America, should climax in, and be worthily
commemorated through, the world-wide celebrations of the "Most Great
Festival," the "King of Festivals," the "Festival of God" Himself--the
Festival associated with the accession of Him Who is the Lord of the
Kingdom to the throne of everlasting glory, and with the formal assumption
by Him of His prophetic office? What greater reward than that the
consummation of the third Seven Year Plan, marking the close of the first,
and signalizing the opening of the second, epoch in the evolution of the
Divine Plan, should synchronize with that greatest of all Jubilees,
related to the year 1335, mentioned by Daniel in the last Chapter of His
Book, and associated by 'Abdu'l-Baha with the world triumph of His
Father's Faith? What greater glory than that those who have brought this
initial epoch in the resistless march of a world-embracing Plan to a
triumphant termination should be made to feel that they, and those gone
before them, have, through their collective, their sustained, and heroic
endeavors, organized through three successive stages, and covering a span
of almost a quarter of a century, been vouchsafed by the Almighty the
privilege of contributing, more than any other community consciously
laboring in the service of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, to this blissful
consummation, and to have played a preponderating role in the world
triumph of its institutions?

Dearly-beloved friends! It is not for us, at this crucial hour, to delve
into the future, to speculate on the possibilities of the Plan and its
orientation, to conjecture on its impact on the unfoldment of an embryonic
World Order, or to dwell on the glories and triumphs which it may hold in
store, or to seek to delineate the mysterious course which a God given
Mission, impelled by forces beyond our power to predict or appraise, may
pursue. To try to obtain a clear view of the shape of things to come would
be premature inasmuch as the glittering prizes to be won are directly
dependent on the measure of success which the combined efforts that are
now being exerted must yield. Ours is the duty to fix our gaze with
undeviating attention on the duties and responsibilities confronting us at
this present hour, to concentrate our resources, both material and
spiritual, on the tasks that lie immediately ahead, to insure that no time
is wasted, that no opportunity is missed, that no obligation is evaded,
that no task is half-heartedly perf