d, the primary aim of this Spiritual
Crusade is none other than the conquest of the citadels of men's hearts.
The theater of its operations is the entire planet. Its duration a whole
decade. Its commencement synchronizes with the centenary of the birth of
Baha'u'llah's Mission. Its culmination will coincide with the centenary of
the declaration of that same Mission. The agencies assisting in its
conduct are the nascent administrative institutions of a steadily evolving
divinely appointed order. Its driving force is the energizing influence
generated by the Revelation heralded by the Bab and proclaimed by
Baha'u'llah. Its Marshal is none other than the Author of the Divine Plan.
Its standard-bearers are the Hands of the Cause of God appointed in every
continent of the globe. Its generals are the twelve national spiritual
assemblies participating in the execution of its design. Its vanguard is
the chief executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's master plan, their allies and
associates. Its legions are the rank and file of believers standing behind
these same twelve national assemblies and sharing in the global task
embracing the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and
Australian fronts. The charter directing its course is the immortal
Tablets that have flowed from the pen of the Center of the Covenant
Himself. The armor with which its onrushing hosts have been invested is
the glad tidings of God's own message in this day, the principles
underlying the order proclaimed by His Messenger, and the laws and
ordinances governing His Dispensation. The battle cry animating its heroes
and heroines is the cry of Ya-Baha'u'l-Abha, Ya 'Aliyyu'l-A'la.

So vast, so momentous and challenging a crusade that will, God willing,
illuminate the annals of the second epoch of the Formative Age of the
Faith of Baha'u'llah, and immortalize the second decade of the second
Baha'i century, and the termination of which will mark the closing of the
first epoch in the evolution of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, will, in
itself, pave the way for, and constitute the prelude to, the initiation of
the laborious and tremendously long process of establishing in the course
of subsequent crusades in all the newly opened sovereign states,
dependencies and islands of the planet, as well as in all the remaining
territories of the globe, the framework of the Administrative Order of the
Faith, with all its attendant agencies, and of eventually erecting in
these territo