tion of heavenly virtues and the illumination of mankind.

Alas! that humanity is completely submerged in imitations and unrealities
notwithstanding the truth of divine religion has ever remained the same.
Superstitions have obscured the fundamental reality, the world is darkened
and the light of religion is not apparent. This darkness is conducive to
differences and dissensions; rites and dogmas are many and various;
therefore discord has arisen among the religious systems whereas religion
is for the unification of mankind. True religion is the source of love and
agreement amongst men, the cause of the development of praiseworthy
qualities; but the people are holding to the counterfeit and imitation,
negligent of the reality which unifies; so they are bereft and deprived of
the radiance of religion. They follow superstitions inherited from their
fathers and ancestors. To such an extent has this prevailed that they have
taken away the heavenly light of divine truth and sit in the darkness of
imitations and imaginations. That which was meant to be conducive to life
has become the cause of death; that which should have been an evidence of
knowledge is now a proof of ignorance; that which was a factor in the
sublimity of human nature has proved to be its degradation. Therefore the
realm of the religionist has gradually narrowed and darkened and the
sphere of the materialist has widened and advanced; for the religionist
has held to imitation and counterfeit, neglecting and discarding holiness
and the sacred reality of religion. When the sun sets it is the time for
bats to fly. They come forth because they are creatures of the night. When
the lights of religion become darkened the materialists appear. They are
the bats of night. The decline of religion is their time of activity; they
seek the shadows when the world is darkened and clouds have spread over
it.

THE NEED OF DIVINE EDUCATION

In the books of the prophets certain glad-tidings are recorded which are
absolutely true and free from doubt. The East has ever been the
dawning-point of the Sun of Reality. All the prophets of God have appeared
there. The religions of God have been promulgated, the teachings of God
have been spread and the law of God founded in the East. The Orient has
always been the center of lights. The West has acquired illumination from
the East but in some respects the reflection of the light has been greater
in the Occident. This is espec