As to the National Assembly, whose inescapable
responsibility is to guard the integrity, co-ordinate the activities, and
stimulate the life, of the entire community, its chief concern, at the present
moment, should be to anxiously deliberate as how best to enable both individual
believers and Local Assemblies to fulfil their respective tasks. Through their
repeated appeals, through their readiness to dispel all misunderstandings and
remove all obstacles, through the example of their lives, their unrelaxing
vigilance, their high sense of justice, their humility, consecration and
courage, they must demonstrate to those whom they represent their capacity to
play their part in the progress of the Plan in which they, no less than the
rest of the community, are involved. May the all-conquering Spirit of
Bahá'u'lláh be so infused into each component part of this harmoniously
functioning System as to enable it to contribute its proper share to the
consummation of the Plan.
- Shoghi Effendi (In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a
letter dated 30 January 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, National Spiritual
Assembly)
