lly kind to all. What then is
the source of unkindness and hatred in the human world? This real shepherd
loves all his sheep. He leads them in green pastures. He rears and
protects them. What then is the source of enmity and alienation among
humankind? Whence this conflict and strife? The real underlying cause is
lack of religious unity and association for in each of the great religions
we find superstition, blind imitation of creeds, and theological formulae
adhered to instead of the divine fundamentals, causing difference and
divergence among mankind instead of agreement and fellowship. Consequently
strife, hatred and warfare have arisen, based upon this divergence and
separation. If we investigate the foundations of the divine religions, we
find them to be one, absolutely changeless and never subject to
transformation. For example each of the divine religions contains two
kinds of laws or ordinances. One division concerns the world of morality
and ethical institutions. These are the essential ordinances. They instill
and awaken the knowledge and love of God, love for humanity, the virtues
of the world of mankind, the attributes of the divine kingdom, rebirth and
resurrection from the kingdom of nature. These constitute one kind of
divine law which is common to all and never subject to change. From the
dawn of the Adamic cycle to the present day this fundamental law of God
has continued changeless. This is the foundation of divine religion.

The second division comprises laws and institutions which provide for
human needs and conditions according to exigencies of time and place.
These are accidental, of no essential importance and should never have
been made the cause and source of human contention. For example during the
time of His Holiness Moses--Upon him be peace! --according to the exigencies
of that period, divorce was permissible. During the cycle of His Holiness
Christ inasmuch as divorce was not in conformity with the time and
conditions His Holiness Jesus Christ abrogated it. In the cycle of Moses
plurality of wives was permissible but during the time of His Holiness
Christ the exigency which had sanctioned it did not exist, therefore it
was forbidden. His Holiness Moses lived in the wilderness and desert of
Sinai; therefore his ordinances and commandments were in conformity with
those conditions. The penalty for theft was to cut off a man's hand. An
ordinance of this kind was in keeping with desert life but n