Page:The Urantia Book, 1st Edition.djvu/348

282 to consult the records of, and to be otherwise conversant with, the history and traditions of your status sphere.

The recorders are a tested and tried corps. Never have I known of the defection of a Celestial Recorder, and never has there been discovered a falsification in their records. They are subjected to a dual inspection, their records being scrutinized by their exalted fellows from Uversa and by the Mighty Messengers, who certify to the correctness of the quasi-physical duplicates of the original spirit records.

While the advancing recorders stationed on the subordinate spheres of record in the Orvonton universes number trillions upon trillions, those of attained status on Uversa are not quite eight million in number. These senior or graduate recorders are the superuniverse custodians and forwarders of the sponsored records of time and space. Their permanent headquarters are in the circular abodes surrounding the area of records on Uversa. They never leave the custody of these records to others; as individuals they may be absent, but never in large numbers.

Like those supernaphim who have become Custodians of Records, the corps of Celestial Recorders is of permanent assignment. Once seraphim and supernaphim are mustered into these services, they will respectively remain Celestial Recorders and Custodians of Records until the day of the new and modified administration of the full personalization of God the Supreme.

On Uversa these senior Celestial Recorders can show the records of everything of cosmic import in all Orvonton since the far-distant times of the arrival of the Ancients of Days, while on the eternal Isle the Custodians of Records guard the archives of that realm which testify to the transactions of Paradise since the times of the personification of the Infinite Spirit.

These children of the local universe Mother Spirits are the friends and associates of all who live the ascending morontia life. They are not indispensable to an ascender's real work of creature progression, neither do they in any sense displace the work of the seraphic guardians who often accompany their mortal associates on the Paradise journey. The Morontia Companions are simply gracious hosts to those who are just beginning the long inward ascent. They are also skillful play sponsors and are ably assisted in this work by the reversion directors.

Though you will have earnest and progressively difficult tasks to perform on the morontia training worlds of Nebadon, you will always be provided with regular seasons of rest and reversion. Throughout the journey to Paradise there will always be time for rest and spirit play; and in the career of light and life there is always time for worship and new achievement.

These Morontia Companions are such friendly associates that, when you finally leave the last phase of the morontia experience, as you prepare to embark upon the superuniverse spirit adventure, you will truly regret that these companionable creatures cannot accompany you, but they serve exclusively in the local universes. At every stage of the ascending career all contactable personalities will be friendly and companionable, but not until you meet the Paradise Companions will you find another group so devoted to friendship and companionship.