e stands identified, and to acquire a clearer
apprehension of its purpose. It is neither eclectic in the presentation of
its truths, nor arrogant in the affirmation of its claims. Its teachings
revolve around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not
absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final.
Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all
established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims,
complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose,
indispensable in their value to mankind.

"All the Prophets of God," asserts Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "abide
in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same
throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the same Faith." From the
"beginning that hath no beginning," these Exponents of the Unity of God
and Channels of His incessant utterance have shed the light of the
invisible Beauty upon mankind, and will continue, to the "end that hath no
end," to vouchsafe fresh revelations of His might and additional
experiences of His inconceivable glory. To contend that any particular
religion is final, that "all Revelation is ended, that the portals of
Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no
sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever
stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of
God have ceased to be made manifest" would indeed be nothing less than
sheer blasphemy.

"They differ," explains Baha'u'llah in that same epistle, "only in the
intensity of their revelation and the comparative potency of their light."
And this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of any one of them to
reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message with which He has been
entrusted, but rather because of the immaturity and unpreparedness of the
age He lived in to apprehend and absorb the full potentialities latent in
that Faith.

"Know of a certainty," explains Baha'u'llah, "that in every Dispensation
the light of Divine Revelation has been vouchsafed to men in direct
proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble its
rays the moment it appears above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and
potency increase as it approaches its zenith, enabling meanwhile all
created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light.
How steadily it declines until it reaches its setti