Dearly beloved friends it’s a very
great pleasure for Mrs. Ioas and myself to be in South Africa in the city of
Johannesburg to meet the friends here and to have an opportunity to talk with
them about the Bahá’í Faith, and particularly this evening about our beloved
Guardian, Shoghi Effendi.
If the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith in South Africa, in this difficult
area, and it’s very difficult, the very fact that it is difficult will bring
about great results in the future, and will produce great Bahá’í teachers and
great Bahá’í workers.
Teaching the Cause is disseminating the power of the Holy Spirit, and when you
become a teacher of the Cause you become a channel through which the Holy
Spirit descends into the world and goes out to those to whom you teach. So
actually, the teacher secures greater benefit than the one whom he teaches,
because he is then in contact with the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the Holy Land where we, Mrs. Ioas and I, had the privilege of serving the
beloved Guardian for six years, you learned a little bit of what it meant to be
in contact with the Holy Spirit directly, because you were continuously in the
presence of the beloved Guardian, and, as you know, he was like a generator of
spiritual power. When you met the Guardian, you could just feel his spiritual
power, this penetrating light through your very being, and to move continuously
in that power, in that force, is not an easy thing. It was something to aspire
to, but I don’t think very many of us actually achieved, very much in the way
of nearness to his spirit. The power of the emanating guidance of God descended
upon Shoghi Effendi at all times, and in all things he did, and in all of his
ways and his actions and deeds, you could see the supreme guidance which he was
receiving in the carrying on of Bahá’í work.
