Fierce and manifold will be the assaults with which
governments, races, classes and religions, jealous of its rising prestige and fearful
of its consolidating strength, will seek to silence its voice and sap its
foundations. Unmoved by the relative obscurity that surrounds it at the present
time, and undaunted by the forces that will be arrayed against it in the
future, this community, I cannot but feel confident, will, no matter how
afflictive the agonies of a travailing age, pursue its destiny, undeflected in
its course, undimmed in its serenity, unyielding in its resolve, unshaken in
its convictions. (In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a letter
dated 5 July 1938 written on his behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the United States and Canada, published in "Messages to America: Selected
Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá'ís of North America 1932-1946";
The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Opposition)
