to visualize, even in its barest outline, the glory that must
envelop these institutions, to essay even a tentative and partial
description of their character or the manner of their operation, or to
trace however inadequately the course of events leading to their rise and
eventual establishment is far beyond my own capacity and power. Suffice it
to say that at this troubled stage in world history the association of
these three incomparably precious souls who, next to the three Central
Figures of our Faith, tower in rank above the vast multitude of the
heroes, Letters, martyrs, hands, teachers and administrators of the Cause
of Baha'u'llah, in such a potentially powerful spiritual and
administrative Center, is in itself an event which will release forces
that are bound to hasten the emergence in a land which, geographically,
spiritually and administratively, constitutes the heart of the entire
planet, of some of the brightest gems of that World Order now shaping in
the womb of this travailing age.

For such as might undertake, in the days to come, the meritorious and
highly enviable pilgrimage to these blessed shrines, as well as for the
benefit of the less privileged who, aware of the greatness of their virtue
and the pre-eminence of their lineage, desire to commune with their
spirits, and to strive to acquire an added insight into the glory of their
position, and to follow in their footsteps, let these testimonies written
by Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha be their inspiration and guidance in their
noble quest:

"At this very moment," Baha'u'llah testifies, "My son is being washed
before My face, after Our having sacrificed him in the Most Great Prison.
Thereat have the dwellers of the Abha Tabernacle wept with a great
weeping, and such as have suffered imprisonment with this Youth in the
path of God, the Lord of the promised Day, lamented. Under such conditions
My Pen hath not been prevented from remembering its Lord, the Lord of all
nations. It summoneth the people unto God, the Almighty, the
All-Bountiful. This is the day whereon he that was created by the light of
Baha has suffered martyrdom, at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands
of his enemies."

"Upon thee, O Branch of God!" He solemnly and most touchingly, in that
same Tablet, bestows upon him His benediction, "be the remembrance of God
and His praise, and the praise of all that dwell in the Realm of
Immortality, and of all the denizens of the Kingdom of