nterprises
associated with that ministry. It was during these times that the plan of
the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world was conceived by Him,
and its construction undertaken by His followers in the city of I_sh_qabad
in Turkistan. It was during these times, despite the disturbances that
agitated His native country, that instructions were issued by Him for the
restoration of the holy and historic House of the Bab in _Sh_iraz. It was
during these times that the initial measures, chiefly through His constant
encouragement, were taken which paved the way for the laying of the
dedication stone, which He, in later years, placed with His own hands when
visiting the site of the Mother Temple of the West on the shore of Lake
Michigan. It was at this juncture that that celebrated compilation of His
table talks, published under the title "Some Answered Questions," was
made, talks given during the brief time He was able to spare, in the
course of which certain fundamental aspects of His Father's Faith were
elucidated, traditional and rational proofs of its validity adduced, and a
great variety of subjects regarding the Christian Dispensation, the
Prophets of God, Biblical prophecies, the origin and condition of man and
other kindred themes authoritatively explained.

It was during the darkest hours of this period that, in a communication
addressed to the Bab's cousin, the venerable Haji Mirza Muhammad-Taqi, the
chief builder of the Temple of I_sh_qabad, 'Abdu'l-Baha, in stirring
terms, proclaimed the immeasurable greatness of the Revelation of
Baha'u'llah, sounded the warnings foreshadowing the turmoil which its
enemies, both far and near, would let loose upon the world, and
prophesied, in moving language, the ascendancy which the torchbearers of
the Covenant would ultimately achieve over them. It was at an hour of
grave suspense, during that same period, that He penned His Will and
Testament, that immortal Document wherein He delineated the features of
the Administrative Order which would arise after His passing, and would
herald the establishment of that World Order, the advent of which the Bab
had announced, and the laws and principles of which Baha'u'llah had
already formulated. It was in the course of these tumultuous years that,
through the instrumentality of the heralds and champions of a firmly
instituted Covenant, He reared the embryonic institutions, administrative,
spiritual, and educational, of a steadil