As for your comment that the Faith has a need for selfless,
love-intoxicated followers, for people of outstanding spiritual endowments, for
powerful, eloquent speakers and for men of material resources and talents to
vindicate the truth of our beloved Cause, the Guardian instructed me to write:
"What is needed is excellence of character and conduct,
and compliance with the laws revealed by Bahá'u'lláh -- these are the magnets
that attract divine confirmation, and the means of establishing the
validity and uniqueness of the Cause of the All-Glorious."
He further bade me write:
"The removal of imperfections is a gradual process.
Constant advice and admonition are necessary so that, step by step, the
community may make good the various deficiencies that beset it and run its
affairs on a planned and orderly basis."
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 12 January
1946 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual belieber, The
Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Trustworthiness: A Cardinal Bahá'í Virtue)
