years, and so closely interwoven with the interest and
fortunes of such a large section of the worldwide Baha'i community,
deserves to rank as a memorable chapter in the history of the Formative
Period of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Reinforced and enriched as it is by
the memory of the American believers' earlier achievements, such a record
is in itself convincing testimony to their ability to befittingly shoulder
the responsibilities which any task may impose upon them in the future. To
overrate the significance of these manifold services would be well-nigh
impossible. To appraise correctly their value, and dilate on their merits
and immediate consequences, is a task which only a future Baha'i historian
can properly discharge. I can only for the present place on record my
profound conviction that a community capable of showing forth such deeds,
of evincing such a spirit, of rising to such heights, cannot but be
already possessed of such potentialities as will enable it to vindicate,
in the fullness of time, its right to be acclaimed as the chief creator
and champion of the World Order of Baha'u'llah.

Magnificent as has been this record, reminiscent as it is, in some of its
aspects, of the exploits with which the dawn-breakers of an heroic Age
have proclaimed the birth of the Faith itself, the task associated with
the name of this privileged community is, far from approaching its climax,
only beginning to unfold. What the American believers have, within the
space of almost fifty years, achieved is infinitesimal when compared to
the magnitude of the tasks ahead of them. The rumblings of that
catastrophic upheaval, which is to proclaim, at one and the same time, the
death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new, indicate both
the steady approach, as well as the awe-inspiring character, of those
tasks.

The virtual establishment of the Administrative Order of their Faith, the
erection of its framework, the fashioning of its instruments, and the
consolidation of its subsidiary institutions, was the first task committed
to their charge, as an organized community called into being by the Will,
and under the instructions, of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Of this initial task they
have acquitted themselves with marvelous promptitude, fidelity, and vigor.
No sooner had they created and correlated the various and necessary
agencies for the efficient conduct of any policy they might subsequently
wish to initiate, than they addressed