22: BAHa'iS (DESTINY OF)

"I, for my part, am determined to reinforce the impulse that impels its members forward to meet their destiny. The Founders of their Faith survey from the Kingdom on high the range of their achievements, acclaim their progress, and are ever ready to speed their eventual triumph."

23: BAHa'iS--NEW (ON ADMITTANCE OF NEW APPLICANTS)

"He has noted with care what you had written him regarding the question of admittance of applicants into the Cause. This is certainly a matter which calls for the utmost tact, wisdom and consideration on the part of Baha'i a.s.semblies. While, as he himself has repeatedly stressed, a uniform procedure should be adopted and followed whereby every applicant should be required to express his whole-hearted and unconditional acceptance of the essential verities of the Cause, great care should also be taken not to insist on matters of a secondary importance which the newcomer cannot, for obvious reasons, fully grasp and apprehend at the beginning. Once the applicant has been admitted in the Community with a clear understanding of the duties and responsibilities, and essential implications which such membership entails, there would be no difficulty for him in gradually adjusting his whole ideas according to the requirements set forth in the Teachings. The process of becoming a Baha'i is necessarily slow and gradual. The essential is not that the beginner should have a full and detailed knowledge of the Cause, a thing which is obviously impossible in the vast majority of cases, but that he should, by an act of his own will, be willing to uphold and follow the truth and guidance set forth in the Teachings, and thus open his heart and mind to the reality of the Manifestation."

24: BAHa'iS--NEW (ON PRESENTING THE MASTER'S WILL TO NEW APPLICANTS)

"Concerning the best method of presenting the Master's Will to the newcomers, Shoghi Effendi is of the opinion that the N.S.A. should first make some suitable extracts from the Testament and to send these to all the local a.s.semblies for their use, so that there may be full unity in circulating the provisions of the Will among the new believers. The problem of choosing such excerpts is left entirely to the discretion of the N.S.A. The main thing, as it appears to the Guardian, is that the full station of the Bab, Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha be clearly explained and that the origin, nature and working of the Administrative Order of the Faith be clearly stated. The full implications of such a recognition are evidently beyond the comprehension of any new believer. Such a knowledge can be acquired gradually and only when the essentials of the Faith have been clearly recognized and adequately understood."

25: BAHa'iS--NEW (QUALIFICATIONS OF A NEW BELIEVER)

"When a person becomes a Baha'i, he gives up the past only in the sense that he is a part of this new and living Faith of G.o.d, and must seek to pattern himself, in act and thought, along the lines laid down by Baha'u'llah. The fact that he is by origin a Jew or a Christian, a black man or a white man, is not important any more, but, as you say, lends color and charm to the Baha'i community in that it demonstrates unity in diversity."

26: BAHa'iS--NEW (THE "TWO EXTREMES" IN BRINGING IN NEW BAHa'iS)

"The believers must discriminate between the two extremes of bringing people into the Cause before they have fully grasped its fundamentals and making it too hard for them, expecting too much of them, before they accept them. This requires truly keen judgment, as it is unfair to people to allow them to embrace a movement the true meaning of which they have not fully grasped. It is equally unfair to expect them to be perfect Baha'is before they can enter the Faith. Many teaching problems arise out of these two extremes..."

27: BAHa'iS (TWO KINDS OF)

"There are two kinds of Baha'is, one might say: those whose religion is Baha'i and those who live for the Faith. Needless to say if we can belong to the latter category, if we can be in the vanguard of heroes, martyrs and saints, it is more praiseworthy in the sight of G.o.d."

28: BAHa'i WAY OF LIFE (THE STRENGTH OF THE CAUSE)

"It is good for the Baha'is to learn that being a Baha'i is essentially an inner thing, or way of life, and not dependent on fixed patterns.

Important as our organized Inst.i.tutions are, they are not the Faith itself. The strength of the Cause grows no matter how much disrupted its activities may temporarily be. This we see over and over again, in lands where the Faith has been temporarily banned; at times when the believers are persecuted and even killed; where they are serving all alone or scattered and isolated. So it has been a stimulating experience for the American believers to be without their schools for a few years, rather than a depressing one."

29: BAHa'U'LLaH (IN ACCEPTING)

"In accepting Baha'u'llah you have accepted Christ in His appearance as the Father, as He Himself so clearly foretold. The Catholic Church does not believe this; on the contrary, it still awaits the return of Christ.

If you decide, in order to be buried next to your dear husband, to return to the Church, you either would have to, in good faith, deny Baha'u'llah or you would be just using the church as a means to satisfy a desire of your own, which would certainly not be an upright and conscientious thing to do.

"When you think that your husband's soul is now free of the limitations of this world, and that he no doubt is beginning to see religious truth in its true light and to appreciate the station of Baha'u'llah, you should ask yourself whether he would wish you to leave the truth for this day and re-enter the church just for the sake of your dust being near his dust.

Your spirit, when you pa.s.s away, will be near his spirit; of what importance, then, is the body? He will pray for your guidance in this matter."

30: BELIEVERS, NEW (ACCEPT CAUSE WITHOUT QUALIFICATIONS)

"The believers, and particularly those who have not had sufficient experience in teaching, should be very careful in the way they present the teachings of the Cause. Sincerity, devotion and Faith are not the sole conditions of successful teaching. Tactfulness, extreme caution and wisdom are equally important. We should not be in a hurry when we announce the message to the public and we should be careful to present the teachings in their entirety and not to alter them for the sake of others. Allegiance to the Faith cannot be partial and half-hearted. Either we should accept the Cause without any qualification whatsoever or cease calling ourselves Baha'is. The new believers should be made to realize that it is not sufficient for them to accept some aspects of the teachings and reject those which cannot suit their mentality in order to become fully recognized and active followers of the Faith. In this way all sorts of misunderstandings will vanish and the organic unity of the Cause will be preserved."

31: BELIEVERS, REMOVAL OF

"Concerning the removal of believers I feel that such a vitally important matter should be given the most serious consideration and preferably be referred to the National a.s.sembly for further consideration and final decision. We should be slow to accept and reluctant to remove. I fully approve and whole-heartedly and unreservedly uphold the principle to which you refer that personalities should not be made centers around which the community may revolve but they should be subordinated under all conditions and however great their merits to the properly const.i.tuted a.s.semblies. You and your co-workers can never over-estimate or over-emphasize this cardinal principle of Baha'i Administration."