April 21, 1933: To Baha’is in American Continent

Fellow believers in the American continent!  Great indeed have been your past and present achievements! Immeasurably greater are the wonders which the future has in store for you! The Edifice your sacrifices have raised still remains to be clothed. The House (Universal House of Justice) which must needs be supported by the highest administrative institution your hands have reared, is as yet built. The provisions of the chief Repository of those laws that must govern its operation are thus far mostly undisclosed. The Standard (of the Most Great Peace) which, if 'Abdu’l-Baha’s wishes are to be fulfilled, must be raised in your own country has yet to be unfurled. The Unity of which that standard is to be the symbol is far from being yet established. The machinery which must needs incarnate and preserve that unity is not even created. Will it be America, will it be one of the countries of Europe, who will arise to assume the leadership essential to the shaping of the destinies of this troubled Age? Will America allow any of her sister communities in East or West to achieve such ascendency as shall deprive her of that spiritual Primacy with she has been invested and which she has thus far so nobly retained? Will she not rather contribute, by a still further revelation of those inherent powers that motivate her life, to enhance the priceless privilege which the love and wisdom of a departed Master have conferred upon her?
Shoghi Effendi
April 21, 1933.
(Baha’i News, November 1933)