all believers,
whether in the North or in the South, whether newly enrolled or of old
standing in the Faith, that every one of them shares, vitally and directly
and without any exception, in the responsibility for the successful
prosecution of the Plan; a still firmer resolution not to allow a
world-convulsing conflict, with its attendant miseries, perils,
dislocations, and anxieties, to deflect them from their course or distract
their attention; these are the crying needs of this critical, this
challenging, this swiftly passing hour; to exploit its possibilities, to
meet its challenge, to grasp its implications, is the manifest, the
inescapable and urgent duty of every member of the Baha'i communities now
laboring so assiduously in the Western Hemisphere. May the cumulative
effect of their concentrated and sustained labors shed further lustre on
the concluding years of this, the first century of the Baha'i Era.

August 15, 1942

ACCLAIM WITH GRATEFUL HEART

Acclaim with grateful heart, on twenty-first Anniversary of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
Ascension, the glorious emergence of the firmly-welded, incorruptible
American Baha'i community from severest crisis since His passing which the
blindness of the breakers of Baha'u'llah's and 'Abdu'l-Baha's Covenants
has, amidst His kindred, and in the City of the Covenant, recently
tragically precipitated. Posterity will unhesitatingly recognize so
spontaneous, shining, stirring demonstration of fidelity rendered alike to
the Lord of the Covenant and to its Center as a victory more enduring,
more momentous, than any triumphs, however notable, which the
standard-bearers of the Administrative Order, the champion builders of the
Temple, the stalwart executors of the Divine Plan have achieved or may yet
achieve in the closing years of the expiring First Baha'i Century. Nursed
since birth in the lap of the unfailing solicitude of the Center of the
Covenant, torch-bearer of the Divine Order recognized as child of that
Covenant, vanguard of that host destined to diffuse the Light of that same
Covenant over the face of the entire globe, American Baha'i community is
now assuming rightful place at the forefront of the world-wide, loyal,
unbreachable spiritual army of Baha'u'llah preparing, both in the East and
West, to launch still greater campaigns, scale loftier heights, at the
dawning of the Second Baha'i Century.

November 30, 1942

THE IMMORTAL LUA

The immortal Lua, m