Part 2 (1/2)
Nor should the valuable and meritorious labors accomplished since the inception of the first Seven Year Plan in Punta Arenas de Magallanes, that far-off center situated not only on the southern extremity of the Western Hemisphere, but const.i.tuting the southernmost outpost of the Faith in the whole world, be for a moment neglected in the course of the second stage in the development of the Divine Plan. The a.s.sembly already const.i.tuted in that city, the remarkable radio publicity secured by the believers there, the a.s.sistance extended by them to the teaching work in other parts of Chile, should be regarded only as a prelude to the work of consolidation which must be indefatigably pursued. This work, if properly carried out, in conjunction with the activities a.s.sociated with the a.s.semblies of Santiago, Valparaso and Vina del Mar, and the groups of Puerto Montt, Valdivia, Quilpue, Temuco, Sewell, Chorrillos, Mulchen and other smaller ones, as well as several isolated localities in that republic, may well hasten the advent of the day when the Chilean followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah will have established the first independent national spiritual a.s.sembly to be formed by any single nation of Latin America.
BAHa'U'LLaH'S SUMMONS TO THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Whoever it may be among these Latin American communities who will eventually carry off the palm of victory, and win this immortal distinction, all without exception, and with equal zeal, must partic.i.p.ate in this vast and collective enterprise which is engaging, in an ever-increasing measure, their attention and challenging their resources.
Let them remember that the Author of their Faith has in His Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Mother-Book of His Revelation, singled out the company of the Presidents of their countries, together with those of the North American continent, and addressed them in terms that sharply contrast with the dire warnings and condemnatory words addressed directly and indirectly, to the King of Prussia, the French and Austrian Emperors and the Sultan of Turkey, who, together with those Presidents, are the only sovereigns and rulers specifically mentioned by Him in that Book.
”Hearken ye, O rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein!” is His summons sounded in that mighty Charter of the future world civilization, ”unto that which the Dove is warbling on the Branch of Eternity: There is none other G.o.d but Me, the Ever-Abiding, the Forgiving, the All-Bountiful. Adorn ye the temple of dominion with the ornament of justice and of the fear of G.o.d, and its head with the crown of the remembrance of your Lord, the Creator of the heavens. Thus counselleth you He Who is the Dayspring of Names, as bidden by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. The Promised One hath appeared in this glorified Station, whereat all beings, both seen and unseen, have rejoiced. Take ye advantage of the Day of G.o.d. Verily, to meet Him is better for you than all that whereon the sun s.h.i.+neth, could ye but know it. O concourse of rulers! Give ear unto that which hath been raised from the Dayspring of Grandeur: Verily, there is none other G.o.d but Me, the Lord of Utterance, the All-Knowing. Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise.”
Let them ponder the honor which the Author of the Revelation Himself has chosen to confer upon their countries, the obligations which that honor automatically brings in its wake, the opportunities it offers, the power it releases for the removal of all obstacles, however formidable, which may be encountered in their path, and the promise of guidance it implies for the attainment of the objectives alluded to in these memorable pa.s.sages.
To the eager, the warm-hearted, the spiritually minded and staunch members of these Latin American Baha'i communities who, among the followers of Baha'u'llah, already const.i.tute the most considerable body of recruits from the ranks of the most deeply entrenched and powerful Church of Christendom; whose motherlands have been chosen as the scene of the earliest victories won by the prosecutors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan; launched on their crusade for the spiritual conquest of the whole planet; the establishment of whose projected national spiritual a.s.semblies must const.i.tute a notable landmark in the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Baha'i Dispensation; whose leading spiritual a.s.semblies are now establis.h.i.+ng direct contact with the World Center of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in the Holy Land; the photographs of whose elected representatives, at their chief centers, will soon adorn the walls of His Mansion at Bahji; a few of whose members have already arisen to carry back the torch of divine guidance entrusted to their care to the peoples and races from which they have sprung-to this privileged, this youngest, this dynamic and highly promising member of the organic Baha'i World Community, I feel moved, before I dismiss this aspect of my theme, to direct this general appeal to rise to the heights of the glorious opportunity which destiny is unfolding before its members. Theirs is the opportunity, if they but seize it, to adorn the opening pages of the annals of the second Baha'i century with a tale of deeds approaching in valor those with which their Persian brethren have illuminated the opening years of the first, and comparable with the exploits more recently achieved by their North American fellow-believers and which have shed such l.u.s.ter on the closing decade of that same century.
SPIRITUAL CRUSADE TO BE LAUNCHED IN EUROPE
To the fourth, and by far the most momentous, the most arduous, the most challenging task to be carried out under the Second Seven Year Plan-the systematic launching of a crusade in a mighty, a tormented, a spiritually famished continent, a continent drawn, in recent years through political developments as well as through improvement in the means of transportation, so close to the great republic of the West, and const.i.tuting a stepping-stone on the road leading to the redemption of the Old World-I must now direct the attention of my readers.
This as yet unfought and unbelievably potent crusade, embarked upon in the opening decade of the second century of the Baha'i Era, signalizing the commencement of the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah, and marking the first stage in the propulsion of a divinely conceived Plan across the borders of the Western Hemisphere, must, as its pace augments, reveal the first signs and tokens which, as antic.i.p.ated by the Author of the Plan Himself, must accompany the carrying of His Father's Message across the ocean, at the hands of His ”apostles,”
from the sh.o.r.es of their homeland to the European continent. ”The moment,”
is His powerfully sustaining, gloriously inspiring promise, ”this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the sh.o.r.es of America, and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australia, 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.”
The first stage in this transatlantic field of service which those crusading for the Cause of Baha'u'llah in the Western Hemisphere are now entering is a step fraught with possibilities such as no mind can adequately envisage. Its challenge is overwhelming and its potentialities unfathomable. Its hazards, rigors and pitfalls are numerous, its field immense, the number of its promoters as yet utterly inadequate, the resources required for its effective prosecution barely tapped. The races, nations and cla.s.ses included within its...o...b..t are numerous and highly diversified, and the prizes to be won by its victors incalculably great.
The hatreds that inflame, the rivalries that agitate, the controversies that confuse, the miseries that afflict, these races, nations and cla.s.ses are bitter and of long standing. The influence and fanaticism, whether ecclesiastical or political, of potentially hostile organizations, firmly entrenched within their ancestral strongholds, are formidable.
The members of the North American Baha'i Community, to whose care the immediate destinies of this fate-laden crusade have been entrusted, are standing at a new crossroads. Behind them is an imperishable record, brief yet ill.u.s.trious, of feats performed over the entire range of the Western Hemisphere. Before them stretches a vista alluring in its as yet hazy outlines, entrancing in its magnitude, reaching to the far horizons of as yet unconquered territories. They can look back, since that crusade was launched, upon a decade of modest beginnings, of toilsome labors, of richly deserved rewards. They now look forward to successive epochs reaching as far as the fringes of that Golden Age that is to be, glowing in the light of G.o.d-given promises, destined to be traversed at the cost of infinite toil and of heroic self-sacrifice.
They can neither retrace their steps, nor falter, nor even afford to mark time. The sands are running out, the short span of six brief years intervening between the present hour and the termination of the second stage of the enterprise on which they have embarked will soon expire. The hosts on high, having sounded the signal, are impatient to rush forward, and demonstrate anew the irresistible force of their might. Europe, in the throes of the aftermath of a horribly devastating conflict, calls desperately, in one of the darkest hours of its history, for that sovereign remedy which only the Plan, conceived by a divinely appointed Physician, can administer. Sister communities, in the north and in the heart of that continent, alive to the needs, the opportunities and the glorious mission of the vanguard of Baha'u'llah's crusaders, now landing on the sh.o.r.es of that agitated continent, are only too eager to reinforce the stupendous exertions that must needs be made for its ultimate redemption. Nor will other sister communities further afield refrain, for a moment, from lending a helping hand, once the progress of this gigantic movement now set in motion is accelerated. Above and beyond them all, unsleeping, ever-solicitous, unerring, is the Pilot of their bark, the Charterer of their course, the Founder of their spiritual fellows.h.i.+p, the Bestower of that primacy which is the hallmark of their destiny.
EVOLVING STRONGHOLDS IN TEN INITIAL COUNTRIES
The ten countries, const.i.tuting the initial field wherein the prowess of these crusaders must, in the years immediately ahead, be exhibited, and in whose capitals the foundations of the embryonic Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah must preferably be una.s.sailably laid, must each evolve into strongholds from which the dynamic energies of that Faith can be diffused to neighboring territories in the course of the unfoldment of the Plan.
The nuclei that are now being formed, and the groups that are beginning to emerge, must be speedily and systematically reinforced, not only through the dispatch and settlement of pioneers and the visits paid them by itinerant teachers, but also through the progressive development of the teaching work which the pioneers themselves must initiate and foster among the native population in those countries. Any artificially created a.s.sembly, consisting of settlers from abroad, can at best be considered as temporary and insecure, and should, if the second stage of the European enterprise is to be commenced without undue delay in the future, be supplanted by broad-based, securely grounded, efficiently functioning a.s.semblies, composed primarily of the people of the countries themselves, who are firm in faith, unimpeachable in their loyalty and whole-hearted in their support of the Administrative Order of the Faith. The twenty-five pioneers that have already proceeded to Scandinavia and the Low Countries, to the Iberian Peninsula, to Switzerland and Italy, should, in the course of this current year, and while the process of teaching the native population is being inaugurated, be reinforced by as many additional pioneers as possible, and particularly by those who, possessed of independent means, can, either themselves or through their appointed deputies, swell the number of the valiant workers already laboring with such devotion in those fields.
The translation, the publication and dissemination of Baha'i literature, whether in the form of leaflets, pamphlets or books, in the nine selected languages, should, as the work progresses and the demand is correspondingly increased, be strenuously carried out, as a preliminary to its free distribution among the public on certain occasions, and its presentation to both the leaders of public thought and the numerous and famous libraries established in those countries. No time should be lost in establis.h.i.+ng, on however small a scale, initial contact with the press and other agencies designed to invite greater attention on the part of the ma.s.ses to the historic work now being initiated in their respective countries.
No opportunity, in view of the necessity of insuring the harmonious development of the Faith, should be ignored, which its potential enemies, whether ecclesiastical or otherwise, may offer, to set forth, in a restrained and unprovocative language, its aims and tenets, to defend its interests, to proclaim its universality, to a.s.sert the supernatural, the supra-national and non-political character of its inst.i.tutions, and its acceptance of the divine origin of the Faiths which have preceded it. Nor should any chance be missed of a.s.sociating the Faith, as distinct from affiliating it, with all progressive, non-political, non-ecclesiastical inst.i.tutions, whether social, educational, or charitable, whose objectives harmonize with some of its tenets, and amongst whose members and supporters individuals may be found who will eventually embrace its truth.