o be a Jew, a Muslim was born of a
Muslim, a Buddhist was a Buddhist because of the faith of his father
before him, and so on. In brief, religion was a heritage descending from
father to son, ancestry to posterity, without investigation of the
fundamental reality; consequently, all religionists were veiled, obscured
and at variance.

Praise be to God! We are living in this most radiant century wherein human
perceptions have developed and investigations of real foundations
characterize mankind. Individually and collectively man is proving and
penetrating into the reality of outer and inner conditions. Therefore, it
has come to pass that we are renouncing all that savors of blind
imitation, and impartially and independently investigating truth. Let us
understand what constitutes the reality of the divine religions. If a
Christian sets aside traditionary forms and blind imitation of ceremonials
and investigates the reality of the Gospels, he will discover that the
foundation principles of the teachings of Christ were mercy, love,
fellowship, benevolence, altruism, the resplendence or radiance of divine
bestowals, acquisition of the breaths of the Holy Spirit and oneness with
God. Furthermore, he will learn that Christ declared that the Father
"maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on
the just and on the unjust." The meaning of this declaration is that the
mercy of God encircles all mankind, that not a single individual is
deprived of the mercy of God, and no soul is denied the resplendent
bestowals of God. The whole human race is submerged in the sea of the
mercy of the Lord, and we are all the sheep of the one divine Shepherd.
Whatever shortcomings exist among us must be remedied. For example, those
who are ignorant must be educated so that they may become wise; the sick
must be treated until they recover; those who are immature must be trained
in order to reach maturity; those asleep must be awakened. All this must
be accomplished through love and not through hatred and hostility.
Furthermore, Jesus Christ, referring to the prophecy of Isaiah, spoke of
those who having eyes, see not, having ears, hear not, having hearts,
understand not; yet they were to be healed. Therefore, it is evident that
the bounties of Christ transformed the eye which was blind into a seeing
one, rendered the ear which was formerly deaf, attentive, and made the
hard, callous heart tender and sensitive. In other words,