San Francisco is “similar in its atmosphere and peaceful surroundings to the Holy Land”

It is indeed gratifying to learn how your flourishing city, so rich and splendid in its material gifts, so similar in its atmosphere and peaceful surroundings to the Holy Land, and potentially endowed with such spiritual capacity, is now taking a leading part in lending a fresh impetus to the onward march of the Movement in regions which, though distant and remote, are yet so near and dear to the Master's heart.

 May your patient efforts be crowned with signal success and may the Light of this Divine Revelation so illumine your city as to justify the high hopes which our Beloved had confidently reposed in every one of you. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated December 30, 1922 to Baha’is of San Francisco; Star of the West, Vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

Chicago to become “the throbbing centre of Baha’i activities throughout” America

May I assure you in this short message of mine of my sincere admiration for and firm attachment to those old and tried believers who have been engaged ever since the earliest days of the Cause in that land in the noble pursuit of spreading far and wide the Universal Teachings of Baha'u'llah.

Your city so far famed for its intimate association with the history of the rise of the Mashreq’ul-Azkar will, I trust, witness in the not distant future while this majestic Structure is being raised a swift regeneration in the spiritual lives of its inhabitants, that it may become truly the throbbing centre of Baha’i activities throughout the land.

We all look forward with eager hearts to the time when this noble Edifice, with all its various accessories completed, will become the focal centre of spiritual, humanitarian and intellectual achievements to which the friends of that city, the pioneers of such a glorious work, will have a distinct share to contribute.

(Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated December 29, 1922 to Baha’is of Chicago; Star of the West, Vol. 13, March 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

How to win over people who are firm in their religious beliefs

Though its people be firmly entrenched in their religious sectarianism and strongly attached to their religious doctrines and traditions, yet who can doubt that with courage and persistence, kindliness and wisdom, the all-conquering words of Bahá'u'lláh can fail to break down all these barriers of prejudice and religious exclusiveness and conquer this longstanding stronghold of sectarian belief!

Surely the efficacy of the universal Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh as applied to the cherished and time-honoured religious traditions of the East, has been sufficiently demonstrated to justify at present our confident hopes for the future and speedy re-awakening of that land. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a message to Baha’is of Canada, dated 2, January, 1923; Messages to Canada, p. 3) (To see the entire message please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The Guardian welcomes receiving communications from the members of British NSA and the friends

I would be pleased and grateful if the members of the Spiritual Assembly would at any time inform me of their needs, wants and desires, their plans and activities, that I may through my prayers and brotherly assistance contribute, however meagrely, to the success of their glorious mission in this world.

To my extreme regret, I feel unable in view of my manifold and pressing duties, and owing to the extraordinary extension of the Movement in recent times, to correspond with the friends individually and express to them in writing what I always feel in the depth of my heart of brotherly affection and abiding gratitude for their love and sympathy for me. I shall, however, await with eager expectation their individual letters and assure them of my readiness and wish to be of any service to them in their work for the Cause.

The Guardian started “correspondence with every Baha’i local centre throughout the East” – encouraging sharing of news between East and West

I am now starting correspondence with every Bahá'í local centre throughout the East and will not fail to instruct and urge the believers everywhere to send directly through their respective spiritual local Assemblies the joyful tidings of the progress of the Cause, in the form of regular detailed reports, to the various assemblies of their spiritual brethren and sisters in the West. England, I am confident, will regularly and consistently receive, directly, and indirectly through the "Star of the West" and the "Bahá'í News" of India, a large share of such tidings from Persia, Caucasus, Turkestan, India, Turkey and Mesopotamia, North Africa and Egypt. It would be most gratifying and encouraging to all earnest workers for the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh if every now and then a report on the spiritual activities of the friends in Great Britain, as well as articles on spiritual matters, would be submitted for publication to the above-mentioned periodicals. It would, I feel very strongly, react very favourably on the Cause in England, and would serve to draw closer the ties that bind all spiritual centres together at the present time.  (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 23, December, 1922 to the Baha’is of Great Britain; Unfolding Destiny, p. 12) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

Dr. Esslemont’s book, Baha’u’llah and the New Era, gives the “finest and most effective presentation of the various aspects of the Cause to the mind of the Oriental as well as to that of the Westerner.”

I am enclosing various suggestions of Mr. Dreyfus-Barney and of Mr. Roy Wilhelm made by them at my request, during their last sojourn in the Holy Land. I submit them to Dr. Esslemont's consideration as well as to that of the Spiritual Assembly. I very deeply regret my inability to give the attention I desire to this admirable work of his, but will assuredly do all in my power to aid him in the final stages of his work. I am certain however that the book as it now stands gives the finest and most effective presentation of the various aspects of the Cause to the mind of the Oriental as well as to that of the Westerner. May it arouse a genuine and widespread interest in the Cause throughout the world. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter to the Baha’is of Britain, dated 23 December, 1922; Unfolding Destiny p. 12) (To see the entire letter please visist Messages to the Baha’i World)

The very first letter from the West that reached the Guardian after his temporary absence and return to the Holy Land

I have during the last few days been waiting eagerly for the first written messages of my Western friends, sent to me since they have learned of my return to the Holy Land. How great was the joy when dear Miss Rosenberg's letter -- the very first that reached me from the West -- was handed to me this evening, bearing the joyful news of the safety, the unity and the happiness of my British friends across the seas! I read it and re-read it with particular pleasure and felt a thrill of delight at the welcome news of the harmonious and efficient functioning of your Spiritual Assembly.

Casting the “seeds of faith and loving fellowship ... in the soil of hearts”

I have shared fully your news with those loving pilgrims and resident friends in the Holy Land whom I meet regularly in what was in the past the audience-chamber of the Master and who thirst after the tidings of the progress of the Cause in every land. They, and myself with them, will pray most fervently for every one of you that the seeds of faith and loving fellowship that you are casting in the soil of hearts may germinate and swell the ever increasing number of the valiant hosts of Bahá and enable them to attain glorious victory. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter addressed to the Baha’is of Australia, 20 December, 1922; Messages to Antipodes, p.1) (To see the entire letter, please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The “Spirit of Faith and Peace as revealed in the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh” "will" eventually “fill the world and the darkness of strife” will “be no more”

Having returned to the Holy Land with a renewed vigour and a refreshed spirit, I shall not fail with the help of the Master to do my part in enabling you to carry on further and still further the Glorious Standard of Baha to the very heart and uttermost confines of Germany and thus hasten the Day when the Spirit of Faith and Peace as revealed in the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh will fill the world and the darkness of strife be no more. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 17 December 1922 to the Baha’is of Germany; The Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 8) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)