Administrative efficiency and order should always be
accompanied by an equal degree of love, of devotion and of spiritual
development. Both of them are essential and to attempt to dissociate one from
the other is to deaden the body of the Cause. In these days, when the Faith is
still in its infancy, great care must be taken lest mere administrative routine
stifles the spirit which must feed the body of the Administration itself. That
spirit is its propelling force and the motivating power of its very life.
But as already emphasized, both the spirit and the form are
essential to the safe and speedy development of the Administration. To maintain
full balance between them is the main and unique responsibility of the
administrators of the Cause.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 10 December 1933 written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States and Canada; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, National Spiritual
Assembly)
