China Sea, that built the base of support from which 'Abdu'l-Baha was able
to pursue the promising opportunities which, as the new century opened,
had already begun to unfold in the West. Not the least important feature
of this base was its embrace of representatives of the Orient's great
diversity of racial, religious and national backgrounds. This achievement
provided 'Abdu'l-Baha with the examples on which He would repeatedly draw
in His proclamation to Western audiences of the integrating forces that
had been released through Baha'u'llah's advent.

The greatest victory of these early years was the Master's success in
constructing on Mount Carmel, on the spot designated for it by Baha'u'llah
and through immense effort, a mausoleum for the remains of the Bab, which
had been brought at great risk and difficulty to the Holy Land. Shoghi
Effendi has explained that whereas in past ages the blood of martyrs was
the seed of personal faith, in this day it has constituted the seed of the
administrative institutions of the Cause.(13) Such an insight lends
special meaning to the way in which the Administrative Centre of
Baha'u'llah's World Order would take shape under the shadow of the Shrine
of the Faith's Martyr-Prophet. Shoghi Effendi sets the Master's
achievement in global and historical perspective:

For, just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the Bab has been
hailed by the Author of the Baha'i Revelation as "the Point round Whom the
realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," so, on this visible
plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of what may be
regarded as nine concentric circles,(14) paralleling thereby, and adding
further emphasis to the central position accorded by the Founder of our
Faith to One "from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all
that was and shall be," "the Primal Point from which have been generated
all created things."(15)

The significance in 'Abdu'l-Baha's own eyes of the mission He had
accomplished at such cost is movingly depicted by Shoghi Effendi:

When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the Martyr-Prophet of
_Sh_iraz were, at long last, safely deposited for their everlasting rest
in the bosom of God's holy mountain, 'Abdu'l-Baha, Who had cast aside His
turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the
still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His face
transfigured and luminous, rested His