countries of the world, may be considered as the framework of the Will
itself, the inviolable stronghold wherein this new-born child is being
nurtured and developed. This Administrative Order, as it expands and
consolidates itself, will no doubt manifest the potentialities and reveal
the full implications of this momentous Document--this most remarkable
expression of the Will of One of the most remarkable Figures of the
Dispensation of Baha'u'llah. It will, as its component parts, its organic
institutions, begin to function with efficiency and vigor, assert its
claim and demonstrate its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus
but the very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the
fullness of time the whole of mankind.

It should be noted in this connection that this Administrative Order is
fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously
established, inasmuch as Baha'u'llah has Himself revealed its principles,
established its institutions, appointed the person to interpret His Word
and conferred the necessary authority on the body designed to supplement
and apply His legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its
strength, its fundamental distinction, and the guarantee against
disintegration and schism. Nowhere in the sacred scriptures of any of the
world's religious systems, nor even in the writings of the Inaugurator of
the Babi Dispensation, do we find any provisions establishing a covenant
or providing for an administrative order that can compare in scope and
authority with those that lie at the very basis of the Baha'i
Dispensation. Has either Christianity or Islam, to take as an instance two
of the most widely diffused and outstanding among the world's recognized
religions, anything to offer that can measure with, or be regarded as
equivalent to, either the Book of Baha'u'llah's Covenant or to the Will
and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha? Does the text of either the Gospel or the
Qur'an confer sufficient authority upon those leaders and councils that
have claimed the right and assumed the function of interpreting the
provisions of their sacred scriptures and of administering the affairs of
their respective communities? Could Peter, the admitted chief of the
Apostles, or the Imam 'Ali, the cousin and legitimate successor of the
Prophet, produce in support of the primacy with which both had been
invested written and explicit affirmations from Christ and Muhammad that
cou