The virtual establishment of the Administrative Order of
their Faith, the erection of its framework, the fashioning of its instruments,
and the consolidation of its subsidiary institutions, was the first task
committed to their charge, as an organized community [North America] called
into being by the Will, and under the instructions, of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Of this
initial task they have acquitted themselves with marvelous promptitude,
fidelity, and vigor. No sooner had they created and correlated the various and
necessary agencies for the efficient conduct of any policy they might subsequently
wish to initiate, than they addressed themselves, with equal zest and
consecration, to the next more arduous task of erecting the superstructure of
an edifice the cornerstone of which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself had laid.
- Shoghi
Effendi (From a letter dated December 25, 1938; published as ‘The Advent of
Divine Justice’)
