We have eyes, but we cannot see. When I was lonesome, I felt so lonesome, and could not help but cry. All my love is in vain. Early this morning, when you knocked on my door, and said “Hello, Satan. I believe it is time to go.” Me and the Devil was walking side by side. She said you do not see why, that she dog me around. Now baby, you know you are not doing me right, do you not? It must be that old evil spirit so deep down in the ground. The object of any obligation, in the realm of human affairs, is always the human being as such. The Lord does not give us rules, but He makes His standards very clear. There exists an obligation towards every human being for the sole reason that he or she is a human being, without any other condition requiring to be filled, and even without any recognition of such obligation on the part of the individual concerned. If my relationship to God is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. The fact that a human being possesses an eternal destiny imposes only one obligation: respect. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

Has that breaking of my independence come? Few can be supposed to act upon any occasions with all the reasons of action present to their minds. Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. One of those secret spontaneous emotions of the soul to which the reason is often a stranger are the vital needs of the human being. When I reach that point, immediately that reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. You may bury my body down the highway side. Baby, I do not care where you bury my body when I am dead and gone. The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not be a saint. We owe our respect to a collectivity, of whatever kind—country, family, or any other—not for itself, but because it is food for a certain number of human souls. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

You better come on in my kitchen, it is going to be raining outdoors. As we have youth and health in hand, we hope to have time for repentance. No person can disobey reason without giving up his or her claim to be a rational creature. Our needs for sustenance of body and soul are not to be mistaken for wants. We must distinguish between the soul’s foods and poisons. The first of the soul’s needs, the one which touches most nearly its eternal destiny, is order; human beings need a texture of social relationships such that no one is compelled to violate imperative obligations in order to carry out other ones. We love the beauty of the World, because we sense behind it the presence of something akin to that wisdom we should like to possess to slake our thirst for good. A consciousness of the various obligations always proceeds from a desire for good which is unique, unchanging and identical with itself for every person. I have to keep moving. The days keep reminding me that there is a hellhound on my trail. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

What does it profit a person if they gain the whole World, but lose their soul? The true Lover of the soul, Christ. If today was Christmas eve, and tomorrow was Christmas day, all I would need is my little sweet rider just to past the time away. Faith falls midway between opinion and scientific knowledge; it is more than opinion because it involves a firm assent to its object; and it is less than knowledge because it lacks vision. Both are intellectual acts and habits of assent: in the case of faith a person is not sufficiently moved by the object to accept it as true, so, by an act of will, one inclines oneself to believe. Knowledge implies assent motivated by a personal seeing of the object without any direct influence from will. Where objects of belief have to do with divine matters which exceed human being’s natural cognitive capacity, the disposition to believe such articles of religious faith is regarded as a special gift from God. Moral reform of the individual is important because it is the preparation of the interior or illuminative life. The dialogue between Christ and the soul gives a mystical experience awaiting those who truly love Christ. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed, it is not learning that makes a person holy and just, but a virtuous life makes one pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without the grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve him alone. Have you come to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need. The greatest wisdom is to seek the kingdom of Heaven. That does not mean that you cannot have nice things, it simply means that your focus in life should be on God and your worth is not based on Worldly riches. Turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions and play games with the lives of others stain their consciences and lose the grace of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

Many words do not satisfy the soul; but a good life eases the mind and a clean conscience inspires great trust in God. When I was younger, I used to think that our sins were tracked by God on a sort of Bingo card. It started off as white, and with numbers on it, and as we sinned a hole would be punched in my Bingo card. And every time I would sin, I would think to myself, “I do not want to turn in my Bingo card to God with all these stains on it,” so I would try not to sin, as best I could. If you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All people are frail, but you must admit that none is frailer than yourself. Happy is one to whom truth manifests itself, not in signs and words that fade, but as it actually is. Our opinions, our senses often deceive us and we discern very little. What is much discussion of involved and obscure matters when our ignorance of them will not be held against us on Judgment Day? #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

I would rather feel compunction than be able to produce the most precise definition of it. Dear Father in Heaven, God who are the truth, make me one with You in love everlasting. I am often wearied by many things I hear and read, but in You is all that I long for. Let the learned be still, let all creatures be silent before You; You speak to me alone. The more recollected I am, and the simpler of heart I become, the easier it is to understand sublime things, for that is when one receives the light of knowledge from above. The pure, simple, and steadfast spirit is not distracted by many labors, for one does them all for the honor of God. And since one enjoys interior peace, one seeks no selfish end in anything. What, indeed, gives more trouble and affliction than uncontrolled desires of the heart? A good person arranges in one’s mind the things one has to do, not according to the whims of evil inclination, but according to the dictates of right reason. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

Who is forced to struggle more than one who tries to master oneself? This ought to be our purpose, then: to conquer self, to become stronger each day, to advance in virtue. Virtue is moral excellence and righteousness; goodness and chastity. However, every perfection in this life has some imperfection mixed with it and no learning of ours is without some darkness. Still, a clean conscience and virtuous life ought always to be preferred. If people used as much care in uprooting vice and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the World, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how well we have lived. When God looks at my Bingo card, I do not want it to look like a hurricane ripped it to shreds. How many there are who will perish because of vain Worldly knowledge and too little care for serving God. They became vain in their own conceits because they chose to be great rather than humble. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

Do not yield to every impulse and suggestion but consider things carefully and patiently in the light of God’s will. For often, sad to say, we are so weak that we believe and speak evil of others rather than good. Perfect people, however, do not readily believe every talebearer, because they know that human frailty is prone to evil and is likely to appear in speech. Not to act rashly or to cling obstinately to one’s opinion, not to believe everything people say or spread abroad the gossip one has heard, is great wisdom. Take counsel with a wise and conscientious person. Seek the advice of your betters in preference to following your own inclinations. Thus, philosophy entailed reasoning from prior knowledge, or present experience, to new knowledge (the way of discovery) and the rational verification of judgments by tracing them back to more simply know principles (the way of reduction). Where the basic principles are grasped by human’s natural understanding of one’s sensory experiences, the reasoning process are those of natural science and philosophy. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

If one starts to reason from judgments accepted on religious faith, the one is thinking as a theologian. The purpose of speculation is simply to know; the end of practical reasoning is to know how to act. Philosophy is a natural type of knowledge open to all people who wish to understand the meaning of their ordinary experiences. Repentance, from a just sense of the crime committed, gives an humility which renders the grief less turbulent, and makes way for the rise of some comfortable consideration, even from suffering the punishment which naturally follows the indulgence of violent passions. When you have a good friend, that will stay right by your side, give him or her all your spare time, try to love and treat that person right. Watch your close friend, baby, then your enemies cannot do you no harm. You do not want to wake up and find your biscuit roller gone, then you will have to roll up your own arms. Well, the blues, is an aching old heart disease. Do it now, you gone do it? Like consumption, killing me by degrees. On this planet, there are a lot of lost souls, who need to be taught the love of God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10