all monarchs who are just; expresses His longing for martyrdom, and voices
His prayers for the repentance as well as the forgiveness of His enemies.

Obedient to the summons issued by the Author of so momentous a Document;
conscious of their high calling; galvanized into action by the shock
sustained through the unexpected and sudden removal of 'Abdu'l-Baha;
guided by the Plan which He, the Architect of the Administrative Order,
had entrusted to their hands; undeterred by the attacks directed against
it by betrayers and enemies, jealous of its gathering strength and blind
to its unique significance, the members of the widely-scattered Baha'i
communities, in both the East and the West, arose with clear vision and
inflexible determination to inaugurate the Formative Period of their Faith
by laying the foundations of that world-embracing Administrative system
designed to evolve into a World Order which posterity must acclaim as the
promise and crowning glory of all the Dispensations of the past. Not
content with the erection and consolidation of the administrative
machinery provided for the preservation of the unity and the efficient
conduct of the affairs of a steadily expanding community, the followers of
the Faith of Baha'u'llah resolved, in the course of the two decades
following 'Abdu'l-Baha's passing, to assert and demonstrate by their acts
the independent character of that Faith, to enlarge still further its
limits and swell the number of its avowed supporters.

In this triple world-wide effort, it should be noted, the role played by
the American Baha'i community, since the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha until the
termination of the first Baha'i century, has been such as to lend a
tremendous impetus to the development of the Faith throughout the world,
to vindicate the confidence placed in its members by 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself,
and to justify the high praise He bestowed upon them and the fond hopes He
entertained for their future. Indeed so preponderating has been the
influence of its members in both the initiation and the consolidation of
Baha'i administrative institutions that their country may well deserve to
be recognized as the cradle of the Administrative Order which Baha'u'llah
Himself had envisaged and which the Will of the Center of His Covenant had
called into being.

It should be borne in mind in this connection that the preliminary steps
aiming at the disclosure of the scope and working of this Administrative