Whenever one thinks of Canada one thinks of cultivation. Out
of her virgin forests, her wildernesses, her barren North lands and lakes, has
already been wrung a great and promising nation. The darkness of nature, as the
Master said, has given way to cultivation and out of imperfection has arisen
the splendour of government, industry, trade, settlement, and the arts and
sciences of human life. But spiritually the land is still dark, promising, but
dark. Primarily the measure of spirituality radiated by your national body will
be the measure of Bahá’u’lláh’s light directly available for Canada. For He
created the concept of your institution. You exist because of the functions He
desired you to perform, and your fundamental function is to be the spiritual
heart of Canada.
- Ruhiyyih Khanum (From an address to the first national convention
assembled in the drawing room of her girlhood home in Montreal; published in
the forward section of “Messages to Canada”)
