the absence of good; sickness is the
loss of health; poverty the lack of riches. When wealth disappears you are
poor; you look within the treasure box but find nothing there. Without
knowledge there is ignorance; therefore ignorance is simply the lack of
knowledge. Death is the absence of life. Therefore on the one hand we have
existence; on the other, nonexistence, negation or absence of existence.

Briefly; the journey of the soul is necessary. The pathway of life is the
road which leads to divine knowledge and attainment. Without training and
guidance the soul could never progress beyond the conditions of its lower
nature which is ignorant and defective.

RELIGION: ESSENTIAL AND NON-ESSENTIAL

The world of existence is an emanation of the merciful attribute of God.
God has shone forth upon the phenomena of being through His effulgence of
mercy and He is clement and kind to all His creation. Therefore the world
of humanity must ever be the recipient of bounties from the eternal Lord;
even as His Holiness Christ has declared, "Be ye perfect even as your
Father which is in heaven." For His bounties like the light and heat of
the sun in the material heavens descend alike upon all mankind.
Consequently man must learn the lesson of kindness and beneficence from
God Himself. Just as God is kind to all humanity, man also must be kind to
his fellow creatures. If his attitude is just and loving toward his fellow
men, toward all creation, then indeed is he worthy of being pronounced the
image and likeness of God.

Brotherhood or fraternity is of different kinds. It may be family
association, the intimate relationship of the household. This is limited
and subject to change and disruption. How often it happens that in a
family, love and agreement are changed into enmity and antagonism. Another
form of fraternity is manifest in patriotism. Man loves his fellow-men
because they belong to the same nativity. This is also limited and subject
to change and disintegration, as for instance when sons of the same
fatherland are opposed to each other in war, bloodshed and battle. Still
another brotherhood or fraternity is that which arises from racial unity,
the oneness of racial origin, producing ties of affinity and association.
This likewise has its limitation and liability to change, for often war
and deadly strife have been witnessed between people and nations of the
same racial lineage. There is a fourth kind of brotherho