aid and counsel of their local and national representatives, supplement
these official functions with those opportunities which only a close and
intimate social intercourse can adequately provide. In their homes, in
their hours of relaxation and leisure, in the daily contact of business
transactions, in the association of their children, whether in their
study-classes, their playgrounds, and club-rooms, in short under all
possible circumstances, however insignificant they appear, the community
of the followers of Baha'u'llah should satisfy themselves that in the eyes
of the world at large and in the sight of their vigilant Master they are
the living witnesses of those truths which He fondly cherished and
tirelessly championed to the very end of His days. If we relax in our
purpose, if we falter in our faith, if we neglect the varied opportunities
given us from time to time by an all-wise and gracious Master, we are not
merely failing in what is our most vital and conspicuous obligation, but
are thereby insensibly retarding the flow of those quickening energies
which can alone insure the vigorous and speedy development of God's
struggling Faith.

I would particularly address my appeal to you, as the Trustees of God's
sacred Faith, to reaffirm by word and deed the spirit and character of the
insistent admonitions of 'Abdu'l-Baha, so solemnly and so explicitly
uttered in the course of His journeys through your land--a trust which it
is your privilege and function to preserve and fortify.

May the varied opportunities presented by the forthcoming assembly of the
friends at Green Acre this summer--a place so admirably suited to the
realization of such a noble ideal--be fully utilized to further this noble
end. May it, on one hand, serve to banish once and for all every misgiving
and mistrust as to the attitude that should characterize the conduct of
the members of the Baha'i family, and, on the other, serve to familiarize
the invited public with that aspect of our Faith which, owing to the
pressure of circumstances, a few have inclined to belittle or ignore.

Green Acre--a Testing Ground

It is my earnest hope and prayer that the forthcoming gathering at Green
Acre, the program for which has been so carefully and judiciously
prepared, may serve as a testing ground for the application of those
ideals and standards that are the distinguishing features of the
Revelation of Baha'u'llah. May the assembled believers--no