be the cause and
means of cooperative effort and accomplishment among mankind. To this end
He has sent the Prophets of God, the holy Manifestations of the Word, in
order that the fundamental reality and religion of God may prove to be the
bond of human unity, for the divine religions revealed by these holy
Messengers have one and the same foundation. All will admit, therefore,
that the divine religions are intended to be the means of true human
cooperation, that they are united in the purpose of making humanity one
family, for they rest upon the universal foundation of love, and love is
the first effulgence of Divinity.

Each one of the divine religions has established two kinds of ordinances:
the essential and the accidental. The essential ordinances rest upon the
firm, unchanging, eternal foundations of the Word itself. They concern
spiritualities, seek to stabilize morals, awaken intuitive
susceptibilities, reveal the knowledge of God and inculcate the love of
all mankind. The accidental laws concern the administration of outer human
actions and relations, establishing rules and regulations requisite for
the world of bodies and their control. These are ever subject to change
and supersedure according to exigencies of time, place and condition. For
example, during the time of Moses, ten commandments concerning the
punishment of murder were revealed in His Book. Divorce was sanctioned and
polygamy allowable to a certain extent. If a man committed theft, his hand
was cut off. This was drastic law and severe punishment applicable to the
time of Moses. But when the time of Christ came, minds had developed,
realizations were keener and spiritual perceptions had advanced so that
certain laws concerning murder, plurality of wives and divorce were
abrogated. But the essential ordinances of the Mosaic dispensation
remained unchanged. These were the fundamental realities of the knowledge
of God and the holy Manifestations, the purification of morals, the
awakening of spiritual susceptibilities--eternal principles in which there
is no change or transformation. Briefly, the foundation of the divine
religions is one eternal foundation, but the laws for temporary conditions
and exigencies are subject to change. Therefore, by adherence to these
temporary laws, blindly following and imitating ancestral forms,
difference and divergence have arisen among followers of the various
religions, resulting in disunion, strife and hatred. Blind