was at the same time being set in motion. The
purpose of this was to extend the borders of the Faith, increasing the
number of its declared supporters and of its administrative centers, and
to give a new and ever growing impetus to the enriching, the expanding,
the diversifying of its literature, and to the task of disseminating it
farther and farther afield. Experience indeed proved that the very pattern
of the Administrative Order, apart from other distinctive features,
definitely encouraged efficiency and expedition in this work of teaching,
and its builders found their zeal continually quickened and their
missionary ardor heightened as the Faith moved forward to an ever fuller
emancipation.

Nor were they unmindful of the exhortations, the appeals and the promises
of the Founders of their Faith, Who, for three quarters of a century, had,
each in His own way and within the limits circumscribing His activities,
labored so heroically to noise abroad the fame of the Cause Whose destiny
an almighty Providence had commissioned them to shape.

The Herald of their Faith had commanded the sovereigns of the earth
themselves to arise and teach His Cause, writing in the Qayyumu'l-Asma: "O
concourse of kings! Deliver with truth and in all haste the verses sent
down by Us to the peoples of Turkey and of India, and beyond them ... to
lands in both the East and the West." "Issue forth from your cities, O
peoples of the West," He, in that same Book, had moreover written, "to aid
God." "We behold you from Our Most Glorious Horizon," Baha'u'llah had thus
addressed His followers in His Kitab-i-Aqdas, "and will assist whosoever
will arise to aid My Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high, and a
cohort of the angels, who are nigh unto Me." "...Teach ye the Cause of
God, O people of Baha!" He, furthermore, had written, "for God hath
prescribed unto every one the duty of proclaiming His message, and
regardeth it as the most meritorious of all deeds." "Should a man all
alone," He had clearly affirmed, "arise in the name of Baha and put on the
armor of His love, him will the Almighty cause to be victorious, though
the forces of earth and heaven be arrayed against him." "Should any one
arise for the triumph of Our Cause," He moreover had declared, "him will
God render victorious though tens of thousands of enemies be leagued
against him." And again: "Center your energies in the propagation of the
Faith of God. Whoso is worthy of so hig