'llah--the Ark of human salvation--must needs be modeled. From them,
all future blessings must flow, and upon them its inviolable authority
must ultimately rest.

For Baha'u'llah, we should readily recognize, has not only imbued mankind
with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain
universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however
potent, sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He, as well
as 'Abdu'l-Baha after Him, has, unlike the Dispensations of the past,
clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite
institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These
are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for
the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the
unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of
righteousness and justice upon the earth. Not only have they revealed all
the directions required for the practical realization of those ideals
which the Prophets of God have visualized, and which from time immemorial
have inflamed the imagination of seers and poets in every age. They have
also, in unequivocal and emphatic language, appointed those twin
institutions of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship as their
chosen Successors, destined to apply the principles, promulgate the laws,
protect the institutions, adapt loyally and intelligently the Faith to the
requirements of progressive society, and consummate the incorruptible
inheritance which the Founders of the Faith have bequeathed to the world.

Should we look back upon the past, were we to search out the Gospel and
the Qur'an, we will readily recognize that neither the Christian nor the
Islamic Dispensations can offer a parallel either to the system of Divine
Economy so thoroughly established by Baha'u'llah, or to the safeguards
which He has provided for its preservation and advancement. Therein, I am
profoundly convinced, lies the answer to those questions to which I have
already referred.

None, I feel, will question the fact that the fundamental reason why the
unity of the Church of Christ was irretrievably shattered, and its
influence was in the course of time undermined, was that the Edifice which
the Fathers of the Church reared after the passing of His First Apostle
was an Edifice that rested in nowise upon the explicit directions of
Christ Himself. The authority and features of their adm