. As to the National Assembly, whose
inescapable responsibility is to guard the integrity, coordinate the
activities, and stimulate the life, of the entire community, its chief
concern at the present moment should be to anxiously deliberate on how
best to enable both individual believers and local Assemblies to fulfil
their respective tasks. Through their repeated appeals, through their
readiness to dispel all misunderstandings and remove all obstacles,
through the example of their lives, and their unrelaxing vigilance, their
high sense of justice, their humility, consecration and courage, they must
demonstrate to those whom they represent their capacity to play their part
in the progress of the Plan in which they, no less than the rest of the
community, are involved. May the all-conquering Spirit of Baha'u'llah be
so infused into each component part of this harmoniously functioning
System as to enable it to contribute its proper share to the consummation
of the plan.

January 30, 1938

A YEAR HAS ALMOST ELAPSED

A year has almost elapsed since the Seven Year Plan has been launched with
characteristic vigor and noble enthusiasm by the American Baha'i
Community. For no less than six consecutive years this two-fold and
stupendous enterprise, which has been set in operation, must, if the
American believers are to prove themselves worthy of their high calling,
be wisely conducted, continually reinforced and energetically prosecuted
to its very end. Severe and unprecedented as may be the internal tests and
ordeals which the members of this Community may yet experience, however
tragic and momentous the external happenings which might well disrupt the
fabric of the society in which they live, they must not throughout these
six remaining years, allow themselves to be deflected from the course they
are now steadily pursuing. Nay, rather, as the impelling forces which have
set in motion this mighty undertaking acquire added momentum and its
potentialities are more fully manifested, they who are responsible for its
success must as time goes on evince a more burning enthusiasm, demonstrate
a higher sense of solidarity, reveal greater depths of consecration to
their task, and display a more unyielding determination to achieve its
purpose. Then, and only then, will the pleas, the hopes and wishes of
'Abdu'l-Baha, eternally enshrined in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, be
worthily acknowledged and fulfilled. "Let your exert