^28:6.17 Service — 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.

^28:6.18 ¶ The 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.”

^28:6.19 ¶ The 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.

^28:6.20 ¶ 6 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 labour 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.”

^28:6.21 Greatness 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.

^28:6.22 The 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.

7. MINISTRY OF THE SECONAPHIM

^28:7.1 The seconaphim have their origin and headquarters on the capitals of the superuniverses, but with their liaison fellows they range from the shores of Paradise to the evolutionary worlds of space. They serve as valued assistants to the members of the deliberative assemblies of the supergovernments and are of great help to the courtesy colonies of Uversa: the star students, millennial tourists, celestial observers, and a host of others, including the ascendant beings in waiting for Havona transport. The Ancients of Days take pleasure in assigning certain of the primary seconaphim to assist the ascending creatures domiciled on the 490 study worlds surrounding Uversa, and here also do many of the secondary and tertiary orders serve as teachers. These Uversa satellites are the finishing schools of the universes of time, presenting the preparatory course for the seven-circuited university of Havona.

^28:7.2 ¶ Of the three orders of seconaphim, the tertiary group, attached to the ascendant authorities, minister most extensively to the ascending creatures of time. You will on occasion meet them soon after your departure from Urantia, though you will not freely make use of their services until you reach the tarrying worlds of Orvonton. You will enjoy their companionship when you become fully acquainted with them during your sojourn on the Uversa school worlds.

^28:7.3 These tertiary seconaphim are the timesavers, space abridgers, error detectors, faithful teachers, and everlasting guideposts — living signs of divine surety — in mercy placed at the crossroads of time, there to guide the feet of anxious pilgrims in moments of great perplexity and spiritual uncertainty. Long before attaining the portals of perfection, you will begin to gain access to the tools of divinity and to make contact with the techniques of Deity. Increasingly, from the time you arrive on the initial mansion world until you close your eyes in the Havona sleep preparatory to your Paradise transit, you will avail yourself of the emergency help of these marvellous beings, who are so fully and freely reflective of the sure knowledge and certain wisdom of those safe and dependable pilgrims who have preceded you on the long journey to the portals of perfection.

^28:7.4 We are denied the full privilege of using these angels of the reflective order on Urantia. They are frequent visitors on your world, accompanying assigned personalities, but here they cannot freely function. This sphere is still under partial spiritual quarantine, and some of the circuits essential to their services are not here at present. When your world is once more restored to the reflective circuits concerned, much of the work of interplanetary and interuniverse communication will be greatly simplified and expedited. Celestial workers on Urantia encounter many difficulties because of this functional curtailment of their reflective associates. But we go on joyfully conducting our affairs with the instrumentalities at hand, notwithstanding our local deprivation of many of the services of these marvellous beings, the living mirrors of space and the presence projectors of time.

^28:7.5 [Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger of Uversa.]

PAPER № 29

THE UNIVERSE POWER DIRECTORS

^29:0.1 Of all the universe personalities concerned in the regulation of interplanetary and interuniverse affairs, the power directors and their associates have been the least understood on Urantia. While your races have long known of the existence of angels and similar orders of celestial beings, little information concerning the controllers and regulators of the physical domain has ever been imparted. Even now I am permitted fully to disclose only the last of the following three groups of living beings having to do with force control and energy regulation in the master universe: