims was able to release in the heart of
that continent the death-knell of every scheme initiated by the would-be
wrecker of the Cause of God was sounded.
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The
Tablets which were subsequently revealed by the untiring pen of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, embodying in passionate and unequivocal language His
instructions and counsels, His appeals and comments, His hopes and
wishes, His fears and warnings, soon began to be translated, published
and circulated throughout the length and breadth of the North American
continent, providing the ever-widening circle of the first believers
with that spiritual sustenance which could alone enable them to survive
the severe trials they were soon to experience.
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The
hour of an unprecedented crisis was, however, inexorably approaching.
Evidences of dissension, actuated by pride and ambition, were beginning
to obscure the radiance and retard the growth of the newly-born
community which the apostolic teachers of that continent had labored to
establish. He who had been instrumental in inaugurating so splendid an
era in the history of the Faith, on whom the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Covenant had conferred the titles of “Bahá’s Peter,” of the “Shepherd of
God’s Flocks,” of the “Conqueror of America,” upon whom had been
bestowed the unique privilege of helping ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lay the
foundation-stone of the Báb’s Mausoleum on Mt. Carmel—such a man,
blinded by his extraordinary success and aspiring after an uncontrolled
domination over the beliefs and activities of his fellow-disciples,
insolently raised the standard of revolt. Seceding from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and
allying himself with the Arch-Enemy of the Faith of God, this deluded
apostate sought, by perverting the teachings and directing a campaign of
unrelenting vilification against the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to
undermine the faith of those believers whom he had during no less than
eight years, so strenuously toiled to convert. By the tracts he
published, through the active collaboration of the emissaries of his
chief Ally, and reinforced by the efforts which the Christian
ecclesiastical enemies of the Bahá’í Revelation were beginning to exert,
he succeeded in dealing the nascent Faith of God a blow from which it
could only slowly and painfully recover.
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I
need not dwell on the immediate effects of this serious yet transitory
cleavage in the ranks of the American adherents of the Cause of
Bahá’u’lláh. Nor do I need to expatiate on the character of the
defamatory writings that poured upon them. Nor does it seem necessary to
recount the measures to which an ever-vigilant Master resorted in order
to assuage and eventually to dissipate their apprehensions. It is for
the future historian to appraise the value of the mission of each of the
four chosen messengers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá who, in rapid succession, were
dispatched by Him to pacify and reinvigorate that troubled community.
His will be the task of tracing, in the work which these deputies of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá were commissioned to undertake, the beginnings of that vast
Administration, the corner-stone of which these messengers were
instructed to lay—an Administration whose symbolic Edifice He, at a
later time, was to found in person and whose basis and scope the
provisions of His Will were destined to widen.
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Suffice
it to say that at this stage of its evolution the activities of an
invincible Faith had assumed such dimensions as to force on the one hand
its enemies to devise fresh weapons for their projected assaults, and
on the other to encourage its supreme Promoter to instruct its
followers, through qualified representatives and teachers, in the
rudiments of an Administration which, as it evolved, would at once
incarnate, safeguard and foster its spirit. The works of such stubborn
assailants as those of Vatralsky, Wilson, Jessup and Richardson vie with
one another in their futile attempts to stain its purity, to arrest its
march and compel its surrender. To the charges of Nihilism, of heresy,
of Muḥammadan Gnosticism, of immorality, of Occultism and Communism so
freely leveled against them, the undismayed victims of such outrageous
denunciations, acting under the instructions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, retorted
by initiating a series of activities which by their very nature were to
be the precursors of permanent, officially recognized administrative
institutions. The inauguration of Chicago’s first House of Spirituality
designated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as that city’s “House of 84
Justice”; the establishment of the Bahá’í Publishing Society; the
founding of the Green Acre Fellowship; the publication of the Star of
the West; the holding of the first Bahá’í National Convention,
synchronizing with the transference of the sacred remains of the Báb to
its final resting-place on Mt. Carmel; the incorporation of the Bahá’í
Temple Unity and the formation of the Executive Committee of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—these
stand out as the most conspicuous accomplishments of the American
believers which have immortalized the memory of the most turbulent
period of their history. Launched through these very acts into the
troublesome seas of ceaseless tribulation, piloted by the mighty arm of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and manned by the bold initiative and abundant vitality of a
band of sorely-tried disciples, the Ark of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant has,
ever since those days, been steadily pursuing its course contemptuous of
the storms of bitter misfortune that have raged, and which must
continue to assail it, as it forges ahead towards the promised haven of
undisturbed security and peace.
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Unsatisfied
with the achievements which crowned the concerted efforts of their
elected representatives within the American continent, and emboldened by
the initial success of their pioneer teachers, beyond its confines, in
Great Britain, France and Germany, the community of the American
believers resolved to win in distant climes fresh recruits to the
advancing army of Bahá’u’lláh. Setting out from the western shores of
their native land and impelled by the indomitable energy of a new-born
faith, these itinerant teachers of the Gospel of Bahá’u’lláh pushed on
towards the islands of the Pacific, and as far as China and Japan,
determined to establish beyond the farthest seas the outposts of their
beloved Faith. Both at home and abroad this community had by that time
demonstrated its capacity to widen the range and consolidate the
foundations of its vast endeavors. The angry voices that had been raised
in protest against its rise were being drowned amid the acclamations
with which the East greeted its recent victories. Those ugly features
that had loomed so threateningly were gradually receding into the
distance, furnishing a still wider field to these noble warriors for the
exercise of their latent energies.
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The
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the continent of America had indeed been
resuscitated. Phoenix-like it had risen in all its freshness, vigor and
beauty and was now, through the voice of its triumphant exponents,
insistingly calling to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, imploring Him to undertake a
journey to its shores. The first fruits of the mission entrusted to its
worthy upholders had lent such poignancy to their call that
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who had just been delivered from the fetters of a galling
tyranny, found Himself unable to resist. His great, His incomparable,
love for His own favored children impelled Him to respond. Their
passionate entreaty had, moreover, been reinforced by the numerous
invitations which representatives of various interested organizations,
whether religious, educational or humanitarian, had extended to Him,
expressing their eagerness to receive from His own mouth an exposition
of His Father’s teachings.
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Though
bent with age, though suffering from ailments resulting from the
accumulated cares of fifty years of exile and captivity, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
set out on His memorable journey across the seas to the land where He
might bless by His presence, and sanctify through His deeds, the mighty
acts His spirit had led His disciples to perform. The circumstances that
have attended His triumphal progress through the chief cities of the
United States and Canada my pen is utterly incapable of describing. The
joys which the announcement of His arrival evoked, the publicity which
His activities created, the forces which His utterances released, the
opposition which the implications of His teachings excited, the
significant episodes to which His words and deeds continually gave
rise—these future generations will, no doubt, minutely and befittingly
register. They will carefully delineate their features, will cherish and
preserve their memory, and will transmit unimpaired the record of their
minutest details to their descendants. It would indeed be presumptuous
on our part to attempt, at the present time, to sketch even the bare
outline of so vast, so enthralling a theme. Contemplating after the
lapse of above twenty years this notable landmark in America’s spiritual
history we still find ourselves compelled to confess our inability to
grasp its import or to fathom its mystery. I have alluded in the
preceding pages to a few of the more salient features of that
never-to-be-forgotten visit. These incidents, as we look back upon them,
eloquently proclaim ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s specific purpose to confer through
these symbolic functions upon the first-born of the communities of the
West that spiritual primacy which was to be the birthright of the
American believers.
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The
seeds which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ceaseless activities so lavishly scattered
had endowed the United States and Canada, nay the entire continent, with
potentialities such as it had never known in its history. On the small
band of His trained and beloved disciples, and through them on their
descendants, He, through that visit, had bequeathed a priceless
heritage—a heritage which carried with it the sacred and primary
obligation to arise and carry on in that fertile field the work He had
so gloriously initiated. We can dimly picture to ourselves the wishes
that must have welled from His eager heart as He bade His last farewell
to that promising country. An inscrutable Wisdom, we can well imagine
Him remark to His disciples on the eve of His departure, has, in His
infinite bounty singled out your native land for the execution of a
mighty purpose. Through the agency of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant I, as the
ploughman, have been called upon since the beginning of my ministry to
turn up and break its ground. The mighty confirmations that have, in the
opening days of your career, rained upon you have prepared and
invigorated its soil. The tribulations you subsequently were made to
suffer have driven deep furrows into the field which my hands had
prepared. The seeds with which I have been entrusted I have now
scattered far and wide before you. Under your loving care, by your
ceaseless exertions, every one of these seeds must germinate, every one
must yield its destined fruit. A winter of unprecedented severity will
soon be upon you. Its storm-clouds are fast gathering on the horizon.
Tempestuous winds will assail you from every side. The Light of the
Covenant will be obscured through my departure. These mighty blasts,
this wintry desolation, shall however pass away. The dormant seed will
burst into fresh activity. It shall put forth its buds, shall reveal, in
mighty institutions, its leaves and blossoms. The vernal showers which
the tender mercies of my heavenly Father will cause to descend upon you
will enable this tender plant to spread out its branches to regions far
beyond the confines of your native land. And finally the steadily
mounting sun of His Revelation, shining in its meridian splendor, will
enable this mighty Tree of His Faith to yield, in the fullness of time
and on your soil, its golden fruit.
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The
implications of such a parting message could not long remain unrevealed
to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s initiated disciples. No sooner had He concluded His
long and arduous journey across the American and European continents
than the tremendous happenings to which He had alluded began to be made
manifest. A conflict, such as He had predicted, severed for a time all
means of communication with those on whom He had come to place such
implicit trust and from whom He was expecting so much in return. The
wintry desolation, with all its havoc and carnage, pursued during four
years its relentless course, while He, repairing to the quiet solitude
of His residence in the close neighborhood of Bahá’u’lláh’s hallowed
shrine, continued to communicate His thoughts and wishes to those whom
He had left behind and on whom He had conferred the unique tokens of His
favor. In the immortal Tablets which, in the long hours of His
communion with His dearly-beloved friends He was moved to reveal, He
unfolded to their eyes His conception of their spiritual destiny, His
Plan for the mission He wished them to undertake. The seeds His hands
had sown He was now watering with that same care, that same love and
patience, which had characterized His previous endeavors whilst He was
laboring in their midst.
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The
clarion call which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had raised was the signal for an
outburst of renewed activity which, alike in the motives it inspired and
the forces it set in motion, America had scarcely experienced. Lending
an unprecedented impetus to the work which the enterprising ambassadors
of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh had initiated in distant lands, this
mighty movement has continued to spread until the present day, has
gathered momentum as it extended its ramifications over the surface of
the globe, and will continue to accelerate its march until the last
wishes of its original Promoter are completely fulfilled.
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Forsaking
home, kindred, friends and position a handful of men and women, fired
with a zeal and confidence which no human agency can kindle, arose to
carry out the mandate which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had issued. Sailing northward
as far as Alaska, pushing on to the West Indies, penetrating the South
American continent to the banks of the Amazon and across the Andes to
the southernmost ends of the Argentine Republic, pressing on westward
into the island of Tahiti and beyond it to the Australian continent and
still beyond it as far as New Zealand and Tasmania, these intrepid
heralds of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh have succeeded by their very acts in
setting to the present generation of their fellow-believers throughout
the East an example which they may well emulate. Headed by their
illustrious representative, who ever since the call of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was
raised has been twice round the world and is still, with marvellous
courage and fortitude, enriching the matchless record of her services,
these men and women have been instrumental in extending, to a degree as
yet unsurpassed in Bahá’í history, the sway of Bahá’u’lláh’s universal
dominion. In the face of almost insurmountable obstacles they have
succeeded in most of the countries through which they have passed or in
which they have resided, in proclaiming the teachings of their Faith, in
circulating its literature, in defending its cause, in laying the basis
of its institutions and in reinforcing the number of its declared
supporters. It would be impossible for me to unfold in this short
compass the tale of such heroic actions. Nor can any tribute of mine do
justice to the spirit which has enabled these standard-bearers of the
Religion of God to win such laurels and to confer such distinction on
the generation to which they belong.
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The
Cause of Bahá’u’lláh had by that time encircled the globe. Its light,
born in darkest Persia, had been carried successively to the European,
the African and the American continents, and was now penetrating the
heart of Australia, encompassing thereby the whole earth with a girdle
of shining glory. The share which such worthy, such stout-hearted,
disciples have had in brightening the last days of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
earthly life He alone has truly recognized and can sufficiently
estimate. The unique and eternal significance of such accomplishments
the labors of the rising generation will assuredly reveal, their memory
its works will befittingly preserve and extol. How deep a satisfaction
‘Abdu’l-Bahá must have felt, while conscious of the approaching hour of
His departure, as He witnessed the first fruits of the international
services of these heroes of His Father’s Faith! To their keeping He had
committed a great and goodly heritage. In the twilight of His earthly
life He could rest content in the serene assurance that such able hands
could be relied upon to preserve its integrity and exalt its virtue.
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The
passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, so sudden in the circumstances which caused
it, so dramatic in its consequences, could neither impede the operation
of such a dynamic force nor obscure its purpose. Those fervid appeals,
embodied in the Will and Testament of a departed Master, could not but
confirm its aim, define its character and reinforce the promise of its
ultimate success.
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Out
of the pangs of anguish which His bereaved followers have suffered,
amid the heat and dust which the attacks launched by a sleepless enemy
had precipitated, the Administration of Bahá’u’lláh’s invincible Faith
was born. The potent energies released through the ascension of the
Center of His Covenant crystallized into this supreme, this infallible
Organ for the accomplishment of a Divine Purpose. The Will and Testament
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá unveiled its character, reaffirmed its basis,
supplemented its principles, asserted its indispensability, and
enumerated its chief institutions. With that self-same spontaneity which
had characterized her response to the Message proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh
America had now arisen to espouse the cause of the Administration which
the Will and Testament of His Son had unmistakably established. It was
given to her, and to her alone, in the turbulent years following the
revelation of so momentous a Document, to become the fearless champion
of that Administration, the pivot of its new-born institutions and the
leading promoter of its influence. To their Persian brethren, who in the
heroic age of the Faith had won the crown of martyrdom, the American
believers, forerunners of its golden age, were now worthily succeeding,
bearing in their turn the palm of a hard-won victory. The unbroken
record of their illustrious deeds had established beyond the shadow of a
doubt their preponderating share in shaping the destinies of their
Faith. In a world writhing with pain and declining into chaos this
community—the vanguard of the liberating forces of Bahá’u’lláh—succeeded
in the years following ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing in raising high above the
institutions established by its sister communities in East and West
what may well constitute the chief pillar of that future House—a House
which posterity will regard as the last refuge of a tottering
civilization.
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In
the prosecution of their task neither the whisperings of the
treacherous nor the virulent attacks of their avowed enemies
were allowed to deflect them from their high purpose or to undermine
their faith in the sublimity of their calling. The agitation provoked by
him who in his incessant and sordid pursuit of earthly riches would
have, but for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s warning, sullied the fair name of their
Faith, had left them in the main undisturbed. Schooled by tribulation
and secure within the stronghold of their fast evolving institutions
they scorned his insinuations and by their unswerving loyalty were able
to shatter his hopes. They refused to allow any consideration of the
admitted prestige and past services of his father and of his associates
to weaken their determination to ignore entirely the person whom
‘Abdu’l-Bahá had so emphatically condemned. The veiled attacks with
which a handful of deluded enthusiasts subsequently sought in the pages
of their periodical to check the growth and blight the prospects of an
infant Administration had likewise failed to achieve their purpose. The
attitude which a besotted woman later on assumed, her ludicrous
assertions, her boldness in flouting the Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and in
challenging its authenticity and her attempts to subvert its principles
were again powerless to produce the slightest breach in the ranks of its
valiant upholders. The treacherous schemes which the ambition of a
perfidious and still more recent enemy has devised and through which he
is still striving to deface ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s noble handiwork and corrupt
its administrative principles are being once more completely frustrated.
These intermittent and abortive attempts on the part of its assailants
to force the surrender of the newly built stronghold of the Faith its
defenders have from the very beginning utterly disdained. No matter how
fierce the assaults of the enemy or skillful his stratagem they have
refused to yield one jot or one tittle of their cherished convictions.
His insinuations and clamor they have consistently ignored. The motives
which animated his actions, the methods he steadily pursued, the
precarious privileges he seemed momentarily to enjoy they could not but
despise. Thriving for a time through the devices which their scheming
minds had conceived and supported by the ephemeral advantages which
fame, ability or fortune can confer these notorious exponents of
corruption and heresy have succeeded in protruding for a time their ugly
features only to sink, as rapidly as they had risen, into the mire of
an ignominious end.
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From
the midst of these afflictive trials, reminiscent in some of their
aspects of the violent storm that had accompanied the birth of the Faith
in their native land, the American believers had again triumphantly
emerged, their course undeflected, their fame unsullied, their heritage
unimpaired. A series of magnificent accomplishments, each more
significant than the previous, were to shed increasing lustre on an
already illustrious record. In the dark years immediately following
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension their deeds shone with a radiance that made
them the object of the envy and the admiration of the less privileged
among their brethren. The entire community, untrammeled and supremely
confident, was rising to a great and glorious opportunity. The forces
that had motivated its birth, that had assisted in its rise, were now
accelerating its growth, in a manner and with such rapidity that neither
the pangs of a world-wide sorrow nor the unceasing convulsions of a
distracted age could paralyze its efforts or retard its march.
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Internally
the community had embarked in a number of enterprises that were to
enable it on the one hand to extend still further the scope of its
spiritual jurisdiction and on the other to fashion the essential
instruments for the creation and consolidation of the institutions which
such an extension imperatively demanded. Externally its undertakings
were inspired by the twofold objective of prosecuting, even more
intensely than before, the admirable work which in each of the five
continents its international teachers had initiated, and of assuming an
increasing share in the handling and solution of the delicate and
complex problems with which a newly-emancipated Faith was being
confronted. The birth of the Administration in that continent had
signalized these praiseworthy exertions. Its gradual consolidation was
destined to insure their continuance and to accentuate their
effectiveness.
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To
enumerate only the most outstanding accomplishments which, in their own
country and beyond its confines, have so greatly enhanced the prestige
of the American believers and have redounded to the glory and honor of
the Most Great Name is all I can presently undertake, leaving to future
generations the task of explaining their import and of affixing a
fitting estimate to their value. To the body of their elected
representatives must be attributed the honor of having been the first
among their sister Assemblies of East and West to devise, promulgate and
legalize the essential instruments for the effective discharge of their
collective duties—instruments which every properly constituted Bahá’í
community must regard as a pattern worthy to be adopted and copied. To
their efforts must likewise be ascribed the historic achievement of
establishing their national endowments upon a permanent and unassailable
basis and of creating the necessary agency for the formation of those
subsidiary organs whose function is to administer on behalf of their
trustees such possessions as these may acquire beyond the limits of
their immediate jurisdiction. By the weight of their moral support so
freely extended to their Egyptian brethren they were able to remove some
of the most formidable obstacles which the Faith had to surmount in its
struggle to enfranchise itself from the fetters of Muslim orthodoxy.
Through the effective and timely intervention of these same elected
representatives they were able to avert the woes and dangers which had
menaced their persecuted fellow-workers in the Soviet Republics, and to
ward off the rage which had threatened with immediate ruin one of the
most precious and noblest of Bahá’í institutions. Nothing short of the
whole-hearted assistance, whether moral or financial which the American
believers, individually and collectively, were moved to extend on
several occasions to the needy and harassed among their brethren in
Persia could have saved these hapless victims of the consequences of the
calamities that had visited them in the years following ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
ascension. It was the publicity which the efforts of their American
brethren had created, the protests they were led to make, the appeals
and petitions they had submitted, which mitigated these sufferings and
curbed the violence of the worst and most tyrannical opponents of the
Faith in that land. Who else, if not one of their most distinguished
representatives, has risen to force upon the attention of the highest
Tribunal the world has yet seen the grievances which a Faith, robbed of
one of its holiest sanctuaries, had suffered at the hand of the usurper?
Who else has succeeded in securing, through patient and persistent
effort, those written affirmations which proclaim the justice of a
persecuted cause and tacitly recognize its right to an independent
religious status? “The Commission,” is the resolution passed by the
Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, “recommends that
the Council should ask the British Government to make representations
to the Iráqí Government with a view to the immediate redress of the
denial of justice from which the petitioners (the Bahá’í Spiritual
Assembly of Baghdád) have suffered.” Has any one else except an
American believer been led to obtain from royalty such remarkable and
repeated testimonies to the regenerating power of the Faith of God, such
striking references to the universality of its teachings and the
sublimity of its mission. “The Bahá’í teaching,” such is the Queen’s
written testimony, “brings peace and understanding. It is like a wide
embrace gathering together all those who have long searched for words of
hope. It accepts all great Prophets gone before, it destroys no other
creeds and leaves all doors open. Saddened by the continual strife
amongst believers of many confessions and wearied of their intolerance
towards each other, I discovered in the Bahá’í teaching the real spirit
of Christ so often denied and misunderstood: Unity instead of strife,
Hope instead of condemnation, Love instead of hate, and a great
reassurance for all men.” Have not the American adherents of the Faith
of Bahá’u’lláh, through the courage displayed by one of the most
brilliant members of their community, been instrumental in paving the
way for the removal of those barriers which have, for well-nigh a
century, hampered the growth and crippled the energy of their
fellow-believers in Persia? Is it not America who, ever mindful of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passionate entreaty, has sent out to the ends of the
earth a steadily increasing number of its most consecrated citizens—men
and women the one wish of whose lives is to consolidate the foundations
of Bahá’u’lláh’s world-embracing dominion? In the northernmost capitals
of Europe, in most of its central states, throughout the Balkan
Peninsula, along the shores of the African, the Asiatic and South
American continents are to be found this day a small band of women
pioneers who, single-handed and with scanty resources, are toiling for
the advent of the Day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has foretold. Did not the attitude of
the Greatest Holy Leaf, as she approached the close of her life, bear
eloquent testimony to the incomparable share which her steadfast and
self-sacrificing lovers in that continent have had in lightening the
burden which had weighed so long and so heavily on her heart? And
finally who can be so bold as to deny that the completion of
the superstructure of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár—the crowning
glory of America’s past and present achievements—has forged that mystic
chain which is to link, more firmly than ever, the hearts of its
champion-builders with Him Who is the Source and Center of their Faith
and the Object of their truest adoration?
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Fellow-believers
in the American continent! Great indeed have been your past and present
achievements! Immeasurably greater are the wonders which the future has
in store for you! The Edifice your sacrifices have raised still remains
to be clothed. The House which must needs be supported by the highest
administrative institution your hands have reared, is as yet unbuilt.
The provisions of the chief Repository of those laws that must govern
its operation are thus far mostly undisclosed. The Standard which, if
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s wishes are to be fulfilled, must be raised in your own
country has yet to be unfurled. The Unity of which that standard is to
be the symbol is far from being yet established. The machinery which
must needs incarnate and preserve that unity is not even created. Will
it be America, will it be one of the countries of Europe, who will arise
to assume the leadership essential to the shaping of the destinies of
this troubled age? Will America allow any of her sister communities in
East or West to achieve such ascendancy as shall deprive her of that
spiritual primacy with which she has been invested and which she has
thus far so nobly retained? Will she not rather contribute, by a still
further revelation of those inherent powers that motivate her life, to
enhance the priceless heritage which the love and wisdom of a departed
Master have conferred upon her?
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| 1. | In an address by Dr. Henry H. Jessup at the Parliament of Religions, Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.—Editor. |
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