The Guardian

“ It is on young and active Bahá’ís, like you, that the Guardian centers all his hopes for the future progress and expansion of the Cause and it is on their shoulders that he lays all the responsibility for the upkeep of the spirit of selfless service among their fellow-believers. ”

“ The Guardian hopes that this will give the friends a further opportunity to make new contacts, and to draw more competent and sincere people to the Cause. He is fully alive to the difficulties facing the friends at the present time. ”

“ The Guardian sends his message of consolation to your honoured self and all the friends, and he says that it is fitting that the righteous should hold fast to the cord of resignation and acquiescence, and adorn themselves with the ornaments of faithfulness and servitude, and take for their example that priceless treasure of the Kingdom. ”

“ Far greater tasks lie ahead, but the Guardian does not feel that the way to meet them is to change the present system but rather to perfect it by educating the believers and training them, holding more conferences, publishing more news for Bahá’ís, getting more people active. ”

“ The Guardian himself is eagerly looking forward to the pleasure of meeting her, and cherishes the hope that through this pilgrimage she may receive a renewed stimulus to better work for the promotion of the Faith upon her return home. ”

“ I have always considered the press as the protector of our freedom, as a watchful guardian, capable of uniting the weak against the encroachments of power. What concerns the public most properly admits of a public discussion. ”

“ The Guardian will pray for the success of all the activities of the friends, and for the guidance and confirmation of the National Assembly.
The funds representing the proceeds of sale of the shares, given by Mrs. ... have come to hand, amounting to 346.9.10 Sterling. The Guardian has asked that you express his deep appreciation to Mrs. ... for this loving contribution, which will be used in the construction of the Shrine of the Báb. ”

“ And perhaps the word “guardian” in the fullest sense ought to be applied to this higher class only who preserve us against foreign enemies and maintain peace among our citizens at home, that the one may not have the will, or the others the power, to harm us. The young men whom we before called guardians may be more properly designated auxiliaries and supporters of the principles of the rulers. ”

“ Originally, the Press in all countries, was intended to be the most magnificent institution of the civilized world,—the voice of truth, of liberty, of justice—a voice which in its clamant utterances could neither be bribed nor biassed to cry out false news. ”

“ Seldom, perhaps, has anything illustrated more vividly that great and distinctive condition of modern existence in free countries,—the double power wielded by the newspaper press, at once as the ubiquitous instructor and as the rapid interpreter of a national mind. ”

“ For this vigilance, and indeed for almost all that keeps up in us, permanently and effectually, the spirit of regard to liberty and the public good, we must look to the unshackled and independent energies of the press. ”

“ You know I regard public opinion as the sixth great power of Europe--perhaps as the first--and the press, the organ of this great power, I wish to use as a mainspring of royalty. I desire to hear what the people say and think, and, in the organs of the government alone, to see my wishes and intentions expressed. I wish to know the real thoughts and opinions of the people, whether they are right or wrong, and I wish the people to know my views and desires. Thus perfect openness exists between my subjects and myself, and the interests of the crown are furthered. ”

“ The Press is the great circulating medium through which she speaks to thouands in one breath, and sends truth over a whole Empire with lightning speed; thousands of Volumes of God's Word are cast abroad among the Nations of Earth's teeming millions; by means of which, we can converse with distant friends. Through the Press, the justice of God is vindicated—truth, love and mercy, shown in their true positions and relations—the social, civil and political rights of man are advocated. ”

“ We can scarcely take up a newspaper without reading of their Royal Highnesses performing some public duty or lending their presence for the support of some charitable institution, combining as they do this honourable desire to do good with the most gracious manner—a graciousness which, I venture to say, does not proceed from mere courtly education, but from the genuine impulses of good and noble natures. ”

“ I speak to the plain understanding of the people, and appeal to their honest, liberal construction of me.
⁠Good men, to whom alone I address myself, appear to me to consult their piety as little as their judgment and experience, when they admit the great and essential advantages accruing to society from the freedom of the press, yet indulge themselves in peevish or passionate exclamations against the abuses of it. ”

“ To ask the Times, or any other reasonable political paper, to take a general purely humanistic standing point, and to ground its verdicts on the politics of the day, on the eternal laws of the history of civilization, and of moral philosophy; to ask it, in short, to write morals instead of politics, is absurd; and he who can make such a demand, knows nothing whatever of the position or the duties of a political journal. ”

“ If our newspapers are, indeed, as they claim to be, "the centinels of liberty," it is their duty not merely to watch, but to point out the quarter from which danger may be apprehended, and to give the alarm when it approaches. ”

“ If a press be not the most powerful means for our elevation, it is the most immediately necessary. Education of the intellect, of the will, and of character, is, doubtless, a powerful—perhaps the most powerful means for our advancement ”

“ Many outside forces, however, do go to influence public opinion. The most obvious of these forces are parental influence, the school room, the press, motion pictures, advertising, magazines, lectures, the church, the radio. ”

“ Journalism became a power of tremendous magnitude and extent. People read leading articles by torchlight, and shouted out to the moon apostrophes to liberty, ay, ‘liberty, equality, fraternity.’ These three talismanic words, too often devoid of meaning in the apprehension of those who shouted them with a fervour sufficient to split the ears of the groundlings. ”

“ You have seldom or never had the truth spoken to you when you have been directly addressed. You have been called the enlightened Public, the generous Public, the judicious Public, the liberal Public, the discerning Public, and so forth. Nay your bare title THE PUBLIC, oftentimes stands alone par excellence in its plain majesty like that of the king, as if needing no affix to denote its inherent and pre-eminent importance. ”

“ I would counsel prudence, although this evil day demands of us courage and self-sacrifice.... We should spare no pains through the press, by conversation, and by public addresses, particularly by faithful discourses from the pulpits, to cherish and quicken the sense of right and the love of liberty in the hearts of the people. ”

“ At first, seeming to feel that every passer-by, white or black, must fathom and divine his secret. he presently gained self-confidence once more. Even a pride, a sense of power now began to grow in him.
That he, just one of the army of underlings in a minor office, should by chance hold in his hands—skilled only to the typewriter and the reporter’s pencil—secrets of state, perhaps, matters of life, death, national fate, the destiny of nations, thrilled him with a sudden flare of joy. ”

“ These publications imparted to the common mind of England that knowledge which is power, and, in conjunction with the political press, taught the people the nature and value of their rights, and inspired them with courage to demand and defend them. ”

“ And other auspicious signs exist, the chief of which I think are that a new zeal is manifested in the cause of education; that people of all creeds come together as they never did before to help in good works; that an independent press, bent on enlightening, not deceiving, the people, is making itself heard and respected ”

“ A little later The Boston Herald, in an editorial on the "dignity of the penny press," said, among other things :" The time has come when the respectable portion of the community no longer looks to the big sixpenny, lying oracles of politics for just notions on government, exalted piety, or pure and chaste morality. ”

“ Thus there is open to the journalist a new and interesting province for his labours, and he who does not shrink from his duty, and does his spiriting gently and with discretion, will be the most likely to be followed and appreciated by that greatest of all critics—the Public. ”

“ A courageous independence and integrity of purpose, coupled with a fearless expression of truth as to all public individuals, corporations and parties, are the features in its character to be most encouraged.
"My own observation is that the Press rarely does injustice to a thoroughly honest man or cause. ”

“ These are the men—and there are more, too, I might name—who came forward with their touch upon the pulse of the nation when the day of the daily newspaper as a leader of enlightened public opinion had waned. ”

“ Now in order to meet with success, let us take up the press. In our country, unfortunately, an unchristian press is guaranteed the fullest liberty, and the evils that flow from that liberty are widely spread. ”

“ Far from recording fairly what was passing in the world of politics, the principal object of the great mass of public writers, and more especially of the conductors of public newspapers, was to disguise and conceal the truth; they were all in the pay, or under the influence, of the two great political factions, the Ins and the Outs, the Tories and the Whigs, both interested in keeping the people in the dark. ”

“ We promise the public a paper worthy of their patronage, and our people one that will be ever vigilant in their defence when their rights, privileges and opportunities are trammelled, We shall be no less active in speaking our opinion concerning any faults, short-comings, and indiscretions of our own people. ”

“ The Press, of late Years, has been productive of so many cogent and persuasive Arguments for Liberty of debate, and the Advocates for this Liberty, in the Judgment of the impartial and considerate, have so far gotten the better of their Adversaries, that I wonder any one can appear in behalf of Persecution. ”

“ For instance, if a newspaper is undertaking a crusade against midwives or pawnshops or certain political leaders, it gives those institutions or those persons little or no credit for the good they accomplish, nor does it feature impartially in its news articles their good and bad acts. ”

“ All foreigners were forbidden by restrictive laws from attending even to their own business and interests: now you appreciate a true policy, and your enlightened Government is ready to further public opinion in the promotion of your riches, strength, and happiness, as well as to assist these, by disseminating through the press the political opinions of great and wise men—without fear of the Inquisition, the faggot, or the stake. ”

“ You know well that that government always kept a kind of standing army of news writers who without any regard to truth, or to what should be like truth, invented & put into the papers whatever might serve the minister. ”

“ And what is a still greater novelty, the mass do not now take their opinions from dignitaries in Church or State, from ostensible leaders, or from books. Their thinking is done for them by men much like themselves, addressing them or speaking in their name, on the spur of the moment, through the newspapers. ”

“ How reluctant I feel to close this inerudite developement of the most important and useful ideas the press has ever presented to the discusion and contemplation of man! The present state of civil commotions demands urgently, from every thinking being, the whole scope of thought and reflection, to discover a happy basis, and fixed principles of civil union. ”

“ I am making this public through the Press, in order that the danger which threatens, not necessarily myself, but any public man who runs counter to the wishes of this sinister force, should be recognised. ”

“ In order that the Press may fill the rôle of educator of the people, leader of the masses, it must adhere to a political, social, and moral ideal, frankly sincere, and with a personal sense of the beautiful.
The opinions of honest, enlightened minds, freed from the snare of time-serving, would be offered to society, instead of such as corrupt{122} individual aspirations or bring a ferment of confusion into the different social spheres. ”

“ I advised him to respect it profoundly and at the same time to establish a State press. “The State without a newspaper, in the midst of newspapers,” I observed, “restricting itself to governing while publicity and polemics are the rule, reminds one of the knights of the fifteenth century who obstinately persisted in fighting against cannon with swords; they were always beaten. ”

“ Let the reader ask himself. Are all Departments of the Government patriotic? Is it not a fact that the public are daily being misled and bamboozled? Let the reader examine the evidence and then think. ”

“ This power, which is popularly termed public sentiment is, in this country at least, the most potential agency which can be brought to bear upon the errors or vices of the age, in whatever form they may be presented. ”