an
democracy that He expressed His fervent hope that it might be "the first
nation to establish the foundation of international agreement," "to
proclaim the unity of mankind," and "to unfurl the Standard of the Most
Great Peace," that it might become "the distributing center of spiritual
enlightenment, and all the world receive this heavenly blessing," and that
its inhabitants might "rise from their present material attainments to
such a height that heavenly illumination may stream from this center to
all the peoples of the world." It is in connection with its people that He
has affirmed that they are "indeed worthy of being the first to build the
Tabernacle of the Great Peace and proclaim the oneness of mankind."

THE UNITED STATES IS SIGNALLY BLEST

This nation so signally blest, occupying so eminent and responsible a
position in a continent so wonderfully endowed, was the first among the
nations of the West to be warmed and illuminated by the rays of the
Revelation of Baha'u'llah, soon after the proclamation of His Covenant on
the morrow of His ascension. This nation, moreover, may well claim to
have, as a result of its effective participation in both the first and
second world wars, redressed the balance, saved mankind the horrors of
devastation and bloodshed involved in the prolongation of hostilities, and
decisively contributed, in the course of the latter conflict, to the
overthrow of the exponents of ideologies fundamentally at variance with
the universal tenets of our Faith.

To her President, the immortal Woodrow Wilson, must be ascribed the unique
honor, among the statesmen of any nation, whether of the East or of the
West, of having voiced sentiments so akin to the principles animating the
Cause of Baha'u'llah, and of having more than any other world leader,
contributed to the creation of the League of Nations--achievements which
the pen of the Center of God's Covenant acclaimed as signalizing the dawn
of the Most Great Peace, whose sun, according to that same pen, must needs
arise as the direct consequence of the enforcement of the laws of the
Dispensation of Baha'u'llah.

To the matchless position achieved by so preeminent a president of the
American Union, in a former period, at so critical a juncture in
international affairs, must now be added the splendid initiative taken, in
recent years by the American government, culminating in the birth of the
successor of that League in San Francisco,