My earnest exception and hope that nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus Christ, we tell God He does not know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point—God does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only—my utmost for God’s highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for God and God alone. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. Nonetheless, if humans had only a natural will (a rational or intellectual), they would be incapable of sin, but subject to errors of judgment. On the other hand, if the will’s freedom is taken to mean nothing more than simple liberation from this inclination of nature, its actions would become irrational and governed by chance or caprice. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

What is needed is some counterinclination the frees humans from this need to follow their natural inclination yet is in accord with right reason. This is precisely the function of human’s native freedom. Human’s reason, when unimpeded by emotional considerations, is capable of arriving at a fairly objective estimate of the most important human actions in terms of the intrinsic worth of the goal attained, the effort expended, the consequences, and so on. By reason of its affection for justice the will is inclined to accept and to seek such intrinsic values, even when this runs counter to other natural inclinations for self-indulgence. However, being free to disregard the inclination for self-indulgence and to follow the higher dictates of justice, human becomes responsible for the good and evil one foresees will result from either course of action. It is the exercise of this freedom that is a necessary, though not a sufficient condition for any action to have a moral value. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

The other requisite condition become apparent if we consider the nature of moral goodness. An action may be called good on several counts. There is that transcendental goodness conextensive with being which simply that, having some optimistic entity, a thing can be wanted or desires. However, over and above this is that natural goodness which may or may not be present. Like bodily beauty, this accidental quality is a harmonious blend of all that becomes the thing in question. Actions also can have such a natural goodness. Walking, running, and the like may become the thing in question. Actions also can have such a natural goodness. Walking, running, and the like may be done awkwardly or with a certain grace or beauty. More generally, an activity or operation of mind or will can be in harmony with its efficient cause, its object, its purpose and its form and is naturally good when it has all that become it in this way. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

However, moral goodness goes beyond this natural goodness. Even as beauty of body is an harmonious blend of all that becomes a body so far as size, color, figure, and so on are concerned, so the goodness of a moral act is a combination of all that is becoming to it according to right reason. One must consider not only the nature of the action itself but also the circumstances, including the purpose of its performance. An otherwise naturally good action may be vitiated morally if circumstances forbid it or if it is done for an evil end. Right reason tells us there is one action that can never be inordinate or unbecoming under any set of circumstances: the love of God for his own sake. God is to be loved is the first moral principle or ethical norm. This is converse, God must never be hated nor dishonored, are two obligations from which God himself can never grant dispensation. He is the one absolute intrinsic value, which cannot be loved to excess; but anything other than God is good because God wills it and not true in the reverse order. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

The intelligibly of a creature depends upon God’s knowing it, and not the other way around. So too its actual value or goodness depends upon God’s loving it with a creative love and not the reverse. This obviously applies to transcendental goodness, which is coextensive with a thing’s being, but it also holds for natural and moral goodness as well. If the infinite perfection of God’s will prevents it from being dependent or necessitated by any finite good, it also insures that creation as a whole will be good. God is also like a master craftsman. For all his artistic liberty, God cannot turn out a product that is badly done. Yet no particular creation is so perfect, beautiful, or good that God might not have produced another that is also good; neither must all evil or ugliness be absent, particularly where this stems from a creature’s misuse of one’s freedom. Nevertheless, there are limits to which God’s providence can allow evil to enter into the World picture. God may permit suffering and injustice so that humankind may learn the consequences of its misbehavior and through a collective sense of responsibility may rights it social wrongs. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

While certain actions may be naturally good or bad, they are not by that very fact invested with a moral value; they may still be morally indifferent even when all circumstances are taken into consideration. Only hatred and the friendship—love of God are invested with moral value of themselves, and as the motivation for otherwise naturally good or indifferent actions they may make the actions morally wrong or good. Otherwise, the action must be forbidden by God to be morally wrong or commanded by God to be morally good. To that extent, moral goodness too depends on the will of God. However, it is important to know that some actions are good or bad only because God commands or forbids them, whereas he enjoins or prohibits other actions because they are naturally good or bad, that is, they are consonant or in conflict with human nature in the sense that they tend to perfect it or do violence to it. Such are the precepts of the natural law embodied in the Decalogue and written into human’s heart.  #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

However, note that what makes obedience to this instinctual law of moral value is that it be recognized and intended as something willed by God; otherwise, good as it may be naturally, the action is morally indifferent. This too is a consequence of human’s native liberty, which can be bound only by an absolute bale or the will of its author. To the extent that the first two commandments are expressions of the first moral principle and its converse, God can never make their violation morally right or a matter of indifference; the same does not hold of the last seven, which regulate human’s behavior to one’s fellow human. God granted genuine dispensations from natural law, permitting polygamy to the patriarchs so that the children of God might be multiplied when believers were few. This might be permitted again if plague or war so decimated the male population that race survival was threatened. In such a case, God would reveal this dispensation to humans, probably through his church. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

Society is naturally organized into families; but when they band into communities people find some higher authority necessary and agree to vest it in an individual or a group, and decide how it is to be perpetuated—for example, by election or hereditary succession. All political authority is derived from the consent of the governed, and no legislator may pass laws for private advantage or that conflict with the natural or divine positive law. Private property is a product for positive rather than natural law and may not be administered to the detriment of the common good. More striking, perhaps, the second person of the Trinity would have become incarnate even if humans had not sinned. Intended as God’s firstborn of creatures, Christ represents the alpha and omega not only of human society but of all creation. All considerations of normal mental life lead us only to the threshold of the unconscious; it is in dreamlike and certain abnormal causes of mental life that we encounter the depths of our soul. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

Some students unconsciously mimic the worst mannerisms of their mentor, many should actually outdo their mentor in subtlety than in clarifying and developing their insights, so that both the humanist and reformer dunce become words of obloquy. Yet, there will always be a hardy few who find the effort of exploring their mentor’s mind rewarding. Some people have refreshing views on intuition, contingency, and freedom. Each person is blessed with a unique value as one wanted and loved by God, quite apart from any trait he or she shares with others or any contribution one might make to society. And in parapsychological phenomena—especially in telepathy, mind reading, clairvoyance, telekinesis, and materialization (which are accepted as facts by some scientists)—we find traces of supra-individual wholeness. More important, however, or sense of duty also points toward a supra-personal whole, which, in the course of history, is continuously evolving. In my experience of duty, I am participating in the supra-personal whole of which I am an empirical embodiment, and it is as if I had some knowledge about the final outcome of the development of that whole.  #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

Knowing about my knowledge, I know something. I, as the experiencing subject, grasp only intuitively and that experience as a whole presses on toward our seeing everything in order. However, thinking of God matters little, if he be not loved in contemplation. Philosophers recognize the supreme value of friendship and love, which, directed to God, make people truly wise.  My sense of duty indicates the general direction of the supra-personal development. The ultimate goal, however, remains unknown. Among my experiences there are some that have had before; I remember them. This fact opens up an entirely new dimension of experience. However, given this new dimension, I can now establish a remarkable order in my experience as an indication of the being or the becoming. The working of my soul which guides my action and certain states of my soul are parallel to my conscious having and can speak of a psychophysical interaction. It seems that my inner spirit has reached out and touched the inner spirit of the other. Our relationship transcends itself and becomes a part of something larger. Profound growth and healing and energy are present. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10