Might not a still closer parallel be drawn between the community singled
out for the execution of this world-embracing Plan, in its relation to its
sister communities, and the nation of which it forms a part, in its
relation to its sister nations? On the one hand is a community which ever
since its birth has been nursed in the lap of 'Abdu'l-Baha and been
lovingly trained by Him through the revelation of unnumbered Tablets,
through the dispatch of special and successive messengers, and through His
own prolonged visit to the North American continent in the evening of His
life. It was to the members of this community, the spiritual descendants
of the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of our Faith, that He, whilst
sojourning in the City of the Covenant, chose to reveal the implications
of that Covenant. It was in the vicinity of this community's earliest
established center that He laid, with His own hands, the cornerstone of
the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the western world. It was to the
members of this community that He subsequently addressed His Tablets of
the Divine Plan, investing it with a spiritual primacy, and singling it
out for a glorious mission among its sister communities. It was this
community which won the immortal honor of being the first to introduce the
Faith in the British Isles, in France and in Germany, and which sent forth
its consecrated pioneers and teachers to China, Japan and India, to
Australia and New Zealand, to the Balkan Peninsula, to South Africa, to
Latin America, to the Baltic States, to Scandinavia and the islands of the
Pacific, hoisting thereby its banner in the vast majority of the countries
won over to its cause, in both the East and the West, prior to
'Abdu'l-Baha's passing.
It was this community, the cradle and stronghold of the Administrative
Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, which, on the morrow of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
ascension, was the first among all other Baha'i communities in East and
West to arise and champion the cause of that Order, to fix its pattern, to
erect its fabric, to initiate its endowments, to establish and consolidate
its subsidiary institutions, and to vindicate its aims and purposes. To it
belongs the unique distinction of having erected, in the heart of the
North American continent, the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West, the
holiest edifice ever to be reared by the hands of the followers of
Baha'u'llah in either the Eastern or Western Hemisphere. It was through
the assiduous and unflagging labors of the most distinguished and
consecrated among its itinerant teachers that the allegiance of royalty to
the Cause of Baha'u'llah was won, and unequivocally proclaimed in
successive testimonies as penned by the royal convert herself. To its
members, the vanguard of the torchbearers of the future world
civilization, must, moreover, be ascribed the imperishable glory of having
launched and successfully concluded the first stage of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan, in the concluding years of the first Baha'i century,
establishing thereby the structural basis of the Administrative Order of
the Faith in all the republics of Central and South America. It is this
same community which is once again carrying off the palm of victory
through launching, in the first decade of the second century of the Baha'i
Era, the second stage of that same Plan, destined to lay the foundations
of the Baha'i Administrative Order in no less than ten sovereign states in
the continent of Europe, comprising the Scandinavian states, the Low
Countries, the states of the Iberian Peninsula, Switzerland and Italy. And
lastly, to its enterprising members must go the unique honor and privilege
of having arisen, on unnumbered occasions, and over a period of more than
a quarter of a century, to champion the cause of the down-trodden and
persecuted among their brethren in Persia, in Egypt, in Russia, in 'Iraq
and in Germany, to stretch a generous helping hand to the needy among
them, to defend and safeguard the interests of their institutions, and to
plead their cause before political and ecclesiastical adversaries.
On the other hand is a nation that has achieved undisputed ascendancy in
the entire Western Hemisphere, whose rulers have been uniquely honored by
being collectively addressed by the Author of the Baha'i Revelation in His
Kitab-i-Aqdas; which has been acclaimed by 'Abdu'l-Baha as the "home of
the righteous and the gathering-place of the free," where the "splendors
of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be
unveiled" and belonging to a continent which, as recorded by that same
pen, "giveth signs and evidences of very great advancement," whose "future
is even more promising," whose "influence and illumination are
far-reaching," and which "will lead all nations spiritually." Moreover, it
is to this great republic of the West that the Center of the Covenant of
Baha'u'llah has referred as the nation that has "developed powers and
capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations," and which "is
equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of
history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East
and the West for the triumph of its people." It is for this same American
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."