he Muhammadan Dispensation.

For those whose priceless privilege is to guard over, administer the
affairs, and advance the interests of these Baha'i institutions will have,
sooner or later, to face this searching question: "Where and how does this
Order established by Baha'u'llah, which to outward seeming is but a
replica of the institutions established in Christianity and Islam, differ
from them? Are not the twin institutions of the House of Justice and of
the Guardianship, the institution of the Hands of the Cause of God, the
institution of the national and local Assemblies, the institution of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, but different names for the institutions of the
Papacy and the Caliphate, with all their attending ecclesiastical orders
which the Christians and Moslems uphold and advocate? What can possibly be
the agency that can safeguard these Baha'i institutions, so strikingly
resemblant, in some of their features, to those which have been reared by
the Fathers of the Church and the Apostles of Muhammad, from witnessing
the deterioration in character, the breach of unity, and the extinction of
influence, which have befallen all organized religious hierarchies? Why
should they not eventually suffer the self-same fate that has overtaken
the institutions which the successors of Christ and Muhammad have reared?"

Upon the answer given to these challenging questions will, in a great
measure, depend the success of the efforts which believers in every land
are now exerting for the establishment of God's kingdom upon the earth.
Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by Baha'u'llah upon
the world, and which is manifesting itself with varying degrees of
intensity through the efforts consciously displayed by His avowed
supporters and indirectly through certain humanitarian organizations, can
never permeate and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind unless and
until it incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would bear His name,
wholly identify itself with His principles, and function in conformity
with His laws. That Baha'u'llah in His Book of Aqdas, and later
'Abdu'l-Baha in His Will--a document which confirms, supplements, and
correlates the provisions of the Aqdas--have set forth in their entirety
those essential elements for the constitution of the world Baha'i
Commonwealth, no one who has read them will deny. According to these
divinely-ordained administrative principles, the Dispensation of
Baha'u