ha'u'llah have not been upheld, in their entirety
and with absolute integrity, by what 'Abdu'l-Baha has revealed in His
Will, is an unpardonable affront to the unswerving fidelity that has
characterized the life and labors of our beloved Master.

I will not attempt in the least to assert or demonstrate the authenticity
of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, for that in itself would betray
an apprehension on my part as to the unanimous confidence of the believers
in the genuineness of the last written wishes of our departed Master. I
will only confine my observations to those issues which may assist them to
appreciate the essential unity that underlies the spiritual, the
humanitarian, and the administrative principles enunciated by the Author
and the Interpreter of the Baha'i Faith.

I am at a loss to explain that strange mentality that inclines to uphold
as the sole criterion of the truth of the Baha'i Teachings what is
admittedly only an obscure and unauthenticated translation of an oral
statement made by 'Abdu'l-Baha, in defiance and total disregard of the
available text of all of His universally recognized writings. I truly
deplore the unfortunate distortions that have resulted in days past from
the incapacity of the interpreter to grasp the meaning of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
and from his incompetence to render adequately such truths as have been
revealed to him by the Master's statements. Much of the confusion that has
obscured the understanding of the believers should be attributed to this
double error involved in the inexact rendering of an only partially
understood statement. Not infrequently has the interpreter even failed to
convey the exact purport of the inquirer's specific questions, and, by his
deficiency of understanding and expression in conveying the answer of
'Abdu'l-Baha, has been responsible for reports wholly at variance with the
true spirit and purpose of the Cause. It was chiefly in view of the
misleading nature of the reports of the informal conversations of
'Abdu'l-Baha with visiting pilgrims, that I have insistently urged the
believers of the West to regard such statements as merely personal
impressions of the sayings of their Master, and to quote and consider as
authentic only such translations as are based upon the authenticated text
of His recorded utterances in the original tongue.

It should be remembered by every follower of the Cause that the system of
Baha'i administration is not an innovatio