try, where the conditions are
favorable and the number of the friends has grown and reached a
considerable size ... that a "National Spiritual Assembly" be
immediately established, representative of the friends throughout
that country.

Its immediate purpose is to stimulate, unify and coordinate by
frequent personal consultations, the manifold activities of the
friends as well as the local Assemblies; and by keeping in close
and constant touch with the Holy Land, initiate measures, and
direct in general the affairs of the Cause in that country.

It serves also another purpose, no less essential than the first,
as in the course of time it shall evolve into the National House
of Justice (referred to in 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will as the "secondary
House of Justice"), which according to the explicit text of the
Testament will have, in conjunction with the other National
Assemblies throughout the Baha'i world, to elect directly the
members of the International House of Justice, that Supreme
Council that will guide, organize and unify the affairs of the
Movement throughout the world....

This National Spiritual Assembly, which, pending the establishment
of the Universal House of Justice, will have to be re-elected once
a year, obviously assumes grave responsibilities, for it has to
exercise full authority over all the local Assemblies in its
province, and will have to direct the activities of the friends,
guard vigilantly the Cause of God, and control and supervise the
affairs of the Movement in general.

Vital issues, affecting the interests of the Cause in that country
such as the matter of translation and publication, the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, the Teaching Work, and other similar
matters that stand distinct from strictly local affairs, must be
under the full jurisdiction of the National Assembly.

It will have to refer each of these questions, even as the local
Assemblies, to a special Committee, to be elected by the members
of the National Spiritual Assembly, from among all the friends in
that country, which will bear to it the same relation as the local
committees bear to their respective local Assemblies.

With it, too, rests the decision whether a certain point at issue
is strictly local in its nature, and should be reserved for the
consideration and decisi