United States and Canada, was to
achieve in both the Formative and Golden Ages of the Baha'i Dispensation.

His references to the "extraordinary brilliancy" of the light which His
Father's Revelation was to shed in the West; His prediction that "the West
will have replaced the East" "through the splendor" of that Faith; His
specific prophecies regarding the future of the American continent, as the
"land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed" and "the
mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled," and which "will lead all
nations spiritually"; His even more specific tribute to the Great Republic
of the West which He proclaims to be "worthy of being the first to build
the Tabernacle of the Most Great Peace and proclaim the oneness of
mankind," to be "equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will
adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest
in both the East and the West"; His yet more startling words addressed to
the followers of the Faith in that Republic, referring to them as
"apostles of Baha'u'llah," characterizing their mission as "unspeakably
glorious," and assuring them that "should success crown your enterprise
... the throne of the Kingdom of God will, in the plenitude of its majesty
and glory, be firmly established"; and finally, His soul-stirring
assertion that "the moment this Divine Message is carried forward by the
American believers from the shores of America, and is propagated through
the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia, and as
far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself
securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion," and that
"the whole earth" will "resound with the praises of its majesty and
greatness"--all these, in conjunction with the explicit and detailed
instructions embodied in His Tablets, in connection with the execution of
their mission, may be regarded as having fixed the pattern, and revealed a
measure of the glory, of the Plan itself, which, after His ascension, was
to be collectively and formally prosecuted.

The creation of the administrative machinery of the Faith, according to
the precepts laid down in 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament, and on which,
during the opening years of its Formative Age, the resources and attention
of the trustees of the Plan were chiefly concentrated, provided, after
several years of assiduous labor, the agencies for its proper and
systematic execu