My well-beloved brethren and sisters in 'Abdu'l-Bahá: --
Despondent and sorrowful, though I be in these darksome days, yet whenever I call to mind the hopes our departed Master so confidently reposed in the friends in that Far-Eastern land, hope revives within me and drives away the gloom of His bereavement. As His attendant and secretary for well-nigh two years after the termination of the Great War, I recall so vividly the radiant joy that transfigured His Face wherever I opened before Him your supplications as well as those of Miss Agnes Alexander. What promises He gave us all regarding the future of the Cause in that land at the close of almost every supplication I read to Him! Let me state, straightway, the most emphatic, the most inspiring of them all. These are His very words, that still keep ringing in my ears; -- "Japan will turn ablaze! Japan is endowed with a most remarkable capacity for the spread of the Cause of God! Japan, with (another country whose name He stated but bade us conceal it for the present) will take the lead in the spiritual reawakening of the peoples and nations that the world shall soon witness!" On another occasion, -- how vividly I recall it! -- as He reclined on His chair, with eyes closed with bodily fatigue, He waved His hand and uttered vigorously and cheerfully these words in the presence of His friends: -- "Here we are seated calm, quiet and inactive, but the Hand of the Unseen is ever active and triumphant in lands, even as distant as Japan."
My dear and steadfast friends! Now if ever is the time for you and for us to show, by our unity, service, steadfastness and courage, the spirit that the Master has throughout His lifetime so laboriously, so persistently kindled in our hearts. Now is the time for us to prove ourselves worthy of His love for us, His trust in us and His hopes for us. Japan, He said, will turn ablaze. Let us not, in any way, whatsoever, retard the realization of His promise. Nay, let us hasten, through our service, cooperation and efforts the advent of this glorious day.
The bereaved Ladies of the Holy Household, receive with comfort and refreshing gladness any news that may come to them from that wonderful and distant land. They all know what the Master has graciously spoken about the future of the Cause in that land. They all expect from it a rapid transformation, a spiritual transformation even more sudden and startling than its material progress and advancement, for the Power of God can achieve wonders still greater than those the brilliant minds of the Japanese can achieve. This they firmly believe, for more than once, the Master has spoken of the spiritual potentialities hidden in the nature of these capable people. They all await with eagerness the joyful-tidings that your letters to them shall bear in future.
We all wish so much to know more about you, about your little rising Bahá'í community, your number, your meetings, your activities, your difficulties, your plans, your distribution all over Japan and the neighbouring islands. We shall all pray for you most fervently and in a special manner at all the three Hallowed Shrines and beseech the Master, under whose wings we are all, to guide you, to sustain you in your work for Him.
I shall never fail to send you all the news I receive from different parts of the Bahá'í world that you may know of the efforts and triumphs our brethren, the loved ones of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, are achieving and will achieve after Him.
Persia, the leading nation in the Bahá'í world, today will, I am confident, through its centre, Tihran, communicate with you all, that the East and West, even as our Beloved One has so much wished it, may become even as one.
The letter our dear sister, Miss Agnes Alexander, had written to Mr. Fujita, gave us such a joy and was read at the sorrowful gathering of His friends, in the very room He used to receive His friends and meet them every night.
Ever awaiting your joyful news,
I am, your devoted brother in His love and service,
Shoghi
(January 26, 1922)
(Shoghi Effendi, ‘Japan Will Turn Ablaze’, pp. 58-59)
