Conscious of the state of the National Fund, and realizing
the urgency of the task facing its administrators, I have felt the urge to
devote the offering of the American believers to the International Fund to the
work which is now vitally facing and challenging the friends in the teaching
field. Much as I appreciated the spirit prompting you and your fellow-members
to make this monthly contribution to the Cause at its World Centre, I felt that
it was my duty to consecrate this offering, while the Seven Year Plan is still
operating, to that vital aspect of teaching upon which its success must ultimately
depend. May the friends, in view of the vastness of the field that stretches
before them, and the potentialities of their labours within it, and of the
glowing promise of future blessings which such a labour must yield, rise to
still greater heights of self-sacrifice and evince nobler manifestations of
solidarity in the face of the critical situation that so insistently demands
their support.
Shoghi Effendi (In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a letter
dated 26 October 1941 to the Treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly of
the United States and Canada, published in "Bahá'í News" 149,
December 1941; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Funds and
Contributions)
