Secrets of Greatness

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:

28:6.206 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.