slated, published and
circulated throughout the length and breadth of the North American
continent, providing the ever-widening circle of the first believers with
that spiritual sustenance which could alone enable them to survive the
severe trials they were soon to experience.

The hour of an unprecedented crisis was, however, inexorably approaching.
Evidences of dissension, actuated by pride and ambition, were beginning to
obscure the radiance and retard the growth of the newly-born community
which the apostolic teachers of that continent had labored to establish.
He who had been instrumental in inaugurating so splendid an era in the
history of the Faith, on whom the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant had
conferred the titles of "Baha's Peter," of the "Shepherd of God's Flocks,"
of the "Conqueror of America," upon whom had been bestowed the unique
privilege of helping 'Abdu'l-Baha lay the foundation-stone of the Bab's
Mausoleum on Mt. Carmel--such a man, blinded by his extraordinary success
and aspiring after an uncontrolled domination over the beliefs and
activities of his fellow-disciples, insolently raised the standard of
revolt. Seceding from 'Abdu'l-Baha and allying himself with the Arch-Enemy
of the Faith of God, this deluded apostate sought, by perverting the
teachings and directing a campaign of unrelenting vilification against the
person of 'Abdu'l-Baha, to undermine the faith of those believers whom he
had during no less than eight years, so strenuously toiled to convert. By
the tracts he published, through the active collaboration of the
emissaries of his chief Ally, and reinforced by the efforts which the
Christian ecclesiastical enemies of the Baha'i Revelation were beginning
to exert, he succeeded in dealing the nascent Faith of God a blow from
which it could only slowly and painfully recover.

I need not dwell on the immediate effects of this serious yet transitory
cleavage in the ranks of the American adherents of the Cause of
Baha'u'llah. Nor do I need to expatiate on the character of the defamatory
writings that poured upon them. Nor does it seem necessary to recount the
measures to which an ever-vigilant Master resorted in order to assuage and
eventually to dissipate their apprehensions. It is for the future
historian to appraise the value of the mission of each of the four chosen
messengers of 'Abdu'l-Baha who, in rapid succession, were dispatched by
Him to pacify and reinvigorate that troubled commun