In order to help our times, we should be able to interpret the world's happenings. And we should understand the goal of real progress as well as the steps which have brought humanity to its present state of development. Freedom from materiality in all its forms is the end toward which mankind have been groping.
Abraham started the wheels of progress moving in the direction of an understanding of and obedience to God. He recognized the one invisible Deity and the need of his age to depart from pagan religious practices. He helped his own times, and men with vision followed him, helping their times by achieving definite departures from materialistic beliefs and limitations.
Moses brought moral enlightenment whereby men came to recognize the rights of others and to respect them. The great Lawgiver helped his times and all times to come because he showed men how to depart from primitive evil by outlawing the insubordinate animal characteristics of infidelity, idolatry, profanity, irreverence, inhumaneness, murderousness, lust, dishonesty, lying, and coveting—the fundamental sins of carnal-mindedness forbidden by the Ten Commandments. Later on, great prophets pointed out the path of freedom from materiality by overcoming physical laws and the limitations and discords growing out of these laws.
