sions, and the manifest failure of the Authorities concerned to
implement the recommendations made by both the Council of the League and
the Permanent Mandates Commission, the publicity achieved for the Faith by
this memorable litigation, and the defense of its cause--the cause of truth
and justice--by the world's highest tribunal, have been such as to excite
the wonder of its friends and to fill with consternation its enemies. Few
episodes, if any, since the birth of the Formative Age of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah, have given rise to repercussions in high places comparable to
the effect produced on governments and chancelleries by this violent and
unprovoked assault directed by its inveterate enemies against one of its
holiest sanctuaries.

"Grieve not, O House of God," Baha'u'llah Himself has significantly
written, "if the veil of thy sanctity be rent asunder by the infidels. God
hath, in the world of creation, adorned thee with the jewel of His
remembrance. Such an ornament no man can, at any time, profane. Towards
thee the eyes of thy Lord shall, under all conditions, remain directed."
"In the fullness of time," He, in another passage, referring to that same
House, has prophesied, "the Lord shall, by the power of truth, exalt it in
the eyes of all men. He shall cause it to become the Standard of His
Kingdom, the Shrine round which will circle the concourse of the
faithful."

To the bold onslaught made by the breakers of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah
in their concerted efforts to secure the custodianship of His holy Tomb,
to the arbitrary seizure of His holy House in Ba_gh_dad by the _Sh_i'ah
community of 'Iraq, was to be added, a few years later, yet another
grievous assault launched by a still more powerful adversary, directed
against the very fabric of the Administrative Order as established by two
long-flourishing Baha'i communities of the East, culminating in the
virtual disruption of these communities and the seizure of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world and of the few accessory
institutions already reared about it.

The courage, the fervor and the spiritual vitality evinced by these
communities; the highly organized state of their administrative
institutions; the facilities provided for the religious education and
training of their youth; the conversion of a number of broad-minded
Russian citizens, imbued with ideas closely related to the tenets of the
Faith; the growing realization of the impli