The day will come when the Cause will spread like wildfire
when its spirit and teachings will be presented on the stage or in art and
literature as a whole. Art can better awaken such noble sentiments than cold
rationalizing, especially among the mass of the people.
We have to wait only a few years to see how the spirit
breathed by Bahá'u'lláh will find expression in the work of the artists. What
you and some other Bahá'ís are attempting are only faint rays that precede the
effulgent light of a glorious morn. We cannot yet value the part the Cause is
destined to play in the life of society. We have to give it time. The material
this spirit has to mould is too crude and unworthy, but it will at last give
way and the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh will reveal itself in its full splendour.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 10 October 1932, cited in
"Bahá'í News", 73, May 1933; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I,
Arts and Crafts)
