PAPER 108
- MISSION AND MINISTRY OF THOUGHT ADJUSTERS
The mission of the Thought
Adjusters to the human races is to represent, to be, the
Universal Father to the mortal creatures of time and space;
that is the fundamental work of the divine gifts. Their
mission is also that of elevating the mortal minds and of
translating the immortal souls of men up to the divine
heights and spiritual levels of Paradise perfection. And in
the experience of thus transforming the human nature of the
temporal creature into the divine nature of the eternal
finaliter, the Adjusters bring into existence a unique type
of being, a being consisting in the eternal union of the
perfect Adjuster and the perfected creature which it would
be impossible to duplicate by any other universe technique.
Nothing in the entire
universe can substitute for the fact of experience on
nonexistential levels. The infinite God is, as always,
replete and complete, infinitely inclusive of all things
except evil and creature experience. God cannot do wrong; he
is infallible. God cannot experientially know what he has
never personally experienced; God's preknowledge is
existential. Therefore does the spirit of the Father descend
from Paradise to participate with finite mortals in every
bona fide experience of the ascending career; it is only by
such a method that the existential God could become in truth
and in fact man's experiential Father. The infinity of the
eternal God encompasses the potential for finite experience,
which indeed becomes actual in the ministry of the Adjuster
fragments that actually share the life vicissitude
experiences of human beings.
1. SELECTION AND
ASSIGNMENT
When Adjusters are
dispatched for mortal service from Divinington, they are
identical in the endowment of existential divinity, but they
vary in experiential qualities proportional to previous
contact in and with evolutionary creatures. We cannot
explain the basis of Adjuster assignment, but we conjecture
that these divine gifts are bestowed in accordance with some
wise and efficient policy of eternal fitness of adaptation
to the indwelt personality. We do observe that the more
experienced Adjuster is often the indweller of the higher
type of human mind; human inheritance must therefore be a
considerable factor in determining selection and assignment.
Although we do not
definitely know, we firmly believe that all Thought
Adjusters are volunteers. But before ever they volunteer,
they are in possession of full data respecting the candidate
for indwelling. The seraphic drafts of ancestry and
projected patterns of life conduct are transmitted via
Paradise
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to the reserve corps of
Adjusters on Divinington by the reflectivity technique
extending inward from the capitals of the local universes to
the headquarters of the superuniverses. This forecast covers
not only the hereditary antecedents of the mortal candidate
but also the estimate of probable intellectual endowment and
spiritual capacity. The Adjusters thus volunteer to indwell
minds of whose intimate natures they have been fully
apprised.
The volunteering Adjuster
is particularly interested in three qualifications of the
human candidate:
1. Intellectual
capacity. Is the mind normal? What is the intellectual
potential, the intelligence capacity? Can the individual
develop into a bona fide will creature? Will wisdom have an
opportunity to function?
2. Spiritual
perception. The prospects of reverential development,
the birth and growth of the religious nature. What is the
potential of soul, the probable spiritual capacity of
receptivity?
3. Combined
intellectual and spiritual powers. The degree to which
these two endowments may possibly be associated, combined,
so as to produce strength of human character and contribute
to the certain evolution of an immortal soul of survival
value.
With these facts before
them, it is our belief that the Monitors freely volunteer
for assignment. Probably more than one Adjuster volunteers;
perhaps the supervising personalized orders select from this
group of volunteering Adjusters the one best suited to the
task of spiritualizing and eternalizing the personality of
the mortal candidate. (In the assignment and service of the
Adjusters the sex of the creature is of no consideration.)
The short time intervening
between the volunteering and the actual dispatch of the
Adjuster is presumably spent in the Divinington schools of
the Personalized Monitors where a working pattern of the
waiting mortal mind is utilized in instructing the assigned
Adjuster as to the most effective plans for personality
approach and mind spiritization. This mind model is
formulated through a combination of data supplied by the
superuniverse reflectivity service. At least this is our
understanding, a belief which we hold as the result of
putting together information secured by contact with many
Personalized Adjusters throughout the long universe careers
of the Solitary Messengers.
When once the Adjusters
are actually dispatched from Divinington, practically no
time intervenes between that moment and the hour of their
appearance in the minds of their chosen subjects. The
average transit time of an Adjuster from Divinington to
Urantia is 117 hours, 42 minutes, and 7 seconds. Virtually
all of this time is occupied with registration on Uversa.
2. PREREQUISITES
OF ADJUSTER INDWELLING
Though the Adjusters
volunteer for service as soon as the personality forecasts
have been relayed to Divinington, they are not actually
assigned until the human subjects make their first moral
personality decision. The first moral choice of the human
child is automatically indicated in the seventh
mind-adjutant and registers instantly, by way of the local
universe Creative Spirit, over the universal mind-gravity
circuit of the Conjoint Actor in the presence of the Master
Spirit of superuniverse jurisdiction, who forthwith
dispatches this intelligence to Divinington. Adjusters reach
their human subjects on
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Urantia, on the average, just
prior to the sixth birthday. In the present generation it is
running five years, ten months, and four days; that is, on
the 2,134th day of terrestrial life.
The Adjusters cannot
invade the mortal mind until it has been duly prepared by
the indwelling ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits and
encircuited in the Holy Spirit. And it requires the
co-ordinate function of all seven adjutants to thus qualify
the human mind for the reception of an Adjuster. Creature
mind must exhibit the worship outreach and indicate wisdom
function by exhibiting the ability to choose between the
emerging values of good and evil--moral choice.
Thus is the stage of the
human mind set for the reception of Adjusters, but as a
general rule they do not immediately appear to indwell such
minds except on those worlds where the Spirit of Truth is
functioning as a spiritual co-ordinator of these different
spirit ministries. If this spirit of the bestowal Sons is
present, the Adjusters unfailingly come the instant the
seventh adjutant mind-spirit begins to function and
signalizes to the Universe Mother Spirit that it has
achieved in potential the co-ordination of the associated
six adjutants of prior ministry to such a mortal intellect.
Therefore have the divine Adjusters been universally
bestowed upon all normal minds of moral status on Urantia
ever since the day of Pentecost.
Even with a Spirit of
Truth endowed mind, the Adjusters cannot arbitrarily invade
the mortal intellect prior to the appearance of moral
decision. But when such a moral decision has been made, this
spirit helper assumes jurisdiction direct from Divinington.
There are no intermediaries or other intervening authorities
or powers functioning between the divine Adjusters and their
human subjects; God and man are directly related.
Before the times of the
pouring out of the Spirit of Truth upon the inhabitants of
an evolutionary world, the Adjusters' bestowal appears to be
determined by many spirit influences and personality
attitudes. We do not fully comprehend the laws governing
such bestowals; we do not understand just what determines
the release of the Adjusters who have volunteered to indwell
such evolving minds. But we do observe numerous influences
and conditions which appear to be associated with the
arrival of the Adjusters in such minds prior to the bestowal
of the Spirit of Truth, and they are:
1. The assignment of
personal seraphic guardians. If a mortal has not been
previously indwelt by an Adjuster, the assignment of a
personal guardian brings the Adjuster forthwith. There
exists some very definite but unknown relation between the
ministry of Adjusters and the ministry of personal seraphic
guardians.
2. The attainment of the
third circle of intellectual achievement and spiritual
attainment. I have observed Adjusters arrive in mortal minds
upon the conquest of the third circle even before such an
accomplishment could be signalized to the local universe
personalities concerned with such matters.
3. Upon the making of a
supreme decision of unusual spiritual import. Such human
behavior in a personal planetary crisis usually is attended
by the immediate arrival of the waiting Adjuster.
4. The spirit of
brotherhood. Regardless of the attainment of the psychic
circles and the assignment of personal guardians--in the
absence of anything
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resembling a crisis
decision--when an evolving mortal becomes dominated by the
love of his fellows and consecrated to unselfish ministry to
his brethren in the flesh, the waiting Adjuster unvaryingly
descends to indwell the mind of such a mortal minister.
5. Declaration of
intention to do the will of God. We observe that many
mortals on the worlds of space may be apparently in
readiness to receive Adjusters, and yet the Monitors do not
appear. We go on watching such creatures as they live from
day to day, and presently they quietly, almost
unconsciously, arrive at the decision to begin the pursuit
of the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. And then
we observe the immediate dispatch of the Thought Adjusters.
6. Influence of the
Supreme Being. On worlds where the Adjusters do not fuse
with the evolving souls of the mortal inhabitants, we
observe Adjusters sometimes bestowed in response to
influences which are wholly beyond our comprehension. We
conjecture that such bestowals are determined by some cosmic
reflex action originating in the Supreme Being. As to why
these Adjusters can not or do not fuse with these certain
types of evolving mortal minds we do not know. Such
transactions have never been revealed to us.
3. ORGANIZATION
AND ADMINISTRATION
As far as we know,
Adjusters are organized as an independent working unit in
the universe of universes and are apparently administered
directly from Divinington. They are uniform throughout the
seven superuniverses, all local universes being served by
identical types of Mystery Monitors. We do know from
observation that there are numerous series of Adjusters
involving a serial organization that extends through races,
over dispensations, and to worlds, systems, and universes.
It is, however, exceedingly difficult to keep track of these
divine gifts since they function interchangeably throughout
the grand universe.
Adjusters are of complete
record (outside of Divinington) only on the headquarters of
the seven superuniverses. The number and order of each
Adjuster indwelling each ascending creature are reported out
by the Paradise authorities to the headquarters of the
superuniverse, and from there are communicated to the
headquarters of the local universe concerned and relayed to
the particular planet involved. But the local universe
records do not disclose the full number of the Thought
Adjusters; the Nebadon records contain only the local
universe assignment number as designated by the
representatives of the Ancients of Days. The real
significance of the Adjuster's complete number is known only
on Divinington.
Human subjects are often
known by the numbers of their Adjusters; mortals do not
receive real universe names until after Adjuster fusion,
which union is signalized by the bestowal of the new name
upon the new creature by the destiny guardian.
Though we have the records
of Thought Adjusters in Orvonton, and though we have
absolutely no authority over them or administrative
connection with them, we firmly believe that there is a very
close administrative connection between the individual
worlds of the local universes and the central lodgment of
the divine gifts on Divinington. We do know that, following
the appearance
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of a Paradise bestowal Son,
an evolutionary world has a Personalized Adjuster assigned
to it as the planetary supervisor of Adjusters.
It is interesting to note
that local universe inspectors always address themselves,
when carrying out a planetary examination, to the planetary
chief of Thought Adjusters, just as they deliver charges to
the chiefs of seraphim and to the leaders of other orders of
beings attached to the administration of an evolving world.
Not long since, Urantia underwent such a periodic inspection
by Tabamantia, the sovereign supervisor of all
life-experiment planets in the universe of Nebadon. And the
records reveal that, in addition to his admonitions and
indictments delivered to the various chiefs of superhuman
personalities, he also delivered the following
acknowledgment to the chief of Adjusters, whether located on
the planet, on Salvington, Uversa, or Divinington, we do not
definitely know, but he said:
"Now to you, superiors far
above me, I come as one placed in temporary authority over
the experimental planetary series; and I come to express
admiration and profound respect for this magnificent group
of celestial ministers, the Mystery Monitors, who have
volunteered to serve on this irregular sphere. No matter how
trying the crises, you never falter. Not on the records of
Nebadon nor before the commissions of Orvonton has there
ever been offered an indictment of a divine Adjuster. You
have been true to your trusts; you have been divinely
faithful. You have helped to adjust the mistakes and to
compensate for the shortcomings of all who labor on this
confused planet. You are marvelous beings, guardians of the
good in the souls of this backward realm. I pay you respect
even while you are apparently under my jurisdiction as
volunteer ministers. I bow before you in humble recognition
of your exquisite unselfishness, your understanding
ministry, and your impartial devotion. You deserve the name
of the Godlike servers of the mortal inhabitants of this
strife-torn, grief-stricken, and disease-afflicted world. I
honor you! I all but worship you!"
As a result of many
suggestive lines of evidence, we believe that the Adjusters
are thoroughly organized, that there exists a profoundly
intelligent and efficient directive administration of these
divine gifts from some far-distant and central source,
probably Divinington. We know that they come from
Divinington to the worlds, and undoubtedly they return
thereto upon the deaths of their subjects.
Among the higher spirit
orders it is exceedingly difficult to discover the
mechanisms of administration. My order of personalities,
while engaged in the prosecution of our specific duties, is
undoubtedly unconsciously participating with numerous other
personal and impersonal sub-Deity groups who unitedly are
functioning as far-flung universe correlators. We suspect
that we are thus serving because we are the only group of
personalized creatures (aside from Personalized Adjusters)
who are uniformly conscious of the presence of numerous
orders of the prepersonal entities.
We are aware of the
presence of the Adjusters, who are fragments of the
prepersonal Deity of the First Source and Center. We sense
the presence of the Inspired Trinity Spirits, who are
superpersonal expressions of the Paradise Trinity. We
likewise unfailingly detect the spirit presence of certain
unrevealed orders springing from the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit. And we are not wholly unresponsive to still
other entities unrevealed to you.
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The Melchizedeks of Nebadon
teach that the Solitary Messengers are the personality
co-ordinators of these various influences as they register
in the expanding Deity of the evolutionary Supreme Being. It
is very possible that we may be participants in the
experiential unification of many of the unexplained
phenomena of time, but we are not consciously certain of
thus functioning.
4. RELATION TO
OTHER SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES
Apart from possible
co-ordination with other Deity fragments, the Adjusters are
quite alone in their sphere of activity in the mortal mind.
The Mystery Monitors eloquently bespeak the fact that,
though the Father may have apparently resigned the exercise
of all direct personal power and authority throughout the
grand universe, notwithstanding this act of abnegation in
behalf of the Supreme Creator children of the Paradise
Deities, the Father has certainly reserved to himself the
unchallengeable right to be present in the minds and souls
of his evolving creatures to the end that he may so act as
to draw all creature creation to himself, co-ordinately with
the spiritual gravity of the Paradise Sons. Said your
Paradise bestowal Son when yet on Urantia, "I, if I am
lifted up, will draw all men." This spiritual drawing power
of the Paradise Sons and their creative associates we
recognize and understand, but we do not so fully comprehend
the methods of the all-wise Father's functioning in and
through these Mystery Monitors that live and work so
valiantly within the human mind.
While not subordinate to,
co-ordinate with, or apparently related to, the work of the
universe of universes, though acting independently in the
minds of the children of men, unceasingly do these
mysterious presences urge the creatures of their indwelling
toward divine ideals, always luring them upward toward the
purposes and aims of a future and better life. These Mystery
Monitors are continually assisting in the establishment of
the spiritual dominion of Michael throughout the universe of
Nebadon while mysteriously contributing to the stabilization
of the sovereignty of the Ancients of Days in Orvonton. The
Adjusters are the will of God, and since the Supreme
Creator children of God also personally embody that same
will, it is inevitable that the actions of Adjusters and the
sovereignty of the universe rulers should be mutually
interdependent. Though apparently unconnected, the Father
presence of the Adjusters and the Father sovereignty of
Michael of Nebadon must be diverse manifestations of the
same divinity.
Thought Adjusters appear
to come and go quite independent of any and all other
spiritual presences; they seem to function in accordance
with universe laws quite apart from those which govern and
control the performances of all other spirit influences. But
regardless of such apparent independence, long-range
observation unquestionably discloses that they function in
the human mind in perfect synchrony and co-ordination with
all other spirit ministries, including adjutant
mind-spirits, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, and other
influences.
When a world is isolated
by rebellion, when a planet is cut off from all outside
encircuited communication, as was Urantia after the
Caligastia upheaval, aside from personal messengers there
remains but one possibility of direct interplanetary or
universe communication, and that is through the liaison
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of the Adjusters of the
spheres. No matter what happens on a world or in a universe,
the Adjusters are never directly concerned. The isolation of
a planet in no way affects the Adjusters and their ability
to communicate with any part of the local universe,
superuniverse, or the central universe. And this is the
reason why contacts with the supreme and the self-acting
Adjusters of the reserve corps of destiny are so frequently
made on quarantined worlds. Recourse is had to such a
technique as a means of circumventing the handicaps of
planetary isolation. In recent years the archangels' circuit
has functioned on Urantia, but that means of communication
is largely limited to the transactions of the archangel
corps itself.
We are cognizant of many
spirit phenomena in the far-flung universe which we are at a
loss fully to understand. We are not yet masters of all that
is transpiring about us; and I believe that much of this
inscrutable work is wrought by the Gravity Messengers and
certain types of Mystery Monitors. I do not believe that
Adjusters are devoted solely to the remaking of mortal
minds. I am persuaded that the Personalized Monitors and
other orders of unrevealed prepersonal spirits are
representative of the Universal Father's direct and
unexplained contact with the creatures of the realms.
5. THE ADJUSTER'S
MISSION
The Adjusters accept a
difficult assignment when they volunteer to indwell such
composite beings as live on Urantia. But they have assumed
the task of existing in your minds, there to receive the
admonitions of the spiritual intelligences of the realms and
then to undertake to redictate or translate these spiritual
messages to the material mind; they are indispensable to the
Paradise ascension.
What the Thought Adjuster
cannot utilize in your present life, those truths which he
cannot successfully transmit to the man of his betrothal, he
will faithfully preserve for use in the next stage of
existence, just as he now carries over from circle to circle
those items which he fails to register in the experience of
the human subject, owing to the creature's inability, or
failure, to give a sufficient degree of co-operation.
One thing you can depend
upon: The Adjusters will never lose anything committed to
their care; never have we known these spirit helpers to
default. Angels and other high types of spirit beings, not
excepting the local universe type of Sons, may occasionally
embrace evil, may sometimes depart from the divine way, but
Adjusters never falter. They are absolutely dependable, and
this is equally true of all seven groups.
Your Adjuster is the
potential of your new and next order of existence, the
advance bestowal of your eternal sonship with God. By and
with the consent of your will, the Adjuster has the power to
subject the creature trends of the material mind to the
transforming actions of the motivations and purposes of the
emerging morontial soul.
The Mystery Monitors are
not thought helpers; they are thought adjusters. They labor
with the material mind for the purpose of constructing, by
adjustment and spiritualization, a new mind for the new
worlds and the new name of your future career. Their mission
chiefly concerns the future life, not this life. They are
called heavenly helpers, not earthly helpers. They are not
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interested in making the
mortal career easy; rather are they concerned in making your
life reasonably difficult and rugged, so that decisions will
be stimulated and multiplied. The presence of a great
Thought Adjuster does not bestow ease of living and freedom
from strenuous thinking, but such a divine gift should
confer a sublime peace of mind and a superb tranquillity of
spirit.
Your transient and
ever-changing emotions of joy and sorrow are in the main
purely human and material reactions to your internal psychic
climate and to your external material environment. Do not,
therefore, look to the Adjuster for selfish consolation and
mortal comfort. It is the business of the Adjuster to
prepare you for the eternal adventure, to assure your
survival. It is not the mission of the Mystery Monitor to
smooth your ruffled feelings or to minister to your injured
pride; it is the preparation of your soul for the long
ascending career that engages the attention and occupies the
time of the Adjuster.
I doubt that I am able to
explain to you just what the Adjusters do in your minds and
for your souls. I do not know that I am fully cognizant of
what is really going on in the cosmic association of a
divine Monitor and a human mind. It is all somewhat of a
mystery to us, not as to the plan and purpose but as to the
actual mode of accomplishment. And this is just why we are
confronted with such difficulty in finding an appropriate
name for these supernal gifts to mortal men.
The Thought Adjusters
would like to change your feelings of fear to convictions of
love and confidence; but they cannot mechanically and
arbitrarily do such things; that is your task. In executing
those decisions which deliver you from the fetters of fear,
you literally supply the psychic fulcrum on which the
Adjuster may subsequently apply a spiritual lever of
uplifting and advancing illumination.
When it comes to the sharp
and well-defined conflicts between the higher and lower
tendencies of the races, between what really is right
or wrong (not merely what you may call right and wrong), you
can depend upon it that the Adjuster will always participate
in some definite and active manner in such experiences. The
fact that such Adjuster activity may be unconscious to the
human partner does not in the least detract from its value
and reality.
If you have a personal
guardian of destiny and should fail of survival, that
guardian angel must be adjudicated in order to receive
vindication as to the faithful execution of her trust. But
Thought Adjusters are not thus subjected to examination when
their subjects fail to survive. We all know that, while an
angel might possibly fall short of the perfection of
ministry, Thought Adjusters work in the manner of Paradise
perfection; their ministry is characterized by a flawless
technique which is beyond the possibility of criticism by
any being outside of Divinington. You have perfect guides;
therefore is the goal of perfection certainly attainable.
6. GOD IN MAN
It is indeed a marvel of
divine condescension for the exalted and perfect Adjusters
to offer themselves for actual existence in the minds of
material creatures, such as the mortals of Urantia, really
to consummate a probationary union with the animal-origin
beings of earth.
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No matter what the previous
status of the inhabitants of a world, subsequent to the
bestowal of a divine Son and after the bestowal of the
Spirit of Truth upon all humans, the Adjusters flock to such
a world to indwell the minds of all normal will creatures.
Following the completion of the mission of a Paradise
bestowal Son, these Monitors truly become the "kingdom of
heaven within you." Through the bestowal of the divine gifts
the Father makes the closest possible approach to sin and
evil, for it is literally true that the Adjuster must
coexist in the mortal mind even in the very midst of human
unrighteousness. The indwelling Adjusters are particularly
tormented by those thoughts which are purely sordid and
selfish; they are distressed by irreverence for that which
is beautiful and divine, and they are virtually thwarted in
their work by many of man's foolish animal fears and
childish anxieties.
The Mystery Monitors are
undoubtedly the bestowal of the Universal Father, the
reflection of the image of God abroad in the universe. A
great teacher once admonished men that they should be
renewed in the spirit of their minds; that they become new
men who, like God, are created in righteousness and in the
completion of truth. The Adjuster is the mark of divinity,
the presence of God. The "image of God" does not refer to
physical likeness nor to the circumscribed limitations of
material creature endowment but rather to the gift of the
spirit presence of the Universal Father in the supernal
bestowal of the Thought Adjusters upon the humble creatures
of the universes.
The Adjuster is the
wellspring of spiritual attainment and the hope of divine
character within you. He is the power, privilege, and the
possibility of survival, which so fully and forever
distinguishes you from mere animal creatures. He is the
higher and truly internal spiritual stimulus of thought in
contrast with the external and physical stimulus, which
reaches the mind over the nerve-energy mechanism of the
material body.
These faithful custodians
of the future career unfailingly duplicate every mental
creation with a spiritual counterpart; they are thus slowly
and surely re-creating you as you really are (only
spiritually) for resurrection on the survival worlds. And
all of these exquisite spirit re-creations are being
preserved in the emerging reality of your evolving and
immortal soul, your morontia self. These realities are
actually there, notwithstanding that the Adjuster is seldom
able to exalt these duplicate creations sufficiently to
exhibit them to the light of consciousness.
And as you are the human
parent, so is the Adjuster the divine parent of the real
you, your higher and advancing self, your better morontial
and future spiritual self. And it is this evolving morontial
soul that the judges and censors discern when they decree
your survival and pass you upward to new worlds and
never-ending existence in eternal liaison with your faithful
partner--God, the Adjuster.
The Adjusters are the
eternal ancestors, the divine originals, of your evolving
immortal souls; they are the unceasing urge that leads man
to attempt the mastery of the material and present existence
in the light of the spiritual and future career. The
Monitors are the prisoners of undying hope, the founts of
everlasting progression. And how they do enjoy communicating
with their subjects in more or less direct channels! How
they rejoice when they can dispense with symbols and other
methods of indirection and flash their messages straight to
the intellects of their human partners!
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You humans have begun an
endless unfolding of an almost infinite panorama, a
limitless expanding of never-ending, ever-widening spheres
of opportunity for exhilarating service, matchless
adventure, sublime uncertainty, and boundless attainment.
When the clouds gather overhead, your faith should accept
the fact of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster, and
thus you should be able to look beyond the mists of mortal
uncertainty into the clear shining of the sun of eternal
righteousness on the beckoning heights of the mansion worlds
of Satania.
[Presented by a Solitary
Messenger of Orvonton.] |