Ministering Spirits of the Superuniverses

28:6.1In the same man­ner as their fel­lows, these an­gels are cre­ated se­ri­ally and in seven re­flec­tive types, but these types are not as­signed in­di­vid­u­ally to the sep­a­rate ser­vices of the super­uni­verse ad­min­is­tra­tors. All ter­tiary se­con­a­phim are col­lec­tively as­signed to the Trin­i­tized Sons of At­tain­ment, and these as­cen­dant sons use them in­ter­change­ably; that is, the Mighty Mes­sen­gers can and do uti­lize any of the ter­tiary types, and so do their co-or­di­nates, Those High in Au­thor­ity and Those with­out Name and Num­ber. These seven types of ter­tiary se­con­a­phim are:

28:6.21. The Sig­nif­i­cance of Ori­gins. The as­cen­dant Trin­i­tized Sons of a super­uni­verse gov­ern­ment are charged with the re­spon­si­bil­ity of deal­ing with all is­sues grow­ing out of the ori­gin of any in­di­vid­ual, race, or world; and the sig­nif­i­cance of ori­gin is the paramount ques­tion in all our plans for the cos­mic ad­vance­ment of the liv­ing crea­tures of the realm. All re­la­tion­ships and the ap­pli­ca­tion of ethics grow out of the fun­da­men­tal facts of ori­gin. Ori­gin is the ba­sis of the re­la­tional re­ac­tion of the Gods. Al­ways does the Con­joint Ac­tor “take note of the man, in what man­ner he was born.”

28:6.3With the higher de­scen­dant be­ings, ori­gin is sim­ply a fact to be as­cer­tained; but with the as­cend­ing be­ings, in­clud­ing the lower or­ders of an­gels, the na­ture and cir­cum­stances of ori­gin are not al­ways so clear, though of equally vi­tal im­por­tance at al­most ev­ery turn of uni­verse af­fairs—hence the value of hav­ing at our dis­posal a se­ries of re­flec­tive se­con­a­phim who can in­stantly por­tray any­thing re­quired re­spect­ing the gen­e­sis of any be­ing in ei­ther the cen­tral uni­verse or through­out the en­tire realm of a super­uni­verse.

28:6.4The Sig­nif­i­cances of Ori­gins are the liv­ing ready-ref­er­ence ge­nealo­gies of the vast hosts of be­ings—men, an­gels, and oth­ers—who in­habit the seven super­uni­verses. They are al­ways ready to sup­ply their su­pe­ri­ors with an up-to-date, re­plete, and trust­wor­thy es­ti­mate of the an­ces­tral fac­tors and the cur­rent ac­tual sta­tus of any in­di­vid­ual on any world of their re­spec­tive super­uni­verses; and their com­pu­ta­tion of pos­sessed facts is al­ways up to the minute.

28:6.52. The Mem­ory of Mercy. These are the ac­tual, full and re­plete, liv­ing rec­ords of the mercy which has been ex­tended to in­di­vid­u­als and races by the ten­der min­is­tra­tions of the in­stru­men­tal­i­ties of the In­fi­nite Spirit in the mis­sion of adapt­ing the jus­tice of righ­teous­ness to the sta­tus of the realms, as dis­closed by the por­tray­als of the Sig­nif­i­cance of Ori­gins. The Mem­ory of Mercy dis­closes the moral debt of the chil­dren of mercy—their spir­i­tual li­a­bil­i­ties—to be set down against their as­sets of the sav­ing pro­vi­sion es­tab­lished by the Sons of God. In re­veal­ing the Fa­ther’s pre-ex­is­tent mercy, the Sons of God es­tab­lish the nec­es­sary credit to in­sure the sur­vival of all. And then, in ac­cor­dance with the find­ings of the Sig­nif­i­cance of Ori­gins, a mercy credit is es­tab­lished for the sur­vival of each ra­tio­nal crea­ture, a credit of lav­ish pro­por­tions and one of suf­fi­cient grace to in­sure the sur­vival of ev­ery soul who re­ally de­sires di­vine cit­i­zen­ship.

28:6.6The Mem­ory of Mercy is a liv­ing trial bal­ance, a cur­rent state­ment of your ac­count with the super­nat­u­ral forces of the realms. These are the liv­ing rec­ords of mercy min­is­tra­tion which are read into the tes­ti­mony of the courts of Uversa when each in­di­vid­ual’s right to un­end­ing life comes up for ad­ju­di­ca­tion, when “thrones are cast up and the An­cients of Days are seated. The broad­casts of Uversa is­sue and come forth from be­fore them; thou­sands upon thou­sands min­is­ter to them, and ten thou­sand times ten thou­sand stand be­fore them. The judg­ment is set, and the books are opened.” And the books which are opened on such a mo­men­tous oc­ca­sion are the liv­ing rec­ords of the ter­tiary se­con­a­phim of the super­uni­verses. The for­mal rec­ords are on file to cor­rob­o­rate the tes­ti­mony of the Mem­o­ries of Mercy if they are re­quired.

28:6.7The Mem­ory of Mercy must show that the sav­ing credit es­tab­lished by the Sons of God has been fully and faith­fully paid out in the lov­ing min­istry of the pa­tient per­son­al­i­ties of the Third Source and Cen­ter. But when mercy is ex­hausted, when the “mem­ory” thereof tes­ti­fies to its de­ple­tion, then does jus­tice pre­vail and righ­teous­ness de­cree. For mercy is not to be thrust upon those who de­spise it; mercy is not a gift to be tram­pled un­der foot by the per­sis­tent rebels of time. Nev­er­the­less, though mercy is thus pre­cious and dearly be­stowed, your in­di­vid­ual draw­ing cred­its are al­ways far in ex­cess of your abil­ity to ex­haust the re­serve if you are sin­cere of pur­pose and hon­est of heart.

28:6.8The mercy re­flec­tors, with their ter­tiary as­so­ciates, en­gage in nu­mer­ous super­uni­verse min­istries, in­clud­ing the teach­ing of the as­cend­ing crea­tures. Among many other things the Sig­nif­i­cances of Ori­gins teach these as­cend­ers how to ap­ply spirit ethics, and fol­low­ing such train­ing, the Mem­o­ries of Mercy teach them how to be truly mer­ci­ful. While the spirit tech­niques of mercy min­istry are be­yond your con­cept, you should even now un­der­stand that mercy is a qual­ity of growth. You should re­al­ize that there is a great re­ward of per­sonal sat­is­fac­tion in be­ing first just, next fair, then pa­tient, then kind. And then, on that foun­da­tion, if you choose and have it in your heart, you can take the next step and re­ally show mercy; but you can­not ex­hibit mercy in and of it­self. These steps must be tra­versed; oth­er­wise there can be no gen­uine mercy. There may be pa­tron­age, con­de­scen­sion, or char­ity—even pity—but not mercy. True mercy comes only as the beau­ti­ful cli­max to these pre­ced­ing ad­juncts to group un­der­stand­ing, mu­tual ap­pre­ci­a­tion, fra­ter­nal fel­low­ship, spir­i­tual com­mu­nion, and di­vine har­mony.

28:6.93. The Im­port of Time. Time is the one uni­ver­sal en­dow­ment of all will crea­tures; it is the “one tal­ent” in­trusted to all in­tel­li­gent be­ings. You all have time in which to in­sure your sur­vival; and time is fa­tally squan­dered only when it is buried in ne­glect, when you fail so to uti­lize it as to make cer­tain the sur­vival of your soul. Fail­ure to im­prove one’s time to the fullest ex­tent pos­si­ble does not im­pose fa­tal penal­ties; it merely re­tards the pil­grim of time in his jour­ney of as­cent. If sur­vival is gained, all other losses can be re­trieved.

28:6.10In the as­sign­ment of trusts the coun­sel of the Im­ports of Time is in­valu­able. Time is a vi­tal fac­tor in ev­ery­thing this side of Ha­vona and Par­a­dise. In the fi­nal judg­ment be­fore the An­cients of Days, time is an el­e­ment of ev­i­dence. The Im­ports of Time must al­ways af­ford tes­ti­mony to show that ev­ery de­fen­dant has had am­ple time for mak­ing de­ci­sions, achiev­ing choice.

28:6.11These time eval­u­a­tors are also the se­cret of prophecy; they por­tray the el­e­ment of time which will be re­quired in the com­ple­tion of any un­der­tak­ing, and they are just as de­pend­able as in­di­ca­tors as are the fran­dalanks and chro­nol­deks of other liv­ing or­ders. The Gods fore­see, hence fore­know; but the as­cen­dant au­thor­i­ties of the uni­verses of time must con­sult the Im­ports of Time to be able to fore­cast events of the fu­ture.

28:6.12You will first en­counter these be­ings on the man­sion worlds, and they will there in­struct you in the ad­van­ta­geous use of that which you call “time,” both in its pos­i­tive em­ploy­ment, work, and in its neg­a­tive uti­liza­tion, rest. Both uses of time are im­por­tant.

28:6.134. The Solem­nity of Trust. Trust is the cru­cial test of will crea­tures. Trust­wor­thi­ness is the true mea­sure of self-mas­tery, char­ac­ter. These se­con­a­phim ac­com­plish a dou­ble pur­pose in the econ­omy of the super­uni­verses: They por­tray to all will crea­tures the sense of the obli­ga­tion, sa­cred­ness, and solem­nity of trust. At the same time they unerringly re­flect to the gov­ern­ing au­thor­i­ties the ex­act trust­wor­thi­ness of any can­di­date for con­fi­dence or trust.

28:6.14On Uran­tia, you grotesquely es­say to read char­ac­ter and to es­ti­mate spe­cific abil­i­ties, but on Uversa we ac­tu­ally do these things in per­fec­tion. These se­con­a­phim weigh trust­wor­thi­ness in the liv­ing scales of unerring char­ac­ter ap­praisal, and when they have looked at you, we have only to look at them to know the lim­i­ta­tions of your abil­ity to dis­charge re­spon­si­bil­ity, ex­e­cute trust, and ful­fill mis­sions. Your as­sets of trust­wor­thi­ness are clearly set forth along­side your li­a­bil­i­ties of pos­si­ble de­fault or be­trayal.

28:6.15It is the plan of your su­pe­ri­ors to ad­vance you by aug­mented trusts just as fast as your char­ac­ter is suf­fi­ciently de­vel­oped to grace­fully bear these added re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, but to over­load the in­di­vid­ual only courts dis­as­ter and in­sures dis­ap­point­ment. And the mis­take of plac­ing re­spon­si­bil­ity pre­ma­turely upon ei­ther man or an­gel may be avoided by uti­liz­ing the min­istry of these in­fal­li­ble es­ti­ma­tors of the trust ca­pac­ity of the in­di­vid­u­als of time and space. These se­con­a­phim ever ac­com­pany Those High in Au­thor­ity, and never do these ex­ec­u­tives make as­sign­ments un­til their can­di­dates have been weighed in the sec­o­raphic bal­ances and pro­nounced “not want­ing.”

28:6.165. The Sanc­tity of Ser­vice. The priv­i­lege of ser­vice im­me­di­ately fol­lows the dis­cov­ery of trust­wor­thi­ness. Noth­ing can stand be­tween you and op­por­tu­nity for in­creased ser­vice ex­cept your own un­trust­wor­thi­ness, your lack of ca­pac­ity for ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the solem­nity of trust.

28:6.17Ser­vice—pur­pose­ful ser­vice, not slav­ery—is pro­duc­tive of the high­est sat­is­fac­tion and is ex­pres­sive of the di­vinest dig­nity. Ser­vice—more ser­vice, in­creased ser­vice, dif­fi­cult ser­vice, ad­ven­tur­ous ser­vice, and at last di­vine and per­fect ser­vice—is the goal of time and the des­ti­na­tion of space. But ever will the play cy­cles of time al­ter­nate with the ser­vice cy­cles of prog­ress. And af­ter the ser­vice of time there fol­lows the super­ser­vice of eter­nity. Dur­ing the play of time you should en­vi­sion the work of eter­nity, even as you will, dur­ing the ser­vice of eter­nity, rem­i­nisce the play of time.

28:6.18The uni­ver­sal econ­omy is based on in­take and out­put; through­out the eter­nal ca­reer you will never en­counter mo­not­ony of in­ac­tion or stag­na­tion of per­son­al­ity. Prog­ress is made pos­si­ble by in­her­ent mo­tion, ad­vance­ment grows out of the di­vine ca­pac­ity for ac­tion, and achieve­ment is the child of imag­i­na­tive ad­ven­ture. But in­her­ent in this ca­pac­ity for achieve­ment is the re­spon­si­bil­ity of ethics, the ne­ces­sity for rec­og­niz­ing that the world and the uni­verse are filled with a mul­ti­tude of dif­fer­ing types of be­ings. All of this mag­nif­i­cent cre­ation, in­clud­ing your­self, was not made just for you. This is not an ego­cen­tric uni­verse. The Gods have de­creed, “It is more blessed to give than to re­ceive,” and said your Mas­ter Son, “He who would be great­est among you let him be server of all.”

28:6.19The real na­ture of any ser­vice, be it ren­dered by man or an­gel, is fully re­vealed in the faces of these sec­o­raphic ser­vice in­di­ca­tors, the Sanc­ti­ties of Ser­vice. The full anal­y­sis of the true and of the hid­den mo­tives is clearly shown. These an­gels are in­deed the mind read­ers, heart searchers, and soul re­veal­ers of the uni­verse. Mor­tals may em­ploy words to con­ceal their thoughts, but these high se­con­a­phim lay bare the deep mo­tives of the hu­man heart and of the an­gelic mind.

28:6.206 and 7. The Se­cret of Great­ness and the Soul of Good­ness. The as­cend­ing pil­grims hav­ing awak­ened to the im­port of time, the way is pre­pared for the re­al­iza­tion of the solem­nity of trust and for the ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the sanc­tity of ser­vice. While these are the moral el­e­ments of great­ness, there are also se­crets of great­ness. When the spir­i­tual tests of great­ness are ap­plied, the moral el­e­ments are not dis­re­garded, but the qual­ity of un­selfish­ness re­vealed in dis­in­ter­ested la­bor for the wel­fare of one’s earthly fel­lows, par­tic­u­larly wor­thy be­ings in need and in dis­tress, that is the real mea­sure of plan­e­tary great­ness. And the man­i­fes­ta­tion of great­ness on a world like Uran­tia is the ex­hi­bi­tion of self-con­trol. The great man is not he who “takes a city” or “over­throws a na­tion,” but rather “he who sub­dues his own tongue.”

28:6.21Great­ness is syn­ony­mous with di­vin­ity. God is su­premely great and good. Great­ness and good­ness sim­ply can­not be di­vorced. They are for­ever made one in God. This truth is lit­er­ally and strik­ingly il­lus­trated by the re­flec­tive in­ter­de­pen­dence of the Se­cret of Great­ness and the Soul of Good­ness, for nei­ther can func­tion with­out the other. In re­flect­ing other qual­i­ties of di­vin­ity, the super­uni­verse se­con­a­phim can and do act alone, but the re­flec­tive es­ti­mates of great­ness and of good­ness ap­pear to be in­sep­a­ra­ble. Hence, on any world, in any uni­verse, must these re­flec­tors of great­ness and of good­ness work to­gether, al­ways show­ing a dual and mu­tu­ally de­pen­dent re­port of ev­ery be­ing upon whom they fo­cal­ize. Great­ness can­not be es­ti­mated with­out know­ing the con­tent of good­ness, while good­ness can­not be por­trayed with­out ex­hibit­ing its in­her­ent and di­vine great­ness.

28:6.22The es­ti­mate of great­ness varies from sphere to sphere. To be great is to be God­like. And since the qual­ity of great­ness is wholly de­ter­mined by the con­tent of good­ness, it fol­lows that, even in your pres­ent hu­man es­tate, if you can through grace be­come good, you are thereby be­com­ing great. The more stead­fastly you be­hold, and the more per­sis­tently you pur­sue, the con­cepts of di­vine good­ness, the more cer­tainly will you grow in great­ness, in true mag­ni­tude of gen­uine sur­vival char­ac­ter.