In opposition to this national ideology we have the ideologies of the world religions which are completely international in character, that is to say, they are against the formation of "herds", and against the formation of sovereign nations and states. When the Christian message reads: "Go out into the world and make disciples of all men", i.e. of all the peoples of the world, which may be taken as the main content and mission of Christianity — this is definitely quite another ideology than that governing the policies of individual states. In making Christian disciples of all nations, all races and all peoples, - that is to say, disciples of the "Love thy neighbour"—principle, we are in reality combating the whole idea of nationalism and isolationism. Indeed, the mere fulfilment of the Christian hope: that there shall be "one herd and one shepherd" means nothing less than the disintegration of nationalism, for the only way of accomplishing the fulfilment of this hope, would be to create a united world state comprising each end every former individual state, and having one central government common to all. If we remove this preeminent principle of Christianity, what is there left to fight for?

No one has ever given a better definition of the herd-spirit than that given to the Jewish people by Moses. Here we are confronted by "herd worship" in its most undiluted synthesis. Here we find an isolationist policy of such adamantine character that it has been able to withstand every kind of attack made on it in the course of the millennia, and that, in spite of the fact that this same tribe or flock has been compelled, time and again, to flee into exile, and now finds itself dispersed over the entire globe. Hunted, scorned and persecuted by all other nations, the Jewish nation has always somehow contrived to retain its inner solidarity and its unshakable conviction that it is "God's own chosen people". Just look at the strength and virility with which it is fighting for its life in Palestine to-day, after so many centuries of exile!

But is it not this very urge to isolate itself that is so characteristic of the Jewish people, that repeats itself in every other nation of the world? Is it not the infringement by other nations of a nation's belief in its right to be independent that is the incessant cause of riots, revolutions and war? And have not all such wars, which usually began as minor skirmishes among single tribes, been but the precursors of the very Armageddon that began in 1914 and has continued as a world conflagration ever since, and which now seems inextinguishable? It is true that there have been repeated attempts to re-establish peaceable conditions, but what good are such conditions when it is clear as daylight that they are, in fact, but a necessary breathing space in which to recuperate and re-assemble more arms for new and ever more frightful manifestations of war and violence? As long as it is based upon occupation a conclusion of war can never be anything more than a provisional truce. I am not referring merely to the military occupation which the victors in the last war maintained over the lands they had conquered, but much more to the kind of occupation which, on account of their nationalistic obsession, the respective nations maintain over themselves.

But can one call nationalism an "occupation"? Is not an occupation exclusively' the same as a deprivation of liberty caused by another state? No, indeed, it is not! When a nation lives under such conditions that its subjects cannot go into a shop to buy a pair of socks, a pound of sugar or a gallon of petrol or other important necessities of life without having obtained the permission of the state to do so, there must be some super-power superior to that of the state itself, and through which this loss of liberty can be maintained. This power, which is thus over and above that of the state, and which is able to tyrannize its citizens by threats of ever stricter deprivation of liberty, and can even force the state itself to organise its policies in conformity with the most modern gangster methods, such as by exploitation and infringement of property rights, must obviously be the higher and truly basic form of occupation.

Every single nation in the world to-day is being gradually weighed down by this power — which does, in fact, threaten all humanity with extinction. So fearsomely strong is this power that, if there were not a paramount World Purpose which is in every way inexpressibly superior to this worldly power, things would end by turnings our world into an uninhabitable lunar landscape — a desolate and lifeless globe.

But, thanks to the Divine structure of the world, this can never happen! At the eleventh hour man will ultimately unearth this monster, which is indeed his real and most dangerous enemy — that enemy which holds humanity shackled tenaciously to confinements, restrictions, lack of goods, indeed to all the miseries which stamp our world civilization of to-day. This monster is none other than the mental conception that man calls "nationalism". So, nationalism is by no means the attractive ideal it is supposed to be, but is intrinsically a psychosis — a mental derangement - that will gradually lay civilization waste, if the worship of it is not effectually checked. For, just as beneficent as this mental conception seemed in bygone centuries, so equally malevolent is it to-day.

How easily this may be grasped may be seen by merely turning back the wheel of development a couple of hundred years in time, back to the age when the horse carriage was the most advanced means of conveyance, and when little or almost nothing was known of people in other countries. Now, in a world where the horse carriage formed the supreme means of traction, and where people were completely self-supporting, all politics turned unavoidably on the nation's home affaire, for, under such conditions it had practically no foreign affairs. A tribe living deep in its primeval forest without contact or intercourse with other tribes, possibly even quite unaware of the very existence of other tribes, will not run afoul of such other tribes. Its whole world of ideas will turn on its own welfare. In such circumstances nationalism is wholly a blessing. Here it means that the tribe will be pulling together. It means the consolidation of the forces of the tribe as a whole. But these united forces can never in such a case mean war or misfortune either on the tribe itself or on other tribes.

But the modern civilized states of to-day do not live in the same state of isolation as did primeval man in his forests. The former live in close juxtaposition with each other, and, in many cases, are indeed vitally dependent on each other. This propinquity has gradually evolved a structure which, in many fields, has turned these modern states into one collective unit. On account of rapidly growing technical and chemical knowledge these states have been enabled to overcome distance, which again, has led to an ever growing knowledge of, and insight into, the affairs of other nations of life on, and the physical features of other continents. This has resulted in a prodigious exchange of goods between them, to an ever-increasing degree of intercourse and this again has led to the creation of gigantic industries, the fantastic outputs of which are based on just this growing volume of intercourse between the nations. It really seemed at one stage that this amazing development was to bring about a degree, of human happiness such as had hitherto never been experienced. But as this development proceeded one factor was unable to keep pace with man's ever-extending horizons. This was his attitude towards his own herd — his own nation or people. Here he continued to retain his primeval jungle conceptions. At the same time that he was being transformed almost unconsciously into the citizen of an entirely new empire arising around his jungle settlement - at the same time that he was enabled to travel whither he would over the entire globe, indeed could speak to the whole world, and over the wireless, could hear and even see the whole world — he steadfastly denied his new identity as a world citizen, and clung tenaciously to all the old conceptions that has meant happiness in his "jungle forest", to the mental territory that formerly was the "world" of the stage coach and saddle-horse!

To his mind, his tiny settlement still remained the centre of the universe, its inhabitants were still "God's chosen people". He idolized his people, their flag and, national symbols as an expression of the greatest and best in existence. And thus, unconsciously, he became a traitor to the great new world which the Godhead, through man's extended consciousness, growing material and scientific knowledge, has made, him a citizen of.

And the more man worshipped the nation as an independent unit, the more he betrayed the great new world state which he could not possibly dispense with or avoid living in. The result of this must inevitably become what the World's Redeemer had already betokened, viz. a disruption, a "Day of Doom".

Modern man's consciousness is no longer just a "jungle consciousness", or a "snail's-pace consciousness" — content to just potter round the parish where its owner is settled. Man is to-day by birth not merely a national being, but is indubitably an international being. A national being is one who possesses knowledge and interest only in a nation's home affairs, and is totally ignorant of the world and other states around him. But a human being born into our modern civilization of to-day is brought up from birth to a knowledge of all international affairs. As something quite natural he learns of the existence of other countries, and receives, also as something equally obvious, a host of cultural impulses from these countries and thus, almost imperceptibly, he becomes more and more internationally adjusted, indeed he begins to feel a certain contempt for all those of his contemporaries who, by keeping separate from the influence of these impulses, to his mind becomes little more than depressing, narrow-minded "stay-at-homes". It therefore becomes increasingly clear that a cultivated and internationally-adjusted individual with such views will one day realize the foolishness of being forced by nationalism to be a traitor to a system on which, in almost every field, he is so increasingly dependent. Man's real trouble and misfortune to-day is his rock-fast adherence to nationalism. Individual human beings are no longer members of a tribe, or citizens of a self-supporting community in which the horse is the acme of tractional communication. He has reached much farther in his transformation from animal to human being — his transformation into a being "in God's image". But now he has to realize that worship of the national idea can only result in isolation — an exclusion from the world state that is now becoming an ever more vital necessity both to himself and to all his fellow human beings. He must learn to adjust himself to the thought that the world state must take precedence over his own individual nation. For the world state is not something in the process of being formed. It came into being when the first journey round the earth was completed, and since then it has steadily stabilized its existence. Though he may, possibly, not be aware of it every human being to-day is a citizen of this world state. But the great majority still swear to the nationalistic idea, and as long as this view is retained the birth of the world state can only come about as a terrifying anarchy. And it is this anarchy which is reflected in everyone's war against everyone else — that is the primary cause of every dictatorship and every loss of personal liberty. It therefore becomes increasingly incumbent on every highly developed human being to remember the Christian exhortations: "One flock and one shepherd", and: "Love thy neighbour as thyself!" and, correspondingly, to learn to love the World State as our own State — our own Mother Country.

Unless individual human beings bring their consciousness into contact with this inmost kernel of the world religions it will prove impossible for the world state to be created in accordance with the Divine World Purpose. Exaggerated worship of the national idea, of one's own Mother Country, race or faith must unavoidably delay and retard that development which is to lead all humanity out of the chaos now ruling among nations to-day. To join the forces that support the creation of a truly international World Commonwealth comprising all nations and having a central government, all of whose individual members are in profound agreement with the inmost kernel of all the great humane world religions, is thus the same as to be in contact with the World Purpose itself. That is to obey the laws upon which all happiness depends. That is to be at one with the Truth expressed in the words, "Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart in all things, and thy neighbour as thyself".