Order of the Sunday
Devotional Service at Headquarters and in Rosicrucian Fellowship
Centers
1. Sing the Rosicrucian Fellowship
opening Hymn (see separate card).
2. Unveil the Emblem.
3. A member reads aloud the following
Rosicrucian Fellowship Temple Service.
My Dear Sisters and
Brothers:
Once more we have withdrawn from the
material world and are entering into the living temple of our own inner
natures in spiritual conclave. As a symbol of this withdrawal from the
visible world we have darkened our meeting place.
We are looking for spiritual light
along the lines of the Rosicrucian teaching, and we therefore reverently
fix our eyes upon the Rose Cross while we listen to the Rosicrucian
greeting:
"My dear sisters and brothers: May the
Roses bloom upon your Cross."
(The members respond: "And upon yours
also.")
One coal will not make a fire, but
where a number of coals are heaped together the heat which is latent in
each may be kindled into a flame emitting light and warmth; and it is in
obedience to this same law of nature that we have gathered here tonight
that by massing our spiritual aspirations we may light and keep ablaze the
beacon light of true spiritual fellowship which is the balm of Gilead the
only panacea for the world's woe.
The Bible has been given to the Western
World by the Recording Angels, who give to each and all exactly what they
need for their development. They are above mistakes, and if we seek the
Light, we shall find it there.
Let us read from the first epistle of
John, and from Paul's letters to the Corinthians and Philippians, where
fellowship is the theme:
God is light; if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. He that loveth
his brother abideth in the light, but he that hateth his brother is in
darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because the darkness hath
blinded his eyes.
Let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth, for though I
speak with the tongues of men and of Angels and have not love, I am
become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal and though I have the gift
of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I
have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love,
I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though
I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
nothing.
Love suffereth long and is kind; love
envieth not; love vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up, doth not behave
herself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil rejoiceth not in iniquity, but in the truth; beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things.
Love never faileth; but whether there
be prophecies, they shall fail, and whether there be knowledge, it shall
vanish away, for now we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done
away; for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now we
know in part; but then we shall know even as we are known; and now abideth
Faith, Hope, and Love, but the greatest of these is Love.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in
us, and His love is perfected in us God is love, and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God and God in him; but if a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he prevaricates, for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this
commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother
also.
If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort in love, if any fellowship in spirit, look not
every man on his own things but also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who made himself of no
reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of man.
And being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death upon the
cross Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is
above every name; that at the name of Christ Jesus every knee should bow,
and that every tongue should confess that Christ Jesus is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
My dear sisters and brothers, let us
strive to follow the example of Christ and live up to His definition of
greatness, namely, He who would be the greatest among you, let him
be the servant of all.
Loving, self-forgetting service
to others is the shortest, the safest, and the most joyful road to God.
The recognition of the fundamental unity of each with all, the fellowship
of the spirit, is the realization of God. To reach that realization let us
endeavor each day to forget the open unprepossessing exteriors of our
brothers and seek to serve the divine essence hidden within, which is the
basis of fellowship.
We will now enter the silence together
and concentrate on SERVICE for a few moments.
(After the concentration the
emblem is veiled, the lights are turned on, and the lecture for the day is
delivered by a member who is of the opposite sex to the reader, if
possible.)
4. Lecture
5. At conclusion of lecture the reader
returns to the platform and reads --