tible portion of them? The same merciful God Who
bestowed His favors in the past has opened the doors of His Kingdom to us.
The rays of His sun are shining; the breath of the Holy Spirit is
quickening. That omniscient God still assists and confirms us, illumines
our hearts, gladdens our souls and perfumes our nostrils with the
fragrances of holiness. Divine wisdom and providence have encircled all
and spread the heavenly table before us. We must take a bountiful share of
this generous favor.

The work of the shepherd is to bring together the scattered sheep. If he
disperses the united flock, he is not the shepherd. As the Prophets
fulfilled Their mission in this respect, They are the true Shepherds. When
Moses appeared, the Israelitish people were disorganized. Enmity and
discord increased their disunion. With divine power He assembled and
united this scattered flock, placed within their hearts the pearl of love,
freed them from captivity and led them out of Egypt into the Holy Land.
They made wonderful progress in sciences and arts. Bonds of social and
national strength cemented them. Their progress in human virtues was so
rapid and wonderful that they rose to the zenith of the Solomonic
sovereignty. Could it be said that Moses was not a real Shepherd and that
He did not gather these scattered people together?

Christ was a real Shepherd. At the time of His manifestation, the Greeks,
Romans, Assyrians and Egyptians were like so many scattered flocks. Christ
breathed upon them the spirit of unity and harmonized them.

Therefore, it is evident that the Prophets of God have come to unite the
children of men and not to disperse them, to establish the law of love and
not enmity. Consequently, we must lay aside all prejudice--whether it be
religious, racial, political or patriotic; we must become the cause of the
unification of the human race. Strive for universal peace, seek the means
of love, and destroy the basis of disagreement so that this material world
may become divine, the world of matter become the realm of the Kingdom and
humanity attain to the world of perfection.

2 June 1912
Talk at Church of the Ascension
Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street, New York

Notes by Esther Foster

In the terminology of the Holy Books the church has been called the house
of the covenant for the reason that the church is a place where people of
different thoughts and divergent tendencies--where all races and
nations--may come