the glories of
which can, at present, be but dimly discerned.

Now, of a certainty, is not the time for the members of this gallant band,
so thinly spread over the length and breadth of its island home, and
reaching out, so laboriously yet so determinedly to the inhospitable
islands fringing its northern and western coasts, to dwell, however
tentatively, on the nature of the tantalising task awaiting them in the
not distant future, or to seek to probe into its mysterious, divinely
guided operation. Theirs is the duty to plod on, however tedious the
nature of the work demanding their immediate attention, however formidable
the obstacles involved in its proper execution, however prolonged the
effort which its success necessitates, until the signs of its ultimate
consummation, heralding the launching of what is sure to be the most
spectacular phase of their Mission, are clearly discerned.

A responsibility, at once colossal, sacred and highly challenging, faces
not only the body of the elected representatives of this community, but
each and every one of its members. As the world spiritual Crusade, to the
successful prosecution of which the British followers of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah have, singly and collectively, so markedly contributed,
approaches its mid-point, the evidences of this indispensable quickening
of the tempo of Baha'i activity all over the British Isles and the islands
situated in their neighbourhood and far beyond their confines, must become
more manifest and rapidly multiply. The admiration and esteem in which a
community, relatively small in numbers, strictly limited in resources, yet
capable of such solid and enduring achievements, is held by its sister and
daughter communities in every continent of the globe, far from declining
must be further enhanced. The historic process originated as far back as
the year which witnessed the formulation of the Six Year Plan on the
occasion of the Centenary of the Declaration of the Bab in _Sh_iraz, which
gathered momentum, as a result of the inauguration of the Two Year Plan
which followed the Centenary of the Bab's Martyrdom in Tabriz, which
received a tremendous impetus, in consequence of the launching of the Ten
Year Crusade, commemorating the centenary celebrations of the birth of
Baha'u'llah's Mission in ?ihran--such a process must, as the centenary
celebrations designed to commemorate the Declaration of that same Mission
in Ba_gh_dad approaches, be so markedly