This morning the city is enveloped in fog and mist. How beautiful is a
city brilliant with sunshine. Just as these mists and vapors conceal the
phenomenal sun, so human imaginations obscure the Sun of Truth. Consider
the radiant glory of the great solar center of our planetary system: how
wonderful the sight, how its splendor illumines vision until clouds and
mists veil it from the eye. In the same way, the Sun of Truth becomes
veiled and hidden by the superstitions and imaginations of human minds.
When the sun rises, no matter from what dawning point on the horizon it
appears--northeast, east, southeast--the haze and mists disperse, and we
have clear vision of its glory mounting to the zenith. Similarly, the
nations have been directed to the dawning points of the Sun of Reality,
each to a particular rising place from which the light of religion has
become manifest; but after a time the dawning point has become the object
of worship instead of the Sun itself, which is ever one Sun and stationary
in the heavens of the divine Will. Differences have arisen because of
this, causing clouds and darkness to overshadow again the glorious
luminary of Reality. When the mists and darkness of superstition and
prejudice are dispersed, all will see the Sun aright and alike. Then will
all nations become as one in its radiance.
Inasmuch as these clouds and human vapors of superstition hide the light
of the spiritual Sun, we must put forth our utmost endeavor to dispel
them. May we unite in this and be enlightened to accomplish it, for the
Sun is one and its radiance and bounty universal. All the inhabitants of
earth are recipients of the bounty of the one phenomenal sun, and none are
preferred above others; so, likewise, all receive the heavenly bestowals
of the Word of God; none are specialized as favorites; all are under its
protection and universal effulgence. Human strife and religious
disagreement complex and disfigure the simple purity and beauty of the
divine Cause until clouds obscure the light of reality and disunion
results. Therefore, make use of intelligence and reason so that you may
dispel these dense clouds from the horizon of human hearts and all hold to
the one reality of all the Prophets. It is most certain that if human
souls exercise their respective reason and intelligence upon the divine
questions, the power of God will dispel every difficulty, and the eternal
realities will appear as one light, one truth, one love, one God and a
peace that is universal.
2 May 1912
Talk at Hotel Plaza
Chicago, Illinois