He is, indeed, fully alive to the difficulties which the
friends, not only in your centre but all around the world, are daily
encountering in their attempt to establish and perfect the administrative
machinery of the Faith. These difficulties and obstacles, however, he considers
to be inevitable, inherent as they are in the very process through which the
Cause of Bahá'u'lláh is destined to develop and to eventually establish its
ascendancy in the world. Not only are such difficulties inevitable, but they
should be viewed, indeed, as constituting a God-given test whereby the friends
can, and will assuredly, enrich and perfect the spiritual and moral energies
latent in them, and in this way help in establishing that Divine civilization
promised to them by God.
Trials and sufferings, Bahá'u'lláh has repeatedly warned us
in His Tablets, are even as the oil that feeds the lamp. The Cause cannot
reveal its full splendour unless and until it encounters and successfully
overcomes the very obstacles that every now and then stand in its way, and for
some time appear to threaten its very foundations. Such obstacles, tests and
trials are indeed blessings in disguise, and as such are bound to help in
promoting the Faith.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 31 July
1935 to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, Crisis
and Victory)
