e Grace of God replaced, as time
goes on, by more and more adequate conceptions. Baha'u'llah says, in a
Tablet to some Baha'is of Persia:--

O people! Words are revealed according to capacity so that the
beginners may make progress. The milk must be given according to
measure so that the babe of the world may enter into the Realm of
Grandeur and be established in the Court of Unity.

It is milk that strengthens the babe so that it can digest more solid food
later on. To say that because one Prophet is right in giving a certain
teaching at a certain time, therefore another Prophet must be wrong Who
gives a different teaching at a different time, is like saying that
because milk is the best food for the newborn babe, therefore, milk and
nothing but milk should be the food of the grown man also, and to give any
other diet would be wrong! 'Abdu'l-Baha says:--

Each divine revelation is divided into two parts. The first part
is essential and belongs to the eternal world. It is the
exposition of Divine truths and essential principles. It is the
expression of the Love of God. This is one in all the religions,
unchangeable and immutable. The second part is not eternal; it
deals with practical life, transactions and business, and changes
according to the evolution of man and the requirements of the time
of each Prophet. For example.... During the Mosaic period the hand
of a person was cut off in punishment of a small theft; there was
a law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but as these
laws were not expedient in the time of Christ, they were
abrogated. Likewise divorce had become so universal that there
remained no fixed laws of marriage, therefore His Holiness Christ
forbade divorce.

According to the exigencies of the time, His Holiness Moses
revealed ten laws for capital punishment. It was impossible at
that time to protect the community and to preserve social security
without these severe measures, for the children of Israel lived in
the wilderness of Tah, where there were no established courts of
justice and no penitentiaries. But this code of conduct was not
needed in the time of Christ. The history of the second part of
religion is unimportant, because it relates to the customs of this
life only; but the foundation of the religion of God is one, and
His Holiness Baha'u'llah has renewed th