er's authority and functions, and are
permanently and fundamentally united in their aims.

Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of
Baha'u'llah would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary
principle which, as 'Abdu'l-Baha has written, has been invariably upheld
by the Law of God. "In all the Divine Dispensations," He states, in a
Tablet addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, "the eldest son
hath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of
prophethood hath been his birthright." Without such an institution the
integrity of the Faith would be imperiled, and the stability of the entire
fabric would be gravely endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means
required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series
of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to
define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives
would be totally withdrawn.

Severed from the no less essential institution of the Universal House of
Justice this same System of the Will of 'Abdu'l-Baha would be paralyzed in
its action and would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author
of the Kitab-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His legislative
and administrative ordinances.

"He is the Interpreter of the Word of God," 'Abdu'l-Baha, referring to the
functions of the Guardian of the Faith, asserts, using in His Will the
very term which He Himself had chosen when refuting the argument of the
Covenant-breakers who had challenged His right to interpret the utterances
of Baha'u'llah. "After him," He adds, "will succeed the first-born of his
lineal descendants." "The mighty stronghold," He further explains, "shall
remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the Guardian
of the Cause of God." "It is incumbent upon the members of the House of
Justice, upon all the A_gh_san, the Afnan, the Hands of the Cause of God,
to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the
Guardian of the Cause of God."

"It is incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice," Baha'u'llah,
on the other hand, declares in the Eighth Leaf of the Exalted Paradise,
"to take counsel together regarding those things which have not outwardly
been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to them.
God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He verily is
the Provider, the Omni