ism, have lit a conflagration that gravely
interferes, on the one hand, with that flow of pilgrims that constitutes
the lifeblood of that center, and suspends, on the other, the various
projects that had been initiated in connection with the preservation and
extension of the areas surrounding the sacred Spots it enshrines. The
safety of the small community of resident believers, faced by the rising
tide of lawlessness, has been imperiled, its status as a neutral and
distinct community indirectly challenged, and its freedom to carry out
certain of its observances curtailed. A series of murderous assaults,
alternating with outbursts of bitter fanaticism, both racial and
religious, involving the leaders as well as the followers of the three
leading Faiths in that distracted country, have, at times, threatened to
sever all normal communications both within its confines as well as with
the outside world. Perilous though the situation has been, the Baha'i Holy
Places, the object of the adoration of a world-encircling Faith, have,
notwithstanding their number and exposed position, and though to outward
seeming deprived of any means of protection, been vouchsafed a
preservation little short of miraculous.

A world, torn with conflicting passions, and perilously disintegrating
from within, finds itself confronted, at so crucial an epoch in its
history, by the rising fortunes of an infant Faith, a Faith that, at
times, seems to be drawn into its controversies, entangled by its
conflicts, eclipsed by its gathering shadows, and overpowered by the
mounting tide of its passions. In its very heart, within its cradle, at
the seat of its first and venerable Temple, in one of its hitherto
flourishing and potentially powerful centers, the as-yet unemancipated
Faith of Baha'u'llah seems indeed to have retreated before the onrushing
forces of violence and disorder to which humanity is steadily falling a
victim. The strongholds of such a Faith, one by one and day after day, are
to outward seeming being successively isolated, assaulted and captured. As
the lights of liberty flicker and go out, as the din of discord grows
louder and louder every day, as the fires of fanaticism flame with
increasing fierceness in the breasts of men, as the chill of irreligion
creeps relentlessly over the soul of mankind, the limbs and organs that
constitute the body of the Faith of Baha'u'llah appear, in varying
measure, to have become afflicted with the crippli