Few realize that even at the present stage of civilization in this world,there are souls who, like the priests of the ancient temples, walk theearth and watch and guard the sacred fires that burn upon the altar ofhumanity. Purified ones they are, who have renounced the life of thissphere in order to guard and protect the Flame, that spiritual principlein man, now hidden beneath the ruins of his fallen temple.As we think of the nations that are past, of Greece and Rome and thegrandeur that was Egypt's, we sigh as we recall the story of their fall;and we watch the nations of today, not knowing which will be the next todraw its shroud around itself and join that great ghostly file of peoplesthat are dead.But everywhere, even in the rise and fall of nations, we see through thehaze of materiality, justice; everywhere we see reward, not of man but ofthe invincible One, the eternal Flame.A great hand reaches out from the unseen and regulates the affairs ofman. It reaches out from that great spiritual Flame which nourishes allcreated things, the never dying fire that burns on the sacred altar ofCosmos--that great fire which is the spirit of God.If we turn again to the races now dead, we shall, if we look, find thecause of their destruction. =The light had gone out.

= When the flamewithin the body is withdrawn, the body is dead. When the light was takenfrom the altar, the temple was no longer the dwelling place of a livingGod.Degeneracy, lust, and passion, hates and fears, crept into the souls ofGreece and Rome, and Black Magic overshadowed Egypt; the light upon thealtar grew weaker and weaker. The priests lost the Word, the name of theFlame. Little by little the Flame flickered out, and as the last sparkgrew cold, a mighty nation died, buried beneath the dead ashes of its ownspiritual fire.But the Flame did not die. Like spirit of which it is the essence, itcannot die, because it is life, and life cannot cease to be. In somewilderness of land or sea it rested once again, and there rose a mightynation around that flame.

So history goes on through the ages. As longas a people are true to the Flame, it remains, but when they cease tonourish it with their lives, it goes on to other lands and other worlds.Those who worship this Flame are now called heathens. Little do werealize that we are heathen ourselves until we are baptised of the HolySpirit, which is Fire, for fire is Light, and the children of the Flameare the Sons of Light, even as God is Light.There are those who have for ages labored with man to help him to kindlewithin himself this spark, which is his divine birthright. It is thesewho by their lives of self-sacrifice and service have awakened and tendedthis fire, and who through ages of study have learned the mystery itcontained, that we now call the "Initiates of the Flame."For ages they have labored with mankind to help him to uncover the lightwithin himself, and on the pages of history they have left their seal,the seal of Fire.