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The Heroic Age of the Faith, born in anguish, nursed in adversity, and terminating in trials as woeful as those that greeted its birth, has been succeeded by that Formative Period which is to witness the gradual crystallization of those creative energies which the Faith has released, and the consequent emergence of that World Order for which those forces were made to operate. (52:1) Fierce and relentless will be the opposition which this crystallization and emergence must provoke. The alarm it must and will awaken, the envy it will certainly arouse, the misrepresentations to which it will remorselessly be subjected, the setbacks it must, sooner or later, sustain, the commotions to which it must eventually give rise, the fruits it must in the end garner, the blessings it must inevitably bestow and the glorious, the Golden Age, it must irresistibly usher in, are just beginning to be faintly perceived, and will, as the old order crumbles beneath the weight of so stupendous a Revelation, become increasingly apparent and arresting. (52:2) 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. (52:3) THE PROCESS OF INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION Heart thrilled with pride at message announcing the approaching completion of the ornamentation of seven faces of Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, 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 potential. 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 Mashriqu'l-Adhkar 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 Baghdad 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 West waxes keener as first Baha'i century speeds to its close. With bowed head, exultant spirit and thankful heart I acclaim these recurrent, increasingly compelling manifestations of the solidarity, loyalty and unquenchable spirit animating, throughout five continents, the community of the followers of the Most Great Name.
(52:4)
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