Every day has certain needs. In those early days the Cause
needed Martyrs, and people who would stand all sorts of torture and persecution
in expressing their faith and spreading the message sent by God. Those days
are, however, gone. The Cause at present does not need martyrs who would die
for the faith, but servants who desire to teach and establish the Cause
throughout the world. To live to teach in the present day is like being
martyred in those early days. It is the spirit that moves us that counts, not
the act through which that spirit expresses itself; and that spirit is to serve
the Cause of God with our heart and soul.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 3 August 1932
written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, quoted in
"Bahá'í News", 68, Nov 1932; The Compilation of Compilations, vol.
II, Living the Life)
