e with a challenge, unique since its inception over half a
century ago.

The achievements that have distinguished the record of its stewardship,
ever since its founding, and particularly since the launching of the World
Baha'i Crusade, both on the homefront and beyond its confines, have been
such as to ennoble the annals of the Faith to which it is so
whole-heartedly dedicated, and to arouse in the hearts of all those who
have watched, throughout succeeding decades, the rise, its emergence into
independent existence, and its rapid consolidation, feelings of profound
admiration, of pride and of thankfulness.

The distance that has been traversed, in the course of the four brief
years since the inauguration of the Ten Year Plan, by a community, still
highly restricted in numbers and circumscribed in resources, and faced
with tremendous responsibilities, as a result of the colossal task it has
willingly shouldered, is admittedly great, and augurs well for its further
advancement along the path traced for it by the Pen of the Centre of
Baha'u'llah's Covenant in His immortal Tablets(62).

VINDICATE INDEPENDENT CHARACTER OF THE FAITH

The utmost care and vigilance, however, should be exercised by this
youthful and dynamic community, so richly laden with the prizes it has so
deservedly won, lest the momentum, so painstakingly gained in recent
years, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Baha'i activity,
be lost or reduced. The standard of dedication and of efficiency,
attained, while pursuing the goals it has pledged itself to achieve, must
never be allowed, through apathy, neglect or faint-heartedness, to be
lowered. The vision that has fired its members, on the occasion of the
centenary celebrations which witnessed the launching of the Ten Year Plan
must, no matter how prolonged or arduous the task, never grow dim. Their
unswerving fidelity to the Covenant established by the Author of their
Faith, and their attachment to the ideals and precepts enshrined in His
Revelation, should, under no circumstances, no matter how active and
subtle the machinations of its enemies, both within and without, be
weakened. The momentous and highly exacting task, initiated far beyond the
confines of their homeland,--a task which posterity will recognize as the
opening chapter of their glorious Mission overseas--must be pursued with
undiminished diligence, nay with redoubled zeal, and renewed determination
and dedication. Th