this community is spiritually illumined
and divinely guided. Then will the whole earth resound with the praises of
its majesty and greatness....(44)

Shoghi Effendi reminds us that this historic mission, described by him as
"the birthright of the North American Baha'i Community",(45) is rooted in
the words of the Twin Manifestations of God to humanity's age of maturity.
It appeared first in the words of the Bab, who called on the "peoples of
the West" to "issue forth from your cities", to "aid God ere the Day when
the Lord of mercy shall come down unto you in the shadow of the
clouds...", and to become "as true brethren in the one and indivisible
religion of God, free from distinction,... so that ye find yourselves
reflected in them, and they in you".(46) In His summons to the "Rulers of
America and the Presidents of the Republics therein", Baha'u'llah Himself
delivered a mandate that has no parallel in any of His other addresses to
world leaders: "Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush
the oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your
Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise."(47) It was Baha'u'llah, too, who
enunciated one of the most profound truths about the process by which
civilization has evolved: "In the East the light of His Revelation hath
broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His dominion. Ponder this
in your hearts, O people...."(48)

Although the Divine Plan would, as the Guardian was later to say, "be held
in abeyance" until the system necessary to its execution had been brought
into being, 'Abdu'l-Baha had selected, empowered and mandated a company of
believers who would take the lead in launching the enterprise. His own
life was now swiftly moving to its end, but the three years left to Him
after the conclusion of the world war seemed, in retrospect, to provide a
foretaste of the victories that the Cause itself would know as the century
unfolded. The changed conditions in the Holy Land freed the Master to
pursue His work unhampered and created the conditions in which the
brilliance of His mind and spirit could exercise their influence on
government officials, visiting dignitaries of every kind, and the various
communities making up the population of the Holy Land. The Mandate Power
itself sought to express its appreciation of the unifying effect of His
example and the philanthropic work He did by conferring on Him a
knighthood.(49) More importantly, a renewed flow o