By the sublimity and serenity of their faith, by the
steadiness and clarity of their vision, the incorruptibility of their
character, the rigor of their discipline, the sanctity of their morals, and the
unique example of their community life, they can and indeed must in a world
polluted with its incurable corruptions, paralyzed by its haunting fears, torn
by its devastating hatreds, and languishing under the weight of its appalling
miseries demonstrate the validity of their claim to be regarded as the sole repository
of that grace upon whose operation must depend the complete deliverance, the
fundamental reorganization and the supreme felicity of all mankind.
(Shoghi Effendi, from a letter dated
July 28, 1939; ‘Messages to America’)
