The Temple Service

The Rosicrucian Fellowship Temple Service

by

Max Heindel

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Once more we have withdrawn from the material world and are entering into the living temple of our own inner natures in spiritual conclave.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.



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(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 --



THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP PRAYER


Not more of Light we ask, O God,
But eyes to see what is;
Not sweeter songs, but ears to hear
The present melodies;
Not greater strength but how to use
the power that we possess;
Not more of love, but skill to turn
A frown to a caress;
Not more of joy, but how to feel
Its kindling presence near,
To give to others all we have
Of courage and of cheer
No other gift, dear God, we ask,
But only sense to see
How best the precious gifts to use
We have received from Thee
Give us all fears to dominate,
All holy joys to know,
To be the friends we wish to be,
To speak the truth we know,
To love the pure, to seek the good,
To lift with all our might,
All souls to dwell in harmony
In freedom's perfect light.

6. All rise and sing the Rosicrucian Fellowship Closing Hymn (see separate card).



THE PARTING ADMONITION
And now my dear sisters and brothers, as we part to re-enter the material world, may we go out with a firmer resolve to express in our daily lives the high spiritual ideals we have received here, so that day by day we may become more worthy men and women, more worthy to be used as self-conscious channels for the beneficial workings of our Elder Brothers in the service of humanity.




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Rosicrucian Fellowship - International Headquarters
2222 Mission Avenue,Oceanside, CA 92058-2329, USA
PO Box 713, Oceanside, CA 92049-0713, USA

Phone: (760) 757 - 6600
Fax: (760) 721 - 3806
Web Page: www.rosicrucian.com, or
www.rosicrucianfellowship.org

The Rosicrucian FellowshipAutumn Equinox Service

Music
Third stanza of Rosicrucian Opening Hymn sung by audience
( Tune: Sweet Hour of Prayer )
Let’s strive to know that we may do.
What lift’s, ennobles, is right and true.
With love to all and hate to none,
Let’s shun no duty that should be done.
For knowing how to act aright,
And doing it from morn till night,
From day to day and year to year,
We conquer self and sin and fear.

Reader unveils the Emblem and gives salutation:

“ My Dear sisters and brothers, may the roses bloom upon
Your cross.” ( Answer from the audience: “And upon
Yours also.” )
“God is Light”
Each time we sink ourselves in these three words
We lave in a spiritual fountain of inexhaustible
Depth, and each succeeding time we sound more
Thoroughly the divine depths and draw more closely
To our Father in heaven.
To get in close touch with this subject, now that
The Christ Light is beginning to permeate the
Earth , let us go back in time to get our bearing
And the direction of our future line of progress.
The first time our consciousness was directed to-
Ward the Light was shortly after we had become en-
Dowed with mind and had entered definitely upon our
Evolution as human beings in Atlantis, the land of
The mist, deep down in the basins of the Earth, where
The warm mist emitted from the cooling Earth, hung
Like a dense fog over the land. Then the starry
Heights of the universe were never seen, nor could
The silvery light of the Moon penetrate the dense,
Foggy atmosphere which hung over the ancient land.
Even the fiery splendor of the Sun was almost totally
Extinguished, for when we look in the Memory of
Nature pertaining to that time, we find that it was
Exceedingly dim, having an aura of various colors,
Very similar to those we observe around an arc light.
But this light had a fascination. The ancient Atlan-
Teans were taught by the divine Hierarchs who
Walked among them to aspire to light, and as the
Spiritual light was then already on the wane, they
Aspired all the more ardently to the new light, for
They feared the darkness of which they had become
Conscious through the gift of mind.
Then came the inevitable flood when the mist cooled
And condensed. The atmosphere cleared, and the
“ chosen people” were saved. Those who had worked
Within themselves and learned to build the necessary
Organs required to breathe in an atmosphere such as
We have today, survived and came to light. It was
Not an arbitrary choice; THE WORK OF THE PAST CON-
SISTED OF BODY BUILDING. Those who had only gill
Clefts, such as the fetus still uses in its prenatal
Development, were as unfit physiologically to enter
The new era as the fetus would be to be born were
It to neglect to build lungs. It would die as those
Ancient people died when the rare atmosphere made
Gill clefts useless.
Since the day when we came out of ancient Atlantis
Our bodies have been practically complete, but
From that time and from now on THOSE WHO WISH TO
FOLLOW THE LIGHT MUST STRIVE FOR SOUL GROWTH. The
Bodies which we have crystallized about us must be
Dissolved, and the quintessence of experience ex-
Tracted, which as “SOUL” may be amalgamated with
The Spirit to nourish it from impotence to omnipo-
Tence. Therefore, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness
Was given to the ancients, and the LIGHT OF GOD DE-
SCENDED UPON THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE. This is of great
Significance: The Ego had just descended into its
Tabernacle, the body. We all know the tendency od
The primitive instinct toward selfishness, and if we
Studied the higher ethics we also know how sub-
Versive of good the indulgence of the egotistic tend-
Ency is; therefore God immediately placed before
Mankind the Divine Light upon the Altar of Sacrifice.
Upon this altar they were forced by dire necessity
To offer their cherished possessions for every trans-
Gression, God appearing to them as a hard task-
Master whose displeasure it was dangerous to incur.
But still the Light drew them. They knew then that
It was futile to attempt to escape from the hand of
God. They had never heard the words of John, “God
IS LIGHT,” but they had already learned from the
Heavens in a measure the meaning of infinitude, as