So splendid a record of service, rendered within the brief span of a
little over three years, extending over so vast an area of the globe, so
highly diversified, so pregnant with promise, in the face of such
formidable obstacles, and by so limited a number of participants, has,
much to my deepest regret, been marred by a progressive devitalization of
the home front, constituting so momentous an aspect of the Ten-Year Plan,
and upon which its continued and effective prosecution by the American
Baha'i Community, in the course of the present and third phase of the
World Spiritual Crusade, so largely depends.
Constituting as it does the base of the multiple operations now being
conducted to ensure the success of the North American, the Latin American,
the African, the European and Asiatic campaigns of a global crusade, no
sacrifice can be deemed too great for its revitalization and the
broadening and consolidation of its foundations. The manpower of the
community, so essential to the further deployment of its forces must,
rapidly and at all costs, increase. The material resources, now at its
disposal, which are so bountifully poured forth and so generously
distributed to the four corners of the globe, must be correspondingly
augmented to meet the pressing and ever-swelling demands of a constantly
and irresistibly advancing Crusade. A far greater proportion of the avowed
supporters of the Faith must arise, ere the Crusade suffers any setback,
for the fourfold purpose of winning over an infinitely greater number of
recruits to the army of Baha'u'llah fighting on the home front, of
swelling to an unprecedented degree the isolated centers now scattered
within its confines, of converting an increasing number of them into
firmly founded groups, and of accelerating the formation of local
assemblies, while safeguarding those already in existence.