regarded as the
generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of
creation.... Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He
hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the
glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath
focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a
mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled
out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.

These energies with which the ... Source of heavenly guidance hath endowed
the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is
hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in
the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured by worldly
desires even as the light of the sun can be concealed beneath the dust and
dross which cover the mirror. Neither the candle nor the lamp can be
lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for
the mirror to free itself from its dross. It is clear and evident that
until a fire is kindled the lamp will never be ignited, and unless the
dross is blotted out from the face of the mirror it can never represent
the image of the sun nor reflect its light and glory.(36)

The time has come, Baha'u'llah said, when humanity has both the capacity
and the opportunity to see the entire panorama of its spiritual
development as a single process: "Peerless is this Day, for it is as the
eye to past ages and centuries, and as a light unto the darkness of the
times."(37) In this perspective, the followers of differing religious
traditions must strive to understand what He called "the changeless Faith
of God"(38) and to distinguish its central spiritual impulse from the
changing laws and concepts that were revealed to meet the requirements of
an ever-evolving human society:

The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to
foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the
spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity....
Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this
day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed
before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer
necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like
manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the
resplendent