far-reaching
tasks ever undertaken in its history.

The great forward stride that has already been undertaken, during so short
a period, augurs well for the ultimate victory, now within sight--a victory
which will pave the way for the successful execution of a seven-year
enterprise, destined, in its turn, to enable its executors to launch, at
the appointed time, the third and most glorious stage in the initial
unfoldment of 'Abdu'l-Baha's unique and grand design for that privileged
and conspicuously blessed community.

No less striking has been the achievement of the representatives of this
community in the vast and most recent field of their historic and highly
meritorious endeavors, exerted beyond the confines of their homeland,
where over so vast a territory, on a continent so agitated, and amidst
peoples so disillusioned, so varied in race, language and outlook, so
impoverished spiritually, so paralyzed with fear, so confused in thought,
so abased in their moral standards, so rent by internal schisms, victories
so rich in promise, so startling in their rapidity, so magnificent in
their range, have been won, and ennobled, to such a marked degree, the
deathless record of American Baha'i service to the Faith of Baha'u'llah.

Now that so prodigious and successful an effort has been exerted on behalf
of the historic and sacred Temple, whose completion constitutes so vital
an objective of the Second Seven Year Plan, and so conspicuous a triumph
won in the transatlantic sphere of its operation, its needs and other
vital objectives, both at home and in the Latin American field, must
receive, in the months immediately ahead, the particular attention of both
the national elected representatives of the community who supervise the
working of the Plan and the mass of believers who participate in its
execution.

While the financial requirements of the Mother Temple of the West are
being met with unabated heroism by rich and poor alike in the critical
months that lie ahead, and the measures to ensure the undiminished
support, and the uninterrupted consolidation of the European enterprise
are being assiduously carried out, a parallel effort, no less strenuous
and sustained should be simultaneously exerted in the North American
continent and in Central and South America, for the purpose of preserving
the prizes already won over the length and breadth of the Western
Hemisphere, where the initial impulse of this mighty and Divine P