Messages to Canada
Author: Shoghi Effendi
Source: Bahá’í Canada Publications
Pages: 276
Pages 2-7   

The Guardian’s First Letter to Canada

[From the Guardian:]

2 January 1923

The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout Canada

c/o the members of the Spiritual Assembly in Montreal

Dear friends!
It is a great pleasure and privilege to me to enter into direct and I trust permanent correspondence with those faithful friends of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who, though few in number and scattered over that vast and flourishing country, will I trust act as a powerful leaven to the mass of that spiritually-minded people.
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 long-standing 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 reawakening of that land.
May the small company of the steadfast followers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Canada be filled with the outpourings of the Divine Grace that are being showered so mightily in these days upon the friends of God the world over, and may they arise with undiminished fervour to carry out to their fullest measure the last wishes and instructions of our departed Master for that great and flourishing Dominion!

With all good wishes, Your brother and co-worker,

Shoghi
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