A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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Stormy Yet Glorious Path of Service |
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The work now engaging the attention of the members of the
Baha’i Communities in India, Pakistan and Burma, as it
develops and is further consolidated, acquires momentous
importance, and should be pursued with added zeal, ever
deepening consecration, firmer unity, closer collaboration,
greater vigilance and nobler self-sacrifice. The sufferings and
trials they have recently experienced, the disappointments
and anxieties they have borne, the obstacles and setbacks they
have encountered in their path, should, far from causing them
to flinch in their determination or to relax in their efforts, act
as a stimulant and challenge, to scale loftier heights, and win
mightier victories in their strenuous labours for the propagation
of their beloved Faith.
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Though they are pressed by the multitudinous demands of an
ever-growing task, though overburdened by the manifold
responsibilities of an ever-expanding administration, I have,
in my desire to enable them to enrich the splendid record of
their stewardship to the Faith in recent years, and enhance
the prestige of all three communities, urged them to push
still further the outposts of the Faith, both southward and
eastward of the present field of their joint labours. In the
island of Ceylon, the Republic of Indonesia and the
sovereign State of Siam, which due to their proximity must,
sooner or later be opened up to the Faith by these Communities,
an effort, however tentative, must be made to
establish a nucleus, through the settlement of one or two
pioneers which will, as Plans are initiated in the years to
come, develop into full-fledged communities capable of
illuminating the eastern and southern fringes of the continent
of Asia.
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Through the successful conclusion of this added task to be
shouldered by these communities, the believers in these
three communities will have contributed, to a marked degree,
to the raising to one hundred of the number of countries included
within the pale of the ever-advancing Faith of
Baha’u’llah. They will be emulating the example of their
American, Canadian and Persian brethren, who, through
their respective plans, are hastening this glorious consummation
by initiating Baha’i activities in Latin America, in
Greenland and New Foundland and the territories of the
Arabian Peninsula.
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Their solid achievements in recent years, the marvellous
multiplication of Baha’i Centres, the establishment of befitting
national headquarters, the remarkable impetus lent to the
translation, publication and dissemination of Baha’i Literature,
embolden me to appeal to them, to undertake fresh enterprises,
ere the termination of the present Plan, and on however
small a scale, beyond the confines of India and Burma.
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The greater the range of their collective enterprises, the
mightier the effusion of the Abha grace from on high, a
grace that will sustain, protect, guide and cheer them as they
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Let them, at this momentous stage of their historic labours,
eliminate, once and for all, every trace of inharmony from
their midst, purge their hearts from every lingering suspicion,
prejudice and animosity, acquire a clearer vision of the
greatness of their Faith and the significance of their mission,
give heed to the urgent and tragic needs of the vast multitudes
of their disillusioned and sore-tried countrymen, now
hungering for the Bread of Life, and arise, as one man, to
discharge their sacred and inescapable responsibilities. The
hour is propitious, the situation critical, the Cause infinitely
precious, the prize within reach and inexpressibly glorious.
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