ions.

This ferment and flux of opinion, with increasing recognition of the
inadequacy of the old orthodoxies and dogmas, and groping and striving
after fuller knowledge and understanding, were not confined to Christian
countries, but were manifest, more or less, and in different forms, among
the people of all countries and religions.

The Message of Baha'u'llah

It was when this state of conflict and confusion was at its height, that
Baha'u'llah sounded His great trumpet call to humanity:--

That all nations should become one in faith and all men as
brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons
of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should
cease, and differences of race be annulled.... These strifes and
this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one
kindred and one family.... (words spoken to Professor Browne).

It is a glorious message, but how are its proposals to be carried into
effect? Prophets have preached, poets have sung and saints have prayed
about these things for thousands of years, but diversities of religion
have not ceased nor have strife and bloodshed and discord been annulled.
What is there to show that now the miracle is to be accomplished? Are
there any new factors in the situation? Is not human nature the same as it
ever was, and will it not continue to be the same while the world lasts?
If two people want the same thing, or two nations, will they not fight for
it in the future as they have done in the past? If Moses, Buddha, Christ
and Muhammad failed to achieve world unity will Baha'u'llah succeed? If
all previous faiths become corrupted and rent asunder into sects will not
the Baha'i faith share the same fate? Let us see what answer the Baha'i
teachings give to these and similar questions.

Can Human Nature Change?

Education and religion are alike based on the assumption that it is
possible to change human nature. In fact, it requires but little
investigation to show that the one thing we can say with certainty about
any living thing is that it cannot keep from changing. Without change
there can be no life. Even the mineral cannot resist change, and the
higher we go in the scale of being, the more varied, complex, and
wonderful do the changes become. Moreover, in progress and development
among creatures of all grades we find two kinds of change--one slow,
gradual, often almost imperceptible; and