ngs of God and imbued with the
virtues of divine character, as mirrors reflecting the light of the sun.
Unless the mirror reflects the sunlight, it is only dark, inanimate
matter. Likewise, the hearts and spirits of mankind, when deprived and
without their portion of the bounties of the Holy Spirit, linger in the
abyss of darkness and ignorance.

From time immemorial the divine teachings have been successively revealed,
and the bounties of the Holy Spirit have ever been emanating. All the
teachings are one reality, for reality is single and does not admit
multiplicity. Therefore, the divine Prophets are one, inasmuch as They
reveal the one reality, the Word of God. Abraham announced teachings
founded upon reality, Moses proclaimed reality, Christ established reality
and Baha'u'llah was the Messenger and Herald of reality. But humanity,
having forsaken the one essential and fundamental reality which underlies
the religion of God, and holding blindly to imitations of ancestral forms
and interpretations of belief, is separated and divided in the strife,
contention and bigotry of various sects and religious factions. If all
should be true to the original reality of the Prophet and His teaching,
the peoples and nations of the world would become unified, and these
differences which cause separation would be lost sight of. To accomplish
this great and needful unity in reality, Baha'u'llah appeared in the
Orient and renewed the foundations of the divine teachings. His revelation
of the Word embodies completely the teachings of all the Prophets,
expressed in principles and precepts applicable to the needs and
conditions of the modern world, amplified and adapted to present-day
questions and critical human problems. That is to say, the words of
Baha'u'llah are the essences of the words of the Prophets of the past.
They are the very spirit of the age and the cause of the unity and
illumination of the East and the West. The followers of His teachings are
in conformity with the precepts and commands of all the former heavenly
Messengers. Differences and dissensions, which destroy the foundations of
the world of humanity and are contrary to the will and good pleasure of
God, disappear completely in the light of the revelation of Baha'u'llah;
difficult problems are solved, unity and love are established. For the
good pleasure of God is the effulgence of love and the establishment of
unity and fellowship in the human world, whereas disc