ailed
by enemies within, who have either rebelled against its God-given
authority or wholly renounced their faith, or by adversaries from without,
whether political or ecclesiastical, the infant Order identified with this
community has, since its inception, and throughout every stage in its
evolution, felt severely the impact of the forces which have sought in
vain to strangle its budding life or to obscure its purpose.

To these attacks, destined to grow in scope and severity, and to arouse a
tumult that will reverberate throughout the world, 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself
had already, at the time the outlines of that Divine order were being
delineated by Him in His Will, significantly alluded: "Erelong shall the
clamor of the multitude throughout Africa, throughout America, the cry of
the European and of the Turk, the groaning of India and China, be heard
from far and near. One and all, they shall arise with all their power to
resist His Cause. Then shall the knights of the Lord ... reinforced by the
legions of the Covenant, arise and manifest the truth of the verse:
'Behold the confusion that hath befallen the tribes of the defeated!'"

Already in more than one country the trustees and elected representatives
of this indestructible world-embracing Order have been summoned by civil
authorities or ecclesiastical courts, ignorant of its claims, or hostile
to its principles or fearful of its rising strength, to defend its cause,
or to renounce their allegiance to it, or to curtail the range of its
operation. Already an aggressive hand, unmindful of God's avenging wrath,
has been stretched out against its sanctuaries and edifices. Already its
defenders and champions have, in some countries, been declared heretics,
or stigmatized as subverters of law and order, or branded as visionaries,
unpatriotic and careless of their civic duties and responsibilities, or
peremptorily ordered to suspend their activities and dissolve their
institutions.

In the Holy Land, the world seat of this System, where its heart pulsates,
where the dust of its Founders reposes, where the processes disclosing its
purposes, energizing its life and shaping its destiny all originate, there
fell, at the very hour of its inception, the first blow which served to
proclaim to high and low alike the solidity of the foundations on which it
has been established. The Covenant-breakers, now dwindled to a mere
handful, instigated by Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, the Arch-rebel, w