den calf was
set up as an object of worship in the city of Tyre. Thereupon God sent
Elijah the prophet who redeemed the people, renewed the law of God and
established an era of new life for Israel. History shows a still later
change and transformation when this oneness and solidarity were followed
by another dispersion of the tribes. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
invaded the Holy Land and carried away captive seventy thousand Israelites
to Chaldea where the greatest reverses, trials and suffering afflicted
these unfortunate people. Then the prophets of God again reformed and
re-established the law of God and the people in their humiliation again
followed it. This resulted in their liberation, and under the edict of
Cyrus, king of Persia, there was a return to the holy city. Jerusalem and
the temple of Solomon were rebuilt and the glory of Israel was restored.
This lasted but a short time; the morality of the people declined and
conditions reached an extreme degree until the Roman general Titus took
Jerusalem and razed it to its foundations. Pillage and conquest completed
the desolation; Palestine became a waste and wilderness and the Jews fled
from the Holy Land of their ancestors. The cause of this disintegration
and dispersion was the departure of Israel from the foundation of the law
of God revealed by Moses, namely the acquisition of divine virtues,
morality, love, the development of arts and sciences and the spirit of the
oneness of humanity.

I now wish you(9) to examine certain facts and statements which are worthy
of consideration. My purpose and intention is to remove from the hearts of
men the religious enmity and hatred which have fettered them and to bring
all religions into agreement and unity. Inasmuch as this hatred and
enmity, this bigotry and intolerance are outcomes of misunderstandings,
the reality of religious unity will appear when these misunderstandings
are dispelled. For the foundation of the divine religions is one
foundation. This is the oneness of revelation or teaching; but alas! we
have turned away from that foundation, holding tenaciously to various
dogmatic forms and blind imitation of ancestral beliefs. This is the real
cause of enmity, hatred and bloodshed in the world; the reason of
alienation and estrangement among mankind. Therefore I wish you to be very
just and fair in your judgment of the following statements.

During the time that the people of Israel were being tossed and affl