Light is the first essential. Light stimulates, nourishes, preserves. You can no more do without it, than if you were a flower. The love of God is a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections, which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto God, desiring above all thing to please him, and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with him, and being ready to do or suffer any thing for God’s sake, or at his pleasure. When a person is intrinsically motivated, a certain amount of challenge, surprise, and complexity makes a task rewarding. Never was anyone unwelcomes to Jesus Christ when they came with honest intention, nor did he deny any request which tended to the good of those that asked it. All of his miraculous works were instances of his goodness as well as his power; and they benefited those on whom they were wrought, as well as they amazed the beholders. The charity of Jesus Christ was not confined to his kindred or relations; nor was his kindness swallowed up in the endearment of that peculiar friendship which he carried toward his beloved disciples; but everyone was his friend who obeyed his holy commands. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

The soul cannot be a form perfecting that of the body. It is itself composite and is related to the body as a pilot is to a ship. The soul is able to gain knowledge by abstracting universals from singulars through sense (the complete universal can be known from one singular), but it gains more certain knowledge from above, receiving ideas from Ideas through interior illumination. Knowledge also begins from experience of the material World, and understanding is developed through reason; free activity determines personal and eternal destiny. When extrinsic motivation is stressed, complexity, surprise, and challenge just become barriers to reaching a goal. A person who is extrinsically motivated wants to take the fastest, most direct route to a goal. Typically, this undermines creativity. Extrinsic motivation is often needed to develop enough skill or knowledge to make an activity intrinsically rewarding. This can be observed in learning to read, to play a musical instrument, or enjoy a sport. This is part of the role of the sense and divine enlightenment in the acquisition of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

Nature represents an absolute freedom and wildness, whereas society provides a freedom and culture merely civil. Humans should be regarded as an inhabitant, or part and parcel of Nature, rather than members of society. It is only through a sustained involvement with the vast personality of nature that humans can simplify their existence, clarify their senses, drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, thus achieving in practice a purer and tougher form of the self-reliance extolled. Individual communion with nature is more fundamental then relationships with other people, even in societies where the worse forms of economic alienation have been overcome. For, unlike any social experience, the experience of nature becomes as much a discipline for the moral will as a stimulant to creative imagination. However, essentially, it is the spontaneity of wilderness or nature that is to be favorably contrasted with the politico-economic organization of advanced European and New England societies. All good things are wild and free. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

The creative spontaneity of nature that is so crucial for human’s spiritual well-being is embodied in all enduring products of culture, in religious scriptures, in music, and especially in mythologies of all kinds. People are more likely to be creative when they are intrinsically motivated. On the job, for instance, salaries and bonuses may increase the amount of work done. However, work quality is tied more to intrinsic factors, such as interest, freedom to choose, and useful feedback. Intrinsic motivation also promotes personal involvement in a task. This, in turn, tends to lead to greater creativity. However, creativity killers on the job are: Working under surveillance, having your choices restricted by rules, working primarily to get a good evaluation (or avoid a bad one) or working mainly to get more money. Commerce—that incessant business—and its political manifestations are indeed vital function of human society, yet a bare minimum of time should be consciously spent on them. They are infra-human, a kind of vegetation, whose operations, like those of the human body, should be performed for the most part automatically, unconsciously. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

Reality is a visible process; the movements of the phenomenal World are a branch of the divine purity in life. Love is that powerful and prevalent passion, by which all the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and on which both its perfection and happiness depend. The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. One who loves mean and sordid things does thereby become base and vile, but a noble and well-placed affection does advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves. The images of these do frequently present themselves unto the mind, and, by a secret force and energy, insinuate into the very constitution of the soul, and mould and fashion it unto their own likeness. Hence, we may see how easily lovers or friend do slide into the imitation of the persons whom they affect; and how, even before they are aware, they begin to resemble them, not only in the more considerable instances of their deportment, but also in their voice and gesture, and that which we call their mien or air; and certainly, we should as well transcribe the virtues and inward beauties of the soul, if they are the object and motive of our love. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

However now, as all the creatures we converse with have their mixture and alloy, we are always in hazard to be sullied and corrupted by placing our affections on them. Passion does easily blind our eyes, so that we first approve, and then imitate the things that are blamable in them. The true way to improve and ennoble our soul is, by fixing our love on the divine perfections, that we may have them always before us, and derive an impression of them on ourselves; and beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we may be changed into the same image, from glory to glory. One who, with a generous and holy ambition, has raised one’s eyes towards that uncreated beauty and goodness, and fixed one’s affections there, is quite another spirit, of a more excellent and heroic temper, then the rest of the World, and cannot but infinitely disdain all mean and unworthy things; will not entertain any low or base thoughts which might disparage one’s high and noble pretensions. Love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

If a mad scientist were to replace your best friend’s brain with a computer, how would you know that something was wrong? One of the first telltale signs might be an absence of emotion. Emotion is a state characterized by arousal, plus changes in facial expression, gestures, posture, and subjective feelings. Have you ever waited until someone was in a good mood to ask for a favor? If you have, you are aware that emotions have a powerful influence on motivation. People who are feeling happy are more likely to help others in need. It is equally apparent, however, that emotions can have a negative impact. Hate, anger, contempt, disgust, and fear all disrupt behavior and relationships. The foundation of the word emotion means to move, and emotions do indeed move us. It is indeed the only thing we can call our own: other things may be taken from us by violence, but not can ravish our love. If anything else be counted ours by giving our love, we give all, so far as we make over our hearts and wills, by which we possess our other enjoyments. It is not possible to refuse one anything, to whom by love we have given ourselves. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

Since love is the privilege of gifts to receive their value from the mind of the giver, and not to be measured by the event, but by the desire, one who loves may, in some sense, be said not only to bestow all that one has, but all thing else which may make the beloved person happy; since one does heartily wish them, and would really give them if they were in one’s power: in which sense it is that one makes to say, that divine love does, in a manner, give God unto oneself, by the complacency it takes in the happiness and perfection of God’s nature. However, though this may seem too strained an expression, certainly love is the worthiest present we can offer unto God, and it is extremely debased when we bestow it another way.  Divine love does advance and elevate the soul, so it is that alone which can make it happy. The highest and most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delights that human nature is capable of, are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection. Thank you, God, I know I am saved and sanctified. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

That which embitters love, and makes it ordinarily a very troublesome and hurtful passion, is the placing it on those who have not worth enough to deserve it, or affection and gratitude to require it, or whose absence may deprive us of the pleasure of their converse, or their miseries occasion our trouble. To all these evils are they exposed, whose chief and supreme affection is placed on creatures like themselves; but the love of God delivers us from them all. God has in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you. I believe that I will see the surpassing greatness of Your favor and blessings that will catapult me years ahead. My hopes and dreams are in Your hands. I trust God. I am expecting a sudden and widespread increase, and to rise to a new level. God has great things in store for His people; they ought to have large expectations. It is the last fair deal gone down I love the way you do, good Lord. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9