gion, not the dogmas and blind imitations which have gradually
encrusted it and which are the cause of the decline and effacement of a
nation. These are inevitably destructive and a menace and hindrance to a
nation's life--even as it is recorded in the Torah and confirmed in history
that when the Jews became fettered by empty forms and imitations, the
wrath of God became manifest. When they forsook the foundations of the law
of God, Nebuchadnezzar came and conquered the Holy Land. He killed and
made captive the people of Israel, laid waste the country and populous
cities and burned the villages. Seventy thousand Jews were carried away
captive to Babylon. He destroyed Jerusalem, despoiled the great Temple,
desecrated the Holy of Holies and burned the Torah, the heavenly book of
Scriptures. Therefore, we learn that allegiance to the essential
foundation of the divine religions is ever the cause of development and
progress, whereas the abandonment and beclouding of that essential reality
through blind imitations and adherence to dogmatic beliefs are the causes
of a nation's debasement and degradation. After their conquest by the
Babylonians the Jews were successively subjugated by the Greeks and
Romans. Under the Roman general Titus in A.D. 70 the Holy Land was
stripped and pillaged, Jerusalem razed to its foundations and the
Israelites scattered broadcast throughout the world. So complete was their
dispersion that they have continued without a country and government of
their own to the present day.

From this review of the history of the Jewish people we learn that the
foundation of the religion of God laid by Moses was the cause of their
eternal honor and national prestige, the animating impulse of their
advancement and racial supremacy and the source of that excellence which
will always command the respect and reverence of those who understand
their peculiar destiny and outcome. The dogmas and blind imitations which
gradually obscured the reality of the religion of God proved to be
Israel's destructive influences, causing the expulsion of these chosen
people from the Holy Land of their Covenant and promise.

What, then, is the mission of the divine Prophets? Their mission is the
education and advancement of the world of humanity. They are the real
Teachers and Educators, the universal Instructors of mankind. If we wish
to discover whether any one of these great Souls or Messengers was in
reality a Prophet of God, we mus