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Updated: May 17, 2025
The first to awaken to the call of the New Day in the western world; the first to spontaneously arise to befittingly erect the Mother Temple of the West; the first to grasp the implications, evolve the pattern and lay the basis of the structure of the Bahá’í Administrative Order in the entire Bahá’í world; the first to openly and systematically proclaim the fundamental principles of the Faith, to adopt effectual measures for its defense, to invite the attention of royalty to its teachings, to devise an adequate machinery for the translation, the publication and the dissemination of its literature and to provide the means for the creation of its subsidiary institutions; the first to champion the cause of the oppressed and to generously contribute to the alleviation of the sufferings of the needy and persecuted among the followers of Bahá’u’lláh; the first to inaugurate collective enterprises for the propagation of His Cause; the first to assert its independence in the West; the first to lay an unassailable foundation for the erection of auxiliary institutions designed to multiply its financial resources; and, more recently, the first to achieve, as befits its primacy, the initial task devolving upon it in pursuance of the newly launched World Spiritual Crusade, this community has abundantly merited, by the quality of its deeds and the magnitude of its exploits, the distinctive titles of the cradle of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, of the vanguard of His world-conquering host, of the standard-bearers of the oneness of mankind, of the chief trustees of the Plan devised by the Center of the Covenant and of the torch-bearers of an as yet unborn world civilization.
In the nature of things he could not be popular with the Dominicans and their sympathizers. In this particular contest, however, his great personal qualities were somewhat overclouded. He and Domingo de Guzman were but standard-bearers. The conflict in which they were engaged resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between two potent religious orders.
But it had been undergoing such a process of stretching; who knew how much farther it would not be carried. The authorities were capable of anything. Surrender, however, was out of the question; having gone so far we could not turn back. The Flag, too, whatever the Standard-bearers might be, was worth keeping aloft.
The arrogance and negligence arising from success, which had previously existed in the Roman generals, were now transferred to the Æquans. Accordingly, when in the very first engagement the dictator had thrown the enemy's van into disorder by a charge of his cavalry, he immediately ordered the infantry to advance, and slew one of his own standard-bearers who hesitated in so doing.
He saw the seaweed-coloured marble; the glistening porticoes, adorned with the masterpieces of Greece, crowded with women in gemmed embroideries and men in white tunics hemmed with broad purple; he saw the Generals with their barbaric officers Bulgarians, Persians, Arabs, Slavs the long line of savage-looking prisoners in their chains, and the golden breastplates of the standard-bearers.
Philip, intent on hastening his march, and in no degree deterred by the clouds, which after the rain lowered over the face of the country, ordered his troops to march: and yet so thick a fog had obscured the day, that neither the standard-bearers could see the road, nor the soldiers the standards; so that all, led blindly by the shouts of uncertain guides, fell into disorder, like men wandering by night.
Edith, with a heightened colour, obeyed, and came to the roadside. The standard-bearers halted, as did the king and his comrade the procession behind halted thirty knights, two bishops, eight abbots, all on fiery steeds and in Norman garb squires and attendants on foot a long and pompous retinue they halted all.
Then Agrippa, in the vigour of his youth and strength, seeing matters going more favourably in every part of the battle than in his own quarter, snatched some of the standards from the standard-bearers and carried them on himself, some even he began to throw into the thick of the enemy.
It is to you, dearly beloved friends of the West, who are the standard-bearers of the emancipation and triumph of the Bahá’í Faith, that our afflicted brethren of the East have turned their expectant eyes, confident that the day cannot be far-distant when, in accordance with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explicit utterance, the West will “seize the Cause” from Persia’s fettered hands and lead it to glorious victory.
In this recapitulation first are to be reckoned the husbands whom business, position or public office calls from their houses and detains for a definite time. It is these who are the standard-bearers of the brotherhood.
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