The stage is now set, and the hour propitious, for a deployment of forces,
and for the revelation of the indomitable spirit animating this community,
on a scale and to a degree unprecedented in the entire course of American
Baha'i history. To the Antilles and the seventeen republics of Central and
of South America--the scene of the initial exploits of a community
inaugurating the opening phase of its world-girding mission--to the ten
sovereign states of Europe which, at a subsequent stage in the unfoldment
of that mission, the members of this community enthusiastically and
determinedly arose to open up and conquer; to the African territories
which, in addition to their allocated task under the Second Seven Year
Plan, they spontaneously endeavored to win to the all-conquering Cause of
Baha'u'llah--to these numerous islands and archipelagos, bordering the
American, the European and African continents; dependencies extensive,
well-nigh inaccessible, and remote from the base of their operations
throughout the Asiatic continent; lastly, the South Pacific area, the home
of the one remaining race not as yet adequately represented in the Baha'i
world community, occupying spiritually so strategic a position owing to
its proximity to the Baha'i communities already firmly entrenched in South
America, in the Indian subcontinent and in Australasia, at once
challenging the resources of no less than eight national spiritual
assemblies, and the theater destined to witness the noblest and the most
resounding victories which the chosen executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine
Plan have been called upon to win in the service of the Cause of God--all
these have now, in accordance with the requirements of an irresistibly
unfolding Plan, been added, completing thereby the full circle of the
world-wide obligations devolving upon a community invested with spiritual
primacy by the Author of the immortal Tablets constituting the Charter of
the Master Plan of the appointed Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant.
"The moment this Divine Message," He Who penned these Tablets and
conferred this primacy has most significantly affirmed, "is propagated
through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia,
and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself
securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion." Then,
and only then, will, as He Himself has so remarkably prophesied, "the
whole earth" "resound with the praises of its majesty and greatness."
Now, indeed, is the time, after the lapse of two score years; following
the triumphant conclusion of two successive historic Plans, marking the
opening stages of the first epoch in the unfoldment of that same Master
Plan; on the morrow of the brilliant celebrations climaxing the world-wide
festivities of a memorable Holy Year; and while a triumphant community, in
the first flush of enthusiasm, has just garnered the first fruits of its
campaigns in four continents of the globe and is laden with its freshly
won trophies, for this community to bestir itself, and, assuming its
rightful preponderating share in the conduct of a newly launched World
Spiritual Crusade, to demonstrate, through a supreme and sustained effort
embracing the entire surface of the planet, its ability to safeguard that
primacy, to enrich immeasurably the record of its stewardship and to bring
to a majestic conclusion the opening epoch in the evolution of a Plan
destined to reveal the full measure of its potentialities, not only
throughout the successive epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith, but in
the course of the vast reaches of time stretching into the Golden, the
last Age of the Baha'i Dispensation.