The Members of the Fellowship Are As a City Set Upon A Hill
Jan 12th, 2012 by admin
The Polish Rider - 1655 - Rembrandt van Rijn
When a Spirit steps apart from the multitude and resolves to follow the path that leads upward, then the eyes of all are upon him.
[From Reader’s Questions, Rays from the Rose Cross, August 1984]
The members of the Fellowship are as a city set upon a hill whose light cannot be hid. They must attune themselves so that they give forth only a true keynote. If they respond to anything that is false, they, by that falsity of tone, draw to the Fellowship what is undesirable and untrue. When they find among their numbers what they recognize as not being the true light, let each inquire of himself what he has done to attract such a condition. Each will have to plead guilty at the bar of conscience; there is not one who is free from sin.
One can best keep his vow by every moment keeping an earnest watch on thought, word, and deed – by never allowing anything impure to enter the mind, no hasty word to escape the lips, no dishonorable act to sully the name.
It is necessary to understand the constitution of man fully to comprehend the situation. Man is a three-fold Spirit which has emanated from and is still a part of God. This is spoken of as the Ego, or God within. Each aspect of the Spirit has built a body in concrete matter, a reflection of itself. Naturally one would expect that these lower vehicles would be under control of their higher counterparts, but unfortunately other influences have crept in and estranged the lower from the higher.
Now a direct path has been constructed between the spiritual and material parts of man’s constitution. This path is the mind. It is still very feeble and not under control, but by degrees it will become more usable. Our will to do will cause this link of mind to grow stronger. The light from the Higher Self will lead the lower self by the path of mind if we are true to our vow and follow the injunctions of the Spirit.
Let each Student and Probationer realize that he, united with all the others, forms The Rosicrucian Fellowship; that his every thought and action reacts upon the whole. Each time his love and compassion are stirred, he raises the vibration of the whole. Each time he is self-seeking, dishonorable, thinks thoughts that pull down instead of building up, he thus causes the whole Fellowship to suffer. Not only does it suffer by the lowered vibration this caused, but the criticism of the world is directed against the whole body and it is weakened thereby. We’re all, each moment, either helping the spiritual beings who are behind this wonderful movement, or we are fighting against them.
When a Spirit steps apart from the multitude and resolves to follow the path that leads upward, then the eyes of all are upon him. The Angels rejoice; the evil forces seek to lay a trap hoping perchance he may trip and fall. Often he will trip, often he may fall, but every time he starts again forward, he helps the whole Fellowship. The steady striving will show the watchers and the scoffers that there is a power not of Earth helping the earnest Spirit to reach the goal. Therefore, keep on trying every day “just where you are,” following closely the life of the Christ.
The Ecclesia