n the arrayed splendor of its dome--a dome that shall stand as a flaming
beacon and a symbol of hope amidst the gloom of a despairing world.

Your true brother,
SHOGHI

Haifa, Palestine,
March 21, 1932

AMERICA AND THE MOST GREAT PEACE

America and the Most Great Peace

To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
the United States and Canada.

Friends and fellow-promoters of the Faith of God:

Forty years will have elapsed ere the close of this coming summer since
the name of Baha'u'llah was first mentioned on the American continent.
Strange indeed must appear to every observer, pondering in his heart the
significance of so great a landmark in the spiritual history of the great
American Republic, the circumstances which have attended this first public
reference to the Author of our beloved Faith. Stranger still must seem the
associations which the brief words uttered on that historic occasion must
have evoked in the minds of those who heard them.

Of pomp and circumstance, of any manifestations of public rejoicing or of
popular applause, there were none to greet this first intimation(1) to
America's citizens of the existence and purpose of the Revelation
proclaimed by Baha'u'llah. Nor did he who was its chosen instrument
profess himself a believer in the indwelling potency of the tidings he
conveyed, or suspect the magnitude of the forces which so cursory a
mention was destined to release.

Announced through the mouth of an avowed supporter of that narrow
ecclesiasticism which the Faith itself has challenged and seeks to
extirpate, characterized at the moment of its birth as an obscure offshoot
of a contemptible creed, the Message of the Most Great Name, fed by
streams of unceasing trial and warmed by the sunshine of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
tender care, has succeeded in driving its roots deep into America's genial
soil, has in less than half a century sent out its shoots and tendrils as
far as the remotest corners of the globe, and now stands, clothed in the
majesty of the consecrated Edifice it has reared in the heart of that
continent, determined to proclaim its right and vindicate its capacity to
redeem a stricken people. Unsupported by any of the advantages which
talent, rank and riches can confer, the community of the American
believers, despite its tender age, its numerical strength, its limited
experience, has by virtue of the inspired wisdom, the united will, the
in