Unser geliebter Hueter hat mich beauftragt, diese Zeilen an Euch zu
schreiben und seine Liebe und herzliche Grusse euch zu uebersenden. Er
versichert Euch, dass er fur Euch am heiligen Grabe Unsers Geliebten,
'Abdu'l-Bahas mit ganzem Herzen betet. Er erwartet immer gute Nachrichten
von Eurem Wohlsein und von dem Fortschritte der heiligen Sache in Eurem
Land.

Liebe Geschwister, die Angelegenheiten in meiner Heimat haben mich
gezwungen, eine Reise nach Persien zu machen. Der geliebte Hueter hat mir
Urlaub dafur bewilligt. Ich verlasse Haifa binnen drei oder vier Tagen. Da
waehrend meiner Abwesenheit von Haifa niemand hier ist, der Deutsch kann,
sollen alle die Briefe und Nachrichten, die dem lieben Shoghi Effendi
geschickt werden werden, auf Englisch geschrieben werden. Die heilige
Familie lassen Euch auch herzliche Grusse.

Mit treuer Liebe, verbleibe ich immer, Euer ergebener Bruder in Seinem
heiligen Namen und Dienste unsers geliebten Hueter

[From the Guardian:]

My dearest friends:

This is to assure you personally of my continued and earnest prayers for
your happiness, welfare and spiritual advancement. The Esslingen friends
are near and dear to my heart. I have great admiration for their
steadfastness, their love and devotion and cherish great hopes for their
future. They are destined to achieve great things for our beloved Cause.

Always your true brother,
Shoghi

LETTER OF 15 FEBRUARY 1926

15 February 1926

With regard to your first question on alcohol and drinking Baha'u'llah
fully aware of the great misery that it brings about, prohibits it as He
expressly states that everything that takes away the mind or in other
words makes one drunk is forbidden. The Master has promoted the same idea.

In connection with spiritualism, although the Master says that there is
some element of truth in what some teach under the subject of
auto-suggestion and others, spiritualism as such is not taught by the
Baha'i religion. Our Master has said that religion and true science must
go together and most of these things have not been proved by science.

As to your third question Shoghi Effendi would like you to understand that
when one believes in one to be divinely inspired and when one is convinced
that he has a great mission to the world in his teachings, he must very
naturally be ready to accept all that that world-teacher that
divinely-inspired man says. It is with this view that he feels that a real