The Initiates of the Flame

INTRODUCTIONFew realize that even at the present stage of civilization in this world there are souls who like the priests of the ancient temples walk the earth and watch and guard the sacred fires that burn upon the altar of humanity. Purified ones they are who have renounced the life of this sphere in order to guard and protect the Flame that spiritual principle in man now hidden beneath the ruins of his fallen temple.As we think of the nations that are past of Greece and Rome and the grandeur that was Egypts we sigh as we recall the story of their fall; and we watch the nations of today not knowing which will be the next to draw its shroud around itself and join that great ghostly file of peoples that are dead.But everywhere even in the rise and fall of nations we see through the haze of materiality justice; everywhere we see reward not of man but of the invincible One the eternal Flame.A great hand reaches out from the unseen and regulates the affairs of man. It reaches out from that great spiritual Flame which nourishes all created things the never dying fire that burns on the sacred altar of Cosmos-that great fire which is the spirit of God.If we turn again to the races now dead we shall if we look find the cause of their destruction. The light had gone out. When the flame within the body is withdrawn the body is dead. When the light was taken from the altar the temple was no longer the dwelling place of a living God.Degeneracy lust and passion hates and fears crept into the souls of Greece and Rome and Black Magic overshadowed Egypt; the light upon the altar grew weaker and weaker. The priests lost the Word the name of the Flame. Little by little the Flame flickered out and as the last spark grew cold a mighty nation died buried beneath the dead ashes of its own spiritual fire.But the Flame did not die. Like spirit of which it is the essence it cannot die because it is life and life cannot cease to be. In some wilderness of land or sea it rested once again and there rose a mighty nation around that flame. So history goes on through the ages. As long as a people are true to the Flame it remains but when they cease to nourish it with their lives it goes on to other lands and other worlds.Those who worship this Flame are now called heathens. Little do we realize that we are heathen ourselves until we are baptised of the Holy Spirit which is Fire for fire is Light and the children of the Flame are the Sons of Light even as God is Light.There are those who have for ages labored with man to help him to kindle within himself this spark which is his divine birthright. It is these who by their lives of self-sacrifice and service have awakened and tended this fire and who through ages of study have learned the mystery it contained that we now call the Initiates of the Flame.For ages they have labored with mankind to help him to uncover the light within himself and on the pages of history they have left their seal the seal of Fire.