nity, so rare a conjunction of favorable circumstances,
may never again recur. Now is the time, the appointed time, for the
American believers, the vanguard of the hosts of the Most Great Name, to
proclaim, through the agencies and channels of a specially designed
Administrative Order, their capacity and readiness to rescue a fallen and
sore-tried generation that has rebelled against its God and ignored His
warnings, and to offer it that complete security which only the
strongholds of their Faith can provide.

The teaching campaign, inaugurated throughout the states of the North
American Republic and the Dominion of Canada, acquires, therefore, an
importance, and is invested with an urgency, that cannot be overestimated.
Launched on its course through the creative energies released by the Will
of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and sweeping across the Western Hemisphere through the
propelling force which it is generating, it must, I feel, be carried out
in conformity with certain principles, designed to insure its efficient
conduct, and to hasten the attainment of its objective.

Those who participate in such a campaign, whether in an organizing
capacity, or as workers to whose care the execution of the task itself has
been committed, must, as an essential preliminary to the discharge of
their duties, thoroughly familiarize themselves with the various aspects
of the history and teachings of their Faith. In their efforts to achieve
this purpose they must study for themselves, conscientiously and
painstakingly, the literature of their Faith, delve into its teachings,
assimilate its laws and principles, ponder its admonitions, tenets and
purposes, commit to memory certain of its exhortations and prayers, master
the essentials of its administration, and keep abreast of its current
affairs and latest developments. They must strive to obtain, from sources
that are authoritative and unbiased, a sound knowledge of the history and
tenets of Islam--the source and background of their Faith--and approach
reverently and with a mind purged from preconceived ideas the study of the
Qur'an which, apart from the sacred scriptures of the Babi and Baha'i
Revelations, constitutes the only Book which can be regarded as an
absolutely authenticated Repository of the Word of God. They must devote
special attention to the investigation of those institutions and
circumstances that are directly connected with the origin and birth of
their Faith, with the station cl