tion, become increasingly
apparent and arresting.

Not ours, dear friends, to attempt to survey the distant scene; ours
rather the duty to face the trials of the present hour, to ponder its
meaning, to discharge its obligations, to meet its challenge and utilize
the opportunity it offers to the fullest extent of our ability and power.

August 12, 1941

THE PROCESS OF INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION

Heart thrilled with pride at message announcing the approaching completion
of the ornamentation of seven faces of Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, proclaiming
an intensification of North American teaching campaign, and revealing the
adamantine resolution of the Temple builders and stalwart crusaders, in
face of the perfidy, ingratitude and opposition of the enemies both within
and without the Holy Faith. As the fury and destructiveness of the
tremendous world ordeal attains its most intensive pitch, so the Mission
conferred twenty years ago by 'Abdu'l-Baha's sacred Will on the worldwide,
indivisible and incorruptible body of His followers unfolds its fullest
potentialities. Securely abiding and confidently battling within the
impregnable structure which that Will has divinely established, the
dwellers in the ark of the divine Covenant the world over watch with awe,
pride and delight the evidences of the mounting momentum of the eternal
process of integration and disintegration hurrying the Faith along its
predestined course. The royal adversary, personally responsible for the
recrudescence of persecution closing all Baha'i schools in Baha'u'llah's
native land, has been humbled to the dust. The sufferings endured by the
builders of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar are being avenged. The
cornerstone of the National Administrative Headquarters of the Egyptian
Baha'i community has been ceremoniously laid. The first officially
recognized Baha'i cemetery is ready to receive the precious remains of the
illustrious Abu'l-Fadl and the immortal Lua. The Haziratu'l-Quds in
Ba_gh_dad has been extended and is nearing completion. The property
dedicated as first Administrative Center of the Syrian Baha'is has been
purchased. A group of families of Persian believers, Muslim, Jewish,
Zoroastrian in origin, afire with the example set by American pioneers,
are settling the adjoining territories of Hijaz, Yemen, Afghanistan,
Baluchistan and Bahrein Island. The spiritual competition galvanizing the
organized followers of Baha'u'llah in East and