-Baha and in challenging its authenticity and her
attempts to subvert its principles were again powerless to produce the
slightest breach in the ranks of its valiant upholders. The treacherous
schemes which the ambition of a perfidious and still more recent enemy has
devised and through which he is still striving to deface 'Abdu'l-Baha's
noble handiwork and corrupt its administrative principles are being once
more completely frustrated. These intermittent and abortive attempts on
the part of its assailants to force the surrender of the newly built
stronghold of the Faith its defenders have from the very beginning utterly
disdained. No matter how fierce the assaults of the enemy or skillful his
stratagem they have refused to yield one jot or one tittle of their
cherished convictions. His insinuations and clamor they have consistently
ignored. The motives which animated his actions, the methods he steadily
pursued, the precarious privileges he seemed momentarily to enjoy they
could not but despise. Thriving for a time through the devices which their
scheming minds had conceived and supported by the ephemeral advantages
which fame, ability or fortune can confer these notorious exponents of
corruption and heresy have succeeded in protruding for a time their ugly
features only to sink, as rapidly as they had risen, into the mire of an
ignominious end.

From the midst of these afflictive trials, reminiscent in some of their
aspects of the violent storm that had accompanied the birth of the Faith
in their native land, the American believers had again triumphantly
emerged, their course undeflected, their fame unsullied, their heritage
unimpaired. A series of magnificent accomplishments, each more significant
than the previous, were to shed increasing lustre on an already
illustrious record. In the dark years immediately following 'Abdu'l-Baha's
ascension their deeds shone with a radiance that made them the object of
the envy and the admiration of the less privileged among their brethren.
The entire community, untrammeled and supremely confident, was rising to a
great and glorious opportunity. The forces that had motivated its birth,
that had assisted in its rise, were now accelerating its growth, in a
manner and with such rapidity that neither the pangs of a world-wide
sorrow nor the unceasing convulsions of a distracted age could paralyze
its efforts or retard its march.

Internally the community had embarked in a number of en