ountain to the Templar colony at its foot, as well as to the
holdings in the immediate vicinity of the resting-place of the Greatest
Holy Leaf and her kinsmen--all these establish, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, the high status enjoyed by the international institutions of a
world Faith, in the eyes of this newborn state.

The construction of the mausoleum of the Bab, synchronizing with the birth
of that state, and the progress of which has been accompanied by these
successive manifestations of the good will and support of the civil
authorities will, if steadily maintained, greatly reinforce, and lend a
tremendous impetus to this process of recognition which constitutes an
historic landmark in the evolution of the World Center of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah--a process which the newly formed Council, now established at
its very heart, is designed to foster, which will gather momentum, with
the emergence in the course of time of a properly recognized and
independently functioning Baha'i court, which will attain its consummation
in the institution of the Universal House of Justice and the emergence of
the auxiliary administrative agencies, revolving around this highest
legislative body, and which will reveal the plenitude of its
potentialities with the sailing of the Divine Ark as promised in the
Tablet of Carmel.

I cannot at this juncture over emphasize the sacredness of that holy dust
embosomed in the heart of the Vineyard of God, or overrate the
unimaginable potencies of this mighty institution founded sixty years ago,
through the operation of the Will of, and the definite selection made by,
the Founder of our Faith, on the occasion of His historic visit to that
holy mountain, nor can I lay too much stress on the role which this
institution, to which the construction of the superstructure of this
edifice is bound to lend an unprecedented impetus, is destined to play in
the unfoldment of the World Administrative Center of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah and in the efflorescence of its highest institutions
constituting the embryo of its future World Order.

THE CENTER OF NINE CONCENTRIC CIRCLES

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, par