his aunt, even as Sarah was the sister of
Abraham's mother. During the cycle of Adam it was lawful and expedient for
a man to marry his own sister, even as Abel, Cain and Seth, the sons of
Adam, married their sisters. But in the law of the Pentateuch revealed by
Moses these marriages were forbidden and their custom and sanction
abrogated. Other laws formerly valid were annulled during the time of
Moses. For example, it was lawful in Abraham's cycle to eat the flesh of
the camel, but during the time of Jacob this was prohibited. Such changes
and transformations in the teaching of religion are applicable to the
ordinary conditions of life, but they are not important or essential.
Moses lived in the wilderness of Sinai where crime necessitated direct
punishment. There were no penitentiaries or penalties of imprisonment.
Therefore, according to the exigency of the time and place it was a law of
God that an eye should be given for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It
would not be practicable to enforce this law at the present time--for
instance, to blind a man who accidentally blinded you. In the Torah there
are many commands concerning the punishment of a murderer. It would not be
allowable or possible to carry out these ordinances today. Human
conditions and exigencies are such that even the question of capital
punishment--the one penalty which most nations have continued to enforce
for murder--is now under discussion by wise men who are debating its
advisability. In fact, laws for the ordinary conditions of life are only
valid temporarily. The exigencies of the time of Moses justified cutting
off a man's hand for theft, but such a penalty is not allowable now. Time
changes conditions, and laws change to suit conditions. We must remember
that these changing laws are not the essentials; they are the accidentals
of religion. The essential ordinances established by a Manifestation of
God are spiritual; they concern moralities, the ethical development of man
and faith in God. They are ideal and necessarily permanent--expressions of
the one foundation and not amenable to change or transformation.
Therefore, the fundamental basis of the revealed religion of God is
immutable, unchanging throughout the centuries, not subject to the varying
conditions of the human world.

Christ ratified and proclaimed the foundation of the law of Moses.
Muhammad and all the Prophets have revoiced that same foundation of
reality. Therefore, the purpos