s have revealed and founded religion. They have laid
down certain laws and heavenly principles for the guidance of mankind.
They have taught and promulgated the knowledge of God, established
praiseworthy ethical ideals and inculcated the highest standards of
virtues in the human world. Gradually these heavenly teachings and
foundations of reality have been beclouded by human interpretations and
dogmatic imitations of ancestral beliefs. The essential realities which
the prophets labored so hard to establish in human hearts and minds while
undergoing ordeals and suffering tortures of persecution, have now well
nigh vanished. Some of these heavenly messengers have been killed, some
imprisoned; all of them despised and rejected while proclaiming the
reality of divinity. Soon after their departure from this world, the
essential truth of their teachings was lost sight of and dogmatic
imitations adhered to.

Inasmuch as human interpretations and blind imitations differ widely,
religious strife and disagreement have arisen among mankind, the light of
true religion has been extinguished and the unity of the world of humanity
destroyed. The prophets of God voiced the spirit of unity and agreement.
They have been the founders of divine reality. Therefore if the nations of
the world forsake imitations and investigate the reality underlying the
revealed Word of God they will agree and become reconciled. For reality is
one and not multiple.

The nations and religions are steeped in blind and bigoted imitations. A
man is a Jew because his father was a Jew. The Muhammadan follows
implicitly the footsteps of his ancestors in belief and observance. The
Buddhist is true to his heredity as a Buddhist. That is to say they
profess religious belief blindly and without investigation, making unity
and agreement impossible. It is evident therefore that this condition will
not be remedied without a reformation in the world of religion. In other
words the fundamental reality of the divine religions must be renewed,
reformed, revoiced to mankind.

From the seed of reality, religion has grown into a tree which has put
forth leaves and branches, blossoms and fruit. After a time this tree has
fallen into a condition of decay. The leaves and blossoms have withered
and perished; the tree has become stricken and fruitless. It is not
reasonable that man should hold to the old tree, claiming that its life
forces are undiminished, its fruit unequalled, it